The Washington herald., 1913-07-12

Some OF the stories back OF the dollar
gowns and the dressmaking classes in
our public schools pointedly and with
pleasant promise illustrate that the new
teaching Ii practical from the very start.
For in many Of the schools, at least
a goodly proportion Of the girls are gath
cred from the humber ranks.
This il the way 1t ran in one OF the
schools, whose membership. Was recruited
from homes where pennies COUNT;
One fourteen-year-old girl. who pa
tiently embroidered her 7s-cent gown with
q beautiful cluster OF butterflies. first
earned the money for the purchase OF
materials, for, you see, her fathers life
is slowly going out, through the inroads
of tuberculosis, and she must do her little
best to help along. When the hours It
school are over, she helps pack nuts IN
| q wholesale confectionery house at 81 q
week, and when holidays come along TO.
bit of rest the little girl is at her work
post again. adding her mite to the family
income. Quite important to have deft
fingers. is il not? More important still to
be learning the beauty Of simple stand
ards.
Another girl. a stranger from Russia.
earned the wherewithal for her pretty lit
tie frock by plotting blind pupils from
the school to places OF entertainment and
the like; and IL she had not been able
to earn the money ard make the gown
there would have been one more sorry
dress-tragedy to record, for there was
nothing to spare in her home. Useful to
her today. what will her training be
worth on the many tomorrows. that PROB
ably will teach her more than she already
knows Of the urgent need for small
economies2 - q.
And another-well. she had knightly
little brother, who served as errand boy
somewhere, and he furnished the mate
rial; she fashioned the gown. But she
knows how to fashion another; and
whether she earns it or whether she
shares another's income, the knowledge
will help along later on. And 1t will help
in other ways, for one cannot believe that
any girl who once has worn a dainty
frock of her own making ever will be con-
tent to buy the slip-shod things that pow
erty must buy when 1t turns to ready
made enthusiastically not, II trained
fingers are all that stand between the
one and the other.
Women who have more or Tess money
leeway. and, better than that. who have
careful home standards to follow. do not
always appreciate how unjust 1t may be
to criticise girls for what they call shift
lessness, inexcusable carelessness, and
out-a nd-out laziness. perhaps. They see
these girls minus hooks wnere hooks were
intended. see them with fingers frankly
peeping through gloves worn out at the
tips, and some places else. look with dis
may at rents pinned together where they
ought to be carefully mended. and view
other signs Of woeful neglect. And they
disdainfully say they have no patience at
all with girls Of that shiftless stamp. for
a needle and thread would set things
Alright, and, incidentally, would show that
they cared for the little things that be-
tray the manner of woman beneath the
gown. But-and there's the great trouble
nobody ever put needle and thread in
their hands. explaining how to use them
and telling how often and often a little
dressmaking art would mark the differ
ence between poverty that looked hopeless
and the kind that was doing its best to
grow into something different.
With some fortunate folk, IL Is in
stinctive to sew, to fashion hats and
gowns and all the little dress accessories
that add the beauty-touch. and they need
not wait to be taught. for they somehow
teach themselves. whatever their home or
their school standards. But others are
helpless and IL there is no one standing
back Of them showing the steps they
must take on the way to helping them
selves. they take the easier way and let
pins and other make-shifts take the place
Of needle and thread
But it is not alone the folk who abide
on poverty-fats who are benefited by the