The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-11-21
MY KNEE-BUCKLES.

MY KNEE-BUCKLEs.
A fondness for the past is said to be
one of the characteristics of advancing
age. Thence I draw the conclusion
that I am growing old, and that the fly
ing years, gliding rapidly away from me
as they did for Horace, bring the habits
and amusements of the latter half of
life.
These sage reflections are suggested
by an old pair of knee-buckles which I
found the other day whilst rummaging
in long-forgotten drawer. Sir Walter
Scott, you will remember, when one
day searching for some fshing-tackIe in
just such a repository of odds and ends,
found the MS. of Waverly." I have
found this along with my buckles
'Tis doubtless a less brilliant prize than
that secured by the good Sir Walter,
but then it may possibly afford enter
tainment in an idle moment to some
smiling old gentleman like myself.
Ny knee-buckles are odd old affairs,
and I turn them over idly, scanning
them with smiles on my portico in the
| pleasant summer sunshine. They are
of silver, set round with g Bristol dia-
monds" as large as hazel nuts. The
silver is tarnished, and some of the
| briIliants have been knocked from their
settings by the hammer of the grim
! lapidary Time but this renders them
all the more valuable. I amuse myself
! by comparing them to an aged gentle
man who has lost some teeth, but talks
| so agreeably of old times that you do
not miss them and my buckles talk to
me a great deal as 7 muse. I happen to
have heard the romance connected with
some personages who fourished in their
| youth, and who wore them on state Oc-
casions and perhaps this little TO-
nance, unsensational" as it is, may
interest you.
! It goes back to and dates from time
when things were different from the
present and this difference was, [
think, shown most clearly in the matter
of dress. To-day we have toned down
/
whether the travelling companion you
encounter be a preacher or a politician,
broker or poet, painter or a prize
fighter-all dress alike. When these
knee-buckles were young there was none
of this uniformity, which is agreeable
possibly to republican ideas of equality,
but kills the picturesque. And let us
stop to say that the old picturesque
style of living and looking still existed
in the first days of the republic. His
excellency, George Washington, presi-
dent of the United States, for instance,
was, 1 am very much afraid, what would
be called in these more critical days an
g aristocrat" at least in his habits, cos
tune, and mode of living. He rolled
grandIy in his coach and four, with ser
wants in livery stood in his large re-
ception room-to receive the gentleman
of the congress-dressed in a velvet
coat and kDee-breeches, with knee
buckles, silk stockings, immense rutfies
and a handsome dress-sword and his
head was covered with powder. He
bowed in a lofty way, and everything
, was perfectly stiff and imposing An
} other reference to those old days and
their habitudes here is paragraph
read the other day "GovernOr Han
cock, in 1882, received his guests in 8
, red velvet cap, within which was one Ot
= fine linen turned up over the edge O1
, the velvet one or two inches. He wore
blue damask gown lined with silk, {
white satin embroidered waistcoat, blacl
satin small-clothes, white silk stockings
and red morocco slippers" And ever
q then he was obviously not in full dress
. Think of it, friends and fellow-citizeni
0 of to-day, in your brown sack-cOats
s think of this gorgeous excellency in rec
velvet, blue damask, white satin, anC
: red morocco; ; a bird-of-paradise light
i ing up with his variegated plumage tn
a far-off Massachusetts, past
T The worthy reader is solicited to Par
don this long depression.
L come back to my knee-buckles, an,
a fall to musing on the scenes and person
e ages they have witnessed. They be
II longed to the governor of the Bermud
y islands, and were worn by him on occa
o siOns of ceremony afterwards they wer
II the property of a young gentleman
gt from whom they have descended to thel
r. present owner. This young gentlema
n was an American, who, during the revC
t. lutionary war, was captured by th
= British and taken to Bermu a. HeI
- he was fortunate enough to make til
re acquaintance and secure the friendshi
10 of governor -, who is said to hay
lg been a sympathizer with the colonies
tn their struggle and his excellency r
'n ceived him into his house, treated hi
with great attention and kindness, an
.5 gave him his own knee-buckles Th
es present was no doubt intended to be
rd honor of a festive occasion" II
hit young American had been recaptur'
P- on his arrival at Bermuda. The bea
- tiful young daughter Of his excellency
a. she must have been beautiful If h
Ain miniature Is q likeness, or even the pc
trait Of her taken at seventy-enslav,