Arizona silver belt., 1895-02-23
esTENTATseN.
py LADY Cook. sve Tennessee o. olAiin.l

richer, stronger, better or worse, and So on, than others, or than we really are, has been universal failing from rsmotest timesi and ever attended with unhappy consequences. However, we shall not here attempt to attack all forms of vanity, but would draw atten- ton to that particular one of vain show or display which is the more general mode of ostentation, The Latin ''Os- tentare," means to show often in a boasting manner. Anything, there fore, which is done from vulgar pride to dazzle others is of this character. And it would seem as if all changes of fashion prompted by vanity are so many marks of this failing, for these are at first adopted, by the rich, and by them forsaken as soon as they be- come common. An old French moral ist, declaiming in 1886 against the pre- yailing fashions, and especially that of ladies carrying mirrors 80 that they might constantly view themselves, mo- tices this course of human frailty. "Alas 70 he said, 'in what an age do we live to see such deprayity which we see that induces them even to bring into church those scandAlous mirrors hanging about their waists. Let all histories, divine, human, and profane, be consulted never will it be found that these objects of vanity were ever thus brought into public by the most msretricious of the sex. It is true, at present none but the ladies of the court venture to wear them but long it will net be before every citizens daughter, and every female servant, will have them 70
 Nothing is more ludicTous than the origin of these extravsgsnce. In Ed ward Vrs time, lady with a wen on her neck covered it by a patch. From that time patches became the mode. A hundred years later they were cut into all kinds of fantastic figures owls, rings, suns, moons, and even coach and horses. A dauphiR of France had high shoulder. This gave rise to "full bottomes" wigb. Long coat, were invented to hide the "ill,made' legs of CI arlss the Seventh of France, and pointed shoes a yard long to con ceal an eIcrescence on the foot of Hen. " Plant.ganet of Auiou. When the Archduchess Isabella wore the same dirty linen for three years because she had vowed not to change 1t until Os' tend was taken, its color at the end oi that time became fashionable ss IL 'Isa. beau, dingy -witish-y yellow. Another Isabella, ,lhe of Bavaria, noted for hsl fair complexion and her trail conduct, introduced the fashion of having tho shoulderN and neck uncovered. The uhims of fashion are shown by a print of Henry WILLS time, representing ! nude Englishman holding 8 piece ol cloth on his rigAt arm and pair ol shsers iR his left hand, and bears thil | ;,.cr;nt;on
 | q am An EnsliGhInAn. and naked stand hero, | Musius in my iaind uhA, ralnsnt Ihall sere ' For now will were this and will were thAs,
 And nov I will were what ] cannot sell what"
 Down to the reign of William anC Mary, little children of the upper class es wore wigs, but barbers had not be come hair dressers These were wo men. Verify "thers is Ro new thing under the sun.
 Comht boxes were great signs of os tentation, and were the rage in France before snuff-boxss took their place All carried them on all occasions, anC
 when the Duke of Guise was shot a Blois his comht box WEB found ID hi hand. Chaucer's ''Persones Tale" il the chapter "De Superbis," tells, a
 we dare not, to what lengths pride an' impropriety in dress were carried il
 his day, particularly by the men. |
 France it was bad enough. A modes Italian could net travel there in tn
 18th century, said an Italian author without being shocked by seeing me "whose clothes rather exposed thei
 nakedness than hid it." But in En , gland it was afterwards worse, and ou countrymen gloried in their shame.
 The Qussn of Charles II, introduce the ifnrnodsst custom of completel
 barring the bosom and shoulders. Bu this was the reign of harlotry and i
 centiousness. Good old Richard Ba1 ter thought it necessary to write tn preface for book called "A Just an
 Seasonabls Reproduction of Make
 Breasts and Shoulders. A later wor
 on the same topic, "New Instruction unto Youth for their Behaviour, &c., had frontispisce of Virtue and Vice Virtue was lady in black velvet hoo with a white neokorchief over her neoh ] Vice had no kerchief, her stays wer } cut low to expose her charms, and gro : tesque patches disAgursd her face. ! It was otherwise with the frsil beau ties of ancient times. Even Poppe' SO Tacitus tells us, covered part ( , her face, not from modesty it is true but from art, that she might nor