Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-09-18
price Two Cents.
Gbe 1aiIp Spp.
MONDAY, SEPT. IS, 1854.
vagarics of Fashion.

If an inhabitant of the moon, or traveller
from another system could visit the earth, he
would find some difficulty in believing that
the people whom he met in different continents
were beings of common race. lie would
see, in one country, the men wearing tailss
and in another, the women wearing trousers,
in one, the men sporting turbans, and IN am
other the women figuring III caps. He would
see the beard cut off by one naticn, and re-
ligiously preserved by another, the hair CROP
ped close il, Northern Europe, but suffered to
grow long in southern. He would see the
North American Indian, sunk in savagery,
daubng himself with ochre, and the civilized,
proud Of her hereditary refinement, painting
herself with rouge He would see an En-
press wearing yard or two of useless gilt at
the tail Of her gown; grave Judges burying
their heads in horse-hair wigs till they looked
like puppies sGemnly carcatured; soldiers
with bear-skin caps big enough to hold their
prOyeuder for a fortnight; and a thousand
other ridiculous varieties of costume, travesty-
ing the human anma and making 1t look
like cross between a monkey and parrot,
or, at least like anything but what it Is.
In China he would seesmothers bandaging
the feet of their female children, 10 make
them little. In New Zealand he would OBJ
rerye men tattooing their faces. In the Orient
he would discover ladies dying their nails
black He would see the Esluimaux with
bits of bone stuffed through a hole in each
cheek the Flat Head Indian, with his fore
head compressed till it looked ike that of an
idiot and the African negro, with his bushy
HAIR full of butter, and stuck out on every
side, so that it Iesembied huge mop. He
would see ladies in Constantinople muffled up
to the eyes, and in Paris wearing dresses
"beginnng too late" as Talleyrand Witty
said, :" and ending too early" In one coun-
try he would learn that fatness was considered
a female charm and in another, an unnatu-
rally pinched waist; here beauty would con-
sist in fragility, there in its opposite; in one
latitude dark hair would carry the day, and
in another haxen tresses. On the promenade
of Madrid, he would see the ankles coquet-
ishly displayed; in Chestnut street they
would be shut from sight by the amplitude of
skirt that swept the muddy pavement. In
Persia he would meet the magniicently
dressed Mahometan, i'll London he would see
thing in round hat and tight trowsers call
ing itself a man.
He would find the customs of various ma
tons as diverse as their dress; and we may
add as much opposed to the standard Of ma
ture and common sense. In the countries
pretending to be the most cultivated among
the very classes enjoying the highest degree
of education, he would discover the majority
of the people going to bed at daybreak, rising
at noon, taking what they call morning rides
towards evening, and dining after sunset.
Ee would learn that in the wealthiest society
of New York, weddings were celebrated by
gas light, on bright sunshiny morning. He
would see some Americans making themselves
temporarily crazy with drink, the taste of
which they protested to dislike, and others,
quite as refined, chewing continually on a
dirty weed, which, they would tell him, had
made them sick the first time they used it.
He would meet a lady, one evening, and be
privileged to take her in his arms, and spin
nround with her. before room full Of people,
till she fairly sank on his bosom; but, t he
attempted to press even her hand too warmly
the morning after, he would be struck from
the list of her acquaintance, for having as she
would say, insulted her.
1t is instructive, occasionally, to think of
these anomalies. The absurdity of fashion,
whether in dress or in social customs never
seems so plain as when we thus contrast one
Vagary with another, and all such with COM
mon sense. We then realize what fools too
many of us are. For we sacrifice peace, mo-
ney, and health, it then convincingly appears,
for what is of no more worth than child's
bauble.-Phaka. Ledger.