Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1856-10-18

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they feel disposed, and they may wear an evening
dress they please, for that is always respectable
and dprOPoS for men, though not for ladies' We
do not know how far individual taste would be tol-
Grated in morning attire. We think man may in
dulge his own fancy in this respect, as far as his
own moral courage will permit him to 60. There
| is only the smile of wonder and surprise the BAN
ter and ridicule of others, to check and restrain
him. No servant would be authorized to refuse
him admlttance, because there is no rule. He
may dress as Oliver Goldsmith himself dressel in
red coat, and buttons as large as half crown,
and he may wear knee breeches and shoe buckles.
cooked hat, and a powdered wig, and a bag of
powder attached to it. He would create little
excitement and amusement but we do not suppose
that the door would be slammed in his face any,
where before dinner, though in the evening he
might be taken for the beadle of the parish. and
told to call again. The morning is unceremonious;
the ritual of society is reserved for the evening
unless it be at the Queens hUee, which are morn
ing receptions, and then all the etiquette of the
court is observed, there are no other great re-
ceptlons given by the sovereign except morning
ones.
| 1t is an open question, and an interesting one
whether itmight not be better to leave dress to in
dvidual discretion than to prescribe rule; but we
really have both modes; for in morning or usual at
tire every man follows his own taste or NAV follow
| 1t; the rule applies only to certain occasions
Moreover we find that all the eccentricities and
absurdltes OF dress appear in the departure from
the established rule. If this deviation were more
lnduged IN than 1t is, we know not to what excess
es many people might 90; the rule preserves an ap-
pearance Of sanity and good taste amongst MANY
who, II lett to their own judgment. would assured
| ly make themselves ridiculous. Besides the ten
dency TO fashion, or law in dress, is natural 1t
cannot be prevented; no imperial edict could give
the liberty that Is wanted. 1t has been supposed
that arisocratlc tastes and fashions are artificial
but 1t Is not so. Even in the American republic
which abandoned heraldIy as vanity we see the
same pride OF coat armor in old Europe. sob
serve the equipages in Broadway" New York, J
says Mr.. Weld, in his Vacation Tour Through
the States" 1.-The majority bear coats of arms
strange devices for the most part, which would
send garter, rouge, and dragon into fits but they
have their meaning. They show that wealth will
not and cannot be satisfied with the mere accumu-
lation of dollars" Even seventy years ago Ame-
ricans were lashed by Franklin and Jefferson for
their desire to establish an order of hereditary
knghthood, called the Order Of Cincinnati; yet
| this same Benjamin Franklin, the printer and re-
publican statesman, prided himself in his own
family arms, and there are extant letters of his
| to notables in Europe, which letters are sealed
with his arms, the crest fsh's head in pale, or
erased gules bettCee tlvo Sprgs uet, identical with
that Of the Lincolnshire Franklins He prided
lLiitSCll III SttiCCStiy W
! if there is anything to be proud Of, and he was
gatifed to think that his name was formerly borne
! by people of substance in England. You may
vary the form and character Of pride, but in so far
as it is a natural passion it cannot be suppressed
and it is precisely the same naturally in republic
as in monarchy.
By what rule, motive, or purpose, the world Is
guided in the adoption of modes of dress we can
not tell but certain it is that there is a singular
agreement observable both in respect to dress and
behavior. The law of fashion is perhaps the most
universal of all the laws of society. How very
rapidly the cut of a lady's bonnet flies from one
end of the world to the other Go into the re-
motest districts of Scotland or Ireland, amongst
the poorest novels, where a newspaper never finds
its way, and where the great world is totally un-
known and there you will see the very same kind
of bonnet worn by young girls that they wear in
Regent street, London. Men are not so universal
and so initiative in this respect as women are, or
they would find the same facilities women find
for teegraphing the news. But a rustic young
man and woman, going to the nearest market town
together, 90 for different purposes, and bring away
very different species of tidings. One hears the
market prices of grain and cattle, and fills his
memory with them and but little for the hats
and coats the other observes the bonnets, the
shawls, the dresses and the ribbons, and the style
of wearing them. She telegraphs the female
fashions, which THIS go by electricity from the
capital TO the extremties with great rapdity, whilst
the male fashions remain almost stationary from
one generation to another. Youth also carries
with greater rapdity than age; and thus whilst
female fashions travel quicker than male fashions,
young female fashions are quicker than old female
fashions, which have a tendency to become sta
tonary, and even to retrograde IN the mother or
the grandmother period of life. Some common
principle of feeling in human nature causes this,
and accounts for it. and also accounts for city life
being more subject to fashionable rules than rustic
life is, for 1t is more open to criticism. But this
very criticism to which city life is exposed, natur
ally corrects its faults and renes it, whilst rustic
habits are merely the simple habits of individuals
as nature prompts them, not modified by rivalry or
by that experience and observation by which men
who have seen much of the world learn to apprO-
pirate style and manner of a superior character.
Superiority of style in dress aud manner, like
periority of style in art perceived and appreciat
ed by those who have not the genius to orlgl-
nate either but who are content to initiate rather
than run the risk of unsuccessful competition and
thus it is that men and women of even inferior
character, but fine person and style, and whose
reputation chiefly rests their personal appearance
and their air disiHgNe, will take the lead even OF
royalty itself in giving direction 10 the cuts and
the modes and the etiquette Of fashion.
Royalty is seldom sovereign in this respect, but
it requires the air and society of a court or Its
neIgh6orhood TO rear an authority OF tnlS oescrp-
ton in the fashionable world. 1t is scarcely pos
sible for republic to bring forth such fop
late Bean Bunmell, or even Count D'OTsay.
There is such a natural tendency in republics TO
rustic taste, and rude manuerism in behavior, that
when the late revolution took place in Paris the
workmen's cap and blouse became paramount I'M
mediateIy, and gentlemen were content to move
about and pass as curriers' in all the public places.
The pistols, however, made their appearance also,
and having laid aside the old rehnements of social
intercourse, men were compelled to resort to vio-
lent means of maintaining their personal dignity
Fashion is substitute for this violence, and once
stahlishnd and rnsnncifnlIu nhsaEYed II will rem