The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-22
WOMEN WRITER'S FROCKS
HOW THOSE WHOSE BOOKS WE
READ ARE CLOTHED.

Pen-American Art Students in
Paris-A Child of Woner's
Doings.
NEW YORK, June 21.-German women
have reputation for thinking good clothes
incompatible with virtue. Americans often
hold them inconsistent with brains We
hear much of the learned ladies, shabbily
dressed and untidily coiffured, who wear
spectacles and home made clothes, who pull
up their petticoats in the streets and show
clumsy boots and worsted stockings.
In good truth 1 have seen few
women for whose mental caliber have
much respect who tousle their hair with
much crimping of hot irons, who spend a
life's ransom on tight fitting bodices and
abnormally small waists and big feather
fans, and who fiirt abominabiy in the con-
servatory under the shelter of the flabby
leaves of a big begonia. But in spite of
these acknowledged shortcomings of those
whom somebody calls the developed
women" confess to a certain weakness for
the inconspicuous dress, simple draperies
and quiet colors often characteristic of
them.
wouldn't have altered, for instance, the
frocks of Miss Edwards, who lectured to us
on Egyptology all winter in plain silks.
exquisite of texture and Enthusiastically
refined, but costing evidently in the putting
on or taking off very little attention
Despite the pronounciamento Of those who
hold that the chief function of one sex is to
adorn itself, they appeared to me quite the
ideal gowns for busy woman.
Neither would alter the toilets of Miss
Frances Willard, who recognizes the policy
Of becoming dress aud buys handsome cos
tunes when she gets any, but who grows
frequently so absorbed in her work that she
forgetS her bonnet has been rained on and
her dress acquired a wrinkle or two from
much travelling. We women have dress
preached at us in season and out of season.
If we forget it, that means we are in earn
est, and earnestness in almost any cause is
refreshing.
like the simple dark, well-shaped frocks
of Miss Grace H. Dodge, costing little more
than the often Shower gowns of the work
ing girls with whom she spends so many
pleasant evenings. When the pretty club
parlors in Thirty-eighth street are full to
OVERLOOKING, and there's plenty of room,
girls. on the floor and tables" how could
the smiling president take herself the low
hest position if her skirts shuddered when
they touched a carpet that might possibly
be dusty!
differ very little in their outward appear
ance from the average intelligent rather
quiet woman who goes into quiet society.
Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge, the editor of St
Nicholas, for example, wears close fitting,
matronly gowns of solid colored silks with
refined little bonnets. You would never
spot her for celebrity, but simply remark
that she was pleasant and attractive-look-
ing. So with Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster
of HdTper'S BGzGr, whose winning face
would probably leave you altogether obliv-
ious Of her gracefully fashioned black
dress in contrast with her fresh COM
plexion and prematurely whitened
hair. So with Olive Thorne Miller. the
bird lover, of whom you would note that
she was a spiendidly vigorous specimen of
mature womanhood, straightfor ward and
sincere, long before 1t would occur to you
TO pay particular attention to her unob-
strusive but elegant gown-if one may use
with its proper meaning a word so much
abused-a little open at the throat and
decked with fine laces. So with Mrs
Martha j. Lamb, the editor of the Maya
zine of american History; so with Miss
Mary +. Seymour of the Business WOmdn'S
Journal. whose frank, alert countenance
with its bright eyes and rosy cheeks
catches the attention much sooner than
her trim little bonnet with the sprays
of white lilac or anything about her
clothes; so with Mrs Braeunlich of the
Engineering and Mining Journal, so with
Mrs. Grannis of the Church Union, so with
Mrs. Belts of the Christian Union, who
will lean back in a chair and talk with you,
and fifteen minutes later you will catch a
glimpse of brown turban in the middle
distance, and when it turns about you will
be surprised to find that it adorns the very
woman with whom you have teen speaking.
l know not what others may think, but as
g.. kLxo41
an impression of ''sutableness" that when
they are out of your sight you are unable to
call to mind having seen their details
Jennie June has worn black since Mr..
Croly's death, and don't know that any
body could find a costume in which he
would rather see her than the softly drap-
ing lace falling close about the figure with
a ribbon knotting it here and there.
Grace Greenwood commonly wears black
also. Her figure is a little bowed and she
combs her dark hair down over her ears in
the fashion of a generation ago. She is
fond of lace and often covers her shoulders
with handsome lace shawl or mantilla.
Mrs. NJ. Louise Thomas, who dropped her
mantle as president of Sorosis upon the
shoulders of Ella Dietz Clynler SISTER Of
Secretary Bayard'S wife, is stately and be-
nevolent in black velvet. She has a strong,
kind face framed in smooth coils Of hair.
Mrs Clymer dresses with certain indi-
viduality and grace. The last time 1 saw
her she wore a combination of old rose and
black with picturesque sleeves open from
the elbows and filled in with deep lace
ruffles. Her haiti was one of those incon-
elusive things that you hesitate to define as
hat or bonnet-was black lace with a
wreath of old rose flowers.
Kate Sanborn dresses handsomely and is,
with her rather tall, finely developed figure
ana blonde coloring, an impressive person
age. | have a mental picture of her enter
ing Mrs. Croly's drawing-rooms with a
witty sentence on her lips, and in a trailing
black silk with square-cut neck, lace garni-
ture and here and there touch of what
one would judge to be her favorite color,
yellow.
Laura Holloway Langford-her new
name does not yet come essily-is small
person, slender, quick and active in her
movements. Sometimes she wears black
with a touch of blue in her bonnet, or
plaided silk in which there are grayish tints
mixed with blue.
Mrs Lee c. Hardy, The southern poet who
has recently made New York home, is
chestnut-haired and wears warm browns,
with Vandyke lace and embroideries When
one is as pretty rs Miss Bsland there is
reason why she should deck herself with the
soft black lace, draping the bust aud expos
ing the round arms, in which Mr.. Champney
painted the young writer.
Mrs FRANK aclta anp1h hines hI1Gi-