St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-06-18
CROSS AGAIN FASHIONABLE.
Ornament of the Olden Time Is
Once More Popular with the
Women.

Are you wearing cross about YOU
neck or on your watch fob or chain thes'
days, madame, or mademoiselle or lit
tie missy? If not, you have missed tn,
latest note in fashionable decoration
says the Chicago Record-Herald. Tn,
cross is the most popular ornament O
all just now.
Your grandmother wore cross, mos
certainly, your mother in all proba5il
4 ity, if you have passed the fiftieth mile
stone. The grandmother's cross was o.
Jet, silver, coral, enamel, or Gull, heavy
gold. The cross you used to admire ant
long for as it swung against your moth.
er's black satin bodice or lace collar wa:
most likely of silver You always in.
tended, as child, to buy such a cross
and wear it just as soon as you were able
to earn money, if, indeed, no kindly
souled individual presented you with
one at an earlier period. But for yor
there has been monumental cross unit
of quite late days.
Ten years ago Chicago woman, wish
ing to make friend a wedding present
decided upon a silver cross, to be sus-
pended from a. delicate silver chain
The chain was soon found and pur-
chased. The cross, upon which the pros
pective giver had set her heart for rea-
sons sentimental and otherwise, was not
SO easily discovered.
I'VE have no call for ornamental
crosses. Such things are only made in
response to special demands"
So the jewellers and silversmiths in
formed the anxious seeker, who began
to fear she must select some other pres
ent. When, at last. the desired trinket
came to her it was the result of lucky
find"
Nowadays, however, the cross is ex-
ceedingly popular, made in all kinds OF
metals. The grandmother's and moth
er's crosses have been drawn from their
hiding places, restrung upon chain or
bead necklaces, proudly exhibited upon
the persons of up-to-date young women.
The artistic jewel and metal workers
have duplicated these crosses with
charming quaintness and exactitude,
and have varied the original designs in
many charming ways.
The long, slender cross is the style
most favored, although the square,
short-armed variety has also its follow
ers. Silver is, perhaps, the most pop
ular material, although every variety
OF metal, from fretted gold to beaten
copper, is used for these decorative en-
'blems. Every kind of jewel from dia-
monds to the comparatively inexpensive
gems are used, and Greek and Latin
inscriptions, faint tracings or heavily
hammered patterns enrich their beauty.
But the perfectly plain cross of solid look
ing metal is quite as generally admired.
especially If it be of the artistic green
gold'' or dull silver And the woman
who can draw from her family treasure
chest really truly age-yellowed
cross of carved ivory need never bewail
her luck in future. Long neglected at
tics, antique shops and forgotten jewel
caskets are all being raEsacked in search
Of such treasures.
The renewed popularity of the cross
as an ornament is variously ascribed
to the cycling swing of time and the re-
vival Of old styles, old songs, and other
favorites of days long vanished, to the
continually increasing list of religious
and other societies using the cross as
emblem, and to the de-
sire for some rival Of or change from
the long-used locket as a finish for the
ever popular gold or bead chain. What
ever the reason, the ornamental cross
is in ubiquitous evidence these days, and
the woman who has no cross wherewfth
to adorn her person is apt to feel decid-
eddy cross in mind.