The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-01-05
PITIFUL PoCKETLess WOMAN.
To What Shifts Is She Put to Carry Safe
Her Purse and andkerchleE

| ~ ~ SSNG GGSS "S"N'"
To What Shifts Is She Put to Carry Safe
Her Purse and handkerchief
If human beings were classified ac-
cording to their most striking peculiar
tiles the fair sex of this period
would surely be called 1.-The poclletless
woman"
Plain, sheath skirts are all very fine.
But it never entered into the folds of
bell skirt to afford a hiding place for a
pocket
Nevertheless, there are certain arti-
cles which must be carried, pocket or
no pocket, and the ways of doing this
which are devised by various women
are both ludicrous and pathetic.
When a woman starts out shopping
or visiting or on any errand, there are
several articles which IL bchooves her
to carry. In the first place, every we'll
meaning woman likes to have a hand
kerchief concealed somewhere about
her person; and, Furthermore, it doesn t
make much difference whether she be
arrayed with the panoply of righteous
ness, but she must carry at least her
Gag fare.
This Is the very simplest way in
which the case presents itself But the
ways in which women meet it are le-
| gion. Take money! Often a woman
has more than she is absolutely certain
to need, and, knowing full we'll by dire
experiences the manifold dangers which
attend her pocketless condition, she
slows it away in divers and sundry
places
The hat is a not uncommon hiding
place for this little surplus, which is
securely pinned between the hat frame
and the lining. A great many women
carry their extra money in small bag
placed inside their dress waists. Others
wear bands about their waists, as did
the miners in the old California days.
Others select their stockings, and still
others their shoes as repositories of
wealth. These women are always MAX
ing some purchase which overdraws
the cash they have in sight as it were.
1t is very amusing then. The woman
begins to hedge. Says she thinks she
will wait little while before deciding.
Clerk very much aggrieved, urges the
de irability of the goods. Woman
bushes Clerk grows eloquent. Wo-
man says she will go over to the glove
counter while he is cutting the ma
teriaL Truth begins to dawn on clerks
mind and a smile on his face. Woman
disappears, not in the direction of the
glove counter. Reappears in five min
utes somewhat ruff I'd but solvent.
Some women carry money, particu-
larly car fare, in the palms of their
hands. Others, horrors! have small
change between their teeth, and pay
very moist nickels into the conductor s
grimy hand.
Handkerchiefs are generally tucked
under the bottom of the basque or be-
tween the buttons, but one young
woman of the writer's acquaintance
always thrust hers up her sleeve. That
is, she did until the floor walker in the
dry goods store led her over to the
office, under the impression that she
was shoplifting. One bright young
woman had dress waist made with
wide revers in front. Under each revers
was small pocket like the change
pocket in mans waistcoat One of
these was sacred to the use of silver and
the other to paper money. That girl
was happy for awhile Her money was
safe. But one day she counted her
handkerchiefs and found that she had
lost six inside of two weeks She racked
her brains for a remedy. She had been
in the habit of tucking her square of
linen or lace under the edge of her
basque, and she could not think of any
other place which would be equally ELI
gible. At last she had an idea She
took one of these clasps such as are used
for holding up sleeves or hose, and fas-
tened that under her basque. Then she
clasped this to her kerchief, and walked
serene in the consciousness that she was
invulnerable to loss
There is always the shopping bag
Awkward and unattractive as it is, it
has saved most of our hairs, gray and
otherwise, from being brought in sorrow
to the grave. 1t is really astonishing,
the capacity of the cheerful little things
with shopping bag hanging like a
trophy at her belt were sitting at
lunch in an uptown restaurant Some
I one dared the girls to show the con-
tents of their respective bags, and such
a motley collection of trinkets as was
forthwith displayed would have dis
counted the total production of whole
dozen of schoolboys' pockets. But the
newspaper girl, as usual, was ahead.
And for any one who doubts the use
fulness of a shopping bag, she submits
the following little list of the contents
of her own very small one:
One note book, one purse, three pen
ellis, one knife, two letters, one stamp
box, one handkerchief two gloves, six
hair pins, one glove buttoner, one rail-
road ticket, three keys, one watch, one
veil-twenty-five separate articles in
this small receptacle.
This is an actual list, and although
the bag was trifle aldermanic in pro
portions still it was not full, as bags go
Nevertheless, the shopping bag is only
a slight amelioration of our condition.
There must come some sort of a revolu'
ton.
In the mean time behold us!
Poor, pitiful, pocketlesS woman!-N.
\ AalttIinr EOAtrast