American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-03-09
How Shall Our Girls Dress for
the Home Circle?

the Home Circle?
Remember, girls, that your everyday
toilette is a part of your character, as
indicative of individuality as the express
sion of your countenance, your gait, or
your ''hand o. write The young lady
who goes about slovenly and slip-shod
in the morning, unkempt and looking
like a ''fury'' generally, is not to be
trusted, however deliberately she may be
gotten up during company hours. Make
it point to look tidy at the breakfast
table, and later in the day improve your
toilette, whatever may be your status in
life or your circle in society. If your
home costume be only cheap calico, or
a polonaise that has been cleaned or col
ored, worn over make-shift skirt, you
can at least have it spotless and in good
repair-no pins stuck in to supply the
place of missing buttons or to close gap
ing rents; hair dressed smoothly and be-
cOmingly, and shoes neatly laced.
There is a certain air of self-respect and
satisfaction that comes only with the
consciousness of being appropriately
dressed, and that no art can supply. A
very common but lamentable mistake
that young housekeepers are liable
to fall into, is that of imagining
their appearance in the morning to be
of little consequence, and that one is
rather expected to be en- dishu6tIEe than
otherwise. So the once charming girl,
whom the lover always found neatly at
tired during the blissful g billing sea
son, as a wife, presents herself at break
fast, morning after morning-and often
at dinner back-hair la door
knob, and foreztop in crimping pins,
| frowsy, disheveled and. down at-heeI,
with soiled wrapper, resembling a map
of Africa, or walking cookbook, upon
which a history of each days doings,
complete in one volume, is so plainly
written in butter and eggs and flour,
that by Saturday noon, {" he who runs
may read" the family n,essu for the week.
| Where such slouchiness prevails, the
only wonder is that husbands remain
faithful and lover-like as long as they
| do, and that, as time wears on, more of
them do not become so disenchanted
with the untidy creatures who sit Oppo-
site them at the table, as to wonder in
their secret souls what was the nameless
charm that enthralled them in the court
ing days, and why they had not fancied
Samantha Smith or Julia Jones instead.
Make it cardinal virtue, good house
keepers, to arrange your hair upon first
arising as carefully as though company
was expected, even if you have to get
up an half an hour earlier to do it, and
sacrifice your precious g crimps' in con-
sequence. Frizzes are of small conse-
of being able to sit down to ones own
table self-satisfied, and to receive An I'M
expected guest with serenity unruffied
by consciousness of a frowsy head.
Those ladies who perform with their
own hands portion of the household
duties-and there are plenty of wise
hOusekeeperS in the highest walks of life
whose morning hours are spent largely
in the kitchen-should have plenty of
well made and well fitting morning
dresses, of calico or other wash-material,
that can be easily laundried. Style and
trimming are of little moment, so that
these dresses be neat and becoming
Then, with clean linen collar or ruffle
and bright knot of ribbon at the neck,
she IS lar more sensibIy dressed for the
kitchen than in faded fnery and soiled
silk, and one is spared the usual furry
of lodging out of sight to escape the
chance caller, or of making hasty addi-
tions to slOvenly toilettes.
No-matter how humbly your circum-
stances may be, or how plain and bare
your children's rooms, there are eight
things with which your sons and daugh-
tiers should be abundantly supplied, and
in their own private apartments, viz. ::
mirror, wash-stand, soap, towels, combs,
hair, nail, and tooth-brushes. Parents
commit a serious sin of omission who
fail to inculcate proper habits of the
toilet in the minds of both boys and
girls at very early age. Instill into
them the principle that the -" latest
style' is of far less consequence than
personal neatness.-FGnnte B. Ward,
IN Washington Chronicle.