Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-21
Special Correspondence Of The Star.
pApTS Aarch . 1pt


TT FOULD you rather be pretty or
smart? This question is
NAx somewhat misleading,
wv know. because it seems to
suggest that If you are pref
ty you can't be smart and if you are
smart you can't be pretty. AS a matter
Of fact, you can be both and probably
are
The only SADIE estate is when you are
neither. but that, my dear madam, must
really be your own fault. Some Of us
go in for being the one or the other,
and il pretty would rather not be smart,
thank you. or if smart disdain such
trifie as mere prettiness. And all of US
find admirers and are happy, or ought TO
be. l sat yesterday afternoon behind a
delightful girl-a married woman with
three children, by the way who looks
like eighteen and Is twenty-five-and
thought over the subject of smartness
versus prettiness. She was very pretty
and she was also bent upon being smart.
On her golden head. massed and piled
TOO high and too broad with her plentiful
locks was perched most astonishing
hat that got painfully in my way. 1t was
and that was the worst of it--a really
good hat. although astonishing 1t repre-
aented all that Is considered chic here in
Paris at the present moment, but it was
so very, very-words in the classic fail
me She looked pretty in ;.she looked
pretty in spite of it. Stilt she would
and in simple-yes. almost dowdy-hat,
and 1 forged TO tell her SO. Next to her
sat a woman who reminded me of that
character OF poor Onida's. Russian
grand duchess. i think. who spoke OF
herself as the best-dressed baboon in
Paris 1 would not go far as to say
this lady resembled a baboon, but l adj
mi. she recalled to me the quotation.
And she was smartness personified. smart
neatness. too. from the crown of her
well-burnished head to the sole OF her
little perfectly shod foot. Her figure was
ultra smart. too. and of course. she WAS
eSduisitely goWned. She could have car
ried Off the astonishing hat perfectly
And the quaint little crumpled old green
velvet toqGe adjoining her head would
have been charming on her companions
golden locks.
A Funny World Concerning Dress.
There are all sorts of items connected
with the fashionable dress OF the day
which are exceedingly smart and almost
hideous. if you think it over. l do not
want TO particularize, because that Is
treading on dangerous ground, and l find
this unsafe enough already. But If you
run over the modes in your mind you will
see at once what l mean. Personally /
love the present fashions. but l think
they require a great deal of wearing to
appreciate them. Take, for example the
picturesque. almost grotesque, short
waisted empire and directoire tailored
costumes beloved of the Paris;enne with
their great buttons. their enormous revers
with their ends buttoned over. their
masses of braid or startling absence of
soutache. The sleeveless coat. too. doesn't
do for all occasions. and half a dozen
other delights look rather out of place,
and therefore shamefaced and confused
when seen in the searching light of too
practical atmosphere. AS to type, that
one beloved of DuMaurier-lean but not
thin-is the one to be envied just now.
Bones are al a riscount. for the unrelieved
draperies of the waist and the clinging
skirt will have nothing'to do with scrag-
giness But the stout woman. even she
of fine figure" is to be pitied Even
curves have TO be very nearly straight
lines nowadays.
Well / have no doubt that the pendu-
lum will swing in the opposite direction
and that the very Figures that are unfash-
iopabLa now will have triumphant day in
the near future. Fashion does not show