News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-07-17
MAKING DOLLS AT SEVENTY.
Margaret Ball, Graduate OF Rutgers
Ekes Out Living in This way

Fkes Out a Living in This Way.
She is a dainty little gentlewoman,
IAN unappropriated blessing" 20 years
old Once she was rich and lived In
swelldom and had her maids to serve
her and a coachman and carriage.
She graduated at Rutgers, and was
winsome belle, gladstone and gracious
and the dispenser of many JOY giving
hospitalities.
Lacking the prudent genius of finan-
ciering, after her parents died, one
wav and another she lost great deal
of money, and one day she realized,
with keen foreboding, that she was al
most alone in this big world, with very
little to keep her from starvation. She
was only learned in gracious house
hold ways, which are of little money
value in the practical workaday world.
She finally invested her bit OF money
in goods, hoping to make living by
ss<eepinp store" She established her
self in a quiet street in Brooklyn, and
for 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 living
was harder to solve than before.
The store began to look seedy and
empty, and the storekeeper's courage
was almost gone, when one day child
came in to buy ''the doll in the shoe.
It was rag doll, with group of gay
.Efho old
the shoe"-which kind friend had
made for her window VIXEN she first
opened the store She was glad to sell
il now, but soon replaced 1t with an
other, which was also sold, and SO on
i until the Worrying problem of how to
earn her bread solved itself in this
happy, providential way, and she de-
cided to make rag dolls for living.
. Her. AGED sister sewed the dresses uo
the machine until she had the ''old
J fashioned rheumatism" so badly she
u could do nothing, and a helper had to
y be hired to 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 so are the
4 coouettish bonnets made of the same
material. A dainty bit of lace at the
neck and sleeves, and artistic touches
: here and there, add an air of delcacy
% to the rig, which tells in a subtle We
n convincing way that long ago thu
10 CHEEKY little gentlewomen delighted
d in pretty femininities of exquisite
w stvle and of texture dainty and sheer
% A society belle, of Brooklyn, paint
the faces of the rag dolls. She ha
,r many social demands, but makes tim
ia to do this work of love and CHART,
al with unvarying faithfulness.
n A kind friend took some of the ra
4: beauties to the seaside, and the order
er from a fashionable resort kept tn
he workers comparatively comfortabl
er during the summer. The dolls sell fo
," dollar apiece at the home of til
worker and trifle more than that
n the different exchanges for woman
IN work where they have found a place
he. The aged maiden is affectionatel
ne called "the CHEEKY little doll woman
i. and the name suits her signally wei
ID She has no misgivings, no repining
TO and, like true little gentlewoma
We that she is, never refers to the ''da.
ne ne when she was better off" Her onl
,n ne worry-a great one to her-is to g
- clothes for her rag dolls. This que
ton absorbs her thoughts more tha
anything else, and she has to br
with exacting judgment and cut h
20 cloth with close economy.
20 In her sunny personality one fo
Nv wv gets how pathetic her life history
Iu .ho To be making rag dolls in disms
mn ,ne sunless, stuffy little store in forlor
e,s e., uninviting by-street in Brooklyn
asst the age of 20 is a heartachil
ich contrast to the time when she W
will costly housed in luxurious surroun
rti- ings not far from the Lorillards sor
the fifty years ago.-New York Herald.