... Well, the hypocrisy of men all over the world, especially the civilized!--for, after all, the savages are really and truly more of the gentlemen. They mean what they say to the sex, and act up to it; they don't call the suffering creatures lilies, and roses, and angels, and jewels of life, and then treat 'em as if they were weeds of the world, and pebbles of the highway. But with civilized nations--as I fling it at Mouser--they all of 'em make women the sign-post pictures of everything that's beautiful and behave to the dear originals as if they were born simpletons. "Look at Liberty, Mr. Mouser," said I, "look, you want to make Liberty look as lovely as it can be done, and what do you do? Why, you're obliged to come to women for the only beautiful Liberty that will serve you. You paint and stamp Liberty as a woman, and then--but it's so like you--then you won't suffer so much as a single petticoat to take her seat in the House of Commons. And next, Mouser"--for I would be heard--"and next, you want the figure of Justice. Woman again. There she is, with her balance and sword, as the sort of public-house sign for law, but--is a poor woman allowed to wear false hair, and put a black gown upon her back, and so much as once open her mouth on the Queen's Bench? May she put a tippet of ermine on herself--may she even find herself in a jury? Oh, no: you can paint Justice, and cut her in stone, but you never let the poor thing say a syllable." [Illustration: "Are you going?" "Why, ye-es. The fact is that your party is so slow and I am weally so infernally bored, that I shall go somewhere and smoke a quiet cigar." "Well, good-night. As you are by no means handsome, a great puppy, and not in the least amusing, I think it is the best thing you can do."] FASHION IN DRESS It is a noteworthy sign of the times that between 1841 and 1857 the specific references to the dress of men in the text of _Punch_ are much more numerous than those dealing with the vagaries of female attire. The balance inclines in the contrary direction in the pictures which, when tested by old daguerreotypes and the contents of family albums, form a substantially correct and illuminating commentary on the evolution of fashion in women's dress. So we begin with the ladies, with the double proviso that Leech and Doyle and their brother artists on _Punch_ were not fashion-plate designers, and that the charms and extravagances of the modish world which they depicted were drawn mainly from the Metropolis. _Punch_ was a Londoner, even a Cockney, and throws little light on the social life of the provinces. [Sidenote: _The Breadth of the Fashion_] [Illustration: EASIER SAID THAN DONE MASTER OF THE HOUSE: "Oh, Fred, my boy--when dinner is ready, you take Mrs. Furbelow downstairs!"] [Illustration: GRAND CHARGE OF PERAMBULATORS--AND DEFEAT OF SWELLS]