File:Two centuries of costume in America, MDCXX-MDCCCXX (1903) (14576566038).jpg

Identifier: twocentsofcostu01earl (find matches)
Title: Two centuries of costume in America, MDCXX-MDCCCXX
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Earle, Alice Morse, 1851-1911
Subjects: Clothing and dress
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan company London, Macmillan & co., ltd.
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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and vanity; they bickered over topish-ness and lightness; they wrangled about lawn coivesand busks in a way that was sad to read. Thepastor argued soundly, logically, that both coivesand busks might be lawfully used; whereat one ofhis flock, Christopher Dickens, rose up promptlyin dire fright and dread of future extravaganceamong the women-saints in the line of topish hatsand coives and busks, and he begged them not tospeak so, and so loud, lest it should bring many in-conveniences among their wives. Finally the topishhead-gear was demanded in court, which the parsondeclared was offensive ; and so they bickered ontill a most unseemly hour, till ten oclock at night, as was proved by the watchman and rattleman com-ing about. Naturally they wished to go to bed at 60 Two Centuries of Costume an early hour, for religious services began at nine;one of the complaints against the topish bride wasthat she was a slug-a-bed, flippantly refused torise and have her house ordered and ready for the
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Lady Mary Armine. nine oclock public service. The meetings werethen held in the parsons house, and held every day ;which may have been one reason why the settle-ment grew poorer. It matters little what was said,or how it ended, since it did not disrupt and disband Dress of the New England Mothers 61 the Holland Pilgrims. For eleven years this stupidwrangling lasted ; and it seemed imminent that thesettlement would finish with a separation, and areturn of many to England. Slight events havegreat power — this topish hat of a vain and pretty, apeert and coppet young Puritan bride came near tohindering and changing the colonization of America.I have related this episode at some length be-cause its recounting makes us enter into the spiritof the first Separatist settlers. It shows us too thatdress conquered zeal; it could not be forborne by entreaty, by reproof, by discipline, by threats,by example. An influence, or perhaps I shouldterm it an echo, of this long quarrel is seen plainlyby

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