The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-07-12
Fashionable Grief,



Dressed in the deepest and blacklist Of
GRAPE in the richest of silks and the
most coquettish of widows caps, says
the London J0uritdl, the bcrcaved one
finds that her lost husband has made
but little difference in the routine of her
daily life. Probably the principal change
she feels from his loss is one in her in
come, and men have ere now been
known deSigncdly to curtail the finances
in such instances in ordcrto ensure that
they should at least be missed in some
degree
But if the fashionable widow is easy
IN purse, she is rarely sad at heart. She
knows that she is, for the time, at least,
a prominent point and an object of at
tcntion in her own circle She is aware
that her cap becomes her, and that she
looks younger in her weeds than she
had looked for several years before.
She is not long before she looks round
her for some diversion from the strict
retirement that her world is supposed
to enforce upon widows, 1t is, in real
ity, far from strict. She can 90 abroad
with a few chosen spirits, and who that
sees her laugh and chatter tlrt and
amuse herself, rs she does, could inn
a%ine that She is II widow of but II few
weeks standingP
Even if she remain in England, she is
ut no loss to find ways and means of
entertainment Her caUaiiCri SerUcntt
have by no means all disappeared,
though some few have taken fright,
who were very nervous as to matrimOny.
They are afraid She might marry them.
Her suite is thus reduced, but those left
are all the choicer spirits and there is
invariably friend who, being married,
has her own set of admirers, and be-
tween them the two ladies can usually
muster very pleasant party. There
are visits to the play, paid lacog., the
1lc0qnttO in this instance consisting Of
leaving the widows cap and heavy
Grape at home. There is "A music hall
or two much frequcnted in quiet way
by fashionable London ladies. Our
widow makes her party, and goes to
these, accompanied by her frisky friend.
Poor Harry would never hear of my
going She says, land this will be an
excellent opportunity"
There are trips to Brighton. and pleas
ant little evenings there, unsupported
| by theworld Places furtherafeld than
Brighton are visited, and a little quiet
gambling helps TO make the months fly
around The year of deepest weeds
| and strict seclusion is soon over, and
few who have seen the quiet face in
| public, under that most proper if most
| cOquettiSh Of caps, could have Guessed
how merrily for the most part, the days
have gone
The second year is that in which the
widow is really happy The sombre
depths Of her mourning cast aside, she
enters the world again and rcopons her
| jewel-caSe. Even with very becoming
widows cap ON, life is more or less o
| blank to woman if she cannot wear
her jewels, Now, however, the dia-
monds, pearls, and opals may reappear,
and with what renewed delight are they
not worm Visions of dresscsin delicate
| half tints, pearl-grays, soft lavonders,
mixtures OF white and gray, or black
and white, float before her mind, soon
TO be realized.
Her years absence from balls and
| parties and crowded rooms has renewed
her beauty, and the same retirement
has frightened her eyes and ti.ged her
checks with the freshness of enjoyment
with which she prepares to rccntcr the
world. Now indeed is the fashionable
widow n dangerous and seductive crca-
ture She knows that she is pretter
than ever, and the consciousness, max
ing her more certain of coming victo-
rios, gives gentle softness to her man
ner. Beware of widows in the second
year! Always dangerous, they are then
more so than ever,
There are, of course, widows indeed,
whose grief does not wholly consist in
yards of Grape, jet iewelry, and white
crimped cap. These are apart from
those of whom have been writing, and
with them the fashionable widow has
nothing TO do. While they brood over
their loneliness, she revels in her free
dom. They look ON into the coming