The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-10-19

equal to everything expected from it. Let it be
placed at the exclusive disposal Of General
Mcclellan, and let him not be interfered with
Spangled Banner wave from the steeples Of
Richmond and from the forts of every strong
hold in the rebcllious States.
The Coming Revolution In the Fashion
able World.
The great American crisis is disturbing all
creation. The Americans have produced many
great sensations throughout Europe before, but
this last production of the greatest rebellion the
world ever saw caps the climax England,
France, and, indeed, all Europe, is shocked,
startled and turned topsy-turvy, and has sud
denly discovered that we are of q great deal of
Importance and that other nations are, in COM
| parison, of very little account. Like man
who should by accident discharge the great
Union gun at Fortress Monroe we are enabled
| to bear the injury from the recoil of our big
gun crisis with the greater equanimity as we
! contemplate the timult and CONSERVATION of
! those people across the water who feel the eff
| feet of the hot shot But there is no use deny
| ing that the rccoil is very heavy, and that we
feel the crisis first. 1t is some consolation to
know that we shall get over it first also. Here
a whole nation has been revolutionized from
peace to war. AT the South all is revolution,
with little to eat and less to wear. AT the North
! we have revolutions Of all sorts. Revolutions
| in business-two-thirds of our leading mer-
| chants failing. Revolutions in trade and COM
| mcrce-our imports decreasing by half, our
exports rapidly rising. Revolutions in manu-
| features, in art, in science, in amusements, in
| verything; for everything has been changed
| by the war, and has either become of the war
warlike, or has become vaiueless and useless
| 1t is about time that we had revolution in
fashion also, and it is coming.
Fashion has had great deal to do with this
war For the past twenty years we have been
getting rich, lazy and luxurious We have aped
the foreign aristocracy in everything but their
titles Our dresses and our diamonds were as
rich and costly as any arstocrats; our equpages
as splendid; our residences as palatial; our
servants as gayly liyeried. Here in New York
we have been giving dinners, soirees, receptions
and faes champetre which princes could not out
rival, and which princes attended. We have been
flashing about in coaches and carriages drawn
by blooded horses. We have been dining and
wineing and pampering ourselves. Noblemen
came from Europe and found themselves as
much at home in this republic as in their own
monarchies. The foreign embassies were uuani-
mously in favor of removing the capital to this
city, as its gayeties reminded them Of Paris
Vienna and st. Petersburg Democracy and
aristocracy shook hands, and they never could
keep company long without a row. Brother
Jonathan wore French broadcloth instead Of
homespun smoked Havana instead of native
tobacco; drank foreign champagne instead Of
sweet cider; was proud to be thought an English
man, you know, and imagined genuine Ameri-
can rather low Mrs. Columbia wore foreign
silks and laces; was ablaze with diamonds,
| neglecting the choice flower jewels of nature;
sang Italian music, and forgot Yankee
/ Doodle" and covered up the '5tar Spangled
Banner beneath an overdress of Frcnchifed
finery. The happy pair rode about grandly in
a royal chariot, with servants in livery, before
and behind, and enjoyed themselves hugely.
As for the country, that might 60 to the dogs.
1t has gone there, and the dogs have very sharp
teeth, and bite hard.
Southern men and women came to the North
on business or pleasure, at boarding schools or
at the watering places, and envied all this
luxury. They returned home to their usual
local, provincial, isolated life, and were more
discontinued than ever At New Orleans they
made themselves miserable by attempting to
rival us; and in South Carolina they consoled
themselves with the idea that they were of
gentler blood than we and cursed the i'm
pudent upstart Yankees Trouble was brew
ing in the family; but Mr.. Jonathan and Mrs.
Columbia rode about in style, and left the
worst sort of political servants-rogues, knaves
and imbecles--to manage the household affair
and keep the children as quiet as might
be. One servant gave them paragoric in
the shape of compromise, and another tried
purgatives, and another flogging. Miss Carolina
could not stand that; ten of the other children
all disconnected Southerners-backed her up in
her rebellion, and general smashing of break
ables was the consequence. Columbia has had
to take off her ball dress, put on her old duds,
and go to housekeeping with "a vengeance.
Jonathan, in his shirt sleeves, is whipping the
children, right and left, and keeping an eye
open for his pseudo foreign aristocratic friends,
who seem disposed to mix in the row.
A change Of fashions must be the result, and
will. We will be more American and less
foreign. We shall have cheap houses, and
brown stone fronts will be at discount. Peo-
pie who used to have dozen courses for dinner,
with different wine for every course, will live,
and be far healthier, on beefsteak rare with or
] without onions), and washed down by pure
| Croton water. The Opera and the theatres will
| be obliged to cut down their prices; actors and
| singers will perform just as we'll, even if they
are not paid five dollars strut, and ten good
bank notes for every note Of bad music; the
public will 60 to look at the drama with their
natural eyes, and not through opera glasses.
In winter we shall have more parties; for
they will ~ longer be 80 expensive
/ that none ts- nabObs can give them