To Joan it has been always conceded that she is as good as her lady
in the dark, but it is only of late years that Joan has presumed to
rival her mistress in the light. The high price of silks and satins
protected the mistress against this usurpation of her servant in the
broad day. Clad in these, she was safe, as in a coat of mail, from
the attack of the domestic aspirant, who was seldom able to obtain
possession of the outworks of fashion beyond an Irish poplin or a
Norwich crape. The silks and satins were a wall of separation, as
impenetrable as the lines of Torres Vedras, or the court hoop and
petticoat of a drawing-room in the reign of George III. The new
liberal commercial system has entirely changed the position of the
parties. The cheapness of French silks, and other articles of dress,
has placed female finery within the reach of even moderate wages, and
a kitchen-wench will not condescend to sweep the room in any thing
less than a robe of _Gros de Naples_ or _batiste_. Something must be
done on the part of the mistress to arrest the progress of invasion,
and assert the vested rights of the superior classes of female
society. Invention is the first quality of genius, and to woman it
is granted in a high degree. Thus gifted, the mistress, in a happy
moment, conceived the idea of bishops' sleeves, an article of dress
which precludes all hope or chance of imitation in the kitchen. A
muffled cat might as well attempt to catch mice, as a maid-servant to
go about the business of the house in bishops' sleeves. She could not
remove the tea-equipage from the table without the risk of sweeping
the china upon the floor; if she handed her master a plate, he must
submit to have his head wrapped up in her sleeve; and what a figure
must the cook present after preparing her soups and sauces! The female
servant thus accoutred might, indeed, perform the office of a flapper,
and disperse the flies; but although this was an office of importance
among the ancients, it is dispensed with at a modern table. With the
introduction of bishops' sleeves, the rivalry on the part of the maid
must cease, and the mistress remain in undisturbed possession of her
pre-eminence. Every friend of good order, every one who would retain
each individual female in her proper place in society, and prevent its
members from trespassing on each other, must, therefore, rejoice in
bishops' sleeves; and devoutly pray, that differing from every other
fashion that ever preceded it, the fashion of bishops' sleeves may
endure for ever.--New Monthly Magazine.
* * * * *