Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-07-23
NO.. l73.
MISCELLANEOUS READING.
FASHIONS AND PRINCIPLES.

Straws show which way the WIND blows,
aud trities light rs air may and do become
e"ntirniations, of the strongest kind. OF many
most important general facts deeply affecting
the aye. II has, for instance, been suggested
that not IA little ot the prevailing type of the
thoughts and purposes of an age or country
might sometimes be strikingly exhibited in
the style Of their dress, or even the manner
If arranging the hair aud the beard. 1t wa-.
tor instance, remarked that the officers re-
tnrning from that terrible winter in the Cri-
mea, during the late Russian war, all wore
the beard ohg. This had originated III con
,enience If not necessity while abroad, and
long beard became the type and symbol OF
martial excellence in the courts and draw
ing-roons of London and of Paris. just IN
proportion rs the military spirit revived over
Europe, as it has been doing ever since,
twisted moustache and long beard, tit for
"A Turk. have become the fashion, and multi
tudes without rejecting upon ghy. follow
the fashion, and men whose thoughts and pur-
poses and lives are quite guiltless OF actually
shedding anything but ink, exhibit what
would have seemed Il few years, ago, the
strongest characteristics of a son of Mars.
The style of dressing the hair may be equ-
ally characteristic with that Of dressing the
beard. Forty years ago the toupee was all
the rage The hair, by the aid Of hard
brushing and pomatum, WAS made to stand
straight up, and brushed close to the head ut
the sides, so as to give the head the appear
ance of height and the supremacy ottrmness
and all the other higher moral qualities
This was succeeded by many reactions and
notifications. Still there has generally been
the tendency to keep the top OF the head
pretty high. But, by degrees. the Paris
fashion and the court of Napoleon have for
the last few years been in favor of making the
crown of the head appear Us low as possible.
by throwing out the hair and whiskers at the
sides of the face, and all around behind the
ears and at the back This gives sort of
cat like roundness to the sides of the head,
instead of the oval, which used to be thought
graceful and appropriate.
Is there any connection between the shape
Of the head ~ presented in the Paris draw
ing-ro0ms and cabinet cOunsels and Court
levees, aud pictures Of them at this moment,
and the style and type OF mind they might
seem to Indicate, according to the principles
Of HISTOLOGY and phrenology2 Is not fash
ion sometimes All idol, and an attempt to
realize and give bodily form to an ideal type
of humanity. which has become beautiful To
the mind? For instance, We often see coun-
tenance that at first seems homel enough,
but if the possessor of it possesses certain
rare traits of usefulness and of goodness,
certain expressions and even the contour
Of that face become beautiful in our eyes,
and all the more sO from being new and
unusual.
If, then, number of persons become emf
nent in the public service, with peculiar
shape and style of head, it must and will set
the fashion, and become the rage and type OF
beauty. five suppose anythingof this kind
to be the source of the present fashion and
style of head dresses, what does it indicate ~
to the prevailing style and type Of ideas now
fashionable at headquarters in France and
throughout Europe! 1t would indicate
great increase of the combative propensltles
of man as about to bee ONE current. ltwould
tell us that the counses of Europe are about
to rely upon quick wittedness rather than
the firm and consistent pursuit OF one steady
line of policy, that cOncealment and secre-
tiyeness and duplicity. in every form and
type, are about TO receive Il large additional
illustration in the coming time--in a word,
that the tiger is about to become unclaimed,
rs Franklin once expressed it, and lot loose
upon the world. Twenty years ago every
thing was made of the intellectual and NOR
al developments, but the rest Of the man
were dis sproportionately ignored. Perhaps
now it is all the other way, and the qualities
that have been despised are coming to be
worshipped Perhaps out of the whole We
may geta better type Of man.-PAi'adelph'a
Lcigpr.