so on.

The collecting of materials and all accessories to a costume, puts one
in touch, not only with the dress, but the life of the period, and the
customs of the times. Once steeped in the tradition of Spanish art and
artists, how quick the connoisseur is to recognize Spanish influence on
the art of Holland, France and England. Lead your expert in costumes of
nations into talking of history and we promise you pictures of dynasties
and lands that few historical writers can match. This man or woman has
extracted from the things people wore the story of where they wore them,
and when, and how; for the lover of colour we commend this method of
studying history.

If any one of our readers is casting about for a hobby and craves one
with inexhaustible possibilities, we would advise: try collecting data
on periods in dress, as shown in the art treasures of the world, for of
this there is verily no end.

We warn the novice in advance that each detail of woman's dress has for
one in pursuit of such data the allure of the siren.

There is the pictured story of head-dresses and hats, and how the hair
is worn, from Cleopatra's time till ours; the evolution of a woman's
sleeve, its ups and downs and ins and outs as shown in art; the
separation of the waist from skirt, and ever changing line of both; the
neck of woman's gown so variously cut and trimmed and how the necklace
changed likewise to accord; the passing of the sandals of the Greeks
into the poetic glove-fitting slippers of to-day.

One sets out gaily to study costumes, full of the courage of ignorance,
the joyous optimism of an enthusiast, because it is amusing and looks so
simple with all the material,--old and new, lying about one.

Ah, that is the pitfall--the very abundance of those plates in wondrous
books, old coloured prints and portraits of the past. To some students
this kaleidoscopic vision of period costumes never falls into definite
lines and colour; or if the types are clear, what they come from or
merge into remains obscure.

For the eager beginner we have tried to evolve out of the whole mass of
data a system of origin and development as definite as the anatomy of
the human body, a framework on which to build. If our historical outline
be clear enough to impress the mental vision as indelibly as those
primary maps of the earth did, then we feel persuaded, the textless
books of wonderful and beguiling costume plates will serve their end as
never bef