Gloucester County Democrat., 1905-01-26

the shapeess uniformity Of bags vio-
late nature III her very heart and mis-
Understand completely the spirit of
things. Ii dress We're only Il precau-
ton to shelter us from cold or rain
piece of sacking or the skin of beast
would answer. But it is vastly more
than this. Man puts himself entire
into all that lie does. He transforms
into types tie things that serve him.
TIE dress is not simply a covering; it
Is Il symbol. | call to witness the rich
Towering Of national and provincial
corporations A wonnn's toilet too.
bas something TO say to u.s. The more
meaning there is in it the greater its
worth. 70 lie t.uly beautiful il must
tell us Of beautiful things things per-
sonal and velitable Spend all the mon
ev YOU possess Upon it: if its form is
determined By chance or custom if it
has no relation to her who wears it. Il
is only tog.ery. i domino Ultra fash
aorable dress, which completely masks
feminine personality under designs Of
pure convention, despoils it of its prin-
cipal attraction From this abuse it
comes about that many things which
women admire Go as much wrong to
their beauty as to the purses of their
husbands and fathers What would
you say Of il young girl who expressed
her thoughts in terms very choice in
deed. but taken word for word from a
phrase book: What charm could you
find in this borrowed language? The
effect of toilets we'll designed in them
selves but seen again and again on
all women indiscriminately is precise
iy the same
| cannot resist citing here a passage
from Camille Lemonnier that harmo-
nizes with my idea:
Mature has given to the fingers of
woman a charming art which she
knows by instinct and which is pecul-
iarly her own, as silk to the worm and
lacework to the swift and subtle spi-
der. She is the poet, the interpreter of
hel. own grace and ingenuousness, the
spinner of the mystery in which her
wish to please arrays itself. All the
talent she expends in her effort to equal
man in the other arts is never worth
the spirit and conception wrought out
through n bit Of stuff in her slillful
hands.
well, / wish that this art were more
honored than it is. AS education should
consist in thinking with ones mind,
feeling with ones heart. expressing the
little personalities of the inmost, inyis-
ible (which, on the contrary, are
ty-I would that the young girl in her
noyitiate of womanhood, the future
mother. might early become the little
exponent of this art of the toilet-her
own dressmaker. in short-she who one
day shall make the dresses of her chill
dren. but with the taste and the gift
to improvise, to express herself in that
masterpiece of feminine personality
and SKILL a gown without which wo
man is no more than Il bundle of rags
The dress you have made for your
self is almost always the most becom-
the one that Dleases yolf most. Wom-
en- Of leisure too often forget this;
working women also in city and coun-
try alike Since these last are cos
tuned by dressmakers and milliners
i'll very doubtful imitation of the mod
ish world. grace has almost disappear
ed from their dress And has anything
more surely the gift to please than the
fresh apparition of a young working
girl or a daughter of the fields wearing
the costume of her country and beau
tiful from her simplicity alone?
These same reflections might be ap-
piled to the fashion of decorating and
arranging our houses. II there are tol-
lets Which reveal an entire conception
of life hats that are poems, knots OF
ribbon that are veritable works of art,
so there are interiors which after their
manner speak to the mind. Why, un-
der pretext of decorating our homes,
do we destroy that personal character
which always has such value! why
have olll. sleeping rooms conform TO
those of hotels. our reception rooms TO
waiting rooms. by making predomi-
nant il uniform type Of official beauty
What pity to go through the
houses Of Il city. the cities of country,
the countries of vast continent, and
encounter everywhere certain forms
identical. inevitable, eXasperating by
their repetition! How aesthetics would
gain by more simplicity. Instead OF
this luxury in job lots, all these deco
rations, pretentious, shut vapid from
iteration. we should have an infinite
variety: happy improvisations would
strike our eyes, the unexpected in q
thousand forms would rejoice our
hearts. and We should rediscoyer the
secret of impressing on drapery or
a piece OF furniture that stamp OF hui
man personality which makes certain
antiques priceless.
Let us pass at last to things simpler