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disappeared. The style of life had acquired more of elegance, as means had increased."

A sketch of the manner in which Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and other public men, dressed, is given by Mr. Sullivan, in the work above quoted, and the following extracts may be interesting to our readers :

"Washington, at his levees, while president [from 1789 to 1797], dressed in black velvet, his hair powdered and gathered behind in a silk bag, yellow gloves on his hands; holding a cocked hat, with a cockade in it, and the edges adorned with a black feather. He wore knee and shoe buckles, and a long sword, with a polished steel hilt. The scabbard was white polished leather.”

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Jefferson, in 1797, wore a black coat and light under clothes. He was then fifty-four years of age."

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Hamilton, in 1795, being then in his thirtyeighth year, wore at a dinner party, a blue coat, with bright buttons and long skirts, a white waistcoat, black silk small clothes, white silk stockings," (and shoes, of course).

The Hessian or Austrian boot, described in the preceding pages, which was first used in England, about the year 1789, was soon afterward introduced into the United States, as was the white-top boot, which came into fashion in England, early in the

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reign of George III. This latter was generally worn with small clothes, and more frequently by elderly gentlemen than young men. The Hessian or half-boot was made with a seam in the back, and was worn over pantaloons fastened around the ankle with ribands or galloons. After a few years, it gave way to the Suwarrow boot, so named after

Suwarroff, a Russian general, celebrated for his campaigns in Turkey, Poland, Italy, &c. He died in 1800; soon after which time the Suwarrow boot was introduced into England and the United States. This boot was worn by citizens, as well as in the army and navy; it was made with a seam at each

side, and reached nearly to the knee. In front it was scolloped, and ornamented with a black silk tassel. Sometimes gold tassels were worn by military and naval officers in full dress. We recollect having seen Commodore Decatur, while his ship, the United States, lay in the river Thames, in Connecticut, during the war of 1812, wear a pair of elegant Suwarrow boots, with gold tassels, on an occasion of his being invited to a dinner party in Norwich.

The Suwarrow boot continued in fashion for about fifteen years, when, after the battle of Waterloo, it was superseded by the Wellington boot, which it is well known was named after the duke of Wellington. This boot seems to have settled the laws of fashion respecting the feet, as decisively as the battle of Waterloo settled the affairs of Europe.

With regard to the fashions of ladies' boots and shoes in the United States, since the American revolution, we have closely followed the examples set for us by the ladies of Paris and London. Many families still preserve as relics the high-heeled shoes worn by their female ancestors, previous to the American revolution. The levelling spirit of the French revolution, seems to have reached even to ladies' shoes; for we find that about 1790, the high

heel was dispensed with, and shoes without heels were introduced. We have heard ladies of the olden time, say that it was hard to come down in this manner all at once; the effort to walk with no support to their heels was even painful, and our grandmothers were compelled for a long time to do penance to the tyrant fashion on tiptoe. Gradually, however, each lady found her own level, and succeeding generations, having never known the dangerous elevation of their predecessors, have found less difficulty in complying with the varying mandates of the goddess of haut-ton.

William G. Hooker, Esq., of New Haven, Connecticut, has collected between four and five hundred varieties of shoes, embracing the fashions for about two centuries in England and the United States.

To return to the fashions for gentlemen's boots. The Jefferson boot, which was introduced at about

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the time when Mr. Jefferson came into the presidency (in 1801), and which that gentleman was himself fond of wearing, was laced up in front, as high as the ankles, in some instances perhaps high

er; it was about this time that pantaloons were introduced into this country from France, and became fashionable.

The laced boot, which was laced up at the side, came in fashion soon after the Jefferson boot, but the inconvenience of lacing, prevented it from being generally adopted.

The snow-shoe, worn in Canada and other cold countries, is formed of a framework of wood, strongly interlaced with thongs of leather. It is used by travellers and hunters to prevent their sink

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