Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1896-11-07
CLOTHES.
rhey Are s:m Retained In Macy Of I'll
Provinces Of France.

In France every mother, 10 Whatever
class she belongs, may say, in speaking
I1f her baby's outfit:
Aud by the weight of all tho skelns l
wrought
Il kept the measure of my loving thought;
Among the broken threads serene 1t ran
| And, interrupted OFT. anew began.
know nothing more perfectly
French than this little piece of humble
and exquisite poetry, showing the
stitches that keep a dream imprisoned
so purely in snowy linen; nothing more
motherly than the last wish of the care
full embroilcrer, who bids a bird build
ing its nest pick up bits fallen from the
finished work, and mix them with its
own materials, so as TO keep and pro
tect the impatient wing that is grow
ing. That growing wing is threat
aned with many an embroid-
cred and beribboned bond both
n the present and in the future, yet
less hedged in than in the past since
people have begun to bring up their
children more according to English no.
tons.
The swaddling-clothes are 70 longer
as tight-fitting as n sheath; the cap
which covered the bald little head, and
farmed it so prettily with its ruche.has
been given up; the lace pillow for the
lolling head to rest on has been ban
ished; yet. in spite of all this, the infant
in the early stages of its life is a sort Of
bundle, very much like a bolster, from
which two arms and Il wrinkled little
face protrude. The advantage of this
system is that the child is very easy to
handle; but it has its critics, who
maintain that the natural condition OF
the spinal column is not a straight and
stiff line.
Paris has made many concessions,
and the swaddling is less rigid; but the
provinces have not followed suit, while
in the country everywhere newborn
infants are tied up as hard and fast as
ever. In the south of France they go to
the length Of putting this papoose in
the bottom of basket, where it is kept
in place by strong bands passed ziglag
from head to foot. This is how we pre-
pare our sons for making use of their
liberty. However, leading-strings have
been given up; that is one step towards
progress, Twenty years ago they were
still considered indispensable-at least.
country people thought so--and there
was no end to their intricacies.
1t is quite remarkable that sWad-
dling-cases, bands and various other
letters are the only essentially French
contributions that have ever been made
to Il baby's equipment. Although
fashions in general have for centuries
been promulgated in France, clothing
everyone a la Franchise, yet the fertile
Imagination which could do this
short at children's clothes.
Look ut the paintings and engrarings
the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, and see the little creatures
who, as soon as they gave up their
plumed bourrelets and Long tulle
aprons over a bile or pink dress,
wnich a jewel hung instead of
| teething-ring, had to wear uncom-
Portable costumes, the miniature re-
productions Of their parents clothes.
girls, particularly, We're put into
whaleboned bodices and sumptuouS
which necsssitated lessons in de-
pertinent to be properly worn, and con-
'equently the dancing-master was one
the first professors employed.
1t needed the revolution of simplici-
~ brought about by the influence of
Jean Jacques Rousseau before chill
iren could be comfortably clothed
girls in muslin slips and heelless
shoes, boys in short jackets borrowed
from English styles. Ever since then
have followed English fashions for
our children. and now America lays
down the law, with its blouses; its
somewhat oldish winter coats
reaching to the ankles; its pretty Puri.
an caps trimmed with fur, IA thousand
preferable 10 the immense, carl.
,ature-like bonnets copied after Kate
ireenaway.
But an anticipating; we are still at
the swaddled infants long claok. In
every Catolic family infants are con
to YEA white; that is to say.
placed under the protection of the Holy
by a vow which does not permit
he child to wear any colors but blue
md white, those of the patron saint,
a fixed period, usually a year or two.
sometimes longer in the case of a girl.
This must be some remnant of chival-
'ous times, of service professed by a
Knight for his lady when he wore her
for it is not, properly speaking, a
religious tradition.-Th. Benton. in
CENTURY.