Evening capital., 1899-10-12
WORK FOR WOMEN.
a DIFFICULT TRADE BUT iT Is ROT
ovERcRoWDED.
The Skill and Taste Required OF
Those Who Operate Machines for
Bonnaz Work-Success of a French
Woman in New York.


before leaving her own locality, where
she is known. to go to strange city.
If she Is Obliged TO do so she might
well look into the opportunities al
forded in Bonnaz work.
There is no school for teaching Bon
naz work either for instruction In It's
hand-craft departments or In its man
ipulatiOn of the various costly ma
chimes that from time TO time have
been invented to tighten the labor.
The BonnaZ worker must get her
knowledge jot by jot. hand over hand.
in the old fogy school OF experience,
with close application for a-taskmas-
ter. but, once proficient. she Is sure or
always having good-paying employ
ment This year more than ever she
has cause for rejoicing that she learn
cd Bonnaz work instead of typewrit-
ing or manicuring, bookkeeping. teleg-
raphy or other trades by which wom-
en- earn a livelihood. Highest pay
for good perfora tors and applique cut
ters." Best wages for the right kind
of stampers and hand-beaders." "Win
pay SIS to $40 a week for experienced
embroiderers on frames;" ~ and $l4
for intelligent two-thread corders," are
some Of the manufacturers advertise
ments In New York for female help
Inserted In the trades papers at this
time OF year, and "work the year
round guaranteed at good salary" and
Highest wages to first-class hands,
are phrases appended to nearly every
advertisement.
But this man can't get his expert
enced hands at $12 to $14 week"
said q Broadway manufactures, as he
scanned the list "Good workers might
have been got once for the money, but
not now. Wages have gone up In our
line. There are not, ut the outside,
more than 800 women experts at the
business, and more than double that
humber could be used II we could get
them. with fashion setting the way II
dees now. Even Philadelphia ana
Cincinnati firms are sending to New
York for workers, aud women willing
to take extra work home TO do, or 10
teach less experienced hands 10 heip
them, can make big salaries; especiai-
" from now till January. Ihe reason
why. when big year like this comes,
the manufacturers are put TO II ior
skilled help, is that nobody bothers 10
teach BonnaZ work to the young girls
lust starting out in business. Ine
learner would soon put valuable ma
chine ont of order. If girl applies
who is anxious to learn. and already
has some insight into the work, she
must be next to an expert to have
chance of learning anything, and that
expert will lose valuable time oversee
ing the beginner or showing her what
TO do. Each girl who tries to learn
has TO pay down $40 beforehand for
,ae privilege. even IL she should get
ont of patience and abandon the work
after q weeks trial. This condition
makes apprentices scarce. except
merely in the simpler h anches of the
business.
The Oldest and one of the best grade
Ronnaz factories in New York is
owned and conducted by n French
woman. who was the first person TO
intrduce the Bonnaz machine In this
country. Although she has been in
the business for twenty-five years or
moro. and long ago might have retired
ON competence, che still looks after
all details of her factory herself and
never misses day from work. When
she came to- New York first, girl OF
twenty-one, no description of BonnaZ
embroidery was produced here. and
the little that was seen came from
abroad at n high price. She had heard
of this in her Paris home. and. having
Drocured n Bonnaz machine, then
novelty. even i'm the inventors coun-
try. she came 10 try fortune with the
trade she had been acquainted with
from childhood. Having got settled IN
lodging somewhere in the lower West
Side quarter she started out on Canal
street one morning TO find out what
market might offer itself for her hand
ivork. She had with her some squares
of machine-braided white pique TO ex-
hibit as samples. and going into chill
dren's goods-furnishing house, she
asked the manager If he could use
that of decoration in his business. 1
have heard her tell how, without so
much as even asking her name Or
where she lived, the manager prompt
ly engaged her services.
Can your French machine do this
sort of work on woolen StuffS or thin
texturesT he asked, when the f1rst
lot of newly-completed pique frocks
were placed on the-OO1 iosmthe vbg
were put in stock, and, on being told
that ID could. so many orders were
g;yen that the French girl was over
wheimcd with work and had to Sc
rre helm. She made at this time $1S
\ day by working double time, but she
-:.artied her machine carefully. She
would permit no one to examine IL.
nd if a stranger appeared in her
orkpiace for any purpose, the preci-
us hraider was covered over before
he worker went to speak with him.
In few months she had sent abroad
FOR other machines. and had taught
! half-lozen apprentices the hand part
af the work so familiar to her. A few
ears later fifty Bonnaz machines all
IN hy women when this pioneer had
,ained and kept in order by French
aen whom she had picked up here
ma there were kept busy in this fac
cry. and other manufacturers had
taSen her cue and become apt al
hraiding and embellishlng American
goods and garments.
This French woman is still fore
most figure in the Bonnaz trade and
never lost grasp of the best business.
The skilled workers in the best fac
tories all look renned and pleasantly
circumstanced. There Is an army OF
ordinary helpers, trained to do the
marking out of patterns. the clipping
of threads. the cutting away Of under
surfaces and the less responsible
branches of the work. These also run
the simplest machines on ordinary
grade fabrics. and get the foundation
stuffs ready for establishment and dc
the general filing in that is needed