New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-08-22
Neg Orleans Daily Qrestent,
WEDNESDAY MORNING, AUGUST %, 1866.
Saratoga Pnstimes,


A Saratoga correspondent of the New York
Tribune discourscth in the following strain about
the manner in which the fair sex at that watering
place deport themselves, and pass away their
time:
The moral atmosphere Of this place is mephitic.
From o'clock till II there streams into the din
inr-room constant procession of oVer-dressed
women of fippant and loud tongued men. In
deed, there is no time when the men are not l0ud
of tongue and the women 0yer-dreSSeu lhey
dress in robes fitted by right of value to the ball
room and bv right Of tastefulnes to the rag bag
Their heads look like the models OF the London
hair dressers's convention. They sweep down to
the spring in robes whose delicate borders bring
back fringe Of mud and dust. They lounge IN
the parlors on the piazzas in costly and uhllay
array. They disappear little while, and come
down to dinner in raiment that dazzles and for the
brief hours of dancing in the evening" no tongue
shall describe their rutlies and houhces ana
furbeloWs. Dress is not capital onelise, GER
tainly and good dressing is cardinal virtue.
But if Mrs. Madison said that she could never
forgive any young woman for not knowing mat
she looked as pretty as she could, nor oil seeming
to know it, she would have stored up here such
burden of applicability as would have hindered
her entrance to the kingdom. For there Is no
moment of the day when these damseIs lose Their
consciousness that are looking as pretty as lhey
can.
They smile and giggle and smirk in the full be-
lief that all eyes arc riyeted upon them. They
bowl in the alleys, aud are loud when they mean
to be gay. They play croquet on the lawn, ana
are bold aud impertinent when they mean to be
sportive and arch They promenade in the par
lOrs and wripgle and twist, when they mem W
glide and swim. They dance in the bailFooih, anu s
mistake impotence for bandinage, anu hose Iol
jovOusness and sell.assertion for sen -posses'IoB
There are girls here sweet as rosebads ana moe
est IA violets but they are out oil place IN tle
mob Of others and one longs to gAther them Up
and set them down elsewhere, before these arhh-
gttpiyr \ These
young ladies' audby comment on the costumes Of
their neighbors, audibly snicker-I beg pardon OF
polite world, but it is exactly what they do-at
a toilet a little less fashionable, at complexion a
little less fair at manners little less rustic than
their own.
They paint ana powder to a degree which
arouses in one adesperate longing to get each and
all Of them under pump and mercHessiy make
them confess their honest skin, and MAYER more
hide it, And, worse than all, they lace till one
hands could span their tortured waists. There ls
hardly woman here under forty who would con,
fess to girde under twenty-four inches: If all
the rest is folly, this is crime. What vitality can
there be in a frame so cruely matreated and De
formed? What wives and mothers can these silly
pitiabe, installing creatures become!
The mothers of these snowy girls are plain anc
quiet sitting in corners, feeling themselves at 8
loss, and silent in self defense. The daughters
override them without mercy, going where they
choose dining and flirting by themselves, indebted
to the parental purse for money, but not to tht
parental presence Tor prOtecuon, nor Iue pal CIV"
wisdom for guidance
There is little matchmaking, for there are NJ
eligible men here. 1t isnoticeable that the younl
people are very young schoolgirls, and lads; am
the older folk have given up the frvolities OF mir
tation, and wear high dresses, and sit in the par
lor and fan, instead Of promenading the loni
piazzas to be seen.
There are but two or three beauties. One W
had stealthily admired from corners, and benin
newspapers but when, to-day at dinner, she pu
both elbows on the table, and gnawed her cor
from the ear, we wept tears for the betrayal G
our hopes and gave her up.