THE WOMAN QUESTION IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9088, 23 June 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE WOMAN QUESTION IN ENGLAND.

The New York World has the following from a • London correspondent : The '' Woman Question" in England to-day is not so much whether they are to have the suffrage, but whether they aro going to have daily bread and the wherewithal to be clothed. In the fierce struggle for life among the lower classes a common solution is emigration, and with them the women can emigrate as easily at the men, but when the same difficulty is lifted to a higher social plane, the woman has no such refuge. The men can and do emigrate. They go to Australia, and own sheep farms, or come to the United States and invest in ranches or marry American heiresses ; but for the ever-increasing supply of the fair sex there is no such outlet, and it has been an open secret for some years that there is really a great deal of suffering among English women of the upper classes. It has driven many of them to revolt at las*;, and to take the astonishing step of going into trade rather than suffer any longer the miseries of genteel poverty. Dressmaking and millinery have been their favourite methods of getting a support, and they sot up regular establishments under pseudonymes which arc not even meant to deceive the public, but are used to salve the wounded pride of their relatives. For these ladies are very well aware of the commercial value of their rank and know that the rich bourycoisc cannot the resist the delightful and novel sensation of having their gowns made for them by "the daughter of a hundred earls." Mrs. Charles Gurney was the first to take the stop. She was clever, pretty, and admired, and belonged to an ancient and honourable family, but was horribly poor. She had always been obliged to make her own clothes, with the help of her maid, because she couldn't afford to have them done out, and had eminent success therewith. She sketches nicely in watercolours, and was in the habit of picturing her gowns in this way before making them yp. But she kept growing poorer and poorer, and even the materials were hard to come by. It was during a period of great depression on this subject that a wealthy friend dropped in and happened to get sight of these costume sketches. She was enchanted. "My dear," she said, " I know you need money. Now, if you will just design my costumes for me in this way so that my dressmaker can copy the pictures, I'll pay you handsomely for it." Mrs. Gurney seized on the chance with avidity, and before the season was over everyone was remarking Mrs. Croesus' charming costumes. Her friends began asking who designed them, and in consequence Mrs. Gurney had more than she could do. Finally it dawned upon her that she would double her earnings if she made up her own designs instead of furnishing them to the dressmakers. There was a great outcry at first, but before long there was a now dressmaker in the ranks, a certain Mine. Valentini, and the other costumers got no more of Mrs. Gurney's designs. Mine. Valentini makes dresses for the Princess of Wales, Princesses Louise and Beatrice and the Duchess Paul, and Miss Winslow, Miss Grant, and Miss Chamberlain, as well as Mrs. Vanderbilt, are among her frequent customers. In con sequence Mrs. Gurney has grown rich. She keeps a beautiful carriage, and instead of her old makeshift gowns, dresses as well as her rich customers, and as she keeps Mme. Valentini and Mrs. Gurney quite separate, is as great a favourite in society as ever. Lady Gordon, who had a genius for manufacturing her own bonnets, observed and pondered over this example, and the result was the founding of a bonnet shop. Mrs. Pocklington followed in the dressmaking line, ana the latest addition to the list of titled tradespeople is Lady Mackenzie, who calls herself Mme. de Courcey, and who has just" set up a shop." The result is tho formation of a "London Society of Lady Dressmakers," formed, as a sort of titled Dressmakers' Trust to prevent tho lowering of prices by too much competition.