The Man-Milliner of Paris.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 2, Issue 79, 16 May 1871, Page 7

The Man-Milliner of Paris.

Among the vanquished glories of the Empire must be ranked the great manmilliner, Mr Worth, who ruled with an iron sway over the fair ladies of the Court and exacted an implicit, and even servile' obedience. Strange to say, while Paris boasted of leading the fashions of the civilised world, this autocrat of the toilet was an Englishman, though his countrymen will not feel much honoured by his elevation. He gave himself all the airs of a distinguished artist, and treated the suppliants for his favours with an impertinence which they certainly deserved for their folly. He refused any longer to dress the wife of an important Court dignitary who had offended him-. She wept and pleaded in vain, but at last he relented on condition, however, that she should wear her dress for the first time in his shop ! He would lean back in his chair before the fire, and call up the ladies, one by one, to be criticised. " Why do you wear those ugly gloves?" he asked one; "never let me see you in such a colour again." The great ladies of the Empire would take tea with the man-mil'iner, and rival each other in their eagerness to fill his cup. Before a great Court Ball, they would kheel to him in their anxiety to be made beautiful. The Empress once told him that she would leave him, if he did not abate his prices. " You caimot!" he defiantly replied, and she did not. His prices! were ruinous, but were willingly paid, and the glory of the English man-milliner did not wane until the Prussians were on the road to Paris.