The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume], January 20, 1860, Image 1

About The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865

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VOL. XI—NO. 41
Marriages of Consanguinity.
From ihe Cincinnati Gazette
The messages of several of our Govern
ors, the startling array of figures gathered
from the annual reports of asylums for the
idiotic and insane, and the lamentable in
stances of physical and mental suffering that
meet the observation of all who ever think
of the subject, have of late aroused a wide
spread repugnance to marriages between
persons ot the same blood. The assertion
of Gov. Magoffin that fifteen or twenty per
' cent, of the deformed and imbecile of Ken
tucky are the offspring of cousins is in
accordance with fact. Bills have been
introduced into the State Legislature to
prohibit the marriage of first cousius. There
is nothing new in the principles of these
prohibitions.
While the Egyptian Pharaohs Gspoused
their sisters, while incest even more horrible
prevailed among the ancient Persiaus, and
while even the enlightened Greeks permitted
the intermarriage of half brothers and sis
j ters, the Jews obeyed the law of Moses,
which forbade the nuptials of relatives more
nearly allied than cousins of the first degree.
The statistics of many modern communities,
and of most of our States, have in this
respect been based upon the code of the
Hebrew Lawgiver. In Sweden, however,
uucle and niece are permitted to marry, as
will be seen by the works of Frederika
Bremer. If we are not mistaken, New
York is also an exception to the rule. Some
years since, a young uncle and niece eloped
Irom one of th New England States to
New York, and there tied the nuptial knot.
They afterward returned home, their mar«
riage being voidable, and uot void, as would
have been an incestuous union in the ascend-
ing or descending line of relationship.
The Canon law is even more rigid than
■ the Mosaic. By it, affiuity, as well as
consanguinity, is a bar. Thence was derived
the doctrine that has extended into some
Protestant denominations, that the relatives
of a man’s wife are also his own. The
Roman Catholic Church, we believe, stil
prohibits the marriage of all degrees nearer
than that of third cousin, except by special
dispensation, which, unfortunately, Uas too
frequently been granted. Phillip 11, of
Spain, an 1 his grandson, Philip IV,married
their nieces. The child of the former, by
this unnatural connection, was that Philip
111. who. some historians tell us, would not,
ror fear of violating etiquette, move back
from an over he ited brazier, until he was
made fatally ill.
The offspring of the latter was that mad-
man, Charles 11, who lived a life of misery,
, in the belief that he was bewitched, and
dying without issue, ended the Spanish line
of the House of Hapsburg. The Spanish
nobility, it is well known, have intermarried
until they have become dwarfish in body,
stupid in mind, and of no earthly use to
themselves or their country. Perhaps,
however, the most revolting cases of inces
j tuous alliances in modern times, were pre
; sented in Portugal in the last century.
| Joseph, the reigning monarch, had three
daughters, but no sons. It was contrary to
the law ol the realm lor a princess to marry
a foreigner, without forfeiting her right to
the succession ; a union with a subject was
out of the question. Accordingly Ins eldest
daughter, Donna Maria, was married to her
uuele Pedro, and by him hud, among other
children, John, subsequently the sixth sov-
ercign ol that name. But this was not all,
in 1777, when Joseph was on his death bed.
lie called in his grand son, then a boy of
and caused him to be uuited to his
aunt Barbara, a mature maiden of thirty
four. Happily this last match proved child
less, and Barbara survived but a few years.
Had a sensible ecclesiastical law been strict
ly enforced, we should have been spared the
recital of such disgusting transactions as
the above.
We have thus alluded to a few instances
of the infringement of an ecclesiastical law;
the evil results of the violation of the laws
of man’s nature, now demand our notice.
Setting aside the consideration of the disor
ders that would ensue to the family system
were very near relatives allowed to iuter
marry, there is a natural revolt of man’s
reason against such a union, for which phys
iological science affords abundant foundation
The raiser of stock, of poultry, or grain
and fruit even, knows that an occasionel
frost or engrafting is indispensable to pra
serve them from degeneracy. So it is with
man ; the intermingling of the same vital
current creates physical and mental defects
by developing to excess every usefu 1 faculty
and agreeable feature, and magnifies and
intensifies those already in existence. The
constantly concentrating re lationship of the
reigning tumilies of Europe, before the in
troduction of so much fresh blood, by the
revolutions of the early part of the present
century, had made them all look very much
alike—more so than they now do. Nearly
every monarch on the throne had a retreat
ing forehead, a large nose and a prominent
j -w ; it may be added, also, that the stand
ard regal brain was in precisely an inverse
ratio to the size of the features beneath it
Apparently conscious of these similarities.
Mr. Dickens alludes, in the opening chapter,
of his Two Cities, to the large jaw of the
king that ruled iu England in 1775, and to
the equally large jaw of the contemporane
ous sovereign of France.
The House of Austria preserves to this
day the heavy lip of their homely mouthed
ancestress—Margaret Jaghellon or “ Maul
sasch.” The German dynasty that rules
England has inherited two legacies not as
harmless as a pout. Insanity and scrofula
were a part of the dowry of Augusta of
Saxe Coburg, the mother of George 111.
Her son died a maniac ; his son and succes
sor, George IV., was scrofulous from boy
hood ; his sisters were infected with the
same malady. Their brother, Ernest Au
gustus, was guilty of crimes, of which, w'e
hope, insanity was the cause; 1113 son and
successor on the throne of Hanover, the off
spring of another marriage between cousins,
is stone blind. Her reigning Majesty, it
has been more than once hinted, is sub
ject to occasional fits of great mental excite
ment.
\Y r e might show how the children of
Louis XIY. of France died prematurely,
after a life cursed by disgusting and painful
maladies, tell how the unpurified current of
Bourbon blood has prepared for more than
one of the Neapolitan Princes a death like
those of Sylla and Herod. It is not neces
sary, however, to prosecute our researches
farther into the lazaar houses of royal in
firmities.
Our own country, though it cannot yield
the experiences of as many generations as
the genealogies of monarchs, affords ample
illustration of the danger of disobeying the
laws of nature, which are the laws of God.
The statement of the Governor of Kentucky
has already been adduced ; our readers will
remember the summing up, if uot all the
data, of the tables published about a year
since, by an eminent physician of that State.
He proved by figures that idiocy, insanity,
deformity, ills, were the rarely omitted be
quests of nearly related parents to their
children.
There is a family in Ohio, which by inter
marriage of two or three generations, bad
become scrofulous and otherwise diseased.
The union of one of its members to a healthy
woman, not his relation, has give vigor
and prospects of permanency to one branch.
The G ’s of Virginia have sought, by
intermarriage, to retain their wealth and
importance, until, to use the words of one
who knows them well, “ they are possessed
of all ills that flesh is heir to.”
We know in another State, a large con
nection, too proud to seek connubial bliss
out of its own bounds, two-thirds of the
members of which have immoderately large
noses, small blue eyes, closely resembling
those of the pig, and almost as homely, and
with mental optics not disproportioned to
their physical. A medical man, of large
practice and long experience, has assured us
that out of many cases of the of
cousins, he has but in two or three instances
failed to perceive in the offspring mental’or
physical deformity, or both combined. This
is the result of the infraction of law by one
generation ouly.
We could multiply facts indefinitely, but
perhaps have already spoken more plainly
than a fastidious social etiquette will ap
prove. If our statements have been un
pleasant. truth must be our justification for
a trespass on good taste. It would be in
teresting to extend our inquiries—to trace
the cause of national decay to the want of
the iuvigorating influences of an infusion of
fresh blood ; to consider the influences that
the immigration of thoughtful Germans may
exert in tempering the too impetuous Yan
kee character ; to analyze the attractions
and repulsions of races; but the practical
aspects of our subject, must for the present,
be restricted. It is to be hoped that the
marriage of blood relations will be prohib
ited, not only in Kentucky, but in every
other State and community.
Anti Slavery Fanatics. —An Anti-
Slavery Convention, of the Pillsburv stripe,
met at Buffalo, Jan. 10. The resolutions
are emphatic, and embrace the following
ideas:
American slavery is the sum of all villanies,
a combination of all cruelties and crimes,
robbery, piracy, adultery, murder and what
ever else is impure, unholy and accursed.
Slaveholders have no right to life, linerty or
the pursuit of happiness, and should be re
garded as criminals and outlaws, and should
be compelled to release their prey. Our
Union with such slaveholders is also a sin
aud a crime. The least threat of disunion
from the South should have been hailed with
joy by all the friends of the enslaved. The
governments of the slave states are but or
ganized bands of thieves and robbers, living
by plunder and piracy on the avails of unpaid
toil; and, finally, it is the duty of Senators
and representatives from non-slavebolding
states to return to their constituencies and
take measures for the foundation of a North
ern confederacy, that should be indeed free
and an asylum for the oppressed of all na
tions.
The new Ecclesiastical College for North
Americans was opened at Rome on the 7th
alt. It is a magnificent building, capable
of lodging more than one hundred pupils.
When it is 12 o’clock in New York city,
it is 41 minutes past 10 in St. Paul.
SAINT PAUL, FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1860
120 Dead Bodies Recovered, and 162
Persons Still Missing.
TESTIMONY BEFORE THE CORONER
Lawrence, Mass. Jun. 12—At the in
quest to-day, Jesse Glover, overseer of the
repair shop of the Pemberton manufacturing
company, testified that he at times had seen
cracks in the walls, but nothing that he con
sidered serious. He had never strengthened
the walls with iron works, but had heard it
was so strengthened. He thought the build
ing was weak, but apprehended no danger;
did not think it as strong as such buildings
usually are; had heard that the timbers
were not bolted to the walls ; iron trusses
were put in to the building before he went
to work there; the boiler appeared perfectly
sound; it was in a separate building; h
examined the building since the accident.
Mr. Chase, agent of the mill, testified as
to his escape. He said there was less
weight at the end that fell, than at the other;
four fly frames in the fourth story, were
moved that day, from the part which fell to
another place ; they weighed a ton and a
half; there were probably 800 persons in
the building ; he did not know how the fire
caught; the Essex company built the mill;
he did not know how it was constructed
there were cracks each side of the chimney,
in the building, which were caused by the
swaying of the chimney ; the chimney had
broken away from the building, and iron had
been placed around it to strengthen it, but
not from any fear of the building itself ;
there have been no new cracks near the
chimney for two years; kaow of no other
crack in the building ; wass less motion in
the building than in others ; he considered
it safe, as it had stood six years.
John Patterson overseer in the weaving
room, in the basement, testified as to his
escape; had heard a statement that the
building was unsafe, but never noticed any
thing about it to make him think so. Mr.
Corliss, who put in the sbaftiDg had told
him, he did not consider the building safe.
He also understood he said two upright
shafts whould in time shake the end of the
building out. I don’t think over thirty
persons employed in my room were killed ;
there were 304 employed there last Monday.
John Pinter, woolen manufacturer, in the
Washington mill testified, he with others,
helped what they could ; we got the roof
off and took oat the machinery, wood and
bodies, there were some men near me wit lan
terns, and as they were doing no good, I said:
for God’s sake, take care of those lanterns.
There is cotton all around here.” 1 saw
our men all going to a hole with two lan
terns and shortly after saw them come out
with only one lantern. In a moment after
he saw the flames. The men ran in to
the crowd and he after them, but did not
catch them. The lanterns were’guarded ones
and think they were filled with oil. The
fire took from loose cotton hanging about
the card machine.
Richard A. Plummer testified that vari
ous men went to work to clear away with
axe3 and bar 3, and two men had lanterns to
see to work by ; by some accident one lan
tern broke or fell, and when the flames struck
the cutton the fire at once sprang up.
The inquest will last several days.
Boston, Jan. 12.-Mayor Sanders’ dispatch
says that he sees no reason to change his
opinion as to the number dead and missing.
Many of the dead have been claimed by
friends, but many, past indentification, have
been interred.
The New Texan Senator*
Some events in the life of Mr. Wigfall,
the new Senator from Texas, who takes
Gen. Houston’s seat, strikingly illustrates
the state of Southern society, and the bar
barous practices ot men educated under the
duelling system. Several years ago Mr.
Wigfall was a resident of South Carolina,
and a member of the Legislature of that
State. A difficulty arose between him and
Mr. Brooks, the father of the late Preston
S. Brooks, and Mr. Wigfall posted Mr.
Brooks as a rascal and coward, after the
Southern fashion. Mr. Bird, a son of the
then wife of Mr. Brooks, came to town about
the time, but, in ignorance of the difficulty,
called on Mr. Wigfall, with whom he was
on friendly terms, and invited him to his
then approaching wedding. The two gen
tlemen were proceeding through the street
together, when the placard in question
attracted Mr. Bird’s attention. Turning at
once to Mr. Wigfall, he asked if he, Mr.
W., was the author. Mr. Wigfall respond
ed that he was. Mr. Bird then said he
would tear it down. Mr. Wigfall forbade
him at his peril. Mr. Bird, however, did
it. A shooting affray immediately followed,
in which Mr. Bird was killed by Mr. Wig
fall. A son of Mr. Brooks, Sen., took up the
quarrel and challenged Mr. Wigfall. They
met. Mr. Wigfall received Mr. Brooks’
fire unharmed, and then discharged his pistol
in the air. The duel was at this point
arrested. Immediately afterward Mr. Wig
fall received a second challenge from Preston
S. Brooks, known subsequently for his
assault on Senator Sumner. The challenge
Mr. Wigfall declined to accept. The quar
rel, however, was not allowed to subside,
and to avoid further bloodshed, Mr. Wigfall
soon alter withdrew from the State, and
removed to Texas, where he has since
resided. From his seclusion thence he has
now emerged into the Senate of the United
States.
Railroad Connection with Dubuque.
The Dubuque Herald says that the Cedar
Falls and Minnesota Railroad Company,
has executed a contract with certain Boston
capitalists, to build the entire line of the
road from Cedar FalL, lowa, to the Minne
sota State line, by Jan. 1, 1863. This road
connects, at the lowa line, with the propo
sed Minneapolis and Cedar Valley Railroad.
The Herald says :
The terms ot the contract have nofal
transpired, nor is it material what they are
It is sufficient to say that by the engagement
entered into by Col. Edgerton and his
friends, the road is to be constructed and
equipped to Wavcrly, the county seat of
Bremer county, by Jan. Ist. 1861 ; to Floyd,
in Floyd county, by Jan. Ist, 1862, and to
the State line by Jan. Ist, 1863, unless the
Minneapolis and Cedar Valley Railroad
should t e completed sooner, in which event
the contractors obligate themselves to build
the road to the State line by the time the
M. C. V. R. R. is in operation to that point.
The contractors will commence upon their
work early in the spring, and will doubtless
complete the road to Waver ly a good deal
in advance of the Ist of Jan. next; at least
in time for the removal of the next crop. It
is altogether probable that the extension of
the Dubuque and Pacific to Cedar Falls,
and the completion of the Cedar Falls and
Minnesota road to Waverly, will prove such
stimulants to business and immigration, that
the valley of the Cedar as well as the finest
portion of Southern Minnesota, to be drain
ed by this road, will demand the more rapid
extension of the road from Waverly north,
than this contract calls for.
The country traversed by this road is the
garden of the West, and has by its water
power and natural beauty attracted a greater
population than any other section which has
not been open for settlement a longer period.
Farms, mills, villages and towns are scat
tered thickly along its rapid and pure
sti earns, and everywhere an energy and
prosperity is exhibited which may challenge
comparison. But all this energy and pros
perity is cramped and retarded by the dis
tance and expense of reaching market, which
operation has hitherto consumed from 25 to
50 per cent, of the value of all their pro
ductions. The same cause enhanced the cost
of every article sold by the merchant; and
thus on both hands has the farmer been
cheated of his earnings. The completion of
the Cedar Falls and Minnesota Road sup
plies the remedy for this evil, and at once
enables the farmer to realize fifty to one
hundred per cent, more for his labor than he
lias hitherto been able to do. Their pork
and beef, and wheat and corn and oats will
bring them very nearly as much at their
doors as they have heretofore done after
hauling them one hundred miles to the
Mississippi.
It is important likewise from another
consideration, that it connects with a rail
road which in one hundred and three miles
reaches St. Paul, and one hundred and thir
teen, Minneapolis, a large portion of which
is graded and which stands in about as good
a position as any other Railroad in Minne
sota. These roads, when completed, will
bring St. Paul within ten hours’ ride of
Dubuque.
It will present not only an expeditious
mode of reaching this city, but Chicago also,
being the shortest and quickest route yet
projected between the Garden City and St.
Paul.
An idea of distance by the different
routes may be obtained from the following
figures: *
From Chicago via G. & C. U., and I. C. R.
R. to Dubuque 188
“ Dubuque via D. A P., C. F. &M. R.
R. to St. Paul 273
“ Chicago to St. Paul via Dubuque 461
“ Chicago to La Crosse via C. &La C.
R. R 300
“ La Crosse by projected railroad.... 175
“ Chicago to St. Paul via La Crosse.. 475
The Lotion Times on the Execution
of John Brown.
The limes, in remarking upon the tolling
of bells and other public demonstrations,
by northern abolitionists, on the occasion of
John Brown’s execution, says : •
* * * What, then, is to be the lesson
learned from the recent demonstrations?
The firet thing that strikes us is that the
north did nothing until Brown was executed,
and then it began to make speeches. This
certainly does not give us any exalted notion
of their zeal or determination of purpose.
The idea of the Boston people preparing
beforehand a great meeting, engaging speak
ers and seats, designing inscriptions against
the day that Brown should be executed, and
when the telegraph brought the news of the
event, rushing to the hall and listening to
flowery speeches, as if horrified by a sudden
} crime, mixes something of the ludicrous
with the tragic occurrence.
Bells were tolled probably in every town
in Massachusetts, and many throughout the
entire north. Yet we will venture to say
that in a few days everything was quiet
again, and John Brown, for whom parallels
were sought in history, sacred and profane,
was judged in hi 3 true light, as a courageous
old man, maddened by the partisan warfare
of the west, and whom it would have been
as well for the State of Virginia to pardon,
if possible. The truth is, that these meet
ings and demonstrations express only an
impulse, and not a conviction of the northern
people. There .is not one American in a
thousand who would act on the principle?
which were applauded in the “ Tremont
Palace,” and in a number of other places
after Brown’s execution. Happily, for the
peace of society and the security of the
republic, there is a strong conservative feel
ing throughout the Union, and Mr. Garri
son’s scheme for a secession of the northern
States will find favor only with a narrow
clique even in his own city. The central
States of the Union, such as New York and
Pennsylvania, will never permit the fanatics
of either north or south to imperil the fabric
of American nationality. But her interfe
rence will never be required, for even in
Massachusetts and South Carolina extreme
opinions are allowed expression only because
they are felt be particularly harmless.
These noisy and useless demonstrations of
so enlightened a community as that of New
England are however, not without their
evil effect. They embitter the slaveholders
against the north, while they give them the
conviction that the north fears to oppose
them.
The Virginia authorities might have
spared Brown, had it not been openly boasted
in the frontier Free States that he should
be rescued on the very drop by an army of
abolitionists. Gov. Wise was told that he
dared not hang Brown ; that 5,000 freesoil
ers could march Irom one end of Virginia
to the other; that the negroes would be
made to rise in earnest this time, and soon
In short, a section of fanatics, in the name,
of the north, threw out a challenge to the
entire south, and by so doing sealed Brown’s
fate. The Virginians hanged the poor old
man, arid the rescuers did not move, but
when the tragedy was complete began to
indulge in the useless declamation we have
recorded. The result will be to strengthen
the south by the adhesion of that floating
mass of opinion which, in every country
lies between the two extremes. Whatever
may be the future of the negro race, no one
in his sober senses can believe that its re
generation can be effected by inciting it to
murder planters and ravish their women;
and, if any one chooses to head an outbreak
of this kind, he must expect to meet a fate
which right-thinking men will not glorify
with the crown of martyrdom.
The Savage and Civilized Man.
Mr. Higginson recently delivered a lec
ture in Boston, intending to show that high
civilization was superior to barbarism in
developing man in the physical as well as in
the moral qualities. That portion of his
remarks which related to physical develop
ment is all we can find room for.
He contended that the comparative
strength and size of civilized and savage
rnen were in favor of the former, aift quoted
largely from a series of interesting statistics
published in the 17th volume of the jour
nals of the London Statistical Society, the
results of investigations made by Dr.
Thompson, of the 71st regiment, among the
New Zealanders—a race just emerging from
barbarism, cannibals within one generation,
with the taste of their friends and relations
not yet off their lips, and therefore excellent
subjects for the experiments. His experi
ments commenced by examining into their
height. He measured 146. Their average
height was 5 feet seven inches. The ave
rage height of 800 young men of the Uni
versity of Ediuboro’ was 5 feet 8 inches —
one inch more ; and of 80 students at Cam*
bridge, 5 feet 9 inches. His 14G New
Zealanders showed an average weight of
140 pounds. He weighed several hundred
of his soldiers, and found their average
weight to be 142 pounds; and he ascertained
that the average weight of 2,648 soldiers,
taken in England, was 148 pounds.
The question of weights, therefore, was
settled in favor of the civilized race. In
measuring the chest, he found the average
breadth of the New Zealander was 35 36-
100. He measured 600 of his soldiers, and
found it 35 71-100—an average difference
of half an inch in favor ol the civilized race.
The strongest man among the New Zealand
ers lifted a weight of 420 pounds ; that
tapered down to 250 pounds. His strongest
English soldier lifted 507 pounds, and this
went down to 350. The average weight
lifted by the New Zealanders was 367
pounds ; of the English, 422 pounds. One
of these estimates, it will be observed,
comes up to one half of the weight now
lifted by our athletic Dr. Winship. On all
these points, then, the advantage lies with
civilization. The lecturer added that
“ civilization is the domesticator of man.
Domestication refines man but does not
weaken him. The hand that is strong
within an iron gauntlet will be just as strong
in a white kid glove, and any man who is a
hero in a red shirt in Maine, will be just as
heroic in a white shirt on Beacon etreet.
The difference is that civilization gives, in
addition to muscular development, a certaiu
finer power, to the nervous organization. It
changes iron into steel ; it makes the race
horse as compared with the cart horse.
Every gymnast knows that mere brute
violence of muscle is nothing ; it is the
quality of the muscle that tells ; and so,
accordingly, we know that the English aris
tocracy are as fine a type of physical
muscle as can be found in the world.
" T
I
NEW SERIES—NO. 214.
Origin of Fashion.
Lola Montez, in a late lecture on Fashion
says:
The history of fashion would show that !
Satan has had that department under his
peculiar charge for all ages. Peter the t
Great was foolish enough to believe that the
tailor was the person who had fashions in
charge, and wondered that the nobility of
England could permit the tailor to change
the cut of their coats so often. [Applause.]
She next referred to the point lace worn to
shoes in France; the golden chains which
were worn to shoes in England .and the
gold rings worn in men’s nose 3. She saw
nothing so ridiculous in that, no more than j
a woman to wear a gold ring in her ear, and
indeed she believed that cld husbands would
be more manageable if they had rings in j
their nose 3. [Great applause.] Indeed,
this habit, if in fashion, would be more
cleanly and proper than the moustache and
beard movement. [Applause and laughter.]
The quilled shoes of the Earl of Anjou,
which were worn on accouut of a disease of
the feet, were referred to as having become
fashionable. Isabella, in time of the Due
d’Albert, vowed never to change her linen
during the siege of her native place ; conse
quently, she wore it three years, when, it :
being thus changed from white to yellow,
the latter color became the fashion, and it
is greatly feared that that oolor is worn by
many even to this day. [Applause.] The
various inventions to conceal detormity,
which were used by many, and caused them
thus to come into fashion, were commented
upon. The stiff white cravat now used so j
much, even by clergymen, was invented by
Beau Brummell, when he got into disgrace,
and on leaving England he generously left
the fashion to his country, and wrote these
emphatic words :
“ Starch makes the man.”
[Laughter and applause.] But men were
as bad, as regarded fashion, as women. The
tight pantaloons came into fashion when
the little bonnet did, and the former were
most ridiculous. Why, it was laughable to
see gentlemen goiDg through the streets with
tight coverings to their crooked and deformed
legs, [laughter,] and the ladies then laughed
at the men for thus adorning their pipe
stems. [Great laughter.] Some man of
fine proportions got those pantaloons to set
off his shape, and then others followed him,
whether they had legs or not, and so it
became the fashion. [Applause and laugh
ter.] The lecturer next referred to the
fashion of politics, and quoted the celebrated
Vicar of Bray, who, when taxed with being
a turn-coat, replied, “ Not so—l always
stick to my principles which are to live and
die Vicar of Bray.” [Laughter.] While,
however, ridiculing the sterner sex for
following fashion, she was free to say that
there was enough to be laughed at among
her own sex. She spoke of many ladies of
Rome, obe of whom, Fabula, was afraid to
go out in the rain, for fear of the chalk, and
Lobelia in the sun for fear of the rouge. Even
the celebrated wife of Nero had her face so
fixed up as to change her features When
Queen Elizabeth died she left behind no less
than three thousand dresses,and at that time,
instead of being given away or put in boxes,
they were hung against the wall until they
were motbeateu. Ladies, too, who had beau
tiful dark hair of their own, wore false red
hair, in order to have locks like the red
headed Queen.
The hoops, too, of that day, were larger
than at present, for, in 1740, ladies wore
hoops sixteen or seventeen feet wide at the
bottom, and nearly as wide at the top,
which, in those days, would have filled an
omnibus to suffocation ; and, instead of rnen
grumbling as they do at the present day,
they ought to be thankful for being left
breathing room by the ladies, when they
have taken enough room for their hoops.
[Great laughter.] But the hoops saved
women’s lives, and was one of the few fash
ions which originated with common sense ;
for it was far better to wear hoops than to
have seven or eight starched petticoats, a
they had formeriy. Indeed, many a coron
er’s inquest might have rendered a verdict.
“Died of Petticoats.” [Great laughter.]
The Chinese custom of women having
small feet was next referred to. The Em
press of China was most beautiful, but her
feet were so small that she could scarcely
walk. Men got disgusted at women going
about too much, and, by and by, they would
only marry women who had feet like the
Empress. Thus, small feet came into
fashion, and, indeed, men who do not live
quite so far off as China, might wish such a
custom prevailed here, and, as the rule might
work both ways, perhaps the ladies might
like to have the gentlemen served in the
same way, in order to keep them at home
sometimes. [Great laughter.]
Late Navigation. The Marquette
Journal announces the arrival of the Lady
Elgin at that port, on the Ist of December.
Shu was perfectly covered with ice, as was
also most of the freight on deck. The ceil
ing of the upper saloon was thickly set w ith
icicles, formed by the dropping of the water
through the roof. The Elgin encountered
the whole force of the gale of the 30th and
31st of December, which is described by
Capt. Wilson as the most violent he ever
experienced.