Ways of Living.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 365, 7 May 1903, Page 2

Ways of Living.

SWEET-MAKING AND LINEN MENDING. ■-■ V

fN journalism the freelance is not attached to the stuff of a single paper, but writes for all manner of publications Why should there not be freelances in other lines of employment P After all. work that is the same day in day out, though it steadily becomes easier, is apt to wax monotonous. A group of occupations that might well be blended by a clever woman are bonbonmaking, lace making, and lase and damask mending. All these crafts can be pursued at home, so that two or three members of the same family can join ia the enterprise, or a few friends may cooperate, and even add to their list of lucrative accomplishments cake and sandwich cutting for At Homes, the cleaning of lace, and the mending of china. The great bßauty of learning how to make sweets for the table is that it is a very quiekly-achieved accomplishment. Many women take a course of lessons at the Grosvenor Studios, 23, Buckingham Palaco Road, simply in order to be able to supply their own children and others with wholesome, pretty, and mexpensivebonbonß. The course costs' for seven private lessons, of two hours or for the same number of lessons in a class of two hours, Mi 2s. ,

Miss Eenderel-Moody, the principal of the studios, which, it should ba added, are right opposite one of the iide-'eiifranees of Buckingham Palace, makes a great point of the fact that the pupils of the French bonbon and fancy cookery class are taught to send out their wares prettily. The demand for really appetising and charming-looking bonbons which will decorate the table at a luncheon or dinner party is large, and ladies who are sweetmakers find it profitable to sell, at quite low prices, goods that are very costly if bought in exclusive shops. ?,;," It should be added that, while a number of young society women and other rich demoiselles attenl Miss Moody's sweet classes merely to acquire an amusing occupation, very many who go there do so with the serious intention o! earning a living at the craft. Theße girls are often so porr that the sum charged for the lessons proves a severe strain on their exchequers. Miss Moody helps such pupils by selling their sweets for them, directly they are able to make marketable ones, and that, as has been said before, is a quickly accomplished feat. Long before the course is over, many species of tioods can be turned out that will fetch the usual prices asked for them. "Potatoes' are easy to make, and sell well too> for they are very delicious. Fondants are in great demand, and carame s go like hot cakes, The making of chooolate, plaia or in varieties, such as creams, almonds, coffee, liqueur, and caramel forms, is an employment in itself, and a lucrative one. Sweets for Bazaars ' Some young ladies attend the classes to enabla themselves to make money for philanthropic schemes in which they are interested, and they find that it is far easier to dispose of dainty boxes of cornucopias of bonbons than of needlework, that has cost hours of eyestrain and labour.

The scope a bread-earning woman discovers for the disposal of such wares as delectable bonbons is not only the tables of her patronesses. Many rich people give large orders for bazaar?, at which sweets usually sell as well as anything else, and much batter than multitudes of little things, over the making of which great perseverance and much 'labour have been spent. i There is an t dlitional fascination in sweet-making as a lucrative pursuit—namely, that tli e outfit it requires is not an expensive one. Moreover it is by no meaEß a monotonous calling, seeing that numbers of charming ways may be invented for sending out the goodies in tempting and suitable forms for birthday presents and so on. The giil who means to compete with the ' trade' in this direction does well to keep her eyes open for all manner of ideas. She may fashion daintily-painted cardboard 'trunk' boxes, cornuoopias threaded through with baby ribbon, basket-work, miniature motor-GMB, and hansom-cabs (an inducement /for her or one of her family to learn basket- weaving!) and a tfcousand-and-one other novelties. Of a,surety, a novelty that ia taking is a gold-mine in the hands of an enterprising girl,; - ' •• ■ 5 Mending Tablk-Linen.

A little while ago there appeared an advertisement in one of the London dailies for someone who could mend damask tablecloths and good linen of the kind. It emanated from a very smart hotel whore there is a stock of valuable damask in the linen-cupboards.

Time after time this advertisement reappeared, and at last Mies Moody

answered it, thinking it possible that she might find in it a new branoh of employment for some of her pupils. Her eSdrts were rewarded It transpired thatLnot one single answer had the hotel manager received to his oft-repeated:reiiueslfor a i good-damask-mender. g|p The art appears to be dying'^^apd l yet there is a great demand: for it 'at the present time. The fact of the matter is that it has become particularly smart to unearth old tablecloths made on the looms of our great-grand-mothers, and to use them again for high days and holidays, Wealth English and Americans are buying np all sorts of antiquities in this way, if they possess no inherited oaet/, and are taking a pride in furnishing their luncheon and dinner tables wiMij wonderful damask cloths, antiquo cut glass, old silver, and fine-English <eb in i.. Since damask-mending was taken vp in Miss Moody's studios, she has had nnmbeis of most remarkable »nd interesting old specimens sent to her t--.-*t have been repaired, so as to look "entirely like the originals.