PARISIAN SEWING GIRLS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5861, 1 May 1897, Page 3

PARISIAN SEWING GIRLS.

AN UNEQUAL STRUGGLE. It is usually supposed that in Paris, the paradise of all that is modish and dainty in dress, the sewing-girl and milliner speedily inako their fortunes. Nothing, however, could be farther from fact, for the census returns reveal that out of the sixty-five thousand sewing-girls in Paris only about five thousand make a living wage. Of the remaining sixty thousand a large number live with parents or friends, whose combined efforts prolong an honest existence that is never far removed from starvation. The work of these girls is almost entirely taken up by those who deal in ladies' costumes — in dressmaking and linen wear, in embroidery, millinery, artificial flowers, and feathers. The work lasts eight months at most. When the pleasant days of summer come, and the rich go off to mountain or seashore, the sewing girls, too, are at leisure. ' Only they must live until the autumn and winter fashions are in demand, on what they have saved from their scanty wages. Suppose, for instance, that a young girl earns four francs a day, and that is a high wage as things go in Paris ; she may, bycutting down every expense as low as possible, manage to- save about twenty francs a month against the dead season. This is, of course, if she can manage without spending a sou upon her dress. Many dressmakers earn much less than this even, and under such circumstances, life, even for such frugal people as the French, becomes very difficult indeed. At first they make an effort to get credit, but it does not last long and only adds terribly to the next year's burden. When their "credit - has exhausted itself they manage to keep body and soul together on a little hot milk and bread or black coffee and a roll. When hunger gnaws too sharply they can stay a day in bed. One young girl was in the habit of taking her evening meal in a boarding house and her luncheon at the shop where she worked. As the dead season -advanced the shop reduced the girls to half work and suppressed the luncheon. She made no change, and it was only after two weeks that her failing strength made it impossible for her to conceal that she was eating but once a day. In another shop the girls were accustomed to bring their luncheon with them. One came every day, like the rest, with her little basket. After awhile it was noticed that the basket never had. anything in it. Is it a wonder that consumption finds its richest harvest among these girls, who should be as flowers only opening to the joys of life ? Of course the quick feminine wit finds ways and means out of this slow agony which men -would scarcely dream of, just as the woman's endurance holds out longer. Two or three friends will do their own cooking together, for this food in common costs less and goes further. Then the big shops pay more attention to their good workers than they once did, and manage to keep many on at half - work. Or the employers and forewomen give

out their own and their families' clpthfis to be made at this time ; and : they allow the poor girls to fill in the workshops the poor little orders they may have got for themselves. Aunts and cousins and friends can pay something for the making of their common gowns, and every little helps. This is even given as the reason why all the women of Paris dress in the fashion. The cheap gowns of the telephone girls are made by the same hands as those of the rich lady who descends from her carriage. Of late years, also, the multiplication of ready-made clothing shops of all kinds increases the chance of earning a pittance in the dead season. go far it is religious o'mrity that does the '*uosi to lighten tie burden of these brave yI^IES women who wish to remain honest in a city where pleasure and wealth seem to f olW the vicious. But the problem is Difficult. ' The fine lady who for a brief half hour comC" into contact with a " tryer-on" or a " skirt -omker," can hardly be expected to do anything The employer of labour will continue to p»y for work as httle as he can.