implicity contending for the prize; and the battle, though won
for the best, was not without compromise.

Before, however, fastening our gaze upon those yet distant days, let us
look at the woman of America as she appeared in the period preceding
that of storm. We have spoken of American simplicity, and, with all the
coming of luxury during the later years of the southern colonies, this
was still an attribute of the American woman; but it hardly applied to
her dress or outer guise in any respect. In the very year, 1750, with
which we have begun oir steps into the period of the Revolution, we find
in the _Pennsylvania Gazette_ an advertisement that is of present
interest to us as suggestive of the style of dress affected by the
household of one of the most typical Americans of his day:

"Whereas on Saturday night last the house of Benjamin Franklin of this
city, Printer, was broken open, and the following things feloniously
taken away, viz, a double necklace of gold beads, a womans long scarlet
cloak almost new, with a double cape, a womans gown, of printed cotton
of the sort called brocade print, very remarkable, the ground dark, with
large red roses, and other large and yellow flowers, with blue in some
of the flowers, with many green leaves; a pair of womens stays covered
with white tabby before, and dove colour'd tabby behind, with two large
steel hooks, and sundry other goods, etc."

It is evident that the family of Benjamin Franklin himself were somewhat
addicted to gauds and fripperies. About this same date, George
Washington is found writing to England for certain articles of dress for
his stepdaughter, Miss Custis, then but four years of age; and for this
miniature bit of humanity he orders such things as packthread stays,
stiff coats of silk, masks for her face, caps, bonnets, ruffles,
necklaces, fans, silk and calamanco shoes, and leather pumps, while for
her small hands were ordered eight pairs of kid mitts and four pairs of
gloves. We are told on excellent authority that at this time the
"Southern dames, especially of Annapolis, Baltimore, and Charleston,
were said to have the richest brocades and damasks that could be bought
in London." Small simplicity here; and the goodwives of New York and New
England were learning to follow their leaders in the fashions.

Yet in manners there was in the North still a leaven of the old Puritan
sternness. The Rev. Mr. Burnaby, who published a book called _Travels in
Am