Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1897-04-10

"a PUFF OF WIND FLEW HER CLOAK ASIDE"
naturally would have gone 20 the police
and detectives for protection and assist
ancc, but it is not quite so easy TO have an
, individual who wears the best French
gloves, whose bonncts come from an ex-
penSivc importers, and who sometimes
| asks you to share her opera box, receive at
| her teas or take lift home III her brough-
| am, arrested and searched on suspicion
"Well, l ncyer!" remarked the woman
| in blue.
ooh, that's just because you are dear,
unsophistcatGd little creature, and out in
, your western town they don't do such
thinGs-the temptations are not SO great.
But l can assure yon that here in cur big
cities, at regular intervals, polite klepto-
| mania is simply rampant and hardly
big function breaks up that half the wcmen
don't come away quite savage over the loss
| of some pretty and especially priced belong
ing" Evidently the blond was right, for
| all the other women nodded assent, and
+! the hostess was apparently breathless to
tell OF some personal grievance on this
score when the first speaker broke in again.
| You see, " she elaborated, 1--WE used to
| think it might have been the servants
fault or an honest error when we found
our possessions exchanged for others less
valuable or simply disappearing, until two
\ or three times the offenders were caught
right in the act, and then came the awful
ly dismal consciousness that really no one
| could be trusted
! My first experience was with d very
costly lace fan l carried to dinner. held
on TO it most affcctionately throughout the
evening until some half dozen of US went
up to the hostess bedroom for our WRAPS.
I Nov, \ - -
fan, on The dressing table, and when I
turned to get them again the fan was gone
i protested. The maid searched, but moth
ing came of it, and broken heartedly 1
went down, bewaiiing my loss to sym
pathetic feminine companion. We went
out to our respective carriages together.
| but as the butler opened the hall door q
puff OF wind blew her long cloak aside, and
| there saw, snug in its pocket, my precious
fan. Well, the next day wrote her very
| frankly, asking for its return, suggesting,
| Of course, she had taken it by mistake and
home it came. But we have never spoken
since.
THAT taught me to look fer higher Of
tenders than maids in dressing rooms. who
are usually accused of making way with
all wraps, umbrellas, overshoes and what
not that may be missing"
J An, that is not my trouble" chimed
IN debutante across the tea table 1.-The
iavorite plan is now to exchange bad for
GOOD Things. an growing almost phil
osophical over the deplorable shabbiness of
my Wardrobe from this constant swapping
Last week, On coming up late to the dress
ing room from dance, found in place
Of my brand new green suede carriage
overshoes two overlarse, badly worn ones
Oh rusty black velvet, and my lace head
scarf exchanged for n frayed one of soiled
white chiffon. Naturally cross and sleepy,
iell on the tired maid, who wept and de-
MED, but looked as if she could tell tale.
!, only to make a test case of it, / rolled
my new French goloshes in my macintosh
laid my card on top and Put them in = safe
corner OF the dressing room OF a house
where l went to luncheon the other day
But is was of no avail The goloshes had
been metamorphosed into q pair of muddy
ruboers with holes in them when went
back, and didn't grumble, since my pret
~ umbrella was lett. altogether. this
season has cost me some four pairs Of per-
tectiy new rainboots and endlessumhrellas,
and yet my case is not so hard as that of
other victims. The work of the spoi,er
goes on in the cloakroons, when big we'd
ding receptions, teas, musicales ard pri-
vate balls are in progress.
AT one Of the big dances of the season
! the hostess simply ordered her maid TO is
r sue checks for every woman wraps, and,
/ charming to relate, not so much as a hair
| pin was lost, for at her daughters wed
ding reception, only week before. three
. NUTS got away somehow without their
rishtful owners, and the possessor of a
$500 able hand warmer found a ecrubby
old astrakhan one in its place
That is where these fashionable kiepto-
maniacs salve sheiS 'consciences by an ex-
change, you zee. for rarely is anything
. taken that some inferioe article Il not puf