TITLED SHOPKEEPERS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 98, 18 January 1908, Page 11

TITLED SHOPKEEPERS.

'-rKii'glish papers have, had a good deal to say j of. jii'te'aboiit .t/'tled.women iii business, and they. havp drawn tho most, reverent .pictures .of ladies .'of tho nobility. seryiiig:'peo'plo' with | .their own fair hands. It,is.always better, ■however, for information on, these subjects ■ to'.-go to' American, journals, for they give: 'lriaiiy interesting, details that tbo others are too "polite to For instance, the sta'tementin.tho following articlo.that iVictoriavobjected, to .Lady Warwick's engaging in business .would, hardly appear in : tho English society papers. Also, tho Ameri-. .can paper lias a'nioi'o viviil imagination, and displays'. T it. . ■ . .. , . '.. I'ormerly the one resort of. an impoverished, I'lugiishwomaii of good birth was to becomo j a govorness. • To-day, owing to tho abqminablo mariner in which, tho world oyer, the 'instructor, of children is treated, this'field is lieing.j'carefully avoided-by tlioso who otherwise would'prove most desirablo to place in of a. brood of rampant youngsters. > , Onco stalled in tho business world, the .enterprise shown by some titled women, is ainaziiig. -At the present, time London _en-:-ioys'thb sensation of placarding a Ladysiiip as biHiard-niarker in an establishment enjoying the patroiiagc of Mayfair and Belgravia. Aiid from many similar indications it would appear that tho\scope of the coronet behind !th'o counter in England is far more .extended itiiaii'. that' of her -'path-finding • American ! sisters. ; ■-. ■ , When '.the' American woman of acknowiledgc'd 'fiocial standing first went into trade,, slie ventured through seas of family opposition.- Kqt so tho Englishwoman, who stands smilingly under her sign-board with Queen |Alexandra as 1 sponsor mid; patron.,- Tho ,Queenas tho legitimate head of fashion • thrOrighmit tbo vast' British domain,' appears ;toHla'y'-before the' world in tho rolo of a iwoman'of astonishingly progressive ideas and iiijliiperideiit attitude; "since this is in .direct t'ipiiosition to tho'attitudo of Queen Victoria: The .astounding financial conditions in tho pnei'ago revealed -at tho Coronation in 1901 explain., the present largo number of titled women to whom has become imperative this ! necessity for adding to their incomes.jn order .to properly Jiiaiiitain their standing at Court. Tho discovery made by King F.dward, t.hat ! few-of; the eoronctted contingent could afford : new ,Coronation' robes or the resetting of their family jewels for the magnificent cerenioiiial, nt. •\S estminster Abbey, .resulted in his order for greater simplicity than has ever before been recorded for such 'nil event. •• lirutoii and-Grafton Streets aro.unique iu, j' IjOmlon, for scarce.a shop upon their rourse • but- is-'-owned by a. woman of titled In tho j majority of cases tho; name is carefully omitted from the.chic signs and bill heads. | A nota.blo example to be cited is that of the .lato llonouniblo Mrs. Pockington, whoso hat' shop-in Grafton Street. was known by tho linn namo of Lilli. Tlio Couiitess of Warwick was tho first titled; woman to go regularly into trade. In ! her famous 13ond Street Lingerie Shop she notj.'only attended personally to her cus- , toniors, but kept the books with an accuracy that, would have done credit to an expert. Tho lloyal consent was necessary before this shop could be opened, and, as the lat-o Queen Victoria was an exceedingly conservative woman, it-proved no easy task to gain tho permission without which no man or woman of high degreo in England may at any time enter, into trade. : " After some years' success in her lingerie, shop there came the Queen's mandate that it rnust at once be closed or, sold. The Honourable Margery G'reville was to he presented at Court, and forthwith all connection with trade by the ancient house of Warwick must cease, since the Iloyal .ruling was that, no daughter of trade was eligible for presentation at the Victorian Court. There was the further worldly consideration that, by the mother remaining in trade, the daughter's opportunities for a suitable matrimonial allianco'would narrow t-o the vanishing point. Threading off from Bond Street into Piccadilly thoro is a veritable congestion of shops kopt by prominent women of London society. Tho'lsaronc3s Mechin, at 13a Gcorgo Street, under the firm name of Hiblot, conducts a flourishing business in children's apparel and boudoir fittings. The Countess Fnbricotti has attracted to'her hat shop in South Jloulton Street customers of whom any one might bo pardonably proud. Tho Honourable Mrs. Knox is tho proprietor of a parfuninrie and manicure establishment, enjoying distinguished patronage of the peerage, and Miss M'Arthnr practically shares with her this list of purchasers in one of tho daintiest, lingerie shops which London can boast. Lady Alexander Kennedy in her prosperous dressmaking shop on Hanover Square is to all intonts and purposes ono of the Court dressmakers. The Countess of Limerick has established a number of agcncies for the sale of Irish lace made by her peasant proteges. In addition to this, she is now at tho head of what has grown to be. an immense enterprise in ilie annual sa|p of shamrock. The first consignment. sent, several years ago to London oil'St; Patrick's Day was purchased by every

she first met her husband, Mr. Sanderson, at the house of liurnc Jones. Professor Jlackail, in a lecture on Morris, in 1890, referred to her as "one of tho friends for whom Morris had a very special affection." After her marriage, while she and her husband were. living in the Temple, Morn's often used to come to see them, and tall; over his hopes for a better future for"humanity. lie brought, too, the manuscript of his translation of Virgil, and used to read it to Mrs. Sanderson for her criticism. She early determined ' o devote herself to bettering the lot of the masses of the people, and has long been an active worker iu the

that she mourns where there is no cause for grief. "livery heart knowoth its own bitterness" was written long ago, and is till indubitably true, and not one of us can judge ,of the trouble of another. In many cases, however, Uiis stale is one which requires a physician of the mind as well as body. This insidious melancholy which causes the sufferer to think of nothing else but. somw and seek solitude in which to blood over the grievonsness of life is trio often n mental as well as nervous state, which should be treated as the malady which it is,