Life — January 20, 1898 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

An Economical Bonnet. Te from one to ten feet of wi of any kind and of any thickn and twist it carcfully into any shape that man has never scen before. If it fits the head, try again till you meet with better success. Having got your wire into the desired shape, go to your scrap-drawer and therefrom such a collection of rib- lace, flowers, feathers, beads, birds, buckles and beetles (artificial, of course) as you think can be gracefully attached to the wire-form without producing any- thing that’s like anything that either man or woman has ever seen before. Now sit down with a needle and thread and seven papers of pins. But before beginning with the actual con- struction of your bonnet, it is best to decide carefully which is to be the front and which the b and to make a faint mark to indicate this on the edge of the wire. This accomplished, also come as near deciding as the difficulties of the case will allow, which side of the wire contrivance it will best become your par- ticular style of beauty to wear up and yhich down. All is now ready for the lining or covering of your wire-frame. In beginning the delicate operation of trimming it is well to start with some popular flower of the day, and work it in as much upside down and stem out as circumstances will permit. Ribbons, if used at all, should be of various col- ors, and should be stuck gracefully on in little bows and rosettes just wherever a rational mind would find it utterly impossible to expect them to stick. Beads, I may mention here, are scarcely in good style, unless you happen to be a dowager and they rattle sufficiently ; in which case their number will depend, of course, entirely upon the amount of rattle and the extent of your dowager- nes: The use of birds’ wings, etc., must depend entirely upon what Prevention- of-Cruelty-to-Animals-Socicties you hap- pen to belong to, combined with the de- gree of logicalness to which you have succeeded in reducing your mind, In- deed, if you have attended carefully enough to this latter item, there is no earthly reason why you shouldn't enjoy both your society and the birds’ wings. Feathers are alw: in order un bon- nets—preferably ostrich feathers, if you are fond of the matinée. They should be carefully selected without re- gard to any other portion of the bonnet whatsoever, and, seeing that the times are hard and you are constructing that useful article yourself, may fairly well cost anything from twice to six times the price of an ordinary bonnet. The only other point to bear in mind in constructing your bonnet is to be sure you have it turn out ultimately of such a shape, form and size, that to tell how you're ever going to keep it on your head would puzzle a committee composed of a bareback rider and an Alpine climber. Your bonnet once con- structed, the only thing that remains is to show it in triumph to your poor, hard- driven husband, and explain to him the enormous sum it has saved him. Plenty of Time. “V EEKS isa gentle- man of leisure, isn't he?” “He must be. He told mé onc day that he made ita point never to interrupt his wife.” HONY COM- is to be congrat- ulated on having areputation that is beyond the reach of calumny. Dr. Montague R. Leverson called Mr, Comstock a notorious blackmailer, Mr. Comstock sued him and gota verdict for six cents, That. was equivalent to an opinion that it doesn’t do Mr Com- stock any harm to call him names, AUCTION TERM, “A VERY HIGH BID.”