The Saint Paul globe., 1904-06-18
WHAT WOMAN WEARS
THE VARIOUS COSTUMES A WON
AN HAS TO HAVE
Most Men Marry Without the Least
Idea of What It Costs to Dress a
Woman-Husbands Should Give Al
Iowanees to Their Wives for Dress

We are going TO talk today about
women's clothes, hats. parasols shoes,
gloves and the thousand and one things
that go to make up a womans cos.
tune and what they cost. When you
-IaaIize what it costs to dress one wom-
an, doesn't your heart go out to the
man who has five or six daughters. all
of them in society. and having certain
position to keep up? No wonder bust-'
ness men have nervous prostration.
Men are easily dressed; they look
about the same all the time anyway.
and il does not matter so much what
they wear. But women must have
gowns for every occasion and it costs
three times as much now as it did a
few years ago to dress. No odd waists,
no makes shift costumes will do for my
lady now. She must have her morning
frocks, shirtwaist suits of cotton and
silk for summer; her 'trotter frocks"
as they are now called in London. Then
she must have afternoon costumes of
silk. nuns yelling or chiffon cloth, her
calling dresses, dinner and evening
gowns, thin gowns for evenings at
home. not to mention her rainy day
dress Then there are her wraps for
various OCCdSlOuS 1tllO NulCAl COCdltS VI
money can be put: her hats, and if she
goes out very much, she must have
hat for each costume; her gloves, shoes,
Eecilwear, underwear, parasols, and
heaven knows what else. The demands
1ipon a woman's purse increase each
season; what they will be in a few
Years more it is hard to imagine. In
summer she must have golf and bathing
suits and innumerable white dresses of
every imaginable kind and quality. This
year the handiwork put on the white
gowns makes them very beautiful-also
very expensive. Poor papa! The man
with six daughters probably is a firm
believer in the benefits of race suicide.
a large majority. of young men marry
without the fainteSt idea of how much
money it takes to keep woman prop
erly dressed. One of the most trying
things to a young married woman is to
tell her husband that dresses do wear
out in the course of time and that she
will have to have more. The best way
Tor a young husband and wife is to
have frank talk about expenses at the
outset and many tears on the part of
the wife viii be saved. The wife
should tell him Just how much money
she will require for her wardrobe, and
if he can, the husband should give his
wife an allowance for dress entirely
aside from the money needed for house
hold expenses Sometimes a man viii
give his wife $25 and al the end of two
weeks is so astonished to find that it is
ali goneI What in the world did she do
with all that money, he would like to
know. Then she informs him that she
ran the house with it in the way of
current expenses and saved enough to
buy herself a summer hat. Instead Of
thinking that this is the most wonder
ful thing in the world, he will appear to
ihelieve that she should have purchased
her entire summer wardrobe with it.
Men think nothing of spending $25 in
an evening, but they also think the
same amount should last their wives a
n 7nth- They are apt to be pretty un-
reasonable when it comes to the spend
ing of money by their wives.
If a woman is given an allowance for
the house and one for her personal use
she is seldom likely to exceed it,
Many women are splendid mana gers
and are able to save good deal in the
course of year just from the house
money. OF course there are women
who have no ability where money is
concerned, but they are fortunately rare.
The woman who has an income and
pays cash is much more likely to de-
VeIOp an ability to manage her affairs
properly than the one who is given
plenty of credit by her husband. but NJ,
actual cash! 1t sometimes takes years
for a man to realize what it costs a
woman to dress, but the one who has a
fair way to find out.