The San Francisco call., 1898-04-10

net was utterly destroyed.
 My little girl had dressed the dog up to see grandma, too, and the dog did the rest"
 ''The Easter Lat most vividiy difficult to obtain that now presents itself,' said Sadie L. Ballou, was a wartime affair. My husband. E-ho was one of the first volunteers, had been taken prisoner at Huntsville, Ala. which reduced the small private's pa to not even unit. With three mouths to feed by such means as I could command by my needle, no surplus was left for Easter hats. But wit and every womans ne cessity (the haD triumphed.
 T lived on the four corners of a farmers village in Northern Wisconsin and drew water and such other inex- pensive luXuries as the well and the hand of the deacon's wife around the corner might contribute to necessity.
 "One day she resurrected from the loft of a mercantile storage a relic of a dead fashion, coal scuttle bonnet, sometimes called a sky-scraper, and gave it to ne.
 That brim of brims so sleekly good Not Tapped like dull WeSleyanS down But looking Gas all church hats should) Devoutly upward-toward the crown"
 ''It did not take me long to change the shape. After ripping and splicing the braids l seWed and shaped it into form, dyed it in haywood dye stiffened it with gumarabic, and finally pressed it over stone cream jar into the then fashionable shape. Sumach berries fur nished me with the dye for my old rib bons, and I plumed the hat with a couple of soft feathers from the tail of a hawk that my brother had killed
 ''To prove that the hat was a success have only to add that I set myself up with a millinery establishment by talk ing all the sky-scrapers he deacons wife had and selling them after re- modelling into the shape like my own for the munifcent sum of 50 cents.'' Dr. 'Beecher, a cousin. of the late Henry Ward Beecher, said: My re- ligion is not dogmatic; therefore an Easter hat to me is not a necessity. For fifty seven years I have worn the same style hat and dress. In fact, I am so unconventional in this regard that 1 have justly earn>d the sobriquet, The woman of one hat and one dress
 Why? Because, when my best dress or hat gets little bit shabby, I go to my tailor and order another dress made in the same fashion. It is just so with my hat. All have to say is, I should like to have one just the same as that 1 have been called masculine, and never except once in seven years do my friends cease nagging at me, seven years being the period in which a fash ion is said to repeat itself Then I console myself with the thought that I have set the style for others to follow, and this is t-le only time in which am free from the persecution of my friends regarding my mode of dress
 "The greatest humilie m that have been called upon to endure" said Mrs Judge Cooper, was all on account vL an Easter bonnet. At this particular dime I was in Chica go-the celebrated Windy City. Whether or not Chicago deserves this appellation can only say that the wind was the cause If my mis- fortune.
 Tt has been a grievous fault with me since my girlhood to give my apparel but little attention after I am once properly attired.. Upon this occasion, as upon all precedine ones, 1 was wool gathering as usual while on my way to Easter services. It never occurred to me that the wind could carry my hat away without my Knowledge, but it did. and to this day ht has kept it's secret we'll for I have never found 1t.
 T walked into churcr proudly uncon- scious that my headgear had disap- peared, and was somewhat annoyed at the manner in which a casual acQuaint- ance stared at me. I resented her un- usual interest by holding my head little higher.
 "I was made conscious of my loss in a most embarrassing way. After serv- ice walked up to the cI.ancel and was absorbed in my prayers when one of the elders touched me gently on the shoulder and softly quoted from St. Paul's epistle to the Corinthians. Is it comedy that woman pray unto God uncovered?'
 'I raised my hand to my head and was humbled beyond expression. Had been allowed to proceed with my pray ers contrary to the church law, think they would have been of little avail. for my mind was in anything but spiritual state while smarting under the elders biblical rebuke"
 ANNABEL LEE.