What Women Wear

We can neither ignore it nor dispute it. A woman's drcss testifies in a subtle bui significant way to a woman's qualitics of charactcr. Her true mission is to adorn life, to lift it up ïroui dull uses to lovelior ideáis, and to inake every thing about her fairer, eunnier, and sweeter than it could be without her graoeful touch and gentle presence. She cannot always work out her mi98ion. Circumstances may hora her in, hard facts may crush hor, weirisome work may redden her hands and wrinkle her brovv, and age her bef'ore her time. She may have no heart for the beauty of living, because she has neither spaco nor place tor its enjoynient. Yet not the less is it her rigbt to adorn as it is rnan's right to build. Because of her spiritual fitness for adding the finishing touchos to all good working in the world, she has a right to all tbe finisbiug touches of grace in her own person and estáte. "Whatever is elegant in form, harmonious in material, poetical in its blending of colors, and artistic in its design, is probably combined in the dress of a woll dressed woman. To go into one of the great shops in any of the larger cities during the business hours of any day at this seasou, is to see numbers 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 piece at arma length to display its richness, and descanting upon the eheapness of that, while kidies with all the world to choose from, choose ofton, if one may judge from results, very unwisely. Good taste is not sold over the counter at so much a yard, and style is not among the commodities which are exchanged for value received. ïhero are two or three rules, however, which if ladies would observe would help almost every one to bo beautiful. Thackeray Bays somewherethat "every woman, without an absolute hump, may ruarry whom she pleases." Now from this opinión we beg leave to dissent, though we do not uuderrate its compliment to the sex, and we would like to formúlate it rather in this way: "Any woman, whatever iniy be her defects, may be as beautiful as she pleases." It is only a question of taking and exercising though t. The first and most indispensable essential to grace of toilet ír purity. Soiled things, however rich, are never beautiful. A clean sixpenny calicó is far more beautiful, because far more woinanly, than a anilfid and SDotted silk. Of all tions, a good gown which has fallen from its high estáte of drawing-room and carriage wear, to the lowlier use of the kitchen and the garden, is the worst. The traditions of its former splendor hang around it like sad reminiscences. lts frayed fringes, faded breadths, and patches of grease insult those who see as much as they detract from the appoarance of its wearer. Arything about a gentlewoman that is not faultlessly clean, proclaims by its presence her lack of true gentility. 80 the mother with her babies olinging to her, the teacher in herschoolroom, and the seamstress, with her sewing, each needs soruething to wear that can easily be freshened and renewed by washing. After cloanliness, the next essential is that things should suit eaoh othor. Point lace is not appropriate over muslindelaine, nor velvet over calicó. Ciieap finery is always dreadful. We say it in the face of all the dressmakers and half the dsess-wearers in the lands, that beads and bugles are only fit tbr Indian squaws or African belles. Beaded sacques, beaded pockets, and beaded parasols are all of thein barbarie in their tinsel and glitter. The last thing is that your dress shall suit your station in life and your ineans. There is no wisdom in violating this, no honesty, no respectability, and therefore no beauty. A selí-respectmg woruan will not be tompted into extravagance in dress, nor will she oheat herself with the notion that unpaid for magnificence has