Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1849-1856, 1854-06-15

1870 ND' WV
traveller on the Danube, was struck with
the crowd Of new carriages OH board the
steamboat, and on making inquiry, learned
that they were destined for Bucharest. lilo
was told ihat every Wallachian gentleman,
able TO keep a carriage al all, considered it
Indispensable TO have a now one annually,
whether the old one was worn ont or not
apd that no carriage would answer, unless
it was made at Vienna, and transported by
steamboat that being the cosiliest method
of taking it to Bucharest.
We naturally laugh at the absurdity of
such a fashion, and ask, with the traveller,
why coaches made OF Bucharest, by manu-
facturers from Vienna would not answer
the purpose of The Wallachians. Yet are
not we Americans, thought far superior to
the Wallachians generally in civilization,
guilty of fashionable follies quite as ridic-
ulous? Is not Paris to us what Vienna is
to them? We have actually seen coaches
from the French capital sold for prices far
above their worth, simply because the pur-
chaser imagined that they must b. better
than American ones, though it is notoriou 3
to all who are familiar with manufactures
Of this description, that no coach makers in
the world equal our own, in the combined
lightness and stability of their vehicles ofall
varieties.
So also in matters of dress. A French
bonnet will sell for twenty-five dollars,
when one made here, upon the same pat
fern and similar materials, will not bring
half that sum. French fashions are all the
rage,no matter how absurd. A few months
ago Louis Napoleon rc-establi.hed trains at
court, and already our would be aristocracy
are wearing trains too. Frequently in imi-
taiing Partisan style, we exaggerate them,
or apply them where they are entirely UNI
suitable, and thus out lIerod. The lady of
Louisville, Kentucky, who appeared in the
muddy streets there the other day, wearing
an train which Il liule black page
supported, furnished an illustration Of this
Instead of copying court fashions she only
caricatured 1.-THE empress Eugene
would no more think of wearing her court
mantle IN the strCe OF, than she would of go-
ing up and down the Boulevards, with her
crown on her head, like the queen in the
storybook. Another frequent example of
the absurd manner in which French fash
ions are applied here, in the wearing of
carriage dresses or carriage bonnets for
promenade, or going out a-shopping, in the
morning, in rich silks and dinner costume.
The attire of the Partisan lady is, at worst,
suitable for the occasion ; but American
la lies copy indiscriminately their foreign
models.
Throughout our whole social life may
be seen similar absurd limitations of Euro
pean customs, which being totally inappli-
cable to our condition, make us The laugh
ing stock of intelligent Frenchmen. Our
fashionable people eat, sleep, and rise up,
at hours suitable to an idle aristocracy, and
not at those indispensable TO men in active
business, as most of the heads of rich. and
fashionable families are. Their amuse-
ments are those q ennuied drones not
those appropriate for overtasked merchants,
manufacturers, or professional men. To
dance half the night or flirt with othe
mems wives and to 60 the rounds of FASH
ionab!e social follies generally, may ans
wer for a class of hereditary mobiles, whose
chief object in life is to kill time, but not
for working republicans, who have no lei
sure for such child's play. Yet we contin-
tie to practice these modes of so-called re-
creation, denominated parties, merely be-
cause they are of foreign origin, though
actually they furnish no recreation at all to
grown-up men or women, but are, to speak
plainly, positive boreS.
We might follow up the subject and
show that, in scores of things, Americans
arc as absurd in their fashions as the Wal
lachians, who will not have a new coach,
unless it is brought from Vienna by steam
boat. While we laugh at others, it is as
well to look at ourselves, and see if there
may not fairly be laughter raised at our
expense also.