The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1853-09-22
Wearing JeweIry.

"jest as true as preachin'." Of course
it is merely freak of fashion thai
places the jewel in the ear of the Amer
can, English, and French lady, while II
places similar, though somewhat rude
ornament in the lip or none of her less
enlightened sister =
Rings, from one to four on each finger
earrings, large and showy-necklaces,
two or three in number, with hearts and
crosses dependant from the same
bracelets, many and huge, casing the
arms half way to the elbow--a minute
watch affixed to the waist, and moored
to the neck with golden cable, four
times as long and thick as it need be-a
world of little knicknacks called
"charms, y,inelegant and stupid
bouquet handle, worn at the side like
a huntsman's horn-pins, brooches, min
latures-and all worn at once !! Does
the unsophisticated reader doubt it /?
Let him HE to any second-rate watering
place, and he will perceive many Jew
eller's shop strolling about, of which the
above Is an imperfect inventory.
How everybody laughs when some one
fresh from California, describes those
Indians who wear every garment they
possess at the same time. If "a ward
robe consists of cravat and pair of
slippers, he wears his cravat and pair
of slippers, and goes about, satisfied and
happy. Give one of them seven pair of
pantaloons, three vests, two coats and
half dozen shirts, he dons them all,
regardless of the thermometer which
now is (lO0 in the shade,) and of that
which is to come Zero To let the public
know the extent of his possessions, he
rolls up his seven pair of combinations,
one little above the other, and he looks
like man supported by two inverted
coils of rope. He wears his smallest vest
outside, that the others may be visible.
And so he waddles about the settlement,
stunning the dandies of his tribe with
the magnifcence of his getting up, cap
tivating maidens, and performing all the
other duties of his position, as the Brum-
mel of the day. His friend in the era
vat and slippers, just now happy man
is ready to die with envy. Well-we
laugh at all this. We call these Indians
benighted savages, and put money in the
plate for the missionaries. Yet the wo-
man at Saratoga who covers herself with
Jewelry, just because she happens to
have it, accumulate ornament on orna-
ment, without the slightest regard to
time, place, or propriety, is, in her
heart, as uncivilized person as our
friend of the combinations, and is quite
as ridiculous an object.
Perhaps, more ridiculous. We have
heard it whispered-what scandal people
talk that part of the preparation for
watering place campaign is to 60
about among less ambitious friends, and
borrow their surplus jewelry for the sea-
son. There is, we know, class of la
dies who would rather perish ignomini-
ously, and on the scaffold, than appear
twice in the same attire in public room
of a watering-place hotel and, therefore
it they remain ten days, their ingenuity
is tasked, and their wardrobe may well
be overtasked, in providing from thirty
to fifty totally different styles of dress
and decoration. Such ladies, it is not
improbable, appear occasionally in bor-
rowed plumes, and shine with lustres
not their own. We might say a word
too, in this place, if we had time, about
the absolutely incredible quantities cf
sham jewelry which find sale nowadays.
Sham jewelry is now imported of a
very superior quality, Calculated to de-
ceive the most experienced eye," and
which can be sold at about teuth of
the price of the real article. We had
no idea until lately that splendid dia-
mond brooch can be bought for seven
dollars and half nor how impossible
1T is to tell, by the eye alone, the differ
ence between the new, double-washed,
sham-gold chains and the real California
golden ones, twenty-five carats fine
nor what prodigious quantity of the
sham is got rid of by our Broadway jew
ellers. Think of brass earrings they
are sold in large quantities. In short,
when we see a damsel or matron all
sparkling and blazing with jewels and
gold, from comb to shoe-lace, we are
plunged, at once, into considerations
touching both the nature and the source
OF her splendour Is it sham, or is it
borrowed j: we ask-concluding, of
course, that it is one of the two as
when the young impertinents of Broad
way meet a gaudily- dressed woman
walking In that celebrated thoroughfare,
'ney conclude at once that she is not
person le Of respectability, and employ
VI tnenI I undivided minds in conjecturing
hoI" iU @ulcn OF the disreputable classes she
belongs We mention this fact-disa-
SreeaDle as 1t iS-hacopso - =; lo,;uoblo