Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-09-14
DRESS OF BRITISH
ROYAL LADIES.

The young queen of Holland is said
to be the most economical Of all SOW
ereigns in the matter of dress.
Queen Victoria, since her widowhood,
has been careful in the same respect,
and probably makes Il good second to
Queen Wilhelinina. But it is rather
unusual for young woman or an I'M
married girl to be oblivious to the de-
lights derivable from rich and varied
clothing
AS matter of fact, Queen Victoria,
in her happy days of married life, is re-
membered TO have had taste in colcps
lively enough to prove a source of worry
tie the more artistic prince consort, and
which could scarcely be outvied even in
this our day.
The Empress Frederick of Germany,
both before and since her widowhood,
was characterized by want Of proper
pride In her garbing, and is now to be
seen in weeds that would be despised by
the ordinary middle class "relict."
Indeed, none of the queens daugli-
ters, with the exception. perhaps. of the
Princess Louise. marchioness of Lorne,
have ever displayed any great anxiety
as to personal appearance, and have
allowed themselves to grow comfortably
stout and pleasantly motheriy in way
that does not offer great rivalry to the
fashionable grand danes of today
whose waists are IS inches round and
whose compilations and toilets are the
despair even of matrons newly made.
When one of the sovereigns daugh-
ters is a grandmother, she is content
to look it. The late Duchess OF Tecls
was of the same mind, though she had
all her life passion for the richest
fabrics which. unfortunately, she was
not always able to crafty.
The Princess of Wales, slim, well pre-
served. and beautiful, is noted for the
invariable perfection and costliness Of
her toilets For well nigh 30 years she
has been called the best dressed woman
in the United Kingdom, and the reputa-
ton is not one that can be obtained
and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. much effort
and more money. Yet the princess has
never been considered wildly eXtrava-
CANT. She knows what suits her and
what position she has to occupy in the
public eye, and from her standard she
never departs although sometimes her
gowns are altered. retrimmed and re-
made in way that the average woman
of fashion would scorn to countenance.
In this latter respect the Princess OF
Wales differs from her imperial sister
in-law. the Duchess of Sake Coburg-
Gotha. and former Duchess of Edin-
burgh. The latter lady was brought up
in almost barbaric masnif1cence, and at
tins hour she exhibits the same superb
disregard, for mere money that was in
<aI OF !, e.,N
own costumes are quite beyond descrip-
ton when occasion arises for display,
and her daughters trousseaux have
been the wonder of Europe.
The daughter who inherits the ma
ternal tastes most closely in this re-
spect is the Grand Duchess of Hesse,
at present unhappily occupied with do
nestle incompatibilities. Her toilets
were allowed to have been the finest at
that marvellous pageant the cc,-.sss.st;z
of the Gear Nicholas and his sHessian
bride.
The Princess of Wales has taught her
daughters to dress we'll since their adj
vent into society, although as growing
girls their garments We're Quakerlike
in material and make. The lively and
pretty Princess Charles of Denmark is,
however, the only one of the three who
cares in the least for brave display
of finery; the Duchess of Fife and the
Princess Victoria of Wales being usu.
ally as quietly gowned as is at all con-
sistent with their exalted station, and
being never so happy ashwhen arrayed
in the most inconspicuous of tailor
made dresses-conspicuous. neverthe-
less, for their quite wonderful SMART
ness of cut and the perfect, slim grace
of the figures they cover.
The Duchess of York was, in her
girlhood, considered somewhat dowdy,
but then means We're limited at
White Lodge. and the young princess
thought more of the good she could do
for her neighbors than the garments
in which she herself should be clad
Since her marriage she has. of course,
occupied a wholly different position.
and she dresses accordingly, invariably
with the greatest elegance and good
taste. She is bright looking rather than
beautiful, and she has the family tend
ency to embonpoint, but she has not,
as the Duchess of York, been unsuc-
cessf,ll in maintaining the high stand
ard in dress set by her perennially
young and lovely mother-in-law.,
The Duchess of Albany has, OF
course, been obliged to dress as a widow
since her husbands death, as the queen
mother is extremely strict upon this
point. OF late days, and at exceptional
times, such as the diamond jubilee fes-
tivities, her happy faced. plump royal
highness has been permitted TO don the
garb of comparatively modified voc,
and has evinced a rather pretty taste.
a little discountenanced by her German
matronliness of form and her want Of
lwhat is commonly called style"
The Duchess of Connaught is inclined
| to be indiscriminate in her choice of q
wardrobe, and lacks the distinction that
is known as putting on and carrying
ones clothes well.
The dowager empress of Russia, like
her sister, has always dressed ex-
ouisitely and in the richest materials.
DON'T TALK TOO MUCH.
! A very clever woman-clever because
She knew how to hold her tongue-was
once heard telling friend in confidence
when asked why Sha had ,,ot 70 lon newt