se means should have dwindled into insignificance.
But if we toil unduly to make ourselves appear to be something that
we are not, we shall earn contempt and reap disappointment. It is far
more noble-minded to bid farewell to all our greatness, than to catch
greedily at any of the outlying tinsel that may remain here and there.
This indicates good taste more than anything. To be what we are,
really and simply, and without pretension, is one of the greatest
proofs of good feeling which, in matters of dress, resolves itself
into good taste.

There is nothing more hateful than pretension. The fable of the "Frog
and the Bull" illustrates the absurdity of it. Yet it is of every-day
occurrence, and we continually meet with instances of it. Persons
in humble class of life will often ape their betters, dressing after
them, and absolutely going without necessary food in order to get
some piece of finery. Fine gowns of inconvenient length, expanded
over large crinolines--silk mantles richly trimmed,--often conceal the
coarsest, scantiest, and most ragged underclothing. We have seen the
most diminutive bonnets, not bigger than saucers, ornamented with
beads and flowers and lace, and backed up by ready-made "chignons,"
on the heads of girls who are only one degree removed from the
poor-house. Servant-girls who can scarcely read, much less write,--who
do not know how to spell their names,--who have low wages,--and, as
little children, had scarcely shoes to their feet,--who perhaps never
saw fresh meat in their homes, except at Christmas, when it was given
them by some rich neighbour,--spend all their earnings on their dress,
appear on Sundays in hats and feathers, or bonnets and flowers, and
veils and parasols, and long trailing skirts, which they do not care
to hold up out of the dirt, but with which they sweep the pavement.
Can it be said that this is good taste? Assuredly not. It could not
well be worse.

The question of station and of means does not seem to rule the world
in general. Everything is considered to be suited to every body; and
the maid-of-all-work does not hesitate to copy, to the utmost extent
of her power, the dress of the greatest lady in the land. She does not
see why she should not dress as she likes, and is not restrained
in her wish by good taste. We do not wish to argue in favour of any
monopoly, but we confess that we should like to see people of all
classes regulated by good taste in matters of dress.