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LOVELY WOMAN ON THE WING.
A New York Correspondent Unveils the
Mysteries of the Ladies’ Waiting-Room
Sy M. 8.
I'owhere in this wide world, per
hops, does the flotsam and jetsam of
human femininity ebb and flow in such
a ceaseless tide as in the Grand Cen
tral station, New York. And if you
cherish any a priori concept of a con
sistent type of lovely wpmen here is
the place where you descend beneath
the waters of disillusion to come up
washed and made clean.
Death as a leveler is-a hide-bound
blue code as compared with the five
minutes-before-train-time revelations
of the ladies’ dressing-rcom.
Whatever is selfish or unselfish in
human nature, this hustling for
trains, elbowing your neighbor out
of your way, crowding into the line
out of your turn at the Pullman
window, brings to the front in a wo
man’s manner more than in a man’s,
because a woman loses her self-con
trol when she travels. She is always
nervous and excited for no more
specific reason than that she is catch
ing trains and has to run on schedule
time. She may have an hour and a
half to wait before her train is called
and knows that this is so by the big
clock in the waiting-room, but she
wears a hurried, harassed look and
breathes in short chest breaths for
fear she is going to miss it. Now a
man will look at his watch, set it
by the railroad time and—Dbut that’s
another story.
In the outside general waiting
room a woman may sit and @ppear
to possess her soul in patience, but
within the sacred precincts of the
dressing-room she keeps the Record
ing Angel busy. A woman can not
spend five minutes here without un
lacing her innermost character.
In this bustling crowd nobody
knows anybody else, so it is just her
bed rock nature that comes out, her
manners after twenty centuries of
civilization being still so thin a ve
neer that the least bit of elbowing
jostles all courtesy out of the reckon
ing.
It was a long weary wait we had
settled down to, but when the five
hours were over we were as much
sadder and wiser about our sex as a
lifetime of casual fdintercourse would
have left us. .
The curtain on this scene of disil
lusion was raised on the six-o’clock
ers. These women were, on the
whole, a well-dressed, interesting
“looking lot, out-of-town shoppers for
the most part who had spent the day
struggling over bargain counters,
dressmakers and the supercilious
““saleslady.” All were tired to the
bone, of course, some keeping their
own counsel, but many frankly gar
rulous over their trials during the
day. /
Each woman as she entered the
dressing-room paused a fraction of a
second to locate the mirror, and thir
ty-seven of the first thirty-eight wo
men who entered made straight for
it. Now the waves of disillusion be
gin to roll over you.
The soul of a woman shines
through the way she does two things:
says her prayers and ‘‘does” ' her
hair., There were a home-going few
who seemed satisfied when they as
certained the iact that their hats were
straight—which meant being very
much awry—readjusted a refractory
lock of hair, gave a pat to a collar
and a jab to a tie or a jerk to a belt.
Next were those just coming into
the city. Here comes a woman who
walks up to the mirror, puts her
foot on a chair—the lower rung
thereof—and takes from her stock
ing a powder-rag. Glancing furtively
at her fellow-travelers to see if they
are looking, she dabs the rag at her
nose and each cheek, rubs it down
hastily, readjusts her veil and, with
a satisfied though somewhat apolo
getic air, turns away and is lost in the
crowd.
An increasing boldness as to type,
we notice, runs through these vary
ing degrees of ‘“making up.” The
next woman is younger than her pre
decessor, and to her the travel-traces
are more objectionable. She is bet
ter dressed, her hat tilts at a more
aggressive angle, and her manner is
more asSured. In a “it's-none-of
your-business”” manner she walks up
to the mirror and lays down her um
bredla and porte-monnaie. There is
a swish of silk linings, a glimpse of
open-work lisle thread, a French
heeled foot, and with due delibera
tion this fair bird of passage assorts
the stores in her stocking. These
are a few banknotes, the inevitable
powder rag, a tiny comb, a pate-brun
pencil, and a bit of a rouge sponge.
She takes off her hat and veil, hands
them to the white-aproned maid in
attendance, fnd into the serious busi
ness of over-lay she plunges. She
has come from Bridgeport and is on
her way to Chicago. What does she
care who watches her? With careful
forethought she dampens her fingers
with her tongue and massages cheeks
and nose just enough to give the
powder a fair hold. Then on goes the
powder in generous dabs. Now quick
with the rouge! Coolly enough she
went at it when it was only powder
she was applying, but what woman
ever possessed the courage of her
convictions to the extent of confess
edly using rouge? One cheek gets
a trifle rosier than the other and
there is a bit of a splotch on the
lower lip—the light is not good in her
corner, 8o she does not see it. Grab
bing her hat and veil, thhe ceremony
o? adjusting, readjusting, jabbing
bat-pins, and tying her vef! is gone
through with absorbing interest. The
reflection in the mirror gives back a
rosier, brighter face as she nods ap
provingly toward it, but the improve
ment, although she does not guess
it, is not the artificial color, but the
air of self-satisfaction she now wears,
She has still an hour and ten min
utes to wait, but she is getting ner
vous and restless. She is so afraid
that she is going to miss her train
because—she.doesn’'t know just why,
but she is sure she will. ‘
Tl}'ed women with children are, Ofi
course, numerous. The fact that she
has one little toddler clinging to her
and another in her arms is no bar to
the little woman from Derby coming
into town to see the store windows.
She, with her New England thrift,
has risen early, dressed all four of
the children, cooked the breakfast
and washed up the dishes by candle
light and come in to town to do a
round of ‘“window-shopping.” All
day she has been doing it industrious
ly, now she is going back to her vil
lage tired, nervous, over-wrought by
the noise and excitement. The chil
dren, also tired and out of sorts, have
every one mishehaved in various
ways, been punished pro tem and
threatened with something more last
ing when they reach home, and are
therefore~ peevish and sulien. But
she will do the same thing next year
in the same way, except she may have
a fifth olive-branch to care for. As
she lays the baby down, the toddler,
sticky and dirty-faced, sets up a howl
for a little mothering. A middle
aged woman, motherly-looking and
plainly dressed, from whom one
might expect human things, turns,
glares at the tired little woman, the
howling toddler, the fretful baby and:
the sulking older ones, draws aside
her sk;rts and turns her back upon
the disconsolate family party, and
mirabile dictu it is the young woman
with the roses-of-her-stocking cheeks
who is touched by the scene and tries
to amuse the little howler.
It is so much cheaper than to go to
a hotel, that even women of preten
‘sions to form stop in the station
idressing-room instead of going up
town to a hotel. Here they have a
‘maid at their disposal-——a thirty
eighth of one at least-gzso here they
make their toilet for the nonce. One
woman wao is going to stay in town.
all night has worn her ‘nightie”
under her blouse and petticoat so she
may be encumbered with nothing but
her card-case. To -the usual Kkit
in her stocking she has added her
‘tooth-brush, so ‘she is ready for a
week’s tour. :
The little thirty-eighth woman who
comes into the dressing-room and
does not look at the mirror, sinks
listlessly into a deep chair and lets
her umbrella lie. where it fell. Eyes
turn curiously or sympathetically to
‘ward her as their owners’ hearts di
rect them. Women offer her a stimu
lant from their bags, and every wo
mon who has a bag has a hottle in
it, it would appear. But incidentally
discovering it through the kindness
of their hearts, it were not fair to
discuss it.
As others come and go the little
thirty-eighth woman is forgotten. The
ceaseless tide sweeping young and
old, high and low, rich and poor,
has run the gamut of human experi
ence between two train-calls. After
about twenty minutes’ utter devitali
zation little thirty-eighth arouses her
self and looks at her watch. Now to
business! This-is no trivial under
taking to be met in the free-for-all
mirror where the light is not strong
enough. Slipping into a corner near
a window she takes the hand-mirror,
before which she draws up a second
chair. Off comes her hat, out comes
her hair-ping, up comes the notion
stock from her stocking. She is be
ginning with the process of over-lay
in its first stage when we turn our
interested eyes to a group of young
girls who troop in arm in arm, fresh
as the roses of May. Here is no need
for powder-rag and rouge. It is on
a tour of inspection they penetrate
this sacred precinct. Ethel notices
Gladys' chewing gum with the soul
content nothing else can give. ‘‘Oh,
where do you keep it?” she asks in
surprise. “I keep it in my hair,”
rosy young Gladys answers inno
cently; “I don't ever put it in my
stocking any more; I don’t think it's
nice.”
Meantime the work of the thirty
eighth has gone steadily on. The
pins having been taken out of her
hair, a fluffy pompadour and a coil
were carefully laid on the chair in
front of her, brushed and fluffed,
the thin growth on her head skerered
into a flat little knot and the false
“‘crowning glory” carefully re
placed.
We might have asked if there has
been some sort of black magic here
had our eyes not strayed at intervals
to the window where the process of
rejuvenation was going on. Fluffy
Uncomfortable.
Breaking in woolen underwear may
be a digagreeable task, but we opine
that it is real pleasure compared to
the job of breaking in a pororus plas
ter.—Detroit Free Press,
Fraulein Richter has been appoint
ed lecturer on philology at Vienna
University, the first instance of a
woman receiving such an appoint
ment, : SR
of hair, pink and white of skin,
dewy of eyes and ruby of lips, the
weary littie woman on the shady side
of thirty-five emerges from the al
chemy of hei stocking, twenty-four
at the outside. The brim of her
hat that drooped is now turned up
in festive fashion, showing a blue
lining with a pink rose nestling coyly
against the fluffy locks. The fresh
white gloves must h: ve come from
the other stocking, being guiltless
of daub of rouge or smutch of black.
With a gay little nod toward the mir
ror for a final assurance, the little
figure bustles cff and mingles with
the crowd. The saints defend her
on her way!
The accommodating maid who has
fastened hooks, tided shoes, brought
fresh towels, helped unpack grips
and suit-cases, arranged veils, sup
plied needle and thread in emergen
cies, given critical opinions as to the
angle of a hat, the sweep of a skirt,
furnished pins to conceal a rip or a
tear, met innumerable emergencies
during the long day, received usually
an absent-minded: ‘““Thanks’ for her
service. Occasionally some woman
tipped her with a nickel, a very few
gave her ten cents when she had
sewed up a rent or taken care of a
child, but at the end of the day there
were more pennies than anything
‘else in her pocket. Why? A man,
for the same amount of service,
‘would have given three or four times
the tip. It can not always be that a
man has more money to spend, and
we are bound to admit the charge
of parsimony in most cases at least.
For instance, a woman whose suit
case was lavishly pasted with signs
of foreign travel, who herself sug
gested opulence from top to toe, who
Irad called the maid to her from an
‘other woman, bidden her unpack her
‘suit-case for clothes-brush, comb and
i other articles, pack it up again, brush
‘her hat and coat for her, gave her
two pennies. But during her remain
ing half-hour wait that same woman
' bought copies of Life and Vogue,
paying ten cents for each, and which
'she merely glanced through, then
‘drom)ed upon the floor. Twenty
cents invested in a minute’s diver
\sion and two cents for service well
done!
On the other hand, during a tem
porary lull of the inflow, a thorough
bred young woman whose hard-and
fast tailor-made lines enabled her to
pass the mirror with a minimum o%f.
attention, dropped into a chair and
lost herself instantly in Kant's
“Critique of Pure Reason.” The
roomfull of fellow human beings,
after a high-headed survey, ceased to
exist for her until a pair of chubby
little legs wabbled too close to the
danger-line and tumbled flat over
Minerva's faultlessly shod feet. The
mother’s mortified eyes saw too late,
but she rushed with incoherent apolo
gies to pick up the offender. What
dis- this student girl do? Dropped
Kant, picked up the sticky, mussy
baby and handed it over to the dazed.
riother with a smile, beaming’ and
illogical, that pure reason knew
nothing about.
All of which bears out the basic
assertion that if you cherish any a
priori concept of a consistent type
of lovely woman, it is here you go
down under the waters of disillusion
and come up washed and clean.—
New York Correspondence of the San
Francisco Argonaut.
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German children convicted of seri
ous offenses numbered in 1905, 48,-
003; in 1906, 51,232, and in 1907,
55,216,
The eleven Lopdon gas companies
supply among them 46,403,852,000
cubic feet of gas to 1,101,896 cons
sumers, J
The use of snake venom is increas
ing in the practice of medicine, and
its price is soaring upward rapidly.
The latest expression in the word
crop of 1908 is “notel.” It was first
used in Cincinnati and means a pers
son who has no telephone,
A young inventor of Lyons, France,
is said to have solved the problem of
the transmission of electrical energy
without the use of wires.
A Paris paper complains that no
journalist has yet been buried i%» the
Pantheon, and mentions as représen
tatives of the craft who ought to be
there Chateaubriand, Benjamin Con
stant, Paul Louis Courrier, Armand
Carrel,"Emile de Girardin and Louls
Veuillot,
In Jamaica tuberculous disease 1s
extremely uncommon among the
whites. When it occurs in negroes,
they quickly suceumb to it,
The fossil remains of a Plesiosaurus
have been unearther at Talcahuano
Bay, Chile. The body of this marine
reptile of bygone age was forty<ive
feet long.
The eight-mile carriage road to the
summit of Mount Washington being
for sale, it is proposed to form a com
pany to purchase it and run an auto
mobile stage line over it for the ac
commodation of tourists,
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New York City.—The waist that is
made with the square bertha effect
i 8 one of the latest and hest liked
and this one has the merit of being
adapted to a great many different
materials. It can be utilized either
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with or without a lining, and conse
quently becomes available for all the
pretty muslins and the like of the
summer and alse for the thin silks
and light weight wools wkich require
Mning. In the illustration the ma
terial is crepe de Chine, the yoke
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being made of tucked net, while the
bertha is of embroidered banding
and the trimming on the blouse is of
ingertion and lace. There are also
little buttons sewn on the outermost
tucks, which are exceedingly chic and
smart, and there is a zirdle of messa
line satin. Collars are somewhat high
this season, but fortunately fashion
also allows of the Dutch neck, and
this waist can be finished in either
way, while the little close fitting
under sleeves make an attractive
feature.
The blouse is made with the lining,
which can be used or omitted as
liked, and itself consists of the full
front and backs. These last are laid
In a combination of wide and rather
narrow tucks, and the girdle is ar
ranged over the lower edge of the
dning and serves as a finish to the
blouge. The bertha can be made
either from banding, mitred as llus
trated, or cut from all-over material.
The close fitting lining sleeves are
faced to form the deep cuffs and the
pretty little frilled ones are arranged
over them,
Pendants and Tassels,
~ The fashion for pendants and tas
gels reaches the acme of perfection in
a shawl wrap of silk in Oriental colors
which hangs in a long point at the
back and whose long ends at the front
are gathered into points, and all three
finished with heavy silk tassels.
Sleeves in Qne,
~ Bleeves made in one with the bod
4ce are the latest decree of fashion,
Mercury Wings of Feathers.
Mercury wings of real feathers
adorn the front of a smart shirt waist
hat, and Mercury wings of gold con
fine the tiny locks of hair which are
so apt to fall at the back of the coif
fure and make it look unkempt. A
butterfly bow closes the collar and
an embroidery of butterflies covers
the waist. There is no accounting
for tastes, in design, but every one of
the above is good.
Straight Pleated Walking Skirt.
Bordered materials are so beauti
ful and so many that there is an ever
increasing demand for skirts that are
suited to their use, and this one sis
straight at its lower edge and conse
quently perfectly well adapted to the
‘purpose, while it i$ graceful and be
coming. It is laid in pleats which are
stitched flat over the hips, so doing
away with bulk at that point, and it
is suited to almost every seasonable
material. If bordered ones are not
liked plain fabrics can be trimmed to
suit individual fancy, with braid, ap
plique or banding of the same or of
contrasting material or the skirt can
be embroidered or braided with sou
tache or left plain, finished only with
a stitched hem.
The skirt is made in one piece and
is laid in backward turning pleats.
The upper edge is joined to a narrow
belt.
The quantity of material required
for the medium size is four and one
half yards of Dbordered material
forty-four inches wide; or seven and
three-eighth yards twenty-seven, six
and one-quarter yards thirty-two or
five yards forty-four inches wide if
plain material is used.
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Party Frocks.
Sashes, hair-bows, slippers and
socks match In color for the party
costumes, the frocks themselves he
ing of some filmy white mull or ha
tiste elaborately inset with lace and
worn over a white mull slip,
Trotting Skirts,
Bell-shaped skirts have vanished.
Trotting skirts now hang very
straight.
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fif SCIENCE D |
The fossil of a lizard 314 feet long
has been found out in Wyoming.
In Cornwall experience shows that
woven-wire sereens in the stamps
Wwhich crush tin ores are better than
punched plates.
The shrinkage of wood from loss
of moisture has been fourd by the
United States Forest service to range
from seven to twenty-six per cent.
of the dry volume in different species.
Dr. Manning Fish, of Chicago, an
nounces a new theory concerning
pneumonia. He says the disease
rests in the bony framework of the
nose and that the seat of trouble in
such cases is not in the lungs, as is
generally supposed.
The sun and his planets, though
moving toward a point in Hercules
at the velocity of 20,000 miles an
hour, or 500,000 miles a day, must
travel at this rate for a million years
to reach the frontiers of the distant
constellation we are headed for.
The only way to treat a pavement
after it is once down is to let it
alone. In many cities of Europe a
conduit runs on each side of the
street, and in this all the light wires
and pipes of every description are
placed. The spectacle of a gang of
men digging up a street pavement in
any leading city of Europe is quite
unknown,
Military experts are satisfied that
the balloon offers an excellent means
of locating the positions of the
enemy and that the danger to the
men in the balloon is not so great as
had been heretofore supposed. By
the aid of photographic apparatus
and field glasses the enemy may be lo
cated at distances ranging from five
to fifteen miles, according to the con
dition of the atmosphere.
A sunflower four feet high, with
the usual leafage, gives off in twelve
hours from twenty to thirty ounces
of water in the shape of perspiration.
It has been calculated that an acre
of cabbages, planted in eighteen inch
squares, gives off every twelve hours
over ten tons of water through their
leaves. Most agricultural plants ex
hale during the period of their growth
more than 200 times their dry weight
in water. ’
The total length of the Panama ca
nal will be forty-six miles. The depth
will vary from thirty to forty-five
feet. The surface width will be from
200 feet in Culebra cut to 1000 feet
from the Gatun locks to San Pablo,
a distance of fifteen miles and a half.
‘The summit levefim”ms
eighty-five feet above the level-of the
sea, and will be reached by a fli it of
locks at Gatun, on the Atlantic side,
one lock at Pedro Miguel, and two at
La Boca, on the Pacific side, roi
O ————————————————— : *
THE DOCTOR'S JOY RIDERS. 7( ‘
Reasons Why He Decided to Get a
Runabout in Place of a Touring Car.
The doctor said: *“l'm going to sell
that touring car, It's too much for
me.”
So of course it was in order to ask:
“How? Why?” and then to wait the
answer,
“Well, you see,” said the doctor,
“it is a seven passenger car and of
course a big one. Well, every once
in a while I get out on the street with
the tonneau empty and the first thing
yYou know I see a patient,
“He or ghe halls me, and of coursge
I have to stop, Then it is only the
part of decency to ask the patient in
for a brief ride.
“Sometimes they're going some
where just a little off my way, but
they have no hesitancy in asking me
to drop them off there, Actually,
sometimes I have had the whole ton
neau full of such riders.
“The worst thing happened one
day when a couple of them who were
out riding with me and weren’t going
anywhere in particular announced
that they were hungry. Well, it hap
pened to be abont my lunch time and
we stopped in at a restaurant.
“I'm blessed if they didn't expect
me to settle the check, because neith
er one had money enough to buy a
sandwich. After that I decided to
get a runabout, just big enough to
hold my man and myself,” — New
York Sun.
Neanderthal and Australia,
The famous Neanderthal skull
found in Switzerland in 1856, and
other similar skulls and parts of
skulls found elsewhnere in Europe,
have been regarded as representing
a distinct species of the human race,
to which the name Homo Primi
genius has been given, Protesgor
W. J. Bollas undertakes to show that
there .are no' grounds whatever for
regarding the Neanderthal type of
man as a separate species, On the
contrary, he thinks that “the Nean
derthal race, the most remote from
us in time of which we have any
knowledge, and the Australian, the
most remote from us in space, prob
ably represent divergent branches of
the same original stock.” Doctor
Lydekker remarks that this conclu
sion of Professor Sollas’'s acecords
with the modern view that the native
Aust:ailans are low-grade members
of the Caucasian, or Kuropean stock,
instead of, as at one time supposed,
half-bred oceanic negroes, “The
Veddahs of Ceylon and the Toalas
of-€elebes apparently mark their line
of march from west to east.” -
