The Washington herald., 1916-03-06

Never scorn small beginnings. The
lowest step in the valley may lead to
the top OF the mountain. have just
seen a beautiful Illustration Of this
theory in fadeless howera A group Of
ladies. in 1905, experimenting work
Ing girls club. meeting in a humble,
narrow street OF Tottenham Court Road
engaged a lady. who had studied artificial
flower making in the Paris ateliers to
teach an evening class one night a
week. Not much was expected OF IT,,
as artificial flower making was, at that
time, accepted as a speciality Of France.
The girls, however, quickly developed
nimble fingers, sense Of color, and q
capacity for copying with feeling the
natural flower. The ladies Of the COM
mittee gave a few Informal teas to their
friends, and in an amateur way the
flowers sold well. and at the end Of two
seasons a small capital was raised, and,
with the teacher as manager and four
girl workers under her, the little industry
stood upon its feet.
Three OF the girls had been unskilled
and unwilling workers in the tailoring
trade. having dlsliked the coarse, hard
texture Of tweed and serge, but they
handled with pleasure tiny petals of
silk and cambria. The fourth girl had
made cloth caps. She, too, detested her
trade and consequently made barely
a living wage, but in reproducing flowers
she bloomed like a rose.
At the end of three years the number
of workers had increased to twenty-five,
and they were supplying milliners, dress
makers and the big shops with what
their customers thought were French
flowers. In 1913, a shop was taken In
South Audley street one Of the most
fashionable thoroughfares in London,
ard there among plate glass windows
Of fine laces, exquisite porcelains and
the soft yet brilliant Colorings of old
prints. the Mayfair flowers bravely held
their own. Passersby stopped continually
to refresh their eyes with larkspur, hiies'
roses, azaleas, carnations and great
punches of phloX and violets.
The first year showed a profit, and
in 1914, after the war began. when
anxiety and depression were in the air.
Marshall & Snelgrove's. a conservative,
but nevertheless astute, frm, paid a
substantial sum for tools. stock, pro-
prietary name, and, raising their
wages, moved the ever-increasing num-
Der of girls into commodious premises
in We're street As an appreciation OF
the generosity Of Marshall & Smell
grove to the Mayfair flower workers,
the committee OF four ladies-Lady
Northclirre. Lady Lionel Bulteel, Lady
Hall, and Mrs. Ian Malcolm-offered, in
order to direct the taste Of the work
room, to send from time to time per-
feet specimens OF natural flowers to
be copied, and in November Of each
year to hold an annual exhibition.
Every one connected with the industry
is proud of the fact that it has been
brought to its present pitch of excel
lence by women alone. without the aid
Of a man either in or out of the work
room until it became one OF the de-
partments Of Marshall & Snelgrove.
The exhibition this yesr has been
larger and more successful than ever
before. A first impression is that the
flowers are all real 1t was impossible
without touching a bowl of chry san
themums grown in the garden and a
bowl made by the workers to detect
the real from tine artificial And rear
them were rosebushes, small orange
trees, little apple trees and dwarf
lemon trees in Renaissance pots, a
memory direct from Italy. There were
beautiful eighteenth-Century bowls.
containing delicious punches of old
fashioned herbaceous blooms and bril-
liant sprigs of conventional berries
warm and gay in hue and lHtle rough
terTa-pOts with the realest aZaleas i'm
aginable and tiny little BASKETS Of peri
wrinkles. An ornamental bellows would
be useful in keeping the flowers fresh
and free from dust.
I was 50 impressed with the decorative