Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-08-03
GIRLS OF PARIS.
A Pretty Fete Which Annually Occurs

,, Paris Letter in New York Home
Journal: There is no prettier sight
to be seen here, even during the month
of May, when pretty sights are the
rule rather than the exception, than
the fete which the society for the pro
lection of apprentices in the feather
flower industry gives each year at the
IrocaderO to the many hundreds of
young girls whom it befriends. On
this OCCASION although a sort of IAN
nual meeting" is combined with the
fete, there is but little speech-makirg
and only one report is read. The lat
ter part of the afternoon is occupied
by concert, and concert as delight
full and brilliant as the occurrence of
some of the best artists of the Opera
COmiQue, the OdeOn and the Francois
can make it, but the concert is not,
either to the apprentices or the general
audience, the chief feature of the day.
What is of much greater interest to
thenl-and [ confess it is always so
to myself-is the comforting of prizes,
which this year reached the extraor-
binary number of 1O7 and amounted to
upward of 5000 francs
The annual cOncours de travail.
which takes place just before the
May fete, is most striking sight.
hundreds of apprentices being assem-
bled that day in the halls of the Hotel
Syndical. Each competitor receives a
mcclellan orchid, a water lily, a spray
OF calceOlaria or of lark-spur these
are some of the most difficult flowers)
freshly gathered, or, if she be a plum
design in feathers-which she is re
quired to copy in a limited time and
under the eyes of the officers
One concours alone is open to every
apprentice in the trade; all others are
rendered extremely difficult by the ap-
plicatiOn of stringent rules-for instance
that no one may compete who, during
the term of her apprenticeship, has
left one establishment to engage her
self in another. This is to prevent the
loss of time and injury to style caused
by change of instruction. The full
term for each branch is 10 years.
The prizes offered are for good con-
duct and elementary training, as well
as for technical work The greater
number OF the former are instituted by
the society itself, or by benevolent
individuals such as the Baroness James
de Rothschild, who makes herself re-
spOnsible for several. Many Of these
for technical work are provided by
the syndicate of manufacturers of flow
erS and feathering. or by certain state
Enthusiastically the ministers of
public instruction and of commerce
who fully recognize the importance,
from an economical point of view,
of maintaining a prestige which in this
direction France has so long enjoyed.
These are the prizes which are
awarded at the May festival, and when
I add that the same young girl fire.
quently wins two or three, which to-
gether mount up several hundred
francs, the intense interest exhibited on
the occasion, not only by the appren-
tees, but by their parents and instruct
ors (who make up a large proportion
of the spectators), may easily be I'M
agined. The actual money, however,
is not put into the hands of the appren-
tees: but, according to a very general
custom in France, it is deposited in
a savings bank and the winner of a
prize receives a little handbook with
the amount credited to her account.