Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-04-01
DecOllette Gowns In the Daytime.
From the Washington Postl

rude fh1l1st1ne minds that seemed TO be the
most suitable place for hustle to be.
Decollette Gowns In the Daytime.
[From the Washington Post.]
II called upon the wife of the vice presi-
dent, a woman Of good family and breeding,
enjoying high position and great wealth for
the most of her life," said we'll known diner
out. "What did she wearl A rich and
simple gown of dark velvet, buttoned to the
throat and covering her arms to the wrists, a
toilet suited to any sladyasto sit in her own
drawing room of an afternoon to receive one,
forty or three hundred callers. The sunlight
came through her western window, and day
light frightened the rooms until 1t was
dark enough to light the gas. A young wo-
man in pretty afternoon or house dress sat
at the tea table, visitors came in their cloth
and velvet and furs, bonnetted and gloved.
It was simple, natural, sensible, social and
home like scene in the the house of people
used to the first and best social life, and
with the means to command anything in the
way Of show and elaboration if they wanted
it.
81 called at another official home on an
other day, which shall be nameless. The
curtains and blinds of she lower windows
were so tightly drawn that feared the car
riage might be there for funeral, or that
had made a mistake in the house or day.
The drawing room was a blaze of gaslight,
and the hostess wore the same light satin and
embroidered gauze gown that had mot her
in at a ball few nights before. Plainly,
she had an evening dress, but no fresh or
suitable afternoon dress, and she did not
know any better than to advertise the fact.
At sight of man, and obedient to q wave of
the hostess big feather fan, her troop of as
sistants came in from the dining room. It
was only little past three o'clock in the at
ternoon, but every girl of them was in full
evening dress. No modification could have
been made if they had been going to ball
seven hours later in the day."
"Oh, but all the girls do it here. They
look SO much better In low neck gowns"
said the woman, who had been listening to
him.
stI must differ with you They do not all
do it. The girls of the best families here,
and the daughters of the women who knew
what society was before they came to Wash
inRton never do Is. Those girls all have
their afternoon dresses and house dresses
suitable to the time and place. And as to
their looking better In decollete dress, you
| should see me in my evening clothes. Be-
cause look well in ewallow-tail coat is no
reason why should parade around in it by
| daylight. The swal1ow-tail coat and the de-.
| collete corssge 60 together. The hour for
| one is the hour for the other. Fortunately
l the Washington men seem to know when to
| wear their clothes better than the women.
An occasional amateur or rural congressman
| does trail around in his dress suit on New
Years day, but they usually know enough
not to wear them by daylight. Otherwise I
might Just as we'll wear my tennis suit or
my bathing suit to ball because look we'll
in It,"
swell, I take 1t all back; the girls do not
look we'll in their evening dresses; but then
it's only western girls who do it. The vest
ern congressman is q peculiar being you
know, and"
But the womans sentence was not finished,
for the man broke in:
mo! mol the leading beauty of this sea-
son, and of past seasons here, has been the
daughter of far, far western senator, and
she never did anything to gauche as that.
saw her at tea only Wednesday--and at a
regularly invited tea company women have
little more license In dress than elsewhere--
and the western beauty wore little lilac
gown that came up to her pretty chin and
down to her little knuckles. The low neck
girl cannot be marked off by geographic
lines like the isothermal lines on a chart. It
is not the spot that produces her, bat her
GLASS, her previous condition of social en-
house to call, and all the young women were
in evening dress, and there was daylight and
sunlight in the rooms. Ughi the effect was
awful. Collar bones and shoulder bones,
and the texture of the akin and the coating
of powder told horribly in the searching cold
light of a winter afternoon. The front door
opening and shutting sent draughts of cold
air sweeping over those uncovered shoulders,
and there is something besides fish sauce on
which sunlight should never be allowed to
fall. Now all of those girls had come from
small towns where society is not organized
up to the formal and elaborate acale Of great
cities; where the men more often wear the
frock coat to their little tea parties and card
parties; where the girls only have every day
church on Sundays and society during the
week. When they come to large and moro
formal society, With its balls and ball dress
es, the decollete dress fills the place of
| 'tbest" dress in their minds and is worn on
every festive occasion by day or by night.
Ten to one these girls who 60 low necked by
| daylight wore their bonnets to the first even
ing reception they attended. They know
better than to wear their bonnets now, and
after awhile they will know better than te
| wear their ball dresses to receive calls in.
ST remember calling upon Mrs. Senator
Harrison some years ago. She wore de
cent, sensible, properly cut house or after
noon gown of dark silk, and the pretty Misl
Harrison of that day wore some kind of I
white wool or silk dress with many lace ruff
fles and ribbons, but the corsage was higl
and the sleeves below the elbow.
"You can always tell about the womal
hersslf-get a vista and panoramic view o
her past social experience and standing
when she wears her evening dress In the af
ternoop, and a very clear light on her pres
ent set and associations when she has q room
full of low necked girls to assist her with
crowd of daylight callers. discussed thi
subject with one senator's wife, who agree
with me that it was the crudest feature o
Washington society. IF you men woul
only protest more and make game Of thes
girls we might stop 1t soon.' She said, IF
girl comes to spend the afternoon with m
and meet my visitors in low neck gown
never ask her again. And do you see this
che asked, sliding open the drawer of fan
cy table filed with tangle of silk fringes
Those are little crepe shoulder shawls that
, keep to cover up such undraped creature
with. take one and tie 1t on her sweetly
saying, ''I'm afraid you will take cold In M
chilly rooms, dear, and you must keep TIL
AZ a souvenir of the day. They don't dar
| protest or take it off after that, and as
never give two crepe shewls to the same girl
. It is not an expensive thing to do. I hav
talked with Mrs. Harrison and Mrs. Gortol
, about 1t, and they applaud my little shaw
trick, and are as decided as I am that the lo1
necked girl must go--and put more clothe
on nntii IL is the hour for the dinner or th
, ball."
Orchard Experiences.
IT. H Hoskins in Garden and Forest.l
The distance at which our various fruit
= trees should stand in an orchard is q subie