The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-25 00:00:00

A CAITSEP.IE NOT ALL ABOUT FASHION.

Of all the duties imposed on us by society there
is, perhaps, not one more importunate than that
called " morning visiting," which, contrary to all
logic, is not at all carried on in the morning hours,
but seems to have been instituted for no other pur-
pose than that of wasting the best portion of our
time in idle pursuit and useless babble.
I do not only call the habit of spending the hours
from two to five in gossip both idle and useless, but
I say it is pernicious, and that these quiet drawing-
room receptions, as they are now carried on, are
made more baneful in their effects than the reading
of avowedly bad French novels. It is a notorious
fact that those ladies who are over-scrupulous in
going their morning rounds arc great mischief-
makers, newsmongers, and fearful talkers. They
have a natural penchant for discussion, and catch up
every rumour as they proceed from house to house,
which they spread and propagate as if it were gos-
pel truth. They are walking registers of all the
births, deaths, and marriages that have come within
their hearing since they " came out"—and, indeed,
no better expression can be applied to that process
bythehel
youngpogwolviiecrhness. people have their egg-
shells after careful training under the tender wing
of a motherly
When girls emerge frotn the obscurity of the
study into the splendour of a well-lighted ball-room
they, run less risk of turning prematurely world-wise
than when they expand by degrees, after having
been initiated into the wiles of society by dint of
visiting with mamma at Mrs. Takemdown's, or at
Madame Ilautenton's. These are the hotbeds of
feminine diplomacy in the arts of " innocent seduc-
tion," toilet, scandal, and egotism. But, may it be
objected, those who frequent society must follow its
laws. Girls must learn that all is not gold that
glitters, and also learn to distinguish right from
wrong ; better far that they shoirld go through this
imitating process with their mothers, and in ladylike
company, than be left to pick up evil out of books
or from hearsay. I answer to this that the know-
ledge of right and wrong is called conscience, which
exists in every human breast witiout the assistance
of worldly wiseacres.

If a young lady were taught during these visits
to put in a good word for an absent party when
falsely accused, or encouraged to recall some ex-
tenuating quality wherewith to obliterate his defi-
ciencies ; or, again, were she simply to say
she preferrdd the practice of virtue to hear-
sinhgould be reconciled it
praised
meetings, and
think they atoned for a good deal of evening ab-
surdity. witheeiled
to high
morning
rn flowning encomiums, I
As it is, whole hours are ;pent in dissect-
ing one's friends, or at least as much of them as is
apparently their own, and what is aot is subject to
no less harsh criticism.

" Mdlle. P.'s nose ! what a nez !" and then a pun
will escape from some one buried in the depths of
an arm-chair, who says, " Ladies, why complain of
her nez? In company such as yours is not every
one Bien-am'? " Horrid pun ! But I have heard it,
and maintain that it is historical.

Then Mdlle. S.'s chignon is put on the tapis—a
very disastrous position for a chignon—and Mdme.
T. will be accused of benoiton airs, and so on till
all the other letters of the alphabet have had a
tale affixed to them.

The following is a scrap of conversation collected
in a salon a la mode:---

" How do you like Agrippa.% r,
" Really," answered the party thus questioned
"I—I—"

" Ah! you think them heavy, perhaps?"
"I beg your pardon. But are Agrippas a new
name for cakes, lobster salad; or anything that lies
on the chest ?"

A burst of laughter.
" No, sir ; Agrippas are new basques worn on
the front of our dresses, and they are made of jet
trelliswork, coloured velvet, or cross-cut bands of
satin ; they hang over the-in fact, below what
you call one's chest. _

" I thought Agrippa was the mother of Nero,"
continued the gentleman, much puzzled.
"So she was, and we mean to adopt the Roman

style."

Oh ! mothers ; oh! decadence, .thought a lis-
tener, as he moved his chair farther off, not much
edified by the communication he bad heard im-
parted.
Renaissance and decadence are so united that it
is difficult to discern one from the other. The
Francis I. style is to be very fashionable at all the
bals masques. We are to have Diane de Poitiers in
all colours. 116bes's and belle Helenes will be no
less in favour, and the flowing style will be fur-
ther represented by Aspasia, Cleopatra, &c.
I gteatly advise the four seasons. It is com-
posed of a grey satin underskirt, dotted over with
swan's-down, which figures snow in a grey cold
winter morn. The over tunic is autumn, and is
made of tulle, hardened with worked rich grapes
and vine leaves. The waistband is summer, a circle
of silver from which hang cordons of wheat-ears,
with a field-poppy, and clover here and there. The
body is spring ; that is, a trellis-work with daisies
pressing out between, If the colours are well
chosen, nothing can be younger, fresher, or more
maidenly.

Dr. Mary 'Walker has delivered another lecture,
which, like the first, wa3 uproariously interrupted
by a few rude boys, several of whom mere ousted
by the police. One was brought up at the police-
court yesterday, and bound over to keep the peace.
There was an additional charge against him of
assaulting the proprietor of the lecture-hall. The
magistrate spoke strongly of the rudeness of the
young men in thus treating a lady, which he attri-
buted to jealousy.
The postal treaty concluded between Spain and
Portugal establishes a unform rate for the whole
Peninsula.