The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-03-11
. ORESSNAKER WHO
DOES BIG THINGS
Caroline Van Horn, Forced to
Earn Her Own Living,
Started on Nerve.
FRENCH GIRL WAS PLJcKY
How Ssse Made Good In Great Lon
don Establishment and Then
Became Leader In Her
Line In America.
BY OSBORN MARSHALL.

NSOpyftfpht, Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
Hero is a dressmaker who dares Il
charge as much as eight hundred dol
lars for a single gown and. what is
more, ts able to find patrons who will
pay It. She is a past mistress OF the
art Of dressmaking and she is also an
efficiency expert on the business side
OF her profession. A little while ago
when one Of the largest department
stores in Chicago wanted to open W
a dressmaking department, she was
asked to be the chief engineer Of the
undertaking-to buy all the furnish
ings, fixtures and supplies, choose a
working force and outline a policy
This work took only a few weeks OF
the dressmaker's time, but her fee
was five thousand dollars. Dressmak.
ing is one Of the arts, but it takes a
pretty good business head to make II
pay.
The woman who has achieved this
success is Caroline Van Horn. Twen,
ty years ago she was a pretty little
blue-eyed French girl in fashionable
boarding school near Paris. She was
a member of distinguished French
family and looked forward inpatient
ly to the time when she should take
her place in the social world of the
French capital
Then came the news one day to the
school that through business reverses
her family had been left penniless.
She would have to leave school at the
end of the term and go to work
To French girl this loss OF money
meant a great misfortune. She would
have no dowry, and to have no dowry
in France usually means to go unmar-
ried, and to go unmarried among the
sedate conventional aristocracy Of
France is-well, somewhat more dis
couraging than to be bachelor girl
in this country. She must be a gov
erness, Of course, for that was the
only suitable work for a girl OF her
standing.
Gets Position In London.
Caroline's companion at the school
was an English girl, a niece of Col
Tom Jay Of London, owner and mana
ger of the dressmaking establishment
patronized by the most fashionable
members of British royalty and aris-
tocracy. When she heard of Car
oline's misfortune she asked her to
spend the next holidays with her in
her home in Liverpool. Caroline ac.
cepted che invitation, but, with Deep
laid plans for her future, left her
friend when they got across the chan
mel and went on alone to London.
She went straight to the establish
ment of the noted Jay in Regent
street. For moment she hesitated
when she saw the row of equipages
that were lined up at the curb, and
obscured the forbidding dignity of the
six-foot powdered footman IT the door.
But she hesitated only a second and
theL she went In and told the first
attendant she met inside the door that
she would like to see Col Tom Jay
himself. To her great satisfaction,
after waiting for few minutes, she
was ushered into the Office of this
important parsonage.
Il havo come to apply for a post
tion," She said in her best English.
Il have come from Paris and want
to get employment at once"
The colonel mace some remarks
about Ills surprise that she had in
sisted on seeing him personally on
BUSINESS Of that kind, but there was
something in the girls manner that
made him forgive the intrusion. I'VE
are IN need of skilled workwomen.
believe" he said What position do
you want?"
Caroline hesitated for fraction of
minute, screwed her courage to the
sticking point and answered bravely,
Assistant filter and designer" Then
she waited in trepidation for the
coloners next question. Just what
size would say when he asked he for
names of references or where she had
received her experience she hadn't
planned. AS matter of fact, all she
knew of dressmaking was what she
had learned in the elementary course
of sewing which she had had in
school. But the expected question
didn't come. Apparently Colonel Jay
took her at her word and he imme.
diately offered her a position with as
high wages to start with as she could
have ever hoped for rs a governess
in a French family.
Caroline then went cut into the
strange city and picked out a cheap
lodging house and wrote to her moth.
or to tell her what she had cone and
to her school mistresses to tell them
that -he would never return to
school,
Kept Her Eyes Open and Made Good.
The next thing to do was to make
good at jays. She had made up her
mind never to let anyone sus ,ect that
she had come without experience
and this took good deal If alert
ness. To begin with, she was put to
work on her first day under Mile.
Manx, who had been with the great
Worth in Paris, and she at
once took a liking to Caroline and
proved to be an excellent instructor,
,hough she never dreamed how close
y Caroline watched her in everything
she did. Caroline kept her eyes and
ears open to everything that her su-
oerior said and did and worked early
Ind late and every minute of the day.
If she had told Colonel Jay she was
inexperienced she would have been
started as an errand girl at wage
The could not possibly have lived on
n London, but as 1t was she was
.ble to send something home to her
amily from the first If she hadn't