The Harris-Ingram ExperimentBolton, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Science
The Harris-Ingram Experiment
Bolton, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Science fiction, American
Gertrude and May hurried back to the hotel as happy as the birds in the
trees of the boulevard. When Gertrude reached her mother, a telegram was
given her from George which read:
City of Brussels.
_Gertrude_,--
We expect to arrive in Paris Saturday evening 6 o'clock. Alfonso and
Leo here. All well. Grand trip. Love to all.
George.
Mrs. Harris and her young ladies planned to give most of the day to the
purchase of Gertrude's trousseau and other needed articles. May Ingram
thought it was "just lovely" to be with Gertrude in Paris, and help her
select the wedding outfit. Earlier than usual on Friday morning the
Harrises left the hotel. All four women were somewhat excited, as Mrs.
Harris and Gertrude led the way, Lucille and May following, to M. Worth's
establishment, located at Rue de la Paix 7.
Lucille said, "It is strange indeed that, in view of the French ridicule
made of the English on account of their lack of taste in dress, the best
dressmakers in Paris should be Englishmen."
Chief among all the Parisian dressmakers is Charles Frederick Worth, who
was born in 1825, at Bourne, Lincolnshire. He came to Paris in 1858, and
opened business with fifty employees combining the selling of fine dress
material and the making of it. Worth now employs twelve hundred persons,
and turns out annually over six thousand dresses and nearly four thousand
cloaks; his sons ably assist him.
Rare fabrics and designs in silk and other choice material are woven, and
artistic ornaments are made especially for M. Worth. Paris, as the center
of fashion, is greatly indebted to him, who gained in his line world-wide
fame, and for nearly half a century he has been universally recognized by
his competitors and the fair sex as master of his art. Kingdoms, empires,
republics, and cabinets in swift succession followed each other, but the
establishment of M. Worth maintained its proud position against all
changes and rivals. He was helped to the highest pedestal of dictator
of fashions by Mme. de Pourtales and Princess Pauline Metternich, both
of whom possessed a keen sense of the fitness of texture, color, and
cut, and with delicate hands could tone and modify till perfection was
reached. The former introduced M. Worth to Empress Eugenie, for whom,
and for the ladies of whose court, he designed state, dinner, and fancy
costumes.
That M. Worth possessed rare artistic taste aside from dressmaking is
evidenced in the beauty of his rural home at Suresnes on the Seine, seven
and a half miles from Paris. It is a superb work of harmony and is like
a charming mosaic, every piece fitting into every other piece. He was
his own architect, designer, upholsterer, and gardener. His villa lies
beneath Mt. Valerien, one of the finest sites near Paris, and the outlook
on the Seine, the Bois de Boulogne, and Paris, is a dream of beauty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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