PORTRAIT OF A LADY.-FROM A PAINTING BY L. ALMA-TADEMA, R. A., EXHIBITED IN THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF 1887. THE BALM OF GILEAD TREES. | thing to laugh about, and one thing an BY MARIAN DOUGLAS. OES the wind blow from paradise? What fragrance fills the breeze? Why weep o'er partings, when the time "The excellence of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE seems to increase constantly. The aim of its editor seems to be to get the greatest variety of matter, and to have verything short, crisp, and interesting." "-The Epoch, New York. HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY. The number for May 8th is a more than usually attractive one. Among other things, it contains the first chapter of a short serial story entitled HELD FOR RANSOM, BY ALICE WELLINGTON ROLLINS, with a front-page illustration by W. A. ROGERS. In addition to an instalment of her serial story, "The Household of Glen Holly" (with its charming full-page illustration by MISS ALICE BARBER), MRS. LUCY C. LILLIE has a short article 66 on Toyshops and Toy-Makers. MR. CHURCH'S page of" Funny Things at Barnum's" is accompanied by an article by ALLAN FORMAN. CHARLES HENRY WEBB has a poem called "My Boy at the Berkeley," and W. SERGEANT KENDALL writes about "Caesar, and a Few Words on DogTraining." C. S. BUSH has a page of comic drawings. ་་ A SUPPLEMENT (which is especially intended for parents, teachers, and the older readers) contains two articlesGymnasiums for Girls," by MARY E. ALLEN, a lady who has made a special study of the physical training of girls; and "What Girls and Boys should Wear," by CHRISTINE TERHUNE HERRICK. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $2 00 PER YEAR. A specimen copy of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE will be sent on application. In the number of HARPER'S WEEKLY dated May 19th, will be issued the first instalment of a serial story of unusual interest, entitled "A WAR-TIME WOOING," HARPER'S BAZAR. MAY 26, 1888. TERMS: 10 CENTS A COPY.-$4 00 A YEAR. Our next number will contain a PATTERN-SHEET SUPPLEMENT, with a rich variety of full-sized patterns, illustrations, and descriptions of SPRING and SUMMER TOILETTES, comprising BRIDAL DRESSES; COMBINATION COSTUMES; MORNING GOWNS; CORSAGES and JACKETS; BOYS' and GIRLS' SUITS; Fancy- Work, etc., etc.; with choice literary and artistic attractions, IN THE PUBLIC EYE. T is interesting to observe an important I change that has taken place in the gen eral opinion in regard to the dress of women who are prominently before the public, especially those in more or less of an intellectual capacity. Not very many years ago the idea of the appearance of a literary woman was more that of a bundle of rags, so to say, than of anything remotely resembling a fashion plate. She was called a blue-stocking derisively, and it was taken for granted that there were holes in her own stockings, that her slippers were down at the heel, that her hair was either in curlpapers or in the snarls of dishevelment, that her gown was crumpled and rumpled and soiled with grease spots, that her buttons, her hooks and eyes and strings, were all at loose ends, that she was a frump and a slattern, totally regardless of appearances in her yearnings for the infinite, and that a sacrifice to the frivolities of fashion on her part would be a sacrifice of all the great claims of intellect and learning and fame. There seems to have been small ground for this sort of opinion regarding women of brains even in the older times; HANNAH MORE, Mrs. BARBAULD, JOANNA BAILLIE, Miss EDGEWORTH, and others both preceding and succeeding them, dressed as ladies swers as well as another after the habit of the laughter is once established, as witness many of the utterly senseless jests of to-day regarding the ice-cream saloon, or the redhaired girl, or the mother-in-law. But the idea of which we speak did not die with the generations that have died; it held over into our own day. It was expected that the woman who showed brains should not show beauty, unless she were of the pale poetic type, a Mrs. HEMANS or a MARIA DEL OCCIDENTE. If she were of a scientific turn, if she had a taste for political discussion, if she believed in claiming more rights for women, she was then entirely out of character if not so absolutely ill dressed as to be a wonder to look upon. A woman in business was pictured to the fancy much as if she went perforce without any tournure to her skirts or any ruffle at her throat, a crossed handkerchief on her breast answering all purposes of heightening the toilette; and she who asserted the wrongs or claimed the rights of woman was properly supposed to wear Bloomers and no less. But look now at any council or congress of women, at any convention whatever where they are assembled for deliberation and advice with each other, those who are attending to literature and science, those who are concerned with religion and temperance, those who are seeking the suffrage. The first thing about the whole body of these women which strikes the eye of the spectator is the pleasant womanliness of their attire. Hardly one of them makes herself conspicuous by reason of neglect of toilette, or of assumption of personal preferences in dress to any point of eccentricity; and if by chance one ventures so far, she is regarded by the rest as an oddity, and disapproved, as an oddity is set down among men when, as not infrequently, he turns up in the opposite sex. Each woman here is attired like a lady, with due regard to her means, her figure and style and complexion, and that without the plain ones even evincing the egotism which seems to beg the world to believe that the owner of the unbeautiful face does not want to be suspected of being such a fool as to be unaware of it. In fact, so much is precisely the opposite course in question that we now and then see among such women as charming coquetries in dress and manner as are to be seen in any drawing-room, showing plainly that women do not think they abdicate their other rights, their rights of receiving love and admiration, in claiming something more, while they do as Petruchio promised Katharine that she should, in the matter of dress, "revel it as bravely as the best, With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings, With ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales, and things, With scarfs, and fans, and double change of bravery, With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery." And as it regards business women, those. who go daily to counting-rooms and desks and offices, and to the performance of duties kindred to those found in these places, the bitterest enemy of the idea of women's ceasing to be dependent for support upon the effort of some man, and venturing out from the shelter of the hearth to earn their livings or make their fortunes, could make no unkind criticism of their dress that would not be a false one also, it being neat, orderly, close-fitting, without superfluities, unhampering, and weather-proof, and in every way as well adapted to their especial work as any business man's morning suit is to his own employment. Could more be asked in the way of suitableness, propriety, and common-sense? Very possibly the same women who have attended to office and desk or counter work all day in their plain and severe dress will, on returning home, put on dainty wear, and appear with whatever effectiveness of person and toilette nature and the milliner have given them; but while about their duties they are clad, with a few sporadic exceptions, of course, in that which becomes them as people of business, and not at all with any view to merely feminine grace and attractiveness. Thus old ideas pass and new ones are recognized; and among the old ones none are so thoroughly exploded with every one who takes the pains to observe as the one which has held that in her dress a woman, when pursuing professional business or other public occupation, must necessarily be what is called a guy. Mrs. Cameron, the celebrated amateur photographer of the Isle of Wight. His later poems signally failed to keep up his poetic reputation, in spite of the fine delineation of Coleridge in "Edwin the Fair"; but this volume, which contains not only his own letters, but many addressed to him, has some of the best literary gossip since Crabb Robinson, and moreover a curious letter written from Washington in 1842, by James Spedding, the well-known editor of Bacon. Mr. Spedding, like the late Mr. Arnold, did not like American men very well, but took kindly to American women; unlike Dickens, who, when visiting this country during that same year, apparently found the women the more offensive class of the two. But the general tradition of foreign observers is in favor of this preference. The gay young Frenchmen who visited Newport, Rhode Island, during and after the Revolution felt very free to compliment their hostesses at the expense of their hosts; and De Tocqueville, visiting this country in 1831, spoke more favorably of the heads than of the hearts of American maidens:" Les femmes américaines ont, en général, un esprit orné, mais peu d'imagination et plus de raison que de sensibilité." Among the earlier English travellers, Thomas Ashe wrote in 1806 a bit of discrimination which might have furnished a condensed brief for Mr. Arnold's later verdict. "I assure you,' he says, "that when I expressed the supreme disgust excited in me by the people of the United States, the ladies were by no means included in the general censure.' In the same way Mr. Anthony Trollope, publishing twenty-five years ago a book almost universally uncomplimentary to those of his own sex in this country, has a really striking picture of what is done by the American system of public education for the average woman. 'Nothing surprises an Englishman more," he says, " than the difference between a free school in London and in New York. The female pupil at a free school in London is, as a rule, either a pauper or a charity girl; if not degraded, at least stigmatized by the badges and dress of the charity....We see the result afterward, when the same girls become our servants and the wives of our grooms and porters. The female pupil at a free school in New York is neither a pauper nor a charity girl. She is dressed with the utmost decency. She is perfectly cleanly. In speaking to her you cannot guess whether her father has a dollar a day or $3000 a year. Nor will you be enabled to guess by the manner in which her associates treat her. As regards her own manner to you, it is always the same as though her father were in all respects your equal." This statement from a most unwilling witness reminds me strongly of the time when I took the late Mr. Arnold to visit the Normal Art School in Boston, and found it hard to make him comprehend that the young men and maidens whom he saw at work were actually being educated by the State to teach art in the public schools, whereas he insisted upon it that they must be well-bred amateurs, who had taken up these pursuits as young ladies in England take up water-colors. CHOICE COOKERY. BY CATHERINE OWEN. HESE papers do not pretend to go into what may be called the principles of cooking, except in so far as they are involved in the production of all choice cookery; and where it is considered that a principle is little known or too little attended to, the effort will be made to give it emphasis by reiteration here. By principles of cooking I mean the simple rules by which roasting, boiling, stewing, etc., are successfully accomplished. Any book or series of articles written a dozen years ago would have been of no real use without these rudiments, but within that period there have been cooking schools started and cookery books written so exceedingly exact in directions that it will be unnecessary to repeat them in "Choice Cookery,' which does not pretend to include family cooking. For this reason the cooking of joints of meat will not be entered into. Nevertheless there are certain rudiments of cooking which are not dwelt on usually in books. They are taught in the cooking schools, and those of my readers who have had the advantage of attending them will not need the instruction here given. But I meet with many women who devote much time to the art of cooking and who have taught themselves by book and experiment all they know, who yet, when told to chop a small quantity of herbs very fine, will struggle and chop almost leaf by leaf in their faithful endeavor to carry out the direction. Others, less faithful, finding their method chops some parts fine and leaves some leaves almost whole, let it go at that, with the reflection that "that must do, as it would take all day" to get them all one degree of fineness. So, although it may seem almost too trivial a point to need mention, we will go into the matter of herb-chopping, lemon-grating, etc., that the simple operations may be performed easily and in a very short time." To Chop Herbs.-Use the leaves only, never the stems; let them be fresh and crisp, or, if wilted, leave them in water for a time. Gather the leaves firmly between the thumb and three fingers of the left hand; shave them through with a sharp knife as you push them forward under it. (The process resembles chaff-cutting by hand-machine.) Turn them round; gather them up again, and cut across them in the same way; then finish by chopping quickly, holding the point of the knife with the left hand and bringing it down on the little heap of herbs with the right, always gathering them together as fast as the chopping scatters them. Five minutes will chop a table-spoonful of mint or parsley almost to pulp. A sharp steel, knife and a small board must be used, not the chopping-bowl. French books often direct so much fine herbs to be used; English books mean the same thing when they call for "sweet herbs," and a mixture of one part marjoram, two parts thyme, and three parts parsley is meant by both. case. The grating of a lemon is a most simple operaTo return to Mr. Spedding, his favorite point is tion, and it may seem that every one must know that while in America "the manners of the the ho how to do it; but this is far from being the men are more formal than in England, the manAs many dishes of curdled custards and ners of the women are less so." (6 The women sauces are caused by this fact, the right way in strike me as remarkably simple and unaffected in this case is very important. The object of using their manners, and easy to converse with. They grated rind of lemon is to obtain the fragrance don't keep one standing so long in that awful and flavor, which differ very greatly from any exvestibule of commonplace through which.... tracts, however good. Now the whole of the oil English women.... must be approached, but let which contains this fragrance is at the surfaceone come without more circumstance at what is, in fact, the yellow portion of the rind; therethey think. You feel that you are exchanging fore this, and only this, must be removed with thoughts with a reasonable soul" (p. 137). Then the grater. The white part underneath is bitter, he afterward advances the theory "that it is be- and will cause milk or cream to curdle, but it cause the women in America are better educated contains no particle of lemon flavor. Yet when than the men, and generally acknowledged to be lemon flavor is called for the lemon is often grated right down to the pulp in parts, while the yellow rind is left on in patches. So. While the men are talking about dollars, they are reading books; and so it comes that the capacity of your American woman is recognized: by others and felt by herself, and she feels responsible for it. Now your English woman is generally not so well educated as your English man, that is to say, the fashionable female education is an inferior and superficial thing compared with the fashionable male education in England.... They are treated like toys, till they forget that they are anything better....I beg that before I return all English women may be convinced that they were made to think and to judge and to know, and that all sensible men (except perhaps one) value them for their sense and not for their nonsense" (pp. 138-9). It is to be remembered that all this was written in 1842, before the days of Vassar College in this country or Girton College in England, and at a time when the High-School system and a few good private schools were giving an advantage to American women, though doubtless far less than he supposes. Undoubtedly the men whom Spedding met at Washington were mainly interested in national politics, for which he naturally did not care much; while the women who read books at all were reading very much the same new books that he read. Indeed the inferiority of English boarding-school education still makes itself felt socially, as I experienced when an English girl of seventeen, who had spent several years in one of the best of these schools, asked me if Thackeray was not an American. But probably the real key to the frankness and good sense which Mr. Spedding found in the women of our own country lies in the greater habitual courtesy accorded to them in public-a habit which is a little difficult to explain, as it is certainly neither English nor French; a habit which led an English woman after returning home to write to the late Henry T. Tuckerman, of New York: "Not a day passes but I regret that paradise of my sex-your country. There my womanhood alone was my safeguard and distinction." (Tuckerman's America and her Commentators, p. 282.) T. W. H. A lemon should be grated evenly, beginning at the end and working round it, using as small a surface of the grater as possible, to prevent waste. The habit of turning the lemon as you grate comes as easily as to turn an apple under the knife when peeling. Generally twice across the grater and back between each turn will remove all the essential oil, but, while guarding against grating too deeply, care must be taken to remove the whole of the yellow surface. A well-grated lemon should be exactly of the same shape as before, have no deep scores into the pith, and have an oily-looking surface. Perhaps before proceeding to the preparation of the combination dishes known as made dishes or entrées, a few words may be useful to those readers whose ambition to accomplish results may cause them to defeat their own ends. To such I would say: go slowly; never attempt the more difficult thing until the simpler one is beyond chance of failure. Thus in following these papers the wiser women will have accomplished each week one or two things they may have selected, and it must not be forgotten the plan of the papers is that one recipe shall serve as a key to many others. A great many will very likely have delayed trying to make the sauces until the dish for which they will be required is given. This is a mistake, because it is less annoying to fail with a sauce with no dish depending on it, than say, when you have decided to have sole à la Villeroi, the soles being ready, and fail with the sauce. I hope that no failure will come to any one trying the recipes here given, but in some cases, especially in sauces thickened with eggs, a second's diverted attention may cause failure without fault of the cook. Therefore it is best to make single experiments when there is no danger of being disturbed, and when there is nothing else to be attended to. The successful result need never be lost, for in the case of sauces they can be reheated the next day in a bain-marie, or pan of hot water; the same with the soups, and, in deed, most other things, except soufflées and omelets. But, above all things, never try a recipe for the first time the day you wish it to appear perfect on your table; try it long before, and if you fail, make the same thing over again, reading the directions very carefully; some trifling caution or precaution may have escaped you. No one ever learns to draw so simple a thing as a circle who is discouraged at the first bad curve, and leaves it for easier lines. Keep on at the thing you select to do until you succeed, always choosing and perfecting the easiest thing in each paper first. Fillet of Beef.-This favorite dish with French and Americans may be roasted whole, or cut so as to serve individually. To roast it whole, it must be trimmed perfectly round, and either larded or not as taste may dictate. A fillet weighing four pounds should be roasted three-quarters of an hour in a sharp oven. It may then be served à la Châteaubriand by pouring over it half a pint of the sauce of that name, with horseradish sauce, or brown mushroom sauce (brown sauce with mushrooms added). To serve individually, fillets are prepared in the following way: Cut a fillet into eight slices threequarters of an inch thick; trim the slices into perfect circles, all exactly the same size; flatten them; put them in a hot pan, and sauté for seven or eight minutes in two ounces of butter; dress them round a dish, and pour over them the sauce from which the dish will take its name. Filets de Boeuf à la Béarnaise.-Serve with half a pint of Béarnaise sauce. Filets de Boeuf aux Champignons.-Dress as before; leave in the centre of the dish room for a mound of stewed mushrooms; pour over the fillets half a pint of rich brown sauce. Serve these dishes as soon as cooked: the meat is spoiled by waiting. the hips, instead of being curved upward on the sides as basques are, yet is not so long as when first introduced. The fronts do not meet, and fall carelessly open from the shoulders down to show the waistcoat beneath, which is complete under the outside fronts, beginning in the side seams of the coat. This is pretty in gray cashmere with short velvet revers in wide Directoire shape sewed on the fronts of the coat, while the vest is of gray repped silk, trimmed down each side of the buttons, along its lower edges, on the pockets and collar, with narrow silver gimp, or else with a light vine of embroidery done in white and silver. Golden brown cashmere is similarly made up over a Suède waistcoat which is wrought along its edges with gilt thread in a vine pattern scarcely an inch wide when finished. Pretty wool dresses worn as slight mourning are of very large plaids of black and white, made with a pointed waist, with the drapery sewed on its edges to give a polonaise effect, and showing now and then a wide pleating of the same on the foundation skirt. The corsage laps to the left side, and the lapped edge is followed by fichu folds of the plaid wool set in quite broad on the right shoulder, but graduated to a point on the left side at the waist line, where a bow or rosette of black velvet holds it. Some black velvet is set in as a V-shaped plastron, and cut steel buttons and gimp are the trimmings. The small black straw bonnet is without strings, and has its front edge covered with Parma violets. Pale French gray remains a favorite color for spring cashmeres made up entirely of the fine wool, excepting a vest of tucked satin surah, and with steel trimmings. Gray nuns' veiling with wide selvage, and the new satin-striped wools in quar ter or half inch stripes, are also much used. FURTHER DETAILS OF STYLISH TOILETTES. The new toilettes seen on Fifth Avenue have very small tournures, and already a large tournure entirely destroys the good style of a gown, I have received several letters from readers. living where lobster is only to be had in cans asking if there is no substitute for the coral in making cardinal sauce. Canned lobster frequent-as nothing looks so old-fashioned as the fashion ly contains a great deal of coral, which is as good for coloring and flavoring as the fresh. This can only be known, however, before opening when the cans are of glass. The pulp of red beetroot passed through a sieve and added to white sauce or mayonnaise gives a beautiful red tint; but the flavor, while excellent for a salad or as vegetable sauce, would be unsuitable for serving with fish, NEW YORK FASHIONS. VISITING AND RECEPTION TOILETTES. ERY striking toilettes and bright colors are VER out as afternoon receptions and for making visits. These are Directoire gowns of flower-striped silks, made with a straight undraped polonaise tied at the waist in front with ribbons, and trimmed with broad revers above, or else a deep long shawl collar of pale rose or blue silk or moiré; pink, green, and buff are the colors in the stripes of such silks, and they are made over a skirt of the material hanging quite plain below the polonaise. White silk muslin in puffs with lace forms the large cravat at the throat. The Directoire bonnet has a broad crown, and is set quite far back on the head (not merely on top of it), and is trimmed with a gold-embroidered band around the crown, and there is a facing of colored velvet or of shirred tulle inside its flaring brim. Rose pink and pinkish mauve dresses of wool crêpe and moiré are also worn by guests at day weddings; the small bonnet is of English crape, or else of net the color of the dress, and is given character by a touch of black; thus a pink crape bonnet with tucks drawn over narrow pink ribbon has its brim edged with crushed pink roses on which falls gathered black lace; the strings are of black lace tied up in a close bow, with some narrow pink ribbon for strapping it. Yellow in lemon and blood-orange shades is also seen in dresses of Bengaline made up with princesse trains for the hostess to receive in, also in the striped summer Bengalines of thinner quality for the carriage dresses of guests; thus a young Spanish-looking brunette wears a polonaise and plain skirt of lemon yellow Bengaline in two-inch stripes of very light shades, completing the toilette by a large round hat of black tulle and straw, trimmed with laburnums and moiré ribbon. Dark brown velvet ribbon edges the skirt of the dress and the polonaise, and forms two large rosettes in the back on the tournure, where the drapery is caught up in the way seen long ago on the Marguerite polonaise. Tasteful dresses of dark olive green crêpon have facings of pale blue silk and much white lace. Black and white Bengaline in even quarter-inch stripes is made up in graceful princesse dresses opening over a smocked vest and shirred front breadth of white surah; the trimming is gimp of black cord with white beads strung upon it, and the front breadth of the white surah has thick cords run in the shirring below the waist and across above the knees. The bonnet to complete this and various other costumes is entirely white, being of smooth English split straw trimmed with a large Alsacian bow of white gros grain ribbon with satin edges; the throat bow is also of white ribbon closely tied, and ornamented with small jewelled pins. which has just gone out; fortunately it is an easy matter to lower the steels of last year's skirts, leaving out the third steel altogether, and diminishing the heavy and unwholesome pad bustle to half its size. A pretty and inexpensive fashion is that of putting a single row of velvet or of gros grain ribbon an inch and a half wide along the edge of draperies, and even of the lower skirt of solid-colored wool dresses, cashmere, crêpeline, veiling, etc., to give the effect of the woven selvage or border now in such great favor. The new turned-over knife-pleating of silk for trimming the neck of the corsage is already being made becoming to long and slender necks by placing it at the top of a collar band, such as is usual on high corsages. Full corsage fronts are in such favor that the plain basques of last year are being given a full effect (and also freshened up at the same time) by covering them at the top in pointed yoke shape with lengthwise rows of ribbon or of galloon or insertion with bands of the material between in tucks or slight puffs, then extending the material in the centre to a point shirred at the waist line, or by adding gathered pieces of the material below a yoke, covering the plain fronts down over the darts. Another way of covering the soiled front of a basque is by shirring plain silk across the top, and adding fresh pieces of the figured silk or the wool of the dress in the under-arm seams, sloping like a peasant bodice down toward the waist; sometimes this bodice extends up to the shoulders in points, meeting another V-shaped piece in the back, and the edges are featherstitched, or else trimmed with very narrow gimp. If the basque is soiled only about the waist line, a very broad sash ribbon, or else half a breadth of silk, or of the dress goods if it is soft and pliable, is sewed in the under-arm seam of the right side from armhole to waist line, and crosses the front, tapering to a point on the left at the waist line, where it is finished by loops and ends of ribbon. The pointed back, the round back, or the gathered back with belt are all in great favor, though the basque back is still used prettily trimmed with ribbons in loops and bows, or rosettes, and also draped in handkerchief styles, or else with gathered lace. As the season advances sashes are in greater favor than ever, being worn of either narrow or very wide ribbons, and are tied in most varied fashions, either to hang behind or on one side-no matter which-or else directly in front, as best suits the figure of the wearer, or as the exigencies of the drapery may require. For sashes tied in front, ribbons not more than three inches wide are used; those tied at the back are very wide, and have deeper loops than those of last year, and these loops lie quite flat. Moiré ribbons, shot ribbons, and gros grain are most used for sashes. Modistes import the old-fashioned belt ribbon to wear with belted corsages, also belts of silver or of gilt galloon. CHILDREN'S CLOTHES. The sailor suit is destined to another season of popularity for boys from three to seven or eight years of age. The only change in it is the enlargement or depth of the square back of the sailor collar, which now extends half-way down the length of the blouse, and this may be pink, or striped blue and white, or plain blue, as well as white. The striped plastron representing the middy's shirt is worn without any finish at the top in the way of a standing collar. The widebrimmed sailor hat is set back on the head, framing the face. An illustration of this suit as it is accepted this season is given in the double-page picture of Bazar No. 17, Vol. XXI. Plaid ging ham sailor dresses are made up for boys of two or three years, the kilt being entirely of the gingham, and the blouse of white cambric or of India linen, with the deep sailor collar of the plaid; the gingham is also used for a box-pleat down the front of the blouse, and for a high standing collar, as well as for turned-up cuffs on the sleeves. This is very pretty of pink and white checked gingham, or of large blue and white plaids, or of still darker colors in Scotch tartans. White flannel sailor suits are similarly made, and the midshipman suit, with long straight trousers, is again worn this season in dark blue and in white serge, the latter being used for the nicest wear by small boys when taken to afternoon weddings or to drive in the Park with their mother. The double-breasted blue or white reefer's jacket is worn over kilt suits of white piqué by these little fellows. For little girls of two to six years the short London jacket is newer than the sailor jacket introduced last year. This is a plain little singlebreasted coat with only two forms in the back, side pockets with flaps, and a turned-over collar; it is made of Suède-colored striped or barred cloth, or darker brown or gray diagonal. The edges are finished with braid set on like cord. White gauze ribbons and white flowers are the fashion of the season for trimming little girls' hats, whether of colored or of white straw. The favorite shapes have wide straight brims, not wired, with either very high or half-low crowns, and the trimmings nearly cover the crown, no matter how high it may be. The ribbon is first folded smoothly around the crown by reversing it on the right side, making it very deep as it crosses the front and back. A mass of loops and forked ends then trims the left side, and sometimes extends across the front and most of the back. Deutzia, half-blown daisies with long stems, and white violets are on these little hats. When colored flowers are preferred, yellow is much used, as buttercups in profusion with long stems and leaves, while rose-bud wreaths are always in favor, especially for Leghorn hats; larger girls wear poppy wreaths and bunches of bluettes tied with white ribbons, or else their Leghorn flats have yellow-tinted ostrich tips, and there are white or yellow cords and tassels around the crown. The Spanish dress is one of the pretty designs for India silk and challi dresses for small girls, taking its name from the tiny Figaro jacket of velvet which is worn over a round gathered low waist of the silk, and a white muslin guimpe. The short jacket is square-cornered in front and open there, extending only a short space in front of the armholes (disclosing the guimpe and waist), and has half-long sleeves over the muslin guimpe sleeves; the pointed belt is also of velvet. A narrow gimp of metallic-colored silks edges the jacket. This is very pretty made of green velvet on a light silk of white ground with rose-buds or with green leaves. ful The Empire dress is also made up for little. girls, and is an effort to retain the short waists and long skirts of last year. In the back this dress has merely a low-necked yoke, to which the fulness of the skirt is sewed; but the front is a low round waist, quite smooth and very short, with also short puffed sleeves. A rosette of great size is set on each side of the front of the waist, to which ribbon three inches wide is added and tied behind like a sash. Four and sometimes five straight widths of China silk are in the skirt, which is simply hemmed. This is made up in the white China silks that have brown or yellow or greenish leaves or other small figures, and is piped with yellow velvet on the neck and sleeves, and yellow moiré ribbon is used for the rosettes and sash, Other quaint little guimpe dresses of crêpeline or challi or the summer silks have the front of the round waist laid in pleats below a low-necked velvet yoke, while the back has its fulness set in a Watteau fold just below the yoke. Round full yokes are on the newest guimpes, with their fulness gathered around the neck to the collar, then again below the edge of the low waist of the dress. They are made of French nainsook, with a standing collar on which are two frills of Valenciennes edging, held by beading through which narrow ribbon is drawn; the sleeves are slightly full, with wristbands trimmed to match the collar. All-over embroidery is used for other guimpes, or else bands of insertion or of drawn-work are made in rows extending down from the collar and spreading outward. For information received thanks are due Messrs. ARNOLD, CONSTABLE, & Co.; JAMES MCCREERY & Co.; LORD & TAYLOR; and AITKEN, SON, & Co. one PERSONAL. MR. HOWELLS's new novel, Annie Kilburn, the first chapters of which will appear in HARPER'S MAGAZINE for June, will be not only the most popular of his stories, but also the most earnest in purpose. The exquisite perfection of Mr. HOWELLS's work, the completeness of intellectual satisfaction which it gives, often distract the mind of the reader from the writer's hidden meaning. April Hopes was a tragedy-a faithful, sympathetic, relentless exposure of the aimless drifting of social currents. Yet how few saw in it anything beyond its life-like reality, its iridescent brightness, its lambent humor! But no can read Annie Kilburn without being touched by its profound human interest. It is not didactic or analytic. We see only the play of social activities, impulses, prejudices, in a New England town of to-day as this play impresses the fine sensibility of Annie Kilburn-a high-bred, noble-hearted, and aspiring New England girl. We cannot promise the reader that he will find in her an angel. She has her limitations, prejudices of her own, wayward impulses characteristic of her sex and of her own special individuality. But she is as interesting a heroine as Mr. HOWELLS has ever embodiedconfronting at once the painful riddle of her social world and the more perplexing riddle of her own heart. The novel abounds in significant dramatic situations, and is replete with the finest humor. -EDWIN BоотH has been elected President of the new Players' Club, of New York, and he has shown his interest in the organization by presenting it with a club-house fully furnished, his entire collection of theatrical pictures (one of the finest in the country), and he will in the course of time give it his dramatic library, which is unusually complete. Thus the club begins its career without any expenses, with a beautiful club-house on Gramercy Park, and altogether under the most favorable auspices. The club's membership is not made up exclusively of actors, managers, and playwrights, for one of the first to join was General W. T. SHERMAN, who is one of the most assiduous patrons of the drama, and who, notwithstanding his constant attendance at the theatre, finds the mimic life altogether real, and he is as easily moved by the unhappy lot of the heroes and heroines as though their woes were not put on or off with their costumes. -The wedding of Miss ISABELLA SINGER to the Duc de Cazes has just taken place in Paris. The bride is the daughter of the famous sewingmachine manufacturer, is nineteen years old, and has an income of $120,000. Five hundred guests were present, among them Queen ISABELLA, the Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Lord and Lady LYTTON, and many other representatives of noble families. Among the young bride's presents were a diamond tiara and a pearl necklace from the bridegroom, and a diamond necklace from his mother. -ÉDOUARD DÉTAILLE is described by a writer in the Epoch as having a military appearance quite in keeping with his pictures. He is tall and slender, with a high forehead, blue eyes, short hair, light mustache, and the bearing of a cavalry officer. DÉTAILLE's house as well as his studio is filled with arms, equipments, flags, and uniforms of all epochs and countries. -General WADE HAMPTON has always been a daring horseman, and during the war he was famous for his dashing cavalry charges. He went triumphantly through the war, but at its close lost a leg by an accident while riding a mule; and the other day, while riding a fiery steed through the streets of Washington, he was thrown and badly bruised, while his artificial leg was broken to splinters. -Mr. GLADSTONE'S Loudon house is near Buckingham Gate, and overlooks the paradegrounds of the Wellington Barracks. It is an original Queen Anne house, and not a modern libel on the picturesque architecture of that Queen's reign. In the drawing-room hangs a portrait of the ex-Premier, by WATTS. Near a window, shut off from the rest of the room by a screen, stands Mrs. GLADSTONE'S desk, and there she does a great deal of writing. Her husband does his writing in a room at the back of the house, where no one is allowed to disturb him. -JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY wrote the poem "The School-house Clock" while a prisoner in Arbor Hill Prison, Dublin. The verses were written on a bit of brown paper, and were called forth by a clock standing in a corridor of the prison, which was the fac-simile of the one that ticked in the old school-house in a little village near Drogheda when he was a boy. -Madame ROMERO, wife of the Mexican Minister at Washington, was a Miss ALLEN, of Virginia. Señor ROMERO first saw her when she was a pupil at the Manhattanville couvent, and it was a case of love at first sight. Madame RoMERO was one of the first ladies of the diplomatic corps to have a fixed day "at home" to the ladies of the capital. Her entertainments are quite unique, and she takes pains to have something about them characteristic of Mexican life, let it be either the music or the wines. -WILL CARLETON, the poet of the farm and fireside, was taken by one of the attendants at the Vatican to see the Pope's Jubilee presents. He says that besides all the gold, silver, and jewels, there are enough slippers to have shod every Pope that ever lived, more top-boots than a regiment could use, sofa-pillows, and clocks galore, while hundreds of new church bells are stacked in the gardens, waiting steeples from which to send forth their silvery calls. -Miss ELIZABETH STRONG, of San Francisco, is the ROSA BONHEUR of American painters. At present she has a studio in Paris, in the sixth story of a house in the Rue des Saints Pères, near the Seine. It was once occupied by PAUL DELAROCHE, and although a delightful place after you have once scaled its dizzy heights, is not particularly adapted to the wants of an animal painter. Miss STRONG does most of her painting in the open air in the lovely country around Paris. She will send two paintings to the next Salon, both of dogs. -LOGAN MULHALL may safely be called the youngest cow-boy. He is just six years old, and hails from the Cheyenne Nation. The child's father formally put him in possession of a herd of one hundred head of cattle some months ago. They are branded with his brand and registered in his name. The boy also has his own horse, and hires his own "help." He has had a little Winchester rifle and a revolver made for himself, and he is said to be dexterous in the use of both. -JOHN F. COOK, late Collector of Taxes for the District of Columbia, is one of the richest colored men in Washington. He held his office, with its salary of $4000, for seventeen years, and he saved money and bought real estate. He is thought to be worth at least $100,000. He lives in a small frame house on the corner of a fashionable street, for which he has refused $25,000. Mr. Cook is a large, well-built mulatto, with straight hair, mustache, and side whiskers. -Mrs. ERNESTINE SCHAFFNER, of New York, spends the greater part of her time and money in behalf of prisoners whom she believes are wrongfully accused. She visits the police courts, and where she sees a man or a woman who her judgment tells her is the victim of circumstantial evidence she furnishes bail, and at her own expense secures the services of a lawyer. So far Mrs. SCHAFFNER'S intuitions seem to be correct, and she has always won the cases of her protégés, and has never lost a dollar by going their bail. -Mr. FRANK S. GRAY, who has been brought on from Chicago to New York to publish the Mail and Express for ELLIOTT F. SHEPARD, is thirty years old, six feet high, of fine physique, and is said to have given the Chicago Interior the largest circulation of any Presbyterian paper in the country. -WILLIAM H. RIDEING and his young wife propose to make a trip through some of the most picturesque counties of England this summer, after the manner of Mr. BLACK's famous phaeton party. Mr. RIDEING intends to earn his vacation by writing a novel, and for that purpose he will settle temporarily in the little hamlet of Workingham, which, by-the-way, is the home of that well-known writer KATHERINE S. MACQUOID. toilette, and decorated with painted swallows. A frilled binding of ribbon is at the edge, and ribbon bows are at the tip and on the handle. The folding fan there shown has a gilt frame and a black satin cover. Trimmed Newspaper Rack. THE wicker framework of this newspaper rack is stained a light brown and touched with gilt. The surface of the front is faced with olive felt. The upper part has puffed drapery of olive plush, festooned with rosettes and tassels; the ornaments are worked in crochet with tinselled olive macramé cord. The back of the rack is bordered with a plush fold and studded with similar ornaments. Plastron with Collar. THIS plastron, which is designed to relieve the plain front of a corsage, is composed of pale blue embroidered crêpe lisse, lace, and ribbon. It has a foundation back eight inches wide at the neck, and sloped to a point at PLASTRON WITH COLLAR. around the side, the heading of which is worked with plum-colored chenille in gimp crochet; the detail of the fringe is shown in Fig. 2. The handle is trimmed with cord and tassels. Spring and Summer FIG. 1 is a medium long jacket of Suède cloth, with loose open fronts which slope outward and display a close-fitting vest of brown velvet. The skirt is slashed at the sides. The sleeves widen toward the wrist, and are trimmed with a cord ornament, and a large ornament is festooned across the top of the front. A costume mantle accompanying a dress of blue India cashmere is shown in Fig. 2. It is made of the dress material, with knife-pleating of silk of the same tint. The back terminates just below the waist, while the fronts hang in long square tabs nearly to the bottom of the skirt. The pleating edges the neck and sleeves, and extends in a jabot down the front edges. |