Daily Yellowstone journal., 1890-06-04
MAXINE DOLLS AT SEVENTY.
Margaret Ball, u Graduate of Rutgers,
Ekcs Out "a Living In This Way.

Ekes Out "a Living In This Way.
She is a dainty little gentlewoman,
San unappropriated blessing 20 years
old. Once she was rich and lived in
swelldom and had her maids To serve
her and II coachmn and a carriage.
She graduated at Rutgers, and was Il
winsome belle, gladstone and gracious
and the dispenser of many Joy giving
huspitalities.
Lacking The prudent g~aniusof linan-
cicring, after her parents died, one
way and another she lost a great deal
OF money, and II day She realized,
with keen forcboding, that She waS nj
most alone in this biz world, with very
little 10 keep her from starvation. She
WAS only learned in gracious house
hold ways, which are of little money
value ia the practical workaday world.
She finally invested her bit of money
in goods. hoping to make "A living by
keeping store" She established her
self in II quiet street in Brooklyn, and
for a time her enterprise succeeded,
but gradually the large stores grew
more attractive and the street less de.
sirable for the better class of people,
and the little old lady was forgotten,
and the problem of getting a living
was harder TO solve than before.
The store began TO look secdy and
empty, and the storekeeper's courage
was almost gone, when one daya child
came in To buy ''the doll in the shoe
1t was a rag doll, with a group of gay
oigmies about 1.-THE old woman in
the shoe'-which a kind friend had
made for her window wien she first
opened the store. She WAS glad toscll
it how, but o - replaced il with IN
other. which was also sold, aud 50 on
until the Worrying problem of how 10
earn her bread solved itself in tlis
happy, proyidculial way. and She de.
cided Ia make RAG doll, for Il living.
Her aged sister sewcd the dresses uu
the machine until She had the odd
fashioned rheumatism so badly she
could do nothing, and Il helper had I,
be hired - do them.
The dolls are very cute and chIc.
Notwithstanding they are made of
stout corset jean stuffed with cotton
and dressed in simple wash calico, but
the dresses are pretty and 50 are the
coquctti>A bonnels made of the same
material. \ dainty bit of lace at the
neck and sleeves, and artistic touches
here aud there. add an air of delicacy
to the rig, which tells in a subtle yet
convincing way that long ago the
CHEEKY little gentlewomen delighted
in pretty fcmininities Of exquisite
style and of texture dainty and sheer.
A society belle, of Brooklyn. paints
the faces of the rag dolls. She has
many social demands, but makes time
to do this work of love and charity
with u~nvarying faithfulness.
A kind friend took some of the rag
beauties TO the seaside, and the orders
from a fashionable resort kept the
workers comparatively comfortable
during the summer. The dolls sell for
q dollar apiece at the home of the
worker and a trifle more than hat in
the different exchanges for woman's
work where they have found a placer.
The aged maiden is affectionately
called 1.-THE CHEEKY little doll woman"
and the name suits her signally well.
She has no misgivings, no repinings,
and, like a true little gentlewoman
that she is, never refers to the days
when she was better off" Her only
worry-a great one to her is to get
clothes for her rag dolls. This qucs
ton absorbs her thoughts more than
anything else, and she has TO buy
with exacting Judgment and cut her
cloth with close economy.
In her sunny personality one for
gets how pathetic he: life history is.
To be making rag dolls in a dismal,
sunless, stuffy little store in a fcrlorn,
u%ninviting by.street in Brooklyn at
the age of 20 is a heartaching
contrast to the time when she was
costly housed in luxurious surround.
ings not far from the Lorillards some