Licentiousness and Fashion.
Customs of Women of Rank in England.—A lady’s maid, one of those not-to-be-envied persons, (a race which may be classed with that of governesses,) has lately made disclosures, throwing some light upon the women of rank in England. “Much is required from us in London,” one of them writes: “We must, above all, be very punctual, for fashionable ladies change their dresses at least five times a day during the season. We must have polished manners, be no older than thirty-five years, and always be cheerful and good-tempered, although for weeks we are kept without sleep until four o’clock in the morning—a practice which is equally injurious to eyes and lungs. We are expected to cut, and fit, and to use the most improved machine, and to dress hair for the morning, evening and court costume, as well as for the drive; to iron well, to read, write and cipher; to speak French and German, and, if possible, to have traveled. There is still another function of a lady’s-maid which is supposed to be a modern introduction, but which is, in fact, merely a revival of an ancient custom. We must be able to paint in pastel, not, indeed, after nature, but upon her. To beautify our mistresses we must redden the cheeks, put antimony upon the eye-lids, pastel upon the brows, introduce bella-donna into the eyes in order to enlarge the pupils, paint blue veins upon the temples, and use Ninon paint and pearl-white upon the rest of the skin. We must change the hair to a reddish-brown by means of a corroding material, or of ‘palma vecchio,’ which is now used in preference, for that purpose; and we must be possessed of great skill in applying all these ingredients, as their use is universal with the old as well as with the young.” Dupin as to the Women of Paris.—The venerable Dupin, who held office under the great Napoleon, and whose long and useful life has just closed, lately made a speech in the French Senate on the “unbridled luxury of women,” to which a number of senators could not refrain from responding, “It is true; it is true.” An able editor in New York, presenting the substance of this speech as fearfully applicable to the extravagance and licentiousness of our own cities and country, says: “This may be considered as Dupin’s last warning against that extravagance of fashion which is bringing in its train a general profligacy of morals, and corrupting the whole body of society. He ascribes the inundation of vice to the rage for luxury and extravagance, born of wild speculation.” “They speak,” says Dupin, “of courte[z]ans who display themselves in public places. Such a one appears in a brilliant equipage, which attracts universal attention. Now what does the fashionable world do? It looks on; it takes this very creature as a model of style; and these are the characters who set the fashions to women of the world. They are the ones whose flaunting style it tries to copy.” “You are pointed to some indecent photographs which are circulated at five sous a copy. But go to your theaters; there you may see performed a piece in which there is an exhibition on the stage of two hundred figures more offensive to modesty than the poor photographs of which you complain.” “There are formed societies of temperance; for myself, I wish that there might be a society of mothers of families, who, without ceasing to appear in a style which is becoming the decency and even the elegance which suits their rank and their fortune, would yet give an example of retrenching without pity all superfluity, and thus come to the relief of those other classes who, drawing nearer and nearer from imitation, are always striving to attain a height which is beyond their reach.”