Later in the 18th c., fans served another important purpose. At dancing assemblies in London, Bath, and elsewhere, it was, usual for the gentlemen to select their partners by drawing a fan. All the ladies' fans being placed promiscuously in a hat, each gen tleman drew one, and the lady to whom it belonged was his allotted partner. Mrs_ Montagu, in one of her letters, refers to this custom: "In the afternoon, I went to lord Oxford's ball at Mary-le-bone. It was very agreeable. The parties were chosen by their fans, but with a little supercherie." Of the trick or fraud which this authoress delicately veils under a French term, the beaus of that period were far from guiltless. A lady's F. was almost as well known as her face, and it was not difficult, with a little connivance, to know which to draw. At Edinburgh, where it appears to have been the practice to select a partner for a whole season, the fans of the ladies were carefully studied. Sir AlexanderBoswell alludes to this species of stratagem in one of his poems: Each lady's fan a chosen Damon bore, With care selected many a day before; For unprovided with a favorite beau, The nymph, chagrined, the ball must needs forego.
In Italy, Spain, the West Indies, and also some parts of the United States, fans are largely in use for giving the sensation of coolness during hot weather, and for this pur pose they may sometimes be seen in the hands of gentlemen as well as ladies. In Spain, the old fashion of fan-flirting appears to be still in vogue. A late traveler in that coun try says: "I was vastly interested in the movements of the ladies' fans at church. All
the world knows that Spanish fans are in perpetual motion, and betray each feeling, real or assumed, that passes through the mind of the bearer. I felt convinced I could guess the nature of the service at every particular moment by the way in which the fans were waving. The difference between a litany and a thanksgiving was unmistakable; and I believed that minuter shades of devotion were also discoverable."— Vacation Tourists (1861).
With other changes in manners, fans are no longer used in English fashionable circles for the frivolous purposes noticed in their past history; they still continue, however, to form an article of ceremonial dress at dinner and other evening parties. In embellish ing them, foreign as well as native art is exerted on a scale commensurate with their price. From the superior kinds, composed of ivory and silk, costing 20 guineas, down to those of wood and paper, which are sold at 6d. or la., there are varieties to suit every toilet and pocket. Lately, fans made tastefully of feathers, also fans constructed of straw and variously colored ribbons, have been among the novelties of fashion. In the case of a general court mourning, ladies are enjoined to use " black paper fans." The manufacture of fans of various kinds is carried on in England, France, Belgium, Spain, and other European countries, likewise in the United States; and now, as formerly, the F. is an article of export from China to many parts of the world. W. C.