Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-28


1t was worn in 1900. but was not as pretty
as now.
Expansive POmpadours.
The craze of the hour. however. is the
pompadour, which expands daily. A debut
tante of this season was complaining the
other night that her hair was horribly
mussed by the top of her coupe, when going
to reception. She was but plagiarizing
another debutante of a century ago, who
said in her memoirs: II arrived at my
lady's house for the evening party with a
rackinS pain in my shoulders caused by my
being compelled to sit with my chin resting
upon my knees my headdress being too
high for the roof of my coach"
The headdreSs was not pretty either Not
a bit prcttier than the present enormous
untidy wad of touseled hair, into which all
women. regardless of taste or fitness, scram-
bic their refractory locks. In that PARKWAY
DAY, when the church and parliament DO h
Numbered against the iniquities of the pre-
vailing modes Of dressing the hair and
laws against the towering absurdities finally
toppled them over, womans head might
well have been counted one of the wonders
of the world. The chroniclers of the day
relate that a yard high headdress was
modest indeed. 1t was padded with wool
eked out with false hair, strung with ropes
of jewels. furbcloWcd with ribbons wrea tn
ed with garlands, and apexed with plumes
till the mass all but broke a woman's neck
to carry it round. Butterflies. caterpillars
huge ropes of gauze sparkling with tinsel,
spun glass We're all used lavishly, till nv
lady's headdress was taller than my lady
herself in many instances.
This Was the Limit.
The weight of all this stuff became a.
burden no longer to be borne, and an old
writer says that in 1867 many ladies of
fortune and fashion, willing to set an ex-
ample of prudence and economy to their in
feriors, did invent and make public without
patent Il machine for the head in form of
postchaise and horse, and another imi-
taxing chair and chairman, which were
frequently worn by persons of distinction
These heads. which are not able to bear
coach and six flor vehicles of this sort
are very apt to crack the BRAIN, SO far
act consistently as to make use of post
chariot or single horse chaise with beau
pCrching in the middle. The vehicle itself
is constructed of gold threads and was
drawn by six dapple grays of blown glass;
with coachman, position and gentleman
within. of the same brittle glass
An old poet said of this monstrosity:
Here, on fair ones hcad-dress sparkling sticks
Swinging on silver springs coach and six;
There. on sbrig or sloped pompon, you see
a chariot, sulky, cEaise, or sa-vis.''
Some women of nautical mind preferred
ships to ch2ises. and bore round on their
heads ships in full sail with flags flying
Two queens of England, Mary and Eliza
beth. are responsible for women's wigs It
is said of Mary that 'she wore a Caul that
was so massive and ponderous with gold
and jewels that she was fan to beare up
her head with her hand" Queen Elizabeth
was so ugly that a wig or two more or less
could not heighten her angularty OF fea-
ture. 1t is recorded that she had changes
of hair for every set of jewels, her pref
erence being for red. In her note book is
Inscribed in her own handwriting the fol-
lowing: Item, one cawle of hair SET with
pearles in number xiii Item. one cawle set
with pearles of sundry sort and bigness,
with seed pearle between them chevronwise
| cXij. Item, cawe with nine true loves of
Pearle and seven buttons Of gold, in each
| button a rubie.''
When Wigs Were in Style.
| Wigs became all the rage. and were as
| costly as the gems that decked them wo-
| men did not have to do then as now, sit for
| hours and run all sorts of risks of coming
| from under the hands of the coiffeuse look
| ing like Easter egg. If they desired to
| change tawny locks for ebon they just sent
a hundred dollars to the wigmaker with
directions as to color Of wig desired. and it