Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-08-04
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
TrOcadero 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 making
and only one report is read. The lat
ter part of the afternoon is occupied
by a 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
them-and I confess it is always so
to myself-is the comforting of prizes,
binary number of 1O7 and amounted to
! upward OF QUIZ francs.
T, The annual concours de travail,
> which takes place just before the
May fete, is a most striking sight,
hundreds of apprentices being assem-
bled that day in the halls Of the Hotel
Syndical. Each competitor receives a
mcclellan orchid, water lily, a spray
Of calceOlaria or Of lark-spur fhese
are some of the most difficult fowers)
freshly gathered, or, if she be a plum
assiere, a butterfly Or some delicate
design in feathers-which she is re-
,quired to copy in 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 a 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 ROthschiId, 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
authorities notably 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 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
i savings bank and the winner of a
/ prize receives a little handbook with
/ the amount credited to her account.