ated in
schools and colleges with boys, naturally acts more freely than her
sisters in other countries, where great restraint is imposed upon them.
Her actions may be considered as perilously near to the border of
masculinity, yet she is as far from either coarseness or low thoughts
as is the North from the South Pole. The Chinese lady is as pure as
her American sister, but she is brought up in a different way; her
exclusion keeps her indoors, and she has practically no opportunity of
associating with male friends. A bird which has been confined in a
cage for a long time, will, when the door is opened, fly far away and
perhaps never return, but if it has been tamed and allowed to go in and
out of its cage as it pleases it will not go far, but will always come
back in the evening. When my countrywomen are allowed more freedom
they will not abuse it, but it will take some little time to educate
them up to the American standards.

Chapter 10. American Costumes

Fashion is the work of the devil. When he made up his mind to enslave
mankind he found in fashion his most effective weapon. Fashion
enthralls man, it deprives him of his freedom; it is the most
autocratic dictator, its mandate being obeyed by all classes, high and
low, without exception. Every season it issues new decrees, and no
matter how ludicrous they are, everyone submits forthwith. The
fashions of this season are changed in the next. Look, for example, at
women's hats; some years ago the "merry widow" which was about two or
three feet in diameter, was all the rage, and the larger it became the
more fashionable it was. Sometimes the wearer could hardly go through
a doorway. Then came the hat crowned with birds' feathers, some ladies
even placing the complete bird on their hats--a most ridiculous
exhibition of bad taste. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals should take up the question of the destruction of birds for
their plumage, and agitate until the law makes it illegal to wear a
bird on a hat. Some may say that if people kill animals and birds for
food they might just as well wear a dead bird on their hats, if they
wish to be so silly, although the large majority of America's
population, I am sorry to find, sincerely believe meat to be a
necessary article of diet; yet who will claim that a dead bird on a hat
is an indispensable article of wearing apparel? Why do we dress at
all? First, I suppose, for protection against c