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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 26, 1905)
TTBCJE gW Wit 1 M 7Mj 'i 1 WW Flit-ting M m M Mb iftf M M ha h f B( of wi TJ wl ha to M a to th b ea Ja or to in eV Ol fo lit ril ir l .It ol r hi V4 fi 111 5?IR(uaatt-rdl SCHOOL for brides Is the latest thing In riitla. delpha, anl the Idea is becoming so popular that similar schools are likely to be established In New York, Chicago, Boston, and other cities. The Philadelphia school does not teach the art of housekeeping. Cookery Is tabooed. No Instruction Is given In the niceties of din ner giving. There is no course of lectures on dressing for receptions, balls, teas, theater parties. What does the Philadelphia school for brides teachT That Is one of the mysteries that Is not fully explained. The curriculum has been guarded with some secrecy, and only a few of the subjects for Instruction have been re vealed. Here are some of the courses of study: CHARMING A HUSBAND Including the allurements of the toilet; the proper use of perfume; music as an adjunct; caresses not too freely given: the value of coquetry; how to flirt with your hushHiid: when to be coy, and when bold. TUB VALUE OK FLIRTATION WITH YOUR IIUS HAXP H MALE FRIENDS. JEALOUSY Its proper use In keeping" a husband's love. TEARS When not to shed them; when they are advisa ble. THE QUARREL Its value as an aid to married happi ness; how to begin it properly; the right moment to yield; the charm of reconciliation. MANAGING A HITS!! AND How to keep him at home when to send him to his club; the danger of too light a rein; when to let htm alone; when to Insist on your own way. FINANCES The weekly allowance and Its disadvantages. THE PERQUISITES OF MARRIED LIFE How to B0 cure a sealskin sacque; how to secure a trip abroad. Other Subjects Hinted At. These are only a few of the general courses of study for prospective brides In this strange Philadelphia school. It Is hinted that there are other and more mysterious subjects of fascination taught; but as the most elaborate safeguards of secrecy are thrown around the school 'the whole truth tins! not been revealed. The Philadelphia school for brides Is conducted In a once famous old mansion of colonial times. It is a great house, with broad halls and double parlors on cither side, drawing rooms filled with quaint furniture of severely clas sical design, antique mirrors, old silver, candlesticks, pew ter mugs, and a spinet a real old fashioned spinet. It is, In fact, a mansion of wealth and refinement of three genera tions ago. In this mansion resides Mine. X., the head of the school for brides and three of her principal lecturers. Mine. X. Is a beautiful, plump, silver haired lady an aristocrat to her finger tips. She Is three times a widow and is contented to remain so. Her assistants, like herself, are widows. All are so closely connected with the great families of Phila delphia of other days that they have the entree to all the fashionable circles of the city. Consequently their school for brides Is always full. In fact, there are so many candi dates for admission that young women of the wealthy fam ilies of Philadelphia engage places in the classes sometimes a year in advance. "How to Charm Hubby" Comes First. Of course, the things taught in the school for brides can be told of In general terms only. So far none of the brides who have " graduated " from tills most unique of all schools has consented to reveal all of the secrets of the curriculum; but enough has been learned to give a general Idea of the Instruction. In the first place the girls nhout to become brides are Impressed with the necessity of knowing " how to charm a husband." The various ways of doing this are taught by discreet methods. First of all under the heading, " Charm ing a Husband," comes the toilet and dress. The prospective bride, however, knows the Importance of these details by intuition. Put there are deeper mysteries. ' Caresses must not be given too freely." said the ex perienced Mine. X. "The wife who Is continually kissing her husband runs the grave danger of tiring him of sweets. Remember, young ladles, your sweetheart will wait for hours for an opportunity to steal a kiss " " I should say so," said a black eyed beauty, with a toss of her head and a smile of memory lurking In the corners of her lovely mouth the details of the conversation were revealed by a member of the class. " I should say so," she continued. " Why, once Henry rode seven miles when It Was 1.1 below zero. Just to get one little kiss " " Well," smiled back Mmc. X., " when you are Henry's wife, be careful and not bestow to freely the same kisses that ho rode so far to get when they were not his by right." Dash of Coquetry Flavors It. " No," continued Mine. X., " do not be too lavish. A spice of coquetry Is not out of place In married life. If John comes home tired after a duy's work In the bank, he will appreciate a pretty toilet, with a faint suggestion of perfume. A little holding back with a roguish glance from the perfunctory caress will surprise him, and the kiss he offered In a blunt, matter of duty way In the hall, he will struggle for a little In the parlor and ho will like It all the better. " Men like a spice of danger In their lovemaklng," added the Instructress. " Therefore a wife safely may flirt with hor own husband. If you are In the city in the afternoon, send a discreet little note to him at his place of business and hint at a little supper somewhere, and a visit to the theater after wards. He will come as quickly as a cab can bring him " Why? Hecause it is not humdrum. Because It Is spicy. Because it reminds him of other days, when he went hurry ing to mysterious appointments In response to perfumed notes. It lends zest to married life." Then there is " The Value of Flirting with Your Hus band's Friends." This is a difficult lesson to learn, for It Is difficult for the Inexperienced wife to discern, always, the boundary line between safety and danger. Mme. X. ar.d her assistants teach this branch of the course of study to each bride pupil separately. Individual Lessons in Flirting. It is considered a necessary part of the course, for there are times when heroic methods are necessary to cure a hus band of growing indifferent. The methods of cure are taught thoroughly, however, and the graduates of the school for brides are known to be proficient in the art. The Instruction In Jealousy at the school for brides In cludes two branches the first teaching brides when and how to show the proper decree of Jealousy of other woim n the second how to compel a 'husband to become Jealous, value of Jealousy as a means of keeping a husband Is underrated at any stage of the game. " Many a husband is likely to grow Indifferent to his w'f charms." says Mme. X., "when he feels certain that they belong to him alone and th.it by no possibility can thr be taken from him. When a husband begins to become In, I Ter ent because of his sense of unchallenged proprietorship. !t Is time for his wife to cure him of It effectually, before the lis ease has had time to develop beyond Its Incipient st.ige "On the other hnnd. It Matters a man's seir-vanlty if he can Induce his wife to be jealous of some other woman. If the husband Is not bad Innately he will In his blundering w:y try to make his wife jealous by innocent and perfectly proper attentions to other women." How to Play at Being Jealous. The Inexperienced wife is likely to make the fatal error of lumping to the conclusion that her husband Is In earnest. H cht lure Is where the benefit of a course of Instruction 'n the school for brides comes in. The bride is taught the means of detecting the clumsy dec.it her husband Is practicing She i3 taught to see Just when he is llirting with other women to pique her and when he does It for his own Hellish amusement. Once she learns this she Is taught the methods of applying her discovery to her own advantage. At times it Is best for her to show a degree of Jealousy. This flatters her husband immensely and he Is more ardent than ever In his affection for her. Probably there are no weapons misused more frequently by a bride than tears. Any bride can shed tears. She does not have to be taught. The ease with which brides can shed tears is the cause of more married unhapplness than many persons dream of. The school for brides pays especial attention to tears, their uses -and their abuses. Young women are taught, In fact, when to cry and when to refrain. They are even taught the coquetry of tears the proper accent of the long drawn, quiv ering, sigh of a sob, and the roguish sunshine of a smile breaking after the shower of tears. The graduates of the school who show proficiency in the art of shedding tears, needless to say, are among the most dangerous enemies to the peace of mankind; for they can bully, coax, lead, and wheedle husbands out of comfort and cash. Quarreling Tactfully an Art. The school for brides glvis a post-graduate course of lectures on "The Quarrel, Its Value as an Aid to Married Happiness." It is the most important branch In the school's curriculum. Many a household has been hopelessly wrecked for all time because the wife did not know how to quarrel properly. Quarreling in the abstract Is a vulgar accomplishment. Quarreling as an art Is quite a different matter. The lectures on quarreling are not intrusted to any one member of the faculty. Each Instructress, in fact, gives each pupil the benefit of her experience. Prospective brides are Instructed especially in the delicate taste of extracting the bitterness from the quarrel and Imparting In place of the bitterness a fascination that forges stronger chains for the husband. It Is the proud boast of the school for brides that not one ot Its graduates has found the way to the divorce court. m.-.WM.m f.riisTilfiml;lJAAAl mm TEO SBHHsVii Heracles teelitdng upon. Hining c crack Busts Kill mm iJBJ 1ZXSS CI 0 Tt m,lt O . li .-, J H Ike wsm fm tanftii gs llfeii m mmiw&m ; l ' -Vi V-; -. ,.... , fM'S ' ' . HAT beds and couehe for sleeping purposes 0f I existed us early as the year 7U0 1). C. is the I I revelation made by Miss Caroline Ransom, a H I student of he University of Chicago, who has delved deeply enough into the furniture of the ancients to yield a book upon the subject. The oldest bed In existence Is a bronze of Etruscan manufacture, dating from the sev enth century H. C. This was found In excavations made at Gortdon In Asia Minor, and from the fact that It Is the only one of its age ever unearthed among the many other pieces of furniture found In ancient ruins, the conclusion is drawn that beds at this early era were a novelty. It is sure that previous to this there is no record of the existence of beds which may be taken as authority, l'fehldtoric nran evidently got along quite well without any bed to lie in, and it was not until the life of Etrurians and Greeks began to verge Into comparative sybaritic luxury that the bed as a component part of the household was universally r'oguized. Even then the bed was more kin to the modern couch than the article In which civilized man txlay takes his re pose. According to Greek and Roman wJll paintings, bas reliefs, and reproductions In sculpture, the original bed was a be-noh, often a beautifully carved and deoorated bench, and one covered with costly draperies, but still In form a bench eompared to the beds of today. Many of them were maJe of terra cotta. some of marble, and then there is the bronze specimen which Is still In use. , Etruscan wall paintings of the fifth and sixth cen turlea B. C. show that these couches were plentiful then. The Etrurians bullded well when they came to in, ike beds, for most of the pictures whow them us inudu of stone, terra cotta or marble being favorite materials. In shape theywerenttrrow, set on legs, much like the couch ot today,)' and piled high with cushions. There were two kinds of he's or couches In this period, one for reclining upon at meal time and the other for sleeping. In some instances tho same couch was used for both purposes. With the early Greeks and Romans the bed played a more prominent part In the life of the people than It does to day. Paintings from these times show the bed or couch a prominent factor at all meal times and banqueting scenes, the persons participating reclining while they dined or ear ned on a conversation. Early scenes, where the characters concerned are wholly mythological, show them meeting death, delivering speeches, or reposing idly, all on couches of a nearly similar design. The sleeping couch rarely occurs in this early sculpture or painting. In form the bed of this era was based on principles much akin to those upon which our beds are now made. There are the body, legs, and headpiece, -II made much as they are made today. At first, so far as can be found, the body was cnly a slab of marble luid across two upright stones serving as legs. Later, however, there comes to view a leg for each corner and a headpiece. The best examples of modern beds know the Bkill of the ancients In sculpture and painting and the Importance with which they regarded the bed. The legs are often notable examples of the carver's art and the sides serve us panels whereon the artist of the day depicted the life of the period. Other Greek couches have legs made of blocks of wool mortised together. Later the entire bed was made of wood. Many of these specimens were of the costliest manufacture, the wood being inlaid with Ivory and other articles of orna ment. Tortoise shell as a uieuns of decorating couches seems to have been Introduced about 100 B. C. Later silver and gold were occasionally used. ,. In furnishings, the. ancients pursued .about the same ays-' tern as Is In vogue at present. Mattresses, pillows, valances, end loose draperies are shown In the early vase paintings. All couches had mattresses, hut the thickness, quality, and kind varied with the different periods. At first only a few skins thrown over the body of the bed were used. The pillows were of various shapes, some being long and narrow, others approximately squure, and still others nearly round In appearance. The Greek and Roman of this poind was a most luxurious personage, as he requlre'd at least three pillows to enable him to secure a good night's rest. There was one for his head, one for his elbow, and one for his feet. The mattresses and pillows were covered with linen or wool. Leather to some extent was used as a covering for the pillows. Rare instances are found where silk was employed as bed covering. A great variety of materials was used In stuffing both articles. The commonest article among the Greeks seems to have been refuse wool torn off In carding or fulling cloth. Among the Romans wool especially prepared was the favor ite article for this purpose. Straw and rushes were used largely by the poor classes. Feather pillows are first mi n tloned as being in existence in the fourth century. The draperies and hangings were, In many instances rich tapestries. In the representations of Roman beds the furnishings run generally to luxury and display and the draperies are the parts given the most attention. The moat striking colors to be obtained were used In their manufacture and decora tion and the looms of the east were scoured for the best examples of weaving. Purple was a favorite color and the wealth o"f a person was often. Indicated by the excellence of the bed draperies In his house. Bed making and bed furnishing had attained to this stage in the year A. D. A painting of a bed of this period shows an article of manufacture and furnishings much like the bed of today. There are four legs, sides of wood, and wooden "slats" or occasionally leather Inter lacing to furnish rests for the mattress. There are two headpieces, one at each end, suggesting that even at this late date the sleeper was accustomed to have a pillow for his feet. Of the furnishings the mattress and pillows are covered with a striped stuff not unlike many cloths of the present, and a blanket covering the mattress Is tucked be tween it and the bedside, much as the neat housewife now tucks In her snowy sheet Here, however, the resemblance to the present style ot bed ceases. The legs at the head are carved to represent human figures and mythological creations; at the foot a woman with surrounding " picture writing " holds forth. The sides are massive punels curved In a similar iiianne.' and the structure of the whole marks It as an article made ' to be handed down from one generation to the other. Styles oF Batters .