their views correct. Now that everywhere in the world the absurd Prussian drill originating a century and more ago has been gradually discarded, of carrying a free arm as if it were a lifeless appendage of the body, there is no ground for criticism of military marching. On parade there will always be some stiffness, as the men are en grande tenue, but the present instruction is in the right direction, and, when it comes to real marching in the field, nature asserts itself and supplements the drill.

We cannot but regret that Dr. Ellis has spent so much erudition, time, and labor in reaching a conclusion which observation and experience do not justify. That his work is well done from his point of view is the only reason why we have noticed it at length, fearing that it might to the inexperienced convey false impressions. The highest compliment that we can pay Dr. Ellis, short of agreeing with him, is in thus painstakingly altogether dissenting from him, for the meed of excellence of demonstration, whether right or wrong, is to invite. opposition, while mediocrity and weakness inevitably suffer neglect.

A

CHAPTER XII.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL.

LTHOUGH, as Judge Haliburton remarks in "Sam Slick,"

women always look out for the becoming, it should be admitted that they do not always find it. They are, it is true, through organization and education, more generally desirous to please than are men, and therefore they are on that account more anxious to adopt the becoming in dress, but that they have any higher sense of and liking for the becoming, as some women think, is a claim that can be disproved by numerous facts. The autocrat of the world in feminine attire has been for decades a man, represented the world over by minor masculine potentates within their humbler domains, and the universal cry of well-dressed women is that they find among female mantuamakers so little taste and skill.

As women dress, in the adornment sense, either directly to please men, or, indirectly, in rivalry of each other with reference to pleasing men, as one would be blind not to see at a wateringplace, who observes the change that takes place in the dress of women as soon as the men begin to appear in numbers, it is conclusive that men are pleased with form and color as having functions in the natural attractions of the sexes, and that women well know and utilize the fact. It is therefore certain, also, that women of sense recognize men as having discernment in form and color equal to that possessed by themselves. The statement about women being gifted with finer taste than men is belied by the history of every decorative as well as higher art. Physiologically, the sexes ought to be, and experience shows that they are, adapted to each other in mind and taste,-in every physical and mental attribute. The society condition and aspect of men and women in all civilized countries are the joint product

of individuals of both sexes, more attention to dress appearing in women than in men solely because such is the wish of the men as well as of the women themselves. The day was when men were quite as fastidious, fanciful, and fantastic as women in their dress. Now they otherwise satisfy their pride and vanity by making birds of paradise of their mates, and taking to themselves some of the credit for their choice and taste. The London Daily News said, not long ago, when discussing late attempts in England to change the costume of gentlemen for dress occasions," Black makes a suitable background for anything. It is characteristic of the abdicated lordship of man that he now dresses only to show off his wife's clothes."

The standard of the day in taste in dress, no matter what the era of the world, represents little beyond love of variety. Being, up to a certain point, imperative, it introduces, on account of the existence of ill-adapted physical traits, an immense amount of incongruity with every change. But, accepting it for what it is, with its greater than of old but still small latitude, it is only just to say that American women are given by the fashionable centre of the world the palm among foreigners for general good dressing. It must be remembered, however, that for every thousand who go abroad a million stay at home; that of the thousand less than a hundred may enter circles of society competent to judge of what they speak; and that a still further allowance must be made for the influence of the late undisguised foreign opinion of American feminine charms in money. But, with all these allowances, taking in sum the expression of opinion abroad, the expression of opinion by foreigners traveling in this country, and the opinion of our own countrymen, who travel in Europe as well as over the length and breadth of our own land, the female population in this country is better dressed than any other in the world, and the dressing of its female fashionable society compares with any to be seen in Europe.

One thing, even if there were no other, would, after making all due allowance for the imperiousness of fashion, confound with men the claim of unthinking women to greater taste for their sex as compared with the taste of men,-that multitudes of women do not take advantage of even the little latitude allowed by the mandates of fashion, in adaptation to the demands of individual requirement of what must in the main be accepted. A girl is tall and narrow, let us say, as well as square in the shoulders; then, if the fashion be high-shouldered, many such will wear excessively epauletted puffs on seal-skin and other coats, and what is wrong in nature is thus made doubly wrong by art. If they are long-waisted,—one of the greatest blemishes in female form,— then thousands of girls exaggerate the exaggeration of the fashion, until, from armpit to hip, the body looks like a post. Given a dumpy or a fat woman, whether tall or short, and she will be often found caparisoned in seal-skin or in velvet of the deepest pile. Let some one be framed by nature to move with elephantine mien and tread, and she will often wear, drawn in at the waist, with consummate assurance of superlative grace, an India shawl or gauzy fabric at eventide that would make bewitching the figure of a willowy girl. Why do they not see, if feminine taste is universal, that back of design, execution, and richest fabric must lie a profound sense of congruity, if one would se cure the effect of dress? Suitableness to station, place, occasion, age, weather, and other conditions cannot be ignored.

As Paris accords to American women of society a rank equal to that of the native Parisian in the art of dressing, and the justness of the view is confirmed by other evidence, we are entitled to plume ourselves on account of this exalted praise, from which Englishwomen are rigidly excluded as representing the lowest grade of refined inelegance. But the question here arises,—and it is the important one for which we set out to speak upon eventually, whether there are not, for beauty, better things than its