The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-07-12
LADIES OF COMMERCE.
4RISTOCR47IC ENGLISH WOMEN
HHO H1YE T1KEN TO SHOP
KEEPING FIFTH SUCCESS.
Ghost story-MilIions in Old Postage
Stamps-Interesting Items for Women
From tie London queen.

Items AoI NON
From the London Queen.
We wonder what the great ladies OF
a hundred years ago would say could
they see their granddaughter behind
the counteri when George the Third
was King" such a position for well
born and highly educated women
would have been quite impossible.
Anything the least original or out OF
the common was practically forbidden
for ladies then, and if poor Lady Hes
ter Stanhope, who persisted in h
wilderness" and one or two more
stood out in the crowd and took lines
of their own, they were treated as so
cial o~utcasts. Times We're easier then
for the Upper Ten Thousand than
they are now. Evil days have come;
40 rents, rebellious tenants, bad trade
and broken banks have told on the
richest, and have utterly broke the
poorer of the better classes, who now
often find themselves obliged
to turn themselves to any
thing or everything. Life is
not all cakes and ale by any means
now, ever to those who seemed at the
start well entered and lightly handi-
capped in the C OF life. In one
way, however, the hard times have
had some good result. 1t has at least
given those possessed of real pluck
and energy a chance of coming to the
front. Honor to the brave, if bravery
has only consisted in giving up a
pleasant society life and going in for
hard work from morn to dewy eve.
We refer particularly to those ladies
of good position who are engaged in
trade, keep shops and look after
them, make hats, bonnets and dresses
themselves, sell them, and who in
some cases are making a capital thing
of it.
Lady Granville Gordon Mime.
Pierce was the first in the field, closely
followed by Mrs. Pocklington mime.
Lili), whose establishment in Grafton
street we mean to describe at some
length, as it is the most important of
all the ladies' shops. OF course, there
are many others. Mrs. Charles Kerr
has her own name over her shop in
Duke street, Grosvenor square. She
has only set up quite lately, but her
relations and friends form a respecta-
BILE clientele" of themselves, and her
pretty pinef1ed-up hats and coquettish
bonnets, not to mention the gorgeous
tea gowns that are fitted ON up stairs
under the personal supervision of the
eager looking little lady, will, we hope.
bring plenty of grist to her mill.
Mrs. Cooper-Oakley (Mme. Isabel at
tends to business at No. 80 New Bond
street, and we see in her of what "a
Girton girl is capable, for Mrs.
Cooper-Oakley began life as a sweet
girl graduate" and has found her
mathematical training a great advan-
tage, as she can check her books and
look after her financial position her
self. Mrs. Labretouche and her
daughters, Mrs. LOTUS and Miss Nina
Labretouche, under the nom de
guerre of Mime. Victoire ct Gle"
work hard in rooms just above Atkin-
son, the we'll known Bond street per-
fumer. Their combined taste is very
good, as can be seen in the numerous
hats and bonnets displayed in their
pretty shOwrooms, and they also turn
out charming dresses of every descrip-
ton, from the gorgeous drawing-room
dress to the nearly as gorgeous tea
gown, rich with fur, gold or silver EN-
broidery, ~oEmpficeless lace. The Prin-
cess Mary OF Teck and her daughter
+ among their customers, whose
numbers increase steadily. Lady
Mackenzie is another well known lady
who has set up in hats and bonnets in
Sloan street. One of the latest re-
cruits to the ranks is Mrs. Stuart Men
zies, of Park lane, London, who, under
the nom de commerce Marion" has
begun business as a milliner and
dressmaker. Mrs. Quincy pins her
faith to French cutters and needle
women, and is Parisienne to the back
bone. A florist, a curfy-maker and a
furniture dealer are added to the list
of lady traders, and prove that some
thing beyond millinery and dressmak-
ing can be attempted by the fair.
We might greatly lengthen our list,
but space fails us, and we want to get
back to Mime. Lii in her beautiful
house in Grafton street, once the
home of Sir William Vernon Harcourt.
A dignified porter receives us at the
door, and we mount a broad, low
staircase, with panelled walls and
ceiling. The handsome reception
rooms, once SO well known in Sir
William Harcourt's time, are on the
first floor, and are now Nine. Lifts
show rooms. TheS are decorated in
the Louis Quinze style; the white
woodwork with which they are
panelled is picked out with gold, and
silk brocades, faded with time, adorn
the walls; the floors are parquet.
These rooms are well worth looking at
for themselves, though, of course, the
hats and bonnets on high stands that
cover the large centre table, and over
flow on the tables around, are the
great attraction. Smart girls in dark
dresses, nearly concealed under the
large spotless white apron of the
French bonnie, fit about looking after
customers, and putting pretty hats on
the heads of pretty girls, who eagerly
watch the effect of their new "coif-
fure" in the large Louis Quinze dress
ing glass in the corner, or in one of
the many long mirrors that line the
walls. An ante-chamber at the end of
this large room is where the last finish
ing touches are given to exquisite ere
ations, and where dreams of loneliness
in the shape of tea gowns are to be seen.
We cannot describe them at length,
but we carry away with us an i'm
preston of classical drapery, and of
the most fairy like clouds of diaphon-
Gus materials. All these artistic ar
rangements are ~noticeably and re-
markably beautiful, and yet some
how quite wearable-not overdone in
any way. The master hand, or per-