The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1898-04-29
PETTICOAT OF PAPER
FlFTY-CENT SKIRT THAT RUSTLES
WITH A SILKY FROU-FROU,

WI II ~ OIGNB 1SOp
The Latest Feminine Novelty Is a Service
able Garment of Tissue, Which is Within
the Reach of the SIimest Purse-It Has
Advantages Over Expensive Fabrics.
Hurrah for the paper petticoat!
Frou-frous as good as imported silk
for only so cents frou!
No longer need deserving women
wear skirts that don't rustic and swish
just because their pocketbooks are not
like those carried by millionaires.
American ingenuity has triumphed
over French dressmakers, and now
froufrous, formerly cheap at $1S, can
be had in four colors for SO cents.
The value of frou-frous to civiliza-
ton has been known for ages. There
is an apocryphal story that Eve left
the Garden of Eden just to have an ex-
cuse for wearing frou-frouing skirt.
That may not be SO, but it is a solemn
fact that one OF the chief features of
the Sorosis meeting-rivaling in inter-
est even the bonnets--is the frou-frou
which is heard as the members rustic
in.
Besides this, there never was a soci-
ETY. novel in which the froufrou was
not the final evidence of the blue-blood-
edness and wealth of the heroines.
In those days to have a frou-frou
cost money. They could only be pro-
duced by fine silk-never mind what,
and they cost so much that only rich
people or those who don't pay their
bills could have them.
Now it is all changed. Skirts made
of paper, warranted to produce frou-
frou with as fine a tone as ever came
from France, are in the market, and
are sold for so cents.
Think Of it! Frou-frous within the
reach of everybody. Now you can ex-
pect to hear the froufrou of the SER
wants skirt as she goes to the kitchen
| to light the fire in the morning. Even
he sweat-shop girls, though they may
have to 60 without wraps, can have
skirts which produce a rich, aristo-
cratic frou-frou as they sit at their
ewing machines.
So far these paper frou-frouing skirts
| ire little worn. They have just been
| introduced to the American skirt-wear-
ing public, and are novelties as yet.
| But wait a little and hear the result.
| Within month, without a doubt, the
clang of car gongs on the street will be
| silenced by the frou-frou of the skirts
of the women on the walks on either
side of the street.
American ingenuity has made many
things of paper. There are carwheels
and pencils and houses and even vests.
But never before did the aspiring in
ventor hope to make from a thing
composed of rags the real rival and
successor of the French silk skirt. Yet
he has gone and done it.
The members of the Rainy Day club
say so, and they ought to know. At the
last meeting at the New York Industri-
al Building Mrs. Emma Beckwith, the
presiding officer, announced that the
new skirts were in the market.
| l had hoped to have one hear to
show you," she said to her Rainy Day
fellows, 'but the store people didn't de-
liver it in time. They're lovely. They
come in four colors, and their frou-frou
is-oh, its
Intoxicating" suggested member
Yes, it is" said Mrs. Beckwith. "It's
just too lovely for anything"
do nice people wear 'em?" asked an
ignorant person in the hall.
"Of course they do" replied the Pres
ident. They wear them anywhere
rain or shine. Their rustic is finer than
that of silk, and they cost only so
cents
Fifty cents!" gaspsd the astonished
members. Fifty cents. and a good
silk frou-frou can't be produced from a
skirt costing less than $751;"
And the meeting adjourned without
the formality of declaration by the
President.
So it is that the cheap frou-frou is
here.