The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-12-31 00:00:00

GOSSIP ON DRESS.

No ONE (says a writer on children's dress in
Daily News) who has devoted half a dozen conseco
tits thoughts to the subject of children's dress can fail
to pe,ceive the inconsistencies which characterise it
just now. Why, for instance, should a little baby
boy wear a hat turned up all round, and offering no
protection of any sort to the sides of his head and
his ears; while baby girls wear immense bonnets
which literally enwrap the whole bead, tying under
the chin for further security that the winds of heaven
shall not blow too strongly on the tiny wearers?
The ears of male infants are constructed upon
an exactly sitni:ar plan to those of their female
sisters and cou-ins. If it is hygienically oorrect
to cover up those of the girl, it naturally and
reasonably follows that the boy's should be covered
too. It is true that there is much divergence of
opinion upon the question as to whether it is better
to completely envelop the ears of children or not;
some authorities holding that to do so makes them
more susceptible to cold when the bonnet is taken
off. or at the change of season when warm plush or
velvet is replaced by silk or even cot'on. Others
think that the Greenaway bonnet, with its comfort-
ably lengthened ears, is the most sensible form of
headgear that could be devised for the inexperienced
little wearers who have not yet learned that to stand at a
windy corner of the road waiting for nurse, after having
made themselves very hot indeed with hoops or ball,
is a direct invitation to a whole crowd of evils, in-
cluding toothache, earache, cold in the head, and
consequent confinement to a monotonous nursery,
comsh with dismal sequences of disagreeable doses of
medicine: or, most trying of all, the depressing
malady known under the unpoetic name of "mumps."
But the more widely opinions may differ on the point
the more impossible it is for one individual to believe
in both extremes; and yet we see every day small
groups of brothers and sisters, the former in the
turned-up hat, and the latter in the very much turned-
down and closed in bonnet.

PROCEEDING downwards in our inventory of the
garments of the nursery, we shall find that in the
matter of the coat the boy has the advantage. His
little pea-jacket, ulster, or overcoat is quite perfect in
its miniature resemblance to the grown-up article.
Being double-breasted, as a rule, it affords warmth
and protection just where they are needed across the
chest Very often the thick coat has three or four
tiny "coachman's capes," which protect the lungs
more effectually than anything could do which failed
to warmly cover the back between the shoulders and
the shoulders themselves. Round the neck is folded
a fine white cashmere scarf, out of which rise the
scarlet ears and glowing cheeks of the little man.
But his small sister is not nearly so well off in this
direction.

A GLANCE at the fashions for little girls in almost
any periodical in which such subjects are illustrated
will show that the girl's coat stops short just where
the boy's is made double for extra warmth. The
cloth, or plush, is cut away from the front and filled
in with folds of satin or surah, the sole lining to
which is a piece of stiff muslin. Very often a band of
fur trims the edge of the cloth where it stops short to
give place to the folds of satin: but though this may
be deemed ornamental by those whose thought is un-
vexed by utilitarian considerations, it is absolutely
useless in that position as regarded from a warmth-
giving point of view. If fur is not to be looked at
from this standpoint before the merely ornamental,
what is?

SOME purveyors of out-door garments for little
girls actually insert a stuffed cushion under the folds
of the coat at the back, in older to make stand out in
imitation of their mothers' fashionable tournure. In-
jurious as the extra heat and weight at the end of the
spine are to grown women, they are a thousand times
more so to the tender child, and this wretched
cushion ought never to be allowed to remain. Mis-
guided tastes may think it pretty to see the drapery
at the back jerk to and fro with each step of the little
one, like the tail of the wiley wagtail; but the child
herself soon feels "very hot at my back, nurse," and
becomes too tired to run and play with the boys,
whose outlines are mercifully allowed to follow those
of Nature, and who are not afflicted with artificial
excrescences like their unlucky little sisters. Then
again, round the neck of the little girl, instead of the
warm, white cashmere wrap of the boy, will be found
a flimsy lace handkerchief or embroidered tie; and
sometimes not even this, but only a frigid linen
collar which does not even lie close in to the soft little
neck.

Tiin idea of mothers and nurses in wrapping the
boy up with extra care may be that they think to
correct the shortcomings of his insufficient hat by
multiplying the folds round his neck. But the little
girl's enveloping bonnet leaves her neck as much at
the mercy of cold winds and damp air as his is. Fur
is neither necessary nor, perhaps, advisable, but a
warm silk handkerchief should always be wrapped
high round the throat, and firmly secured in that
posit.ion by a small safety clasp. Many an attack of
croup or bronchitis has been avoided, or at the very
least minimised, by these friendly folds of warm silk.

Dr.qcmmrso still further, to the ground in fact, the
question of boots will engage the attention. Many a
mother must have wondered why her little girls come
home from their walk with their feet as cold as ice,
while the boys' are in a satisfactory glow of heat.
She may safely attribute the chilled condition of the
former, and perhaps consequent troublesome chil-
blains, to the faihionably-pointed toes of the boots she
has bought for her little girls. In these the toes are
cramped together and the muscles unable to act.
After a few weeks the toes become permanently de-
formed, and the free, easy gait of the child is lost for
ever. As there are mothers who regard this cramp-
ing together of the baby toes as a desirable early
training for a future fashionable foot, perhaps a pro-
test as to the cruelty of the practice would be vain.

Btrr there are also other mothers who have some
respect for nature, and.who regard their children's
comfort as far paramount to a smart and modish ap-
pearance. Such mothers will find the greatest diffi-
culty in persuading bootmakers to construct boots
and shoes square enough at the toes for these latter
to escape compression. They demur because they
think the boots will look ugly, and will not please the
eye when finished. The only plan is to insist on their
being made wide enough to "take" the toes as
sketched out on a piece of paper on which the child
is standing and resting full weight on the feet. They
will be made under protest, but there will not be a
similar difficulty about the next pair. Ready-made
boots have destroyed much of the comfort of thou-
sands of men and women. It is a disastrous piece of
thoughtlessness to inflict them upon little children
Boys suffer oftener from heavy boots than from any
vanities of " clipner-built " toes. All shoes and
boots for childreh should be made by hand, not
machine.

So much for outdoor attire. It is to be hoped
that only a small minority of mothers eontinne to
dress their babies in frocks with low necks and short
sleeves, in face of all that has been written about this
practice of late years. The amount of harm wrought
by it is incalculable; and to it many physiologists
at`tribute much of the deterioration in physique that
is Anlv too perceptible in English men and women of
the 'present generation; while some doctors hold the
opinion that many cases of consumption may be
traced to the exposure of arms and necks in early
childhood.

Tun redingote (says a writer in Weldon's Ladiel
Journal) is once more the height of fashion both in
mantles and dresses. It is certainly very stylish, and
suitable for winter materials, whilst it affords ample
scope for the display of feshionable adornments of
embroidery, braiding, passementeries, &c., as well as
for the borders of fur which are so much worn this
year, and it is probably the rage for these trimmings
which has led to its revival.

PuzFERENcE is given to long mantles this season,
which, doubtless, is due to the striped and chequered
materials employed for outdoor garments, for they
would not look so elegant cut into a small rittite
still, as long mantles are too heavy for comfortable
wear, there are smart little wraps shown in plain
velvet, plush, and rich faille, trimmed fur of every
possible kind. Fur ornaments and tiny fur bobs are
shown in grey furs, as well as beaver, seal, chinchilla,
&c., ready for mantle trimmings, while extremely
handsome jet and cord epaulettes are arranged for
outdoor garments.

LONG mantles will remain in favour for visiting and
driving, as they are decidedly elegant and cosy; but
for morning promenade short wraps are shown, and
many of the new tweed dresses are sent home with•a
jacket or dolmanette to match.

CLoTn has become wonderfully fashionable for
even fussy mantles, which are trimmed fur and braid
sets; but plush or velvet trimmed fur is considered
the height of eleganct and good taste.
TIGHT-FITTING tweed coats, made both single and
double breasted, are finished with collars and cuffs of
golden beaver, which is extremely elegant in the new
dark green cloths.
PERFECTLY plain tight-fitting velvet jackets trimmed
fur are shown, the fulness of the back being arranged
in box pleats rather than gathered on, as were those
of last season.

Smarms made of a different material to the bodice
are correct, and when the skirt is of velvet it is also
employed for the sleeves, the bodice and drapery being
of milk, cachemire, or tweed. Sleeves, too, are much
trimmed this season, and epaulettes are added to many
of the new robes.

Wrnr cannot a deaf man be legally convicted ?
Because it is not lawful to condemn a man without a
hearing.
A GENTLEMAN, conversing with a group of ladies
concerning an absent beauty of 30 at the very most,
remarks: 'How henderome she must have been.' The
words are greeted with sympathetic murmurs, and he
continues imprudently: ' And for that matter she is
so yet!' A glacial silence ensues with a feverish
fluttering of fans.