Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 114, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1915 — Changed Her Mind [ARTICLE]

Changed Her Mind

“Girls,” said young Mrs. Allison, adjusting her collar to a coquettish angto and smoothing her piqoe skirt, "1 hat* news! Now, what do you think?” “War on millinery T inquired fh* young matron with auburn hair, concisely. "Neither,” said young Mrs. Allison, with a grin. “Matrimony.” “Gracious!” ejaclulated the sewing circle as one seamstress, With bated breath and suspended needlep. “Hurry up and tell us, Celeste!” “I never hurry,” said young Mrs. Allison, placidly. “Haste, my beloved hearers, is the curse of the American commonwealth, the destroyer of courtly manners and the handicap of the rising generation, because —” “Do you charge admission?” interrupted the young matron with auburn hair, pertly. "Because,” continued the speaker, firmly, “it racks the nerves and waste* the vitality and reduces the mind to a state of weariness. It makes the fat man look fatter and the thin man look thinner.”

"She sounds like a patent cement house advertlsment,” murmured the auburn haired matron. “Cool in winter And warm in summer—or is it the other way about!” "And,” finished young Mrs. Allison, with determination, “it cakes the powder on every woman’s nose!" “Nonsense, Celeste,” said the fluffyhaired blonde. "Weren’t you ever late for a dressmaker’s appointment?" “You’d ’ etter believe I was,” conceded young Mrs. Allison, with sudden ruefulness. “Three-quarters of an hour, this very morning. Where’s my powder rag now?” “In your belt,” remarked the auburnhaired member crisply. “And what la your news?” “Oh, that!” said young Mrs. Allison, brightly enthusiastic again. “How could I forget it! Such news, my dears! Quite Important enough to honor this occasion of our last meeting before we adjourn for our several vacation —to fade our hair and peel our noses. All right, then, I’ll tell, Melissa is engaged.” "No!” cried the members, in unison. “Will some one please tell me,” inquired the fluffy-haired blonde, "why it is that when a girl, even the handsomest of girls, announces her engagement, the feminine audience always says ’No,’ just like that with one voice?”

'‘The world is astonished at her temerity, my love,” answered young Mrs. Allison, promptly. "Here’s Melissa now!”

The sewing circle fell upon the tall brunette in the doorway and showered her with felicitations. “Now,” ended the matron with auburn hair, "tell us about him, dear. You’ve always said you’d never, never, never marry a red-headed man, a person in the railroad business, or a Democrat, so, I suppose, he is none of those things. Is he tall and dark?" “His complexion is about like yours,” hesitated the graceful brunette with her eyes on her thimble. “Wh-what?” cried the sewing circle, aghast.

Young Mrs. Allison grinned again and looked out the comer of her eye, at the fiuffy-haJfed blonde. “And what does he do for a living, my child?” she Inquired persuasively. “He’s secretary of the J. B. & M. railroad,” said the bride-to-be. “And,” sh* added, indignantly, before the shout of laughter quite drowned her voice, "h* says he voted last time for Wilson, but he has promised me positively that next time he’ll vote for Jane Addams!”