Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-28
NEW YORK'S FASHIONS.
THE HOLIDAY SEASON IN ALL
IT'S ASPECTS.

Features of Winter Garments.
NEW YORK, Dec. 26.-There is great
deal of talk about business depression,
but it does not as yet seem to have
touched those who are in the habit of
spending money lavishly. General BUSH
ness is complained of, but special BUSH
ness, that which depends on the rich res
idental and floating population, has been
excellent, though, perhaps, character
lied by willingness to buy the smaller,
rather than the larger articles of luxury,
which every season present some new
phase or distinctive feature of their own.
There are several reasons why general
holiday trade suffers in a depressed sea-
son, and one is the uselessness of the
miscellaneous assortment of wares of
which 1t consists. Frames that come to
pieces before reaching their owner, paper
stamped to initiate leather, brassy little
inkstands that will not hold ink, trays
that would prove the instant destruction
of whatever was consigned to them, ard
plaques that are considered desirable sim
ply because they are hideously ugly.
Perhaps the climax of abSurdity is reached
in the imitation bronze turtles that rest
VI AOdhuOi dOOue d pdIlOI uOOI3 luelF Us
tensiEle duty being to serve as relics of
barbarism so suggestive as to have ex-
cluded them Of late years from refined
society-the necessity for their presence
having largely departed also.
when money is scarce women do not
indulge in these eccentriclties. They
cOnhne themselves strictly to the useful
and practical. Thus the dealers in
hosiery, in gloves, in handkerchiefs, in
any and all of the small and useful wares,
in fact, of which up to a certain age
women never seem to have enough, have
mn complaint to make. New and old
stock Las gone off at fair pric IS, and in
some cases an absolute clearance has
been made, SC mat the work of taking an
dr., @.Hunt OF the remainder after the hoi-
daVs are ever is reduced to a minimum,
# is rather curious that ninavtenths of all
fine business done during the year in GER
tain departments of the great avenue
stores IS done in December. Some of these
-+"tinnerv. Derfumery, leather
are fancy sU.-.---
s -,c1s and made-un lace articles. People
Of wealth as we'll as culture use always a
certain kind of note and letter paper
stamped with their own Individual dies,
but the majority buy the cheap package
and ''French" note paper during the year,
branching out into storks, brOnZed birds,
aesthetic maidens, and clover, mistletoe, or
Sprig Of holly designs, after Christmas
has emptied its boxes of treasures into
their laps or writing desks.
THE RHINESTONE AGE.
Nearly all girls pass through a period
which has been called the ''ribbon'' age,
when the happiness of life seems to de-
pend on the possession of 'pretty things"
when everything that shows color or
glitter has an attraction for them, and
when their desire for cheap trinkets, if
they cannot obtain valuable ones, brings
a sense of modification and pain to many
sensible and conscientious mothers who
have forgotten their own youth and the
pleasure they derived from the black vel
vet wriStlet with its steel or gilt buckle,
which preceded the "bangle" era. There
was this to be said for the black velvet
wTistlets and necklets, however, that
they were simple, the reverse of snowy,
inexpensive and durable. The Rhine
stone rubbish is the reverse of all these,
but the bits of glass, especially the col
ored RAINBOW" glass, have a certain
charm, and set in silver-as single bar or
crescent pins-as clover leaf or tiny
buckle for neck velvet, as horse shoe hair
pins, combs, bracelets or dress ornaments
have many admirers.
Costly jewelry or hand-wrOught orna-
ments are quite thrown away upon girls
at this age, and it is almost wickedness
to eXpend what has cost much labor, time
or money upon articles for their use which
do not suit the freshness of their youth,
and which they do not appreciate. 1t is
one of the problems which eternalIy pre-
sents itself, whether the desire which is
so universal should be gratified or re-
pressed, and within certain limits it seems
as if it were betterif it should be gratified.
A natural desire depressed usually breaks
out worse in some other and more harm
full direction. 1t is, indeed, a pity that it
cannot be gratified in better WAYS and by
genuine things-by flowers that grow.
and by work done with their own hands.
but in an age of shams it is unreasonable
to suppose that could remain untouched
| by them. Every little while we hear that
the bangle has been killed beyond hope of
recovery. Whence then the small regi-
ments of them that have marshalled their
forces in every showcase and have been
sold in battaliOns at prices ranging from
90 cents to So? In sterling silver
the cOiled serpent with ruby eyes and the
bangles composed of silver rings, plain
and twisted and held together by a silver
link, are the favOrIte style, and set for
each arm are not too many; but the cheap
and common representatives of these are
many of them atrOciOus, vulgar, with no
more value than whitened tin, and having
attached to them as pendants tumble of
pigs, dogs, mer, and some sort of imple-
ments. Such things as these even the
poorest girls, if they were well taught at
home or at the public schools, would re-
fuse to buy or to wear. They would have
too much self-respect to deck themselves
out with things that would disgrace the
HottentOts and that no native peasant
girl who works in the fields of Normandy
or Brittany would condescend to touch.
There is dignity in the silver ornaments
that are handed down from generation to
generation in these peasant houses, but in
these corrupted strips of metaline, with
their infantile attachments, there is
neither the dignity of good design nor the
suggestion of a finer taste. They are
simply brutal, and can hardly be called
cheap, for they are not worth even the
small sum asked for them.
SILVER AND THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.
Within a stones throw of these poor
specimens of silver reduced to its lowest
terms are silver palaces, or, at least.
palaces where silveris to be seen in every
beautiful and richly wrought form which
the brain of man can devise or the hand
of man execute. During the holiday sea-
son the great ground and second floors of
these establishments are thrown open
during the evening as well as the day
time, and clusters of radiant white lights
turned upon innumerable cases ofmagnif.
cent solid silVerware in dinner services
and tea sets, single pieces and complete
outfits. The advance in the work done in
silver Of late years is marvellous, and il is
a great mistake to suppose that plated
ware has reduced the demand for sterling
silver. 1t may have had that effect when
it was a novelty and produced with more
labor and expense than now, but the fact
that Everybody" can have plated ware
nowadays has made it obligatory on the
rich to have solid silver; and not ONLY
silver that is silver all the way through.
but hand wrought in the diverse WAYS in
which this exquisite metal is made to give
an artistic result. There is no work done
abroad at the present time on silver that
is at all equal to the finest work done
here, to the cOstliness in design or
originality in workmanship. 1t is un-
common abroad to find silver
find them frequently purchased for we'd
ding presents at from s., 200 to $1,000, and
magnificent dinner sets-early English in
design, partly hammered and partly in
repousse, with covers to the great dishes
and candelabra uniform in design-at
much more than double this sum. Marine
and ''Corinthian'' water designs, with a
water god in the midst of the peculiar
wave-like effects, seem to be favorites lust
now; and shells for spoons, with reedv.
twisted, coiled, and decorated handles
are in great demand. OF the new E'fiye-
O'Clock tea" sets of teaspoons, a number
have been sold. and they really mako on