requires positive genius, and as this commodity is rare, the majority of the new fashions which are constantly appearing are, in reality, only modifications of bygone styles. Thus it is with the well-known "masher" collar, hat, and stick, with the dancing-pump and Queen Anne shoe, with the crinolette and padded shoulders and hips. A prediction has been made to me by the head of a fashionable firm that crinolines will be all the rage during the season of 1886, and, although it is devoutly to be wished that this will not be the case, it is highly probable that the prediction will be fulfilled, for the style of 1885 has led up to it, and trade influence can accomplish the rest. As the American said, "It is never safe to prophesy unless you know," and the prophet in this case had made up his mind to make a large sale of the article in question. The Quaker's advice to his son, "Make money, my boy! Honestly, if you can; but make money!" requires no repetition to men of this stamp, for they have long followed it implicitly. It is wonderful how people will submit to be humbugged in the sacred name of Fashion.
Until the end of the eighteenth century men and women were equally and foolishly extravagant in dress. Thus we find an imaginary correspondent of Addison's writing: "The skirts of your fashionable coats form as large a circumference as our petticoats; as these are set out with whalebone, so are those with wire to increase and sustain the bunch of folds that hangs down on each side."
