Evening Star Newspaper, September 6, 1931, Page 58

. .. If Standards of the M ogz'e'rn HWoman Are to Become Anything Like the Stand- ards of the French Em- press, Whose Funny Little Feathered-and-Bird- Trimmed Bonnets Are in Such Good Styvle Now, Reformers I'ill Be Uz - wsually Busy This Coming : 4 LS cdson. They made a very dignijicd and staid appearance. A photograph taken in 1860, showing Napoleon 11l and Eu- genie dressed in the fashions of the time. BY HELEN WELSHIMER. LL of the morali-ts are stressing the fact thet the new fashions are her- alding the return of the o'd-fash- ioncd woman. Now il's the style to wear the kind of a hat that Empress Bugenie did— a perky litile bonnct with a small brim, challow crown, audacious e} e-¢ip, and an ostrich feath- er, known in fashion circles as thz “Queen Eugenie” hat. The hat may bring back a sweet and vir- tuous charm, the moia'ists bclieve, but Eugenie and the Parisian ladies certainly didn't find that it worked that way. If their influence is getting to work in th2 new fashions there is a very interesting Winter ahead. Dressing the way th2 last French Empress drsssed is one thing—but acting the way she acted is 'somcthing else sgain. And if American women are going to copy anything out of Euge- nie’s book besides her hats the reformers will have to gird themselves for action in a big way. Empress Engenie, who was the nineteenth century fashion queen, as ! a5 the wife of Napoleon I1I, didn't know exactly who her father was, according to a good many historians, However, her mother, a Spanish gitl, had mar- ried the Count de Montijo, so Eugenie took his name. Tongues wagged in the salons of Madrid, though, and Eugenie was ofl to a gay start long before the amorous younz Emperor spied her. Her mother helncd her along. The Countess of Montijo was very frivolous and very merry. She wanted every one around her to dance and sing. She entertained a large number of actors and actresses at her country home so she could put on theatricals. Her two daughters, Francesca and Eugenie, were fashioned after her own heart. They liked love and suitors, too. UT just at first Eugenie thought that if she couldn’t have the one she wanted, she wouldn’t play the game with any one else. The Duke of Alba was the man she wanted. However, he was just as nice to her 16-year-old sister as he was to 15-year-old Eugenie. One day the mother of the two girls told the gallant Spanish grandee thet it was high time he decided which omne of her daughters he wanted. Eugenie, passionately in love, hid be- hind the door to wait for Alba’s answer. He asked for Prancesca. The tempestuous maiden with the flame-red hair immediately teok poison. She didn't die, although she was ill for a long time. And she didn't forget the Duke of Alba, either. ‘To keep from remembering she threw herself into every pleasure that came along. Eugenie galloped through the streets of Ma- drid, on her horse, smoking cigarettes and cigars @ followed by the young bloods of the city —which could hardly be called an old-fash- : ioned touch. She went to the bullfights, flirted with the . toreadors, and presented them with red caps embroidered in gold. Y UDT AT b e “Eugenie galluped through the THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTOYN, D. C., SEPTEMBER 6, 1931, streets of Madrid on her horse, smoking cigarettes and cigars and fcllowed by the young bloods, which could hardly be called an old-fashioned touch:” Surprising Moral Significance Of the New Queen Fugenie Hats “The hat may bring back a sweet and virtuous charm, but Eugenie and the Parisian ladies certainly didn’t find it worked that way.” She carried a sharp-pointed dagger in her belt, which is a little more advanced than any- thing the present offers. All in all, she turned into such a bewitching beauty that every wild young man of Madrid, and some that weren’t so wild, fell in love with her. Eventually Queen Isabella of Spain ap- pointed charming Eugenie as one of her maids- of-homor. The Queen learned that her new attendant ‘was very fond of mocnlight strolls. Every night she went walking—not alone, but with a certain young page. Isabella, though not strait-laced in any way, dismissed Eugenie, Eugenie was growing a little tired of her ad. ventures. She decided to enter a convent. An aged nun decided that Eugenie wasn't the type. She told her that she was born to grace a throne, net a cloister, so the future Empress of France, who was destined to have a hat named for her, went back to the world to find a hus- band with & crown. OBODY knows when Louis Napoleon me$ Eugenie. Some say that it was in 1847-48, just after she and her mother had left the court and Madrid. Napoleon had been a harum-scarum sort of youth who used to ride down the streets, shoot- ing, jumping fences, smiling at pretty girls. He was rather small and not very talkative. Mile. de Montijo, as Eugenie was known before her marriage, wanted to marry Napo- leon and be the Empress. But she was clever enough to keep the knowledge from him. Every- where she went men flocked to receive a daze gling smile. The group included Napoleon. Por two years or longer Eugenie kept him fascinated. She was very careful to let him know that he couldn't have her unless he mar- ried her. Napoleon, very much in love, forgot all about wanting a princess of royal blood, and proposed. So she married Napoleon c¢n January 30, 1853. The church bells of the capital all pealed forth, and 101 guns thundered a salute as she went to Notre Dam:> for the ceremony. Pretty soon every one was talking about the manner in which the beautiful young Empress was trying to imiiate Marie Antoinette, espe- cially the faults and foib'es of the unfortunate Queen. RAND parties were tiie vogue at the pale ace. Eugenie's toilettes were the rage of Paris. Her equippage, wh°n she went riding, wa$ magnificent. She was as extravagant as . she pleased, and Napoleon highly approved of her every act. However, she discovered that her husband, although he really 1oved her, was a very fickle man. He went from one amour to another, He had a whole successicn of mistresses. Somebody told Napoleon, one day, that he wasn't playing fair with his Eugznie. “I was faithful to her during the first six months of our union,” he answered, “but I need little distractions . . and I always re- turn to her with plezsure.” If the wife of Napoleon III had been the type of woman that the moralist thinks wore the ostrich-plumed hats she would have been shocked. Not Eugenie! She didn't like it, but she was game. She started to pick out beautiful women te amuse her husband. Eugenie herself had a great number of ardent admirers. But it is said she didn’'t have any lovers. What was all right, for Napoleon wouldn’t have been for her ard she was wise enough to know it. ‘The Empress who set the styles in‘ fashions had a wayward sireak that liked adventure. One time, while at Fountzinbleau, she decided to go to a rustic dance in the vil'lage. She told one of her ladies-in-waiting about it, ard the woman got two peasant costumes. That night they drove to a hut in the woods, changed their clothes, and entered the dance tent to mingle with the dancing peasants. Some of the peasants tried to make them dance. The shining, lovely Empress wouldn't. When she had been a girl in Madrid, she remem- mered. . . . But she was an Empress now! Just abcut the time that one of the workmen put his arm around Eugenie and another kissed her lady-in-waiting, the husband of the lady- in-waiting arrived. His wife confided in him. HE court shook its head. It was agreed that the Empress Eugenie was eover- riding entirely too many conventions. Meantime Eugenie was fascinated by clethes. ~ P4 Contiuned on Fifteenth Page