White Sulphur papers; or, Life at the springs of Western Virginia

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108 WHITE SULPHUR PAPERS.
and the other dancers. And he says that the country
beaus who appear with their black stocks and big
shoes eat up all the refreshments. We never knew
before, that the entertainments which are so abundantly
supplied at the balls, is afforded by the liberality
of the proprietors.
Waiters are handed during
all the evening with wine and other inviting nic-nacs.
In the great variety of dressing here, and in the
eccentricities of taste, many ladies of very small
stature wear feathers and turbans, wdiich P
describes as very unbecoming.
He thinks it requires a woman of very fine
and appearance to do credit,
figure
to a feather or a turban.
In alluding to a young lady who persists in
wearing a red spencer every night; he assured us
that it was not the damsel's fault—that she was quite
uneasy in her dress, and averse to coming to the
balls, but that her grandma each evening after tea,
fastens on her red jacket,
and bids her go forth to
subdue and make her fortune.
He told us, our remarks on dress, reminded him of
having once been at an election ball at a tavern
somewhere in Maryland, where he was introduced
to the daughter of the host, a pretty sprightly girl
that when he first saw her she was dressed in white,
—and at the close of every two sets of cotillions,
she would disappear, and reappear in a new color.