54
THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
So the whole experience of life seems to be for the purpose of unifying him, making him at one with himself and the universe.
Then all our acts are religious acts; all have a moral quality. It then follows that what others have proved to be wise courses of conduct, or what we have discovered ourselves in the experience of life to be acts of wisdom, these are as obligatory upon us as are the commandments of the Mosaic code: “ Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother,” “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” etc.
Now, in the evolution of social life, what wisdom has come to us from the immediate past that is yet partially or wholly unheeded?
First, in the matter of dress: How notorious a fact it is that Hygeia and Fashion are goddesses who reign over separate and warring kingdoms! One declares that the feminine form should be given perfect and entire freedom; the other, that every physiological laAV may be set at naught so that the prevailing mode be accepted.
There is another form of servitude that enslaves well-to-do women. It wastes their energies, belittles their lives, and prevents that expansion of mind and thought that is necessary, if they would appropriate and fill the places now so widely opened to them. It is what is termed the “Customs and Usages of Good Society,” and includes the matter of dress above referred to. It also imposes upon women the most constant and unremitting attention to the toilet.
Ladies must have—
All manner of things that a women can put On the crown of her head or the sole of her foot;
Or wrap round her shoulders, or fit round her waist,
Or that can be sewed on, or pinned on, or laced;
Or tied on with a string, or stitched on with a bow,
In front, or-behind, above, or below;
Bonnets, mantillas, capes, collars or shawls,
Dresses for breakfast, and dinners, and balls;
Dresses to set in, and stand in, and walk in,
Dresses to dance in, and flirt in, and talk in;
Dresses in which to do nothing at all,
Dresses for winter, spring, summer and fall;
All of them different in color and pattern—
Silk, muslin and lace, crape, velvet and satin;
Brocade and broadcloth, and other material Quite as expensive, and much more ethereal;
In short, all things that could ever be thought of,
Or milliner, modiste, or tradesman be bought of;
From ten-thousand-franc robes to twenty-sous frills.
This seems like a caricature on the modern fashionable woman; but it can hardly be called so, and remarkable is the memory of the man who from observation, and not from experience, compiled this list with a poetic jingle that is found in most “ choice selections of poetry.”
If this interminable list of articles of the toilet were left for the possession of the exclusively fashionable woman it would not so much matter; but sensible women, actually busy in the necessary work of the world, are more or less affected by these mandates of fashion. Add to this the series of expensive entertainments, with their wearisome menus , and the visits of ceremony which must be received and returned, and life is made so burdensome and artificial that spontaneity and joy is well-nigh dried up.
Most women of intelligence deprecate this condition of things, but do not quite see the way of escape from it.
A friend of mine who does not mingle in what is termed general society, and escapes many of its restrictions and limitations, yet feels this bond, and says: “My life is spent in busy idleness;” by which she means that the unreal and unimportant demand the most of her time.