acquainted with the ufe of this opening before, made, an improvement, as they thought, of an additional row of buttons, and called it the double-breafed petticoat. So much, my charming country worden, for your drefs. But this is not all. Falhio..able colours bave their origin in circumftances, which, though. they may have nothing to do with your thapes, may be thought not very grateful to fome of your fenfes. The queen of France caught a flear on her arm and the king of England found an infect of about the fame fize on his plate. Obferve the different genius of the two nations; at Verlailies, the circumftance gave rife to a fashion, and only couleur de puce was to be seen at court; while at St. James's, every person, about his majelly's facred perfon was bliged to wear a wig. When the prefent dauphin was born, every eye was in learch of fomething relating to the child, to give origin to a fashion and MADAME LA MARQUISE DE SENTEUR, having had the honour, of fuperintending his linen, appeared at court in a ftraw-coloured fattin, which the called caca dauphin. MADAME LA VICOMTESSE DE LA BOUDERIE, piqued at the afcendeney the marquife de Senteur had gained by being firit in the invention, muttered, as loud as fhe durft, that one might as well take a colour from the ordure of a gofling, as from that of a baby and the immediately made up a yellowish green filk, which the called merde d'oye. Paris now became divided between caca dauphinand merde d'oye, till LA DUCHESSE DE LA CROTTE United them into one colour, which the called ventre de crapeau, from its reemblance to that of a toad's belly. rious pretty colours, that are recommended to you by the paltry exainples of fome great ladies Europe, whofe mouves are, to conceal defor mities, to create artificial beausies in defect of natural ones, and to difplay a trifling talent, which, in its noll indulgent fenfe, can only be called obicene wit. I have expofed this with freedom of exprellion, which was unavoidable, becaufe I could not otherwite give you a juft idea of the impofition you innocently fuffer: but affure you that the names of the modes and colours I have defcribed, are not of my invention-but fashionable appellations, tan verbally from the belles of Europe. How much more confiftent with your dignity would it be, to affume a national diflinction, and invent your own fashions? Your country is independent of European power: and your modes of drefs thould be independent of a groupe of coquentes, milliners, and manufacturers, who, from motives of vanity on one hand, and avarice on the other, endeavour to enflave the fancy of the whole world? Would not a CONVENTION HAT, a FEDERAL BONNET, or a CONGRESS CAP, found as prettily, as the filly names produced by affected wit ? and would not a WASHINGTON BLUE convey as ftrong an idea of a never-fading colour, as a PRINCE OF WALES'S BUFF? As for defcriptive names, look, my fair friends, into, blooming nature, and there you will fee the inexhauftible, and only true fource of tafte. í fhould be happy to fee this revolution, and to have it in my power to fay, that the -drefs,, as well as manners of the American ladies, exemplified the following recommendation: I fhould fire your patience, ladies, and perhaps offend your delicacy,Befrugal then: the coyly-yielded kifs were I to go into an enumeration of Charms moft, and gives the most finall the indecent origins of the va Vol. II. No. V. I cere delight. A On the ufe of buftlers. Performance which aims at abolishing a ridiculous fafhion, or preventing the mifapplication of a useful production, is entitled at leaft to the candour of the public. I read with pleasure, a paragraph in a newfpaper of the 11th of this month, under the London head, which gives an account that the ladies there are again falling into the fhapes which nature gave them that broad-hoops, bell-hoops, high heads, and low heads have all had their day; but the genuine figure is now reftored. I hope that the fair of this town will follow the example of their fex in that large and polite city-no longer difguife their beautiful forms with hoops or butlers, nor divert our attention from the fymmetry of their features, and the carnation of their complexions, by enormous hats, bedizened with a profufion of ribands and feathers. As large hats, and hoops, are gone out of fashion in London, experience induces us to expect that they will foon go out of fashion here: and therefore I fhall fay no more on thofe parts of female drefs; but confine myself in this fheet, to a part of it which is not mentioned in the para graph, referred to; but which ba much worse effect upon the fhape that broad-hoops or bell-hoops- mean the buftler: and I would beg the candid attention of my female readers to the arguments I fhall advance againft that prepofterous habiliment. Thele arguments will be principally de duced from that humanity, benevo lence, and compaffion which are con genial with their nature, and from that pride, a portion of which hat fallen to the fhare of every daughter as well as fon of Adam. Human nature is fuch, that no one it poffeffed of a corporeal endow. ment without being in fome degree proud of it, and next to, if not be fore, a fine face, is an elegant, graceful form. How deeply the latter is injured by the bustler, every one muft perceive who traces Hogarth's line of beauty, as it is exhibited and illuftrated in the beautiful figure of the young dies of this town, when they are ha bited in a fuitable drefs, and compares the regular curve that terminates the wafle, with the fudden, angular prominence occafioned by the bufler, A retrofpective view of themfelves when rigged out with this woolen bolfter, would, methinks, in pie of fashion, be fufficient to induce the fair to throw it afide. But a dread of that almoft invincible controuler of drefs, will not permit me to reft the matter here; for that in perious miftrefs, fashion, too fre quently conftrains us to fubmit to the groffeft abfurdities; and arg ments drawn from the tender feelings of the female heart, appear to me to be the most powerful. The fheep's wool that grows in this flate, is, I believe, not fufficient for flockings for its inhabitants; what then must be the wretched ation, particularly of the poor of th town, the approaching winter, the wool, which might cover the leys of hundreds, is diverted from thủi ufe, and manufactured into odious buftlers! If any female, attached to this ridiculous article of drefs, fhould imagine, that the quantity of wool expended in its manufacture is too fmall o merit confideration, I would deare her to attend but a moment te he following moderate calculation, nd I am fure fhe will be convinced hat the wool fo expended, would lothe the legs of many hundreds. An ingenious good-hearted female cquaintance informs me, that there re at leaft fix hundred buftlers worn n this town, and that I would not be xtravagant if I fhould count upon alf a pound of wool for each of hem. Now, reckoning the fame uantity of that article to a pair of ockings, which fhe fays will be the verage weight, if children's flockngs are taken into the calculation, de wool, worse than wafted in buftlers, rould protect the legs of fix hundred erfons from the inclemency of the oming winter. Let any female reflect upon the umbers of grown perfons, as well as hildren, of both fexes, who, in the rinter feafon, may be feen fhivering a our ftreets, without flockings to coer their limbs, purple with cold-let er confider, that the wool in her fler would fereen the limbs of one them; and then let her wear it if be can. Female foftness and pity ould not fuftain the painful reflexion, The butler muft yield to the feelings f humanity. But befides thefe arguments-beides the confideration that the butler njures the female form, and robs the oor of a partial covering is it not ajurious to the conflitution? A phyician, on whose skill I can rely, inorms me, that the unnatural heat xcited by this cincture of wool, muft, a his opinion, be productive of perniious confequences. For my part, if this abominable ractice thould be continued, and become general through the flate, I fhall defpair of our ever having more than one reprefentative in congrefs under the propofed conftitution, which in my opinion, is, and I truft will be in the opinion of the fair, a collateral argument against buftlers, of no inconfiderable weight. While I am inveighing againfl this abfurd part of drefs, I would not forget the aged matron, nor the antiquated virgin. The firft feems to have fome claim to the comforts of, if any are connected with, this broad, thick, woolen girdle: and the laft ought not to be denied them, provided he will plead her frigidity in her favour; but this reafon cannot, and I am fure will not, be urged by the numerous majority of thofe who wear them. Thefe are girls in all the glow, the plumpnefs, and elafticity of health. To these my arguments are addreffed; and may I not conclude, that they will attend to their kindly feelings for the difireffed part of their speciespay a fuitable regard to the exact fymmetry with which nature has endowed their beautiful forms, and to the prefervation of their conflitutions and without delay, renounce and difcard the ridiculous, deforming, and (may I not add ?) inhuman butler ? If any of my fair readers fhould wish to know how the butler came into vogue, they are hereby informed, that in the fall of the year 1783, the duchefs of Buffledorfe, a German lady, paid a vifit to the city of London, in Great Britain-that the redundant protuberancy of a part of her figure ftruck and engaged the attention of the ladies of the court; that from their fondness of imitation, and perhaps from political views, they put the invention of their mantua-makers to the torture, to difcover fome habiliment, that would impart to them a jutting magnificence, fimilar to that of the duchefs. The woolen bolfter, on which I have-been remarking, wss at length concluded upon; and to this circumftance the buftler owes its introduction into Great Britain, and its naine. Its paffage to, and its adoption in, America, will find an eafy key in that itrange cupidity for foreign fafhions, for which the ladies of this country are fo remarkable. Upon the departure of the duchefs from London, the bustler gradually leffened, and is now, it is faid, entirely dropped in that metropolis. If this fhould be the cafe there, it will, perhaps, have as great a tendency to throw this difgraceful appendage out of fashion here, as any thing or all the things I have faid againft it. However, I fhall think my la bour well rewarded, if I fhould find that I had, in any measure, contributed to the refloration, or rather developement, of the beautiful forms of the fair, or procured a flocking for the poor. BICKERSTAFF. Newport, (R. I.)08. 25, 1787. in Frunt-ftreet, neer the draw-britch, and laft Tufday eevnin i heard as how my cullin was come to town, and lodged neer the bank meeun houfe; and fo next mornin, bein markit day, I put on my kleen kallico gound, and my filk bonnit and my kottin flockins, and my new hi-heel fhues, to go and fee my cuffin, do you fee and it was a fogge, drifle mornin, and outregius dirty waukin. Howfumdever, I had a numbarell, and I held up my gound tale behind, to keep it from dragghn. And fo when I cum to Markit-fireet, I could not krofs over ftrate along, bekale why, there ftud three or fore grate waggens rite akrols the path, and almoft contageous to that end of the markit, that has the butiful wooden fhugar pots a top of it. Whereby I was obliged to go down hill a littel way to avoid the waggens. Now you no the hill is pritty Heep, and is paved with large flones, which being very flippy with the mud and wet, down cums me, the midst of the street. I durtied my kalliko gound moft torneshurly, broke my numbarell, fpatterd my I in Sufannah Trapes's complaint of the kleen kottin #tockins, and loft won badness of the police. Dear Sur, Lately met with a moft misfortunate difaftur; and as I think it a burning fhame that fuch things fhould be fuffered in this fity, I want you to fav fomething about it in your makafeen. I will tell you the tory as well as I kan, in my way, and then you kan rute it over again in a more fkollardly manner, that it may be prentid. For I want the wurpful the mare, or the rite wurfhipful the kiark of the markit, or their honours whofe ever bifnefs it is to luk after futch things, to fee how I hav bin farved. And fo I hope that they will be fo good as to order matters otherwafe for the footer. You mull no,miflher prentur, I live of the heels of my new thues. And then you no there is a fland of por turs a little way down the hil, and fo the grate haw-buks fet up a hofs-laf at me, and then hollud out, Take care, young woman, or you! fho your an kels: cum heer, /weet-hart, and wel help you up, and fuch loe-life fayins. I was coniarned mad, to be fure, and in my mind withd them all at the divil. I got to my cuffins, however, in a terrible piggle, and was obliged to fend hoam for dry clofe, before I coud return. Now isn't it a moft monftrom thing, that them there filthy wag gens fhud be fluck rite akrofs the treet evry markit-day, so that fakes can't pafs? Ime fhure we pay takes enuf for the fireets, and for w thing and another, and we aut 10 av them as accommodetious as pofibel. I hoap you will reprefent this natter propurly in your makafeen, nd if fo be the gentilmen fee as low peepel are farved, they will orer it otherwafe. I am, your frend to farve, SUSANNAH TRAPES. Philadelphia, O&. 20. On pronouncing dictionaries To the Printer, CUSTOM, fays a great writer, is AVERY vulgar idea feems to the tyrant of foois: if fo, how few, at this advanced age of the world, are wife Fashions begin with the rich, and the poor follow on. It has been obferved, that the wifer fort of people are the laft to come into the fafhions; but this we muft not believe, when we fee the literati contending for error. Difti onarians ought to be wife, as well as learned; but thefe, we find, are the firt to ftamp authority on error. They fay duty is djet), endure is endjure, tune is thune, flone is fun, fky is fhei, kind is keind, fortune is fortfhin, tyrant is tir-ant, and a thoufand more abfurdities. Now where do thefe grammarians and dictionari ans go for authority? Shakespeare is fo antique, Addifon fo folemn, Pope fo holy, and Dean fo fwift, that they will not copy after them-No: they can't endjure it; they don't think it their djuty; fo they keindly took hum to the English theatre, as a brighter fhei, in hopes of making their forthin-Heard, they fay, fhould be pronounced hurd, guide geide, creature creetchur, &c. Neaw, I advife thefe keind polishers of awer language, to go to brother Jonathan, for a geide: he'll larn'um, to fay keaw for cow, veaw for vow, geal for girl, heaufe for houfe, and a grate many other nafhun clever things, and he won't ax'um a farding for't nother. Auguft 7, 1787. pervade the generality of the citizens, that none but mechanics are fit to be reprefentatives in the legiflature, for the intereft of the mechanics. Any perfon, with a very fmall fhare of difcernment, would be led to think that the mechanics, and others would change their plan of electing legiflators now, fince they have been fo often deceived in their choice. I grant that a cobler may be a fit enough perfon to reprefent or advocate the interefts of fhoe-makers. tanners, curriers, faddlers, &c. but this is a very fufficient reafon why he fhould not have a feat in the legiflature; for as the good of the commonwealth, the primitive intent of a legiflative reprefentative, does not confift in the advancement of any one trade, or number of trades, but in the univerfal promotion of every honeft man's employment-he is dif qualified for a feat in the council of the flate, who is not perfectly acquainted with its general interefts. Let none but men of extenfive knowledge and liberal principles, no matter in what rank of life they appear, be elected members for fenate or affembly; for by a foolish adherence to the above vulgar idea, we have feen men taken from mechanical employments, where they were ufeful to fociety, and fent to the legiflature, where they were not only ufelefs but ridiculous, with the er roneous title of the reprefentatives of the people; but they no more repre |