Wichita eagle., 1890-03-07

INVENTIVE WOMEN.
Those Who Have Their Wits About Them
Can Make a Good Living.
JSpecial CorresDondeuce

Can Make Good Living.
Especial Correspondence.l
New YoRK, Feb. 24-In New York there
are many women who are making comforta-
ble livelihoods off the results Of little inven-
tions of their own, none of them great, none
of them complicated, yet each one clearly
the invention of the woman who puts the
little idea to practical use.
One woman vino injured her spine so that
she will be hereafter confined to her chair
makes the daintiest little scent bag and pen
wiper combined, and these she had her little
girl peddie around until the sale of them
grew so large that now she employs four
women to help in making them, and they are
eagerly bought up by fancy stores.
Another family, a mother and two daugh-
ters, whose circumstances have obliged them
to do something TO earn a livelihood. have
worked together, and they have more orders
than they can fill, and they get e good price,
and this is also a sermon on doing but one
thing and doing that we'll The invalid sister
paints exquisite and most original little de-
vices upon menu cards, upon dainty little
celluloid outsides for Charlotte Russo cups,
and she also makes cunning little turtles of
raisns and cloves as decorations to menu
cards.
Others have tiny bits OF slippers made of
peanut shells lined with satin, with painted
figures in the corner of the cards. Wise little
owls, also OF peanuts, sit side by side on a
twig, and there seems no limit to the dainty
fances that she works ont while lying on her
couch. The other sister does the most ex-
quisite embroidery in gold and silver thread
and III every other conceivable style. This is
done to order, and is usually for wealthy
families for decoration OF dinner tables, and
this is her speciality. The mother makes
lamp shades, in the form of butterflies, out of
transparent material, and these are so popu-
lar that she cannot make them fast enough.
Another woman who had to leave ease and
luxury behind her, and whose accomplish
ments were few, took to making chenille
monkeys which she hired a woman to peddle
for Ler in Fourteenth street. The funny little
things instantly took" and today she en-
ploys eighteen girls But she is conscious
that public taste is capricious, and she has
added many dainty little fancies to her store
of novelties, and so makes money.
It was q quick witted woman who bought
up the waste bits of fur at the manufactures
and made up hu2dreds OF tiny muffs and
tipDets for dolls, which sell rs fast almost as
the peddle.s Gun make change in the holiday
season, and they always sell well in the toy
stores.
One elderly ledy's sole support, her son,
was killed. and she was left to sink or swim
She cast about TO know what TO do and
finally went to making notions for boys
tennis bags of netting, crab nets, school bags,
skate bags, pen wipers and, in short, every
thing which her own experience or the boys
wants made nacessaTy-and she often says
now that instead of having one boy to love
her she has i hundred. Her young customers
hang around her and actually watch every
stitch she sets, and she has all that she and
two young ladies can do.
The list of fancy articles that women make
and find market for is legion-from fine
needle cushions, fir balsam and rose leaf pill
lows to the most elaborate embroidery. Wax
flowers and the preservation Of funeral
wreathS, bridal bouquets and fragrant love
tokens & i've a great many employment;
but perhaps the trade in paper flowers and
fancy lamp shades is the most remunerative.
The work is dainty, and there is always
q fascination III creation. You cannot stay
five minutes in one of the fancy stores with
out seeing some quaint, useful or pretty trifle
which is go new to your eyes that you cannot
refrain from making inquiry, and you ffni
that it is the invention OF some lady who left
it there to sell.
Who but women would have thought Of
taking a plain glass bottle and covering it
with silk, painting a flower and tying rib
bon on it, thus making it pretty and novel
enough to be salableF | knew widow with
two children TO support. She cast about her
for something to do, and with her delicate
health she felt that the outlook was poor
Finally she made up her mind and decided to
live or die, and SO she took a pretty office,
fitted it up elegantly, bought a lot Of cosmet-
les and manicure implements, had some ex-
Quisite satin paper circulars printed in silver
letters, and she sent these to the most exclu-
sive Of the 400 and invited them to her man.
icure parlors at very high Esice each.
She put almost her last penny in this enter
prise, and she argued that she would rather
have one customer at 50 than five at dollar
apiece. From the very first day of her open
ing she had more than she could attend to
alone, and today, after five years Of work,
she is independent. Had she learned her
trades Never, but she had had her own
pretty hands treated SO often that she knew
how to do il.
| know several women who have made
money by inventing S'01e device for making
women loveher-son2e wash, or cosmetic, or
powder. The greatest difficulty with these
Is to get them on the market; still, the in
ventorS always manage to make something
out of them.
The bright witted woman who sets those
wits TO work can aly-2ys make living and
sometimes more, We the less intelligent
must starve along Oh plain sswing.