I READ an article in the Review of July 14th, by J. Clarke on hoops, with which I do not agree. He says, "God has gifted humanity with a graceful form, and a truly godly person will not deform it for fashion's sake;" all of which I admit; but I cannot, for the life of me, see wherein hoops deform the person; whereas it is well known that the wearing of nearly or quite half a dozen heavy quilts and skirts (as is the custom of those who do not wear hoops) has caused not only the deformity, but the loss of health to a great many "graceful forms."
Perhaps J. C. will say they ought not to wear so many quilts; but I do not believe God intended that mankind should expose their persons to the public, nor that it is any sin to dress so that the person will look decent, which a lady cannot do unless she wears nearly half a dozen quilts or a hoop skirt, the last of which cannot injure her health, while the former is almost sure to. So I say, let the ladies wear hoops; not because fashion but health requires they should. Z.
Note. We presume Bro. Clarke did not write the article referred to in the above remarks with any intention of exciting a controversy on the subject; and certainly we did not insert it with any such design; but we considered it simply a scathing rebuke on a gross fashion, and as such gave it. We hardly think the writer's standard of decency, viz., "half a dozen quilts or a hooped skirt," will be recognized as such by our readers. With us, at least, it is the standard of just the opposite. If the writer sees nothing in hoops which deform the person, we think it must be that he is not privileged with such exhibitions as we daily witness in this portion of the western country where space is plenty. We are equally strong, with Z., in condemnation of the custom of dragging down the system with half a dozen quilts. We believe such a course to be a heinous sin against nature; and if we were forced to choose between the two, we should pronounce in favor of hoops. If women are bound to reach stated and enormous dimensions, we say, let it be done with hoops, instead of quilts. Just as we should say, if a balloon was to be inflated, that it had better be done with gas, than with cotton. At the same time we have seen women who we judged had on neither half a dozen quilts nor a hooped skirt, whose dresses looked every way modest and well.
But is it not shameful to expose the person? Well, we know of no female apparel, (the low-necked deformity excepted), which admits half the exposure of the form that the close-fitting garment of males does; and if it is here that the pinch comes, it is the apparel of the men and not of the women, which needs reformation.—Ed.