Ladies Column.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1815, 23 February 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Ladies Column.

At the famous ball given by the Prince and Princess o£ Wales at Marlborough House, Lady Archibald Campbell had the honor of introducing, for the first time in the royal presence, the divided 3kirt which has been advocated by the Viscountess Haberton during the last two or three years. The novelty created a keen interest among the gaests, and not a little admiration.

Women and girls " doing " the European resorts (says an American exchange) are seen with the Mother Hubbard cane, which they hold before them, leaning on it with both hands. These canes are often seen in London parks during the season, carried by elderly and young women, large bows of ribbon being tied near the top of the cane of the same color as the dress.

"Nobody appears to have noticed one effect of the electric light," says a New York journal ; " it is going to make brunettes fashionable again. The white glare is, in colour sense, death to the blonde. The pinkest of them take on little shadows under the eyes, and purple tints come into their lips, and tbeir cheeks get ashen. I am speaking now of a natural blonde. Tho effect upon the artificial bleacher is simply cadaverous. But the brunette sparkles under it like the evening star. What a dreadful state of existence the dear enamelled will lead when they can neither go out at day or night 1 I suppose you know that the hot sun heats the face of the enamelled women so hot as to blister the flesh underneath, which would split the artificial covering. If, then, the electric light shuts them in at night also, they might as well be enamelled through in the old Egyptian style, and put into a sarcophagus."

The gauntlet gloves are now very generally adopted as stylish adjuncts to all morning gowns. They can now be bought in all colors. The long silk gloves are also much used, and these are frequently died to match costumes especially designed for evening wear. For full dress occasions, many ultra-fashionables affect gants de Suede of preposterous length, producing a multiplicity of wrinkles, thus imitating a mode which found much favor in the days of our grandmothers. Apropos, it is said that gloves of this kind, now worn by Madame Sarah Bernhardt as Fedora, measure nearly five feet in length.

A hemvkkable toilei, seen at Saratoga recently, was composed wholly of the rarest duchesse lace, the entire dress being of that beautiful material, arranged in masses of feathery richness on a foundation of white silk. With it was carried a white parasol covered with the same lace ; mitts of duchesae only half concealed the ringed and gemmed fingers, and the tops, or "gaiters," of the bronze kid boots were also overlaid with the same lace. The graceful woman who made this remarkable exhibition of lace, wore neither hat nor bonnot on her dark hair, and if she was not a ravishing beauty, no one ever dreamed of saying nay, or disputing her belleship of the hour, at least. — The Argonaut.

The plainest girl look 3 her best in white, says the Boston Gazette. For once the majority makes a fashion, and leaves the exclusive few to follow in imitation. Now the season for white dresses is drawing to an end it is curious to note the number of conquests they have won for their wearers of all types and degrees of age and loveliness. If a girl has captured a fraction of that scarce commodity, the marriageable man, this summer, you may be certain it was her white dress that did it. Old stout Mrs. Homespun, sitting on the piazza, looks so fresh and wholesome in her white embroidered lawn that a man may be pardoned for believing she would make a desirable mother in-law. Even that little, dark-skinned, scrawny Miss Fauteuill is actually charming when she floats into the breakfast-room costumed in soft white flannel, that seems to bring out a deeper lustre in her pale eyes, and to round off the sharp outlines of protruding shoulderblades. Let these two specimens dress themselves in other stuff and colors, and nobody gives them a second glance. In white, a really pretty woman has it all her own way. She may look the pioture of morning crispness in immaculate cambric, or overwhelm society by her surrounding billows of costly lace, or dress herself in clinging nun's veiling simply fastened by streaming ribbons ; but, whatever the material or whatever its faihion the absence of color makes it becoming, and brings out the charms of contour and softens all those minute defects which lovely woman is heir to.

The following law continued in force on the English statute books until the year 1770, when it was repealed : " Whoever shall entice into matrimony any male subject of the realm by means of rouge, white paint, Spanish cotton, steel corsets, crinoline, highheeled shoes, or false hips, shall be prosecuted for witchcraft, and such marriage declared null and void," — Exchange.