The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-01-28
THE SWELL GIRLS BOUDOIR
A PICTURE OF THE DAINTY TEMPLE.
''Bab' Tells AN About It-Eow to Tell an
Honest mountaineering Feminine
Hands and Those Which Make
the World Happy.

III OppOI W htSlJ litI DOuNOlI. Il L
the first glance you viii conclude that you
are in a temple. and so you ara temple
dedicated to the worship of the beautiful.
Although when the nighttime comes she
has plenty of light to see just how to make
her toilette, in the daytime gloom per
vades that apartment that suggests not q
religious darkness, for you are certain to
stumble over the stools, but darkness
that has a tendency to increase the vio-
lence OF your temper and the versatility of
your language.
The room that has come the nearest to
the swell girls idea of what her temple
should be has dull purplish looking TAR
pet on the floor and couches, low stools
and cushions galore all about the room.
The cushions are heavily embroidered in
gold with most mystic-looking figures that
may be construed a. either Egyptian,
Hebrew or Chaldaic: but anyhow you are
not supposed to know what they are. The
curtains are curious black ones embroid-
cred in gold, allowed to fall and keep out
the light of day The dressing-table,
which looks like an altar, has curious
old altar cloth for its cover, and a priests
vestment, bought al some auction sale, for
the drapery in front. The mirror is
framed in silver, and under it are
tiny hanging lamps that look exactly
like the Ikons that the devout Rus
sian puts under the picture of saints
All the toilet paraphernalia is suread out
and Just in front is low stool, upholstered
in black aud gold, upon which the fair
mistress may sit while her assistant at
mysterious rites brushes her hair. Bel
shazzar-like, there is handwriting on the
wall Only in this instance the notices
are those of encouragement, the one Just
over the toilet table reading, "Get pa
thence, sweet maid, If thou wouldst be
lovely"
It is rather a spooky room and the Wis
itor therein has a sort OF feeling that she
had better not speak above a whisper, and
that materialized ghosts are likely TO ap-
pear at any moment. On a low shelf near
one Of the touches is q collection of books
on woman" how to increase her beauty,
how to make her attractive, her faults,
her virtues, her tiny vices and her large
ones.
In this temple her ladyship must con-
centrate her ideas. To do this she re-
euires one thing, and that is her crystal,
and this stands IN purple velvet case on
the table. When she comes in she calls
her maid, whose French name she has
twisted into Iras. and bids her Bring me
the well OF hope" 1t is brought and she
begins TO look in it. she drives every
thought out of her mind until it is an alb
solute vacancy and then she declares that
whatever thought she wishes will come to
her. i am a tOleTably orthodox person,
never having had any tendency to spiritu-
alism, pessinlism, agnOsticism, or theosO-
ply, but being filled with optimism,
which l take 10 be the religion OF hope /;
but, being woman, 1 thought l would
like to try it and see what the crystal
would do for me- Acting upon the adj
vice Of my friend, thought nothing.
just looked into that clear ball. then
after | had looked for a while, it dawued
on me that had looked once before in a
ball. but | couldn't tell where it was. /
stopped looking and said this, and I was
advised 10 think of that, Of that alone and
] would see ii in the ball. | looked and
looked intently, ] thought and thought
with desperation; staring in that great
globe, / seemed 10 see a beautiful large
room, room full of pictures and with
cabinets in the center, IN which were
lovely porcelains and great number Of
the crystal balls. | saw a tall slender
scholarly man, and beside him a small, del
cate looking girl with braids of yellow hair
down her back, who held in her hand a
crystal. To her the man said, "No, that
was made in the East thousands of years
ago; they can't make them here" and
then / knew who it was. 1 knew that |
was the little Girl, and / remembered
where l had first looked into the crysta :,
first wondered about them, and who at
first told me the story.
The explanation Well, my friend in
sisted that it was magic, but somehow
ever since I had my fortune told haven't
believed in magic, so l went where | al
ways 60 when in trouble-to a man.
asked him TO explain it to me, and he
said "What do you remember best?" and
] said, Things that happened years ago."
"Very WELL" he said; chad YOU ever
touched crystal between the time you
first saw one and the day you held the
other in your hand2 You had not Your
mind was blank, you have a wonderfully
retentive memory, and in eDdeavoring TO
think where you had first seen the crystal
the M nd photographed the time and
place and the eye saw the mental photo
graph. If you had shut your ewes and
laid back on a couch you would have seen
just the same. II was simply the action of
memory ana you would never see IN the
crystal anything that hadn't happened"
So the magic Is explained away.
Nobody gives a party nowadays unless
they have specialist In il. l don't mean
one to cure the aches and ills of human
ity, but one who is the best among the
banjo players, the best among the palm
lists, the best among the comic singers or
jugglers- Enormous prices are paid to
these people, but an immense amount of
innocent amusement Is gotten out of what
they do. II is interesting to note the
opinion the different palmists have of
you. Within the past week 1 have been
told that / had a violent temper land no
woman was ever more easily duped or de-
luded In the world. that / should
never marry, and if lever /
had to earn my living l had better
paint pictures. In my early DAYS took
drawing lessons until my drawing teacher
said there was no use in my mother was
ing her money; and as for painting pict-
ures, / can't even put transfer picture on
vase correctly. If am 10 start new
school and throw the paint-pota at the wall,
might make & success, for / am pretty
correct in my aim. but otherwise | scarce
~ think | should earn enough TO buv the
license for my dog. This same indignant