The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-01-22

to the departure of their leader for San
Francisco. San Francisco Chronicle.
i The Apparel of Grief.
i DEATH knocks at the door of the East
Side tenement and pulls the bell of the
Fifth Avenue palace with impartial
hand; but when his work has been ac-
complished, very different results follow.
There are reformers who believe that
not only funerals should be very plain
and inexpensive, but that the wearing
of mourning costumes should be dis
couraged or abolished altogether. Those
who deal in the habiliments of woe,
| however, say that such sentiments do not
appear to be taking root. Women, rich
and poor, follow the fashion of, and the
fashions in, mourning with as much per-
sistency as they do any others. When
a member of wealthy family dies, it is
not uncommon to send an order for a
complete outfit of mourning for each
member of the family, as well as for
each of the servants. Sometimes the
order merely describes the age and sex
of each person, and his or her relation
ship to the deceased, leaving all matters
of taste to the dealer in mourning goods.
At other times each article required is
specified with particularly, and often
some lady member of the family, an
aunt or sister of the dead person, visits
the store and attends personally to the
selection of the goods.
81 have often noticed" said dealer
in mourning goods yesterday, "that no
| m q ttnr how daop ond oronu;pa tho ori of
of such a customer may be, she soon
loses a sense of it when she begins to
examine goods, and displays as much
interest in the various styles as if she
were selecting an outfit for foreign
tour.n
An order such as has been referred
to can be filled in ten hours. There are
extensive mourning goods departments
in all of the large retail dry goods
houses, but it is said that there is not
and never has been but one store in
New York that deals exclusively in
mourning goods. The filling of orders
with promptness is rendered possible by
the keeping in stock of ready-made
suits capable of being altered to suit the
measurements that may be received.
Often families at distance from New
York send for goods, and though their
faces are unknown to the dealers their
names are as familiar as the faces of
their New York customers. This is
particularly the case where the family
has large kinship. Ready made suits
in stock cost from S12. so to 800 apiece.
The cost of an entire mourning outfit is
frequently as high as $3.50. Outfits for
four ladies in one family, recently filled,
were paid for with check for 81, 400.
A complete outfit consists of the follow
ing articles: A suit, veil, cloak, bon
net, handkerchiefs and gloves. Cloaks
cost from SIS up to 800, and bonnets
from s. up to S25.
Dresses are trimmed with Grape for
deep mourning, and sometimes the
dress itself is made of Grape. Even out
side garments such as sacques and dol
mans are made of Grape. They are
usually made of the same material as
the dress is made of. There has been
no decided change in styles since last
year. The shapes of mourning bonnets
have followed the shapes of bonnets in
colors. The trimmings are the same in
style as they were last year. Long
Grape wells are worn great deal. They
vary in length according to the depth of
the mourning. Though some ladies be-
gin to tighten their mourning after the
lapse of one year, it is considered the
proper thing, dealers say, to wear deep
mourning two years before the Tighten
ing process is begun.
The family must be poor indeed whose
female members do not 90 into some
degree of mourning after death has en-
tered. The ordinary recourse is to bor-
row mourning clothes for the funeral.
In large number of cases the family
has some branch that is better to do
ter what quarrels have kept them away
before, the duty is paramount to lend
mourning goods for the funeral. If the
dresses can not be obtained in this way
there is good chance that some of the
neighbors will accommodate them. A
death, like birth, affords an occasion
when women put aside neighborly quar-
rels, and proffer of mourning gar
ments is often made by personal ene-
my. The styles of these garments are
such as they may happen to be. After
the funeral the clothes are returned, but
they are in many cases borrowed again
for special occasions, as, for example,
when the mourners attend church for a
Sunday or two after the funeral. AS
time goes by and new clothing is to be
purchased black is chosen instead of
colors. Black is durable, and therefore
cheap. Poor women of middle age, or
past it, often continue to wear black be-
yond the time of mourning for econom-
ical reasons.-N. Y. San.
A Husband Secreted for Nearly Ten