roublesome and costly than the
other, may be considered even more striking, so that it is largely
adopted by a number of persons who are rather disreputable, and poor. As
is well known, not all of the asinine tribe wear asses' ears;
nevertheless some of these votaries of dress find their ears too long,
or too large, or ill-placed, or, what comes to the same thing,
inconveniently placed, but a prettier or better-shaped pair are easily
purchased, admirably moulded in gutta-percha or some other plastic
material; they are delicately colored, fitted up with earrings and a
spring apparatus, and they are then adjusted on to the head, the
despised natural ears being of course carefully hidden from view.

It is long enough since a bonnet meant shelter to the face or protection
to the head; that fragment of a bonnet which at present represents the
head-gear, and which was some years ago worn on the back of the head and
nape of the neck, is now poised on the front, and ornamented with birds,
portions of beasts, reptiles, and insects. We have seen a bonnet
composed of a rose and a couple of feathers, another of two or three
butterflies or as many beads and a bit of lace, and a third represented
by five green leaves joined at the stalks. A white or spotted veil is
thrown over the visage, in order that the adjuncts that properly belong
to the theatre may not be immediately detected in the glare of daylight;
and thus, with diaphanous tinted face, large painted eyes, and
stereotyped smile, the lady goes forth looking much more as if she had
stepped out of the green room of a theatre, or from a Haymarket saloon,
than from an English home.

But it is in evening costume that our women have reached the minimum of
dress and the maximum of brass. We remember a venerable old lady whose
ideas of decorum were such that in her speech all above the foot was
ankle, and all below the chin was chest; but now the female bosom is
less the subject of a revelation than the feature of an exposition, and
charms that were once reserved are now made the common property of every
looker on. A costume which has been described as consisting of a smock,
a waistband, and a frill seems to exceed the bounds of honest
liberality, and resembles most perhaps the attire mentioned by Rabelais,
"nothing before and nothing behind, with sleeves of the same." Not very
long ago two gentlemen were standing together at the Opera. "Did you
ever see anything like that?" inquire