Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-07-26
Ernm am Rerulnr Correspondent

the Bots de BOlOgne-The Place OF
WOrth-Why are the French so PO-
IIte-OutdOor social AItrIsIOn.
From our Regular Correspondent
Paris has for generations, or since the
time of Louis the XIV at least, been the
Mecca to which the gay and fashionable of
all lands have turned in their deYOtiOns,
and when they have not been able to pre-
sent themselves at the shrine, or stand in
this gilded temple, they have evineed a
piOus faith in following the oracles of taste
and style that originate here. Americans
in Paris express surprise at the perfect sim
ilsrity in the attire of well-dressed people
here and in our own country. Here, style
is the outgroWth of saste and invention.
| with us it is merely successful mimicrv.
| This similarity of fashion is, to-be-sure,
| lust what we have have heard and read it
was, but it nevertheless impresses one as in
congruous that people so diverse in ante
cedents, religion, irrehgion, morals, habits
in every thing that embraces life, should
present to the external eye the same aP-
pearance. The worlds model in Paris is
specifically so precisely like her counter
! felt in New York or St. Louis that one is
surprised to find that she cannot speak
English. The difference is in the mass
not in the individual. Here larger num-
Der dress with taste, and there is more that
is characteristic in their attire, more ex-
quisite adaptation of colors and drapery to
special types than we see in America.
Then again there is wider spread elegance
of dress here on account of the finer quail
ties of cloth that may be had at a lower
price than with us.
The precise localities from which styles
issue in Paris have no special knowledge,
but it. would be absurd to suppose that a
woman so stout and uneomely as Madame
Mcmahon has assumed the dictatorship
that the sx-Empress so long held. In
America it is very generally supposed that
in female attire, Worth is the umpire, but
with American ladies who have resided
long in Paris he has no very high reputa-
tion, except for exorbitant charges. His
notoriety is almost exclusively on our side
of the water; but this is just as he would
prefer to have it, since his American Gus
toners are silly enough to pay him third
or half more than he could get from Pari-
slams. He is no more successful as a de-
signer or filter Of costumes than scores of
modistes here and in other cities. Among
the hundreds of women that one sees in
the Bois de Bologne, at receptions, or in
the Jardin Mabille, probably very few have
ever heard of Worth. But if there is doubt
as to the precise salon from which fashion
originates, there need be very little as to
the medium employed by modistes 10 intro
duce their styles to the fair public. The
Partisan modists are adopts in advertising |
as every frequenter. of the beautiful drives
of the Bois de Bologne knows. Not all |
those easily approachable, painted, and |
distingue beauties, driven in elegant low
open cabs own the paraphernalia that ex-
cites such envious admiration in the hearts |
of the more Yirtuous of their sex. They |
are simply dummies for the display of |
fashions. Partisan ladies seem to know it |
for they look at the dresses with almost as
much freedom as they would examine the |
drapery that covers a frame in a shop |
window. But, as a work Of art, the dress |
is well worth inspection, for it is the re-
suit of patient study and cultivated
taste that, when displayed on canvas or
marble, has won for its author the reputa-
tion of genius. What harmony of eolors!
What rare adaptation to the complexion
and style of the wearer, to the upholstery
of the carriage, and even to the livery and
horses! 1t is fact that the demimonde
of Paris are the medium for the Introdue-
ton of the styles that sooner or later are
seen on Fifth Avenue, Wabash Avenue,
Pennsylvania Avenue. in fact everywhere
that the fever of fashion RACES.
In all matters of taste and decoration;
in all the wide and versatile province of
art, from the constitution of grand opera
house to the manufacture of sleeve but
ton, the French excel all other people.
For generations they have been "the glass
Of fashion and the mold of FORM" Their
wretched little chambers, salons, restaur-
ants, and shops, are full of mirrors; not
little glasses like ours, casting distorted
reflections of woman's head and shoul-
ders, hut large mirrors in which the femi-
nine form divine may be glassed, and by
means of which, years of self-criticism has
enabled them to attain an elegance of
dress, of pose, and an ease of manner that
can be found in such perfection nowhere
else. There was wisdom in the advice Of
Emerson to the diffident young man,
''Have your clothes cut by the best tailor,
it will relieve you of much embarrassment
and the woman who said that the conscious
ness of being perfectly well-dressed gave
her a serenity of mind that religion had
never been able to bestow; expressed no
doubt the impious sentiment of many Of
her sex. No one will be at his best while
handicapped with the consciousness of a
mean appearance. But, while the elegance
of dress Of this people may be attributable
to their use of mirrors, as we'll as to the
insensible influence of works Of art, so
abundant that they may be seen from every
window, much of-their elegance of man
ner IS the result of their social life. No
people live in such ineessant social attrition
as the French. They are always on pa
rads, and refinement of what with US is
vulgarly called society manners is habitual
with them, they have contracted it on the
boulevards, in the parks, and in the gas
lighted cafes, where they have lived. The
superficial beauty, and the assiduous prae-
tice of the graces, so characteristic. of this
people. that it is called ''Frenchy" where
ever it appears, do not mention only to
praise. believed it has been attained at
the expense of the more sterling and en-
nobling characteristics of mind, and heart
and life. With us, life is too short and
serious, and think may say, sublime in
its inspirations and asperation to be ab-
sorbed and starved in the triyialities OF