Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1860-04-14
LETTER ON THn Hoop.pErrIcoAr.
--QaaataiA EST IN rebRs iRaae Pens. Set. T. Z.
GLOW much Of emntiness we find in thinns,,

---6{udHtaAa est IN TebHS 2Hdne i-PERs Set. a. 4.
SHOW much Of emptiness we find in things.'
The following letter was published, as
viii be observed from the date, nearly d
hundred and fifty years ago. The farthin-
gale referred to as being in vogue before
the ruin Of the Spanish monarchy, was the
present hooped skirt. This was before thu
year 1858; hence, the first introduction d
hoops was over three hundred gears ago
Women are revolutionary, very; but with
their present tendency to collapse then
skirts they are without the consolation d
having used something new under thesun.'
THURSDAY, July goth, l711.
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 extray
agances. Their petticoats which began t
heaye and swell before you left us, are now
blown up into most enormous concave
and rise every day more and more. Ii
short, sir, since our women know them
selves to be out of the eye of the Spectator
they will be kept within no compass. Yor
praised them a little too soon, for The mo
desty Of their head-dresses; for as the hui
NOR Of sick person is often driven ont .
one limb into another, their superfiuity o
ornaments, instead Of being entirely ban
ished, seems only fallen from their heads
upon their lower parts. What they have
lost in height they make up in breadth, anc
contrary 70 all rules of architecture, wider
the foundations at the same time that they
shorten the superstrueture. Were they
like Spanish jennets, to impregnate by the
wind, they could not have thought on a
more proper invention. But as we do not
yet hear any particular use in this petticoat,
or that it contains any thing more than
what was supposed to be in those of scanti-
er make, we are wonderfully at loss about
it.
The women give out, In defence Of these
wide bottoms, that they are airy, and very
proper for the season; but this look upon
to be only a pretence, and piece of art,
for it is well known we have not had a
more moderate summer these many years,
so that it is certain the heat they complain
of cannot be in the weather. Besides |
would fain ask these tender constitutional
ladies, why they should require more cool
ing than their mothers before 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 ito keep us at a distance. 1t Is
most certain that a woman's honor cannot
be better intrenched than after this manner,
in circle within circle, amidst such variety
of ont-works and lines of decentralization.
a female who is thusinyested in whalebone
is sufficiently secured against the approach
es Of an Inbred fellow, who might as well
think of Sir George Etherege's way of ma
king 'Ioye in a Tub" as in the midst Of
SO many hoops.
Among there various conjectures, there
are men of superstitious tempers, who look
upon the hoop-petticoat as a kind of prod
ICY. Some win have it that it portends
the downfall Of the French king, and OBJ
serve that the farthingal appeared in Eng
land little before the ruin Of the Spanish
monarchy. Others are of opinion that it
foretells battle and bloodshed, and believe
it Of the same prognostcation as the tail Of
a blazing star. For my part, 1 am apt to
think it is a sign that multitudes are COM
ing into the world rather than going out Of
it.
should this fashion get among the or
binary people, our public ways would be 50
crowded that we should want street-room.
Several congregations of the best fashion
find themselves already very much straiten-
ed, and if the mode increase, | wish it may
not drive many ordinary women into meet
inc and conyenticles. Should our sex al
the same time take it into their heads to
wear trunk brooches las who knows what
their Indignation at this female treatment
may drive them to . man and his wife
would fill whole pew.
You know, sir, it is recorded 81 Alexan-
der the Great, that in bis Indian expedition
he buried several suits Of armour, which
by his directions were made too bic fol
any of bis soldiers, in order to give poster
ity an extraordinary idea Of him, and make
them believe he had commanded an army
of giants. | am persuaded that if one o.
the present petticcats happens to be hung
up in any repository of curiosities, it would
lead into the same error the generations
that lie some removes from us; unless we
can believe our posterity will think SO disres-
pectfully of their great grandmothers, that
they made themselves monstrous 10 appear
amiable.
when | survey this new-fashioned rotun-
da in all its parts, cannot but think Of the
old Philosopher, who after having entered
into an Egg Ptian temple, and looked about
for lie idol Of tbs place, at length discover
ed I little black monkey inshrined IN the
midst Of it, upon which he could not for
bear crying out, to the great scandal Of the