Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-07-31

L SC10mC0
Dressing Discussed Odern Re.
sources Rsusacked to Supply the De-
msnd for New Materials i'm White
DRESSING for Tennis and Other Out.
Door GameS-The Inevitable Hat and
Bonnet
| From Our Own Correspondent
| NEW YORK, July 3O.-The Puritan element
was never credited with any love Of or desire to
cultivate the beautiful. New England has
| always been spoken of and has figured in song
| and story as bleak and forbidding of aspect; its
sterile soil and cold, grey skies offering little
| that was attractive to the stranger, and the
| grim forefathers and stiff foremothers, severe
ana disciplinary their own straight, high
! backed chairs, are considered to have been in
| exact harmony with their rigid surroundings.
Ihls impression is subject to a sudden revul-
| sion when one makes acquaintance with the
interior of Massachusetts and the beauties of
berkshire county for the first time in many
years. Doubtless the primness and plainness
were characteristic thirty or forty years ago;
put this favored region must always have pos
sessed It's wonderful quality of lOveliness; its
wooded hills and rich valleys. its jewel-like
lakes and unknown depths OF ferns and flowers
anu summer foliage All the marvellous tints
OF earth and air and sky were there when Jona-
than Edwards wrote his treatise on the will in
little closet of little house in Stockbridge
When Julian Hawthorne waded shoeless and
sockiess perhaps in StOckOridge Bowl" while
MS Iatner was busted in the little red house
near by, writing his story of the blouse of the
seven Seves Stables and Herman Melville was doing
Boys work on the homestead farm farther
along on the Lennox road, and had
not yet dreamed OF 'Omos or "Typee"-all
the natural beauty was there distributed, not
over township, but a whole county, and form
ing the natural home of poets aud scholars-as
the lake country did III England-and making
1t famous in the same way, long after those who
have made 1t so had died or been driven away
by the echoes of their own regulations. But in
those days the wellsweep, the sunflower, the
hn
ners were still masters OF the situation. The
Illuminating COW was allowed 10 browse over the
common" unmOested. The unrefective pig
likewise Chickens were domiciled near the
mousse and were almost part OF the family, and
trees which had been mercilessly cut down by
Inc hardy settler were scarce pianos.
Ihere Is tradition in regard to one forest tree
which had been allowed to remain in the town
OF Pittsfield but was about to be demolished
because it might be in the way of something or
other, when dame, near whose house 1t stood,
placed herself in front of it and declared they
ton being nvincible, the old forest tree was left
standing. The lady is still living whose
Ihappy thought suggested the first "Vlllage
improvement Society" and whose taste and
energy, aided by helpful friends, have turned
. the pare streets into shaded avenues, the
ragged doOrways into velvet lawns the stony
common into the royal park.
AN EARTHLY PARADISE
Is all this beautiful Berkshire country in its
summer robes, peopled by the-tO all seeming
happiestand most prosperous people under the
sun. Lennox, the famous old town, is given
over to the extremely fashionable and exceed
lngiy wealthy; and no one worth under a mil
hon could think of going and staying over night
except as guest OF some resident miIlionaire
Inc season does not begin till the first of Au-
gust; but it lasts till the first of November and
the gaiety Is not that OF the Old-fashioned "tea-
urihklngs and meeting house gatherings but
Oh grand dinners and private theatricas, lawn
tennis and garden parties, polo and club racket
Most OF the original Inhabitants have left Len
noX; tnOSe who remain rent their little two
story houses-upon which they have put "a coat
OF red or olive paint, and to which they have
added an awning-tor more money, for two
or three months, than they would have
formerly dreamed of asking, for selling
them altogether. The widest coal oil or
California excitement never produced such
an advance in prices, Lennox has seen
during the past 10 years. 1t is enough
to ind little frame houses, worth aboutES 800
renting for a thousand dollar per mon til: and it
must make Fanny kembie groan over the sale
OF her ferch," Old as she is, and nOtwithstand-
Ing the good price she thought she got for it.
A place which certain judge sold for So 5000,
was subsequently sold for twenty-five Thousand
and is now considered worth thirty thousand
In TACT ten times over seems to be the point
which Lennox property has reached. A we'll
fortunate AS to lease house several years ago
now sub lets at double the rental she pays, and
pays the expenses of her own summers else.
where with the advance.
THE EARLY SEASON
In Lennox exhibits little signs of life The
pretty houses with their well kept lawns and
parterres, their exquisite "views" and shaded
walks, are given over to children governesses
and nurses. The parents are abroad or at New
port and will not arrive till August; excepting
perhaps the father. VINO, If he is u business man
remains in New York or Boston and onIy
come. out over Sunday; The children are
lovely, and look as ii they had all been cut out
OF a live picture book. Their legs are thin but
their faces are angelic their eyes like Raphaers;
ana their hats. coats and frOcks exact reproduce
lions OF the dress in the last Christmas chill
dren story books and papers, Certainly Kate
1reehaWay Is responsible tor the creation OF a
new American type OF child beauty What a
marvellous difference between these artistic
productions and the starched little misses with
snort skirts standing out stffiy and the st1bbv
little boys of less than twenty years ago.
IN THE SEASON
no finer dressing and none showing greater re.
hnement is to be found in the world There
are now many women and girls who are rich
In their own right, who do not depend upon
whiIn or good nature Tor their pocket money.
and there are indeed few women who make y
display In sOciety, but have private means
These increased resources enable them tn Keen
abreast OF the times; otherwise they would
have to sink out OF fashionable sight For there
has been an enormous advance of late years in
the luxurious detail Oi Dress in Innings and fit
tlngs and hnlsnings: and in the cost put upon
Inc making up oI inexpensive materials lhin
Dareses are made over sill and combined with
Crepe de Cnine or real China Grape w hite and
black lace-the new, lovely, Newport ..point-
Is lhis season, often made over watered silk
black or Cream; and trimmed with watered rit,.,
bons. The thIck woods are lined with silk AMI
finished with velvet or MORE: and coIIon
diesse, (unllned) are Sewed with silk have silk
rloDou WalStDands and often full silk or lawn
vests. The cotton dress of grandmother,
winch regularly went into the Wasntub and
came 10 Its wearer freshly and stitiiy starched
every Two weeks, Is Thing Oh the past; Tor even
the girl vino earns the clothes she wears has her
print dress made up In SO elaborate a fashion
THAT washing and ironing, without spoiIinv is
out vi the question.
THE GREATEST FAULT
of modern dressing is the running on one STYLE
for all fabrics, for all purposes and for all
sorts and conditions OF people. 1t is the fault
abroad as well as at home; tor Paris has greatly
deSenerated IN this respect, and While main-
talulng a certain supremacy in the design and
Classify, discriminate and auapt STYLES 10 ma.
terIaiS and persons. The three features of eos
TUNES to-day are the vest, the panel and the
pOty at the back OF the SKIRT These are an
plleu 10 every tnlnS-cottOn,S silk and WOOl-IOr
young girls and married wOInen-in Paris as
We'll as New York. Indeed, there is no longer
any difference, or any discrimination any.
Where. A woman calling Tor IA gondolier at The
edge of the Grand canal i'll Venice wears ex-
actIy the same mixed sort OF toilette and
wrlnkled looking skirt, as woman calling for
an omnibus on Broadway, New York
THE ONLY DIFFERENCE
absolutely, Is among u few artists and very Gull
tivated, often very rich people too who have
made a study OF the subject or bring TO bear
upon 1t the traditions OF an old, educated and
refined ancestry. In such families the children
and young girls often dress in sim pie quaint
same time perfectly sanitary and convenient
But it is the mother who designs their eliot MING