Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1908-12-05

times"
Lou giggled.
Did you get that handshake from
Mrs. Van AIstyne Fisher. NanceT she
asked.
'If | did you can feel safe in copy
Ing it." said Nancy.
"Oh, couldn't use it at all. It's too
stylish for me. It's intended to set off
diamond rings that high shake i.
Walt till l get few and then i'll try
it."
Learn 1t first" said Nancy wisely,
land you'll be more likely to get the
rings"
"Now, to settle this argument" said
Dan. with his ready, cheerful smile.
"let me make proposition. AS | can
take both of you up to Tiffany's and
do the right thing, what do you say to
e little vaudeville? I've got the II *
cts. How about looking at stage dia-
monds since we cant shake hanls
with the real sparklers?"
The faithful. squire took his place
close to the curb. Lon next. il little
Peacocky in her bri:ht and pretty
clothes; Nancy ON the inside. slender
and sobcry clothed as the sparrow,
but with the true Van Al5tTnc Fisher
walk. Thus they set out for their even
ing's moderate diversion.
| do not suppose that many look
upon great department store aS an
educational institution. but the one
in which Nancy worked WAS $ mrthing
like that to her She WAS s TT u"dcd
by beautiful things that br"athcd of
taste and refinement If You live in
an atmosphere of luxury. luxury is
yours whether your money plyS for
1t or anOther'S.
The people she served were mostly
women whose dress. manners an pO il
tion in the social world were quoted
as critcrions. From them Nan V b.
gan to take toll, the best from each. az
cording to her view.
From one she would copy and prac-
tice a gesture. from another an elo-
Quent lifting of an eyebrow. from 9th
ers manner of walkim% of carry ing
n purse. of smiling Of greeting n
friend. of addressing "infcriorS in sta
ton" From her best beloved mo lei,
Mrs. Ven Alstync Fisher. she made
reQuiSiton for that excellent thing. a
soft, low voice as clear as silver and
as perfect in articulation as the notes
of a thrush. Suffused in the aura of
this high social refinement and good
breeding. it was impossible for her to
escape a deeper effect of it, As good
habits are said to be better than good
principles, so. perhaps, good manners
are better than good habits The teach
ings of your parents may not keep
alive your New England conscience. but
If you sit on a straight back chair and
repeat the words "prisms and pill
grimS' forty times the devil will flee
from you. And when Nancy spoke in
the Van Alstync Fisher tones she felt
the thrill of noblcsse oblige to her very
bones.
There was another source of learn
ing in the great departmental school.
Whenever you see three or four shop
girls gather in bunch and jingle their
wire bracelets as an accompaniment to
apparently frivolous conversation, do
not think that they are there for the
purpose of criticising the way Ethel
does her back hair The meeting may
lack the dignity of the deliberative
bodies of man, but it has all the i'm
portance of the occasion on which Eve
Lld her first daughter first put their
heads together to make Adam under
stand his proper place in the house
hold. 1t Is woman'S conference for
common defense and exchange of stra-
tegical theories of attack and rcpulse
upon and against the world, which is
a stage, and man, its audience who
persists in throwing bouquets there
upon. Woman, the most helpless of
the young of any animal-with the
fawn's grace but without its tlcetneSs;
with the birds beauty, but without its
power of flight; with the honeybee's
burden of sweetness, but without its
oh, let's drop that simile. Some of us
may have been stung.
During this council of war they pass
weapons one to another and exchange
stratagems that each has devised and
formulated out of the tactics of life.
Il says to 'im," says Sadie, "ain't you
the fresh thing! Who do you suppose
| am, to be addressing such a remark
to me? And what do you think he
says back to me?'
The heads, brown, black, tlaXen, red
and yellow, bob together, the answer
Is given, and the parry to the thrust
is decided upon to be used by each
thereafter in passages at arms with
the common enemy, man.
Thus Nancy learned the art of de-
fense, and to women successful de-
fense means victory.
The curriculum of a department store
is wide one. Perhaps no other col
lege could have fitted her as we'll for
her lifes ambition-the drawing of il
matrimonial prize.
Her station in the store was a fa
vored one. The music room was near
enough for her to hear and become ia
miIiar with the works of the best com
pOsers, at least to acquire the famil-
iarity that passed for appreciation in
the social world in which she was
vaguely trying to set tentative and
aspiring foot. She absorbed the edu-
eating influence Of art wares, of costly
and dainty fabrics, of adornments that
are almost culture to women.
The other girls soon became aware
of Nancy's ambition Here comes
your millionaire, Nancew they would
call to her whenever any man who