But though the French are justly chargeable with this fault, they are exempt from another of an opposite character, but equally offensive to good taste, which now seems fairly to have become the vice of English society, and is finding its way into our American cities. I mean the vice of Dandyism. I do not mean to say there is no foppery in French manners. The character of their petits maîtres, has been too long famous to justify the assertion. But a French petit maitre is a very different, and I think, a much more tolerable being, than an English dandy. The former, with his flowered waistcoat and chapeau bras, is the essence of politeness, and is disposed to please every body, , the latter stiffened with corsets, and dressed in the tip of the mode, stalks through a company, as if he were the only object in it worthy of being noticed. If he condescends to look at the world around, it is only through the glass, which, suspended from his neck, by a delicate ribbon, is ever and anon, applied to one eye.

Quoted from: John Griscom: A Year in Europe. Vol. II. New York: Collins & Co., 1823.