Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1847-07-10
Thp Art ~ Orrss,

An article in the last London Quarterly on the
subject of dress, from which we quoted some
days ago. is written with great deal of discri.
mination and good taste. OF course the larger
portion of the treatise is devoted to the art and
science Of female dress-a stndy 10 which wo.
men are appropriately devoted for a two fold
reason :-frst because they have happy faculty
in that way, and secondly because in pleasing
Themselves by the manifestation Of grace and
elegance in dress they best please the masculine
rcsti"n of,he community who ran admire an
excellence which they can never hope TO attain.
With fegard to the style of thc present day
onr critic approves highly of It, and certainly
we can scarcely imagine style more beautiful
ct becoming. He says
We are inclined TO think that the female al.
tire Of the present day is, upon the whole, in as
favorable s'rte as the most vehement advoc cates
Tor what is rallied nature simplicity could desire.
1t is costume in which they can dress quickly,
walk nihbly, eat plentifully, stoop easily, loll
gracefully; and, in short, perform all the duties
Of life without le: or hindrance The head is
left to its natural size--the skin TO its native pu-
fity-,hs waist at its proper rpgion--the heeIs
at their real level The dress is one calculated
to bring out the natural beauties Of the person.
and each OF them has, as far as we can see fail
play. In former days, what was known of q
woman's hair in the cap Of Henry Wills time
or of the slendeTness OF her throat in q eosget
of Edward IS time-or of the fall of her should.
ers in welt or wing in Queen Elizabeths time
or Of the shape Of her arm in a great bishop
| sleeve even in our own time Nova days, all
these points receive full satisfaction for past
neglect, and a woman breaks upon US in such a
plenitude Of charms that we hardly know where
10 begin the catalogue. Hair light as silk in
fo,ting curls, or massive as marble in shining
coils Forehead bright and smooth as mother o. +.
pearl, aud arched in matchlrss symmetry by its
own beautiful drapery Ear, which for centu-
res had lain concealed, set on to the side Of the
head like delicate shell. Throat, lovely stalk,
leading the eye upward to a lovelier flower, and
downwards along fair sloping ridge undulating
in the true line OF beauty, TO the polished prec-
pice OF the shoulder whence from the pendant
calyx OF the shortest possible sleeve, hangs a
lovely branch, smooth and eiit,erng like pale
pink coral, slightly curved towards the figure,
and terminating in hve taper petals, pinter still.
folding and unfolding "st their own sweet will, {"
and especially ecn,rived by nature to pick your
heart clean to the bone before you know what
they are about,
And plenty more OF similar charms. dealing
distinctions devastating DOOM to al who are
not hre proof Nor need you even despair Of
seeing the feet, which at this our happy era lie
in ambuscade only the more securely TO wuund
and "like little mice peep in and OUT beneath
the shirts deep and plentiful folds, Nor is the
sncls even hopeless, if you are sufficiently atten-
tive. and il il be worth showing.