The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-08
NEEDS OF THE SOCIETY.

The Headquarters of this recently de-
veloped charity goes by the name of
"Workrooms for Unskilled Women" and
to these sooms the philanthropic mer-
chant is asked to send his leftover
( remnants and samples, his odds and
ends" of every description. Here, too,
charitable grocers and housekes p rsf end
contributions of tea, coffee, sugar, flour
in fact anything in the way of pro-
vision. The rooms are also a great re-
poSitory for demode hats and gowns,
half worn boots and shoes, frayed suits
of clothes. etc, from well-to-do families.
Indeed, the appeal to the friendly
visitor is to the effect that nothing
is too badly worn to be made TO serve
some useful purpose in the hands of the
koc.hty. j Hats are remodellad, gar
ments are repaired and made over, and
! surprisingly pretty new ones are often
evolved from combinations of samples
and remnants. These are then care
fully appraised by the committee and
inventorled with ther goods to be given
! to the women in payment for work.
Money, in fact, is never paid them, but
they are remunerated for their labor
out of the supplies, selecting -four or
meat, gown or hat, Shoes or stock
ings, according to their greatest needs.
UTILIZING ODDS AND ENDS.
The rooms are provided with bath
rooms and means for purifying clothing,
and each woman upon application for
work is made to take a bath while her
garments are being fumigated so that
it is a perfectly clearly lot of women
that one finds at work here. 1t may be
Wen to add that the new folding bath
tubs are found to be especially conven-
/ lent in institutions of this character.
! The work of the women is graded en-
/ tirely by their capabilities, and an ef-
i fort is all the time made to teach them
/ better ways of doing; but the adage,
Its hard to teach an old dog new
tricks" never had more convincing
| proof than in the case of these ''un-
skilled women. All, charitable organi-
cations have come to know after the
experience Of years that their only per-
l1ianent arc effective w5~k must be
done with the children. Still, this other
cannot be lett un0one. 1t seems almost
| incredible that women could have even
existed beyond middle age and not have
learned more than some of these wo-
men know. Any one of them who can
be taught TO sew sufficiently we'll is
allowed to work upon the remodelling
of the old garments. But this work
has to be done mainly by the charitable
| women in charge, as many of the APP
| plicants do not know in the beginning
even how to sew carpet rags. They
are first set to ripping and cleansing
old clothes travelling bits of carpet, as
sorting wool thus obtained, knitting
mats, cutting and sewing carpet-rags,
weaving carpets, mats, etc. Every
particle of leftover material down to
| the smallest clipping is used in this
work, and the carpeting is sold at mar
ket price to any store or person want
ing it.
RTJC,J EyS MADE
Very pretty rugs are made. One So
ciety in particular found such ready
/ sale for a special bath room rug that
! they evolved out of this work, that they
found it worth their while to buy new
material for its manufacture. 1t was
made entirely of blue gingham; the
center OF the rug being of a light shade
with a deep border Of a darker blue,
and a pretty curled fringe of the un-
twisted warp at either end. These have
proved very popular, not only on ac-
! count of their exceeding prettiness, but
because then can be so easily washed.
Another of these rugs adorns a
charming home; thrown over a nahog
! any settee, the effect was so pretty
that one could hardly believe ii was
I only the homely rag-carpet. The CEN
ter was entirely of white and was fin
ished with d deep border of shaded
reds. Still another very pretty article
of their manufacture is a tab spread
made from bits of velvet that accumu-
late from time to time. These pieces
are cat into strips, sewn together. aLG
/ then stitched into fold with the cages
turned inward This is then woven
iutl a square wit;l come fine dnG pcetty
! cCirrcd warp. One If their mos. useful
aid :alable articles, however. g the
hospital pillow. The ordinary feather
pillow IS frequently too heating for The
feverish patient, and the socieIy re-
ceiyeS large orders from hospitals sLT
.he cooler and lighter cushions which
they en6eavor to keep on haud Fer
the covering of these. they Use odd
pieces of silk or old silk handkerchiefs
which they carefully cleanse and line
with cheese cloth. These they fill with
paper which has been cut into very
line strips. One could hardly imagine
without seeing them how really light
and soft these cushions are, and how
long they retain their iuffiness; and no
sFoman IS so dense or inept that she
cannot be taught to cut the paper
properly. The slippers made from rem
nan-s of carpet are also most useful
and available. They are rather diff
cult to make and one must be provided
with a thoroughly correct pattern.
These unskilled women, however, have
been taught to make them exceedingly
well. The soles as well as the upper
part are made of carpeting, and all
neatly lined with dark canton flannel,
and finis.led with a binding of carpet
braid.
AS an example of the extent to which
apparently worthless material can be
utilized. quite a pretty comforter was
recently on exhibition, the covering of
which was pieced entirely from the
tops of old stockings. At first Thought
this seems almost a waste of time with
cheese cloth only 5 cents yard; but it
IS not only that in these societies every
penny counts, but one must also take
into consideration the fact that the
making furnishes these ignorant wo-
men with exactly what they stand most
in need of. viz: Work, and sort of
educational discipline in ways and
means"
Holders, laundry bags. and bags of a
more ornamental description are also
among the regular stock articles. Sug-
gestions as TO ingenious methods for
still further application of work of this
primitive character will always be
gladly received by these societies.
The work thus provided these women
has often times served instead of
emergency relief" and entire families
have been fed with supplies given a