her
preachers nor good books can avail to stop it. Bad women are fearfully
increased in number, good wives and mothers are getting rare. In
consequence of the reckless expenditure of women upon their dress,
husbands become drunkards, and murder too commonly follows. The remedy
for this terrible state of things is to be found in the following
"proposition:"--The ladies of England are to form an association,
pledging themselves to adopt, each family for themselves, a uniform for
their female servants, and to admit none into their service who refuse
to wear it.

The uniform is not to be old-fashioned or disfiguring, but merely neat,
simple, and consequently becoming. The following ornaments are to be
absolutely prohibited--"feathers, flowers, brooches, buckles or clasps,
earrings, lockets, neck-ribbons and velvets, kid-gloves, parasols,
sashes, jackets, Garibaldis, all trimming on dresses, crinoline, or
steel of any kind." No dress to touch the ground. No pads, frisettes, no
chignons, no hair-ribbons. Having swept away by a stroke of the pen all
this mass of finery, a "Clergyman's Wife" goes on to make some
"suggestions," which we quote for the edification of our lady readers:--

"Morning dress: Lilac print, calico apron, linen collar. Afternoon
dress: Some lighter print, muslin apron, linen collar and cuffs.
Sundays: a neat alpaca dress, linen collar and cuffs, or frill tacked
into the neck of the dress, a black apron, a black shawl, a medium straw
bonnet with ribbons and strings of the same color, a bow of the same
inside, and a slight cap across the forehead, thread or cotton gloves, a
small cotton or alpaca umbrella to keep off sun and rain. The winter
Sunday dress: Linsey dress, shepherd's plaid shawl, black straw bonnet.
A plain brown or black turndown straw hat with a rosette of the same
color, and fastened on with elastic, should be possessed by all servants
for common use, and is indispensable for nursemaids walking out with
children. Should servants be in mourning, the same neat style must be
observed--no bugles, or beads, or crape flowers allowed."

The first thing that strikes us in connection with this glib project is
the enormous difficulty of carrying it into execution. It is easy, we
all know, to call spirits from the vasty deep, but exceedingly difficult
to induce them to obey the summons. It is easy, and to feminine
ingenuity rather pleasant than otherwise, to devise sumptuary laws for
the kitchen. But