Wilmington daily commercial., 1873-08-07
FIRST EDITION..
OUR EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE.
The Girls Letter Csntinusd.


From he Commercials Special Corresponds. l.
How would you like to have a white monu :
ment in your bed chamber, looking az il they
expected you would die in the night and thought
they would have everything ready for the bu-
rial, even to the the tombstone, only they have
had the decency to withhold the inscription
1t is a beautiful monument, too, square and
pillared and capitaed, with a deep niche for
statuary, and heavy square pedestal standing
fiat and solid on the floor and reaching alto
| gether nine feet high. wonder il they are idol
worshipers here, and II this il one VI their tenn
| plesi feel OF the smooth, white surface it is
porcelain, not marble, and though standing
diagonRy across the corner of the room il has
mason work connection with the wall for
| considerable distance up, but no opening that
| can discover into my room. hol this then is
| German stove, I've heard of them, but this
il my first acquaintance. IL not being quite cold
enough for fire, (though have thick winter
coat on whenever go out) cannot test its
| heating properties. II seems to me that it
| would be very moderate heat from such a
stove and that IL they permitted much
ventilation 1t would soon be all carried
off, for l believe they only build one
fire a day out in the entry, somewhere, and
ilues connect with two or three stoves ia differ
ent rooms The ceilings where we have been, are
very high, but we notice that the roofs OF the
cottages and old fashioned houses are very low
generally. There are double sashes TO the win
dows too. and small feather beds, or holsters rath
or, between the sashea to keep the dust and the
cold out. The blinds are between the two glass
windows, aud the white lace and terry drapery
inside OF all. There are no carpets on the beau
tifully polished floors Of mosaic wood, (al of one
color however, butttey are very prodlgal OF nice
warm rugs, large ones too OF richly-coored Brus-
sells woven in patterns. d" What handsome bed
steads said at first, " beautifully inlad
woods !" l felt Of them. and found them iron
skillfully painted. Not all are no we have vari
cites high beds and low ones, curtained aud
uncurtained double and single, pillows like beds
and pillows like pincushlons, sometimes four of
them, sometimes one for two persons, but never
yet hard dirty, or uncomfortable one. They
are all equal to our best spring mattresses what
ever they may be made OF, But sleeping under
a feather bed, and that bed incased in o bright
cherry eilk cover is the latest novelty with US I;
and that too in the middle OF July, while you at
home are doubtesss sweltering with heat We
have a cherry silk bed-quilt too, beautifully
quilted in many figures nike large sweet-pota-
toes.
The finest and whitest OF linen sheets lines
this, and turns up over the edge for quarter OF
a yard all round, and buttons down flat and neat ;
we think 1t is very pretty, but some who have
biite quilts think theirs are more becoming
Then you would laugh at the dinners that is
IL you we're not in hurry and did not feel tnat
you were losing time, for then it would be a
little too exasperating for laugh. They ring
the bell loud and long all over the house, at
nalt-paBt Blk p. IN. lou nave NOT seen IOOu hlnCe
breakfast. as early an you chose to tako it. You
go promptly to the table and unfold your double
dAmask napkin OF u of a yard square, pour out
Of the glass watei-botte little OF the hard
water, into one of the four or five mostly
different colored glasses placed beside your plate
to receive It, Then yOu are ready but not 30
the dinner The walters in swallow-tailed coats
and oily hair fionrish whito napkins over their
arms, and talk French and German and a mir
htre known only to themselves, but arc perfect
is al. .itutnN of mi am
You may wink, and beckpn, and call, but to no
purpose when the time comes, which is fully
twenty minutes after yu come in they bring in
the soup. Then. although they have been 30
deliberate, they do not expect you to he so; il
you drop your spoon for All instant, your plate ls
whsked of, and you see no more OF 1t the only
way IL to hold on.
Then when every body ia through soup and
the plates have been changed they bring in ono
dirh at a time of meats, all carved and cut INTO
small pieces, (so that you cannot take much,)
and vegetables and fish one after another,
changing the plates between each one, and pre-
serving the same dgnihed and leisurely repose
throughout, 30 that one course has time to dl-
gest almost before another comes on. There II
no waste here, they calculate very closely. and
there is Just enough and no more. No waste OF
food, that is but very much waste OF time.
Don't think we eat great deal though II
the number il great, the quantity is not; even
when we are permitted to keep our plates from
being spirited of before we were half done with
them saw one man at our Antwerp Hotel,
staring around in vacant beWilderment after a
plate of chicken, which ho had not touched, but
which he never saw again, for lie could not make
the walters understand a single word.
After that, he grabbed his Mate with both
hands, whenever the swallow tails would pass.
Iu Cologne ard Brussels We had music during
meals, and the high windows were open into the
court yard and verandas, and some tables we're
set out OF doors, looking quite garden like.
did not care to come to the Continent at nrst,
/ dreaded ii little, but we have seen 80 much
and enjoyed 30 much that would not part with
the experiences and the memory for great deal,
Every body is kind and polite too, aud some
thing else that cannot quite describe. 1t IL
pretty though and likelt 1t is not vlvaclty
altogether for our girls at home have that even
mere OF 1t than these neither is 1t Intelligence,
refinement nor oourtly grace altogether; but
some OF ali. and added to these all honesty,
dlstinctness self-forgetfulness, that yet shows
self-respect, naturalness in fact, that Is very
pleasing.
The people do all appear to be homes /; wheth-
er ii is the thorough police regulations or not
cannot tell but there appear 10 be no thieves
aud pickpuckets about, aud they are very fair
10 money transactions.
You like to soc handsome laces, and wear
them too but doubt if you would could you
go into tho rooms where dozen or two women
sit for twelve hours day bending over their
cushions and frames which they work and
weave the delicate fabrics We 80 much admire.
They work with incredible skill and swlftness,
but one girl was making pocket handkerchief
on which she had labOred steadily for Is months
and it was not finished. The pay had been
from one franc a day to two and three the very
highest wages being three aud a-half francs
day. fraI'c is nearly twenty cents.
They end over very close, 1t is 80 hard on the
eyes / could scarcely the little loops in the
mesh through which they thrust tie needle with
unerring eAactness.
It was interesting to see the making OF the
different kinds of lace, and to note the different
methods. POinte Applique has the flowers woven
by shuttles or bObUius after pattern,
traced on a black ground, and then when COM
pleted, the whole is fitted or applied to lace
background, and neatly fastened at the edges.
Pointe is mado entirely with the needle Brus-
sells lace entirely with the bobbins Duchesse
lace, part with the needle, aud partly woven
with bobbins while the delicate, fairy-like ira
ceries Of the Pointe de Venise are made like the
Pointe Applique, first with the bobbins and
then instead Of being "put on" or applied" to
lace, the flowers are worked round with
needle till mesh is formed. could have cried
to see the beautiful tempting things, and to
think how much life, and strength, and soul,
went into them. Poor creatures, noticed that
when they looked up for an instant to see srang-
ers come in, the directress told them sharply 10
20 on with their work. E.W.
---=
jeremiah Tobin, aged "a was drowned while
bathing at Bridgeport, Conn, on Tuesday even
ing He was a native OF Ireland, where his