The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-04-28
WOMAN AND 4 TRADE.
0RESSMAKERS' SCHOOLS AND MIL
LIVERY INSTITUTES" FOR GIRLS.

Crying Need Of the Day-Handicrafts
For Poor Giri-Tfne and Money Thrown
Away.
Trade schools for women are one Of
the crying needs OF the day-pIaces
where poor girls may learn some handi-
craft By means Of which they may earn
! a living. So evident is this necessity
/ that not only have a number Of prac-
teal schools Of various trades been start
I ed, but large crop OF so called ''insti-
I tutes" has sprung up like a lot of mush-
rooms and with no frmer basis. This
/ Is the more unfortunate in that TO the av-
I erage young woman who wishes 10 learn
: trade the money for tuition comes
+ with difficulty, and IL the expenditure
+ goes for nothing It Is a serious matter
{ 70 her. She naturally expects that if
I she works diligently the course Of lessons
/ will give her degree OF knowledge and
( practice that viii at least it her TO oc-
cupy a place among the lowest wage
! earners OF her trade. But 1t is too often
I the case that she ends by knowing very
/ little more than she did when she began
The writer has had experience OF two
j.
T The first was that OF dressmaker She
was q handsome old lady, TO whom her
pupils were of much less Importance
/ than her customers. She cut TO measure
and taught system" which she pro-
/ fessed TO have invented herself. The
| system was a good one, but as its in
vention must have involved a consider
able aptitude for mathematics, and the
old lady was very ignorant, there is
room for doubt as TO its authorship.
At any rate, she understood it thorough
", and when she had time she impaired
its general principles TO some Of her
pupils. She was SO eager TO work for
customers that she usually kept the
girls busy as mere seamstresses. In
other words, instead Of paying her sew
ing women she was paid by them. The
whole establishment was a scene Of
chaos, with Ne method except that by
which the garments We're cut. No ma
teTial was ever IN the same place twice.
Flatirons, the great aid TO neat dress
making, were seldom hot when needed,
and If hot they were dirty. There was
a dearth of pins and paucity of in
structiOn, and to a young woman lack
ing the deftness Of home experience, as
so many poor and Ill educated girls do,
the outlook must have been discourag-
ing. There was this much in favor of
the place-that there was something tan
gible to learn if one could only get hold
OF IT, a girl with no previous prac-
tice, however, wants something besides
general princip les-she wants thorough
personal instruction, and If she pays
for it she ought TO have it.
The second establishment was mil
Enery institute, - one of the many which
have been extensively advertised lately.
A shop was in connection with the
school, and orders were also taken, and
the proprietor of the triple alliance
spent so much time in the shop and
with the order customers that she had
almost no leisure TO give TO her pupils.
They were penned up in a small,
skylighted back room without ven
tilation, half of them with nothing
to do, while the milliner sat In the store
down stairs. Girls eager to learn would
remain two and three hours at time
utterly idle because no orders nor shop
hats, the only work with which the
school was supplied, were given them
TO make-or mar. Most of the pupils
were poor, and many of them came
from out of the city, and their tuition
money and car fare were utterly wasted
day after day. Occasionally the milli-
ner would tell girl to take piece of
muslin and practice making bow, but
as she did not tell the girl how TO go to
work the latter might as well have tried
to learn by herself at home for nothing.
Each pupil was supposed TO bring her
own scissors and thimble, but unless she
also brought milliner's needles, pinch
ers, thread and pins she soon found
herself at a standstill in what little
work she u rs given to do.
The writer was early taught to make
and sew on velvet folds-it took perhaps
an hour to Iearn-and being rapid ar it |
always had IL to do when she had any
work at all. That was almost the only !
thing she learned during the four or six |
weeks spent In that crowded and stufy |
room where the girls ate their lunch /
con on the workable heaped with rib |
bons, velyets and flowers in destructive |
confusion, and where all the phases Of !
domestic life went on beyond a parti-
tion feet high. There Were not hooks /
enough for the girls own hats and coats
nor sound chairs enough for all TO sit |
upon. All knife plating had to be done
by hand because the platter was lost
or broken long ago, and there was sell
dom an iron and never a board to press
it when it was done. In fact, the mis-
tresS of the institute" fulfilled hardly |
any portion OF her contract except the
receiving of the money. She guarantees
TO find positions for pupils when COM
petent," but how long would it take a
girl to become competent under such
lack of Instruction?
1t is the same with many persistently
advertised typewriting and stenography
schools. They are mere traps TO secure !
the money OF unsuSpecting and too often
needy persons. When that is obtained,
the pupils are welcome TO teach each |
other what they can with the aid of