Identifier: quaintcornersinp00stoc (find matches)
Title: Quaint corners in Philadelphia, with one hundred and seventy-four illustrations
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Stockton, Louise, 1838-1914 Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, 1855-1936 Barber, Edwin Atlee, 1851-1916 Jackson, Joseph, 1867-1946 Turner, Eliza Sproat, Mrs., 1826-1903 Leach, Frank Willing, 1855-1943 Campbell, Helen, 1839-1918
Subjects:
Publisher: Philadelphia, New York, J. Wanamaker
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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Text Appearing Before Image:
in legal and medical treatises The reign of drab
had not begun, for at the decorous dinners and suppers given
at Stenton there is record already given of " white satin
petticoats worked in flowers. pearl satin gowns or peach-
colored satin cloaks ; The wbite necks were covered with
deliate lawn, and they wore gold cbains and seals en-
enraven witb their arms."
It was the reign of the wigs. Even the serious-minded
Quaker yielded to the spell. Penn's private expense-
book sbuws four in one year. Even paupers claimed
as an inalienable right, and a ship-load of con-
victs having been brought over were imposed upon the
unfortunate Pennsylvanians as " respectable servants "
by simply dignifying each one with a cbeap but vo-
luminous wig. Franklin, disdainful as he was of show
and artificiality, looks out on us in thie earliest ppr-
trait extant from a sitiff and tremendous horse-bair wig.
Wristbands readied nearly to tbe elbows, met tbere
by short and deep-cuffed coat sleeves, and snowy ruffles
covered the manly bosoms of Quaker and Tory alike.
But elegance, save in a few isolated instances, was
Text Appearing After Image:


HAMILTON HOUSE, WOODLANDS CEMETERY.


QUAKER AND TORY. 179

impossible in any modern sense. There was wealth
enough for the general comtort ; pauperism was practi-
cally unknown, but life was frugal, limited, and, to our
modern apprehension, inconceivably slow. The daily
newspaper was undreamed of, a monthly, the size of a
sheet of Congress paper, holding all the news demanded
by the Colonists. Carpets, save in one or two of the
more stately houses, were an undesired luxury, fresh
sand being considered more healthful. Spinning and
weaving were still household occupations, and Franklin
rejoiced in being clothed from head to foot in cloth
woven and made up by his energetic wife. The store
formed a part of the dwelling house, and if a mer-
chant had more than one clerk he was regarded as
doing a perilously large business. " Society " then, as
now, was made up of a very small number; a single
set, that even as late as 1790 consisted only of " the
Governor," two or three other political persons, a great
lawyer or two, a doctor or two, half-a-dozen families

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