Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-15
THEY CAN NOT SEW
WOMEN ARE FAILURES
AS SEAMSTREsSEs.
Know Nothing About the Art Accord
ing to Occidental
Standards.
Written for The Evening Star,

Written for The Evening Star.
The japanese as a people are delightfully."-
deft with their fingers. but the women can
not do sewing for Americans. A New York
modiste has learned this to her sorrow
She was to prepare the costumes for a
fancy dress party, and one of the men con-
nected with it conceived the bright idea of
employing Japanese women to assist in the
work. The designs for the costumes were
made by a Japanese artist, and it would
give more atmosphere to the costumes he
thought, if native women made them He
knew a little Japanese matron who made
her own kimonas, and she would be glad
10 sew for the Americans
In due time she appeared at the rooms
OF the moulSte with a SiSter-in-laW, an
other little woman of the same race They
were ready to go to work and there would
be no prelinninaries but one. They must
have their money in advance. The mod ste
argued. She never paid her workwomen in
advance; they must do the work and then
they would be paid The little brown-faced
ladies were gentle but persistent They
must have their money or they could not
come They got their money and they
came. That was the beginning of a series
of tribulations for the modiste.
The hours of the little ladies suited them
selves They. came at $50, o. 10-any time
in the morning they pleased. Then they
smust remove their small Shoes get out
their bonbonS to nibbe as they worked
and make themselves comfortable AS they
sewed they chartered necessarily. At noon
they made tea. They brought their own
tea service, and it took them a good hour
to heat the water and make and drink the
light-colored liquid they called tea AT
) they left.
This was too much for the modiste. She
really could not have it. All of her work
women were expected to sew until g. and
the little Japanese ladies must do the
same. But they did not
I'VE must go at D." they reiterated gen
tly to everything she said, and as soon as
their toilets We're made they left
The toilets, however, required consider
able time. Never We're there such prinkers
Each little lady rouged her cheeks touched
her lips with carmine and darkened her
eyes. Then, when they were at last ready
to depart, every small boy in the neighbor-
hood gathered around to see them Off 1t
was altogether too much, even If the jap
aneSe women had been good seamstresses
which they were not
They We're able to make womens cos
tunes but about those for the men they
had no idea. The modiste had prepared
herself for the work and her ideas were
clear and we'll defined and she knew how
to get work out of the way in a hurry She
could give the japanese women points as
TO the designs and cut out a dozen gar
ments to their one. Their cutting was a
slow process of measuring and marking
One American workwoman could do three
times as much sewing as the two Japanese
and do IL better. Atmosphere at that price
was too expensive, and the little Japanese
women, their bonbons, paint boxes and tea
things, departed. The modiste is not look
ing for other oriental needlewomen.