The Ladies' Column.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 828, 15 August 1876, Page 7

The Ladies' Column.

EMPLOYMENT EOR LADIES,

One of the difficulties of the day is to find employment for languid ladies overladen with leisure. Some work flowers in crewel worsteds ; some make scratchy pen-drawings, miscalled etchings ; some etch in good earnest, and bravely spot their dresses with aqua fords and stopping out varnish ; many paint in oil ; most dabble in water-color ; some sketch from nature ; more from chroino-lithographs after Eobotham ; some engrave on wood, others carve it ; some make cunning fretwork with little saws ; some illuminate with gold and colors from their own designs ; but many more buy their outlines with directions where to daub the colors and gold. And it must be admitted that though the rank and file of the sex is painfully liable to be led astray by designing tradesmen with "materials " to sell, and deplorably afraid of judging for itself in matters of taste, the average excellence of feminine productions has greatly risen of late years. Its Berlin woolwork and its crochet were always frankly horrible and ugly; but some of the recent embroidery is quite charming. The field of employment too is expanding. We observe that • The Queen ' has opened its columns to the irrepressible Dr. Hunter, late of the Madras School of Art, who has kindly undertaken to teach the ladies of England the art of modelling on clay, as he curiously expresses it. There are few things in the whole range of science and art that the ci-devant surgeon-major of the Madras Army would not undertake to teach; but sculptors are inaccessible as a class, and it seems just a little preposterous that an amateur should be allowed to take a place which could only be satisfactorily filled by a trained expert. Since England ia said to be learning so much from India, perhaps they are but now discovering the great fact, long known to us, that your amateur is your only artist. — ' Pioneer,' While the extravagance of female dress is, the ' G-lobe ' says, still on the increase, a clever plan has been devised in Paris for counteracting some of its effects. It is announced that a benevolent lady has started in one of the principal streets a school where ladies of the highest social position can learn the art of making their own dresses. Instruction is given them in the art of cutting out first the patterns, and then the stuff itself, of making up the materials, and, in fine, the whole mysteries, however intricate, of the dressmaker's art. It ia of course impossible to say how far the young Parisiennes will avail themselves of the opportunity thus offered to cut down their expenses and employ their time. But of the success of the institution amongst a certain class of ladies of the very highest rank there can be no doubt at all. Its advantages are too obvious to be ignored by any one whose inclinations towards economy are not cramped by any false shame ; and if a similar opportunity should ever be afforded in England it will be embraced with enthusiasm by a large number of amateur modistes.- There is no reason why a lady of gentle birth should not make as good a cutter-out of dresses as her inferior in the social scale. On thecontrary,in a matter which demands the exercise of so much taste, she ought beyond question to excel. The dressmakers themselves, who thus see the secrets of their profession rudely thrown open to the world, will naturally fight with all their strength against so monstrous an invasion of their privileges. They will do their best to stamp with lasting infamy any lady who shall demean herself to go to the new school, But unless we are much mistaken the common sense qf the community will triumph over all their remonstrances. They will have to contend, not only against the more economical and industrious of the ladies, but against the whole tribe of husbands, who, however ihey may differ upon the subject of board schools or free universities, will pretty unanimously vote for this particular phase of the higher education of women.

BONNETd,

A eatable change is taking place in bonnets, although to the inexperienced eye thia change may not be at first obeervable s as the bonnets are still worn either Quite at the back of the head, or over the nose aa hitherto. But take one of these bonnets in the hand and analyse it. It has a high " Restoration " crown, a <( cabriolet" brim, which is growing higher and higher every season, and. a curtain, which grows deeper and desner as the front briers grows higher. Then the interior, of the brim is filled in with a full ca.p of fluted tulle, The exterior of the crown is covered with feathe! s, which fall oyer it in, all directions, whilst a bow wjth, very long ends hangs down the back from under the curtain. Sometimes a tuft of seasonable flowers is also added to the inteiuor of the bar-k curtain. But there are not any flowers mixed in the front cap.

This is one new bonnet. But there are aa many new shapes and styles a3 there are HRORth.3 in the year, and each one is pretty find becoming, so that if a lady looks plain now it really is because she wishes to do so.

The first requisite for a bonnet or bat to £t v^ell is to have the hair dressed for it. High chignons ar© quite impossible with the present style of bead dress. Mo»t ladies wear their hair in long nets at the back. With this style it is rare that a cap o? bonnet does not fit well and comfortably to the head. The " baby " shape, like its sisters, has gone through a chaDge, The crown is no longer puffed as it used to be. It is quite flat at the back like a Highlander's cap. It is pleated round the brim, in order to fit closely round the head, but this pleating is so Bmall that it can be Scarcely seeo, The. brim itself, which lies

flat on the forehead, is drawn like the brims of old-fashioned drawn bonnets. The exterior is surrounded by a louleau of ribbon, which falls at the back in long streamers. Emerging from the back is a tuft of three feathers, faUing partly over the crown and partly over the neck. The interior of the brim is generally made of the color and material of the dress itself.

Our old friend " sailor " is also reappearing in new trim. The crown ia wide, but flat, and the brim very high and straight. It is made of black straw. The brim is lined with black velvet, as also is the band, which serves as headpiece under the brim. Thia foundation is trimmed with two rows of ecru lace placed reversed ways. The inner edges of this meet in the centre, and their juncture is concealed by a wreath of seasonable flowers, with foliage and buds, hanging like a fringe over the forehead. The back, or exterior of this hat, has not any trimming whatever. All the trimming is within the brim. But I have seen another " sailor " hat just the reverse, with all the trimmings on the exterior, and I think that this i 3 even morebscomingforyounggirla and children, for whom, indeed, "sailor " hats are chiefly intended. This latter, also of black straw, with a very wide and high brim, was lined within with " sailor '' blue silk — nothing else. The back, or crown, was encircled with a wide ribbon of " sailor " blue Bilk, and a gold anchor, with other seamen's implements, were attached to the bow at the back. Such a hat must have a corresponding costume, otherwise it would lose all its chic. ■ Then, again, we have the round toque, which appears to be the hat par excellence for general wear. It is perfectly round, like a " pork pie." The brim is covered wilh flat feathers, either of solophore, wild duck, peacock, grebe, &c. The crown is equally surrounded by a band of the same feathers ; while from a bird's head in front issue two wings of the bird, whatever it may be, which entirely cover the crown. The hair is worn in a net with this bat, which comes from the best millinery establishment in Paris, and is seen on the most aristocratic heads that now daily frequent tho Bois.

I have not yet done. I come to our " Flora " bonnets. These are a mass of flowers. All that ia seen of them is a wreath of flowers surrounding the head. From this wreath falls a long fringe of foliage over the back of the hair, and from this again ieaue t*\o long sprays at each side, which are brought forward under the chiu, where they are loosely tied together in guise of strings. These flower strings are now universally appended to every bonnet on which there is a flower for trimming. — ' Lady Trea-

sury.'