Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-12
FASHIONS. ANDLO0KS.
Shirley Dare Says Face Masks We're
Utilized Long, Ago.
SOME BEAUTIFUL NEW COSTUMES.
How to Keep Hair From Falling Out and
Make 1t SnOw.White.
WRINKLES CAN Be DRIVEN AWAY
rwn1rTrN FOR THE DIsfArcH.i

wear paying Jnc cOIn duCeegOI5
Of recalling their good sense and taste.
Centennial colds have coughed themselves
out, and the last case of sunburn from the
naval parade is cured, although some of the
victims who went on the water for the naval
review wore faces Of acute erysipelas color
a week after. The cruelty Of American
sun and wind to compilations leads to
serious consideration Of dressY face masks
as part of outdoor toilet. From the time Of
Henri Quatfe to that Of the Spectator, no
beauty who valued her complexion dreamed
of going abroad without her velvet or lace
mask, which served her modesty while it
protected her skin. 1t sounds like fan
tastic folly to talk of wearing the mask, but
the fashion has great deal in its favor.
First, it is modest, which know very we'll
you will say doesn't count for much, but
there are women, and modern women, who
would find it just as pleasant to walk abroad
without the hard staring met in certain
quarters. Any woman we'll turned out in
dress or figure can have all the attention
she wants from Fourteenth street to the
Albemarle at the upper end of Madison
square, and neat little opera mask, with a
lace fall over the lower face, would prove q
very coquettish and convenient addition to
the costume.
All cats are gray in the dark, and all
women handsome in mask, and when one
comes to think of the women who would be
irresistible If they only wore one, the last
hesitation vanishes. So many women would
find mask becoming if they only wore it
all the time. In sober earnest the mask has
so much in its favor that you need not be
surprised to hear some fine day that the
bellies have donned their ball masks to walk
up and down the avenue, and once worn
they never will be given up again. They
prevent sunburn, freckles and neuralgia,
they filter the dust from the breath as it
enters the month, and yet do not dim the
eyesight like veil, for the mask leaves the
eyes clear. If women would have the good
sense to dress high in the neck, military
style, and wear neat close mask, their COM
plexion would be good till go.
THE PRESIDENTS WIFE.
Criticism is busy with Mrs. Harrison, not
for anything she has done or hasn't done.
has said or has not said, but because she ap-
pears ambitious of filling no higher role
than that of Mrs. Ben Harrison, the Presi-
dents wife. As usual, even with citizens
who never expect to be President or marry
them, ill-natured comment is loudest and
gets in its sharp work before friends wake
up to say the right thing in the case. Mrs.
Harrison is not nonenity, as these forked-
~ hor tk l. H. o111
intriguing, obtuse woman, unequal to the
place she has to fill. The plain fact is that
sensible counsels prevail in higher
that feminine influence shall play the
part necessary in the White House family
and no other. AS more than one old poll
tician has expressed ~it, there has been
enough of women trying to run the Govern
shut down on it. The snobbery, the toady-
ism, the intrigue and personality which has
beset the Presidents wives for 20 years is
met by quiet but determined discourage
ment. a gross misunderstanding on this
point has been fostered by the snobbery of
feminine pens which delight to call the
s'frst lady in the land" and "the head of
is no more the first lady of the country than
her husband is the first and only gentleman.
or that Washington is an imperial court.
The whole theory is
UNREPUBLICAN AND ABSURD,
and has bred more mischief than would
be believed. There is no first gentleman in
a republic. The President happens to bear
most responsibility in the government for a
time, after which he will be relieved by
other citizens just as able and good as him
self, chosen out ofmillions just as able and
well-intentioned as they are. He is file
leader, if you please, for the day, and his
wife is Just as much to him, and no more to
the nation, than any engine drivers wife on
the railway. President Harrison proposes
to honor his wife just as much in Washing
ton as at Indianapolis, as the mistress of his
home, his comfort and his pride, but he
proposes to relieve her of all government
responsibility and criticism. His hearty,
affectionate salute in the Centennial parade
did honor to her as his wife, and that quiet
little woman, sitting in the Fifth Avenue
balcony, absolutely unaware that the
salute Of the brilliant parade under the
window were meant for her.. held Just the
part she intends to carry through the ad-
ministration. All the same if one truth the
covert attack and criticism attempts to hurt
this merry-hearted, housekeepy little
woman which has visited her predecessors,
there will be a resistance from some quiet
men in administration which will give
eossipmongers and toadies Just the lesson
they need. Mr.. Ben Harrison is q man of
good belongings and instincts, and hardly
the soldier of fortune that some of her
tenants of the White House have, and he
proposes to have his wife. and family as
much to himself as any other private citi-
zen, and he doesn't seem exactly the sort of
a man to meddle with.
WHAT WOMEN WANT.
A correspondent after my own heart in
that she says what she means without hesi-
tation, writes that she wants to hear only of
two things, fashions and cosmetics. IF each
person vino writes me will kindly express
her taste in the selection of topics it will be
a favor, of real assistance in writing these
letters, where the difficulty each week is not
what to say, but what TO choose out Of the
mass of interest ready.
The most elegant suits seen for visiting
are of India cashmere in parchment color,
lust off the white. One model was a French
princess overdress with gold rosette en-
broidered in the corner of the collar and on
the fronts like groups of buttons. Gloves
of the same shade and toque of silk and gold
lace repeating the tones Of the dress, finished
an unimpeachable toilet of first fashion at
this moment. The parchment color takes
the lead of the silver-gray suits dear to lily
like girls. The new Dresden green may be
matched in the leaf OF Marechal Neil
rose, and is an exquisite shade for costumes
in its soft dead foliage hues. Old rose, COM
prising the shades of old and faded bouquets,
in chintz is chosen for relief to costumes.
The Italian blending of pale green, gold
and pink is exceedingly choice. Old-white
costumes in the discoiored tints of white
long laid by, are elegant and becoming to
the complexion especially with the borders
of Etruscan gold embroidery. For house
dresses, empire robes in these dull whites
are Of supreme taste, and following them the
Marie Antoinette delaines and chintzes of
the same ground with bouquets of old rose
buds or tulips and carnations with few
loose flowers drifted between. This style is
quite distinct from the pompadour designs
of pink and blue flowers on cream or black
ground. After these again come the helie-
trope buff and dull blue and leaf greens for
walking dresses.
CENTENNIAL STYLES IN DRESS.
"reminiscences Of the reviews are seen in
suits combining the light and dark blue ary