Page images
PDF

sioned a second direction to be given. It had been in a raid of two minutes upon the pastry cook's, and sent by post, and after a long delay was forthcom- followed by a boy bearing a steaming can of soup. ing. After that it was only a matter of time to fol- | The children on the floor looked up, and a ray of low up the track. The Boultbys drove from parish hope shone upon their white faces. Mrs. Timmins to parish, — from lodging to lodging, each a degree held a spoonful of soup to Johnny's mouth, and his poorer and shabbier than the last, to be met every- mother raised his head. A kind of stupor seemed where with the same sad story : “He could n't get to have crept over him, but he swallowed the soup, no work, so they had to give up the rooms." Jane and one or two spoonfuls more, and then as they Boultby's pale face grew paler and paler, and her laid him down, a light came into the blue eyes, and lips became parched and dry. Every now and then a murmur from the childish lips, —“Thy will be her husband laid his broad hand encouragingly on done. Forgive us our trespasses as we-" It was hers, but few words were spoken. At length the the right word. It touched the heart-strings of both cab stopped at the bottom of a wretched alley in his hearers. one of the purlieus of London; a foul, reeking, With a flood of tears, Mrs. Timmins held out her loathsome place. Miserable children, in damp rags hand to the woman who had been the cause of her were lying or creeping about, and here and there husband's ruin, saying, “ God bless you for having the voice of a drunken woman quarrelling with her come in time to save him; he is like my own. I neighbor sounded loud and shrill.

forgive you for his sake.” And the two women enThe rain was falling fast, but Mrs. Boultby did braced and kissed each other by the side of the not seem to feel it. She walked on quickly, unheed-child's poverty-stricken bed.. ing the curious glances turned on her and her well-! The sun rose bright and clear on Christmas Dar. dressed, stalwart husband, until they reached a About noon Henry Boultby carried little weak dilapidated house, at whose open door a knot of Johnny in his strong arms to a warm cheery lodging dirty men were lounging. The often-repeated ques- in a healthy neighborhood. Most of the family bad tion was this time answered in the affirmative. Yes, moved some hours before, so as to be ready to rethey were here. Fallen so low as this! The Boult-ceive him, and the child looked round with amazebys mounted the filthy stairs, swarming at every ment when he had been softly laid on the little white flight with squalid children, up and up till they bed in the corner. Mrs. Boultby had decked the reached the topmost garret. Here they knocked, room with holly and mistletoe boughs, a cosey fire and in a minute a woman came out, closing the door was crackling out its welcome, a kettle was singing behind her. A woman, but could that lean care- on the hob, and the table was spread for the dinner worn creature, with untidy hair and threadbare that was already sending out savory whiffs from the clothes that bung loosely about her pinched figure, adjoining kitchen. Mrs. Timmins was there, already could that really be the bonny comely Mrs. Timmins begining to smile and beam again, surrounded by of old days? Jane Boultby was past speaking by her children in beautiful warm winter dresses, and this time, her knees were shaking under her; she Mrs. Boultby waiting on them all. Johnny's ideas could hardly stand, but she signed to her husband were vague as to the relationship in which she stood to tell her story. He did so at once, in a frank to him, but he had no objection to find a second manly way, standing all the time in the dreary pas- mother in the loving woman who watched and petted sage. He touched tenderly upon the various inci- him so tenderly. dents, but he omitted nothing, and he ended by Presently in came Mr. Timmins, who had been humbly entreating forgiveness for his wife. His forbidden to make his appearance earlier, and his listener heard him in entire silence, and as he astonishment was a sight worth seeing. An armpaused, a wailing voice called from within : “Moth | chair had been drawn up to the fireplace, and Hener, mother, do come!”

ry Boultby's cheery voice invited him into it. As Mrs. Timmins turned without a word, and hur- he was about to sit down, he found a bundle lying ried back, leaving the door wide open. The Boult on the seat, but he almost let it drop again when he bys followed her. There was not an atom of furni- saw what it contained. Of all things in the world, ture in the wretched room except two straw pallets, a bran-new Railway Inspector's uniform! “Yes, and some old boxes which served as seats ; no signs you are honorably reinstated," Henry Boultby was of food, no fire on that bitter day. On the floor saying, when he recovered from his stupefaction. beside the empty grate, crouched two boys of nine“ wish you joy, I'm sure." and ten, while a girl, a year or two older, was try-1 “Now, little woman, let's have dinner.” They ing to infuse some of her own vital warmth into a bad dinner, and such a dinner! There was a turlittle child of four. They were all dark-haired, and key, of course, and there was roast beef, and there Mrs. Boultby's eye passed them, and went to where were sausages, and mince-pies, and a blazing plumMrs. Timmins was bending over a pillow of straw, pudding, and all the delicacies that ever were on which a little golden head was lying. The moth- thought of. And what delight Mrs. Boultby seemed er could contain herself no longer. She flew across to take in popping these dainties first upon the the room, and threw herself on her knees by the plate of one and then of another, and how both she side of the pallet. “My baby, my baby!” she and Mrs. Timmins kept jumping up to carry tit-bits cried. Johnny opened his blue eyes with a look of to little Johnny, and to see that he had everything wonder, but did not speak.

he could want. The children, poor things, were "He is dying," Loarsely whispered Mrs. Timmins, very quiet at first; they were not used to merri“ dying of hunger."

ment, and Mr. and Mrs. Timmins, though their For one moment Mrs. Boultby turned away her hearts were brimful of glad thankfulness, were eyes from her child. "Fetch food," she motioned hardly prepared to be more than cheerful. They with her lips to her husband; and he was gone in a had not had time to realize that their sore trial was moment.

really over. But the very spirit of Christmas There was a silence in the room till his return, seemed to shine out of Henry Boultby's eyes, and to both women brooding over the child. At last he illumine his good-humored face; he was resolved came, laden with all that he had been able to seize upon fun, and he was not a man to be daunted.

Saturday

Bless you! the stories that he told, the jokes that | samples to each of the retailers, who are to solicit he made, the absurdities that he perpetrated at that larger orders on them. dinner would fill a volume, and the children began But what is a pattern, after all ? A hundred new first to smile and then to laugh, until, upon the mag-ones make their appearance every day. The great nificent apparition of the pudding, decked with holly point is to outdo a competitor, to excel any and and spouting fire with all its might, he actually ex- every one of them, to hit the favorable moment, tracted a genuine shout of baby glee from the young- and to come forward with a new pattern; not, howest, which rejoiced its mother's ears, and of which he ever, until a sufficient number of these have been was as proud as man could be. The Boultbys were made, with which to meet the first rush of incoming in no hurry. They had taken rooms in the same orders. If the pattern has been well received and house and meant to live there, so as to be with met with a ready sale, some competitor is sure to imiJE without separating him from his friends. tate it, by modifying it in one or more particulars, and And when at last dinner came to an end, and the by making it of poorer and therefore cheaper qualtable was pushed close to the little boy's bedside, ity, in order to be able to sell it at a lower price. and the family gathered round it, it is my opinion He who gives quickly gives double ; but he who that though there might be many noisier, there was gets goods ready for sale quickest sells ten times not a happier set of people to be found anywhere in more than another. Shortly after the battle of England." Henry Boultby concocted in the most Sadowa, hundreds of thousands of breast-pins of artful way a steaming bowl of punch, and over it needle-gun” shape were put upon the market they shook hands all round, and wished each other, and sold readily. Four weeks later, when people as I wish to you, my reader, a merry Christmas in France had ceased to admire and begun to be and a happy new year, and many, many to come. envious, nobody would wear these pins. Before

the beginning of the war, there might have been

| bought at all the street-corners, for a couple of sous, HOW FASHIONS ARE MADE.

a so-called “German Clown," holding a Prussian [Translated from the French for EVERY SATURDAY.]

| by the ear, and making him jump by means of an A PERSON walking up and down the larger and India-rubber string. A month later the “ German smaller boulevards of Paris, or, for that matter, the Clown" was made to jump up and down by the narrow cross-streets even, will find there whole Prussian holding him by the ear. These toys, on rows of stores and show-windows with articles which fortunes are made; cheap as they are, may therein of the most abundant variety of material best show the disadvantageous effect of anachroand shape. It will hardly escape an attentive ob- nisms and the profound truth of the adage, Time is server, that the goods thus exhibited are not only money. changed daily, but indicate also a constant, though. Let us see, however, whence the work-woman at times only a trifling, alteration or improvement. (returning to the example of a “ confection " given In cases where large manufactories avail themselves above) takes the new pattern, which, as a matter of of the retail shops for the purpose of attracting the course, is first made of white muslin (mousseline eyes of the public to their productions, the hidden raide), and whose seams and trimmings are merely cause of this incessant change is easily explained. | indicated by dark lines. There are many sources Every manufactory employs a number of “design- from which an intelligent seamstress can draw her ers," who, from one year's end to the other, do ideas. First of all, there is her own inventive nothing but invent and compose new combinations; genius; but that, unfortunately, is not peculiar to a pattern that meets the universal taste and be this class of women, inasmuch as all inventors have comes “the fashion ” may soon make the manufac it in common. Next we have the "custom" of turer a rich man.

those ladies, who prefer to have an idea of their own It is saying nothing new, that, just as an air can fertile brains carried out by an obscure seamstress, be repeated in many different keys, so a drawing rather than confide it to a well-known man-tailor, can be varied in many colors and sizes, so much so, who would not fail to recommend the novelty to in fact, that an assortment of styles of one single other ladies as his own invention, thus robbing the pattern often contains more than a hundred varie- real inventress of her chief pleasure : its exclusive ties. But powder has not been invented by the possession. Thus it happened only a little while soldiers, nor the telescope by astronomers; and in ago, that a lady of rank, distinguished in society for like manner it happens that the most successful pat- the high diplomatic position of her husband and her terns or models are not always invented by those own eccentricities, had “confected ” a costume she who made this invention their specialty. Many intended to wear at a bal masqué, which costume, houses, moreover, cannot afford to have designers she felt convinced, would produce an enormous efof their own, or at any rate to employ a large num- fect upon all the men and women present on that ber of these. A “division of labor" has therefore great occasion. It need hardly be mentioned, that been resorted to. At a so-called establishment of the strictest secrecy had been enjoined upon the 66 confections” (designs), be it a linen store or a tailleur artisté; the product of his art came fully up millinery shop, etc., a work-woman calls, asking for to the expectations of the noble customer. A vic66 work." The stereotype answer is : “ We are tory-conscious smile played around the lips of that perfectly willing to give you work, if you will first lady while she was being dressed for the ball by her of all bring us a 'taking pattern.” If the woman maids ; she lingered and lingered long, however, succeeds in furnishing such a one, say, for instance, before she entered the carriage that was to convey a lady's cloak, whose “model” (cut) gains the her to the fairy scene, in order not to appear until storekeeper's approbation, she is sure of work for the rooms were filled, hoping thus to be enabled to a while, as she alone is the owner of the model; all enter almost unobserved, and to enjoy the first copies can be ordered only of her; and rarely does burst of unbounded admiration which would be a first order call for less than one or two dozen. sure to greet her entrance. What was her astonThis is readily enough understood, since every ishment at being received with merely a smile! She wholesale dealer has to send at least one or two ascribed this dubious homage at first to the envy of her rivals, but soon espied — four costumes exactly | ize so handsome a surplus in spite of their immense resembling her own, worn by young men. The expenditure. For that very reason they spare matter was a simple one: a rival for the crown of nothing in their elegant and costly get-ups. They the première modiste had bribed one of the actually go to the most talented painters for the workmen of the lady's tailor, taken four copies of patterns of their costumes, the combination of colthe costume in question, and prevailed upon an ors, and the materials themselves, which require equal number of representatives of the sterner sex great care in point of drapery. Painters like Gosto appear in them; by what bribes and promises tave Roux, Gustave Doré, Beaucé and Godefroy remained a profound secret.

Durand, do not hesitate a moment to put their Besides the sources already named, the seam- crayons on paper for any one of the theatres; and stresses have also the use of the public libraries. It many of the best tailors are glad enough to furnish is no uncommon thing to see in the large hall of the the work on the costumes of some great characters rue Richelieu, by the side of pedantic old sa- free of charge. For it may be expected, with : vans buried up to their eyes in dusty folios, the reasonable degree of certainty, that, the piece meetrosy faces of several young girls, who are busily ing with success, the toilets and costumes appearing turning over the leaves of old books of fashions and therein will become fashionable, and give the gencollections of costumes, adroitly copying a suit of erous tailor business enough to indemnify him tentrimming here, the cut of a robe there, which copies fold for his loss. Attentive seamstresses, therefore, they joyfully carry off to their homes, in order to never fail, entirely aside from the innate passion for prepare therefrom patterns of larger size, to be sub- the theatre peculiar to all Frenchwomen, to go to mitted to their employers. These latter examine the performances of successful à la vogue pieces as them critically, suggest slight alterations and new soon as possible. combinations, both of which elicit numerous differ- That not unfrequently mere external causes inences of opinion and debates on the subject of duce the adoption of certain costumes or articles of “ taste"; some being in favor of using as little ma- dress is too well known to be alluded to at length terial as possible, others again as much as they can here; the history, of crinoline, long wigs, etc. is conveniently dispose of, for many nouveautés universally remembered. Fashion, however, does are successfully adopted, and “take," merely be- not confine itself to the cut of a garment alone; its cause they are expensive, while others will only be dominion extends with equal rigor to the material received at all on account of their cheapness. and the color of the same. “Formerly," writes an

Even though they may lack an ordinary knowl- expert from the Palace of the Exhibition, " it was edge of the rudimentary studies (the majority of an easy matter to class garments according to the seamstresses can neither read nor write, much less different textures of which they were made, such as draw), the candidates for work repair to the Bu- wool, linen, silk, cotton. For a long while past the reaus of Patterns, i. e. shops where models, and various mixtures of wool and silk, silk and cotton, models in white duck only, are made, which are silk and linen, etc. have taken equal rank. During sold at the comparatively low rate of from five to the last two or three decades other fibrous subten francs apiece, good care being taken to have stances also got into use, such as goat's hair, Manilla no two patterns alike. It might be justly asked, hemp, etc., which are now being mixed with the why the manufacturers themselves do not go to older textures, thus increasing the variety of matethese bureaus at once, instead of confining them- rials far beyond the Pythagorean Tables." As an selves to and relying upon the selections made by essential element to the greater or lesser ease and the work-women. The reason is an obvious one, - probability of making a certain texture “fashionit saves them money. A business of any fair extentable," the item of cost deserves special consideraand standing turns out several thousand “ numbers ” tion. Point-lace robes, such as the Champ de Mars in the course of a year. The requisite outlay for has seen, requiring the work of two hundred seamthe patterns would indeed be a heavy one, and can stresses for the space of three entire years, will actually be saved, inasmuch as the manufacturer never equal the sale of mobair or alpaca. Fouwould still have to find him a seamstress willing to lards and Marcellines need fear no competition from do the work, and, even if found, she would not be the Lyons Lizerés façannés ; for fashion is a demlikely to take as much interest in the work thus ocrat, basing her sway on the participation of the dealt out to her as she might reasonably be ex- masses, and this simple truism will explain the fact pected to take in her own “model.” We do not why mere force and compulsion cannot affect it. mean to say that manufacturers never avail them- When about a year ago the condition of the laborselves of the class of shops just described ; they do ing classes in the second capital of the French Emso, however, but rarely.

pire had reached a menacing climax, the Chief of A great assistance is derived from the so-called State announced that the upper classes would soon “ get-ups” at the theatres ; for instance, those at give a new stimulus to trade. Empress Eugénie the Variétés, Gymnase, Porte St. Martin, Gaité, ordered forthwith, at Lyons, twenty-four pattern Châtelet, and even the Comédie Française. The silk dresses, and expressed to the ladies of her court success of a large number of pieces is almost exclu- the desire of seeing them dressed in similar attire sively determined by the female portion of the pub- more frequently than before. The wives of some lic; and in criticisms of this kind the costumes come of the ambassadors and high officers at the Tuileries in for a large share.

promptly followed her example, but their efforts What, we ask, would have become of the “Be- were ineffectual; they resembled the proverbial noiton family" but for the very eccentricity of the drop in the ocean. Similar efforts had been made costumes? Or is it at all likely that the Gymnase in 1852. The Empire greatly favored the gamwould have brought out Paul Dalloz's Don Quixote, bling in stocks, incited stupendous but unsound if there had not been a fair chance of making a mercantile enterprises, built railroads for which brilliant display in dresses ? Managers of Parisian there was no real demand, and put a keen edge on theatres must indeed thoroughly understand their a desire, inborn in every Frenchman, namely, that business and the foibles of their audiences to real- of getting rich in a hurry and parading this wealth

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »