Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1857-12-12
From the Westminster Review for october.l
FEMALE DRESS FOR 1867,

! We doubt whether the age of our national
history, or on any spot of the globe, more
indefensibe mode OF dress could be pointed
out than We have displayed before us at this
moment in the World of Fashion, published
by Simkin and Marshall, and las the title
page declares) patronized by the Queen, and
the Ladies' Gazette of Fashion, distinguished
by its faithful presentments Of the actual
mode Of upper class dress. Putting aside
! Punch, and every kind of caricature, we have
plenty of prints of existing ladies before US
every day to mediate upon with more leisure
than the mind can obtain in parks, Crystal
Palaces and Chswick Gardens, were we have
met the originals; and quiet contemplation
of the garb of 1857 can leave no other con-
! victioD, we are confident, than that if our
ladies we're rational five years ago, no more
reliance can be placed on reason than on ca
price. But the truth is, dress is not q mat
ter in which reason has ever yet had much
concern. 1t may be occasionally reasonable |;
but it is not therefore determined by reason.
a variety ,f passions OF feeling may be i'm
pl:cated in dress; and any one of them is
more likely than reason of equipoise or neu-
trality, when the Judgment has chance to
rule for once. As judgment and taste go
together, it seems rather surprising than rea-
sou should have so little to do with dress
of taste, we see that arbiter set aside, to-
gether with the judgment, on the FIRST inter-
ference of any emotion. The female world,
which, in the absence Of any particular per-
tubaton, some years ago. dressed in gowns of
an easy length and breadth, of moderate
weight in the skirt, and natural division at
the waist, now plays the fool in a costume
which barbarians might mock at aud all
this because Paris is charming TO the imagi
nation and venerable ID the traditions of the
toilette, and because the womankind of Paris
is now ruled by second Josephine, with
whom dress is her fayorite branch OF the fine
arts, aud who is also a sprightly witch, well
inclined to try how far she may 60 in caprice
with the world at her heels, and to put to the
| proof the power of her beauty in making fools
OF "all ladies in all lands" 4 crowd of emo
tious-curiosty, wonder, admiration, and all
the feelings which go. to make up what We
call romance-have urged the women of Eng
land, Russia, Amerca, and perhaps good
| many more, into eytrayagant exsggeFations
Of the caprices of an extrayagaut beauty
One article alone, the full skirts, will remain
a monument Of their impressibleness, 1t was
convenient for the graceful Empress, to dis
guise her figure for time, and every dowager
and every young maiden just emerged from
the schoolroom, adopted the device without
any consciousness of the absurdity of the imi-
| tation. Thus are our ladies proving them
selves no wiser than their great granimothers
though they plumed themselves for time
on being so. Their feelings have carried
them away into fanaticism of fashion which
Punch may expose, but can hardly carica.
| ture,
CHANGING at the fashions Tor 1857, what do
We sect On the head is something, the phr-
pose Of which il would be difficult to discover
by reason--a structure OF silk or straw
adorned with flowers, ribbon aud lace, crowd
ed on the angle Of the jaws and the nape OF
the neck and With its fore part just teaching
| the crown Of the head. We have Mr.. Spur
geon'o authority for the effect to the eye Of
the spectator in front. Being advised to
preach against the prevailing folly in head
gear, be paused as he stood up on the plat
been requested TO rebuke the bonnets of the
day but upon my word, don't see any
This is the bonnet Of the summer OF 1857,
pinned to the head Of some troublesome way.
!se wing the face exposed il q manner which
one need not be Turkish parent TO disap-
prove, and causing the hair to be powdered
with dust, and the head and face to be alter
nately heated and chilled by sun and wind SO
that the physicians are easily believed when
they declare that cases Of eye disease, OF
toothache, and nenfalgic pains Of the head
and face are beyond all precedent in their
practice. For many months past English
women aud the ladies Of America, where the
extremes Of heat and cold are greater than
with US. have been subjeeting themselves TO
the inconveniences Of going out bareheaded,
with the added annoyance OF an apparatus
which heats and worries Che back the neck.
Tbs most delicate flowers in the garden are