History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 17

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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Very little has been said of the costumes of chil- dren. During a former period, as we have seen, they wore wigs, and, from all accounts, their costume made them the miniature "counterfeit presentments" of their papas and mammas; hut the ideas of Jean Jac- ques Rousseau about childhood having created quite a furor just before the French revolution, more free- dom was given to the youthful limbs. Then Dame Fashion claimed this a new conquest, and pretty soon there were special styles for children's dresses; these were imported in Philadelphia, as well as the styles for the grown folks. They were not always comfort- able nor becoming to childhood.

About 1806 an entire metamorphosis took place in the dress of young gentlemen, owing to the make and wear of their small-clothes and the shape of the trow- sers. A writer of the period said,-

"The prominence that was formerly continued in the vest or jacket has found ita way into a pair of wide pantaloons. making a correspond- ing awell or protuberance in front and rear; and these are made more coospicuous by the short jacket that merely covers breast and shoul- ders. In fact, the appearance of some is ao remarkable that, if one of their grandmothers could now see them, she would conclude that they were ready to tumble to pieces !"

Witty ladies sometimes amused themselves at the expense of the beaux. The following song appeared in the Portfolio Aug. 9, 1806 :

"THE BOOTEES. " A New Song by Miss Kitty Crotchet.

[" To be said or sung to the tune of ' Dorothy Dumps,' or any other tuns the reader pleases.]

"Of all the gay hasux That aport their smart clothes,

There's nons that my fancy can please, With their spencers of crops, Or woolly foretope, Like Boh with his tippy bootees.

"Inexpresaibles tight Some fancies delight,

With bunches of tapes at their knees; Yet all must confess, Though song in the dress,

They yield to Bob's tippy bootses.

" The blue pantaloons, As they march in platoons,

Each lady's attention quick seize ; But I let them pass by, And turn round my eye, Than look at Bob's tippy bootees !

" View little Jack Spratt, With his head from cravat

Peeping ont like a mouse from a cheese, With shoes on his toes, And a handful of bows,

Then look at Bob's tippy bootees !

" Then there's Sir Thomas Tape, With a coat and a cape

Like blankets of wild Cherokees; Whether quiet or moving, Hs looks like a sloven,

Near Bob with his tippy bootees.

" With euch s dear lad I ne'er could be sad,

Should we wander o'er mountains or ses8; Aod happen what might, I'd still find delight In my Bob with his tippy bootees ["

The Philadelphians, in all times, seem to have heen fond of badinage. We have given in this chapter many squihs and witty criticisms published in the newspapers at different times during the period of which we treat. We will close these quotations with some amusing extracts from Washington Irving's "Stranger in Philadelphia," published in Salmagundi, in 1807. Under the guise of pleasant banter, they express a very flattering opinion of Philadelphia so- ciety. The interest to be found in the perusal of these extracts will be our excuse for their length. At the time of his visit Irving was a young man, fond of society, and who saw the best there was in Phila- delphia.

He pays his compliments to the ladies in this fashion,-

"The Philadelphia ladies ara, some of them, beautiful ; some of them tolerably good-looking, and some of them, to say the truth, are not at all handsome. They are, however, very agreeable in general, axcept those who are reckoned witty, who, if I might be allowed to speak my mind, are very disagreeable, particularly to young gentlemen who are traveling for information. Beiug fond of tea-parties, they are a little given to criticism, but are in generel remarkably discreet and very in- dustrious, as I have been assured by some of my frienda."

In another place he compares their ways to those of the New York ladies, and the comparison is not to the advantage of the latter. He says,-

" The amusements of the Philadelphians are dancing, punoing, tea- parties, and theatrical exhibitions. In the first they are far inferior to the young people of New York, owing to the mlafortune of their mostly preferring to idle away the time In the cultivation of the head instead of the heals. It is a melancholy fact that an infinite number of young ladies In Philadelphia, whose minds are elegantly accomplished In liter- sture, have sacrificed to the attainment of such trifliog acquisitions the pigeon-wing, the waltz, the Cossack dance, and other matters of equal importance. On the other hand, they excel the New Yorkers In pun- biog, sud in the management of tes-parties. In New York you never

918

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

hear, except from some young gentleman just returned from a visit to Philadelphia, a single attempt at punning. And ot n tea-party the ladies In general are disposed close together, like a setting of jewels or pearls round n locket, in all the majesty of good behavior ; and if a gentleman wishes to bave a conversation with one of them about the back wardness of the spring, the Improvements in the theatre, or the merits of bis horse, he is obliged to march up in the face of such volleys of eye-shots, such a formidable artillery of glances, that if he escapes annihilation he should cry out ' A miracle "' and never encounter such dangers again. [ remember to have once heard a very valiant British officer, who had served with credit for some years in the train-bands, declare, with a vet- erau oath, that sooner than encounter such a deadly poril he would fight hin way clear through a London mob, though ho were pelted with brick- bats all the time ! Some ladies who were present at this declaration of the gallant officer were inclined to consider it a great compliment, until noe more knowing than the rest declared, with a little piece of a sneer, that they were very much obliged to him for likening the company to a London mob, and their glances to brickbats! The officer looked blue, turned on las heel, made a fine retreat, and went home, with a determi- notion to quiz the American ladies as soon as he got to London."

He falls in with the wags, and being doubtless recognized as one of the brotherhood, is greeted with broadsides of wit, which inspires the following Jament :

"Oh, my friend, how dreadfully I have been maltreated in this most facetious city ! The good folk of this place have a most wicked deter- mination of being all thought wits and braux esprita; and they are not content with being thought so by themselves, but they insist that everybody else should be of the same opinion, and it has produced the most violent attack of puns upon my nervous system. The Philadel- phians do absolutely 'live, move, and have a being' entirely upon puns, and their wits are absolutely cut up into sixpenny-bits, and dealt out in small change. I cannot speak two sentences but that I see a pun gath- ering In the faces of my bearers. I absolutely shudder with horror. Think what miseries I suffer, me lo whom a pun is abomination 1 1s there anything in the whole volume of the ' miserles of human life' to equal it? I experienced the first attack of forlorn wit ou entering Philadelphia. It was equal to a twinge of the gout or a stitch in the elde. I found it was repeated at every step. I could not turn a corner but that a pun was hurled at my head ; till, to complete my annoyance, two young devils of punsters, who began just to crow in the art like young bantama, penned me up in a corner at a tea-party, and did ao be-pun me that I was reduced to absolute stupidity. I hnstened home pro- digionaly indisposed, took to my bed, and was only roused therefrom by the sound of the breakinst bell."

One more extract, too good to be lost. Poor Irving is button-held by a mad punster, and com- pelled to listen to a series of insane jeux d'esprit. He tells the story in such a way as to make the reader share his agony. Here it is :

" On my way from the stage-office to Renshaw's I was accosted by a good-looking young gentleman from New Jersey who had caught the Infecti it. He took me by the butten, and informed me of a contest that had lately taken ] Ince between a tallet aud n shoemaker about, I forget what. Snip was pronenneed a great fellow of capability,-a man of gen- tlemanly habits, who would de ultloss and everybody The shoemaker bristled up at this, an [ wused excre ling wr th, swore the tailor was but n half souled fellow, and that it was enay to sheis he was never cut out for A gentleman The choler of the tailor was up in an instant Ile swore by bin thimble that he would never pocket such an Insult, but would baste any mau wh dared to repeat it Honest Crispin was now worked up to his projejich an I wasdetermined toyield the tailor no quarters ; he vowed he w ullde his all but what he won I gain his enda. Ho resolutely hell att, the lut , and, on his threatening to back-strap his adversary. the tail r was at lig 1 te sheer .ff,-de Jarinig, at the same time, that he wondl have bit bound orer. The young gentleman, having fii Ished his detall, give a mont betreuerin laugh, and hurried off to tell his story to pomelwily elle. 'Lic nha punter, an Horace observes. It did my bust- nema. I went home, took to my lud and was two days confined with thin singular -mplaint "

The contest between the colonies and the mother- country had attracted the attention of the world, and

many distinguished travelers visited the United States when peace was restored. We have quoted exten- sively from the impressions of travel published by most of them. The greater number of these travelers, especially in the early period, were Frenchmen,-a fact easily accounted for by the friendly relations which existed between the people of the two coun- tries since the time when the allied forces of France and the United States had fought the battles of the Revolution.

François Jean, Marquis de Chastellux, member of the French Academy and "maréchal des camps" in the armies of the king of France, came to this coun- try in 1780, with the rank of major-general, under Count de Rochambeau. He remained in this country about three years, and won the good opinion of the Philadelphians during his sojourn in Philadelphia in 1782. Of the estimation in which he was held by Washington, one may judge from the latter's playful letter congratulating the marquis on his marriage, which had taken place in Paris, in 1787, but a short time before his death. " I was," wrote Washington, " not less delighted than surprised to meet the plain American words, 'my wife.' A wife! well, my dear Marquis, I can scarcely refrain from smiling to find you caught at last. I saw by the eulogium you often made on the happiness of domestic life in America, that you had swallowed the bait, and that you would as surely be taken, one day or another, as that you were a philosopher and a soldier. So your day has at length come. I am glad of it, with all my heart. It is quite good enough for you. Now you are well served for coming to fight in favor of the American rebels, all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, by catching that terrible contagion, domestic felicity, which, like the smallpox or the plague, a man can only have once in his life, because it commonly lasts him (at least with us in America,-I know not how you manage these matters in France) for his whole lifetime. And yet, after all, the worst wish which I can find it in my heart to make agniust Madame de Chastellux and yourself is, that you may neither of you ever get the better of this same domestic felicity during the entire course of your mortal existence. If so wonderful an event should have occasioned me, my dear Marquis, to write in a strange style, you will understand me as clearly as if I had said, what, in plain English, is the simple truth, ' Do me the justice to believe that I take a heartfelt interest in whatever concerns your happi- ness' And, in this view, I sincerely congratulate you on your auspicious matrimonial connection." Chas- tellux, on his return to France, published the follow- ing works : " Voyage dans l'Amérique septentrionale dans les Années 1780, '81, '82," " Discours sur les Avantages et Désavantages qui résultent pour l'Eu- rope de la Découverte de l'Amérique," " Discours en Vers adressés aux Officiers et Soldats des différentes Armées américaines, traduit de l'Anglais de David Humphreys," "De la Félicité publique."

919

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 1700-1800.

The young, handsome, and intelligent Brissot de Warville1 came to Philadelphia in 1788-89. He was a quick observer, and Washington said of him that " he was intelligent, discreet, and disposed to receive favorable impressions of America." Brissot pub- lished his impressions in "Nouveau Voyage dans les États-unis de l'Amérique septentrionale." He also published at Philadelphia and Geneva "Examen du Voyage du Marquis de Chastellux dans l'Amérique septentrionale," "Mémoire sur les Noirs de l'Amé- rique septentrionale lu à l'Assemblée de la Société des Amis des Noirs," and "De la France et des États- Unis, ou de l'Importance de la Révolution de l'Amé- rique pour le Bonheur de la France." Brissot was more critical than Chastellux, and censured some of the statements of the latter very severely.

The visit of François Auguste de Chateaubriand

1 The life and sad ending of this gifted and well-meaning man de- serve more than & passing notice. Jean Pierre Brissot was what would he styled to-day "& self-made man." The son of & tavern-keeper of Chartres, he had received a good education. He left college full of ad- miration for theancient Romans of the republic, and thirsting for fame. But his obscure plebeian name was an obstacle to success. His father had purchased & small estate called Ouarville; he assumed this name, changing the "Ou" inte the W, so little used in France then, and came to Paris as Brissot de Warville. His undoubted talent and genial man- ner, hie liberal views fearlessly expressed, soon made him friends among the philosophers of the school of Voltaire and Rousseau, who were un- consciously preparing the French Revolution. He published several pamphlets on the state of the kingdom, which led to hie being impris- oned in the Bastille. He was released after a few months' confinement, through the influence of the Duke d'Orleans, and soon thereafter went to England, it is said, on a secret mission. It was after this he came to America. The political agitation which preceded the Revolution of 1789 hastened his return to France. He appeared in Paris in the garh of a Quaker, and, no sooner arrived, took an active part in public affairs. He published several pamphlets, and started the journal " Le Patriote Français," which soon commanded great influence. He was elected a deputy to the Legislative Assembly, and appointed member of the com- mittee on foreign relations. It was owing to Brissot's report, sa presi- dent of this committee, that Louie XVI. was obliged to declare war against the Emperor of Germany, April 20, 1792. On the last of Febru- ary, 1793, he urged and obtained a declaration of war against England and Holland. One of the leaders of the Girondins, he had hie own fol- lowers, kuowe by the name of Brissotins. His influence excited the jealousy of Robespierre, who denounced him as a traitor for having drawn the country into war, the costs and sufferings of which would be borne hy the people. The defeat of the Girondins' party, on the 31st of May, ruined Brissot's prospects, and put hie life in danger. Orders for his arrest, and that of several influential "Brissotine," had already been issued by the terrible Comité, the passive instrument of Robes- pierre's vengeance. Brissot attempted to seek an asylum of safety in Switzerland, and left Parie in disguise, with the passport of & Swiss merchant. On the way he was recognized, and arrested, sod brought back to Parie, where the guillotine ended his checkered life, Oct. 31, 1793. Brisset was an honest man, and a sincere republican, with no mean abilities. In addition to the booke already quoted, which all re- late to America, he published the followiug important works: "Biblio- thèque philosophique sur les Lois criminelles," 1782-86, 10 vols. 8vo ; " De la Vérité, nu Méditatione sur les Moyens de parvenir à la Vérité de toutes les Connaissances humaines," 1782, 8vo ; " Tableau de la Situation des Anglais dans les Indes orientales," 1784, 8vo; "Lettres politiques sur l'Histoire d'Angleterre," 1786, 2 vols. 8vo; and many political pamphlets on French affairs. Such ie the work of the man in whom Sullivan esw only "a brisk little Frenchman." Returning to France with his republican theories considerably modified by what he had seen and observed in the United States, Brissot wished Frauce to have s re- public modeled upon the one he had just left, and which he admired sincerely. The Reign of Terror ended his dream, as it has that of many sincere republicans.

has already been mentioned in these pages. He gave up his contemplated expedition to the North Pole, but he traveled extensively through this country, visited the West and Northwest, and the South as far as Florida, and lived some time among the Indians on the borders of the great lakes. He returned to France at the end of 1792, ignorant of the great events that had taken place during his long absence in the wilds of America. He saw his nearest relatives perish by the guillotine, and he remained alone the last of a noble race. These horrors cast a shadow over his whole life. He never was a happy man, though he acquired undying fame as a poet, author, and states- man. His visit to America inspired him to write "The Natchez," " Atala," "René," and the " Voyage en Amérique," already quoted. It was also in the forests of the New World that he conceived his great work, "The Genius of Christianity," a book which did more to save France from the gross materialisın of the revolutionists than anything that has been written on the subject. Chateaubriand had hoped to find a second Washington in Bonaparte. Disap- pointed in this hope, he renounced the liberal doc- trines of his youth.

Count Adriani, of Milan, visited the United States in 1790, being the bearer of an ode addressed to Washington by Alfieri. He published some account of his travels, which was considered abusive.

Several exiles came from France during the reign of the "terrorists." The Viscount de Noailles, a brother-in-law of Lafayette and a soldier of the Revo- lutionary war, where he had held an officer's commis- sion under Count de Rochambeau, came back, a fugi- tive, in 1793. Like many other noblemen of the time, prompted by the liberal principles which had led him to offer his sword to the cause of freedom in America, he had sided with the people in 1789, but when he saw Louis XVI. a prisoner and doomed to the guillo- tine, he went to England and thence came to Philadel- phia, where he remained until better times permitted him to return to his native land. He at one time projected a settlement of the Susquehanna, but aban- doned it for want of funds. He was very poor while in America, and during the latter portion of his stay in the city he occupied, gratuitously, the third story of a house upon the grounds of William Bingham, situate on Fourth Street, near Spruce, with an en- trance from the street.

William Cobbett, the politician, Dr. Joseph Priest- ley, a man of science and a rationalistic philosopher, together with Dr. Thomas Cooper, a natural philoso- pher and chemist, came to the United States in 1794. Cobbett settled in Philadelphia, where he pitched into politics with such freedom that six or seven years' experience of America terminated his career. Priest- ley lectured and wrote, but finally settled at North - umberland, on the Susquehanna, together with his son, Dr. Cooper being a neighbor.

The celebrated diplomatist Charles Maurice, Prince

920

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

de Talleyrand Périgord, Bishop of Autun, came to Philadelphia. A nobleman and a priest, he had been one of the most active supporters of the French Revolution. Still, he was not of that advanced class of republicans who advocated the guillotine as the mainstay of liberty, and, after the fall of Louis XVI., he fell into discredit and thought it safe to leave France. He sought a refuge in England, but the government of that country was in little sympathy with renegades and revolutionists, and Talleyrand was given twenty-four hours' notice to leave Brit- ish soll. It was then he came to America. IFere he entered into important mercantile speculations, made money, and took out papers of naturalization. He returned to France, however, after the end of the Reign of Terror, and acquired the nnenviable name of the most cunning and unscrupulous diplo- matist in Europe. The celebrated axiom attributed to him, " Speech was given to man to enable him to disguise his thoughts," gives the key to his character. He served alternately Napoleon and the Bourbons, and betrayed them in turn. Despised, yet feared, employed for his undoubted talent at a time when his craftiness made him the head of European diplo- macy he lived until 1838. He was a great wit, and his bon mots are often quoted. Talleyrand, although he had once enjoyed the title and privileges of an American citizen, was not friendly to the United States, and often made American society the subject of his mockery.1

1 After his return t Paris Talleyrand Wed with a beautiful widow named Mrs Grindt, who was the most ignorant and stupll creature to be foundl. Te please the first comsul, who frowned down scandalous it- morality among the there of the government, he married this woman as som as he was relieved of his priestly vows by a brief of the Pope, in 1× 1-2. Talleyraul liked to give dinners, and madame's nairchs usually kept him in hot wator on such occasions, The celebrated UWV . , Denen, having raturnel from his voyages, was honized by Parislun uciety, and Talley rand as a matter f nurse, wished to en- tertain hits. Full of misgiving> the prince but a little precautionary talk ut breakfast with his heautitul companion. "My dear," said he, " Mr Der n. t . fat us voyager will I'ne with us t day. He will sit cielt try to my momnetlong agre able to him. His book of travl hal u theen published sendt for it ant read it to-day You will find t very pertaining, for Mr Deun has visite I miny strange with thelog adver tures he has to u ship wrecked, Togo Through the ways You can lead I'm to talk of these al- 1. tome co plan travels to ie than to speak of his travels." Adif-(-vranEw nt nwio bavi ing Ju h's lippr & rethought. Peot

Tar Tod At her Blonde Warn't it kind of lam t at them met She went home Initaly to the l -k- for. alew ddl gt the , herself Alas' ch entering

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Inte -to-ma 'aime but l ku witork in on

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att le i i generally Ott o . n\Pinitien, 6 -1a 4 . 1 ; B 1 al-1 1ly the pr cos f maslintion. But

The Duke de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt came to Philadelphia abont the close of the year 1794, and remained there about five months. He also was an exile, and had lived fifteen months in England before coming to the United States, A nobleman of ancient lineage and liberal views, he bronght with him many letters of introduction, and was at once received in the best society in Philadelphia. He was particu- larly intimate with the families of Gen. Henry Knox and Judge Chew. On his return to France he pub- lished a work on " The Prisons of Philadelphia," and his " Voyage dans les Etats- Unis," in eight volumes. He was a close observer, and his study of American society and institutions is remarkable for the impar- tiality of the writer.

Alexander Baring, son of Sir Francis Baring, baro- net and merchant, afterward banker, was sent to the United States, when he attained the age of manhood, to acquire a knowledge of the commercial relations between Great Britain and America. While here he moved in the best society, and he became acquainted with Anne Louisa, daughter of William Bingham, and married her. While residing in Philadelphia, his son, William Bingham Baring, was born. The father afterward became, in England, banker for the United States. During the war of 1812 this firm, without instructions from the United States, paid regularly the interest on the American debt owing in Great Britain, although without remittances. MIr. Baring afterward became Lord Ashburton, and in 1842 came to the United States once more as special ambassador from Great Britain, during which time was negotiated the great Ashburton-Webster treaty in relation to the northeastern boundary. Lord Ash- burton died in 1848.

George Washington Lafayette, son of the Marquis,

madame could not wait ; she was brimming wer with recently acquired Information ; she had prepared her phrase of attack, and was afraid she might forget it Amid the general silence hier clear, silvery voice was heard addressing the following sympathetic remark to her right-hand neighbor: "Ah' monsieur, what must have been your grief when you saw your faithful Friday die, lenving yon alone once more on your island " Denon leked aghast at her ; every hend was turned toward that end of the table, while at the other end the prince, his usually sallow face reil with mertiffentien, looked at his wife with an expression which would have terrified the poor lady had she seen it ; but she was looking at Denon, and repeating her pathetic ejaculations about " that poor man Friday." A light dawned on the mind of the great traveler ; he had real De Foc's charming book, which had recently been translated to French. Madame hud mistaken him for " Robinson,"-the French sel- dom use the surname " Crusoe," but designate the lonely inhabitant of the deserte ! isle by the simple cognomen "Robinson." Such was, Indeed, the fact madame had devoured the book as the narrative of real adventures, f which she was to meet the interesting hero. Deooo was a kind man. lle rend ly underated the simple creature at his nide, and instead of chamflug her he told her many pleasant little stories of h'a own experience, not so thri li g. be said, as the adventures of that much more celebrated traveler for whom she had done bim the honor to mia- take Him. These two chatted awny like a pair of friends the whole evenin. Madame thought Hobingon-Denon the most pleasant man she had orer met But Talleyrand vowed in petto that he would never again presume la suggest beforehand a subject of conversation for nındame The story was too good to be lost ; it soon went the round of the Parisian milons, And was declared to be the best of Madame Grandt's many blunders,

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 17

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992