Ladies' Column.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 387, 12 July 1879, Page 3

Ladies' Column.

LATEST FASHIONS.

A few years ago many of the materials now employed for toilettes habilles would have been considered only sufficient for walking dresses and other varieties of the toilette simple. Toilettes de visiter, dinner and fete dresses, for which satin, velvet, or some variety of silk fabric, would have been deemed a necessity, are now quite as ofteu made of one of these combined with some beautiful woollen material, such as Indian caohemire or its greatest rival, the French, and that known as the " Empress " cachemire. These materials must be of light shades. And if the garnitures are not the same tint they must be darker. Stripes will be Yery fashionably worn in woollen or wool and .silk materials, some with fine lines of silk of bright colors on neutral-tinted grounds make up very elegantly; these should be trimmed with silk the color of the design. Washing materials are carried to great perfection.this season, the floral designs known as Pompadour or jardiniere, according to the style, are many of great beauty. Skirts of plain sateen, cretonne, or batiste, with overdresses of washing materials, with either the ground or the designs of the same colors as the underskirt, will be one of the leading fashions for washing dresses. Colored ribbons will be much used a 3 garnitures. While on the subject of ribbons, we must draw our readers' attention to the very beautiful varieties now fashionable ; some are plain on one side, the other being Pekin, with plain or figured stripes ; others in Pompadour or jardiniere patterns, on silk or satin. Some are embroidered by hand in floral designs ; other woven, but so exquisitely shaded as to appear painted by hand. The most elaborate are of cloth of gold or silver in the centre, on which is a trail of flowers, the edge being a narrow strip of black or colored satin. All these ribbons will be most fashionably used in the trimmings of

dresses and bonnets. Lace will be_ worn in immense quantities, the more expensive qualities being reserved for evening wear, or very ceremonious day occasions. The struggle for precedence between the closely-setting drapery and the bouffants still continues ; neither is the least carried to extremes by any of the leading elegantes or their modistes, and the paniers and poufs are so thoroughly kept below the bips, that while adding to the graceful flow of the drapery, they do not make the figure i tself appear any larger. The spring cloaks and mantles are either in the casaque, the visite, or the mantelet form ; the two former are not so long as those worn in the winter. The coat and waistcoat with added basques is very fashionable. The materials are light cloth, vigogne, armure de soie, Sicilienne, and cachemire ; the colors, black, light grey, loutrc, almond, mastic, lichen, and cafe au lait.

PRIVILEGES OF THE FAIR SEX. (Erom the Anglo-Brazilian Times.) The writer, being a man, is authorized to prove that the lot of woman is much more enviable than that of man. He thinks it is a piece of fine luck to be born a woman. She has all the physical advantages over man. She possesses beauty in all its variety ; there never was an ugly woman in the world, such a phenomenon was never heard of ; being a woman is identical with beautiful. And ladies are not handsome, only, they have a better appreciation than man has of what is handsome, for even a bread-and-butter miss is fond of birds and flowers, while her brother robs nests and pulls the roses to pieces. A man has either a beard or he has none. In the former case he must spend a considerable part of every day in brushing and oiling it ; in the latter he has to shave, which is certainly a great nuisance. This terrible alternative does not exist for a lady, she can take her soup very gracefully, while a man will always find his beard a great hindrance. Nature has also ordained that woman shall have a longer life than man. It is proved by statistics that women live to a very old age, while men are far less privileged in this respect, so she has here another advantage on her side. But it is not only in the physical point of view she is privileged : she is still more _so in the social one. " Place for the ladies" is the law of the civilized world, from the equator to the poles. "Gentlemen, will not one of you have the kindness ?" the conductor of the omnibus calls out, and hardly said than done : one of the gentlemen hurries out, in spite of pouring rain or cold wind, to yield his place to a lady whom he had never seen before and whom he probably will never meet again. But who would ever ask a lady to give up her place to a man ? Such a thought would make your hair stand on end. A man who dared to harbor such a thought deserves to be hanged on the first lamp-post. And who get the titbits at table ? The ladies. Who get * sugar and spice and everything that's nice ?' Who get served first ? Who get the best seats at table ? Who eat ices in the theatre and at all the ball ? The amiable ladies, of course. But who pays for them ? The poor unfortunate men. Who stand hollow-eyed and famishing behind the chairs of feasting ladies ? Still the men. On whom are fortune's smiles bestowed ? On the ladies. And who is always made the scapegoat ? Man, ugliest and unluckiest of created beings. In the course of time everything changes : earth, bounds, seas, languages, institutions, man alone remains still the same wretched mortal, as Byron truly says. As regards woman, she is the masterpiece of creation, the world is her garden and man is her servant. Soon, too soon, he gets enslaved and bewitched by her charms. And if he loves and deserts the object of his adoration, the lady in question promptly sues him and gets good compensation ; while if the woman jilts a man everybody would laugh at him should he seek to have her punished by law. The lady can dress in the gaudiest and most costly way, wear silk and velvet, feathers, ribbons and lace ; whatever is fanciful and beautiful is at her command to set herself off to best advantage and make herself irresistible. Even little innocent songsters have to lose their lives in order to serve as ornaments to ladies' hats and, in fact, a bird on such a hat is worth very much more than two in a bush. Women sally out to conquer, and they succeed, while the poor devil of a man is condemned to dress always in the same way, with his horrid stovepipe hat, his monotonous trowsers and unvaried coat made of the wool of the sheep— lds near Icin. In fact; his whole dress only augments his innate ugliness and makes him look still more ridiculous, and never is he allowed, except in carnival time, to wear anything more becoming, lest he might eclipse the lustre of the angelic sex. So much as regards his exterior. But of still more importance are the advantages of the ladies in the serious affairs of life. Who works ? Who has to encounter every kind of weather —sun, rain, wind, snow, hail ? Poor, unlucky man. Who leaves the burning house last ? Who remains on the sinking vessel and drowns with it ? Who fights when there is war, who sheds his blood upon the battle field, who gets killed or mutilated ? Who else but unhappy man ? Meantime the ladies remain quietly in their comfortable rooms—-and it is quite right they should, for whilst our arms protect them theirs reward us. Still theirs is certainly the better lot in war as well as peace times. And what is more monotonous and tedious than a man's life and what is gayer and more amusing than a woman's ? Man his home early in the morning, to sit from six to ten hours in a prison, no matter what it is called, whether bureau, shop, office, jury, parliament, library or exchange. It is and ever will bo a prison for him and he must work, work without release. The lady, however, as soon as her husband has left, can go whither she pleases. She gives a few orders, with a celestial smile to her servants, and during the rest of the day she is mistress of her time and can amuse herself. She pays some butterfly visits, goes a-

shopping and spends her husband's money, visits the skating rink and has plenty of variety. Oh ! who would not like to be a woman ?

One more comfort the female sex has, the comfort of tears. If she has any imaginary or real grief she cries and all is over. To man this consolation is denied. His very heart may be bleeding but he must keep up without shedding a tearT Should he lose self-control, shoidd he show a tear, only one, people point at him and call him an old woman. A lady's looks, says Saville, has more power over us than the law and her tears more influence than all our arguments. A man may be ever so much in the right, a tear in his lady's eye overpowers him and he surrenders at discretion. I have sketched here only a few of woman's innumerable privileges, among which we must not forget that they are always in the right and will always have the last word. As for me, I have always regretted that I am not a lady and the mother of nine childen.