Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1916 — He Capitulated [ARTICLE]

He Capitulated

“What! Another new dress?" stormed Popsiinger, as his daughter nonchalantly made her request “Wfiy, you had one not more than a minute ago!" “The very idea!” said his daughter. “i haven’t had a new dress since«why, not fbr ages!” “One minute ago!"' repeated Popsiinger, firmly. “The younger generation is going to the dogs! When your mother and I were young, the girl a ha,d two new dresses a calico one and a woolen one—and they looked just as pretty afid had just as many beaux as you extravagant young things now! They thought of something running their poor old- father into bankruptcy! You get a new dress and wear it twice and somebody who is envious it sniffs and then you say it’B perfectly hideous and you would die rather than be seen in that disreputable old rag again! , "It's all because you nave been allowed to read novels where the Lady Ermentrude Gewhilikens trails her pale satin gown recklessly over the dewy turf and ruins her fairylike slippers to match when she steals out on the gold-plated terrace to meet the lovely Earl of Beaucatchet! And you want to do likewise! ’ “You want that Willie boy who’s been hanging around you to clap his hand to his brow every time you float down the stairway and murmur ‘Ye gods! How beautiful she is! What a lovely dream!’. Don’t deny it! Little he stops to reckon how much your father is set back to pay the bill! He doesn't even notice what you have on, my child! I ‘Why, when 1 went to see your mother I was so interested in the way her hair grew in little curls at the nape of her neck and the manner in which the blue of her eye darkened at times that she could have worn a potato sack, and I wouldn’t have been any wiser! I'll bet right now that if he were asked to describe three dresses of yours or be shot the next minute the price of lead would go up! At the most he would be able*to say that it was pink cheesecloth cut on the bias and that'you resembled a June rose! *Why don’t you buy cheesecloth and sew it up yourself instead of letting thtft madame woman sell you something she’s cobbled up in her back parlor? When your mother —" “But girls didn’t do as many things in those days!" protested his daughter. “They didn’t need more than one dress!” “Huh!” said Popsiinger indignantly. “Don’t you fool yourself! There were weekly socials and barn dances and corn huskings and apple dryings and many other social diversions at which a young lady wanted to look her best! It simply didn’t occur to her that more than one dress was a possibility! She’d just as soon have expected a diamond tiara at her plato every Sunday morning! . "I suppose, if you got It Into your head that you’d be ostracized by your set unless you had a Complete Change of jewelry each week, that I might just as well go off and die and let you collect the insurance money to spend upon your frivolities! Wha,t have you got to have a new dress for. anyway?" "There’s a dafice at the club,” said his daughter. "And I'm going With Mr. Biggins— ’’ "Mr. Biggins!" exploded Popsiinger. “When you have the whole world to pick from please tell me why you, ft young woman of a tremendous education which has cost me much gold and many grair hairs, should select Willie Biggins? If you had planned from the day of your birth to fall in love with the silliest, most egotistic, flat-headed, no-account excuse for a man you could find, you couldn’t have hit it off better than with Willie Biggins! He—” “I'm not in love with him!" protested his daughter. “Then if you aren't it’s all the worse for you want to strip me of my last penny just to dazzle his eyes with a new dress! You haven't even the excuse of the delirium of love! If you don’t care about Biggins, why don’t you wear a year before last’s dress and be just as happy? Biggins, wouldn’t have intelligence enough to recognize it!” •But there will be plenty of people there besides him!" “Aha!" cried Popsiinger. "You’re in love with somebody else, somebody who scorns you, and you are going with Biggins Just to make him Jealous!}; I refuse to allow you to work me for my hard-earned coin if yon are playing a double game like that! If he won't care about you in an old dress he won’t give a hoot for i new qne! Who is he, anyway?" "He isn’t any one!” cried his daugt ter impatiently. “Honest, dad, if I can’t have a new dress I'll have to stay home! I’ve got nothing but a taffeta dancing frock that’s in perfect ribbons!" “Can’t you put some chiffon stuff over it?" demanded her father. “When I was a young man I went crazy over a girl who was economical! Just tell your Willie boy how you.saved mq. money and—” "Do I get that dress?" insisted his daughter, doggedly. "Oh, heavens, yes I suppose so!" said Popsiinger, reaching for his checkbook. "And get it of east Iron or something durahlel"