NAKED, AND NOT ASHAMED.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2601, 9 May 1877, Page 3

NAKED, AND NOT ASHAMED.

(THE WOHLD.)

Burns' well-known aspiration that we might see ourselves as we are beheld; by our neighbors, and derive wisdom from the melancholy spectacle, -must present itself" forcibly to such thoughtful members of society as chance to find themselves in a ball-room, and have rather the inclination to observe and to moralise than to become themselves willing members of the giddy throng. Every woman present firmly believes that the dress she has her-, self adopted is absolutely becoming, however hideous she may declare its style to be when exhibited on the persons of her friends-.^-And certainly the fashions now prevailftpufare not only somewhat startling to those embarrassed with any remnant of that old-world commodity propriety, but demand a grace and.a beauty of figure very far from being general. Formerly, when a lady was of. so generous a disposition as to be anxious to expose her pbaxnis. to general observation,, all she could do was to cut her dress lower than her neighbors were willing to do; but modern enlightenment enables hef to progress far beyond this. To say nothing of.,the, fashion that permits her to dispense altogether with sleeves, and -to exhibit to the admiring-gaze of all men the vaccination marks inflicted in her infancy and at any subsequent period pf. panic, pr the contraction of skirt that impedes the freedom- of -her movements and defines the shape of her lower limbs as close]v as a damp bathing-dress,.there is an institution known as a "Cuirass bodice," which, lengthened far below the waist, leaves not an indentation. It really seems the

ambition of each fashionable woman to render her dress more like a skin than that of her neighbor, besides exhibiting as large a portion of the real flesh as can be done without th.> npolnprv for rairT)pnt absolutely dropping off' Of course to argue auainst.' «ll this on the score of decency and propriety would be worse than useless ; lor such words and all that they imply and entail are absolutely abhorrent to the fast women whose greatest ambition is to look likn third-rate burlesque actresses; but they may perhaps not be impervious so the suggestion that such dressing excites in the men it is designed especially to captivate a feeling very far indeed from'admiration. However innch men may admire actresses, and applaud their most daring approaches to absolute nudity, there is, not one, even °f the fastest among them, who likes to see the-same style imported into the society of which his mother and his sisters are members. He has not yet come to regard those who from their position, even if not from their manner?, are supposed to be ladies precisely in the same light as the coryphees of the ballet; and a woman who, while professing to be dressed, stands with every line and in every crease of her form distinctly revealed is not to him an attractive object; he would prefer a little' of the mystery which it seems the chief endeavor of the woman of the day utterly to discard. Besides this, all follow the fashion like a flock of unreasoning-sheep; the woman whose every bone stands but in bold relief cuts her dress as low.as does her plump sister, and resembles nothing so' much as a carefully articulated skeleton ; the portly matron wears her cuirass as long and as tight, and ties her skirt round her as closely, as does her slender daughter, imagining fondly, but vainly, that she presents a precisely similar appearance; while all are alike careless of the undoubted fact that the portion r of the arm •between the elbow and the shoulder is the least beautiful part of that member, being-generally either too thin or too stout, and not seldom extremely red. Few things are more unlovely than; a thin,- skinny arm, unveiled by tulle, or sheltering amenity of any sort, issuing hard_ and severe from the tiny shoulder-strap that alo^e 'withholds, the indelicately low cnirasa from absolute collapse. A woman who exhibited some great.nalural beauty might, find admirers, even though the admiration might be largely mingled with reprobation ; but, either the ; women, o I the day, blinded by, vanity, conceive themselves to be gifted with faultless forms, or they have read, without comprehending, the story of Phryney and believe tile fascination to have lain in the exposure rather than .'in the rare and startling beauty, disclosed. Naturally enough, the freedom of ballroom dress has also.exteniled to ballroom manners, and those who from any cause,, such as absence from England, have not for two or ihree. j'ears. joirreU the festive/ throng, wll on their '.return to the, scene -feel. sonu-what startled at the changes they will.fi d. -The ladies lean on their partners' shoulders in a manner which would formerly have b^-en thought suggestive of dancing salons of far from good repute, and leave there, if the gentleman maybe credited, distinct traces-of the foreigu substances with which they, have sought to render themselves "beautiful forever.'" Strange modes of dancing too have been introduced, endowed if possible with even stranger names; the oldfashioned valse with its graceful gliding' movement is almost a thing of the past, having given way to such twirls and springs as are known as the "Manchester Swing," the "Boston Drop-step," the "■ Liverpool Lurch," and many more. Of course, if the dancers like the polka, there is no reason why itshould not be revived; but surely quiet members of the community may protest against the loud stamp with which some of the gentlemen think it necessary to enliven their performance, and which is suggestive rather of a clog-dance or theatrical hornpipe than of the graceful, refinement of private life, pan anything, either, be conceived" more idiotic than r tjhe innovation introduced into the third figwefof the Lancers, where the gentlemen, linking their arms together, go through a performance more suggestive of Ojibbeway Indians setting out on- the war-path than of civilised beings- in the nineteenth century.

All tliese may be called small and insignificant matters, but, like straws, they show the force of the current, and indicate as marked a declension in mariners as the style of dress does in morals. Of course many yeomen,. especially very young ones, put on their dresses because it is the fashion, and really do not consider either the indecency or the suggestiveness of their appearance; but it is otherwise with many, and especially with those who are responsible for setting the fashions of the day. At presenta ballroom forcibly suggests a number of actresses rehearsing the toilettes of"Orphee aux Enfers," or some equally decollete piece, excepting, indeed, that it has not yet become the fashion to exhibit the ankles, and that interminable trains still survive to entangle and trip up the footsteps of the unwary. Many and grievous are the falls consequent thereon, and in these days when a lady falls her skirts are far too closely swathed around her for it to be possible for her to rise unassisted. So she remains -in iany position, graceful or the reverse, in which she may happen to fall, until help arrives, her partner not uafrequently being more- : occupied in lamenting his bruises and anathematising the delinquent train than in helping her to recover herself. Certainly if a little of the redundant drapery that floats uselessly on the floor could be judiciously applied to other portions of the costume, comfort, decency, and, appearance would all profit immensely thereby.