Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-10-30
FLOWERS,

na reporter was passing a shop on
West Side he happened to glance
ro,,rh the window, and his attention
:. arrested by the proceedings of a
mo and pretty girl inside. She had
..ne before her, around which she
nv twined nos and small green
,yes. and then, as she stepped back to
|. tbc effect of her work, tied white
.es neatly in the corners. Entering
:. shop. the proprietor was found
liking up to his elbows in a mass of
,,tv flowers and leaves. The re-
Erter venturcd to say that it was a
" to use such delicate buds so rough
and the man looked up and said, as
laughed: "Why, these are not real
Iwers: they're only artificial. There,
II NAV crush up that rosebud as much
YOU like, but you won't do it much
rn,. These II not the kind that
ample and decay, as the poet saws.
ouch what poet l can't for the life of
= say. What's that young woman
b;ng2: Why she's making a Coates
E,r" for a funeral party, and as its
+ to be delivered tonight, she will
I've to work pretty smart to get
rough in good time. Artificial flower
sking is quite a new industry in Chi
90. but Judging from the way it has
ready taken root | think it will soon
/ very hourishing. 1t is purely an
lotto. imported from Paris, where
cre are vast establishments devoted
nothing else but the manufacture of
MYERS and leaves gathered from every
larter of the globe. These" point
9 to a row of large green leaves,
Eich were marked irregularly by bars
the most brilliant scarlet imagina-
e-.these are plants which you would
ink exaggerated in their coloring.
he people of Paris thought so when
lev were first introduced; but they
how now that they are merely exact
b%itations of the Mexican begonia.
pitations of all your rarest American
overs are now to be found in the
tawing-rooms of Paris, side by side
it'll the orchids gathered in Borneo,
perhaps along the almost UNI
splored headwaters of the ORR
oco. I myself learned the
Il of making artificial flowers
the French capital, and l think l am
be only person in this country who
ss done SO; and, so far as that goes,
don't think that even in New York
here is a firm that makes flowers from
BE- stem to the bud as we do over here
Chicago. l have three French girls
bat | brought here with me and half a
zen Chicago girls. The latter I
box in hand to train a little over three
l0nths ago, and already they are doing
ery well, making up good leaves and
be simpler flowers. such as these snow
alls. The most laborious flowers to
initiate are rosebuds, Gala lilies, hello
ropes, lilies of the valley and lilacs.
look at this lilac, and you will see that
he little dots of yellow seed have to be
ut in each separately by a process
khich is a secret of the trade, and that
very minute stem has to be covered
fith silk just exactly the hue of the
Items of the natural flower. Perhaps
Die pond lily, which has an open calyx,
: the easiest of all flowers to initiate.
Dur flowers are not copied from paint
ngs, but directly from nature. When
oyer, for instance, l see a rose that
ktrikes me, l buy it and set to work at
/ initiating it. There are men in
France who do this so skillfully that
(hey are fully entitled to be called art
(sts: for to the most delicate apprecia-
fon Of nature they unite the most deli
pate manual power of copying natures
tandiwork."
How much can your young women
make u week at this Industry" the
Exporter asked.
I'VE require wcll-educated young
women, and prefer those who have had
En elementary art education. My best
helpers make ten dollars, and the APP
brentlces, so to speak, average from
three dollars to seven dollars a week.
Artificial flower making is peculiarly
suited for women of refinement. and
when the industry spreads in the West,
|as it certainly will, it will furnish en-
|%ployment for many thousands who are
mot accustomed to hard work and yet
Heel compelled to something to support
themselves"
What are artificial flowers most en-
|ployed for?~
"Of course for household decoration
and ornament. Here, for instance, is
a large palm which we have just made
Tor the Chicago Opera House. You
would think that the leaves were made
Of lndia-rubber, but they are simply
french muslin peculiarly sized and pre-
pared. There is a growing demand for
artificial flowers for funeral purposes.
AT Mis- seaso of the year natural flow
ers are about as cheap as artificial
lowers, but in the winter the artificial
llowers are almost fifty per cent.
cheaper. Then. these flowers, which
can not be told from natural flowers at
a distance of three feet, have the adj
vantage of being practically everlast-
ing. You are aware that in the case
OF death many people love to have GER
tain devices in natural flowers pre-
served in memory of the dead. The
process of preservation is a most ex-
pensiye and laborious one, as each
spray and petal has to be covered with
wax. What does this result in? Sim
ply that natural flowers are turned into
"ax-t1owers. These wax-fowers are
subject to the ordinary vicissitudes OF
leat, and in a hot room or when accl.
o%entally exposed to the sun will melt
AWAY iuct liLo q oopd1o No cnph acGl-