The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-08-12


tic productions and the starched little
misses, with short skirts standing out
stiffly, and the stubby little boys of less
than twenty years ago.
IN THE SEASON
no finer dressing and none showing
greater refinement 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 within or good nature
for their pocket money, and there are, in
deed, few women who make a display in
society, but have private means. These
increased resources unable them to keep
abreast of the times; otherwise they
would have to sink out of fash
ionable sight. For there has been an
enormous advance of lac years
in the luxurious detail of dress
Innings and fittings and finishings; and in
the cost put upon the making up of ih-
expensive materials, Thin baseges are
made over silk and combined with crepe
de chine or real China Grape. White and
black lace-the new lovely, Newport
POINTS,, this season, often made over
watered silk, black or cream. and trimmed
with watered ribbons. The thick woods
are lined with silk and finished with vel
vet or MORE; and cotton dresses (unlinedl
are sewed with silk, have silk ribbon waist
bands and often full silk or lawn vests.
| The cotton dress of our grandmothers,
which regularly went into the wash tub
and came to its wearer freshly and stifly
starched every two weeks, is a thing of
the past; for even the girl who earns the
clothes she wears has her print dress made
up in SO elaborate fashion that washing
and ironing, without spelling, is out of
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. Il
is the fault abroad ms well as at home; for
Paris has greatly degenerated in this re-
spect; and while maintaining a certain
supremacy in the design and technique of
dress, can no longer be trusted to classify,
discriminate and adapt styles to materials
and persons. The three features of cos
tunes to-day are the vest, the panel and
the pouf at the back of the skirt. These
are applied to everything cotton, silk and
wool-for yourg girls and married wo-
men-in Paris as well as New York. In
deed, there is no longer any difference or
any discrimination anywhere. woman
calling for a gondolier at the edge of the
grand canal in Venice wears exactly the
same mixed sort of toilette and wrinkled
looking skirt as woman calling for an
omnibus on Broadway, New York.
THE ONLY DIFFERENoE,
absolutely, is among few artists and
very cultivated, often very rich people,
too, who have made study of the sub
ject, or bring to bear upon il the tradi-
tions of an old, educated and refined an
cestry. In such families the children and
young girls often dress in simple, quaint,
ways that are picturesque and charmings
at the same time, perfectly sanitary and
convenient. But it is the mother who de-
signs their clothing, not the dressmaker.
The troublesome elaboration and
mpracticability of the designs
is all the more exasperating in view OF
the beauty and cheapness of the modern
cotton materials. There are lawns, mulls
and the like, of silky texture and exquisite
fneness, which, when covered with lovely
embroidery as they are nowadays
dainty enough for the bridal robe of
princess, and are fifty made up like other
rich materials and associated with tinted
silk or satin. But II is not these that
come within the resources of the majority.
1t is the blue, spotted cambrics, the hair
striped Scotch ginghams, the cool minute
ly figured linen lawns, and the eTnbrol-
dered"robes, 'of which thousands are sold
in white and colors, at from three TO ten
dollars each, that need to be redeemed
from the tyranny of the pomp and the ,
panel. High fashion is not bound by one
idea its mission is to differ, not to agree,
with the prevailing style; and, therefore,
the back draperies OF such of its skirts as
do not have straight, are soft and long.
1t has restored the "surplice" bodice, the
blouse waist, the Boston vest; and to this
adds the straight, square collar, which
gives breadth and character to narrow
shoulders. JENNY JUNE.
Serve an Injunction ON Disease
Nv inyigorating IL feeble constitution, renoyat-