Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-03
MILLINER'S MISTAKE

this Washington millinery shop for only
about half day when it was sold. 1t was
a bargain at $40.
The woman who bought 1t was somewhat
hatchet-faced and sharp-featured. and she
was extremely particular with reference to
one point-that the hat should not be
copied.
Now, I want 1t distinctly understood"
she said to the milliner for the fifth time,
after paying for the hat, that you are not
to copy this hat, or even make another one
very much like It,"
The milliner, as a matter of course, and
equally as a matter Of business necessity,
promised again that she would not copy
the hat.
Milliners are obliged to make promises Of
this sort, which they simply cannot keep,
several times day every week day In the
year. If milliners had to rack their heads
to provide absolutely different and unique
sorts Of headgear for all OF the hundreds OF
millions of women in the world they'd be-
come gibbering maniacs inside of six
months. and then there'd be no hats for
women at all.
Il shall see that it is not copied" the
milliner said, then. to the hatchet-faced
woman, and had the hat sent to a fiat up
town with a poetic Indian name.
Just about quarter of an hour after she
had left the store and when the delivery
boy was already on his way uptown with
the pattern hat with the white plumes. an
a raspy voice plunged hastily into the mil
where's that white plumed hat in
your window this morning." she demanded.
breathlessly, of the milliner. ut was there
when 1 passed by two hours ago. but now
it's gone"
ut has been Sold" said the milliner in
| reply.
The customer looked exceedingly cha
grined.
You might have known I'd have wanted
that hat" she snapped with a fine sense OF
reason, considering that the milliner had
| never before clapped an eye upon her. OF
course l wanted 1t, and the worst way. I
decided I'd take it the minute saw 1t this
morning, but I had no money with me to
pay on 1t, so l finished my shopping and
rushed uptown to get some money, and l
got back here just as soon as ever L could,
and here you've gone and sold the hat right
over my head. It's shame. wonder how
you could do such thing"
But madam the milliner tried to ex-
postuate, 'how in the wide world could
have ever known that you would want the
hat, since l never SO much as saw you be-
fore? I'm sure
"Oh, you might have known that I want
ed it, that's all" logically replied the WON.
an, and there was an end to that phase Of
the conversation. ITO whom did you sell
the hat?"
Mlliners have to think pretty quickly at
times. This was one Of the times.
ITO Boston lady who took the train for
Boston about an hour ago." replied the mill
liner.
ooh, she's Boston woman. is she?" ex-
claimed the customer. snatching at the
straw. well, then, it doesn't make any
difference. She doesn't spend the winter
here, then? Oh, well, then you can make
me hat just like it, can't you? You can
copy it from memory, of course?
Certainly" replied the milliner. I'VE copy
hats from memory all the time"
and If I give you the order to copy 1t,
| will you faithfully and solemnly promise me
| DO mi n 10
| manded the customer.
It is the business of milliners, as we'll as
of some other persons to promise any old
thing. Moreover, the miliner really did not
intend to make any more copies of that
particular hat.
Ill make no more copies of it, she prom
Used, and the bargain was struck.
The copy of the pattern hat was finished
on the following day and sent to the second
customers address,.
That address. by some weird mischance,
was the same as the address of the woman
who had bought the original pattern hat
they both have apartments in the house
with the poetic Indian name.
To make it still worse for the milliner,
the two women living at the same address
are enemies They were formerly friends,
but they scrapped and now they hate and
loathe and despise each other with the
most tremendous intensity.
On the very evening when the second hat,
| Identical with the pattern hat, was deliv-
ered both of the women with the new hats
were bound for the theater.
Accompanied by their husbands, and look.
ing perfectly stunning in their new top
pieces with the waving white plumes, the
two women met in the elevator of the
apartment house as they made the down.
ward trip for the street.
No stage tableau could ever come up to
that one. The way they glared and glared
| and glared at each other, and turned diff
ferent colors, and curled their lips. and
then glared some more, was wholly beyond
mil, rpnrO6nctiOp because il the real
| thing and no mistake. The husbands of the
two women were entirely unconscious of
what was coming off, but when they
reached the street with their respective
! spouses they found out all about it.
1.-The miserable creature" exclaimed the
woman who had bought the original pattern
hat to her husband, "she only did 1t to
make me feel bad!''
1t took the husband ten minutes to find
out what she meant, and then he was brutal
enough to laugh right out loud.
1.-THE made-up thing" exclaimed the
woman who had bought the copy Of the
| pattern hat to her husband, "she just did
| 1t to prosecute met
Her husband was quarter of an hour in
digging out Of her the reason for her vio-
lent excitement, and he. too, laughed like
scoundrel and a hyena when he I'M
raveled it.
Both women were poigantly unhappy at
the theater that evening. By a still more
bitter mischance they met again in the ele-
vator on their arrival home, and the tableau
of the early part of the evening was re-
peated in ten-fold intensity.
The woman who had bought the copy of
the pattern hat was at the miliner's at a
quarter-past the following morning, and
she had the hat with her.
How dared you tell me that the woman
who bought that other hat was a Boston
woman and that she had gone away, and
how can you say such things, and I should
like to know what you meant, and 1 want
an explanation; and you did 1t a-purpose,
and If had known what kind of a person
you were I should certainly not have
And so on. That's what the milliner got.
1t was case of hands up with the MILL
ner, too and so she had to receive back the
white-plumed hat and make another hat Of
equal value, but of wholly dissimilar con-
struction for her angry customer.
But the woman who had bought the orig
inal pattern hat thought out very excellent
scheme during the night to humiliate her en-
envy with the copy Of her hat. She was flush
Her husband had beaten" the steeplechase
meeting at Benning, and he had given her
$1OO of his winnings. She could afford to
lose something just for the sake Of keenly
humiliatng her enemy with the other hat
So she gave the hat, in fee simple to her
fiat maid, likely mulatto girl. The mu-
latto girl wore the white-plumed hat very
conspicuously for the next two or three
evenings, but the woman who had pur-
chased the copy of the pattern hat just
laughed and laughed and laughed. She had