The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1918-06-07
Littlc-Hat
Lady
~
Copyright. 1918. by the Mcclure Newspa
per syndicate.)
BY JANE OSBORN

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Copyright. 1918. by the Mcclure Newspa.
per syndicate)
Designing hats for a popular-price
wholesale millinery establishment was
not Upton Pread's ideal of a stalwart,
Ine-sized mans occupation. Still even
young men with that innate feeling
for line and color that marks them-or
brands them-as artists before they
have had fair chance to determine
Tor themselves whether they wish to
follow an artists career or not, have
to eat and have to be clothed, and de-
signing women's hats seemed at the
time to be the only opportunity that
Afforded what Pread considered a liv-
Ing wage. Getting an occasional order
for portrait perhaps was more the
sort Of thing he had dreamed of, and
more the sort Of thing his friends ex-
pected, but 1t would not have provided
for him comfortable existence at the
Stanley Arms, and Upton Pread found
that living at that well-appointed little
hotel had advantages that offset the
designing Of hats.
Still Upton did not like to have peo-
pie know the nature of his artistic"
work. In the morning after breakfast
he got out his drawing board and, shut
up In his snug little chintz room, he
would call into being first the image
Of heads Of fair women, and then, as II
MI q hA 10 DO 90
crown them. Hastily and with quick
stroke of his pencil he would sketch
the pretty heads and then, with mi
nuteness that made reproduction by a
milliner possible, he would portray the
hat. Having made some four or five
sketches he would roll them up secure
ly in his portfolio and, after having
had luncheon in the hotel dining room,
he would sally forth to the millinery
establishment, there to deliver his
wares. They were not always accept
ed. In fact, he was expected only to
deliver two designs a day and he made
sometimes as many as six. After his
visit to the milliner's he had a good
part Of the afternoon free-not en-
tirely free, either, for II he elected to
60 to one Of the fashionable indoor
ice Kinks he always had before him
the task Of studying the women's hats,
not so much to 'get ideas" for designs
but to learn-what to him was the
hardest lesson-what women thought
was becoming. Upton had ideas Of his
own about beauty in women's apparel.
and often when he made q design that
he thought was his masterpiece 1t was
only to have the manager Of the MILL
merry establishment push the design
aside, declaring that II he put out hats
like that his business would be ruined.
So Upton would carry back the reject
ed drawings and crush them into his
waste basket and start afresh the next
morning with an effort to surpass his
own notions about hats.
Upton always worked in secrecy.
You see he was not proud Of his call
ing. II the substantial, slow-moving
chambermaid happened still to be set
ting his room to rights when he re-
turned from breakfast, he was loath
to get out his drawing things, but lin
gered over his morning paper or
walked idly about his room. One day
after she had left the room and he had
begun In earnest. there was knock at
his door and, without waiting for Up
ton to call out "come," the chamber
maid stuck her head in the door. She
held q waste basket in her hand "You
don't make a mistake, sir, do you, and
throw away picters you want" she
asked. "Some Of these here pretty
girls heads, mean, seems most too
good to throw away"
"Oh, those" Upton said as the
woman held up crushed and crump-
led girls head wearing what the day
before he had judged one Of his best
designs only to have 1t condemned as
impossible by the practical millinery
manager, "those are rubbish. just do
them-to amuse myself, as It WERE"
And the chambermaid withdrew, drag
ging her mop and carpet sweeper after
her.
The hat in question was inspired by
mussel shell. Upton had seen hats
that were inspired by roses and sweet
peas and even by canary birds. That
sort of thing was trite. He happened
to have few shells that he had gath
cred on the sea shore the summer be-
fore and treasured for no very good
reason, and 1t occurred to him one day
that in the graceful curves Of the mus
sci shell and In its deep, penetrating
black with brown, green and blue shad-
ings, he might devise hat that would
be worth designing. The head he drew
for this design was the head OF sea
nymph. Tie always made the faces
first TO suit the hats-if the hat show
ed Janancse influence the girl was
slightly slant-eyed. II she wore a SOM
brero she was of Spanish features.
The hat was of black silk above with
shadings of brown and blue and the
lining beneath the brim was Of the
shImmering gray Of the inside Of
mussel shell. Upton really reveled in
this hat--only to have 1t rejected the
next day at headquarters, while an In
sipid little hat of dark blue straw with
a cherry dangling at one side was pro-
nounced winner"