The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-01-31
Artificial Flowers.

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France. Sometimes they are fashioned
by the taper fingers of young girls.
sometimes by the trembling hands of
lonely old women, and sometimes whole
families unite to manufacture them,
everybody from the father to the tint
est child, taking part in the work. Mr..
Champney tells pretty story of an
ugly old maid who assiduously studied
botany, and practiced the imitation of
MOSES, ferns and berries until she
could deceive milliners, and even nat
uralists, and they both believed that
she had discovered the secret of making
a varnish in which she dipped the prod
ucts of the fields and hedges, thus
preserving their color and shape. She
lived in France, of course. Then there
was the pretty girl who remained at
home. and only worked for special GUS
toners, filling orders 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
is the impression that all fower-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 recants 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.
The number of flower-makers in and
around Boston is between three and
four hundred, and nearly all of them
are Americans. About twenty
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 fower-makers live in New
York, and in that city the work is SUBJ
divided almost as infinitely as it is in
France, few men and women monopo-
LIKING the production of certain parts
of the flower. For instance, all the
stamens and pistiis, which are known
to the trade as "peeps," are made by
an old Frenchman in New York, and
the rubber ealyxes and stems are the
r"nTrk enf bp44s tihesss r.afHaayotonah<a 'lataL
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 continuing 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, tie new begin
ners constantly referring to natural
flowers placed before them as models,
and the old hands trusting to their
trained memories, except when filling
special orders.
The work of the brancher' is quite
as important as that of the dyer, for 1t
is she who arranges the completed
blossoms so as to set of the beauties of
each one, and 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 bust
ness fail when they undertake her
work. The best milliners employ
branchers of their own, and many
spray of French flowers contains bios
SONS culled from half a 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.