I sometimes try to describe a bonnet,
but not always. I would not try to describe a
modern bonnet. Where is the man that could
describe one? This aggregation of all sorts of
driftwood stuck on the back of the head, or the
side of the neck, like a rooster with only one tail
feather left. But in John Jacob Astor's day there
was some art about the millinery business, and
he went to the millinery-store and said to them:
``Now put into the show-window just such a
bonnet as I describe to you, because I have already
seen a lady who likes such a bonnet. Don't make
up any more until I come back.'' Then he went
out and sat down again, and another lady passed
him of a different form, of different complexion,
with a different shape and color of bonnet. ``Now,''
said he, ``put such a bonnet as that in the show
window.'' He did not fill his show-window up
town with a lot of hats and bonnets to drive
people away, and then sit on the back stairs and
bawl because people went to Wanamaker's to
trade. He did not have a hat or a bonnet in that
show-window but what some lady liked before
it was made up. The tide of custom began immediately
to turn in, and that has been the foundation
of the greatest store in New York in that line,
and still exists as one of three stores.
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