Daily Wabash Express, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 7 April 1889 — Page 6

A Contrast of the Costumes of French and American

r-t

A t-*Ji

..••.•/

t\-V~ Women. S'isS-j", '4 3

15

PARIS THE SOURCE OF FASHION INSPIRATION.

Tb.e Parisian Toilet Should Not Be ttie Culmination of Women's Desires.

Helen Campbell writes as follows for the New York Graphic: It is English speaking peoples, otherwise English, and Americans, who have for generations been reproached with having no ingrained sense of what constitutes a toilet.':' V" For the English woman, Bave some" notable exceptions, the reproach yet holds good. For the American we shall presently see how far she must be forced to still bear such odium. Not alone these two nationnali ties, but all that come under the head of civilized turn to Paris as the source of all inspiration, where stuffs and silks and all mysteries that go to make a woman's gown take such forms as enter no mortal minds elsewhere, and where every point that is good is made best, and every one that is less than good disappears altogether, conjured out of sight as deftly and thoroughly as the child in the famous Hindoo trick. Color, form, grace, suitability—all that is involved in these words is the inheritance of the French woman, who, from babyhood, as it were, knows by itstinct what best harmonizes with complexion and figure and age, and is never at fault.

With this conviction apart also of her inheritance, the American woman enters Paris, and gazes with bated breath as she makes her first entrance in society, or if time and opportunity for this be lacking, into the great shops, thronged from morning to night by eager buyers, convinced that whatever bears the Paris stamp needs no other endorsement, and that the thing bought in a Paris shop is inevitably becoming, suitable, beautiful —in short, precisely what one has sighed for always and at last crossed the wide sea to obtain. Often this proves true, for it would be quite absurd to maintain that the tradition is simply tradition and that Paris has forfeited her old place as leader and expounder of fashion for the civilized world. But after some months of close observation certain facts have so demonstrated themselves that further question of their truth would be impossible. It is these facts that I propose to outline in this column to-day, leaving the deductions chiefly to the reader,

I confess to an eagerness of interest unexpected and surprising as I studied the toilets at one of the first receptions attended after arriving in Paris. Pretty gowns I have always held to be one of the inalienable rights of women, though pretty never necessarily meant fashionable, and usually the reverse. The dreBS reformers have failed deservedly, because beauty was ignored, though one now in the field has succeeded in uniting for the first time comfort and beauty, and will, it is hoped, in time find more converts thdn at present range under her banner. But the blending and harmonizing of tints and studs in such fashion that the dress would seem simply the natural and necessary expression of the wearer—this was an art, hardly known outside of France, and to be studied quite as seriously as other phases of art. There had been certain inward questionings. French art as a whole had demonstrated itself for these later days as so purely a matter of surface finish, nine times out of ten without the shadow of a soul below, that the wonder grew if vitiated work in these directions might not mean vitiation in others also, and if the dress of the Parieienne was necessarily the model for all womankind who were bent upon knowing and reproducing the best.

What did I see? That is no part of my mission to give in detail, since shapes and patterns have no place in my scheme. But, setting these aside, it is very certain that the beautiful rooms, whose rare simplicity of decoration still admitted all that was necessary to fill and satisfy the eye, were not outraged by any lack of harmony in the toilets of the graceful women who came and went about the hostess. On the contrary, harmony was the prevailing characteristic, and though a a costume might hold many shades it was a gamut of colors which the eye followed as naturally and us well satisfied as the ear in the reception of genuine melody.

Tnis was the first phase, and covered the question of tints, of general composition and method, but presently having decided that finish had reached its highest point and summed up as perfection, one turned to the figures which displayed these confections. With two exceptions they were all of one order. Waists reduced to the lowest possible terms, the average apparently eighteen inches for the largest and far less for the smaller members of the party high shoulders emphasized by the Btyle of trimming, and the generally scrawney and angular effect produced by the Blender type of Frenchwomen. These are in a minority. As a rule the tendency is towards stoutness, strictly suppressed at waist, but exuberant at all other salient points, and the two classes had nearly equal representation, both leaving the impression of concentrated discomfort. The two exceptions were no less perfectly dressed. Every detail was charming, and doubly

BO

from the easy grace of

movement as well as apparent unconsciousness of anything that could constrain. Both were brunettes both spoke French perfectly, and it needed more than one observation to determine a fact which was presently made plain by the hostess. "I don't wonder you're puzzled. Shut your eyes and you would swear they were Parisians. But they are American, my dear, and like many others of my countrywomen, are the best-dressed women in the world. That gray cashmere with its exquisite silver border is one of Worth's, and the mother's also, and he declares American women know how to wear their clothes better than any nationality that comes under his hands. That beautiful girl has a natural waist and she wears an American shoe, having discovered, like the rest of ue, that our countrymen make a more satisfactory one than any ofher people. She can breathe and she can walk. The rest toddle. A Frenchwoman's walk is a good deal like the high-heeled Chinese woman's—a painful wriggle, as you can see for yourself. We'll talk it over when they are all gone."

This was the beginning of observations made continuously with a deter­

a

Moderato. J—ioo.

«$*£•

4 5 2 5 1 2 6 4 6

w=r~'

a tempo

gib. fcft.

1

\-2

rtZii

Mmm

a 'f

S"H~.

mination that no judgement should be fixed till there had been time for seeing all Borts and conditions of wearer of toilets. But in salon, at theater or opera, as in boulevard or public gathering place, from Champs Elyseee to the parks and squares, one conclusion was inevitable, that the French woman of every order above that of the daily worker, is supremely uncomfortable from head to feet. The French shoe is beautifully finished, a model in this respect for every maker, but the excessive height of the heels and narrowness of the toes make natural movement an impossibility. French fiction gives a slight and willowy figure as the standard, and every woman aims at this result, and ts this end pillories herself in a corset, also beautifully finished but inflexible to a degree a corset which destroys every natural line and adds another angularity to figures already too well supplied by nature. The hugest and most uncompromising of tournures persue their independent way, since the motion of the form to which they are supposed to give grace has no reference to the wobble of the structure itself. Upon all this is superimposed the toilet, and for this season it cannot be said that it harmonizes, save apart from the wearer, since the shades of green seen everywhere are as illy adapted to subdue French sallowness as pale blue to the African. The Frenchwoman, gracious and charming as she often is, IB an absolutely artificial product, and her toilet is of the same order. Its beauty of detail, its harmony of color, American women have already to a great degree assimilated. But is is quite time that the theory that whatever is Parisian is necessarily the culmination of all that women can desire, should be exploded. America has still much to learn. The shoddy element there will wear its diamonds in the morning and its most gorgeous toilets on a shopping excursion, a breach of good sense and good taste impossible to a French woman. But the American lady, young or old. finds on this side of the sea not one with keener eye for proper combination of color, or who wears with more thorough grace the work of the famous combiners of material. We need a school in which our dressmakers may be trained as thoroughly as the Paris apprentice, but each year is adding to our resources,

and

it is certain that, taking everything into consideration, we are already beyond any question the best dreEsed people of the civilized world. Paris will still have plenty to teach us. Delicate finish is a characteristic we assimilate last, but we al6o have mnch to teach her. A city which enshrines the most perfect form of woman that mortal eyes ever rest upon—the

VenuB

de Milo

—having cried "Ociel! que ravissante!" proceeds to make every woman as absolutely unlike it as human hands can accomplish. The American is wiser, and though our type is still too fragile

and

nervous, this fact is a diminishing one, and we are gaining yearly in the health which is the real foundation of beauty.

Why should I tell you what is to be worn in April and in September? A hundred pens will do this with a detail leaving no lack, and it is certain that beauty and fitness will meet, and that the owner of a Paris toilet may still thrill as she opens the wardrobe which holds it. But because thn American woman has keener, more delicate perceptions because she is truer in her instincts and wiser from her larger opportunity, her toilet will be the subtle expression of these qualities. She will reject whatever belittles them, and

SNOW FLAKES.

HE VEHI-E»

gtb. I $«&•

TO GROW LIKE JACK'S BEAN STELA.

Minneapolis Will Soon Have Its Twenty-eight-Story Building.

When the news was first published that Minneapolis was to have a twenty-eight-story building many persons disbelieved it, but the scheme is about to materialize.

The plans show the outline of *28 rooms, all of which open from the interior court and every one of which has a window in the exterior wall. The plans are drawn for a building eighty feet square at the level of the sikewalk and tapering a little towardB the top, which gives it the general appearance of a lofty tower with almost countless loopholes. The court within is scheduled to be forty by forty and in the middle of it sixteen elevators are outlined to lift the tenants to their offices in the sky. The total floor area is 149,010 feet square, not reckoning stairs and hallwayB. The building will be350 feet high. "Compare this with some structures now in existence," said Mr. Yarnall, who has charge of the plans, '"and see whether or not it is feasible. The tower of the New York produce exchange is 240 feet above the

Bidewalk,

and the ele­

vator runs to within 15 feet of the top. That is but 55 feet square. The Washington monument is 55 feet square at the base and 520 feet high. This building will be a skeleton of iron, made in the style of work known as lattice-riv-eted ironwork, and its weight will be one-fifth of that of a building of stone or brick. The structure will be perfectly fire-proof, being of iron, with a thin veneering of brick or terra cotta. Mr* BufUngton's original ideas have been followed to a considerable extent, but study has suggested some changes. I estimate that the cost will be $1,000,000. It can be built at the rate of forty feet a week upward when once the work is under way."

Alphabetical Nudity.

Sister—Were you at the reception last night, Harry? Brother—Yee, for about an hour.

Sister—How were the ladies dressed? Brother—Oh, about as usual. Dresses cut in the back and in front.— [Washington Critic.

The Soap-Stone Industry.

The soap-stone industry of Vermont is in a flourishing state. The stone itself is is made into tube, sinks, stoves and so on, and the waste is ground into powder that is used for paint, and as an indestructable wall covering as well as an adulterant to rubber for overshoes.

THft TERRE flACTE EXPRfesS, SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 1889.

srtrw

nt. ®tJ* $tb. $» Copyright—Kuokel Bros., 1888—KVNKXX'S llOYAL EDITION.

will, in the end, demonstrate to the world that these rare souls know also every charm of eetting and have taken from Paris all that W8B best in her scheme, leaving to her only the need of another renaissance —a need never Borer than to-day, when art in every form is well nigh soulless, and Paris the By nonym for a superficiality which, if she has no ear for any lesson of the past, will bring her, with her beauty and brilliancy and charm, to the same destruction that 2,000 years ago fell upon a people with whom Bhe had much in common—the gay and pleasure-loving Athenians, caring for naught but to hear and to see some new thing. And if this seems too sombre ending for a talk on toilets it is because there is full faith in the place and claim of beautiful dressing that these words and no others find place to day.

VCV**'S'Sr

StEVEN ft. JECKO

ritard

ritard,

THE ROSES BY THE RUN. Tbe roses and the lover Are very sweet and Mr, And Hove tbe fragrant odors

They breathe upon the air. But sweeter seemed the blossoms Beside the meadow run, The time that you were twenty

And I was twenty-one.

How fondly I remember The time we culled tbem there, And 'neath the shady maples

I wove them In your hair. How there in bliss we tarried u. UnUl the set of sun, The time that you were twenty

And 1 was twenty-one.

It may have been the nowers, Perhaps a look from thee, That bade me whisper softly

How dear thou wert to me I never stopped to question. I only know 'twas done The time that you were twenty

And I was twenty-one. We've bad our summer, darling, The flelds of life are browi We've traveled up the hillside,

We're on our journey down Yet oft I wake from dreaming Those days have just begun— That you again are twenty

And I am twenty-one.

When lire and love are over, And I am laid to rest, I "hope some one will gather

And place upon my breast Such tlow'rs as used to blosscm Beside the meadow run The time that you were twenty •"J

And I was twenty-one. —[New Orleans Picayune.

THE COMMON HANGMAN.

His Pitiful Recompense For His Degrading Work.

In England the "yeoman of the halter," or common hangman, never received from the sheriffs more than £1 a week as a retaining fee, writes a London correspondent. His "bonuses" were derived from the Bale of the malefactor's clothes, and from vending by the inch the halters in which they had been hanged, those scraps of twisted hemp being ignorantly supposed to poesess some curative virtues. Again, superstitious servant maids and mothers with children afflicted with glandular swellings would fee the hangman to stroke their necks with the right hand of the felon who had just been cut down. The rogue also who was sentenced to be whipped at the cart's tail, or in the sessions yard at the Old. Bailey# would, if he were wise, propitiate the hangman, with a shilling or two prior to the infliction of tbe punishment, and iB very rare instances, when a "real" gentleman was so unlucky as to be hanged, the executioner would receive from 2 to 5 guineas for doing his spiriting gently. So recently as 1820, Jack Ketch seemB to have loet his old cunning in heading and quartering traitors, for when the Cato street conspirators were to be executed, the hangman of the day confessed his inability to decapitate them after hanging, and a man in mask, whose identity has never been discovered, had to be specially engaged by the government to cut off the heads of Thistlewood and his acoomplioes. The public executioner of the period was one Cheshire, and he seems to have been the first Old Bailey hangman who supplemented the meager stipend allowed him by the corporation by taking provincial engagements. Old Jack Cheshire, as he was called, went specially down to Hertford to hang John Thurtell, the murderer of Mr. Weare, and Cheshire's country practice was followed by his successor, Calcraft, who, notwithstanding the animadversions to which he was exposed during the latter part of his

douse.

(it

Cantabile.

FINALE

8

a tempo.

EA

career, was about as respectable a man, comparatively speaking, as could have been found in the occupation of so abhorrent a position. His pupil and successor, Marwood, performed for a time his ghastly functions without giving particular offense either to the authorities or the public, but the man's head was eventually turned through the foolish prominence given to his individuality. He was made to pose as a kind of a hero was lionized at music halle distributed his autograph to all and sundry, and became, until his death, a somewhat scandalous kind of person. We do not think it advisable to recommend the American plan. The status of a good warder is too honorable to make him subject to so strong a duty, and it is better to maintain an old system, but to enforce propriety and decorum on the part of its performer. It would be found on experience, we believe, that priBon warders would be most reluctant to execute the last sentenae of the law, so that we may be perforce constrained to retain a public executioner, salaried and directly under the control of the home office but, in any case, the official killer of his fellow-creatures should be kept under the strictest surveillance, and be made amenable to heavy penalties in the event of his misbehavior.

The Feminine Garb.

Washing silks, also called Biik cheviots, are among the spring importations. Among the novelties'in wraps is the empire mantle, which is as much a gown as a wrap.

One of the pretty new jackets worn by stylish young women is fitted like a bodice at the back.

There are at least twenty-five different and distinct shades of green visible in the great emporia of fashion this year.

The pretty new Toreador vests are made wholly of embroidery to wear beneath the empire jackets of velvet, accompanying stylish home toilets.

Buckles, clasps, slides, and hooks in cut steel, gold, silver, onyx, jet or pearl are used with a free hand this spring, both in millinery and in the formation of stylish empire and dlrectoire costumes.

Draping the fronts of dress waists straight across from one under-arm seam to the other, hiding the darts that fit the lining, is still a prevalent fashion for high and low corsages alike, giving the favorite empire effect.

Flatter than an inverted soup-plate are some of the newest hats. There is a radical and sudden change in head-gear a collapse which produces a feeling of a tornado having passed, sweeping all towering objects before its devastating fury.

The price by the yard of good strong surah, or washing silk, is now so very reasonable that the purchase of enough for a number of silk petticoats is a really useful, economical as well as an elegant investment. These are light, cool, dainty and save innumerable washing bills during the summer.—[New York Evening Poet.

A Joke Turned Around.

wSo

Chump has married that poor Miss Perkins?" "Yes, love in a cottage and all that sort of thing, yon know." "That won't do for me. I'm going to strike for a rich girl who will support me in the style to which Bhe has been accustomed and I haven't been".—[Chicago Herald.

fitfe.

Repeat TRIO to FINE, then play from the beginning to sign, ana close with FINALE

OURONOTATION FOE TIME.

Wliy Sixty Seconds Hake a Minute and Sixty Minutes an Hour.

Why is one hour divided into GO minutes, each minute into 60 seconds, etc.? asks Max Muller in the Fortnightly Review. Simply because in Babylonia there existed, by the side of the decimal system of notation, another system, the sexagesimal, which counted by sixties. Why that number should have been chosen is clear enough, and it speaks for the practical sense of those ancient Babylonian merchants. There is no number which has so many divisors as GO. The Babylonians divided the sun's daily journey into 24 parasangB, or 720 stadia. Each parasaDg or hour was divided into 60 minutes. A parasang is about a German mile, and Babylonian astronomers compared the progress made by the sun during one hour at the time of the equinox to the progress made by a good walker during the same time, both accomplishing one parasang. The whole progress of the sun dHring the 24 equinoctial hours was fixed at 24 parasangs, or 720 stadia, or 360 degrees. This system was handed on to the Oreeks, and Hipparchus, the great Greek philosopher, who lived about 150 B. C., introduced the Babylonian hour into Eu rope. Ptolemy, who wrote about 150 A. D., and whose name still lives in that of the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, gave still wider currency to the Babylonian way of reckoning time. It was earned along the quiet stream of traditional knowledge through the middle ages, and, strange to say, it sailed down safely over the Niagara of the French revolution. For the French, when revolutionizing weights, measures, coins and dates, and subjecting all to tbe decimal system of reckoning, were induced by some unexplained motive to respect our clocks and watches, and allow our dials to remain sexagesimal, that is, Babylonian, each hour consisting of sixty minutes. Here you see again the wonderful coherence of the world, and how what we call knowledge is the result of an unbroken tradition of a teaching descending from father to son. Not more than about a hundred arms would reach from us to the builders of the palaces of Babylon, and enable us to shake hands with the founders of tbe oldest pyramids and to thank them for what they have done for us.

The Soubrette's Revenge.

The cleverest soubrette on the London stage had a magnificent black cat, the admiration of all who saw that "En emy of the Evil One." One night an ungallant lord, her neighbor, cruelly shot the cat, and a few days after she received the stuffed skin of her pet. Miss Soubrette immediately collected all the mice Bhe could secure—about two hundred—and had them carefully boxed to the address of his lordship's wife, in the country. When the box arrived at its destination her ladyship opened it herself, expecting it to contain some of the lateet fashions. As she raised the lid, the mice jumped out and literally filled the house. Of course, there was consternation. At the bottom of the box was a note, which read: "Madam, your husband killed my cat. I send you our mice."—[Dunlap's Stage News.

A Poker-Flayinjt Paradise.

It is said of the late incumbent of the Swiss mission, Captain Boyd Winchester, of Kentucky, that the only thing of

FINE

=3E&

•V Jtb. fei. Jhb.

note that he has accomplished during his four years' diplomatic service was that he introduced draw poker in Switzerland, and made a good deal of money while teaching the liberty-loving eons of Tell the mysteries of our national game. And,

BO

far as anybody knows, there is

no other use for a diplomat in Switzerland.—[St. Paul Globe,

A SMART TEXAS "COW-WOMAN."

Buck Taylor's Sister and Her Accomplishments as a Cow-Tamer.

So much has been written recently about the exploits of Belle Starr and other d&rmg women on the western ranches that it is only fair to say a word about he most famous "cow-woman" of Texas, says a Willow City, Tex., letter. She is rs. Mary C. Evans, the sister of Buck Taylor, known through Buffalo Bill's wild west show as the "king of the cowboys." She made her appearance here twenty-four years ago, when this was a frontier county. At that time the Indians were making raids every month, killing and Bcalping the early settlers and driving of their stock. The Taylor children, Mary, Bax and Buck, lost their parents at an early age, and Mary was raised by her aunt, Mrs. Ives.. Inured to the hardships of frontier life she soon learned to take care of herself, and at the age of 15 was able to ride the worst bronco or rope the most refractory old cow in the country.

At the age of 1G, Miss Mary married T. A. Evans and moved on to the ranch of William Shelton, on Crab Apple creek. She took charge of eighty cows, milking thirty-five daily and doing her housework at the same time. She often had to climb the fence to save herself from the horns of some wild cow, but she always managed finally to get her rope upon the animal and bring ber to termB. Buck Taylor, king of the cowboys, has nothing to boast of above bis sister as an expert with the rope. She never ropes on horseback, although she is a fine rider. She is tbe eldeet of the' three Taylor children, is 35 years old and scarcely looks 30, although the mother of nine children. Tf the horses are out of the way she thinks nothing of walking five miles to the place for any supplies she may need. She can throw the tie mark and brand a yearling without help and keep an eye on the stock, which leaves time to her husband to look after tbe farm. The Evans ranch and farm is about five miles from this place and a hearty welcome always awaits a stranger there. A.

His First Day at School.

Father—There, Willie, is the old historic birch rod, nailed over the teacher's deek, which tanned my hide twenty years ago.

Willie (uneasily)—Are you sure it is nailed perfectly tight, papa?—[Burlington Free Press.

Death Penalty for Theft.

In Buenos Ayres the punishment for theft is death but the penalty is only enforced when the criminal becomes incorrigible.

The Texas Umbrella Tree.

The Texas umbrella tree is becoming a favorite for shade purposes in California.

Many Must Remain Unread.

Carlyle says that the art of selecting books is the art of rejecting them.