Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1880 — GOSSIP FOR THE LADIES. [ARTICLE]

GOSSIP FOR THE LADIES.

"An Expensive Accident. At a fashionable dinner party a lady guest was eo unfortunate as to break a plate belonging to a set of Freuch china. The lady insisted on either mending or replacing it, but finding both impossible she was obliged to send abroad and duplicate the entire set of 200 pieces. A Fraud. An unmarried Englishman, visiting our fair city of Boston, saw a handsomely dressed young lady on the street and was told that she was the daughter of a wealthy merchant. He became acquainted, and the girl knowing the woman M’ho watched the interests of an elegant house whose owners were at the seashore, M-as permitted by her to receive him there. She also gave him dinners there, hiring waiters. She told him that her parents were in Europe. He proposed, was. accepted, and found that the wife he had won was a shop girl. Drew* Iteform. An English lady of wealth is agitating the question of dress reform lb England, and says for those who are not strong, the fatigue of battling every few steps with the narrow, clinging skirt is a very serious consideration. In walking women step from their hips like the rest of the human race, and in the present style of dress it so fastens the legs that she is obliged to take short, stumbling steps, and there is usually a piece of skirt which is alternately kicked out and caught by the heel belaud, which would strike every one as most absurd, if we M-ere not so thoroughly used to seeing it. There seems to be only one way out of it, and that is to have the present tight skirt divided, so ns to be something like the trousers worn by women in the East. They Mould be quite loose, perfectly comfortable and graceful in appearance. The bodice of the dress could then be cut after the fashion of an out-door jacket, coming to the knees. This reform in dress will probably never be followed by English ladies, though they seem strongly interested in it. Until then American ladies will not exercise their minds about it.

AVoman’M Work. Women frequently complain that men do not know how hard they-are obliged to M-ork. The many little things they are required to do are quite as taxing upon them, they rightly say, as the larger labors of the masculine sex. The Rev. Thomas K. Beecher says something on this subject which ail women will appreciate. “ All men,” remarks this distinguished gentleman, “ought to go to the M r oods and do their own washing and general M r ork, such as sweeping, housekeeping and dish-wasliiug. The work of women is not spoken of sensibly by men till they have done it themselves. Gentlemen readers, it is easy to talk, but just try it on a very medest scale once, and you will honor working women more than ever. Do as I have donedo a wash of six pieces, and then remember that a woman turns off 200 pieces a day. Look at your watch and see how long it takes you. Look at your soap and see how* much you have used. Look at your white clothes, handkerchiefs and tou-els and see what you have done, and never again speak harshly of or to a u nman on washingday, noi- of laundry work as if it were unskillful labor. Try it. A sympathetic gentleman, having washed' two pieces, uill never change his shirt again without a glow of reverence and g-ati-tude. AV*e did this. A similar and sal utary consciousness will come over him who darns his own socks, patches biown trousers, splices his suspenders and washes his dishes. Look not every man upon his oun things, but every man also upon the work of a woman. Such an experience in the woods u-ill go far toward settling the woman question, by teaching us that we are all members of one another, and there must be no schism. ”

Stark Vlad on a JPiaque. There is a pretty mad woman on the west side. We do not mean on the west side of the woman, but on the west side of the raging Milwaukee river. The woman is mad on both sides—not on both sides of the river, but on both sides of her. Now you understand. This woman had a plaque. If you don’t know wliJrt that is you are not smart. A plaque is a platter made of wood or china, or something on which is painted a picture in oil, and the plaque is put upon a mantel or an easel to be admired. This lady had one of them, real bad. That is, the plaque was not bad, but the lady had it considerable. It was the most beautiful thing she ever saw, and would stand and gaze upon it for hours at a time, and when she went to bed and left it she did so with regret. She would have slept with that plaque if she had not been otherwise engaged. The world seemed to revolve around that plaque, and the only thing the lady worried about was that she could not take it with her when she went to heaven. The other morning the servant girl said the cook had broke the meat platter, and wanted to know what she should take up the meat for breakfast on. The lady, thinking of a fancy platter in the closet which she kept for state occasions, told the girl to take that platter with the picture on, and then went on pinning her hair with hairpins, and finally went down to breakfast. As she was pouring out the coffee she thought she detected an odor of sanctity and fried chromo, and she looked at the meat plate and turned pale. There was her wooden plaque, full of boiling grease and floating sausage, and through the grease she could see her beautiful oil painting struggling up under difficulties. There was a commingling of Alpine scenery and links of sausage that the artist never intended, and the lady took the plaque in her hand and went to the kitchen, where she brained the cook. There was nothing else to do. Ladies who have plaques, and any lady is liable to have them, as they are said to be catching, should watch the cook.— Peck’ B Sun.

How a Woman Reada a Newspaper. According to Mrs. Gertrude Garrison this is how she does it: “ She takes it up hurriedly and begins to scan it over rapidly, as though she was hunting some particular thing, but she is not. She is merely taking in the obscure paragraphs, which, she believes, were put in the out-of-the-way places for the sake of keeping her from seeing them. As she finishes each one her countenaaoe bright-

ens with the comfortable reflection that she has outwitted the editor and the whole race of men, for she cherishes A vague belief that newspapers are the enemies of her sex, and editors her chief oppressors. She never reads the headlines, and the huge telegraph heads she never sees. She is greedy for local news, and devours it with the keenest relish. Marriages and deaths are*always interesting reading to her, and advertisements are exciting and stimulating. She cares but little for printed jokes unless they reflect ridicule upon the men, and then she delights in them and never forgets them. She pays particular attention to anything inclosed in quotation matfks, and considers it lather better authority than anything first-handed. The columns in which the editor airs his opinions, in leaded bifalutin, she rarely reads. Views are of no importance in her estimation, but facts are everything. She generally reads the poetry. She doesn’t always care for it, but makes a practice of reading it, because she thinks she ought to. She reads stories, and sketches, and paragraphs indiscriminately, and believes every word of them. Finally, after she has read all she intends to t she lays the paper down with an air of disappointment, and a half-contemptuous gesture, which says very plainly that she thinks all neM’spapers miserable failures, but is certain that if she had a chance she could make the only perfect newspaper the world had ever seen.

The American Uirl Abroad. Here is a pen-and-ink sketch of an American girl, which is interesting as showing how a Yankee girl appears to French eyes: “Stylish to the backbone. Independent as independent can be, but very pure. Is devoted to pleasure, dress, spending money ; shows ht-i moral nature nude, just as it is, so as to deceive nobody. Flirts all winter witii this or that one and dismisses him in the spring, when she instantly catches another. Goes out alone. Travels alone. When the fancy strikes her she travels with a gentleman friend, or walks anywhere with him; puts boundless confidence in him; conjugal intimacy seems to exist betM-een them. She lets him tell M-liat he feels—talk of love from morning till night—but she never gives him permission to kiss so much as her hand. He may say anything—he shall do nothing. She is restless ; slip, gives her heart and soul to amusement before she marries. After marriage she is a mother annually ; is alone all day: hears all night nothing. except discussions about patent machinery, unexplosive petroleum and chemical manures. She then will let her daughters enjoy the liberty she used without grave abuse. As nothing serious happened to her, why should Fanny, Mary, Jenny be less strong and less adroit than their mother? She originates French fashions. Parisian women detest her. Provincial women despise her. Men of all countries adore her, but will not marry her unless she has an immense fortune. Her hair is vermilion, paler than golden hair; her black eyes are bold and frank; she has a patent shape which ’tis forbidden to counterfeit; spreads herself in a carriage as if she were in a hammock—the natural and thoughtless posture of her passion for luxurious ease. When she walks she moves briskly, and throws every glance right and left Gives many of her thoughts to herself, and few of them to anybody else. She is a wild plant put iu a hot-house.”