A COMPETENT CONSUMER.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5144, 13 July 1885, Page 3

A COMPETENT CONSUMER.

. "Is ths gentleman who knows everything in ?" stammered a vision of golden hair and sea blue eyes, as she stood timidly beside the managing editor's desk one spring afternoon. ; "Everything oboufc what?" asked the tditor, clawing round under his desk for his shoes, and trying to hide his stocking feet under him. " Ijpon which partioular ! branch do.you seek information ?" "I don't exactly know what to do," pouted tbe strawberry lips. "Pa says I can ouly have one dress this spring, and I don't know how to make it up. I thought the gentleman who answers questions could tell me." "H'm!" muttered the managing editor. ■*' He has gone up in Maine to find out why geese always walk iv single file. An • Anxious Inquirer' wanti to know. What kind of a dress bad you thought of, getting?" " That's what I want to know. I want something that will look well with terra cotta gloves." "Yes, yes," murmured the editor. " Then you should get one of those green things with beads that turn all kinds of colors, and some fringe and fixings of that

"Would you have it cut princess or wear it with a polonaise ?" she inquired, looking afc him searohingly. "You-'you might hare it princess aroand the neck and a row of polonaises at the bottom," suggested the editor. " That's going to be very fashionable, and • couple of bip pockets would set it off royally." " I don't know," murmured the beauty. " I haven't seen any of that style. Do you know whether panniers are worn bouffant this season, or whether the skirt is tight?" ' •♦Ob, certainly! replied the editor. "They are made with all the bouffants you can get on 'em. Some have even sixteen button buoffants, and there was a lady in here yesterday who had a pannier that came clean up to her neck. I should have it pretty bouffant if it was my dress." " Well," stammered the Mushing blossom, " would you box plait the skirt or shirr it ? ' " Shirr it, by all means !" exclaimed the editor. " Shirr it up and down, and fasten it with these loops of black tape." " You mean frogs?" asked the beauty. "No, no. These big loops that slip over two buttons. That sets off the shirrs and gives a sort of tout to the ensemble," and the editor leaned back and smiled superior. ~"Don't you think revers of a lighter shade would look pretty?" she inquired. " They'll do to fix up the back, but I wouldn't put 'em on the front," answered the editor sagely. " Bevers are very well to trim a hat with, but they dont set off a dress front." "How would you have the corsage?" " I wouldn't hate any at all. You would look much better without one." " Sir!" she exclaimed, rising. " Ob, if you insist, you might have a small one, certainly not over three inches long, for short dresses are the style now." " You —you don't seem to understand," she commenced. " Ob, don't I?" he retorted. /'That's what I am here for. I think there is nothing so lamentable as to see a young lady dragging her corsage through the mud and dust. Still, if you want one, you should have it so as you can take it off when you go on the street and only wear it at home. They are hard to handle, and not one woman in a hundred can kick her corsage gracefully." "I—l am very much obliged to you," abe murmured. " You are very good I'm sure." ••Don't mention it," replied the editor politely, " I think when you get it shirred and revered and polonaised and princessed you will like it very much. You might get a sash and some big buttons to put on behind, or if you'd like another style better, you might trim the whole front with bouffant 3 and wear the pannier for a hat." V " Oh, thank you, sir!" exclaimed the blushing bud, as she scuttled down stairs. , " Swipes!" roared the managing editor, with a complacent smile and a glance of approval at himself in the glass, " Swipes, you may tell the foreman to send me a proof of the Fashion Notes as soon as they come in. I have observed that a great many errors have crept in lately."