The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-07
FOR FEMININE READERS
THE WOMAN WITHOUT CAPITAL WHO
WANTS TO ENTER BUSINESS.
story of an Ideal Club which Came
To an End-Fashions in Furs-
some Odd Dishes

The woman quoted in this column yes
terdsy has suggestions as we'll as COM
plants TO make apropOs Of the wage-earn-
ing women and the woman who wishes she
was a wage-earner, says a writer in the
New York Commercial Advertiser. As the
women who don't have to work are not yet
banished from the field, other ways of re-
lieving the congested condition of the labor
market must be considered. One remedy
is the extension of the profitable fields of
activity wholly suitable to women. Many
suggestions SAYS this woman, given TO
me from time to time as to new openings
eYince a singular want of common sense
and practical foresight. The other day L
was urged TO recommend women to take
up architecture as a paying profession.
But apart from the difficulties and costly
nature Of the training, rendering it, like
medicine, impracticable for any woman I'M
provided with an adequate income for the
first five or six years of her career, surely
architecture. which involves the ascend
ing of scaffolds, the inspection of drains,
underground supports, etc, is not particu-
larry fitting for women, so long as skirts
remain their traditional garments.
NO such objection can be raised to ar
tistic dressmaking. which offers wide and
varied fields for the capabilities of clever
women of taste and education. There is
scarcely a single town, country district or
suburb where a really expert woman would
not be welcomed and assured of a good
living within a couple of years. The wealthy
woman who is clothed BY an expensive
drcssmaker getting her models from Paris
is well catered for to-day; but the average
woman with good taste, willing TO pay a
fair price for her dresses, has no alterna-
tive TO the average tasteless, incompetent
dressmaker, whose sole notion of the art of
dress Is derived from the fashion plates,
who knows nothing of the laws of line and
color anu fitness, and cares nothing for in
dividuality and that harmony between dress
and wearer which Is the secret of beautiful
Dress. There are hundreds of women of
taste who detest the hard tailor-ma1e cos
tune, and would gladly and gratefully see
evolved a graceful, feminine, yet service
able wOrkday dress for SIS or $50. There is
simply an immense continent here; but the
artistic must be a woman of
really artistic ideas and feelings, with an
unerring eye for color and personality, and
she must be trained.
Then, again, most of the suggestions for
employment for women necessitate too
much capital. In nine cases out of ten the
wOuld-be wage-earner has no capita at all,
and, having no security, can get none. So
all kinds of excellent little enterprises have
TO be left aside by capable, reliable women
for want of a few hundred dollars. 1t seems
to me that If the organized charities can
get thousands yearly for the purpose Of
Investigating the genuineness of cases of
distress there ought to be a sufficient num-
Der of rich men and women, or, indeed, of
women only. who would create a loan fund
and make 1T available, SO far as il would
so, for enterprises that seem likely to be
successful. So much is done to-day for the
industrial classes. so little, practically moth
ing, for the educated middle class, which
cannot easily avail itself of the same adj
Nantages. Without some capital the artistic
dressmaker would have TO compete with
the fifth-rate dressmaker working for low
prices and able with a different standard
of life to live comfortably; and she would
have too many disadvantages even to be a
successful rival; whereas, with a few hun
dreds for rent and wages of workgirls, she
could create her market and, l am con-
WINGED, make an excellent income