Delaware State journal and statesman., 1865-12-05

| AiSA ~ "a AeAAih1 AAHbiNi Ao 5ASoN-
er Monster than the Centaur, He would
have called for Sacrifices or Purifying Wa
tiers, to expiate the Appearance of such a
| Prodigy He would have invoked the
Shades oi POrtta or LUcretia, to see into
what the Roman Ladies had transformed
themselves.
For my own part, am for treating the
Sex with greater Tenderness, and have all
along made use of the most gentle Methods
to bring them off from any little ExTava-
gance into which they are sometimes un-
warily Iallen; think it, however, absolutely
necessary to keep up the Partition between
the two Sexes and to take Notice of the
smallest Eueroachment which the one makes
upon the other. l hope, therefore, that
shall not hear any more complaints on This
subject am sure my She-Disciples who
peruse 'hese my daily Lectures, have profited
but little by them if they are capable of Civ.
ing into such an Amphbious Dress This 1
should not have mentioned, had not lately
met one Of these my Female Readers in Hide
Park, who looked upon me with masculine
Assurance, and cooked her Hat full in my
face.
For my part, have one general Key to
'he Behaviour Of the Fair Sex. When / see
them singular in any Part of their Dress l
conclude it is not without some Evil IDten-
tion; and therefore question not but the De-
sign of this strange Fashion is to smite more
eifectually their Male Beholders. Now to
set them right in this Particular, would
fain have them consider with themselves
| whether we are not more likely to be struck
by Figr-e entirely Female than with such
an one as we may sec every Day in our
Glasses Or, if they please, let them reflect
upon their own Hearts, and th',,k how they
would be affected should they meet Man
Oh Horseback in lis Breeches and Jack
Boots, and at the same time dressed up in a
Commode and Night-rail.n y
| We do not wish to be understood as sub
scribing to any of the ill-natured things that
may be contained in this article; but there is
much in it that the reader will consider fair
hits according to his or her own views and
tastes. The author, in his speculations upon
what would be thought of his essay hun
dred years later, probably little dreamed that
/ it would be re-published hundred and fifty
three years al .el Yards, to illustrate the sim
ilarity of the fashions of his own times-
which he ridicules SO much-to those of
century and half after bis day. 1t is a lit.
tie curious to notice the changes in wearing
the hair in England in days gone by. When
the austere Puritan clipped off his love locks
and made his wife and daughters Dis card
| all hirsute vanities, his class was denomin.
ated "Round head" - derision, by the be.
4 riDgletted Cavaliers
After the restoration of he Stual Is it was
a test of specialloyalty to run violently coun-
ter to everything the followers of Cromwell
| had ever done or advocated, and enormously
long hair consequently became the fashion.
This style had its apnoyances and discom-
forts, for -he supertluous hair would be get
ting in the way The dandies of the times
of Queen Anne adopted the plan of tying it
up with ribbons to retain it in q sort of
horse-tail style in the rear. From that came
clubbing" the hair behind; then she carry
ing it in bags, end finally, and ugliest of all,
the tying and tv sting it into long queues or
'pigtails' as are seen in all pictures of the
gallants toward the close of the last century.
The bag fashion seems to have but recently
come into fashion when the Spectator wrote;
but the ladies had already adopted it, and,
in fact, set the fashion of the modern ''wa-
terfs IL"
Our English feminine ancestors finally
driftetl from bag-waterfalls to the opposite
ex rem c of piling up all thew hair upon the
top of their heads, and of rendering
it more tower-like by placing tow, &C.,
under tho hair, and by rearing upon the
whole mo. ustrous superstructure of furbe-
lows and trL ukets As Juvenal is. said to
have describe ID the same fashion hpndreds
of years before
"With curls on curls they build her head
before,
And mount il vii h formidable tower;
A giantess she seems; bu; look behind,
And then she lwindles to the pigmy kind. 1"
The portrait of Mrs. Robert Morris, in the
Hall of Iudepei ldence, will convey an idea
- thA9 AOulAul dnlA
falls are going oiut, as they of right should
do, because of the ir abominable ugliness.-
Rats" and "nice, . and other devices for
elevating the front locks unnaturally are
coming in, and female hats, bonnets, fea-
thers and head toggely generally, are look
ing up. Are 'he fashions of the day to
continue TO be consistent with those that
preceded them by hundred years, and
follow in regular order he changes which
marked the times of Charles, of James, of
William, of Anne and of the Georges9
If so we may look for Morisian head
dresses in the course of no lar distant time,
with powdered cOiGaires in their own good
season
Deriders of rats, mice and waterfalls look
forward to the time when 1t may be said
of some modern belle as an ancient poet once
said, to wit;
"Give Chloe bushel of horsehair an 4 wool,
Of paste and pomatum pound,
Ten yards of gay ribbon to deck her sweet
skull,
And gauze TO encompass II round.
Let her flags fly behind for yard at the
least,
Let her curls meet just under her chin,
Let these curls be supported to keep up the
jest,
With an hundred-instead of one pin."
We cannot, perhaps better conclude than
by copying the words of distinguished
English writer upon the subject of the ri
diculous head-dresses wmn by the ladies of