The record-union., 1897-05-30
BESELENA'S PRATrLE.

BESELENA'S PRATTLE.
Especial Correspondence Of Record-Uniono
PORTLAND (Or), May 29.-Nearly
all women nowadays have fad OF
some sort. Sometimes it may consist
of a certain style of dress which she
chooses to adopt; again it may affect
her whole personality, yet be so vague
as to defy detection. To have particular
fad is the ultra fashionable thing these
days. Besides, the cultivation of a fad
is to most women of ample leisure a
sort of saftey-valve whereby her sup
pressed feelings and emotions may be
harmlessly exploded.
The woman of to-day is a distinctive
product of the times. She has vague
ideals, half-formed aspirations. She
is as different from the contented, plod-
| ding ancestors whence she sprung as
though she had never belonged to
them. She is a bundle of discomfort
and her life is incomplete. This state
of affairs is largely due to woman's s
environment. On all sides she hears
vague mutterings of discomfort from
other women-from women who thirst
| for emancipation. The books she reads
contain hints more or less veiled ac-
! cording to the ability of the author
either to convey his meaning in a series
of innuendoes or to come out plainly
and state them as fact. They all
! breathe of social anarchism. All these
things cannot but help have an effect
upon thinking woman, and it is an
undisputed fact that women are doing
a great deal more hard thinking now
than they ever have done before. The
problem Of life has been brought so
close to so many of them that it can
not help but have an effect upon the
whole race of womankind
| The fads of the day are gradually
! beginning to assume a definite shape.
| The women who are given over to their
| cultivation, and who devote their time
and intellect to their furtherance, are
not the silly. shallow women the av
| erage man thinks they are, but are
sensible women with more than the
average amount of intelligence I do
not deny that many men think con-
| temptuously of the woman with a fad,
and in the solitude of his own home
call her crank who ought to be bet
MED that perhaps nine-tenths of the
women who spend their time at some
one thing are women upon whom do
mestic cares have paled, or who
shrink from assuming these cares, yet,
| if they find consolation and recrea ton
insthe following out of their own par
ticular vagary I do not see why it
| should be denied them. Life often be-
comes one colorless, monotonous round
of existence, and the woman with g.
| fad can find forgetfulness when this
| spirit oppresses her, as it does all of
us at one time or another
| AS for the fads themselves, their
| number and variety is almost endless.
| Each year sees new set of them
| sprung upon an unressting public.
Among the most popular are those
| which contain an element of the mys-
| terious which never fails to attract the
average woman. One of the most pop
| ular woman's clubs in certain city
not so many hundreds of miles from
| Portland is a secret literary society,
and the reason of its success, the Presi-
| dent told me, is because of this very
secrecy. That is the reason why, when
| religion is taken up as a fad, as it
| often is, that those which contain ele-
ments of the supernatural, the mys-
| terious or the occult have almost in
| variably the largest following. Then,
! again, the fad may run to the expound-
| ing of some new-fangled medicine war
ranted TO cure every disease under the
sun-that is, when it doesn't kill the
patient. as it often does.
| But whatever the woman with a fad
does she does we'll and sincerely. The
principal fault to be found with her
/ is her want of stability. Her tickle
| ness often leads her into unpleasant
! complications. 1t is strange, but a
/ fact nevertheless, with what de-
gree of enthusiasm new things are en-
tered upon. Such unbounded possibili-
| ties open up before the minds eye
l know a girl who had a mania for
collecting the old, cast-off shoes of cell
ebrated men. She has quite large
and interesting collection. and is de-
voted TO 'pedalology," as she terms her
own private and particular fad. She
also is said to be quite an expert in
the art of telling ones fortune by
ones foot, and declares that the deli
cate lines of the hand become blurred
fore not as truthful in deciding ones
! destiny as ones foot, which is contin-
| ually covered.
| The collectors Of spoons and cups,
bric-a-brae and old siverware are le-
gion. Even the irrepressble poster girl
is getting to be thing of the past.
Another very popular fad at the pres
| ent day is the rabbits paw. And
in order to possess all the mysterious
charm with which it is said to be in
vested 1t must be caught in the dark
of the moon by a red-headed, cross
eyed. bow-legged negro. in a grave
yard at exactly midnight. These feet,
which are very small, are worn around
the neck, suspended from narrow sill
yer chain. These narrow chains of
either silver or gold are much affected
| by the swagger girl of to-day. She
wears a number of them suspended
around her neck, and on them are any
| number of useful or fanciful orna-
| ments. Next to the rabbits foot she
| wears real wish-bone: then comes a
chataline; next a miniature watch. and
last, but no means least, a jeweled
fan and a tiny purse of woven gold
thread Seven chains in all is fashions
decree, and no up-to-date girl feels
fully dressed in her spring suit unless
she wears the requisite number. Dame
Fashion has sent forth many strange
edicts before this, bue surely this latest
is one of the strangest of her caprices
/ BESALENA