Delaware State journal and statesman., 1862-10-07

iOuu anu nhshy, whose DuJIOnS are ulWuys
marked features in his attire, and who gets
all the newest things that come out, wheth-
er they are deaths' heads OF foxes mala-
chite or coral This is the man who is
independent of female aid in the matter
of buttons whose fronts are fastened
with studs, aud his sleeves with links
whose waistcoat-buttons are bolted from
within, and who eau go through the world
with only useful-handed fellow" proud
ly Indifferent to needles and thread, and
all that these imply. This is the man Of
the clubs, and the omnibus-box at the
opera the man without home, whose
life passes in round of dissipation, and
who is Independent of matrimony for
pleasure or position the man who has no
thought of marrying, and about whom
Belgravian mothers write their lamenta-
tions. But the real cause of the fall in
the marriage market is the substitution of
studs and bolted buttons for the mother
o'-pearl and thread kinds. Once on time
wife was an absolute necessity with
every gentleman for his buttons sake, if
for nothing else. Now he can do without
them-he wears studs.
Then there is that other fashionable
man, of lower grade than the last-he
who would be fashionable if he could, but
who is only able to be swell, and u third
rate imitator. lie copies his more fortu-
nate cousin in manner if not in quality,
wearing bone, colored pink Or blue, against
the others coral and torquoise, and ma
king paste and wash do the work of jewels
and golden setting. l conld run off
whole chapter of such mans private life
of bad companions, late hours, fast
amusements, and the Haymarket to finish
with of foolish pride, that must seem to
be what it is not, with, perhaps, poor
mother on limited means somewhere down
IN the country, dreaming by night and
praying by day for her darling sons in
nocency and advancement or young
girl sitting watching for the return that
does not come, pale with hope or faint with
despair. can see all this, with the end
OF manly reformation or Of sunken, sodden
ruin, in the llashy buttons of that vulgar
would bes vest and front. Who does not
know the sportsman by his buttons, full
of dogs and deer and foxes and of what
countryman, for certain, is that sallow-
looking individual who passes with Il huge
hooded cloak, braided and buttoned in
such profuson Would you, or would you
not, incline to believe that young lady
EAST who wears n dulfel coat, with big
bone buttons about the size of iive-franc
piece, and puts her hands in her pockets
as she walks and is not the strong min
ded woman known by her buttons, which
are not so much of the fast as of the mas
culine school That strong-minded wo-
man would scorn Laura Matilda's pretty
little dainty trifes of aluminium and fill
gree gilt she would have none of those
charming blackberries or half.opened rose
buds which Lucy Angelina puts on as foils
or cmblems. as the case may be no un-
compromising bone, or severe cloth, Il
plainness that is puritanism, and smpli--
city that is hardness, mark the buttons of
Il strong-minded woman and by her but
tons you may judge her
The strong-mnded woman's husband,
too, may be known by his buttons--not
for their beauty, but for their imperfect.
ness They are never as they should be
they are never fast, never whole, never
regular they lie ut all sorts of uncertain
distances; and some Of them-the mother.
-pearl-broken across the middle; Others
those aggravating linen things-worn
at the edges, ragged, frayed, and disrepu.
table. Half of them are wanting alto
gether, and the other half are not fit to be
, seen, And these are the signs by which
you may know the husband of the strong
Z minded woman and of the slattern alike
as well as the reckless bachelor not set up
, in studs, and living on the mercy of his
aundress. The poor neglected bachelor
and his buttons But the theme is getting
out of date now, for the mechanically fas-
tened buttons have beaten the older kinds
G out of the field, and woe the day, for the
Z spnsterhood of England have made
men independent of woman, and no longer
: constrained by the power Of shirt buttons.
G Yet, there are still some few remaining
4 some OF the more tenacious and conser-
/ yative sort-who cling to the mother :
| pearl and the art of sewing, and who thus
0 bear about on their persons strongly
marked, the sign and seal Of their position
with respect to woman. These are the
? men who are sure to marry on the first
opportunity. Studs and patent bolts are
I SHY, but linen and mother-o' pearl safe.
Yes, safe even if there is Il sister in the
house; for sisters button-sewing and d
wiies are very different things. The first
Sews on her gross from honor, womanly
pride and the dignity of her sex; the other
, from duty, sweetened sometimes with love
: 1t is all the difference between machine
and human being, SO at least said once
to me who had both, and who therefore
ought to know