Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-04-11
ReamfY Snots.

we all know that fashions go and return,
and that even less with them than with
other terrestrial affairs is there anything
new under the sun. We expect to see bon
nets, flnctuate between coal scnttles and
dessert plates, hat brims grow wide or mar
row, skirts curtail or lengthen, ankles to be
coyly hidden or coquettishly displayed,
pegtops to dwindle feebly into pipeStems
and to swell generously Outagain, colors to
alternate between rigorous sObriety and
Haunting gayety. All these important
mutations occur periodically, and the older
we grow the, more a matter of course do
The shifts and changes appear. If there be
anything new under the sun, we find as
the years roll round that it is scarcely in
clothes. The prevalent notion has been
that all should dress alike and look alike
almost as a religious duty !, so that if laws
should, after altime, be proposed to razee
tall men, and piece out snort ones, to pare
superhuous bulk and exc out with it the
needy, so that all human beings should be
of precisely the same dimensions and
ayoirdupoise. it might not to democratic
eyes appear extrayagant.
But how comes it with this obvious grav-
1tatlon towards the common place and
monotonous in so many things else that
these strange OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES striking
aberratiOns-shOulda appear in ladies' toi-
lets? Why, in a,community presumably
as enamored of fraternity and equality as
the compatriots of Robespierre himself,
should the fair bedeck themselves in a
manner which. in that olden time, would
in itself have established their suitability
for the guillotine? /? Does it come i'm the
mere routine whereby in regulated period
icity all fashions, are renewed, or has it a
deeper, political Significance, which in the
stir and whirl of our daily lives we fail to
apprehend? We sometimes think so; and
when we are told that lady in wealthy
New York society lately received her
frin fla y,
dais at the end of a suit of apartments. we
are led To believe that the social reaction
against republican simplicity Is reaching a
significant, if absurd, crisis. This latter
performance as.Of course, an idiotic ex-
aggeration, one which we should hope, even
among our new rich, with all their wealth
of capacity for ignorant and dlconceited fully,
would find but few imitators. To foreign
eye such piece of intelligence must read
like sheer lunacy; but the crests and coro-
nets, the gilded pagentrY- and ueilLe eOdr
costumes of our fashionable danes are only
in degree less preposterous. ...-.
1t must be admitted, however, that what
ever their incongruity, there is s)mething
exceedingly fascinating about these last
century costumes. Grace and Emily
"made up" for a ball may look, as their
younger brothers assure them, like the
mantle china ornaments grown up, but
they look very charming nothwithstand-
turesque associations, as, not unfrequently,
the charm of a new-old fashion uudoubt-
edly Is. There is an essential attractive
ness in the mode itself. Its scope in the
way of color and contour is favorable to
most figures and faces. Powder, too, be-
comes most women, and even the little
absurdities made of court plaster-the
=" beauty spots (which are requisite to
complete the ensemble have always a mis-
sion and witehery which entitle them to
have word said in their behalf.
Every one knows, of course. the object
of these premeditated blemishes. They are
intended to set off the radiance of the COM
pleXion and to lend sparkle to the eyes
Their conspicuous jet, contrasting with the
snow of the powder, gives piquancy and
there is no other word for it.-espieglerie to
: the expression. just as the black dabs on
ermine call attention to its whiteness, and
as the spots on the sun rather increase than
diminish its dazzling refulgence, so the
beauty spots on fair woman, if sparingly
and judiciously applied, add luster to its
alabaster and heighten its varying charms.
A strictly pure taste may doubtless object
to this as to all other artificial expedients
as meretrit ious, and bature unadorned will
always have the best side of the argument;
but it must be acknowledged that there is
philosophical apology for the patches
which is wanting for many other feminine
devices, which, on cursory examination,
appear more reasonable.--ROundT Table.