But hoops and bonnets and other extravagant forms of dress were not the only phases of woman’s adornment that startled the men and fretted their souls.  The very manner in which the ladies wore their hair caused their lords and masters to run to the newspaper with a fresh outburst of contempt.  In 1731 some Massachusetts citizen with more wrath than caution expressed himself thus:  “I come now to the Head Dress—­the very highest point of female eloquence, and here I find such a variety of modes, such a medley of decoration, that ’tis hard to know where to fix, lace and cambrick, gauze and fringe, feathers and ribbands, create such a confusion, occasion such frequent changes that it defies art, judgement, or taste to recommend them to any standard, or reduce them to any order.  That ornament of the hair which is styled the Horns, and has been in vogue so long, was certainly first calculated by some good-natured lady to keep her spouse in countenance."[139]

This last statement proved too much; it was the straw that broke the camel’s back; even the meek colonial women could not suffer this to go unanswered.  In the next number of the same paper appeared the following, written probably by some high-spirited dame:  “You seem to blame us for our innovations and fleeting fancy in dress which you are most notoriously guilty of, who esteem yourselves the mighty, wise, and head of the species.  Therefore, I think it highly necessary that you show us the example first, and begin the reformation among yourselves, if you intend your observations shall have any with us.  I leave the world to judge whether our petticoat resembles the dome of St. Paul’s nearer than you in your long coats do the Monument.  You complain of our masculine appearance in our riding habits, and indeed we think it is but reasonable that we should make reprisals upon you for the invasion of our dress and figure, and the advances you make in effeminency, and your degeneracy from the figure of man.  Can there be a more ridiculous appearance than to see a smart fellow within the compass of five feet immersed in a huge long coat to his heels with cuffs to the arm pits, the shoulders and breast fenced against the inclemencies of the weather by a monstrous cape, or rather short cloak, shoe toes, pointed to the heavens in imitation of the Lap-landers, with buckles of a harnass size?  I confess the beaux with their toupee wigs make us extremely merry, and frequently put me in mind of my favorite monkey both in figure and apishness, and were it not for a reverse of circumstances, I should be apt to mistake it for Pug, and treat him with the same familiarity."[140]

IV.  Extravagance in Dress