Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1917 — HAPPENINGS in the CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HAPPENINGS in the CITIES

New York Women Pay Great Prices for Shoes NEW YORK.—While almost everyone is kicking about the high cost of living these dolorous days, it may be surprising to some to learn that there are some folks so reckless regarding expense that the blue sky seems to ba

tfieir only limit when ft comes to the purchase of footwear. *> For instance, a woman from the sunny Southland stopping at one of the big hotels, according to the .sober statement of a New Yorker, recently paid $63.50 for a pair of shoes. The hotel clerk, who paid the bill for her ladyship, nearly fainted at the price, although popular opinion accredits those people with being price proof if anyone is exempt from such shocks. __ But the lady from the South did

not by any means rob the city of its highest-priced footgear, according to representatives df fasifiauable bootmakers. For instance, any indulgent usband may pay $75 for his wife’s simple black evening slippers with rlnnestona heels to twinkle In the dance and trample on the heart of man. But it is not necessary to pay so much even for elaborate footwear. A nice, quiet pair o boots for a windy day may be had for $45. The vamps of these shoes are o purple-blue metallic kid and the tops are light green, embroidered with dull! red flowers. Then there is a pink kid short-vamp shoe, with the top embroidered in gold, which is only $45. Having one’s boots made with short vamps makes them more expensive because the model is -French and American bootmakers find difficulty in copying it. For this reason a great many women are “going in ’ for the S" o */- vamps nowadays. It costs real money for society women to be well shod. According to a well-known bootmaker, the average woman has a pair of shoes for every dress she wears, some customers buying as many as 100 pairs a, y ea *i “Our customers order from six to eight pairs of shoes at a time, said the bootmaker,-“at an average price of S4O per pair. Of course, simple sports boots, and evening slippers made from customer’s own material cost ess. Prices are going up every day. The only thing for the women to do if they want their footwear to be less expensive is to have their skirts so long they can wear pumps or low shoes.” ■-

Boston Post Office Uncle Sam Does Not Own BOSTON. —When sailor boys strike Boston, the first place they lay a course for, after they get shore leave, is a little post office, as it were, in Water street, Charlestown, which is not under federal jurisdiction. The post office consists of a wooden case, with a glass

door about four inches deep and about 25 or 30 inches inits other dimensions. It is fastened on the wall of the game room, on the second floor of the Sailors’ Haven. Over it presides Miss Helen Hunt, the matron of that genuine home, which serves the purpose of keeping young British apprentices and others not so young off the street corners and all that goes with them, and furnishes a lounging place for them in

their “hours of ease.” This post office, of which the glass door is padlocked, seldom contains more than 30 or 35 letters at a time. There isn t room to arrange more than that on display. Then they’re gathered up by the consignees Just about as fast as they're arranged. But sometimes, so great apparently is the world-wide faith In the depot for letters, and so great is a boy’s .habit of not going just exactly where ho announced, letters are not called for. So, stretching back, in instances for a couple of years, many letters have been docketed and stowed away by Miss HUn The docketing isn’t really necessary, for years of practice and acquired familiarity with the characteristics— epistolary and otherwise—of her “boys" has made Miss Hunt able to track much-wanted letters at a moment’s notice. Her great big-heart helps, as well as her head, in thifk— —— The eyes of a philatelist would be interested in a glance at this case on the wall. Tiie letters bear stamps from as far away as India and Australia and New Zealand. Now and then is one right from the front, “somewhere. There will be many bearing that unromantie libel “opened by the censor.” And these are not all addressed in the hard-to-decipher German script. Some have English postmarks.

Convict at Columbus Makes Rubber and Dyes xv OLUMBUS;TJ.—With - a" laboratory,r which hehas stf-up— V on his desk in the penitentiary library, Dr. Emerich W. Ritter, formerly a Cleveland chemist, claims he is extracting rubber, tannin and a red dye

from the bark of the chu tung tree, grown in China. ___ The department of agriculture is assisting hitn -hr- his experiments,—he says. —It shipped him five pounds of the bark, the first ever sent to tills country, after Doctor Ritter says he pointed out to the department that the bark contained rubber. The mnn.who startled the country on his arrival at the penitentiary last year by his Lpventions of “liquid fire”

and aniline dyes, declares that not ■ .... . only has he extracted a rubber of remarkable resiliency from the bark, but tannin, used in the tanning industry, and a dye the exact color T>f the djo used in the two-cent .‘stamp. „ . From a pound of the bark Doctor Ritter says he obtains two ounces of crude rubbed four and one-half ounces of tannin and three-fourths of an , OUnC Doctor°Rme S r say The was first attracted to the possibilities of the chu tung bark while in China 15 years ago as a member of the Germany navy. A great flood of the Jan-Toche-Kiang and Pei-Ho rivers, in whose va eys the trees grow, destroyed thousands of them and he noted then the resiliency of the bark ' *■

Little “T. R.,” Chicago Coon, Causes Spook Scare

CHICAGO— Recently servants in the big homes along Sherlrfan road in the C neighborhood of Diversey parkway began to whisper strange each other concerning the home of Luther F. Friestedt. They said it contalned ft other concerning um -spook.” Mr. Friestedt didn’t hear

anything about it until some days later. Then one of his own servants canje to him with a hair-raising tale about some mysterious noises amt inoanings that came from the walls in various parts of the house. “Nonsense,” replied Mr. Friestedt. Then a night pr two later, Just around dinnertime, Mr. Friestedt heard a terrible .clatter in the kitchen. Before he could get up from his chair all the servants in the place had de-

serted the kitchen and were fleeing in panic toward the front of the house, “’Smatter?” demanded Mr. Friestedt. “Spooks,” was the reply. “We heard him walking along between the walls and then get up between the celling and the floor. All of a suddint he gave a moaning squawk and that was too much.” “Let’s see about! ILl’ said Mr. Friestedt, as he led everybody down Into the basement. He opened the door of the fruit cellar. And sitting among a lot of overturned jars with its face all smeared, with jam was a baby \ ■ -L. o ,'• ■ .* -x. ' And Mr Friestedt got the surprise of his life when he went to capture it. The raccoon fought all the servants and the master of the house to a sthn(> still for an hour and a half. < t Mr Friestedt called up Cy De Vry to make him a presen.of it “Huh, that’s We T. R.’ that got away last week, said Oy.