Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1882-04-08

spouse to introduce the arts of civiliza-
! ton into the almost barbarous realm.
The good Queen Anastasia, first of the
royal RomanOffs, is related to have ex-
ercised the most benefcent influence
over her husband, Ivan the Terrible.
/ The Grand Duchess Sophia, half sister
| of Peter the Great, was singularly
able and ambitious woman, and her adj
ministration as Princess Regent, though
brief, marked notable epoch in the an
nails of her country. Catharine l., and
afterward Anna, in the first half of the
eighteenth century, were weak enough
to allow themselves to be controlled,
like many male rulers, by persons OF
the opposite sex, ond they may be re-
garded rather as administrative figure
heads than otherwise. Elizabeth, who
reigned from 1910 to 1862, was an EN-
press in fact as well as in name. She
dethroned her immediate predecessor
after he had been the nominal head of
the nation for about year. During
her reign the German party was deprived
of the undue influence it had acquired
only to abuse it; the Senate was re-
stored to the power assigned to it by
Peter the Great, her father, and her
career was altogether worthy OF her il
| lustrious origin. Her successor, Peter
| I'LL, was, by noteworthy repetition OF
history, dethroned by his gifted and en-
ergetic consort who. as Catharine H.,
entered upon reign'whose splendor Of
achievements and sagacity OF govern
mental methods compare favorably
with the career of any monarch the
world has ever seen.
How Eugcnic Set the Fashions.
Among the benefits which the world
owes to the establishment of republic
in France must be reckoned the marked
improvements which have taken place
of late years in the fashions for ladies.
| 1t will be acknowledged that ladies now
dress more prettily, if not more sensi-
bly,, than they used to do, because fash
ions have become less absolute now than
they We're, and ladies are freer to choose
what suits each OF them best. Tt was
not go in the days when the beautiful
Empress Eugene shared the throne of
! Napoleon I'LL, and set the fashions to
all Europe. In those times the Paris
ian dressmakers used to spend the sea-
son of Lent in wondering what new
style of garment her Majesty would ap-
| pear in at the annual Easter outing OF
Longchamps; for, as everybody knows,
! it was at Easter, when the whole of the
"great world used to stream toward
| LOngchamps in their carriages, that
the fashions for the coming year were
shown forth.
The Empress, by way of doing equal
| justice to all the tradesmen of the capi-
| tai, used to have her dresses made at
home, keeping a staff of twelve expert
seamstresses for the purpose, and q cos
| tumier whose business it was to sketch
models for new dresses and bonnets.
| This great mans labor was not per-
formed i'll jealous secrecy, for his
| sketches were examined and debated
upon by the Empress and the principal
ladies OF her court so that when some
novelty was adopted two or three of the
leading milliners of Paris always had
cognizapce of it, through the orders
given by these ladies. But to the mass
| Of milliners, as we'll as to the public at
| surprise; so that, Immediately after
Easter, there would be grand rush of
ladies, clamoring to their modistes to
trick them out as fast as possible in that
"sweet new thing" that had looked so
becoming on the Empress, the Duchess
de Mouchy, the Marquise de Gallifet and
others.
1t was grand time for dressmakers.
The Easter orders they received were
sometimes of o kind to set all the silk
factories in Lyons working double tides,
and to give lucrative employment to
| thousands Of Parisian working folk OF
both sexes. Sometimes, too, the capri
ciously sudden introduction of some
startling novelty would operate as O rev.
olution in the trade, as happened when
the spoonbill bonnet was abruptly cast
aside for the bonnet no bigger than
cheeseplate, which lay fiat on theshead.
This unexpected novelty must have
thrown myriads CT spoonbills out of wear
within less than three months, and was
presumably regarded as an unmixed
| boon for the operatives who were re-
quired to manufacture large stocks of
the new article. All these violent
changes. however, are now things of the
past. There are now no recognized
leaders Of fashion in Paris; and, though
| every year brings some new modes with
it, these are neither so generally nor so
| rapidly copied as they used to be. Then
some fashions which have been found
| comely and convenient have maintained
their prestige for several seasons in sue
cession, defying all extravagant at
tempts to supersede them.-LOndon
NeaDs. !.
IT is striking fact that three Presi-