The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1915-03-26
Caroline Van Horn, Forced to
Earn Her Own Living,
Started on Nerve.
FRENCH GIRL WAS PLuCKY
How She Made Good in Great Lon
don establishment and Then
Became Leader in Her
Line in America.
BY OSBORN MARSHALL.


charge as much as eight hundred dol
lars for a single gown and, what is
more, is able to find patrons who will
pay 1t. She is 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
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 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 it
pay.
The woman who has achieved this
success is Caroline Van Horn. Tween
ty years ago she was pretty little
blue-eyed French girl in fashionable
a member of distinguished French
family and looked forward inpatient
~ 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
her family had been left penniless.
She would have to leave school at the
end of the term and go to work
To a 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 a bachelor girl
in this country. She must be gov
erness, of course, for that was fhe
only suitable work for girl of her
standing
Gets Position In London.
Caroline's companion at the school
was an English girl. a niece Of Col.
Tom jaw OF London, owner and mana
ger OF the diessmaking establishment
patronized by the r,ost fashionable
members of British royalty and arts
tocracy. When she heard of Car
dimes misfortune she asked her to
spend the next holidays with her in
her home in Liverpool. Caroline ac-
copied the 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 a 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 at the door.
But she hesitated only second and
then 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 a few minutes, she
was ushered into the office of this
important parsonage.
IL have come to apply for posi-
ton" she said in her best English.
Il
to get employment at once"
The colonel made some remarks
about his surprise that she had in
sisted on seeing him personally on
business of that kind, but there was
in the girls manner that
made him forgive the intrusion. 1--WE
are in need of skilled workwomen, /
believe" he said What position do
you want?"
Caroline hesitated for fraction OF
a minute, screwed her courage to the
sticking point and answered bravely,
Assistant filter and designer" Then
she waited in trepidation for the
colonel's next question. Just what
she would say when he asked he for
names of references or where she had |
received her experience she hadn't |
planned. AS a 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-
iiately offered her a position with as
high wages to start with as she could
have ever hoped for as a governess
In a French family.
Caroline then went out into the !
strange city and picked out a cheap |
lodging house and wrote to her moth |
er to tell her what she had done and
o her school mistresses to tell them |
hat she would never return to |
school
<ept Her Eyes Open and Made Good. |
The next thing to do was to make |
,ood at Jays. She had made up her
mind never to let anyone suspect that
he had come without experience,
nd this took a good deal of alert
ess To begin with, she was put to
York on her first day under Mile
iauy who had been with the great