scen hung on a stick in a barber's window. At or shell, cut into fantastic shapes, and they seem to other times they employ themselves in acquiring a emulate each other in the number of these singular smattering of languages spoken by nations on the baubles;-like the women we have seen in our jourother side of the globe, as they find their own lan-neys to Aleppo, who cover their heads with the enguage not sufficiently copious to supply their con- tire shell of a tortoise, and, thus equipped, are the stant demands and express their multifarious ideas. envy of all their less fortunate acquaintance. They But their most important domestic avocation is to also decorate their necks and ears with coral, gold embroider, on satin or muslin, flowers of a nonde-chains, and glass beads, and load their fingers with script kind, in which the great art is to make them as unlike nature as possible;---or to fasten little bits of silver, gold, tinsel, and glass on long strips of muslin, which they drag after them with much dignity whenever they go abroad;—a fine lady, like a bird of paradise, being estimated by the length of her tail.

a variety of rings; though, I must confess, I have never perceived that they wear any in their nosesas has been affirmed by many travellers. We have heard much of their painting themselves most hideously, and making use of bear's grease in great profusion; but this, I solemnly assure thee, is a misrepresentation; civilization, no doubt, having gradually But do not, my friend, fall into the enormous error extirpated these nauseous practices. It is true, I have of supposing that the exercise of these arts is at-seen two or three of these females, who had disguistended with any useful or profitable result;-believe ed their features with paint; but then it was merely me, thou couldst not indulge an idea more unjust to give a tinge of red to their cheeks, and did not and injurious; for it appears to be an established look very frightful; and as to ointment, they rarely maxim among the women of this country, that a use any now, except occasionally a little Grecian oil lady loses her dignity when she condescends to be for their hair, which gives it a glossy, greasy, and, useful, and forfeits all rank in society the moment they think, very comely appearance. The last-menshe can be convicted of earning a farthing. Their tioned class of females, I take it for granted, have labours, therefore, are directed not towards supply- been but lately caught, and still retain strong traits ing their household, but in decking their persons, of their original savage propensities. and-generous souls!- they deck their persons, not so much to please themselves, as to gratify others, particularly strangers. I am confident thou wilt stare at this, my good Asem, accustomed as thou art to our eastern females, who shrink in blushing timidity even from the glance of a lover, and are so chary of their favours, that they even seem fearful of lavishing their smiles too profusely on their husbands. Here, on the contrary, the stranger has the first place in female regard, and, so far do they carry their hospitality, that I have seen a fine lady slight a dozen tried friends and real admirers, who lived in her smiles and made her happiness their study, merely to allure the vague and wandering glances of a stranger, who viewed her person with indifference and treated her advances with contempt. By the whiskers of our sublime bashaw, but this is highly flattering to a foreigner! and thou mayest judge how particularly pleasing to one who is, like myself, so ardent an admirer of the sex. Far be it from me to condemn this extraordinary manifestation of good will-let their own countrymen look to that.

The most flagrant and inexcusable fault, however, which I find in these lovely savages, is the shameless and abandoned exposure of their persons. Wilt not thou suspect me of exaggeration when I affirm;-wilt thou not blush for them, most discreet Mussulman, when I declare to thee, that they are so lost to all sense of modesty, as to expose the whole of their faces from their forehead to the chin, and they even go abroad with their hands uncovered !— Monstrous indelicacy!

But what I am going to disclose, will, doubtless, appear to thee still more incredible. Though I cannot forbear paying a tribute of admiration to the beautiful faces of these fair infidels, yet I must give it as my firm opinion, that their persons are preposterously unseemly. In vain did I look around me, on my first landing, for those divine forms of redundant proportions, which answer to the true standard of eastern beauty-not a single fat fair one could I behold among the multitudes that thronged the streets; the females that passed in review before me, tripping sportively along, resembled a procession of shadows, returning to their graves at the crowing of the cock.

Be not alarmed, I conjure thee, my dear Asem, lest I should be tempted by these beautiful barba- This meagreness I first ascribed to their excessive rians to break the faith I owe to the three-and-twenty volubility; for I have somewhere seen it advanced wives from whom my unhappy destiny has perhaps by a learned doctor, that the sex were endowed with severed me for ever:-no, Asem, neither time nor a peculiar activity of tongue, in order that they the bitter succession of misfortunes that pursues me might practise talking as a healthful exercise, necescan shake from my heart the memory of former at- sary to their confined and sedentary mode of life. tachments. I listen with tranquil heart to the This exercise, it was natural to suppose, would be strumming and prattling of these fair syrens; their carried to great excess in a logocracy.—“Too true,' whimsical paintings touch not the tender chord of thought I," they have converted, what was undoubtmy affections; and I would still defy their fascina-edly meant as a beneficent gift, into a noxious habit, tions, though they trailed after them trains as long as the gorgeous trappings which are dragged at the heels of the holy camel of Mecca: or as the tail of the great beast in our prophet's vision, which measured three hundred and forty-nine leagues, two miles, three furlongs, and a hand's breadth in longitude.

that steals the flesh from their bones and the rose from their cheeks-they absolutely talk themselves thin!" Judge then of my surprise when I was assured, not long since, that this meagreness was considered the perfection of personal beauty, and that many a lady starved herself, with all the obst.nate perseverance of a pious dervise-into a fine figure!

The dress of these women is, if possible, more -"Nay, more," said my informer. " they will often eccentric and whimsical than their deportment; and sacrifice their healths in this eager pursuit of skelethey take an inordinate pride in certain ornaments ton beauty, and drink vinegar, cat pickles, and smoke which are probably derived from their savage pro- tobacco, to keep themselves within the scanty outgenitors. A woman of this country, dressed out lines of the fashions."-Faugh! Allah preserve me for an exhibition, is loaded with as many ornaments from such beauties, who contaminate their purc as a Circassian slave when brought out for sale. blood with noxious recipes; who impiously sacrifice Their heads are tricked out with little bits of horn | the best gifts of Heaven, to a preposterous and mis

obliged to give them very irregularly, without any regard to chronological order.

taken vanity. Ere long I shall not be surprised to see them scarring their faces like the negroes of Congo, flattening their noses in imitation of the Hot- The present one appears to have been written not tentots, or like the barbarians of Ab-al Timar, distort- long after his arrival, and antecedent to several aling their lips and ears out of all natural dimensions. ready published. It is more in the familiar and colSince I received this information, I cannot contem-loquial style than the others. Will Wizard declares plate a fine figure, without thinking of a vinegar cruet; he has translated it with fidelity, excepting that he nor look at a dashing belle, without fancying her a has omitted several remarks on the waltz, which the pot of pickled cucumbers! What a difference, my honest Mussulman eulogizes with great enthusiasm ; friend, between these shades and the plump beauties comparing it to certain voluptuous dances of the of Tripoli,-what a contrast between an infidel fair seraglio. Will regretted exceedingly that the inone and my favourite wife Fatima, whom I bought by delicacy of several of these observations compelled the hundred weight, and had trundled home in a their total exclusion, as he wishes to give all possible wheel-barrow ! encouragement to this popular and amiable exhibi

But enough for the present; I am promised a tion. faithful account of the arcana of a lady's toilettea complete initiation into the arts, mysteries, spells, and potions; in short, the whole chymical process

KELI KHAN,

by which she reduces herself down to the most fash- LETTER FROM MUSTAPHA RUB-A-DUB ionable standard of insignificance; together with specimens of the strait waistcoats, the lacings, the bandages, and the various ingenious instruments with TO MULEY HELIM AL RAGGI, SURNAMED THE which she puts nature to the rack, and tortures herself into a proper figure to be admired.

Farewell, thou sweetest of slave-drivers! the echoes that repeat to a lover's ear the song of his mistress, are not more soothing than tidings from those we love. Let thy answer to my letters be speedy; and never, I pray thee, for a moment, cease to watch over the prosperity of my house, and the welfare of my beloved wives. Let them want for nothing, my friend; but feed them plentifully on honey, boiled rice, and water gruel; so that when I return to the blessed land of my fathers, if that can ever be! I may find them improved in size and loveliness, and sleek as the graceful elephants that range the green valley of Abimar.

Ever thine,

MUSTAPHA.

AGREEABLE RAGAMUFFIN, CHIEF MOUNTE-
BANK AND BUFFA-DANCER TO HIS HIGHNESS.

THE numerous letters which I have written to our friend the slave-driver, as well as those to thy kinsman THE SNORER, and which, doubtless, were read to thee, honest Muley, have, in all probability, awakened thy curiosity to know further particulars concerning the manners of the barbarians, who hold me in such ignominious captivity. I was lately at on. of their public ceremonies, which, at first, perplexed me exceedingly as to its object; but as the explanations of a friend have let me somewhat into the secret, and as it seems to bear no small analogy to thy profession, a description of it may contribute to thy amusement, if not to thy instruction.

A few days since, just as I had finished my coffee, and was perfuming my whiskers, preparatory to a morning walk, I was waited upon by an inhabitant of this place, a gay young infidel who has of late

No. XIX. THURSDAY, DEC. 31, 1807. cultivated my acquaintance. He presented me with

FROM MY ELBOW-CHAIR.

a square bit of painted pasteboard, which, he informed me, would entitle me to admittance to the CITY ASSEMBLY. Curious to know the meaning of a phrase which was entirely new to me, I requested HAVING returned to town, and once more formally an explanation; when my friend informed me that taken possession of my elbow-chair, it behooves me the assembly was a numerous concourse of young to discard the rural feelings, and the rural sentiments, people of both sexes, who, on certain occasions, in which I have for some time past indulged, and gathered together to dance about a large room with devote myself more exclusively to the edification of violent gesticulation, and try to out-dress each other. the town. As I feel at this moment a chivalric spark—“In short," said he, “if you wish to see the natives of gallantry playing around my heart, and one of in all their glory, there's no place like the City Asthose dulcet emotions of cordiality, which an old sembly; so you must go there, and sport your whisbachelor will sometimes entertain towards the divine kers.' Though the matter of sporting my whiskers sex, I am determined to gratify the sentiment for was considerably above my apprehension, yet I now once, and devote this number exclusively to the began, as I thought, to understand him. I had ladies. I would not, however, have our fair readers heard of the war dances of the natives, which are a imagine that we wish to flatter ourselves into their kind of religious institution, and had little doubt but good graces; devoutly as we adore them !-and what that this must be a solemnity of the kind-upon a true cavalier does not,—and heartily as we desire to prodigious great scale. Anxious as I am to contemflourish in the mild sunshine of their smiles, yet we plate these strange people in every situation, I wilscorn to insinuate ourselves into their favour; unless lingly acceded to his proposal, and, to be the more at it be as honest friends, sincere well-wishers, and dis-ease, I determined to lay aside my Turkish dress, interested advisers. If in the course of this number and appear in plain garments of the fashion of this they find us rather prodigal of our encomiums, they country; as is my custom whenever I wish to mingle will have the modesty to ascribe it to the excess of in a crowd without exciting the attention of the their own merits;-if they find us extremely indul- gaping multitude. gent to their faults, they will impute it rather to the superabundance of our good-nature, than to any servile and illiberal fear of giving offence.

The following letter of Mustapha falls in exactly with the current of my purpose. As I have before mentioned that his letters are without dates, we are

It was long after the shades of night had fallen, before my friend appeared to conduct me to the assembly. These infidels," thought I, "shroud themselves in mystery, and seek the aid of gloom and darkness, to heighten the solemnity of their pious orgies." Resolving to conduct myself with that

decent respect which every stranger owes to the telligible words and the mystic number 9. What customs of the land in which he sojourns, I chastised were its virtues I know not; except that I put it in my features into an expression of sober reverence, my pocket, and have hitherto been preserved from and stretched my face into a degree of longitude my fit of the lumbago, which I generally have about suitable to the ceremony I was about to witness. this season of the year, ever since I tumbled into the Spite of myself, I felt an emotion of awe stealing over well of Zim-zim on my pilgrimage to Mecca. I enmy senses as I approached the majestic pile. My close it to thee in this letter, presuming it to be parimagination pictured something similar to a descent ticularly serviceable against the dangers of thy pro into the cave of Dom-Daniel, where the necroman- fession. cers of the East are taught their infernal arts. I entered with the same gravity of demeanour that I would have approached the holy temple at Mecca, and bowed my head three times as I passed the threshold. “ 'Head of the mighty Amrou!" thought I, on being ushered into a splendid saloon, "what a display is here! surely I am transported to the mansions of the Houris, the elysium of the faithful!" How tame appeared all the descriptions of enchanted palaces in our Arabian poetry!-wherever I turned my eyes, the quick glances of beauty dazzled my vision and ravished my heart; lovely virgins fluttered by me, darting imperial looks of conquest, or beaming such smiles of invitation, as did Gabriel when he beckoned our holy prophet to Heaven. Shall I own the weakness of thy friend, good Muley?-while thus gazing on the enchanted scene before me, I, for a moment, forgot my country; and even the memory of my three-and-twenty wives faded from my heart; my thoughts were bewildered and led astray by the charms of these bewitching savages, and I sunk, for a while, into that delicious state of mind, where the senses, all enchanted, and all striving for mastery, produce an endless variety of tumultuous, yet pleasing emotions. Oh, Muley, never shall I again wonder that an infidel should prove a recreant to the single solitary wife allotted him, when, even thy friend, armed with all the precepts of Mahomet, can so easily prove faithless to three-and-twenty !

"Whither have you led me?" said I, at length, to my companion, and to whom do these beautiful creatures belong? Certainly this must be the seraglio of the grand bashaw of the city, and a most happy bashaw must he be, to possess treasures, which even his highness of Tripoli cannot parallel." "Have a care," cried my companion, "how you talk about seraglios, or you'll have all these gentle nymphs about your ears; for seraglio is a word which, beyond all others, they abhor;-most of them," continued he, "have no lord and master, but come here to catch one-they're in the market, as we term it." "Ah, hah!" said I, exultingly, "then you really have a fair, or slave-market, such as we have in the east, where the faithful are provided with the choicest virgins of Georgia and Circassia?--by our glorious sun of Afric, but I should like to select some ten or a dozen wives from so lovely an assemblage! Pray, what would you suppose they might be bought for?"

Before I could receive an answer, my attention was attracted by two or three good-looking, middlesized men, who, being dressed in black, a colcur universally worn in this country by the muftis and dervises, I immediately concluded to be high-priests, and was confirmed in my original opinion that this was a religious ceremony. These reverend personages are entitled managers, and enjoy unlimited authority in the assemblies, being armed with swords, with which, I am told, they would infallibly put any lady to death who infringed the laws of the temple. They walked round the room with great solemnity, and, with an air of profound importance and mystery, put a little piece of folded paper in each fair hand, which I concluded were religious talismans. One of them dropped on the floor, whereupon I slily put my foot on it, and, watching an opportunity, picked it up unobserved, and found it to contain some uninVOL. II.-19.

Shortly after the distribution of these talismans, one of the high-priests stalked into the middle of the room with great majesty, and clapped his hands three times; a loud explosion of music succeeded from a number of black, yellow, and white musicians, perched in a kind of cage over the grand entrance. The company were thereupon thrown into great confusion and apparent consternation.-They hurried to and fro about the room, and at length formed themselves into little groupes of eight persons, half male and half female; the music struck into something like harmony, and, in a moment, to my utter astonishment and disinay, they were all seized with what I concluded to be a paroxysm of religious phrenzy, tossing about their heads in a ludicrous style from side to side, and indulging in extravagant contortions of figure;-now throwing their heels into the air, and anon whirling round with the velocity of the eastern idolaters, who think they pay a grateful homage to the sun by imitating his motions. I expected every moment to see them fall down in convulsions, foam at the mouth, and shriek with fancied inspiration. As usual the females seemed most fervent in their religious exercises, and performed them with a melancholy expression of feature that was peculiarly touching; but I was highly gratified by the exemplary conduct of several male devotees, who, though their gesticulations would intimate a wild merriment of the feelings, maintained throughout as inflexible a gravity of countenance as so many monkeys

of the island of Borneo at their anticks.

"And pray," said I, "who is the divinity that presides in this splendid mosque?"- -"The divinity!

oh, I understand-you mean the belle of the evening; we have a new one every season: the one at present in fashion is that lady you see yonder, dressed in white, with pink ribands, and a crowd of adorers around her." "Truly," cried I, "this is the pleasantest deity I have encountered in the whole course of my travels;-so familiar, so condescending, and so merry withal;-why, her very worshippers take her by the hand, and whisper in her ear."" My good Mussulman," replied my friend, with great gravity, "I perceive you are completely in an error concerning the intent of this ceremony. You are now in a place of public amusement, not of public worship;and the pretty-looking young men you see making such violent and grotesque distortions, are merely indulging in our favourite amusement of dancing." "I cry your mercy," exclaimed I, “these, then, are the dancing men and women of the town, such as we have in our principal cities, who hire themselves out for the entertainment of the wealthy-but, pray who pays them for this fatiguing exhibition?' My friend regarded me for a moment with an air of whimsical perplexity, as if doubtful whether I was in jest or earnest."'Sblood, man," cried he, "these are some of our greatest people, our fashionables, who are merely dancing here for amusement."Dancing for amusement! think of that, Muley— thou, whose greatest pleasure is to chew opium, smoke tobacco, loll on a couch, and doze thyself into the regions of the Houris!Dancing for amusement-shall I never cease having occasion to laugh at the absurdities of these barbarians, who are laborious in their recreations, and indolent only in their

hours of business?- -Dancing for amusement !-if she rises at all, is nervous, petulant, or a prey to the very idea makes my bones ache, and I never languid indifference all day; -a mere household think of it without being obliged to apply my hand-spectre, neither giving nor receiving enjoyment; in kerchief to my forehead, and fan myself into some the evening hurries to another dance; receives an degree of coolness. unnatural exhilaration from the lights, the music, the crowd, and the unmeaning bustle; flutters, sparkles, and blooms for a while, until the transient delirium being past, the infatuated maid droops and languishes into apathy again;-is again led off to her carriage, and the next morning rises to go through exactly the same joyless routine.

And pray," said I, when my astonishment had a little subsided, "do these musicians also toil for amusement, or are they confined to their cage, like birds, to sing for the gratification of others?—I should think the former was the case, from the animation with which they flourish their elbows.""Not so," replied my friend, "they are well paid, And yet, wilt thou believe it, my dear Raggi, these which is no more than just, for I assure you they are are rational beings: nay more, their countrymen the most important personages in the room. The would fain persuade me they have souls !--Is it not fiddler puts the whole assembly in motion, and di- a thousand times to be lamented that beings, enrects their movements, like the master of a puppet- dowed with charms that might warm even the frigid show, who sets all his pasteboard gentry kicking by a heart of a dervise ;-with social and endearing powjerk of his fingers:-there, now-look at that dap-ers, that would render them the joy and pride of the per little gentleman yonder, who appears to be suf- harem;-should surrender themselves to a habit of fering the pangs of dislocation in every limb: he is heartless dissipation, which preys imperceptibly on the most expert puppet in the room, and performs, the roses of the cheek;-which robs the eye of its not so much for his own amusement, as for that of lustre, the mouth of its dimpled smile, the spirits the by-standers."- -Just then the little gentleman, of their cheerful hilarity, and the limbs of their having finished one of his paroxysms of activity, elastic vigour;—which hurries them off in the springseemed to be looking round for applause from the time of existence; or, if they survive, yields to the spectators. Feeling myself really much obliged to arms of a youthful bridegroom a frame wrecked in him for his exertions, I made him a low bow of the storms of dissipation, and struggling with prethanks, but nobody followed my example, which I mature infirmity. Alas, Muley! may I not ascribe thought a singular instance of ingratitude. to this cause, the number of little old women I meet with in this country, from the age of eighteen to eight-and-twenty?

In sauntering down the room, my attention was attracted by a smoky painting, which, on nearer examination, I found consisted of two female figures crowning a bust with a wreath of laurel. “This, I suppose," cried I, "was some favourite dancer in his time?"— Oh, no," replied my friend, "he was only a general.”- -"Good; but then he must have been great at a cotillion, or expert at a fiddl stick-or why is his memorial here?"- Quite the contrary," answered my companion, "history makes no mention of his ever having flourished a fiddle-stick, or figured in a single dance. You have, no doubt, heard of him; he was the illustrious WASHINGTON, the father and deliverer of his country; and, as our nation is remarkable for gratitude to great men, it always does honour to their mem ory, by placing their monuments over the doors of taverns, or in the corners of dancing-rooms."

Thou wilt perceive, friend Muley, that the dancing of these barbarians is totally different from the science professed by thee in Tripoli;—the country, in fact, is afflicted by numerous epidemical diseases, which travel from house to house, from city to city, with the regularity of a caravan. Among these, the most formidable is this dancing mania, which prevails chiefly throughout the winter. It at first seized on a few people of fashion, and being indulged in moderation, was a cheerful exercise; but in a little time, by quick advances, it infected all classes of the community, and became a raging epidemic. The doctors immediately, as is their usual way, instead of devising a remedy, fell together by the ears, to decide whether it was native or imported, and the sticklers for the latter opinion traced it to a cargo of trumpery from France, as they had before hunted down the yellow-fever to a bag of coffee from the West Indies. What makes this disease the more formidable is, that the patients seem infatuated with their malady, abandon themselves to its unbounded From thence my friend and I strolled into a small ravages, and expose their persons to wintry storms apartment adjoining the grand saloon, where I beand midnight airs, more fatal, in this capricious cli- held a number of grave-looking persons with venermate, than the withering Simoom blast of the desert. able gray heads, but without beards, which I thought I know not whether it is a sight most whimsical or very unbecoming, seated around a table, studying melancholy, to witness a fit of this dancing malady. hieroglyphics;-I approached them with reverence. The lady hops up to the gentleman, who stands at as so many magi, or learned men, endeavouring to the distance of about three paces, and then capers expound the mysteries of Egyptian science: several back again to her place ;-the gentleman of course of them threw down money, which I supposed was does the same; then they skip one way, then they a reward proposed for some great discovery, when jump another; then they turn their backs to each presently one of them spread his hieroglyphics on other; then they seize each other and shake hands; the table, exclaimed triumphantly, "two bullets and then they whirl round, and throw themselves into a a bragger!" and swept all the money into his pock thousand grotesque and ridiculous attitudes;-some- et. He has discovered a key to the hieroglyphics, times on one leg, sometimes on the other, and some- thought I;-happy mortal! no doubt his name will times on no leg at all;-and this they call exhibiting be immortalized. Willing, however, to be satisfied, the graces!-By the nineteen thousand capers of the I looked round on my companion with an inquiring great mountebank of Damascus, but these graces eye-he understood me, and informed me, that these must be something like the crooked-backed dwarf were a company of friends, who had met together Shabrac, who is sometimes permitted to amuse his to win each other's money, and be agreeable. "Is highness by imitating the tricks of a monkey. These that all?" exclaimed I, "why, then, I pray you, make fits continue at short intervals from four to five hours, way, and let me escape from this temple of aboraitill at last the lady is led off, faint, languid, exhaust-nations, or who knows but these people, who meet ed, and panting, to her carriage;-ratties home; together to toil, worry, and fatigue themselves to passes a night of feverish restlessness, cold perspira- death, and give it the name of pleasure;-and who tions and troubled sleep;―rises late next morning, win each other's money by way of being agreeable;

these occasions; for, to speak myind freely, there are certain young gentlemen who seem to consider fashionable parties as mere places to barter old clothes; and I am informed that a number of them manage, by this great system of exchange, to keep. their crowns decently covered without their hatter suffering in the least by it.

It was but lately that I went to a private ball with a new hat, and on returning, in the latter part of the evening, and asking for it, the scoundrel of a servant, with a broad grin, informed me that the new hats had been dealt out half an hour since, and they were then on the third quality; and I was in the end obliged to borrow a young lady's beaver rather than go home with any of the ragged remnants that were left.

Your humble servant,

WALTER WITHERS.

My correspondent is informed that the police have determined to take this matter into consideration, and have set apart Saturday mornings for the cognizance of fashionable larcenies.

THE winter campaign has opened. Fashion has summoned her numerous legions at the sound of Now I would wish to know if there is no possibiltrumpet, tamborine, and drum; and all the harmo-ity of having these offenders punished by law; and nious minstrelsy of the orchestra, to hasten from the whether it would not be advisable for ladies to mendull, silent, and insipid glades and groves, where tion in their cards of invitation, as a postscript, they have vegetated d iring the summer; recovering "stealing of hats and shawls positively prohibited." from the ravages of the last winter's campaign. At any rate I would thank you, Mr. Evergreen, to Our fair ones have hurried to town, eager to pay discountenance the thing totally, by publishing in their devotions to this tutelary deity, and to make your paper that stealing a hat is no joke. an offering at her shrine of the few pale and transient roses they gathered in their healthful retreat. The fiddler rosins his bow, the card-table devotee is shuffling her pack: the young ladies are industriously spangling muslins; and the tea-party heroes are airing their chapeaux bras, and pease-blossom breeches, to prepare for figuring in the gay circle of smiles, and graces, and beauty. Now the fine lady MR. EVERGREEN-Sir :-Do you think a married forgets her country friends in the hurry of fashiona-woman may lawfully put her husband right in a ble engagements, or receives the simple intruder, story, before strangers, when she knows him to be who has foolishly accepted her thousand pressing in- in the wrong; and can any thing authorize a wife in vitations, with such politeness that the poor soul de- the exclamation of "lord, my dear, how can you termines never to come again;-now the gay buck, say so?" MARGARET TIMSON. who erst figured at Ballston, and quaffed the pure spring, exchanges the sparkling water for still more DEAR ANTHONY:-Going down Broadway this sparkling champaign; and deserts the nymph of the morning in a great hurry, I ran full against an obfountain, to enlist under the standard of jolly Bac-ject which at first put me to a prodigious nonplus. chus. In short, now is the important time of the Observing it to be dressed in a man's hat, a cloth year in which to harangue the bon-ton reader; and, overcoat and spatterdashes, I framed my apology like some ancient hero in front of the battle, to accordingly, exclaiming, "my dear sir, I ask ten spirit him up to deeds of noble daring, or still more thousand pardons ;-I assure you, sir, it was entirely noble suffering, in the ranks of fashionable warfare.accidental:-pray excuse me, sir," &c. At every one Such, indeed, has been my intention; but the num- of these excuses the thing answered me with a downber of cases which have lately come before me, and right laugh; at which I was not a little surprised, the variety of complaints I have received from a until, on resorting to my pocket-glass, I discovered crowd of honest and well-meaning correspondents, that it was no other than my old acquaintance, Clacall for more immediate attention. A host of ap- rinda Trollop ;-I never was more chagrined in my peals, petitions, and letters of advice are now before life; for, being an old bachelor, I like to appear as me; and I believe the shortest way to satisfy my young as possible, and am always boasting of the petitioners, memorialists, and advisers, will be to goodness of my eyes. I beg of you, Mr. Evergreen, publish their letters, as I suspect the object of most if you have any feeling for your cotemporaries, to of them is merely to get into print. discourage this hermaphrodite mode of dress, for really, if the fashion take, we poor bachelors will be utterly at a loss to distinguish a woman from a man. Pray let me know your opinion, sir, whether a lady who wears a man's hat and spatterdlashes before marriage, may not be apt to usurp some other article of his dress afterwards.

TO ANTHONY EVERGREEN, GENT.

Sir:-As you appear to have taken to yourself the trouble of meddling in the concerns of the beau monde, I take the liberty of appealing to you on a subject which, though considered merely as a very good joke, has occasioned me great vexation and expense. You must know I pride myself on being very useful to the ladies: that is, I take boxes for them at the theatre, go shopping with them, supply them with bouquets, and furnish them with novels from the circulating library. In consequence of these attentions, I am become a great favourite, and there is seldom a party going on in the city without my having an invitation. The grievance I have to mention is the exchange of hats which takes place on

DEAR MR. EVERGREEN:-The other night, at Richard the Third, I sat behind three gentlemen who talked very loud on the subject of Richard's wooing Lady Ann directly in the face of his crimes against that lady. One of them declared such an unnatural scene would be hooted at in China. Pray, sir, was that Mr. Wizard? SELINA BADGER.

P. S. The gentleman I allude to had a pocketglass, and wore his hair fastened behind by a tortoise-shell comb, with two teeth wanting.