Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1892 — HIGH-CROWNED HATS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HIGH-CROWNED HATS.

BEFORE FALL THEY’LL BE THE VERY THING. Sleeves Corilng Down and Crowns Going; Up—The Present Pancake Styles In Their Last Stages—Charming Spring Hats In Straw Lace. Gotham Fashion Gossip.

LD fashions revived, old patterns re-®oven, .old books reprinted, old songs re-sung—lt 'really looks as if Solomon was right when he sold there was nothing new under the sun. Ah, but the wisest of mankind didn’t

live in our day and gen ration, or he would have discovered thut although we may revive the old, it becomes really a new creation when touched by the magic wand of modern art. I'm inclined to think, says our New York fashion writer, that the spinet of our great grandmothers would hardly recognize its distinguished descendant, the grand piano, or that the purple and fine linen worn by the Queen of Sheba would show to good advantage alongside the delicious fabrics of our modern looms. Nor would the poke bonnet of other days be at all likely to recognize its elegant and refined groat granddaughter as she now appears borne along on the heads of our fashionable people. Well.it is the same in modes as it is polities, literature and art.

Sleeves ane coming down and hats are going up. But when I say sleeves ase coming down I should add thut, like the frog in the fable, they are puffing themselves up to such a wonderful extent that before the summer is over we shall see veritable balloons encircling the arms of ultra modish folk. • However, as these big puffs set off the figure most, charmingly, let us aceopi this latest ukase of the Czar o! all the Modes without grumbling. Yes, true it is that the hats are going up. The flat crown, which so often puzzled the lady of fashion where to stow her luxuriant tresses, will soon be a thing of the past. Half a foot in height will be nothing, for so graceful will the outlines be and so exquisite the garniture that the real height of the poke will never be suspected. I present this week some charming spring hats in straw lace trimmed with lace, especially old lace colored guipure. One in black rice straw with a high crown was beautifully garnitured with cream lace, set off with pink and yellow roses. No matter how small the bit of headgear, you must get it up Into the

air, and by so doing you attain, especially on the heads of young people, a particularly -stunning effect, just Itovering between the swagger and swashbuckler. You will .see charming conceits in two colored straws, for instance, a brown straw lined underneath with u blue straw, and set off with a huge bow of blue and brown rfhot velvet with a tuft of feathers. Very stylish effects, too, are atta'ned by covering a black straw with a pale-rose pink, smothering the crofrn beneath pale-pink roses and trimming with a huge velvet bow made up double. In my second illustration you will find portrayed an appropriate liat for a young married woman, strikingly garnitured with a double velvet ruche and an aigrette placed on the Ipft side, with ; an additional bow at the back, beneath the brim, and resting on the hair. In this particular bit of headgear the straw is of a beige color and the velvet changeable, showing red, green, and lilac. During the season just passed there has been some sort of method in the freaks of fashion, some little care to keep this side of the border line of exaggeration. But now, bear well in mind, we are about to enter upon a season that will recognize no attempt to retrain fancy in personal adornment. Its flight will be daring, but artistic, all the same. The question will not be: Isn’t this pattern too fantastic? but: Haven’t you something in a broader stripe, a larger check, or a rqore striking combination? And headgear will lead all the rest. As you gaze upon lhe quaint and picturesque head coverings, you will be moved to cry out: Are you the great grandmother of this .party? when, to your surprise, the new-old-fashioned damsel

Will respond: No, I’m the great granddaughter. In my third illustration I set before you a most dainty hat composed of lace and moire ribbon, the crown being covered with Chantilly and rows of jet, with a knot of straight bows and an aigrette of narcissus and violets, and velvet strings. And speaking of strings, how often I see a lady of fashion out for her morning commissions and wearing a very stylish tailor-made, fitting her like a glove, but the effect of which is spoiled by an inappropriate covering for the head, a capote with strings. The dictum stands graven in harder material than bronze that no hat strings go with a tailor-made, nor any fancy or big

hat of any kind. The round hat is ths complement of the tailor-made, closefitting, clean-cut, chiming with the elegant simplicity of your garb and in no way marring the contour of the head or giving it a loaded-down look. You are out for business, or at least you arc pretending that you are, which is just the same. You are in light marching order, and you don’t want to feel like or look like a drum major in grand regalia, with velvet strings wound around your neck. As some people are always saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment, so some women seem to take particular pleasure in wearing the wrong hat on a given occasion. This is partly perversity and partly ignorance. A gentleman, as fussy and fault-finding as gentlemen often are, lately objected to an immense coaching hat which a provincial' lady thought the correct thing to wear to the theater. Overhearing his remarks, she turned around and said, rather pettishly: “The hut is uncomfortable enough without being obliged to listen to such discourteous remarks. ” Toque, shapes are extremely becoming to some fhces, and therefore, no doubt, someone will be pleased to note the high novelty which is pictured in my last illustration—a toque entirely composed of lilies of the valley and the leaves, and bordered with jet. The white ribbon which covers the crown

forms a triple bow at the front, set off with a buckle of jet and mock gems. The aigrette is formed entirely of lilies of the valley, and the strings, which start from a bow at the back, are in tone with the leaves. I see some very pretty lace brims in combination with velvet crowns, which may be richly embroidered. Mixed fancy straws also promise to be much affected, trimmed with upright bows of ribbon, perched on the brim, invariably in the spot where you would not expect to find them. Someone asks me which is the correct place to set flower trimming. My answer is: Put your lilies of the valley, your hyacinths, your crocuses, your tulips o.- your daffodils on one side, and they’ll be in the right place, or you may put them at tire back or nt the front, and they’ll be in the right place, too. Only see to it that you make them stand up straight; that’s the main point. The Hower aigrette will be done to death before the summerisover, but? you may as well help do it. In one case I saw a black Lace hat trimmed with yellow and lilac ribbons, and at the front towered a bunch of lilacs, sentinel like. Of course no bunch of lilacs ever grew standing up, but aever mind, fashion says that they must stand up, and that settles It. As has been said, with as much wit as justice, a bonnet nowadays is simply an excuse for a feather, a pretext for a spray of flowers, a support for an aigrette, and is placed on the head not to protect it, as did the wadded Iwod of the olden time, but that It may be seen better. However, the careful and intelligent devotee of fashion is always very particular what she puts on her head, for she knows that even though it be but a feather, or a spray of flowers and a bit of ribbon, yet there is quite enough of it to make or mar her style of beauty. An old adage says, “Never abuse a man’s hat or his horse," and I think that the fashionable woman will be found to be quite as sensitive on

the subject of her headgear. For this reason, if for no other, should she choose her hats with the greatest caution, and bring to the subject all the good taste and judgment at her command. Of making many laws there is no end, although of the enforcing of many of them there is never a beginning. Six State legislatures only were in session at one time, yet from .a catalogue of measures under consideration there may be cited such examples of legislation run mad as the following bills: Making it unlawful to make wearing apparel, artificial flowers, feathers, or cigars i’j any house used as a home; forbidding the entrance of disguised horses in races at agricultural fairs; making it unlawful to gather huckleberries except by hand: appropriating $lO,000 for a soldiers' monument in every county where the people will subscribe a like amount; giving old soldiers the preference for all offices and punishing violations of this requirement. It is true that not all of these bills may become laws, but the list is fairly representative of the mistaken' notions concerning the functions of government prevalent among those chosen by the people to make laws for them. An amendment to the New York building law prohibiting the licensing of a liquor saloon within 200 yards of a public schoolhouse failed in the New York assembly. The time will come, no doubt, when a demand will be made upon the school trustees to rent the basements of the public school buildings for poolrooms and beer saloons. It is sometimes said when a man exploits a visionary scheme that “it is all in his eye.” It begins to look as if Kaiser William’s peculiar notion as to the divine-right was “all in hie ear."

OPEN-WOEK STRAW.

A DOUBLE VELVET RJCHE.

LACE AND FLOWERS.