Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-08-02
Women of Business in London.

Women of Business in London.
The first lady | knew who ventured
into business was the Hon. Mrs Mar
berley. She opened milk shop in Lon
don her carts and billheads bore her
own name in full, and she was simply
untiring in her personal supervision of
her shop. No paltry pride or caste feel
ing kept her from doing her work as
head of that establishment but her sue
cessful 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 ex-
ample is worth any number of argu-
ments | propose to record two success
full experiments in similar directions.
Some years ago | became acquainted
with bright, clever girl, whose father
was a well-known Yorkshire lawyer.
She was then a Queens College student !;
on returning home she entered with
great spirit into the usual engagements
which come to an ordinary young lady
in society. After a time they palled
upon her and she expended great deal
of energy in philanthropic efforts :;
finally she determined on a career of
honorable work. rather than life of
duh inactivity or intermittent charitable
enterprises, and casting off the shackles
which imprison weaker women, she
dared to be herSelf-not the reflection of
a mere glass. She went through course
of training, studied house decorations
from hearth tiles to frieze paintings,
visited all the palaces where she could
find antique furniture and the newest
lnventions-in short, thoroughly quail
fed herself for the business IN which she
has since made a reputation. About
three years ago, after having had a great
success in London, where she furnished
houses from roof to basement, Miss Char
Iotte Robinson came to Manchester and
opened shop in King street. and re-
yarCless of that bugbcar which territies
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 compe itlOn with
,he sterner sex. The result has been
.minently satisfactory. This year Miss
Robinson has had i'll addition to her
ordinary business two exhibits which
have attracted universal admiration, one
at Saltaire, and th; other at the famous
Manchester exhibition next year she
proposes to exhibit at GLASGOW and pos
,ibly at Brussels. Her furniture designs
are simple and unique; she has dainty
and quaint arrangements for coy hooks
and odd corners, and has good reason to
be proud of the work of the artists en-
poyed in the studio over which her
clever sister. Mrs. McClelland is the pre-
,idine genius. Miss Robinson had at
first some difficulty in making people
understand that her w prk is really COM
mercial, not charitable; she feels that
until a healthy public opinion is created,
women " i'll pose as destitute ladies,
and never take dignified 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 man
ner.
Lady Granville Gordon was the first
to open millinery business in London,
and her example was quickly followed
by Girton 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
Mme Isabel became a woman of bust
ness 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 Eng
land convinced that she must at once
abandon all idea of studying medicine.
She consulted friends who fortunately
knew that commercial life offered suit
able opening for clever, industrious
women: she was strongly advised by
them to go into business" She de-
cided to begin without delay. AT first
she tried partnership with an estab-
lished milliner, but that was unsatisfac-
tory 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 a very successful
undertaking, thanks to unfailing atten-
ton to details. Nine. Isabel personally
conducts all important business matters,
and though she has an excellent house
keeper for her assistants home she looks
after its welfare herself Her customers
always find a pleasant welcome and
afternoon tea at ) o'clock. Like Miss
Robinson, she still often finds time to go
into society after her days work is done,
and has not had her name erased from
any visiting list she values. The moro
highly educated our women of business
are the be 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 disre-
garded it will be found that commercial
life offers variety of more or less lucra-
tive employment to ladies of birth and
capital, who find it more congenial to
their tastes and requirements to invest
their money and spend their energies in
business which Yields a fair return,
rather than sit at home content with a
scanty pittance and colorless. monoto-
nous life.
The Widows Cork Leg.
In one of ChlCago's public Institutions
is a bright-eyed, witty Irish BFldoW who
loves a joke as only the people from her
country do. In the same institution is