Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1856-09-24
= Romance OF crina1ine.

While we are upon the subject of Crinoline,
it may be as well to tell yon the adventure
which is forming the chief amusement of the
court at this moment, and which happened a
day OF two ago at St. Cloud. The Duchess de
P, one of the most crinolined Of all the ladies'
about the empress, being in the fullest feather
for the dinner to which she had been invited by
her imperial mistress, was led into the sale a
manager by the little Count de NJ, man of great
renown but of very small stature. The duchess
is of a tall commanding figure, and is, besides,
particularly liberal OF Crioline, which she is
accused OF exaggeratlng to most inconvenient
proportions. The doors at ST. Cloud are not of
the same mighty dimensions as those at the
Tuileries; and although the two battans were
thrown wide open, it was with some d;smay the
little count beheld the work before him, when
he compared the width of the door with that of
the crioline of the lady on his arm! Just at
the awful moment of the passage, however, the
lady unconsciously dropped her fan--the count,
forgetful of his perilous position, confined be-
tween the doorway, having no other fear before
his eyes, but that Of seeming to be deficient to
gallantry and good manners, imprudently stop
ped to pick it up. AT that moment the duchess
was actually passing through the door-in order
to accomplish this difficult feat, she was Just in
the act OF giving that peculiar swing to the left
which the disproportion of the dress of the pre-
sent day with our domestic economy renders
necessary, when, to the utter dismay and con-
sternation of the whole assembly, the little
count was missed and the duchess remained
struggling with some unseen obstacle which
prevented her advancing. a.a
The ogre crioline had swallowed up the
knight even more etfectually than in the fairy
days of old, for no trace of his former existence
was visible The company following in pairs
was stopped as matter of course-those who
had gone on before had already reached their
seats at the table, and turned in wonderment to
behold the strange scene which was enacting al
the door, where the tall, majestic, and unusu-
ally dignihed duchess de p. was capering and
caracoling with sacred aud dignifed counten-
anee, and the rest of the company pressing for
ward to see what was the matter. The con-
fusion and disniay were at their height when
the little man crept out on his hands and knees
from beneath the mountain of crioline and
hounces in which he had been enveloped, all
flushed and disconfitsed, but little DISPOSED 10
smile, although the tittering of the company
soon broke into hearty laugh, when the EN-
press, unable to restrain her mirth, gave the
signal for q genuine outburst Of merrirnent.
which enliyened the whole repast, and rendered
it one OF the gayest which had taken place since
the departure Of the emperor. OF course this
adventure has given rise to epigrams and ouoli-
bets without end, and the poor little count has
become better known within the past week in
the annals OF the court than by the three wears
good and honest service which he had passed ut
tle Iuiieraes The dutchess, meanwhile, towers
n more ma)esflcaiiy than ever over her fellows;
she incident has not whit diminished the in.
science OF her crioline, which. growing more
prodigious every day, completely ex,inanishss
all the ndieule which the adventure Of the littI
count de III wOuld ofharwi.. hoe. h...a -