The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-08 00:00:00

DRESSMAKERS' BILLS.

.
(Fie»! the Tin es.) -
' Why won't ladies pay their bills, especially the
bills of their dressmakers ? It may be all very well
for marchionesses and lady-millionnaires to keep
the great Court milliners and mantuamakers wait-
ing tor their " little accounts" for any given number
of years. Upon this point we will not express any
opinion, for, no doubt, the persons giving the cre-
dit take care to protect themselves by increase of
price and interest upon payments deferred. Madame
Tulle may find it quite as well worth her while to
leave sums of money in the hands of her customers
at the rate of 20 per cent. as to supply them with
infinite caps and bonnets upon the principle of brisk
basiness arid short payments. Let us leave out of
the question the interests of these Rothschilds and
Barins of satin and Bros-de-Naples, and turn our
attention to the fortunes and position of their poorer
sisterhood. It is not every lady who can afford to
, pay 15 or 16 guineas for a dress. It is ,not, fortu-
nately, every lady who will insist upon having so
costly an article when she can't afford to pay for it.
' The bulk of the female population of London who
ai • not clothed by the labour of their own hands are
obliged to call in the. services of a much humbler class
of workwomen than those of whom we have just
spoken. They can only afford to pay sums varying
from three shillings to eight shillings for what is
stalled the " making-up" of a dress. The Duchess
of Millefleurs may, perhaps, be astonished to
hear that a bonnet may be made up for a shilling,
and very nicely made up, too. Ascending a little
in the ranks of society, we come to a class of
families who have some five or six hundred a year
to spend. There aro hundreds—we may almost say'
without exaggeration thousands—of families so cir-
cumstanced in London. The ineome of middle •class
families 'probably ranges from £5OO to £l,OOO a
year. Now, let us assume that the expenditure
upon dress of every female member of these families
is about £2O a year, more or less. It is evident
that the class of small milliners and dressmakers is
called into "existence and maintained in order to
supply their wants. This is a very different case
from that of the distressed needlewornen ; if they
were fairly dealt by, and only entered upon the
business under reasonable circumstances of skill
and connection, they ought not to be in a worse
position than any other class of petty tradesmen.
'They would not; in all probability, be able to do
more than to live from hand to •mouth and make
both ends meet at the end of the year, but this is
the normal condition of the greater portion of the
London population living by the labour of their
hands. It is, however, a fair and a legitimate
business, and one that should afford means of honest
livelihood to thousands of women. It would do so
but for the downright and lamentable dishonesty
of the customers who keep these poor creatures
waiting for their money for indefinite periods of
time. ile small dressmaker business is essentially
a cash business, and must be transacted upon the
principles of ready-money payment; otherwise the
most deplorable misery and even crime will be the
result. Here is an instance of the consequences
which ensue when ladies decline to pay, or defer
paying, the bills of petty dressmakers :
Sarah ])yer, is a woman who has long borne an
most excellent and respectable character. She is a
widow, hard-working, and ss ell-conducted, and has
a son, whom she has apprenticed to a tailor. She
is in the habit of working until 2,3, and even 4
o'clock in the morning at dressmaking, in order to
support herself and her son. Her character is
spoken to by her landlord, with whom she has re-
sided 11 years, and who has :sad every opportunity
of observing her conduct and her habits. Now, it
appears that tlsies poor woman had abundance of
work and abundance of customers, but in too many
cases the-- ladies for whom she worked omitted to
pay her their .:tebts. We read in the evidence given
on the trial of which we are about to speak that
there were several ladies who owed her mosey—
£lo, £ll, and even £l2, but she could not get a
reenny from any of them. Sarah Dyer for many
years past has been a customer of Messrs. School-
bred and Co., the well-known haberdashers in
Tottenham-court-road. From this it follows that
the ladies who owed her money were not only in-
debted to her for work and labour done, but for
money paid by her for materials taken up on their
own account. Things seem to have gone on with
her from bad to worse, and at last, under the pres-
sure of the most dire and overwhelming necessity,
she was driven into crime.. A short time back she
entered the shop of Messrs. Schoolbred and stole
from the counter a few yards of riband, a few
yards of silk braid, and a reel of cotton. Of
course, we cannot attempt to justify theft. The
dignity of human nature requires that men and
women should endure the utmost extremities of
misery and starvation, and yet remain with clean
hands and consciences undefiled. That is the true
theory, and we know how dangerous it is to urge
arguments in palliation of offences of this kind ; for
even fraudulent bankers, fraudulent solicitors, and
fraudulent directors ofjoints stock companies may be
of opinion that they could urge something by way
of excuse for their most abominable crimes. Still,
even Justice, in , her sternest moods, will draw a
distinction between the bankers and solicitors who
make away with the fonds of their clients and the
poor creatures who, under the pressure of starva-
tion, filch a penny roll from the shopboard of the
baker or a penny reel from the haberdasher's coun-
ter. There can be no doubt that Sarah Dyer com-
mitted this offence because she could not obtain
from her customers the money they owed her, and
because she had not the means to purchase ma-
terials for the, work she had in hand. Her ease ex-
cited the deepest commiseration. Messrs. Shoot-
bred, the prosecutors, who had no choice but to in-
stitute the prosecution, implored the mercy of the
court in her behalf. The Assistant-Judge, in giving

his decision, said that he considered- this in be a
case in which the greatest amount of mercy might
safely be extended to the prisoner, and added,
" Should what had been stated find its way into
publicity, those who had so cruelly used this poor
creature by depriving her so long of the reward of
her labour, would understand what mist be thought
of their conduct." No sentence was passed upon
the prisoner, but she was ordered to be discharged
at once.

Now, it is a very common thing for persons of
.he middle class to hurl invectives at the heads of

the aristocracy for their dishonesty and want of
principle in money. matters. Let justice be done.
Montague-place, Russell-square, has no right to
say a word against Groivenor-square or Park-lane.
It is the old case of the pot calling the kettle black.
One of poor Sarah Dyer's customers is said to be
actually residing in Montague-place, and is walk-
ing about the streets of pleasant Bloomsbury with
goods stolen from Messrs. Shoolbred's shop upon
her back. The worst of the case is that persons in
the position of this poor widow seem to be abso-
lutely without remedy. They dare not summon
their customers into the County Courts, or they
would loose their eustcm altogether. They have,
then, no option between crime and starvation. We
think that this is a case peculiarly deserving of
public commiseration and, if we might venture to
offer a suggestion which would give a turn to that
public charity which will, no doubt, be exercised
upon this poor woman's behalf as soon as her case
is known, we would say that the best means of
affording her relief is to give her employment.
1 here can be no doubt that henceforth Sarah
Dyer's name will be put in the "index" of non•
paying Montague-place. The best thing that can
be done for her by, ladies who are shocked at the
treatment she has received would be, not to send
her gifts of money, but to give her work. There is
something repulsive to all ideas of morality in
putting, as it might be construed, a premium upon
crime, even When the offence has been of so
venial a character as that of Sarah Dyer. No
one, however, can say that it is wrong to give her
work and to pay her for the work done. Surely,
there are many ladies who will be ready to do a
ork of charity in such a form and for so deserving
an object.