Nothing to Wear: An Episode of City LifeSatire in verse on the fashions and extravagance of New York female aristocracy; first appeared in Harper's weekly journal.--from the publisher's description. |
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Common terms and phrases
ball beauties bell bind blue bride bright Broadway Brocade cash clothes collars court creature crown crush dare dark daughters dear declare deep delicate despair destitution diamond dinner door Dresses duty dying engagement EPISODE OF CITY exclaimed express eyes father feelings feet flirt foot front grand guess Harry head heart hoops Hoppin husband jewelry least light M'Flimsey mention Miss Flora monster muslin night nose once painful Paris party perhaps pitiful plain point lace refused relieve replied rest rich Richardson ripped romance round Rowe shade shawls ship silks silly sole sort spare splendid spring Square stair steamer STEWART stop storm street strike STUCKUPS style suppose Take talk tears thing to wear thought TIFFANY to-morrow truth turned Unsupplied Upper victims virginal week whole wives woman Women words worth wrap young ladies
Popular passages
Page 65 - Their children have gathered, their city have built; Where Hunger and Vice, like twin beasts of prey, Have hunted their victims to gloom and despair; Raise the rich, dainty dress, and the fine broidered skirt, Pick your delicate way through the dampness and dirt.
Page 21 - I should mention just here, that out of Miss Flora's Two hundred and fifty or sixty adorers, I had just been selected as he who should throw all The rest in the shade, by the gracious bestowal On myself, after twenty or thirty rejections, Of those fossil remains which she called her "affections," And that rather decayed but well-known work of art, Which Miss Flora persisted in styling "her heart.
Page 57 - Too sad for belief, but, alas! 'twas too true, Whose husband refused, as savage as Charon, To permit her to take more than ten trunks to Sharon. The consequence was, that when she got there, At the end of three weeks she had nothing to wear, And when she proposed to finish the season At Newport, the monster refused out and out...
Page 50 - Nothing to wear." Researches in some of the "Upper Ten" districts Reveal the most painful and startling statistics, Of which let me mention only a few: In one single house on the Fifth Avenue, Three young ladies were found, all below twenty-two, Who have been three whole weeks without anything...
Page 54 - For the victims of such overwhelming despair. But the saddest, by far, of all these sad features Is the cruelty practised upon the poor creatures By husbands and fathers, real Bluebeards and Timons, Who resist the most touching appeals made for diamonds By their wives and their daughters, and leave them for days Unsupplied with new jewelry, fans, or bouquets, Even laugh at their miseries whenever they have a chance, And deride their demands as useless extravagance.
Page 29 - I found her — as ladies are apt to be found When the time intervening between the first sound Of the bell and the visitor's entry is shorter Than usual — I found — I won't say I caught — her Intent on the pier-glass, undoubtedly meaning To see if perhaps it didn't need cleaning. She turned as I entered — " Why, Harry, you sinner, I thought that you went to the Flashers' to dinner ! "
Page 66 - Half starved and half naked, lie crouched from the cold; See those skeleton limbs, those frost-bitten feet, All bleeding and bruised by the stones of the street ; Hear the sharp cry of childhood, the deep groans that swell From the poor dying creature who writhes on the floor ; Hear the curses that sound like the echoes of Hell, As you sicken and shudder and fly from the door; Then home to your wardrobes, and say, if you dare — Spoiled children of fashion — you've nothing to wear...
Page 43 - ... to the powder, And the storm I had raised came faster and louder; It blew, and it rained, thundered, lightened, and hailed Interjections, verbs, pronouns, till language quite failed To express the abusive, and then its arrears Were brought up all at once by a torrent of tears; And my last faint, despairing attempt at an obsErvation was lost in a tempest of sobs. Well, I felt for the lady, and felt for my hat, too, Improvised on the crown of the latter a tattoo...
Page 13 - M'Flimsey in vain stormed, scolded, and swore ; They footed the streets, and he footed the bills. The last trip, their goods shipped by the steamer Arago Formed, M'Flimsey declares, the bulk of her cargo ; Not to mention a quantity kept from the rest, Sufficient to fill the largest-sized chest, Which did not appear on the ship's manifest, But for which the ladies themselves manifested Such particular interest, that they invested Their own proper...
Page 15 - Her relations at home all marvelled, no doubt, Miss Flora had grown so enormously stout For an actual belle and a possible bride; But the miracle ceased when she turned inside out, And the truth came to light, and the dry-goods beside, Which, in spite of collector and custom-house sentry, Had entered the port without any entry.