Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-10-18

lie on the proper course which the |
fully matured woman ought to
pursue in order to secure for her
self the inestimable boons Of health,
happiness, and a life Of social and
domestic usefulness.
What IL ChIc2
Temple Bari
Chic is one of the few things
which, refusing to bow down and
worship fashion, is not crushed un-
der the wheels of the Juggernaut.
Chic is to fashion what poetry is to
prose, cold veal to roast partridge,
a gad-hy to a bull. What is chic
may, in a sense, be fashionable, but
what is fashionable cannot be chic.
Anybody can wear and do what is
fashionable. 1t is not fashionable
unless a lot of people do it, and
have it on-until, in three words
which CRATE rather hard upon the
ear in this connection, it is COM
mon. Chic cannot be common.
You cannot put on another persons
chic as you may her boots or her
hat. You cannot copy it. You
never know where to look for it. 1t
has the quickness of a humming-
bird and the vitality of an eel. As
for poor stupid, numbering fashion,
this is treated as the sword-fsh
does the whale-chic now ahead of
him, now astern; now on this side,
now on that now under him, now
jumping over him; is always giving
him prods, but taking none in re-
turn. If you are told that this OF
that isn't fashionable, and are able
to reply, "No, but it's chic" you
have won the day. Fashion is in
cessantly trying to catch chic, but
chic won't be caught. Fashion
sometimes "runs careering" and
thinks, "Ah, you've been in Queen
Elizabeth's wardrobe, have you
I'll have a good rummage over the
Tudor period, and be even with
you" " So the rummage comes off,
and fashion finds something very
grand and expensive, and stalks of
with it, cackling like a hen that has
laid the keel Of an omelette. And
lol at the corner Of the street
stands chic, serene, with that ter
rible smile on her lips-that smile
which looks sweet, and says
Poor thing! She is not cack-
ling; she is not out of breath; she
has Just fitted over to a Breton Of
a Swedish village, and found
what? No matter. Something
which takes the gift off fashions
ginberbread, the wind out of fash
IONS sail, the starch out of fashions
frill, and puts her in the worst Of
tempers. For this chic is the fairy
godmOther of two orders whose
allegiance to fashion-as we find
hers getting loosened; nice rich
people who can afford to disregard
her DEGREES, and nice poor people
: who cannot afford to obey them
Chic lends her aid to both, leaving
shoddy to have its strings pulled by
the tastemongers of the shops. In
Ipre'chichian days people Of taste,
inspired by fancy, set fashions
they are now made in molds like
pats of butter. Fashion used to be
an artist working in a studio; she
now keeps ready-made clothes
shop! This year, understand thai
the yellow jaundice has broken out
in that establishment. Too much
greasy food and lazy habits play the
deuce with ones liver. Chic hasn't
any liver; feeds on hower-heartsI
drinks dew-drops, and Is ever on
the wing. The bloated, blind old
monarchy of fashion is tottering tc
its fall, and chic is the revolution
She is the revolution whose watch.
words'are liberty, fancy, diversity,
and like other revolutions, she is
born Of queer parents and nopr'
ished in places that are dark. Fol
ages the world went on without
her, or, at any rate, with only ocoa'
Sional glimpses of her existence.
Cleopatra, fancy, caught one and
made the best of it at home. That
gold and silver barge of hers, with
its purple sails and silken tackle,
was shoddy meant to dazzle pooI
vulgar Antony, But tho limos
!, Age cannot witheF her, NOR custom stale
Herinhnite variety; other women
Cloy th' appetites thep feed; but she makes
hungry
Whom most she satisfies"
breathe Of personal chic, which
/, neither Of her Roman lovers could
appreciate, Chic never found a
home on the Tiber. Fancy grown
men lolling on couches, with flow
crs in their hair, gorging lampreys
fattened on slaves, and eating pea
cocks brains, because they were
expensivel Faugh! That was
shoddy-not chic.
a-o-p
Mark Twain'a Military Experience