The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-24


fashion to wear the thinnest of fabrics
for winter house gowns. Many girls
and young matronS affect muslin
gowns in the coolest weather. Some
fashionable women wear white dotted
swiss dresses at home the year round.
Even in hotels one sees young women
in dinner gowns of muslin and it is
perfectly proper to wear organdie and
other wash fabrics at small dances.
| Really there is nothing more charm
ing than white for house wear and it
is especially attractive in the winter
time. "All Christmas dancing gowns
/ should be red, white or pink" says a
Topeka woman of artistic taste. "to
harmonic with the Christmas decora-
tons" Nothing is prettier or more
effective for a Christmas dance than a
simple thin white frock made with
short full gathered skirt and decollete
baby waist with short puffed sleeves,
a white gauze sash and a wreath of
holly in the low couture.
Silk has never been known as
winter fabric but there is a fad this
season for light silk shirt waist suits
| or utility gowns as they are now
known. These gowns are correct for
| at home wear. They are simple and
| pretty, two essentials. For house wear
the short skirt is not advised. This
does not mean that the trained skirt
| is advised, but the skirt should no
more than escape the floor. Instep
| length skirts are the correct, and of
course the only sensible thing, for the
| street but in the house, unless for
| dancing frocks, let the long skirt give
grace and dignity to the figure.
| In France, or rather Paris, from
| which fashions are supposed to enanate
there is craze for English styles. The
| severe and the tailor-made are the idol
of the hour. Nevertheless it is diff
cult matter to get F'renchwoman to
put on really short skirt. Even with
the long coat and the redingote she
wears a long skirt. 1t is true that the
Frenchwoman is inclined to be short of
! stature, which makes it difficult for her
to wear short skirts, but she is other
wise temperamentally disposed to
sweeping draperies. In New York it
needs only a morning walk in the shop
ping districts to prove the vogue of the
| instep length skirt. Every we'll dressed
woman wears 1t.
The redingote does not go especially
will with a short skirt. The secret of
making the two even tolerable together
lies in one detail; the skirt must flare
sharply at the hem.
Three-piece suits of fine yelling. al
most like crepe de chine, are fayorites
for visiting and matinee gowns. The
blouses of these are elaborate affairs,
and are often Of white lace instead of
crepe or silk of the gown color. or
course, in this case the gown ceases to
be three-piece suit in the strictest
sense. The daintiest and thinnest OF
blouses, whether they be white or color
ed, are correct IOr JneaIer or reSldurdI1t
dining. In fact, many girls make no
difference at all in their blouses winter
or summer. The best shops offer lingerie
blouses of the ARREST description in mid
winter. There is constant sale for
them, whatever the weather.
Why do we decorate at Christmas ?
WHY the gifts on the Christmas tree ? |
Why the holly about the walls ana
the laurel over the pictures? Why, |
above all and the center of all. those |
green and living growths, the mfstletoe |
boughs?
Christmas seized upon these things |
for tn i, celebration of the festival not
because of the power that held them
green, but because of the power that
kept them alive, that preserved In
them the beauty of life, notwithstanding
ing the snow and sleet the wind and
the whitening blast.
1t is the spirit of these living |
growths that appeals to us when all
the rest of inanimate nature appears
to be sleeping under the mantle OF
winter. Before Christmas was, the
in by an imaginative people. and the
great festival adopted them.
The ancient Druids believed in the
spirits of the holly. of the laurel, Of
that formed the walls and living
arches of their temples. To them
these things were peopled with sylvan
spirits that loved the growths and kept
them green by protecting them from
winter frosts. They took the branches
within their dwelling, believing that
spirits would follow and there exercise
their protecting care.
Among these spirits they believed
none to be more powerful or capable +
of bringing greater blessing than those
of the miStletOe.
These beliefs have gone from the
world, but we cling to the emblems of
them and rejoice amid them at the
Christmas celebration.
Candles are a bother. Women ad-
init it to themselves. They weep
greasy tears on polished tables and
pianos and spitefully set fire to the
still candles are all the rage.
A woman possessed of the least
claim to beauty will become irresist-
ably alluring in the glow of shaded
candles, and at every reception and
dinner party these aids to beauty are
grouped on every side.
Men don't understand and they hate
them. man came away from tea
the other day thoroughly disguised
because the shades were drawn and
the tapers gave out such a dim light
frostily polite way to dozens of people
whom he had known all his life, but
could not recognize for five or ten
minutes.
BY the way, men hate teas. too
don't they? 1t is a mystery why they
have such a vogue. Anything for a
change would be welcome relief, it
would seem.
A swish of skirts, the heavy frag-
rance of flowers, a sip of tea and a
silly remark, and it is over. This is a
mans description of it.
With women it is different. They
delight in pretending, and a tea is to
women a delightful pretense They
play at being agreeable and charmed
with people they don't care a straw
for, and the sip of tea and tiny cake
that is scarcely a bite is the loveliest
sham of all.
And it is as much fun wearing a
new frock as it was wearing a long
skirt in the n1avhOTSa of childhood ,