Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 146, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1913 — ALWAYS WORN AS A SYMBOL [ARTICLE]

ALWAYS WORN AS A SYMBOL

In All Epochs of History the Veil Has Had a Characteristic Attribute. The veil as a portion of feminine attire is almost symbolic in its character. The bridal veil is-an Interesting survival of the ancient custom of holding a canopy over the bride at her wedding, a ceremony still observed at Jewish marriages. Many families hold the bridal veil as one of the most precious of heirlooms, to be handed down from generation to generation and to be guarded with the utmost care and reverence. w

Simpler in character but no less beautiful in effect is the veil of the young girl worn at her confirmation, symbolizing as it does the modesty and simplicity of the maiden about to enter on the responsibilities of maturity. These charming veils, generally of fine French net, hand rfiade but devoid of ornamentation save for the broad hemstitched border, are often kept by the wearers to be used when later on they become wives and mothers as the christening veil for their baby. Although modern science is averse to the constant use of a veil by young children, the custom still survives at christenings, and wo should be. loath Indeed to see it disappear. In the veil of the novice we find a survival of the wimple of the Norman ladies, while certain orders of nuns, such as the Kilburn Sisters, follow faithfully the fashion of the early Plantagenet court in the way in which they pin the veil to the sides of their linen caps. In just such a fashion was the Plantagenet wimple fastened to* the chin band

Although the veil has to some extent lost its significance in England as a symbol of mourning, it is still used on the Continent in this connection with great circumstance and ceremony. Not only does a widow envelop herself for a lengthy period in a veil of amazing length and opaqueness, but every relative of the deceased assumes a similar dreary symbol of regret, its size and thickness varying with nice discrimination according to the exact degree of relationship. In fact, a Briton visiting France or Italy for the first time is often astonished at the number of apparent widows he is apt to encounter in a day’s walk. It is not until his curiosity leads him to prosecute in? quirles that he learns the true reason for the prevalence of the deep mourning veil reaching from head to foot In the east the yashmak signifies all that is subservient and dependent in the lives of the women. For a woman to appear unveiled before a man is to put herself forever beyond the pale. On the day that the woman of the east shall appear with Impunity unveiled in a public place, on that day she will have set her foot on the first rung of the ladder of Independence. So, east or west, the veil holds its own, from the yashmak to the motor veil, from the christening veil to the wimple. Whatever antiquity may have to say as to its origin, women know that it owes its adoption in the first Instance to the fact that it is universally and Incurably becoming.