The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-12-06
CLOTHES OF THE DEAD
The Old Custom and the New-Second
Hand Clothing Dealers.

1t used to be, among the women OF
past generation, custom to leave their
clothes by will in the same manner that
they did their second best bedstead''
and ''silver gilt teapot" They divided
their furs, laces, brocades and ''body
linen" among their nearest kin, and gen.-
orally left the palmer and more worn
things to old family servants or poor re-
lations. But these personal possessions,
with the exception of laces, are rarely
becueathed nowadays. Mrs. John Jacob
Astor kept to the old customs, and saw
poor, pretty girl wearing one of her
sealskin coats last week, it having been
specially bequeathed to her In the Will.
The usual course is that taken By the
heirs of Mrs. A. T. Stewart, who sold ali
her enormous wardrobe to dealers in
second hand clothes. Though little was
said about it at the time, a good many
society women took occasion to purchase
certain things through the dealers, but
generally handkerchief, stockings, silk
underwear and gloves, which would not
| be recognized and which they got very
cheaply.
There is a woman on Fifth avenue who
makes a business of buying the ward
robes of dead women, and who is fast
making fortune out of the bargains she
gets. Most of her customers who pur-
I! chase goods from her have no idea of the
real secrets of her trade. She is osten-
sibly dealer in imported goods and has
certain French and English boxes and
cases into which she packs many of her
goods and sells them as new. She will
/ take the whole wardrobe of the deceased,
new and old, good and bad, and then this
goes through careful process Of selec-
ton. The new things, Or those nearly
so, which are really imported or have
that appearance, she packs into foreign
cases and ties them up daintily and dis
poses of them to rich customers. Many
time woman has come to her and
said: 81 want to find something-stock-
ings, gloves or what not-hke some
once saw Mrs. Quelquechose have. See
If you can find them for me-" And the
dealer has in course Of time sent her a
note saying that she has found some
thing very near what she asked for. In
reality they are Mrs. Quelquechose's own,
and the dealer had them all the while.
The gowns that are new or very nearly
new she sells to the dressmakers, who
freshen them up bit and sell them tt
out Of town customers.
Then the Dealer has list of customers
who are perfectly familiar with the rea
nature of her trade. They are mostly
women who are struggling to keep theil
places in society, with lean purses and {
great desire to keep UP appearances
} They keep the run of her place and ge
some bargains, because though the thing
they buy arc somewhat worn, they arr
worth the money for the good Partisan
cut and style. They buy from her blacl
and inconspicuous gowns that are lik'
those worn by dozen ether women ant
are not likely to be recognized, and some
times they have them made over at hom
and buy them for the sake of the goot
j, material IN them. There is third elias
/, OF the wornout and shabby clothes, bon
/ nets, shoes and general belongings whicl
. are sold in lump to the second han,
: dealers in the Bowery. And SO all tn
} pretty frills and fancies of the dear deal
women of our households become scat
e tered to the far winds, worn by he
: friends, her enemies, her servants
{ strangers and women whom in life sh
r would have turned her eyes away fror
o as she passed. There is something yer
pathetic, it seems to me, in such dispersa
and use of these most intimate persona
possessions of lovely women. The oil
r way was best.-Cor. Brooklyn Eagle.