The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-11

They rank with the great chefs, the great statesmen. the great leaders, and the great people In genera. of their time. Whether or not others recognize this, they themselves are not slow to insist upon their prerogatives,
 Your fashionable dreesmaker of emil hence is a parsonage with whom one does not take liberties. Great ladies, so to speak, sit at her feet. Her house has nothing about it of the air of the shop. Carriages drive up to her doorA elegant women descend, fiutter up the steps, ring her bell, and float out of sight, within the magic portals. Those portals are opened by page in buttons, who Is as dignified as a well-trained English butler, and as solemn as an American undertaken. His face has the immobiiity of a grayen image, and yet he knows to a nicety, and apparently by intuition, which of madame's GUS toners Is to be treated with respect. which with affability and which with toleration. It is amusing to observe the faint Interrogation mark in the eyes of such a functionary when new customer appears who has unter- tunately not yet attained the hall mark of fashion. and who has something or the stamp. of the trump or the dowdy.
 But nadame's orders suffer no dis courtesy to a visitor, except, perhaps, from herself. She has almost a sixth sense in determining at & glance wheth- CT a stranger Is to be welcomed with effusien, or gently discouraged De- casionalIy, but very seldom, her discre- tion is at fault and she blunders into rebuff to some one who might have proved a most desirable patron. Her drawing-room is well furnished and has nothing of the gloom character istic of boarding house parlors. On the contrary, It's appointments are com fortabie, conventional and a little stately. This is rnadames reception room. and here she bears herself with the suave and gracious manner of duchess, just tinged with sufficient aristecracy aloofness to keep her GUS toners properly subordinate in their places. She suggests. dictates and or dains what the people who come to her are to wear. and If they happen to be favorItes she lays herself out to do them honor and so to dress them that they shall honor her.
 Formerly this potentate was some what noted for mendacity In the matter of promising gowns for occasions, but in these days she Is likely to keep her word, and a promptly paying customer is measurably sure to receive her 
 matter of price is seldom introduced until a choice has been made and the gown ordered Madame names high figure, but the people who come to her do not expect anything cheap. and would be somewhat disgusted if their things did not cost money. All things on this earth are relative, and today in this rich land we have many men whose incomes permit their wives and daughters to spend large sums of mon- ey on their dress without their being in the least extravagant. Indeed. their spending puts money in circulation, and helps to kindle hearth fires in the homes of the poor.
 Every fashionable dressmaker has g large corps of workwomen, each of whom attends to only a single portion of a dress. There Is a highly paid it. ter who earns as much money In the course of a year as is paid to the aver age college president. There are wo- men who attend only to sleeves, to skirts, to embroideries. to dnishings. Madame herself does nothing at all be- yond exercising the office of critic. which she does with an exactness and swlftness of conclusion that show her to be mistress of the situation. When finally she sends home to its fortunate posssssor a gown that will be called dream, 1t Is carefully packed in envel- oping folds of tissue paper is boxed with care and despatched with as much detail as though 1t belonged. as 1t really does to the realm of decorative art. of priceless lace. or of costly bric-a-brac.