Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-07-05
DRESS In JAPAN.
Home and Foreign Styles-An Evening


DRESS LIN JAPAN.
Home and Foreign styles-An Evening
From the Home Journal.
On the LIST of January, 1873, accord
ing to imperial edict issued some weeks
previously, all the government officials
in Toxic and the various prefectures of
the Japanese empire appeared in Eu-
ropean dress. Imagine the sight pro-
dnced by suddenly extemporized rev.
olution in national costume. Those
above certain rank wore coat and
chapeaux, embroidered according to
their rank, in the style of the French
diplomatic costume. The amount of
gold lace, gilt buttons, bullion, cha
peaux, epaulettes and embroidery that
suddenly appeared in the capital was
dazzling, if not stunning. The ordi-
nary government employee donned
evening dress coats, white neckties,
chimney pot hats and boots, and ap-
pearer In funeral sable, or the nearest
approach to it in the bronze black
cloths which native dye-vats could fur
nish. can say but little in regard to
the cut, fit, quality Of the materials, or
|
the wearers. Simply remarking that
only few of the native tailors had
ever seen a suit of clothes made by an
American or European tailor, and that
most Of the officials had always worn
4 their native costume, their appearance
In their new rig may be imagined. It
certainly beggars description. Hats
resting on nose bridges and ears, coat
tails Tapping boot heels, coat waists be-
low the thigh or apparently
climbing to the shoulders, with
a reasonably good chance for reach
ing the top; pantaloons Overlooking
in luxuriance Of uncabbaged cloth, or
perhaps riding into the boot tops from
their shortness; clnging tightly, like
bark to a tree, or as baggy and loose as
an idly Tapping sail on a mast; vest in
chronic secession from unmentionables,
with a frigid zone of white muslin
shirt between; neckties of ell colors
foot-gear ranging from COW hide boots
to ladies high-heeled CATERS or rubbers
pumps and brogans, showing vast areas
Of superhuous leather, or pinching into
birth new plague to the Japanese
corns and bunions-were among the
novelties of the day. AS for gloves,
the varieties, sizes, colors and materials
: would distract haberdasher to note
them all; progressive glove tips of
Llsle thread far in advance of the
actual finger ends inside, We'd in extrav-
agance or economy of material With
buckskin gauntlets, and mourning
gloves, wooden mittens, or white and
lavender kids bursting over palms to
which they only half reached encased
the hands that were, for the first time,
learning to shake in foreign style. The
use of these trifling articles of gentle
mems wear, such as suspenders, under
clothing, linen handkerchiefs, etc., ETC.,
I were yet to be learned by the ma ority.
The most amusing part Of this remark
able pageant was that the wearers
appeared in most cases to consider
themselves and their get-up quite equal
to the Broadway or Regent street stand
ard.
At present, however, foreign cutters
are employed by the Japanese houses,
and the general appearance of natives
attired in our dress is vastly improved,
many of them displaying the fastidious-
ness and good taste in their new vesture
which is characteristic of the Japanese
gentlemen of the old school, The
women, however, of the Mikado's EN-
pire, still cling to their own becoming
native dress. Some of the younger
members Of the embassy of 1872, while
in Paris engaged two French dress
makers and millincrs to instruct the
Japanese ladies in the mysteries of fe-
male dress in ChristendOm; but on their
arrival in Japan the Mikado, Prime
Minister and Supreme Council, paid
their salary for three years, with pass
age money, as per contract, and ship
ped the maodistes back to sunny France.
Japan was thus saved from sudden
deluge of female paraphernalia and
and tied-back dresses; though, for that
matter, it is probable that this latter
fashion is borrowed from the Japanese
ladies, who wear their garments drawn
into the narrowest possible circumfer-
ence. So CONSTRUCTED is their dress that
the walk of fashionable belle in Toxic
often becomes a mere waddle, the hips
being so pressed that motion is best Sc
cured by moving the body as much as
the limbs. Most Of the Normal School
young ladies in Toxic, the wives of the
younger government officials, and those
about to be brides, have one or more
suits of foreign make in their troalsseaata.
The general introduction and wear Of
the fantastic and ever-changing cos
| tune of female Christendom is not an
| improbable-perhaps not a remote de-
velopment of civilization in the Mika-
dos Empire. a.
|
4 American Rich Men.
American rich men are of all races.
Girard was French and an infdel; Hop
kins was English and Quaker; Jacob
Barker was Yankee; the Livingstones
were Scotch; the Barrons were Spanish;
Aston was German and Stewart Irish
Vanderbilt and Garrison were Dutch,