Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-06-11
SHE MEANT 10 ECONOMIC

IT'S great thing to have an economical
wife,, said the eerk who makes financial
calculations with q pad and pencil while
he eats his lunch. my wife has got per-
sonal economy reduced to q science. We
were taking In the shop windows the other
evening. She got her eye on light blue
made up duck dress, with a lot Of Thirly-
cue twisty, round and-round military braid
fxfngs stuck all over it, and she liked 1t.
I thought 1t wasra pretty shapely looking
rig myself.
Now. isn't that pretty? said she. Just
the thing for the board walk
Just now, you know, the women have
all got their minds adjusted to what ought
to be the real thing in the way Of toggery
for the board walk
" 'Neat-looking thing said I. Only a
jukes wife could buy It,, though, I sup
pose
oh. you men peoplev she said why,
1t can't cost a cent over $15.'
well. we stood there and looked at the
dress for a minute. 1t was rather a novel
and swell-looking get-up.
anyhow, said I.
I'VE went into the store, and the sales
woman had the dress taken out of the
window for our inspection. 1t certainly
struck me more and more as peach of a
frock The saleswoman said was an i'm
porters sample, brought from Paris, and
the only thing of the kind in the country.
ihat was the reasonIt being sample
the price for it was so low-$fi.50. 1t was
36, too. my wife's size.
And Minnie and Agnes and Estelle and
Kate would never in the world be able to
make one just like it, said my wife, men
ticning her bosom chums, Names They
could never sew the braid on
well, take it, said l.
She tried it on, and it certainly became
her to a T. But she had INDUCED in a
heavy line of thinks while she was trying
1t on. and she concluded she couldn't af-
ford the DRESS
You see. Jack said she to me, L can
get three or four pretty wash dresses for
$3.50. and there's everything in having
lots or changes in the summer you know.
This IS really awfully pretty. but guess
we'd better not take IT.
All right said I, but was little dis
appointed, for the rig surely looked stun
ming on her.
well, we went by another big store,
and she saw In the window some dim
at-you-call-it-dimity in the window,
marked 61a cents yard.
Why, isn't that cheap she said, I'H
get some Of that for one of my wash
dresses
I'VE went in, and she got twelve yards OF
the stuf.7S cents. She was in brown
study while she was buying it.
III just trim it with some nice lace
said she. and she bought twenty-four yards
or lace at a quarter a yard-$6.
The cheap laces are SO tacky,' she ex-
planned to me. Then she bought 81 more
worth of fxings for the 7S-cent dress-I
don't Know what you call 'em--shields or
something like that. This brought the cost
OF 1t up to $s.7S and she looked a bit
blank over this fact herself After we got
home she figured on the way she would
make the dress and worried heap over 1t.
FINALLY, she concluded it would be out of
the question for her to make the dress her
SELL don't remember why-something
about bias or pleats or yokes-I can never
make out what they mean, can you?
Anyhow, she took the 7S-cent-plus-$ 50
dress to a dressmaker the next day. The
dressmaker charged her So for making the
thing up. Total cost OF dress, STATS I
didn't see any STATS worth in 1t when she
put 1t on, butt kset my head closed about
That light blue duck was pretty, wasn't
1T? she said to me, sort O. regretfully,
when she put on her STATS dimity. This
was on Sunday afternoon, and she went
walking. Who should we meet but her
bosom friend Kate. looking swagger and
way up over the mines in that light blue
duck thing with the military FILINGS? My
wife had to swallow her tears OF NORTH
cation and praise, the dress, but you wager
she never mentioned that she had ever
cast eyes on it before. She has been kind
o. solemn over that dimity thing ever
since, and l don't believe she likes her
friend Kate quite so much as she did,.