Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-12-30
WOMEN WHOSELLTEA
GENTlEWOMEN OF DISTINGUISHED
~ BIRTH IN BUSINESS. 81.

0CIN VT LID lNSOlOE1CD
BIRTH IN BUSINESS.
In England Highborn Ladies Do Not
Forfeit Their Social Position If They
Engage in Trade-How the Ladies' Tea
Company Of London Manages. @
A g~entlewoman in search of an income
furnishes a complex situation. Possessing
the inherited belief that repose is her es-
sential element, she yet faces the necessity
to act, so that vary extremes have met.
The position is tragic, n none the less So
that it is the result Of an artificial training.
It has been curiously observed of late
that the English g"entlewoman is more
ready to go into trade than the American
woman Of breeding is. This may or may
o be because Of the greater certainty of
social position here. When a woman in
heriting Il title rum Il millinery shop she
does not by her act forfeit her title or the
respect due to it, whereas with us social
position in the fashionable world cannot be
maintained without money, which if a
woman keeps IL shop obviously she is with
out.
However it is, English women of birth
ohAu AiStih Nv Co
in trade So far as to make the tendency
quite worth remarking, and their eS-
perience worth the consideration of olr
own gently bred women who need to earn
q living.
With us women of advantages turn by
choice to mental occupations, the sciloo.
room being the great resource. In NV
York city alone there are mum'rr: of
lovely women, members of old f~nnlilirs CT
generations of refinement, who, W:tii t.t
natural shrinking from TRACE Sivr;t ti.la
by their training, are dragging n"t IN
satisfactory lives as teachers in p!rTti!
schools; they are screwed down in SALARY
by the principals, OF the plea of ov i
supply of teachers, to scarcely enough to
keep body and soul together.
The attention of such women is called to
the ventures Of English women in trade,
and especially to an interesting depart
ment which I am about to describe. It
really is worth our women's while to con-
slider whether the apparently superior gen
tility of the teachers work is worth the
sacrifice of an independent career and pos
sible accumulation of income.
The venture of which l speak is a tea
company controlled and operated by gen
tlewomen. These ladies' own one-fifth of a
large estate in Ceylon, where they grow
their own tea, and so do their own import
ing without any middlemen. They do
their w blending, packing, selling and
all the drudgery incidental to the business.
Their employees are a secretary and a
waitress in the tasting room, both of whom
are cultivated women.
The company is a limited one of seven
shareholders, two Of whom act as manag-
ing directors. These directors nave mas
tered every detail of the business with /,
t~horoughness parallel to that required of a
nurse in a training school, and you can see
them in the packing room of the establish.
ment enveloped in big aprons and caps
doing up their own packages-not an easy
matter folding a pound of tea into the reg
ulation size pound papers! The tea will
burst out and fly all over just when one
seems to have captured it, and it requires
much practice to do it expertly.
The business Of the company is conducted
in a quiet suite of rooms, up two easy
flights of stairs, in BOND street in the midst
Of the fashionable shopping district. There
is a secretary's office, a packing and sell
ing room n II tasting room. Their sales,
which are all retail, are made here to pur-
chasers who come in, n also throughout
the United Kingdom by mea1s of agents
who are ladies, and to whom they give s
high commission. Indeed, the most vita,
fact concerning the company is hat though
it has been in operation but four months
it now employs sixty of these agents and il
all but paying its eXpenses-a f1ourishins
condition of affairs that indicates gooG
management and a profitable market fol
tea.
Their special brand is the Ceylon raised
by themselves, but they also blend othel
teas called for by the market. There ar,
as many flavors as there are tastes for tea
a pinch more Of Souchong for one; a soup
con of Hyson for another-the variation i
endless. Blending requires patience ant
experience. and is a skilled work in itself
but it has been accomplished by the ladies
and the result they have styled 'The La
dies Own Blend" and numbered one, two
three, etc.
A charming feature is the pretty parlors
where any intending customer may tast
his tea before buying it-an advantage tn
ordinary grocer does not supply. This ROOF
is thrown open to the public for "afternoo
tea" at a small price II cup with bread an
butter. 1t is an odd and delightful ea
perience to have in Il public place you
tray brought to you by a woman of Gu,
OuISs IL youI Aouu udu SOLc lubO you
pocket for a fee you draw it out again wit
disgust at yourself and the world of eatin
houses outside that encourages such degr;
l dation, and you look with grateful pleasu1
at your waitress in her cap and apron an
> almost believe that Bellamy's millennium
! has come. - rtg-.s.,s -
!. This, we reflect, is a gentlewoman wal
ing on us for wages-doingi if perfectly an
doing it without affectation, as any traine
servant would do.
1t shall be noted, however, that the pc
icy Of the company in employing on
g~entlewonen makes it easier to do sue
humble work. There is no contact wit
anything vulgar; the environment is a
ways refined: IT,. 49,,
The agents employed by the compar
are residents in towns and cities through
out the kingdom. They number anon
them a woman with Il title, another who
an honorable, and many clergymen
wives. These ladies do not solicit fro
door to door, but they mention the matt
to their friends who are willing to try tt
tea, and these mention it to others, al
when such orders are sent in TO the t.
cnmnanV thew are accnmnania1 NV ri