Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-22
Costumes for Wet Weather.

From the New York World
Now, that the melancholy days have come,
the saddest of the year. when women who
haven't carriages are liable to get their skirt
edges damp in this city, where they have more
good weather overhead and bad weather under
foot than in any of the great metropolises of
the world, 1t behooves them to study the ques-
ton OF what to wear on wet days. OF course
there are lots OF women who are superior to
the freaks OF the barometer, with a carriage
always waiting for them ten steps from any
door they emerge from, but there are a great
many more who can't afford that luxury every
time 1t rains, and some who could but have
too much regard for their health and COM
plexion to fOrbear from walking every time
II is wet underfoot. which is more frequent
than consorts with any regular exercise
Nothing any one can do will make it altogether
pleasant TO walk on wet pavements with skirts
but there are means of alternating the incon-
vemence OF being woman in bad weather
Mrs. Amelie RivesChanler at home in her
Virginia woods never stays indoors on the
very worst days If she feels one of her strong
impulses moving her to seek fresh air and ex-
erclse. She wears on such occasions stout seal
skin boots. laced up the front and with wide,
heavy soles. Over these she buckles pair of
heavy, dark red-leather leggings which reach
above the knee Her skirt is of blue corduroy
and barely falls to the calf. The bodice is a
Norfolk jacket of the corduroy with a scarlet
handkerchief knotted close about the throat.
vi Hedu sue wears q blue wool lam
o'Shanter that sheds water like the back of a
duck, and encaslng her hands in wash-leather
gauntIets she is prepared to face lust such
|. brown storms" and 'slithhering gales, as she
describes in her stories. But this will only do
for Virginia woods and something rather sim
pier and more conventional is required for the
New York horse cars. Miss Maria Parloa al
ways wears Oh a very bad day a dark print
gown and cloak, which, while long enough to
hide the calico. yet escapes the ground by a
z inch Sha flac1a hot 81,
keep her skirts absolutely free from contami-
nation. and so she would rather wear one which
can go right into the wash-tub when she gets
home and be perfectly ceansed For this
reason the dress is made very simple with a
gathered waist, full skirt with deep hem and
a number of tucks and without either ruffes or
drapery.
Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell. one of the
commissioners of charity, is forever going in
and out, to and fro, on her errands of mercy.
and she must needs be prepared to encounter
bad walking. She wears a plain cashmere
gown, either black or dark gray, and it too is
made only with hem and tucks for its trim
ming. Half an inch on the outer side of the
hem Is sewed a strip of rubber cloth, of the
unpublished sort and of exactly the same shade
as the dress. This is doubled over underneath
and faces the inside of the skirt for distance
up of nearly foot. No matter how bad the
walking or how wet the skirts edge NAV be-
come. damp cloth to wipe it off with when
she comes home makes everything right. She
wears a little bonnet of black felt trimmed
only with a knot of ribbons, and it doesn't
make great difference in its looks even if il
does get wet Her feet are encased in ordinary
over-shoes. but above these she buttons on a
pair of CATERS made OF the same dull-faced
rubber cloth, and SO her stockings and shoe
tops are never ruined by the tapping of wet
skirts against them. Actresses have pretty
unpleasant time of it in bad weather with in
exorable rehearsals to attend and the nccessity
of being ON hand before o'clock even though
it be raining the proverbial cats and dogs.
Most of them have adopted Rosina Vokes in
vention of a divided skirt. which is a vast inn
provement over Lady Habberton's device.
This affair of Miss Eokes' consists of broad
pair of silk trousers reaching straight to the
ankles and deeply hemmed A full knit plat
ing is set on all round each leg of the trousers,
reaching to the knee. Another one of the same
sort is set on the thigh, slightly overlapping
the lower one. A long scarf of drapery is
knotted around the hips, and not one person in
a hundred would ever suspect that the wearer
was not inhabitng an ordinary skirt, made a
little bit short. But generally the actresses
who sally out in these blessed inventions wear
with them cloak falling nearly to the edge or
else as low as the knees, and so they are never
detected. Elizabeth Stuart Pheps-or rather
Mrs. Ward, as she is now-has always been an
ardent pedestrian, and wore, like Miss Parloa
rubber leggings over stout shoes in bad
weather, and being clothed in the reform gar
ments known to the euphonistic as climb
lettes," she suffered no Inconvenience from
wet skirts, the outer one being short and rub
ber-faced. In this garb she faced the most
capricious and malignant New England weather.
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