The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-09-13

racteristks-H0Sv As II To be hegcneratcd
and Refneds
The fashionable season has closed. II may be
said to have expired somewhere about four O'Clock
on the morning after the great fancy ball at New
port just as halt dozen dry-goods men, from this
respectable metropolis, attired in strange habi-
ments. and otherwise considerably disguised"
retreated to the bar-room TO imbibe last dsspe-
rate " drink" OF brandy and water Deserted and
dreary the spacious corridors ofthe Ocean cara
vansary, and very pensrve the three four
pale spinsteIs, who yet " waste their sweetness
on the silent porticoes of the Atlantic House.
'No more to snobs and ladies bright
do Dutch and Irish claronets and fiddes discourse
the strains of Verdi or Meyerbeer, in halls of
Marvin or Of Weaver. No more do the sandy
streets, of sulphurean Saratoga resound, at witch
ing time of night. with the impassloned notes OF
youth chanting, in full chorus, the charms of
lovely Mary Blane," or her still formidable rival
IN the affections of universal snobdom--the en-
chanting. Lucy, Lucy Nealv' No more, in that
old leafy colonnade, do audacious noodles, by wine
inspned. make love to pale anatomies in muslin
and barege Barkeepers, at the Springs, abandon
themselves to deep and sullen melancholy. Hair
dressers, at Newport, awake to full sense of the
desolatlon, and exclaim--
"To morrow to fresh heads aud coiHures new.n
Porters and chamberma;ds bemoan the end of
the harvest; and hotel keepers, not without a
sigh, reviewing the past in the cool quiet of those
pleasant evenings, '.chew the cud of sweet and
bitter fancy"
So them the crowds that thronged our watering
places have dispersed as fast and as far as steam
boat and railroad car could carry them. Formula
BILE cl,gues contend no longer for pre-eminence in
the ball room or at the table d'hote, and peace
reigns once more in the hen-roosts of the land.
The premature slaughter OF chickens has ceased
and anxious mammals once more gather their
brood under their wings in the palace uptown, or
the third floor of Mrs. Flint's genteel boarding
house, in Broadway or Warren street; whilst
their innocent offspring recount their conquests;
and acting on the sapient maxim, sin time of
peace prepare for war; inspect their dllapdated
wardrobes, making, as best they may, all due ar
Engagements for the fierce conflict OF the approach
Ing fall. Nice young men, late the envy OF all the
walters at the Ocean House and Congress Hall,
once more in Cedar street and Pearl, devise ways
and means to avert the dire calamity ofthe washer
woman's BILL and execIate the fates which tempted
them TO the recent fearful expenditure of thirty
dollars, exclusive of porters, "bocts," and bar
bers Vctmlzcd papas, who bled' so unwil-
lingy rejoice, as they again revel in the delights
Ct Wall street, or Front, and, with repentant
grace return To the even tenor Of their way,
dining down town. as Of old, OH frst-rate
chop. washed down with refreshing mug of
beer. Thus have the bright lights of our fashion,
able season disappeared. The elegance, the re.
finement, tie chivalry, the grace, the courtesy
II IL oban If dear IUhff A
rican world of fashion, has faded from the water
ing places! The tmd maldens of Newport and
Saratoga can, once more, venture abroad and
their village beauX, like the sun after an eclipse,
now loom as large and as brI ght as ever. All the
grandeur which lately blessed them with its pre-
sence has returned TO Its own local habtaton--
that s, so much of it as has " a local habitation
and name "--returned to Its ennut, Its frivoty,
its emptiness its pride. its poverty It's aectation
its coarseness, its lnsoence with, here and there
a sprinkling of common sense, fine feeling, and
genuine good breeding.
The fashionable season, as it is called, which
has in this way just terminated has presented ma
terials for great deal of very interesting observa
ton and speculation. Fashionable society IN the,
United States isquite entertaining problem; one
which may be studied with amusement and profit.
The subject possesses, too, all the charm OF fresh
ness for II has never yet been subjected to an at
teniive examination, or rigid analysis. We have
studied 1t in all its phases for years, and have
traced its progress through great many stages,
with good deal of lnterest-and what variety
of phases American fashionable society has exhi-
blted. From the old noblesse of the revolutionary
era-poor in pelf, but millionaires in glory--down
to the upper ten thousand of the present genera
ton, we have had in ouI people of fashion all that
curious, agreeable, and entertaining admixture
which fluctuations in stocks, fluctuations in lots,
fluctuations in politics, fluctuations In cotton,
indigo, tea and tobacco, IN connection with the
peculiar character of our evil Institutions could
present to the notice of snobs and philosophers.
The leading characteristic of the fashionable So
ciety of the United States, rs it is called at the
present day, Is its intense vugarity. We shall
presently explain the cause of this; but, in
the meantime, let us, unmoved by the awful
howl of snobdom glance at the manner in
which fashionable vulgarity displays itself. 1t
grleves us very much to say that amongst the
women, who regard themselves as the leaders Of
fashion, there is q brusqueness of manner, which
is probably intended to be taken for sef-posses-
sion and smartness, but which is really nothing
but positive rudeness. Loud talking at table-im-
pertinent staring at strangers-a disregard of those
little cvties and decencies of life which are al
ways respected by the well-bred person-lead us
10 suppose that the fashionable ladies OF this day
imagine that the best way to prove their superiority
IN the scale of refinement, is to dcspise all the
courtesies and poliseness which characterize the
de meanor of the masses, which they affect to call
low and vulgar In this, certainly, these fashion
able people are eminently Exclusives" The
+" common people" of America, as these pseudo
fashionables style the masses of their counuymen
and countrywomen, amongst the politics, peo-
pie IN the world, and have the incest sense AT
appreciation of those thousand nameless amenities
which give grace and refinement to society.