Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-25
THE THING SHE KNEW
A WOMAN WHOSE TALENTS IRAN
TO LAMPsHADEs.v
From the Smallest Beginning She Has
Risen to Be Head of a Large
Establishment.


| Written for The Evening Star.
If love did not laugh at locksmiths this
| particular story would not have to be told.
Because love does laugh at locksmiths, also
| prudence, and parental restraints, 1t hap
| pened a few years back that pair of young
| people wei. even luxuriously, reared, found
| themselves within a week after their runa-
| way marriage with hardly a dollar in hand
| What the husband did, though he acquitted
| himself manfully, is out of place here. The
| pair were in New York city. The wife
went to a rich woman whom it happened
she knew slightly. asking, not charity, but
advice as to how she might best help in the
battle for bread.
The rich woman thought a bit. then asked:
What can you do? Not singing, playing,
painting china and that sort of thing-but
something, anything-at which you excel.
Tell me that and 1 can really help you"
The poor woman thought a minute:
My talent, If l have any-runs to lamp
geous ones"
You shall make more" the rich woman
interrupted. The first of them for me
Here, take this money-for materials-and
let me see what you do as quickly as
possible. If it is something individual the
rest will be easy"
The completed shade, carried home the
next day but one, was not only individual
DuI SIlklnSly DGduu1ul. Inc rlch woman
went into raptures over It, and instantly or
dered several more, paying for them gener-
| ously, and in advance. By the time they
were done, she had orders for half dozen.
secured for her protege. among her friends.
To the protege, along with the orders, she
gave sound advice: Never send out a shade
that IS less than your best she said land
charge for it accordingly. People who have
money are only too glad to pay well for
anything really distinctive Keep away
from the shops and the shop models. Trust
your eye for color harmOnies, and your own
sense Of lines. 1t Is the shops with their
set patterns for the multitude that would
rather be out of the world than the fashion
which stiie originality, or else pay 1t so
moderately 1t has never fair chance. Take
a shop Of your own-in a good quarter no
matter how tiny-be polite to purchasers
but never over anxious; don't lower prices
nor workmanship ar you Will do WE'LL
The little shop in q swell quarter was
duly taken. Very shortly there was a
workwoman in 1t to help the proprietor
And pretty soon the one workwoman had
companions many or few according to sea-
son. The shop, too, was outgrown before a
year had passed Next year one twice its
size proved also much too small-not for
Christmas rushes and such like times but
for steady custom. So other floors were
added, and later other store fronts. AS
result the proprietor now spends three
months of each year abroad, studying col
ors, materials, heaven knows what. She
owns one of the biggest and most artistic
lampshade shops in the central 9th avenue
region, Is always on the lookout for wo-
men OF artistic ability, and when she finds
them pays them to work for her at rates
that remember her own time of need She is
on the point Of setting up wholesale bust
| ness, albeit by selling at retail she has al
ready laid by comfortable sum. All which
goes to show that there is money In artistic
| finger tips-if there be common sense in the
head that goes along with them.