The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1904-04-29
WILL INTEREST WOMEN
A Seventy Thousand Dollar Dress VIII
Interest All the Women VINO
Visit the Fair

This is where the female portion OF
abe visitors to the great show will get
their moneys worth. You may depend
upon it that more than any other one
thing at the fair this dress will absorb
their attention. The woman who will
wear the gown will be in the most try
ing position, however. If she lives
through the ordeal of posing every day
as the most beautiful woman in Ameri-
ca. before the assembled thousands of
women who in their mind lay some
claim to this distinction, she should
be awarded a pension. The unfortu-
nate woman, we say this advisedly, who
wears this gown will not hear her right
to the distinction orally disputed. Oh
no! But women have way of showing
their disapproval by their looks in such
way that cold chills chase each other
up and down your spinal column. The
woman who gets the job OF acting as
clothes rack on which to hang this
costly garment will earn all she gets,
and if she does not come out nervous
wreck we miss our guess.
WANTED-The most beautiful wom-
an in America to wear the most elegant
gown in America A good salary will
be paid the one whose face and figure
are fitted to this garment.
Such an advertisement has not been
printed, but it has been outlined and
within month the announcement Will
be sent forth to the world by the owner
of the finest gown in this country, If not
in the world. This gown is now under
the careful eye of a government en-
ploye, and is locked up in the bonded
warehouse at ST. Louis.
In May the gown is to be taken forth,
the folds of the precious material will
be smoothed out, the woman who is
chosen to don this will take up her APP
pointment and the eyes of visitors to the
st. Louis exposition will be permitted
to gaze upon the gown known as the
Josephine Coronation Robe" being a
duplicate of the gown worn by the EN-
press Josephine at the ceremonies at
tendant upon the browning of the First
Napoleon of France. The exact value
of the gown is $4,000. The original of
this robe cost 800, 900. The duplicate
was made by Leroy, the famous man
milliner of the Napoleonic era, and the
no less famous Nine. Raimbault, the
court modiste of France, was called to
his assistance in designing the famous
garment.
For splenGor and unequaled delicacy
Of taste this garment is the chief mar
vel of the dressmaking art. 1t is I'M
questionably the most elegant and
beautiful gown in America or the
whole world. 1t is of the heaviest and
richest velvet of the rarest manufac-
ture, bordered with the cOstliest ermine.
The gown is studied with golden bees,
the symbol of the Napoleonic dynasty,
the wings being pure gold leaf 1t is
set thick with costly jewels. The vel
vet and ermine of the gown were manu-
featured almost a century ago and were
made from an exact counterpart OF the
original gown, the cloth OF which has
now fallen apart of age. The duplicate
was made by order of the Napoleon
family of France, to be preserved as a
historical relic.
The duplicate of this famous gown,
until recently in possession OF the de
scendants of the famous Napoleon, in
Paris, was exhibited in the Palais du
Costume at the Paris exposition in 1900.
Since then the gown has been owned by
syndicate, who will exhibit it with
other gowns of the past ages at the St.
Louis fair. The gown is held in a gov
eminent bonded warehouse, and is in
sured for 10000. 1t is guarded day
and night.
To make the Josephine coronation
robe all the moro attractive it's owners
have offered a prize of 1000 to the
most beautiful woman in the Louisiana
Purchase territory who will come to st.
Louis and wear the gown during the
exposition period.