The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1898-02-24
Some Wise Suggestions.
to THE CoMMoNwnALrH.

Communicated to THE COMMONWEALTH
Ostentation is older than civilization
ancient as the primeval savage. The
desire to appear braver, handsomer,
richer, stronger, better or worse, and 50
on, than others, or than we really are,
has been a universal failing from re-
motest times, 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 boast.
ing manner. Anything, therefore
which is done from vulgar pride to
dazzle others, is OF this character. And
1t would seem as if all changes of tash-
ion prompted by vanity are SO man.
marks OF this failing, for these are at
first adopted by the rich, and by them
forsaken as soon as they become com
mon. An old French moralist, de-
claiming IN 1886 against the prevailing
fashions, and especially that Of !adie
carrying mirrows 80 that they might
constantly view themselves, notices this
course of human frailty. "Aas p he
said, ''in what an age do we live: to ses
such depravity which we see; that in
dnces them even to bring into church
those scandalous mlrrows hanging
about their waist. Let all histories. d.
vine, human, and profane, be consulted !;
never will it be found that these objects
of vanity were ever thus brought into
public by the most meretricious of the
sex. It 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 fe
male servant, will have them p
Nothing is more ludicrous than the
origin of these extravagances. In Ed
ward vi. 8 time, lady with wen on
her neck covered it by patch. From
that time patches became the mode.
A hundred years later they we're cut in
to all kinds of fantastic figures owls,
rings, suns, moons, and even a coach
and horses. A dauphin OF France had
u high shoulder. This gave rise to "full
bottomed" wig. Long coats were in
vented to hide the s'ill-made" legs OF
Charles the Seventh IF France, and
pointed shoes yard long to conceal an
excrescence on the loot of Henry Plant
aganet of Anjou. When the Arch
duchess Isabella wore the same dirty
linen tor three years because she had
vowed not to change it until Ostend
was taken, it's colour at the end of that
time became fashionable as "L' Isa-
beau," dingy-whltish-yellow. An
other Isabella, she of Bavaria, noted for
fair complexion and her frail conduct,
introduced the fashion of having the
shoulders and neck uncovered. The
whims OF fashion are shown by print
of Henry VIII. 8 time, representing an
nude Englishman holding peice OF
cloth on his right arm and pair of
shears in his left hand, and bears this
Inscription:
I"I am an Englishman, and 1
stand here,
Musing in my mind what raiment I
shall were;
For now I will were this and now l
will were that,
And now will were 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 we're
women. Verify "there is no new thing
under the sum-"
Comfit boxes we're great signs Of
ostentation, and were the rage in France
! before snuff-boxes took their place.
All carried them on all occasions, and
when the Duke OF Guise was shot at
Blois his comfit box was found IN his
hand. Chaucer's "Persones Tale," in
the chapter "De Superbia," tells, as we
dare not, to what lengths pride and i'm
propriety in dress we're carried in his
day; particularly by the men. In
France it was bad enough. "a modest
I Italian could not travel there in the
18th century," said an Italian author
t "wlthout being shocked by the dresses
) of the men," But in England it was
afterwards worse, and our countrymen
gloried in thely shame.
A''buck" of about ninety years ago
; is thus described by satirlcal writer
"a coat OF light green with sleeves toe
, small for the arms, and buttons too big
: NO CURE-NO PAY