The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-19
BEST DRESSED WOMEN.

The American woman is pre-eminentiy the best dressed of her sex in all the world today; and the secret Of her su- premaey lies not so much in the fact that she has the means at her cammand to make all her wishes law, as tf.at she pos sesses the exquisite taste to make judi cleus choice of materials, the skill and judgment to know when they are artisti- cally woven and interwoven, blended and interblended, so as to suit her and her alone.
 As rule. the women of other nations suffer themselves to be dressed This is particularly true of the Engllshwoman and of her fair sisters of France. Both bow to the decision of the modlste, and take what they get It Is the good old way, saves trouble and annoyance, and, then, 1t is the best they can do. The American woman. whether at home or abroad, submits to no such dictation Conscious of her own ability to plan and erect the whole sartorial edifice, she en- ters upon the undertaking with the same enthusiasm that her father does upon the building of great line of railroad, the tunneling of a mountain, or the manipu- lation of a line of stocks, and its suc- cessful completion gives her infinite Joy There is nothing wrong about all ais; on the contrary, it Is in every way to be commended. The young woman appears to reason somewhat in this fashion: I will not submit to be arrayed like all the other dolls. will not have the dull mo- notony of a commonplace mediocrity, but something that shall take me out of the mob and set me as far apart as possible from them This spirit it is that has put the American woman so far as attire goes, at the head of the class.
 The grandmothers of the American belles of the present generation were long under the dress domination of fash ionable society in England; indeed, they were never fully emaneipared from it. Perhaps there are those stir living who can recall the old hoop-slSfrt, the most hideous abomination that women ever wore. The device was adopted shortly after the marriage of the late Queen Vic toria, we will say flor reasons of StafeD but really from other motives of a more interesting nature. The ladies of the court valiantly stood by their beloved lit- tie ruler the aristocratie danes of high degree fell into line, that is into the hoop skirt, and 1t went on its conduering way not only through the British empire, but the American union. By and 5y the time came when the queen had no further use for it in all it's responsiveness, and 1t began to grow small and beautifully less until it finally vanished forever. To the court of the third Napoleon, the feminine world of American, and, in fact, all Eu- rope, looked for it's fashionable pointers Empress Eugene had exquisite taste, and one of her missions in life was to dazzle and bewilder, to lead not only the fash ions of France, but to set up the standard which should prevail everywhere. But at last the empire went down at Sedan, and the sceptre departed in a great measure from the city on the Seine Then may be said to have begun the era of Ameri- can fashionable development. The Amer ican woman invaded Europe with her wardrobes. and London, Paris. Berlin, and every other capital, were amazed at the Fashionable output of the American woods" Originality? Yes, the original ity of artistic genius. By the thousand and ten thousand Americans still place their oredrs in Europe, but with them go precise instructions as to how they shall be executed. The Ameican woman today is one of the arbitresses of fashion the world over