FASHIONS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5167, 13 October 1877, Page 3

FASHIONS.

Moonlight blue is the new shade for summer dresses. This will be a favorite with sentimental damsels.

Another new shade of green is called seul or willow green. A new shade of red is known as " caroubise."

Parisian women are wearing their evening dresses very short in front, and with a long comet-trail train.

Embroideries in colored silks, cheni lie, beads and fine wools are made to produce magical effects in dress.

The new beads of Venetian glass are worn as headings to fringes and galloons. The effect ib novel and beautiful. The sleeves of new dresses fit tighter than ever. To laugh in one's sleeve has now become purely metaphorical. The tenacity with which navy blue continues its hold on public favor is shown by the fresh importations in calicoes and percales iu that soft foulard finish which is in itself a new charm. These will be worn in early spring and during the summer for morning suits, and when made up over plain blue foulard cambric resemble the woollen so much worn during the winter. Rifle-green and seal-brown are added to the navy-blue tints, and in all the lighter shades the soft-finished cambric comes in endless variety, reproducing all the effects in other materials, only their lightness and freshness make them resemble the exquisite foulards which one finds only abroad. Nothing seems more rare than to find a person who understands the philosophy of sweeping properly. Almost every one on beginning to sweep opens dows and windows with the avowed object of " letting the dust blow out." Of course, some dust blows -out, but at the same time more dirt is raised up in the air from the floor and carried into every crevice, hitherto clean perhaps.' That this is wrong all well-trained housekeepers know. The air should be kept as still as possible, and the broom moved near the floor with a light brushing motion until all the dirt is collected and carried away. Then open doors and -windows as much as you please to let the dust blow out. Houses swept in this manner have always a more tidy appearance than others, the carpets are not.prematurely worn out, and everything filled with dust that belongs to the dust-pan. The moment the girl has a secret from her mother, or has received a letter she dare not let her mother read, or has a friend of whom her mother does not know, she is in certain danger. A secret is not a good thing for a girl to have. The fewer secrets that lie in the hearts of women the better. It is almost a test of purity. She who has none of her own is the best and happiest. In girlhood, hide nothing from your mother ; do nothing that, if discovered by your father, would make you blush.

An amiable and witty countess, Bonnpartist by conviction, made a proposition the other day intended to relieve the (Jovernment of the cruel pressure it ia likely shortly to experience. " Don't dissolve the Chamber," said she ; "divide it. Then the Kepublicans can sit on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and the Monarchists on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays." " But, interposed a friend, " whatever the Assembly did one day the Assembly of the next day would hasten to undo. It would be like Penelope's tapestry." "Precisely," said the lady ; " and while things were being spun and undone why—Ulysses might arrive !"