sary little etceteras growing
out of it, and not in any way for the material itself, which is really
the mountain of difficulty. Now, if there are twenty millions of women
in our country, it would give the sum of two hundred millions of dollars
annually expended for _style_. What a noble charity this would
establish every recurring year. What a relief to pauperism it would
form, and that too without the sacrifice of anything but "style." What a
relief to struggling, disheartened men, whose lives are those of slaves,
and families who pinch and starve themselves that they may possess the
magical key to fashionable society! But what is fashionable society that
it should have such charms for common and honest people? We give in
answer what was given us by one who had had for many years access to it.
He said, "Struggle to avoid it as the worst of calamities." It had swept
him and his family from a position of comparative affluence to one of
misfortune and distress. Fashion is the parent of both--"cussedness" and
consumption.

We know some young ladies are personally disgusted with all this "fuss
and feathers," who at the same time insist that, if they did not follow
the lead of "society" they would be thrown in the background, as at most
entertainments those who have carefully and elaborately arrayed
themselves receive the lion's share of attention and compliment from the
opposite sex, whose good opinion and company they wish to share. While
there is more of truth in this response than most gentlemen are willing
at first to admit, yet, observant people have ever noted the fact that,
notwithstanding these fashionable and polite addresses at public
assemblies between the beaux and butterflies, the end of the levee
usually terminates the hobnobbing. The "gay ladie" has had, quite
likely, her hour of triumph over her more modest, quiet, and unassuming
rival, now in the background, but whom--when the young man is ready to
proffer his hand and fortune--is most likely to be led to the front,
blushing with her becoming and well-deserved honors, leaving the doting
mothers, with their _dear_ daughters, to reflect on the "strange ways of
you men."

If the world sees, it does not fully believe what it sees, else a change
would surely come. The fact is, while men, especially the young men,
delight to do _honor_ to these devotees of the milliner and
mantua-maker, they cannot--those who have a fair share of good
sense--afford to _marry_