Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-03-08
VICE OF OSTENTATION
OUR ANCESTORS WORSE THAN
THEIR DESCENDANTS
How This NOrdid and PaItry Hy.
pOcrisy Permeates SOciety-An Ar.
ticIc BY Lady Cook on the Evils
Resulting From the Effort TO Ap-
pear What We Are Not.

ticIc BY Lady Cook on the Evil
Resulting From the Effort 10 Ap
pear What We Are Not.
/ O-tcntation i. older than ciyiliza
ton; ancient as the primeval say
age. The desire to appear drawer
| handSomcr, richer, stronger, better ol
worse, and so on, than others, or than
We really are, has been = universal
failing from remotest times, and ever
attended with unhappy consequences
However, we shall not here attempt Ia
attack all forms OF vanity, but would
draw attention to that particular one
OF vain show or display which is the
more general mode of ostentation.
The Latin ostentare" means to show
often in a boasting manner. Any
thing, therefore, 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
become common. An old French
moralist, declaiming in 1886 against
the prevailing fashions, and especially
that of ladies carrying mirrors so that
they might constantly view them
selves, notices this course of human
frailty. Alas" he said, ain what
an age do we live to, to see such de-
pravity which we see; that induce
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 OBJ
jects of vanity were ever thus brought
into public by the most meretricious
OF the sex. 1t is true, at present, none
but the ladies of the court venture to
wear them; but long it will not be
before every citizens daughter, and
every female servant will have thcmw
Nothing is more ludicrous than the
origin OF these extravagances. In Ed
ward Wis time lady with a wen on
her neck covered it by 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 a coach
and horses. A dauphin of France had
a high shoulder. This gave rise to
"full bottomed" wigs. Long coats
were invented to hide the "ill-made"
legs Of Charles the Seventh of France,
and pointed shoes yard long to con-
ceal an excrescence on the foot of
Henry Plantaganet of Anjou. When
the Archduchess Isabella wore the
same dirty linen for three years be-
cause she had vowed not to change it
until Ostend was taken, its color at
the end of that time became fashion,
able as "L'Isabeau," dingy-whitish.
yellow. Another Isabella, she OF Ba-
varia, noted for her fair complexion
and her frail conduct, introduced the
fashion Of having the shoulders and
neck uncovered. The whims of fash.
ion are shown by print of Henry
Wits time, representing a nude En-
glishman holding piece of cloth on
his right arm and pair of shears in
his left hand, and bears this inscrip-
ton:
~ am an Englishman, aud naked I stand here,
Nursing in my mind what raiment shall were: !:
For now will were this, and now will were
that,
And now will were what cannot tell what"
Down to the reign of William and
Mary, little children of the upper
classes wore wigs, but BARRIERS had not
then become hair dressers. These
were women. Verify "there is no
new thing under the sum-"
Comfit boxes were great signs Of
ostentation, and were the rage in
France before snuff-boxes took their
place. All carried them on all occa-
sions, and when the Duke Of Guise
was shot at Blois his comfit box was
found in his hand. Chaucer's "Per-
sones Tale" in the chapter "De Su-
perbia," tells, as we dare not, to what
lengths pride and impropriety in dress
were carried in his day, particularly
by the men. In France it was bad
enough. A modest Italian could not
travel there in the 10Th century, said
an Italian author, without being
shocked by seeing men "whose
clothes rather exposed their nakedness
than hid it," But ir England it was
afterwards worse, and our cOuntrymeI
SlOTleu IN tDelr SHAME.
The Queen of Charles ii. introduced
the immodest custom OF completely
barring the bosom and shoulders. Bu
this was the reign Of harlotry ant
licentiousness. Good old Richard
Baxter thought it necessary to writ'
the preface for book called "A Jus
and Seasonable Reprehension OF Make,
Breasts and Shoulders" A later worl
on the same topic, New instruction
Unto Youth for Their Behavior, ETC.,
had frontispiece of Virtue and Vice
Virtue was lady in black velvet hoo
with a white neckkerchief over he
neck. Vice had no kerchief, her stay
were cut low to expose her charms
and grotesque patches disfgured he
face.
1t was otherwise with the frail bea,
} ties of ancient times. Even Poppe;
so Tacitus tells us, covered a part (
!, her face, not from modesty it is tru
bnt from art, that she might MOI
strongly excite the imagination.
, A" buck" OF about ninety years az
) is thus described by a satirical write
A coat of light green with sleev
too small for the arms, and buttol