Dressing in Russia

1895

How the Clothing Is Adapted to Outdoor and Indoor Temperature.

The national cap has a soft velvet crown, surrounded by a broad band of sable or of otter. it is always in fashion and lasts forever. People who are fond of variety buy each year a new cap, made of black Persian lambskin, which resembles in shape that worn by the kazaks, though the shape is modified every year by the thrifty shopkeepers.

The furs and the Russian's sensible manner of dressing in general have much to do with their comfort and freedom from colds. Few Russians wear flannels of any sort. Linen underclothing and the thinnest gowns are sufficient in the delightfully heated houses, and at theaters and other places of public entertainment anything more would be intolerable. No Russian enters a room, theater or public ball at any season of the year with his cloak and overshoes, and no well trained servant would allow an ignorant foreigner to trifle with his health by so doing. Even the foreign churches are provided with cloakrooms and attendants. And the Russian churches? On grand occasions, when space is railed off for officials or favored guests, cloak racks and attendants are provided near the door for the privileged ones, who must display their uniforms and gowns as a matter of state etiquette.

The women find the light shawl which they wear under their fur to preserve their gowns from hairs, to shield the chest, and for precisely such emergencies, sufficient protection. On ordinary occasions people who do not keep a lackey to hold their cloaks, just inside the entrance, have an opportunity to practice Russian endurance, and unless the crowd is very dense the large and lofty space renders it quite possible, though the churches are heated, to retain the fur cloak, but it is not healthy and not always comfortable. It would not be possible to provide cloakrooms and attendants for the thousands upon thousands who attend church service on Sundays and holidays. With the foreign churches, whose attendance is comparatively limited, it is a different matter. Moscow, by the way, is the place to see the coats intended for "really cold weather" journeys, made of bearskin and of reindeer skin, impervious to cold, lined with downy Siberian rat or other skins which one does not see in St. Petersburg shops. — Lippincott's.

The Editor In an Ironical Mood

1895

The following is taken verbatim from a woman's journal: "After you have bathed put on sufficient underclothing and do not arrange your stays too tight; then select a dress out of which the dust has been shaken and go to your breakfast." Such advice might not be out of place in an asylum for feeble minded people, but it would hardly seem fit advice to give the public general, for a woman under ordinary circumstances ought to know enough to put on her underclothing and dress and go to the table without being told.

In another place it says: "A corset cover is simply a matter of taste. Very many women wear it, and very many do not." This will no doubt be startling news to most people. The current supposition would be that women are born in corset covers and never take them off. — Nokomis Free Press-Gazette.

Concerning the Nightcap

1895

The nightcaps almost universally worn some 25 years ago are now quite as universally discarded. There is a diversity of opinion in regard to the wisdom of this change. While some doctors assert that there is much less baldness since they were abandoned, others declare, with equal fervor, that neuralgia and catarrh are much more common since the nightcap was banished from the wardrobe. — Philadelphia Press.


More of Both

Molly — Ned Croesus is a much better match than Charlie Bullion. His fortune is larger, and he has more intelligence.
Polly — You mean that he has not only more dollars, but more sense. — Reading (Pa.) Telegram.

Crash Kitchen Aprons

1895

An excellent use for crash is in making kitchen aprons. We somehow have the idea if an apron is for the kitchen it must necessarily be of either dark gingham or calico or something wholly unattractive. As a matter of fact, a neat person will not wear a kitchen apron after it is soiled, and dark material keeps clean no longer than light. It only conceals its unclean condition longer. There is no reason, then, why a kitchen apron should not be attractive as well as useful, and any one who has once used for this purpose a fine, pretty piece of delicately checked linen crash will scarcely want to return to the ugly, dark aprons of former days. — Demorest's Magazine.


Those Who Live In Cottages

A boy, reading the verse, "And those who live in cottages are happier than those who sit on thrones," startled the crowd by reading thus, "And those who live in cottages are happier than these who sit on thorns."

Her Heroism Defies Skirts

1916

Woman, Fully Dressed, Saves Girl From Drowning.

TRENTON, N. J. — Without stopping to take off her skirt, Mrs. Sadie Carr of Brookville leaped into the Delaware River and saved a 19-year-old girl.

A Y.W.C.A. party is camping at Brookville and several members went swimming. Miss Jeannette Paul, a stenographer, became frightened when she found herself far from shore, and screamed. So did the other girls.

Mrs. Carr, who lives in a bungalow near by, ran out and saw the girl. Without a moment's hesitation she plunged in and brought Miss Paul to shore. Stimulants were given the girl, and she was soon able to return to camp with her friends.

—The Saturday Blade, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 3.

Uses Flag for Coat Lining

1916

"Prettiest Thing I Could Find," Tailor Told Court.

BOSTON, Massachusetts — Pankus Brown, a tailor and a United States citizen for several years, admires the flag so much, he told the South Boston district court, that when he wanted to make a fur coat especially attractive he caused his assistant to use a silk flag for lining.

"I meant no insult to the flag," Brown pleaded, when charged with misuse of the national emblem. "I wanted to make the coat look nice and I used the prettiest thing I could find. That flag cost me a lot of money."

The court ordered him fined $50.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 11.

First to Wear a Gainsborough

First to Wear a Gainsborough

1901

The great wheel shaped hat with plumes that during the travels of the celebrated picture which has just been recovered has been generally known as a Gainsborough or a Duchess of Devonshire was never associated in the last century either with the artist or the duchess. It was invented by Mlle. Bertin, the celebrated mantua maker to Marie Antoinette. The queen did not think it became her, but it took the fancy of the pretty and unfortunate Princess de Lamballe, who made the hat popular, and it was known in London and Paris as the Lamballe.

In The Ladies' Magazine for 1785 there is a description of this hat, in which the author described it as "wide brimmed and made of black velvet, surmounted with bunches of ostrich feathers. It is much patronized by the Princess de Lamballe, the Duchess de Polignao and Mme. de Vigier Lebrun." Mme. Lebrun is represented as wearing one of these hats in one of her most popular portraits. — Pall Mall Gazette.

The Evolution of the Pocket

1901

The ancient wore a single pouch at his belt. The modern has — how many pockets in an ordinary costume for outdoors? Let us count them: In the trousers five, in the waistcoat five, in the jacket five, in the overcoat five, making 20 in all, a full score of little pokes or bags, and arranged so conveniently that they are scarce noticed.

Truly this is an evolution: How long may it be before we have pockets in our hatbands — where the Irishman carries his pipe, the American soldier his toothbrush and internally the pettifogger his legal papers, the papers that his predecessors in England thrust into the typical "green bag?" How long before there may be pockets in our gloves — for there are, I believe, patents covering this invention — and in our shoes? The cane also, with its screw top, begins to be a useful receptacle.

Two centuries from now, so the man with a long foresight can clearly see, the main idea underlying the wearing of clothes will have entirely changed. The chief purpose of garments will no longer be considered to protect the body. They will be regarded first of all as textile foundations for innumerable pockets. — Tudor Jenks in Woman's Home Companion.

The Court Needed Posting

1901

A trial was progressing at the City Hall police court when the judge espied in a group of young girls mingling in the large audience a delinquent witness whom it was urgent he interview.

"Mr. Marshall," his honor exclaimed, "have that young lady step here."

"Which young lady, your honor?"

"I don't know her name — the one with the light straw hat and dark skirt," the court added. The clew was insufficient.

"What kind of waist?" inquired the marshal.

"Ruffle on the sleeves and trimmed with — er — the usual sort of what d'you call em," said the court.

"I understand. You mean leg of mutton sleeves, with — er — what's his name attachments," replied the marshal in faint hope of striking the technical term.

"No, not exactly," said the judge.

"Would you recognize an empire gown if you saw one. Mr. Marshal?"

"Upon oath, no; I wouldn't swear to it."

"Well, I know it wasn't an empire gown or a Mother Hubbard. I don't think you understand much about female apparel."

But here the young lady generously stepped forward, while a little boy laughed, and the marshal threatened to send him to the penitentiary for life. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Keep Your Shoes "New"

1902

Some people always buy the most expensive footwear, and always manage to look ill shod. Others haunt bargain counters and wear unpretentious shoemaker's shoes, and somehow the boot toe peeping from beneath their skirt is always of the neatest.

All boots, shoes and slippers intended for ordinary wear should be kept on their tree when not in use, and whenever the walking boots get damp, they must be rubbed with vaseline as soon as they are taken off, first, however, removing the mud and afterward padding them with soft linen rags or paper. This will preserve their shape and prevent shrinkage. Shoe polish should be used sparingly, and only after the dust has been wiped off, for more shoes are destroyed by the reckless use of polish than is generally supposed.

The Funny Side of Life

1902

Point of View

When a fellow has spent
His last red cent,
The world looks blue — you bet!
But — give him a dollar
And you'll hear him holler:
"There's life in the old land yet!"

— Atlanta Constitution.


Precious

Mrs. Knicker — "Mrs. Smith seems very proud of her diamonds."
Mrs. Bockor — "Yes, she refers to them as her white coals." — New York Sun.


Worth While

She — "I should like to know what good your college education did you?"
He — "Well, it taught, me to owe a lot of money without being annoyed by it." — Life.


The Influence

Jerry — "How do good clothes make a man a gentleman?"
Joe — "They make him feel as if he was expected to act like one." — Detroit Free Press.

Peeps at Queen Victoria's Wardrobe

1901

The sorting and arranging of the personal effects of the late queen has proved a tremendous task. One peculiarity of her majesty was never to discard any dress, mantle, hat or bonnet which she had ever worn, and her wardrobe might well be considered the most complete record of the fashion of the last 60 years in existence.

Another fancy of Queen Victoria was to have everything in duplicate. Two hats, two cloaks, etc., were always ordered. Her majesty had a wonderful collection of lace, but this is not to be compared with the collection of the queen dowager of Italy, said to be the best in the world.

The queen's linen, beyond being exquisitely fine, had nothing remarkable about it, as her majesty always adhered to the patterns in fashion in her youth and cared nothing for the intricacies of modern lingerie. — London Sketch.

Clothing Makes the Man

1905

Historical Personages Stripped of Accustomed Raiment Seem Unreal

A meeting of the Custom Cutters' Association of America was held in Philadelphia the other day. J. O. Madison of New York, in explaining the part that clothes play in making the man, said:

"An undraped Caesar never could have quelled rebellion with a speech, nor could, undressed, our great Washington have awed his friends with his impressive dignity. What do we know of Moses, not knowing how he was dressed? And how much greater would our interest be in Aristotle if we knew the kind of clothes he was in the habit of wearing?

"What do we know of Nero or of Judas, ignorant, as we are, of what their clothes were like? And if we knew how St Patrick clothed himself how much more feelingly would the Christian world do reverence to his memory. We know that Adam wore a fig leaf, and he seems, because of this historic fact, more real than if we knew him only as the man whose appetite for apples made tailoring necessary."

Joke Is Played on Peddler

1915

Victim Makes Queer Discovery Next Morning

A peddler arrived one evening at a small town and went to the only hotel there. Every room had already been engaged, but the hotel-keeper offered him a room which he could share with a negro. The peddler agreed, and asked to be awakened early the next morning.

Several jokers overheard the proceedings, and while the peddler slept blackened his face.

The next morning, being in a hurry to catch a train he made straight for the station when he was awakened. While passing the mirror in the waiting-room he stopped suddenly and exclaimed: "Hang it all! They've called the wrong guy!"


True to the Last

"Yes," said the traveler, "my wife's mother was the most admirable housekeeper that ever lived. Poor soul, she was eaten by cannibals in Africa."
"You don't mean it!"
"Alas! it's true. Why, when the savages had thrust her into the cauldron and she was beginning to cook, she cried out faintly with her last breath, 'Don't forget the salt and pepper.'"


Can't Look the Part Now

"John, dear," said his wife, "there was a poor man here today asking for old clothes and I gave him that shabby old overcoat of yours that was hanging in the attic. You didn't want it, did you?"
"Of course I wanted it!" exclaimed John wrathfully. "That's the one I always wear when I swear off my taxes."


About Five

[From the Pea Ridge (Ark.) Pod]

Mr. French who lived one mile south of town died Tuesday, of last week, and was buried at Siloam Springs, Wednesday. He leaves a wife and about five children to mourn his death.


Detects Smokeless Powder

United States naval officers have developed a colored glass which renders visible the fumes from smokeless powder.

U.S. Army Blankets Adorn French Girls

1920

Have Been Made Into Cloaks Since Doughboys Had Them

PARIS, France, Feb. 26. — How the humble Army blanket, protection of the grumbling doughboy, has increased in value from 12 francs to 200 francs, and come to be apparel of French beauty along the boulevards, has been brought to light in Paris.

At a sale of Army stocks, a French grocer bought 2,000 American Army blankets for 12 francs each. He sold them for 11 and 20 francs each to a clothing manufacturer.

The clothing manufacturer made them up into women's cloaks and sold them at 70 francs each to a department store, which retailed them at 180 and 200 francs each.

Voila, la vie chere!


Woman, 102, Walks Miles to Hospital

NEW YORK, N.Y., Feb. 26. — Despite her 102 years Mrs. Fannie Cohen traveled alone and unassisted from her home to Bellevue Hospital, where she sought admission. She is suffering from ailments due to old age. Her home is several miles from the hospital.


Wants Husband Declared Dead

PORT HURON, Michigan, Feb. 26. — Mrs. Alice Reo has brought suit in Circuit Court to have her husband, Capt. Joseph Reo, declared legally dead. Captain Reo was in command of the Government survey boat Surveyor, and last was heard from May 25, 1910, when he left the boat at Cleveland. Mrs. Reo wants to acquire property held by herself and her husband.


Baby Adds Fifth Generation

Kansas Child's Great-great-grandmother Is Still Living

HARTFORD, Kansas, Feb. 26. — A son was born a few days ago to Mr. and Mrs. James Hartenblower of Eureka, Kan. This baby has two grandfathers, one grandmother, two great-grandfathers, two great-grandmothers and one great-great-grandmother.

The great-great-grandmother is Mrs. Mary Ann Rhoads, of Topeka.

Vacant Farm Houses

1920

It is reported that more than 24,000 farm dwellings are without occupants in the State of New York alone. This is based on a careful survey. At the same time, not a city in New York but is confronted by a housing problem that can only be solved by a tremendous building campaign. In this condition may be noted one of the serious phases of our national problem. "How are you going to keep them down on the farm?"

That bright lights attract the youth is admitted. This is not all the story, but it is a considerable part of it, asserts the Omaha Bee. Boys and girls weary of the monotonous round of life on the farms and flit to the city. There they soon find themselves so immersed in the struggle for existence that they have little time to think of the farm. When the novelty of the city life has worn off, the ugly fact sticks out that underneath all its attractions is the specter of want, that its glittering exterior hides moral and material ugliness of a kind that is unknown to the country.


Old Clothes

Tailors say that they are doing quite as much business in making over old garments as in making new ones, says the Des Moines Register.

"I have a patron who wouldn't have appeared on the street three years ago in a suit that had a patch the size of a pea on the inside of the coat sleeve," says a local tailor. "Now he brings me his clothes to mend as long as they will stay together. He is reputed to be well to do, and I know that he lives on a fairly lavish scale, so I figure that it's a matter of principle with him. He doesn't want to buy while prices are where they are."

"Old clothes, old rags, old bottles." H.C.L. has disposed of the first part of the ragman's cry, and prohibition of the last. The old clothes man is passing out.

Eccentricities of Maiden Ladies Amused Eastern Town

1896

A Pair of Twins

The curious streak of obstinacy which crops out in many New England families, especially in small places, where the range of ideas and occupations is small, has been brought into prominence through the tales of a gifted group of story writers, notably by Miss Mary E. Wilkins. People living in other parts of the country often think her stories must be exaggerations, but dwellers in New England towns can parallel most of them from their own knowledge.

In one Massachusetts village there dwelt not many years ago two maiden ladies, called, though they were over forty years of age, "the Hatfield girls." Beside this youthful appellation, they retained a youthful taste for gay colors. As they were twins, very tall, very lean, always wearing skirts conspicuously short to avoid dust, and hat brims unusually wide to avoid injuring their eyes, they would have been rather remarkable figures even if they had not chosen to dress, school girl fashion, in clothes exactly alike to the slightest detail.

They were always together, and it was one of the characteristic sights of the village to see the Hatfield girls plodding through the snow to the postoffice in their green-and-red plaid gowns, black-braided coats and big, brown, fuzzy felt hats with great pea-green bows. Their muffs, mittens, tippets, wristers, barege veils, even their rubber boots, were duplicates of each other. In fact the sisters were as absolutely alike as the twin paper dolls which little girls cut from a piece of paper folded double.

In summer it was the same. They floated by to church in duplicate blue muslins, or watered their flower beds in the early morning in indistinguishable hideous purple wrappers.

Suddenly, the village was stirred by an exciting event: the Hatfield girls had quarreled! They quarreled because Mary Abby, who overheard a small boy making jokes at their expense, suggested to Ann Eliza that perhaps it would be as well if henceforth they dressed just a little differently. Ann Eliza received the suggestion as the cruelest of insults; but she said hotly that, after that, she wouldn't for a kingdom wear a dress off the same piece as Mary Abby's.

Sure enough, the sisters ceased to dress alike. Furthermore, they did not dress harmoniously. They were together as much as ever — but if Mary Abby wore pink, Ann Eliza had on scarlet; if she wore green. Ann Eliza wore blue; if it were yellow, she decked herself in magenta; if it were brown or gray, she tried to get a shade of the same color that would make her sister's appear dingy and faded.

It was a war of colors waged furiously for a week, bitterly for a month, spitefully for a year; then perseveringly, resolutely, obstinately, for one — two — three — four — five years; from five to ten; ten to twelve; twelve to thirteen.

Neither sister would give in, for after a brief exhibition of colors Mary Abby had tried to fight her offended twin with her own weapons, and to array herself in hues too violent to be overwhelmed. They were as gay as parakeets, the two poor bitter old twins, and the interested village had quite given up expectation of a change, when at length a change came.

One morning the "Hatfield girls," side by side, and dressed in new and glossy black, entered the postoffice amid a crowd of staring villagers, and called for their mail. They were in mourning evidently — but nobody could think who had died. At length the postmistress ventured, to inquire.

"Yes," said Ann Eliza, soberly, smoothing down her new cape, "we are in mourning. It wa'n't strictly necessary, I presume, but we thought it best. It's Cousin John's wife out in Montana. We've never seen her but we hear she was a very worthy woman, and a credit to the family."

And whether or not the Hatfield girls mourned deeply for the unknown wife of Cousin John, it is certain that for the remaining years of their lives their clothes were black, and were cut alike, and the village guessed that they had found a way to end their warfare, without acknowledging surrender, or proclaiming peace.

Funnygraphs — "He Fell Unconscientious"

1900

McAisy — I do be seein' that Misther Hardin' has quit findin' out things. O'Deer — But whin did he ever begin?

It was the colored pugilist who said: "It on'y lasted one roun'. I landed on he chin and he fell unconscientious."

"What's the difference between wrath and a woman who wants you to subscribe for something?" "I dunno." "A soft answer turneth away wrath."

"Would you call a cat herbivorous, carnivorous or ominvorous?" asked the man who is learned, but tedious. "Neither," answered the man who yawns; "merely vociferous."

"You've got your linen suit on a trifle early, Hopkins," "Yes; but my folks are interested in a rummage sale; and when I carry my clothes around with me I know where they are."

A man smoking a cigarette boarded a Union traction car, and a woman handed him an anti-cigarette tract. "Thank you, ma'am," said he. "I'll take it home to my son." — Muncie Star.

He — A live donkey, you know, is better than a dead lion. She — Yes. He — Why are you looking around in that way? She — I'm looking for the dead lion that made the comparison pop into your mind.

Thompson — Jones was around early this morning to borrow my snow shovel. Robinson — Great Scott! What does he want with it this time of the year? Thompson — He doesn't want to use it now. Brown borrowed it last fall, and Jones didn't get a shot at it the whole winter, and he is determined Brown should not get ahead of him this year.

Neatness More Desirable Than Beauty

1908

Writer Makes Good Argument In Favor of Neatness

We all long for beauty, but there is within the grasp of all women something even more desirable than beauty — namely, exquisite neatness.

The writer has descanted on the desirability of neatness more than once, but it is something that will bear to be talked about more than once, or twice, or even a dozen times. "Faith," says Pat, when reproved for lying, "Oi have such a respect for Truth, Oi wud not be dhragging her out on every occashun." The writer differs in this respect from Pat. She has such a respect for neatness that she would be dragging her out on every occasion.

A man who had traveled much and seen many women in many countries, said the other day, "I prefer neatness to beauty. Beauty does not last, while the woman of 80 can still be charmingly neat." By neatness he meant more than simple tidiness. It included style and care and taste and the indefinable art of putting on one's clothes properly.

It is a faculty, alas, that Canadian women do not possess to any extent, says a writer in the Montreal Herald. They doubtless inherit the lack of it from their English ancestors, who are noticeably untidy. The mass of Englishwoman do not seem to know the meaning of the word. Their skirts and belts always separate at the back. Their hair is never beautifully coiffed like the Frenchwoman's, their whole aspect is frowsy to an extreme. Of course, this does not apply to all Englishwomen. There are exceptions to every rule.

On the other hand, the Americans are neat, and hence smart, for it is impossible to be smart without perfect neatness. They have a trim, trig way of wearing their clothes that gives a style to the cheapest ready-made. If you cannot be beautiful you can at least be charmingly neat. And neatness has an attractiveness that mere beauty lacks.

A Sailor and a Chow Dog

Printed Jan. 1908

At the hour when women were making afternoon calls one day last week a man attired in the uniform of a sailor in the navy attracted a good deal of attention in West Fifty-fourth street, New York, by something he carried under his right arm, a something that looked at first like a white bundle, but which, on closer inspection, proved to be a Chinese chow dog that the sailor was trying to sell.

The little animal was unusual enough in itself to catch the eyes of the women who stopped to speak to the sailor about it. But more unusual than that was the way in which the tiny pet was clothed as protection against the cold. He not only wore a coat with "sleeves" for his front and hind legs, but he also had his furry head covered with a veritable baby's hood, with a ruffle around the front of it, the cap being tied under his neck with red ribbons.

The "costume" attracted quite as much notice as the chow dog did so long as its owner remained in sight on the block.


Seeking Experience

Up to the age of 16 Dick had retained the proper scorn of things feminine. Then he went to dancing school and fell smitten by the charms of several youthful Eves. Accordingly, Dick approached his father and requested theater tickets for two.
Father complied and merely asked as he turned over the seats, "Which girl is it?"
"I'm going to take Mabel," responded Dick.
"Then she's the one you like best?" father continued.
Dick turned a superior and pitying eye upon his parent. "Oh, no! I don't like her best. You don't understand the situation, father. It isn't the girl I care about. It's the experience I want."