Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-07
SUNDAY MAGAZINE FOR FEBRUARY z. 1909

os
may buy tumblers such cost twenty five
apiece quarter of a century ago. In twenty years
pressed goblets have come down from dollar and
seventy five dozen to ninety-ive cents and what
the dealers call 60 hiskies have fallen in the same
period from ninety cents to forty-lve cents.
Oil as Cheap as Water
THE more one investigates the subject, the greater
the number of things hetinds relating to the house
hold in one way or another that are much cheaper
than they used to be- One important article is
kerosene OIL which costs less than half what it did
twenty-five years ago; a fact that recalls
remarks of John D. Rockefeller, who said not
long ago that Oil transported all the way
from West Virginia to New York and sold at the
same price as spring water.
This seems rather odd when one thinks of it;
though not than the fact that some first
class wine merchants nowadays sell good claret
for the price Apollnars water, five quarts.
that is to say, for dollar And one should realize
luxury for the few only the lido being able
afft ID to have it their tables. Now you get
PIT of claret with ordinary fftycen table dh6e
dinner in eastern cities; but with mostly any dinner
the Pacific coast
1t is California that has given cheap wines as
well grapes and other delicious fruits at prices far
lower than formerly. White grapes cost hardly
than half what they did twent y-fve years ago.
AS for tropical fruits, when people now middle aged
were children, bananas were tive cents apiece;
nowadays they rarely cost more than fifteen cents
a dozen, and often one can buy that number for
nickel
Cheap Gowns for Women
IF one asks at department store about the prices
i of dress goods, he learns that they are about
twenty-five per cent. cheaper than twenty-five
years ago 1t is much the same way with silks.
Raw silk costs much it did quarter of
century back but improved machinery and better
processes of dyeing have made the difference. For
merly it took three days to dye piece of silk,
whereas the thing be done in three
hours. In some kinds of silk goods the reduction
a black silk for dollar and half yard that would
have cost two dollars and seventy five cents twenty
five years ago; and in the period high grade
brocades have fallen from fifteen dollars to six
dollars yard.
Embroideries of all kinds, as well as laces, have
become extraordinarily cheaper within the last few
years, being purchasable nowadays at small frac-
ton of their former cost. AS with many other
things machinery has accomplished this result
Ingenious mechanical contrvances controlling the
simultaneous operation of hundreds of needless
which supplied with threads from many
bobbns holding silks of different colors, out at
wonderful speed pieces of embroidery beautiful
be made by hand; the result being that
thanks to diminished prices people who in former
days could not afford such exquisite things
able to buy them. 1t is the same way with laces,
the daintiest imaginable fabrics equal to point "
Valencennes, being manufactured in of the
large cities by imported work people.
These are times when, thanks to the great reduc-
ton in prices, woman can be nicely dressed for
little money. She can buy pretty shirt waist for
dollar and cloth skirt to go with it for two dollars
and ninetv-eight cents Garments at such small
cost were unheard of a few years ago. Take the
single item of buttons. They have become cheap
to be thrown away like pins when once they have
been used.
Women get fitted nowadays in tailor made
fashion in ready made clothing an lmpossibility
twenty Live years ago; and as tor undeTgarmentS,
they have gone down wonderfully in All sorts
of things for children, too, have become cheap
that it is marvel how they can be manufactured
for the prices charged. The price of a suit an
overcoat for a man has remained about the same;
but in reality such garments cheaper, because