Brevities

Would you believe that such a simple and common-place thing as the handkerchief was once considered an extravagant luxury and was imbued with a most romantic interest? At the time when the wisest and wittiest of all Frenchmen, Montaigne, wrote his incomparable essays, handkerchiefs just began to make their appearance in the world of fashion, and as all innovations these little squares of fine cloth or linen, usually adorned with lace-borders or embroideries, were greatly attacked by the churlish kill-joys of those times. Handkerchiefs were not only considered by them an unwarranted luxury full of dire moral perils, but they condemned the new fashion also—impossible as that may seem—for hygienic reasons. The would-be wits asked the rather coarse question: “What is it the rich man keeps in his pocket and the poor man throws away?” And the answer was, of course, connected with the handkerchief.

Yet youth will always be served and youth took to the handkerchiefs and its new refinement and elegance. Young swains gave handkerchiefs as gifts to their ladies; we all know that the Sultan designated his favorite by throwing her his handkerchief. And even today, when in February lovers send to each others those printed tokens of affection known as Valentines, the card has often the form of a handkerchief with a lace border.

But that is the last remnant of the romance of the handkerchief. Today it has become a necessary but very commonplace detail of our toile#te, and even the most conservative and staid would not object to its use.

Yet, if the romance has fled, the prettiness of the handkerchief has remained, or rather it experiences at present a rebirth. No longer are ladies satisfied with the simple linen handkerchief, hemstitched and monogrammed. Nowadays all kinds of fantastic patterns are used, gay and spirited decorations make the handkerchief a thing of beauty and delight, and the really modern woman uses handkerchiefs that match her costume or her handbag or even the color of her eyes. All the department stores show a variety of those new, delightful and tempting handkerchiefs, and in buying any one of them you can have the pleasant sensation to purchase something that was but a few hundred years ago the much attacked prerogative of royalty and the very rich.