-Callida juventa
Consule Planco,

thought of the last fashion as Mr. Stiggins thought of gin and water in the Fleet, with this difference,

that the reverend gentleman indulged even in what he seemed rather in the condition of Colman's lodger, denounced as a wanity," while they would as soon put on the shirt of Nessus as a good looking garment. There are others who seem to consider

66

dress as one of the evils of life, about which it were well to think as little as possible, and in accordance with this conviction they take no concern for their bodies, as to what they shall put on." They slouch through life, mere things of shreds and patches," with an unfinished-business sort of air, as if they were miserable and didn't know exactly why. They are deterred by no economical considerations from a decent appearance, but dress shabbily because they can't help it. Some of them, indeed, spend large sums in dress, but their garments are always mal-assortis and always out of place. They would go to a funeral in all the colors of the rainbow and to a wedding in customary suits of solemn black." There is still another class, on the other extreine, who, without the least modicum of taste to restrain their extravagances, do the "ruffianly" style of dress. They are indeed "flowers of all hues," flaring in gaudy scarfs and illustrated linen and rejoicing in all manner of startling and violent contrasts. We need not pursue description of this class farther. As "gents," or "cits," they are well known everywhere. A very different person is the true artiste. We mean not the man, who makes his wardrobe the serious bu

the

-like two single gentlemen rolled into one."

But these reminiscences are carrying us off from our subject, to which we now return.

We have set out with adverting to the variance of opinion, which exists with regard to the subject in general. Perhaps in the wide diversity of taste among men, the classification might be pursued indefinitely. And yet it seems to us all would agree that in dress, as in all things else, there is a certain right path,-a juste milieu,—a truth lying in the middle, which ought to be pursued. "Nothing," says the author of the Spectator, in one of those dicta which have become axiomatic, "is more laudable than an enquiry after truth," and it is with the view of arriving at this, as far as it may be ascertained in the premises, that we propose to enter upon an exposition of THE THEORY OF THE

TOILET.

There can be little doubt that originally dress was considered simply with reference to its utility, and that the only difference in its form and texture arose from the extremes of climate. Men sought only protection from the winter's cold and covering differed with the seasons and with latitude. The from the summer's heat, and thus their garments skins of wild beasts sufficed the "gentleman from Norway," who dwelt always sub Jove frigido, while the population of the tropics walked about, like the statues of the heathen gods or the figu rantes of the opera, in as little drapery as circumstances would permit. Now in process of time, as the arts progressed, that besetting sin, which from the days of Mother Eve down to the publication of the

siness of his life, nor yet the recognized model of the fashionable world; he is but a pretender, and patent-leather can never raise him above his proper sphere. But there are some gifted individuals, who come into the world with a nice sense of the harmony of colors and the proprieties of the toilet, who first evince a just perception of the true and becoming in dress by the jackets of their boyhood, last number of Les Modes de Paris has never and who ever afterwards remain faultless in apceased to inspire her children,-the inordinate depearance. One such there was who cast a lustre sire of admiration-began to be shown in the fashon our college days. Very fair in the eye of memion and shape of clothing, and gradually colors ory, oh worthy Dr. were studied and arranged with an eye to the picis thy pleasant face, with its delicate fringe of whisker and its benig-turesque in appearance. Without recurring to the nant smile! We well recollect the mingled feel- Reports of the Fashions B. C., it may be said that ings of envy and admiration with which we were all nations soon learned to consult the graceful in wont to regard his exceeding propriety in every North sought to decorate their persons with gay costume, and even the ruder barbarians of the movement and under all circumstances, whether attired in white cravat and lemon-colored kids for apparel. We are told upon dramatic authority, an evening, or diffused upon the grass, in gown and slippers, with a fragrant Havana, or preparing the first of the vernal julaps, or making the lawn vocal with his midnight guitar! Once have we seen him since that halcyon period, but good living and a quiet conscience, while they had sweetened his temper, had spoiled his shape, and though the tailor, (not our college snip, Lucas, whom we used The progress which taste has made, however, has to call "lucus a non lucendo,") still displayed his been always subject to the modifications of climate, genius as of old, Adonis had grown into an alder- and we shall find that the garments of the present man, and being no longer what he was day are loose and flowing, or tightly drawn, just as

that

"A painted vest Prince Vortigern had on, (although the subsequent statement, we must confess, perplexes us,)

Which from a naked Pict his grandsire won."

the wearer lives in a warm or cold region. With | bitter weather, no matter whether it was sleeting or regard to our own country, it is spread over so large snowing, he was never seen in the street in any an extent of surface, that all possible styles of dress thing of the kind. One keen winter afternoon, an prevail. The hyperborean differs not more widely Englishman, who was making his way to his dinin outward semblance from the native of the burn-ner at the hotel as rapidly as he could, to his infiing desert than the good daughters of New Eng-nite amazement, met Monsieur de Z———— with his land from those fair Senoritas, whom the Mexican surtout open, and looking the very emblem of the War has recently brought within the pale of citi-season. Boldly erect, however, with his hat on zenship. On the Lakes, and in the Far West, one side, he appeared to defy the elements, and there is constant demand for furs and fire wood, stalked towards him as magnanimously insouciant while in Georgia, a summer "uniform" is said to as if he had been clad in sables. The Englishbe worn of the lightest possible description. Mr. man, with his cloak thrown up to his very eyes, Wordsworth may not be considered good authority like a true Hidalgo, struck with the transparent on the subject, but he informs us of a "Georgia appearance of the garde-du-corps, asked him, in a Major," who won the affections of his beauteous really compassionate tone, if he did not feel the Ruth, who was very lightly clad indeed :

"There came a youth from Georgia's shore-
A military casque he wore,
With splendid feathers drest;

He brought them from the Cherokees;
The feathers nodded in the breeze,
And made a gallant crest."

But Mr. Wordsworth goes on to compliment him
as a fine fellow, and a real Ben Brace for fun :

"He was a lovely youth! I guess

The panther in the wilderness

cold? Froid, Monsieur,' said the haughty Car

list, un homme comme-il-faut n'a jamais froid!" " Apropos of this, it is certain that of all nations, the French exert the most unlimited sway in the world of fashion. From the French Capital as a centre, fashion radiates her light, and all the rest of mankind look to it for the divine ray. How impoLord John Russell and his compeers may regulate tent, indeed, is any other nation in comparison ! tariffs and adjust treaties-may even prevent her Majesty from visiting a portion of her own dominions-but can they change the cut of a coat? Can they subject Christendom to a prescribed mode with And when he chose to sport and play, the authority of an army regulation? No. This No dolphin ever was so gay Upon the tropic sea." belongs alone to the Gauls. It is their province to order, it is ours to obey. French taste has extended Notwithstanding the remarkable contrasts in dress, its supremacy everywhere. Following the sun and which we have pointed out among ourselves, the keeping company with the hours," it has filled the hierarchy of fashion in its potent ministrations still earth with French cooks and French tailors. The preserves a sufficient uniformity in the large cities genius of fashion, as she sits enthroned with all to set us apart as one people. Though the ele- the immunities of sovereignty, in the Palais Royal, gante of Boston derives his mode from Regent may indeed look around her and inquire “Where Street and he of New Orleans from the Boulevards, is not my influence felt?

Was half so fair as he;

Quis jam locus

Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena laboris?"

still there is a marked similarity in their garments, and but little change is made on account of the difference of latitude. Snow rarely falls on the dome of the St. Charles, while Washington Street No geographical divisions can stop the progress is blockaded with it four months in the year, and of her tenets, "there are no longer Pyrenees" to yet fashion prescribes nearly the same dress for the oppose the extension of her empire, but it reaches two places. It seems to raise its votaries above to the farther end of every continent to Rio, to the fluctuations of the thermometer and to give Hong Kong, to the Southern Archipelago, to the them an equable temperament every where. We hundred gates of Thebes! It has been well said that recollect having read a good story, (it is told by French fashion has done more to preserve the peace Captain Jesse in his Life of Brummell.) of an old of Europe, during the last twenty-five years, than all garde-du-corps of Charles X., which illustrates other causes put together. What power would wage very forcibly this feeling, although the nil admirari war against the people, who can alone supply us with in his case proceeded from altogether a different new garments! Consider for a moment the effects "He had only his half-pay, seven hundred of an act of non-intercourse with France! Where and fifty francs a year, and his wardrobe, as might should we look for ribbons or gloves or comfits? naturally be expected, was rather deficient on such an The recent sanguinary conflicts in Paris, growincome. Fortunately his affluent friends of the same ing out of the establishment of the Provisional Gopolitical opinions sometimes assisted him with a coat, vernment, while as friends of humanity they have and occasionally with a pair of inexpressibles, or The English papers, by the last steamer, inform us a dinner; but never did their friendly donations ex- that the ministry had at last determined not to permit the tend to a cloak or a great-coat, and in the most Queen to visit Ireland, as she had intended.

cause.

filled us with painful regrets and sympathies, have | Indeed the hat may be regarded as the type of its not failed at the same time to excite very serious wearer. We believe that in a majority of cases apprehensions with regard to the fate of the fash- we could define the individual with no other data ions. Shall we not soon be compelled to wear than his hat. Given the hat,―to find the profes blue blouses and l'habits des artisans and all sorts sion, the opinions and the habits of the man would of misshapen and uncomfortable vestments? For be a problem capable, we think, of easy solution. deliverance from such perils, we look to Lamar- Suppose the persons unknown to pass by us, betine, who is said to be the best dressed man of the hind a screen just high enough to conceal them, metropolis. Like all truly great Frenchmen, he but to allow a sight of their hats, we should say, understands the theory of the toilet. For no qual that under the low slouched hat, which moves onity was the greatest of Frenchmen more remarka- ward with a jerk, there is a money-lender of the ble than his intuitive good taste in such matters. Mosaic brotherhood; the smart, pert, shining hat, A very entertaining work published in Paris in 1832, set jauntily on one side, is worn by a dandy clerk; under the title of "Code Civil, Manuel Complet the humble, unresisting chapeau covers a clergyde la Politesse, du Ton, des Manières, de la bon-man of low church principles; the misshapen, carene Compagnie, &c.," relates a characteristic anec- less hat of rough nap bespeaks the husband, while dote on this point. On the morning of Napoleon's beneath the highly respectable, well-brushed hat interview with Alexander of Russia on the Nie- there may be seen a "Cœlebs in search of a wife,” men, Murat and General Dorsenne rode up together of whom we would be willing to swear, like Clauto take their places in his train; Murat as usual dio in the play, "If he be not in love with some tricked out with feathers and embroidery and stars woman, there is no believing old signs: he brushes Dorsenne in that simple and elegant dress which his hat o'mornings: what should that bode?" rendered him the model of the army. Napoleon We are persuaded that the fashionable hat of our greeted Dorsenne with a smile of singular cour-time is the most ungraceful head-dress that was tesy, then turning abruptly round upon Murat, he said, "Go and put on your marshal's uniform; you have the air of Franconi's."

But we are again wandering. And as we fear that what we have written so far is likely to be of little practical value, we shall proceed at once to some useful hints with reference to certain particular articles of dress. Here we beg to go along with an esteemed old author, who discussed the same subject long ago:

66

To begin firste with their hattes. Sometymes thei use them sharpe on the croune, pearking up like the spere or shafte of a steeple, standing a quarter of a yarde above the croune of their heades; some more, some lesse, as please the phantasies of their inconstant mindes. Othersome be flat and broade in the croune, like the battlements of a house."

ever devised. No hat of a past age, since gentlemen have discarded steel and iron from their wardrobe, was so ill-adapted to its purposes or so lit tle becoming to the person. Nor can we find so bad an article anywhere at the present day. There is the turban, which is worn by unbelievers, which never gives one the head-ache-quite a model headdress in comparison. The peaked hat of the Spanish contrabandista,—such as is worn by Fra Diavolo in the third act,-is far more picturesque. Even the queer looking thing which we see on the head of Mephistopheles in the German etchings, though somewhat unpleasantly associated with the qualities of that unamiable individual, is a prettier attire. Recent events have brought into vogue a hat, which is capable of being managed in good hands very effectively, but which may be greatly abused, the Mexican sombrero. But the hat, the Now the hat is a very important matter. How most to our fancy, that we have ever seen, (and we much may depend upon it, no one can tell. It is have seen this only on paper,) is the one which the first object on which the eye rests in regarding the engravers represent as having contained within the appearance of a stranger; and this, perhaps, its ample dimensions "as much wisdom as could may be the reason that we are so much swayed in live" in the head of Sir Francis Bacon. It is our prepossessions by its condition. If we meet a comely, sober, and comfortable. man, for instance, who wears a "shocking bad hat," As we cannot hope to regulate the style, however, we at once set him down as a person of no con- and bring out such a hat as we should most desire, sideration, while a new castor never fails to impart it becomes us to make the best of the prevailing a certain pleasing air to the features which it sur- mode. And we shall take the liberty here of of mounts. It is worthy of remark, too, that if we fering some good hints to the reader as to the sewould describe a person, the description commen- lection of his hat. 1st. Get a new one every three ces invariably with the hat. The messenger of months or at least semi-annually. 2nd. Never be Hotspur, when he would announce the coming of in advance of the fashion, but be content to keep Prince Hal, glittering in golden coat, begins very up with it. 3rd. Never wear a white hat, unless naturally,

"I saw young Harry,-with his beaver on."

for plantation purposes, and then get a broad brim. But above all, never put a black string around it. Leave that to the stable boys. 4th. Do not rely too

The Theory of the Toilet.

much on your own whims, but select a good shop for your purchases and leave the fitting to the dealer.

559

eagles been successful under any other neck-cloth. How far the cravate blanc influenced the fortunes of his last battle, we leave to our readers to ex

Reader, if you can give us four better maxims plain. than these, you may take-our hat.

The next article in our synthesis of dress, (for we are proceeding synthetically,) is the cravat, of which a French writer has said "L'art de mettre sa cravate est à l'homme du monde ce que l'art de donner à diner est à l'homme d'ètat." We should say that it is not to the man of the world alone that the art of tying the cravat is important, and that diplomacy has never suffered so much from bad dinners as mankind from vicious and erroneous views on this subject. When we consider that it encircles the region of the epiglottis and deeply affects the respiration of the wearer, it will be seen at once how important it is to have it rightly adjusted. We propose not to enter upon a historical treatise of the cravat, or we might easily demonstrate that it had its origin in the effeminacy of the later days of Rome and was not introduced among our immediate ancestors, until the early part of the 17th century. The impetus given to the manufacture of English silks by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, brought cravats into general use, and it may now be safely assumed that the human neck will never regain its former freedom.

The best material for the cravat is satin or silk of an uniform color. Glaring colors should be avoided and stripes and spots are most objectionable. It should be folded in the simplest manner and tied in a common knot, so loosely as to allow the neck the "largest liberty" that can be attained.

With regard to the white cravat, for purposes of full dress, although sanctioned by general usage, we have our doubts. Few persons are improved in appearance by it, and those of dark complexion are rendered positively frightful from the contrast. Fair skins and blue eyes-genuine Saxon characteristics-consort very well with the white cravat, and it always imparts to such persons an air of repose, that is quite taking. On the whole, we should regard it as an article that could not be too cautiously adopted. There is said to be danger in it, too. We have seen an ingenious hypothesis, which assumed that the bronchial affections, so prevalent among the clergy, resulted altogether from their white cravats. There is some plausibility at least in this conjecture. We have a friend, remarkable for his energy and his eloquence in the pulpit, who enjoys excellent health, which we have been in the habit of attributing to the fact that he never wears white cravats. It may be mentioned 100, as a curious coincidence, that on the fatal day of Waterloo, Napoleon appeared for the first time in the field in a white cravat.

The sun of Austerlitz had seen him in black silk, and never had his

Closely connected with the cravat is the shirt collar; and a consideration of this will at once involve us in the vexata quæstio, whether they should be worn standing. The inventive genius of Lord Byron, as is well known, was exhibited in the introduction of a new style of collar, which has ever since been called by his naine, and is of universal adoption among ourselves. We consider this style as altogether the most natural and as affording a closer approximation than any other to the primitive freedom of the neck. Latterly, we have been called upon to adopt the standing style and made to pass sub jugo, under the yoke, and we cannot help fancying that to the eye of a foreigner, we must look, under this unaccustomed restraint, very much like the dandies that Biddy Fudge saw in Paris;

Quite a new sort of creatures, unknown yet to scholars,
That seats, like our music-stools, soon must be found them,
With heads, so immovably stuck in shirt collars,
To twirl when the creatures may wish to look round them."

After all, the whole question is perhaps a physical
one and resolves itself into this-whether the neck
to be enveloped is handsome or otherwise. Dr.
Holmes, in his poem of Urania, discusses it very
satisfactorily, arriving at the conclusion that the
standing style is to be preferred.

"Our freeborn race, averse to every check,
Has tossed the yoke of Europe from its neck;
From the green prairie, to the sea-girt town,
The whole wide nation turns its collars down.

"The stately neck is manhood's manliest part;
It takes the life-blood freshest from the heart;
With short, curled ringlets close around it spread,
How light and strong it lifts the Grecian head!
Thine, fair Erectheus of Minerva's wall;-
Or thine, young Athlete of the Louvre's hall,
Smooth as the pillar flashing in the sun

That filled the arena where thy wreaths were won,--
Firm as the band that clasps the antlered spoil
Strained in the winding anaconda's coil!

I spare the contrast: it were only kind
To be a little, nay, intensely blind :
Choose for yourself: I know it cuts your ear;
I know the points will sometimes interfere;
I know that often, like the filial John,
Whom sleep surprised with half his drapery on,
You show your features to the astonished town
With one side standing and the other down ;-
But O my friend! my favorite fellow man!
If nature made you on her modern plan,
Sooner than wander with your windpipe bare,-
The fruit of Eden ripening in the air,-
With that lean head-stalk, that protruding chin,
Wear standing collars, were they made of tin!
And have a neck-cloth-by the throat of Jove!
Cut from the funnel of a rusty stove!"

Proceed we to the coat-the toga virilis-the