The San Francisco call., 1896-02-16
Bah Tells Of the Philanthropy
of Mrs. Dudlap Hop
kins.
HER GRAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN
What 1t Is Doing for All Classes
of Ambitious Young
Women.

NEW YORK, N. Y, Feb IL. 1s96.-An
other woman letter. But it is to that girl.
woman who is doing the work of man,
and getting-well, she gets encourage
ment from her woman friends, and she has
the somewhat doubtful pleasure OF hoping
for gratitude in the hereafter. l don't
know how many there are-I am always
on where numbers are concerned-but
leaving out the girls in the shops and the
girls in the big factories, there are hun
dreds of girls in New York either earning
thelr living or studying to make their
ilVlng with pen, pencil, or the paint
nrush, On the violin, on the piano, or with
That most beautiful of all instruments the
human voice. And usually these girls
are alone. They come focking in by the
hundreds, hoping as only girl-woman
can hope, with bright eyes and glowing
cheeks, for success. Then they started to
work, only to discover that it is nearly all
work and very little play. That pretty
glri VINO lived IN small town-well, we
Will call her Dolly MISUNDERSTANDING
remarkable ability to sketch everybody
she saw; her pictures were the delight of
the nelghborhood; she caricatured all the
villagers from the preacher in the pulpit to
the funny old doctor and to the small boys
In the back pew, who went to sleep, and
carlcatured them good naturedly Then
she painted flowers so we'll that the neigh
bors declared you could not tell her roses
from the real ones. Little by little enough
money was saved for her to come to New
York and study.
She landed at one of the big stations
with bunch of goldenrod, her bag and
two bundles, and for the first time she be-
gan TO realize that she was going to be a
stranger in strange land. The cable-car
took her to the house where board had been
engaged for her, the place that was to be
her future home; hall bedroom on the
fourth floor. The windows were half the
size OF those on the door below, and only
one belonged TO her room. There was a
folding bed, why, don't know, as nobody
younger than Doly's grandfather would
have been allowed in her room, and even
her grandfather would have had to have
brought certificate proving his relation
ship to satisfy the landlady, since her idea
was always to believe the wrong about
young girl. Then there was a rattly old
bureau with keyholes, but no keys, tiny
basin big enough for the bath of a small
kitten, bHt not for that of q well.g grown
girl, while the jug had its nose broken as
If II had got disgusted with the smell
of stale water.
lady gleefully said, This room, Miss, is
heated" A gloomy-looklng register sug-
eested that fact. But when the day came
that suggested that Whit OF warm air
would be desirable Dolly opened the reg
lister and got, not heat but the accumulat-
ed smells OF the various dishes that had
been cooked in that house for the last
seven years. For this room there was
paid 81 week, which left Dolly with So
for her expenses. And Dolly, by the by,
had much more than the average girl.
The parlor. which reminded one of a
cemetery vault, had little sign Oh the
door which said, "Ladies are expected to
receive the friends here. The gas is put
out at 10 clock" Why it was called the
parlor puzzled Dolly, for she never heard
anybody talk there all that long winter;
when ANYBODY did go in they spoke in |
whispers and behaved as if there was won
der as to the corner in which the coffin |
stood.
While she was working it was all very
well, but Dolly was only human, and she |
wanted little play. She couldn't have it
there. 1t is true, once in while some of
the other girls climbed up the stairs and
visited her in the hall room, but that was
not a comfortabl visit, since Dolly had to
let the bed down so that her guests might
have something to sit on, and that left no
room in which to be sociable. Once she
told me that she believed her desire to en-
Joy herself would get the better of her
some night, and that she would walk out
on the streets and look in the shop win
dows. What will become of Dolly if she
does that? Ny friend, do you know what
L wonder? 1t is this: That more girls do
not 60 to the devil, straight. 1t is beau
tiful tribute to their innate goodness tnat
so many Of them can look into their
mothers faces and by that look convince
them of their purity and their goodness.
But this is all leading up to another
story. When woman is old and rich
her for philanthropist. But when she is
young and handsome and rich and doesn't
call herself phllanthropist, but does the
work of a real one, then she is-what?
Yes, you have said it-a gift of God When
the New York School of Technical Desien
was started by Mrs. Dunlap Hopkins her
friends laughed, and thought it the fad of
pretty woman tired of society; but time
proved that if this was fad, fads were
good things, since 1t resulted in school
where. for comparatively small sum, a
girl may learn to do work with her pencil.
or her brush, or with clay; to do work
that will sell. Not such work as we too
often see, amateurish to the last degree,
and sold by some kindly woman, who
doesn't realize the harm she is doing the
real workers, but who, because somebody
needs 1t, gets SIS for painted plaque that
deserves to be thrown in the fire.
The philanthropy of Mrs. Hopkins work
consisted in making girls understand that
their work was only worth what it would
fetch IN the market, and not the sum
given by their friends, or at church raffies. |
Well, year after year the school grew |
until now it stands a monument to the
wonderful brain and loving heart of one
woman.
1t is free of debt. From it have come
forth the brightest women architects in |
this country. From it, every week, are |
solo at the best prices they will bring de-
signs for carpet-weaving, designs for wall |
paper and designs for book-covers. The |
girl who draws carpet designs has learned |
her work artistically and practically she |
knows how the thread works through |
the loom for a certain kind of car |
pet, and she knows the colors and pat |
terms that are most salable, and UPON |
which the greatest profit will be made. |
SO 1t Is through every department.. Each |
irI knou-s hot l.. -