The morning call., 1891-06-28
How GIRLS CAN
LIVE VERY CHEAP.
What Good Management Can Effect on
-Four Dollars a Week.
Where Ambitious Maids Are Taught to Make
Designs for Carpets and WALLPAPER.
a Cooperative Scheme.

to expend for board and lodging, and yet
there are girls in New York supporting
themselves with that expenditure, says the
New York Tribune. "0h, yes, of course,
says some one, poor sewing-girls on the
East Side"
Not at all; they are healthful, bright-eyed
young women, and their abiding place is no
less fashionable and high-priced neighbor-
hood than Fifth avenue, near Eighteenth
a street. The aforesaid young women have
not been drilled in the school OF poverty and
necessity, either. They are simple, self
reliant, we'll educated daughters of the
south and west, who have come to study
the art of technical design at Mrs. Cory's
School of Industrial Art, and don't want to
spend any more of their fathers and broth
ers' money about. it than is necessary.
Up on the top floor of the big building at
1874 Fifth avenue are these ab0deS of econ
omy and miniature housekeeping. Each
room is occupied by two girls, who pay 50
week apiece for rent. Then they each rut
So week in a household purse, and the
most determined girl holds the purse
strings. If she finds the weeks approprla-
ton disappearing too quickly she pulls the
purse-strings littl6 tighter and all luXurl-
GUS tendencies are depressed with stern
hand.
AS for the kitchens themselves, chapter
In the DOLLS House" ought to be devoted
to their description. Various decreplt dry
goods boxes furnish the basis OF the Struc-
ture.
BOARDING CHEAPLY.
PoTtieres of the richest calico, strung on
a brass rod close the front of the establish
ment and protect its internal arrangements
from the unfriendly eye. The boards conf
liz hnr in q
somewhat haphaZard manner characteristic
of feminine carpenterlng. An occasional
crOOkedly driven nail, splinteTed plank or
cleat askew bears witness to the anguish OF
mind aid finger expended in the building OF
this shrine OF cooking.
On the top of these cabinet kitchens is ar
ranged that portion OF the little stock OF
china which is Innocent Of flaws, while on
the upper shelves OF the interior are the less
presentable utensils, the hotties and pans,
the oil stove and the spice boxes. On the
lower shelves are the bread tins, the sugar
boxes. the bag of flour and other stores.
The cebox Is outside the window, and the
laundry behind the closet door.
The houSekeeper for each week makes a
pilgrimage to Washington market every
three or four days, and puts out the few dol
lars in her purse in the manner that will
stretch the amount the most, the bill OF fare
including meat, fish, vegetables, pancakes,
ETC., with an occasional flight into the higher
regions Of cake and pastry.
Many of the students realize enough
money from the sale of their designs for
wall papers, carpets, oleloths, silks, tiles
and prints of all kinds to pay portion of
their expenses. Some have paid all their
expenses by work done while at school. A
good design will sell for S25. Sometimes as
much as $50 or $40 will be paid for an elab0-
rate deslgl.
Mrs. Cory's hobby is practical instruc-
ba will mt aIiOVC har NtniiC m m
out work which is simply pretty but of no
use to the manufacturer because OF the limi-
tation of machinery and the requirements of
business.
TRICKS OF THE BUSINESS.
There are lots of little tricks of the trade
which must be known before one can do
work that can be used IN the factories
Thus, in the average loom fer making body
Brussels carpet only five cOlOrs can be
used. The average wallpaper printing ma
chine can only handle eight cOlors at one
impression. The largest machine will take
twelve. Additional colOrs require second
printing and this increases the cost. Two
wet colors must not be laid together in
printing, for they will run, ETC.
Professional designers keep their knowl-
edge TO themselves They will teach no.
body but their apprentices, and they will
only take boys as apprentices. Mrs. Cory's
work is to get lovely woman" within this
charmed trade circle.
The School of Industrial Art and Techni-
cal Design for Woman, as Mrs. COry's inSti-
tuition is called, has about 500 pupils on its
books many of whom are taught by CORE
spondence. One student is in Japan, and
part of the work of pupils and graduates is
the making OF designs for real japanese
goods" manufactured in this country. In
speaking Of her system of instruction yes
terday while sitting in an easy rocking chair
and keeping one eye on a class Of young wo-
men struggling with the mysteries of per-
spective, Mrs. Cory said:
1.-The first year is taught geometrical ar
rangement, conventiOnaliZatiOn of flowers,
the drawing of flowers from nature and
adapting them to simple designs-that is,
prints, etc. The technicalities are simple
az concerns WALTZ paper, chintz calico or
anything that is printed. In the second
year | teach the principles aud the techni-
calities of machinery and designing of all
fabrics upon which the design is brought to
the surface by the jacquard loom lall de-
signs that are woven are brought to the sur
face by jacquard loom, whether they are
red and white table-cloths, linen table
cloths, carpets, silks-aDy fabrics in which
the design is brought to the surface"