GOSSIP FOR THE LADIES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3006, 12 February 1881, Page 5 (Supplement)

GOSSIP FOR THE LADIES.

A writer in the London World, in an article denouncing the monstrosities of modern fashion, says : —" A well authenticated case, is on record of a mother who, being dissatisfied with the size of her daughter's waist, at that time aged twelve, persuaded her, nothing loth, to wear perpetually a pair of stays fashioned like a cuirass, but with a padlock always fastened, of which the mother kept the key.''

Mr Meilhac has written a history of female costume, beginning with an antediluvian epoch. At least he accords to Madame Cain, or one of the ladies of that uncomfortable period, the first conception of personal adornment. Instead of accepting any covering in the way of skins that fell in her way, she hesitated and made a fastidious choice of the most beautiful. Then she smoothed her flowing locks, and wreathed them with the wild flowers nearest at hand, or by some ingenious method attached pebbles in the form of a primitive necklace. Then, says the sagacious historian, she watched the effect on her ferocious companions of the opposite sex. This instinctive coquetry is supposed to have inaugurated the reign of fashion —for men, it seems, have never been so brutal as to be insensible to the conscientious efforts made for their subjugation.

It is no longer considered indispensable at a nuptial ceremony that the bride's mother should be clad in a dress of sombre gi'ey. This dreary tradition is passing away, leaving the greatest latitude to mammas in the choice of colors, although for the moment white satin seems to be de riguer where brides are concerned. At the recent wedding of a celebrated blonde beauty in Paris, the wedding dress of satin was ornamented with long wreaths of orange flowers. A tulle veil enveloped the whole figure ancl extended to the end of the traiu. i he bride's mother was in black satin trimmed with gold lace, with a bonnet of the same material embroidered in gold and decorated with gold-colored feathers. Rumor, which is, of course, the baseless fabric of a vision, makes strange assertions in regard to the bride before the last quarter of the honeymoon had ceased to shed its beneficent rays on the routine of matrimony. * The blonde beauty is wandering through densely-wooded paths, fragrant with verdure and summer flowers. The costume is charming, consisting of a blue cloth dress, admirably moulded to her supple form ; a toque hat encircled by a piece of dull red cashmere, fastened at the back by a gold pin representing a fork ; straight linen collar and black silk cravat, tied with a largo bow, and shoes extremely pointed, with white gaiters. Her husband gazes into her limpid eyes with the fond regard of deep, abiding love. " Tell me," he says, "that you have no regrets for your past experience as an unmarried gill." " I never think of it, love," replied the bride, with a gush of tenderness ; " so great is my happiness that, were you to die, I should marry at once!" This sad story has not prevented an opulent financier from prostrating himself at the feet of a charming woman who lived at Dinard. He literally strewed her path with flowers. She crushed with cruel indifferonoo ..__.<>. her elastic tread. But this pastoral lavishness was too simple for a banker of the nineteenth century. The very earth should be changed into gold, that the footstool of his adored should be of priceless value. He went to Paris and took from his cashier one hundred thousand francs in louis dor, securely stowed away in bags. Returning to Dinard, lie cast himself ancl his bags of gold at the feet of this divinity. " What are those bags ?" she asked, with becoming prudence. Without further reply, the banker pierced one of the bags with his knife, and a flood of yellow gold rolled out before her dazzled vision. When every vestige of carpet had vanished under these wonderful paving stones, the object of this Arabian Night's Entertainment removed her shoes and stockings, and walked for a moment barefoot through the room, then stopped an instant as if in pain. " What is it, my beloved ?" asked the banker. "The gold hurts my feet," she replied; "I must pick it up or put on my stockings." She picked it up, and the banker's love grew more and more frenzied every day from that moment. A couple of weeks ago a little woman and two children made their appearance at the Grand Central, in Tahoe City, Lake Bigler. The woman was plainly dressed, and so were both of the children. They were not taken much notice of, and no one cared to make the acquaintance of the modest little lady in plain clothes. Then the woman, who saw herself snubbed every day, got her dander up, and sent down to San Krancisco for the balance of her clothes, and likewise the childrens'. They came. JS ext morning she appeared at the breakfast table with a toilet from Worth, and her diamonds dazzled everybody. "Oh, good morning, Mrs Smith," came from all sides. But this was only the beginning of the toilet boom. At lunch she wa3 simply magnificent, and at dinner overpowering. She had nine Saratoga trunks to draw from, and her little daughter's evening dress created a regular furore. Now came her turn to put on airs. She simply treated everybody with the coolest kind of politeness. Of course, she was civil, but didn't overdo cordiality to any extent. After overwhelming the place a few days with an avalanche of style, she packed her dresses, sent them back to San Francisco, and resumed her £5 suit.