The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-02-02
The Tfeusseau of Princess
ny KARIN MrCHAELIs.
Author of the Dangerous Age

on studies and music, losing their
taste and respect for the handiwork
OF old days and being content with
limitations. there were siill among the
women of the highest rank, women
who neither spin nor sew nor harvest,
who wear only real lace.
But now have seen the trousseau
Of a princess, and my ideas are con-
fused Four dozens of each--ar
ranged on long tables in pretty boxes
-four dozen chemises. four dozen
nightgowns, four dozen corset covers,
four dozen camisoles, four dozens of
everything. Every article OF f1imy
batiste with beautifully embroidered
crowns and monograms and trimmed
with pink silk ribbons, fashion
started by the demimo0daines of
Paris some years ago Every single
piece trimmed with real lace.
beg your pardon, ] made q mis-
take The trousseau Of the princess
was not trimmed with real lace, or
at least only partly. Alongside night
gowns trimmed with the ioveiiest and
costliest lace were others with poor
limitations. They made me think of
what I have heard about royal ladies
and millionaires who keep their gem
uine pearls and Jewels In the vaults
of the banks while they wear irnita-
4 lADlS. LOt At&I VI AIlENSS= ~ 10 p0G-
I sibIe that the same is done with
nightgowns. DO Processes keep their
real lace in boxes in safe deposit
vaults and wear mutations bear
ing thieves? Who knows? There are
many bad people who rob and steal.
From these dessous~treasures you
turn to the princess gowns. which
are also exhibited. Heayensi What
splendor, what taste and refinement!
H., tram n at Mt n aA~
scribe these indescribahle creations.
Ny poor pen could never begin to do
them justice. The whole effort was
so bewildering that you dared hardly
breathe lest you disturb the precious
arrange Tea gowns as light
AS foam, evening gowns which might
have been packed In a small powder
box. SO thin and cleudiike was the
material. And then. the wedding
gowni
The wedding gown was hanging in
a silk covered galIows, looking as If
/ IT were. waiting only for the tones of
the organ to walk to the altar. In
(. the belt was bouquet of orange bios
SONS. In a play / remember ! once
saw the groom in the early morning
gailoping up on his beautiful steed
with the point of his sword handing
the bride the deloy orange blossoms
{ picked by himself.
I These were not dewy, nor was their
fragrance that of orange blossoms
They were artificial. The lace train
was real, however, but all the other
s lace on the gown was machine made.
/ Poor little princess. Did you ever
/ write on a golden slate with a dia-
4 mond pencil? And l. poor simple
/ minded fool who thought that no.
! blesse oblige, that a princes would
/ rather jump into the sea than wear
/ imitation.
/ And my thoughts wandered back
/ to a small Danish island where all
/ the little school girls make metres and
( metres of real lace with their nimble
I brown fingers for the coarse chemises
and sheets which are to constitute
/ their trousseau.
Perhaps 1t is foolish But 1t IL
| beautiful, Ii is noble. They sit on the
/ green ditch banks under the wild rose
1 bush making the most beautiful lace,
not to make money, not for princesses
and cocottes. They make them for
/ themselves. and they feel like prin-
/ cesses. And they are princesses. But
! the Werd trousseaa they do not know
At school they learn about princesses
| of the blood royal. And II I were
4 to tell them what / have seen they
/ would turn their backs contsmptu-
I ously. A real princess writes on q
! golden slate with a diamond pencil,
! and wears only real lace
/ / have seen the trousseau of a prtu-
! cess in Vienna