Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1898-02-12
A sELE.MAnE WoMAN
a NightEown Model Was the Begin
inE of Her Fortune.

Here is a true story OF a young wom-
ans failure and success as a bread win
GER in New York. She came to the city
from a little. country town intending 10
go on the stage.
That was five years ago. She was
handsome, and had a talent for dress,
and. perhaps, a talent for acting, but OF
that no one can speak with much assur-
ance, for she has never had any chance
t. act. She besieged managers and
agents only TO meet with plentiful
snubs from the responsible ones, her
only chances of engagements came from
the .shakiest of travelling concerns, and,
as she had no money to spend in paying
her own way home from remote parts
of the country, as she disliked walking
long distances and had always a level
head, she would not leave the city.
In the meanwhile, as she was very
clever at sewing and demonstrated II in
her own clothes, she managed among
the actresses she encountered to get
some employment for her needle. She
worked extraordinarily well forinferior
prices, and among dressmakers that is a
method SURF to furnish bread, If not
butter.
For a year she was n most unsettled,
unhappy creature, and only making
enough to keep soul and body together.
The only chance she got for appearing
on the stage was in the chorus of a
comic opera. She did not find the at
mosphere very congenial, and when she
was requested to appear in tights and
very little else, she gave up her posi-
ton and her histrionic ambitions at the
same time. She settled down to attend
to her dressmaking for all it was worth.
AT that time she was living in a
wretched little room, In which she slept
and sewed and cooked and ate. She
lived on the cheapest food, mainly rice,
for two weeks, TO ave money enough &c
carry out a little scheme she had in her
head. This was to make a nightdress
after a pretty, novel idea Of her own,
and then try ard sell it as a model to ore
of the big shops.
She succeeded and got $50 for it. Now
she was enough ahead to try another
step she had conceived as likely to ad.
vance her. She went to a young actress
who was to appear in a new Costume
part" Of the eighteenth century, and
offered to make one of the gowns for
nothing if the actress would give her
the benefit of her influence in getting
more work. The actress had none toe
much money herself, and our heroine
managed by some arts and argument
to get the job.
Enough of the preliminary steps, and
let us look at the dressmaker as she is
now. She rents a beautiful house on one
of the good cross streets near Fifth
avenue. Part of the first floor she lets
to fashionable physician, and his is the
only sign that appears on the dwelling;
she is too swell for a sign. She has two
or three other dodgers, and the rest OF
the house is used by herself and the sc
seamstresses she employs.
Last summer, in the dull season, she
went to Newport, and cleared $500 in
two months. She dresses very beauti'
fully herself, and gives her costumes Q
little touch of picturesqueness that add
vertises her talent to the theatrical
folk, who are still her chief customers
She says their patronage is the only
connection with the stage she wants
now. She is still young and handsome
and certainly has a fair prospect Of a
fortune at as early an age as the sue.
cessful self-made man generally
achieves it.-Cincinnati Commercial
Tribune.