The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1884-03-27
NATIONAL COSTUMES PASSING
AWAY

Foreign Cor. st. Louis Globe Democrat
When the second empire began and
that seems but yesterday-there were
costumes everywhere and the wearers
were proud of them. In Paris itself
the different classes drcs led in marked
contrast one with the other. The girl
settle and shop girl wore plain linen
cap without ribbons. gray or brown
dress of inexpensive material, made
short, and changing little with the
changing fashions. This cheap outer
dress permitted her to be fault
lessly neat in cap, collar, cuffs and foot
gear. No one was more attractive than
she certainly not the fine lady of that
day, with the ridiculous pile of false
hair aud the balloon petticoat. At that
date nothing would have iaduced the
grisette or the shop-woman to wear q
hat or bonnet; those were only for fine
ladies or women of lost character, and
to put on such thing would be to lose
caste with honest working people. The
matron at the head of an establishment
wore ribbons in her cap, the working
girl PLAIN linen. Long. however, be-
fore the empire ended the grisette had
disappeared. In her place there was n
creature in hat, dress cut more or
less in the fashion. and these had cost
80 much there was too little left for
clean linen. The charm had gone in
part. but the Parisienne, the cleverest
woman in the world. still made the best
of II bad bargain.
In most European countries the
change has been fatal. The square
faced Swiss girl in her cantonnl hat,
her laced bodice, her white skirt and
dangling silver was picturesque; the
sun-burned maiden of the Tyrol. strik-
ing and attractive in her mountain
dress and brigand-likc pointed hat.
One lost sight of the thick ankles, the
course, red hands and heavy figure in
the effect of the costume.
In Italy, especially in the central
portion. each village had its dress,
often differing widely from that worn
a few miles away. There was sandal
of single thickness of leather and
bound with thongs; the skirt and bod
ice, of bright but simple dye. falling in
plastic folds: the white under-waist
the folded linen head-dress; the en-
broidered apron * contrasting color,
and the earrings and necklace for hol
days. In these passibly pretty girls
looked charming, and even the course
peasant woman not unattractive. In
their Manchester prints or dragglc-tail
gowns with their great feet thrust into
brogans, that are absolutely without
charm, even in the flower of their
youth, by middle age they are hideouS.
In n few countries, most of them far
from the centre of Europe. the national
dress still fingers Still the charming
Spaniard clings To her graceful. float
ing head-drcss; but coquetrv and n de-
sire to please, which seems absolutely
wanting in the average Italian, is the
native gift of the women of the lberian
peninsula, and in no part of the world
do they deserve. or receive. more
romantic devotion. In Madrid, much
the least national of her cities, the bon
net is seen. elsewhere seldom.
The costumes of France. Belgium
and Holland are gone. No more does
the rrim Frieslander wear her strange
cap with the golden plates beneath;
but. far in the north, in the remoter
parts of Norway, though the dress be
awkward bit of color and certain
luaintness still may be seen. Ivan
lvanovitch, the Moujik, and his family
still put on Russian gnrb, but it is born
too far north for grace or beauty.
In Turkey there fingers touch of
Oriental grace i'll garments. The Mo-
hnmmedan man has largely lost his
flowing robes. and il little different
from the man of central Europe. ex
cept in the red cap, which he never
removes, but in the provinces it is
different Still is
1.-The wild Albanian kiltl~i to the knee
With shawlgirt head and ornamental gun.
And northumberland garments, fair to Se,
Still do the women wear their eastern
garb; still the Grecian maidcns weave
their gold and silver doweries amidst
their midnight tresses; but Italia oh,
Italia when the Manchester print
gown, the machine born brogue and the
ready made clothes-man invaded your
shores they dealt blow ut your gift
of beauty" such as Goth and Hun and
Tartar dealt of old to the once bound
less heritage of the Caesars The land
is lovely still the sky is blue, art still
lives: in the south the men are often
picturesque. bnt the women. who should
be "a the soul of all this beauty of
nature. ara no longer fair to look upon !;
have even lost the ordinary instinct or
a"si~a "a nlense