The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-05
THELASTFADOF THE DAY
NOW WE ARE INTERESTED IN
ANYTHING EGYPTIAN.

/ Wear Scarebs and Talk or Isis and
! the Pyramids.
{ tcoDy1gAtedJ
| NEW YORK. Jan. Al called on q little
woman few days ago who was reduced 70
q state bordering on despair over the
gaunt and melancholy leanness Of her
pocketbook, depleted first by holiday spend
ings and second ny the purchase OF an
| Egyptian tea gown.
20, it's beauty she replied half ex-
uitant aud half ashamed, ''on the exact
model Of an 'abaya.' Wait, you shall see
me put it on
Ny friend is q plump. brown creature
with liquid black eyes, and when ten min
utes later she emerged from her dressing
room might easily have mistaken her Tor
the occupant of a wealthy harem, her soft
brown silk robe with its 10 & aud flowing
sleeves and yoke embroidered in silver
lending itself readily TO this illusion. There
was petticOat OF striped Syrian silk in rose
color and silver and wide SASH in the same
hues. The outer gown was slashed at the
| sides TO show brilliant lining OF Egyptian
red, and over the shoulders hung
veil of brown gauzs alsJ
embroidered with silver. On her feet she
! had rose pink velvet sli pers, embroidered
with silver and seed pearls, and worn over
fie5h-colored silk stockings, the next thing
| 70 none. My friend, l had not previously
noticed, had cut her thick hair straight
| across her forehead, and while she chatteG
she bound 1t with a bTow-pendant in gold
epOuSSee. which might have BEEN worn
5000 years ego by Pharaoh's daughter, and
clasped about her throat a nscklace Of
caraelian and silver seemingly Of antique
pattern.
81 don't show this" she said, touching
the brow pendant, "outside my own
chamber, but by the time | give my
| o'clocks in February l expect to be able to
appear in 1t III the drdwing-room, perhaps
even with nay hair down in any number of
little tails as Cleopatra wore hers, every
plait fas ened with little tag Of silver.
"Of course you know that to be Egyptian
| is the latest fashion,
This procession of the nations across the
social stage is very interesting comedy
1t may end when we have gone tine rounds
| OF other peoples in our costuming ourselves
as Fiji islanders. Two years ago. in the
heyday Of the Mikado, to be japanese was
| the hight of our ambition. L ist winter
with the advent of Nerestchagin aud his
pictures, We furnished with bearskins and
struggled with the sanlovar. This winter,
when it reached our ears that the wife of
the Chinese minister was noble lady, we
began at once to use in our boudoirs tae
musical Chinese gongs; but on second
thought, finding that servants could not
| hear them, we restored the electric buttons.
fell at the feet of Miss Edwards-or is it
only piece of Napoleon worship, passing
from alteration of the empire gown to re-
membrance of the feats of the empress
husband-and pulled out of bureau drawers
all the scarabs brought home by travellers
who have wintered on the Nile
| ODenWork Hindu cloths and beautif11 soft
| tints of mulberry, sienna brown, peach and
sea-green, with 3mbinations of white aud
amber, gray, and blue, gray and red are
seen in the SUITS which luxurious women
are begi ming to covet from the Cairo
bazars. There is one woman who receives
her intimates over cup of coffee in her
| bedroom OF a morning clad in an aoaya of
maize color over creamy white with brown
stripes nearly a foot wide, the garment
| being, SO madame assures her callers, a
| genuine Importation in which an Egyptian
lady might well have sat astride her donkey,
its ample folds filling with the wind, while
her servant, sabre in hand, marched be-
hind.
In "a Scrap of Paper, +" when Mr.. Kendall
as "Col. Blake" exhibits the curious shell
| girdle which is declared to be- not the neck
lace of Timbuctoo belle, but her gown,
the ladies are properly Mortified, but a very
tall young woman, whose figure is of the
Kathryn kidder or Bernhardt order, wore
at recent lat homer hip girdle of similar
design made of deep fringe of dark, soft
leather, ornamented with beads, and
purchased by her brother from a blue black
Nubian woman below the first cataract.
not with any notion of its adjoining mod
ern yankee girls person, though it fulfi!ls
that office not ineffectvely.
But + 5yptian whims in dress are the
| least important step Of the new departure
1t is in 1ewelry and decoration that the
fever works strongly, more especially since.
the craze being in its infancy and confined
as yet to the elect, the bronze and porcelain
gods, the crocodile paperweights, the
| strange bird-shaped bottles, ANTIQUES. imita-
tions Of antiques and frank modern crea-
lions are exhibited to admirlng groups
when the tea is hot at five in the afternoon
only on the bric-a-brac tables of those whose
friends have gazed on the sphinx and the
pyramids The cream will be off by the
time these things find their way into the
| stores.
One Of the first women in the city to
yield to Egyptian seductions was an elderly
Lady who is the very opposite of traveller.
being able TO count on the fingers of one
hand the times she has been off Manhattan
island. Once in her youth she spent a week
| IN BUN no, and once again she was of
| party that visited Greenwood: but accord
ing to her own statement she has never
Climbed the stairs Of the elevated railroads.
never crossed the bridge, and views
the world chiefly from the windows
OF her carriage as it rolls through the
| quieter park driveways. Yet this winter
when the first touches Of the new fashion
| made themselves felt it was to this Stay-at-
home that the prettest Of her nieces applied
tor handful of scarabs to make herself
bracelet, and by dint of kissings and coax
lngs obtained a quantity of these sacred
beetles carved in ancient sycamore wood.
which she forthwith exhibited, strung on
| her plump arm, and fastened wit clasps of
| gold. The story of the gift becoming com
mon property where all gossip Is exchanged
this season at an eyening-not an afte,-
noon-tea, it has since beea a favorite
diversion to inspect the really remark lble
collection of this recluse Egyptologist
whenever by gift of especially large and
fragrant roseS-her only other hobby-the
younger people can secure an invitation.
She is very slender of figure, white haired
and wears the trimmest and primmest of
black gowns, afording in these particulars
curious contrast to her Egyptian room,
which is the delight of her heart and. if the
fashion holds, very kelly the prototype OF
as many Others as there were Russian bou-
doris twelve months ago. 1t is not purely
| Egyptian though as picturesque a
bit as there is in New York CITY.
tapestrled with prayer carpets and
shaggy rugs from Laodicea and