St. Paul daily globe., 1885-12-20
AN OLD STORY ABOUT WOMEN.
One of New YOrk's Pretty Miliiners
Tells How Fashions Are Adopted.

Tells How FashiOns Are Adopted.
"Don't try to reason logically about
fashion," said dainty little milliner, shak-
ing her head disconsolately, as she reviewed
the latest pattern plates, and frowned as
they failed to meet with her approval;
s'for of all illogical and unreasonable laws
those which govern fashion are positively
the worst. Perhaps you imagine that the
various STYLES which invade the ladies of
to-day are the result of carefully considered
experiments, or that the meetings are
held and certain fashions unanimously
declared desirable. You make great
mistake. Such is not the case.
Nearly all the fashions which have be-
come popular in civilized countries have
simply been the result of accident. am
not exaggerating. Let me give you illustra-
tions. In France. the beautiful Ferronere
was once-I grieve to say it-smoking a
cigarette She was not accustomed to in
dulge in that habit, you may be surprised
to hear, and met with slight accident.
She removed the cigarette from her mouth,
held it between her fingers. forgot presum-
ably that it was there. was about to rest her
forehead on her hand, when the lighted end
of the cigarette came in contact with her
brow and burned it. 1t made an ugly scar
Do you think it worried her? Not bit of
it. The next day she covered the scar
with a Jewel, and the following week
every lady of the court, who valued
her reputation as a society star, wore a
similar jewel on her forhead. Ha! Ha!
That's one instance. The Princess of
Wales, as everybody knows, has an ul-
fortunate limp. which nothing under the
sun could render beautiful. But the fool
ish London ladies seeing this said to them
selves: Dear me! How chic that limp
is.' The Alexandra limp as it was called.
became extremely fashionable. and it was
obtained by making the heel of one boot
shorter than that of the other. The Prin-
cess of Wales has also a very long and
meager neck. She was absolutely obliged
to wear only high dresses, close up to the
throat. But the thousands of English
ladies who had not very long necks fol-
lowed her example, and made themselves
ridiculous. Dear me! How stupid the
fashionable world isl"
The little milllner sighed at the fraility
of her sex, but tortured herself by relating
still more of them. do you know the
origin of the puckered sleeves which are
worn by every woman to-day, and which
lUOh llhC pinplCS OA oiiO ohOulQCio. IL
was simply this; The Countess of Dudley
one of the most beautiful women in Eng
land, y-the-bye-was invited to dinner
one night. and was expected to shine in a
very elegant costume, which was being
made especially for the occasion. When
the countess was about to dress her maid
informed her that the dresS-maker had not
vet sent home the the costume. The count
ess was In despair. What could she do?
She wrote note to the delinquent de-
manding that the dress should be sent inn
mediately, finished or unfinished. 1t came
within an hour unfinished. The countess
felt bound to don it, as several society
papers had already expatiated upon its
wonderful design. The sleeves were only
tackled in. The countess was not daunted.
She took needle and hastily sewed in the
sleeves-so hastily. indeed, that over each
shoulder the material was puckered and
stood up in alarming folds. She wore the