Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1876-06-22
What is Extravaganza.

The Galaxy for June has contri-
buttons from Justin Mccarthy, Gail
Hamilton, Prof. Van de Warker, j. III.
Siddons and other clever writers.
Prof. Van de Warker contributes
novel article on 'Peripatetic Madness -
the species of insanity or rather morbid
restlessness which prompts some people
to take TO the road and wander aimless-
ly from place to place. This madness
I is not confined to the common roadside
/ tramp, but is often found in the higher
walks of life
The number contains three articles
upon American society and character.
In the first Gail Hamilton makes a
searching review of society 1t Washing
| ton. showing that it has been misjudg-
ed, and that behind the fast element
which impresses the casual visitor by
| its vulgar display and frivolity, there
exists "a background of a totally differ
ent sort.
/ From Gail Hamilton's article we
make the following selection, which con
tains more truth than anything we have
Seen before on the subject:
A vast amount of the bewildering
magnifcence, the mad and reckless
splendor of Washington society is in
the descriptions of it, not in the socie-
ty itself. Your ''palatial residence is
but one of a most unpretending row of
brick houses in an unpretending street
"a house SO exactly like its neighbors
that, though you may have been there
dozen tunes, you can never tell which
IS which except by the number; and it is
SO small that the sideboard has to stand
against a dining room door; and the
next house is borrowed of the friendly
owner TO give room for the evening par
ty which costs ten thousand dollars in
the newspapers, but might just as reas-
onably have been rated at ten millions.
and Was in no respect different from
scores of other parties which cost one
hundred dollars. The two most expen-
sive parties given i'll Washington du-
ring this generation were those given !
by the French minister at the close of |
the Rebellion to congratulate us on "a
victory of which Louis Napoleon had |
done his best to deprive us, and by the |
British minister to celebrate the pres !
ence among us of the Queens son. Mel
Their of these parties cost anything like I
ten thousand dollars, and yet either of
them cost vastly more than all the par
ties given by the Belknaps during their |
whole seven years residence in Wash
ingtGn.
IL is reprehensibIe thing that Amer 1
lea should not afford good enough 4
dressmakers for any American woman,
but were there no tailors in Virginia,
that George Washington must needs
send abroad for his handsome drab-col-
ored broadcloth, and double gilt but
tons for his gold-laced, superfine scar
let cloth waistcoat, and his blue sur
tout coat? George Washington want
ed just what his cOuntrywomen want
now, neat, fashionable, handsomely
fitting garments; and he did just what
they do when they can; sent abroad for
them
God bless our native land,
Firm may she ever stand
Through storm and night,
/ love her rocks and rills-
but the tit Of Paris gown is-well,
simply supernatural. There is no use
in blinking it out of sight. Nor is it so
costly as it sounds | have known
flinty, fraudulent Boston dressmaker
ask as much for making two clumsy
gowns as "A Paris modiste charges for
two elegant and simple robes, material,
work, transportation, and duties inclu-
ded; and even Il skillful and amiable
Boston dressmaker feels herself to have
received the highest compliment when
her work. is mistaken for IA foreign
dress" No amount of patriotic and
pulpit harangue alter these stern facts,
and the father of his country knew
what he was about when he set for
eign-dress example to his daughters.
1t may be added that these extrav-
agant t0ilettes, costing nearly half as
much as they would in our own coun-
try, came out in the kindly but wild de-
ScrlptiOliS, new every morning and
fresh every evening, though they may
he the birds in last years nest-and the
year before that, and the year before
that. The laces that foam over the
columns were never heard
of as dress. The jewels that glittered
in the California press shone unnoticed
in Washington. The dinners that
were the town talk in st. Louis were
eaten without "a suspicion of their
sumptuousness. The ia
BILE that CLEANS with costly silver and
fine glass inipresseS you with its jour
nalistic magnificence till you reflect
that you could make the same verbal
display with your own modest spoons,
forks and tuInblers.
Q -