The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1881-12-22
ALWAYS A NUISANCE.
LEIGH HUNT ON LADIES BONNETs IN
THE THEATER.

LEIGH HUNT ON LADIES' BONNETs IN
THE THEATER.
In default of having anything bet
ter to write about in our present num-
Der, we beg lief to demonstrate with
certain bonnets, and other enormities,
with which the ladies put out our eye
sight in the theaters. The bonnet is
the worst If you sit right behind
it you shall swallow up the whole
scene. 1t makes nothing of regiment
of soldiers, or a mountain, or a forest,
or rising sun; much less of hero,
or so Insignificant thing as a cottage
and PEASANTS family. You may sit
at the theater a whole evening and
not see the leading performer. Lis
toms face is glory obscured. The
persons in your neighborhood, provid-
ed they have no bOnneted ladies be-
fore them, shall revel in the iOcose
looks of Farren or DoWtOn, and pro-
Vokingly reflect the merriment in their
own couBtenances, while you sit and
rage in the shade. If you endeavor to
strain point, and peep by the side Of
it, ten to one-since fate notoriously
interferes in little things, and delights
In being Contrary" as the young la
dies say-Cen to one but the bonnet
seizes that very opportunity of jerk
ing sideways, and cutting off your re-
sources. We have seen an enthusiasts
tic play-goer settle himself in his seat
and evidently congratulate himself at
the evening he was about to enjoy,
when a party of ladies, swimming in
to tho seats before him, have been the
ruin of all his prospects. Even a head
dress, without the bonnet, shall force
you to play at bo-peep with the stage
half the evening, now eXtinguishing
the face of some favoI'ite actress, and
now abolishing a General or a muir
derer. The other night at the Queens
Theater we sometimes found ourselves
obliged to peep at the Freemasons in
very symbolical manner through the
loops of a lady'5 bows. But the bon
net is the enormity. And we are sor-
ry to say that the fair occupants who
sit inside them, like the lady in
the lobster, too often show a
want of gallantry in refusing to take
them Off; tor, as we have said more
than once, we hold gallantry, like all
the other virtues, to be a thiHg mutual,
and of both sexes and that a lady
shows as much want of gallantry in
taking advantage of the delicacies OBJ
served toward her by the gentlemen,
as a man does who presumes upon the
gentleness of a lady. We felt, the
other night, all the reforming spirit
of our illustriOus predecessors of the
Taller and Spectator reused within
us, and in the same exact proportion
to our regard for the sex upon witness
ing the following prodigious fact: a
lady, who came with a party into one
of the boxes at Covent Garden, Joined
very heartily in expressing her disap-
probation of some person in a seat
below her, who was dilatory in taking
off his hat. 1t CHANGED that this lady
got in the very seat that he had occu-
pied, and her bonnet turning out t.
be much greater blind than her hat,
what was the establishment and merri-
ment of the occupants upon finding
that she was still less accommodating
than the gentleman? Nothing could
induce her to perform the very same
piece of justice which she had Joined
in demanding from the other.
We are aware that in modern, as in
ancient, theaters, ladies come to be
seen as well as to see. But we are
DESTROYS that they should not pay
themselves so ill a compliment as to
confound their dresses with them
selves. 1t is the bonnets that are
seen in these cases, and not the ladies
When seen themselves, they make a
part of the spectacle; but who cares
(o look upon these great Jumps OF
4 sauze and silk? Something is to be
flowed to fashion; bat the wearers
light be content with showing that
their heads could be as absurd as
other peoples and then lay aside the
absurdity, and show that they under.
stood the better part of being reason
able. They urge, when requested tc
take their bonnets of, that they "car
not" do it, meaning, we suppose
besides the "will not" which Gear
not so often signifies, that their head.
are not prepared to be seen-that then
hair is not dressed in a proper man
ner; but it would be easy to com,
with it so dressed the bonnet is no
the only heAd-dress in fashion; and
above all, it would be a graceful anC
sensible thing TO remember that il
coming to a place where the object i
to enjoy pleasure, their own capabilitl
of pleasure is intensified in consider
ing that of others. We never fee
angry with a woman except whei
she persists in doing something t
diminish the delight we take in com
plimenting the sex.