PETERSON'S MAGAZINE
Vol. XLIV          PHILADELPHIA, AUGUST, 1863         No.2.
EDITORIAL CHIT-CHAT
PURE AIR AS A TONIC.-- The Scalpel says: -- "Medicine can never add materiel to the body.  It cannot heal an ulcer in the lungs or spine; it cannot effect the absorption of the tubercles which cause it; it cannot straighten a curved spine or leg, or give blood to the feeble firl; nor can the most perfect mechanism impart natural strength or tone to the muscles that support the spine or move the limb.  Medicines are generally inert, and too often injurious; they destroy appetite and digestion, which is the source of strength.  Mechanical appliances are only useful adjuvants to take off the weight from the diseased part, and to aid the effect of a surgical operation, or what is far better, to prevent its necessity.  There is no true tonic but pure air; there is no materiel of repair but blood.  In all diseases origination in a low condition of the vital force, more air must be breathed, that more food may be consumes, or the red blood that makes and gives tone to the muscles that support the spine will not be supplied, the scrofulous tubercle will not be absorbed, nor will the ulcer heal."
CAMEOS AND CORAL ALL THE RAGE. -- Cameos are very popular at the present moment.  No such thing is to be seen now, in Paris, as a wedding outfit, without cameos, and many ladies order them to be cut expressly for themselves.  Cameos have generally an open setting of either finely-worked gold and pearls, or black enamel starred with diamonds.  Coral is also highy appreciated at the present day, and is very costly.
FEATHERED PARASOLS. -- Marabout feathers, in Paris, are used for ornamenting parasols.  The Empress wore lately at the Bois de Boulogue races a mauve silk dress with a scarf of the same, a mauve bonnet, with white feathers in it, and a mauve gauze veil over her face, and in her hand she carried a mauve moire parasol, bordered with white marabout feathers.  In London the most popular parasols are decidedly those ornamented with black lace.  Either the upper part of the parasol is colored, and the border white, or vice versa; and in either case whee the color and white join, the line is covered with this black lace trimming.  Some parasols are entirely white, and have a black lace border laid round them, others are black with white blonde upon them.  These latter have an excellent effect.
NEW PETTICOAT. -- In London a new petticoat, christened "The Princess of Wales' Petticoat," has lately been introduced, and is found to be an almost perfect invention for wearing under a dress which is made with a train.  It is plain in front, like an apron; a flounce, which commences at the sides, is fulled on round the back; and a second flounce, quite at the edge, forms a train and holds out the dress.  It is impossible, under thin dresses, to wear anything better than this most excellent contrivance.  Many ladies, in Philadelphia and New York, have already adopted it.
LARGE BLACK BEADS. -- Just now the necessary accompaniment of all half-dress toilets seems to be the large black beads, which have for some time been worn in England.  These are worn either in a single long row, hanging low down in front, or in a double row, one of which is terminated with a black cross.
REDUCTION OF POSTAGE. -- By the new post-office law, which went into force July 1st, 1863, the postage on this Magazine has been considerably reduced.  The part (section 36) applying to Magazines is as follows:-- "Upon newspapers, magazines, and periodical publications, each not exceeding the standard weight of four ounces, and passing through the mails or post-offices of the United States between any points therein, the rate for each such paper or periodical shall be one cent."  And as the weight of a number of "Peterson" is less than four ounces, it follows that the postage is only one cent per number.  Formerly, it was eighteen cents a year, or one and a half cents per number.  Subscribers will please to take note of this.
ARTICLES IN LINEN. -- In linen articles some few changes are taking place.  Embroidered muslin cuffs and collars have become once more fashionable.  Ladies add, in this way, to the becomingness of their atire, for delicately embroidered muslin is much more advantageous to the skin and complexion than the stiff white linen collar.  Very neat collars are now made with a straight strip of insertion lace; a pink, lilac, or blue ribbon is placed underneath.  The cuffs are made to correspond.
"NOT INCREASED THE PRICE." -- The Sheboygan (Wis.) City Times says: -- "The excellence of this Magazine, as a Ladies' Magazine, we have often set forth to our readers, and we here add, that while this standard of excellence is not in the least abated, notwithstanding the increased cost of the materials which are used in getting it up, the publisher has neither increased its price to clubs and agent, nor diminished the number of its pages; and this can be said of no other magazine in the United States."
 REVIEW of NEW BOOKS
Harper's Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion in the United States.  Nos. I, II, III, and IV.  --The numbers of this new serial are to be in large quarto, profusely illustrated, and to contain twenty-four pages each.  Price twenty-five cents per number.  We shall speak more at large of the work at some future time.
The Fairy Book.  The Best Popular Fairy Stories selected and rendered anew.  By the author of "John Halifax, Gentleman."  1 vol.,12 mo.  New York:  Harper & Brothers.--		 We have here "Jack the Giant Killer," "Cinderella," "The Sleeping Beauty," and all of our old favorite fairy tales, told with a grace, and freshness, and idiomatic force, that is really charming, and which we had hardly expected, even from Miss Muloch.
OUR NEW COOK-BOOK.
Every receipt in this cook-book has been tested by a practical housekeeper.
MEATS
BREAKFAST HASH. -- Cut the meat in neat slices, neither junks nor yet morsels; lay them into a lined stewpan, dusting them with a little flour, pepper, and salt.  Smash the bone, off which the meat has been cut, into fragments, and put it, together with any odds and ends of the meat, into a deep saucepan, proportioning the water to the quantity of hash; add an onion and a pinch of mixed dried herbs.  Simmer quietly for an hour, or until ten minutes before it is to be served; then pour over the hash, keeping back the bits of bone, etc., by using a hair sieve; add a spoonful of catchup, another of port-wine, and heat through closely covered.  Send up in a deep dish, with sippets of fried toast.  Mince may be dressed the same way, substituting very finely-chopped mince for the slices, and laying a couple, or more, of dropped eggs upon the top, instead of toast.
DESSERTS
BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING. -- Boil either vanille or the rind of a lemon in a quart of new milk, sweeten with four ounces of sugar, and stir into it before it cools the well-beaten yelks of six, and the whites of three eggs, and stir in a wineglass of brandy.  Cut several thin slices of bread and butter, from which remove the crust; place them in a well-buttered dish, and strew over each of them a few well-washed currants, and some strips of candied peel.  Pour the custard gently into the dish, and bake in a moderate oven for half an hour.
SUMMER DRINKS
GIN PUNCH. -- Take two dozen lemons; peel the rind off eight of them as thinly as possible and steep it in boiling water in a basin carefully covered over with a cloth.  Cut the two dozen lemons each into three pieces and steep them in boiling water in a vessel covered with a cloth.  When cold, squeeze the lemons and remove them from the liquor; pass the liquor through a tammy or through filtering paper, and add the extract of the peel; add three pounds and a half of the best lump suger.  This lemonade will serve for the basis of almost any kind of punch.  Add to this lemonade five bottles of best unsweetened gin, a bottle of fine old Jamaica rum, and a small bottle of marachino.  Put spices into a saucepan (cloves, allspice, nutmey, and half a stick of vanille) and make a cecoction to flavor the punch with.  When the punch is mixed and flavored to taste, it may be passed through the tammy again or through filtering paper, if it is required to be very clear.  Add water so as to make up the entire quantity to three gallons, and bottle it off into eighteen bottles.  This punch may be seerved either in a bowl or in jugs, and is intended to be mixed with fresh water or soda-water according to taste.  In warm weather a little ice is a great improvement.
MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS
TO WASH BLACK LACE. -- Carefully sponge the lace with gin, or if preferred, with green tea, and wind it round and round a bottle to dry, as if touched with an iron it would become glossy and have a flattened appearance.  Some persons fil the bottle with warm water, which causes the lace to dry more quickly.  It must on no account be placed near the fire as it would lose its color, and have a rusty appearance.
HOW TO STOP BLOOD. -- Take the fine dust of tea, or the scrapings of the inside of tanned leather; bind it upon the wound closely, and blood will soon cease to flow.  After the blood has ceased to flow, laudanum may be applied to the wound.  Due regard to these instructions will save agitation of mind and running for a surgeon, who, probably, will make no bett prescription if present.
TO REMOVE GREASE FROM SILK. -- Take a lup of magnesia, and rub it wet over the spot; let it dry, then brush the power off, and the spot will disappear; or, take a visiting card, separate it, and rub the spot with the soft internal part, and it will disappear without taking the gloss off the silk.
FASHIONS FOR AUGUST
GENERAL REMARKS.--THE BODIES OF DRESSES have a tendency to become gradually shorter.  Two fashions are now adopted--the round waist and the waist with two small points in front and a jacket tail behind.  This is called the postillon body, and obtains great success, especially for ladies that are young and of a slender figure.  The latest mode of making a postillon body is to divide the flap, or tail, into three equal portions, and of each strip to make a box plait.  This is both pretty and novel.  With the round waist, bands made with points in front are often worn, with wide flowing ends rounded off at the bottom.  Sleeves are decidedly to be narrow, like those of men's coats, and nearly as long; they are often slit open a little way at the bottom, and have epaulets, or shoulder ornaments, trimmed in the same style as the skirt, either with velvet, silk bands, or gimp.
THE BODICES OF MORNING DRESSES are made plain with two small points in front; some are cut slightly square at the throat, a becoming and comfortable style to those who cannot wear the high closely-fitting linen collar. The back of the bodice has frequently a small basque in the center; this is formed with three pointed straps of the material,  the center one being longer than the two others;
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

  these are held together with gimp or lace, and are generally joined on to the bodice with a box plait.   They are novel but fantastic-looking, as are the ribbon-sashes which are tied at the back in large bows midway down the skirt; these latter are much worn in Paris by young ladies from twelve to fifteen years of age, the ribbon is carried round the front of the waist in its full width, cutting the bodice in two, and giving the wearer a very ungraceful appearance.  Sleeves are decidely narrow, and are cut to resemble closely a gentleman's coat sleeve, only with short epaulets at the top.  Circular cloaks of the same material as the dress, and trimmed to correspond with, are very fashionable for morning wear.
THE SKIRTS of many dresses are made full, plain, and gored.  An extremely thick silk cord, matching the dress in color, is frequently placed above the braid; it is what is called "girle cord," and is as thick as an ordinary-sized finger.  It is rather difficult to sew this cord on without puckering the material, but the difficulty will vanish if the needle is carried in and out, in the same manner as though a piece of Berlin wool work was being worked in a frame.  The cord is sometimes placed straight round, and sometimes curled at each breadth, but in every case it should be sewn above the braid and not at the edge of the dress.
GRELOTS (small hanging buttons in the form of a bell) are also much used in Paris for the edges of vestes and sleeves, and for trimming other parts of the dress.  A dress has recently been made, the trimming of which consisted simply of three rows of these small bell-buttons, placed very near to each other, round the bottom of the skirt; the bodice and sleeves were likewise trimmed with them.  Other dresses have been trimmed with chenille.  The chenille is formed into a network a quarter of a yard wide, with tassels depending from it at equal distance.  This trimming is made in black chenille for a colored dress, and frequently also chenille of the same color as the dress is employed.  In fact, fringes of all kinds are again popular and a sewing-silk fringe of the color or colors of the dress is used when a chenille fringe is thought too heavy or too expensive.
A GREAT VARIETY OF ORNAMENTAL CAPES AND CORSLETS have lately made their appearance for wearing over plain low bodices.  Small white muslin jackets we have seen braided with narrow colored mohair braid; Spanish belts or bodices, to wear over white Garibaldis, made in black moire antique, the front part being white, with a double row of small round gilt buttons; the black moire sides and box plaits at the back being corded with white; these lace at the sides are very stylish-looking.  Colored silk baraces and a broad sash, made all in one piece, and trimmed with black and white blonde, are very general over low bodices; indeed, the variety in these ornamental belts, braces, and sashes is endless; they prove very convenient to those who wish to vary the style of their evening dresses.  These corslets and fancy braces are made of net, velvet and lace, which cross in front, are carried round the waist, and are finished off with ends which form a sash at the back.
PLAID OR TARTAN RIBBONS are much employed for ornamenting the white dresses which are worn at small evening parties.  These Scotch ribbons will also be very general upon bonnets this fall, and will also be worn as shashes to dresses, and nothing can be more styulish than a black straw or horse-hair bonnet trimmned with a plaid ribbon.
SMALL APRONS are very generally worn, and many we have seen lately were most tastefully arrange.  Black moire or poult de soie are the usual materials, but the trimmings are various rows of velvet with steel buttons; gimp with jet introduced; silk embroidery with jet beads intermingling with the flowers and leaves; narrow black ribbon velvet, with a white satin edge, made into rosettes or loops; black lace quillings and small drop buttons; and the inevitable black lace insetion lined with white silk, are all used to trim these coquettish-l;ooking little aprons.  They are short and rounded at the corners, and the trimming is carried alon the bottom and up one side; the pockets are generally defined by the trimming.
 CHILDREN'S FASHIONS
GENERAL REMARKS. -- Little boys from three to five or six years of age wear jackets and skirts.  They are very often made in light fancy cloth, gray drab, or buff color.  The jacket is something in the Zouave shape, but closed in front.  It is ornamented with a band or stripe of the same material about two and a half inches wide, on which narrow black velvet or silk braid is disposed in slanting lines, in groups of threes, placed at equal distances.  This trimming is carried all round the jacket and sleeves, which are in the Zouave shape, and open as far as the elbow; it is edged on both sides with piping.  The same border goes round the bottom of the skirt, which is short and full, but it is about twice as deep as the trimming on the jacket; the velvet or braiding is put on in the same manner all round it, and three rows of the same are put plain on the top.  Boys a little older wear the blouse or tunic called "Polonaise."  It is loose, and fastened round the waist with a leather band. The front and sleeves are trimmed with stripes of the same cloth, piped with black silk, and with a row of black buttons in the center. Full short trousers or knickerbockers, gathered on a band, and fastened round the knees with black velvet bows, complete the costume, which is all in the same material.
 
 

 

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