The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-06-28
Notes on Fashion.

clothes and turned to nobler things. How
much time there would be for women TO
study such vital topics as Criminology in
the Andorra Republic. The Dceadenee Of
Esthetic among the Aborigines of New
Zealand, Ensilage in the Valley of the
Chuput River. How We May Compel the
Proper Study of Municipal Government
among the Esquimaux
Ella Wheeler Wilcox advises women TO
change their fashion of dress with the
season just as the flowers change. POSI-
bly, it did not occur to her that rose tree
bearing red roses will have red roses
thereon next June and the next.
Evolution has taken the few-petaled
wild flower and, by slow process has given
us the Marshall Neil The fashion of the
world has evolved the scantily clad bar
barian into the modern tailorsuted, shirt
wasted woman. Yet we are not content
with this woman as she is.
The Marshall Neil never tires us. We
are willing to rest on this product of crea-
tive skill and simply keep it, from degen-
Grating into a five-petaled flower, but in
woman's dress we are the victims Of cease
less change. No one month is like unto
another month, and if woman have
means and inclination to follow the whlma
of the heartless goddess. life would be
taken up by that sort of thing. One would
hardly have time to bury her dead, espe-
cially as mourning outfit would have to
be considered before the cold clay is put
out Of sight
To me there is something fine in that
independence which disregards a certain
style because the woman does not ap
prove It. One may be so absorbed in
great work as to forget herself and the
fashion of her dress, but simply to dare
the conventions and wear garment which
is out Of date requires a wonderful degree
Of self-poise / have, in my minds eye,
a gracious lady who dares this when she
pleases. During the time when sleeves
were at their largest she quietly remarked
to younger women 81 don't think you
do right to follow such an extreme
fashion"
She is a woman of fine eulture-culture,
mean, not a veneer of conventional
manners and a certain glibness in discuss
ing the very latest novel. She knows her
Dickens and Scott and other old-fashioned
books and is ready to select the worthiest
among the new, not because they are new
but because they are worthy.
know no higher type of humanity than
this sweet woman who has made mother
hood something divinely beautiful as it
ought to be: this woman who is so true
that untruth is shamed in her presence,
so simple and sincere in manner that af-
lection seems a crime by comparison.
She is a woman for the great men OF
this or any time TO honor. / believe that
in the same circumstances she would show
as much good sense and self-reliance az
did Franklin at the court of France.
There was an evening when, for two
or three hours. / was bewildered BY the
beauty of a girl She was dressed infwhite,
some soft. filmy stuff made up In Greek
like simplicity; her dark hair was arrang'
ed in a Psyche knot with a few Greless
curls about her face She had tlR look
of health without the color which
different type of beauty would demand
Her transparent skin shone fairer by con-
trast with the dark eyes and hair. Every
movement of her figure seemed to be un-
studied grace. When she spoke the effect
was highteEed voice. manner, speech, all
were perfect. and l wondered that any
man could resist her charm.
l saw her again a few evenings later
when she had dressed for a ball and my
heart sank within me. The illusion was
gene. She was no longer beauty but
convention. a fashion plate. An elegant
dress, en- traine elaborate in every detail;
a couture. which had taken time and eff
fort to arrange, for the express purpose. il
seemed of showing that somthlng could
be unbecoming to the face beneath, eye
brows heavier than their wont, and, worst
of all, on the soft cheek a decided color
that varied not. Gotten w" in a way
suited to passe society woman who is
aware of having lost her beauty. gotten
up in a way that obscured the youth and
freshness of the girl. while it betrayed
such lack OF reverence for truth that
was not surprised to learn later that the
same girl was engaged to two men at
one time. marrying one of them while the
other. all unaware. was setting his house
in order for her.
If woman have the divine gift of beau
ty she may be independent of any light
within of fashion. Imagine Cleopatra the
Venus of the Nile. bending her brow over
the problem as to whether she should knot
her sash eight inches above the hem Of
the skirt or let it hang smooth. One
thinks of her as being original, law unto
herself. knowing just what she should
adopt OF the customary dress, just what
she should reject. and absolutely unheed
ing as to imitation OF herself. Yet
can fancy Helen Of Troy, weaker il a
less vicious woman, preening herself in
front of the dead Hectors shield if she
found no other mirror at hand.
Contrariwse, it is not thinkabe that
Penelope should give such thought to dress
as she wrought-the shroud whose compile
ton would mark the time that her watch
ing for Ulysses must cease.
We naturally associate with the highest
vlrtures wise moderation in dress
Cornelia stands for all time as the
apotheosis of the noble matron while she
Of Biblical fame. who tired her head and
painted her face and put her head out of
the window" as John passed, has become
a name of reproach among womankind.
We do not think of Beau Brummel or
Beauty Nash as being the ideal gentleman.
Rather do we give that high name to Sid
ney. "a spirit without spot, whose inner
qualities outshone the perfect polish of his
manners. and whose unselflsh act on the
field Of Zutphen is true to ones thought
of gentle and noble man.
1t is said that in the later years of her
life. George Eliot spent extravagant sums
Ig