The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-08-08 00:00:00

A HINDU LADY ON HINDU MARRIAGE.

GOSSIP ON DRESS.

Tim u Queen has the following fashion article:
During the present week, all the English gaiety has
concentrated between Brighton and the Isle of Wight.
The Solent is gay with yachts, the country houses in
Sussex and Hampshire are filled with guests, and the
lawn at Goodwood has been the scene of a brilliant
gathering of Royalty and rank, beauty and fashion.
Society in London no longer exists. It terminated
its existence last week, when Marlborough House
opened its doors on Friday evening for a farewell ball;
and Hurlingham and Ranelagh, Sandown, and the
open-air theatre at Coombe House (honoured by the
presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales)
gathered their company on Saturday for the last time
for the season. Lovely weather and lovely dresses
favoured the resorts of pleasure, and so the page
closes, and in its stead opens a new phase—the world
of sightseers from the country and abroad. The
Inventions Exhibition attracts its daily thousands,
who, when they have seen all its wonders, and
digested its contents, stray out into the park, with its
beautifully-kept flower beds and shady shrub-studded
slopes, where a few, very few, equestrians and
carriages linger. The caterers of fashion take their
well-earned rest, and depart hither and thither,
oblivious of trade and customers, knowing that till
autumn demands come in they are free. Now that
the toilettes for Goodwood are done with, the country
and travelling costumes have been occupying atten-
tion, and also the seaside and bathing ones.

SEVARAL new styles of coats and jackets are being
made m various materials. There is Venetian covert
coating, plain and mixed, which differs from the
smooth Melton, inasmuch as it has a twilled surface:
a very thin tropical diagonal cloth; rlaampore cloth,
Cheviot tweeds, and a new herring-bone Melton in
stripes. This last is guile a novelty, and looks re-
markably well in dark myrtle green and a reddish
brown. All these materials are waterproof. In covert
coats, there is a neat one shaped to the figure, fasten-
ing just below the throat, and made with pockets and
the "strapped" seams seen in a man's. It is made
in several shades, but notably in a burnt biscuit
colour. Another style, intended for walking, and
smarter in appearance, is tight fitting at the back, has
loose fronts, a tight-fitting waistcoat, lay-down collar,
and small lappels. The loose front pieces are lined
with satin of a contrasting shade with the cloth,
which shows when blown back. A navy-blue
coat would have a pale blue lining, a coffee-
brown an old gold, a striped cloth a grey
satin, and so on. A stylish little jacket- in
coloured cloth is braided round the cuffs,
collar, basque, and down the front in a pretty inter-
laced scallop design, with a braided inserted waistcoat,
commencing in a point at the throat and terminating
in another point below the waist. The back is usually
perfectly plain, and glove fitting, but sometimes has
the reversed double box plaits, below the waist, to
allow of particular fulness in the dress skirt. Another
new jacket is short and tight-fitting at the back, but
straight and loose, and longer in front., pointed if
single-breasted, but square if double. The front has
no darts, which gives it the straight look. A modifi-
cation of this jacket has one dart on each side, which
shapes the front, without rendering it tight fitting.
The collar is either turned down, like a maa's
morning coat collar, or is in velvet (as are the cuffs)
in the "stand and fall" style. Some of the new
ulsters for autumn and winter wear are being made
in this style. Several of the long, tight-fitting San-
down coats are smartly braided, and a few have re-
versed plaits up the back, with a gathered piece up
the centre, which is uncommon.

IN habits, there is not much variations, but there
are being made some very much shorter at the back
than in front, cutting away from 15in. to 18in. in a
good scoop. This is to prevent any chance of the
habit catching if the wearer should be thrown. More-
over, the work put in this shortened side is much
weaker than anywhere else, and there is no hem, so
that all would give way if strained by a heavy drag
on it. The sides measure 34in., the skirt is 4-yds.
round, and is made in three pieces, the widest at the
back, the narrower over the left hip, and the narrowest
over the right knee, as tight fitting as is possible to
be, almost like a trouser. Additional fitting is done
on the wearer when trying on, according to the
natural curves of the limbs. This shortening of the
side of the skirt is not percentible when mounted, as
the body of the horse intervenes. In some of the
new tweeds the habit bodice is made of a thinner kind
than the skirt.

THERE are some particularly good fishing and
walking skirts worthy of mention. They are of re-
versible mackintosh,. the outside resembling alpaca,
with a narrow satin stripe, and in almost any colour.
They are very light in weight, varying in width from
two and a half to three yards, made to clear the
ground well, plain in front, with all the fulness
thrown to the back. Neat, well-fitting jackets are
worn with them. For walking tours, for wear on the
moors in misty,wet weather, and for fishing expeditions,
nothing could be neater or more appropriate. In
riding jackets, there is one with a gusset inserted into
the right side of the deep basque, which unbuttons to
admit of the leg going over the pommel, and which
buttons up ingeniously when worn for walking.
Buttons are placed on the other side, so no difference
is perceptible. These jackets are .made in light-
coloured mackintosh cloth, or to correspond with the
habit skirt. The long ulsters that have deep capes
are now made with a ventilating piece underneath,
across the shoulders, and also with small pieces in-
serted in the sleeve underneath the arm. A thin
canvas or woollen fabric of semi-transparent surface
is used. This is done also with gentlemen's ulsters.
There is a graceful new waterproof cloak of pure
silk, with new-shaped sleeves and well-arranged
folds at the bask of the skirt, which is intended for a
Royal Princess ; and there is another, different in
form, called the Marchioness, which envelopes the
whole figure, has wide " sling sleeves, and a well-
setting hood, removable at will; also a new close-
fitting Sandown ulster, with a hood, all of which are
to be recommended. Some Tam o' Shanter caps for
bathing, in pure white rubber, with coloured ribbon
passed in and out of slits in the head band to keep
the whole secure, are not at all unbecoming, and pro-
tect the hair from sea-water and the head from the
sun. Some new fancy tweeds, waterproof and re-
versible, are being shown in the form of skirts,
cloaks, jackets caps, and driving rugs.

TnE white shirts, in soft muslin, are being greatly
worn with cotton, and even material gowns, and look
smart and cool. The bodice is usually made to close
at throat and waist, but open between, with the centre
of the front cut away. The shirt piece is attached to
a background, and put on before the bodice is
fastened. It is pinned or hooked down each side to
keep it in its place. Sometimes the skirt is simulated,
and fixed to the front of the bodice, with a false hem
down each side to give the desired appearance. These
full skirt fronts can be varied in many ways, colour
and lace being substituted, but the best worn are the
white lawn or muslin. With mourning gowns they
are occasionally of white crêpe lisse. In the Row of
a morning, during the last hot days, several cutaway
coats, NOtth tight-fitting backs and white waistcoats,
have been worn instead of the usual habit bodices. In
one or two cases grey " billycoek " bats have accom-
panied them. The short " Zouave," or more properly
"Matador," jackets are rapidly gaining in favour,
and are to be seen in jetted lace, edged with
good-sized cut beads, over black costumes; in
dark-coloured merino, trimmed with a fringe •of
coloured balls; over cotton, canvas, and all sorts
of light materials; and in white-watered silk, black
ottoman, and velvet, trimmed respectively with white
and black jet, and lastly in flannel (for seaside wear),
with worsted braid. These jackets are smaller than
they were at the beginning of the season. One or
two remarkable ones have been seen of tolerably
broad striped Algerian silk, made up horizontally.
Striped shirts and skirts, with plain Matador jackets,
are stylish. Also very small checks, or white and
coloured stripes as skirt, with white vest and plain
dark-coloured, stripes,
or tight-fitting jacket. Surah
Norfolk jackets are worn over light morning skirts
for quiet home wear. The short, round waisted,
banded bodices are generally attached to the skirts
by buttons, so as to keep them from slipping up, as
they are wont to do. The buttons are placed on the
bodice (four or five of them), and corresponding
buttonholes are made on the band of the skirt.

COAT SLEEVES are so tight nowadays that there is
often some difficulty and unpleasant struggling to get
the bodice sleeve down in its place. To obviate this
there is an invention of a little contrivance, which
resembles a pair of small silver tongs, attached to a
blue cord, which fires to and draws down the
refractory article of dress.

SOME smart seaside hats are shown in the sailor
shape, covered with striped white and coloured
flannel, made to match various costumes, or to wear
with white or navy blue suits. There are others in
serge, braided in a very uncommon manner, edgewise,
and some in silk, with clustered loops of ribbon,
massed at the front. Some tennis or riding caps are
of becoming shape, with a band up one side, having
an embroidered pair of racquets, or a whip and horse-
shoe.

Everything that looks to the future elevates human
nature; for never is life so low, or so little, as when
occupied with the present.
In married life there should be sympathy—com-
panionship. The husband and wife should be true
friends and comrades, without a thought of getting
the better of each other. They should join hands at
the altar with the idea of being made one. There
can be no true love where the thought of mystery
enters the mind.

The more perfect the sight is, the more delightful
the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite,
the sweeter the food. The more musical the ear, the
more pleasant the melody. The more perfect the
soul, the moro joyous the joys of heaven and the more
glorious to us that glory.
Some people appear to feel that they are much
wiser, much nearer to the truth and to realities than
they were when they were children. I should not
at all wonder if the thoughts of our childhood, when
we look back upon it after the rending of this veil
of humanity, should prove less unlike what we were
intendga to derive from the teaching of life, nature
and revelation, than the thoughts of our more so-
phisticated days.

TIRED OF HIS LIFE AT SEVENTEEN.

On Saturday, at the Croydon Petty Sessions,
Thomas Richardson, 17, describing himself as a sign-
writer, of Auckland-hill, Lower Norwood, who pre-
sented a very dejected appearance, was charged with
attempting to commit suicide by throwing himself
into the Coventry Pond at Norwood. When the
charge was read over to him, he replied, "Yes, sir, it
is quite right," adding, in answer to questions put by
the bench, "1 am miserable at home. I want to go
to sea, and they won't let me. My father and mother
don't treat me as I should like them to." Police-
constable John Perkins, 12 P Reserve, deposed that
at half-past nine on Friday night he was informed
that a boy had been taken out of a pond by two men,
and on proceeding thither lie found that such had
been the case. The prisoner, who was very wet, said,
"I went into the water on purpose to drown
myself. I intended to destroy my life by shooting or
drowning, and I thought drowning was easiest."
Alderman Grundy remanded the prisoner for a week,
and gave instructions for his parents to be present on
the next occasion.