The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1854-07-04
SOME ABsuRp1r1Es OF FASHION.

A late traveller, in describing the Danube,
was struck with the crowd of new carriages on
| board tho steamboat. and, on making inquiry,
| learned that they wero destined for Bucharest,
| He was told that every Wallachan gentleman,
able to keep q carriage at all. considered it in
dispensablo to have now one annually,
| whether the old one was worn out or not and
that no carriage would answer unless it was
made at Vienna. and transported by steam
boat. that being tho costliest method OF taking
| it to Bucharest
We naturally laugh at tho absurdity OF SUCH
fashion, and ask, with tho traveller, why coach.
es made at Bucharest by manufacturers from
Vienna, would not answer the purpose of the
Waachians Yet are not we Americans, tho
far superior to tho Wallachians generally In
civilization, guilty of fashionably follies quito
as ridiculous? Is not Paris to us what Vien-
ma is to them? We havo actually seen coach
es from the French capitol sold for prices far
above their worth, simply because the purcha-
ser imagined they must be better than Ameri-
can ones, though it is notorious 10 all familiar
with manufacturers of this description, that no
coach makers in tho world equal our own, ip
tho combined lightncss and stability of their
veheccs of all varieties.
So also in matters of dress. A French bon
| net will sell for twenty-five dollars, whom ono
| made here, upon the samo pattern, and with
similar materials will not bring half that sum.
French fashions arc all the rage no matter how
absurd. A few months ago Louis Napoleon
re established trains at court, and already our
would-be arstocracy arc wearing trains too
Frequently, in initiating Partisan styles, wo or
aggerato them. or apply them where they are
entirely unsuitable. and thus out-Herod He
rod Tho lady Of Louisville Kentuckey, who
| appeared in tho muddy streets there the other
day, wearing an enormous train, which ittlo
black page supported, furnished an illustration
of this. Instead Of copying the court fashion
she only caricaiurcd it, The Empress Eugonip
would no moro think of wearing her court man
tic in the street, than she would Of going up
and down the Boulovards, with her crown on
her head, like the queen in the story-book -
Another frequent example of the absurd NAM
ner i'm which French fashions arc applied hero
in tho wearing of carriage dresses or carriage
bonncts for promenade or tho going out shop
ping in tho morning, in rich silks and dinner
costume. The attirc Of tho Persian lady is,
at worst, sustabo for tho occasion: but Amcii-
can ladies copy indiscrmnatcly their foreign
models.
Though our who,o social life may be seen
similar absurd limitations Of European customs
makes us tho laughing stock Of intelligent
Frenchmcn. Our fashionable people act sleep,
and rise up, at honrs suitable to an idlo aris-
toeracy, and not at those indispensable TO men
in active business, rs most Of the heads of rich
and fashionable families are. Their amusements
are thos, Of cnnuid drones, not those appro-
priato for oyertaskcd merchants, manufactur-
crs, or professional men. To dance half tho
night: to Airt with other meu's wives; and to
90 tho round Of fashionable socia' follies gen.
orally, may answer for class ofhercditcrs nes