Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-16

| after a long and painful Intellectual effort
| / would finally look up and tell the clerk
! l would take three, or two, as 1t hap
peled, whereupon the simpleton would 90
| ana cut me off three two yards when,
| OF course 1 meant three or two dresses Of
| as many yards each as the pattern d.
patterns. for every woman who does her
own sewing swears by them.
| am not woman given to Tears. 1 cried
| IN newspaper office once, and the editor
| oiscnarged me and said he'd never have
another sniveling woman about the shop"
| ! maven Wept since, and yet, when had
oought all the material all my patterns
| needed was SO tired 1 went off to q res
| taurant by myself and cried in the ice
cream tried to brace up on. Already /
| was that much of a wreck from sewing
and not a stitch taken.
| When the Goods Came Home.
When the dry goods began to pile in
! about o'clock there occurred the first Of
| the ravages home sewing works upon we'd
ded bliss. 1 can't tell exactly how it came
| about, but from my lord and master first
grumpily telling me that I'd kill myself IL
| l tried to do all that sewing and that more
! than I'd save would go for doctor bills.
| somehow In his vain endeavor to argue
mat 1t wasn't the doctors bills. but killing
myself, that he minded 1 got him so apollo
setic and mixed up that he set to urging
me TO sew all those dry goods and more
| If wanted, with the result that l charged
MIN with insisting that / do my own sew
| ing. This topped the whole thing and
completed the situation. | stuck to he
notion that l was a martyr-a poor, weak
woman driven by a tight-fsted husband
10 sew herself to death-which is the frame
| or mind in which all truly good women
| make their own clothes L never knew one
who didn't, the minute she got tired and
cross, accuse her husband of being too
| stngy to let her hire her things made out
| side.
began operations bright and early in
the morning-began cutting out by my pat
terms. l am not altogether without intel
lectual ability, and, If l say ii myself. I'm
patient as a worm. But there's a pro-
fundity about the directions of these simple
patterns that adde's a giant intellect and
corrupts the enduring spirit of a saint.
Agony of n Pattern.
Listen to this:
The pattern is in eighteen pieces; the
two pieces having clusters of six perfora-
tons are for the collar-turn-down portion
and neckband; the four pieces having
clusters Of five perforations are for the cuff
two inside band sections to be used if the
cuff is to be removable, turn-up portion and
outside band section; and the remaining
twelve pieces are for the shirt waist-front,
under front yoke, back back yoke, back
yoke lining, belt, neckband strap, overlap,
underlap, wristband and sleeve Cut the
back with the edge having cluster of four
perforationS laid on a lengthwise fold the
belt with Its square end, and the strap and
back yoke with the edge of each having a
cluster of four perforations on a crosswise
fold, the inside and outside band sections
with the edge Of each having a cluster of
five perfora tons on a crosswise or length
wise fold
l want any simply intelligent man to tell
me whether it would be possible to read a
couple of columns of stuff like that without
driVeling before he got through. Would
any man believe there is SO much that is
concealed and horrible about a woman's
shirt waist, anyhow? And yet countless
women compass all this daily, and then re-
proach themselves and are reproa ched be-
cause they lack a college education
But 1t isn't merely reading these pat
terms; you are expected TO cut by them
then sew what you have cut, and after
ward wear what you have sewn.
With Every Breath.
The paper the patterns are made of is the
finest tissue and just you have struggled
till you're black in the face finding the
piece with the requisite number of perfora-
lions in the right place and have laid 1t on
the right fold of cloth, you breathe, and the
miserable thing is blown across the room
VIII not go into the narrowing details
OF no" L cut my first and only shirt waist
l Will not say a single word about how
prutai l was to the baby and to poor little
i-crd fauntleroy, who at the start thouyhr
1t was going to be great fun to see"dearest''
sew Along in the afternoon the battered
corner of the house, and like frightened
deers ready to flee at a sound peered
curlously and cautiously through the win
dow at the dangerous animal inside who
shears In hand, was making havoc of tissue
paper patterns and dry goods | heard
thelr plainuVe voices later asking the cook
now long mamma was going to seW-was
she going to sew "all this day and yester-
cay and the next day and every day more n
a million years"
But the cook, who had not been on speak
terms c;,
treatment OF her gentle inquiry what
would l like for dinner, snubbed nv or
phaned children, and hand in hand, they
vandered off, the baby decla ring in a
minor key that they We're going to get on
the steam cars and go way, way away to
dranpa's, and mamma and Mary wouldn't
never see them any more
Still II Domestic Occupation.
Talk about profession unsexing a
woman and taking her out of her family,
Why, If l We're to do police on a daily
paper l wouldn't begin to be unsexed and
estranged from my family the wav that
eminently domestic occupation sewing
unseXed and estranged me. | did not fully
realize how l was sacrificing every trace
OF the Madonna in me until came to try
one OF the dresses l had cut and hasted
NOW hate that word basted, It's so full
OF the evil essence of sewing) on the bahy
couldn't blame him for fussng at put
ting the dress on, for il certainly look.d
queer enough Yet to finally get if on anj
have the thing hang any way but the
way 1t should, and to have nothing but a
little soft, squirming, squealing something
TO mt 1t to; make the experiment yourself
If you think sewing is calculated to IRE
serve gentle, loving mother. The young
ster was finally bribed to stand still by Civ
ing him paper of pins to hold and pull
pins out of 1t as they We're needed In the
hitting process. This went beautifully until
following the example of his reckless and
Gepraved parent, the baby filled his mouth
with pins, and one went down No it did
not kill him. but it ended my sewing for
that day, and, / trust, forever. 1t also
fixed my determination to constitute my
self a missionary to rescue other women
from the folly of doing their own sewing.
1t is false economy; ii is false art and l
think it is also bad morals.
Home Sewing and Economy.
I might suggest that the woman who
does her own sewing spends more for ma
terials than another woman spends both
fer materials and work who goes to first
class professionals. She does so because
having in her mind the notion that her
sewing costs nothing because she does it
herself, she makes her capacity for sew