The San Francisco call., 1906-08-19
By Alice Manorah LudIum.

The author of this article is a San
Francisco girl, who has spent part
of several years in New York study
ing the art of which she writes so
interestingly
TO rout out ugliness and to make
beautiful the surroundings of
daily effort-this is the business
OF the applied designer Surely
no field which woman has lately in
vadeo in her progress seems better
adapted TO feminine talents or offers
& more congenfal means OF livelihood
Her heritage of generations OF expert
ence has taught her Emersons truth
The beautiful rests on the founda-
tons of the necessary" which might
be called the law Of applied design.
Who more familiar with house
hold details, their fitness and their in
congruities than mothers and daugh-
ters2 Who more cognizant of the
Jsrring lines and warning coIors OF
furnishings turned out by thousands
with the motto. Something 10 catch
the eye and the dollar?"
Surely every housekeeper remembers
some carpet which, nailed helpless to
the floor, spent a long existence in
screaming out it's fright at Its own
blood-curdling pattern, or some well
intentioned piece Of furniture whose
ponderous top strove to rest with Doric
dignity upon legs which danced afriIv
IN a rococco maze. Yet while such ex-
perienced understanding, with her
natural love for decoration, should
make woman especially fitted for the
profession OF designer, she was Obliged
10 knock at manufacturers doors with
her ideas for years and had to resort
10 climbing in at windows, as il were
under notwithstanding initials to
get her chance to show that she could
fulfil requirements.
A PROFESSION THAT PAYS.
But recently she has come Unto her
own. American manufscturers, long
tied by the habit of going abroad for
designs have discovered that there Is
lots of ability at home, and in taking
work from local designers have ceased
discriminating against the gentler sex,
10 becaHse by so doing they were losing
much that was desirable in design. To-
? day no properly trained woman designer
has any trouble in earning a good liv-
ing. and many achieve great financial
success. While American manufactur-
ers still go abroad for many OF their
De stterns, they are discovering that the
native designer can best plan things to
be used on this continent, since he or
she best grasps American needs and re-
quirements. Hundreds Of women are
employed in such concerns at salaries
ranging from SIS to &25 a week good
wages for work which is light. The
Independent artist who has her own
studio and peddles her patterns does
much better. IL she has individuality, s
she obtains from sic to $50 for each
clever idea More than few San
Francisco and California girls have
taken UP this work in earnest.
The great increase in the number of
women designers is due principally to
the New York School OF Applied Art
Tor Women, an institution established
about twelve years ago through the ef-
forts OF Mrs. Dunlap Hopkins, q woman
Of wealth and brains, who saw the i'm
portance of this work for women. The
. curriculum compares fsvorabiy with
that OF any school for men. Practically
self-supporting, private donations have
met its deficits. and during it's twelve
years hundreds have passed through
the three-years' course into desirable
positions with large firms, and g num-
ber have received conspicuous recogni-
ton; their success not being confined
TO local fields.
AMERICAN IDEAS ABROAD.
4 prominent New Yorker recently