The mountain Democrat., 1863-01-10
Character and Buttons.

+ "Show me mans buttons, and will
tell you his life and character and not
only~ his, but his households and the
life, character and daily going of his wife
and daughters-if he has any. And il
he has not, | can tell yon this, too, and Of
what manner Of womanhood is his laun-
dress and room-keeper. First, there il
the old fashioned country gentleman,
who will stick to his brass and blue, let
the tailors say what they like. Cloth
may come in, and cloth may go out. and
the fepsic. s.SJ Change AZ often as there
are days in the year, but the fne old
fG."girsh gentleman cares nothing for that.
Brass and blue, with a blue bird's-eSe
necktie and nankeen-colorcd vest were
his favorite wear when he was buck,
and the world was, oh! ever so much
! brighter and gayer than it is now, and do
you think he is going to make popin-
jay of himself now, and change his ways
because few young fools do not know
when they are well off? can read that
mans heart like an open book, all in the
mirror of his brass and blue. The rare
old claret and generous port down in
those cobwebbed bins of his; the high
Tory prejudices- Church. and State, and
the Queen, God bless her and every
blanked-radical to the treadmill, and the
poor man to his daily labor, and be
thankful he has any daily labor to 60 to 1;
and the mechanics institutes, and night
SCI ools, and popular lectures to the devil,
where they originally came from, a
healthy breeze on an autumn morning,
with Reynard running low and the scent
lying well and England, the finest coun-
try, sir, on the face Of the earth, and Sus-
sex the finest county in it /; and one Eng.
lishman can beat three-blsnked-
FrenchmeD, with their soup maigre and
their frog fricassees and the worst day
that ever dawned on English homes was
when Johnny Crapaud came over as a
friend, and by Heaven, sir, was not met
ut the point Of the bayonet! This is
what the fine old English gentleman is,
when given up to brass and blue. Then
there is the fashionable man, little loud
and flashy, whose buttons are always
marked features in his attire, and who
gets all the newest things that come out,
whether they are deaths heads or foxes,
malachite or coral. This is the man who
lis independent Of female aid in the mat.
ter Of buttons; whose fronts are fastened
with studs, and his sleeves with links !;
whose waistcoat buttons are bolted from
within, and who can so through the world
with only useful handed "icllow, F."
proudly 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 q home,
whose life passes in round Of dissipa
tion, and who is independent Of matrinlO-
ny for pleasure or position; the man who
has 10 thought Of marrying, and about
whom Belgravan mothers write their
lamentations. But the real cause of the
falFiH the marriage market is the subSti-
tuition of studs and boltcd buttons for the
mOther-o'-pearl and thread kinds Once
on time wife was an absolute neccssi.
ty 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 a lower grade than the last-he
who would be fashionable il he could, but
who is not able to be a swell, and third
rate imitator He copies his more fortu-
nate cousin in manner if not in quality,
by wearing bone, colored pink or blue,
against the others coral and tOrQuoise,
and making paste and wash do the work
of jewels and golden setting | could
run off a whole chapter of such man S
private life-of bad companions, late
hours, fast amuScmentS, end the Hay
market to finish with; Of foolish pride,
that must seem to be what is not, with,
perhaps, poor mother on limited means
somewhere down in the country, dream
by night and praying by day for her
darling sons innocency and advance
nent; 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 refor-
nation or of sunken sodden ruin, in the
fiashy buttons Of that vulgar would-be's
vest and front. Who does not know the
sportsman by his buttons, full of dogs,
deer and foxes? and of what countryman
for certain, is that swallOw-looking indi.
vidnal who passes with huge hooded
cloak, braided and buttoned in such pro-
fusion? Would you, or would you not,
incline to believe that young lady "fast"
who wears duffel coat, with big bone
buttons about the size of 6ve franc
piece, and puts her hands in her pockets
as she walks: and is not the strong
minded woman known by her buttons,
which are not so much of the fast as the
masculine school? That strong minded
woman would scorn Laura Matilda's pref
ty little dainty trifles of aluminium and
fligree gilt; she would have none of
those charming blackberries or half
opened rosebuds WHICH Lucy Angelina
puts on as foilS or emblems, as the case
may be; no! unpromising bone, or Sc
we're cloth, plainess that is pu,itanism,
and simplicity that is hardness, mark the
buttons Of strong minded woman; and
by her buttons you may judge her.
The strong minded 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 at all sorts of uncertain
distances; and some of them-the moth
-pearl-broken across the middle
others--those agravating linen things
worn at the edges, ragged, frayed, ant
disreputable. Half of them are wanting
altogether, and the other half are not Il
to be seen. And these are the signs BY
which you may know the husband OF thu
strong minded woman and of the slatterI
alike as we'll as the reckless bachelor
not set up in studs, and living on thu
mercy Of his laundress. The poor neg
lected bachelor and his buttons! Blu
the theme is getting out of date now, 70
the mechanically fastened buttons hav