The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-11-24


Just now, when ehrysanthemums are
in their ragged but great glory, no
body dreams of putting them in a jar
or a glass or a fancy vase. Oh, dear, no!
They must shine from a punch bowl
Their stems must be cut so that they
ut in a careless, artistic way, for while
the leaves are often taken from the
flowers yet quite as often their foliage
is framed all about them The bowls
most favored are those wonderful, deep,
round ones of indiaware-the quaint
blue ones with the lovely ladies from
Japan walking up ladders on their
heads or coming down in a sideways
fashion-hne cut glass bowls or, best OF
all, great big silver punch bowls. These
glitter and seem to reflect almost like
a mirror the white or yellow beauties
that are the flowers of the season.
There is something dignifed about
chrysanthemums, not to wear, but to
put about a room or to use to decorate
a table. They have an odd way Of
standing up as if they wished each
visitor to realize that each one of them
had a special dignity of her own, and
she wanted you not only to realize it,
but to feast upon it. The chrysanthe-
mum, to my way of thinking. is
healthy looking flower. Even when it
is a bit droopy, it simply drOops its
petals, permitting them to blow away,
though they never curl UP or manage
to get an unpleasant Odor, not they!
They simply disappear into that IA
nous innocuOus desuetude. which is the
one phrase that will carry one man
down through posterity.
A girl I know has just come back
from Sweden, and as she is a victim Of
hay fever she thinks of going to live
there. The reason why? Because there
the doctor never sends home a bill
But when you are cured you write out
what you think the bill ought to be and
forward the ducats to him. If you have
made a wonderful hit in wheat, if you
have been made vicerOy of India, if the
president of all these United States has
concluded that you are the proper per
son to be ambassador to England, if
any good luck has come to you. then
you write on a visiting card 81, 500 or
$4,000. I cannot imagine higher than
$4,000 But if you have had a hard
time OF it that year, if there have been
a good many mouths to feed and they
are tired Of oatmeal, or if your Oldest
boy is beginning to see the charm of
a dress suit and white kid gloves when
he visits the young woman who is max
ing fool of him. Why, then. after a
long illness you send a modest card
with your name written on it, and I'M
oerneath it you put so cents or 70 cents
or whatever seems suited to you, not
10 the doctors good reputation, not to
the doctors ability but perfectly
adapted to that thin little pocketbook
which looks as if it had been to the cir
Gus and had been trod upon in a mo-
ment of airy persihage by the largest
elephant
A thin pocketbook leads to despera-
ton If wanted to make woman
saint, if I wanted her to care for the
poor. make the sick happy and well,
give to those who are hungry and make
the little children all as happy as happy
could be, I'd make that woman rich,
and then I'd teach her how to spend her
money Do you ever think that the
rich people are, after all, extremely
klnd2 The average wealthy girl gets
hundreds of letters a day. most of them
from frauds, and the one true request
among them must be treated like the
fakes or else we will have an anarchist
&c government, which means lack Of
repOse entirely.
When I say repose, I mean it in a
variable sense. Some people consider
sleep repose, there are others who
drown themselves in a good book and
consider that repOse, while there are
still others who trot around from here
TO there and really haven't the remot-
est idea of what repOse is. Repose, a 8
II used to be known, was dignity, and
good dignity There are only a few
specimens of it to be found now. t
is as rare as real old Sevres china and
requires the same amount of care
An elderly lady-she speaks of her
self as elderly, although she is so wears
old-cOmplains of the folly with which
the girls of today talk. why she
said, when I was young, it was con-
sidered vulgar to be purse proud. and
the people who belonged to the real
Knickerbocker circles. especially those
who were very wealthy, We're taught
as soon as they could understand any
thing that it was extremely vulgar to
make any display OF their belongings or
to talk about their possessions. Then,
too, the old 'nobIesse Oblige' We're
taught very early that because they
were what they were they must be gra-
ciOus, tender hearted and loving to ev-
cry one they met, but today the girls
talk about the value of being rich. the
advantage Of having rich friends, what
can De got out of Jack So-and-sO and
now much can be obtained from Mrs
Black Diamond. To me it is horrifyfng
1 could not tell you just what I think it
Is, but the women who sell their i'm
mortal souls - poor wretches - are not
any worse than those who see life in its
hard and mercenary way and make no
effort to find anything that is sweet.
desirable, gentle or kindly in their be-
haVior or in their thoughts