The Trinity journal., 1856-06-21
Hoons.

that hoops have come back to deform our
ladies. In the reign Of Queen Anne hoops
were the rage as at the present time. Add
son. in No. l27 of the Spectator" dealt
them the following blow, which resulted in
Their ban.shment Is it too much 10 expect
a similar result at the present time
THURSDAY, July &c, I'LL.
Onantum est in rebus iuane l'ERS. sat. l. |.
How much of emptiness we find in things
1t is our custom at Sir Rogers upon the
coming in of the post, to sit about pot !
Of coffee and hear the old knight read Dyer's
Letter which he does with bis spectacles
upon his nose, and in an audible voice, smil
ing very often at those little strokes OF satire
which are so often in the writings of that
author. ! afterward communicate to the
knight such packets as receive under the
quality of Spectator The following letter
CHANGING to please him more than ordinary,
! shall publish it at his request
MR. SPECTATOR You have diverted the
town almost whole month at the ex-
pense Of the country it is now high time
that you should give the country their re-
venge Since your withdrawing from this
place, the fair sex are run into great extrav-
agances. Their pettieoats which began to
heave and swell before you left us, are now
blown up TO q most enormous concave, and
has every day more and more. In short,
Sir since our women know themselves to be
out Of the eye of the Spectator, they will be
kept within no compass. You praised them
little too soon for the modesty of their
hair-dresses for, as the humor of sick
person is often driven out of one limb into
another their snperfiuity Of ornaments, in
stead of being entirely banished. seems only
fallen from their heads upon 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 supcrstruc-
ture. Where they like Spanish jennets, to
impregnate by the wind, they could not have
thought of more proper invention. But,
as we do not hear of any particular use in
this pettcoat, or that it contains anything
more than what was supposed to be in those
of scantier make we are wonderfully at a
loss about it,
T''fhe women give out, in defenae of wide
bottoms, that they are airy and very proper
for the season; but this / look upon as a
pretence and a piece of art, for ii is well
known we have not had more moderate
summer these many years so that it is Ger
tain the heat they complain Of cannot be ii
the weather Besides | would iain as these
tender constitutional ladies, why they SHOULD
require more cooling than their mothers be
fore them
Il find several speculative persons are Of
opinion that our sex has, of late years been
very saucy, and that the hoop petticoat is
made use OF to keep US at distance. 1t is
most certain that woman'S honor cannot
be better intermined 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, i,
evidently secured against the approaches o
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.
Among these various conjectures there
are men OF superstltious tempers who look
upon the hoop pettlcoat as kind of prodigy
Some Will have 1t that 1t portends the down
fall OF the French King, and observe that
the farthingale appeared in England little
before the Spanish monarchy Others are OF
opinion that it foretels battle and blood
shed, and believe it of the same prognostica-
ton as the tail of blazing star. For my
part, am apt to think it is a sign that mul-
ttudeS 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 i'll my own thoughts for walking
abroad when she was SO near her time but
soon recovered myself out of my error when
found all the modish of the sex as far
gone as herself. 1t is really thought that
some crafty women have thus betrayed their
companions into hoops, that they might
make them accessory TO their own conceal
ments and by that means escape the censure
OF the world, as wary generals have some
times dressed two or three dozen of their
friends in their own habit, that they might
not draw upon themselves any particular at
tacks from the enemy. The strutting petit
coat snooths all distinctions, levels the
mother with the daughter, and sets maids
and matronS, wives and widows upon the
same bottom. In the meanwhile, [ cannot
but be troubled to see so many wel-shaped
innocent virgins so bloated up, and wadding
up and down like bg-beed women.
Should this fashion get among the ordn-
ary people, our public ways would be so
crowded that we should want street room.
Several congregations of the best fashion
hnd themselves already very much straight
ened and if the mode increase, | wish it
may not drive many ordinary women into
meetings and conventicles. Should our sex
at the sametlme take it into their heads to
wear trunk breeches las who knows what
iheir Inauguration at this female treatment
.I.,.. IL
may drive them to y man and his wife
would fill whole pew.
ou Know sir, 1t Is recorded of Alexan-
der the Great that' IN his ludian expedition,
ne buried several suits OF armor, which by
his directions, were much too big for anv q,
his soldiers In ORDER to nlV nosInriA.. - :.