cases; so Paul, veils, and vanity carried the day. But afterward Mr.
Cotton came to Salem to preach for Mr. Skelton, and did not miss his
chance to put in his solemn protest against veils; he said they were a
custom not to be tolerated; and so the ladies all came to meeting
without their veils in the afternoon. Probably the most astounding
visible result from a single sermon within the memory of man.

Beginning with the veils, the eye of authority was next turned on what
was under them. In 1675 it was decided, that, as the Indians had done
much harm of late, and the Deity was evidently displeased with
something, the General Court should publish a list of the evils of the
time. And among the twelve items of contrition stood this: "Long hair
like women's hair is worn by some men, either their own or others' hair
made into periwigs;--and by some women wearing borders of hair, and
their cutting, curling, and immodest laying out of their hair," (does
this hint at puff-combs?) "which practice doth increase, especially
among the younger sort." Not much was effected, however,--"divers of the
elders' wives," as Winthrop lets out, "being in some measure partners in
this disorder." The use of wigs also, at first denounced by the clergy,
was at last countenanced by them: in portraits later than 1700 they
usually replace the black skull-cap of earlier pictures, and in 1752 the
tables had so far turned that a church-member in Newbury refused
communion because "the pastor wears a wigg." Yet Increase Mather thought
they played no small part in producing the Boston Fire. "Monstrous
Periwigs, such as some of our church-members indulge in, which make them
resemble the Locusts that came out of y'e Bottomless Pit. Rev. ix. 7,
8,--and as an eminent Divine calls them, _Horrid Bushes of Vanity_; such
strange apparel as is contrary to the light of Nature and to express
Scripture. 1 Cor. xi. 14, 15. Such pride is enough to provoke the Lord
to kindle fires in all the towns in the country."