The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-01-23


costumer one day. and, with the eX-
PLANTATION that they were merely Wis
itors to the city looking for old land
marks, and required no exterior dec
orations, they proceeded to explore the
house from cellar to garnet, and finally
located the room and the spot where
they had sat when 1t was used as a
preparatory school for college. As
years went on there came a sorry Pc
Rod when it served as a gambling
den, and you may still see gouges in
the door paneling where the police
came in, not without knocking. to be
sure. but without much ceremony or
forewarning, and the remnants of trap
doors and mysteriously- hidden back
stairs through which the guilty occu-
pants were won't to vanish. and also
dim suspicious of dark stains that
might have figured in murder trials
of long ago.
Then in the years that followed. when
it was slowly living down its unen-
viable reputation. It became porce-
lain factory and the crumbling ruins
of the firing kins still lie forgotten IN
the old cellar.
Finally came the costumer, with his
paper masks, his battered swords and
spears and shields, his pasteboard ar
NOR and tin battle axes, and his cases
rising about his little counter almost
to the ceiling, with their tiers of draw
| ers all labeled-"Puritan hats" Tore
adors,' Elizabeth" Charles H."
Columbus, Policemen" "Tramps,"
and so on in endless variety. For the
| people who delight to pigeon hole their
| fellows and reduce humanity to tabu-
| lated form, such a definite disposition
of the various types would be a great
satisfaction. If all the adventurous
Columbuses could be kept in one box
| oil hn trfII ,fy Toe In oil
the ambitious Caesars in a third what
! a deal of friction it would remove from
the machinery of the world.
To be costumer is not only to be cos
! tuner, but artist, actor and tailor COR
dressmaker, as the case may be-, his
| torian, scholar and collector of ana
| chronisms. But the role of anachronist
| is his favorite part. The tinkle of
I his doorbell brings him back to the
present with a bound; but between
| whites he is in the midst of the vari-
colored. heterogeneous trappings which
| he pulls down for your edification. AS
| tramp or toreador, saint or sinner he
| is delving in the past, jumping from
| century to century like a chronological
kangaroo. The prints upon his walls
| are such as might have appeared in
the London dailies a hundred years
! ago. The books on his table TEEN with
| pictures and extracts from Dickens
| works. There's a stuffy, moth eaten
| odor to the very air in his shop. The
only modern thing about him, in fact.
| is himself, with his slender build and
| pale young face and delicate eyes.
Now, the difficulties which beset the
| costumer are many, but chief among
them is the task of supplying the ideals
| for customers who haven't any, and
of reducing their disjointed, comet-like
ideas to law and order. The young
| student from "Tech,' for instance,
wishing to assist the ordinary extrav-
agencies of fancy dress evening by
applying to it his electrical knowledge,
is at loss to know how to conceal
| the necessary batteries and bulbs
about his limited person so as to pro-
duce the desired pyrotechnics. He
| thinks Mephistopheles a suitably fiery
and elusive character to justify his
| contemplated antics, but the costumer
knows perfectly we'll that, notwith-
standing the variety of forms which
that fascinating celebrity has been
| known to assume, no chubby little man,
feet inches, can by any known sar-
torial device be made to fulfill the
popular idea of his horned red maj
esty. Therefore, after a deal of don
ming and doffing and advisory elo-
quence, the Tech" student appears
in the long brown coat and tall hat of
| ye Puritan father, with a caricature
of belt about him eight inches wide,
behind which can be concealed mechan-
ism enought to light every one of his
electric bulb buttons, to say nothing
of his ancient tin lantern.
| Most trying to the costumer's pa
| thence, however, is not the man who is
simply without ideas and is open to
suggestion. nor yet the purely ignor-
ant one with no sense of the appropri-
ate, who takes an immense liking to a
pair of fiaring Sir Harry Vane top
boots, but also fancies the snug fitting,
glistening chain armor of the Morse
men and guesses he'll wear some of
| each. No, the real nuisance is the
| presumably we'll educated, well-in-
formed individual to whom the worlds
history, generally speaking, is a blur.
| To the costumer, who never went to
| school after he was IL yeasr old, and
| yet has all the kings and queens and
princes of all Europe at his fingers
ends, some of the products Of our col
leges seem to be wonders of systematic
and catalogued forgetfulness.
II want to appear as a princess"
said a self confident young lady from
Radcliffe to madam, who supervises
| the ladies' department of the costum-
er's.
"a princess?" said madam. "But
| what kind of a princess?'
ooh, don't know; just a princess"
But Of what period?"
Mercy, how should ] know! The d.
| rections simply call for gorgeous
gown, and don't believe the man who
wrote the piece knew what period it
was himself"
| But in all probability the young lady
was mistaken, for 1t was finally dis
| covered to be Tennyson's Princess" in
which she was to appear.
| The Noresman who, through sheer
sers,N ofA TIT
century boots, was pardonable; the in
| congruities of the vaudeville actor are
| often, from their ingenious absurdity,
! even commendable; but to think of
| Romeo proving about the forests of
Wellesley College in skirts-this Is too
much for the costumer. He never ex-
poets to get used to it.
IT look perfectly absurd" exclaimed
a fair participant in amateur theatri-
! Gals one day at his shop.
But" replied he, your part requires
that you should"
| ."I don't care" said she, throwing
off the proffered costume I'm disgust
! II won't allow myself to be made ride
| ulous for anyone" And" affirms the
| customer, II never saw a woman who
would" So here he is in difficulty
| again.
This same variety which must lend
| such fiavoring TO the costumer's ex-
| istence is also most disconcerting at
| times. on busy days he is a man of
exceedingly mixed emotions. In one
apartment oliver Cromwell and