The Saint Paul globe., 1898-10-23
the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

From the st. Louis Globe-Democrat
If you have ever bought basket Of
candy in Mexico your attention has no
doubt been attracted to the dainty bas-
ket as much as to the sweets. The
Indians and MeXicans and the crack
er" women of the mountains Of the
South are expert basket makers, but
it is only quite recently that q young
woman of New York, trying to solve
the difficult problem Of how a woman
may support herself, was attracted to
this employment.
While visiting at Aiken, S. c., Miss
Mabel Campbell and her sister Stella
observed the pretty baskets made Of
pine needles that were sold at the hotel
by the country women. Miss Stella
made a little basket after spending a
day with the woman who taught her
and before she left Aiken became quite
expert. The following year Miss Mabel
went out West, way out in the Indian
country, as teacher in a family The
Indians in the neighborhood made
many beautiful baskets. At Christmas
she sent her sister Stella the prettiest
basket to be found. Miss Stella was
typewriter, but disliked the work
very much. She suggested to her sis
ter that she learn ali she possibly could
concerning the making Of the baskets,
which she did, and also about the cur
ing of the grasses. and, in fact, in
vented many patterns Of her own. She
forwarded her sister a dozen Of the
baskets which she had made herself,
and a lot Of colored grass, in order
that she might try her own hand at
the art of weaving. Miss Stella COM
bined the Indian and Southern ma
terial into q basket of an original de-
Si ion hi iHh chn 10
good price. Afterward Miss Campbell
went to Asheville, N. c., and pursued
her quest for information concerning
discriminating. She returned to New
oYrk to find that her sister had lost
her position, her employer having gone
to the war. Florists were consulted
and their orders were so large that
it was decided to give all their time
to the work.
A month ago they were obliged to
engage young woman to assist them,
and they regard the business as In quite
a f1ourishing condition. They have
many more orders on hand than they
can fill at present. The baskets are
in great demand in other cities than
New York-in fact the largest order
they have had to fill came from Wash
ington-and the baskets will be used
wherever flowers or fancy candies are
sold. They anticipate orders from Chi
cago and Boston. When the winter
season begins 1t is probable that they
will take several girls into their en-
ploy, and will be obliged to go into
larger quarters. Their summer home
is a cottage in the Adirondacks, and
they work in an ideal way, out on the
veranda, or even taking the work into
the woods, sometimes staying for sew
eral days at a time.
A party of young ladies visited them
the other day, and, while it was i'm
possible to All the order they wished
to leave, a bright suggestion of one of
the girls was well received. She said
she would like to take q course of les
sons in the art of basket-weaving to
add to her other accomplishments, en-
broidery and painting. Miss Campbell
thinks 1t will be profitable to have
classes In New York this winter.
Miss Campbell, when asked If the
work is hard, struggling her shoulders,
said that she had never seen anything
worth while that was not hard There
is some drawback to everything, but
this work is not so confining as other
work taken up by women. 1t can be
accomplished at home for one thing.
1t is clean, and 1t does not strain the
back or muscles. 1t must be learned
like everything else, the principal re-
quirement being the ability to invent
new shapes. Miss Campbll and her
sister have found 1t pleasanter and
much more remunerative than either
teaching or typewriting, those occupa-
tions most affected by the women who
are not so fortunately situated as to
have homes of their own and q COM
potency.