once with
caution and with energy. Those who wish our work to succeed must in
some way help towards its success. No enterprise, I think, could
promise more fairly. But we are still at the beginning of that great
work and the end is far.

FASHION'S SLAVES.

BY B. O. FLOWER.

The last session of the International Council of Women discussed no
question of greater importance to civilization than that of dress
reform. The fact that this world's congress, representing the most
thoughtful, conscientious, and broad-minded women of our age, has
taken up this subject with a firm determination to accomplish a
revolution which shall mean health and happiness to the oncoming
generation, is itself a prophecy pregnant with promise of a
substantial and enduring reform. It will not be surprising if in the
near future it is found that this earnest though somewhat timid
discussion marked a distinct step in the world's progress; certainly
it was the most significant and authoritative utterance from united
womanhood that has yet been made touching a problem which most vitally
affects civilization.

To the student of sociology nothing is more perplexing or discouraging
than society's persistency in blindly clinging to old standards and
outgrown ideals which can no longer be defended by reason; and this is
nowhere more marked than in the social world where fashion has
successfully defied all true standards of art, principles of common
sense, rules of hygiene and what is still more important, the laws of
ethics which underlie all stable or enduring civilizations.

At the very threshold of this discussion, I ask the reader to, as far
as possible, divest his mind of all prejudice arising from
preconceived opinions, and view in a perfectly candid and judicial
manner this problem upon which the last word will not be spoken until
woman is emancipated. As long as free discussion is tabooed and
conservatism finds it possible to dismiss the question with a flippant
jest, a ribald joke, or a basely unjust imputation, the old order will
stand; partly because woman feels her helplessness and largely because
so few people stop to trace cause and effect or patiently reason upon
results of the most serious character. Conservatism is strongly
entrenched in the minds of the millions, and to a certain degree
mental lethargy broods over the world. It is true that in woman's
sphere to-day mental activity is more marked than in any other age,
and