The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-13

RANDALL CLIFTON. District Parse I
in hideous frock to the knees with white
frilled muslin trowsers appearing below
it, perhaps the criticism was justified. On
those frills at my ankles What tor
ment they were to my childhood. L am
afraid l was terrible tom-boy, and the
torn and dirty frills brought punishment
on my head pretty nearly every day. L
must hasten TO add that the statement OF
my hopeless ugliness was always made IN
order to induce me to begin to cultivate
every feminine virtue and excellence, es-
pecially the browning grace of sitting still,
which 1 found far the most difficult of all
Whether this practice of keeping a
child's hair short was good or not, do NOT
presume to say, but looking back en- my
contemporaries, we certainly all had abun-
dance of hair by the time we were 16 or II.
Indeed when we girls exchanged conf
dences about our hair, it was nearly as~
ways complaints about the quantity ~ VI
weight, and the difficulty of keeping 1t fa5'
tened up. A girl with even moderate
quantity of hair was an object of envy TO
those whose hair fell in masses to ther
waist, or even to their knees We were
sincerely sorry for some girls whose hair,
when they sat on an ordinary chair, touch
ed the ground. There was but one way
allowed for disposing of these troublesome
tresses. 1t was plated and Topped up In
WIDE DGdlQS at tne UdChJ SuldAliuS CArNlC1S
trouble to plat and unplait. In front It
was arched and brought over the ears, in
deed almost to the corners of the mouth,
in great heavy "bandeaux." We were hap
PLY permitted to keep this part of the hair
shorter than the rest, in order to make 1t
possible to stow away the ends, but 1t
seemed to revenge itself by becoming even
heavier than the rest. This fashion must
have been more or less unbecoming to all,
but we submitted without murmur L
was very un-enterprisng and conservative,
and followed all these absurd dictates
with the most touching humility ana ooe-
dience; but a pretty younger sister filed
us all with dismay and anxiety by her
revolutionary sentiments. She actually
dared to raise these loops of hair, which
were very, like spanieFs ears, so as to
show the lobe of her own pretty little ear,
and we regarded this departure from the
tyranny of fashion as a wild and lawfess
action of which 1t was impossible TO fore
tell the end. Some years before crinoltnes
appeared fashion must have been tending
that way for 1 we'll remember how numer-
Gus we're our petticoats. We wore them In
LAYERS and doubtless crinolines seemed
quite a sensible way of tightening the
heavy weight hanging from the waist.
But after all hard as fashions of those
days pressed on us girls l think the poor
matrons must have had even worse times
in the way of dress. Every married lazy,
when she was about thirty, seemed to be
RELOCATED to the ranks of dowagers and
donned what was called cap. l never
saw any one In turhan, but l remember
as a child hearing them lamented as
most becoming and beautiful sort OF head
dress, no longer worn. The evening head
gear of my poor dear mother and other
ladies' consisted of an arrangement OF
lace and flowers mounted on stif foun-
dation, the center being set back on the
head. and the two ends coming towards
the front as If they were intended TO meet
the corners of the mouth. 1t looked some
thing like q, cap taken out or bonnet
and decorated for evening wear and even,
child as l was, could perceive It's mar
tistic hideousness, and reJolced Wheh IL
disappeared from my mothers head.
Dancing Clothes.
"Tell us about your first ball dress" was
a common request of my girls. That really
could not have been so very ugly, and was
at least unoffenslve. Two skirts of white
t,l1a each skirt a mass of tucks, worn
over a voluminous white glace silk petit
coat and with a deep berthe" falling
nearly to the waist of white blond "a sort
of fine silk lace) But our heads must nave
been awful and out of all proportion. All
This plated and braided hair, covering up
as much as possible OF the face, was ar
ranged without any regard to the natural
lines of the head, and further overweight
ed nv one enormous flower-generally
large camelia with lots of leaves and buds
stuck into the braids on one side, quite
low down. almost resting on the neck
And we were all so solemn and quiet,
not to say dulll l wonder If we were OPP
pressed by an inner consciousness that
however true our appearance might De
TO the then laws of fashion II was aoSo-
Jutely false to every canon OF ART, or 1or
thas matter of nature? Whatever the
reason may have been, the fact remains
that anything so dull, so uncomplainlAs'
I had almost written unintelligent as the
early victorian girl could not well be I'M
agined. OF course, there must have been
many bright exceptions of girls whose
notuia1 bent toward light and learning
was too strong to keep them back, in
snite of the stultfying system of educa-
tion of that day. But it so happened
never came across them, and would prob
ably have regarded them as dangerous
compsn mons If had.
The doctrine 1 find most difficult TO for
give OIL looking back to those days was
that every girl ought to be exactly like
every other girl There was to be no
originality no differing tastes or pursuits:
our minds and habits Of thought were all
clipped and trimmed into shape Ike so
many hedges Of exactly the same pattern.
History was offered TO us in so
unattractive form that. though
we swallowed so to speak. a good
deal Of II, we digested none. Poe
Try was regarded az dangerous
mental food, and perhaps, too, our starry