River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-10-01
The WORLDS CLOTHES.
National Costumes Fading Away and Il
World steadily Dressing More Alike.


time immemorial fade away SO gradual
iy 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 retain black footmen, or when
butchers left off top boots such as we
behold in Sir Edwin Iandseers picture
of High Life and Low Life" or when
London servant maids repudiated the
use of patterns There have been, 1t is
true, exceptions TO the rule. Old edi-
tions 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 1t 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 1s49 con-
demned black satin as a material for
ladies' dresses to more than twenty
years prescription, it having been in a
Maria Manning was hanged at Horse
monger lane Jail
To the instances in which q 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 n
particular kind of cheap blue cotton
handkerchiefs. printed in four varieties
of tint by the very old-fashioned wooden
block process. These kerchiefs, from a
period to which the mind of man run
meth not to the contrary, formed a 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
~ 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 wideawahes and suits of dit
toes" as there are peasants with the
traditional flowing locks, and clad in
the traditional broad brimmed castors
and voluminous galligaslxins of the an
tique province.
The plain trnth 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 bouquets 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 a headdress; take
the Venetian ''foraja" and the ''porta-
trice d'acqua," or water-carrier, and
contrast any one of these types with
the London flower girl. 1t may not be
generally known that the astoni shing
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 1t, in the manner
adopted by members of building socie-
ties She patronizes, moreover, par
ticular jacket, a particular length OF
skirt and kind of boot, and she would
scorn to alter the wondrous fringe"
Of hair emf over her forehead
The pity it is that all these Continen-
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 Florian's or the Specchi
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 fashio-7 prescribed in the
plates of the chear 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, and 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 'wideawake hat"
and the suit of ''dittoes" for men, and
the cheap and ill-looking 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
STEAMBOAT 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
.'mouiiks" who are unalterably con-
sentative in their patronage of sheep
skin "touloupes." and red cotton shirts
worn ,ver their baggy inexpressibles,
with boots reaching to the knee; but
Russian gentleman, when he is not in
uniform, puts on precisely such morn
ing and evening dress as are worn in
London and Paris, in Milan and in San
Francisco, while among the Polish no
bility, where should we hope TO find a
Counterpart of the costume worn by
the heroic John Sobieski? Even the
\ conventional "Uncle Sam" whom the
Americans themselves laughingly ac-
cepted as a type-the gaunt, high
cheek-boned individual in suit of nan
keen and an ample Panama hat-has
vanished, and, but for an occasional
cartoon. would be forgotten 1t is the
same with our John Bull His spirit
lives; his idiosyncrasies are. happily,
yet vigorous; but his hat, his broad
slxirted coat, his feathers and his tops
are to be found only in the columns of
our facetious contemporaries Most
varieties of the costume of the past are
dead, and the rest are dying, What
order of apparel is to succeed them?
Surely pot" hats, "stove-pipe" hats
and suits of ''dittoes" are not to be the
universal wear for mankind in the
twentieth century. London Telegraph.