The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-02-05
The Love Of q Bonnet.


| The Love Of q Bonnet.
SINCE bonnets began, women have
always had an affectionate regard for
their head-gear, and have given, it may
be, more consideration to that than to
any other portion of their dress. Even
the Ophelias and Madge Wildfires deck
their hair with flowers and straws
rather than wreathe their bodies with
garlands; and there is something rea-
sonable and natural in the act, whether
practiced by sane or insane, owing to
the conspicuous situation of whatever is
thus used, whether wild bramble vines
or silk and lace foundations.
The bonnet, of course, sets off the
face, and makes the fit contrasts with
the color of the complexion and hair,
with the shape of the cheek and chin,
and is, moreover, the very top-knot and
finishing point that either ruins all the
rest, or else adds grace that exalts it
to perfection.
Perhaps men, who have not the ne
cessity of balancing these points, to
whom matters of complexion, hair and
curving ovals of face are of no impor-
lance comparatively, can not quite real
ize the value of the bonnet. Yet any
woman with sharp wit who has ever
accompanied husband or brother in the
purchase of his own head-covering, and
has made few pertinent or impairment
remarks upon the spot, hears afterward
very little said concerning the waste of
the vital forces in the purchase of hers.
and enjoys considerable liberty in the
affair.
And it is really an affair of moment
to her, so far as dress is at all of mo
ment. Half the time, if her bonnet is
all right and not too obtrusive, it is
taken for granted that the rest of the
toilet is its equal, whether that is the
case or not; and half the time, as in
carriage or theater, no more or little
more than the bonnet and upper Shout
ders is seen with any distinctness.
Meantime, whatever is her whole dress,
an ugly bonnet can destroy what good
looks she has; but a pretty bonnet,
from its store of surplus beauty, will
lend her good looks that she has not.
She borrows for herself some of the
idea of the freshness and sweetness of
its tints, if it is gay-some of its gentle
gravity and sobriety, if it is simple.
As the appearance of any thronged
public place gains by the charm of the
bonnets worn there. till an audience is
bright as one vast bed of flowers, so
every woman personally gains little
by the becomingness and beauty of her
bonnet; and it IS therefore quite worth
while for her to ponder and try this
shape and that, this tint and that, this
plume, that flower, during a certain
proportion of the time that she allows
herself for her toilet from other duties,
sufficiently to feel assured that her bon
net will be no mistake, and especially
in these days, when every flower, fruit
and feather that one can dream of or
devise, within bounds, is legitimate
adornment, and when the blending OF
hues and materials, the bending OF
brims, the dropping of feathers, the
crushing and curling of roses, the pois-
ing of birds, have reached q more ar
tistic point than ever, and one is tempt
ed to regard that person as a genius
who first conceived the fancy of inclos-
ing so much loneliness in so little space,
so that the bonnet itself in all its COM
binations is as pleasing and as unique
as flower or bird.
Of course although they very often
do so-those who can have bonnet
for every toilette need not spend as
much thought on each specimen as
those must who have but one, or at
most two, for the season, and perhaps
for next season also. For when a
wearer is limited, it requires an amount
of skill and taste of which the unin-
itiated have no idea to make that single
bonnet suitable for every occasion and
every kind of dress-gay enough for
concerts and pleasures, not too garish
for solemnities, rich enough for calling,
sober enough for street wear, of a base
that will bear the adding of ornament
for evening and more dressy'' needs,
it's abstraction for the morning shopping
or errands. and all the while becoming
to the face and not homogeneous with
the rest of the attire. Heads of houses
who must make just such an appear
ance on just such insufficient money re.
quire much more commiseration con.
corning their bonnets than so small a
subject would seem able to bear. But
as for the young lasses whose bonnets
| 0AO uOV JILL UuCy W0AO WuCA OuCy SCI Uut
Paris importations in the shops, or the
last novelty adding splendor to the ap-
pearance of some more fortunate com
panions, they may make themselves alt
tie happier by remembering that, bon
net or no bonnet, there is no young
face without its charm, since the come
illness of youth is itself so great charm
that they will never really need a pretty
bonnet less than now, while they recall
the verses:
Our Beauty's bonnet,
Not ribbon or rose upon it.
Such Quakerieh little hatl
But never q soul that gazes
Where such blooming face IL 49,
thinks of aught but the rose ON that!'
Ha,per's Bazaar.
A Difficult Conundrum. a
At dinner the other night the con-
versation lapsed, as it sometimes will
lapse with the best of hosts, into cues.
tons hardly distinguishable from CO
nundrums. A distinguished historian
was present, and I put q question I'd
him which I knew had puzzled q great
many people at different times. "What
is the surname of the Royal familvP''
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