The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1895-02-23
THE NEW DRESS.

4ND DAOAI0Os
Mrs. Alphonso Jones had a new
black cashmere dress.
Mrs. Jones w1u in the habit Of hay
ing new dresses. 1t was a weakness
Of hers. But a 8 Mr.. Jones was rich,
and could pay all she bought, of
course it was nobody's business.
Just across the street from Mrs.
Jones lived Mrs. Rufus Brown. The
ladies had been school girls together,
and had been married about the same
time, both of them to poor men. MI.
Jones had shot far ahead Of Mr.. Brown
in the money-making race, and a gov
eminent contract had made him a
rich man. Poor Mr.. Brown, unfortu-
nately, had Il conscience continually
pulling him UP short, and in his bust
ness he was honest, and in conse-
luence his wife could rot have SO
many new dresses as Mrs. Jones.
This fact was a source Of great at
Fiction to Mrs. Brown. For Mrs,
Jones, with the refinement of ill-na.
ture, always displayed all her new
purchases to her "dear friend" the in
slant they came home, and advised
her to have something EXACTLY SINH
lar" it would be 80 sweet and be-
coming"
Mrs. Brown had borne her trials all
winter like a martyr; but when Mrs.
Jones came out with that black cash.
mere, it was a little too much. For
a woman who already had seven
dresses in three months, to buy the
eighth one was scandalous.
And Mrs. Brown told her husband,
with tears in her eyes that she must
have q black cashmere dress herself,
If she had to live on two meals h
day, for she never would submit to
have that horrid Sophronie Jones
a-1aunting her ruffles and furbelows
in her face any more-so there!
"Why, my dear Almira!" said Mr..
Brown, II thought you and Mrs. Jones
were bosom friends-female Damon
and Pythias."
1--WE are nothing of the kind, Rufus.
She's all the time trying to hurt my
feelings with her new clothes. AS If
she thought I couldn't see what her
object is. And she looks like a fright
in all those puffs she loads on, too.
And she is so short and dumpy, and
no more neck than there is to a glue
bottle"
"Why, Almira, you are positively
ill-natured."
every likely I am. I've had enough
to make me 90. Now, Rufus, dear,
I've been lying awake half the night,
planning about my new dress, and"
"How much money do you want?'
asked Mr.. Brown going to the point at
once, for he had been a husband long
enough to know what that very coax
ing "Rufus, DEAR" meant.
ut Will take twenty-four yards for
q suit, and Mrs. Jor es' was a dollar
and a quarter yard. But I can get
sor e which will al swer for eighty
seven cents. Nobody will yer know
the differences; and I can get Miss
Camp to make it. She sews so much
cheaper than Mrs. Hjlrs people,"
"ShOp work, eh?"
"Dear me, Brown machines do the
work and if it Only looks we'll, who
stops to inquire If it's shop work?"
"But the cost?"
II have reckoned it all up over and
over again, and I calculate I can get
along with thirty five dollars"
MI. Brown counted out six fives, and
gave them to his wife.
"Don't buy too cheap" said he; II
am prejudiced against bargains"
Then he went to that place which
swallows up husbands-the maelstrom
Of "down town'-and his wife went up
stairs to equip herself for an expedi-
ton to the shops for her dress.
She spent the forenoon in making
Der purchases, and after dinner she
visited Miss Camp, and was fitted for
the dress.
In three days it was sent home with
the bill attached.
These are the items: