The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-05-13

are doing. But here comes Fred. you
might ask him about it. Fred" as her
husband came up the walk ''Tommy's in
love with the new visiting girl who's
very near sighted and he imagines that
every girl he meets holds her head for
ward and squintS out the corner of her
eye. Don't you think he's too young
for that sort of thing? I wish you'd
talk to him"
Who said there was nothing new to
be given for prizes at card parties 4?
An original Topeka hostess gave a
Mexican parrot last Week-a hand
some young bird-for the BOBBY
The other prizes We're notable only
for their value. They were a mag
nifcent Royal DoultOn Jardiniere, with
a hourishing fern, and q beautiful
japanese lacquer cigar box filed with
expensive cigars. The entertainment
was one of the most elaborate that has
been given in Topeka this season.
though chronicled in the society col
umns as only a neighborhood card
club meeting.
willie Dearborn" Cwho is Jessie
LeWeiIing of Kansas who writes
about the local smart set for the Chi
cago Inter Ocean, divides them into
The Very Wise, a choice social stratum
at the top, and the big salaried con-
tingent The Very Wise, she saws.
n
includes others besides and not all the
very rich belong. For some time, she
says, this ultra smart set has affected
not to dwell on matters of dress and
to shun Ostensible luxury and display.
They keep out of the opera boxes, they
dress quietly in public places, they'd
rather not have their names in the
papers. That's in Chicago, of course
In New York. she admits it's different
for there a large number of the very
smart still cling to the melodramatic
ideals of dress which abroad pass for
the American standard. But in Bos-
ton, Philadelphia, Washington and
Chicago the popularity of modeSty in
costuning and entertainment is grow
ing fast.
while Dearborn concludes the
homily thusly:
Just as errors Of grammar are af-
fected by the more leisurely of the
English nobility so a certain careless
ness of dress. even a want of well
fitting clothes. is now noted among
The Very Wise. You remember how
clever little Cissie Lotus caught the
idea when she appeared in her home
ly scanned little black alpaca gown,
and how all society smiled and ap-
proved.
There's something to this theory. For
some time there has been a notable ten
dency among the very smart to look
askance at clothes in any way pro-
nounced. Is it coming to the paradoxicaI
situation of its being very questionable
to be fashionably gowned, or. as one
observing Topeka girl expressed it,
very tacIxy to be swelI?'' She was com
menting on the local smart set. They're
not extreme in dress" she said, "and
sometimes they're almost dowdy. a few
Of them 60 in for the picturesque and
artistic, affect individual styles and all
that sort of thing but very few of them
follow the beaten paths of sWagger es-
tablished modes. They leave that to the
chorus girls and women of that type
and to country girls who are too unso-
phisticated to know that the latest and
most Ultra IS no longer the ideal Of the
truly smart
Il would say there are not more than
three women OF assured position in To-
pel6a- society whose clothes are especial
" noticeable. This is true in particular