The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-23

the Drink Habit Gaining Among
WomenP-A War Story Items
Anent Women Preachers, Artists
and Writers.
(Copwi9lt)
NEW YORK, Feb. 22-It is a recent whiu
among those who would be classic in toilet
to study Roman rather than Greek or Re
camier fashions in the dressing of the hair.
There are, indeed, frequent "reminiscences
of the city on the Tiber in the spring styles.
We have aped the grace of Helen, who
brought destruction ON the Trojans; why
should we forget the beauty of Virginia or
Lucretia or the wife of Brutusl Juno and
Venus and Diana were Latin as well as
Hellenic, and behold a chance TO continue
true to the old ideals and yet achieve nov
city. The Roman ladies were famous for
their coiffures and "crimpedn their dark
locks and arranged them in many ways
Ovid in his "Art of Love- describes eight
principal styles as prevailing among the
beauties of his day. These, however. are
reducible to two. ona being a keaddress
which drew the hair down upon the cheeks
and curled it about the ears ana on the back
of the head, this method being thought pc
culiarly becoming to thin-faced women;
sides t. the top Of the head, a style which
he particularly recommends to round-faced
ladies. With the st of these coitfures
kind of cap was sometimes worn, with cir
clet ike diadem at the back, aud it is this,
or rather a more or less close modern imi-
tation of it. which one begins TO see crown
ing women whose draperies hang in tunic-
like folds. It tits not inaptly With preva-
lent tendencies in millinery, and any fin
afternoon you may come on young women
bent on experiment, provided the innoya-
ton be becoming, studying with critical
ewes the heads OF noble Roman maidens
and matrons in classical collections. TIE
Latin couture is not 50 trying as tie Psyche
knot, and 1t may yet become as prevalent
as did that bobbing bunch of curls year
or two ago.
The Roman ladies were brunettes, but, so
1890 bellies are discovering, fashions changed
then as now, and the color of the hair varied
with great frankness and frequency, red,
yellow, and even blue appearing according
to taste and the reigning style. Gray hair
was detested, and there was soap i'm
ported from Germany for its remedy.
Blondiuing is not modern discovery,
and when Ovid and Catullus and Tibulus
rave over the beauty of their mistresses'
golden locks it is to be feared that the tint
was often artifcially obtained. Twas ever
thus, for the oldest monuments Of Nineveh,
that are padded with wads of moss and
doubtless colored according TO the latest
modes in those centers of population. The
glory of woman is her tresses, and one of
her favorite employments in all ages has
been TO braid it up and comb it down, to
make it fluffy in front and smooth behind,
TO plat it and curl 1t and twist it and pin
it, TO make it dark when it inclines to be
light and light when it inclines to be dark,
to spend an hour in getting it wet and two
hours in getting it dry; in short, TO treat it
as the crown of glory should be treated.
The ladies who 20 in for the Delsarte
school of expression divide their alteration
with more or less impartiality between MIR.
and Mrs Edmund Russell Hes dar-
ling" said one gushing maiden in horse
car yesterday, "but don't you think some
how IS he's little darlinger!" Mrs. Russell
is not as handsome woman as Mrs. Jenness
Miller-its amusing by the way. to see how
confident each apostle Of Delsarte is that the
master. if he could hear the lucubrations of
his other disciples would turn over, presum
ably with correct artistic movement, in his
grave-eut she is an extremely clever
individual. Mrs. Miller can make money!
and Mrs. Russell also must be gathering in
shekels. but she has the superior gift of
being able to do without them if an anus
ing story of her London sojourn before she
of New York, is to be believed. Mrs. Russell
has a salon in East Twelfth street where she
gives drawing rooms a la Lady Wilde, clad
in aesthetic and extremely costly gowns but
at the period to which the story relates the
family pocketbook was as fiat as if an ele-
plant had crushed in it's sides. Nevertheless
she and her husband were receiving many
attentions from fashionable Londoners, at
tentions which it was incumbent on them in
some wise to return. A series of afternoon
teas suggested itself as the least expensive
form Of entertaining, but the ordinary
refreshments provided at such festivities
involved unwarrantable expenditure. In
this juncture the Ingenuity of Mrs. Russell
contrived plan. Rummaging the confec-
TONERS establishments she discovered sew
eral palatable species of ginger cakes at
prices so low that it was certain her pro-
spective guest could never have seen or
heard of them. Here was the great desid-
eratum, something absolutely new. An
geographically small sum, report says one
shilling. was appropriated for the purchase
of a sufficient quantity, and the aristocratic
London danes were forthwith invited to
what they were told were american teas. y
where the ginger cakes were devoured and
the tact of host and hostess caused
the occasion to be voted the most delightful
of social novelties This is what every
woman will recognize as genius in full
flower.
1t is astonishing how many southern
women there are in New York this winter
One hears their deliciouslv soft and lazy
accents at every gathering and is oft n
forced to surmise that they possess some
secret of eternal youth not known in chilIer
chimes. A little Virginia lady in black told
the best war story one evening that / have
heard in some time. ''Du you remember, y
she said, turning to a beardless youth, ''do
you remember the surrender of Leep
why, auntie," broke in playfully a girl
whom the little lady was chaperoning, "vou
mustn't think that the young men who
come here to visit me are as old as your'
True" said the little lady who looked
pretty enough herself to need chaperon.
show long ago it's getting to be since we
girls sat on the veranda and saw a federal
colonel with squad of cavalry come gallop-
ing up to ask the nearest read to Lynchburg.
We were rebels to the core and answered
him not too civilly, but he lifted his hat as
he rode away and assured us that the union
troops would take possession OF Lynchburg
that night-or was it some other burg! |
may not locate the tale properly-and on
Wednesday when he was comfortably settled
in town he would do himself the honor of
calling and paying his respects to US for
mally.
THAT night we heard cannon. Jubal