Wilmington daily commercial., 1876-05-06
Revolutionary Tim es. >,
DRESS, HOUSES, AND FUNERALS, a HUNDRED
YEARS AGO.

DRESS, HOUSES, AND FUNERALS, a HUNDRED
YEARS AGO.
We make the following extracts from ad-
vanced sheets of new work, Revolution
AIRY Times by Edward Abbott, which Rob-
erts Bros, of Boston, will shortly publish
Fashions changed hundred years ago as
they do now, and perhaps it would be i'm
possible to give an exact picture of the cos
TUNES of different classes at any one given
time. But, in general, it may be said that
gentlemen wore small clothes, knee
buckles, and buckled shoes coats broad
skirted, wide-cuffed and lace ruff ed, and
of brown, gray, ciaret, Or other color long
waistcoats with broad flaps over the pockets
cooked hats, and in many cases wigs and
powdered hair. The small sword was a
common article of full dress, while scarlet
cloth and gold and silver lace, with snowy
buttons, were resorted to by patricians on
important occasions The ladies made up
their silks and satins and brooades into
sacques and petticoats, hooped and trailed
set on with ruffles, and Yariously patterned
and bedecked, according to the style OF the
hour. They spent much time upon their
hair, and the arrangement of the head-dress
for the great party or grand ball was a very
complicated operation.
or architecture, let it be remembered,
there was little or none. The house was
built simply and substantially, for use and
not for display. The timbers were so large
and go sound, that even the wear and tear
of a hundred years have often left them un-
impaired. Bricks were often imported from
England. Windows we're small, and the
panes diminutive 6x8 7x9, and x 10,
being the common sizes of French window
glass advertised for sale. The house was
generally square, the walls of exceeding
thickness; the chimney rose massive and
capaeious in the centre the interior walls
were panelled and the great oaken beams
crossed the ceiling in plain sight. The
centre of the house, and Of the family life
which it sheltered, was the open wood fire,
which blazed cbeerfully in the huge fire.
place OF the llvlng-room. Stoves were uu-
known and no furnace sent its currents of
over-heated air to hall or chamber. Cook
ing was done in tin kitchens, or turn-spits
placed before the fire, or in pots hung by
links and hooks from the swinging crane,
or in the great brick oven which the Chin
| ney- work included ON one side.
Funerals touched weddings at the point
OF feastlng, and were often very expensive,
snowy, and pompous occasions In some
parts of the country, especially among the
Dutch OF Long Island and New York, it was
the custom for young man to lay by his
earnings after coming OF age, until suffi-
cient sum had accumulated to provide for
hima respectable" funeral when he should
come to die Oftentimes the young burgh-
or would reserve half of the portion Of
wine which be had liberally laid in for his
marriage, to be used at the funeral of him
self or his wife. Special invitations were
sent out for funerals as for parties. The
clergymen, pall-bearers, and physicians at.
tending, We're provided with scarfs and
gloves, and Hometimes each with a mourn
ing ring while the feast which followed
the intermeut at the house of the relatives
of the deceased, elaborate with cold roast
meats, wines, liquors, and pipes, was not
unfrequently an occasion of coarse exces
ses, sometimes descending into hilarious
and noisy demonstrations. ''respecta-
blen funeral of this description might cost
perhaps thousand dollars while the fun
eral OF the first wife of Hon Stephen Van
Rensselaer, is said to have cost not less than
| twenty Thousand dollars.