The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-09-17
for luomeu


Now that the hundred doiidr limit re-
stricts the feminine globe trotter to a
nominal amount of chiffons purchased
in her beloved Paris or London perhaps
she may be brought at last to realize
the fact TIA she can shop just as We'll
on this side of the Atlantic as the other.
Two articles. dear to the soul of the
average woman, must be bought cheaper
at Bon Marche than in Philadelphia or
New York-hats and silk pettieoats-but
gloves. ~corsets, lingerie and all the dainty
accessories that go TO make up the tot
lette of a well dressed woman cost quite
as much abroad as at home
An experienced shopper who runs over
every year and who's chic gowns are
the envy and the despair of her friends,
eonnded a little secret to me a day or
two ago, which is really toe good to
keep
What a charming little frock,' said
some one; easy to see you have just
come from Paris"
A n~on-committal smile was the an
swer to the lattering comment. and later
1 was told tina the said frock had been
planned and made by an obscure little
dressmaker in West Philadelphia for the
absurdly low sum of six dollars!
Thus, again do we see that skim milk
masquerades as cream and that the
woman who goes abroad every year does
not necessarily wear imported gowns
-
The first time one makes the grand tour
one is sure TO come home bankrupt
everything is so ridieulously cheap that it
seems a sin not to buy. But what an
awakening awaits the enthusiastic buyer
when she is home again in her ain
countree's; the chic little tichu, the braid
ed Russian blouse, the double-breasted
Elton Jacket. the dashing picture hat,
which the novice fondly imagined would
be unique for at least three months to
come, are to be seen duplicated a hum
dred times on Chestnut street or Broad
way, while in the fashionable shops on
those two thoroughfares the exact coun-
terpart of her dearest possession is on
sale for the same price, or, alas and alas!
sometimes for a trifie less.
There is a fiction too current among
womankind that the English tailor-built
gown is the ~nonpareil of that chic mode.
But as a matter Of fact al American
woman is rarely satisfied with a frock
made by a British dressmaker-it is apt
to be clumsy and lacking in curves, al
most invariably giving a woodeny appear
ance to the figure; finish and material,
to be sure. are irreproachabIe, but, after
all, the fits the thinglr'
So
AS for the much vaunted french cor
set that, too, is q delusion and a snare
for the slender American woman at least.
Gallo hips are large and the bust no.
ticeably low, and in spite of the fact that
the over-the-sea customer is built on en-
tirely different lines, the French model
is followed to the disgust and discom-
fort of the would-be wearer.
There is little, if any,, difference in the
price of good gloves. Cheap and ill-it-
ting ones may be bought there as here
for so or Is cents, but the really good
quality is relatively the same in price.
Leather goods. silver knick-knacks and
all such Injuries are quite as far beyond
the reach of i~mpecunious shoppers there
as here. Indeed, silver is more expen-
siYe. as are cut glass and nearly all table
appointments.
So, perhaps. the hundred-dellar limit is
not without its advantages. 1t may
teach the feminine, shopper that close at
hand she may find the same articles at
precisely the same price, the only diff
ference being that she must sacrifice the
prestige of chattering of her London
tailor or her Partisan modiste-a con-
summation, indeed, deyoutly to be
wished
81 have in mind a woman in middle life
who has fought time SO bitterly and
struggled so desperately to keep young
that the tremendous effort has dug lines
of piteous protest in her cheeks and
quenched every spark of youth in her
eyes" writes Carrie Earle Garrett in the
"Woman's Home Companion" This
woman's back, with its view of mo9ishly
cut skirts, tips of shining high heels. and
the wide stylish hat, looks as young as |
she could desire; but, oh, that face, with
Its chemical bloom, the poor sallow
checks showing so plainly through the
pink and white veneering, and every
wrinkle revealing itself in the light of the
honest SUM- 1t is both sad and ridicu-
lous to reflect that this deliberately built
Picture is one of sham. and
to picture the agony of this woman, if
by fire or food she should suddenly be
divorced from nef LABORATORY and be COM |
PEELED to face the world in her true coli
ors. Human beauty is too delicate and
elusive a thing to be copied by a mere
daub. This woman has idle hands, an
head and a sad heart. All her
faculties are conferred on the vain effort
to keep something which she has long
since lost. She is clinging to a vanish
ing emnan of her youth, and letting slip
the countless interests and benefits, the
dignity and peace that belong to the
middle period of a well-spent life.
Il know another woman who is no
longer young. and who turns no lingering
backward glance at the past. There is
no preface whatever about her appear
no dreadful contrasts of color, no
effort TO seem other than she really is.
There are lines in her face, too, but some
how they suggest wisdom, experience.
real life. as though she had an interesting
story to tell of the way by which she
had come. No peevish, rebellious tears
for the loss of youth have dimmed the