THE TYPIGAL-YANKEE.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 31, 18 January 1864, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE TYPIGAL- YANKEE.

.(From the Times Special Correspondent.) There is certainly something striking ! , aboijt the prevailing- American type. !• That" lonjr, lank, fleshless form, that ; straight hair, that stoop in the shoulders, I -that colorless face, those by no means * bad "yet somewhat harsh features, that j high but flat brow, those pale, thin, :, compressed lips, that sad yet shrewd and coldly humorous expression, remind ,'■ you at every step ot that complex yet '. distinct original which the NovaScotian stereotyped in Sam Slick. To i give the genuine Yankee a. family .air j throughout the Union the costume at '■ present in vogue contributes in no small *■• degree. The fashion has lately spruug up, and it struck me on my arrival as an innovation at variance with all' my reminiscences of American look. The true Yankee shaves his upper lip, and sometimes the edge of the nether one, allowing the beard to grow stiff and straighton thechin. Itisthecutof beard tliatanyone may observe in the portraits of President Lincoln, and I should not . wonder if it is the First Magistrate who sets the fashions iri. this Republican land, as King Charles I. or IV, did in their respective kingdoms, exercising the same spell as the Empress Eugenic had on the skirts of ladies' gowns and on the frizzled fronts of ladies' coiffures in France. Nay, I shrewdly surmise J that the peaked beard, a la Lincoln, is something like a political badge and - cognisance in this country. Your true j. Republican, your out-and-out aboli- |. tionist, is as sure to strike you by his j pantaloon tuft on his chin as the old -, Puritan made himself known by his 1 closely-cropped head, and thick, bushy ;! moustaches. Without any pretension 1 to enter into a dispute about matters i of taste, I may be permitted to say I that the present, fashion is, to say tKe least, an' odd on.c and the *1 least becoming the American face $hat f could ever have been invented. The ; dense mass of hair that incumbers the ! lower face, generally black or very dark |- —enhances, with no pleasing effect, the 1 length of the upper lip— a feature by j no means the most pleasing in the ; American countenance, as it is apt to be heavy and flat, with the corners of ! the mouth drawn deeply down towards the chin. Seen at a distance, that I Capuchin-like beard, contrasted with % the blue and. white shaven skin, looks % ]jke an unreal appendage, amasqueradI ing disguise, and it wears rather absurdly with the high shirt-collar, the \ long, close-buttoned surtout, arid the ; broad-brimmed hat, which \ cry general. y ; make up withit the strictly ligpublican I g al "b.