Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1894 — HARD TIMES IN SOCIETY. [ARTICLE]

HARD TIMES IN SOCIETY.

A Washington society woman is reported as having responded to an

invitation to a swell reception with the intimation that she would have to wear on old brocade if she attends ed, and that if her society was not desired on that account the hostess was given the liberty to withdraw the invitation. The s. w. stated that her husband still had plenty of property, but owing to the hard times no rea ly mosey to expen d on expensiveanddecollette gowns. This state of affairs will not cause a great wave of popular sympathy to roll in upon the Federal District, and it is not probable that a popular subscription will be raised to buy the aristocratic matron a new party dress. Society people have a very dim and illy defined idea of hard times, as is evidenced by this circumstance. The questionable brocade which wa3 deemed of such doubtful usefulness on the great occasion and which caused its owner so much unhappiness was probably a dress that cost as much as a good town lot in an average Indiana town, ail mny worthy wives anl tho hard-working women’ of all the. rural regions would deem themselves of the favored ones of earth could they even have such a garment once in their lifetime. Happiness is the absence of unsatisfied wants, and misery is the continued presence of unsatisfied desires. Both may be found in full blown pjrfection in every grade and condition of life, and their absence or presence is largely due to individual predilections rather than to remote causes over which mankind individually has but little control.