The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-23

Denented, ana 1nuuceS pOWoAlu poueh-
tates in Germany graciously to patro-
nize gambling saloons, that the poor of
their miniature realm may be supported
by foreign visitors. Millions flow into the
treasury of the United States from the high
duties imposed upon silks and laces; a Stewart
grows rich in almost every large city, and
builds marble palaces from the profits he
makes on the sale of what here is called dry
goods, and opulent milliners drive their
phaetons in the park or on the shellroad
There is not village of few thousand in
habitants that could not at needs supply the
means of dressing lady in astyle fitfor Picca-
dilly or the Champs Elysees; and whatin Europe
is still largely the exclusive property of
the high-born and wealthy is here, in true
republican style, within reach of every one
who is willing to spend few dollars-for
there seems never to be question as to the
ability. This produces two pleasing results
In the first place, American women, through
out the length and breadth of the land, are
infinitely better dressed than their sisters in
Europe Go to the smallest inland town
go to country-seats remote from railway and
stage line-go even to the border States,
where civilization in its highest type comes
still in immediate contact with savage life
and everywhere you will find persons well
dressed unlocking unmistakable ladies. The
slender figure, no doubt, sets off the simple
dress, the small hand instinctively seeks
Jouvin's gloves and the pretty foot demands
O small, ell-ftting boot; but there is always
more or less taste to be seen in the choice of
the colors and the fit of the Dress The bold
mixture of colors so fatal to the attractions
of English girls, the pinched look produced
by the habitual rigorous economy of German
ladies, and the careless slovenliness 80 often
seen in italian women, are rarely found in
A.. 60 oh ntao Nf
travelling enable almost every girl in the land
to visit the larger cities occasionally, and her
observant eye and quick wit enable her soon
to find out what is the prevailing style, and to
acquire general idea of what is suitable and
what is becoming The thoroughbred pro-
vincial air, which is such constant source
of amusement to the traveller in the Old
World, hardly exists in the States; and the
inmate of log-cabin in the territories often
looks as we'll dressed and as aristocratic in
bearing as many high and noble lady abroad.
Hence, also, the almost marvellous facility
with which the American lady adapts herself
to foreign habits and foreign styles of dress.
Many fair daughter of this favored land was
born in humble cottage, sent to public
school, and compelled to earn her livelihood by
the work of her hand or the teaching of chill
lren. She may have married, when she was quite
young and unused to the ways of the world,
an industrious mechanic, a modest school
MASTER or a youthful barrister. She has
risen with her husband from step to step,
rarely seeing the world, till one fine day she
awakes to find herself the wife of a foreign
minister. She crosses the ocean, she appears
at court, she mingles with the highest in the
land and as there is not trace of awkward
ness in her manner, so her dress is in perfect
keeping with her new station in life, and she
har cr,Ia yifh ha
simple ease and perfect grace which in Europe
are deemed the precious prerogative of the
high-born. Nor must the re0erS de la naeddiIye
be forgotten. The sudden rise is not more
frequent than the sudden fall; the am
bassador is recalled by a new President,
the millionaire sees his wealth take
wings in a day of panic in Wall street, the
owner of thousands of slaves is left penniless
by Presidents proclamation, and the wife
has to lay aside her splendor and to exchange
her velvets and her diamonds for simple cali
Goes and modest ribbons.
But, with the same innate dignity and out
ward grace, she remains the lady still in her
homely dress, and gives to the cheapest mate
rials and plainest forms charm which
neither poverty nor seclusion from the great
world can ever efface. This rare gift OF
the American lady was most signally
exhibited during the late civil war,
when the Southern States were for five
years almost hermetically closed to the outer
world, and the ladies of the South were com
PEELED, from destitution as we'll as from sheer
ignorance of foreign fashions, to dress as wei
as they could. And yet English travellers
and Continental officers, who saw them during
that time, bear uniform witness to the unmis
taxable cachet of good-breeding which they
knew to impress upon toilettes, which under
all other circumstances would have ap
peared most odd and extraordinary. There
was something indescribably touching, W.
are told, in the homely, unadornet
costume in which ladies reared in luxury
and even splendor, would welcome British
lords and French princes in bare rooms
their calicoes were worn with distinction
and their homespun fitted with an elegance
which made them only the more attractive
and reminded the visitors that the carpets
had been transformed into blankets, and the
silk curtains into coverlids, while the fai
owners spent their days in nursing the
wounded and working for the ill-clad soldiers
| in the field.
Since the war, however, the tendency to ex
| travagance which has taken possession of the
American people has not failed to affect tht
fair sex also, and naturally shows itself mos
| in the injury it has done to their native goo(
taste. Still, there is a very perceptible diff
ference in this respect also, between tn
dress of the North and the South, th'
East and the West. AS all the levellinl
power of republicanism has never yet sue
ceeded in totally effacing the difference
which climate soil, and occupation produc
in mems speech and manner, SO fashion als'
has to bend, bon gre NAL gre, to the sam
influences. The down eastern girl, strong il
her we'll l-trained mind and almost mascu
line independence, is apt to affect sterI