The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-02-04 00:00:00

GOSSIP ON DRESS,

VEILS are once more worn by the young ladies
(remarks the Queen), who rehearse their own
hynieneals at weddings, and those are being shown
long and full, brought forward over the face, starting
from beneath either a spray of flowers and a dainty
bow of ribbon, or the flowers are replaced by feathers.
Another notion is the Marie Stuart veil, which is
particularly becoming; the shape is outlined with
pearl beads. The veil, starting from the point
in front, and then floating at the back, rests prettily
on the hair, and yet is so light and gossamer-looking,
it in no way interferes with the graceful outline of
the head and coiffure. There are several new shapes
in hats for bridesmaids. A model in Leghorn straw,
with somewhat wide brim, is caught up carelessly
here and there at the back, and is bent in becomingly
to the face; the crown is almost hidden by pink roses
and emerald-green velvet bows. A Panama straw hat
has the crown hidden with blue gauze, from which
peep forth white wings, which blend with the gauze and
appear to secure it. Quite another class of hat is made
in dark velvet, with a high crown; brown vulture
feathers are clustered in the front; the velvet is folded
over the shape with studied carelessness. Baskets
of flowers often replace bouquets at weddings. The
handles of some are tied with long loops of ribbon,
while others are silvered, orchids being the favourite
bloom. There are novelties in wedding favours;
some have tufts of white ostrich feathers tied in with
the orange blossom, others lilies of the valley with the
sheath-like leaf standing boldly up at the back, and a
third variety has flowers composed of pearl beads
blended with the blooms. From a number of dresses
made for H.R.H. Princess Louise to take with her to
Malta, a peacock-blue and a red satin evening gown
were particularly noticeable, the latter trimmed with
some of the Honiton lace worn at her wedding,
similar lace (a favourite kind with our Royal family)
blending with a sage-green satin gown. The morn-
ing robes for our Royal Princess were noticeable for
their simplicity. A navy-blue woollen made with a
Norfolk bodice, and combined with a soft beige-
coloured Indian woollen, had an almost invisible inter-
woven stripe, and was made with long straight skirt
draperies, and dark brown velvet introduced on the
bodice. A Pompadour silk tea-gown was made with
an Incroyable jacket.

COLD hands are divided impartially between the
sexes, but muffs we are accustomed to regard as pe-
culiarly the possession of our own. Formerly, how-
ever, this was by no means the case. Gentlemen, as
well as ladies, regarded the muff as an integral part of
their winter attire, and no " beau " or " macaroni "
could sustain himself with the consciousness that his
appearance was what was due to himself and to the
society which he adorned, unless, says the Queen,
a small muff dangled from his neck by a silken
ribbon.

MUFFS are a great feature at present (remarks a
writer on "Fashions of the Day" in the Queen), and
many and varied are the kinds. A few, composed
entirely of green cocks' plumes, lined with red velvet,
and finished off with a bow of the same, are among the
re,cherchi, while coloured cloth, with pinked or pounced
edges, made up with plush, are the most general.
Some have the plain centre of plush, with two pieces
of cloth, laid in folds, on each side, with the pinked
edges turned outwards. The lining is usually of
sarsnet or satin. Astrakan and other fur muffs have
the head of the animal placed in front, with a little
pocket. These heads are now said at furriers. Dolls'
fur muffs may also be seen displayed in furriers'
windows, made from the cuttings. Tan cloth, with
ruby velvet; chamois leather, perforated and worked
in gold thread, with myrtle-green velvet; gold em-
broidery, with brown and other coloured plush, are
popular combinations; and last, but by no means
least, are the mouflon and lighter grey feathery fur
muffs, which, with the boas and trimming, still retain
their popularity.

FOR wear in a serener clime than this, is white
linen, for tea-gowns, covered with a coral design in
gold, to be made up with soft yellow silk; also white
with a navy-blue line, for mixing with navy-blue
serge (for Mediterranean yachting) or blue linen. The
new " Mogol " silk crêpe, made at Norwich, in every
possible shade, is the last thing for the ball dresses, to
be worn abroad, as it stands any amount of crushing,
and, being of bright pure silk, comes out fresh and
uncrumpled after weeks of close confinement in pack-
ing cases. White, blush-pink, and peach seem to be
popular shades.

IN jewellery there are many new designs, among
them being a necklet or bracelet of fine chain gold
with large hook and eye in diamonds; a dandelion
puff glittering with diamonds, all mounted on finest
wires; a small gold fir cone brooch with diamond
stalk) in a case shaped like a cone), a pendant of
diamonds representing a cockatoo on its perch; five
diamond or pearl daisies set in a row, as a bar brooch,
with single ones for earrings, &c. Guarded pin
brooches, with a letter, a name, or some little animal's
head in diamonds, or gold wire bangles in the same
style, are fashionable for bridesmaid's present's; and
diamond hilted swords are to be seen passed though
coils of hair, and supporting bonnets. It is
fashionable to wear very little round the throat,
and a beautiful diamond necklace is therefore
often displayed on the bodice of a dress, fastened
across in the style of a stomacher. One large
star, worn in the centre of the hair, is more fashion-
able than several smaller ones. The brooches, having
in diamonds the date of the year, and brought out
last season to celebrate the Jubilee year, are now to
be seen with 1888; and they are also made to cele-
brate any byegone eventful year, such as a marriage,
or any particularly marked epoch rendered dear to
the wearer. A novel way of displaying handsome
gemmed rings, which are lost to view under gloves at
evening entertainments, is to pass strands of hair
through them, and fix them in effective positions by
fine hairpins on the top of the head. They do not
look like what they really are at the distance, but like
clusters of gems studded here and there.

WEDDINGS and balls are the principal entertain.
ments of the present day—and night. It has been
said that the busiest time for both is between New
Year's Day and Ash Wednesday, or the genial month
of roses and its successor—June and July—although
last year there were more marriages in the autumn
than during the whole summer, owing, perhaps, to the
wild excitement of the jubilee season. Trousseaux
and wedding presents have occupied many minds of
late. At most of the winter weddings the guests and
bridesmaids have been dressed in dark colours, red in
many shades being the predominant hue; but recently
some white weddings, as they may be called, have
been popular, where the bridesmaids, the pages, and
several of the younger guests have worn white cloth
gowns and suits, with hats or bonnets trimmed with
beaver, dark brown or grey fur, and also with fancy
gold and coloured embroidery. At one recent wed-
ding the bridesmaids' costumes were exceedingly
pretty, consisting of skirts of white vicuna (resembling
thin cloth with shiny surface), with double panels of
fancy gold embro:dery, divided by a few folds of
the vicuna down the left side; Directoire coats
of white silk, with gold embroidered waistcoats,
matching the panels; and cuffs, pockets, and
high collars to correspond, laid on white velvet.
The white felt hats were large, turned up at one side
and at the back, with strips of the embroidery on
white velvet, and there were a few loops of the same
in front, with white feather aigrettes. Instead of
posies, each bridesmaid carried on her left arm a
white satin bag, with her own name embroidered in
gold on it, with a lace pocket handkerchief peeping
out— .tike gift of the bridegroom. A button-hole of
white ftowers was fastened into the lappel of the coat.
A guest at this wedding wore a skirt of silver-grey
cloth, looped up to show a petticoat of white cloth, em-
broidered round the edge, and also up high on one
side, in grey and silver. A Directoire, coat of grey
silk, with white cloth waistooat, cuffs, and collar
embroidered in grey and silver, and a bonnet of white
cloth, trimmed with grey and silver, and a cluster of
silver wheatears. On one side of the coat front a
good-sized buttonhole of pink roses was fastened,
and a silver watch in a fob hung from below the
coat.

WIIITE still reigns supreme at balls, but pale pink
is much worn. At a ball given lately at a fashion-
able winter resort in the South of France pink was
conspicuous, in several shades, but all more or less
delicate. The amount of ribbons used was also
noticeable, and on one or two dresses there were
three ribbons, about an inch and a half wide, placed
on the top of the right shoulder in a smart cluster of
loops and ends, falling down the back to the edge of
the skirt. Another arrangement was somewhat
similar, only the ribbons were carried up again, and
fastened in front of the bodice. They were lightly
tacked here and there to the skirt. The effect in both
cases was graceful, and also uncommon. When the
front of the bodice and skirt are of a different
material from the rest of the dress, a set of bows in
the same colour, or sometimes of two colours, is
placed on the right shoulder, down to the basque,
then at the knee and downwards. They
are large on the shoulder, and graduated
towards the waist (about six, set close together), then
smaller at the knee than lower down, and in the same
number. They may also be smaller at the shoulder
o,nd waist than on the bust, but they are always
graduated. When the bodice has no sleeves, the ends
of the top bow are carried round the arm, and forms
the sleeves. This is also carried out with coloured
net. White velvet bows on a white dress, with a
tinsel butterfly on each, or pale pink on a pink dress,
with beetle wings sewn sparsely on, look well. Many
women are wearing the Pongee silk sashes as neckties,
and they have not at all a bad effect. One of becom-
ing colour, tied in a good-sized bow, the ends tucked
into the coat front, and worn with a hat or stringless
bonnet, suits most people. This fashion will probably
gain in favour as spring and sununer advance. These
sashes are also arranged as full fronts to bodices,
and twisted up, with a piece of plush or foreign
embroidery, to form smart muffs.

AMERICAN counsel, to negro witness: "Is it pos-
sible, uncle 'Rastus, that you would swear to what
you know is not true for a single paltry dollar ?*
Uncle 'Rastus, indignantly: "No, sah ; de gemman
guy me two dollars I”

MR. GOSCHEN'S RECTORIAL
ADDRESS.

INTELLECTUAL INTEREST IN WORK.

The Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, on Tuesday, delivered
his address as Lord Rector of the University of Aber-
deen, in which, he said, he desired to plead not for
any particular form of study, nor for any particular
branch of knowledge, but for a temper, an intellectual
habit, an attitude of mind applicable to every kind of
study, and indeed every sort of work—the habit of
intellectual interest in all that was studied, learned or
done. Our position in the case of civilised nations
was no longer what it was. We had a great start in in-
dustry and commerce, and by virtue of that start we
attained a station of unprecedented and long unchal-
lenged supremacy. That supremacy was no longer un-
challenged. Others were pressing on our heels. We re-
quired greater efforts than formerly to hold our own;
mother wit, and boldness in seizing great opportuni-
ties—the chief factors in our previous success—were
no longer sufficient if others were to be more strenuous,
more painstaking, more widely informed. It was the
recognition of this fact which was at the bottom of
the great stir in our educational world, of the ever-
increasing demands made on our elementary schools,
of the cry for techical and commercial training, of the
new spirit which was manifesting itself in our public
schools and universities. At present it was the vastly
greater knowledge of our rivals which was supposed
to be the most dangerous competing force. And
the inference was that we were to bustle
into a system of immed.iate and rapid craas.
He did not believe that remedy would sue •
ceed, unless it was accompanied by the fertils
and all-prevading mind to which he had called
their attention that day. People might be frightened
into working harder, but the results would disappoint
unless they were made fonder of work. This, after
all, was the final test of the value of an educational
system, whatever its curriculum. Was it intelligent?
Was it thorough ? Above all, was it rousing? Did
it excite the intellectual interest of those who came
under its influence ? Did it develop in them the
temper which always asked for a reason and struggled
to arrive at a principle. When he looked at the
augmented list of subjects which now figured in our
elementary education, he sometimes feared lest it
should lull us into the belief that our object
was gained if we could only pile up high enough
the number of our studies. The question was
whether they were so taught as to expand
the mind or merely to fill it? Were the teachers
interested? Did they stimulate as well as inform?
Variety of studies promoted interest, but the mere
multiplication of subjects was not what was essential.
To beget the right spirit in education in all its grades
was a national work. No mere system could do it,
nor did it rest with the educationalists alone. It was
not programmes of study, however ample, not time-
tables, however well constructed, not examina-
tions however searching, which would make
an educated people; and they wanted the steam to
drive the machinery as much as the machinery
itself. They might perhaps live to see thoroughness
of study and zeal, disinterested zeal to get to the
bottom of a subject, as much admired and held
in honour among the political mass of their
countrymen, as they always had been among the
learned few. And it was certain that until we
did so, all that nascent eagerness for education which
had sprung from our discovery that it did not pay to
be without it, would not suffice to place us on a level
with nations where such thoroughness and zeal were
universally reverenced. For his own part he liked to
see scholars rattled about, and he had been astonished
at the successful attempts to elicit genuine intel-
lectual interest from very young scholars which he
had seen in middle-class schools in Edinburgh. Ile
liked to see their competitive eagerness. With in-
creasing years the power of following a train of
thought grew into the power of checking it, and the
power of checking the train of thought of another—
into the power of developing a train of thought for one-
self. When there was no check to the tide of national
prosperity; while stern necessity had not yet laid on
us the obligation to strain every nerve to keep the
lead in the race of nations; while the national advan-
tages which had secured to Great Britain so immense
a start, could still be regarded with the confidence of
unbroken possession as belonging to her of natural
right, it might have been vain to raise a voice of pro-
test against a tone among our upper and middle-classes
which tended to weaken the esteem for intellectual
effort in every section of society, and to dismiss
hard work to a subordinate place as a drudge and
not a companion—a limitation, not a part, of the
highest blessings of life. But now, when looking
around at the rapid advance of our rivals, we saw
that start of ours which once seemed so enor-
mous growing dangerously less; when a nation to
whom work was a pride and a pleasure appeared
with giant strides to be gaining on our steps, the
people of Great Britain might perhaps more readily
be induced to bestir themselves to add to their great
natural capacities, to their natural and acquired
advantages, and to the self-confidence of their
ancient prestige, some of that power which the passion
for mental labour had conferred on their most formid-
able rivals, and to resolve that in school and uni-
versity, in bank and in warehouse, in factory and in
arsenal, a larger share of time and credit and influence
and authority should be assigned to intellectual effort
and intellectual interest. (Cheers.)