Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1875 — A Well-Dressed Woman. [ARTICLE]

A Well-Dressed Woman.

■ A writer in the Galaxy has seen a perfectly well-dressed woman, and thus describes her: She was not beautiful, nor even pretty: and so, madam, you may let down your nostrils and uncurl the corners of your mouth. She had not even a fine figure, in which very important respect she was only “ fair to middling,” as they say in trade. But as she approached the august presence the misty form was conscious of a subtle sense of pleasure. As she came nearer and nearer this increased, and when it became all too certain that it was not her beauty which awoke this delightful sensation, mere was a moment of thoughtful hesitation in the nebulous mind, and then it became clear enough that it was the woman’s dress that was so beautiful, and that it was the extreme rarity of this particular kind of beauty which made the sensation we have mentioned. Of course, we must tell what this dress was. Nothing easier. It was a simple, loose gown high upon the shoulders, girdled closely but not tightly at the waist, and falling in light, easy folds, not to the ground, but. nearly to the ground behind and not quite so low before, so that as the woman walked not even the hem of her garments swept the sidewalk. There was not a flounce or a ruffle or a plait or a patch of trimming of any kind upon the dress, the skirt of which was ample enough to afford perfect ease of motion and to be graceful, but was not full, was not tied back; did not hang over a bustle, and there was no overskirt. The material was muslin, or some cotton stuff; and—oh, madam! read, mark and inwardly digest—it was not starched. It did not stand stiff, or break up into patches, or make a rustling and crackling as she walked. It was soft in texture, soft in its outlines, and noiseless. Had it no ornament at all? Yes, indeed. Around the bottom hem, at the wrists and at the throat, there was a narrow figured border of blue, beautiful in design and color, which gave the dress a perfect finish, and was attractive in itself without being at all obtrusive. Over this dress she wore a short, light garment of the same material, sleeveless and falling to the hips. The costume might have been worn by a Greek woman, Aspasia herself, to the delight of Pericles, and yet there was nothing about it which seemed outre or even strange, except its simple elegance.