Litchfield enquirer., 1830-06-03
FrO'" BlGcksrOOds Maguxipe. THE YOUNG LADY'S BOOK

. ~S ""CSO IutCIOSllug ana usual aFtl.
 cles, there are four entitled the Toilet, the
 Escritoire, Embroidery, and the Orna.
 mental Artists. Let us take a glance a, the Toilet: i 1t will be laudable ambition in he, to curb those excesses of each revolvinu mode, with which she is in some measure obliged to comply; to aim at grace and delicacy rather than richness of dress: to sacrifice exuberance of ornament (which IS never becoming to the young) where ever 1t IS possible, to an admirable neatness. equally distant from the prim and the neg lIgent; to learn the valuable art of impar- l ting charm to the most simple article of dress, by its proper adjustment to the per- son, and by it's harmonious blending, or agreeably contrasting, with the other por- tons ot the attire. It is truth which should ever be borne in mind, that a hiell- CT order of taste is often displayed, and a better effect produced, by paucity or to- tai absence of ornament, than by the most profuse and splendid decorations.''
 That is sound doctrine. A discreet. but not servile, observance of fashion is then inculcated, and all young ladies war ned against extremes. It is rash to adopt every new style immediately as it appears :; for many novelties in dress prove unsuc- cessful, being abandoned even before the first faint impression they produce is worn off; and lady, it is well observed, can scarcely look much more absurd than in departed fashion, which, even during it's brief existence, never attained moderate share of popularity. 1t seems to be fan- cy of her own. She is thought to be self willed at all times; when the wind is due east-mad.
 On the other hand, they, who cautious ly abstain from a too early adoption of nov- city. often fall into the opposite fault |" of becoming its proselytes at the eleventh hour. They afford, in autumn, postobit reminiscence to their acquaintance of the fashions which were popular in the prece- ding spring. Such persons labour under the farther disadvantages of falling into each succeeding mode when time and cir- cumstances have defamed and degraded it from tits high and palmy state ; they do not copy it in it's original purity, but with all the deteriorating additions which have heaped upon it subsequent to its invention. However beautiful it may be, fashion rarely exists in its pristine state of excel lence long, affer it has haenpe ln,,..la-- Its alterations from the perfect are exag- gerated at each remove and if its form be in some measure preserved, it is dis played in unsuitable colours, or translated into inferior materials, until the origin al design becomes so vulgarized as to dis gust"
 The great first principle of dress is- adaptation. Fashion imperiously upsets it, and reduces half her subjects to dowdies. For what but dOwdy can a dumpy wo- man be, condemned to dress in mode es- pecially invented for some tall, slender ar bitress of taste? We differ from Lord By ron, who said,
 "Now, on my sou hate dumpy woman."
 You may, indeed, so identify to your im- agination the meaning of Y" dumpy," that neck and legs, and every thing but face and body are lost and you see, in your own minds eye, only smiling waddle of the female fatness. But that it is not fair and you might as we'll spindle up tall woman into Maypole, all one thinness ] from ancle to collarbone. Place the two together-each at her very worst-and, for our single selves, we prefer the dumpy wo- man.
 Dress dumpy woman, then, as dum- py woman ought to be dressed, according 1 10 the first great principle of dress-adap- tation-and you tenderly squeeze the hand of a very comedy body-with bosom white as drift of snow. How, indeed, a dumpy woman ought to be dressed is anoth- CT guess matter but we may answer the question so far by negatives. She must not have on her head cap two feet high ; for then, besides that men are afraid ol catching a tartar, instead of thereby ad- ding two feet to her stature, she takes two off, and thus measures to the eye exactly two feet, on her .high-healed shoes. But such cap extends her laterally beyond all customary or reasonable bounds-and yor wonder how she got in at drawing room door of the usual dimensions. Her necl being short by hypothesis, Dumpy ough
 not to wear necklace of great breadth,
 for no other reason than it gives the spec
 tators pain to see jaw-bone and collar
 bone suffering under the same instrumen oftorture. Neither ought our fat friend tt
 heap quantity of drapery upon her shoul
 ders for she ought to remember that they
 are already in the immediate neighborhooe
 of her ears aud that her eas-rings (which
 by the way, had better be left at home will be lost in the muslin. Nothing vszA all Al