Shall we Mend the Matter?
THERE can be little doubt that one reason why many children absent themselves from day-schools, Sunday-schools, and church, is because they cannot play the part their own or their parents' pride demands in the rivalry of dress. They cannot dress richly, and they will not be seen dressed poorly. We know the power of fashion, but believe also in the power that lies in the influence of teachers and parents. Any child old enough to care for dress is old enough to understand the essential vulgarity of overdress. Weak parents, who may suspect that their children will not shine in point of mind or manners, are very apt to seek to make them conspicuous by their wearing apparel. And thereby they do but fall into vulgar ways, ruin their own purses, and spoil their children. Fancy what a training the young miss must have had who, after hearing a most capital paper read by a former graduate of the school, a woman of high character and mind, answered the question of a companion, “Yes, it was fine. But did you ever see such a mean little trail as she wore?” Not the least of the expenses of a girl's school days is that which comes from the fancied necessity of keeping up to the standard of dress established and tyrannically maintained among the scholars. The poor vanity that is cultivated by mere finery, the pride that scorns a poorer, and the envy that grudges a better, dress, in another, are sorry passions to waken in a young mind. We commend to all the courageous good sense of the schools where not long ago the closing exercises were conducted by the young ladies dressed in simple white, unmarred by any attempted adornment of color or trinket. Very applicable to them were the following two lines of the good George Herbert:—
“In dress cheap handsomeness doth bear the bell,
Wisdom's a trimmer thing than shop e'er gave.”
—Christian Intelligencer.