Year: 1869

ShOddy ArfstOcracy-Dress FOur-in.


Hands and LiverIes as u Means of


Advertisements.


Long Branch Letter to the Boston Post.l


The Branch is cosmopolitan, dashing,
by no means select, given up to the wor-
ship of glitter and show, and sufficiently
expensive to satisfy the most aspiring
new money-spenders. On the door-posts
of the principal hotel entrances you will
see posted notices of large rewards for
valusbles lost from private rooms, no
questions asked" and from the class of
adventurers to whom that appeals, up.
ward, including the dashy clerk on a va
cation with paste studs in his tumbled
shirt front, aDd the pawnbroker and fam
lily in borrowed diamonds from the shop
safe, there is no caste in the bogus aris-
tocracy of wealth which ia not fully
represented here. The most dsshing
turnouts that show themselves in the
afternoon cavslcade up and down Ocean
avenue are simply advertisements, openly
acknowledged as such by their owners.
The monogram on the panel of one open
barouche, resplendent in silk lining, good
fixtures and undimmed varnish, is the
same which we have seen heading
column in the newspapers. One four-in-
hand advertises drugs; another, splen-
did grays, with unexceptionable ap-
pointments, tells the assembled world
that its owner thinks he makes the
best harnesses in the market and
would like that fact to be under
stood. Bargain and sale are brought
terribly close to recreation and amuse-
ment, get as far away from them as we
can, and here they are forced upon a
community equally greedy of business.
The hotel parlors are no less showcases,
where beauty sits ticketed for the admira-
tion of money, and anxious ssleswomen
urge the merits of their wares with all the
subtle tricks OF the trade. Few of the
ladies bathe. 1t is not in the way of
business. A languid stroll along the
edge of the ever pounding surf quite un-
nerves them, and they must seek relief in
the more arduous, less refreshing, but
more familiar duties of playing enchan-
tress to something in pantsloons, with
tuberose in button hole, in the drawing
room. Bathing dresses are unbecoming
and often too honest in their revelations.
The presumptuous sea will sometimes
dash the bloom from the cheek, and the
soft whiteness from arm and neck. Better
for success in this mart of fashion are
the appliances of the toilet than the
shroud of blue flannel, and the yellow
fame of the gaslights than the bright
glory of the sun on the waves. Poor
thingsl The market is dull. They may
smile as lightly and chatter such naive
nonsense as they please; they may take
every hint of experienced mamma, and
carry out her shrewd tactics, with the
most fascinating genius; but the yellow
haired Aspasia, from whose basket phae-
ton they turn away their very proper eyes
when they pass her on the avenue, can
count thirty conquests to their one, and
can win away any admirer with one beck
of her jeweled forelinger. Maternal
shoddy in diamonds is all elegance and
smiles, wary of opening her mouth ex-
cept for stuffed praises. Filial shoddy in
pearls and low corssge is gentleness itself,
leaning with eausion on the shoulder of
young Wall street in the waltz. Many
is the net of sweet entsnglements spread
for the youth of strong balance at the
bank, and 60 aeldem does the game con-
descend to be captured that ones pity is
all for the sports-women. If they will
make such vast exertions to secure such
specimens of fashionable manhood as
frequent the Branch, it is truly sad that
no better success attends their efforts.
Meantime, the wear and worry of the sea-
son, evidences of which arc seen each
succeeding morning in dimmed eyes and
half-concealed yawns as the monotonous
day drsgs on, will be felt, and next year
and the year after will see them more
poorly equipped for the summers cam
paign, until they join the forlorn hopes
which lead each ball, clad in fictitious
youthful charms, but still seeking to con-
quer in diamonds and the elegancies Of
the modiste's art.