1793. 55 Thyra. 56 Langtry. 57 A.D. 1879.] On the opposite page (Fig. 58) is an illustration of the very latest Paris bonnet by Madame Magnièr. The foundation is heavy corded silk of cream-color, with an immense wreath of Mignonette covering the front of the crown and drooping gracefully to the left, with face-trimming of a simple knot of Bretonne lace. Fig. 59, designed and executed at Wadleigh’s, is a white French chip. The face of the bonnet has alternate pipings of light-blue and cardinal satin, with a shirring of the latter. The outside is composed of a knot and twist of Sultan silk mingled with Bretonne lace, a fine wreath of forget-me-nots, and drooping cardinal buds, with Bretonne lace ties. Figs. 60 and 61 are also copies of the latest spring designs. Fashion now assumes a most important place in the domestic economy of nations. [Illustration: 58 59 60 61] Fashion is the only tyrant against whom modern civilization has not carried on a crusade with success, and its power is still as unlimited and despotic as ever. There is no part of the body which has been more exposed to the vicissitudes of fashion than the head, both as regards its natural covering of hair and the artificial covering of hats and bonnets. For a long period the world has acknowledged the French to be leaders of fashion. We look to Madame Virot, and other leading modistes of Paris, from season to season, for what might be termed first ideas, but still in all we are obliged to soften down and modify them to suit the more simple taste of American ladies. ANCIENT MOURNING COSTUMES, the outward signs of woe and sorrow, have always been demonstrated by some peculiarity in color in all nations. The Roman women under the Republic wore black; under the Emperors white was adopted. Grecian women covered their faces and wear black. The Chinese, Siamese, and Japanese wear white. Turks wear blue or violet. Ethiopians wear gray. Peruvians wear mouse-color. Spaniards formerly wore white serge. Italian women formerly wore white, the men brown. Syria and Armenia wear blue. In France, mourning apparel was formerly white. The following explanation has been given of the cause of the adoption of different colors for the symbol of mourning:— White is the emblem of purity; celestial blue indicates the space where the soul ranges after death; yellow (or dead leaf) exhibits death as the end of hope, and man falling like the leaf in autumn; gray is the color of the earth, our common mother; black—the color of mourning now general throughout Europe—indicates eternal night. “Black,” says Rabelais, “is the sign of mourning, because it is the color of darkness, which is melancholy, and the opposite to white, which is the color of light, of joy, and of happiness.” FINALE.