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Show ' SHOP TALK BY AMY ARMSTRONG H , "MtHE story scheduled for this week, this page, was on the sub- H m j ject of what the shops have to offer in the way of pretties H, ry for garden parties, out-of-door entertainments for the H summer brides or preliminary maneuvers of the fall cam- H paigns, week-end houseparties at summer homes up the canyons ; that H is to say special favors appropriate for place cards and lawn table H settings, dainty gifts to tempt the bridge players through an after- B noon- of strenuous thinking on the veranda, and decorations for the B tables and porches for such affairs. It was the intention to wind up M with a few remarks anent the foibles of human nature called to mind m by a conversation with the head of a department in one ot the stores H on the constant and unabating demand for ouija boards with a sug- m gestion as to their adaptability for amusing guests afflicted with sum- B ' mer ennui. Hj Much against principal as it is to admit having got (do the gram- H marians admit "have got" now) a hunch from a man, since a writer B is supposed to be non-partisan however loyal she may feel toward her H own sex, full credit is herewith given. The hunch broadened the sub- H ject considerably. I was sitting at the ball game one day revolving H the different angles of it during a slump in the batting average of my H favorite home-run hitter, when the gentleman on my right remarked H to the friend to whom he was knocking the home team please get Hj the subtle sarcasm in the combination "If there is anything I do hate H it is to see a woman with a fur around her neck in the summer. If H it were fashionable for a woman to carry around a hot brick in her H. hand or an oil stove in August, she would do it." And he had on a H bright red tie and purple socks, but never mind. H Then when I saw next day in one H of the stores a taupe fox set, the muff H, priced at $89.50, the scarf in propor- H tion, the incongruity of a hostess H keeping awake nights before a party H trying to figure out how she shall H make her guests comfortable and cool H and then having them arrive with hun- H dred dollar furs around their muffled H throats, the combination tickled my Hf risibles and I thought we might as H well all have a laugh, even though it H'l be at our own expense. Before plck- J ing up the cards of the 'first subject H! mentioned, let us have a few words, H! brethren, on the small matter of the H'f taupe fur set. It is being shown in Hf one of the local ops with various H and sundry others, all of which are H very much in vogue, and we say H' brethren because it really is a matter H of religion. A woman, if she be a H 'truly feminine woman, looks at it with H awe and holds it sacred, for it is the M prettiest bit of wearing apparel on -the m tapis. It is just that soft, alluring, ' fascinating tone between a brown and B' a gray, and it isn't the price that H makes one think it all this and more, M either. The fur is the kind in which H you want to bury your hands or your m cheeks and in which your heart buries M itself whether you will or no. There m 1 are other sets not quite so expensive, H , and while the muffs are not being H worn so much as the scarfs just at H the moment, with the first days of fall M tho sets are what the street dresses M will demand. H ! We seem to have slipped away from B the garden parties and to have in a H measure put the cart before the horse. H That's one trouble with humanity, H J'v looking forward to the future and for- Hlj getting the good things of the present, 1 so perhaps we may be excused. The stores are showing the daintiest imaginable imag-inable place cards and table favors for garden parties. They are mostly made up in designs of flowers or fruits and these are combined, when intended for special occasions, such as bridal affairs, with cupids and hearts and such like. To match the place cards come tiny nut baskets in the 'uape of baskets of flowers or fruits and even, In some of the stores, there are entire sets of some single design, including luncheon cloth and napkins, even small doilies, 'or perhaps per-haps entire sets of the latter in place of the larger luncheon cloth. The careful care-ful hostess pays attention to all of the smallest details and that is what makes the really smart affair in place of the hit-or-miss entertainment where everybody is bored to death. It is not necessary, either, to expend large sums of money in order to have a party which is perfect in every detail and entirely in keeping with the season. sea-son. The cards come as low as 10 cents a dozen ,and up to perhaps a dollar. The nut baskets are 15 cents to 40 and 50 cents. There are tiny artificial rose bushes in small vases for favors and other similar and appropriate ap-propriate articles. Pretty favors for a bride luncheon on the lawn or for a birthday celebration are tall silver vases designed for a single rose and into which a living bud can be placed, one at each guest's plate, with splendidly splen-didly beautiful effect. The vases run in various prices according to quality, qual-ity, but even the less expensive ones make nice keepsakes. If you are having a house party over the week-end you can find clever little contrivances for amusing guests some, too, which require no mental effort, but which create lots of fun. I saw in one of the stores some of the old-fashioned snappers which go off with a pop and which contain dunce caps and other appropriate (?) foolishnesses, foolish-nesses, made up in such forms as cucumbers, cu-cumbers, carrots and other covers suggestive sug-gestive of summer, there were pea-nuls, pea-nuls, too, and all these would make a supper table on the veranda or lawn a bright spot and an attractive one. They run about 5 cents each, or two for 5 cents. And speaking of entertaining guests when it is much too hot to suggest anything that requires action or mental men-tal strain, brings us to tho subject of the ouija board. For my own part I thought it had long been forgotten and relegated to the land of the worn-out amusements, but I find that I am much in the wrong. Not only that, but some folks do not even consider it an amusement, but a prophet of the future in which much faith is to be placed. A man who sells these articles arti-cles of It's pretty hard to decide in which class they belong, but I think they are kept in the house furnishing, tells me that he has a constant demand de-mand for them and that only recently he had to put in another order for a Christmas stock because what he had counted on for the holiday sale was already exhausted. He says that peo-plt peo-plt buy them not only for amusement, but that many who contemplate purchasing pur-chasing want to know all the properties proper-ties of these haunted bits of board on which the spirits tap knowingly and insist upon a preliminary trial before be-fore putting up the money. Tho salesman sales-man has become an expert ouijiast, and has no trouble in convincing and showing possibilities. Thus are we still the eternal gullible, as we have been since the days of Adam. But to take the boards seriously, even we who from our highbrow eminence smile down upon the weakneses of others, find that there is a -heap of sport to be had from them when a jolly crowd is gathered for an evening's even-ing's pleasure. But since life cannot be all a play time, the few remaining lines must be devoted to some facts regarding more serious things.. The head of one of our exclusive shops was telling me during the week that all of the skirts seem to be longer even now, with a promise of being still longer before tho fall season opens. Friends of hers returning to the coast from f New York say that there the best dressed women are wearing ankle J lengths. This has been a much mooted moot-ed question all during the summer, but not a great deal of change was noted in the styles of the moment. Skirt length is one of the most important im-portant details about a costume and a few inches one way or another makes all the disparity between a "coutnry looking" person and a smart Fifth avenue model. Yet women have been loath to believe that they must go back to the old longer garments for many reasons. They are far and away less comfortable and at the same time less sanitary. They make a woman wo-man look years older and are the ruination of good looking shoes. But the chances appear to be very slim for the comfortable short skirt with the appearance of the first fall models. Perhaps it is because of this that there is not a single showing of new fall styles in shoes, or perhaps it is just because the white ones and high ivory ones look so well with the pretty pret-ty dresses that there is yet no need for a change. By August anyway, as a rule women are beginning to wonder won-der what they will get to replace their white shoes and summer pumps, 'but they will have to keep on wondering wonder-ing for a while yet, so it seems. The dark bdue street frocks in taffeta, Georgette and combinations of both, with white shoes and a touch of white about tho neck with -white gloves and a becoming hat is still the best costume cos-tume for the street a woman can have. It has been years since so few lingerie dresses anjd pretty white gowns or even lawns, organdies and such fabrics have been worn, but one sees them on the streets most infrequently. infre-quently. The blue is coming to be almost a uniform or the much talked of American dress for women, one style for all which has been so often discussed, but which dias never yet beenable to hold its own against the whims of individual taste and the makers of styles. These dresses, too, call for collars and cuffs for contrasting effects and a very pretty conceit in one of the stores just now is of white flannel. One set comes with small circular collar col-lar and rather anrrow cuffs, picot edged and with one stitching of black, another is a single collar and is of the very wide, cape effect. These are delightfully lovely with a dark blue frock of taffeta or of the thinner Georgette. By next week there will probably be some authentic forecast for fall. The stocks in all of the shops are getting get-ting low and buyers are beginning to take preliminary trips east to look about and get a line-up on what they will want to purchase for their customers cus-tomers later on. |