FASHION. 472 FAST. the colored cloth of a former generation was re- marked upon. As late as 1850 many gentlemen of middle age wore a blue dress coat buttoned up with large flat gilt buttons, a white waistcoat, and black, close-fitting trousers, the form which had replaced the far more graceful and dignified pantalon; for which see Costume. The women of 1840 and thereabout wore a very reasonable and pleasant costume. The waist of the dress was so made as to be distinctly a bodice, separate from the skirt in make, if not of a different ma- terial; the skirt was very loose and full at the top and fell in ample folds, or if of thinner ma- terial, floated softly; altogether it was a very perfectly imagined and satisfactory gown. This was the immediate successor of the close-fitting garment of the Empire mentioned under Cos- tume. These gowns in some of their many modi- fications lasted until the time of the crinoline or haircloth skirts, which were immediately suc- ceeded by the hoopskirts or skirts made of metal springs, all these being used to expand and support the skirt of the gown, so that the dress of women from about 1850 until the sudden dis- appearance of the hoops in 1S66 was in a sense grotesque. It was costly and bulky, unnatural in that it did not follow the lines of the body at all, and ugly because it swung in one stiff mass instead of falling in folds, and sometimes in- volved disagreeable exposures. After the bell- shaped hoopskirts, in which the form sometimes affected a hemisphere, from which the body of the women above the waist seemed to rise like the handle of a bell, there came in the hoops of another form, which clung close to the hips and spread widely below. These hoops soon again disappeared, and the skirts became once more somewhat like those of the years before 1850, though not so full. The later years of the nineteenth century would be more difficult to follow in detail than those of any other epoch known to us, and this on account of the number of different styles of dress worn by women of means during the same day, or at least the same week. The rage for out-of-door sports, and exercise of different sorts calling, as it is thought, for garments of peculiar cut and even of peculiar material, multiply the number of gowns and oilier garments which a woman of elegance has in use in one time. The fashion covers all these alike; and the dress of the morning at home, that of the afternoon at home, that of the tennis court, or of the golf- links, that of riding, that of driving, thai of the dinner party and that of the evening entertain- ment, that of the theatre and that of the con- cert differ very widely from one another, while at the same time they iire in the fashion. For information about fashion before the nineteenth century, see Costume, and consull the authorities there referred to. FASHION, Sin Novelty. A fep in Colley Cibber's Love's Last Shift, lie is the original of Lord Foppington in Vanbrugh's 77" Relapse. FASHION, Tom. In Vanbrugh's The Relapse and in Sheridan's A Trip to Scarborough, the nger brother of Lord Foppington, Be mar ries the heiress, Miss Hoyden, by impersonating bis brother. FASHIONABLE LIFE, TALES OP. A series of stories by Maria Edgeworth, of which three volumes appeared in 1809 and three in 1812. The tales are "Ennui," "The Dun," "Manoeu- vring," "Almeria," "Vivian," "The Absentee," "Madame de Fleurv." and "Emilie de C'oulanges," the best being "Vivian" and "The Absentee." FASHODA, fa-shoMa. A town of Egyptian Sudan, situated in an unhealthful region on the White Nile, in latitude 9° 53' N. and longitude 32° V E. (Map: Africa. H 3). It was founded by the Egyptian Government in 1807, and was al- most entirely deserted during the Mahdist upris- ing which broke out in 1881. A French expedition under Captain Marchand occupied Fashoda in July, 1898. After the victory of Omdurman in September of the same year the British Govern- ment demanded the evacuation of Fashoda by the French — a demand which was complied with only after protracted negotiation in consideration of commercial concessions in the region of the Upper Nile, and the extension of the French possessions in Central Sudan, so as to include the territories of Wadai, Baghirmi, Kanem, Tibetsi, Borku, and a part of the desert region. The Anglo-French convention of March, 1899, besides fixing the boundary line between the British and the French possessions in North Africa, also provides for commercial equality for all nations in the region lying between Lake Chad and the Upper Nile. FAS'SETT, Cornelia Adele (Strong) (1831- 98). An American artist, born at Owasco, N. Y. She studied in water-color in New York, in oils in Paris and Rome, and in 1855 established in Chicago, 111., a studio which she removed in 1875 to Washington, D. C. She was elected to the Chicago Academy of Design in 1873. Her works include portraits of President Garfield. Associate Justice S. J. Field of the Supreme Court, Clara Barton, and Gen. J. A. Logan, and the large canvas, "The Electoral Commission in Open Ses- sion" (1877-80), bought by the Government for the Capitol. FASSETT, Jacob Sloat ( 1853— ) . An Ameri- can lawyer and politician. He was born at El- mira, X. Y. : graduated at Rochester University in 1875, and soon afterwards was admitted to the bar. In 1879-80 he was district attorney of Chemung County, and in 1880-81 studied con- stitutional law and political economy at Heidel- berg University, Germany. From 1884 to 1892 he was a member of the New York State Senate, of which he was also president from 1889 to 1891. He was secretary of the Republican National Committee from 1888 to 1892, and in 1891 was the candidate of that party for Governor of New York, but was defeated. He was temporary chairman at the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis in 1892. FAST (AS. fasten, Icel. fasta, Goth, fastuhni, OHG. fasta, Ger. Fasten, fast, from AS. fcestan, [eel. fasta. < loth, fastan, OHG. fasten, < !er. fasten, to fast ; probably connected with AS. first, Icel. fastr, OHG. fasti, feste, Ger. fest, fast, firm). A term used in express either total abstinence from meat and drink, or at least a certain restraint in respeel of food. As a religious custom, fasting serins in have originated in the conceived neces sitv of proper preparation for communion with the ancestral spirits in the sacrificial meal and in the ecstatic stale, it was thus a sacrifice of fern! to the Divinity, the acceptance of which was indicated by permission to partake in the sacrificial banquet and by the visinn vouchsafed to the devotee. Hence its universal occurrence
