The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 1, August, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 1, August, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
Speaking further of the ladies, Mr. Knickerbocker says: "Their hair,
untortured by the abominations of art, was scrupulously pomatumed back
from their foreheads with a candle, and covered with a little cap of
quilted calico. Their petticoats of linsey-woolsey, were striped with
a variety of gorgeous dyes, and all of their own manufacture. These
were the honest days, in which every woman stayed at home, read the
Bible, and wore pockets, and that too of a goodly size, fashioned with
patch-work of many curious devices, and ostentatiously worn on the
outside. Every good housewife made the clothes of her husband and
family," &c.
Such and so homely was the germ of the present goodly town that sits,
like a queen, throned between two mighty streams, with a magnificent
bay at her feet. Marks of her Dutch origin were numerous a few years
since, and are still to be found, though sparely. Of the national
customs enumerated and described by the veracious Diedrich, we find at
the present day but few. The last of the gable-fronted houses, with
curious steps in the brickwork on the sides of the peak, disappeared
some years since. Calves never frisk in Broadway now, though they
sometimes pass through it tied in carts, in defiance of humanity and
decency. The year of building is no longer written in iron on the
fronts of the houses, for
"Panting Time toils after us in vain,"
and chronology is out of date. Large doors have now large windows to
keep them company, and weather-cocks are rendered unnecessary by the
arrival of vessels from some part of the earth with every wind that
blows. The front door is now opened to every body but the master of
the house, who goes out of it in the morning not to see it again till
evening. The practice of daily inundation is now nearly limited to the
street, since Kidderminster, Brussels, and Wilton, conspire to cover
every inch of floor; but the annual house-cleaning is still in full
vogue, and no amount of slop, discomfort, destruction, and
self-sacrifice, is considered too great in the accomplishment of this
civic festival. As to rising with the dawn, the citizen of to-day
considers breakfast-time daybreak; and the dinner-hour is as various
as the fluctuations of business and pleasure. "Fashionable society"
has, at present, no very decided limits, as few of the inhabitants
keep a cow, and many of the highest pretenders to _bon ton_ do not
drive their own wagons--getting home before dark! New-York ladies make
a point of getting home before light; and if they assemble at three
o'clock it is for a _déjeûner_, or a _matinée dansante_. As for Mr.
Knickerbocker's further characterization of the genteel manners of the
olden time, it would be unhandsome in us to pursue our
counter-picture; but this we will say, in mere justice, and all joking
aside, that there are no gambling ladies in New-York, either young or
old.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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