The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-01-24
a Chapter npon Nether fstegum<nts. :

A Chapter .pon Nether integsments.
We adopt this method Of disseminating very
important portion Of male attire, out ola due
regard 70 the extreme delicacy Of the present
generation. We wish to call no extra bushes
into the cheeks of young ladies, who know
great deal more nowadays than their grand
mothers ever dreamd oil, and would faint at an
indelicacy, which those reverend danes would
never have discovered to have been such.
Gaul has, from the earliest period of history.
given laws to the world Of fashion. An Eng
lishmand and Frsnchman were once dispu-
ting aboutthe relative inventive capacity ofthe
two nations. "We," said tie Frenchman,
"6rst put the rufile to the 81 "a" II grant
you, said the EngIishman, ''but we improved
upon your invention. We put the shirt to the
ruffie." However this may have been, Gaul
at least invented the species of garment, of
which we are treating. many hundred years
before the birth Of Christ. We learn from
Gibbon, who got it from we know not what
Roman historian, that the first party of Gauls
who appeared in the streets of Rome. with their
neither bulks encased in inexpressitles, was
the subject of great amazement, and a thou.
sand jeers. The Romans wore the tosa,
which answered the purpose both ofupper and
lower garments. When they took possession
ofihe northern portion Of Italy tLombardy and
Piedmontj the inhabitants of which were
Gauls, they called it Gallia Togata literally
togu-wearing Gaul) to distinguish it from
Gaul on the other side of the Alps, which they
called Gallia Braccata (meaning breeches-
wearing Gaul) They did this because Cis-
Alpine Gaul adopted Roman fashions, where
as Trans-Apine Gaul stuck to the inc press
bles.
But, though we learn that Gaul first used
the observation-disclosures polite, we have no
record of the bold and original individual, to
whose genius we are indebted for their inven-
ton. Much do we regret that his name has per-
ished, for delight to 60 to the root of things,
and for that reason think that Pliny conferred
a favor on mankind when he informed the world
that ScipiO Africanus was the first Roman who
ever shaved his beard regularly, and that he,
doubtless having sharp razors, INDUCED every
day in what we regard as by no means luxu-
ry of the first order. But there is no such
thing as getting at it. We find the garment
upon the people when we first meet them, but
we know not whence it came. If Adam had
been any thing Of a tailor, we should have sus.
pected that his famous fg-leaf garment was
something, of the kind. But we do not learn
that he ever saw shop.board during his long
life of eight or nine centuries.
Sir Henry Bulwer, in his New York dinner
speech, certainly slandered the Cells, when he
accused them of having no ineApressibles. The
Scotch Highlanders doubtless, were not fond of
combining the neither man in such integuments
But he should have stated, in justice to
Celtic dignity, that Gaul invented them. By
the bye, she has furnished fashions to the other
nations ofEurope, in more than one particular,
and some of them have been abolished only by
the bayonet.