The San Francisco call., 1897-10-24

Madame, the modiste, who may, for
Aught know to the contrary, be in con-
slant te!ePathic communication with the
Parlsian powers that be, so closely IN
touch Is she with what happens from hour
to hour in that vortex OF chaugefuI fash
ions-madame, 1 say, has been taking
me into her confidence this week on vari-
Gus points wherein 1 hungered and
thirsted for knowledge.
Now, to my way of thinking, madame
is very wonderful person. Your true
modiste, like your true poet, is born, not
made OF course there are dozens upon
dozens of women engaged in the import
ant business of building gowns around
the rest of their Sc hereabou's, but where.
l pray you. can you find me madame's
equal?
To her the trade becomes with each year
of her life-and, mark you, she has been a
modiste these FIVE and twenty of them
more and more OF an art. She does not
merely stitch materials together, she COM
bines them; she does not simply make a
gown, she evolves 1t. Compare her work
with that of others and there's a distinc-
ton with a fine difference for you. And it
is exactly this fine difference-ths fairy
touch, this vaguely intangible treatment
that entities madame to highest rank
as-as what2
Why, an artist in dry goods. to be sure.
When madame talks 10 me in her pretty
French-English way, with vivacity of
deliverance and an animation that are
French, with never a trace of anything
else; when she fingers lovingly over a
garment that grew TO shapeliness and per-
fection under her supervision, the French
soul of her STEPPED in exultant satisfac-
ton at the result; when she turns her
sharp little eyes, as bright as ferret s
and as small and green as two mario wfat
peas, upon customer 10 study her good
and bad points and sec what can be done
for her, then it is that realize her sphere
of usefulness in a world where personal
appearances count for well-nigh every
thing. Then it is that l feel madame s
subtle power.
For, believe me, this round, petite half
century-old woman with the nervous
hands and the round eyes is a greater ma
gioian than Hermann. My madame too
is a "prestidigitatrice." She can coniure
up gowns with the best OF them.
GIVE me a pair of eyes and I will dc
the rest"
Wise Gallo proverb thatl But madame
does not despair if there be no eyes worthy
the name in point of beauty 10 begin
upon. She only wants time and money
oh, plenty of money; time is a secondary
requiste-to graduate a customer pupil l.
We all know how easy it is to learn when
We are eager to do 80. Madame makes G
specially of beauty-doctoring her patron.
before she permits them to wear what she
has fashioned for them.
In other words she takes my lady in
hand, sharply calls her attention To her
defects, advises her how to best remedy
them, where TO improve, what to guard
against in color and style and, in short,
how to make the very most of herself in
every possible particular.
Who among us, in the secret depths OF
her soul, does not long to be something
that she is not in point of personal at
tractlveness? The plain woman would
lain be pretty, the pretty one beautiful
the beautiful one entrancingIy so. A dis
contented lot We are in truth, and have
been, L wot, since the world began, al
ways coveting the unattainable and un-
grateful for what nature may have eraci-
ously done for US. dare say Helen of