El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-06
For the Better Half
Written for the HERALD.


truth. at least she had two of the
elements of genius, her strong desire
to express herself and her genius for
hard work.
She died when she was yet a young
girl, no one knew how she would de-
velop. Her paintings had won some
renown and her salons were frequent
ed by brilliant men. London Truth
presents an interesting theory of her
emitting it Daughter of an Inebriate."
The second installment of Marie
Bashkirtseff's memoirs falls rather
fiat. though in@no way inferior to the
first. Her peculiarities as writer can
be thus explained. She came of race
of inebriates. for Russians drink deep
and strong. Her nervous system was
out of gear. She was never young
from infancy to the day of her death.
This is a popularity of the inebriate'S
child. Nor had she any receptivity.
The sense of self was so Overweening
as to block out all views on the outer
world. Her dresses, notions. dances,
fine acquaintance. prospects of cutting
a dash. of winning fame. absorbed her
whole mind. Charlotte Bronte was al
so the daughter of an inebriate (al-
belt parSOn); but her nerves were
held down by hard circumstances and
she had the Celts clear perception of
the outer world. Still. she was I'M
healthily subjective and had fancies.
This theory is. interesting, but not
necessarily true. Labouchere the edi-
tor has an inordinate fondness for his
own prejudices and positive way of
voicing them. and of disposing of the
world problems, that is valuable as one
opinion but not as the whole truth.
49,
The patent medicine habit has a
strong hold on people. Rarely does
one find a person VINO is not addicted
to the consumption of some pink pill
or other and who pins his entire phySi-
cal welfare on the nostrum. He wards
off colds, headachs. Indigestion, or
nerves with drugs and puts strong
medicines into himself without the
aid of a physician. Out of a group of
five or six women talking over their
afternoon teacups. one heard of five
or six indispensable specifics One
could not live without her nerve medi-
cine. another anticipated and cured
headaches with powerful powder,
third kept her son in the Philippines
supplied with patent preparation for
his digestion, which she took herself
and dosed to all of her children and
servants used. Everyone had some
medicine habit or other. That The
drugs were strong was proved by their
saying that they had to stay in bed
after the dose. or they were dizzy at
first taking it, or that it affected their
stomachS Immediately. They all dose
themselves under any and all condi-
tons without even asking the advice
of physicians. The indiscriminate
medicine swallowing has dangerous
possibilities. 1t is like the habit of
starting a fire with kerosene. 1t may
be done many times without horrible
death ensuing, but when there is
trouble there is big trouble. People
become medicine drunkards and I'M
dermine their will power and decision
as well as their StomachS and nerves.
Scarlet seems to be the color of the
hour and fashionable milliners display
coquettish tOQueS of scarlet velvet,
silk, satin and feathers, brilliant with
buckles. The clumsy, top heavy, over
burdened headgear' continues in style
and great thick rolling brimms and
shirred strips of satin and velvet that
would bind upholstered chairs more
suitably, are used about the crowns of
the early autumn millinery.
What this season will bring forth
in the way of new stitches and de-
signs that shall become the fad for
the winters needlework, has not yet
been divulged to the public, but if
the indefatigable embroiderers all
over our land would only take a hint
from the Chinese, they could do some
satisfactory and highly artistic work
on white linen with one color linen
threads. The wife of a well known
traveller treasures among her en-
broideries from the Orient large
square center piece or tea cloth and
a dozen rather large dOylies of thin
white linen. hemStitched and en-
broidered with dull, dark blue, linen
thread. The dsign is of roses, as
tiers. butterflies and leaves, the one in
variably found on the Oriental silk
shawls and is done in that exquisite
smooth stitch beautiful alike on both
sides. There is no effort whatever at
shading. In another set, two shades
of blue are used, one the dull, light
old blue. sometimes called China blue,
the other the dull dark blue. In 9TH
er sets of me beautiful linen the de-
sign is done entirely with white
threads. Needlewomen throughout
Europe recognize the value of linen
thread and one color and they en-
broider quantities of table linens, and
bed room linens and pillow slips and
in soft blue or old rose shades or in
white. The one color and the linen
are a relief after the shadings, the
gay colors and the shine of the usual
f1owery embroideries with silk threadA
The Russian blouse coat promises to
be the thing for the winter fashions
1t may be the most demure of coats
having small apels and buttons right
down the middle of the front and
around the stiff narrow belt.
pr it may have big fiaring, lace and
satin decorated lapels, a velvet belt
and decorated sleeves. The fashion is
bounded on one side by extreme sim