SENSATION SENTIMENT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7027, 15 January 1910, Page 11

SENSATION SENTIMENT

THE SIGNIFICANCE OIVMOURNING OVERDONE. ' ~ (By Our Lady Correspondent.) LONDON. December 3. Before mo is an.article signed by one of the leading fashion writers of England, headed "The Significance of Mourning." Illustrating the article is a full-length drawing depicting a young widow. Her skirt, 'her coat, her veil, have deep borders of crape, her vest and cufls are of crapo. and thero are lines and trimmines of it on her costume. A huge mid of heavy black silk, a funereal toque —the toute ensemble is-mournful and sombre and intensely miserable looking. In the letterpress occur these remarks. "Crape, in spite of its suggestiveness. is a wonderful fabric for enabling the wearer to combine sensation arid sentiment." To all appearances that sentence is put in in earnestness, and yet it is.surelv hard to conceive any keener insult that could be offered the memory of adead husband than that his wife should don the very garments of widowhood because—forsooth' —they excite "sensation and sentiment." That ehe who was satisfied with tho devotion and loving attention of one, should, when bereft of her beloved, crave sympathy—or 60-call-ed sympathy, in truth, curiosity—from ail men and women, should, so far forget the dignity of her- position as to allow sympathy, much loss deliberately attract it, is surely casting a slur on woman's capacity for nobility in suffering and that bravery ■ which hides, but never parades sadness. It is contended by many—men being in the majority—that mourning, far from being' a necessity, is ever only a pitiful reminder for the wearer and those with whom she comes in contact, and somewhat of a mockery, but this, again, is wronß Mourning is decidedly a necessity, in tiat it protects tho wearer from being

called unon to discuss her sorrow and ■ward's off, from ihe person of taot and' understanding,-questions that it would bo exceeiinslv nainful to answer. Th« tactless being nothing can protect one from.

A second plea irt favour of mourning is that while it pains it vet soothes. Bright vivid colours are. after all. indicative of ioy and enjoyment, and for the bereaved these do not exist in the ordinary 6ense, therefore it would be incongruous for her to appear in colours. There oxenses for mourning end.

Any exaggeration must be advertisement—tho woman on the Continent absolutely swathed in crape, -with a veil weighted with streamers of crape that reaches to her feet, a scarf of the same material, a black-bordered handkerchief; the man with his top hat hidden under a mourning band that is threequarters of the height of the hat, tho little bright-haired child put into crape that cannot express a child's sorrow—what is all this but an advertisement of bereavement, and an open invitation of sympathy from outsiders? A PEIVATE PERFORMANCE An armful of lilies she carried; Herself was tho queen of theni all; Of mv legerdemain I'm a little bit vain— And wet met, quite by chance in the hall. To grasp her I suddenly sprang, And boasted: "Now look to you* posies! A, sound somewhat strange, (With presto, ex-change). And I had an armful of roses! —Edwin Sabin. The woman who gets married for the sake of the homo life makes a mistake; and, what is worse, she finds it out. A woman can do a man's work in a much more dignified manner than & man can do a woman's.