THE CRINOLINE WARFARE. 
Thus speaks the oracular Mrs Jenness-Miller re¬ 
garding a most interesting topic of the day: “ Person¬ 
ally, I believe that the return of the crinoline as a 
spectacle would increase immediate interest in life. The 
same spirit that makes one laugh at the antics of the 
drunken man would find enjoyment in contemplation 
of the absurd and grotesque crinoline ; the funny man 
would have an occupation ; the wearer the conscious¬ 
ness of being like nothing in the heavens above, in the 
earth or air or waters beneath—except other crino¬ 
line-wearing curiosities. Do not spend any sleep’ess 
nights, dear reader, over the crinoline—it will prove 
neither infectious nor contagious unless your brain is 
disordered, and your fancy distorted. You will not 
have to wear it unless you wish ; and if you wish, it 
will suit your case exactly. For women of sense and 
spirit, the crinoline is neither a terror nor an antici¬ 
pation.” 
The fair reformer may indeed sleep the sleep of the 
just in this crisis. Having already adopted the Jen¬ 
ness-Miller garments, she has nothing to fear, no new 
departure to take ; while she has everything to gain, 
as the advent of crinoline would no doubt drive many 
a now hesitating woman to a decision to adopt the 
Jenness styles as a lesser evil. 
For it is a fact that many women of both “ sense and 
spirit” have felt the possibility of crinoline, as a factor 
in daily life, a real terror. Indeed I have heard one 
such woman declare: “I will not wear crinoline; on 
that I am resolved; and if the worst come to the 
worst, I will join the Jenness-Miller ranks, which I 
have heretofore hesitated to do because I have neither 
beauty of form nor beauty of face to offset the effect 
of a garb which must necessarily be more or less 
noticeable. But I wish an Anti-Crinoline League 
might be formed ; there is such support in the thought 
that one is not alone in setting at naught the tyrant's 
dictates.” 
Not in a generation, at least, has there been such a 
general uprising against an incoming mode of dress. 
It is not that a small hoop is such an evil; it is by no 
means so bad as the bustle, from which we have just 
been freed ; but mankind knows that, once allowed 
an inch, the hoop-skirt will at once appropriate an 
ell ; the small hoop will become large ; the large hoop 
will become immense ; the immense cage will become 
a monstrosity Else there were no change of fashion 
for the benefit of the dressmaker. 
The pages of the daily and weekly press have been 
flooded with comment, sarcasm, and caricature, [if the 
last could be] on the crinoline question; but the 
feature which has made the greatest sensation in some 
directions is the introduction of prohibitory bills into 
several of our State legislatures. These have partaken 
largely of the farcical, although some of the intro¬ 
ducers have stoutly protested their good faith. The 
partial text of the Minnesota bill, which I think was 
the first, may serve as a sample : 
Section 1.— It shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture or 
sell, or to offer fcr sale or use, or to permit the manufacture, sale or 
use of any hoop skirt or hoop 6ktrts, or anything like thereunto, within 
the limits of Minnesota. 
The penalty for violation was placed at not less than 
$5 nor more than $25 ; or imprisonment not to exceed 
30 days. The compelling reasons for this action were 
given in the preamble to the New York bill, as follows: 
Whereas, It Is reported In the public press that the fashion of wear¬ 
ing hoop skirts or crinoline is about to be established In this country, 
which will result In a great deal of annoyance and Inconvenience to 
the public, to travel, and especially at church, theatrical, and another 
public gatherings ; and to save the additional space which would be 
required at the World’s Fair at Chicago, and the granting of additional 
and larger appropriations by the Federal Government and the several 
States— 
In England, the warfare has taken a more practical 
turn. English royalty, no less than our own first 
lady, Mrs. Cleveland, is said to be strongly opposed 
to crinoline (dear, sensible English royalty—feminine) 
and this, no doubt, strengthened the courage of minor 
opposers of the wire cage for women. Mrs. Arthur 
Stannard (John Strange Winter) has the credit of or¬ 
ganizing a league against crinoline in England, which 
gained strength with unparalleled rapidity. It has 
been suggested that some bright woman here could 
render her name immortal by starting a similar move¬ 
ment. But possibly the opportunity is already past, 
for word comes that the Great and Only Worth, (the 
man whose fiat was to fasten upon woman this fashion 
upon which man has concentrated his most biting 
sarcasm) has been compelled by the pressure of public 
opinion to withdraw what seemed his ultimatum, and 
we are to be spared this truly gigantic evil. Truly the 
pressure of royal opinion has more weight than that of 
thousand-thousands of lesser womankind. Was it ever 
\iefore known that a Worth gave up his settled inten¬ 
tion for the opposition of a woman, or of all woman¬ 
kind ? 
Still, the end may not be yet, for the hoop-skirt 
is even now advertised for sale by some of the large 
New York houses; and if its manufacture has begun 
here, its sale will be pushed by every possible ingenu¬ 
ity of device. That which has had no call, and against 
which the common-sense of the majority strongly pro¬ 
tested, has ere now been made the rage through the 
continuous assertions of the manufacturer that it was 
the rage. 
As to Worth, like the whipped child, he takes his 
weak little revenge, it is said, by insisting upon the 
ugly chignon or waterfall as the next novelty in hair¬ 
dressing. It has a new French name, however. All 
homage to novelty! myra v. norys. 
“I’LL TELL YOUR FATHER.” 
HE article on step-mothers in stating that chil¬ 
dren detest a tell-tale, goes on to assert that 
step-mothers should never say, “ I’ll tell your papa.” 
“ Mothers can do that, but not step-mothers.” But I 
say shame on any mother who has so little self-control, 
so little authority and government that she must cry 
from morn till night, “ I’ll tell your father.” Such a 
woman is not fit to train children. If a step-mother 
cannot properly do this, how much less proper is it for 
the own mother to be the live-long day saying, “Never 
mind; just wait till papa comes home. I’ll tell him 
what a naughty child you have been,” etc. I think it 
simply 'awful. Here’s the secret of the poor step¬ 
mother’s awful name : Mothers—yes and fathers too 
—are often heard to say, “ You must be good and help 
mother, for if she should die you would have to have 
a step-mother, and then what would you do ?” Indeed, 
many parents are continually speaking of those awful 
bugbears, step-mothers and fathers. In society, at 
school, everywhere, we hear the step-mother maligned 
till ’tis no wonder children are fully prepared to hate 
and oppose step-parents from the first; especially the 
mother, who is with them so much. As a rule, I 
believe it is the good women who are willing to take 
upon themselves the difficult task of raising another’s 
children ; and if we instilled into our children’s minds 
a proper respect for that much abused class of women, 
we would hear of less trouble in the future. A dear 
young lady told me her father was Mr. C., when I 
knew her name was Miss S. I said, “ I did not know 
you had a step father.” I shall never forget her reply. 
“Not step-father, please ; I never allow any one to call 
him step-father to me—he is all an own father could 
be.” Dear girl, she has passed over the river, but her 
good works are left behind. I also knew a noble 
woman—highly educated, refined and loving—who 
married a man with grown daughters. What she 
suffered before the birth of her only child no one will 
ever know, but when her eldest step-daughter was 
dying, a little babe by her own side, she said: “Mother, 
if I had only known, I would have treated you so 
differently. If I but had my life to live over, I would 
be a daughter to you.” mabel h. monsey. 
A MEDLEY. 
ID you ever sit down and deliberately read a 
“chapter or two” in the dictionary? I have 
recently had some experience with a prize puzzle pub¬ 
lished in a New York magazine, and the dictionary 
was so frequently consulted that I became interested 
in it for its own sake. I came to the conclusion that 
one might learn from Webster’s Unabridged to speak in 
what would seem to the uninitiated a foreign lingo, but 
which would really be good English. For instance, we 
may speak of a pool of water as a lin or mere, of a cow 
stable as a byre, and of a child’s cap as a biggin. Of 
course, synonyms of common words may be found of 
any length desired; these are very modest ones, but 
search for yourself and learn true humility by finding 
out how little you know. At least I did—and from a 
very much abridged edition. 
My reason for wishing to win that prize was two¬ 
fold. The cash looked rather attractive, and there 
was the Honor—with a capital H. It was a puzz n e of 
famous names, the answer being 70 noted Americans. 
I could in fancy see my name emblazoned to the 
world through the pages of that magazine as a young 
woman who, while not living in Boston, but away 
down in southern Kentucky, knew a fewtLings worth 
knowing. I intended the admiring public to suppose 
that I sat calmly down and wrote out those names 
without hesitation, and never to let it know of the 
anxious study by day and dreams by night, and how I 
had pressed into service the “ book learning” of all 
my friends whom >1 chanced to meet. I do not yet know 
where that prize will go. I only know that this young 
woman must study the encyclopedia and the diction¬ 
ary and the Bible, the history of these United States, 
botany and geography a while longer and get better 
posted on the names of American authors, inventors 
and politicians before she can hope to win prizes for 
puzzles for lists of famous American notabilities 
whose names are as well hidden as those were. 
In looking up the name of an Arctic explorer, called 
for by the puzzle, I became very much interested in a 
volume telling of that land of desolation, and of the 
brave men who have battled with the Ice King in his 
stronghold, whose freezing clutch is no more terrible 
than that of Gaunt Hunger always stalking abroad. 
Not the brilliant beauty of icebergs and lovely Aurora 
can help the traveler cope with those two grim en¬ 
emies—cold and hunger. How few of these explorers, 
compared with the number who have gone forth, have 
returned to tell their story of “ the land of the mid¬ 
night sun.” 
How nice it is to receive a long, pleasant letter from a 
dear friend—a talking letter, every line of it character¬ 
istic of our friend and leaving us with the feeling that 
we have really been with him or her a short while. 
How it brightens a day for us and makes us realize that 
friends are blessings. But there are letters and let¬ 
ters. I suppose we have all had the painful experi¬ 
ence of trying to write a letter because it is our duty, 
to some one whom we really like and would be glad to 
see, but to whom we can think of nothing in the world 
to say in a letter. It is almost worse than the tooth¬ 
ache. And it is sorely disappointing to receive such 
letters. They are always beautifully written, with 
every i dotted and every t scrupulously crossed, and 
there is “ no nonsense about them.” Tastes differ— 
but a little nonsense now and then is dear to the heart 
Of GRACE HAMILTON. 
FOR THE FEET AND THE STOMACH. 
Bed-room Slippers. —Soles, called, I think, bed-room 
slipper soles, can be bought at a shoe store for between 
30 and 40 cents. Not the cork soles, the others are a 
puff of comfort by comparison. It takes three dozen 
skeins of Berlin wool for the uppers, and one dozen, 
in a different color, for the trimming around the top. 
Eight cents per dozen skeins. Cast on 16 stiches on 
an Afghan needle, crochet Afghan stitch, one row 
plain, next row make four loops of five stitches each 
at regular intervals, make the loops when taking up 
the stitches, next row plain, next row with three 
loops, coming in between the four loops below; repeat 
this till there is a strip long enough to go around the 
sole by placing one of the corners of the strip at the 
toe of the sole, sewing the other end on the side next 
the end at the toe, join where the strip meets by sew¬ 
ing. Before sewing on to the sole, crochet a plain 
row all round the strip, and also line the strip with 
good white canton flannel. After the strip is sewn to 
the sole, crochet around the top a shell pattern, 
dipping down between each shell with a chain of four 
into the Afghan part, and up again with another chain 
of four to the next shell. This double chain of four is 
to hold a ribbon, which is run through and fastened 
with a bow in front. Let the chain be caught into 
the slipper on a line with each three-loop row. 
G. A. HOLLAND. 
Chicken Broth for Invalids should be made by 
placing a whole chicken in cold water and boiling 
slowly till every bone is bare, and the meat reduced to 
a pulp. The liquor, strained and pressed out, will, 
when cold, form a jelly that in cold weather may be 
kept two or three days, to be heated to the boiling 
point and seasoned to the taste or requirement of the 
sick person, when needed. I emphasize the “whole 
chicken,” because it is an injustice and a positive in¬ 
jury to drench the already weak stomach with a still 
weaker solution of chicken trimmings, while the well 
members of the family feast on the choice and most 
nutritious parts. 
Did you ever think of the distinct flavor of the dif¬ 
ferent parts of a chicken ? It is all these combined 
that give chicken soup superiority over all others for 
piquancy, delicacy and appetizing quality—the only 
bouquet soup made of flesh alone, s. armistead n. 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castorla, 
When she was a Child, she orled for Castorla, 
When she became Miss, she elung to Castorla, 
When she had Children, she gave them Castorla. 
