St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-12-12

sion on lounge. clothed in loose comfort
listening to the music through the door
ajar. following the opera in her libretto and
having a good time by herself.
There's no fun at the opera for me with
my thirty-inch waist in a twenty-five inch
corset" she said, 80 l take my amuse-
ment in this comfortable fashion,"
1 don't know just exactly where l stand
on the all-absOrbing question of lOw-neck
gowns. A great deal depends upon whose
gown or low neck it is. That was what
agitated my little interior self when Mrs
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Cleve-
land fought manuscript duel on the sub
ject. And yet
SWEET CANDOR CONfPELs
me to say that Mrs. Stanton is SO formed
that / think she could shine in decollette,
while Miss Elizabeth Cleveland iS--well.
she is a schOolmarm. you know. But Miss
Cleveland rather favored low-neck, while
Mrs. Stanton opposed it. OF course every
one remembers that Miss Cleveland said she
''drew the line" at a certain point in the
female physical economy. Well, l didn't
realize as much when l read that singular
phrase as | do now. The truth is l had
never seen a lady who didn't draw the line
whereas since then l have seen a good
many-I saw two ladies at the opera who
didn't draw any line at all. OF course
don't mean that they didn't wear any
dresses. That's the h0rridness of writing.
You can't express single sentence with any
certainty of not being misunderstood, I'M
less you write whole book to explain it.
So will explain. These ladies were in the
box of one of the officers of the opera COM
pany. They carried low neck to an ex-
treme that | never dreamed of. You may
think am fibbing Though it is the honest
TRUTH, but the dresses of these two society
prineeSseS reached only to a level with
their arm-p tS and from that point up they
were Just as they were born. l once called
these boxes in the new opera house bath
tubs" and the name sticks to them, and
YOU would know why il you saw them.
They do remind you of bath tubs, indeed.
when you see the upper parts OF ladies APP
nearing above their sides and see no cloth
ing covering their persons. Of course, my
readers want to know
HOW ANY LADIES COULD DRESS
In that way-how they could make theiI
dresses stay on. can explain. The waists
of these dresses reached only to the tops OF
their half corsets. and were fastened there.
The corsets were made without any bust
mart and the dresses were fitted Snugly
nnon them and turned Ov the tops of the
corsets and sewed there. This left the bust
and arms perfectly bare. and if that had
been left so the effect would have been
Stacking. To beautify the effect the cors-
age rose to point exactly in the center.
and a film of lace was sewed to this dyid-
inc noint and around each cresceLt-Shaped
ont of the corsage in 'front.' TO take the
nIace of shoulder straps. each lady wears a
kerchief of lace hung on each shoulder and
falling 10 her waist. 1t was pinned to the
dress front and back. to hold it in place,
hit il was so thin you could see through it.
These two ladies were young and very beauti-
full and (perhaps) that is why the gentle
men all neglected Meyerbeer's grand work
of THE Prophet" and focused their glasses
ON this box. They had plenty else OF the
same sort to interest them. however. fol
there were two or three score boxes full OF
ladies IN more or less fashionable undress,
though. of course. all except these two fair