New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-12-28
Fashion.


When q man applies himself soberly to reflect |
upon the fitness Of things in general, and Of
their several tendencies towards the great End,
Of what whirlgig of vanity and inutilty-of
aste and glitter-the Great World seems to
Consist! All these founees and furbelows; all
this crcnoline, bergamot, paste and jewelry,
wax -chandlery, Brussels lace and Sevres china
all those jobbed horses, slken squads, double
and triple knocks, tags and embroideries and
fripperies of the Heralds College, what are
they good for what end do they serve, All
these mountebank bowings and reverences;
these kissings of hands and backing out OF
rooms Of lath and plaster; these Gatherings |
about streets for the purpose Of bandying pieces |
of printed pasteboard; these grinnings to your
fellow worm Of five feet long across glass of |
grape juice; these Rawlings out Of names by
iacqueys these posturings and jumpings, and
aeonies of etiquette; and turning day into
night and night into day, and eating when we
are not hungry, and drinking when we are not
thirsty all these, the life-chords of the Great
World, to what end are they Who commanded
| them! Who promulgated the statutes that
regulate them? If Fashion were a tangible
| idol with q frontal prOtuberance and golden
| head, sauatting on his hams in q pagoda like
4 Juggernaut, we should not need to wonder at
| his votaries wearing absurd dresses and passing
| their lives in the performance Of more absurd
ceremonies. We might set down the worship to
n
and the ceremonies to be the offspring Of sin
cere though mistaken superstition, and to be
typical or symbolic Of something. But my lady
Azalia, the Queen of the world Of Fashion, is
| member of the Church of England, and she
would be indignant if you were to ask her
whether she worshipped protuberant idol
| Besides, Fashion is not tangible or palpablc.
No ~ one ever saw Fashion, or drew his Cor her y
portrait, or promulgated the conditions Of his
Tor her y creed, or taught what is heterodox or
. | what orthodox; except one vulgar pretender
who wrote Handbook Of Etiquette; which,
for any authority it was grounded on, might a.
well have been handbook to the Bear Garden
What are the laws Of Fashion, and who made
them, Who regulates their absurdities and
their proprieties 1t was the height of fashion
in Charles the Seconds time to display about
four inches of white shirt between the waist
| band and the vest now, if were to enter I
ball room with my shirt bulging from the bot
tom Of my waistcoat should be bowed down
stairs Why should fashion in sixteen hundre'
and sixty-three be beauty, and be impropriet.
in eighteen hundred and ffty-three! Can an.
thing be more absurd than the present chimney
$. pot-h hat, Nothing. Yet, if you were to NEE
me in Regent street with q hunting cap, shove
=. hat, q soinbrero, or a fur porringer like ths
which Henry of Lancaster wore-would yo
ak to me' The day after to- morrow velv
% senn, s% I. shovel hats, dip flaps, or rabbit SIX
/
phaye refused to ordain Oliver Gol'
;,b snS b''h. ho use he wore scarlet breeches? WIS
nots, colors, fashionable virtue
h;as, a,I msS,, -; s, bon ton, high breeding. wort
:. ns.n. ~, WI, hey save IS the sprightliness
''o,.t,, M ~, f,;r nha. rs and full eyes Of chill
hood, the nervousness "su s''ts az :" hamouna
D Joints Of twenty -fve,' 'oni sas1 .n9 =, ~,
and deadly paleness, the WIN ,har 20,
horror of three days burial - iand,, !,
world, "nobles and learned, .UIss a ~ 80
the wise and the foolish, the ric anu s',1 -
L' the prevailing tyrant and the op. pressea pV
shall all appear to receive their syn noor W
Fashion and Madame Devy and the hcu.pI \
IN keep the ssstorm from the ship or "t'n' K;m
from the brow, or the plague from ,h;a
l. house'" Is the world any better for fa.,n,' !
NJ and could not 10 move towards its END ~A5ps
Fashion, do you think
nd GA man." says divine love to quote, " mt
read n sermon the best and most passionate tn
ever man preached, if he shall but enter In
a. the sepulchre Of kings
where our kings have been crowned, their a
=. cestors lie inferred, and the king must wa
On over his grandsire's head to take the crown
Now what homily might a man read over SC
ing ond hand Court dresses, over Court Circnif
for or over Red book two years old How sha
one might be upon the miserable vanity oil
.m nerau tiles, and the uselessness of luxuries. IL
Q a easily we could do without them.
ore aGive but to nature that which nature needs,
oie. MANS life is cheap as beasts"
,as You. and /, and the King, could live on 81
er- pence day, and never grow hungry. But {
all ter all. in the very midst and flow of our hor
NJ lies. and this sharpness of our exhortatiC
,s comes this thought to make us pause before
| a go with unwashed faces to live in tub like
oeenes, or to hide ourselves in o cave, and COY
ic ourselves with the skins of wild beasts, as Je
IL 1rrx1 q 1a,~ kof fyt
up Mig nuts for food, and shovel gold away as If
nSs oSs were mud, like Timon in the play, For we
hat rin to think how many thousand men q
Isst women in England, and how many millit
more throughout the world, eat their da
sss. bread by making and vending Fashions eleg'
un- trumpery; gloves, fans, spangles, scents,
Let bon-bons how ships, colonies, and CONNER
.ssn sso are all mixed up in curious yet congru
ing elaboration with these fall how ope ent
will the chain may be my lady's boudoir and
BY nick -nacks in Belgravia, and the other elS
l he. sloppy ship-dock on the hot strand OF
uriI Hoorhly: how the beginnings of o ball SUPP
by with its artificial flowers, its tribes, its bar
ans sugar temples, its enamelled baskets and rat
;urv cakes, were the checrless garret and the hea
man, cellar: how tho immensities Of the world
ner- workshops, and marts, and bourses, and ch:
nave bers of commerce--are, after all, only an &C
us6 mutation of these fashionable littlenesses in b.
tire packed into huge bales and casks, registered
aciss iedgers and day books, and sent and re sen
\ .uI strog Ships with bills Of ladng and charter
ties, to the uttermost ends of the earth. P'
last. before you condemn Vanity Fair-reAect ft
minute before you run to the Justices to
gold its charter taken away. Obadiah Broadt
n the has helped to stock it; conventicles have !
maj. man built from its profits the crumbs that fall
,s1 its table fed millions of mouths After she
4 the made one set of fortunes at first hand she sn
oiars ers her favors on trade at second hand.
sand second hand court dresses, and from sec,
,rdsa hand fashion Of all kinds the moral Of Fas
ses to can be more strongly pointed than from Fas
seven herself when arraysd in all her glory.
Let ms instance Mrs Brummus. She is
,mp.,i mysterious female who deals in secondhand
ion Of dies apparel 1 look upon Mrs. Brummus's
en- for silent repository of last seasons varieties
ne ne sn no the awe l have for family vault; for
clients. scenery of worn-out pantomime; for un
,ess of takers Latin lin oil colors); for last y
to tnst Belle Assemblee or for the tailor plate Ga
" law ions and the Court Guide for the year eigh
private hundred and ffty-two. ,.
belief Mrs Brummus's repository nestles as Nj
,s. vans fountain did, the ss navel OF wood, qui
sr and the core Of cancer Of dngy second hand st
re and houses. Both Mrs. Brummas and her
osgino have, moreover, Il dingy, second hand ap
sass % OF auce. They remind you Of the magnificent
highest cution of the lady of the quondam dealer ii
How nd-hand apparel in Congreves comedy: