Joined in the hurly-burly of the mighty WN a ———————————————— Art Le te a, Dewsalic Bellefonte, Pa., Dec. 8, 1893. — —_ pa——— MY SCHOOLMA’AM. Her face was dimpled, round and fair, Her eyes were brown and mild, And, when I saw her teaching there, I longed to be a child, But, when a youngste. failed to mind And thoroughly was sparked, That youthful days were far behind My lucky stars I thanked. She set. me in a lofty place, And handed me a book, Behind whose pages at her face I ventured oft to look, And, as her pupils spelled or read, I took a passing part, Permitting them to leave off head Tne while L.left off heart, Now, I'm a candidate, I feel A carious elation, A wondering 'twixt woe and weal O’er my examination. On passing it my heart is set, And haraly can I wait Till she and I together get A joint certificate. —R. L. Hendrick. PINKS AND WHITE VIOLETS. The prima-donna was nervous, and little wonder that she should be, To: night she was to appear for the first time before an audience ot her own countrymen. She had that same donbt of herself, that same d esire to run away and hide, that same dread of the rows and rows of faces and glaring opera-glasses, that she had felt two years before in Paris. Yet she knew hew it wonld be. After those first few steps before the dazzling foot lights, after that first half-hearted burst of welcoming applause, she would lisien to her own voice as if it belonged to someone else,’ until sud- dealy her heart would cease its fright- ened beating, and she would soar out on her.own singing with a wild exhil: aration, a sense of freedom and of power—the greatest joy that the mor- tal singer feels. And she would win them, win them 80 that when she came before the cur tain they would be her friends; her dear, dear friends. "What an intoxi- cating delight it brings—the clappirg of a thousand hands, the burrying of the ushers down the aisles with great bouquets and wreaths of costly flowers, tributes paid a queen; for they were not only her friends, were they not ber gubjects ? would she not move them all by one clear, liquid note? The prima-donna knew all this, and vet she was nervous, and her hand trembled a little as she clasped the jeweled brace let on her slender, blue-veined wrist; her hair was:loose and the coiffour was weaving in and out amongst the golden strands, a string of pearls, She smiled slightly at her reflection in the | the townsfolk on | bad said nothing, and at last stopped she had only worn those flowers! she thought, but then she did nut know— at least not until she had found that leiter, long, long afterwards, among her father’s papers. They had grown up together, althongh be was much older—five years oller—the owner ot the curling hair and honest, manly hand. The prima-donna had recalled the whole story, the whole scene, this af ternoon, and the square faded out of ber sight. Oace more she was in that town amongst the Berkshire hills. She was walking home with her silent, morose father, the organist. They had come from a rehearsal in the great ‘memorial church, and, as they passed their way beneath the elms, although she was sad and troubled, she nodded and smiled as they greeted her in kindly fashion, but her father did not lock up. People do not like a disappointed man, and he was one. Some said he had written an unsuccessful opera once, and then again, he drank. : He was a good, 2 brilliant organist, and the summer visitors wonld flock to | the graystoue church to hear the costly organ and thesinging of that tall slender girl in white ; ber voice, to cultured ears, meant promise of great things, how great they did not know. She remembered the day that Gerald was to come home ; somecne had told her, otherwise she would not have kuown, and yet she had leit as if her heart would break. Why had hestop ped writing to ber so suddenly, and why did he not avswer the two letters that she had sent him ? The first levier with a plavful reproach in it and piti- ful little excuses for his neglect; she “supposed he was eo busy he bad not time perhaps.” Then a letter that had a sob in it and a little blister where a tear had closed a sentence. She would not believe the things her father said of Gerald, and aiter he had opened his box at the post office—one ot those boxes that lock up with a snap and need a key to open them—she wound ask if there was anything for her, and when she received the graff, curt answer, “What do yoa expect?’ she asking, She would never forget the last Sunday she spent at Carrington, never. Ae she had opened the gate at the end of the ili kept path that led up to the dingy little house in which they lived, she noticed on the railing of the the picket fence a fresh-plucked bunch ot piaks and white violets, not very costly or very artistic in effect perhaps, but they were her tavoriie flowers ; one of the scholars in the Sabbath school had placed them there she thought, so she picked them up and walked with her silent father towards glass. The man was testing ing in the musie-toom. with the kettle-drums his pitch and stopping the vib- rations of the dram-heads with his ‘fingers. The horns and vicling were striking up litle unfinished rans and trills, Then the ropes creaked slight: ly on the bridge in the scene loft, The prima-donna smiled and said that it was like a wedding or an execution. All day long she bad been thinking of hersell ; not as prima-donnas gener- ally do, but of herself asshe had been, as she might have been. It was all so strange. [Eight years ago she wus a shy little girl of seventeen in a half village town that straggled along the Housatonic. How well she remem bered it. The great elms that hung and drooped over the sidewalks, the great covered wooden bridge over the river—she remembered how it rambled like thunder, when the heavy teams from the quarry crossed it. She long- ed so much to see it all again. When the prima donna was in a re- flective mood she always did one thing. She would open her little trav- eling desk anditake out a photograph and a well-worn, much-read letter. To-day, after her short morning re- hearsal at the empty opera house, she had returned to her apartments at the great white hotel fronting the square, and opened the desk with a tiny silver: key. She koew that letter line for line, and word for ward, and how well she knew that badly printed photograph ! She placed them both on the window- sill and gazed out .ofithe window. There is no epotin New York that reminds one s0 much of Paris, or of the other continent at least, as this same square she gaged upon. [t was a beautiful day, with a crisp freshness in the air, and yet quite warm. In the park opposite, with its network of asphalt walks wandering through the still green turf, the spar- rows twittered cheerfully in the bare itrees. Some children were playing ‘merrily about the empty fountain ‘basin, and a gray-eoated policeman was talking to a Freneh nurse maid, with long streamers of ribbon hanging from her cap. Brilliant equipages flashed up and down the avenue or business thoroughfare, where crossed at the corner. The prima.donna noticed all thie, -and more too; she noticed that every- body seemed to be in a hurry, almost on the point of runing ; that the cab- bies, lined up along the curb, talked good-naturedly together, and she could just seethe edge ot a large poster, an nouncing that she was to appear that night as Lucia. 7 : Eight years ago she had left that lit- tle town on the Housatonic with her father, to study music under the beat masters of Europe. Eight years ago! ‘What an eventful stretch of time, and yet how short it seemed! Her father was dead, had drank him. self to death. Tle never cared for her; she knew that well enough now. He had cared only for her voice and what it could bring him—money. She picked up the letter and the they i Down below, the or=hestra was tun- | avd her heart was beating just as fast. ‘the church. The chimes were ringing, ,Stie was to sing that morning, and the ‘rich city people from the hotels at Bioneridge aud South Edgemont and the many country places round about were driving into town in T carts with jangling chains and bright yellow buckboards. The gray-stone church, the gift of a rich widow to her hus band’s memory—she had married again was near neighbor to a staid wizite meeting-house with green blinds and a badly-shingled, uncertain-look: ing steeple surmounted by a rusty, { park ot its size in the country. —soshe went down the stairway to the stage. As she stood in “the tormentors,” the first entrance, she could hear the ushers letting down the seats, and, as the cortain swayed gently, rushes of heated air swept back into the wing, From the open part of the housea con- versation and now and thén a laugh was wafted in as the curtain swayed. The stage carpenters were noislessly setting the droop scene. The prima-donna gathered her chuddah about ler bare white shoul. ders and approached the blackened peep-hole, At first she could not see clearly, and looked again. Then she turned very pale, her eyes looked strange, and her lips were white and trembled nervously. “Could you send for a messenger ?” she said, “and quickly, please ; there's something I've forgotten.” Her man- ager looked anxious, but she answered him, with a nervous, excited laugh, that “nothing was the matter, only some flowers she had forgotten.” When the messenger returned” he bronght back, in brown tissue paper, a bunch of pinks and white violets, The curtain rose and the opera be: gan. She was dimly conscious of two things, the waving of the leader's baton and a tall firure, with folded arms, standing back in the shadow in the gay box on the stage tier. People wondered why Lucia should wear a bunch of violets and pinks. She had won them. They raid she sang with soul and feeling. She came before the curtain, leading the tenor by the hand, amidst the braves and the wild applause. There was a glance exchanged between the tall figure in the box and the lady with the ‘pink and violets, a single glance, but it meant a flood of happiness. When the prima-donna had wedded the well to do and rising young lawyer, Gerald Wilton, people wondered still more, and then forgot about it. Mra. Wilton, in the garden of her beautiful summer home, along the Housatonic’s banks, cultivates white violets, These and the pinks in the terrace above are etill her favorite flowers.—James Barnes. Richmond. It may be that nativity in Virginia and many vears of residence in Rich- mond have inclined the mind of the writer to idealize the city’s lovleiness, vet he koows no city in the United Sia es more beautitul. Itis not that the houses generally are handsome, but there are sections of the city where the yards, filled with wrees, look like bow ers, and the public equares are among the most teantitul in the country. “The Capitol Square,” with its leaty slopes, its fine old Capitol lifting itself on its eminence with the simple grand- eur ot an cold temple, and with its broad wa'k, with the splendid Wash- ington Moonment at one end, and the impressive old “Governor's Mansion” at the other, is perhaps the prettiest Iv is certainly so to a Virginian, for many proud or tender associations cling about the piace. For a huodred years and more the city hae been associated with all that Virginians are proud of. In old St. John’s Church assembled the great Virginia convention which pre- pared for the public defence, and led the way to tie independence of the creaky arrow tor a weather vane; the prima donna remembered how she had wished she was to sing in there. Asshe crossed the dusty street she thought sbe canght a glimpse of Gerald standing in the arched doorway ot the massive gray-stone church, Just then the father said, “Xenia'’-- her name was Xenia—“throw away those flowers, they do not match your dress,” and she had dropped them in the road. : Then came the service, that never to be forgotten service. As her clear young voice rose and floated out past the arches, people had held their breath in wonder as if an angel was singing, and vet some said that her voice had tears in all its liquid notes. As for herself, she had forgotten ev- erything, the church, the golden, rosy light that streamed through the great wheel window in the apse. even the great organ behind ber back ; she saw nothing but a figure with its arms folded and head bowed down. It was Gerald, and as she finished he turned ; she could never forget the expression on his face. There was a flutter, almost like a sigh, that passed over the congregation as she sank to her seat behind the screening choir curtains and burst into silent weeping. Her father’s reflection in the glass betore him seemed to show triumph in its every line as he struck the grand final «chords. ‘A tall, broad-shouldered man with long straight hair. tinged with iron gray, picked up his hat and left the charch, That night Gerald left for the distant city, and the tall man with the long bairdined at the dingy little cottage behind the picket fence. Two days later he was on the ocean, bound for Paris and her years ot servitude. Her father had kept back both her letters, and Gerald’s, too——she knew that well enough when all too late— and Gerald had seen her throw away the flowers. All this had gone through the prima-dona’s mind atter she bad for- gotten all about the square; then there was a knock on the door, and she had placed the letter over the picture in the little desk and had risen to meet her manager and an interviewing reporter. The day had passed and she had been driven in her closed carriage to the opera house and was in her dressing room, . The coiffeur had finished twining the string of pearls in her hair, but she wae nervous and could not sit quietly in that bare, unfurnished place; despite the protests of the ‘‘General,” as she called him, and tales of photograph ; a strong manly hand, and a strong, young, manly face, with a high forehead and curling hair. If’ dranghts and colds, she would take a peep at ‘the honse”’—prima-donnas are willful and always have their way colonies, Here in Richmond sat the great convention for the ratification of the Constitution, when Kentucky was a district of Virginia; here have as. sembled her law makers, her jurists, and all that have contributed to make the Old Dominion renowned and great. Here met, year after year, the Old Vir- giniang, with their wives and daugh- ters, 10 enjoy the gay life of the capital of the Oid Dominion, which they adorned by their presence. Here sat and deliberated the secession Conven- tion during the period when, Virginia stood as the peacemaker between the two sections, [ere she finally declar ed her decision, to secede from the Union. Here Lee received the com- mand of the Virginia forces, and here he was appointed later to the command in chief of the armies of the Confed- eracy. Here the Confederate. govern- ment passed its life, and from here the Southern side of the war was fought, To Richmond the armies and energies of the North were directed, and for it they strove. Whilst it stood the Con- federacy stood, and it fell only when the South was exhausted. — From “The Old Dominion.” by Thomas Nelson Page, in Harper's Magazine for December. He Picked His Men. A prominent Methodist clergyman who now resides in Sau Francisco, tells this incident, which occurred in a Pullman sleeper while riding through Iowa. As the train passed over the state line into Iowa a seal was put on the liquor sideboard in the buffet, and the clergyman, wishing to test the en- forcement of the prohibition law, call ed the porter and asked him if he could get a little whisky. “Oh, yes, sah,” said the porter. “And how about a little wine?” queried the minister. “I think I can fix you, sah,” was was the prompt and whispered re- ply. : “But,” continued the reverend gen- tleman, how about the prohibition in Iowa 2" *Oh,” said the porter, with a know. ing wink, “we always pick our men, sah.” Starving Miners Eating Dogs. Mapison, Wis., December 5.—Gov- ernor Peck sent the following telegram this morning to W. J. Shumway, chairman of the relief committee at Hurley : “It is rumored here that starving miners at Ironwood, Mich., are eating dogs. Have Dr. McLeod investigate, and it reports are found true send them one hundred barrels of flour and some meat until relief ar- rives from Michigan for them,” Women and Brains. Sir James Crichton Browne's Late Utterances Refuted. ~-A Scientist's Argument Which is an Example of the Folly Into Which a Learned Man May be Drawn—Some Telling Illustra tions on the Main Point. Sir James Crichton Browne has lately brought forward anew the somewhat threadbare argument that the brain of the average man is several ounces heav- | ier than: that of the average women, | and that hence women must have swall- | er men's} capacity. A few parallel fucts may be worth considering 1n this con- | nection, The brain of an average elephant is about three times as heavy as the brain of an average man, yet we do not find | that the elephant is three times as smart as a man. The brain of an ant is indefi- | nitely smaller than the brain of a sheep, yet the ant 1s much more inteiligent | than the sheep. In other words, the | smaller creature may have a smaller | brain without necessarily having inferior wits. The woman, being a smaller animal than the man, naturally bas a smaller brain, but it does not fullow that she is therefore more stupid. This view is confirmed by the fact that if a | boy’s brain is below a certain weight the boy 1s invariably an idiot, while a girl’s brain may fall several ounces be- low that weight and still the girl be rational. Some scientists say that women’s | brains are heavier in proportion to the | weight of their bodies than the brains of men. O.her scientists say contrary. But the relative weight of the brain is not a sure guide any more than its abso- lute weight. There are certain small birds, built light for flying, whose brains are heavier in proportion to the weight of their bodies than the brains of human beings. Tne only fair test of the comparative ability of two brains is to see what they can accomplish when placed under the same circumstances. All over the country in our public schools boys and girls from the sama families study side by side, and the girls average quite as well as the boys. In the colleges the young women take rather more than their share of the prizes. This is proba- bly due not to superiority of the temi- nine brain, but to the fact that many stupid boys are sent to college by their parents because it is fashionable, while if a girl goes to college it 1s generslly be- cause she really wishes to study. But, however we may account for it, the fact remains that the alleged mental infer- jority of women does not show itself in any of the educational institutions where the two sexes study together. After graduation, not nearly so many women as men score a brilliant success in business or in the arts. The reaon, I take it, is not because women have in- sufficient inteiligence, but because most of them prefer to put their inteliizence to a different use—namely, to apply it to running a house and family. This is a business fully as important and useful as any other. And to run a house and | family successfully under present condi- tions takes us much intelligence —one might almost say as much statesman- ship—as to run a railroad or a city gov. ernment. If any man doubts this, let him send his wife off for a holiday and try for a week to do his own housework and take care of half a dozen children. Sir James Crichton Browne again finds an alarming connection between femi- nine intelligence and lack of personal beauty. He fears that “what woman gains. intellectually by the higher educa- tion now in vogue she will loose in beauiy and grace,” and as u proof of this he cites the Garo tribe in India, where the women are said to have the entire control of public affairs and to Ye. “the very ughest wotnen on the face of the earth.” If education tends to ugli- ness, it wonld be more to the point to show that these Indian women are the most highly educated women on the face of the earth. Brains seem to be distributed among women as among men without any re- gard to good looks. Some bright wo- men are strikingly handsome, and some are strikingly homely, Maria Mitchell, for instance, was a plain girl, though she developed into a fine looking elderly lady. Mrs. Somerville, on the other hand, was conspicuous for her beauty. That education and freedon do not tend, on the whole, to make women uglv may be shown by oue illustration on a large scale. American women are better educated and more “emancipated” than the women of any other country. Yet all Americans and many foreigners say that no other country can boast of so many beautiful women, And any one who has attended a class day at Welles- lay will hardly be persuaded, as he looks at the “rosebud garden of girls,” that education is detrimental to good leoks. Sir James Crichton Browne's whole argument is an example of the folly into which a learned man may be drawn, when io following a speculative theory he closes his eyes to the facts of every- day observation. The newspapers have lately been making merry over the case of another scientific man. This gentlemen had written learned articles to prove the mental feebleness of women from the smallness of their brains. He d ed, and bis own brain proved on examination to weigh less than that of the average women. A goon many women will await with interest the death of Sir James Crichton Browne and the result of a post mortem —Alice Stone Black- well in Boston Globe. Sm — How He Died. Mrs. Muleahey—Shure, docther, and is it thrue that little Jimmy O’Toole bit yoorae termamty in two and swallowed the mercury. Doctor— Yes, my dear madam, it is and the boy is dead. Mrs. Mulcabey—Shure, docther, and it were a cold day for Jimmy, poor bye, with him the mercury went down, Doctor--Yes, madam, he died by de- grecs.— Hot Springs Medical Journal. | to be removed to give the ship sutfictent cement | sels, | defective it has been found A PossiBrLiry.—Binks— Yes, sir; I! have a phonograph, and among my col- lection is & song by Patti. Think what a priceless thing that will be to the coming generations when the great | Patti’s voice is stilled forever ! i Jinks—But, my deer sir, from present | indications Patti will ontlive the phono- graph. Top-Heavy Cruisers. ! General Overhauling to Be Done by the Navy i Department. | WasuingroN, Dec. 5—The recent examination of the craiser Mihias, it is sald, has shown that the vessel is in | a worse plight than was at fir-t expect ed. Itis believed now that the tive- | inch armor around her sides will have | i | stability and that besides this it will | be necessary to place 30 or 40 tons of | in her botiom to bring her | meta center to the proper poist. Sie | has no double bottom and unlike most | of the new vessels eannot overcome her top heaviness by filling this bottom with water, The Puiladelphia, which is one of the crankiesy vessels in the service, never goes to sea without 300 or 400 | tons ot water in her double bottom wo | stiffen her up. This increased weight | brings her displacement up to wvearly 1,000 tons more than she was designed for. A report has been received at the Navy Department from the commander of the Detroit stating that his vessel is also a little top bheavy,. The naval authorities are still at work examining into the center of gravity, meta center and other things which go to show the stability of ves- In every one of the five cruisers which were under suspicion as being NECESSAry to place cement in their bottoms, All of them will be delayed from two to tour mouths by the operation. Nuns in China. They belong chiefly to the lower class- es, the poorer parents being wiling to sell their daughters to the services of the convent The children thus grow up in the ascetic atmosphere and event- ually join the order. Poor widows also frequently solve the self supporting problem by entering a convent. When the women are merely novices the front of their head is shaved When the novitate is completed — which cannot he until the end ot the candidate’s 16th year—thbe entire head is shaved, The nun vows to lead a chaste and ascetic life, Her diet is purely vegetable ; meats and liquors she must avoid. She must hold no intercourse with men, and must take no interest in worldly affairs Her religious duties, which she promises faithfully to perform, are mainly pray- ers, ceremonies and the care of the aitar, on which the vestal fire must not die out. Butthe Chinesa nun enjoys a good deal of freedom. She may walk about the town. Her spare time is spent in tending the sick. And us the Buddhist priests have very little intercourse with Chinusse women, the nuns are the religz- ious instructors of the feminine part of the community, and thus exercise a great influence. Rrra CTE T— Directum the Champion. Saladin Gives the Great Trotter a Hard Race. PHILADELPHIA December 5.— Di- rectum the champion trotter, record 2:05}, defeated Sal din the great pacer, record 1:05%, this afternoon in a match race on the Point Breezs track of the Philadelpnia Driving Park association, Saladin, in a fine burst of speed, won the first heat in 2:10}. Directum took the next three and tne race in 2:10}, 2:11}, 2:12. The tracc was somewhat soft and therefore het ween two and three seconds slow. In view of this circ m- stance the performance of the two great stallions at a season of the year when thoroughbreds are usually in winter quarters. may justly be regarded as re- markable. At the conclusion of the race, both Monroe Salishury, the owner of Directum, and John Kelley, his driv. er, said to James B Green, the owner and driver of Saladin that the pacer had given the king of trotters the hard est race of the season. Throughout the four heats Directum trotted perfectly not breaking once, while Saladin went into the air once in each beat. To Be Sold at Auction. The furniture of the Penrsylvania State Building on the World’s Fair grounds is being packed up and shipped to Harris burg, where it will be sold at auction December 12. The State Commission- ers think they can realize more on the articles if sold among the people of their own State. The coal monument, the property of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, which stood in the center of the Mining Build- ing, has been torn down, broken up and sold to a contractor.” There were 60 tons of coal in the shaft, and the price paid was $3 a ton. Rats have taken possession of the Fair grounds, They are there in droves, and where they come from is a mystery. Workmen who are daily tearing down the popcorn and lunch booths find regiments of rats huddled under the floors, 1n the wells and cor- ners. The Administration Building seems to be a favorite haunt. Don't Bore People. There is nothing so certain to make you disliked as to tell your troubles to a friend. Prosperity means friendship, but don’t you take it into your head to retail your troubles, or you will soon discover that your company is not want- ed, and the people who once bowed to you in pleasant recognition, now walk on the other side of the way, with a cold and stony glare that looks over your head or through your body, but never meets your eye as of yore. The people are not hard-hearted that turn the cold sheulder to you. They are only averse to knowing of any more misery than they already have to bear. — Home Queen. What They Were For. Mamma—‘What do those holes in your new shoes mean ?”’ Rupert—*“I suppose, mamma, they must be meant to let the squeaks out.” — The small potatoes are worth nearly as much per bushel, in tood value, oun the farm, as the larger ones. They may not be salable, but the pigs will eare nothing for the size, and will accept them as readily as they will the ! yellow flannel having SLriprg, | material (four ruffles, esch 2} 1ncies wide, put. i the sume best. For and About Women, A house dress mude trom a creamy of fine binck and pale blue 12 shown herewith. {Ii 1s cat in a Mowber Hubbard style and is gathered to a bias yoke of the same The skir 18 garnished with on in pairs. The collarette forms a ! point on each shoulder and 10 the mid- dis of the buck. Ii is garnished with an iosertion of tuile lace and a rufile of The standing collar 1s made of a taas strip of satin of 4 greenish tint. and ho ks in front with a sminll head on each side. The plain corselet bely is made of the same shale of satin about 14 inches wide, and is held 10 place by a gold buckie in trong and ho ks behind, The belt has a foundation stiffened with whalebone and serves to hold the full foose folds in place ai the Waist. giving the dress the appearance of consisting of skirt and blouse, The putfed sleeves are finished with lace frills at elbow aod and wrist. The overskirt is certainly with us, but it is an apotheosized overskirt,. brought to a pitch of pe:fection to sug the times. In Paris the nest modistes. are making (loth skirts to open over underskirts « f velvet, and the combina- tion is very chic and preity. Some- time's the two skirts are of precisely the same mwa erial, only the underskirt is defined by a wide band of fur or velvet or passementeris. For girlish costumes silk and wool are much used, the anier- skirt being of the silk, as are the girdle, the collar, shoulder kuots and deep cuffs. Black 1s very mueh the vogue in Pars, and Doucet, indeed, is quite fumous for black gowns, brighteaed with a little color. One of the latest productions 1s a black velvet skirt trim- med to the knee with a shaped flounce of petunia eolored velvet, headed by vandy kes of jet pointing each way, and by an inch wide band «f very fine Per- sian lamb fur.” Thus some glossy fur is used fora Bolero jacket, with revers of biack moire opening on a soft vest ot black velvet with two rows of white lace extending down to a wide jet belt. The mutton-leg sleeves are of petunia velvet, made to droop at the top, and these are finished at the wrist with white lace cuffs. It is very lovely. A pretty evening frock, which bas just come home packed 1n silver paper,1s of pale-pink satin, trimmed around the very full skirts with trails of pink chrys- anthemoms., The low bodice is seam- less ard has a bertha of pink satin and a girdle of the seme artistically folded and fastened on one side with a large rosette. Clusters of chrysanthemums are placed on either shoulder, the buds and leaves hanging down over the bodice in a pret- tv, gracefully loose and easy fashion. Another evening gowa is of pale tur- quoise blue silk, trimmed around the skirt with a band of turquois passemen- terie, and having the bodice with bertha and full shoulder frills of butter colored iliread lace finished with turquoise gal. loon, ’ In trilor gowns the skirt seams, as well &s those of the bodice, are trequent- ly lapped and sutched : soihetimes they are covered half way up the skirt with a flut braid ending in an embroidered ar- row head. Many of the handsomest costumes have plain skirts, elegantly cut and absolutely untrimmed, with all the ornamentation confined to the waist. Sets of very narrow frills, hardly over an inch wide, and cat on the circle, are seen on the edge of round waists, and make a pretty finish. I have seen five or six scarf frills overlapping, and two colors of materials are used us black sat. in and green cloth: sometimes these frills are each edged with a tiny white lace insertion or picot edge. When these frills are used they also appear on the tops of the sleeves, rn Among an array of elegant Parisian dresses was one of brocaded satin, show- ing a circular skirt faced to above the knee with black velvet. It wassecallop- ed at the top, the sealiops outlined with a narrow jetted gimp. A handsome black cloth dress had a similar skirt. Qualy fi'teen inches of cloth showed on the skirt, a!l the rest being velvet. To make it less heavy the cloth did not run the entire length of the skirt beneath its velvet facing. The effect was that of a velqet skirt made with a black-cloth yoke top. Gowns of petunia satin, with black moire from the knees down and for large sleeves ; the satin has small black figures, and any extra trimming is of black lace. The rumor ahout the reintroduction of steels in the skirt is constantly com- ing up again, and although it as yet lacks direct confirmation, we must yet so far grant the truth as to inform our readers of a novel step in the direction toward the revival of crinolines, says the Philadelphia Times. This is an under- skirt with a hoop made of the lightest aluminium inserted in the bottom hem. The model in question is made of pink silk, measures two yards six inches wide, and has a handsome flounce of narrow tucks and lace around the bot. tom, which quite takes away the ap- pearance ofa crinoline. The hoop is pliant enough to yield toalmost every bend of the dress, while it also lends a certain stability to the fashionable width of our present dresses. We quite think that those ladies who have tried this support for their wide skirts will readily acknowledge how comfortably it keeps the multiplicity of folds away from their feet. SEEN IN THE STORES.— An odd pen- wiper of yellow felt wiih the grotesque figure of a “Brownie’”’ perched in the centre. Collarettes of yellow chiffon and knots of Majenta veivet. Pretty court-plaster booklets accom- panied by a pair of little gilt sissors attached by narrow colored ribbons. Reautiful eases of decorated ecard- board and light surah silks for holding «Unanswered Letters’. Decorated boxes for correspondence cards and envelopes.