s and the primitive German
settlements the women all wore the short gowns and petticoats, also
tight-fitting calico caps. In summer, when employed in the fields,
they wore only a linen shift and a petticoat of home-made linsey. All
their clothing, in fact, was home-made.

The ladies of quality, however, as has been intimated, dressed
extravagantly, frizzed, rouged, wore trains, and acted as fashionable
women have done from the immemorial beginning of things.

The pioneers dressed universally in the hunting shirt or blouse,
sometimes fringed and decorated, and perhaps the most convenient frock
ever conceived. It fit loosely, was open in front, reached almost to
the knees, and had large sleeves, and a cape for the protection of the
shoulders in bad weather. In the ample bosom of this shirt the hunter
carried his bread and meat, the tow with which to wipe out the barrel
of his rifle, and other small requisites. To his belt, tied or buckled
behind, he suspended his mittens, bullet-pouch, tomahawk, and knife
and sheath. His hunting-shirt was made of dressed deer-skin--very
uncomfortable in wet weather--or of linsey, when it was to be had. The
pioneer dressed his lower body in drawers and leathern cloth leggins,
and his feet in moccasins; a coon-skin cap completing the attire.

His wife wore a linsey petticoat, home-spun and home-made, and a short
gown of linsey or "callimanco," when that material could be obtained.
She wore no covering for the feet in ordinary weather, and moccasins,
coarse, "country-made" shoes, or "shoe-packs" during more rigorous
seasons. To complete the picture Kercheval, the historian of the
Shenandoah Valley, is here quoted: "The coats and bed-gowns of the
women, as well as the hunting-shirts of the men, were hung in full
display on wooden pegs around the walls of their cabins, so that while
they answered in some degree the purpose of paper-hangings or
tapestry, they announced to the stranger as well as the neighbor the
wealth or poverty of the family in the articles of clothing."

* * * * *

It is to be hoped that the desultory sketch furnished above will not
be found uninteresting despite its imperfections. Many details have
been omitted or neglected, but enough has been written to illustrate
in a general way the qualities for which our ancestors were most
distinguished, for which their characters have excited most comment
and perhaps deserved most praise.

As a