The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-03-30
OF INTEREST
To Women and Others

himself. Such a nat may cost onel
and fifty dollars. Dissect it,
and it will be found to give almost a
complete lesson in the geography oil
France, and incidentally a luminous
idea of what Fashion means to this
prosperous Republic. Thus the silk
and velvet blossoms feathers, and
paste jewels will come from Paris, the
tulles, gauges, and grapes from Lyons,
the black imitation laces from Calais,
the Innings from Picardy, and the
ribbons from st. Etienne.
A famous little town this-the City
of Ribbons. Quite one-half of its po-
pulation of one hundred and fifty
thousand are engaged in weaving rib
bons for the world. In this one
French town are no less than two
hundred manufacturers of ribbons; and
as many of them have two or three
factories the number of these great
establishments must run into hun
dreds. More than this, some thous-
ands of the inhabitants have private
hand weaving looms in their own
homes; and altogether it has been es-
timated that no less than twenty-five
thousand looms are in daily work at
st. Etienne, producing every conceiv-
cred ribbon with which the world of
fashion is acquainted.
When one thinks of seventy thous-
and people in one French town max
ing nothing else but ribbons, he can
form some idea of what fair France
position as supreme and indisputable
Mistress of the Robes means to her.
Sadly enough, the faces met in the
streets of St Etienne do not suggest
that ribbon making is the most heal
thy or enjoyable of tasks.
Thousands of them work in their
own homes; and one will meet crowds
of girls and boys, with great piles of
nicely balanced baskets on their way
to the wholesale houses. The wages
paid are indeed paltry. If a young
If she earns fifty cents day, girl
girl earns twenty-five cents a day, she
is considered to be doing fairly well.
If she earns fifty cents a day she is
a good workwoman. AS to the hours
of course the piecework people can
put in many as they please. EN-
ployees in the town workshops, how
ever, commonly put in ten or twelve
hours a day.
The motive power for the weaving
looms is derived first from the river
which runs through the city. Then
there are factories worked by steam
or lectricity-which last is occasion
ally supplied to the private home
looms for a small annual charge.
1t is most interesting to watch the
raw silk being taken in at the fac
tories and gradually worked up from
beautiful colored designs into ribbons
of every conceivable width and color.
One firm alone in st. Etienne employs
sixty artists, inventing and working
out new and striking patterns.
Careful inquiry was made as to the
value of the annual output of ribbons,
and it equaled about sixteen million
dollars of our money. The ribbons
are all velvet, silk satin, or cotton.
Sometimes they are gold and silver.
They are women over glass rods, and
the operations cali for extreme deli
cacy of touch, as may be seen from
the fact that often twenty-five hun
dred threads may be running through
one complicated pattern 1t is worth
noting that one is told in st. Etienne
that the United States constitutes the
chief market for ribbons.
To return for a moment to Paris
You will find here nine thousand wo'
men in one quarter making artificial
flowers, and another seventy-five hun
bred curling and dyeing feathers. That
reminds one that Paris has just be
gun an important industry in artificial
feathers; for Fashion decress that
these shall be extensively worn during
1907. The result is that ostrich
plumes have gone up in price by leaps
and bounds, and the ostrich farms
of California and South Africa are
profiting accordingly.
As much as fifty dollars is now paid
for three especially fine plumes. AS
a rule the longest feather is thirty
two inches and consists Of two superb