Thus we have the anomaly in a democracy of a primitive instinct let loose, and the adoption of discarded aristocratic devices for proving you are better than your neighbor, at least in the one revered particular of having more money to spend! The complication of the woman's life by this domination of clothes is extremely serious.

In many cases it becomes not one of the sides of her business, but _the_ business of her life.

Such undue proportion has the matter taken in the American Woman's life under democracy that one is sometimes inclined to wonder if it is not the real "woman question." Certainly in numbers of cases it is the rock upon which a family's happiness splits.

The point is not at all that women should not occupy themselves seriously with dress, that they should not look on it as an art, as legitimate as any other.

The difficulty comes in not mastering the art, in the entirely disproportionate amount of attention which is given to the subject, in the disregard of sound principles.
The economic side of the matter presses hard on the whole country.