The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-11-22

lar ones, and / realize what artists in
stay-making the French are There is
no effort to make the waist tiny; that il
counted a vulgarity But the hips and
bust are allowed to expand, and by their
attaining a natural size the waist looks.
proportionately, smaller. The French
stay-maker never says:
Pull ina your laces at the waist line
to keep your fat down"
He is too wise for that Flesh pushed
from one place must 20 to another, and
when you force it from around the waist
you push it to the abdomen or bust, and
make yourself from the standpoint q
grace, an abomination Of desolation.
Then, TOO, the woman who laces is going
to have red hands, red nose and watery
eyes, which goes 10 prove that some
punishments for wickedness are given on
this earth.
Drifting away from the store OF the
type that caters to all Of us from ply
steal standpoint. the woman with a soul
for shopping finds herself among the
laces. There are exquisite little medal
lions Of point de Venise, each one to be
set in the corner OF a damask napkin, and
to have just in the center Of their design
the monogram embroidered. Fancy a
fortunate woman getting a damask Ia
BILE cloth with a large medallion Of point
dc Venise in one corner and the dozen din
ner napkins that go with it, each with a
smaller meallion and a smaller mono
gram in harmony.
TO the woman with a love for beauti-
full things the average wedding present
becomes gross beside this. Then, there
are dainty little mats Of royal Battenburg
lace to be put i'm your cabinet under some
specially fragile piece of bric-a-brac
Here are tiny, tiny point edges to out
line linen cambria handkerchief. There,
too, are jacket fronts Of real lace, and
beside them are real lace borders to
finish The most becoming of wells And
Their are butterflies, some white and
some black, to be gotten by the dozen,
and used for decorating evening gowns.
Fancy d frock of yellow chiffon having
upon it eight dozen black lace butter
fiesl That was a dinner dress worn
by a blonde and it made her look as If
she had come out of one Of Titian's pict-
ures, for the sunshine of the frock inten-
sifed the gold of her hair, the blue Of her
eyes and the wilderness of her skin.
AN OLD PICTURE.
Do you remember an old picture where
in a banqueting table is shown? The ar
fist has carefully brought out the eAbor-
ate carving and made his brush show
very plainly the square of linen damask,
outlined with heavy, rich-looking lace:
and the lace in the picture is just such
lace as the busy worker makes to-day,
though now it is called royal Battenburg,
In France, in the sixteenth century, it
was counted so artistic that they called
it only 1.-The lace" meaning that it was
the one that delighted the heart of the
housewife, since it made her hospitable
board Il very picture.
A CURIOUS ORIENTAL LAW.
How many people know that the reason
the Eastern laces invariably show geo.
metric or floral designs is because of
religious law. The Koran absolutely
forbids the picturing in any stuffs Of liy-
ing things, and SO the Orientials have 10
take refuge in curious windings of lines,
blending of flowers, leaves and buds, or
where c0l0rs were used, in startling con-
trasts. There is vulgar streak in the
woman who is satisfied with imitation
laces. If one has but bit of real lace
it can be twisted into a jabot, flared into
cravatte, or curved into cOquettish-
looking cap for the breakfast table.
The shopper, dropping laces, picks up
gloves, only TO discover that in the fash
ion there are II shades of tan, II OF
gray, though white and black, Ike the
proverbial poor, are always with us. With
a cloth costume there is worn the tan,
or the white glace glove with four large
buttons For evening there are undess-
ed kid gloves in whichever fashionable
shade is best suited to your costume, but
the extremely long glove, hiding the best
part of a wOman's arm is counted bad
form. Most women are thankful for one
English custom at dinner, that is, the
serving of coffee in the drawing room,
so that it is a matter Of perfect indiffer-
ence whether, after dinner, the gloves
are assumed or not
| remember seeing a woman 10 the eX-
tremely curious and underbred trick OF
wearing gloves while at dinner. The
other women@ could not help, although
they were polite gazing at her in amaze
ment; but, as the giyer OF the feast was
man, none Of them felt bound to coun-
tenance her in her faux pas, and they
all did what any well-bred woman doe
when she eats-removed their gloves
uc pcopip WuO leeu may 40 III HI Lhelt
gloves, because, somehow, feeding always
suggests the rending apart of the flesh
with the hands, but people who know
how TO handle knife and fork usually
see no necessity for keeping their hands
covered as they viii not be touched or
burned.
A feminine letter? / am very much Of
a woman to my finger tips, and never so
much Of a woman as when [ have the
opportunity to enjoy the shops There is
a pleasure past description in going to
the shops that understand catering, not
only to feminine desire, but to the fem
mime eye. That makes me remember
what the famous artist, Carolus Duran,
said: Educate the eye before you edu-
cate the hand The hand viii become
cunning soon enough when the eye has
learned to see, whereas, if the hand be
before the eye one may never
see Isn't that mn incentive 0the shop
keepers to make the showing OF their
wares an art? And who wouldn't rather
spend her gold where she, personally, is
M ~