The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-09

There have been. says Dorothy Dix in
The New Orleans Picayune. two curious
little stories about women and their bon
nets in the papers lately, concerning which
the paragraphists have made merry. one
was an account of servant girl in
northern city, who had saved up out of
her earnings enough money to buy her
comfortable winter wardrobe. She need
ed everything in the way of clothing. \
good gown, new shoes. warm underwear
and hat, and she joyfully started out on
that kind of an excursion that women call
shopping. The first place she stopped was
millinery store, and in it she espied the
loveliest hat imaginable. 1t was a French
creation" of Incompatible beauty, which
she looked upon and coveted and bought,
paying for it the whole of her savings.
More than that she put it on and Haunted
down the street in 1t, peerng in at the
plate glass show windows to catch a
glimpse of herself, and was insanely, and
idiotically, vain and happy, until she met
a dear girl friend who called attention,
as girl friends will, to the disparity be-
tween her shabby frock and to the gor-
geous millinery that topped it. Then the
silly creature went home and attempt
ed to take her life in a frenzy of regret
over her folly and her hat.
The other story is another one of tempta-
ton and yielding to the allurements of
French millinery, and tells how man,
who had been out of work in Chicago for
long TING at last got a position, and
at the end of his first months labor
brought home his salary TO his wife. The
next evening he returned to his tireside,
happy and expectant of the warm welcome
he was to receive. His wife was out but
presently she came home with a square
box, and a radiant smile She had been
shopping, and she had bought a genuine
bargain in a pattern hat that had been
marked down from $50 to SlS. She thought
her husband would be delighted, but he
wasn't. He thought about the bills they
owed and he got up and danced a war
dance all over the "confection" and
strewed feathers and flowers and jet from
Dan to Beersheba. The woman had him
arrested for lunacy, believing that only an
insane person could take that attitude to-
wards love of a hat and it was i'm the
police court that these interesting dono7e
tic facts were brought out fhor
1t is inevitable that men and We
should look at these little stories from az
entirely different point of view. To a man
they mean nothing but the qualification of
silly vanity, but a woman knows that
buying a bonnet is really one of the cru
cial tests of character. Indeed, so thor
oughly is this recognized that il is almost
feminine axiom, "show me your bonnet.
and / will tell you what kind of a wo-
man you are" It takes Spartan determi-
nation and self-control and infinite tact
to buy the right kind of a bonnet. and
when a woman sees sister woman wear
ing Just the proper sort of a thing on her
head, she Immediately gives her credit for
possessing all those admirable virtues.
New York's four hundred is no more
1t has been succeeded by New Yorll's
seventy-five." In the social revolution
which has taken place. says the Chicago
I1mes-Herald, Queen Astor has been de-
throned and two other subjects are now
dividing the honor of reigning over the
exclusive seventy-five.
Three hundred and twenty-five people
who but yesterday considered themselves
as majority of New York's very best
people are notified that they are only
assistant best" and are shut out from
the charmed circle of the real exclusives.
New York society is torn from center
TO circumference, and back to the center
again, and down the seams and across
the hens and up the back and otherwise
lacerated. The excluded or expelled ma
jority are. dividing up into sets and or
ganizing cliques, but the common purpose
of all is to wage war against the seventy
five.
The birth of Greater New York is as
nothing compared to the death and dis
hnls mi Of fha
matter of news and a topic for CONVEX
sation, 1t overshadows all else in Goth
am.
Mrs. Astor. the erstwhile queen of the
social world in the eyes of all good Amer
leans, has wearied of sitting upon the
throne, and 50 smilingly takes up hel
position behind il. She will doubtless con-
tinue to govern while the new queen
reigns
AS to who the new queen will be. that
is a matter not quite definitely settled and
the lady who has led for the last ter
years watches with quiet humor the ef-
forts of her several understudies to enact
her role. Never has a throne been big
enough even in imagination, to hold two
queens. Only in opera houffe or in New
York society could such an imposs hility
possibly have been advanced At preseft
Mrs. Ogden Mills ana Mrs. Henry Sloane
or Mrs. Henry Sloane and Mrs. Ogder
Mills, DOtH CldlHl liG royal SceDtUr. In
the first pronunciamento they have nan.
PLY agreed They have agreed upon the
social decapitation of 325 of their pre.
decessors faithful subjects. With studied
precision they recite in concert the touch.
ing line. eve are seVenty-hvc." and that
number is thought to be quite sufficient
-Four hundred Is now designated "a per.
feet mob"
Society is becomingly excited over thf
gradually realized fact that one of lis new
leaders is perforce q pretender-but which
one? And again Mrs. Astor smiles bland.
ly.
If only the throne could have been like
the thrones of ordinary kings and queens
matter of birthright. But the question
OF children is one that has long been ia.
booed by the ultra fashionable set as N
delicate if not positively improper. Queer
Astors In numerical succession Is a luxury
denied to the New York historian.
Whatever doubt there may be about ths
regent the list Of her followers is def.
mite and conclusive Ii is a matter wor.
thy of the most minute analysis. judging
by numbers, it might be inferred Thai
men are more fashionable than women
matrons than maids, and maids thar
widows Forty-one of the charmed sev.
enty-hve are men; fourteen of these ARE
unmarried. Fourteen unmarried men ~
mi -.