The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-19
OF INTEREST TO WOMEN
ADVICE OF ONE WOMAN TO ANOTH-
Err ON THE MATTER OF CLOTHES.
Wives Should Interest Themselves in
Their Husbands Work-Art of
Dishwnshing.

lowered elements in her sprigged dimity
coffee coat, her plump fingers flying back
and forth busily over the tiny hoop Sud-
denly the sound greeted her ear of starched
petticoats brushing through the rose bushes
behind her and turning about she saw her
friend OF the next cottage, a short and
rather plain woman, coming toward her.
why Mary" she called out cheerily, sis
that you? Come right up here and sit
down. Just wait moment till / get this
leaf in, and I'll run in and get you a fam"
The newcomer laughed goodnaturedly,
showing row of sound white teeth.
Don't you bother about a fan for me-
Lizzy. woman has no need, thanks for
fan when she has the evening paper
right here in her hand And suiting the
action to the word, she spread her fresh
skirts out so she could sit down increased,
folded the newspaper woman-wise and be-
gan rocking comfortably opposite the trim
little toiler.
always making pretty things" she said
as she picked up the finished cuff from the
workbasket and examined the dainty thing
closely. Where do you get your knack,
Lizzy, for picking up the latest things at
the earliest moment. and then turning those
own behalf?"
do you call ii knack?" asked she Of the
hoop, looking up curiously.
Indeed 1 do. If 1 had half your taste,
Lzzy. believe could metamorphose my
self from a bony, clothes-horse sort of a
parsonage into something half way pleas
ing to look upon. But / can't get some
thing out of nothing. as you can, aud Bob
DRESS She smiled wofully. II guess it's
because he knows won't look any better
than 1 do in the old things 1 have"
'Oh fiddlesticks." chirruped the clever
little woman. 1.-THE trouble with you, Mary
is that you don't use common domestic
diplomacy. When you want new dress
you just up and go to Bob and tell him
so. There's not a man made that won't
take such a chance as that to growl. It's
the masculine nature that Bob hasn't in
corporated."
But" my dear, Bob's no mind reader. If
don't tell him, how is he to know / want
it?"
That's your affair. I'll tell you the way
to do. I've not asked George for a new
dress since we were married, and yet I've
never felt that / really needed new thing
when George did not offer it TO me. How?
Easiest thing on earth. 1 just turn the new
creed of suggestion to account. 1 slip all
my presentable things way back in the
darkest corner of my deepest closet, where
/ will forget that 1 have them. Then my
dear, l make ii my business to forget them.
Hold that thought, you see. 1 hunt out
few of those old things that one always has
left over from goodness knows when, put
them on and hold myself cheerfully in evil
dence at one end of a perfectly appointed
teatable. Simple. isn't it? And I've never
know it to fail once"
The clever woman smiled wickedly and
went on. II have peculiarly terrible old
waist that / hoard as something precious.
1t is one of these awful shades of green
that nothing short of a sea nymph could
possibly look well in. And you have no
idea, Mary, how effective that waist has
been. 1t makes George swear every time
he sees me in it. And yet, thanks to my
careful remodeling, he has never yet seen
through my little scheme"
|. Its all mystery to me- answered the
plain one.
The other laughed George gives me SIS
regularly to go burn 1t up. Tells me for
heavens sake to go take turn through
the stores and see if 1 can't pick up some
thing that won't give a man the headache
to see around the house"
IL suppose" sighed the listener, at must
be because Bob isn't like George. Or per-
haps it is because I'm not like you. But L
believe. really, that Bob would never wake
up to my appearance if 1 should come down
in my great-grandmother poke bonnet,
trimmed in pink paper roses, to go to
church. Honestly, sometimes believe men
get into the way of taking it for granted
that their own wives should be dowdy."
The clever little woman Strengthened back
quickly and regarded this frail-minded
specimen of her sex sternly.
Don't you believe it, Mary! Don't you
go to believing any such thing. At least,
I'll bet George never does. dowdy wife
is a thorn in the side of any self-respecting
man. And on the other hand. neatness in
the home appearance of the feminine head
of the house is nothing short of good health
policy
Good health policy?'
Certainly. When woman gets to mop
ing around the house with a pain here and
pain there, ten to one if she i'll just get up
take a cold shower and shed her crumpled
kimona for fresh, starched, trim things,
that she cannot help seeing she looks pretty
in, she'll find herself new woman.
when a woman can look in the glass and
see herself in a gown that is perfectly sat-
isfying and becoming, why Mary, it's bet
ter than whole bottles of tonic. It's when
she feels that she is getting dowdy and old
and sharp-nosed and hump-backed that a
woman begins to coddle her health. 1 know,
| Mary. from experience that there is nothing
| like a decent amount of self-satisfaction in
| bodys appearance to put zest into life.'
The listener laughed, but the speaker went
| on earnestly.
| do you see this coffee coat?" She
smoothed the dainty thing lovingly. Il
spent days on the embroidery. And it is
pretty and it is becoming, If l do say it.
| Do you suppose, now, that I'm going to loll
around in it with my hair mussy till l get
it pulled out of shape and foppy? No, I'm
not, It's smart and highly becoming-if you
will excuse my telling the truth-and I'm
going to do it justice by looking as pretty
| in IL as 1 can
The visitor looked at her own large hands
and thought of her square face and thin
hair.
But, Lizzy, it's half because you are
pretty to begin with. 1t makes such de-
| oil in