Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1887 — FOR THE LADIES. [ARTICLE]

FOR THE LADIES.

Ills Little Friend. Speaking of the devotion of women and their fondness sor 1 correspondence, a good story is told of “Timothy Trim,” not long ago one of the most popular writers in France. He was on the staff of the Petit Journal and his name was Les For an entire year M. I.espes had received a weekly epistle from an unknown female in Eastern France. Her letters had at first expressed the respectful attachment of a reader of his articles, then the birth of a genuine affection, and finally the development of an uncontrollable passion. At the beginning they were signed “A Friend,” then “Your Friend,'’ and subsequently “ Your Little Friend.” His associates, noticing how carefully he pressed the weekly missive to his lips, began to jest with him regarding the writer. He th’en privatelj’ loaned the correspondence to his brethren of the pen, and it even found its way to the offices pf other journals. One day the “Little Friend” announced that she was about to come to Paris and would pay a visit to her heart’s idol. “Timothy” spent more than usual care on his toilet that morning. and sure enough, during the course of the day a lady was announced by the office boy. “Show her in,” was the reply of the too-procrastinating consumer of ink and ““T Trim’s friend's—among whom was the famous Tony Pavilion—were about to discreetly retire, when a fretful voice exclaimed: “At last I shall see him, embrace him, and die.” With these words there burst into the room with the suddenness of a cyclone a female of five feet six, with pepper and salt hair, a nose like unto the beak of a crow, an enormous mouth in which there were only three teeth left, and generally as unattractive as a stone fence. She bent over and took the journalist in her arms, not at all abashed by the presence of spectators. “You see,” she went on When she got her second wind, “I have come without reservation, without making conditions. I came on the excursion train from Nancy and threw myself on your honor.” To “Timothy’s” credit be it said this touching appeal was not made in vain. —Paris Letter. A Woman's Weakness. A high official of the government was in a communicative mood. He -sat, tipped back in his comfortable office chair, and said to a Boston Traveller correspondent: “I have made a discovery that is worth millions to bashful men. You know there are some fellows who never can go into ladies’ company without being embarrassed, but I have found out something that will make a bashful man the equal of the most self-concious woman that ever lived. Now let me tell you my secret. < started out on the broad, general platform that a woman is more sensitive about her feet than anything else. Having settled that in my mind, I began a series of experiments. The horse-eaT is my favorite place. I love to see a queenly woman get into the car and set down with the air of krrowirrg-that-she-is-the, best-dressed lady present. In an apparently unconcerned way I attract her attention by looking steadily at her feet, with an occasional glance at her face, of course I avoidthll appearance of impertinence. I assume the air of a m m who sees something that interests him. No matter how calm the victim is when she entered the car, inside of five minutes she will be so nervous that she will fairly ache to get to her destination. She may have the handsomest foot in the world, and know that it is incased in a nicelyfitting shoe, but she will wilt all the same. It is a woman's weakness. I have tried it on young girls of 16 and old women of 80—the result is the same. Archilles was vulnerable only in his heel, but you can’t look steadily at a woman’s little toe for two consecutive minutes without making her feel as though she would like to murder you.” An Exctianse. * A young doctor of laws and a lady of rank, who "verb not known at the time to be engaged to be married, met one evening at a numerous and briHiant party given by the commandant of the town. The lady, young and beautiful, wore, as was then the fashion, a beauty patch on her upper lip, neat the right corner ot her mouth. It so happened, in the course of the evening, that the company went out of the room, leaving the doctor and the lady above mentioned alone together. When the. company returned they found to their surprise that the doctor now bad the black patch on his face, i. e., on the upper lip. but toward the left corner of the mouth. Their Numbers Lesion. What a surprising number of women there are who write or wish to write just because they think it is a nice and interesting thing to do. Every woman who-writes for the daily or for the book press is besieged with applications for advice on the subject. Most women wish to begin by writing book reviews. A chance to write a notice of a book now and thenJs sometimes, but rarely, the steppinjfstone to definite literary or journalistic work, ft takes more patience to handle a pen for one’s living, or successfully, for sake of literary art alone, than for almost any other occupation now open for women.— Exchange. —-* Fashion Note*. ; They call those gauzy-beaded things “wrappings” now—not wraps. •

There can no longer be any doubt about it—bright yellow is decidedly a fashionable color. Something new and very stylish are the tailor made suits of white wool variously trimmed. 1 Let all who have pierced ears listen —the long, pendant earrings have come into fashion again. Along the conservative line one hears now that it is very vulgar to wear diamonds in the street. Women all along the Vanity Fair line, without regard to age, appear to have put on the infant waist. Children no longer monopolize white Leghorn hats, for Flora McFlimsey has adopted the headgear, too. A rather conspicuous ornament is the so-called cardinal’s ring some leaders of fashion have adopted. Milliners say the English turban hat—which Wilkie Collins’ heroines always wear—is coming back again. Nothing prettier than the imported French bonnets has ever been seen on the heads of our American women. Ye stately dames appear at weddings now in the old-fashioned watered silk gowns, ever elegant and impressive. The sailor hat for maidens is as popular as last year, but has been somewhat remodeled so that the brim is narrower. China silk as a material for summer dresses finds a deal of favor this season, and has been pronounced both “cool and soothing.”— New York Mail.

What Women Want to Know. Steel knives and forks are best cleaned with finely-powdered bath brick. Asparagus boilers, with loose-fitting bottoms, enable you to lift and dish the asparagus without breaking. A tin half-pint measure with a funnel spout, we find, enables us to make mayonnaise in half the usual time. Small culinary rollers are more convenient than a rolling-pin for making tarts, cheese straws, cheese fingers or other light pastries. A graduated quart measure, marked on the outside, is convenient and more accurate than the ordinary way of measuring in kitchen cups. Boards of various sizes should be kept in canvenient places—one for bread, one for meat, another for cutting, and two or three smaller ones on which to stand pots and kettles. Small, easily turned ice-cream freezers are a perfect joy to the housekeeper. , Frozen desserts are always acceptable, and are quickly and easily made? With a Crown ice-shaver sufficient ice may ‘be powdered in three minutes to freeze six quarts of icecream. We have at last got rid of the ice-bag and mallet. One who knows says that a beautiful complexion transforms the homeliest features, diffusing the witchery of its beauty over its entire face, although notably enhancing the expression of the mouth and eyes. The foes to a clear, ruddy, smooth complexion, though manifold, may usually be classed under the following heads: First, overeating and lack of out-door and other exercise; second, insufficient friction of the neck and face with deep rubbing and massage; third, the too general use of cosmetics and face powders; fourth, an improper use of soap and water. The faded, tawny complexion of the average American woman at an age when health should be at a height and, consequently, color —color suggestive of the delicate pink of deep-sea shells—is a lamentable fact, and may be largely accounted for by intemperance at the table. If, day after day, more food is taken into the stomach than the bodily organs cdn readily assimilate the residue accumulates in such quantities as to overburden the organs which eliminate the waste matter from the system. A fine complexion, such as nature delights to bestow on those who honor her laws, means denying the appetite, and duly choosing that it is wiser to “eat to live than to live to eat.” • , V tioFHlp About Ladies. Lots of ugly girls, it is said, wear a nutmeg round their necks as a cnarm against malaria. Mrs. James T.. Fields possesses a collection of autographs which are' worth the Koh-i-noor diamond. Louise Alcott has a weakness for the society -of young, girls. She makes studies of them, and puts them in her books. The Bombay Gazette has broken the ice by employing sixteen Anglo-In-dian girls as compositors and a woman as proof-reader. Josie Franklin and Victoria Byrnes, two American girls. have been licensed as telegraph operators at San Luis Potosi—the first in Mexico. Prince Bismarck’s wife was present at a performance of “Patience” in Berlin. She is a good woman, of simple tastes and dress, not fond of fashionable society. __ If Australian papers are to believed, Sir John Lubbock, has libeled the Australian women in declaring that •‘kissing is unknown to Australians, New Zealanders, Papuans, Esquimaux, and other races.” If Sir John (says oncpaper-Uwere..,Qhly a Sidney Lan-I ceah, what a widely different opinion 1 he would hold! Miss Laura A. Smith*is publishing in the London Shipping World a series of papers entitled “The Music of the Waters," designed to illustrate the songs sung by sailors' in all parts of the globe. Miss Smith has collected a variety of old “chanties,"English, French, Norwegian, and Danish, and has also gathered specimens of the vocal attainments of boatmen, in many cases writing down the words from the lips of old salts, and committing torn uslcal notation the quaint airs to which they allied.