Morning journal and courier., 1891-03-14

to-day would Ike to put on the light, low congress gaiters with black tips! And yet all this seemed in as good style as one of Redfern's simple and well-cut street gowns would to-day"
 The second dress was worn at the Inau- guration ball, which it was thought best to hold, according to custom, though few were in the mood to attend it when the country stood face to face with civil war, and society was in ferment "The robe was of white illusion, decollete, with very full puffed sleeves reaching to the wrist A huge hoop skirt held out in still greater circumference six fiounces embroidered in cherry silk. Then there were a short, full, festooned overskirt of cherry satin, looped up with white artificial roses, and a long pointed waist of the same edged with a quilting of white satin. In those days the back hair and front hair were as distinct as East and West, the former being ar ranged in a coil or plait, and the latter worn in wavy puffs that dropped down and covered the ears. A chsplet of flow CTS completed this curious ball-dress of 1861, which, however, was as becoming as the present fashion of the hour ever is; and recollect standing entranced before two visions of beauty who were ready to go to the ball, and whom I was permitted tc see in their glory"
 Mrs. Hoyt, who was the daughter of Sal mon P. Chase, is furnishing a series of sketches to the N. Y. Tribune, giving her recollections of persons and events from her childhood to the close of the civil war a work for which she seems well qualified, judging from the papers published. As she says, "however indifferently told, per sonal recollections of important people and events are of interest-even if they are only the "reminiscences of one who was a child at the time, and who remembers persons and things only from a childish point of view" Those were days of in tense excitement; the topics debated were vital and absorbing; the events were dis union, war and the enfranchisement of a race; the people are now figures in histo- ry Much has been written concerning those stirring times, but probably no other papers like these, so vivid and graphic and drawn from the oddly assorted store of 8 young girls memories and impressions.
 PAPER AND DsEALING-wAx.
 Flower-paper is a late Parisian fancy in stationery. It is of pale tint, powdered all over with buds and detached petals of flowers in a still more delicate hue. For get-me-nots are scattered over the blue paper; roses and apple blossoms, upon the pink; violets or sprays of lavender upon the lilac; and daisies or buttercups upon the green, while the envelopes, which match the ground tint of the paper, have a lining of silver.
 Sealing-wax is said to have been taken into favor again. with a particular mean ing attached to each color. The ''lan- guage' of sealing-wax is hereby given in order that no mistake need be made. It would be quite too embarrassing to send a note sealed with white to your lawyer, or with pink to your visiting chiIopodist.
 Black of course means affiiction; violet, condolence; brown or old-gold, conveys an invitation to dinner; pale gray means friendship; crimson is used only for busi- ness letters; green means hope; yellow, jealousy; pink is for love, and ruby is for the use of lovers; gold and silver mean constancy, and white must be reserved for proposals of marriage. HILARY.