The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1882-05-20

A Co-operative Dress Association-New
Reform in our Households Where to get
Cheap Dresses-Wail Street-Esroadhriln
and Observation-Disclosures Wedding Bells.
Floral Decorations, Gossip, etc.
NEW YORK, April %. 1882.
EDITOR CHIEF:
1t is Il little over two years ago that Il
manifesto appeared i'll our principal jour
mails, inviting the women of the United
States to cooperate for the pu@pose of
dress reform. The manifesto went OH to
state that the enormous prices demanded
for womcn's dress goods we're by no
! means commensurate with the original
cost, and that the time had come when q,
decent self-respect and q wholesome de-
sire of economy rendered it imperative
that women should abandon the extrav-
agaucies of the past, and join the Coop
erative Dress Association. This manifesto
was signed by Miss Kate Field, the pres
ent President of the Cooperative Dress
Association The hearts of husbands aud
fathers beat high with hope. Here WAS
an apostle cf reform indeed, right in their
own ranks; a real genuine evangelist !;
a sort of Moody and Sankey combined,
who came with revelation more yalu;,-
bic, according to our modern way Of
thinking, than any received by the oldsn
prophets, namely, to make two dollars
blossom where one had blossomed before
No seductive arguments about the New
Jerusalem, or the Happy Land Of Canaan
would avail againsta a revelation so strong
as this, and it is therefore not at all as
tonisling that Miss Kate Field soon
found herself at the head Of all army of
followers. 1t was not long before a great
many of the subscribers of the Co-opera-
tive Dress Association began to discover
that it was not an eleenlosynary institu-
ton; that the large rebates on goods and
the enormous profits on the stock were a
delusion aud snare; and that the twent.!
per cent. dividends, which the original
founder had suggested, were likely to be
enjoyed only when the happy stock
holders had reached the other side of
Jordan. Some one suggested that there
was a colored gentlemen concealed be-
hind the fence, but the thing was to find
out where the little joker lay; and the
last report Of the Association throws
some little light upon the subject. of
the S225, 600 paid in, SIS, ZOO was paid to
a clever Englishman by the name of
Anthony Pullbrook, who got up the
original prospectus and formed the nsso-
citation. Not bad for Mr.. Pullbrook
There is no telling what he weuld have
pulled, if he had been continued in his
office or organizing secretary. A set of
officers were lawfully installed; and
there they stick to-day; and there they
are likely to stick till old Time with his
relentless scythe, or Gabriel with his
horn brings the Cooperative Dress Asso-
citation, as they will everything else, to a
summary and final settlement. The
books show profit of $4,000 on a capital
of $3.50, ,000-not much of bonanza that. i.
The association was got up to benefit the
suffering middling classes. 4 young
woman who had been saving her money
for picnic, and who had invested S25
i'll the stock, thought she would treat
prise her less fortunate sisters by dash
ing ont in it, with new bonnet to match,
on last Easter Sunday. They keep ready
made dresses at the Cooperative, and