Miscellany.
Here is a new discovery, or at least an improvement on an old one, which will bring considerable benefit and convenience to the inhabitants of large cities. Most letters, printed materials, prospectuses, and advertisements sent within Paris itself, as in London, require very quick delivery. There are even more such letters circulating here where the entire success of the message depends on prompt delivery. With the current organization of mail and correspondence in Paris,
it takes at least three hours for a letter dropped into a mailbox to reach its destination. Even city telegrams reach interested parties in no less than half an hour. This latter type of correspondence is, moreover, not always convenient, both because of its high cost and the limited number of words, and most often due to the need for secrecy, which not everyone dares to reveal. Now, a certain Mr. Kieffer has perfected a system for letter delivery. This system, known and partly already practiced in England, relies on the introduction of vacuum and compressed air in two separate reservoirs. It is simply the application of atmospheric pressure to underground pipes. However, Mr. Kieffer’s method differs radically from all others proposed by engineers Mr. Clarke in England and Mr. Cazalat in France: it consists of the simultaneous and sequential use of rarefied and compressed air. Mr. Kieffer proposes, for example, to extend a fan of underground pipes from the central post office in Paris to all parts of the city, some leading to railway stations, others to intermediate points. At this central station, two metal reservoirs of enormous volume are installed. A pneumatic machine, creating a vacuum in one of these vessels, expels air and significantly compresses it in the second reservoir. To set in motion and push a piston, to which a box with dispatches is attached, in any pipe, it is enough to connect the pipe with the reservoir filled with compressed air; conversely, if one wants the piston to return from its destination to its origin, it is necessary to connect the same pipe with the vacuum reservoir, or, more precisely, with rarefied air. In the first case, the compressed air will push the piston forward; in the second, atmospheric pressure from the destination will return it to the origin. This is a sequentially alternating operation, similar to suction and discharge pumps (aspirantes et foulantes), or even better, to atmospheric railways. I omit the details of this complicated mechanism; regarding the stopping of the piston before intermediate post stations, regarding the arrangement of underground offices cooperating with post offices on the surface, regarding the receipt and dispatch of letters and dispatches by an official, etc.; I will only mention that a very similar system by engineer Clarke has been put into practice in London. The delivery of letters by air pressure has been carried out there very regularly for two years now, between
Moorgate Street and the General Post-Office. Currently, a society of capitalists has even been formed, which intends to introduce similar communication not only in London itself, but also in other populous and numerous cities of Great Britain. Statisticians have calculated that the number of private letters sent by post in France in 1860 reached three hundred million; while public administrative correspondence, having so-called franchisse, exceeded thirty-two million. In France, there are eight letters per inhabitant per year, in England twenty-four, which is more than three times as many.
Although winter has stubbornly refused to leave us, out of consideration for May, which has already begun on the calendar, we must write about spring and summer attire. This will be easier for us, as in our leading stores we see a beautiful selection of fresh items, just waiting for the right moment to emerge from hiding. At Mr. Szlenker’s, we admired newly imported corded burnouses, long, wide, sleeveless, trimmed with silk pleats. This is an excellent type of covering, as it does not wrinkle the dress and protects it from dust and rain. Black cashmere shawls, plain, so widely used today, also serve as a burnous; in the same store, they can be found at various prices: from 60 zł. to 160 zł., depending on the quality. Among the silk, wool, and cotton fabrics for dresses, of which there are many
in this store, we will point out the most suitable for this season, with their prices. Foulards make excellent summer wear, as they do not wrinkle easily and do not attract dust; their price is quite high, it is true, but a foulard dress will suffice for two others. The most expensive cost 180 zł. or 166 zł. per piece; cheaper foulard can be had for 6 zł. 20 gr. per łokieć (ell), so a whole dress will cost about 100 zł. As for taste, all are of a similar kind: white dots of various sizes on a black background. For summer dresses for more formal wear, black grenadine with a shimmering white check looks lovely; its price is 5 zł.; width one łokieć and a half ćwierć (quarter ell). Barège-crinoline is always very popular; we particularly liked the ash-grey, embroidered with a black crochet pattern; one łokieć costs 3 zł. 10 gr. There is also a cheaper one without embroidery, for 2 zł. 20 gr., in a white and black check. This year’s black barège particularly appeals to us because it is substantial and not too sheer; it can therefore be used for dresses without flounces. Such barège can be found at various prices, depending on the width: a one-łokieć width costs 3 zł., a two-łokieć width 6 zł., and a three-łokieć width 9 zł. The latter can serve as a scarf or a burnous to match the dress. Among the freshest wool fabrics is the dense English barège, very stiff and standing out, and therefore excellent for summer; we noted, among others, a black one with a fine white silk check; its price is 5.5 zł., width almost 7 ćwierć. Besides foulards and barèges, there are also very pretty black cotton mousselines with a white pattern, or with fine stripes, some with a white patterned border for the bodice and sleeves; one łokieć costs 3 zł. At the same price, you can get brilliantine in various patterns; we particularly liked the black with transverse white stripes and the white with a black pattern. Finally, there are exquisite percalines for morning dressing gowns, excellently imitating foulards in fine stripes, checks, or dots. Their price is 2 zł. 15 gr., width 1 and a half łokieć. Mr. Szlenker has also imported ready-made negligee outfits of a completely new kind. These are skirts of ash-grey Madras, with a matching waistcoat fastened with horn buttons and a wide Zouave jacket; the wide sleeves are gathered at the wrist with a cuff. Such a negligee costs 90 zł. In terms of dress forms, no change has occurred: among summer dresses, we saw only one black grenadine with the same pattern at the Misses Kuhnke’s. The skirt was long, wide, and gathered at the bottom with a silk ribbon;
the bodice was plain, cut squarely in front, rising high at the back, and fastened with buttons; around the neckline, it was trimmed with a ruffled ribbon. The wide sleeves, gathered in folds at the shoulder, cut from the elbow to the wrist, and edged with a ribbon, were adorned with a rosette of narrow ribbon at the front.
Another black silk dress had the front panel adorned with narrow flounces, three fingers wide, two above each other, at intervals of about a quarter-ell. Above each pair of flounces ran a silk braid, finished on each side with an ebony button. The high-necked bodice was trimmed with braids and buttons, in the style of a czamara (a type of Polish coat); the wide sleeves were finished with a double flounce and braid at the edge.
A light wool dress, in an ash-grey and black check, had an à l’Imperatrice bodice, sewn into a yoke and pleated both in front and at the back; each pleat was fastened with a black button; the yoke at the neck was finished with a black silk ruching. The sleeves, composed of a puff and a wide, quarter-ell cuff, tight at the wrist, fastened on top with six buttons. Where the cuff joined the sleeve, there was a black silk ruching. For bodices trimmed at the neck with silk ruching, standing English collars are most suitable, as these do not obscure the trim. In general, however, let us say that both ruching and standing collars are only good for slender people with long necks and sloping shoulders.
A significant collection of standing linen collars, with matching cuffs, can be found at the Misses Kuhnke’s store.