Evening star., 1948-10-19
Bv Maysaret Child

Fashions have undergone many
changes in the past SO years and
so, too, have the people who change
them. It was in October, 1898, that
Ellen Osborne wrote In The Star
Practically all the designers are
men. Women adapt. modify, work
overland many French fashions
need much expurgating-but almost
never do women originate anything
of consequence" Shades Of Rosen-
stein, Chapman and ValerNina!
The word swell" was already in
our vocabulary SO years ago. In the
fall of '98, you had to be pale and
interesting II you wished to be
swell" The buxom, rosy-cheeked
girl passed away with the summer
and in her place we had the slender,
pale-faced maiden with only two
ripe red lips and luminous eyes to
relieve the almost unnatural pallor
Of her face. And she was irresistible
or at least so it was thought then.
There used to be a trick to riding
q bicycle and not only the one OF
keeping your balance on the two
wheelers. An even more difficult
feat was in keeping ones skirts
from billowing immodestly in the
wind. The Star suggested that the
problem lay not so much in the
width of the skirt or the velocity
Of the wind as in the position of
the riders knees.
Zone must keep her knees quite
close together or the skirt will bill
low out and make no end of drapery
for the wind to frolic with"
= The National, which featured
people instead of pictures in those
days, was presenting Americas
charming and Washington pre-
ferred lyric comedienne, Della Fox, u
in, an operate gem, "The Little
Host" with a ravishingly picturesque
girl chorus of the feminine pearls
Of the organization.
Cameo brooches and such were
"old fashioned" so years ago, but
not UNACCEPTABLE to current styles
and a series of suggestions for their
use appeared on the womans pages
then.
One washington jeweler remarked
that third of his pocketknife GUS
toners were women. It seems that
regardless of the general view that
these little implements were ex-
clusively masculine, women liked to
have something besides their hat
pins and scissors to cut snd sharpen
with. They liked pocketknives SO
much that many of them paid up to
so dollars to buy tiny jeweled ones
for their personal use.
Fall, 1898, saw the debut of a new
fad for Americans abroad Rubbing
brasses, it was called, and it orig
mated in England.
1t seems that in the days when
England was merry, innumerable
brass tablets of artistic designs were
installed on the walls and floors of
the country's churches. Through the
years, many were destroyed which
made those which survived collec-
tors items. BY process which in
volved paper, black wax balls and
considerable arm work, 1t was pos
sible If not to take home the brasses
to transfer their designs from brass
to paper-rubbing the brasses. Quite
q cult of brass rubbers flourished In
1898. There was one club, the proud
claim of every member of which
it was to have rubbed a brass dating
prior to the year 1900. Exhibitions
were held and the production Of q
find" was quite an event.
Did you know French women
have the prettiest laughs? At least
they did in 1898. None of the
French have had much to laugh
about in the past decade, so perhaps
that Is Ill changed nov. At any
rate, So years ago, of the laughter
of Frenchwoman, it was said