The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-03
FRENCH MILLINERY.
Some of the Queer Fancies of Fash
ion,
From the London Telegraph.

ion.
From the London Telegraph.
Why should there have been held, and
with triumphant success into the bargain,
an exhibition of millinery at Montmorency,
which, for all its grandly ancestral name. is
only an unpretending little town fourteen
miles from Paris, situated on hill sur
rounded by Astounding uhickets of chestnut
treesi Montmorency has a history. and a
very interesting one; but it has never been
to any appreciable extent connected with
the chronicles of bOnnets, caps, lace, stock
ings gloves and other addenda Of feminine
attire known under the generic term Of
millinery, in contradistinction of dressmak-
ing. OF the Chateau of Montmorency,
built by Guillaume, lord of the ilk, scarcely
a vestige remains. The fine old gothic
church, it is true, is still standing; but its
interior was so completely Quilted at the
revolution, and subsequently, by the
BLACK Band of Dealers in Curiositles," as
to cause a recent traveller to observe that
the most remarkable relics at present ex-
listing in the church were tn tombs of the
two Polish generals, Knazcewicz and
Niemcewicz, who were killed in an emeute
relics chiefly remarkable from the fact
that not one Frenchman out of 1000
would be able properly to pronounce the
ton. Again Montmorency claims atten-
ton as tho site of the Hermitage, which
was originally PEASANTS cottage, the pro-
perty of Nine. d'Epinay, who offered it as
an asylum to Jean Jacques Rousseau. There,
in l756l5S, the mad, bad philanthropist and
philosopher wrote the "Nouvelle Heloise;"
and there, according to tradition, during
the Reign of Terror, RObespierre passed u
few weeks in rural seclusion, occupying his
ict sNf
on the very table on which the Philosopher
of Geneva had penned the lackadaisical cor
respondence of Julie and st. Preux. That
same table afterward served Gretry, the
composer, as a desk whereon to score some
of the most delightful operas of the latter
period of his career. He became wealthy
enough to purchase the Hermitage and
there he died in 1918. What, however, the
captious ask, had the author of "Nouvelle
Heloise," the terrible member of the COM
mittee of public safety, or the graceful
composer of "Elmire and Azore, to do with
ribbons, chains and ouches, and all the
fripperies of Autolycus' stock in tradel
Rousseau was a sloven, and he certainly
failed to dress his unworthy wife Teresa in
anything approaching the hight of fashion.
Gretrv was fonder Of good cheer than of
feminine fal-lals, and Robespierre, although
somewhat of a dandy i'll miniature. YVES q
bachelor, and much less Of an adept in
adjoining the heads of the ladies than in
cutting them off.
There is reason, nevertheless in the roast
ing of eggs, and French millinery may
fairly put i'll a claim to be appropriately rep
resented at such place as Montmorency
For more than two generations the town
and the fascinating country surrounding it
have been the resort of all that is witty
beautiful and bright in Partisan society.
The charming little chalets which Amedee
Achard used to declare had been built aft
er the model of the scenery in the fourth
act Of William Tell. have been the residence
at various periods of Taglioni and Fanny
Elsler, of Mile Mars and the Duchess of
Dino; while local tradition records that the
unsurpassed tragedienne Rachel experienced
no greater pleasure than in trotting on
donkey-bac through the valley of Mont
morency AS for the world renowned
''auberge" of the Cheval Blanc, the land
lord, prior to the war of 1870, was won't to
declare that his album comprised the
autographs of the Russian Gen Rostop-
chin and of Sir Walter Scott, of Berger,
Fenimore Cooper, LORD Brougham, Ru-
bini, Never beer, RoSSini, Alfred de Mus
set, Tony Johannot and lbraham Pasha.
It is the railway, however, which has been
the greatest means of popular1zing Mont
morency. Every Sunday in the summer
season all that in Paris is considered TO be
"chicn or smart. volatile and vivacious, has
trooped by quickly succeeding trains down
TO the valley, the woods, the lake, the cha
les and the inns of Montmorency. The
fashionable world has not deserted it, but
the smiling spot has grown every year a
greater favorite with the humber classes
of Partisan pleasure-seekers-the lingerers
of the Rue Vincennes and the Chaussee d
Antin, the pretty glove sellers of the boule-
wards and the passages, the sylph-l like
creatures who preside over the "Magasins
de Blancs" OF the Rue st Honore, the
petit bourgeoises of the Rue s.. Denis and
the Faubourg Montmartre, the Aspasias of
Notre Dame de Lorete aud the Phrynes of
the Quarter Breda. to say nothing of such
grisettes as the now transformed QUARTER
Latin has left sparkling on the surface of
Lutetian Bohemianism. All these have
passed, and continue to pass at Montmor-
ency, the most enjoyable of their outings;
and, if there be any truth in the proverbial
locution that who drives fat oxen should
himself be fat, it may be said by parity OF
reasoning that there could scarcely be a
more suitable locality for an exhibition Of
millinery than a suburban pleasaunce 10
which during so many years such crowd
of milliners have resorted. 1t will thus be-
come perfectly comprehensive why Mont
morency has been selected as the place
above all others in which 10 gather COM
petitive assemblage Of the triumphs Of the
French modistes The exhibition, it is I'M
derstood, has proved exceptionally success
full the only drawback being that the jury
of feminine o xperts have been slightly puz
zled how to award the prizes for best hats
and bonnets, owing 10 the surprising ex-
cellenc0 of the specimens exhibited.