The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-08-08
A WOMAN's TROUBLES

lot OF bother IN my new place OF abode
by doing two things-frst, I'm going to
buy a cute little gag for my husband, and,
second, Pm going to solemnly declare to
all of the women friends that | make that
| can't sew stitch for the life OF me"
said a clever little matron who moved to
Washington from Chicago few years ago.
1.-The gag will be used to prevent my hus-
band from Dragging about me, and the
declaration as to my inability to sew
stitch or do anything handy with my hands
Will help me out in accomplishing my pur-
pose, hope.
Before my marriage in Chicago, you
know, | was in the millinery business. l
learned the millinery art from the begin
ming to the end of it, and, of course, I've
always made my own hats. | never meant
to have that fact known when came to
Washington, not, Of course, out of any
feeling of silly pride, but because / was
perfectly well aware that if the fact got
out among my women friends here I'd be
pestered to death. As matter of fact, |
never did say word about being milliner,
but, of course, | couldn't keep my husband
from Dragging about the hats that l made
for myself.
CHOW, what dye think of that lid?' he
would slangily say to friends that we met
while out walking, pointing to some new
hat that | had recently fixed up for myself.
Made it herself and isn't it peach?'
II tried several times to make this hus-
band of mine see that he was liable to get
me in lot of bother by his telling every
body that ! was such wonder as a maker
of feminine hats, but one might just as well
try to stem a mountain cascade with toy
sieve as to stop the praises Of ones hus-
band when he starts in that way.
The result is every woman friend that
Eve got in Washington knows that am
milliner, and their various ways of avail
ing themselves of this information is the
thing that is keeping me thin. I've had a
particularly hard spring OF it on that ac-
count this year. There hasn't day passed
for | don't know now long that one or more
OF my women friends haven't dropped in
to ask my advice about their rev spring
hats.
Asking my advice is always the way
| their asking my advice invariably leads
on to an accumulation OF work for me.
| az haven't the least idea in the world
how to have my new hat trimmed, is one
of the regular stock beginnings, and you
have such perfectly lovely taste, you
know and then they leave the sentence
uncompleted, waiting, of course, for me
to fill it out by volunteering to help them
in their selection. If | fail TO do that-and
| I'm bound TO say that I'm not nearly so
obliging in that respect | was before
my women friends began to overdo the
thing-they are not the least bit bashful in
coming right out and asking me to accom-
pany them downtown to the millinery
stores to help them choose their hats.
"What possible chance have | to refuse
such plain requests without appearing dis
obliging and ungracious? l despise shop
ping OF every kind and character, and do
all of my own purchasing in a very swift
| and haphazard manner because shopping
tires me so, yet / am compelled to spend
hours down town with women.f friends who,
to my grief, have such tremendous reliance
| upon my ability TO pick and caoose head
wear for them
'Some of them really want me to help
them select ready-,nade hats, but these are
in distinct minority. Most of them have
their little plan of campaign all marked out
in advance OF dragging me to the millinery
shops with them, and they decidedly mean
that | shall make their hats for them.
All OF my efforts to induce these women to
buy made-up hats are, of course, of no
avail, and when l select their hat frames
and trimmings for them l am always pre-
pared for the next move on their part.
How in the world | am ever to make
up this hat, | declare, l don't know! is
what they all say, finger to lip, after the
frames and trimmings are duly bought, and
then they calmly wait for me to step in and
offer to help them. Helping them means
making the hat from beginning to end. If
l don't make this offer they pretend to be
greatly embarrassed over the little thing
that they're going to say, and then they
say it something like this:
"'Dear me, if you would only make this
hat for me, Mrs. t, after your own per-
: fectly cute and lovely ideas as to how it
| ought to be made, why, / should be willing.
enough not to be offended for my mention
ing ito pay you just what I'd have to
pay regular miliner to do the work, you
know!
> Now, most of them know perfectly well,
as I've told Them that / couldn't think of
3 entering into any such transaction-that
: my husband would simply swell up and
S er-well, explode over the very idea of
. such a thing. SO you'll perceive how nice.
+ ly they corner me in the matter, as they
: deliberately intended to corner me from the
' beginning. What else can | say, except to
repeat, what they well know, that | could
not think Of such a thing as taking money
: for trimming a friends hat and to tell
Y them that | should be delighted heaven for
I give me for the number of times I've said
:. that!-to trim their hats?
t 'Then they fix morning upon which
q they'll run over with the things to gel
. trimming suggestions from me, and wher
. they run over on these mornings witt
the things I've helped them to buy it,
: simply case of NY Pumping myself dowr
n and making hats for them that they woulc
g really have to pay eXtravagantly for i
n they bought them made-up or had then
: trimmed in the regular millinery shops.
! "In asking me to help them pick ou
. frames and trimmings not few of tn,
= women actually expect me to get my owl
{ milliner's discount at the shops for them
l. and, would you believe it, some of then
s. have really pouted over it when ] haven
II done this!
q ''And are they really grateful for tn
d work that one does for them and the none
that ono saves for them in this wav2 Oh