Evening Star Newspaper, September 14, 1895, Page 18

18 THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1895-TWENTY PAGES. ooo LAST SEASON’S GOWN —_—_+ It May Be Made to Serve Until Cold Weather. BION JACKETS MAY BE WORN AGATN Hoops and Bustles Are Actually Coming Back. NEAT FUR EFFECTS SOME Written Exclusively for The Evening Star. UST NOW, WITH the season between hay and grass, to speak in farmer ver- nacular, the feminine world is all at sea, at least the careful portion of it is, about how to tide over the next six wecks and not buy a new gown, thus waiting till the season is fairly open- ed, and the styles ar2 quite established, so that whatever fs decided upon will retain a semblance of the prevailing mode during the winter. In these hard times a woman can't afford a new gown every time the moon changes. Of course, during the sum- mer the standby skirt was a crepon, or a mohair or siik, and it is spotted, and dusty and frayed at the bottom, till it is positive- ly ro lenger presentable. Skirts and separate waists will be worn along into the winter season, so you will be perfectly safe in fixing at least one vis- iting dress that way. Rip your skirt apart and throw away the old lining. One of the annoying things about the flaring @kirts is the provoking manner tn which the lining and outside part company after the skirt ftas been dampened 2 bit. Brush and shake and clean your materia! weil, then get new eambric and linen canvas and make your skirt over. It has probably cut at the bot- tom and must be turned up more, making it short. Fortunately the present styles sanction foot trimmings of all kinds, plain or full. Make your lining the right length, then piece out the outside with something as nearly like as you can find. Right at the bottom, cover the piecing with a wide band of braid or heavy silk, or graduated rows of silk, braid or ribbon, and you will have a handsome skirt again. Make your- self a pretty waist out of some of the cheap dark silks, and you will have an econom- ical but handsome gown, the cost of reno- vating being very Mittle compared with the anguish of soul caused by having to,wear an old, frayed gown for a month yet. Eton Jackets Again. An old bodice may go through much the Same renovating process by covering the ‘wora parts and the shiny-spotted surface with a cute little Eton jacket of lace, deep cuffs of lace and a puff of lace co ing the puif of the sleeve, or if that ‘s not necessary, a full rufile of lace in the armhole of the Eton. Then with a lace-cov- ered crush collar and belt your bodice will be not only present- able, but actually handsome. Lace promises to be worn all the coming season and well into the winter. Another economical fashion that will be Tiuch used until the stock of gowns is re- plenished by new ones is the strapping of each seam of the dress skirt, or adorning it with a band of passementerie, cord, braid or ribbon. Men would like mightily to cover up the shiny seams of their oft- cleaned coats that way, but they can't. A Possibility of Hoops and Bustlex. Hoops and busties are imminent! The stiff linings of haircloth and canvas are giving way to a wire tape facing nearly « quarter of a yard deep, and the way they do make the skirts stand out fs a caution. This wire tape business Is not bad, if it on- ly stops there, put such ideas grow fast, and a quarter of a yard may deepen to a yard In just no time. Of course, bustles had te be expected when skirts got su heavy and dragged so in the back. They are not iarge, and in all probability wiil never reach the enormous proportions of a generation ago. A soft rounded pad, four inches deep and six inches long, made of pulled wool, can be made at home, and will answer every purpose. If the human form divine were not warped out of shape by im- proper carriage of the body and lack of knowledge how to sit properly, artificial means would not be necessary to fill out the back of skirts. Tea Gowns to Be Worn. A pretty tea gown always appeals to u woman's heart and sense of beauty, and tea gowns are to be worn the coming sea- son more than ever. They will be made largely of the soft light serges and cash- meres, both of which hgng in lovely folds, and neither of which get strin: A soft ning is necessary, but it sheuld never b heavy. Although some of the hovse gowns are minus trains, it is revertheless a fact that the ideal he nts aly ed. If a weman Is short and di train adds dignity. ‘ain- Queen Victoria is al- Most absurdly shert and broad, measuring barely five feet; but she adds six i her apparent stature hy alw immensely long t and by self with digni Ar a short tea gown {fs which is, of cou back. Th» materi ‘s Nie, with a watered-silk front, revers of the watered silk, lace lisertion a Ty, at the ec The folds down the side fron easy fuliness that will be appr No Age Disti pn in Dress. It 1s reported from “abroad,” and that means Paris, of course, that hats, and medorately big hats at mos will at, will worn of the winter, and that small bonnets be abandoned by all but elde men. Now that t t might be co: Te ed a hatef: Yo woman he counted * and si of her att 8 they women of a hi mak t ne ger nails different from the other women do th things bloom is yet on thi h. It that fashion is going to try that kind, but it w t are too dainty an accessory of t gewned woman's wardrobe to be in that manner. The Dutch and Napoleonic effects are still traceable in the small bonnets, and decid- edly in the large hats. There is no end of feathers on them, and flowers of autumn hues riot all over everything. The very latest fad in flowers is to take something like a crysanthemum, China aster, dahlia, or ragged-leaved pink, and form a thick ruche of them for the neck, shoulders and foot of a thin ball gown. It is awfully pretty, and. as a young husband remarked recently, “Deucedly expensive.” In millinery, black and yellow, blue and brown, gray and heliotrope, green and everything, are the favorite combinations. Brown and green are the popular colors, ani they combine quite effectively, par- ticulariy if the green is a rich shade in velvet. The Princess Redingote. That graceful garment, the princess red- Ingote, is growing in favor every day. Some of the most magnificent garments are being made up in that style, both for house and carriage wear. One of the handsomest examples of this is found in an olive-green velvet wrap which comes to the bottom of the gown with which it is worn, and has a collar and fronts bordered with silver fox. ‘The big sleeves have bretelles of the vel- vet falling over them, and the coat Is tneq throughout with red and green changeable silk. Of course, only a very wealthy wo- man could stand the cost of a wrsp like that, but a very handsome one could be | constructed for about a quarter of the cost out of the heavy wide wale serge, or of soft fine broadcloth, or of one of the rich new boucle materials that will be so fashionable the coming season. It may be made in ex- actly the same way, and have a trimming of marten or mink. A suggestion of the “caving” sleeve is found in the three- puffed affair, in which stiffening is conspicuous by its absence. ‘The puffs are all softly droop- ing ones, and very full. It is quite en agreeable change from the horrors that have swelled out like haystacks on top of a woman’s arm for the last three months. It ts quite certain that sleeves will decrease in size. For an example of what a woman will dare in the way of showing an incompara- ble neck, is shown by the illustration, which is one of the very newest styles of ollete corsages to be worn the coming season. It has the merit of originality, if rothing else, and it certainly will not take much to fashion the bodice, but the sleeves are another consideration. —_-—_ ARE CROWS HUMAN? How Those of Loudoun County Treat- ed Whitky-Soaked Corn. A writer for The Star while in Loudoun county recently was sitting with a group of farmers who were discussing the crops. The convefsation drifted from crops in general te corn in particular, and finally from corn to crows and their destructive habits. One of the farmers said: “I was troubled by crows considerable last spring. They scratched up the corn as fast as I could plant it and then sit on the scare- crow when they were tired and needed a rest. “Billy Leith tol’ me that I ought to soak some corn In whisky a.d let the crows eat it, and then when they were drunk and couldn’t fly very well, to shoot ‘em. it seemed to be a good fdea, an’ I thought just a little first time and see wnat effect it had, so 1 soaked a pint of shelled corn in whisky and laid it in a heap in the field where the birds could get it. “After a while I went out with a gun to see what was the result. There was a lot of crows by the pile, but they seemed to be actin’ kind ‘er strarge. There was a long | line of ‘em facin’ one old black fellow, who was standin’ behind a clod of earth. I couldn't make out what they was up to at first. One of ‘em would step up to the ciod an’ lay somethin’ on it asd then the old fellow behind the clod would give him somethin’. Bimeby 1 noticed that when a crew stepped up he laid down two grains of corn an’ the one behind the clod aanded him a grain out of the pile I put there. “When a crow got a whisky grain he et it an’ went off to the field an’ scratched up two more corn kernels and come back. Then 1 saw “how t'was. The old felle behind the clod had discovered the pi first ond was Keerin’ bar, an’ the customers | had to pay two grains of ordinary corn for ove soaked in old rye. The one keepin’ bar was very business-like, and put away the customers’ two grains before he would give him one in return. “Some of 'em were better provided than the others, an’ took a friend up with them wher they walked up to the clod an’ treated him. After they had been keepin’ this sort of thing up for a while, some of ‘em got kinder tired an’ leaned up against the cled and cawed sort’er husky and indistinct, an’ others got quarrelsome and hollered at one another and waived their wings, an’ scme of ‘em laid right down and went tco sleep. A couple of crows hauled up a dead rat to the clod of dirt an’ they got enough corn for it to set ‘em up for the whole crowd, an’ they seemed to be the most popular crows in the whole flock. This drew purty heavy on the barkeeper’s stock in trade, so he raised the price to five grains for each one of his’n, The other crows didn’t seem to like it at all, an’ they held indignation meetins, and one of 'em got up on a stump an’ hollered for abcut fifteen minutes, an’ the hers staggered around an’ waived thelr wings all at once an’ seemed to en- courage the one on the stump. “Then they all got together and made a rush for the feller behind the clod and jumped on’him an’ mashed his clod an’ et up all his whisky grains an’ stole all the corn that had been paid to him for what they got. “{ hated to hurt critters that acted in uch a human manner, but business is business, an’ when they wuz all in a heap beatin’ the barkeep, I let fly with both barrels of my skot-gun an’ killed about two hundred an’ forty-five, an’ got some more with a club. “There hasn’t been any crows in that for three months,” concluded the speaker. “{ don’t like to seem to doubt any man’s remarked a man sitting on a bar- after a p “but I ly can't bring yself to b'lf know! Willlam’s re- syard for whisl as I do, that he ever used it for such a purpose.’ —_.—— . The Guv Had a Peculiar Cli h Ga) 7 eming trifles have hanged many a maz Clarke Miller of Dallas pri th Miller was recently ser for life for the Ithy home when they t t a demand to throw up hands and by the appearance of two mask- One of the@tssailants fired, strik- within a few hours. the shot br fired gun a peculiar of Roberts” dewn | nized by on the charge of murder. ith the peculiar click was found sr’s possession. He had run to his end, in order to avoid suspicion, had elf rammed down two charges into th, had gone out to join in the sea murderers, When the loads were the HUNTING A KITCHEN Senora Sara Tries to Find a Decent Cock Room. AN IDEAL SERVANT’S REQUIREMENTS Dark and Dirty Rooms Are the Usual Rule. « MUCH TOO ‘ELEVATION’ Written Exclusively for ‘The Evening Star. "VE BEEN HOUSE hunting! Not for my- self; bless you, no! When it falls to my lot to have to seek another home, I'll bay a bit of ground and build the kind of a house I like. No man ever made plans for a “‘livable’’ house yet. If there is one field of labor more than another in which women could earn distinction and fame, it would be in the direction of planning houses for the muiti- tude. An architect never sees anything but the “front elevation” and bay windows, ginger-bread towers from which you can see nothing, and front stairways that are tco narrow to walk up square-shouldered. It was a letter from a newly married friend who has ideas that started me out on the trail of a house that vas something more than a sweat box, yet lackirg the preten- sions of a palace. “I want,” she wrote, “a house that will sult my jewel of a servant, who, like ‘Sis- ter Jane,’ is a product of New England, and unique among her class,which is ‘away up,” so we think, Like Sister Jane, ‘she was born to idleness, bred to school teach- irg; age not reported, tempermanent hope- ful, abrhties average; possessor of a mod- erate competence, partly acquired, mainly inherited. She has taught school and work- ed in a factory, taught music, sold ribbons, run a sewing machine, been a copyist, a bursery governess, a book agent, chamber- maid, and last and best, a cook.’ At least, I take it from her own story that she was a round peg in a square hole at all the other things which she tried, for she liked rone of them. She says she detested school teaching because she was constantly called upon to punish pupils for doing the very things she would have done herself had sne been in their places, and was losing all her natural amiability and gaining nothing. Clerking w.s the worst of all, and came rear transforming her into a_pessi: . Copyrg was not quite so bad, but when little error of a figure 5 in engrossing a new law nearly got her into state's pr for altering bills she concluded that it was a dangerous occupation. As a factory firl she nearly lost her mind, since all the use she had for it was to count the trips of the flying shuttle. She tried slop work on a sewing machine till she concluded that since Adam was condemned to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow the next horrid thing to think of for poor Eve was tp fenree her backbone over a sewing ma- chine. Janet Turns Servant. ; “Well, to make a long story short and get down to business, my Janet tried every. thing, ran the whole gamut of ‘womanly’ o-cupations, and a few outside, and found nothing to her taste. By a singular acci- Gent a dear friend was injured, and Janet voluntesred her services as housekeeper for atime. The slatternly servant nearly drove her distracted, and she discharged her, taking her place as cook till she could find competent ‘helps “Sara, much to my delight, she has not to this day found competent help. But she bad found at jast something that her soul delighted in, and she remained with her friend for t;vo years and a half, when the injuries proved fatal and Janet fell into my hands. We are going to set up our lares and penates in Washington, and the orly way in which I could get Janet to say that she would go with us was to promise that the kitchen regions should be arranged after unigae plans of her own Janet says that Sister Jane's ideas are ex- cellent, and she would like me to communt- cate them to you. Sister Jane says: ‘There is no worl so fit and pleasant, so profitable and improving to the mass of womef—rich or poor, wise or unlearned, strong or weak, yes, proud or meck—as the care and con- trol of a home. None so worthy of thor- ough study, none so ful of opportunity for ing all the better bodily and mental , from mere mechanical and mus- 1, up through philosophy and mathematies and invention, to cular science, poetry and fine art. he Housxckeeper’s Headquarters. ‘The kitchen is not merely a cook room, nor yet the assembly and-business room of the entire household, as in the olden time. It is the housekeeper’s headquarters, the mill to which all domestic grists sare brought to be ground. I should never learn to be heartily grateful for my daily bread if it must always be eaten with the baking pans at my elbow. Indeed, we seldom en- joy to the utmost any good thing if the process of its manufacture has been car- ried on before our eyes. Hence, the dining room is a_ necessity, but it must be near at hand. If chis goes to the basement or the attic, the other must follow, but always with impassable barriers between, protect- ing each one of our five senses. “The confusion usually attending the dinner hour should be out of sight; the hissing of buttered pans and the sound of rattling dishes we do not wish to hear; our sharpened appetites must not be dulled by spicy aromas that seem to setile on our tongues; we do not like, in summer weather, to be broiled in the same heat that roasis our beef; while, as for scents! Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who fs able to stand the smell of bolling cab- bage? “Yes, the kitchen must be separated fiom the dining room, and the more per- fect its appointments the easier the separa- tion. The library and the sitting room are completely divided by a mere curtain be- cause each is quiet and well disposed, not inclined to assert its own rights or invade ose of others; but the ordinary kitchen, like ill-bred people, is constantly doing both. Thomas Beecher proposed to locate his kitchen at the top of the church steeple. That is unnecessary; we have only to ele- vate it morally and intellectually, make it orderly, scientific, philosophical, and the front parlor itself cannot ask a more amiable and interesting neighbor. For a Domestic Reformation. “*As the chief workshop of the house, the kitchen should be fitted up and fur- nished precisely as an intelligent manu- facturer would fit up his factor Every possible convenience for doing what must be done; a machine fer each kind of work and a place for every machine, Provision for the removal and utilizing of all waste, for economizing to the utmost ail labor a material. Then if our housekeepers will go to school in earnest—will learn their most complicated and responsible pro- fession half as thoroughly as a mechanic learns a single and a comparatively simple trade—we shall have domestic reforma- tion that will bring back something of the Eden we have lost.’ ” Well, I should say so! It 1s my candid opinion that Janet and Sister Jane had Letter start out lecturing on domestic sci- ence, and illustrate their talks with stere- opticon views of the proper caper in kitch- ng, interspersed with a few awful ex- mples of the other kind, and some sam- je pictures of cooks, good, bad and in- different. It would take like wildire. A Hopeless Search. With these directions in my hands, I started ont to find the fmpossible. You might as well try to find a ready-made crown for Queen Victoria as a hand-me- down kitchen of that description, but I scented some fun and an opportunity to see the inside of a lot of kitchens that I've had some curiosity aborft, for I know the people. My friend wants to buy a house, and she promised me a pretty bon-bon box lrawn, it was found that he had neglected to put any powder in the gun. ‘Truth is stranger than detective stories. that I very much admire among her pos- sessions if I am able to locate this paragon of a kitchen. The idea was that if I couid locate the proper spare, and ventilation and light for this pearl of kitchens, my friend would furnish’jt according to re- quirements. Really I didn’t know that we were so wedded to show and front door display 4M I had been the réunds with a lot of real estate agents, whé took me into cel- lars and basements and English basements and subeellars. Of course when a house is for sale, the agent lakes a lot of liberties about exposing its interior department, and of twelve houses that I visited in’ one morning, all of them in tne higr-priced section of the city, there was not a kit- chen that was fit for a dog to live in! That is rather a sweeping assertion, but it is true. Some Prett$ Poor Kitchens. Five of them were so dismally dark that cn a blistering day the gas was burning! Think of that in this enlightened day! Four of the kitchens were so small that you could sit down in the middle and touch the wall on any side. Only two were above ground, and when I askeg the why of the warped floor, was jauntily informed that water stood Close to the top of the ground and that made the boards curl! In five of them the dining room was at one end of the house and the kitchen at the other, ,and the store closets, coal bins and fur- face room were in between, so that a serv- ant would travel about a hundred extra miles a day in doing the table work, as all the water was in the far end of the house, and the dishes had to be “toted’”’ back, or the water fetched into the dining room, and as the china clasets were in the dining room, all the dishes for food had to be carried back and warmed. A girl ought to get double wages for work in such a house, but she doesn’t. The people who rent it will have to pay so much for “front elevation” and “bay window,” a patch of infinitesimal terrace, and “location,” that they won't have anything left for servants cr much of anything to serve. Now, why in the name of common sense can’t a kitchen be constructed for conve- nience, exactly as a bed room or a library? It is in the kitchen that the housewife who cannot have a retinue of servants spends half her life. It is in the kitchen that that which sustains life is prepared. By good rights the two rooms in the whole house which should be the lightest, brightest, cheeriest and most scientifically correct in designing are the sleeping rgoms and the kitchen. Half of one’s life is spent in sleep and a good deal of the other half is spent in eating, Yet the “reception” room, the dining room, and the alleged library get all the thought and adorning, and what is left after they are satisfactorily adjusted is lumped for expenditure in the kitchen and bed rooms. Microbes Hate Clean Places. The kitchen should be light, large, con- veniently arranged, and healthfully locat- ed, for the well being of the family {f one had no consideration for the health of the servants, or the poor wife or mother who has to slave there day in ana day out. Microbes of disease hunt all dark close places and feed on the dust and mold which is bound to find lodgment when the place is dark, for {t is by sight that a house- keeper has to judge of cleanliness, and gas is not as good a search light as the sun. No room can be healthy that has no sun- light, bright and strong every day. The germs of scarlet fever, typhoid fever, yel- low fever, diphtherla and kindred diseases, all of which feed on filth, are always lurk- ing in dark corners, and after they have fed and fattened, they are sometimes flirt- ed out by a dusting brush and broom for some member of the family to swallow just when the system is ripe for the prop- agation of the germs. “Dispensations of Providence” often come about in that way. and “sad bereavements” are closely related to dark kitchens and,insanitary plumbing. Solution of the Servant Question. There ts pretty good reason for the be- lief that the servant question might be sooner solved, too, did the servant's mis- tress have enough regard for her to make the place where she-must spend the most of her life habitable andhealthy. A serv- ant, be she black, brown or white, has a soul, and fs often ambitious. if she is reasonably well treated,given opportunity to “invite her soul” through having cheery surroundings,there will grow up in her heart a pride in her bright, handy kitchen, and she will expend as much cuergy in polish- ing her kitchen table as “her mistress does the piano. She will hate to see strings and bits of paper on the nice hardwood floor, and will distinctly reseat any “clutter heaps” in the corners of her model kitchen or finger-prints on her dresser doors. To be in keeping with her tidy kitchen, she will feel that she must be tidy in her at- tire. Cleanliness and order bring thelr own reward, for the mind that fs at ease has space in which to think, and to the serv- ant who caters to that seat of the soul, the appetite, what so fascinating to think about as dainty dishes to please those who have labored to please her? I know lots of girls who look at it exactly as I do. The girl who cannot he elevated and improved by pleasant and commodious surroundings should not be in service, and when the mistress has given her every opportunity to make herself acceptable, and she then refuses, you may be sure that she is incur- rigible.. But you can’t judge until you have en the proper test. I think I shall have to write my friend that her paragon will have to find the “lo- cation” and then build on it. She will never get her jewel of a kitchen otherwise. But I have learned a whole lot about the wrong kind, and am fully primed for the builder who tries to foist one of the abom nations on me, under the guise of a “kitch- en,” when the name of coul hole would suit it better. SENORA SARA, —_.__ HE COULDN'T TAKE A JOKE. Experiences of a Countryman Seeing the Sights of the City. Fiem the Detroit Free Prees. “I dunno much about the lews of a city lke this,” he Legan, as he entered the cen- tral station the other evening, ‘and I'd like to ask a few questions.” “Very well,” replied the sergeant, as he looked up from his desk. “Kin a feller come up to me and poke me in the ribs and call me a bloomin’ ole kuss on wheels? Does the law allow him to do it7"" “If any one did that to you he was only in fun.” “Mebbe he was; but I don’t like such fa- miliarity, and I told him so, too. Does the law allow anybody to come up to you and smash your bat down over your ears and yell ‘Hello, Ruben!’ in your ears?” “Of course not, but some men are jovial, you know such jokes. If I'm in a saloon drinking a glass of beer by myself, does the law allow the fellers in there to call me ‘Old Borax’ and elbow me around till I’m strangled with beer?” “Oh, no; but they didn’t hurt you any,” smiled the sergeant. “They hurt my feelin’s, and I don't like ita bit. Has a feller on the hind platform of a street car any right to brush hayseed off my coat collar and grin and ask me how turnips are gettin’ along?” “You are no hand to take a joke,” said the sergeant, as he turned to his work. “No, I’m rot,” said the man, as his face grew more sorrowfyl. ““I heve a lame back, a holler tooth ‘and the earache, and on top of that I’ve lost five hogs by the cholera this summer and had my barn struck by lightning. "No, I can't take no joke. I was calkerlatin’ ‘to stay in town four or five days, but I guess I'll put gut tomorrer. It's toc jovial for me. If thar hain’t no law to purtect a feller who feels sad, then he'd better git night out. Is thar anybody around here who kin play ‘Home, Sweet Home,’ on the acccrdion?” “I don’t think so.” ' “Well, I hardly expected it. I guess I won't wait till mornin’, but I'll leave to- night. It's a’ one-sided town—all runs to jokes—and no place for me. “You ought to stay over night and visit the Island Park,” suggested the sergeant. “I'd like to, but I dasn’t. If I did some feller would jump out from behind a tree and tickle me in the ribs and call me ‘Old Squash! and make me mad ‘nuff to bust. I'll go hone tonight, and take my sad- ness :lonz with me, and you kin tell all the jokers in town that they kin ha! ha! and be hanged to ‘em —___see. Values, of Words. My friend, the pretty schoolmistress, says the Boston Traveller, told a rather emusing story at the boarding house’ yesterday. She asked one of her class to put the nouns “bo: “bees” and “bears” Into a sentence. The schclars thought intently for a few moments, when one ragged youngster, with a look of victory on his face, raised his hand. “Well, Johnr said the school- teacher, “what is your sentence?” “Boys bees bare when they go in swimmin’,” re- plied Johrny, with perfect composure. The teacher did not call on any more of her class. THE WORK OF WOMEN A Beautiful Palace at the Atlanta Exposition. EXHIBITS FROM ALL LANDS A Virginia Tea Room and a Creole Kitchen. THE CAPABLE PRESIDENT .—_—>—__ Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. ATLANTA, September 12, 1895. Today at high noon a little bit of a person stood in the center of the en- trance of the women’s building, look- ing critieally up at the dome. The impression made upon any stranger who might have walked in there would have been that she was a childish little body who stood wondering how in the world a person could ever have mounted so high to adorn the architectural sky above her. Not a bit of it, though, for she was Miss Grace Tuaple, and she de- signed and painted that dome with her own deft fingers, looking, way up there on the scaffolding, like a tiny butterfly perched high in the heavens. She stood row poised in the center of the building, her task completed, her workmen gone, the signs of work about her on every hand. Every room was filled with a busy gath- ering; the upper gallery a perfect bee- hive, for there the working exhibits were arranging themselves, each woman deco- rating her own emall assignment of space and arranging the work which she was to show as an object lesson to visitors during the exposition. The sound of foreign voices was there; oriental weavers, expressing more with the poetry of their eyes than the music of their vofces; blind women lace makers, with fingers that almost ful- fill the lack of sight; carvers in brass and wood; a little glove maker placing her wonderful machine, and painters in the Mis. Joseph Thompson, President of the Woman's Board. wonderful decorative lines in which wo- men are so skillful—a busy gathering, in- deed, anc among them no quarreling, for each has a space, and to each there was a surety of success through individual effort. A Busy Scene. The big front rooms opening on the hall of the lower floor were busy and interest- ing. On the right the New York women were arranging their room, a charming artistic place, with decorations in Delft blue and the polished floor covered with Persian rugs: on the left the women of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maryland were busy as bees. Maryland has the larg- est space in this room, which is bright and colonial in effect; on its walls the pictures of famous Baltimore beauties, while its furnishings contain many rare historical specimens of old mahogany and rosewood. Massachusetts and Connecticut are unique in mementoes of old Puritan days, and in presenting the pictures of gifted men and women of New England. The big hallway is hung wit beautiful pictures and deco- rative paintings from women artists, and in the back hallway the committee on china paintings and the arts of the aboriginal women are arranging their display. On either side of this hall are the art galleries, and here, beside the many fine paintings, are several collections of bri brac and curios of great interest that have never before been exhibited. Mr. Schauss will send on the Ist of October his great painting by Rosa Bonheur for this gallery. This painting has never been seen before outside of Rosa Bonheur’s study, and Mr. Schauss, who had never exhibited at any of the big fairs in this country, is sending this great canvas solely in honor of Mrs. Thompson. Preserves and Pickles, Back of the art galleries is the agrcul- tural department. At first the board of women managers thought that this was too advanced an age for women to descend to the exhibition of preserves and pickles and fruit, but after all, they thought, since wo- men have from time immemorial excelled in these household arts which are really oL such great importance, it would be a! not to have them represented. “ one of the board, “we can go up into the assembly hall and have all the theorizing and advanced speaking we want, and it will not in the least interfere with the preserve exhibit.” The assembly hall is, however, going to cok no more like a strictly business room than te salon of Madame Adam. The wo- men of Charleston have taken hold of that for decoration. On its walls they will dis- play many beautiful miniatures and price- less art treasures gathered by the wealthy families of that southern city. Opposite the assembly hall is the president's room, and the decorators are busy here completing an apartment fit for the reception of a princess. The walls and the furniture are all after the fashion of the Louts Seize, and the desk at which my lady president transacts her business, a dainty, coquettish affair, sug- gests nothing more serious than the paint- ing of a valentine or an invitation to after- noon tea. The President's Work. Mrs. Thompson was elected president by the exposition board one year ago last January. The work, of course, in the spring seemed far away and light and trivial. She went to Europe for a few months’ travel. When she returned in Sep- tember she found the members who had been appointed to the board in an excited quandry. “What shall we do?” they exclaimed. “The men say they can give us no money for our building, and we have not a cent in our treasury.” “We'll have it,” said Mrs. Thompson; end with that she went to work. Not. be it said, alone, for there were forty women, energetic, clever and full of enthusiasm, to aid her in her work. Still, everybody reeds a leader, and that this young wo- man, wealthy, indulged, accustomed to con- sult her own inclinations and to choose her own life, has proved her powers of leader- stip cannot be denied. Mrs. Potter Pal- mer stood at the head of the women's de- pzrtment with millions at her back; Mrs. Thompson started out with her work in the same direction with the surety of only ten thousand dollars promised by the men’s board, provided the women raised that much more for the purpose of erecting a building. She began her task at a period when times were terribly hard, and she accomplished it not through the securing of large donations, but through the per- sistent gathering together of odd shekels from little undertakings. The strain of vork and worry she has stood with mar- yelous fortitude; and so have all the wo- men who have been her assistants. A Year of Planning. The women’s building today represents one year of persistent labor and planning to the board of forty women managers and the committees they represent. Twenty thousand dollars was added to the ten thousand for this building, which {s per- manent and fire-proof and will stand as a monument to their great efforts—as an il- lustration of what wom:en can do in archi- tecture and interior decoration, while its con- tents represent every phase of feminine ac- compliskment. The press room opens into Mrs. Thomp- son's office, and from what the decorators are doing there now it looks as if it was gcing to be an exceedingly attractive office, furnished in oriental style. The library is next to this, and the committee in charge is busy arranging upon the shelves and as- Highest of all in Leavening Power.—Latest U.S. Gov't Report veraB ABSOLUTELY PURE Royal Baking Powder serting many volumes, all of them written by women. The room opposite, across the hall from the library, ig the Columbus, Ga., rccm, and there a handsome woman who seems to be able to make everyone do her b'dding is arranging a beautiful exhibit; the furnishings and walls are all in the East India style, and there are many won- derful curios in the shape of East India idols, shawls and other textile fabrics made by women. Next to this is the Lucy Cobb rcom, a place devoted to the Luey Cobb school, a well-known Georgia seminary, which is fortunate in the possession of some fine paintings which belonged to George I. Seney, the millionaire, who made a gift of them to the school, and who gave, also, a chapel called the Seney-Stovall Chapel, the latter name in honor of the pretty school girl whose letter induced Mr. to make the gift. A Virginin Ten Room. A cluster of handsome and dignified Vir- gipia matrons are busying themselves in the Virginia tea room, where the beverage that cheers is to be served upon polished Chippendale tables in the presence of an- cestral dignitaries on canvas and quaint coquettish iadies on porcelain. The first thing brought into the women’s building was a cradle and a child's bed, and they were taken to the basement, which is fitted up as a complete ac@ldent ward and clitidren's play room, with trained nurses and all the furnishings required in a mod- crn hospital. ‘These arc the departments of the women’s building given in a general way. The prac- tical workings thereof cannot, of course, be fully described as yet, but that every room will have its individual interest and charm with a meaning of practical accomplish- ment is just as sure as the proven prac- ticability of the beautiful and highly orna- mental figure that stands at its head. et us hav? everthing beautiful to look at,” she said at the beginning. “It is so much easier to interest people in the solid achievements of our sex by presenting them artistically.” The women’s building did not prove large enough to contain every exhibit, therefore an annex wa3 added and a Creole kitchen, while a number of exhibits were turned over to the state buildings under the au- spices of the women’s department. The most interesting feature in the annex wi be the nodel electric kitchen, where a cook- | ing lesson is given every day to visitors, and the Creole kitchen will fill all needs of pecple who hunger after gumbo and thirst for genuine French coffee. MAUDE ANDREWS. —_————__ THINGS HEARD AND SEEN. Banting is more in vogue than ever. Wherever you go it is a subject of conver- sation. The desire to become slight enough to look well on the wheel may have some- thing to do with it. Any form of the thin- ning-down process means a severe regime. There is no royal road to learning, neither is there an easy way to get rid of super- fluous avoirdupois, the gaining of which was so gradual and easy. The French doctors are recommending a fish diet only varied by one small piece of bread, at each meal. English specialists allow nothing but roast beef and roast apples, and the Ger- man system permits any kind of food which does not abound in sugar, prc vided no liquids are consumed. Just at present in this country the milk diet is in favor. Skim milk in prescribed quantities, and at frequent intervals, is the only food al- lowed. It is claimed for it that it keeps up the strength of the patient, and permits the continuation of ordinary avocations, as well as the walks and other outdoor exer- cises advised, better than auy other ¢ tem. One lady who tried it for a month recently was delighted to find that she had done away with fifteen pounds of her bothersome bulk. The method which had quite a run here a few years ago had §raduated phases tn its starvation system. It was not popular, except among those who had no work to do outside of their homes. For the first ten days of the re- duction process only the juice of three cr four orarges was permitted. By chat time the desire for food was in most cases well under control. After that sma!l amounts of food without fat-producing qualities were allowed. In a few notable cases thirty or forty pounds were lost in the first month or six weeks of treatment. A Turkish bath every day, with a strict and spare diet, did the same work for a young lady who would willingly have paried with a hundred pounds of her “too solid flesh.” Her drop was a pound a day for a month while she continued in her heroic resolve. Fat fs a peculiar thing, apyway. Long walks, bicycle riding and Turkish baths pile up the burden in many instances, especially with women, while the same regime, if pursued by thin persons, would reduce them to skeletons. Consequently for those whose figures abound in curve* tyere ts nothing left but to starve them- selves, or at least carefuliy refrain from fat-producing foods, such as starchy vegetables, all sweets and pastries and too much Mquid, no matter whether hard or soft drinks. This is what happens if you are unfor- tunate enough to meet with an ‘accident aboard a train. A lady was traveling up to Boston a fortnight ago on a limited ex- press. She was walking through the draw- ing room car, the train gave a lurch, and she gave her head a smart-bump against a post. The cefling of the car became sud- denly illuminated by stars of the first mag- nitude, but vhe really did not know her fresh young blood was disfiguring the Tur- Kish carpet until out of one corner of her good eye she saw the whitening face of the porter. Then two conductors seemed to emerge from the floor, and they helped to brace her up against the cooler, where co- pious use of ice water with towel accompa- niment sopped up the gory stream, and she was able to look in the mirror and estimate damages both to her beauty and wear and tear on her nerves. After fifteen minutes the lump had nearly disappeared, only the ragged cut remained and that dull thud of a headache. Here the railroad system be- gan. The conductor took her name and address, and at the first stop telegraphed ahead for a doctor. That individual came or at New London and was.shown the suf- ferer. He put six small white pellets in her hand, looking wiser every minute, and ordered hot witch hazel for the cut. From that until the end of the trip the condne- tor appeared at regular intervals with tea- cups full of this soothing lotion, and when she reached the Hub she threw away the white pellets, because she was undecided whether the doctor sald to take the six In one hour or only one in six hours. More than that, the angry protuberance over ker «ye was gone, and a much better feeling prevailed in the region where she hopes all the gray matter still remains. A few days later only a small scar remained, which will, in course of time, entirely dis- appear. Moral, don't go walking about a train while in motion. They bulld them with very hard wood. In the sweet bye and bye, when most of us perhaps will have been gathered to our fathers, when Rock Creek Park, with all its natural picturesqueness, is enhancéd by the art of man, it ought to be the model of pleasure *grounds and healthful breathing spots. Franklin Park, out Dorchester way in Boston, {s an example of what can be done in the creation of artificial beauties where the real thing does not exist. More than that, in the line of creature comforts there does not seem to be very much left! undone,either. One of the features is the lookout house over the children’s play- ground. There are two or three a well-kept lawns in this territory, with the stars and stripes waving high {n the a over it. The lookout bas broad ve where parents and guardians can sport, and in the basement there are toil facilities and a matron to wash the and hands cf the little Bostenese b: they start on the pomestretch. The tennis courts have a pavilion, where the lady players cap have shower baths if t like after their play. Another resting plac® is supplied with tables and chairs for lunch parties, and boiling water is furnished to teamakers. Bicycle rests for the whe and their riders are features of another shady path. Besides the road and bridle path, there is a bievcle road. Comfortable spring wagong, with good horses and cour- teous, well-informed drivers, are constantly making the circuit, and four twenty-five cents you caa enjoy all the beauties of the park in a drive which lasts nearly an hour. Wheels and bloomers are more than ever absorbing topics of corvereation. Wash- ington has been called the paradise of bi- cyclists, and it having been demonstrated that the fair sex can have all the reason- able pleasure they want on the wheel, without resorting to bloomers, the hifurcat- ed garment is not popular here. There are a few cases, however, where each new ar- rival is got up just a bit nattier than the lest, and heaven only knows what it por- tends. There is a story that there was a cese of silk tights on the avenue one night recet Uy. The bloomers, as a rule, flourish vest and most frequently with the friendly shades of night. But the bloomer has taken ar. insidious hold of the sex pretty much everywhere else. A good percentage the riders are so equipped by day as well as by night. Tandem riding is popu- lar, and none but men’s wheels are used. Seme of the advanced women, who feel there is no sensation they ought not to ex- perience, have tried the bloomers ard {cund them far from perfection. They tn sist that the bagginess is bound to catch in the saddle and, on the whole, the out- fit gives just as much trouble as a skirt, ane they find many advantages in the Wear of the latter. Fashion and wealth are so far on the side of the anti-bloom- rites. No grand dame has yet essayed them except for country or mountain rid- ing. And so long as they keep off, petti- coats are safe. Two actresses “were telling the other day of funny experiences. One plays old lady parts, because nature has been too liberal with her In the way of flesh, and it is im- possible nowadays to convince managers that cne’s ordinary talents for usual busi- nes3 are not submerged when angles in the feminine form become too well-developed curves. The other plays old woman be- cause she is over sixty and knows how, for she his been doing it twenty years, and can earn $130 a week by her old lady manners and natural wrinkles. The aim of her life has been to get into a company wher: some deference would be paid .0 her experience and years. This summer she has succeeded. At the rehearsais, no younger person remained seated if she had no chair, and the men of the cast pay her all sorts of civil little attentions. The old lady is delighted, and the motherly smilé she bestows on them over her gold-bowed spectacles ic charming. And this young old woman and real old woman are mighty good friends, and fond of each other’s com- pany before they start on their respective tours of one night stands. The younger woman has some substantial and pretty widow parts, and for this she has treated her hair to a henna bath, and has locks red enough to keep a procession of white horses coming her way. Too many women are misjudged by the color of their hair or its various colors in succeeding years. An actress must be young and beautiful, and if nature will not assist, chemical must be invoked, and as in the case of this good woman, it is her only departure from the strict mode of life inculeated by the sternest New England training. To hear these two exchange stories of departed golden locks is fun enough for a day. They were going down a slippery, hilly street, one rainy night, to the theater in Balti- more.»The younger woman had but re- cently recovered from a fever and was wearing a blonde wig on her shaven pate. They got tangled up in a collision of um- brellas, with some one coming towards them, and to their horror, the hat and the blonde wig were gone. The Wire hooked to the umbrella of the colliding party, who, unconscious of his scalping act, was walk- ing at a brisk rate to get in out of the rain. The friend chased after him, secur- ed the somewhat bedraggled headgear and restored it to its laughing owner, who had retired in the meanwhile to the friendly shadows of a dark porch. A suifering mite of humanity went the rounds of charitable homes one day last week asking assistance for her father. Her sorrowful tale was that ‘her father had been in bed ill for some weeks, and she was trying to get money to buy him proper food with. “What is the matter with your father?” asked a sympathetic householder. “He’s got—something hard, I cant pro- nounce it,” replied the little supplicant with .a pathetic tremor, “but it's some- thing the matter with his stomac! anda fellow-suiferer from appendicitis chipped in cheerfully for his relief. The members of the have evidently taken in Washington in their autumn travels, judging from the complexions of most of the people one sees on the streets just now. Secretary Carlisle is one of the brownest of his kind and shows the effects of his summer out- Ing very decidedly. In order to emphasize the effects of the sun’s rays ne has had his hair cut, and the result discloses to view a_ well-developed halo of fair, un- tanned flesh, which marks the limit of the shearing. When asked if this halo indi- cated the increasing purity of democratic polities or not, the Secretary declined to commit himself, and said that at all events it was the outcome of a very pleasant summer. Ex-Senator Ransom seems also to have taken on an additional brunette tint as the product of his Mexican labors, and his in- terest in shoe store windows and special sales of “tan Oxfords” show that the burning clime is hard on the feet of the present minister to the land of Monteuzma. “Brownie” family The men don’t have it all their way, however, for the streets are crowded with rosy-cheeked, ruddy lasses, whose teeth gleam all the whiter and eyes flash more brightly for the contrast with their brown skins. Some of these summer flitters have _ dolorous tales to tell of the dearth of men at the resorts. One girl frankly de- clares that her whole season was wasted, “for,” she sadly wails, “there was not a single man at the hotel or on the beach over eighteen years old, and, while boys are nice to take you in bathing and run errands for you, it rather lowers your dig- nity to have to stroll with them by moon- light, dance continuously with them and eat their “Huyler’s,” but, you see, if I did not honey them up I had no one at alt, and the other girls snap them up in double- quick, 0, as the next best thing to having a good time is to make the other giris jealous, I have spent the entire summer @s a sort of ‘grandmotherly’ person with a lot of youngsters tumbling after me every place I went. A young housekeeper, just back from England, says she has added several new dishes to Ler menu, and one of the most distinctively English is the vegetable mar- row. For the well-being of the uneniight- ened it is just as well that they should not know that this choice forelgn product by which our cousins across the pond set such store is nothing more or less than the sum- mer squash of our own Isnd. The mode of cooking and serving is, however, different. ‘The vegetable fs cut in slices, as one does a canteloupe, boiled till tender, but not to mushiness, and is served with a dressing of cream and butter, making a very pretty and toothsome dish. For a sample of true American snobbisb- ness one has only to take a trip to Alex- ardria and consult the tombstones in the graveyard of Christ Church, which is cele- brated as the favorite place of worship of our first President. There on the purest | American soil stands a monument to the nobs of all f marble rest under t > who wa: 2 with, visited among and married into the first families of Mary- land and Virginia.” Tombstones as mirt provokers ought to satisfy the most ad- vanced of the degenerate schoul, and it was with a view to prevent such un- that when Dr, Mc: was rec- tor at Christ Church he had some of the inseriptions remov One that the old sexton tells about certi- fied to the fact that “Willam was the happy husband of five wives.” William would have been a boon to the summer girl of 15%. probably ecm