Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-09-06

ii " be found at present
A-H among the Indians OF
-@ the northwest coast.
The female among those tribes ties a
cord around her waist and hangs therefrom
innumerable strings Of shells, beads, pine nuts
and all sorts of things that are pretty and
make jingle. So sacred are these ornamented
girdles considered tina. when the girls Join the
white schools and are obliged to adopt civil
ized clothing, 1t is very usual for them to con
tinue to wear the garments under their skirts
behind doubled up. Many authorities aver
that this Is actually the source from which the
notion of the hustle was derived
The cincture have described reaches onlv
from the waist to the middle thigh AZ to the
upper part OF the body the Indian maiden of
the northwest wears nothing for a covering,
except IN cold weather, when she puts on the
tanned SKIN OF some beast, simply tying it over
the wlndward shoulder and under the other
arm with strings. Thus you have an admirable
example of the most primitive female costume
The next step in the development of the upper
garment Is made by cutting holes through the
SAN TO accommodate the arms, and in this
shape you find the primitive and earliest form
of jacket.
AMONG THE PoLYSEsIANs.
Take big jump over to the islands of the
Pacific aud you find the savages making cloth
ing for themselves out Of mulberry bark, which
they beat with mallets and wash until all the
soft part of its substance has been taken out of
II, leaving the textile portion, which serves in
that shape for soft and strong cloth A piece
or any size can be made by hammering the
edges OF many pieces together until they unite
SO perfectly that thatit is difficult to find where
they join. tits believed that the largest piece
OF this mulberry cloth in the world il at pres
National ia To-
by twenty feet wide. Among the rich islanders il
Is the custom for a woman to wrap as much as
thirty or forty yards of the stuff around her
body, below the breasts, which are left exposed.
Inc simple lengthening of the primitive waist
garment makes the petticoat az we find it TO-
day.
I'm ancient times it was the fashion TO wear
an outer and an under garment, the former be-
ing removed when one entered the house
when the Bible speaks of David's dancing
naked before the Lord 1t does not mean, as
most people suppose, that David was nude but
that he had removed his outer garment, which
garment Is now, through process of evolution,
what we call the overcoat The tunic of the
ancient Roman woman has in like manner be-
come the chemse of today
''As tor the jacket of which spoke, its most
primitive form was that of a skin tied over the
shoulders. Next the skin became q blanket,
and soon hole for the head was cut through
the middle Of the blanket, as III the Mexican
cloak called the poncho' You will find the
Arabs even now employing the same device,
the time you have got this far the Jacket is
pretty nearly complete. All it needs to become
entire Is sleeves and cutting to the figure.
THE coRsAaE.
"Corsets have always been worn in one shane
or another by people who were at all civilized,
the necessity for some support for the bust be-
ing obviously the occasion for them and not
fashion, TO begin with. Women of ancient
Greece and Rome wore cloth bandage
wrapped about the body, more or less tightly,
beneath the bosom for the purpose In the
time OF Queen Elizabeth the corset, as you are
doubtless aware, was far more formidable
thing than it is now, in stiffness and size
almost like piece of armor Nowadays
women wear corsets because they make their
figures shapely, and that reason is sufficient to
constitute certainty that they will go on doing
so FOR an indefinite time, Notwithstanding the
howls OF the dress-reform agitators, who them
selves wear corsets in the shape Of so-called
waists and other such contrivances
AS Tor stockings, you know yourself they
are OF the most modern invention as may be
judged from the fact that Queen Elizabeth
was centured for her extravaganza in procur-
ing q few pairs OF silk stockings for her own
use. To discover the origin Of the stocking
you have only to consider the fact that the
people In early times, finding the simple sandal
lot very comfortable, wore it as a sole for a
soft foot covering separate from it, which was
the first attempt at luxury in footwear. You
can see that 1t was only necessary to stitch the
sandal to the soft shoe in order to make what
was to all intents and purposes the shoe of the
present day. But the men of those early
times found it convenient to wear for hunting
purposes leggings to protect their limbs from
the thorns and burrs. Hence have been devel-
oped what we know as breeches or trousers.
Recently there has reached the museum a pair
OF ancient leggings of the sort described at
tached by sewing to the soft under oes.
Here you have what is doubtless the original
form OF stocking.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF RIBBONS.
Nothing is more closely identified with
women's dress today than ribbons. What. then.
is the origin Of ribbon? You can discover il
very simply by looking at the long fringe of
strips into which the primitive savage cuts the
deer hide or other skin that forms his garment
or his tobacco pouch or whatever else of his orna-
mental possessions you please. Why does the
savage go to the trouble of cutting the beast 9
hide into such strips? 1t is because the eve ia
pleased by waving curves. When savage
fashions merged into civilized fashions this
idea was retained. and SO at present we find
weavers and makers of stuffs manufacturing
their fabrics into what we call ribbons. They
are adopted peculiarly by women in this age
when the masculine sex eschews ornament in
civilized life almost wholly.
The hat in its origin, is a thing purely
ornamental. Except in arctic chimes, where as
much as possible of the body must be covered
to keep out the cold, savages have never
thought OF protecting the head. With Ms it is
matter purely of cultivation the necessity for
head covering growing out of the habit of
employing 1t. The beginning Of the hat was
what you find it among savage peoples today
tuft OF feathers, bunch of porcupine quilts
or what not. Every race takes the manner of
its head covering from whatever Ornamental
material is produced naturally by the country
1t lnhabits. Thus you find South Americans
using tor the purpose the bright colored
piumes OF the birds which find in the tropical
portions OF that continent their habitat. Per-
maps the most beautiful OF all head coverings
ever devised is that worn by the Indian chief
who is decorated on occasions of ceremony
with sort of turban set with a crown of eagles
feathers, which not only encircle his Uranium
In right royal fashion, but descend to the
ground in fringe at right angles with his
vsrtebral column"
Smyrna the Beautiful.