The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1845-08-15
MR.. wILLIs,s LETTERS FROM LONDON

|
| My DEAR MoRRIs. The summer il with you,
hope. With me, in England, there has been LITTLE
sign of il, except the very elegant white hat from
| Beebe q Costar which, with u continuance of the
present weather. is not likely to fulfil Its destiny, Il
| is too cold for white hat or white trousers, and
| half the men in the streets Of London have worn
overeoats through these two weeks Of July. !, fol
one, go about in double fannes, and keep fire fol
my companion in my solitary room, not sorry to
have an excuse for profting by its companions
bleness.
And, talking Of hats, suppose cater for our
dressy friends, by sending you letter the pres
ent trearabtes Of the thoroughbred men of London
They will regret to know, for one thing, that ,oiie
erapats at dinner and evening parties, inds-
pensable as they were fifteen years ago; quite as
few people, as then, looking tolerably in them, or
knowing how to tie them. l dined out in one yes
terday, and, (tll ] forgot in the conversation Of a
newly celebrated authoress who sat on my lefty |
felt as il had exchanged cravats with one of the
footmen. For man who wears the whole Of his
beard, they are becoming; and therefore look well
on foreigners in London; but the English still per-
sist in clean mouths and chins and wear high shirt
collars, which, with white cravats, are execrable.
Hats are no longer carried into the drawing-room
at parties but delivered to servant below stairs,
who tickets them, and gives the owners numbers
by which they are to be called for. Hat-makng is
curiousy deteriorated in England. The best Dress
cd men wear abominaby Unlocking ones, both as
to shape and quality. | am chershing my black
Beebe-& Costar very carefully; but what with being
caught every day in the rain, and knocked about in
hacks and omnibusses shall want another;
and commission you to send me, from aboriginal
America, hat to wear in highly civilized London!
And should certainly send home for American
clothes, were my wardrobe deficient You could
hardly get clerk in Pearl street to wear the scant
short-wasted tght-sleeved coat worn by the mount
ed dandy in Hyde Park. Jennings should set up
branch Of his Broadway shop in London, and send
out that one of his many cutters who makes your
coat as large as you tcant -a miracle never done,
believe till the ad vent of Carpenter Philadelphia
If Englishmen were not by SO much the finest
figures of men in the world they would certainly
pass for the most addressed. 1t is strange how
they stick to their defective fashions. Twelve years
ago. marveed at the scant coats, scant wastcoats,
and tight-legged trousers of Englishmen, and they
are worn just SO now. Happily, this conservation
is type of their character; and they are Just as
constant to their friendships. doubt whether there
is another country in the world where the stranger
goes back, after years Of absence, and finds his well
come SO completely unatered. please not to smile
at my premises and deductionsD
cravas Of expensive satin, which prevailed in Amer
lea the last year or two, were borrowed by us from
the French, and never "obtained" in England. At
least, see no signs of them now. A gentleman, to
be sure, has always need Of umbrella in this eli
mate, and few people are to be seen without one,
short common twig of whte-wood that costs shil-
ling, and no such thing as cane is now seen in an
evening party.
doubt, also, whether our late fashion of long hair
is not copied from the French, exclusively Amer
lean. You can hardly see young man in Broad
way whose head is not skirted by single hem
around the neck, made by the curling-tongs Of the
hair-dresser; but this effemnacy would be looked
as rather ''tigersh" in London. Short hair, with a
very short whisker, both very much brushed, is
still the fashion here, as it was years ago; though
see imperiais (Which your country readers may re-
qnre explaining as ttyt on the under iip) becoming
prevalent among the most dashing Of the street dan
dies.
| breakfasted Cor rather lunched) this morning at
very celebrated table, with some very charming
and celebrated people. One Of the guests was Mo-
rer the author Of Hai-Baba,"a writer who de-
manners are as graphic his pen. He is a stout,
bald man, hale and ruddy, perfectly at his in all
society; and ready TO supply the topic isien as the
occasion calls for either. This is kind of man, by
the way, much priced in London--wholly unrecog-
Missed Gas to value) in America. have often picked
out one of the kind in New York, and smiled in
wardly to see how his gold passed for copper--but
it is Of no use to hurry civilization Our society, to
use a homey figure, is pudding well mixed as
that of England, only England's pudding is quite
baked ours only ha! like to taste England's
sionally till ours is done.
had little talk with Morier on copyright. l
told him that the English novelsts, spite of in
justice to them, were "dogs in the manger." No
publisher would buy novel from me, for instance,
when they could get all his, and Bulwers, and DIS
raeli's and everybody's else, for nothing The
sequence is, that American writers shrink from
elaborate works. and spend their efforts ON perodi-
cal writing, or do anything--follow any profession
rather than help the national literature and
The question then came very naturally, "why does
not Congress see this and agree to mend the obvi-
GUS injustice by proper copyright law" .4ns,ctr
because it would slightly raise the prices Of liter
ature, and short-sigbted demagogues find excellent
stuff for speeches in the advocacy of "cheap books
for the people," Resul-that the people get no
American books, and are impregnated exclusively
by foreign writers, and with English and monarchal
principles! But this begins to read like essay
There was one topic touched upon, that will be
interesting to artists. The EXHIBITION or CARTOONS
opened yesterday and some of the company had been
to see them. The government, in ornamenting the
new House of Parliament, wished to know the value
of Trssco painting--whether it could be success
fully and effectively done by modern artists. They
therefore literally offered prizes for the best crayon
drawings for the ornament of walls and ceilings;
| and the result has been more American ian Eng
lish-- e Z, the thew brooms have swept the clean
est" The best decidedly by artists nerer before
heard Of II is SO universally the case, in this con-
sentative country, that man must have been "heard
of before" before he is heard Of that for nameess
artists to carry off these prizes is much Of wonder.
have not the drawings myself but shall go to-
morrow or next day.
The moist climate is beginning to do its usual
work me-that of relieving Of my outer skin,
and permitting me to walk abroad in an under one,
that more resembles the one spored in my youth.
One gets transparent in England! / trust to be
quite "as good as new" in fortnight more--hav-
ing most fortunately made desperate and successful
resistance to the Doctors prescription to shave my
head during my late illness. But seriously, there
are many beaux and bellies in our dry climate who
are looking sadly at their yeow-fying faces-dying
prematurely in climate of violent extremes
when, if they would only come to temperate Eng
land, they would ''cast their slough" like insects
and renew their youth altogether. q trust the
| "Cunard line of steamers" will give me my next
passage gratis for the hint) Ladies look as fresh a,
fifty, in this climate, ladies in ours cease to look
at thirty.
| looked in, for few minutes, an evening or two
since, at soiree Of the British and Foreign Institute
and saw Chinese mandarin and Miss Cushman
among other celebrities. 1t struck me (not for the
first time) how unequaly males and females dress
| an In nrn frn,s, tbo