Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-08-15
our NEW YORK LETTER.


Ckarisiss-The FZOaoer AissiOn--h'isi-
ness.
1, Paris makes the fashions of the world,
and New York varies them irife to suit.
The difference in climate and peculiarities
of the people, and distributes through
the United States and Canadas. Thela.
dyof Washingtonville. in the State of
Iowa, gets herself really fashionable
dress at a very moderate price, but she
does not know or appreciate how much
more the same dress cost her sister (by
Eve) in New York when the fashion
was first brought out
The fashionable milliners and dress-ma-
kers of this city make enormous sums of
money. The simplest bonnet on their
stand, without ornaments, is marked not
less than $50, and then the expense be:
gins. The little French flower is put on
at So. and the milliner who asks it never
bushes blush, and if that flower swells
to wreath or anything ofthat SORT, the
So swells 20 $25. Then the plume and the
lace must be added, and you find tnai me me
cheapest bonnet that any woman oil pre-
tention wears, costs not cent less than tl1
s5s. Let US go on little into detail IN
this matter of sE d t0
ExTRAvAGANT PRICES.
I saw a little hat the other day at a
milliner store, in the full summer style,
of course, with ticket on it marked $2S0l
Think of that And think, too, that this
trife, for it was as frail as spun glass,
could not possibly be worn a dozen
times, and is doubtless now in some dust
bin. -. s5IIsT F.fesr53
What, oh wives, of hard working farm
ers and mechanics, do you think of such
prices as $500 for not overly extrava-
CANT ball dress-of 5000 for an evening
dress, and then not considered extraVa-
CANT at allY For be it known. on special
occasions it is nothing uncommon to pay
three or four times 5000 for dress to say
nothing ofthe lace and jewelry necessary
to set it out A rich dress of that kind
must have all the accompaniments to
make it the proper thing.
1t is a curious thing in dress that the
principal
DESIGNERS OF LADIES DRESS ARE MEN.
Every body knows that Worth, the
Parlsian man milliner, has designed and
superintendent the making of the best
dresses that France has seen for many
years. All the great houses in the trade
in New York keep masculine artists TO
adorn feminine beauty. AS women dress
to attract the attention of men, they have
an idea, (snd they are correct doubtless
in this, as in everything else,) that man
can better judge of what men like than
they themselves. The principal bonnet
trimmer is a man six feet IN height, and
he handles needle and thimble with a
grace and dexterity that is simple and
wonderful. tf
The milliners and dressmakers of New
York are the recipients of as many secrets
as the physicians, though they are of an
other character. Mrs. Blank desires to out
shine some other Mrs. and her set, and
her Madame, the modiste, is complaisant
in the matter of credit-in fact, she urges
all the rich goods possible upon the poor
rich woman But the bill is finally pre-
sented, and horror what a bill it is !
Item after item is scanned, till finally the
grand sum total is reached. 1t is a long
way up into the thousands. Now Mrs
Blank has no earthly way of paying this
bill. She dare not ask her husband
for the money, for he poor fellow, is
struggling for life, and besides she has
told him little fibs about the matter, In
representing that she has been paying for
all these, as she got the m out of the lib
eral allowance for dress that he made
her. The complaIsant Madame suddenly
becomes as rigid as an iron poker, and as
cold as a stone. She must have her mon
ey. Mrs. Blank is in terror, does queer
things. Sometimes she pawns her dia-
monds, sometimes she steals coupons
from her husbands bonds and sometimes
alas she sells her virtue to some wealthy
libertIne in whose pay Madame is, that
the dread secret may be kept till economy
enables her to pay. The passion for
dress has ruined more women than all
the other causes combined.