The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-02-01
Great Promise But Very
Little Execution.
How the Straw Braiding In
duStry Was Established.
Betsey Metcalfs Success In Initial
ing Imported BOnnets.

Chief Baker, by his order prohibiting
Sunday evening concerts, may be said to
have begun his reform crusade. Its a
pretty weak beginning, to be sure, but
then 1t 10 OF the improved Goo Goo brand
and will undoubtedly prove eminently
satisfactory to the municipal reformers
who are swishing around in shoes much
too large for them. In the official an
nouncement made by him after he had
been named by the City Council caucus
the chief said nothing about stopping
Sunday concerts, but he did say a good
deal about suppressing other more TIA
grant ana Objectionable breaches Of the
law.
lie announced, for instance, that the
liquor law would be rigidly enforced ano
gave the impression that hereafter Sun
day tipping would be unknown in this
town.. That Is one OF his promises that
yet remains unfiulhlled. With equal force
be declared that the gambling places and
policy shops would be wiped of that
portion Of the earth within the.boundaries
OF this municipality. Houses Of ill-repuie
were TO be purged and their inmates
driven to other communities where the
Geo Goo is unknown. In n word, Pfovi-
dence vas to he given a great moral
ecrubhing at the hands OF the new head
Of the police department and was to come
out of the process Iejuvenated and re-
habilitated in robes OF ~the-purest moral
tint. After such grandiioquent proclama-
lion OF what he wou do, IL Is amusing
To contemplate what the new chief IL ac-
tually doing. A man to proclaim his de-
termination to root out vice and crime
and then begin his crusade with an ulti-
matum against Sunday evening entertain
inents most of them innocent and de-
corous while greater evils go untouched,
and upscatned, leaves himself open to the
charge of being a man OF great promise
and little execution.
A bright young woman who read with
much pleasure the industrial edition OF
THE NEWS, issued last Wednesday, asks
the Gossiptr TX the women OF these Plan
tations were n OF identified with the es-
adjustment OF some important indus
tries about a century ago. The Gossiper
knows OF one such industry, aside from
spinning and weaving then universally
done in every household, which owed
its esta TO the ingenuity and
perseverance OF a very young woman, a
mare girl in fact. The story Of her en-
terprise is interesting and worth telling.
ih1 tiVetb< W u ia't WI
fury North Main ,treet, near the foot OF
constitution Hill, vac the fashionable
center for oil the women OF the town..
Among the shops which commanded the
largest and most fashionable patronage
was that of Colonel Whipple who, after
the fashion of these DAYS, was assisted
10 the business by his wife. Mrs. Whip
rle possessed remarkably good taste as a
millin,r and her services in trimming
bonnets for the fair danes CT ths town
were in constant demand. Among the
favorite headdresses of those days were
the Dunstable b%onnets, which were i'm
ported. Mrs. Whipple kept these for sale,
and to show her skill in trimming them
had one very rfne specimen OF her work
on exhibition on the shop window. ahis
bonnet attracted the attention OF little
Ret .ey Metcali, who resolved to make
one as near like IL as possible for her
own wear. How she accomplished this
she told in q letter written some 90 years
afterward, and which is still preserved.
In this she said she was II years old
when she began to braid. In June, 179S,
her father brought home some oat straw,
which Betsey cut and snoothed down
with her scis ors. For splitting II she used
her thumb Lail. Now, although she had
seen the imported Dunstahle bonnet, she
ola net know how many straws there
were In each braid but this la no way
discouraged her. First, she started a
common braid with six straws, which
she smoothed cut with a junk hottie and
from IL fashioned "a pqrt OF n bonnet. Ii
did not look like the imported headgear,
however, SO she made another attempt,
tnis time using seven straws and was
. cCesstul. The girls aunt, who
only one 10 give her much encouragement,
the ether members OF the family tel ing
her she would never succeed in making a
cor or the bonnet in Mrs. Whipple's win
dow. This aunt held TIE ends of tho
sttaws while Betsy braided yard after
yfrd, thus keeping 1t struight and In
place.
When enough had been braided the
question arose as TO how IL should be
bleached. The sun wouldn't do il and for
a tine ii looked as il after all the Jun
3 IDLE bonnet would have no rival But
between Betsy am her aunt u plan was
decidtd upon which proved 10 be emf
neDtly satisfactory. They procured brin-
stone when with some live Goals was put
in q pan and taken into the garden. The
braid was held in the ~sulphurous smoke
by the aunt until Ii was bleached TO the
desired degree Of whiteness. Then The
bonnet was fashioned with n bobhin be-
tween the braids aud the whole lined
with pink satin. This headdress vas a
pronouncei success, and hundreds of
women anne TO examin the work Of this
de~ft-fingered aud persevering girl.
After her first successful experiment
Betsey became thu instructor OF many
other women in the art of traidiag.
They came TO her from all the towns sJr-
rounding Providence and were 90 ick 10
learn tho business which made them in
dependent OF the imrortations from Dun
~stable or anywhere else and nj the same
time gave them bonnets quite as effsctive
and becoming. The lihode Island Society
for the Encoura cement of Domestic In
dustry bad or many years, and probably
has today, n bonnet traded in 1889 by
Betsev. then Mrs. Baker, who was at the
timo 73 years OF age. This bonnet was
N N frn ttatfop az tho ono frat mada hv