The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1867-03-16

the top OF which stroamed ribbons OF many cOlOrs
like pennons from baronial castle on gala day,
he has been still more absurd at the opposite ex-
IRENE, and disfgured and disabled himself by
wearing cornuted shoes with the toes turned up
like rams horns, and tied TO his knees. If she
has intrenched herself too deeply and formida-
bly, in whalcbones, and with the amplitude of her
hoops has covered more of the earth's surface
than one person can Justly lay claim to, has he
not also in his own awkward way, indulged in
putting illusions" by stutfing his habiliments
with ''bombast and with bags" to the intense
aggravation of his natural clumsiness?
Asumptuary edict of the 14th century, which
prohibits her from wearing rings on her fin
gers. denies him also the luxury Of wearing rings
on the toes. And in a fashion-plate of thu 14th
century we have the hideous spectacleof man
nearly three score years, attired in low-necked
dress edged with fur, while the short sleeves ele
gantly pinked and embroidered, leave the arms al
mostentirely bare. Andduring the reign of Queen
Bess did he not encase his body in doublet SO
hard quilted that as an old chronicler informs
us, "the wearer could not bow himself to the
ground, so stiff and sturdy it stood about him "
And is it not on record that in the time Of James
l. soaffold was erected round the inside of the
parliament house for the accommodation of those
members whose puckered and bolstered brooches
were too big for ordinary seatsY The gossiping
antiquary, Bulwer, tells how a dandy of those
golden daysunwittingly seated himself on a chair
with projecting nail in it, which perforated his
huge galligaskins, 30 that when he rose and turn
ed and wriggled and capered, in paying court to
the ladies, several peaks of bran poured forth as
from mill that was grinding, till, before he be-
came conscious of his rapid emanciaton, half the
cargo was unloaded on the floor, and the luckless
fop "stood there diminished to a spindle, his gal
looms and slashcs dangling about him sorrowfully
enough"
In short in whatever direction we may extend
researches into the history of the past, wheth
or into court calendars or books of costumes, or
galleries Of art, we shall find that the two sexes
to the epthet of the Greek father, are equally
plilocosmic that the propensity for dress is
by no means an exclusively feminine trait, but
that the love of fnery, and even of frippery, has
manifested itself just as strongly in man as in
woman with the difference only that he, having
in his person less worthy object on which to
bestow it, has generally made himself the more
uncouth and ridiculous Of the twain. 1t is true
that, at the present tay, man seems contented
with certain sobriety, not to say monotony, in
his raiment: but this proves not that the passion
for dress il deadened in his mind, but simply that
by centuries of hnnliliating experience he has
finally learned that Nature never implanted it
here to be exercised upon himself "The come
illness of clothes depends upon the comeliness of
the body" And inasmuch as women is made
exceedingly fair" she possesses, as it were, a
natural adaptation to an elegant wardrobe, 1t is
auxiliary to her she is entitled to it by her
constitution. In the language of that most ac-
complished gentleman, Sir Philip Sidney, she
doth apparel her apparel, and with the precious
ness OF her body maketh it most sumptuous."
The winning grace and radiant beauty of wo-
mans form suggest the finest fabrics for its en-
belishment She dresses for two, and negligence
in her attire is wrong done not to herself alone,
Clarissa Harlowe, even in her lowest estate, was
punctiious in her apparel, not from any personal
vanity, but because, as she said, my father al
ways loved to see me dressed tine."-(North Am.
Review.