| Show t r t t CHARMS OF DAINTY CAP AND APRON AXE MANY with then their D decline clicc came the waar of domesticity attractive garments worn by the grandmothers of t ta e present genera tion are now seldom seen una upon a time it was not a mere inere figure of speech to say that a man was tied to a woman s apron strings or that a maiden bad had set her cap for a pos possible ible sweetheart the expressions rested upon an indent able if fluffy foundation of lawn and lace in those days the glory of good housekeeping as a guiding star for woman was still shining brightly in the firmament to today day according to the lamentations of the strenuous the decline of domestic sentiment is a matter for very serious apprehend slon sion many reasons are assigned for the trouble many remedies suggested but two facts are obvious first that long ago caps and aprons were fash conable and so was vas domestic sent domestic sentiment in theory at least while without them she can easily pretend that she never heard of such a thing as sentiment ot of any sort in 1744 aprons were worn so long that they almost touched the ground they were next shortened and then lengthened again before 1752 as a lady Is made to exclaim in grays gray s inn journal no 7 that short aprons are coming into fashion again in the beau s receipt for a lady s dress an excellent 4 epitome of fash ion in 1753 a woman Is told to furl ori oft your lawn apron with flounces in rows no lawn was too fine or lace too delicate for aprons then but ap parent ly they were not always alays white as massinger in bis his city madam printed in 1659 tells of young women wearing green aprons which they were ordered to tear off as being no longer fashionable beginning about 1835 short full 0 aprons of striped and pale colored gauzes and silks were used and trim med with silk cord while later in the the decline of taste was seen in the ponderously practical black silk aprons braided trimmed with velvet and embroidered trat was she be beginning of the end catherine therine Va hyde matt Pry fryers oreOs kitty beautiful and young bad had her ner portrait painted by charles jervas it hangs now in the national portrait gallery in london and she who was duchess of and the daughter of the earl of clarendon and rochester was seen wearing the simplest ot of lace caps and a lawn apron that was in the early eight benth century now what fashion able young woman would think of having her portrait painted in such a costume 9 the modern maid mald of all work can rarely be hired to wear a cap and while the mistress of one servant undoubtedly dons an apron on occasions she always whips it off before seeing visitors the fashionable woman of course delegates the wearing of caps and aprons to her smart maids who are usually blind to their charms and wouldn t wear them it if they could uld help it trained nurses are the only women to day who have wit and taste enough deliberately to adopt the cap and apron as part of theia costume with an intuitive app ap precia aloa of the perfect fitness of the gar ments tor for the tender and womanly nature of their profession an apron may express all such sat household virtues as purity ment second that nowadays caps and aprons are out of favor except as livery and home life is on the wane the conclusion may therefore be drawn that when wearing those useful garments as glorified symbols of domesticity a woman no matter how flighty scarcely ignore tied to a woman s apron strings thrift generosity daintiness ana capability and who shall speak de ri of a man tied to the strings of an apron such as this As tor for caps there Is hardly any limit tot td what may be expressed psychology psycho logi cally by a cap from a dom domestic estia point of view perhaps its most pleasing expression Is that of modesty relieved by sprightliness and a trap tor for the right sort of young man and ome sometimes times for the wrong sort it has proved effective in the extreme the generation of women who can fling away contemptuously tho charms of the cap and apron seem to have lost the domestic sentiment indeed trials of the drug clerk do you see that man asked ther the clerk in an up town drug store yes said the customer ligh lighting tInT a cigar what about him well said the drug clerk there s just this about him he s the absolute limit the stingiest white man in thid town why asked the customer at his cigar why just imagine w what bat he wanted just now he came I 1 in and told me he had got a prescription for some llna unu ment filled here two months ago and that it had been more than he needed he ile said he only used about halt half of it and he wanted to know it if we wouldn t i take back tho the ret and give him his money back or give him something else in exchange tor for it what do you think of that V 7 04 she set her cap for him the customer laughed what did you say he asked IV say shouted the drug clerk 1 I said it if he t clear out of this shop before I 1 could count ten I 1 id d kick him out so fast and so hard that he would have occasion to use up the rest of his liniment and the drug clerk walked wearily over to the soda water fountain fount itin to give a lady and her little boy one glass of ice cream soda nith ft ith two spoons OL |
