The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1905-06-17

| character she is plain Mary jenkins or
Kitty Cassidy. In her role OF dressma-
| ker she is an autocrat, and stately danes
and fair Gemoiselles bow before her.
One solicits her in the autumn for
week in the spring. One who is at all
| forehanded engages her for the fall the
day the spring sewing is finished. Her
prices are high, but nobody disputes
them. A dressmaker who has style and
savoir-faire in the creation OF feminine
toilettes may simply ask what price she
pleases.
When she is expected en- air of excite
ment pervades the household.
| Breakfast is earlier than usual. The
children are hurried off to school. Visi-
| BILE Impotence f1urries the mistress, and
the maid moves about as hastily as If
looking for an invitation to a wake.
Should John choose that special morn
| ing to loiter little before going to BUSH
ness, saying that he has to meet man
| on his way to the Office and will take a
| later train, deep detection seizes his
womankind There are times when the
best of men is stumbling block; when
one waves a joyful hand at the most
adorable husband as he disappears
| around the corner.
| Everything else yields to the urgency
| of the moment when the lady of the scis-
| sors and the styles appears on the scene.
| Samples were sent for weeks ago, and
| goods anxiously selected and purchased.
Mother and daughters have reminded
one another whenever errands have
been made to the local shops, to bring
home needles and buttons and braids
and sewing silk and Innings and hooks
and eyes and twist. 1t would be too
dreadful to find anything lacking when
the dressmaker's time had come.
When she has taken of her hat and
Jacket, and unrolled her patterns, the
artistic surveys the materials laid out for
her inspection. The shimmering silks,
the filmy gauzes, the sheer lawns, the
Powered organizes. the lustrous mo-
hairs, the soft woods, whatever the fab
rics chosen may be, are spread before
her With certain pride.
Beautiful and costly they may be, but
the dressmaker is never enthusiastic.
She regards the most elegant stuffs with
Indifference, as BELTS one who handles
such goods daily, and to whom nothing
is sumptuous ormagnificent She is often
naughty, and occasionally condescend-
ing, but take her for all in all, she is
businesslike, and who does not know
that between business and sentiment
there is divorce which cannot be ig-
nored? If she says nothing critical, you
may thank your stars; if she approves,
be certain that your horoscope was cast
In fortunate hour; if she wakes cordial
in her glance and words, fate has indeed
been kind to you.
After little, the dressmaker, in the
place of commanding officer, assigns to
each member of the family her task. One
presides at the sewing machine, another
meekly stitches according to direction,
another bastes; each does as she is told.
If three or four gowns are in process OF
making at once. there is superficial con-
fusion, and there are naturally weari-
some half-hours of trying on, of hang
ing skirts and adjusting sleeves.
The latter indicate the ebb and flow Of
fashions waves. One year they puff at
the shoulder, the next they flare at the
wrist. Sometimes the puff is below the
elbow. Sometimes the sleeve clings to
the arm. as the rind of an apple to the
fruit. Turn to any toilet-chronicle OF
the past thousand years, and observe
low sleeves have varied in caprice and
Shim all the way along the cent?, les
just as they do now. Empires crumble,
iynastiss wane, battles rage, the map OF
he world is changed. but sleeves main
ain their whirling dance through ALL
and the dressmaker sits as calmly on the
.op of heap of ruins as in the palace of
. queen.
Princesses indeed bow at her behest
Dur first lady of the land could not have
gone to the inaugural ball the other eve-
ning in March, had not some lady of the
shears fashioned her splendid gown
from yards and yards ard yards of iri-
descent brocade. woven on special looms
from a pattern Immediately destroyed
TO the queen on her coronation day and
the maiden on her bridal. the dress
maker is alike indispensable.
The house is kept at concert pitch un-
I'll the work is under good headway
Then the potentate of the occasion re-
axes her severity and conversation be.
! gins. eddying in and out. ripping on like
brook, swirling around familiar topics
Ind cleaning with gayety and gossip,
soing as she does everywhere, the dress
maker hears no end of pleasant things
md knows no end of interesting occur
ences. She is no vender of malice Oh
surveyor of scandal She is only hard
'orking little woman. who earns every
Altar she receives. and who entertainl