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Show mil! hi THE PAST It la the fashion. This has always been tho unanswerable roply to Protests Pro-tests against tho vagaries of costumo however freakish or unbecoming Men linvo-1 fallen into n coitaln dull routine, little changed from year to j car, In splto ot occasional offorts to Introduco startling lnnoutlons I Thus tho silk hat alters Hb shnpo each year; but It takes a number ot j cars to mako tho divergenco -very notlccablo, and that bat Ib tho samo ungainly piot.o of headgear at each Btogo of Its development. Trousors may bo tight or looso without Buffering Buffer-ing any. chango Into somothlng rich and strungo. Tho frock coat, popu lorly known ob a "Prlnco Albert," has recently gone out but Its successor succes-sor marks no stnrtllng doparturo. Women hove moro variety of taste, moro individuality. Tho garment of two years ago may bo called Indecent tuda ; tho garment of today may bo similarly reprobated two ji-ors honco. The nlco pooplo with nasty IdeaH j aro always hard to plcaso. How many , doimiKlntlons of tho hobble Ulri 'lunobecn dollvorcd to unheeding 1 femlnlno cnrsl But tho crlnollno was denuunccd Just as loudly m tho s ties. Tho much abused bodlcos that 'rovenl an amplo oxpauso ot throat aro qulto as modest as tbo deco lotto gowns thnt the young glrlB ot Jane Austen's day woru freely". Sklrta aro no longer so tight that they shock thoso who' seo something indelicate In tho human form, but thoy are shorter to make up; to tho tops ot tho boots Is tho latest dictum. And "flnring, bell Bhaped skirts distended hy wlro" nro, as tho fashion maga Linus would put It, lo domlcr crl. i Dancing frocks will bo "scalloped at 'tho bottom, with filmy undorsklrtB 'showing laclly beneath thorn." And I -thin black lace lmntlotB" aro also 1 in contemplation. ' Look bnck l tho fashion plates of tho rlxtles to tho old numbers of tlod noy's I.ndy Book, then, to And the propl".y of tho styloB to come. For I fashion obviously moe8 in Irrogulnr ! recurring cycles Thoro was n hint lately of tho Elizabethan ruff. Who lii ws but whnt Tudor will follow Mil! Victorian beforo women again, of. In tho eighties, dress like grooms? If tho women do not mind It, why should tho men complnln? In nny caso tho women will coutlnuo to dross exactly ns they please. Philadelphia Phil-adelphia Public Ledger. |