Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1887 — THE WINTER CLOAK. [ARTICLE]

THE WINTER CLOAK.

A Stately Sort of Garment Which Commands, the Respect of Women. The winter cloak stands upon its dignity. It is a stately sort of garment to which low bows are in order, and in whose presence a nice regard for the proprieties of life, a punctilious decorum, suggests itself as the only behavior allowable. It is a long cloak, covering the figure f.om head to foot; it Is a costly cloak, never dropping in price below the hundreds; it is an awe-in-spiring Cloak, with its air of warmth, bnd luxury, and carriage cushions, and full pocket-books. The city is prosperous and everything goes well when Buch a cloak is not the occasional, bat the constant apparition. The winter cloak is- a rich, almost a rtgal, silk plush, that avoids, as if it were contamination, the- look of seal plush. It is black, it fits the figure behind with long, simple draperies, adjusted over the busle. It is, perhaps, halffitting, perhaps loose in front, and it has a broad edge of long bear’s fur compassing it everywhere about. % It doesn’t condescend to let on beads. It’s hobby, its one delight is braid. Sometimes it has a network cf intricatewoven Bilken cords laid over it, stimulating the short wrap whose place the cloak has usurped. Sometimes it has a cape or a visite form upon its shoulders concocted of this same rich delicately silk braid. Sometimes it contents itself simply with a braided vest, and nearly always it has panel draperies of elaborately wrought braid work. The cloak in fact aspires to be a lavishly rich outer gown of plush for street or carriage with gown shape, gown draperies, sown pane) trimmings, and to complete the illusion a semblage of a couquettish short wrap adjusted above all.