The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-01-29

toners, filing erdcrs for garnitures to
match costumes. and using materials
too costly and rare to be employed in
flowers to be sold to the general public.
She lived In France too. So general
IL the impression that all Aower-makers
also live In the same country, that the
American maker Of artificial blossoms
is almost unknown to fame, except
through the exertions of that genial ro-
mancer, the New York reporter, who
occasionally speaks of her as dying of
arsenic poisoning, and drecants his state
ment the next day. Nevertheless, two
thirds of the French" artificial flow
ers used in the United States are made
here, and most of them are made by
Americans. --- -t- -e
The number of f1ower-makers in and
around Boston is between three and
four hundred, and nearly all of them
are Americans. About twenty-five
French girls, pupils of the best Paris
ian manufacturers, have taught their
fellow-workmen their business, and
have taught them so well that three out
of five Of their pupils can equal the
work of the teachers. A very large
number of f1ower-makers live in New
York, and in that city the work is sub
divided almost IS minutely as it is in
France, few men and women monopo-
lizing the production of certain parts
of the flower. For instance, all The
stamens and pistils, which are known
to the trade as "peeps." are made by
an old Frenchman in New York, and
the rubber calyxes and stems are the
work of hands that never touch apetal.
The work is less artistic and more
mechanical than one would suppose
possible until one had seen it done.
The petals are stamped out of the fine,
smooth nainsook called flower muslin,
and then go to the dyer, who gives
them their color, artfully contriving to
shade it so as to initiate nature and
leaving very little for the pencil of the
artist who manipulates the leaves of
variegated blossoms. The exquisitely-
shaded rose petals owe their gradations
of color to the dyer, with whom it rests
to give them that fiery red which is
said to make them good substitute
for rouge, or to leave them almost as
pale in hue as when they come to him.
After they leave his hands they are
separated and given to the makers, who
arrange them properly, the new begin
ners constantly referring to natural
flowers placed before them as models,
and the old hands trusting to their
trained memories, except when filing
special orders.
The work of the I" brancher'' is quite
as important as that of the dyer, for it
is she who arranges the completed
blossoms so as to set off the beauties of
each one, ana gives them that natural
look which ordinary fingers cannot imi-
tate. Her task is purely artistic, and
is so difficult that many who have
mastered every other part of the busi-
ness fail when they undertake her
work. The best milliners employ
branchers of their own, and many q
spray of French flowers contains bios
SONS culled from half q dozen wreaths
by American fingers, and put together
to suit some special bonnet. The
wearer never knows the difference;
wonders why it is that sprays of flow
ers, manufactured in Paris, should ex-
actly match the bonnet that she planned
in Boston, and thinks herself specially
favored by fortune.-Boston Transcript.