THE WORK-TABLE FRIEND.

BRAIDED LOUNGING CAP. Materials.-Three-quarters of a yard of rich blue velvet, one piece of soutache, gold and silver blended, one yard of cord to match, and

a bullion tassel of the same metals.

WE regret that the size of this design enables us to give only the general appearance: nothing can, however, exceed it in richness or beauty, whilst at the same time the materials are not exceedingly expensive; and the labour is such as any one can accomplish in a couple of days.

Soutache is the generic name under which all braids and gimps are known in France. Some are exceedingly simple. Others, like the one with which our lounging cap was worked, are extremely ornamental. This one, with several others, was made indeed expressly for ourselves. Some have chenille and gold or silver mingled; others are of silk only; many are shaded in one or two colours, and these are very beautiful.

The depth of the head-piece is about six inches and a half, without allowing for turnings in. It is set full round a crown of about five inches in diameter. The design, which is a rich braiding pattern, occupies a depth of four inches, and the crown is entirely covered with it. The velvet must be marked as in ordinary braiding patterns. Of course, any combinations of colours may be used. Cerise or crimson and gold look very well on purple or green. All violets on green; green on claret, or black. The tassel should then be of gold only.

When braided, the cap must be neatly made up by lining with silk, and finishing round the head with gold cord.

The prices of Soutaches vary from 2s. 6d. to 7s. the piece. Tassels are 7s. 6d. each. The pattern drawn on paper will be sent for 1s. 3d.

A GOSSIP ON THE FASHIONS.

MY DEAR FRIEND,-I suppose you think that we Parisians are something like

the Athenians of old, ever occupied in telling or hearing some new thing; otherwise you would scarcely deem it worth your while to engage my poor goose-quill in your service. However, I have promised to do my best, and will endeavour to keep my word. Whatever deficiencies you may discover, attribute them to anything but want of will to please you.

It seems to me, however, to be a little droll that vous autres Anglaises should be so dependent on your neighbours for all matters of taste and elegance; that the name of Paris should, like the Hall-mark on plate, stamp the value of the article. However, it is our part rather to make the best of the existing state of things, than to discuss the reasons that they do exist; and certain it is that no city in the world can compete with Paris in the grace and beauty of the toilette, and the perfect elegance of all its adjuncts. Moreover, (to tell you a secret), the Parisian modiste who makes your bonnet and robe, or the brodeuse, who produces some exquisitely graceful purse or bag, or similar trifle, does not quite deserve all the credit she gets for her personal skill. The texture and tints of the materials are so far before those of England, that the wonder would be if the general effect was not very superior. Place even a skein of English and of French silk side by side, and you will soon perceive the difference. Your Shakspere said, "A French song and a fiddle have no fellow." Assuredly the same may be observed of French silks, flowers, ribbons, millinery, and Ouvrages de Fantaisie.

It seems to be the peculiar destiny of a Frenchwoman to dress well and look charming. There is a harmony about her toilette, a fitness and appropriateness of one part to another, and of all to the season and the circumstances of the individual, which never fail to strike a stranger, and which English belles would do well to imitate. For do we not every day see a toilette in the street which is fit only for a carriage; an elegant dress, with lingerie of the most ordinary description and all sorts of anomalous combinations, of which no Frenchwoman would ever be guilty. I shall never forget how I was

enough in Paris to at least appreciate the native taste. However, I suppose you will say that it would be better to tell you what is right than merely to find fault with what is wrong, and therefore I will give you some description of the toilettes most admired.

The bonnets are extremely pretty, but very small and worn quite on the back of the head. For morning dress they are in plain straw, with a broad white ribbon across, and strings. A ruche of narrow ribbon round the outside of the brim, and round the curtain (bavolet), which is composed of the same ribbon as the trimmings. Generally speaking there is a profusion of flowers, tulle and blond in the interior of dress bonnets, but some very young and very pretty faces have been seen in bonnets without any interior trimming whatever. I need not say this style can only be

moon-faced.

I send you one of the

prettiest productions of a leading milliner. It is of crinoline, embroidered in straw, trimmed with violets and lilies of the valley. Bouquets of these flowers are placed low on each side of the bonnet, intermixed with knots of rather narrow white ribbon, and small sprigs are placed at equal distances round the bavolet. The interior, which is lined with white crape, is trimmed in the same way, being very full at the sides.

One very extraordinary form has made its appearance, and I suppose, in want of a better title, we must call it a bonnet, although it has neither front nor crown, nor any of the ordinary parts of a covering for the head. It is not altogether unlike a Neapolitan plateau lying on the top of the head, and with a quantity of black lace, flowers and ribbon, falling over the neck. It requires the hair to be dressed very low. Certainly it has a novel and pretty effect, but so daring an innovation can hardly be generally adopted.

Caps are very much worn, especially in morning and dinner dress. I send you one, for the latter toilette. A sort of half handkerchief of black lace, with bows and ends of pink ribbon and black velvet, intermixed with brilliant gold ornaments.

The very popular col mousquetaire, which I believe is as fashionable with you

as with us, is now worn with a sleeve to correspond. The manche mousquetaire consists of a bishop sleeve (not too large), with a richly embroidered cuff, turned back from the wrist. I send you a pair of the newest design, so that your engraver may be able to give a representation of

them. They are worked in the usual broderie Anglaise, which continues as popular here as ever.

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Apropos of modistes, the discussion of the condition of the London dressmakers, which has recently appeared in the Times, excited by the letters of the 'First-hand," Mdlle. Le Plastrier, has caused a great deal of conversation in the salons of Paris, as well as amongst the class to which it bears especial reference. The moral courage which sustained Mdlle. Le Plastrier, will, it is to be hoped, meet its reward, not only in her own personal success, but in effecting a reformation in the condition of the class whose rights she has advocated. Much seems to me to be involved in her success or failure; for if she can carry out her plans, other houses must inevitably follow her example. Of her skill there can be no doubt.

saw lately a most elegant ball-dress, made by her. It was of white tarlatane, with black lace flounces, the heading

covered with pink Vandyked ribbon. Corsage à l'enfant, that is, drawn in at the waist, and across the chest, trimmed with black lace and a broad ceinture of pink, worn something in the form of braces, with long floating ends. I should advise you to visit her atelier, which is, I think, No. 99, Great Portland-street. You will find her taste unexceptionable, and her views such as all women must feel interested in disseminating.

Paris is at present very quiet. The Empress is but slowly recovering from her illness; and there seems little doubt that the change from a life of freedom to an existence of routine and etiquette, has had a most unfavourable effect upon her general health. Poor girl! I fear she has already often exclaimed,

they came opposite another, she asked her husband what difference existed between the mirror and himself? After cogitating for some time, he confessed his inability to reply, and she enlightened him by observing that "the mirror was polished, and the Emperor was not."

It must be admitted that there was more point than even polish in the observation. "Se non è vero, è ben trovato." Yours, dear M., Very truly, V.

MOTHER-OF-PEARL.

MOTHER-OF-PEARL is the hard, silvery, internal layer of several kinds of shells, especially oysters, the large varieties of which in the Indian Seas secrete this coat of sufficient thickness to render the shells an object of manufacture. The genus of shell-fish, Pentadinæ, furnishes the finest

This is too bad, you will say. Look around you, and judge for yourself. The poor Imperatrice, it seems, can hardly say her limbs are her own; she is expected to be a sort of automaton. I will tell you one of the bon mots, just now circulating in the salons made for her or by her, I cannot say which.

It seems that in the Imperial domestic circle, two seats, for the accommodation of their Majesties, are elevated above the others. The Emperor,-who, we know has no particular penchant for tranquillity, in either himself or the nation,-rose and joined some gentlemen, and the Empress, also rising, walked to a group of ladies. This breach of etiquette excited the displeasure of her lord, who leading her to a mirror, asked the not very original riddle, 'Why is the Empress unlike this mirror?" Not receiving a reply, he added, "Because the mirror reflects, and the Empress does not." I suppose this very courteous speech provoked the retort courteous in the lady; for when, in their promenade,

found round the coasts of Ceylon, near Ormus, in the Persian Gulf, at Cape Comorin, and some of the Australian seas. The dealers in pearl-shells consider the Chinese from Manilla to be the best; they are fine, large, and very brilliant, with yellow edges. Fine large shells of a dead white are supplied by Singapore. Common varieties come from Bombay and Valparaiso, from the latter place with jet black edges. South Sea pearl - shells are common, with white edges. The beautiful dark green pearl-shells called ear-shells or sea-ears, are more concave than the others, and have small holes round the margin; they are the coverings of the Haliotis, which occurs in the Californian, South African, and East Indian Seas.

In the Indian collection of the Great Exhibition, specimens of the finest pear.shells were shown, such as the Meleagrina margaritifera, Haliotis gigas, Haliotis iris, and a large species of Turbo, which shells are known in commerce as flat-shells, green snail-shells, buffalo-shells, Bombayshells. Messrs. Fauntleroy and Mr. Banks had also some fine collections. The latter gentleman states that the shore of the Sooloo Islands affords the finest shells.

The beautiful tints of the mother-of

pearl depend upon its structure; the surface being covered with a multitude of minute grooves, which decompose the reflected light. Sir David Brewster, who was the first to explain these chromatic effects, discovered, on examining the surface of mother-of-pearl with a microscope, "a grooved structure, like the delicate texture of the skin at the top of an infant's finger, or like the section of the annual growths of wood as seen upon a dressed plank of fir. These may sometimes be seen by the naked eye; but they are often so minute that 3,000 of them are contained in an inch." It is remarkable that these iridescent hues can be communicated to other surfaces as a seal imparts its impress to wax. The colours may be best seen by taking an impression of the mother-of-pearl in black wax; but "a solution of gum arabic or isinglass, when allowed to indurate upon a surface of mother-of-pearl, takes a most perfect impression from it, and exhibits all the communicable colours in the finest manner, when seen either by reflection or transmission. By placing the isinglass between two finely polished surfaces of mother-of-pearl, we obtain a film of artificial mother-of-pearl, which, when seen by single lights, such as that of a candle, or by an aperture in the window, will shine with the brightest hues."

It is in consequence of this lamellar structure that pearl shells admit of being split into laminæ for the handles of knives for counters, and for inlaying. Splitting, however, is liable to spoil the shell, and is therefore avoided as much as possible. The different parts of the sheli are selected as nearly as possible, to suit the required purposes, and the excess of thickness is got rid of at the grindstone. In preparing the rough pearl-shell, the square and angular pieces are cut out with the ordinary brass-back saw, and the circular pieces, such as those for buttons, with the annular or crown-saw, fixed upon a lathe mandrel. The pieces are next ground flat upon a wet grindstone, the edge of which is turned with a number of grooves, the ridges of which are less liable to be clogged than the entire surface, and hence grind more quickly. If the stone be wetted with soap and water, it is less liable to be clogged. The pieces

are finished on the flat side of the stone. and are then ready for inlaying, engraving, polishing, &c. Cylindrical pieces are cut out of the thick part of the shell, near the hinge, and are rounded on the grindstone preparatory to being turned in the lathe. The finishing and polishing are described in the third volume of Mr. Holtzapffel's excellent work on "Mechanical Manipulation." Counters, silkwinders, &c., are smoothed with Trent sand or pumice - stone and water on a buff wheel or hand - polisher, and are finished with rotten-stone moistened with sulphuric acid, which developes finely the striated structure of the shell. For inlaid works the surface is made flat by filing and scraping; then pumice-stone is used, and after this putty-powder, both on buff-sticks with water; and the final polish is given with rotten - stone and sulphuric acid, unless tortoise - shell or some other substance liable to be injuriously affected by the acid be present in the inlay. In turned works, fine emery paper, rotten-stone and acid, or oil, are used. The pearl handles for razors are slightly riveted together in pairs, then scraped, sand-buffed on the wheel with Trent sand and water; thirdly, glossbuffed on the wheel with rotten-stone and oil, or sometimes with dry chalk rubbed on the same wheel; and fourthly, they are handed up, or polished with dry rottenstone.

WATERLOO LETTERS.. One of the three letters written by the Duke of Wellington from the field of Waterloo was a brief note, which having enumerated some who had fallen, ended thus emphatically :—“ I have escaped unhurt; the finger of Providence was on me." What the impulse was which dictated these extraordinary words, we leave to the opinion of those who read them. When the dreadful fight was over, the Duke's feelings, so long kept at the highest tension, gave way, and, as he rode amid the groans of the wounded and the reeking carnage, and heard the rout of the vanquished and the shouts of the victors, fainter and fainter through the gloom of night, he wept, and soon after wrote the words above quoted from his letter.