The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-18

NONEMBEk
sospe architecture. The srchitect who has
turn IL over TO such q woman to put in
perspective.
She designs steps. walks, lawns, ~pergolas,
the whole setting or frame OF the house,
One woman who has done considerable
such work has also done a good lea Of
very we'll paid writing about it. One woman
does all the mechanical drawing for q firm
OF electrical railway contractors.
They find all sorts Of unexpected
OF employment. One designs diamond
mOuntings alone Another designs all the
jewelry for a big firm, and is specially
known for her brooches.
A firm which makes very fashionable
tailored garments sends out on each one
a label with a special design woven in.
Two girls get SIS a week for designing
these labels.
Everything connected with feminine
fashions offers an abundance Of well paid
work. All fashion magazines employ do
signers for their plates.
Designing for trade catalogues offers an
almost i~nexhaustible field. Girls under 20
make $40 and s25 a week at this. An indie
pendent worker makes a good income by
designs for shirt waist fronts, allover lace
and embroidered dress patterns.
Women whodraw designs for Fifth avenue
~tailors, or for those who put expensive
ready made gowns on the market, earn
salaries OF 81 500 ayear. There is q m an
in New York who sells pictures of the model
gowns put out by the famous French mo-
distes to dressmakers who cannot al ord to
20 to Paris or buy the models. She gets
photographs Of new models every season,
and then keeps a room full OF girls busy
making colored sketches OF them, correct
in every sartorial detail, which sell to dress
makers for 81 apiece.
All the designing for manufacturing
means far more than mere draw ing. 1t
implies a thorough knowledge of materials.
For all holiday card and valentine novelties
an actual sample must be laid before the
manufacturer, just rs il will appear on the
counter, and a yea ahead OF time. A
book cover design Is worke ed out in an actual
cover.
As 10 the differences between the work
OF men and women In this line the manage
ment of the school has noted only two.
Women excel in color rather than drawing
and are more interested in beautiful color
schemes than in the line work. Women
are inferior to men in free hand printing,
a qualification so desirable that a woman
possessing it is nearly always sure Of en-
ployment.
As for pay, special orders given out 20
independent workers have a fixed price,
whether a man or woman executes them.
Among regular employees women generally
receive less than men, but not always.
A thing company recently received an
order TO tile a floor provided it could be
designed TO correspond with the Moorish
decorations OF the interior Of the building.
The man employed by the firm could not
produce what was wanted. A woman
furnished the design and was engaged
by the firm in the mans place at a higher
salary.
Nearly all these women have SOM one
dependant upon them. Some are support
ing parents Oh invalid relatives. some edu-
eating younger brothers or sisters. Many
Of them were poor girls who supported
themselves while taking their curse.
There was one who paid her way by
running a soda fountain summers in the
suburban own where she lived. Ii is still
remembered how delightfully."- flush she
used TO be in September, with her cherry
phosphates and chocolate ice creams trans
formed into a neat bank account, and how
as the ides of June approached her thoughts
began TO turn rather anxiously to syrups
and mineral waters once more.
There was another who paid for her course
by selling the jellies, preserves and pickles
she put up in summer on the home place;
and still another who ran n Jersey market
garden to pay for her course.
One was the daughter of a man who a few
years ago was wealthy. Owing to his
death and financial reverses she found her
self the only person 10 whom a mother and
a young brother could look for support.
After one year at the school. made possible
by friends, she was able to take a place at
s12 a week and continued her course while
earning her salary.
Girls have fought their way through the
school by typewriting, sewing, or keeping
books at night 10 get money TO live on. But
the quaintest tradition Of the schoOl is the
girl who ran a ferryboat to pay for her
course.
The ferryboat ran from Bar Harbor to the
mainland, and many New Workers. can
remember her as summer after summer she
sat in the pilot house and earned a pilots
wages to buy the art instruction her soul
longe1 for.
The alumnR are very loyal to the school.
Within the last wear those in New York have
formed q students association. with the
central object of paying the expenses OF the
employment Office for the students and
younger graduates. With this object in
view they will hold a fair at the school
December 3. at which a great deal OF their
own work will he seen.