San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-09-10
Dire ssmakers Who Gamble Sometimes for
the Pay Due Them.


1t, Is said by New York correspondent of
The Chicago News that dressmakers occasion
ally finish costumes on pure speculation, and
run the risk of ever being paid atall, the me-
dunn of this speculation being some pretty
girl of good social position and empty purse
who has a right to expect that she might
marry well were she properly presented be-
fore the fastidious eye of the eligible bachelor.
There is a story told, for whose truth I'm
not altogether prepared to answer, but which
one hears told very often, about certain
famous New York beauty who has very little
money and great deal of physical loneliness,
and who made the mistake of fancying that
English peers cared enough about American
beauty to marry it without fortune She is
exquisitely pretty, as well as clever and high
bred looking. One of the rich dressmakers
thought so, too, and hearing her one day be-
wall the fact that for want of clothes she
could not accept an invitation to spend the
season in London, offered to furnish her with
a handsome wardrobe on speculation, provid-
ing that she would pay certain interest on
the money after she had married her earl or
duke, as the case might be.
The girl jumped at the offer, for her look
ing glass had always told her that she only
needed the proper setting to make her
jewel which duke might be glad to place
amid the strawberry leaves, and she firmly
believed that London season with beautiful
clothes was the one thing needful to set her
before the world in proper light and en-
able her to popularize the fortune she bore in
her face Well, she got the clothes, and
charming ones they were, for the dress
makers artistic pride was aroused and she
wanted the world to see what she could do
with good subject.
The London world raved over her. She
sat for famous artists. Her photographs
were in all the shop windows. Her picture
was in all the illustrated papers, I'D all the
poor guardsmea and impecunious younger
sons lost their heads sufficiently to propose
love in a cottage. But when the dukes and
earls found she had no fortune, and that the
fine clothes did not represent government
bonds or pork packing establishment, they
came to the conclusion that she was too ex-
pensive luxury, and at the end Of the sea-
son the beauty returned unwedded and with
no means of paying that dreadful dress
makers bill which seemed mere bagatelle
to her when she had sailed away TO become
an English peeress.
That was two years ago. She is still I'M
welded, that dreSSmaker's bill is still unpaid,
and the talk is now that she is about to ac-
cept wealthy gentleman with curved nose
and an oriental surname, who will not mind
trihes of few thousands for clothes when it
means the securing of so beautiful a woman,
whose connection will give him an entree
into the fashionable society where he so longs
for an opportunity to spend the income of
his millions
Some of these speculations, however, have
turned out much more fortunately, and,
strange to say, one of them was in the case
of a very plain girl who had nothing but her
witty tongue and stylish carriage to recon-
mend her, and who, with a setting of good
clothes, managed to marry an excellent
parti. Within one season she had not only
paid her bill, but had purchased dozens Of
splendid new frocks, for which she was en-
abled to pay down her husbands ready
nOnay