Litchfield enquirer., 1865-03-16

mors artistic idea that the object of the ,lres. Is to reveal while concealing. Each fashiol has been in turn advocated and denounced or the score of deceney, and old gentlemen who's. wives wore ng fuckers. and who quite apprOv
 ed of fashion which left the gown us tight as
 wet bath-dress, now Icing loud on the. i'm
 prop.iety of showing the, ankles. which. again
 | centary ago. were as little within or withon1 the limits of proper reserve as the wrists now | are. Each fashion also has been praised hy
 men on account of it's convenience. and Ieacf by turn has seemed to the next generation al
 most inexplicably ludlcrous, people now laugh ing at the high waists and tight dresses ol 1900 as the danes eff that day laughed at the
 stately. beIllike forms of 17lO, or as the halt, nude women of lgOO will ridicule the ircum.
 bered figures ot 1864. -.I On tue whole, and over long course ol
 years, the wide drapery had, carried the day
 for the simple reason that the sex which has to wear it likes it best of the two. The Ugh,
 dress might be aE very well for girls of twenty
 five. inst in their rmaturiiy of form, hut only
 one fifth Of womanhood was at any one time oi
 the fitting age. and one half even of that fifth
 would have preferred some possibility of pad
 ding. The tight dress, too. forbade walking
 with speed. or sitting with comfort or stand
 ing wilhodt formalitY. or enjoying the luxury
 once so ostt,e. of crossing the legs Ut win, aud
 required above all dresses the aid of; tight Ia cing, practice which. pace the jestsfs, no
 woman ever honestly liked. dsC.inoins' there
 fore prevailed wheneverit got fair chance. and from Queen Elizabeth's farthineale. fo
 more than three hundred years. naibiained d
 broken rule. It fell every now and then under the influence of continental fashion, but it re
 vived in l7l0, when the book before us takes ID the tale. 4s 25aP c! I:ss+5Tx < -,.s .'ia
 The book ia an advertisement simply, but one ofa costly and unusual kind.. Mr. E
 Philpott. jupon manufacturer which means
 we suppose. in English. maker of wonens pet. ticoats, thinks he has made such articles Of un
 matched quality and design but not content with saying so, he has published -a volume of plates showing the form of the hoop from l7l0 to 1864 They are very good plates very well copied, illustrated with very eatrocious letter
 press-trash of the most insuffsrable kind---' and they really show how little change has oc- cured in female costume for more than hun dred and fifty years. The 'hoop ofl7lO. which the Tatler ridiculed. is precisely the hoop of our own day, though covered more tightly by the dress. and thrown out by internal machine
 y more completely from the hips, A lady iu print of that year is seen descending into a sedan chair. through the reof of her odd ma- chine, in adress which might pass to day dow. Regent street without any remark from the street boys on its Oddity or character The new hoop which MT. l'hilpott says had jus, been introduced-a hoop the vhole ci,eum,er .ence of which . as thrown fuTwafds in man
 nsr at once ungaiDIy and incorrect- has nut in ks,Ss st than the astounding article worn bv the lower the dress at its hem, and makes the wearss look sey-woolsey and were walking about in that. 7a
 In l73o the ladies had discovered that the bell-shaped dresses should be long, and should change; and in l735 the petticoats though less round. were as short as ever. Ten years later the bell had expanded to the shape ot an egg, each side on the dress being thrown out in a H style which may occasionally be seen in the streets of London. but which. fortunately. has as yet no warrant from fashion. The. hoop at this time must either have been constructed of iron or timber. as no whal+bone would have suficed to throw out the petticoat as if extend. ed over colossal fan. It would either have collapsed altogether. as cheap crinolines du. or have subsided into the circular !orm to which all such devices of necessity tend. In 175O the dress, again long, was again thrown out artiGcialIy on each side of the waist. thrown out so excessively that man might have sa, comfortably on each side of his wlfe's hoops as on carriage cushion, and women of fashion all looked as if they carried milk pails under their robes. In l760 the hoop began to de- crease by l765 it had reduced itself to what are now called moderate dimensions, : ,abnut four times the natural size and. by 17yj the dress had again becohie straight q line drawn from the shoulders falling without the hem ot the gown. it is supposed to do in the natural human figure. .fsx4Ss9a1& vFsE
 Thenceforward to about 1920. the. steady tendency was toward as little dress as possible narrow petticoats. high waists, and hO fuckers, till ut last about 1892. the fashion subsidrd in to the custom which middlesgs.i men regret and market women still wear. and which was not seriously changed till the elevation ofthr beautiful Scoto-Spsniard t, the throne tf France. The Empress Eugenie, bright. prets ty, lucky, and enthusiasticln ln dress, sse,zedrhe1 helm oi fashion from the first aud by the aid 0f her milliners, has kept it ever since. re ui;
 ting the hair petticoats, sleeves. ana bod;ces ot all the ladies in Europe. Her Majesty has, w.. think only failed once, English women having declined es nasse to adopt ,be use of the walk ing-stick, which conceals and produces stoop but then to De sure the silk-nnprcers had no iu- terrst in supporting her decree, and this is tn age when sovereignty means the 2rcmo,iolr ot material interests. $eei, sg #K -1 If Mr. Philpott wishes hisadvertisements 'o1 s1cceed, he must go Q still greater expensts than be has already incurred, complete hi of plates by illustrations from thtsi time of Anne Boleyn. get his Ietter-pressa are- written by somebody who understands dress and history, and spells whimsical fswAb ipst-a,f of without an h. and strike sut all the absurd hoops without wearers with which he has de ! graded clever puff to the level of awalkine Strand pacard. g,9. ..,.s.mxx 1
 A v1srr TO Fokr SUMTER The correspond ent of the Boston Journal writes al follows:
 After rambie of several hours through tn. city Of Charleston, we made a avisit to Sumter entering by the sally port where Major sAhdsi ' son and his. faithful few entered on that eye,g 10 be remembered January night ot Is6l,, 'Tht Fort bears little resemblance t0 its appearance then. externally or internally. No portion |, the original face of the wall s 10 be sscen, sx- cept on the side toyardal Chaslestop and a. portion of that facing Moultrie. From th. harbor and from Wagner is appears only | turnull-ths debris of an old suiu. bss sosss
 All the csaefmates arfshea i,iIlars and nara 4