Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-04-25


wearing apparel for women which is now taking
place at the Cavendish Rooms Women only
are admitted and the afternoon looked in tn,
place was litera ly thrOnged with ladies. young
and old, of all classes alike anxious to discover
some mode of habliment which shall do awav
with the present cumbrous. inconvenient and
expensive one. The feature of the exhibition
is Lady HarbertOn's divided skirt a clever ar
rangement of the old BloOmer dress Not only
Is this garment exhibited on several dummies.
cut the ladies who expatiate on its merits are
wearing it, so that observers may see for them
selves the modest effect Of it, while the conven-
fence of having the lower limbs separately
swathed and not hObbled together in one tight
hitting case is matter which scarcely needs
laudatiOn.
CORsETs OR NO CORsETs.
Fred. Treves says the notion that women need
the support of stays is entirely erroneous one;
nevertheless. the eye of the present generation
Is so accustomed to the sight of the female form
as it appears in stays that a woman who dis
penses with this adjunct of the toilet is sure to
be curiOusly commented on. Our favOrte con-
tralto. Madame Antoinette Sterling, prides her.
self on the fact that she has never worn stays
and never will do so; but 1 suppose she is I'M
aware OF the remarks which her appearance
sometimes calls forth in O miscellaneous au-
dence. Often have heard the question pass
from lip to lip in a concert hall where she was
singing: g What is the matter with her 2" "What
frightful figure she has!" '.HOw badly her
dress fits p" And these remarks come from men
as well as women. Ellen Terry dispenses with
stays and all her gowns in Juliet are mere shape
less wrappers Of different degrees of splendOr
But Ellen Terry has the figure of slim girl OF
high-shouldered, square
wasted; in tact, that of the model esthete.
FRED Treves says no woman could live an in
slant II her waist were no bigger than those rep
resented in the French fashion plates but there
q fhn al mr. n ofoU
whose waist is for thinness sight to behold It
is small, round column, like section Of little
stove pipe, and 1t seems not very much bigger
around than her own neck. Yet Kate Vaughan
lives, dances, sings and turns the heads of her
crutcf-and-tO othpick adOrers.
PHYSIOLOGICAL ATTIRE.
All sorts of makers Of hygienic apparel put
in commercial appearance at the health ex-
hibitiOn. A staymaker exhibits corsets whose
entire front is elastic webbing, which yields at
every movement and only expands the more
with lacing It was especially designed for the
use of women during a season when tight
lacing would be more than injudicious; it
would take the proportions of a crime But
there is no time when women might not use
with advantage stays thus fashioned. This
simple truth Is that very frequently women are
Overlaced when they really do not know it,
me internal organs are SO easily compressible
the slightest idea or intention of tight lacing
may be unduly compressed by matter of two
inches, while really tightly-laced woman re-
duces her normal waist-siZe some eight or ten.
The diagrams hanging around the walls of the
room in which the exhibition is held show the
female form divine as it should be, with the
size and location Of the interior organs dis
tinctly defined. These pictures must give the
nightmare to some of the fashionable girls and
women who attend the exhibition. Neverthe-
/ face hot 20 %
modern, the ladies so attired present dainty.
frOu-frOu appearance with which those habited
In the new hygienic apparatus sadly contrast.
1t is this quality Of cOncealing defects and ex-
aggerating beauties in the wearer which forms
the stronghold Of modern fashionable attire.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
1have been again to see Romeo and Juliet"
at the Lyceum. What a magnificent series Of
pictures! Let us hope the divine William is
permitted to have nightly glimpse at them by
the dread powers which now direct the destiny
OF that mighty mind. To say the scenery is
superb is futile effort at an expression Of the
sense OF grandeur it conveys. Never In the an
nails of the stage has there been known such
solidity of structure. Juliefs balcony is simply
a semi-circular lOggia on a piazza Of Carrara
marble, with COrinthian pillars below and above
it, marble dome finishing the roof Romeo
pushes apart the bOughs of real trees to make
his way to her He jumps up on low marble
coping which surrounds bed Of flowers and
they try to grasp hands, but tall as Romeo is
and dOwnbending as is Juliet they cannot reach
each others fingers, SO great is the distance At
each change of scene the lights all over the
house are so lowered that the audience is al
most in midnight Obscurty and this lasts until
the scene is completely transformed, so thahwe
have no opportunity of seeing the rough edges
of the stage carpenters shifting process. When
all is ready up go the lights again on another
who
ates Romeo's first love- Rosaline in the ball
scene at Capulet'S, Is a wOndrOus beauty
Dressed In superb combination of lemon-col-
ored damask, with strings of pearls festooned
here and there, she is a picture such as one sees
on the old canvases at the Louvre, the National
Gallery and the Pitt Palace.
WONDERFUL COSTUMES
One must see the fabrics worn by the charac-
tiers In this piece to believe the assertion that
they have been woven on British and CONT
mental looms expressly for this revival and then
one will doubt 1t. The gown of blue damask.
with nut brown border, worn by Ellen Terry
during the scenes directly following the ball I'm
which she wears white satin) is reported to have
cost thirty-fve dollars yard. In the bedroom
scene she wears sort of night-gown, in the
japanese shape, OF soft, sheeny-white silk,
which clings to her frail form and delineates
every outline like bath-wrapper. Her ball
room dress Is sort of over-smock Of white
satin. quite loose at the waist. and with large
arm-holes. through which appear the neatly
pulled Velasquez sleeves of an under-dress. A
full wreath Of white daisies set low on the fore.
head and completely surrounding the golden
haired little head, is most artiscally simple and
gives the beautifully sad face q half-angelic
touch. lrving's first costume is in hue cross
between stone gray and the reseda or migno-
net green. Hose, shoes, doublet and cloak are
all In suite. The points Of colors are in the
splendid rubies, which glitter over the vest in
the neckchain and sword belt aud the crimson
plush cap. The latter is Of the Turkish fez
shape, like that worn by Sarah Bernhardt in the
lie Peasant" His second dress, when he sees
the ApOthecary in Mantua Is not the conyen-
tiOnal black. Hamiet-if-I-cOuld affair, but rich
golden-brOwn costume, the long mantle lined
with brilliant salmOn-colored satin.
THE TOMB OF THE CAPuLBTS.
This mantle adds its just tone OF splendor to
the scene in the vault, with the pallid Juliet on
her marble bier, the burial flowers ranged about
her tomb, the moonlight streaming through the
iron-erated window, partly across which deep
crimson velvet curtain falls. Ronaeo's torcible
entrance to tho tomb transpires In two scenes:
the first deep, tw0-grooved front scene. where
n