Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1910 — COST OF A SILK KIMONO. [ARTICLE]

COST OF A SILK KIMONO.

Three 'Women and Fire Men M w x Vnlne on One In I.onlsvill®. It took five men and three Vomen it the custom house and the silk buyer of a. Louisville department store to fix the value of a kimono which arrived at the office of the surveyor of customs for appraisement, the Times of that city says. It Was a dainty silken thing, lavender In colob, which lay on the table of Cashier Thomas for two hours. The garment* was sent to the custom house by the postmaster at Somerset, Ky., who received it a fJw days ago through the mall from Japan. He did not send In the address of the owner. This was aggravating to the young woman experts called in. "I know every woman in Somerset,” one sold, "and I’d Just like to know who is going to wear that." For half an hour It puzzled Surveyor Taylor and two or three of hls men assistants to discover Just what the garment was. "It looks to me like the court gown of the queen of Zanzibar,” said Clay Miller, who measures steamboats and superintends the loading of merchandise at the custom house depot. "Don’t you know anything at all?" exclaimed one of the women clerks, pushing her way through the puzzled group. “Why, that’s a kimono.” "What In the thunder is a kimono?" Inquired Deputy Sam Barber. "They don’t have that kind of thing down In Bath County, where I came from.” Finally when the officials decided that there was nothing dangerous about the garment they started in fixing the value. It was estimated to be worth all the way from $1.50 to $l5O. The kimono was finally carried to a" department store, where-the silk buyer said it was worth sl4! Later, the kimono was bundled Into a box and started back to the Somerset postmaster with instructions to charge the owner $8.20 duty.