p. 143 | An Encouraging Rumor

California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, Cal. · Mar 11, 1875

An Encouraging Rumor.

THERE has lately been current in the city a rumor so improbable and yet so delightful that most men fear to investigate it lest it may vanish in the process. It is asserted, perhaps in quarters too sanguine to be trustworthy, that ladies are seriously thinking of wearing dresses which they can walk in. For the last year, the promenade has been a torture to any woman who respects herself a little. Her dress drags all the way around, and the train thereof follows her for a foot or so. She must either make it loathsome by dragging it through the filth, or she must hold it up with both hands. If she attempts this delicate and fatiguing office with one, tired nature soon asserts itself, and somewhere or other a fold of the idiotic garment drops into the mud. It is generally known that the female human has but two hands, and if both of these are filled with superfluous raiment, the management of the parasol, the portemonnaie, the half dozen bundles of dry goods and pound of confectionery, without which a street costume is incomplete, becomes a matter of some difficulty. The unassisted male intellect can see no way out of this trouble except the shortening of the pecant skirts. But we do not envy the fate of the rash man who should suggest it. He will be told he has no taste, no perception of style, no regard for the pure intuitions of woman. If he shall say that a few years ago women wore lovely short dresses and looked like angels in them, he will be met with the crushing reply that “a few years ago” is not to-day. None of these severe votaries of Fashion, however, seem to see that they are evading her decrees in holding up their dresses. The milliners compel them to wear these long robes, so that may get muddy and wear out sooner, and it is disloyal to try to save them from this fate. But what avails preaching? The only thing that can curtail the street robe is a Movement, a Convention with orations and poem, with chairmen and vice-president, and impassionate orators from Boston and Brooklyn to fire the advanced heart, and denounce Capital and Privilege.

N. Y. Tribune.