The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1898-10-21
n CLEVER GIRLS IDEA,

|
Mabel Hay Barrows. She conceived
the idea OF making military fans in the
semblance OF our soldier lads. You
see a fan lying on the table. closed. and
admire the stalwart Young fellow in
/ his try uniform on the outside. You
open it slowly, and as You do so his
twin hrotI er promptly steps up beside
| him: 4 little wider, and there comes a
third; then others follow in rapid sue
cession, till ten brave young fellows
stand abreast and salute you. There
are four of these small detachments,
the Sailor Lads. t.lc :Scntinels. the Ma
val Commanders, and the Rough Ri.
ders-which gallop straight toward
one in alarming fashion. The original
sketches for the figures were made by
Miss Helen Nicolay, of Washington;
so the whole thing is woman's work.
The details of the conception and
execution Of the idea, as told in To-
mans Journal, should p rove sugges-
tive and stimulus to those who are
seeking to add to their ''pin money"
When the idea first occurred to Miss
Barrows, she went directly to the war
and navy departments, asking Miss
Nicolay to accompany her, and asked
to see the government fashion plates"
of the new uniform regulations. Every
thing was to be accurate and up-to-
date. There they copied, sketched,
and .jotted down notes. One difficulty
with navy regulations seemed to be
in putting the garments together
there were patterns of white hlouses
and blue blouscs, white trousers and
blue trousers, but which went together
they did not know, till an official in
formed them that it depended on the
weather 1t did not take long to de-
ca on the best weather for fan to
svmboliz.-it must be fair and cool, of.
course! SO the sailor lad was order
ed by the department toappear in blue
woollen trousers and white duck blouse,
with the fair-weather cover on his cap,
and pretty lad he is. The command
cr and the infanry man were dressed
without much difficulty, bat the
Rough Rilt is such 4 very new per
sonagc that his picture had not yet
been fled at the war department. The
young ladies were referred to the mil
itary tailor who produced some OF the
very garments. The original shade of
brown, it seems, had to be changed for
another, as there We're found to be on
ly fifty yards in ;he country, Of the
color first chosen.
With these facts on paper, and with
an obscrvant eye an! sly pencil ready
for the unsuspccting soldiers who
boarded cars or visited the Library OF
fingered in the squares, and with Il
distinguished historian and a member
of congress for models. the desi yns
were sketchcd. There were many
things which the young manufacturer
had to consider, and which the artist
obediently needed. In the first place
the figure must stand SO That it would
taper towards the pivot Of the fan,
with the feet planted securely on the
circle which held the handle. With
the Rou ia Rider this was not easy,
but his horse soon learned to bunch
his feet in circus style, and the artist
got them all in Then no fragile points
must protrude where they would be
likely to break in handling, the COM
mandcr's sword must hang peacefully
at his side, the sentinel's bayonct must
not be ii! wed prominence. And, last
of all, there must be no leap holes
under arms or between feet to add to
the expense of die-cutting
At last the results were SO success
ful that, when Miss Barrows went to
apply for her patent, one of the heads OF
department said: IF you had Il mil
lion OF these fans Oh the market to-
morrow morning, they would be sold
before night T. He furthermore en-
joined haste and entire secrecy upon
the commerc:a. novice. She flew to
New York and Boston, .tiudging
through muddy downtown streets in
wet weather ft,r Il couple of days, get
ting cstimatcs.> Not to betray her
scheme. she had made 4 figure of
Girl Of the same size and dressed in the
same colors rs the sailor lad. When
estimates had been made on this paper
doll" and the lithograpor had been
chosen and contract made. the ''mii-
tary figures were Produced While
the printing was being done in New
York, a dic-cuttcr in Boston was max
ing die to perforate the figures for
the ribbon, and another man was max
inc the metal clasps. None of them
suspected what the whole was to be.
When the materials were thus made
ready, Miss Barrows hired Il room in
Boston and girls to work for her, and
had the fans put together Some of
her friends suggested that she make
arrangements with Il large firm to put
her fans on the market but she was
determined to try it herself, ITO see if
J she could Judging ny the beauty