The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-10-27

/ OI getting lut0 tueHl w HeuCS OohSS No
authoritative standard of taste and petit
coats? Is he a graduate Of Worth's or
Redfern's academy of man millinery, or did
he acquire his dazzling start toward man
tua-making omniscience and fashion-plate
infallibility at the satin-slippered feet of
some such high priestess of style as De-
morest or Cooley? How long has he dieted
on Harper's Bazars and Butterick's Pat
terms? Does he know hustle from fish
trap, or a founce from box plat, when
the wind is south by southeast from the
Hoffman House art gallery? If not, why
does he rush headlong in where enlightened
masculine angels fear to tread?
WHERE EVERY WOMAN Is A QUEEN,
"When he declares he never saw
Southern woman well dressed l am dis
posed to inquire how many real Southern
women he has ever seen. When he talks
of the 'tawdry, glaring dress ofthe negress
as typical of the attire of the princesses of
the land of cotton, am forced to believe
that his acquaintance among Southern
women has been limited and peculiar.
1t certainly has not been among the prin-
cesses' of whom he glibly speaks, though
that term, in my estimation, is lowering
of rank. In a land where every man is "a
sovereign every woman is a queen at least.
'There are no manifold millionaire for
tunes in the South. The gigantic land
grabbers and railroad wreckers, with their
fifty or a hundred millions each, do not
belong down there. The monstrous devil
fish monopolies, trust and tariff piracies,
swindling army contracts, wheat-corner
robberies and petroleum gushers are not
products of Southern soil. Southern women
cannot, and never could, indulge in the
costumal extravagances of their Northern
sisters. They dress simply and inexpen-
sively; but, from the earliest days of our
republic, the verdict of the world has been,
as it is to-day, that they dress tastefully
and well-in keeping with their climate,
their circumstances and their surroundings.
SOUTHERN BYGoNE BELLIES.
"What are the Martha Washington tea
parties that are still fashionable and pop
ular in every part of the country, but re-
productions of the simple and picturesque
costumes of lot of old Virginia DANES
and damsels of century ago, Dolly Madi-
son was scarcely more famous for her clev-
erness and grace than for her exquisite
costuming. Betsy Patterson, of Balti-
more, could not have captured the brother
of Napoleon and of Pauline Bonaparte if
she had not been as well dressed as she
was beautiful and ambitious. The three
McTavish sisters, of Maryland, married
English noblemen and bewitched all
Europe three generations ago. They could
not have reigned in the worlds society as
rivals of the crowned and coroneted beau
ties if they had not been well dressed as
well as handsome, gifted and lovely.
"The old world and the new have united
in crowning, as queens by right of every
social realm, Sallie Ward Hunt, of Ken
lucky, Octavia Walton LIE Vert, of Florida,
and Virginia Tunstall Clay, of Alabama.
They could never have won their sceptres
if the tawdry and glaring tastes of the ne
gress had fingered in their attire or the
slovenly dialect of the plantation chattel on
their lips Lucy Holcomb, of Texas, as
the wife of Governor Pickens, of South
Carolina, was toasted and feted by all Con-
tinental Europe, and Nicholas, Car of all
the Russias, stood godfather to her only
child, whom he christened Douschka, or
My Darling as testimonial of his regard
and admiration for the mother. Could
these things have been if she had not been
well dressed as well as bred woman?
"Fifteen years ago Matte Ould, of Rich
mond, was the undisputed belle of every
assemblage, great or small, Northern or
Southern, where she chanced to be. Her
brilliant witticisms were published around
the globe, and her career is memorable
part of the social history, not only Of the
South, but of the Union and our hemis-
phere. No garish dowdy could ever have
achieved such celebrity. jamie Sutherlin,
of Virginia, was the subject few years
since of columns on columns of deserved
rhapsodies in Northern, no less than
Southern, newspapers; and, lovely as she
was in person, character and manners, her
costumes in their dainty perfection shared
with herself all the glorifcation of journal
istic genius.
'Nellie Hazeltine, of St. Louis, was only
twenty-four years old when she died, and
yet bulletins of her health were published
from New York TO San Francisco-the
only instance on record where such trib-
ute has ever been paid to one so young.
She had queened it at Saratoga as well as
White Sulphur, in New York as well as
Missouri, and she was scarcely more noted
for her beauty and accomplishments than
for the exquisiteness of her taste in all
matters of dress and the toilet.
"This country has produced few more
beautiful women than Mrs. Benton Nc
Millin-Marie Brown, of Tennessee
whose untimely death in Washington last
winter was a shock to all capital society
and loss to our entire half of the world.
Her form and her features were faultlessly
perfect enough for sculptor's model, her
complexion was like the petal of an apple
blossom or the pearly heart of deep sea
shell, her eyes had caught the celestial
azure of the summer skies and heaven s
own sunshine seemed to nestle in her soft
brown hair. She was a universal favorite,
admired, beloved and praised by every one
who knew her, and her costumes were
always the daintiest setting for rare and
radiant jewel
THE APoTHEosIs OF LONELINESS.
''No young girl, in the last three OF
four years, has had more enthusiastic
peans chanted to her charms by Northern
papers than May Handy, of Virginia
She has been belle, IAN uncrowned queen,
at Saratoga and Bar Harbor, in New York
Baltimore and Washington. She is as
lovely in face and form as the fairest hour
in an Oriental poets dream of paradise
and all her loveiness finds fit draping il
robes delicate and becoming as were evel
woven by the fairies for rosebud queen
Three of the special favorites at Saratoga
during the season just passed were Lottit
Rogers, of Baltimore, Anna Keitt, Of
South Carolina, and Lena Jackson, ot
New Orleans. No Sunday paper sketcl
of the American Baden Baden was com
Al IL :.