LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 332, 6 July 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

JENKINS OVER THE WATER. ( Concluded.) 4 Young Ladies in their Homes ’ is a subject which one of the fashionable correspondents treats with charming sentiment; and he especially speaks of two delightful girls whom he knows, who are remarkable for the ease and grace with which they do the duties of hostess. Then follows a technical description of prevailing toilettes, including a remark upon the manner in which many of the elder girls have the bodies of their dresses cut—something below the shoulder-blades. This is an innovation, it seems, and the blame is laid upon Europe ! In a letter from Washington, describing the ‘ inauguration of the reception season,’ we arc told that ‘ the Washington girl has now her campaign mapped out clearly;’ and that ‘ she can open her week with the receptions of the ladies of the Supreme Court, the Navy Yard, and the Marine Barracks.” At the latter place 4 the chief attraction is Miss Zillen, eldest daughter of the commanding officer and sister to Mrs Robert Stockton, a stylish little lady, whose romantic runaway match was a nine-days’ wonder when it happened.’ Then we arc told that 4 among the cabinet receptions our young lady will find Mrs Fish’s the most stately, and Mrs Creswell’s the most lively;’ and of one of the hostesses, Mrs Belknap, it is said 4 Those who do not know her think her very handsome; those who do know her think that her greatest charm is her manner. ’ Mrs Williams, 4 the brilliant wife of the Attorney-General.” is described as 4 a good conversationalist and a great politician. ’ Other ladies of the Ministry are discussed with equal freedom, and it is remarked that a recent social decision has relieved them from the duty of returning calls, which saves them a great deal of trouble. The following is too good to be missed: — 4 Thursday is the day of the ladies of Senate, prominent among whom is the beautiful wife of senator Ames, who, as Blanche Butler, was as much loved as admired. We miss Mrs Sprague this winter. Will she not be here, I wonder? Not Mrs Ames’ beauty, nor Mrs Stockton’s style, nor Mrs Logan’s piquancy, nor Mrs Chandler’s elegance, can

supply the place of this beautiful woman, whom some happy correspondent once called the Eugenie of Washington, the standard of grace, loveliness, and fashion.’ Mrs Grant, we are informed, receives on Saturdays, and ‘ the President frequently appears before the afternoon is over.’ And in another letter the same writer says, ‘ Apart from all fulsome compliments or servile notice, there are few young ladies in Washington society more universally admired than the daughter of the President. Pretty—more with the prettiness and brightness of youth than with regular beauty—animated without loss of dignity, absolutely free from the assumptions which her position might make pardonable, simple and tasteful in her dress, this little Republican Princess has on her own merits a very enviable position in the society introduced to her this winter for the first time. ’ Some ladies, it appears, with curious taste, are not proud of these ‘ opinions of the press ’ on their behalf; but ‘ our own correspondent ’ seems quite unconscious of erring himself, and records a rebuff 1 received by a gentleman of the reporting persuasion with some satisfaction. At one of ‘ the Thursdays ’ of the wife of a popular senator, a gentleman walked into the parlour unannounced. The lady, who is remarkable for dignity, rose, and after bidding her visitor good afternoon, waited to hear what he had to say. ‘ Is not this Mrs ’s?’ said he. ‘lt is,’ replied the lady, ‘but yon have the advantage in knowing my name.’ ‘lam reporter for the ,’ said the gentleman; and as his hostess made no comment upon that, he added, ‘ This is my first winter at Washington,’ ‘ I hope you will enjoy it,’ she said, with chilling politeness, seeing that he expected some remark from her. Then there was a pause, *Do you go out a great deal ?’ asked the reporter. ‘No,’ answered Mrs , ‘I go into society very little, and as I have a great horror of appearing in the papers, I hope you will do me the favour to leave me unnoticed. ’ The same gentleman does not seem to have found much favor at some other houses; and one young lady, whose appearance he had described as ‘neat,’ was heard toremark that it would have been civil in bim to have said that she looked clean and respectable ! The writer who objects to the reporter goes into some interesting agonies about the injuries inflicted upon society through the unfortunate fact that Mrs Creswell’s ceilings have a habit of falling in, so that dancing is not safe in her mansion. Then he laments the absence of Mrs Bowers ; but notices as a compensation the return of Mrs Hallet Kilbourne, over whose costume of black velvet he goes into raptures. The simple fact with which he concludes speaks for itself: ‘ Her bonnet was black also.’ A ‘ Bachelor’s German ’ is a mystic object to the uninitiated. One thinks of the possible sausage of some lonely man who cannot get food cooked in his chambers. But a ‘ German ’ means a musical party in the German style, and appears to be a very popular form of entertainment. Special forms of entertainment, by-the-way, appear to be in great demand; and in some parts of the country—notably in Chicago—we hear of oyster suppers, for the benefit of chapels, and held in the chapels themselves. At some of the receptions at Washington, so far from the ladies not being able to move on account of their costumes, they actually dance, and that in their afternoon dresses. Balls, here, as elsewhere, are continual, and I suspect that there is more dancing in America than in any other country. In all the accounts the ladies’ dresses are described, not formally as in our Court papers, but in familiar style, with such additional comments as I have noted. One lady is described as wearing ‘a very dark purple costume, relieved by bands of gold-coloured satin, embroidered with black—a very beautiful dress, but too old for her fresh young face. ’ At one place we find a reference to Mrs Pettigru-King-Bowen and her husband —‘ she famous as Miss Pettigru for her beauty, and as Mrs Bowen borrowing notoriety from the bigamy case of her present husband, which attracted great attention at Washington.’ Speaking of powdered hair being trying to the complexion, it is satisfactory to find that ‘ Miss Miller can wear it without fear.’ At ‘the Illinois State Sociable,’ we are told of ‘a Baltimore girl,’ daughter of the ex-mayor of Chicago, attracting a great deal of attention, with the addition that ‘she is very beautiful and dresses most richly. She has also been a belle in Baltimore, and the history of her loves and lovers would form a first-class romance. ’ Apropos of powdered hair, it is notable that grey is coming into fashion—the effect being produced upon black or brown locks through exhausting the colour by well-known chemical processes. The desired effect is not simply blonde, according to the still modish mania in England, but real venerable grey, entitling the acquirer of course to respect and reference. The caprices of fashion, it is notable, find their way into the English papers only by degrees. Many social customs and habits prevalent among our own “Upper Ten Thousand’ are as strange to the mass of the people as those of some remote foreign country. Now and then somebody writes a new Book of Etiquette, which is sure to be full of glorious blunders, and sets those who aspire to follow its precepts most amusingly astray. A few novels now and then give a good idea of fashionable society ; but these scarcely impart useful information in distinct form ; so that the fashions of classes in this country in most respects, except dress, vary considerably. But in America every social change is chronicled in the journals as soon as it takes place, and everybody can follow who pleases. It is in this respect that I have referred to Transatlantic fashions as democratic. A few very supe b persons, for instance, adopt a new style of visiting card ; the correspondents at once note the fact, and the idea is at everybody’s disposal. Only the other day I saw it announced that invitation cards this season were being engraved in the handwriting of the in viters; so nobody need use the formal ‘ copperplate ’ style for want of knowing better. This I gather from the journals, so I suppose it is true. On the whole it cannot be said that Republican institutions, in the case of America, are productive of any social security. Pleasure appears to be a business with the mass of society, and fashion a despotism worthy of the dark ages—one of the signs being the wonderfully flourishing condition of the trade of Jenkins ism.