The Topeka state journal., 1905-10-16
MATCHING COLORS.
Women Have Carried the Fashion to
Unreasonable Exactions.


Has a new form of dementia as
serted itself in the feminine world?
Woman's craze for having everything
match has developed almost into ma
MIA In this. as in everything else. the
American woman has gone to excess,
and once she makes up her mind that
she wishes a costume in a particular
shade, health. courtesy. economy and
even domestic bliss vanish without re-
gard.
Not long ago a fashionable woman
entered a large millinery shop with
sample of broadcloth in a most un-
usual shade of green. The head clerk
hurried forward to meet her. She was
one OF the best customers, paid her
bills promptly, was easily suited and
was spoken of as being exceptionally
amiabIe and refined. The object of her
call was a new felt hat to match the
green sample.
Madam, I'm afraid we have nothing
exactly that color. It is a most Pc
culiar shade"
But you must have!" was madam s
decisive reply with a smile of assur-
ance. "The effect of my costume will
be quite spoiled if the hat does not
match"
Box after box of felts was brought
down and ransacked without avail, and
the clerk finally reported:
I'VE have nothing anywhere near
that shade either in felt or silk, but if
madam will bring piece of the goods,
we will make it UP most stunningly
for her"
Madam grew suddenly white: s'How
perfectly ridiculous! Don't you know
there isn't another bit of that material
in the city? Every single scrap has
been used in my suit. You have got
to find somethingi"
But another search through sample
books and stock failed to reveal the
desired shade of felt. With tears in
her eyes, Madam dounced out to her
carriage, declaring that never again
would she buy anything in that pro-
vincial shop, nor would they receive
the check in payment Of their last bill
for some time to come.
This is but a slight instance of the
lengths to which a woman viii go in
order to obtain everything in one or
two tones. Another fastidiOus woman
conceived the idea of having her street
get-up entirely in the new eggplant
purple.
Starting out early one morning she
first selected her sample of cloth and
with this in hand she went from store
to store to make sure that she could
match it in trimmings, gloves, purse,
etc. Where she failed to find it in one
shop, the clerk directed her to anOth er,
and as a consequence she visited every
notion counter, tailor supply shop and
out of the way place in town before
she found, in the middle of the after
noon, that she could procure every
thing needed in the same color.
Then she was obliged to go back
! over her entire route and make her
7 purchases. When she reached home
! that night at quarter of seven, her hus-
I band called the doctor after he had
/ brought her out of a faint from ex-
haustiOn. and she remained in her
room in bed the next three days.
Here are a few silly things some
other women do:
| One dOns a great heavy veil, so
/ thickly studded with dots that she can
/ hardly see where she is walking. Her
/ belt and gloves and shoes are the same
/ color and she gives herself hard
\ headache in order that she may carry
out the startling effect in her headgear.
/ Another puts on pair of thin kid
/ shoes and ventures out in freezing
! weather because they match her after
! noon calling costume. The danger of
pneumonia is nothing compared to
/ presenting a smart appearance.
Still a third puts on a scarf, in spite
/ Of all protest which is extremely un-
! becoming to her, and causes her hus-
his ideal of her to the realization OF
her blind stubbornness. and all because
| the color of the scarf matches an al
most invisible pattern in the material
I of her frOck.
/ And so it goes until the onlooker
I wonders if this inordinate craze is the
/ price to be paid for the wonderfully
1 exquisite new colorings that make wo-
/ mems cloth es so beautiful to look upon.
developed into a new form of demen-