THE SYDNEY FASHIONABLES AT A DISCOUNT.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 561, 19 March 1868, Page 2

THE SYDNEY FASHIONABLES AT A DISCOUNT.

[BT THE PIANEua IN SIDNEY] The beau mondo is tottering to its base. Strange rumors are abroad, flying from mouth to mouth ; rumors that are easily credited, and that fin”o~ne’s* heart with the forebodings of a revolution. It is said that the highest lady in the land has received her visitors in print dresses has been seen at balls in the plainest of costumes, and has actually talked" about * her nursery. It is also said that other ladies, supposed to be very high in the land, have been treated quite as°ordinar* ladies, and that they doa'’t know what to make of it. _ They are afraid to speak. All their anticipations have been cruelly disappointed. They feel like so many Hamans at the sight of Mordecai elevated to the Council-table. What is to be the end of it ? Is the aristocracy to emigrate, or to accept a new dynasty? Is Government House to be noticed, or is it to be struck off the visiting list? Qu© scaisje? I repeat what I hear on all sides, that is all. I know that many ladies and gentlemen have for months past looked forward to this time as one of great glorification, and that they dont look at all glorified now that it has come. They look nervous and uneasy. On the other hand, many ladies and gentleman, not at all accustomed to glorification, are in great glee. Print dresses are rising fearfully in price, and evening costume is much more subdued in tone than it used to be. Jewellery is losing half its glitter, and the new fashions are no longer fashions for absorbing study. Pocket hankerchief are throwing off the Valencinnes edging, and the economy in trimmings alone is almost enough to found a hospital. Silks, satins, and velvets will soon be disposed of at enormous sacrifices to make way for large importations of prints and muslius. The domestic virtues of the sixteenth century will revive and flourish; the nursery will be looked into at least once a day ; the kitchen will become a scene of industry ; the tradesmen’s bills will be rigrously examined, while extravagant millinery will no longer be paid for out of the grocer’s account. The bar- ; ricadeof the ancient regima will be cleared away, and the ladies of the colony will mingle on terms of equality. Cliques will no longer be countenanced. A dozen or so of pretentious old dames will no longer be suffered to monopolise the favor of viceroyaity, to vole themselves un aristocracy, and to exclude everybody from society whom they do not choose to approve of. Such are the anticipations of the present hours. Should they be realised, we shall witness the greatest revolution in local society that has taken place since the days of (lov. Macquarie. When that good-hearted old man arrived amongst, us, he found the society of the colony embittered by the antagonism of classes. He found large numbers of people—the Emancipists, as they were called—excluded from Si ciety by a small circle of Exclusives, who looked down upon them as haughtily as the Spaniards in America looked down upon the Aztecs. He resolved to break up a system which he regarded as diinstrous to the welfare of the colony, and accordingly received at Government House every emancipist who had any claims to good character. He may have gone too far in some instances, but he did good work. A similar work has to be done in these days, and there are many people who confidently expect Earl Bclmoro to do it.

His Royal Highness has ‘been amongst us just three weeks, and so far we have succeeded in preventing the faintest whiff of misery from reaching h : s Royal nostrils. In another week or so he proceeds to Queensland, and his visit to this colony may be said to have ended. On his re« turn we shall do our best to entertain him witli a fancy bail, where wo shall all display our calves in silk stockings, and severally trust to show him as neat a pair of legs as ever tripped along Cheapside in a May morning. We look with confidence to our Chefs de Bourgoise to preserve him from any contact with the inmates of Benevolant Asylums or the loafers of our thoroughfares. Let us surround him to to the last with jolly Ministers of the Crown, jolly Mayors end Aldermen, jolly members of Parliament; and let us look that nothing under fifteen stone cornea near him. The impression he will carry away with him will then be of the most pleasing character. The published narrative of his voyage will inform the world that, as there are no snakes in Iceland, so there are no beggars in NewSonth Wales; that the prosperity of the colony is such that its public men are selected for their fatness and not for their fitness ; that po- * litical merit is tested by the steelyard, and municipal contests decided by the measurement of waistcoats ; that the asylums for the sick and destitute are apparently tenantless ; that beef is so cheap and plentiful that the people are compelled to export it, having no market for it at home; and that during a stay of four or five weeks, the Prince was unable to see the slightest indication of distress even in the lov7Cot class of secietj. Imsgins what an effect this would have on the world in general, and the emigrating classes in particular ! European capitalists would ask whether such things as new South Wales debentures were to be had at any price, while hungry Fenians would drop their muskets and rush for steerage tickets to Port Jackson. As for Les Miserables, and the expectations we have raised among dj promises bbo ov«6?wis6j we can let them wait till the Prince has sailed; and iu the meanwhile we scrape enough from our supper tables in the shape of skeleton turkeys, sour salads, bad beer, knuckle bones of ham with frilled paper, and petrified tarts, to furnish forth IV&104C VBt/itTS T> itU ouw^vuvsi«jt