Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1893 — THE FAIR SEX. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE FAIR SEX.

Queen Margherita of Italy on tbe occasion of her silver wedding day received among other things 22,000 begging letters. v Probably the oldest illustrious pianist in the world is Mme. Clara Schumann, who is known abroad as the “queen of players." She has been before the public nearly as long as the biblically allotted lifetime, having made he” debut in Leipsic three score and five years ago, at the age of eight. Mrs. Lewis, the English woman who discovered the Syriac gospels, is mistress of ten languages. She began with Latin in her childhood, took up French, German and Italian and began Greek ten years ago. After the death of her husband she plunged again into the study of the dead languages, took up Greek and then went on to Syriac and Arabic. She discovered the gospels in the convent of St. Katherine, on Mount Sinai, to which she and her sister obtained admission. and where they were treated with all imaginable deference by the monks. a garden iiat. In the matter of headgear there is apparent, at times, an inclination to run to the highly picturesque, but the persistence with which the broad-brimmed sailor hat has held its place has really • quite disconcerted the summer girl. She has considerable courage, but she does not care to stand up like Arnold Winkleried, one against a thousand. For those longing for something pic-

turesque, the large white chip hat, trimmed with long white ostrich feathers has come in very opportunely. Gray hats in the same line are likewise very becoming, there being two long gray feathers fastened in front with a small white wing and a crystal buckle. Instead of the wing you may substitute a Dointed bow of gray velvet ribbon. The picture shows a very pretty garden hat. The trimming is of pleated crepe set off with lace, and surmounted by a twisted roll of the crepe with a crest of the same material ornamented with a sprig of rose. New honors have been heaped upon the Dowager Marchioness of Londonderry. She has been admitted by the Archdeacon of Merioneth as church warden for the parish of Machynlleth. When Queen Victoria left Florence she rejoiced the heart of at least one woman. Lady Colnaghi, the wife of the British Consul, was presented by her with a bracelet bearing in blue enamel her initial and the motto “Honi soit qui mal y pense.” - The dinner party has been viewed from the ethical point by Lady Magpus in a recent article. She says that “the ideal dinner party, the one conducted on ethical principles, gives due thought to its dinner and due thought to its party,” and she brands as vulgar and pretentious the habit of. hiring people to entertain guests. A FRENCH TEA GOWN. A tea gown decidedly French in its combination of color has a foundation of sky-blue crepon, shot with mauve. The soft, loose front is of mauve peau de soi. At the waist it Is confined by a girdle of woven gilt.

Over the shoulders are wide mauve velvet epaulettes, which form a canopy for the puffed and fluted sleeves, the upper part of which is silk. When Queen Victoria makes a journev by rail she pays the companies at the rate of 7s 6d per mile for herself, besides first-class fare for every one else traveling in the royal train. The journey involves a temporary stoppage of traffic on the line, and perhaps a good deal of delay in goods traffic, but, reckoning the companies’ loss on this account, Her Majesty is certainly by no means an unprofitable passenger.