OVER THE BANNISTERS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1313, 16 December 1911, Page 10

OVER THE BANNISTERS.

Prom timo to timo rumours spring np that tlio dreaded crinolico is to make it* roappoarnnco in tho world of fashion, and the hearts of women sink at tho thought, lu tliis connection, a correspondent o! an English paper, who must have been a child thirty, years ago or more, and was brought up on bound volumes of "Punch," writer that tho picture which exorcised the greatest fascination on her was that of tho dinnor party where tho gentlemen arc taking tho ladies down* stairs, gentlemen outsido tho bannisters, Indies inside, hands linked ov<ir bannisters. Tho whole breadth of stair is taken up by the undulating crinolince of tho "lair women," while the narrow, ledge of stair beyond the bannisters, is cleverly balanced upon by the slcndor patent leather .slices ot (.lie "brave men." It becaino quite crediblo when one grew old enough to bo allowed to watch "nmmnin" dross for n party in tho royal blue silk ornamented with Malteso lace and pill: fringe, beady buttons, and a huge cameo brooch, It took ouo more step, to walk ftdmirimrljr 1 round her than it did in lior ovory-nipht black moire undor an evory-<iay crinoline of moro practical dimension!!, Does not tho fashion of saying "mother" instead of "mamma," adds the correspondent, synchronic with the abandonment of crinolines and l&ppoty caps and "ba.ndolined" hair and oihor fashions which put a distance and different (physically and morally) between tho mother and ikwfhtw, whai.wvor thoir opes, in tlins® Micl-Victorian days? By tho by, narrowisii skirts in those days were to bo wen in all well-regulated kitchens. I can recall that our cooks wore always engaged en the understanding that they only wor# their crinolines when they went "out." On one occasion n now cook refused to abide by this compact, and, after two days' wear in the kitchen of this dangerous accessory to her toilet, left at short notice.