The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 13, 1905


Wallpaper is Now the Question

Two Cornered Paper for Parlors and Halls; Flowers, Fruit or Landscape For The Dining Room and Bright Warm Colors; Combined With Taste

Wall paper again becomes an imminent consideration in the minds of house owners and housewives, and although it is much dreaded when with its mention comes unbidden visions of paper shavings, ladders, and a pungent odor of seemingly everything.

This year and every succeeding year the task of selecting paper becomes less of a bore and mroe of a pleasure. It begins to take more thought and more of an artist’s eye to paper a house appropriately, not becasue the paper is not pretty, far from it, but because the tastes of the American are becoming more and more aesthetic.

The paper itself is showing every day how much more attention is being devoted to its designing and it will be a great relief to be able to get away from some of the hideous designs of the past. Among the newest styles of wall paper are the two tones and the duplex, says a Fort Dodge merchant adn these two designs are indeed the finest expression of wall paper art.

These two styles are designed especially for halls and parlors, and are more appropriate for this use than for any other because they are in the more delicate shades and contain only one color, with a pattern faintly suggested by a slightly different shade, or perhaps a different finish of the same shade which shows up delicately in certain lights.

The designs in this as well as in other styles are all large, sketchy, and usually  flowers, everything now being more or less in poster styles. Anything large and artistic is the proper thing, and takes the public fancy.

Fruit designs are very popular for dining rooms, as are also landscape designs in tapestry effects. these are generally used on but half or three quarters of the wall, with plain ingrain paper of the same shade on the remaining space. Ceiling (sic) are best when plain and the moire ceilings are as popular as ever. Outside of this use for ingrain paper, it is fast losing its former popularily.

Almost all the paper is hung clear from the ceiling in rooms with very high ceilings, and then a drop ceiling is better than a border. This is the American style, but it is said that the new imported papers have revived the old style of borders, and are displaying them in the samples.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 13, 1907

Tailors Enjoying Big Business

The man who sells clothing to the men of Fort Dodge is one of the first to feel hard times or prosperity. At the present time he is having an immense amount of business and is not minding it at all. In fact he would just as soon have a little more for good measure.

The fact remains,  however, that Fort Dodge tailors at the present time are enjoying a large trade, larger than for several years past. One Central avenue tailor said today that never in the history of his business in Fort Dodge had he seen such a volume of trade as this spring. He said that he now had orders for more suits than in a long time. And the significant fact mentioned was that every suit is much higher in price than have been purchased in the past few years. This year the tailor in question has not sold a suit below twenty-five dollars in price. Last year and the year before last he sold very few suits above that figure. This is the result of prosperity. In bad times the old suits are taken from the closets, cleaned and repaired, and made to do duty in place of new raiment.

Brown and Grey Popular Colors.

The mandate has been prolonged by the tailors’ associations that brown and gray are to be the popular colors for this year. These were in great demand last year and seem to keep up in the front rank again this spring. Blacks and serges and the mixed goods in brown and grey are also in demand. They form the staple patterns of the tailors’ establishments.

The patterns this year, aside from the solid shades, run mostly to checks. Last year stripes held sway but this year the squares hold the boards. There are many pretty patterns to be seen in spring and summer suitings in the local tailor shops and Easter togs will be as natty as ever seen here. Fort Dodge men are coming to look upon Easter as being as great an occasion for dress as it is to the women of the city.

Tags: Fashion