The Yankee Maiden’s Last.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1056, 26 May 1892, Page 5

The Yankee Maiden’s Last.

There has ever been an excess of phantasy about the Yankee maiden. The other day, in Philadelphia, she improvised a novel leap year dinner in which the usual social amenities of the sexes were reversed. The ladies took the men down to dinner, and sat over their wine while the men tripped upstairs to tea and tattle in the drawing room. With the generosity that always characterises the dealings, of women with the other sex, however, the lady cavaliers relented so far as to supply their masculine Dulcineas with a bottle of wine apiece ! The costumes of the diners were in character. The ladies, were more or less, in fancy dress. One girl strutted about finely as Beau Brummel, others attempted the swagger of troopers and hussars; while most, with less imagination, contented themselves with black

Directoire coats and powdered hair. The men vainly attempted to simulate femininity by the aid of chiffon and ribbon bows ; but the sexes retained their cwn distinctive trousers and petticoats. In fact it was the queerest medley in the world, and reminds one of the wicked old days in France, when the gallants in court arrayed themselves in full feminine costume and reproduced in burlesque the airs and graces of their feminine contemporaries.