this gown the underskirt
was made of the plaid material, quite plain, and the overskirt of the
bordered part was draped above it in simple straight long folds, the
plaid part being at the lower edge of the overskirt. The bodice was of
the plain, and it had a plastron, or waistcoat front, of the plaid. The
buttons (as are many in use this year) are of smoked pearl, and are very
small for the fronts of gowns and larger for the jacket-bodices.
Bretelles of velvet are used as trimmings to the bodices of these rough
woollens, and the collars and cuffs are almost invariably of the same
material, which seems likely to retain its popularity through the
winter. The velvet collars are both useful and becoming, and, in
addition, they save white trimmings at the neck. We rather rejoice in
our emancipation from that bondage, and I hear many people say they will
never resume it again, now they have once found that they can look well
without the once inevitable white collar or frill. The tendency in every
woman's mind who is possessed of ordinary good sense is to simplify
everything connected with clothes, and I feel sure we shall all be
healthier and happier when we have banished many things from our
wardrobes which we now think absolutely needful.

"Dr. Jaeger's sanitary woollen clothing," about which I have so often
written in praise, has raised up some rival manufactures amongst our
English makers, who have long been famous for their merino or lambswool
stuffs. Pure woollen under-garments in England have always been thought
to wear and to wash badly, and much of this has probably been owing to
the fact that the washing was very bad and that no one before Dr. Jaeger
ever tried washing woollens scientifically, so as to take out the grease
and perspiration, and not to harden the material at the same time. By
Jaeger's method this is done with lump ammonia and soap. The soap is cut
into small pieces and boiled into a lather with water, and the lump
ammonia is then added. This lather is used at about 100 deg. Fahrenheit, and
the clothes must not be rubbed, but allowed to soak for about an hour in
the water, and must then be drawn backwards and forwards repeatedly in
the bath till clean. Three waters are to be used, the two after the
first lather being of the same heat, and of pure clean water. This
leaves the clothes delightfully soft and supple, and their wearing
qualities suggest nothing further as an improvement.

Some of the new En