The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-12-10
THE DoINGs OF WOMEN FOLK.
The Working Ladies' Guild of London
and the Flutterings of Social Butter
flies at Home

NEW YORK, Dec. s.-Royalty is put to
all manner of odd uses nowadays. For
instance. caught glimpse of it in London
in the act of presiding at the opening of a
store. 10 lay every description of corner
stone has become recognized branch of the
royal profession, and why not the corner
stone of fortunes
ltwas pretty little shop just off Regent
street for the prospective sale of wood cary
ings, poker work" small articles inlaid in
marqueterle. Bonnets peeped in at the
window, bonnets nodded in the doorway,
bonnets blossomed in dense mass inside
every bonnet pressing toward a circle of
yellow roses in the middle of the room. The
hedge of roses was the Gordon marking the
| august presence, and behind it stood her
Royal Highness Princess Frederick with
roses, gathered from the hedge, in her
hands and pinned upon her gown. 1t was
simple enough function-a buzz of talk,
an examination of the artistic trifes ex-
posed for sale, hush, half dozen grace
full sentences from the rose circle, flower
| royalty presented, a hustle of renewed con-
versation, a hint of some royal purchase,
| an adjournment for the inevitable tea
drinking. Simple, but Belgravia had been
| present and the future of the shop was as
sured. Princess Frederick is Jealous patron
offthe Working Ladies' Guild, and the small,
| pale-faced artist just establishing herself in
| business was one of the guilds pupils and
| proteges.
There are 5000, coo more women in Great
Britain than men, Thirty-seven per cent.
of all the women of manageable age in
England are unmarried. Fully one half of
| the women of the educated middle-class
-gentlewomen-of marriageable age are
without husbands. Economy is the watch
word of the day abroad. British fortunes
are shrinking. Ways and means of con-
tracing expenditure are everyday topics
| IN British papers. Estates will no longer
stand the charges upon them involved in
the maintenance of such horde of maiden
sisters. Women unused to lifting a finger
for themselves are being thrown in ever
increasing numbers on their own resources.
They have been brought up to no remuner-
| alive occupation. They have no business
experience. They have no business ideas.
they shrink with a painful constituencies
from contact with a rough and tumble
world. There are thousands on thousands of
them. What are they to doc
Eleven years ago the Working Ladies'
Guild was founded to assist one of the most
helpless, most pitiable classes which society
has to deal with, unmarried or widowed
gentlewomen. The place which it filled
was in such urgent need of filling that the
queen sent it money and Princess Beatrice
has become president of its departments,
working actively in It's cause and starting
fund in her own name to be devoted to its
objects. Identical in its aims with the ex-
changes for women's work, the first of which
Mrs. Candace Wheeler started in New
| York, and which are ramifying all over this
| country, the Working Ladies' Guild is more
extensive in its operations and more prac-
tical in some of its methods, as one would
| expect from the greater extremity Of the
| need to which it responds.
The guild has shop in Brompton road,
| London, where its goods are sold. These
| goods are comprised under five depart
| ments each of which has its own head and
| separate management. The first depart
| ment is that of plain needlework, orders for
| which are solicited from six different cen
| ters in the metropolis and two or three more
| in the suburbs Next comes art needlework
| which includes church work and tapestry
and which sends out some of the finest pieces
of order work in England. This department
supplies teachers for women who may wish
| lessons in embroidery and sends out ladies
| to repair old and valuable hangings. The
| third group supports more than hundred
| invalids aud elderly ladies who can knit,
| but whose strength or skill is equal to little
else. This is Princess Beatrice's depart
ment, and she is doing her best to bring into
fashion all manner of articles knit of
Angora rabbit wool, which, and the wheels
l
| Next comes the department for painting
and general art work which takes orders for
portraits, illuminations, china and mirror
| painting and decorative furniture. 1t
mounts drawings and photographs and
supplies teachers in many branches. The
/ department for army and poor work takes
| contracts for embroidering soldiers coats
| and orders for clothing for the poor. These
| five groups, through their main office and
| its branches find sale for articles which find
| employment for hundreds of ladies, most of
whom are wholly supported thereby. But
| with the management of its shops the work
| of the guild is ouly just begun. 1t supplies
| registry offices for emplcyments for ladies.
| 1t has now four such open in London,
| where governesses, lady housekeepers,
| matrons, teachers of music and languages,
| companions, readers, secretaries, chaper-
| ones, ladies to play dance music, to recite,
sing, play the violin, ETC., at parties are
| supplied.
The most interesting branch of its work,
| and one which has no parallel in the
women's exchanges of this country, consists
| in the leasing of two blocks of buildings,
camden Houses" and the Oakley Flats"
| the rooms of which are rented at as low
| rates as consist with making the apartments
| self-supporting to ladies whose lives would
| otherwise be tortured out of them in dingy
and dreaTy boarding houses. Rents in the
| Oakley Flats range from IS cents to 81 a
week per room. The rental of one bed
room, which is provided with open fire
| place and all manner of small conveniences,
| entities its tenant to the free use of sitting
and music rooms. Each block is provided,
| moreover, with its restaurant, at which a
| well-cooked meal of meat and vegetables
| can be had as low as 10 cents, or at the
narrowest possible margin over the cost of
| preparing the food. There are no vexa-
| tious restrictions such as have frustrated
many well meant efforts with us, and the
| complete independence and comfort secured
keep the rooms full and pressure of would
| be tenants for vacancies.
The guild is organizing branches in the
larger English cities and in no long time
will have network all over the kingdom
1t is helping ladies to emigrate establishing
hospital and invalid funds, has summer
vacation department, and, quite as inpor-
tant as anything, it tries to train for recog-
| nzed occupations such women as are not
| too old for techni cal instruction in trades.
| The Lady Mary Fielding is its animating
| spirit and it has in its counsels the March
ioness of Ripon, the Countess of Ducie, the
Lady Frances Balfour, Lady Eden, Lady
Knightiy and long list of notables aud
hardworkers who extend its influence and
its markets.
| Guests at 5 O'clock tea must fauoy them
selves now and then participating in the
ceremonies round a witches caidron. The