The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-21
FAIR FAN COLLECTORS.
soCIETYs LATEST FASHIONABLE
FAD IN CHICAGO.

Fans Investigated and Laid Bare
Some Interesting History Showing
the Varying Popularity of Fans.
From the CHICAGO Inter Ocean.
The Tlabellifera is South Side club. A
high-sounding title for new club. Among
the womena Yes; most emphatically yes.
The women who enjoy most Of sweet moth
ing-to-do, il any such can really be said to
exist in Chicago. Very few women perish
annually in our midst from sheer ennui.
What with monuments. worlds fairs, phys
zeal culture, correct dress, lectures on poll
tics, philosophy, literature. art. ard what
not, the feminine half OF society is not likely
20 vegetate, though it is mild winter.
There is something more they can do
something new they can take up. News
Spick and span new? Well, yes; new to
this region. Mrs. Hicks-Iori and a good
mary others have done it before them.
Civilization, they say, flows westward O
proposition that might be disputed if one
did not wish to talk about the new fad, for
such the heterodox cali 1.-THE PhiIistines
who, like Abou-Hassan, are outside.
Among the clubs of Chicago, for which
we are henceforth to thank our stars, is a
c0terie of the Sweetest girls, who will
hereafter devote all their learning and
energy. taste and money to the collection
of fans
NOT THE RARE FANS
brought in by the cart load by enterprising
merchants of the city-costly fabsllifera,,
varying IN splendor and marked from SO
to $3.50. Perish the thought The fans
that our young virtuose are going to collect
are the fans that have been-the fans that
lie buried in the east, as it were, the fans
one must dig and delve for even among the
mummified girls and sacred pussy cats of
dry and dirty old Egypt. One Of the most
insinuating charms of the craze is the i'm
penetrable mystery surrounding the very
origin of the fan. Research sets in. A young
woman Just home from Wellesley has
developed an archaeological bent. She is
said TO be ferreting ont curious documents
which, she affirms, have been written in
every language concerning it. After all is
said and done she admits, with sigh, that
little is known, as matter of fact, about
the fan in prehistoric ages
The diabolical interrogation point stands
just where she found it, and the erudite
young precieuse can give no answer. She
Is 10th to acknowledge that, after ransack-
ing the lore of sages from Spain to China,
the most glorious legends lend the fan
A DUBIOUS ORIGIN
in the eastern seraglio. Hereupon she
shakes her learned little head and tells us
such fables merit no belief
One pretty debutante attributes it to
China before the christian era, and SAYS it
was first made of palms and lotus leaves A
certain king. she relates, had pretty
daughter, who made vow that if her
fathers arms should prosper in battle she
would forever keep the sacred fire aburn-
ing.
But in vain did she fan it. If she ceased
for an instant to breathe on it the heavenly
fire went Quit languished for theabreath
from her own charming lips.
Another bright club member, who owns
real Marie Antoinette fan, contributes what
she has learned on the subject. She has
big cousin from Boston who is a theosoph
and adores Buddha. Hence she is prepared
to insist that in all Indian legends there Is
question of the fan. Pretty princesses. with
such names as Dewdrop and Lotus-leaf,
We're ages agone borne about in palanquins,
screened by great bamboo fans. Others
which they Unanswered with their own
dainty digits gave them silent language
only less sweet than their dulcet prattle.
There is no doubt III the world chat every
Hindoo maid had her own autograph album
a fan covered from csnter to margin with
hieroglyphlcs crotchets and quavers, which
when read under the rose turned out to be
tender declarations.
AtE h1ICulN0 ClSGOfAlRA,
daughter of gods and kings, brought up by
the priests of Isis, and initiated into the
mysteries of the magi, was surnamed the
Siren of the Fan, though it was the emblem
Of happiness and heavenly rest.
AT THE CLUB coLLooUY.
Next week new developments and revela-
tions will follow. Two jeweled emigres
fans will be handed round for inspection,
their romance recited. and their pedigree
investigated. In the meanwhile, as it has
turned out, chance has. revealed the ex-
iStence of manuscript compiled by queer
Old bachelor who also had the fan fad
What he does not know about fans is not
worth the knowing. He has quite a rare
collection, too. And he can give our club
girls some new points. So at the next con-
olave, according to assignment, young
lady just home from foreign tour, and
vino has learned her French in France, will
read Tor the delectation of Sorosis trans
lation that will keep to the following lines.
An Arabian poet tells about an enchanted
fan made of the phenix feat hers, in the
midst of which was brilliant sunburst of
precious stones This fan decided battles
and was in the keeping of cruel old fairy
A Persian prince bamboozled the sorceress,
and finally got possession of the fan by
marrying the daughter of a victor king.
IN ETRUsCAN ART
fans are found in artistic bas-reliefs, espe-
cielly on antique vases in great numbers and
curious forms; the majority have handle
and fiat part like our modern japanese
screen. An interesting fan about which
Uzaune tells us is one with romantic story
found in Spain in the fifteenth century,
and called the s'Spagnuola." In it was a
magic mirror that revealed the existence of
hl1den love. Catherine de Medici brought
INTO fashion Italian fans surrounded with
feathers, for all the world like the ostrich
and marabout fans with silver inlaid pearl
cased handles that you can buy to-day for
so. But at that time they were sold to
the grandes danes and cavaliers of the
court for more money than that. Cava-
hers! Yes, cavaliers, and right royal ones
at that. Henry I'LL was "a perfect love of
q man." as the chronicles say, but had GER
tam little whims that made him a trifie
eccentric. He wore gloves, a very odd
thing for a man TO do at that day-he
tanned with a fan, and wore cosmetic
masques to bed.
The reign of the fan in the theatsr began
before Moliere When Richeleu and the
8poes Of his day used to visit the actresses
pehlnd the scenes the fan was their great
defense in the presence of such appalling
greatness. Without it self-possession would
have failed them. Their fan was to them
what the balanciere is to the tlght-rope
dancer. The fan inspired enigmas, cpl
grams and sonuets.