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Show NATIONAL COSTUMES PASSING. Correspondents note a remarkable de- ; Trllne in the number of national costumes Mvorn at the fisherman's ball at Boulogne. . " rThls, however, is only a particular exam- 1 pie of a general tendency. In the Valals, J tr Instance, nothing of the national j dress ia now worn except the hat. In Berne the dress is retained, but a straw hat of the latest fashion is substituted for' the old headdress of black lace shaped like a butterfiy's.wlngs; and every - traveler to 'the continent Is able to re-. re-. pert some similar sign of the times on his return. Presumably and Indeed ap-- ap-- parently it Is a social phenomenon, due to the spread of democratic sentiment. The upper classes do not wear such garb anywhere except at baxars and fancy dress balls; the peasant classes are learning,- in consequence, to regard it as i a badge of social Inferiority, and are "" leaving it off for that reason, preferring to follow the modes, at however great a distaance. It is a pity, for the modes as imitated by provincial dressmakers are seldom picturesque; whereas the traditional at- lire of the country folk in Switzerland, In , France, in Holland and Indeed almost everywhere, does really bestow grace upon the most home"ly figure. London Graphic. |