19th Century Public Domain Poetry: The Toll-Gate (Poem for Kids)

This little poem, entitled "The Toll-Gate" was written and illustrated by Rudolph F. Bunner (1860 - 1931), a noted illustrator and painter. It was originally published in the December 1895 issue of St. Nicholas Magazine. Here is how it goes:

There is a toll-gate hidden away,
Half in the fields, and half in the trees,
Where the children, the elves, and the fairies stray,
With footsteps facing the twilight breeze.

The fairies and elves can pass through free,
But a child must pay for the toll with a song,
Before the fairy land it can see,
And this must be said, or it all goes wrong:

"I believe in the Three Little Bears,
And the Prince that climbed the Mountain of Glass,
And I know how the Wild Swan's sister fares, --
So open the gate and let me pass."


Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Victorian Fashion History Illustration: Promenade Costume for Spring, 1875

A black and white fashion illustration from the May 1875 edition of Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine. The following is a description of the two costumes:

(Left)
Costume of light-brown silk alpace, trimmed with black Lyons silk. The front of the skirt is trimmed step-ladder fashion with bias silk bands, about one and a half inches wide, while the back breadths are encircled with four narrow overlapping flounces, headed with a similar silk band. These are framed with a ruche of the alpace, laid on in waves from waist to foot. The overskirt has the short pointed fronts, draped onto the long bouffant back-breadths by a bow of black ribbon, the points being edged with a narrow flounce and silk band. Close-fitting cuirass corsage, pointed front and back, and trimmed the same as the front of overskirt. The sleeves are coat-shaped, ornamented with a black silk cuff, on which is placed a black ribbon bow, encircled with lace. A band of the silk, edged with a down-falling flounce of the alpace and an upstanding frill of cambric decorates the neck, closed on the bust by a black ribbon bow. Black chip hat, trimmed with light brown and blue ribbons, and a blue feather.

(Right)
Promenade costume of black silk and French gray Summer cashmere. The silk skirt is trimmed with a gathered flounce, measuring in depth eight inches in front and twelve behind, surmounted with two wide and closely laid bands, piped on the edges. The overskirt and postilion basque are of the cashmere, edged with camels' hair fringe. The former is draped below the tournure, designing it as an apron, the looped sashes falling onto the silk flounce. Surmounting the fringe, on both the overskirt and basque, is a wide cashmere fold with a heavy rouleau of black silk, laid on through the centre; and a flaring black silk collar, deeper behind than in front, completes the neck. Muslin ruff and undersleeves. Hat of French gray chip, trimmed with black ribbon, and two ostrich tips - rose pink and gray.


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Victorian Fashion History Illustration: Gilded Age Promenade Costume, 1875

A black and white fashion engraving from the January 1875 edition of Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine. The following is a description from the publication:

Nos. 1 and 2 gives a front and back view of a promenade costume. The skirt is of black gros-grain silk, and is trimmed with a deep box-plaited flounce, each plait ornamented with a band of ribbon velvet. The overskirt is of gray cashmere, very long at the back, and undraped and arranged in a triple box-plait, which is sewed into the waistband, and the plaits laid evenly the full length of the skirt, and tacked in several places on the side, to keep them in position. The front is pointed, and is closed by buttons and buttonholes after being trimmed with a band of velvet, the trimming extending around the lower edges, and also up the centre of the back-breadths. Close-fitting basque-corsage, also of cashmere, belted at the waist, and trimmed with velvet to correspond with the overskirt, both the front and back of the corsage having a band of velvet laid evenly with those on the skirt, and ornamented with buttons. A sleeveless close-fitting jacket is added, made of black velvet, closed at the neck only, immediately under the standing collar. The amount of material required is twelve yards of black gros-grain silk, six yards of double-fold cashmere, and three yards of velvet. Black velvet hat, decorated with feathers and gros-grain ribbons, intermixed with velvet.


All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.