The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-05-24
TUESDAY MORNING, MAY "a.
the Clothes of the Period.

The colors of the clothes of the period exer-
else the male mind severely as do the cut.
Why do women with red or yellowish hair
wear dead" gold, and green's that remind the
beholder of badly-cooked vegetables? Why do
pale-faced, brown-hared women wear the
deep-red. and orange hues which can "go''
only with the olive and pomegranate tints,
and the blue-back hair of the South9 Who is
accountable for the terrible terra Gotta gar
ments in which some otherwise harmless maid
ems pervade fashionable crowds. inspiring
the observer with wonder, totally unmixed
with Observation-Disclosures girls arrayed in
shapeless clothes, made apparently of slices OF
the wall of the New Natural History Museum
at South Kensington; strong minded young
women in aggressive cloaks unspeakably
hideous that we sigh for the Ulster of last
season, which we then believed could not be
surpassed in odiousness; awful things, made
of sage green tweed with blue frlls, or gos-
ling wooden stuff tipped with pink. The eel
skin style has been succeeded by the bog, and
though the latter is more decent, it is not
much less ugly A woman with high, narrow
shoulders, and thin, long arms might do bet
ter than array herself In black satin bag,
with a running string at the neck and at the
waist, "a pit ing" lsuch, We were assured by
sympathetic friend Of the offenders own sex,
is the correct term by which to describe this
contrivance), from which the skirt hangs
shapelessly TO within an inch of the ankles,
and she might crown the ediice more becom-
ingiy than with a bonnet-or was it a haiti
like nothing in Nature except crumped cab
bage. The ''cossey," as an adjunct to the
tea table, is of dubious elegance, we'll as
PROFESSIONALLY fatal to drinkable tea; but
when adapted as cape to the shoulders of
blooming girlhooi, forming straight line
across the middle OF its back and cutting its
sleeves in two just above the elbow, it is the
very most unsghtly piece of dress that can be
put on, especially if it is of sckly color.
Salmon-pink satin, lining big bonnet Of
crinkly crinoline, looking like half dozen
shells Joined at the edges, would be trying to
the hest compilations; it was consoling to see
1t applied to the worst. Why should q very
pretty lady wear fiat gown of peculiarly
repulsive green in color, but of rich velvet in
material, and over it a hideous camlet cloak
of another and, if possible, more repulsve
green, with a bunch of yellowish ribbon at the
back, and plush bonnet like .the visor of
knights helmet? Why should writing people,
painting people, singing people,. persons pre-
sumably intelligent, since they all do some
thing that pleases the public and is paid for in
money, array themselves in garments, of price
indeed -shabbness is not the note of the pop
ular affectation-but which renders them dis
ekooSttisil CouoptououS. 1uoSt queStiOuS Cdu-
not fail to occur to men observing the humors
Of a select crowd, and especially as the dress of
1.-THE conflicting gender" tends more aud more
to simplicity. OF course, there viii always be
affected male idiots, long haired and short
haired, with neckties that make us stare, and
hats that make us wink by their brilliancy
but these are the mere "brats'' of society
they are too insignificant to be offensive
Women are never Insignificant, and that they
should be infected with eccentricity aud affec-
al ha MT nj fast
ton of those maladies is deplorable.-Th
Spectator,