room; while the sidewalk was often practically monopolized by
moving monstrosities, save when in front or behind the formidable
swinging cages moved escorts, who with no less servility than American
womanhood bowed to the frivolous and criminal caprice of the modern
Babylon.

But fashion is nothing if not changeable; fancy not art guides her
mind. What to-day types beauty, is by her own voice to-morrow voted
indecent and absurd. Thus we find in the period extending from 1870 to
1875 an entirely new but none the less ridiculous or injurious extreme
prevails. The wonderful swinging cage, the diameter of which at the
base often equaled the height of the encased figure, has disappeared,
being no longer considered desirable or aesthetic, and in its place we
have prodigious bustles and immense trains, by which an astonishing
quantity of material is thrown behind the body, suggesting in some
instances a toboggan slide, in others the unseemly hump on the back of
a camel. This is the era of the enormous bustle and the train of
sweeping dimensions.[1]

[1] During this period the ingenuity of man came to woman's
rescue, by the invention of an interesting, and, judging by
its popularity, exceedingly serviceable contrivance known as
a dress elevator, which enabled ladies to instantly elevate
their enormous trains when they came to a particularly muddy
and filthy crossing.

When we examine the prevailing styles which marked this period, we are
struck with amazement at the power exerted by fashion over the
intellect and judgment of society. Imagine the shame and humiliation
of a woman of fashion, endowed by nature or afflicted by disease with
such an unsightly hump on the back as characterized the fashionable
toilet of this period!

[Illustration: 1870 to 1875: "Suggesting in some instances a toboggan
slide; in others, the unseemly hump on the back of a camel."]

Toward the end of the seventies, we find another extreme reached,
which if possible was more absurd and injurious than those which
marked the early days of this decade. This was the period of the
tie-back, or narrow skirts and enormous trains. As in 1860 fashion's
slaves vied with one another in their effort to cover the largest
possible circular space, now their ambitions lay in the direction of
the opposite extreme:[2] the skirts must be as narrow as possible even
though it greatly impeded walking, for as will be