Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-04-25
EVENING STAR.
HOOPS.

The last absurdity in woman's dress is by
no means novel. Fashions have their orbits.
| though eccentric as those Of comets /; and 1t is
after the lapse of a century and half that
hoops have come back to deform our ladies
In the reign of Queen Anne, hoops were the
rage as at the present time. Addison, in No.
l27 of the Spectator dealt them the fol-
lowing blow, which resulted in their Danish
ment. Is it too much to expect a similar re-
suit at the present time?
mo l27 THURSDAY, July 26, I'LL.
l-(luantum est in rebus inane ,-PKRs. Sat I, l.
How much OF emptiness We find in things
1t Is our custom at Sir Rogers, upon the
coming of the post, to sit about pot of coffee,
and hear the old knight read Dyer Letter
which he does with his spectacles upon his
| nose, and in an audible voice, smiling very
often at those little strokes of satire which are
| so often In the writings Of that author / af-
terward communicate to the knight such pack
cts as receive under the quality of Spec
tator. The following letter CHANGING to please
him more than ordinary, shall publish it at
his request r 80 %
Mr.. Spectator-You have diverted the town
almost month at the expense of the country
| 1t is now high time that the country should
| have their revenge. Since your withdrawing
| from this place, the fair sex are run into
great extrayagances. Their petticoats, which
| began to heave and swell before you left US
| are now blown up into a most enormous coz
cave, and has every day more and more. In
| short, sir, since our women know themselves
to be out Of the eyes Of the Spectator, they
will be kept within no compass. You praised
them little too soon, for the modesty Of their
| head dresses; for, as the humor of a sick
person ls often driven out of one limb into
another, their superhuity of ornaments, in
stead of being entirely banished, seems TO
have only fallen from their heads to their
| lower parts. What they have lost in height
| they make up in breadth, and contrary to all
rules Of architecture, widen the foundation at
| the same time that they shorten the super
structure We're they, like Spanish iennets,
| to impregnate by the wind, they could not
have thought Of a more improper invention.
| But, as we do not hear any particular use in
| this petticoat, or that il contains any thing
| more than what was supposed to be in those
| of scantier make, We are wonderfully at a loss
| about it. -.'
The women give out in defence of wide
bottoms, that they are airy, and very proper
for the season; but this look upon as pre-.
tence, and piece of art, for it is well known
we have not had a more moderate summer
these many years, 30 il certain the heat they
| complain Of cannot be in the weather. Be-
| sides, | would fain ask these tender constitu-
toned ladies, why they should require more
cooling than their mothers before them
| find several speculative persons are Of
| opinion that our sex has of late been very
saucy, and that the hoop petticoat is N ade
| use of to keep US at a distance. 1t is most
| certain that a woman's honor cannot be bet
| ter determined than in this manner, in circle
with circle, amidst such variety of outworks
and lines of decentralization. A female who
is thus invested in whalebone, is evidently
| secured against the approaches of an ill-bred
| fellow, who might as well think Of Sir George
| Etherege's way Of making " Love in Tub,
as in the midst of so many hoops
Amongst these various cOnjectures there
| are men OF superstitious tempers, who look
upon the hoop -petticoat as a kind of prodigy.
fall of the French King, and observe that the
farthingale appeared in England little be-
| fore the Spanish monarchy; others are of
opinion that it foretells battle and bloodshed
and believe it of the same prognostic alton as
the tail Of blazing star. For my part, am
apt to think it is sign that multitudes are
| coming into the world rather than coming out
of it.
"The first time saw a lady dressed in one
Of these petticoats, could not forbear blaming
her in my own thoughts for walking abroad
when she was so near her time but soon re-
covered myself out Of my error, VIXEN found
ali the modish Of the sex as far gone as her.
| self. 1t is really thought some crafty women
have thus betrayed their companions into
| to their own concealments, and by that means
escape the censure Of the world, as wary Gen
erals have sometimes dressed two or three
dozen of their friends in their own habit, that
they might not draw upon themselves any
particular attacks from the enemy. The strut
| ting petticoat smooths all distinctions. levels
the mother with the daughter, and sets maids
and matrons, wives and widows, upon tho
same bottom. In the meanwhile, L cannot
but be troubled to see SO many, we'll shaped,
innocent virgins so bloated up, and waddling
up and down like big bellied women.
Should this fashion get among the Ordi
nary people, our public ways would be so
crowded that we should want street room.
Several congregations of the best fashion find
| themselves already very much Strengthened
and if the mode increase wish 1t may not
drive many ordinary women into meetings
and conveuticles. Should our sex at the same
| time take it into their heads TO wear trunk
breeches las who knows what their indigna-
tion at this female treatment may drive them
to p a man and his wife would fill a whole
pew. a.-
You know, sir. it is recorded Of Alexan-
der the Great that in his Indian expedition
he buried several suits of armor, which, by
| his directions, were made much too big for
any of his soldiers, in order to give pOsterity
an extraordinary idea Of him, and make
| them believe he had commanded an army Of
giants l am persuaded that # one Of the
| present petticoats happens to be hung up in
| any repository of curiosities, it would lead
into the same error the generations that lie
some remove from us; unless we can believe
our posterity will think so disrespectfully OF
| their own grandmothers that they made thsni-
selves mOnstrouS to appear amiable.
when l survey this new-fashioned rOtun
da in all its parts cannot but think of the
| old philosopher, who after having entered in
to an Egyptian temple, and looked about for
the idol Of the place, at length discovered
! little black monkey enshrined In the midst OF
| n. unon which he could not forbear crying out,
to the great scandal of the worshippers, What
a magnificent place here for such a ridiculous
inhabitantn'
Though you have taken resolution IN
one of your papers, to avoid descending to
particularities of dress, believe you Will
think it below you, on SO extraordinary an
occasion, to unhoop the fair sex, and cure this
questionable tympany that has got among
\ -. 90 m think the pattic0Qt will