Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1880 — The Love of a Bonnet. [ARTICLE]

The Love of a Bonnet.

Since bonnets began, women have always had an affectionate regard for their head-gear, and have given, it may be, more consideration to that than to any other portion of their dress. Even the Ophelias and Madge Wildfires deck their hair with flowers and straws rather than wreathe their bodies with garlands; and there is something reasonable and natural in the act, whether practiced by sane or insane, owing to the conspicuous situation of whatever is thus used, whether wild bramble vines or silk and lace foundations.. The bonnet, of course, sets off the face, and makes the fit contrasts with the oolor of the complexion and hair, with the shape of the cheek and chin, and is, moreover, the very top-knot and finishing point that either ruins all the rest, or else adds a grace that exalts it toperfection. Perhaps men, who have not the necessity of balancing these points, to whom matters of complexion, hair and

curving ovals at face are of no importance eoomarmtively. can not quite realize the value of the bonnet. Ist any woman with a sharp wit who has ever bro^wrin^ very concerning the waste at the vital forces in the purchase at hen. aad enjoys considerable liberty in the affair. And it is really an affair of moment to her, so far as drees is at all of mo meat. Half the time, if her bonnet is all right and not too obtrusive, it is taken for granted that the rest of the toilet is its equal, whether that is the case or not; and half the time, as in carriage or theater, no more or little more wan the bonnet and upper shoulders is seen with any distinctness. Meantime, whatever is her whole dress, an ugly bonnet can destroy what good looks she has; bat a pretty bonnet, from its store of surplus beauty, will lend her good looks that she has not. She borrows for herself some of the idea of the freshness and sweetness of its tints, if it is gay—some of its gentle gravity and sobriety, if it is simple. As the appearance of any thronged Eublic place gains by the charm of the onnets worn there, till an audience is bright as one vast bed of flowers, so eveiy woman personally gains a little by the becomingness and beauty of her bonnet; and it u therefore quite worth while for her to ponder and try this shape and that, this tint and that, this plume, that flower, during a certain proportion of the time that she allows nerself for her toilet from other duties, sufficiently to feel assured that her bonnet will be no mistake, and especially in these days, when every flower, fruit and feather that one can dream of or devise, within bounds, is legitimate adornment, and when the blending of hues and materials, the bending of brims, the drooping of feathers, the crushing and cuning of roses, the poising of nirds, have reached a more artistic point than ever, and one is tempt-, ed to regard that person as a genius who first conceived tne fancy of inclosing so much loveliness in so little space, so that the bonnet itself in all its combinations is as pleasing and as unique as flower or bird. Of course —although they very often do so—those who can have a bonnet for every toilette need not spend as much thought on each specimen as those must who have but one, or at most two, for the season, and perhaps for next season also. For when a wearer is limited, it requires an amount of skill and taste of which the uninitiated have no idea to make that single bonnet suitable for every occasion and every kind of dress—gay enough for concerts and pleasures, not too garish for solemnities, rich enough for calling, sober enough for street wear, of a base that will bear the adding of ornament for evening and more " dressy” needs, its abstraction for the morning shopping or errands, and all the while becoming to the face and not incongruous with the rest of the attire. Heads of houses who must make just such an appearance on just such insufficient money require much more commiseration concerning their bonnets than so small a subject would seem able to bear. But as for the yonng lasses whose bonnets are not all they want when they see the Paris importations in the shops, or the last novelty adding splendor to the appearance of some more fortunate companions, they may make themselves a little happier by remembering that, bonnet or no bonnet, there is no young face without its charm, since the comeliness of youth is itself so great a charm that they will never really need a pretty bonnet less than now, while they recall the verses: Our Beauty’s bonnet. Not a rlUno <• mi upon it— Such a Quakerish little hat! But never a soul that gazes Where such a blooming lace is “ Thinks of aught but the rose on that!” - Harper's Bazar.