tails, twists, tetes, scratches, full-bottomed dress bobs,
cues, and perukes. The people of Philadelphia dressed as the actors of
our theatres now dress in old English comedy. They walked the streets in
bright-colored and highly decorated coats, three-cornered hats, ruffled
shirts and wristbands, knee-breeches, silk stockings, low shoes, and
silver buckles." [footnote: Mrs. M. J. Lamb, in Magazine of Am. History,
August. 1888.] Lord Stirling, one of Washington's generals, had a
clothing inventory like a king: a "pompidou" cloth coat and vest,
breeches with gold lace, a crimson and figured velvet coat, seven
scarlet vests, et cetera, et cetera.

The wigs encountered the zealous hostility of many, among these Judge
Samuel Sewall. His highest eulogy on a departed worthy was: "The welfare
of the poor was much upon his spirit, and he abominated periwigs." A
member of the church at Newbury, Mass., refused to attend communion
because the pastor wore a wig, believing that all who were guilty of
this practice would be damned if they did not repent. A meeting of
Massachusetts Quakers solemnly expressed the conviction that the wearing
of extravagant and superfluous wigs was wholly contrary to the truth.

[Illustration: Chief Justice Sewall.]

There was an aristocracy, of its kind, in all the colonies, but it was
far the strongest in the South. Social lines were sharply drawn, an
"Esquire" not liking to be accosted as "Mr.," and each looking down
somewhat upon a simple "Goodman." These gradations stood forth in
college catalogues and in the location of pews in churches. The Yale
triennial catalogue until 1767 and the Harvard triennial till 1772
arrange students' names not alphabetically or according to attainments,
but so as to indicate the social rank of their families. Memoranda of
President Clap, of Yale, against the names of youth when admitted to
college, such as "Justice of the Peace," "Deacon," "of middling estate
much impoverished," reveal how hard it sometimes was properly to grade
students socially. At the South, regular mechanics, like all free
laborers, were few and despised. The indentured servants, very numerous
in several colonies, differed little from slaves. David Jamieson,
attorney-general of New York in 1710, had been banished from Scotland as
a Covenanter and sold in New Jersey as a four years' redemptioner to pay
transportation expanses. Such servants were continually running away,
which may have aided in ab