Year: 1873

age. Thence 1 draw the conclusion
that am growing old, and that the fly
ing years, gliding rapidly away from me
as they did for Horace, bring the habits
and amusements of the latter half of
life.


These sage reflections are suggested
by an old pair of knee-buckles which I
found the other day whilst rummaging
in lOng-forgotten drawer. Sir Walter
Scott, you will remember, when one
day searching for some fshing-tack in
just such a repo STORY of odds and ends,
found the MS. of "Waverly." have
found this along with my knee-buckles !
"Tis doubtless a less brilliant prize than
that secured by the good Sir Walter,
but then it may possibly afford enter
tainment in au idle moment to some
smiling old gentleman like myself.


My lnee-buckles are odd old affairs,
and I turn them over idly, scanning
them with smiles on my portico in the
pleasant summer sunshine. They are
of silver, set round with Bristol dia-
mOnds" as large as hazel nuts. The
silver is tarnished, and some of the
brilliants have been knocked from their
settings by the hammer of the grim
lapidary Time but this renders them
all the more valuable. 1 amuse myself
by comparing them TO an aged gentle
man who has lost some teeth, but talks
so agreeably Of old times that you do
not miss them and my buckles talk to
me great deal as 1 muse. happen to
have heard the romance connected with
some personages who hourished in their
youth, and who wore them on state oc-
casions and perhaps this little ro-
nance, unsensational" as it is, may
interest you.


1t goes back to and dates from a time
when things were different from the
present; and this difference was,
think, shown most clearly in the matter
of dress. To-day we have toned down
to a distressing uniformity; so that
whether the travelling companion you
encounter be preacher or politician,
broker or poet, a painter or a prize
fghter-all dress alike. When these
knee-buclkles were young there was none
of this uniformity, which is agreeable
possibly to republican ideas of equality,
but kills the picturesque. And let us
stop to say that the old picturesque
style of living and looking still existed
in the first days of the republic His
excellency, George Washington, presi-
dent of the United States, for instance,
was, 1 am very much afraid, what would
be called in these more critical DAYS an
" aristocrat" At least in his habits, cos
tune, and mode of living. he rolled
grandly in his coach and four, with ser
wants in livery stood in his large re-
ception room-to receive the gentleman
of the congress-dressed in velvet
coat and knee-breechcs, with knee
buckles, silk stockings, immense ruffles
and a handsome dress-sword and his
head was covered with powder. He
bowed in lofty way, and everything
was perfectly stiff and imposing An
other reference to those old days and
their habitudes here is paragraph 1
read the other day Governor Han
cock, in 1882, received his guests in a
red velvet cap, within which was one of
fine linen turned mp over the edge of
the velvet one or two inches. He wore
blue damask gown lined with silk, a
white satin embroidered waistcoat. black
satin small-clothes, white silk stockings,
and red morocco slippers" And even
then he was obviously not in full dress
Think of it, friends and fellow-citizens
of to-day, in your brown sack coats
think of this gorgeous excellenoy in red
velvet, blue damask, white satin, and
red morocco; bird-of-parudise light
ing up with his variegated plumage the
far-of Massachusetts, past


The worthy reader is solicited TO par
don this long depression.


L come back to my knee-buckles, aud
fall to musing on the scenes and person
ages they have witnessed. They be
longed to the governor OF the Bermuda
islands, and were worn by him on occa-
sions OF ceremony afterwards they were
the property of a young gentleman,





present owner. This young gentleman
was an American, who, during the revo-
lutionary war, was captured by the
British and taken to Bermu a. Here
he was fortunate enough to make the
acquaintance and secure the friendship
of governor -, who is said TO have
been a sympathizer with the colonies in
their struggle; and his exoellency re-
ceived him into his house, treated him
with great attention and kindness, and
give him his own knee-buckles This
present was no doubt intended TO be in
honor of festive occasion" The
young American had been reoaptured
on his arrival at Bermuda. The beau
tiful young daughter Of his excellency-
she must have heeu beautiful if her
miniature is a likeness, or even the por-
trait of her taken at seventy-enslaved
the prisoner; sent away crowd of
young British naval officers, one of
whom, in the violence Of his rage and
despair, is said 20 have cut Off one of
his fingers, with the ring upon it, and
dispatched both to the young lady in a
letter and then the prisoner and the
little beauty were married, returned to
America, lived in an old house not far
from the Potomac hence the pres
ence on Virginia soil of my knee
buckles. The legend OF the atnputated
hnger always excited in me perverse
sort Of amusement. Not that ] laugh
" the unlucky young naval gentleman