The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-03-10
OLD-T1ME DUDES.
Chambers Journal

Chambers Journal
 Alcibiades, whose powers of pleas ing were such that, according to Plutarch, "no man was so sullen but he would make him merry, or so churlish but he would make him gentle" was the earliest dandy of whom history informs us; and Beau Nash and George Brummell heve been chased among the latest. But fop- pery is not dead yet, nor will it be until the end of time. We can, how ever console ourselves with the fact that the foppery of to-day is of much milder type than that which prevailed in the days of Lucullus, who, according to Horace, had 5000 rich purple robes in his house.
 The earliest english dandies were, it appears, known as "fop-doodles." " Butler mentions them in his "Hudi- bras"
 You have been roaming
 he says
 Where sturdy butchers broke your noddle
 And handled you like fopdoodle
 Coming to the time of the English revolution, we find that the designa- ton by which fops were known had changed several times. "lt was a tavorite amusement of dissolute young gentlemen" says Macaulay, "to swag- ger by night about the town, break ing windows, upsetting sedans, beat ing quiet men and offering rude ca resses to pretty women. Several dynasties of these tyrants had, since the Restoration, domineered over the streets. The Nuns and Tityre Tus had given place to the Electors, and the Electors had been recently succeeded by the Scourers. At later period arose Kicker, the Haucu- bite, and the yet more dreaded name of Mohawk" szs1
 A little later on the top appeared. Swift thus enthusiastically refers to the partiality of women for the soci- ety of fops:
 In a dull stream, which moving slow,
 You hardly see the current flow,
 When q small breeze obstructs the course'
 It whirls about for want of force,
 And in it's narrow circle gathers
 Nothing but chaf and straw and feathers
 The current Of female minU
 Stops thus and turns with every wind,
 Thus whirling round, together draws
 Fools fops and rakes, for chaff and straws.
 In the time of Dr. Johnson the sparks were in o" ~c; while the beau also ' ned in
 tury. He seems to have been some- thing like Lord Foppington in Sher- idan's "A Trip to Scarboro"-very choice in the matter of oaths, espe- cially dainty in shoe buckles-which were as large as the shoe could possi- ply support-ablaze with jewelry and extremely fond of powder and patches; altogether one of the most ridiculous carioatures of a man one can easily conceive.
 Next we come to the Macaronies, who were SO called because they in- troduced Italian macaroni at Almack's subscription table. Addison gives the following derivation: "There is," he says, "a set of merry dolls whom the common people of all countries admire and seemed to love so well that they could eat them, ac- cording to the old proverb; mean those circumporaneous wits whom every nation calls by the name of that dish of meat which it loves best. In Holland they are termed 'pickled herrings,' in France Jean potages,' in Italy 'macaronies,' and in Great Brit ain Jack puddings.' The transfer ence of the word from fools and clowns to men of fantastic refinement and exaggerated elegance is, as has been we'll observed, 8 singular circum- stance, of which philologists have not as yet given satisfactory explana- tion. It will be remembered that SSr Benjamin Backbite in "The School for Scandal" applied the word "macaroni' to horses of good breed |: Such never were seen two such beautiful All others are clowns. but these Macaronies; And to give them this merit I'm sure Is not Their names are 80 smooth and their tails are
 so long.
 The macaronies were, it seems, the most exquisite tops that ever dis graced the name of man, yet we are indebted to them for the introduction of the we'll known dish, SO named.
 Dandyism brings to mind the dan dies, who were probably in their prime in the apalmy days" of the re- gency. I"I like the dandiee,". says Lord Byron Hthey WAre al ways very