The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-09-25
THE WORLDS CLOTHES.
National Costumes Fading Away and the
World steadily Dressing More Alike.

costumes which have been worn from
time immemorial fade away SO gradual
~ that the period of their final disap-
pearance is imperceptible. The most
experienced and the acutest of observ-
ers would be puzzled to fix the precise
date when the nobility and gentry
ceased to -etain black footmen, or when
butchers eft off top boots such as we
behold III Sir Edwin Landseer's picture
of High Life and Low Life" or when
London servant maids repudiated the
use of patterns. There have been, it is
true, exceptions to the rule. Old edi-
tons of the statutes at Large" con-
tain the act of parliament passed after
the rebellion of 1745. solemnly prohibit
ing the assumption of the Highland
dress in Scotland; while it is notorious
that yellow starch went OUT because
Mrs Turner. poisoner in the reign of
James l., was hanged in a ruff stiffened
with starch of the hue in question.
Similar squeamishness in 1919 con-
demned black satin as a material for
ladies' dresses to more than twenty
years prescription, it having been in
black satin dress that the murdercss
Maria Manning was hanged at Horse
monger lane Jail.
To the instances in which a certain
fabric, or mode, or color in apparel has
for definite reason ceased at an ascer-
tanned date to be worn, must be added
the proXimate demise at Rouen of
particular kind of cheap blue cotton
handkerchiefs. printed in four varieties
of tint by the very old-fashioned wooden
block process. These llerchiefs, from
period to which the mind of man run
meth not to the contrary, formed dis
tinctive feature of the picturesque cos
tune worn by the women of Plougastel,
near Brest, one of the last remaining
strongholds of the ancient costume of
Brittany. The death of the manufac-
turer has put an end to the production
of the cheap block-printed handker-
chiefs, as the sons are unwilling to car
ry on the fabrication with the present
Anticipated plant and are possibly in
tent on turning out tasteful cretonnes
or Japanese designs printed in colors
by steam from engraved steel rollers.
Furthermore, the demand for these
special handkerchiefs has been growing
of late years small and unprofitably
less. Already the male Bretons have
taken to have their hair cut; and at the
"Pardo de Ploermel," nowadays, there
are quite as many closely cropped rus
tics in wideawalcs and suits of dit
toes" as there are peasants with the
traditional flowing locks, and clad in
the traditional broad brimmed castors
and voluminous galligaskins of the an
tique province.
The plain truth is that the pictur-
esque costume is rapidly dying out,
the whole world over. Take the ''Vier-
lander Madehen"-a decaying race, by
the way-whO sells bouq lets under the
porticoes of theaters at Hamburg; take
the Roman ''contadina,' with her kir-
tie of cunningly contrasted hues, and
the snowy ''fazzoletto' of white linen
which she wears as headdress; take
the Venetian ''fio:aia" and the ''porta-
trice d'acqua," or water-carricr and
contrast any one of these types with
the London flower girl. 1t may not be
generally known that the astonishing
picture" hat which that hoarse-voiced
and sometimes Unexpectedly tongued
young female wears is rather an eXpen-
sive article than otherwise, for which
she pays by installments, and some
times even ballots for it, in the manner
adopted by members of building socie-
ties. She patronizes, moreover, a par
ticular jacket, particular length of
skirt and kind of boot, and she would
n altnr tho Nx-nn1rnr1S hAfrinfrac
of hair cut over her forehead.
The pity it is that all these Continent
tai costumes are drifting into eXtinc-
ton. In Rome the ''fazzoletto" and the
many-hued kirtle are rarely worn save
by professional models for artists; and
the Venetian flower girls who poster
the tourists at Floran's or the Speech
to buy their posies, and often thrust
them unlimited into the travellers but
tonholes, are rapidly relinquishing their
distinctive garb, and dressing themselves
after the fashions prescribed in the
plates of the cheap fashion periodicals.
AS for the gondoliers, they have aban-
doned the wearing of striking costume
as completely as they have discontin-
ued their citations from Tasso.
There are still Swiss cantons in which
the strongly marked and extremely
picturesque Helvetic costume is adhered
to, aud in certain parts of Norway, such
as the Hardanger and Telemarken dis
tricts, the peasantry still wear their
characteristic native dresses; but in
both countries the "videawalle hat"
and the suit of ''dittoes' for men, and
the cheap and Unlocking parodies of
the Paris fashions for women, are stead
lily making their ignoble and depressing
way. ''Store clothes" have even in
vaded the Tyrol and the provinces of
Austria, while in European Turkey the
upper classes have wholly divorced
themselves from the turban and the
cattan, and have adopted a monotonous
dress in which the principal elements
are the scarlet fez cap and the single
breasted frock coat. The Osmanli, at
STAN oul at least, has even given up
the traditional "chibouck" and the
time-honored "narghile" and smokes
nothing but cigarettes.
1t IS slightly consoling to the lovers
of the picturesque to know that there
are still some FORTY millions of Russian