The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-12-14
some1hIng About Dress.

We make the following extracts from
the letter of female correspondent OF
the Cincinnati Gazette:
The shaven poll and steeple hat of the
Roundhead were also signs OF the times
of times of negation, of fierce resist
ence, of the instinct of a nation rising
up in its might and trying to throw oil
| the fetters that had so long kept 1t
dumb. His hair was ugly, his hat
abominable, but these were merely the
oVefwrought expressions of that hatred
to tyranny peculiar to the season, and,
though he destroyed many things we'll
worth preserving, he at the same time
| sent deal of rubbish to its own place.
The long hair and plumed cap of the
cavalier were no longer mere graceful
adornments of the season, bnt had as
sumed political and religious siEniti-
canoe, and as such he would have none
of them.
When Prince Rupert, with his troop
of cavaliers at his heels,
Gay with plume and Jlngling spur,
| AND long swords by their sides,
rode out on that sunny summer morn
ing oflOng ago to meet John Hampden,
don't you imagine that the mockinG
fnery of King Charles men had some
effect upon the fierce charge of the stern
| Roundheads
Coming down nearer to our own
times, it may not be unworthy of note,
as an instance OF the potency OF fash
ion mt all times and places, that the
daughter of Benjamin Franklin, wri-
ting to her father, then Minister TO
| France, commissions him for thous-
and and one Jimcracks, which she saws
were Indispensable to lady who did
not wish to make herself remarkable in
| society,", and concludes that her ''dear
father" will be more likely to obtain
them at Paris than in any other place
in the world.
Even in decorous New England, "A
little over fifty years ago, the antipa-
tines aroused by the seven years war
had so well subsidized, that the young
ladies OF even the rural districts took to
wearing trains, perhaps in imitation of
the,Court ofthe good king Arthur,
| However that may be, veracious
witness of those times declares that it
was no uncommon sight, in the times
that we speak of, to see rosy maidens
on Sunday mornings tripping along to
the blessed sound of Sabbath bells.
with their trains nicely pinned up be-
hlnd, their shoes and stockings in their
demure looking reticules, and their
Dare, slim feet glancing over the fields
and across the pleasant brooks, until,
in the friendly shadow of some tree, or
| stonewall, the treasures of the reticule
were drawn forth and carefully put on.
And then, at the meeting house door,
each one would unfasten her compun-
ions train" and they would go in to-
gether, rustling to their seats with
blushing cheeks and downcast eyes, rs
the pastor rose and with tremulous
voice gave out the morning hymn.
Perhaps 1t was that sweetest, tender
est, most pathetic of all hymns.
Thus far the Lord has led me on"
and as the leader in the singing seats
rose to begin, the congregation rose TOO,
and no one thought, as the blended
voices swelled in solemn accord, of the
dashing young bellies with the new
fashions on.
o, blessed Sunday, brightness of fiftv
years ago! Most of those who sat in it
| are under the sod now, while the few
who remain, thinking sometimes of
the days that are no more" declare
that the girls of those days were the
PTettiest and most becomingly dressed
of any they ever saw.
Fashion, during the last two decades.
though displaying an infinite variety in
texture, color and design, has not star
tied us with any of the monstrOsities of
her formerSrelgn. Simplicity and utili-
ty, have, in measure, asserted their
ancient rights, and, saving the hoop,
there Is scarcely vestige remaining OF
the days when Queen Bess s. uaTed her
! wardrobe with IA thousand dresses, all
OF the most costly and cunning work
manship, and showed herself to her ad-
miring subjects with tower of PASTE
board, false curls and powder upon her
head.
1t is said that long sleeves were con-
trived by famous English Duchess,
who had the ill fortune to have ugly
wrists, and why might not long skirts
have been invented to hide the defect
OF too Plethoric ankles? If that was
the design, it has been efTsctually sub
verted by the fitting hoop, which, as it
swings from side to side, gives the
wearer the appearance of Dutch sloop
laborinS under a heavy sea.
For the matter of head gear, though
TOP knots have come down. from the
frighttnl attitude that once called forth
an edict from uiSmayed theater man
ager, We are still long way from
nature.
Fifty years hence some rosy checked
maiden, entertaining her girl compHn-
ions, Will show them the picture OF her
grandmother, taken when she was q
gay young Miss,
I'm hoop, and stay, and WATERFALL
And then what clapping of hands
there Will be! And did your grand
mamma really wear that hileouS thing
on her head?" asks one. .'What a fright
she must have BEEN" says another.
more candid than the rest. "NIy dears., y
says the mother, who at that moment
enters, "grandmamma was really very
pretty in her youth, and the thing
which dishgures her SO much in yOur
eyes, was considered an ornament by
some at that time" "Ha! ha! hav' they
all chorus together as they purse their
red lips in supreme disdain.
As to masculine apparel, the least said
the better. Travellers annually 20 mad
over the baggy breeches and airy tur-
bans of the Orientals, and talk "A great
deal about the ungainliness OF the
Frankish PantalOon; but natures laws
are fixed, and the flowing garments of
the Oriental would be as much out OF
place among Us, as a Swiss chalet on
one of our Western prairies.
Some sanguinary individual has
poured ont the direst anathemas against
the man who invented the stoyenipe
hat, declaring that nothing less than
death by torture would have met his
deserts.