Middletown transcript., 1896-03-21
Our Wonnan's
80. Column
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snow Wnon III is on.
But, my dear girl, it does show. The
tresses that you have carelessly conbed
out, waddirg them up hastily behind,
trusting to hat and veil to hide, un-
hesitatingly announces the fact to the
most careless observer. The bow that
has pulled loose and you have not
taken the trouble to sew in place, but
pinned with careless hand, sets askew
and discloses the pin to the gaze of all.
The boots that are little shabby, you
compromise with dab of polish on
the toe, leaving the heel and siues to
take care of themselves, salving your
conscience with theerroneous idea that
it won't SHOW" " They do show, in
going up and down stairs, in walking
the streee, in lifting the skiit in un-
avoidable places; they show and mark
the wearer as careless woman.
As to that skirt, frayed and soiled at
the hem; it is good skirt, but only re-
qulres little mending to be made pre-
sentab!e, but you wear it as it is,
thrusting it On hastily in the belief that
the soiled, frazzled edge will not be
noticed.
A garment may be old and well worn,
but carefully mended AMI free from
stain and soil it becomes respectable.
The shoes may show the shape of the
foot but if they are polished, heels,
soles and tops, and every button in
place. half their siabbiness may be
overlooked.
-
A friend of the writer, dear little
woman, with one wee daughter as
dainty as herself, said the other day:
II am thorough! discouraged about
living in boarding house." Judging
from our own varied and eventful ex-
perience in that line, we did not won-
der at the statement, but in order to
draw her out concerning her particu-
lar grievance we said: 'And why,
pray? You have a very desirable abode
in choice location, and as far as re-
port can verify, the table is all that. it
should be, both in quality and guam
tity."
''Oh, the foods all right, and 1 could
not honestly find fault with the neigh
borhood, but the life itself will be the
ruination of Dorothy" meaning the
little daughter before mentioned. "Oh,
it is some thing dreadful" she patheti-
cally continued, "she is getting SO hor-
'ribly precocious, and there is no way
TO prevent it. You, see every morning
after breakfast there is a gathering of
the clans in some one w0man'S room
and there over bIoidery of the feeble
weeks mending that they dignity by
the name of work, they all talk scandal
and gossip ON topics that no child
should be allowed to hear, and all the
time there sits that baby or mine on the
floor not half as interested in the doll
with which size is supposed to be playing
as she is with the conversation going
on between those idle adults.
''As result she comes out with the
s'rangest remarks, which are applauded
by tie women as being cute and smart;
she isn't like baby. she is like an old
woman, and l sometimes lie awake at
night wondering what her future will
be with no childhood mem cries Of her
own home, her own kitchen and the
thousand and one little pleasures that
a child only can enjoy under the roof
tree of its parents. Think of it-she
will never know the Joy of making |
little cakes from the leftover bits of
bread dough; she will never know what |
it means to have real old-fashioned
All that she will have as
a recollection of her childhood will be |
the remembrance Of those idle women
talking about other yeople's concerns |
or their own bodily ailments"
This view of boarding house life
was new to US, but its sad reality made
us look with pity rpon any mother and
child forced to spend the time of i'm
pression-forming amid the circle of |
listless feminines, with no ambition
beyond their fancy work. and no de-
sires beyond the variation in the Sum-
day menu,