The western sentinel., 1898-05-12
JOHN WAS SHABBY.

1t was the frivolous looking little woH1-
m with the blond bang who told how she
had saved enough money on her husbands q
wardrobe to buy her chinchilla cape and
muff.
At first the other married women pres
ent jeered and laughed and frankly sug-
aested that she had been looting John S
pockets at night or selling his cast offs so
the ragman, but she got a word in at last
and gave so interesting a description OF
how the fund for the chinchillas was LAID
by that she not only silenced her accusers,
but sent them off so thoughtful that she
is sure her small seeds of advice did not
fall in stony or thorny ground
''You see,' she said, smoothing her gray
muff tenderly, 81 have wanted chinchillas
ever since / married, ands though John
undoubtedly has an excellent business, we
don't pretend to be rich people, and L
couldn't screw my courage up to the po1nt
of asking the dear boy to let me go Ill debt
for them. In spite of my best endeaVors
found it was only pennies l could save on
the marketing, and when L began to cast
nv avaricious eyes about in earnest they
lighted on my rdworking husband tum-
bling into his overcoat preparatory to Civ
ing me hasty moist kiss and dashing out
after his car.
ssYears ago, when he went accounting,
John was one of the greatest dandles IN
town. and l think fell in love with him
as much for his exquisitely selected ties,
perfectly fitting coats and irreproachable
boots as anything else. Since our mar
rage 1 had to confess he had been, sartor1-
ally at least going steadily down hill, and
that very day determined to turn him
right about face. OF course, at first un-
generously compared him to my immacu-
late self and wondered why could do such
marveIs on cheap dressmakers and no
lady's maid, while his gloves and ties
looked so disreputable and his general as
pect so shockingly slouchy. hattered
myself I always darned his socks and put
on his buttons, as any good wife should,
and when went home and added up his
taiIor's, hatter's and shoemaker's bills
nearly tainted to find that he actually
spent every year nearly double what did
on dress.
"Of course, my first natural feminine
instinct was to scold. Happily, grimly
oyerhauled his room first, his closets, cup
boards and drawers, and found where the
difficulty lay.
"Au his neckties were handily swing
ing on the gas fixture, to collect every bit
of dust; his dress shoes were kicked upside
down in a closet corner, summer sweaters
lay in the very path of the moths, hand
some golf tweeds came down from shelf
already chewed into uselessness, and-but
l spare you further narrowing details Let
it suffice that took that pathetic wardrobe
in hand.
"Every morning devoted part of the
time usually spent in coddling my own
clothes stuffing my sleeves with tissue pa
per and smoothing my ribbons to attend
ing to Johns possessions. We couldn't
afford a valet, but l pressed the housemaid
into service and under my direction and
quite unbeknown to our victim we worked
some miracles.
"I had Johns top bureau drawer divid-
ed by carpenter into sections, and there
1 laid his ties, handkerchiefs, gloves, col
lars and cuffs, protected, yet quite handy;
, for men, you know, hate to have their
things kept in boxes, while they will take
kindly to a sectional drawer. After this
invested in a case for his top hat, trees for
his shoes and a tailor's goose. Sending
things to be pressed and cleaned by pro-
fessional is an expensive practice, so L
showed the maid how, by using naphtha
or merely piece of brown paper and
hot iron, spots could be easily eradicated,
and with the heavy goose l taught her to
press Johns clothes.
s"Finally 1 persuaded John never to
wear the same suit to business two days
! in succession, but by alternating between
the browns and the grays always to have
an enthusiastic airing, brushing and press
ing. Then every morning laid out for him
was set of clothes quite crisp and sweet
smelling, and to help the good cause of
eradicating the odors of tobacco and gen.
eral stuffiness that hang about the cleanest
mans woolen garments, | put in his
drawers and closets plenty of vertivert
| and dried lavender.
''Right around the corner from our
hnT1 ic toll of ThnT1a T rtaiT1
| ly wouldn t permit John to buy his clothes,
but a cheap, neat little man, who will put
| on fresh braids, reface trousers legs and
| do odd bits of tailoring at low price. To
| him I took quantity of things John had
| tossed aside as of no further use, and so
neatly did he furbish them up that that
| innocent husband of mine is wearing them
under the impression that they never wore
| out at all.
sit required brief struggle on the part
| of mistress and maid to learn how man. s
| clothes are properly folded. that dress
suit must not be brushed with whisk
broom, and that the thing to do with felt
| and silk hats for renovation is to have
them blocked, but we have learned
| learned even to do up Johns patent leath-
| ers irreproachably and sew his coat but
tons on without putting the thread through
| the tweed and lining. too, and making
everything pucker.
| Between the two of US we turn out a
| model man every morning, sweet, smil
/ ing, immaculate creature, with never a
| wrinkle in his waistcoat front, with fault
| less creases down his trousers legs and his
| overcoat pockets wearing their flaps out
| side instead of in. Altogether the sort of
man who looks as if his wife kept her eye
| right on him and took as much pride in
his personal appearance as her own.
| "But the long and short of it is, ladies, -
said this arch domestic economist, rising,
"besides the pride and sentiment and duty
of this thing, there is bright, hard, yellow
! gold to be saved or made out of looking
after your husbands wardrobe. When
John cast up his accounts at the end of the
year and found, to his vast astonishment,
that his personal expenses had fallen far
below the usual figure, he gave me a long,
| searching glance asked me what / wanted
| most in this world, and said ohinchillas. -
-Millecent Arrowpoint in Chicago Rec
| ord.
When He Was In the Poorhouse.
Wayworn Watson-They was time,
| friend, when had more'n thousand men