Smyrna times., 1875-04-07
An Author or a Dressmaker.

rate Id rather be drcssmallcr!' said Il
lively young lady the other day-one oftho
numerous class who have no vecation-who
are always looking out for one, but cannot
make up their minds whether to be authors .
or milliners.
But remarked the friend to whom She
addressed the observation, ''do you know |
why the article brought only five dollars, !
while the dress commanded twenty five for |
merely putting togcthcr?''
"Wcll, no! - was the answer: ''mlcss it |
is because there are 50 many more women |
who want to write articles than there are
women who want to make drcsscs?
THAT may have something to do with it.
but it is not altogether the reason. \ much
more important one is the probable fact
that the dress was the work Of one who
knew her business. and the written article.
was not. Good work sooner or later com
mands good prices, and commands all the
better prices as good workers become more
and more scarce.
w hat is the reason that we dread to lose
an efficient servant conccntiou~ worker
in any department.? SIMPLY because they
are becoming so rare. Time was when
men We're proud of cXccllng in their cal
lmg-whatcver it was. Time was when
women would have been ashamed to ,rc.
tend to do what they did not know. Now.
men are only amXions TO get rid of their
calling; and women. who do not know
how to do the comnomcSt work. pretend to
the highest--not seeming to understand
that the higher includes the lower.
| This state Of things makes good work
and good workers valuable for never was
conscientious work more needed than now,
when work is becoming daily more complex
when the elaboration of all our domestic
and social life has grown 50 minute aS to
require clock-work precision. regularity,
and taithfulness, to prevent the machinery
from getting into disorder. And because
these qualities are not sufficiently exercised.
there is frighful disorder Simple women
want the complex dress of the period cndea-
vor to compass it at the cost Of peace of
mind and reposc-of body. vet after all find
that, instead of it, they have something
which is neither the expression of then
sense nor Of their taste, and they blame the
period instead of themselves.
The characteristics Of the time or the az,
are beyond individual control. We cannot
change them. but we can 10 a certain extent
prevent ourselves from being carried ava,
by them. Middle civilization tends tC
elaboration. Elaboration provides an in
tinitcly greater variety of work. But thai
work requires preparation. study. patience
and skill infinitely beyond work in its fil-
and most simple forms. Our modern i'm
provements and labor saving inventions ar,
all so many ingenious methods of imcrca
sing the quantity of labor to be performed
and the amount of money to be- earned
Twcnty-iiv" years ago fifty dollars woul,
purchase the fuel necessary for moderate
sized house in the city Of New York for
year. Now it costs two hundred. And ;
man must be hired. in addition to women
servants, TO feed the voraciou~ monster tia
consumes it. All this money has to h
E earned. II the master Of the houS,. cauno
furnish enough, the wife must 10 it, and
for this purpose. She must either 20 out 81
= add to her labors at home by taking boa!
dcrs." This is what it comes to in the end
E Therefore, instead of the mistress of tn
. house sweeping up her own hearth an,
sitting down beside it, she is deprived of i
q altogether. Her time is spent at business
t or at the butchers and the groccr's-cheu
t pening stale poultry. and calculating tn
I difference i'll her favor of rise of ten cent
t i'll butter and Il reduction of two cents il
+ potatoes. The servants no longer have
! second or third fire to make in the graf
Z or stove but they have mccSsant bells /
!. answer, piles upon piles of dishes to wash
h and none of the feeling of home comfor
O which they experienced when, in the qtlie
n of the ''aitcrnoon,' (what has become c
r the blessed 'aitcrnoon ?') the "mistrcss
r showed them how to cut their own clothe,
t and how to save money by making then
h 1t will be seen therefore that, nOtwithstan
!. ding "invcntions" and improvements.
@ there is more work than ever to be don,
g And if it is not done in one way it must i
q done in another and women must do thci
= share of it.
r Apart from the difficulty of paying hig
g wages and heavy drcS S,makcrs' bills. thcr
l. is great satisfaction in the thought tha
e hand-work is beginning to be recognized
<, BY and by, at this rate, our hand-aborcl
n will be our aristocratS. Men and womc
IF are 50 eager to rush into what are considerc
o refined and honorable callipgS that tn
market is overstGckcG with teachers an
=" writerr, and lawyers and doctors, and Gle
e gymcn. And as the wages paid for mechar
5, ical labor increase, some will drop out
G the starving professions, and take IL
j. wcll-paid industrial work.
1t Young girls need not be afraid, therefor,
h of loss of taste by becoming dressmakel
II instead Of authors. A princess is to-da
70 earning her living and supporting her chi
e drcn in London as a millipor And dres
= makers in New York ride in their carrii
gcs, while poets and their wivcs toLn In