The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-08

maids. Wait a minute, here are two
pins. Don't put them in your mouth
Do you see the middle of the belt? Well,
is the bodice on an exact line with the
middle of the belt? OF course you
don't understand what l mean. That
would have been too much to expect,
1 suppose. But you don't want your
wife to go around in frumpish rags
and jags fastened up the front do you.
just because we haven't money enough
to keep a maid? If you had just a lit
tie patience I wouldn't need a maid.
Sometimes I get so balled up with
all the old frills and hooks and pins
and eyes that I make a bolt for the
door, and I don't know how she gets
into the things at all. / suppose there
is a sort of free masonry among wom-
en- whose clothes fasten in the back,
and perhaps she asks the first stranger
she meets to help her. l asked her
once how she managed. and she told
me with a freezing glance that she
had to call in the elevator boy. 1 never
asked gain.
'And the inconsistency of clothesl
When she wanted an evening coat this
season 1 asked how much she thought
it ought to cost. She said about $50.
A few days later she said she was dis
couraged. She had hunted all over
town and she couldn't get a cloak for
$50 unless she took a plain, dowdy
thing. with no trimming on it. / ask
ed If it were possible that they had
the assurance to ask such a sum for
a dowdy garment with nothing pretty
about it. oh. some women like dowdy
clothes, she said their husbands think
they are more ladylike.' SO / raised
the ante to SIS, and she got a very
pretty cloak, which to me is worth the
price it cost because II is so easy to
get in and out Of
THE cloak made me think that things
cost according to the fummery and
frills on them, so when she proposed
getting a severely simple cloth suit
naturally jumped to the conclusion
that she was in an economical mood
and that the trip to Bermuda that
have been planning for a Christmas
present to myself might be worked
after all. The suit was very severe,
very simple; in fact. rather stiff. But
1t was limp compared to the bill that
came with it. I asked, purely for in
formation, what there was on the coat
and skirt that had made the tailor
imagine that any sensible woman
would pay as much for it as she would
for cloak with lace collar and
white satin lining. 1 was told that
wasn't intelligent; that it would be
mere waste of breath to explain to me.
I insisted-and even promised to think
about one Of those funny little new
fur stocks that they knot around the
throat this season. Then she said that
a plain suit always cost more than a
fancy one. because il has to be made
of better stuff, and has to be cut more
artfully. I said no more, but why was
the fussy cloak with the hummery
dearer than the plain one?
ITS the same way with her hats.
She bought one last year that cost as
much as my spring overcoat. It was
made of forget-me-knots She said
that the reason II cost so much was
that it was so well made and would
last so long. She also said that cheap
hats were always scantily trimmed.
but that this one had so many flow
ers on 1t that that was why It was so
pretty. She went up to British Co
lumbia with me In the spring I don't
think I exaggerate when / tell you that
she shed forget-me-nots all along the
trail from here to Puget Sound. That
hat was like the cornucopia Of Pros
pepina. And when I pointed out the
fact that 1t could not have been so
well made or the flowers would not
have moulted so continually, she re-
minded me that IL there had not been
such a quantity Of forget-me-nots to
begin with that the hat would have
been bare Of flowers after few weeks
wear. Then l asked her frankly II
she didn't think II looked as well as
before it had begun to moult, and she
admitted that it did. So, you see, logic
doesn't apply to hats any more than IL
does to Women!"