Jenks's Portland gazette. [volume] (Portland [Me.]) 1799-1802, 1800-03-10

NIX JrNhs, -.
The following picture of WOMEN AT PARIS.
/. translated from late French paper As anecdotes
relating to the fair arc generally read with avdity,
doubt not you will give place in your paper.
NEVER were women of ton more lightly
cloathed, and never was white 70 falhionable.-
Soap is become no lef, Indispensable than bread.
Our fair females are covered with transparent
fhaws, which float and flutter over their thonld.
ers and upon their bsfoms, which are feen
through them with guaze wells, which con-
ceal one half Of the face to pi9ue our curioiity,
and with robes 70 light, 70 loofe, 10 thin, that
the wearers feem to be almoa naked. In this
Sylph's d,efs they rnn from place to place all
the morning, noon, and night; one fees moth
ing but white ihades fitting through every
ftreet It is the drefs cf the ancient veitals /,
and our women refemble Ipkigenia in AaGs on
the point of being inundated.
How enriched nu(f the EAT India Conpa.
MES be by the fale Of theie articles, which are
;nfenerable from the toilets of the fair for
them. art furnihes an eternal fpring for them,
the concerts of Psphos and the mufic of Ldalia
euchant the ear in volupsuous incidence they
re,vade every part of the metropolis, appear
,,r.s,,sry public Place i1 ssa remain long no
where. eyssFy tr T II cars. they ay along the
ftreets, and the ming dawns only TO give the
fpnal or the tate of new pleaiure, an extra.
ordinary fpeSaacle, dreGcd ball, or an aeroita-
tic attention with appropriate mufie, loud when
the balloon begins TO mount, dimin'ih'ng the
found as it Attends, and When it is nearly out
of fight, ravihing the foul by notes dying away
in the fofteli cadence and in murmurs icarctly
to be heard. At all thefe fights thefe white
fhades are fesn--they PATS before our eyes, like
the fine figures of pisture they appear to be
without hands, but they fpeak with their eyes.
What muR we Think of thefe dre1es, theie
daily srcmesades, this aliduous attendance at
oublc places Our women of fes occupy all
the 6rn feats, and we fee them again at the
Examinations. Does Pafolus roll his ltream
through Paris Who pays for all thefe p'eaf-
ures Does the capital contain more millions
.han any other city in the world And are the
women Of Paris the only ones in the univerfe
who enjoy the privilege OF diverting ,hemfelves
without ceafipg, and OF never working 10
read romances, to dance, to do nothing, are the
three rules which they ferupnlouily ooierve.-
The time is paf in which their cloathes were
the works of their hands. Needle work is
unknown to them, and they think themie.ves
born for enioyments renewed without cealing,
and never interrupted.
Among no people, in no time, 10 no city,
have women ever enjoyed fuch an independ-
euce, or devoted ,hemfelves to fnth incidence.
Plato fays, in his book upon laws, that the
feeret of increaling the number OF men one halt
would be to employ women 10 the lame exer-
efes as men. Plato, fays the beautiful! Louiia,
was very impairment fellow!
Is il the revolution that has been the dgnal
Of this executive liberty Twenty years ago
young women would not have Girred aep
from home without their mothers they walk
ed as it were under their wings, their eyes mo-
deity thrown upon the ground. The man
whom they dared to look at was the one whom
they were permitted to hope or TO chooie tor
hufband. Has the revolution changed this
differentiation Now they run about morning
and evening in full lberty-to drels, to walk,
play, laugh, draw cards, diipute about their
adorers, iuch are their occupations. No fell
fors, no thimbles they know no wound but
that infliaed by the arrow of cupid, and thoic
wounds are 70 fight Satisfied with having
nothing to fear from the conditional, they
become mothers without fhame they nurie
their children openly, and cary them to the
Municipality without fear. There is no public
walk in which we dc not Zee children OF nearly