a Scythian, and wished his boots "hung in their own straps." I danced round the room upon one foot many times, and after several intervals for respiration and pious ejaculation, I succeeded in getting my toes into trouble, or I may say purgatory. Corns I had as many as the most fanatic pilgrim would desire for peas in his shoes, yet I walked through the crowd (who were probably admiring their own boots too much to bestow a thought upon mine,) as if I were a carpet knight pelonaising upon rose leaves. I was in torment, yet there was not a cloud upon my brow,

Spem vulta simulat, premit altum corde dolorem.

I could not have suffered for principle as I suffered for those memorable boots.

The coat I wore, was such as fashion enjoined; the skirts were long and narrow, like a swallow's tail, two-thirds at least of the whole length. The portion above the waist composed the other third. The waist was directly beneath the shoulders; the collar was a huge roll reaching above the ears, and there were two lines of brilliant buttons in front. There were nineteen buttons in a row. The pantaloons, (over which I wore the boots,) were of non-elastic corduroy. It would be unjust to the tailor to say that they were fitted like my skin; for they sat a great deal closer. When I took them off, my legs were like fluted pillars, grooved with the cords of the pantaloons. The hat that surmounted this dress had three-quarters of an inch rim, and a low tapering crown. It was circled by a ribbon two inches wide.

There is no modern dress that does not deform the human shape and some national costumes render it more grotesque than any natural deformity. Dress, at present, seems as much worn to conceal the form, as language is used to hide and not to express the thoughts. In a fashionable costume, all are forms alike; there is no difference between Antinous or Esop; Hyperion or a Satyr."

We know nothing so revolting to the sense of grave people of both sexes as was the first use among us of ladies' pantalettes, which came into use slowly and cautiously about the year 1830. We well remember the first female who had the hardihood to appear abroad in their display; she was a tall girl in her minority, always accompanied by her mother, the wife of a British officer, come then to settle among us. Her pantalettes were courageously displayed among us, with a half length petticoat. Often we heard the remark in serious circles, that it was an abomination unto the Lord to wear men's apparel. The fashion, however, went first for children till it got familiar to the eyes, and then ladies, little by little, followed after, till in time they became pretty general as a "defence from cold in winter," and for-we know not what-in summer!

FURNITURE AND EQUIPAGE.

"Dismiss a real elegance, a little used,

For monstrous novelty and strange disguise."

THE tide of fashion which overwhelms every thing in its onward course, has almost effaced every trace of what our forefathers possessed or used in the way of household furniture, or travelling equipage. Since the year 1800 the introduction of foreign luxury, caused by the influx of wealth, has been yearly effecting successive changes in those articles, so much so, that the former simple articles, which contented, as they equally served the purposes of our forefathers, could hardly be conceived. Such as they were, they descended acceptably unchanged from father to son and son's son, and presenting at the era of our Independence, precisely the same family picture which had been seen in the earliest annals of the town.

Formerly there were no sideboards, and when they were first introduced after the Revolution, they were much smaller and less expensive than now. Formerly they had couches of worsted damask, and only in very affluent families, in lieu of what we now call sofas or lounges. Plain people used settees and settles-the latter had a bed concealed in the seat, and by folding the top of it outwards to the front, it exposed the bed and widened the place for the bed to be spread upon it. This, homely as it might now be regarded, was a common sitting room appendage, and was a proof of more attention to comfort than display. It had, as well as the settee, a very high back of plain boards, and the whole was of white pine, generally unpainted and whitened well with unsparing scrubbing. Such was in the poet's eye, when pleading for his sofa,

They were a very common article in very good houses, and were generally the proper property of the oldest members of the familyunless occasionally used to stretch the weary length of tired boys. They were placed before the fireplaces in the winter to keep the back guarded from wind and cold. Formerly there were no windsor chairs, and fancy chairs are still more modern. Their chairs of the genteelest kind, were of mahogany or red walnut, (once a great substitute for mahogany in all kinds of furniture, tables, &c.) or else they were of rush bottoms, and made of maple posts and slats, with high backs and perpendicular. Instead of japanned waiters as now, they had mahogany tea boards and round tea tables, which being

When the first windsor chairs were introduced, they were universally green

turned on an axle underneath the centre, stood upright, like an ex panded fan or palm leaf in the corner. Another corner was occu pied by a beaufet, which was a corner closet with a glass door, in which all the china of the family and the plate were intended to be displayed for ornament as well as use. A conspicuous article in the collection was always a great china punch bowl, which furnished a frequent and grateful beverage,-for wine drinking was then much less in vogue. China tea cups and saucers were about half their present size; and china tea pots and coffee pots with silver nozles was a mark of superior finery. The sham of plated ware was not then known; and all who showed a silver surface had the massive metal too. This occurred in the wealthy families in little coffee and tea pots, and a silver tankard for good sugared toddy, was above vulgar entertainment. Where we now use earthenware, they then used delfware imported from England, and instead of queensware (then unknown) pewter platters and porringers, made to shine along a "dresser," were universal. Some, and especially the country people, ate their meals from wooden trenchers. Gilded looking glasses and picture frames of golden glare were unknown, and both, much smaller than now, were used. Small pictures painted on glass with black mouldings for frames, with a scanty touch of goldleaf in the corners, was the adornment of a parlour. The looking-glasses in two plates, if large, had either glass frames, figured with flowers engraved thereon, or was of scalloped mahogany, or of Dutch wood scalloped-painted white or black, with here and there some touches of gold. Every householder in that day deemed it essential to his convenience and comfort to have an ample chest of drawers in his parlour or sitting room, in which the linen and clothes of the family were always of ready access. It was no sin to rummage them before company! These drawers were sometimes nearly as high as the ceiling. At other times they had a writing desk about the centre with a falling lid to write upon when let down. A great high clockcase, reaching to the ceiling, occupied another corner, and a fourth corner was appropriated to the chimney place. They then had no carpets on their floors, and no paper on their walls. The silver sand on the floor was drawn into a variety of fanciful figures and twirls with the sweeping brush, and much skill and pride was displayed therein in the devices and arrangement. They had then no argand or other lamps in parlours, but dipped candles, in brass or copper candlesticks, was usually good enough for common use; and those who occasionally used mould candles, made them at home, in little tin frames, casting four to six candles in each. A glass lantern with square sides furnished the entry lights in the houses of the affluent. Bedsteads then were made, if fine, of carved mahogany, of slender dimensions; but, for common purposes, or for the families

The first which ever came to this country is in my possession-originally a present trom Thomas Jefferson to Charles Thomson.

of good tradesmen, they were of poplar and always painted green. It was a matter of universal concern to have them low enough to answer the purpose of repose for sick or dying persons-a provision so necessary for such possible events, now so little regarded by the modern practice of ascending to a bed by steps like clambering up to a hay mow.

A lady, giving me the reminiscences of her early life, thus speaks of things as they were before the war of Independence. Marble mantels and folding doors were not then known, and well enough we enjoyed ourselves without sofas, carpets, or girandoles. A white floor sprinkled with clean white sand, large tables and heavy high back chairs of walnut or mahogany, decorated a parlour genteelly enough for any body. Sometimes a carpet, not, however, covering the whole floor, was seen upon the dining room. This was a show-parlour up stairs, not used but upon gala occasions, and then not to dine in. Pewter plates and dishes were in general use. China on dinner tables was a great rarity. Plate, more or less, was seen in most families of easy circumstances, not indeed, in all the various shapes that have since been invented, but in massive silver waiters, bowls, tankards, cans, &c. Glass tumblers were scarcely seen. Punch, the most common beverage, was drunk by the company from one large bowl of silver or china; and beer from a tankard of silver.

The rarity of carpets, now deemed so indispensable to comfort, may be judged of by the fact, that T. Matlack, Esq., when aged 95, told me he had a distinct recollection of meeting with the first carpet he had ever seen, about the year 1750, at the house of Owen Jones, at the corner of Spruce and Second streets. Mrs. S. Shoemaker, an aged Friend of the same age, told me she had received as a rare present from England a Scotch carpet; it was but twelve feet square, and was deemed quite a novelty then, say seventy years ago. When carpets afterwards came into general use they only covered the floor in front of the chairs and tables. The covering of the whole floor is a thing of modern use. Many are the anecdotes which could be told of the carpets and the country bumpkins. There are many families who can remember that soon after their carpets were laid, they have been visited by clownish persons, who showed strong signs of distress at being obliged to walk over them; and when urged to come in, have stole in close to the sides of the room tip-toed, instinctively, to avoid sullying them!

It was mentioned before that the papering of the walls of houses was not much introduced till after the year 1790. All the houses which I remember to have seen in my youth were whitewashed only; there may have been some rare exceptions. As early as the year 1769, we see that Plunket Fleeson first manufactures American paper hangings at the corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets, and also paper mache, or raised paper mouldings, in imitation of carving, either coloured or gilt. But, although there was thus an offer to

paper rooms, their introduction must have been extremely rare. The uncle of the present Joseph P. Norris, Esq., had his library or office room papered, but his parlours were wainscotted with oak and red cedar, unpainted and polished with wax and robust rubbing. This was at his seat at Fairhill, built in 1717.

The use of stoves in families was not known in primitive times, neither in families, nor in churches. Their fireplaces were as large again as the present, with much plainer mantelpieces. In lieu of marble plates round the sides and top of the fireplaces, it was or namented with china-dutch-tile pictured with sundry Scripture pieces. Dr. Franklin first invented the "open stove," called also "Franklin stove," after which, as fuel became scarce, came in the better economy of the "ten plate stove."

When china was first introduced among us in the form of tea sets, it was quite a business to take in broken china to mend. It was done by cement in most cases; but generally the larger articles, like punch bowls were done with silver rivets or wire. More than half the punch bowls you could see were so mended.

It is only of late years that the practice of veneering mahogany and other valuable wood has prevailed among us. All the old fur niture was solid.

Having got the possession of a copy of an original draft of a letter of Mrs. Fenjamin Franklin, written in 1765, to her husband then in Europe, I am enabled to ascertain some facts of household economy which show a state of imported luxuries in the higher classes, at an earlier period than might be inferred, from the facts told in these pages. It is her letter of minute description of their new house, just then erected in the Doctor's absence, in Franklin Court. I give it as a picture of domestic doings then. She says, "In the room down stairs is the sideboard, which is very handsome and plain, with two tables made to suit it and a dozen of chairs also. The chairs are plain horse hair, and look as well as Paduasoy, and are admired by all. The little south room I have papered, as the walls were much soiled. In this room is a carpet I bought cheap for its goodness, and nearly new. The large carpet is in the blue room. In the parlour is a Scotch carpet which has had much fault found with it. Your timepiece stands in one corner, which is, as I am told, all wrong—but 1 say, we shall have all these as they should be, when you come home. If you could meet with a Turkey carpet, I should like it; but if not, I shall be very easy, for as to these things, I have become quite indifferent at this time. In the north room where we sit, we have a small Scotch carpet,-the small bookcase,-brother John's picture, and one of the King and Queen. In the room for our friends, we have the Earl of Bute hung up, and a glass. May I desire you to remember drinking glasses, and a large table cloth or two; also a pair of silver canisters. The closet doors in your room have been framed for glasses, unknown to me; I shall send you an account of