What Women Wear

From the Hearth and Homo. We eau neither ignore it nor dispute it. ' A woman's dress {estifies in a subtle but significant way to a woman's qualities of character. Her true mission is to adorn life, to lift it up from dull uses to lovelier ideáis, and to make everything about her fairer, sunnier, and sweeter than it could be without her graceful touch and gentle presenoe. She cannot always work out her mission. Circumstances may hem her in, hard tacts may crush her, wearisome work may redden her hands and wrinkle her brow, and age her before her time. She may have no heart for the beauty of living, because she has space nor place for its enjoyment. Yet not the less is it her right to adorn as it is man's right to build. Because of her spiritual fitness for adding the finishing touches to all good work in the world, she has a right to all the finishing touches of grace in her own person and estáte. Whateveris elegant in form, harïnonious in material, poeticalin itsblending of colors, and artistic in its design, is probably combined in the dress of a well dressed woinan. To go into one of the great shops in auy of the larger cities during the business hours of any day at this season, is to see nunibers of women intent upon buying their clothes. Counters are heaped with fabrics of rare cost and every color imaginable. Patiënt salesmen spend their days in taking down and putting up goods, in rolling and unrolling, holding this pieco at arms length to display its richness, and descanting upon the cheapness of that, while ladies with all the world to choose from, choose often, if one may judge froiu results, very unwisely. Good taste is not sold over the counter at so niuch a yard, and style is not among the commodities which are exchanged for value received. There are two or three rules, however, which if ladies would observe would help almoet every one to be beautiful. Thackeray says somewhere that " every woman, without an absolute hump, may niarry whoin she pleases." Now from this opinión we beg leave to dissent, though we do not underrate its compliment to the sex, and we would like to formúlate it rather in this way : " Any woman whatever may be her defects, may be as beautiful as she pleases." It is only a question of taking trouble and exercising thought. The first and most indispensable ossential to grace of toilet is purity. Soiled thiugs, however rioh, are never beautiful. A clean sixpenny calicó is far more beautiful, because far more womanly, than a soiled and spotted silk. Of all abominations, a good gown which has fallen from its high estáte of drawing-room and carriage wear, to the lowlier uses of the kitohen and the '-arden, is the worst. The traditions of its former splendor hang around it like sad reminiscenoes. lts frayed fringes, faded breadths, and patches of grease insult those who see as much as they detract from the appearance of its we.irer. Anything about a gentlewoman that is not faultlessly clean, proclaims by its prosence her lack of true gentility. 80 the mother with her babies clinging to her, the teaclrer in her school-room, and the seamstress, with her sewing, each needs something to wear that eau easily be freshened and renewed by washing. After cleanliness, the next essential is that things should suit each other. Point lace is not appropriate over muslin-delaine, nor velvet over calicó. Cheap finery is always dreadf ui. We say it in the face of all the dressmakers and half the dress-wearers in the land, that beads and bugles are only fit for Indian squaws or African belles Beaded sacques, beaded pockets, and beaded parasols are all of them barbarie in their tinsel and glitter. The last thing is that dress shall suit your station in life and your means. There is no wisdom in violating this, no houesty, no respectability, and therefore no beauty. A self-respecting woman will not be temptpd into extravagauce in dress, nor will she cheat herself wich the notion that unpaid for magnificence has any inherent beauty: