MRS. L. MARIA CHILD writes a letter to the Independent, in the course of which she uses the following language in regard to the latest fashions in hair: "Thinking of the great and blessed work done during these last four years by women, in the Sanitary Commissions, the hospitals, and the school-houses for the emancipated, I seemed to see a bright light dawning on our future career. But the vision receded in the distance when I looked from my window and saw a bevy of damsels sailing by with hencoops in their skirts, and upon their heads a brimless pan of straw with a feather in it—utterly useless for defense against wind or sun. To make this unbecoming headgear still more ungraceful, there descends from it something called by the flowing name of waterfall, but which in fact looks more like a cabbage in a net, tricked out with beads and wampum. If I had met them in Western forests, I should have taken them for Ojibway squaws, but their dress was a la mode Parisiene. This tyranny of France is, I suppose, one of the things that must be endured, because it cannot be helped, till our brains are better developed. In process of time, I trust the Empress Eugenie will sleep with her illustrious ancestors, and that no other fantastic queen of fashion will come after her, to lead the civilized world such a fool's dance. What a set of monkeys we are, in feathers and furbelows, dancing to the tune of that imperial show-woman."