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FASHION YEKSUS HEALTH. 49
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
„ -<^3. My Respected Maternal Relative I...
of cold as nearly as possible unclad from the -waist downwards . Tlie least breeze is at time sufficient to "whirl asideor raise tlie full
short skirts in which any deem him dressedand , leave him halfnaked . I , who am but you a looker on , having- neither , part nor lot in
the matter against which I protest , feel a thrill of pity pervade my frameand fairllong to gather these starved youngsters round my
, y fire , to chafe the little blue legs and encase them in more comfortable _garments , which , however homely in texture , should keep
them warm . It is well known that no amount of satire which can be aimed at
the ridiculous in dress will ever suffice to alter an absurdity merely because it is such . Everybody has read Punch ' s humorous
attacks on small bonnets , and laughed over the comic illustrations which accompanied them . But it is a long time since we smiled at
the tall footman carrying his mistress ' s bonnet on a salver behind her , or at the same appendage hanging from her neck , while a
_" blessed babby " nestled amid the blond and flowers within . Punch has iven these in despair and now wastes his ammunition on
crinoline g . up And here again , despite the positive discomfort this mode—I speak from experience—entails on the wearer , we know
that the stronger the ridicule hurled against it , the more stiffly the hoops have resisted all efforts to collapse them , the wider
the crinoline has spread itself athwart the civilized world . If , however , any extravagance were merely to be regarded as a
whim pertaining to a day , a month , or a year , and which would then leaving behind it no evil consequences , I would litter no
pass away , protest against it . I might join in a laugh , but would never attempt to reason . Butunfortunatelythe probable consequences of some
of these freaks , of fashion seem , to be utterly ignored . Yet some time ago an eminent doctor stated that he had never known or read
of so many cases of tic or neuralgic affections of the head and face as had come under his notice amongst his female patients since the
reign of small bonnets commenced . To the insufficient covering * allotted to the head he attributed the rapid spread of an agonizing
disease ; and he further asserted that the effects of this pernicious fashion will not end with the wearers of infinitesimal bonnets , but
will be handed down to their offspring . If then children inherit a tendency to neuralic complaints through the folly of those
motherswho not only suffer g in their own persons but entail suffer-, ing on their little ones merely for fashion's sake , how much must
this tendency be increased by the state of semi-nakedness in which the youngsters are sent forth to face our damp , cold , and most
uncertain climate . Yet whoever thinks on the subject must be convinced that this system of clothing , or , to speak more correctly ,
non-clothing , will produce dire results which the loving but thoughtless mother who delights to see her child in the fashion never
anticipates . In writing this I would not be thought to utter a word of
re-VOIi . III . JB
Fashion Yeksus Health. 49
FASHION YEKSUS HEALTH . 49
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1859, page 49, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031859/page/49/
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