Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1892 — Page 6

THE LADIES.

The Art of Dress.

A FASHIONABLY dressed woman is not always well dressed. It is one thing to buy a bonnet and quite another to know how to wear it. Somehas said that youth is always beautiful; this is no more true than to say that youth is always graceful. In rare cases women have an instinctive sense of the becoming, but as a rule the art of dressing be-

comingly must be learned, like any other art, by close study and deep application. I know a lady who always maked a point to send to Paris for her bonnets, and when I meet her I feel like advising her to send for a French woman to show her how to wear them. She would then learn that a French woman wears her bonnet, on her head, and not perched on a towering coil of hair in an altogether ridiculous manner. Nor does a French woman ever allow a train to drag behind her on the sidewalk, exercising the functions of a street sweeper. And speaking of skirts, let me call your attention to the fact that in all woolen materials it is customary to set off the skirt with a ruching of the same material. But it is possible to display a great deal of taste in this matter of ruches. One way is to make a double ruching composed ot two pleats set close together and pinked out on each edge. Another style is to set a single ruffle at the bottom and bead-it with guipure lace. Some, however, prefer the skirt quite plain, as shown in my initial illustration. Here you see a charming outdoor costume which may be made up either in wool or silk. In -this instance’ it has a cream ground with a red figure. It will be noted that this dress consists of two parts, a skirt and aredingote The plastron pud sleeve puffs are of red silk. At the back there is a half belt of the silk, and the cuffs are turned back with the silk. The yoke is covered with ecruo guipure.

A New House Gown.

pleasing variety is discernible in the newest designs for costumes: and while there are several radical changes in the length of skirt and the fashioning of the bodice’ it may bo safely asserted that if each woman will wear individually the style that suits her best, she will be able to in- I dulge in the pleasiug conviction that j

she is dressed in the most perfect taste. This rule applies to all season s; for there is no more i n artistic sight than a woman costumed according to the latest mode when this particular style does not suit her figure or complexion

The Queen of Portugal is accred - tted by fashion leaders with being the most dressy woman in Europe. Her pale complexion and auburn hair admit of great latitude in dress variety, and she indulges in every caprice of fashion. The Empress of Russia wears everything small and neat, to harmonize with her delicate personality. Pale, blue, mauve, and green are her favorite colors. The Princes of Wales has the reputation Of being the most tastefully dressed of all the royalties. The Empress of Germany Is resplendent in the traditionally imperial style of ornate elegance in public, but in private dressqs very simply. And the heart broken Empress of Austria cares nothing at all for dress, but spends her leisure hours ,in the study of modern Greek, in whieb language ■be converses well with a Grecian attendant who is always with her. Dr. John E. Owen, medical direc tor of the Chicago Exposition, in compliance with u request from the tedy managers, has promised to put women upon bis staff and allow them

Y readers to the number of half a dozen have written to ask why I did not give fashion sketches of backs as well as fronts. So I do. every once in a while.and right! here I show two views of a n e w housegown. It may be taken as a model by those who make their b w n dresses, who want to see how skirts are now being cut. au d drapped. A

to rank in all respects equal with men in the Exposition hospital. There will be also a hospital in the Womans Building fully equipped frith physicians and trained nurses. A London housewife engaging a servant recently was startled by the modeal .request. « “Vou-will. allow, me, ma’am, an evening a week for’ my violin lessons.” In the next ceiltury Hie serving maS witb a soul not cultured above dusters and silver polish will be a more rare type than has been the woman senior wrangle) and Doctor of Philosophy in this the woman’s evcle.

A PRETTY GOWN.

Long Cloaks in Style.

SEASON of fancifully fashionable overgarments is at hand, and so thin women are at an advantage over the thick ones. Many a stylish mantle or cloak won’t do for broad figures. A typical garment in the new styles is herewith depicted. It wouldn’t look its best on a lavishly rounded woman. However, gentle

reader, don’t mind if you are plump. Men always like plump women. Not fat, of course, but a woman can be very plump before she is fat. The outlines may not be the most beautiful in the world, but smoothness goes a great way. The initial fashion plate shows a dolmau. or palatine, made, of chinchilla goods and ornamented with lace and ribbons. At the front joining of the sleeves with the front breadths, folds of gray silk are placed. The face, falling in the form of a collarette and forming a straight collar, is ornamented with bows ol gray ribbon.

THE DANCING FAD.

One'View of Society. Now York Times. The truth about modern polite society is that it exerts no moral force whatever, and, indeed, seems to have no conscience; and it acknowledges no serious obligations to the world. It exists for pleasure and display: it exerts no good influence; it inspires no one to lofty aims; it is not wholesome. Here in New York, where we are still very young, and where polite society is still as distinctively moral as it is dull—in spite of the sporadic outbursts of a few scions of ancient families, whosi cubbshness is not excelled by the gilded youth of Britain, but who are greatly restrained by their environment —the respect for good conduct, the gentleness and simplicity that distinguishes the smaller “society’ of a half century ago have vanished and left nothing to boast of in their places.

SHE’LiLt BE THERE! Ain’t Georgia a-goin’ to the great world’s fair- S — : Ain’t Georgia a-go'n’ to the fair? She’s got a bl!? pertater An’ a punkln that Is greater Than the whole of the equator— She'll be there! Ain’t Georgia a-goin’ to the great world’s fair— Ain’t Georgia a-goln’ to the falrt She’s got a golden nuggetFrom a hill o' her’n we dug it How a feller’d like to hug it? — She'll be there: Ain’t Georgia a-goln’ to the great worlds fair— Ain't Georgia a-poin’ to the fair? Though the folk* thev hol'.or "bosh;” Clear from Dade to Moln , osh, Yot, she's oamlu’ wltn a squarh—shu’ll bo thfcre! —Atlanta Constitution.

South Dakota Yearns for Him.

The personal column of a New York daily contains this golden opportunity: “A well educated young man of good social position will marry any Indy of means who will provide funds for him to procure a divorce from his present wife, whom he can not get along with." To clear muddy water put om teaspoonful of alum to four gallons of water.

THE CRUISE OF THE CASCO.

Stories Not told by Stevenson in His South Sea. Letters. 3an Francisco Cor. to the Chicago Inter-Ocean Walter Cook lives in Oakland now. Pacific Islands. He’s a capital yam spinner, and full to the brim of South Sea reminiscences. “Have you been reading Robert Louis Stevenson's story about the ‘Beach at Falesa’?” he asked me one day last week. And then without waiting for a reply he sailed in and began telling the yarns that I am now telling yOu. Cook lived in the South Seas a good many years, and is well known by all the traders and masters that sail from this port. “I was a trader down there myself," he began: “used to swap plug tobacco and gaudy calico for copra and shells. Had a big station at Tahito, on the island of Tahiti. Knew tbe-Canakas like a. bre. and stoorfra with the big chiefs, and all that sort of'thing, . - : _ “ Some time in- 1889 Stevenson •ame dow there in the Casco. You remember the schooner he left San Francisco in? The same one. “What should 1 see one fine day but the Casco sailing into the harbor. I had the run of things there and I kept a Whitehall on the beach and could pick out a crew of Kanakas at a moments notice. I used to turn in almost any way. “So I out in the Whitehall after her; and caught her, too, in good season. ‘Twenty-five dollars,’ I.savs to the tall, good looking white man dressed like; a Kanaka who leaned over the bowrail and bargained with me. He thought that was too muph, and he said he guessed he’d let the Kanakas steer him in. “ ‘All right,’ says I, buttheydon’t know the rocks Jiere.’ Then I called out to the Kanakas in their language

that there was $10 in it for them if they’d reef him. They had three natives aboard,and those three knew their bfliiness, I can-tell you. Inside of twenty rninutes the tall white man sung out for me to come aboard. The Kanakas had failed him badly. Well, I went on board and steered him in. ‘ls there a Scotchman on the island?’ was the first question he put to me when we cast anchor. “ ‘That there is,’ said I ‘an old fel,o.w who lives over the hills back of the station. He has a brogue on him as thick as your arm.’ “‘All the better,’ says he. And he wanted to see the Scotchman first thing. He Daid a good $lO, to, for :he horse and rig to drive him over there. But that’s getting ahead of my story. “ ‘l’m the man that writes books,’ he said. ‘Mv name’s Stevenson. I want to go over the island to take :ome pictures.’ “Well, in transferring his camera rom the schooner into the Whitehall it tumbled overboard. You could look down into the thirty fathoms of water and see her lying there by the rocks as plain like as if she was floating on the vvater.

“Stevenson was sore, put out over his loss, and he showed it, too, and that's where he made the big mistake. If he’d treated the thing as a joke and offered the Kanakas a plug of tobacco to fish it up. he could have carried it ashore with him. “But what does he do? He ups and offers the Kanakas $10 a head for diving for it. and when two or three made believe to try for it. and came up without it,Stevenson got excited. “‘l’ll give $50 for that machine!’ he says, and then all hope of getting it fled, for the Kanakas figured it out that Stevenson would offer that much for the recovery of his own property it must be a very valuable thing, and would be worth much more to them. Stevenson had but one camera with him, and as the island contained some of the finest tropical scenery .thereabouts, he hated to leave it without getting some photographs. But he went on over the hill to see his Scotchman, leaving his camera, like, McGinty, at the bottom of the sea. “No sooner was his back fairly turued than the Kanakas began a grand scramble for that machine, as though it was so much gold dust. You couldn’t have twisted a lamb’s tail twice before they had it high and dry on the beach. “They carried it off in triumph, fully expecting to sell it to some white man for a fortune. “Three days latter I bought it from them for a plug of nigger head, and when Steveusojn came that'Way again I gave him hrs camera, none the worse for its soaking. “That night we all had ourrftllofchampagne on board the Casco. The next day Stevenson made a tour of the island with his .photographing apparatus. “Yes, there’s many a good story to be told of life in the South Sea Islands. For all it’s so balmy and quiet down there a man lives more and sees more of the world in four years on the island than many men do in forty years who stay at home in a big city,” continued Cook. It were worth your while to know Walter Cook, if only to listen to his South Sea stories. Were he an accomplished litterateur, lie might write syndicate letters that would win him more fame than those of Robert Louis Stevenson have won for their author. “And talking of Stevenson again,” said Cook, “the’ e never was a bigger ween horn struck the islands than ttleauthorof The Wrecker.' “Wli/u as hrst came to Tahiti he huuted'all around for a dry dockland

was badly put out when Informed that there was no Such thing short of Australia. “The Casco wants scraping badly. I suppose I’ll have to beach her to have it done.” “Not a bit of it," we told him. ~ dozen TCnrvrkng o oliilt of to. baecp and set them to work with the promise of another plug a piece when the scraping is done. “But how are they going to get at her while she is in the water?” asked the perplexed author. “Leave that to me,” I told him, and he did so. He was a good deal surprised to see those Kanakas dive under the Casco’s bottom and scrape her clean in less time than it would have taken to dry-dock the schooner, had there been such a convenience at hand. Stevenson watched them all day long. He seemed fairly enchanted with their spryness in the water,and when the sharks began to gather about them he cried out to bring -thcm-aK-oa-bpard in a boat. But the natives never headed him. They feared the man-eating sharks no more in the water than on deck. An able bodied Kanaka, you know, can out-swim a shark any day. When the big fish get toj near one of the native scrapers he would get a kick or a punch behind the fins, and that would settle the skark so far as the native was concerned. If one of the sharks got too persistent in his attentions on the scraping Kanaka, then the native would stop his work long enough to jab his scrapiug tool into the shark’s* belly a few times. But this the natives were loath to do, for it iuterferred with their work, the blood from the wounded shark discoloring the water and making it opaque, so they could not see the hull of the schooner.~

Stevenson was simply amazed at all this, and instead of giving each Kanaka another plug of tobacco he paid them $5 apiece for their day’s work. There were a dozen drunken Kanaka in town that night. The best joke on Stevenson that I can remember now occurred in the Marquesas Archipelago. At that time the author had a crew of six Kanakas. One night in the schooner Poe, which means pearl, I spoke the Oasco, thirteen miles off the reefs. She was in distress, so I went aboard to see yflfat was the matter. There I found Stevenson and his Captain alone —not another soul on board. “What’s the matter,” says I. “Where’s your crew? You can’t get in alone." “Of course we can’t,” said Stevenson, “and that’s just the trouble. The crew has deserted us, every man Jack of them. An hour ago they all scampered off over the deck rail and are now swimming home or are drowned.” “Never you fear* that they’ll drown,” I said. “A thirteen mile swim for a Kanaka is only a pleasure trip. There’s only one way to drownj a native, and that’s to hold his head under water. “Then Stevenson told us how the crew came to desert him. One of them had been sent aloft and told to lower the gaff topsail and make fast the block. The Kanaka obeyed orders and all went well till a squall struck the Casco a little later--one of those tropical storms that do a heap of damage while they last, but quHdy. blow over. “When the scuall struck the Casco tlio gaff topsail blew off. showing that the Kanaka had fastened it carelessly. In the excitement the CapjEam lost tits temper and gave thrgfci fending native a cuff. “Instantly those six natives went below and packed up their scant belongings. They came on deck naked, with their clothes tied on their heads, In another instant the Casco's crew •was in the water, swimming for shore, thirteen miles away. “Just at that place, too, the sea is infested with sharks, some of them fifteen feet long, but not one of the six men met with a mishap, and three days later, when I came back that way, I carried, them back to Tahiti “Well, the end of it was that I had to lend the Casco three of my natives. This made me awfully shorthanded, and you bet Stevenson had to pay for it. But without this help Stevenson would have been wrecked sure. No two men could have taken a schooner over those reefs.”

SOMEWHAT CURIOUS.

One-half of the wealth of England is in possession of 1,000 individuals. There is but one sudden death among women to every ten among men. More births Occur in February than in any other month. July is the month of fewest births. ~ -The World’s Fair management expect to realize $175,000 from franchises for the sale of popcorn on the exposition grounds. St. Augustine, Flo., New York and Salem, Mass., are the only three cities in the United States that are older than Boston. Palamedes, of Argos, was the first commander to a? ray an army in regular line of battle, to place sentinels or -to give a watchword. There is no truth whatever in the belief that any one falling into the sea necessarily rises and sinks three times before drowning. . In Germany aluminum cravats are now on sale. They lire advertise 1 as feather-light, silver-white wash goods that will wear forever. The famous Bank of Venice began business in 1192, lasted 600 years and might have existed to this day. but tor the invasion of Napoleoa.

GREEN OLD AGE.

Cases of People Who Live Beyond Their Time. Baltimore Sun. Several cases of extreme longevity have recently been reported. Mrs. Hannah Harman is living in Brocton, Mass., at the age of 95 years, having been born the last day of Washington’s administration. Within the last few weeks two men were nearly as old, who retained vigorous health up to their death, died in Washington county,' Md., —Eli Stake and William Jones. The former, when a young man, was engaged in poling boats on the Potomac, from Williamsport to Georgetown, in the days of the old Potomac Company. Not many years ago Mrs. Elizabeth Schnebly died in Washington county considerably over a century old, retaining her mental and physical vigor to the last. In the town of Clarence, near Buffalo, N. Y., lives Mrs. Lavina Fillmore, having—attained the remarkable age of 105 years. She was married in 1809 to the Rev. Glezen Fillmore, a cousin of President Fillmore and the first Methodist minister employed regularly west of the Geuessee River. The Buffalo Courier assures us that the date of the birth of this remarkable woman is so well established as to be beyond question. In New York Mrs. Mary Fredenburg is living in possession of good health and all her faculties in her 105th year. In Goshen, N. Y., lives Philip McCauley, who celebrated his one hundred and third birthday on the 20th of this month. It is to be observed that while there are well authenticated cases of life extending beyond a century, most reputed cases come from the humbler class of people who are not in the habit of keeping family records, and the ages of the very old become matters rather of tradition than record. A great number of colored people believe themselves to be more than a hundred years old. Moses, who lived to be one hundred and twenty years old, fixed the limit of life at three score years and ten, “and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years, yet is their strength then but labor and sorrow, so soon passeth St away and we are gone.” Jesus, the son of Sirach, in the Book of Ecclesiasticus. declared that "the number of a man’s days at the most are an hundred years" and it is rare indeed that this limit is passed, although it cannot be doubted that more men approach it now than iu former years. “Old John of Gaunt, time honored Lancaster,” was but fifty-eight years of age when King Richard spoke to him as we would speak to an octogenarian. Hudson, iu commenting on this passage, says: “At that time,men weye often married at fifteen, and were usually reckoned old at fifty, and to reach the age of sixty was then as uncommon as it now is to reach fourscore, so much has been added to the average of human life by the ease, comfort. and art of modern tiines.” However lustily men may sing “I would not live alwav,” it has been the common aspiration of mankind from the beginning to prolong life. Jacob, when 130 years old, complained to Pharaoh that “few and evil have the days of my life been.” The secret of long life bus never been distinctly discovered. It is true that moderation in diet and the observance of certain recognized rules of health will doubtless prolong life. But although scholars have devoted -thair-lime to the discovery of an “elixir,” it has never Beeh found: - Lord Mansfield, when he became a Very old man, made it a practice to question all aged witnesses who came before him as to their manner of life, hoping in that wav to discover some rule for longevity. But there was no concurrence qf habit, except that he ascertained that nearly alt he questioned were ebrly risers. But it is likely that they were early risers because they were vig- i orous and not vigorous because they were early risers. Dr. Stare, an English physician who lived about a hundred years ago, reported the case of a centenarian who mixed quantities of sugar with all his food, and attributed his long life to that habit. Dr. Slare adopted the practice, as he declared, with good results. Another physician, who lived to an old age, took daily doses of tannin under the belief that it would preserve the tissues of the body from decay. Lord Combermere attributed his good health and long life to wearing a tight beltaround his waist. If people would generally put on such a belt as they go to their dinners it might be beneficial. Mrs. Lewson, an English lady, who lived to bo one hundred and six, attributed her vigor to the fact that she never washed herself, but was in the habit of smearing her face with lard, declaring that “peofile who washed always took cpld. ” n the early part of this century a lady lived in New York who at the age of seventy retained the clear and delicate complexion of a girl. The cause to which this was attributed was kept a close family secret. The lady never wet her face, but used corn meal instead of water. But now, it h said, meal and flour make wrinkles. It will be remembered that Sara, the wife of Abraham, was so beautiful at the age of seventy that her husband feared that, be wotild be billed on her account.

A Poor Reward for a Traitor

Pleasant stories of Napoleon I are exceedingly, scarce, but here is one; The French Col, Varennes had written several confidential letters to a pretended friend, in which he censured Napoleon about some military actions. The pretended friend, ex'

pdctmg a good reward by promotion or otherwise, sent the letter to th« Emperor. Varennes was Summoned before him. Napoleon showed him what he had received, and asked: “Are you not ashamed of these letters?” — Varennes did not lose his selfcommand. “No, sire,” he replied, “but I am ashamed of the address from which the letters last came.” Napoleon's manner brightened. He said: “You are right. Your communications to your pretended friend were confidential but he has played Judas on you. But if in the future you want to subject my orders to criticism you ought to send your opinion to a better address; that is to say, to myself, and I hereby appoint you a member of my Council of War.” The pretended friend was transferred to a subordinate position far away on the frontier of the empire.

HONK! HONK? HONK!

—— Interesting Facts As to the Journey ings of Migrating Birds. Baltimore Sun. —- Another arctic expedition returned from the north a few days ago. Its arrival was announced by a loud “Honk I Honk! " far up in the sky. It was composed of eleven members, and was headed by a gray veteran, who led his forces,arranged in the form of a letter V, without thb slightest deviation, due South. It was the wild goose expedition,which having summered in the arctics, had decided to winter in more temperate climes. It is not to be supposed that they reasoned the question of a change of location among themselves, consulted almanacs and time tables or even compasses to reach their decision or to decide their course. Their action was influenced not by what psychologists know as higher cerebration. As the country folks say, they felt ; it in their bones that it was time to move southward, and south they ; went under the wonderful influence i of instinct. To the older philosophers, instinct was a far more wonderful thing than it appears now. They asserted that all the actions of the lower animals were performed through instinct,and explained that they possessed this faculty in lieu of intelligence, which was the peculiar attribute of man. This was, however; soon exploded by the demonstration of the possession of intelligence among animals and of | instinct by man. , Indeed, the later philosophers have come to believe that almost all the actions of man ! are influenced, if not controlled, by instinct alone. The tendency to migration of certain species of animals is plainly referable to this hereditary influence. Originally, no doubt, migration occurred because food was more easily found in one locality than in another. The hereditary memory, so to speak, pointed out the place where more food was to be obtained with less exertion. Gradually other surround-, ings suggested themselves as agreeable to the embryo mind, and these, repeated through many generations, created that unthinking tendency toward a particular place or climate, regardless of its original fitness. Almost a*l our ideas are gained from association, and it is fair to immagine that the constant and i repeated association of a particular locality with a pleasurable sensation —the satiation of . hunger, for example—would soon identify the sen- _ i sation with the place. Then would be evolved the sentiment of home, a ~senHt»ent~ffihich we feel only more keenly than the~ToweT™inrtTiiais"“be* — cause it is associated not only with the place where there is something to eat, but because of other pleasurable sensations associated with it, as they are constantly found in the same locality. It is a mistake to regard the migratory instincts of animals as unerring. Every woodsman has observed how a particulay species of bird will apparently desert a certain locality for another for one or more seasons. Occasionally this may result fram choice, but it seems altogether more probable that it is from some mistake on the part of the birds themselves. Their generally accurate course has been deluded by some circumstance, and they have made their home elsewhere. In the case of stragg ers this is particularly marked. They rarely succeed in rejoining the main body to which | they originally belonged, and are j forced to be content with whatever suitable place may be found. Migratory animals and b'rds are almost always gregarious: that is. they live and especially they travel in compact flocks or herds. They do this for one reason only, that the ■ wisdom of a number is greater than that of any one. Any error in the route would be detected by one or another and thence communicated to I the whole flock. Once in a while they are all mistaken, and then some incoming steamer serves as a point of rest for the tired wings, or some hitherto unknown country becomes the new home of the home seekers. But there is much that is very wonderful and awe inspiring in the instinct that guides them. If, indeed, it is merelv the reflex of the memory of long departed ancestors —if the thoughts as well as the sins of the father descend to remote generations, what tendencies and inclinations are we transmitting to pur children which may in later generations develop to good or evil? Are we steering a straight course like the old gray goose? t. Rub fine kid shoes once a wo'L with a mixture of equal parts of gly- ; cerine and castor oiL They will ' then never crack. v \ ;• *■ • \ • ■ : **