Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 March 1877 — The Fashions. [ARTICLE]

The Fashions.

Among the beautiful dresses of an outfit for spring is a breakfast dress of pale blue basket cloth, made with a demi-train and loose jacket trimmed with cardinal red galloon and wide white Smyrna lace. The best Parisian authorities announce that there will be no decided changes in the fashions'of spring dresses, and the first importations confirm this assertion. We find these importations to consist, first, of suits with princesse polonaises, basques with overekirts and lower skirts, and, finally, princesse dresses. Among features common to most of the handsome polonaises are the long seams of the back, the plainness ovet the tournure, and sufficient length to give a Very slender effect. The Byron collar is seen on a great many. Fringes and wide galloons are the trimmings universally used, and the galloon is very generally arranged in sloping lines, or else in a long V down the back from shoulders to waist. To support the train of carriage and house dresses a sweeper or plaited flounce of muslin edged with imitation Valenciennes lace is set on the inside. It is about three-eighths of a yard deep, and is set on at such a height that a glimpse of the white lace appears below the edge of the dress. Imported dresses are provided with French sweepers that are made of crinoline and muslin, and may be changed from one dress to another. A drawing string across the back breadths to hold them back is the rule almost without exception on French dresses. Knife-plaiting still prevails on the newest dresses. Around the bottom of the skirt are two rows of fine knife-plaiting, each two inches deep when finished; above this is a fiat band of galloon, or of bias brocade, or of plain silk, and by way of heading are two upright plaitings that stand out with more fullness than is seen in the lower plaits. The newest white muslin frills have the heavy scallops wrought in color. For ginghams self-trimmings are preferred, in plaited or gathered ruffles headed by bias bands; there are also colored cotton galloons for trimming such dresses. Sprigged and figured Swiss muslin suits made by this design will have pufls of the material edged with lace and lined with ribbon. Square bows will fasten the front, and many long-looped bows trim the pockets and ornament the back of the polonaise. If the polonaise is made of washine material, it is best to omit all linings of the waist and sleeves, as no matter though the dress goods and the lining are both shrunken by being washed before they are made up, they are still liable to further shrinkage when washed a second time; as the two materials are of different quality, they will not shrink precisely alike, and the consequence is the outside is either drawn or wrinkled upon the lining, and the fit of the garment is spoiled.

The front of the princesse polonaise is fitted by two darts, and clings as closely to the figure as if glued upon it. Buttons half an inch in diameter are set down the entire front. Vegetable ivory or else smoked-pearl buttons are now used on wool, silk and cotton dresses. These buttons are exceedingly close together, and there is usually a button-hole for each; but those who are not equal to the task of working so many button-holes set the buttons on the two fronts after turning down the hems, and lapping them. New black silk sacques are partly of brocade and partly of plain silk, and are trimmed with galloon, lace, fringe and ribbon bows. Dolmans are thus far confined to the gray and drab wool cloths already described. The sacques are halflong and of French outlines, with long seams in the back, or else ihe galloon trims the back perpendicularly. The long slender garment of sacque shape, with shoulder pieces giving the effect of a dolman, is imported in summer cloths and in black silk, and promises to be as poDQlar as it has been during the winter. The polonaise predominates among the plain suits of woolen stuffs for spring. Among these are wool brocades of ecru and brown gray quadrille and basketwoven woolens, small checked goods and plain challis trimmed with brocaded bands. The small pin-head checks of black, blue or brown, with white are made up for young girls* suits without any trimming except that given by rows of machine stitching. The skirt is plain, with the exception of a few kilt plaits set iq the back breadths lfee a fan trmn; the front breadths are turned tip and sßtched. — Harper'a Bator. ■.l j*- j The change which has been Wrought in a few yeata in the source, of supply of iron and steel rails in the United Statesis most remarkable. Of steel rails In 1872 we imported 235,680,087 pounds, and manufactured" 188,140,000 pounds; in 1875 we imported only 95,850,902 pounds, while our manufactures had risen to 581,726,000, and the figures fpr 1876 will show a still greater balance in our favor. Our rail manufacturers now have fee home field practically to themselves, and with the revival of railway building that is sure to come their business will reach figures hitherto unprecedented.— BaiUcay ASIt. —The proprietor of a line of stages in New York has adopted the picture of a whale as his business emblem He says feat feat fish was the first Stay-Jonah mentioned in history.— Patenon Amateur.