The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-14
Women Of Business in London.

London Letter to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The first lady knew who ventured into
business was the Hon. Mrs. Maberley, She
opened milk shop in London; her carts
and billheads bore her own name in full
and she was simply untiring i'll her personal
! supervision of her shop. No paltry pride
or caste feeling kept her from doing her
work as head of that establishment; but her
successful career was cut short by an illness
which unhappily proved fatal. Women OF
position can afford to lead the way for their
struggling sisters, and as an example is
worth any number of arguments propose
| to record two most successful experiments
in similar directions.
Some years ago became acquainted with
bright, clever girl whose father was
! well-known Yorkshire lawyer. She was
then Queens College student; on return
ing home she entered with great spirit into
the usual engagements which come to an
ordinary young lady in society. After
! time they palled upon her and she expended
a great deal of energy i'll philanthroplc
| efforts; finally she determined on "a career
| of honorable work rather than a life of dull
! inactivity or intermittent charitable enter
prises, and casting off the shackles which
imprision weaker women, she dared to be
| herself-not the reflection of a mere class.
She went through course of training,
studied house decorations ftom hearth tiles
to frieze paintings, visited all the places
where she could find antique furniture and
| the newest inventions-in short thoroughly
| qualified herself for the business in which
she has sincs made a reputation. About
three years ago, after having had a great
| success in London, where she furnished
| houses from roof to basement, Miss Charlotte
| Robinson came to Manchester and opened
| a shop in King street, and regardless of that
| bugbear which terrifieS most women-the
| loss of social status-she put up her own
name over the door, and without the least
self assertion quietly entered into competi-
ton with the sterner sex. The result has
| been eminently satisfactory. This year Miss
| Robinson has had in addition to her ordi-
nary business two exhibits which have
| attracted universal admiration, one at Salt
aire and the other at the famous Manchester
| Exhibition; next year she proposes to eX-
hibit at Glagow and possibly at Brussels.
Her furniture designs are simple and
unique; she has dainty and quaint arrange
mentS for coy hooks and odd corners and
has good reason to be proud of the work of
the artists employed in the studio over
which her clever sister, Mrs McClelland, is
the presiding genius. Miss Robinson had at
first some difficulty in making people under
stand that her work is really commercial,
not charitable; she feels that until healthy
public opinion is created, women will pose
as destitute ladies'" and never take dig
nihed position in any calling they adopt.
Gentlemen who earn their own living are
| not spoken of as destitute" and we must
Danish this idea in connection with ladies
who are engaged in an equally honorable
manner
Lady Granville Gordon was the first to
open a millinery business in London, and
her example was quickly followed by a
Girtcn girl known as Nine Isabel of Bond
street. Neither of these ladies trades under
her own name, but as their experience will
probably clear the way for others, the
following details of why Nine. Isabel be-
came a woman of business are valuable. In
| the first place her husbands health failed,
and he was ordered to India, where his wife
hoped to secure educational work. The
climate made her so i'll that she returned to
England convinced that she must at once
abandon all idea of studying medicine. She
consulted friends who fortunately knew
that commercial life offered a suitable
opening for clever, industrious women; she
was strongly advised by them ito go into
business She decided to begin without
delay. At first she tried a partnership with
an established milliner, but that was I'M
satisfactory owing to differences in taste
and position. Later on this enterprising
lady took a shop on her own responsibility
in Bond street, and started off to Paris to
complete arrangements there. On the 18th
of March, 1886, she opened the doors of
what has proved very successful under
taking thanks TO unfailing attention to
details Nine Isbel personally conducts all
| important business matters, and though
she has an excellent housekeeper for her
assistants home she looks after its welfare
herself. Her customers always find a
pleasant welcome and afternoon tea at 5
o'clock. Like Miss Robinson, she still often
finds time to go into society when her days
work is done, and has not had her name
erased from any visiting list she values.
The more highly educated our women of
business are the better for themselves, their
work and the whole community. Many of
the professions to which ladies have hitherto
turned are overcrowded, and when once the
fear of losing social position is boldly
disregarded, it will be found that commercial
life offers a variety of more or less lucrative
employment to ladies of birth and capital,
who find it more congenial to their tastes
and requirements to invest their money and
spent their energies in a business which
yields a fair return, rather than sit at home
content with scanty pittance and color
| less, monotonous life.