Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-02-19
ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS.
who Make Them. and How They Are
Wade.
From the Boston Transcript

WV Wade
From the Boston Transcript
French flowers are always made in
France. Sometimes they are fashioned
bythe taper fingers of young girls, some
fines 10y the trembling hands of lonely
old women, and sometimes whole families
mite to manufacture them, everybody,
from the father TO the tiniest child, taking
part in the work. NJ Champany tells a
pretty story of an ugly old maid who
assiduously studied botany, andpractlced
the imitation of MOSES, ferns, and
berries until she could deceive milliners
and even naturaHsts, and they both be-
Geyed that she had discovered the secret
of making a varnish in which she dipped
the products 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
customers, filling orders for garnltures
to match costumes, and using materials
too costly and rare to be employed IL
flowers to be sold to the general public.
She lived in France, too. SO general is
the impression that all tiower-makers
also live in the same country that the
American maker of artificial blossoms is
almost unknown to fame, except through
the exertions of the genial romancer, the
New York reporter, who occasionally
speaks of her as dying Of arsenic poison
ing, and recants his statement the next
day. Nevertheless, two-thirtls OF the
French artificial flowers used i'll the
United States are made here, and most
of them are made by Americans.
The number of tiower-mallers in and
around Boston is between 800 and 400,
and nearly all of them are Americans.
About % French girls, pupils of the best
Partisan manufacturers, have taught
their fellow orkmen 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 nower-makers live III New York, and
IN that city the work is subdivided almost
as minutely as it is in France, a few men
and uo1r,on nnonor0lini.Ass the production
| Of certain parts Of the flower For III
stance, all the stanens 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
petal.
The work is less artistic and more me-
chanical than one would suppose until
one had seen it done. The petals are
stamped out Of the fine, smooth nainsook
called flower muslin, and then go the
dyer, who gives them their color, artfnlly
contriying to shade it so as to initiate ma
ture and leaving very little for the pencil
of the artist who manipulates the leaves
,f,v, I I, ,l,l-,
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 III
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 beginners con-
sanity referring to natural flowers placed
before them as models, and the old hands
trusting to their trained memories, ex-
cept when filing special orders.
The work of the brancher" is quite
as important as that of the dyer, for it is
She who arranges the completed blossoms
SOFAS to set off the beauties of each one,
and gives them that natural look which
ordinary fingers cannot initiate. Her task
spurely artistic, and is SO difficult that
many who have mastered every other
part Of the business fail when they I'M
dertake her work. The best milliners
employ branchers of their own, and
many spray Of French flowers contains
blossoms culled from half dozen
|ieaths by American fingers and put to-
Rether to suit some special bonnet. The
%TeaFer never knows the difference, Won
aefS why 1t is that sprays or flowers
manufactured in Paris should exactly
natch the bonnet that she planned in
boston, and thinks herself specially IA
yored by fortune.