The Wilmingtonian, and Delaware advertiser., 1826-12-28
TEE LADIES' FRIEND.
PRINCIPLES OF FEMALE COSTUME.

PRINCIPLES OF FEMALE COS U ME-.
A loose drapery is always cooler in sum-
mer, warmer in winter, and at both seasons
less adapted to transmit sudden changes OF
temperature, than tight dress.
A loose drapery may always be disposed
either beautifully or graceful; a tight dress
is always ugly and generally ridiculous
The small head-dress and enormous train
characterize the more stately dame. while
the large hat or bonnet, and shorter dress
distinguish the livelier girl.
The shawl is adapted only for tall and
thin figures; but it admits of no very fine eff
fects even for them, while it is ruinous to
shorter and en- 6onhoinf figures, however
beautifully formed.
The scarf is better adapted for all figures;
it corresponds exactly TO the fiehium of the
ancient Grecian women, and it admits CT the
same expressive arrangements.
A person, having an oval face, may wear
bonnet with wide front, exposing the
lower part of the cheeks. One having a
round face, should wear closer front; and
if the Jaw is wide, it may in appearance be
diminished bringing the corners OF the bon
net sloping to the point OF the chin.
The Scotch bonnet seems to suit youth "a
lone. If mixture of archness and innocence
do not blend in the countenance which wears
it, it gives theatrical and bold air.
Hats always give a masculine look; and
those turned up before give petit air.
A long neck may have the neck of the
bonnet descending, the neck OF the dress ris-
ing and filling more or less of the intermetll-
ate space. A short neck should have the
whole bonnet short and close in the perpen-
dicular direction, and the neck of the dress
neither high nor wide. Persons with waists
too large may render themselves less before
by stomacher, and behind by a correspond
ing form of dress, making the top of the
dress smooth across the shoulders, and
drawing it in plaits to narrow point at the
bottom of the waist. Tall women may have
wide skirt, or several hounces, or both
| of these; shorter women moderate ono,
but as long as can be conveniently worn.
| Tight shoes make the feet look large and
the ancles clumsy.-Eurohean Mag.
| Conversational Intercourse Of the Se!reS.
What makes those men, who associate
habitually with women, superior to others!
What makes the woman who is accus-
toned to, and at ease in the company OF men
superior to her sex in general! why are the
women of France so universally admired and
loved, for their colloquial powerl Solely be-
cause they are in the habit ofa free, graceful,
and continual conversation with the other
sex. Women in this way lose their frivol-
ty; their faculties awaken their delcacies
and peculiarities unfold all their beauty and
captivation. IN the spirit of intellectual RI
vary. And the men lose their pedantic,
rude, declamatory, or sullen manner. The
coin of the understanding and the heart is
interchanged continually. Their asperites
are rubbed off, their better materials polish
ed and frightened; and their richness, like
fine gold, is wrought into finer workman
ship, by the fingers of women, than it ever
could be by those of men. The iron and
steel of our character are hidden, like the
harness and armour of giant, in studs and
knobs of gold and precious stone, when not
wanted in actual warfare.