Evening Star Newspaper, March 28, 1896, Page 18

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, MAROH 28, 1896—TWENTY-FOUR PAGES, HATS FOR EASTER New Shapes and Fancies Decreed by Dame Fashion. VARIED SHADES AND WEAVES OF STRAW “Razor Toe” is the Description of the Stylish Shoe. SOME PRETTY WAISTS HE ROSEBUD garden of girls which will boergeon and bloom next Sunday will set the millinery fashions for the spring; will set them, that fs, so far as imi- tation goes. Really, though surrounded by all the secrecy which human inge- nuity can devise, the fashions were set long ago, in Paris 2gh London contributes to the of color a few jarring and in- mes. f en settled in the councils who ef fashions that there the bows form- coaf scuttle or Salya- but trimmed out of their plebeian forbears ather and pert arra irely of » With rank gr relets or SES Up- CHINESE NEW YEAR. An American's Account of Its Observ- nce in & a r the manner of ors over in the Rising Sun. To their new year begins on the 13th but the jollification begins earlier. It keeps up for their neighi be exa: n settles all earthly affairs New Year. If he doesn’t pay all his debts he “loses his face,” as the vernacular hath it. If he be caught steal- ing or committing any criminal act which he cannot deftly explain and excuse, his face is no longer recognized, and so if he fails to clear of his financial slate at the end of ike y nis face departs from him and he is no better than an outcast. For this reason the night before New Year day in Hong Kong I found to be a night of forced sale. In one Chinese street hant had his goods exposed in front of his shop. They were spread cut on the ground, and the whole strect was lighted with lamps and torches. Bargains were abundant. If you asked the, price of a gimerack you were told: “Five dolla; how muchee give?” Fifty or twenty-five cents would be sure ure the coveted article. Oh, the mer- cantile sacrifices! This street bazaar was thronged with people. Many were there to enjoy the spectacle, but the merchand«r- ing was vigorous. All this went on amid the crackle and beom of _firecrackers—a fusillading which made the memory of Pitched battle and rifle firing quicken. The Hong Kong firecracker is about three as large as the common Fourth of July pop used in our country, and five times as vicious and demoniacal. The natives here know how to produce the greatest amount of deviltry with their crackers. They perch on the porch of a two-story building, and there weave a dozen or more packs of crackers into one long string. Throughout the string they in- Sert the large explosives known as cannon crackers. This web of the inferno they at- tach to the end of a bamboo pole, light the lower fuse and swing clear. Then the trouble begins. Some of these strings are ten feet long. They produce a snapping and bombing which ts distracting, deafn- ing and _ demoralizin; When fifteen or twenty of these collocations of deviltry are; at work on one block the street becomes impassable. The air is filled with explo- sives, smoke, flame and red paper. Throughout New Year day proper I saw scores of men going about the streets and lanes sweeping up the red paper resulting frcm the cracker explosions and lugging it away in great baskets. The firing intensi- fied at night and lasted throughout all the hours. This is near the isth, and the roar of the crackers is still in my ears. It will not slack off for at least a couple of more days, I am told. As far as inducing a Chinaman to werk at his vocation during this week of jellification, that is absolutely out of the question. Even that patient, laborious, frugal industrian, the laundry: man, is on a pleasure strike. Neither love nor money will persuade a laundryman to do up a shirt, and the traveling public is greatly embarrassed. The washboard hangs pendant on the wal!‘ and the wash- is swimming in somsu and toying in fullginous dens with fan tan. I am coming the whole souled, earnest way of “whooping up a holiday. It means some- th I am moved to say that when the Asiatics go in for a spree or celebration they throw their concentrated energies into it and they get something out of it. 1A. SIMONSON, 933 BROADWAY, Bet. 2ist and 22d Sts., New York City. Tho largest and most complete HUMAN HAIR Goods Bstablishment tn this country! It is impossible to mention every article of high-grade artistic Hair Goods kept at my Em- Porlum, therefore will only name the two latest creations for chis season's Coiffure, the “MARIE. ANTOINETTE POMPADOUR”™ nd the pat- ented “NEWPORT COIL!” G7GRAY and PURE WHITE Mair a Specialty. <2 = A Beautiful Colored Lithographic Catalogue and ‘Treatise on the Art of Halrdzessing will be sent gratis on application. A. SIMONSON, 083 BROADWAY. New York City. THE ROSEBUD GARDEN OF GIRLS. a e ‘Toques trimmed with bows of ribbons and with wreaths of flowers; Picture hats with hour-glass crowns, their bright brims massed beneath with clouds of tulle and towered above by nod- ding ostrich plumes; Close toques with almost the solidity of turbans, formed of fold on fold of plain Dresden or figured silks, and bearing on their substantial fabric plumes and great ribbon bows upheld by: bony structures, which the Roentgen ray photograph would reveal to be frameworks of close set wire; Sailor hats with high crowns, but with brims narrow or wide to suit the taste and face; Picture. hats down-drooping at a gentle slope to shade the face in front, but in the rear towering high with trimmings of Per- s:an ribbons, gay quills, parti-colored wings garnished with spangles, or green sprays glittering with paste gems like the dew. There are hats that are beautiful and there are freaks. There are plzin derby hats, which are very English, of course, turned high at the sides and low at the front and back, as is the unvarying custom of the derby of ’06, but decked, as fortunately is not the un- varying custom, upon the leff side with huge wings. An inspired ugliness is apt to hail from London. What words of mine can give the faintest idea of the sea of color which will surge up and down in the aster parade? There will be straws in all the varied shades, from heliotrope to green, from blue to butter, and New Easter Hats. from brown to ecru; straws in stripes, straws even checked hit-or-misz, or forming in their cunning weave strange pat- terns in mosaic. ‘There will be trimmings of ight green poppies, of violet and pink . plaids and checks. One beautiful example of Lenten millinery is a picture hat in continental shape, fash- foned of black horse hair in close weave, with a full roll of white chiffon above the medium-high crown. Its tulle rosettes on er side glitter with rhinestone orna- ostrich tips on the left side, with mottled algrettes, and a large buneh of pink roses and leaves at the back complete | the ornamentation. Apother prepared for an Easter Monday | diversion is a large white Li whose brim i arer, whose crown is a mass of pink 1 roses, between whose dainty petals of the material of the frame can The Seminole Indinns tn Florida Have Strict Laws About Marriage. From the Florida Times-Union. Dr. J. E. Brecht, superintendent of the Florida Indiars, with headquarters at Fort Myers, arrived in the city yesterday from Tallahassee, his mission there being to pur- chase lands with the arpropriation of $3,000 new annually set apart by the general gov- ernment for the Seminoles. Heretofore the Seminoles have teen homeless, so far as ownership of land is concerned. The doc- tor has iocated and surveyed all of their habitations, and his endeavor now is to pursue the work of securing deeds in the names of the individual cwners. “The Indians,” said Dr. Brecht, “are not multiplying rapidly. This is due to physi- ological and social reasons. Still, there has been an increase. In 1859 there were but 112. Now there are something over 500. The chief social recson for their slow prop- agation is the custom of countenancing no rarriage of persons who have a drop of the same blood in their veins. This is some- times hard on the girls. One leader I know has two beautiful daughters, who cannot get married because the eligible young men are almost all akin to them. Very often the tom causes strange alliances, and I know of a number of instances where young bucks of twenty have squaws of sixty. The reason for a lack of increase is the dearth of knowledge on the part of men and women of physiology, sanitation and hygiene. The mothers, although in- tensely fond of their offspring, will allow them to stuff themselves with food and trash in the shape of sand, charcoal and clay. Many deaths occur during the first three years. If a child lives to be five, you can’t kill bim with a lightwood knot. “If the parents knew more of diet the race would rapidly increase, for a stronger, sounder people are not to be found on the earth. Their women are the purest of the pure.- A whole realm cannot change them from the path of virtue. Lewdness is an unknown sin.” ————_+e+_____ Honors to Franklin. On Sunday, the 8th instant, a plaque placed on a wall in Paris in honor of Dr. Franklin was unveiled. It bears the in- scription: “Ici s’elevait un pavillon dependance de Vhotel de Valentinois: Franklin ’habita de 1777 a 1785, et y fit placer le premier para- tonnere en France.—Societe - Historique d@’Auteuil et de Passy.” The ceremony took place out of doors under an awning, the chair being taken by M. Eugene Manuel, inspector general of secondary instruction, and addresses were delivered by M. Faye of the Academy of Sciences, and M. Guillois of the historical societies which arranged the affair. The American ambassador was present, and several other Americans, among them Gen. Meredith Read and Mr. Moncure Conway. The house in which Franklin resided at Passy (Rue Singer) disappeared in 1830, and the marble plaque is §xed in the wall of the College des Freres de la Doctrine Chretienne. ——__+e-+____ The Modern Athletic Club. From the Chicago Evening Post. “I suppose you are gratified that your son has joined an athletic club. There’s noth- ing like athletics for young men.” “I suppose so. “Is he in training?” “T guess so.” “Has it strengthened him any?” “Well, I believe he can carry a billiard cue longer than he could before, and I think he brings home a bigger load at night.” ——__+e+_____ Why Smali and Sclect. From the Detroit News-Tribune. First Citizen—“Grand opera does not seem to take.” Second Citizen—“It tries to take too much —5 a seat.’ ———-+e Not as a Sister. From the Loufsvill2 Courter. “Do I love George?” mused Clara, softly, “or is it simply a sister’s affection that I feel for—" Just then Bobby burst noisily into the room and interrupted her sweet medita- tions. “Get out of here, you noisy boy!” she shouted, and, seizing him by the arm, she shot him through the door. “Ah, no!” she sighed, as she resumed her interrupted train of thought: “my love for George is not a sister’s love. It is something sweeter, purer, higher, and holier!’ be caught, and over the brim a fluff of white tulle is softly drawn. Another, a small Paris hat, one of those shapes for which there js no descriptive name save “Frenchy,” is rendered glittering to the eye by the plumage of the Hird of paradise, which perches upon it, as if re- strained from taking flight only by a} natural desire to remain as near as possible | to the pretty face above which it broods. } After the hats, and a long way after, come the shoes. The little birds in the stores | say that the extreme pointed toe of the 1895 | styles will be, if anything, outdone in the | styles of 1896. The shoe wh! was for, sharpness called the toothpick, is now, an- nounced as a razor toe, and -azor itself seems like to be refined into a point of the { keenness of that of that scimitar where- with, in the Stockton story, the oriental ex- ecutioner so deftly beheaded his victim that he knew not the loss of his head until he sneezed. In other words, shoes will be sharp. The tan shoe, hated by the makers, beloved by the summer girl, will give heed to its lov- ers rather than its haters. We shall have it again. It is worth noting, too, that American shoemakers, the most successful, in the world, are turning out ready-made shoes so excellent in design and so careful in finish, that he would be an excellent critic indeed who should tell them from the custom made. The new woman, it seems, has been in the ascendant long enough. My lady is fitful, and, laiely pliant, will now have none of her. For this season the word has gone forth that bifurcated underwear need not be worn; that when it is worn there must be, besides, the fluff and fiutter of silken petticoats, the swish of dainty lingerle of finest lace. There is a combination petti- coat which will Le much in favor, whose texture to the knees is silk of dainty fig- ure or narrow stripe, while all below un- dulates with the billowy fluffiness of shir- red lace with figured edges. And there are also gowns, in whose fash- joning much cloth of green and gold will be used, upon whose waists colored. rib- bons, flower ribbons, checked ribbons and self ribbons will flutter in the wind. The extreme wide belt which wes last season a freak of a day. has not yet re- turned. On the other hand the very nar- row belts, this scason, freak of another day, are going ou: in deference to the fore- seen dominion of the shirt waist. A pretty novelty is the spangled belt of different colors with a large enameled buckle set with rhinestones and fair gems. Yes, the waist is everything. A pretty ene is made of black chiffon over old rose silk, with sleeves of Persian silk of light green and rose, and a full yoke of ecru in- sertion. At the waist a black velvet bow lined with rose. At the bottom of the basque a bias band of black velvet. This waist rejoices also in a soft, blacic y to wear certainly, more easy to lock at, than the high n tyle of waist is builded of dark h full front and mutton- , colors green and brown, small green satin girdle, with loops and Ivesden buttcns at back, and rever: of white duchess lace. This the new I have seen fresh from the dainty fingers of the couturieres. And speaking of collars, there are dainty cnes of grass linen, whose yokes broidered with tiny silk rosebud: colors and edged with full cream lace five inches wide. ELLEN OSBOR HER TURN. How a Wife Contrived to Cut Short a Lecture on Extravagance. From an Exchange. “I was down town shopping with Mrs. Dwindle today,” said Mrs. Hilber to her husband “Get anything?” asked Hilber. “Oh, I had to get a few little things for the kitchen! Really, dear, some of the old utensils were not fit to use.” “How much was the bill? “Bight dollars. Then I saw the loveliest lot of china, just for every-day use, and I simply couldn’t resist {t. Only $18 for the lot.” “Umph! Anything else?” “Some of the loveliest books! I had a dozen of the latest novels sent. Just think, they were so cheap! Only $14 for all of them. Would you believe it?” “Ah, indeed! I suppose you bought your- Self some clothes?” “Only a few little things I had to have, dear. A hat, I think, for only $18. I know you will like it. Some shoes for $7, and eight yards of the loveliest dress goods you ever saw. Only $2 a yard.” “Is that all?” “Oh, there were a few more little things of no particular consequence. Necessities, of course, but of trifling cost.’’ “Madam, do you know what you have been doing?” “Why, wh-what do you mean?” “You have been ruining me. Do you realize that I have to toil and siave to make the money necessary to keep the roof over our heads. And now you inform me in the coolest possible manner that you have been buying without my consent what you are pleased to term a ‘few little things.’ Bah!" “But, my dear- rf “Don’t ‘my dear’ me. Did Mrs. Dwindle, who was with you, spend anything “No. She said she couldn’t afford it.” “Precisely. What man in moderate cir- cumstances can afford it? Have you any idea, madam, of how much the ‘few things’ amounted to?” “I have. Here is the memorandum. Just nd do you ‘know, madam, what that aun ReDRceea Is 2 z “I do, my dear. It represents the sum Mrs. Dwindle says you won from her hus- band at poker last night.” ————_+e+___ A Horrible Outlook. From Puck. Mr. Fidgets—“I am going to move out of this house as soon as possible. Our new neighbors next door had a piano taken in their house today.” Mrs. Wdgets—“I don’t see why you should move on that account.” Mr. Fidgets—“But they have an eight- year-old girl, and they advertised for a music teacher this morning. “Cherchez la Femme.” From Punch. { “I see you charge me elevenpence for your mutton, Mr. Barton, Why is it Mr. Read in the High street lets me have it for tenpence?” “I’m sure, m’m, I couldn’t say—unless it’s he’s taRen a fancy to you, m’m!” BEFORE THE WEDDING And After the Engagement is For- mallf Announced. PREPARATIONS FOR THE GREAT EVENT What is Regarded as Proper in an Up-to-Date Affair. BRIDE AND GROOM HAT DELIGHTFUL interval for the en- gaged couple which follows the marriage announcement an d the wedding day is also a time full of trying responsibili- ties, as well as op- portunities for the display of great ex- ecutive ability. Jack and Nell needa chaperon no longer for thelr walks and New is an object of consuming in- terest, not only to her own family, but to even the least known of her acquaintances. She receives the sweetest little attentions from friends, and foes, too. In this latter category are the girls who wish they were enjoying her honors. The wedding day is announced, wedding cards flutter around and the next act finds her hugging herself with delight over the wedding presents. For every new parcel she opens she immediately indites a pretty little note of thanks, until the nearness of the wedding day and the multitudinous duties it brings with it make it slmply impossible to spend two minutes undisturbed at her desk. So, at last, it is all pushed aside until she returns from her wedding trip. The trousseau, which is one of the important features of ‘the wedding Preparations, can be made either an occu- pation of months ‘or weeks, precisely as one’s tastes or finances will allow. In all the history of weddings you never hear of one postponed because the bridal gown was unfinished. It would indeed be a dressmaker with a heart of flint who could cause such a disappointment as that. Farewell to Bachelor Days. Jack, on the other hand, is taking leave of the frivolities of single blessedness. His friends have a cheerful way of insinuating that any special extravagance of which he may be guilty should be condoned, for his chances in the future will not be numerous. He has his wardrobe to replenish, and to choose the men who are to stand by him on his wedding day. His attentions to Nell must be redoubled, or he is likely to hear what we have all heard dozens of times, “Oh, yes! He takes her pretty cool, now that she is not likely to get any attention from other men.” He gives considerable time to getting acquainted with the rela- tives and intimates of his wife-to-be. ‘the fashionable engagement does not last over six weeks, bot may stretch over ree months. During this period the to! proper to lay on the shrine of love are flowers, frui i and in fine F the latter. A man with a standing ¢ at florist’s gives that personage an r for a bonquet of violets, or whatever else flower Nell favors, to be sent her ever day. At this idyliic time it is simply heart- s to say that a couple should not ex- ange costly gifts until the very eve of their wedding day, for the reason that in p of a rupture it is not only embar- ? mething of a hardship also, to sénd them back One of the int ions of an up- » betrothal is a shopping expedition, ‘pated in by the couple and their re- e Parents or guardians. A broom, a arving knife and fork, a sait cellar, a Bible, a brass door knocker, a candlestick and a pair of bellows are bought and p: sented to the couple. This is a revival of an old German custom of presenting the young pair with what were considered the seven emblems of those virtu h go to make up a perfect household. The ex. pedition must be finished up by a lunch wh Th party, at which the bridal attendants might also be present. Wedding it Exhibition. As a sort of a compromise between mak- ing what some people imagine is an osten- tatious display of the wedding presents and the other extreme which hides them entirely from view, is an afternoon recep- tion two days before, or perhaps on the eve of the wedding. It makes a pleasant finale to the rehearsal, which is also an important feature of the wedding prepara- tion. At this reception the presents are exhibited, instead of showing them at the wedding reception or breakfast. It will be remembered this sort of entertainment pre- ceded the Marlborough-Vanderbilt nuptials, as well as the Whitney-Paget marriage, last fallin New York. At the wedding re- ception there was nothing to distract at- tention from th® couple, their attendants, the guests and the breakfast. The wedding gift exhibition, however, has not as yet obtained very much popularity in this city. At the Leiter-Curzon wedding breakfast last spring . the gifts were displayed in a strong room, the jewels, etc., in locked cases and well guarded by picked servant: At the Yast wedding in the family of the chief justice of the Supreme Court the presents were not shown at all, unless to intimate friends. So that a present exhibi- tion reception on the part of coming spring brides would be a distinct innovation and a genuine novelty. They Are in Evidence. Years ago it was the correct thing for a bride-elect not to be seen abroad after the wedding cards were sent out. These were the days evidently when “blushing brides” were the ideals. They would never be rec- ognized in the matter-of-fact individual of today, who, no matter how madly in love she may be, never gives any public mani- festation of her tender regard for Jack, and never lets the fact of the approaching wed- ding cause her to omit any social duty. They rather like the momentary fame they are enjoying and dislike to drop out of the public eye for even a day. There have been brides and grooms who attended large so- cial affairs the night before their wedding, and one of the former, contemplating a long absence from this city, found the occasion a good one on which to bedeck herself with as many of her wedding gifts as it was possible for her to wear in the way of ornaments. The young lady has rever, it is needless to say, beem commended for either good sense or good taste. A short period of seclusion from social affairs, excepting, of course, the family hospitalities in honor of the cou- ple, would seem to be in gocd form. ‘The arrangements for a wedding are al- Ways mainly in the hands of the bride an‘ her family. Church arrangements should be attended to several weeks or a month in advance. The clergyman should be given timely notice of the date when his services will be required. There are always favor- ite churches and favorite clergymen—and it is only courteous that their attention be called to proposed arrangements before they are definitely settled. Embarrassing changes have sometimes been necessary in the date after the wedding cards were sent out because of failure to acquaint the church authorities. s The bride’s parents bear all the expenses attendant upon the hospitalities of a wed- ding—the reception or wedding breakfast. Naturally, this includes the cost of the in- vitations which go out in their name. The bride presents her bridesmaids with the dresses, hats and gloves worn by them at the wedding, and gives them, besides, little souvenirs of the joycus occasion in the way of stick pins or brooches. He Foots the Bills. "The groom's only expense, so far as his bride is concerned, up to the happy moment of their union, is her bouquet. She selects the flowers of which it will be made, and the florist makes it in whatever style may be popular. The groom pays for it, and the bouquets which the bridesmaids carry and the boutonnieres with which the ushers and best man are adorned. If he is doing the thing regardless of cost, he also sends a bouquet to the bride’s mother, as well a: his dwn and other near relatives on bo! sides. He provides the gloves and the neck- ties for the ushers and best man, and pre- sents them with souvenir scarf pays for the carriages to convey the entire wedding party to and from church, pays the organist, fhe sexton and the minister. With these preliminaries all faithfully looked after, the couple may start on their wedding journey with the knowledge that everything was done in the best up-to-date ins. He method. The latest wedding cards are almost square 5 _by 6, folded and inclosed in an envelope 5 by 8. Church cards and the cards for the wedding reception or breakfast are usually separate, although an English fashion permits the use of but one form to the ceremony, “and afterward at No. 1 Quality square.” For spring and early summer weddings the bridesmaids in organdie dresses and flower- decked hats, make such attractive spec- tacles with the dainty strect toilettes of the other young lady guests that daylight wed- dings are most in favor. Noon events have the most fashionable prestige, and are fol- lowed by a large or small breakfast. At a wedding where only the relatives and the intimates of the couple are present, an- nouncement cards are sent out immediately afterward—the same day, if possible. It is understood that the bride personally sees to the preparation of these missives, and with the idea that not only none of her own acquaintances may be omitted, but that all of the friends of her household, are made aware of her change of name. The same scrupulous care is given to the list of the groom’s friends, which he supplies. A feature of the late international wed- dings, and of gome others, where the de. tails were unusually elaborate, was the sign- ing of the marriage register. No one signs this impesing reminder of the event and its witnesses unless asked to do so by the bride or groom, or their parents. Amusing, but somewhat embarassing, mistakes have oc- curred, where this rule was thoughtlessly disregarded, but were no more annoying blunders than that made in allowing one | person to sign the names of a half dozen others. Dress enters largely into the question of a wedding. The white satin bridal dress is more in vogue than ever, for good style. Some think it a foolish extravagance, and select traveling dresses instead. All wed- ding dresses are high-necked now, no mat- ter whether they are worn at noon or at night For a day wedding, bridesmaids wear hats, whether the ceremony fs in church or at home. For evening weddings low-necked dresses are not uncommon for bridesmaids, but no hats are worn. With the pretty flowered organdies now so fash- jonable, and poke bonnets, the posstbilities in the way of bridesmaids’ adornment for the spring and early summer weddings never seemed better, in a picturesque sense. While it is currently supposed that no- body looks at the groom, they do observe the ushers. The correct morning dress of the time, Prince Albert black frock coat and dark gray trousers, is the wedding unt- fcrm for both the happy man and has sup- Porters on these occasions. Their neckties, of the Ascot type, are white, and their gloves are light gray. _—o ABOUT “NOSE HATS.” What They Are and How They Are Worn. There are two features of the coming season’s fashions which are particularly objecticnable to the artist. “It is too ba says the lover of beautiful curves, “to cover the prettiest part of the face with those abominable hats that are worse than the bangs that we have only just got rid of; and then, those coats that bide the line of beauty at the waist—why will women never learn to make the most of what charms they have?” That is the artist's view of the case, but this is the society giri’s view, as gathered from her advice to a girl iriend who was not quite sure of herself: “You simply have one of those nose rybody is wearing * in them myself, but then its the style, and that settles it.” “Nose hats’ is a term which suits the for the E hat is tilted at an angle of thirty degrees with the level of the top of the head—way up at the buck and way down over the nose in front. It is a fashion that will be welcomed by the the unfortunate dai of a high These 2re the who ar to advantage with their on. It is the short maid who looks best in no hat at all. Headgear of any kind makes her appear topheavy. She may delude her- self with the idea that a high hat makes her look tall, but it more often has the suggestion of half-and-half, about it—the girl forming the lower haif. The characteristic hat trimming this sea- son is tulle, which is used indiscriminately on all Kinds of headgear. It forms the crown or drapes the brim, or is puckered into loops to take the place of ribbon. It is used for ties en any kind of hat. When the hat has been covered with leaves and flow- ers and it would seem that nothing else could be added, a fluff of tulle is allowed to settle down over the whole like a tinted mist. The most exquisite example of the use of tulle is in a hat that has already made its debut, so to speak. The wire frame is wound with violet stems and flowers. The brim rolls up an inch or two in front and loses {itself at the back. On the side are some dead white roses, resting upon a fluff of violet tulle which falls down in loops over the hair. Standing up at the side of the front are some lily of the valley leaves underneath a bag of tulle. This hat was marked $15 at the store and has attracted more attention than many a $50 bonnet. —— NINETY CENTS ON THE DOLLAR. The Embarrassing Failure of a Magi- elan’s Elaborate Trick. From the Memptis Commercial Appeal. Carl Hertz, the illusionist, was talking of some of the accidents that sometimes spoil the art of the conjurer. “It was in Nashville,” he said, “that I experienced a real knockdown blow. I was performing the well-known trick of pass- ing a marked coin into the center of an uncut orange; at least that’s what a good many people thought I was doing. I used a silver dollar, and emphasized the trick by passing the coin into the pocket of some boy whom I had enticed on to the stage. “I will openly confess that the boy had to be a confederate, and,that the marked dollar had its fellow in one previously pre- pared by me. One night as I was entering the theater I looked around for a likely youth to aid me in my double dealing. I picked a boy ,and promised to pass him in if he would follow my instructions. “J am a conjurer,’ I said. ‘I want you to put this dollar in your right-hand trousers pocket. I'll get you a seat in the front row. When I ask for somebody to come on the stage, you must come. Then I will ask you to produce the dollar.’ “The boy promised everything, and, after making afrangements for him at the door, I left him. When I was ready for the dollar trick, I saw my young confederate sitting open-mouthed in the front row. I had pre- yailed upon another member of the audi- ence to lend me a dollar marked exactly as was that I had given to the boy. “I passed that borrowed dollar into the orange, cut the fruit open, and out dropped the coin. Then I went on: ‘And now, ladies and gentlemen, I will perform a still more difficult feat. I have passed that dollar into an orange. Now I will ask some member of the audience to step on the stage, and, without going any- where near kim, I will pass the same dol- lar, marked, as you have seen, into his trousers pocket.” “True to his bargain, the boy stepped to the stage. I stepped opposite him and asked: “ ‘Now, sir, have you ever seen me be- fore?” ‘No, sir,’ was the answer. “I have here a Gollar,’ I continued. ‘I am going to pass it into your right-hand trousers pocket. One—two—three—go! “I made the proper magician’s pass and smiled confidently:upon my audience. “ ‘Now,’ I said to my assistant, ‘put your hand in your right-hand trousers pocket and give me the dollar.’ “The boy looked a bit sheepish, but he dived his fist down. Then, to my unutter- able horror, he produced a handful of sil- ver and said: “T've only got ninety cents of it left, si oo —__ Written for The Evening Star. Resignation. ‘The sun of all my hopes went down, And naught remained but darkest nights ‘Then one by one Faith's stars came out— Dear tokens of the great God-light. Resentfal a: From Harlem Life. Mrs. Firn—“I think you do be lookin’ {lli- gant, Dalia, dear. Delia Gust from a seminary)—“You should moeteey ‘do be,’ mother. It is awfully sh. Mrs, Firn—“And ain’t I Irish?” Sensible. EASTER IN PARIS Some of the Joys and Delights of the Gingerbread Fair. WHERE PARISIANS G0 FOR A FROLIC Odd Features of the Various Shows and Attractions. BUT ONCE A YEAR Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, March 17, 1896. ASTER TIDE IN Paris is marked Tather by ginger- bread pigs than by hard-boiled eggs. They are smooth lit- tle pigs stamped out of spicy dough and baked a tender brown. You have your name embroid- ered on them wiih pink sugar while you wait; and itis a cus- tom of the amorous spring to trade pigs with your best girl and to hang them around your necks. ‘They are more non-committal than engagement rings, but cavse great pleasure while they last. This takes place at the gingerbread fair, which opens its delightful revelry on Easter Scnday and runs through the month. In the east end of Paris, where three great streets—the Boulevard Voltaire, the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine and the Boule- vard Diderot—meet like a tripod, the great round Place de la Nation gives on a park- like avenue that leads out to Vincennes, be- yend the city limits. The Place de la Na- tion is better known in history as the an- cient Place du Trone of bloody memory, where the guillotine once worked. But long before that time it had a brighter reputa- tion with Parisians, and the reputation rests, well-founded, to the present day. For full 500 years. its wondrous fair of g.ngerbread has drawn all Easter-celebrat- ing Paris annually to the round place and park-like avenue. Once, doubtless, it was country, or, at least, suburban; now the city is built up beyond the barriers, out to Vincennes itself. The country has changed into city; but the country fair remains. It Is a country fair on a gigantic scale, and yet all Paria runs to frolic in it. Its vogue is so great that cach spring season sees the booths and tents encroaching fur- ther toward the center of the capital, down the Boulevard Voltaire and Faubourg Saint- Antoine. Tiese avenues and etreets and squares of busy commerce are given up in the most extraordinary way to merry-go- rounds, menageries, gide shows, tents and barracks, swings and Ferris wheels—and y call them “hygienic swings th cireuscs and moving taeaters and Punch- and-Judys. The folks who live along these Streets see and hear from their windows if night ani day, an arena of ‘al confusion. But instead of coin- plaining to the beard of health they think lucky to be near such a de- And they are envied by their friends who come to visit them with enthusiasm. Forms of Amuseme: nis ten times worse confound- id shrieks of melody from the brass of calliopes pieyed without ceasing mingle with the thin but penetrating wails ef lost children; and they are answered by the roars of performing lions and the ap- peals of traveling showmen on their plat- forms. The proprietors and performers form a separate old. ioned Bohemian = ¢ | Most of them live fin their traveling sous and are cn the move constantly from ove part of France to another. One li tamer, Bidel, with three splendid full- | gicwn animals, could get flattering Eu ropean engagements if he would quit h reving life. ‘There is another, with trained | mcnkeys, who has been familiar to Pari- | stans for twenty-five years at the ginger- | ead fair. No one has such monkeys. All the great French wrestlers have graduated from the fair booths, and there are sword: men in these troupes who could. give points to swell “masters-of-arms.” Therefore, the shows are r , for there is a deal of merit mingled with their ludicrous trash. ‘The Paris papers give them individual no- tices and criticisms. And the fact that they are rude, old-fashioned and count: fied is in their favor rather than against them. To have a just idea of what the ginger- read fair is like, imagine a very wide and dusty street. It is so dusty that the tender green of the fresh! horse chestnut leaves is already powdered an ugly white. There are two roadways in this street for | vehicles; but its center is a long, bare park-like promenade fringed by two rows of trees. Beyond the trees on either side is the roadway; beyond the roadway the sidewalk; and then tall rows of apartment houses. Along both sides of the central promenade, which answers to the middle of the street, are arranged the show things of the fair. Between them, for almost two miles, there jostles half of Paris, stopping, talk- ing, pushing, screaming, laughing, flirting, guying and being guyed, hustling and be- ing hustled. Ladies who come in thelr varnished carriages with powerful horses shaking silver chains, rub elbows with bloused workingmen; they buy and bite into the traditional gingerbread pigs; they at- tempt to throw iron rings over knives stuck into a board; they throw tennis ball at the wooden figures of the “massacre they ride from the flying horses; they buy pig-balloon, gamble for dabs of ice cream, shoot at targets for the drinks, and have their fortunes told. You can get rid of a deal of money at the gingerbread fair. “Ten dollars gone already!” Some of the Attractions. Although it is called the gingerbread fair, that is only a name. Other fairs seY as much gingerbread, and the gingerbread fair deals in the specialties of all the oth- ers, In this loud avenue there are booths for the cale of sausages left over from the ham fair of March, sausages of Lorraine, of Arles, of Strasbourg, of the Moselle, from Savoy and the Jura. There are trad- ers in the country produce of the depart- ment of the Meuse, from Alsace and all the east of France. There is cider from the Norman orchards, and there are Breton wo- men baking batter cakes. You may buy | and eat hot, fried potatoes, and you may drink and pay for licorice and water or | cheap absinthe. The peep shows and other shows are rumberless and terrifying in the grotesque- ness of their imaginations. “The Funeral of Pasteur,” “The Assassination of Presi- dent Carnot good; but “English Generals in Hell” and “The Rain of Frogs”—what do you think of them? One of the theaters WHAT OUR POET (THE N “['ve just reseived the proofs of my coll chair, and make yourself thoroughly com{c “Oh, that will be delightful, dariing! oni this little woo: know.” * Send down their | grees of fro y 1 stool without @ back to it—lesi I has,a melodrama called Madagascar,” where an Amazon prisoner captivates a French officer of high rank by ber noble sentiments, so that it ends in marr One of the shows, certainly a survival of the middle ages, is called sim- ply “Heil.” ‘ The “Theatre Archiartistiqu “twenty-five minutes of speciacle, repre- sented by men, women and children of the moet splendid beauty, with magnisicent ac- cessories, each belonging to its own age of the world. ‘Cupid and Psyche,’ execuied by the celebrated Phidias for the Gardens of Versailles; ‘The Venus of Milo,’ which is due to Michael Angelo; ‘Susanna and the Elders,’ painted by the iliustrious Rem- brandt for the Chicago exposition; ‘Napo- leon at Waterioo,’ attributed to Leonard da Vincl; ‘The Last Survivors of the Del- vse,’ from a contemporary photograph.” Ambitious Young Man. At the great Museum of Progress “met- empsychosis takes place every ten minutes.” At the Panopticum the celebrated Kabowls drinks eighty glasses of beer in fifteen min- vtes. In his tent an Arab boy sticks long nails up his nose ard needles in his eyes A sailor has a devil fish in a tub. A half dozen “Cafes of Death” dispute the at- tractions of the original establishment of the Boulevard de Clichy. You may see bal- lets, and there are anatomical with “no specimens made in Germany.” innocent brag of the fencers and wrestiers is delightful. Any spectator with sufficient confidence may get down from the audience and Wrestle with the champions; and it is a favorite practice for girls of the people to young men to show them off. Then, if you were near enough to the struggle, you might hear a whispered con- ‘ersation between the straining, twisting professional and ameteur: awe dollars if you let me throw you!” But my girl is herel* “You all have girls.” “Three dollars!” “Word of honor?” “Word of honor.’ ‘ And so Suzanne has her wish, and evs one applauds her Gigolo, but at what price! A Varicty of Pleasures. Close by the gingcrbread fair, to catch the overfiow, is the entrancing forest park of Vincennes, with its green, slimy lake nestling lugubriously in @ trampled wood, whore tree trunks have the eame unhealthy and forlorn hue. It is the sprinztime, when Parisians are gay and vigorous, the ladies tiittish, the men conquerors, and the chil- dren and the little dogs will prance and yelp for joy. The fair is an excuse to go rowdying in the Bois, and the Bois is an excuse to go gaping at the fair. The wood is gay with nursemaids and soldiers, with red trousers and blue blouses; the nurse- maids bright in their new Easter ribbons, the soldiers neat as pins, the workingmen with thelr ears washed and their mustaches newly curled. Family parties eat their Easter Sunday lunch upon the ground. Others patronize the small cafes, where they will buy only wine and a big tureen of soup. They have their own food in their baskets, and the management will lend them plates, knives end forks. They mak. deal of merry noise, their dogs fight, the: children lament and rejoice in turn, young man sings his song and the old ma tells his tale, as they sit In the rickety ar- bors and devour cold veal and onions with their gingerbread and garlic sausage. “Oh!” exclaim Americans, who would dis- dain such common joys at home, “how French, and how delightful!” It is early evening, in the long spring twilight of the north. The sun is setting in a dust of cold. The fair booths are in long lines, furiously painted, humped, unev. Sharp odors float through the air, sha: music beats against on The «1 takes one’s The ery of the hot waffle merchant and the tum-tum of the oriental stomach dance mix with th tooting of gazoos. Over all there mixed perfume of wild animals, fried me es, burnt gunpowder. lilac blossoms and t! flavor of ten thousand perspiring human is es. The in the tide, eyes and nose and ears delighic nday comes but once a year. STERLING HEILIG. eee eae an RATING FLOW by Which Pinnts Can Be Made to Bioom Out of the Season. From imbers’ Journal. Quite a revolution In horticulture has been in progress during the past decade, although, owing to the secret manner in which the experiments leading up to it have been conducted, comparatively few Persons have been aware of the new de- parture. Every one knows thet flowers, as well as fraits and vegetables, are force ORS. | So that those who are rich shall have the use of them before unaided nature brings them to maturity. This fore! an expensive one, requiring constant atten- tion and skilled labor. Many attempts, therefore, have been made to get at tho golden eggs by cheaper means, and as a result of many trials the opposite process to forcing has been adopted with success. The system consists in retarding the fow- ering of the plant by refrigeration and is, of course, only applicable to those which are hardy in this country, by which we mean those which will stand several de- The lily of the valley is one of them and it is much in request for pur- poses of decoration. Under the old fore ing conditions oaly about fifty per cent of the buds treated could be induced to flower, but by the freczing process an average of ninety-five per cent can UL secured from the end of summer up to Caristmas. It wil be noied that the process plied to evergreens of any ki would certainly be death to camellias and probally hyacinths aud tulips. It is said that near Berlin three growers alone have nearly three hundred acres of lily of the valley under cultivation, and that they have adopted the refrigerating method with great success. It has long ago been proved that the plant can be cultivated in Eng- land with equal success, and we trust that the new method will coon be tried on an extensive scale in this count: soo When Easter Bills Come In, From the Chicago Record. I love that penitential look On my dear wife's face It gives her such a love Of sacrificial grace. Bat when this Lenten time is o'er, And ehe in guuds doth shine, ‘That martyr look will leave ber foe And epread fiself on mine. 2 Gra legy. From the Boston Budget. A school teacher some time ago gave het pupils the “Elegy in a Country Church- yard” to study; and when they had p sumably studied it, she gave them a writ- ten examination. There is one boy in the class who is more given to ingenuity than to study. When he came to the question, “What is a ‘storied 15 business is urn?” his teacher saw him pa scratch hi The quest “ the meani unlettered muse” to cause ilderment. theless, he answered all the que: his own fashion. “ ‘Storied “means a tall urn, s ““Uniett he further on, that one cf the muses was an igu 4 muse, , commented refers to the well-known fact “mus.” on -aould suddenly feel sleepy, yor “The Wer ti’ oe :