Salmagundi; or, The whim-whams and opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, esq. [pseud.] and others. By William Irving, James Kirke Paulding and Washington Irving. Printed from the original ed., with a preface and notes by Evert A. Duyckinck.

60 SALMAGUNDI.
ings carelessly bespattered with mud, to agree with the gown,
which should be bordered about three inches deep with the most
fashionable colored mud that can be found; the ladies permitted
to hold up their trains, after they have swept two or three
streets, in order to show - the clocks of their stockings. The
shawl scarlet, crimson, flame, orange, salmon, or any other
combustible or brimstone color, thrown over one shoulder, like
an Indian blanket, with one end dragging on the ground.
N. B. If the ladies have not a red shawl at hand, a red petticoat, turned topsy-turvy over the shoulders, would do just as
well. This is called being dressed'a la drabble.
When the ladies do not go abroad of a morning, the usual
chimney-corner dress is a dotted, spotted, striped, or cross-barred
gown; a yellowish, whitish, smokish, dirty-colored shawl, and
the hair curiously ornamented with little bits of newspapers, or
pieces of a letter from a dear friend. This is called the " Cinderella dress."
The recipe for a full dress is as follows: take of spider-net,
crape, satin, gimp, cat-gut, gauze, whalebone, lace, bobbin, ribbons and artificial flowers, as much as will rig out the congregation of a village church; to these, add as many spangles, beads
and gew-gaws as would be sufficient to turn the heads of all the
fashionable fair ones of Nootka Sound. Let Mrs. Toole or
Madame Bouchard patch all these articles together, one upon
another, dash them plentifully over with stars, bugles and tinsel,
and they will altogether form a dress, which, hung upon a lady's
back, cannot fail of supplying the place of beauty, youth and
grace, and of reminding the spectator of that celebrated region
of finery called Rag Fair.