The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1894-10-25
THAT POCKET AGAIN.
~noueht she Was Robbed, but the Pockes
was Tn Her Other Dress.

Was In Her OB00r OEOBDs
A certain west side lady who has been
reading the newspapers sat down one even.
inc and put q pocket in her dress. She had
been going along her whole uneventful life
without q pocket. She had frequently
needed a pocket, but having been born
without one, and never having seen q lady
with one, she had unconsciously accepted
the pocketless condition as necessary In
cidental of her sex. As her boys came to
the age of trousers and jackets the pocket
challenged her attention by the number
and character of the articles that could be
concealed therein. She had found about
everything boy could think Of, from ap-
pies to old nails, in those pockets. They
were a constant source of surprise and in
struction to her. Yet pocket seemed to
her as it has to many awoman, inseparable
from trousers.
It never occurred to her to wear trousers.
She had heard of women wearing trousers
and pockets, but never lady. So she
calmly logged along to middle age, carry
ing her pocketbook-sad misnomer to those
who never had pocket-in her hand,
small change tucked under her glove and
big bills in her stocking. AS for her hand
kerchief, fan, glove buttoner-well, the
handkerchief was usually in her husband's
pocket, while all of the other necessary ar
ticles of the feminine makeup were dis
posed about her person in the usual mys-
terious manner known only to womenkind.
In moment of mental alteration she
one day read that department of newspa-
per devoted to women's fashions. She saw
there, much to her establishment, that every
woman of good common sense had a pocket
in her dress-at least her shopping dress
Fortunately or unfortunately she read but
one fashion writer-no two women writers
on feminine matters agree-and she was
converted. She put pocket in her best
street dress. She went out and tried it, and
it worked satisfactorily. She had neither
been arrested nor robbed. She was SO de-
lighted with it that she told her husband.
He said "Yes," and went on shaving.
A few days later she was on Broadway
car, hanging to a strap with the life
squeezed out of her, so she afterward said,
when the conductor asked her for her fare.
She smiled sweetly and, to use the male ex-
preston for the act, went down into her
Clothes" The conductor knew what that
meant and went back to the platform to
give her time. He hadn't more than got
there, however, before he heard scream.
''I've been robbedP' came in startling &C
cents from within.
The driver brought the brake down with
turn that sent the standing load into the
front end of the car into heap.
"Pickpocketsl' yelled an excited man,
grabbing his watch and chain, whereat
every other man felt of his pockets or
scarfpin or watch to assure himself of the
safety of his portable property. A couple
of men had been about to get off just there,
but they were now afraid to do so for fear
of exciting suspicion.
''Oh, my pocketbookl My pocketbookl /
had it right here in my pocketp' she cried
with a swift, suspicious glance upon her
fellow passengers.
(Which pocket, mum?" inquired one of
the latter.
(which pocket!' The tone in which this
was uttered convinced the inquirer that he
had made bad break, but he didn't know
just where it was. ALI the time the lady
was feeling wildly around as if to locate
the receptacle. In her nervous state she
was jerking her dress first this way, then
that, and scrambling among the numerous
folds without accomplishing anything more
than making the people around her dizzy.
where was the pocket, madam, when
you had it last?" This from lady who
carried her pocketbook in her hand at an
angle of As degrees.
my pocketbook?"
mo, your pocket 1t would be good
idea to find that first"
The conductor signaled the driver to go
ahead.
A glance of scorn that would have with
cred a corn crop was bestowed upon the
lady without a pocket by the lady with
pocket.
''She's trying to find it," politely sug-
gested sympathizer.
She'll probably find it in her other
DRESS" growled man in the farthest end
of the car
Everybody looked at him and laughed
that is, everybody but the lady with the
pocket. She permitted a pale and sickly
feeling of relief to show itself in her face
and suddenly ceased to take any further in
terest in the search. When the conductor
came through again, she calmly took
nickel from her glove and paid her fare
without word, whereupon the man in the
farthest corner of the car assumed such an
intolerable air Of knowing all about it that
other men were obliged to get off and walk.
New York Herald.