Show t DOINGS OF WOMEN Fresh Manifestations of the Ewig Weibliche THESE FIN DE SIECLE DAYS Miss Florence Balgarnie An International Novel 3Ien Buy Books but A omen Purchase China NEW YORK Feb lS91rSpecial correspondence respondence of THE HERALD Tho evolu tion of the art of advertising is something I I curious and interesting Particularly is this the case when it is in a womans fertile brain > that it evolves The other day there was a dressmaking establishment opened on a fashionable thoroughfare The statement state-ment is prose but an epic of advertising follows I The dressmaker hired theatre she set it with palms and flowers she engaged an orchestra and sho sent out tickets for a matinee She got an audience so big that standing room only might have been posted if only there had been standing room Then to the strains of I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls she posed against pasteboard pillars and under portieres and let the women spectators dream they too wore loves of frocks and chained vassals and serfs at their sides Her methods revealed study of feminine nature and an appreciation of the taste for realism She rode a livo horse upon the stage to show a riding habit had herself lifted off by a devoted attendant and stood skirts in hand feeding the pretty animal sugar andsetting forth her prices Sho had baskets of flowers passed up to her over the footlights and she fingered the cards attached to the handles and i I studied them visibly and smiled at the audience and said it was a womans curiosity curi-osity She went shopping for her spectators and she paid calls and drank tea and gave receptions re-ceptions and finally she said she would place a 5 frock by the side of one costing 55000 then she came forward in ball room gorgeousness leading by the hand a wee tot of a girl The audience looked from the satin and lace and jewels to the curlyhead ed mite inpink two passions were satisfied in the same glance and they split their gloves clapping their hands Then she said her little daughter would entertain the ladies and tho child scraped some wavering waver-ing strains on a small ribbontied violin The women dissolved in tender raptures and felt as If they had seen Little Lord Fauntleroy and Mrs Langtry on a joint starring tour Such a dressmaker is almost tip to losing jewels or quarreling with her husbandor stopping a runaway horse or eloping or even refusing to wear tights all for the good of business These fin de stecle days are interesting inter-esting MISS FLORENCE BALGABNIE I spentapleasanthour the other day with Miss Florence Balgarnie who has been in attendance on the sessions of the Womans National Council at Washington as the delegate del-egate of the Womens Liberal Federation of England of which Mrs Gladstone is president Miss Balgarnie is a vigorous rosycheeked brighteyed Englishwoman with a simple unaffected cordiality of speech and manner and a merry contagious smile She pushes her brown hair off her forehead in soft pompadour rolls and she looks straight at you and she talks with frankness and vitality Miss Balgarnie is at the head of the organized movement for woman suffrage in England and she is the bearer of addresses Y of congratulation from various English r womens associations to the women of Wyoming on their possession of the ballot under the state constitution She says woman suffrage will make no progress in Great Britain until Parliament has a breathing spell in that day not apparently close at hand when we have got home rule for Ireland She thinks women reporters are multiply jug so rapidly in London that it has almost ceased to be legitimate for a foreigner to express surprise at being interviewed in this country by a woman Like every true daughter of Britain who ever crossed the Atlantic ferry she feels as if plunged into a Turkish bath in your hot American houses but unlike most Britons she finds American women not only more vivacious than their cousins but on an average as clear of skin and as strong and healthy looking SHE WOULD GIVE ONE DOLLAR I heard a little story the other day which was said to illustrate a difference between men and women j of that be you the judges There was delivered over to the tender mercies of a fine browneyed customs in spectress a woman suspected of smuggling on whose person indeed examination brought to light silk enough for a dress or two and no one will ever know why she thought it necessary to conceal these300 in gold pieces The culprit was overwhelmed over-whelmed with mortification I You wont expose me she begged you wont give my name The inspectress folded up the silk and said nothing For the love of heaven you wont let it go into the papers 1 The Inspeotress did not answer I beseech you I implore you hero she cast herself upon the neck of the inspec tress be merciful I will give you anything any-thing you ask Ill give you all I have on earth Ill give you a dollar lAnd l-And where does the man come inl Oh nowhere except that in the opiqion of the inspectress a man affected to such anguish would have offered the 300 It is a more difficult matter for a woman to conceal anything about her than it was in the days of the late lamented bustle here one is tempted to allude to the hoop skirt rumorand this has lightened greatly the labors of the inspectresseswho are now only searchers of the person yet as they stand at the gang plank watching passengers come ashore there chances now and then to one of them something of interest Have you smuggled anything asked a bright eyed excitable little creature bundled up In furs of the woman who stood next to her on the dock the other morning NoWellI Well I have and I do wish I were out of here A little pauso andthen What is iU Its just the loveliestlace wrap that ever was and I cant keep my eyes off it a single minute I am so afraid somebody will get hold of it You mean an inspector Yes Its in that gentlemans trunk over there done up in his steamer blankets I do so hope I shall get it through Well I am sorry you told me about it forWhat What A start a throwing up of the hands and then Youre nothave I been talking tooneof those dreadful creatures And the wrap paid dutyhysterically AN INTERNATIONAL NOVEL In the novel which Rhoda Broughton and I Miss Elizabeth Bisland have finished in partnership Miss Bislands main contribution contribu-tion so says a lady just over from London has been the touches calculated to give verisimilitude to the picture of a bright and interesting American girl who figures as one of the characters Miss Broughton could have done worse than sketch Miss Bisland IT DAS A FIN DE SIECLl FLAVOR I was chatting a few days ago with the soprano of the choir of a large Catholic church The salaries of the singers I learned cover the services but for singing at funerals there is extra compensation This foggy winter has done a good many to death and funeral come has been telegraphed tele-graphed so frequently that soprano and contralto in the growing pride of their pocketbooks entered into a little agreement to meet whenever the receipts for the week exceeded a certain figure for appropriate relaxation Saturday afternoons Outof this arrangement have come visits to most of tho plays of the season lunches at the noted restaurants a course of Dolsartcf lectures some experiments in beauty euU ture at the Turkish baths and much careful consumption of candy These are whatone may call feminine fin de sicclc revels in the9 fruits of mortality These young womens Easter bonnets are tobe chosen out of their funeral money MRS HENRY WARD BEECHER A few days ago I happened to see a pretty picture a woman with soft white hair tucked under a lace cap was standing on her door step her slight figure thrown into relief against tall flamecolored lilies blossoming blos-soming the winnow Over Her shoulders was thrown a fleecy white wrap rifn with pink ribbons There was a pink fluahin her cheeks as she entered Into the prosaic task of dismissing a book agent or subscription subscript-ion man Funk Wagnalls have asked Mrs Beecher to edit some of the sheets of their Standard Dictionary now in coupe of preparation The words relating to woman her dress occupations Industries and tho like were to pass under her view but I be Hove Mrs Beecher has declined the proposition propo-sition Her friends have not yet done smiling over a wild tale recently published to the 4 effect that she was and had been for year partially paralyzed MEN BID ON BOOKS WOMEN ON FURNITURE There are certain fascinating places where we gather these foggy afternoons to I yearn over antique Kazak and Kermanand Ouchak rugs or fondle the curves cf > Pyscbe mirrors and gilt bouquet tables and cupid brackets to eat our hearts out with longings for Chippendale chairs and empire couches decorated with swans and laurel leaves and to soil our gloves with pointing 7 the fingers at old Dresden plates and old Sevres cups and saucers but I noticed that wethose of us who are womendont bid on books very extensively Having haunted auction sales in the art collection season at such expense of time though little of cash now these several years I feel moved to say with confidence that my sax has quick eyes for a fan or a candlestick or a bit of old blue and white but it wont buy engravings and when luo auctioneer gets down to books leaves tile room At sales of books only there are present few if any women And yet it is popularly supposed that woman reads I have a notion that the itching of the fingers to grasp and to keep a book is not especially common with women A book always excepting a table book hardly ranks as material for decorative use and so a woman reads it studies it evenbut is quite content to send it back to the circulating circu-lating library For her money she wants a cloissonne plaque or a lamp that can be pet ticoated I am often surprised in the homes of cultivated even of literary women at the meagre display of the bookshelves How many women in the country have accumulated ac-cumulated large libraries 1 lIltS LOUISE BENSON Lent multiplies the classes in Current Topics which divide favor latterly with Ibsen and Dante One of the most interesting interest-ing is taught by Mrs Louise Benson oj Syracuse which has been obliged to foe = sake tho drawing rooms in which it started for a goodsized hall Mrs Benson is a darkhaired handsome womano mucb personal per-sonal magnetism whose clearcut style and brilliant wit fully explain her successes CANDLESTICKS Wasnt I saying something a minute ago about buying candlesticks The candlestick candle-stick to buy just atpresent is an old Japanese Japan-ese piece in bronze with a spike on which you impale your candle You dont thrust it down on this antique bayonet point too heavily but lot the major part of the spikes show to get the full benefit of the nusualJ ness Next to this tho most desirable candlesticks can-dlesticks going are old threebranched I Danish pieces which are called three king candles II because they were used on the 6th of January to celebrate the Mugls visit to the infant Jesus ELIZABETH DUSTIN |