Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1915 — Page 2

DRESSMAKER WHO DOES BIG THINGS

Caroline Van Horn, Forced to Earn Her Own Living, Started on Nerve. FRENCH GIRL WAS PLUCKY H©w She Made Good In Great LonI don Eatabliahment and Then BocanM Lender In Her Line In America.

By OSBORN MARSHALL.

(Copyright. McClure Newupuper Byndlcarte.) Here Is a dressmaker who dares to charge as much as eight hundred dollars for a single gown and, what is more. Is able to find patrons who will pay 1L She is a past mistress of the art of dressmaking and she is also an efficiency expert on the business side of her profession. A little while ago, when one of the largest department stores in Chicago wanted to open up a dressmaking department, she was asked to be the chief engineer of the undertaking—to buy all the furnishings, fixtures and supplies, choose a working force and outline a policy, nils work took only a few weeks of the dressmaker’s time, but her fee was fire thousand dollars. Dressmaking is one of the arts, but it takes a pretty good business head to make it pay. The woman who has achieved this success is Caroline Van Horn. Twenty years ago she was a pretty little blue-eyed French girl In a fashionable boarding school near Paris. She was a member of a distinguished French family and looked forward Impatiently to th© time when she should take her place In the social world of the French capital. Then came the news one day to the school that through business reverses her family had been left penniless. She would have to leave school at the end of the term and go to work. To a French girl this loss of money meant a great misfortune. She would have no dowry, and to have no dowry In France usually means to go unmarried, and to go unmarried among the sedate conventional aristocracy of France la—well, somewhat more discouraging than to be a bachelor girl In this country. She must be a governess, of course, for that was the only suitable work for a girl of her standing. Gets Position in London. Caroline’s companion at the school was an English girl, a niece of Col. Tom Jay of London, owner and manager of the dressmaking establishment patronised by the most fashionable members of British royalty and aristocracy. When she heard of Caroline’s misfortune she asked her to spend th© next holidays with her in her horn© in Liverpool. Caroline accepted th© invitation, but, with deeplaid plans for her future, left her friend when they got across the channel and went on alone to London. She went straight to the establishment of the noted Jay in Regent street For a moment she hesitated when she saw the row of equipages that were lined up at the curb, and obscured the forbidding dignity of the six-foot powdered footman at the door. But she hesitated only a second and then she went in and told the first attendant she met inside the door that she would like to see Col. Tom Jay himself. To her great satisfaction, after waiting for a few minutes, she was ushered into the office of this Important personage. "I have come to apply for a position," she said in her best English. “I have come from Paris and I want to get employment at once.” The colonel made some remarks about his surprise that she had insisted on seeing him personally on business of that kind, but there was something in the girl’s manner that made him forgive the intrusion. "We are in need of skilled workwomen. I believe,” he said. “What position do you want?" Caroline hesitated for a fraction of a minute, screwed her courage to the sticking point and answered bravely, “Assistant fitter and designer.” Then she waited in trepidation for the colonel’s next question. Just what £be would say when he asked he- for names of references or where aha had received her experience she hadn’t planned. As a matter of fact, all she knew of dressmaking was what she had learned in the elementary coarse of sewing which she had had in school But the expected question didn’t come. Apparently Colonel Jay took her at her word and he immediately offered her a position with as - high wages to start with as she could have ever hoped for as a governess in a French family. Caroline then went out into the strange city and picked, out a cheap lodging house and wrote to her mother to tell her what she had done and to her school mistresses to ten them that she would never return to school. Kept Her Eyes Open and Made Good. The next thin*, was to make good at Jay’s. She had made up her mind never to let anyone suspect that ahe had come without experience, and this took a good deal of alertness. To begin with she was put to work on her first day under Mile. Manx, who had hem with the great

drsssmaker Worth in Paris, and rite at oaaoe took a liking to Caroline and proved to be an excellent instructor, though she never dreamed how closely Caroline watched her in everything she did. Caroline kept her eyes and earn open to everything that her sapvrior said and did and worked early and late and every minute of the day. If she had told Colonel Jay she was Inexperienced she would have been started as an errand girl at a wage she could not possibly have lived on In London, but as It was she was able to send something home to her family from the first If she hadn’t told this pardonable fib she would have wasted long months learning how to pull bastings, thread needles, sew labels Into finished 1 gowns and pick up pins—and It would have taken two or three years for her to work up to the position she now held from the start At the end of her first season Colonel Jay called Caroline into his office one day and told her that Mile. Manx was going baek to Paris and that he wanted Caroline to take her place. This meant that she would come In daily contact as a fitter with the aristocracy and royalty of England; it meant that in whatever she did or said in working honrs she would have the reputation of Jay to uphold. It also meant more money—a better lodging house, more money to save and to send across the channel to her family in France. Jnst at this time occurred the death of Alexander 111, czar of Russia, and as the widowed empress was a sister of Alexandra, the wife of Edward, who was then prince of Wales, the English court went into deep mourning, which meant a lightning change into fashionable crape attire. For a few dayß Jay’s was besieged from morning till night, and countesses, duchesses, marchionesses and princesses clamored with each other for early fittings. Jay’s workrooms were a sea of gloomy crape and Caroline and her associates were working twqlve hours In the twenty-four. Lily Langtry's Mourning. One of the first patrons in search of this royal mourning to come to Caro*

line was Lily Langtry—then at the high-water mark of her beauty and fame. She, like the duchesses and the countesses and the princesses, wanted to show her sympathy for mourning royalty by donning black. “I loathe black," said Mrs. Langtry to the little Frenchwoman who was, with amazing dexterity, taking the measurements of her customer’s wonderful figure, “but I suppose I must wear It” “I should think that black might greatly become madame,” said Caroline, . already projecting in her imagination the vision of loveliness that the famous beauty would make in the exacting tones of deep mourning. “A demure mode will suit madame’s beauty.” “Oh, but I don’t intend to look demure,” said Mrs. Langtry. “I want to look as striking—as outrageously striking—as I can. I want the skirt to stick out like a ballet dancer’s tarlatan. Put twelve breadths of material in it. That won’t look demure, will it?” _ "But madame,” gasped Caroline, “one does not wear skirts that way nowadays. If I made a gown with twelve breadths, what would Colonel Jay say to me? He would surely discharge me. Surely, madame, you are not serious. It. would be preposterous." : - “That’s just what I want to be,” said the actress laughing at Caroline’s excitement. “If I must go Into mourning I insist on doing it with spirit I want people to think of a ballet dancer when they see me. Really I Insist” With characteristic responsiveness and imagination Caroline caught the idea that Mrs. Langtry had In mind. When the gown was done it was a rare success, and when the beautiful actress, wore it with' the crimson girdle, which constitutes full court mourning, no one could deny that it whs outrageously striking. Yet anyone could tell at a glance that a master hand had designed and executed' the dress. It was gossiped about in London for weeks and con‘gratulati ins were many. Mrs. Langtry’s Wends congratulated her on her costume, the actress congratulated Colonel Jay on having Caroline in his employ and Colonel Jay sent for Caroline to congratulate her on her skllL Established in America. In the course of a few years Caroline came to America and was engaged by one of the leading drygoods merchants of New York to reorganize his dressmaking department

Jay’s Was Besieged From Morning Till Night.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER, INI>.

of about eight hundred people. This called for a good dual of executive ability and tact as well as a knowledge of th© art aid practice of dressmaking and the work was rewarded with a very large salary- When this work of reorganisation was accomplished Caroline was sent abroad as Pprls buyer for the same dry-goods concern. At present Caroline, with an establishment of her own, is one of the most prominent dressmakers in the country, and has on several occasions retired from business on her savings for several years at a time. In the course of her experience she has had as patrons hundreds of the bestknown women of the st&ge and of society, among them Emma Eames, Sara Bernhardt, Mrs. Potter Palmer and the duchess of Chgulnes. To talk With and study these women of talent and beauty, of wealth and influence, is Caroline's diversion, whereas planning and creating the clothes In which they act their Varied roles is the serious work of her life.

BROUGHT HIM HOME IN STATE

Ordinary Btreet Car Not Good Enough for Man Who Was Restoring Lost Pet. A man who lives on One Hundred and Sixth street and Riverside drive, New York, recently lost a fox terrier. The animal isn’t much of a dog from the strictly dog point of view—he is decidedly lacking in lineage and class and all that sort of thing. But he’s a nice little plebeian dog, and he is very, popular with the children of the household. So when Tango—that’s his name, and he has it engraved on his collar—got lost recently, the owner advertised a reward of $5. The advertisement said that the, dog, which would be recognized by the collar, was a children’s pet and therefore valued. * Nothing was seen of Tango for a week. Then one night a seedy individual arrived at the apartment with Tango—also most seedy—under his arm. “Here’s your dog,” said he. “I found

him wandering around the ash barrel in Brooklyn about an hour ago." The owner handed the man $5. “Five dollars and forty cents more,” said the seedy one. “What for?” “For the taxi." “Taxi?" What taxi?” “Why, the one I brought the dog home in. I supposed you’d want him brought home the fastest and best way, so I took a taxi.”

His Eulogy.

An old farmer who was widely known as the crassest, closest and most generally nonlikable citizen in the whole state died. “Now it is customary, in the case of rural funerals, for those who attend, as they stand by the coffin, to murmur some eulogy of the dead. A number of farmers came in and said things which didn’t square at all with the old man’s life. “Finally an aged man, who had known the deceased all his life, hobbled in and stood by the coffin. The aged man was known as the most truthful man In the county. Hence the other people present waited with interest to hear what he would say. “The old man gazed down silently for a while. He paused. Finally he spoke: ‘Wall,’ he said earnestly, ‘nobody kin deny that he was a great hand for closin’ his stable door o* nights.’ ”

Probably Sorry He Spoke.

Mr. Brown was one of those fussy, boarders who have always got something to grumble at and who make th© mqft of trifles. And, In addition to this, he was invariably behind in his payments. One evening at dinner the guests were all seated when Brown came in. Directly he sat down at the table he started. v ' “Good gracious, madam, my serviette is quite damp! Why on earth Is that? 4 Bat on this occasion, at least, th© landlady "got her own back.” “I suppose, Mr. Brown," she said, ‘lt must be because there Is so much due on your board."

Out of Harm’s Way.

“If you had to go to war. what position would yon choose?" “The drummer’s, I think.** “Why eo?“ “When a charge was ordere4 fl pick op my dram and best iL"

SHE GIVE HIM LIFE

And in Return He Saved Her From Grave and Imminent Danger. By DOROTHY DOUGLAS. John Cranborn was one of the idle poor. He had spent the greater part of his life in condemnation of those people who had chanced either by their own endeavor or by that of their forefathers to have acquired wealth. Cranborn was one of those men who believed that the world and the idle rich owed him a living. On Cranborn’s side, however, and a circumstance that somewhat lessened the conclusive evidence against him, was the fact that he had been orphaned at an early day in hit life. Being of a retiring nature, he had nevpr inveigled himself into a circle other than one of indifference to his own welfare. Those within his circle had no ambition of their own and, therefore, none to instill into anyone else. Cranborn drifted into manhood without an influence for good or evil having left Its mark on him. If his mind was unnouriahed from lack of energy, so also was his body, and Cranborn found himself at twen-ty-five lying in a hospital without the necessary strength to undergo an operation. Perhaps for the first time in his life Cranborn desired to go on livhig. He wished that he had spent less money on cigarettes and more on bread, so that his body would not be in the humiliating position of abject weakness. A spark of anger flamed in his eyes. All the strength of his mind concehtrated itself in condemnation of the rich and idle, who had not only food in abundance but all the luxuries that he lacked. The soft purring of a limousine at the hospital door only augmented Cranborn’s grievance and he turned his ffcce to the wall. He would not have believed had he been told at the moment that the young lady stepping out of the limousine had come that her l-’-od might be transfused into his, Cranbom’s veins. When he turned his face from the wall at the command of the surgeon, Cranborn shrank within himself. Beautiful and glowing with wonderful vitality and health was the girl who stood beside the surgeon. ' “This young lady is going to give you a new life,” Doctor Lyman said. “1 am going to transfuse some of her blood into your body." “I won’t have her do it,” Cranborn mut'tered weakly and turned his shamed face away from the radiant girl in whose eyes shone a great pity.

“But you will not deprive me of the pleasure it will afford me,” she Baid quickly in a voice so musical that Cranborn vibrated with the rhythm of it “You see I have been on Doctor Lyman’s list for a long time and never before have I been allowed to give my blood to any of his patients. Now he has called me here because my blood agrees in certain pathological particulars with yours, and 1 do so want to do this little good in the world.” She was looking with actual pleading now into the eyes she had compelled to meet her own. “1 have everything in the world save the knowledge that I have saved a human life. Surely you will not rob me of this opportunity?” A weak sob shook Cranborn’s body and he closed his eyes. Doctor Lyman motioned the girl to remove her wraps. The surgeon then prepared his large caliber needle, by which the vein to vein sewing and consequent scarring is avoided, but Cranborn must have been unconscious during the proceeding, for he knew no more until a warm, contented. sense of wdll being permeated his body The room had grown dsrk and he was alone except for his nurse, whb sat quietly beside him, Cranborn would have spoken save that a complete sense of shame held him silent. A woman, or rather, a mere girl and one of the Idle rich he had so systematically condemned, had given her life blood to save him. His useless, good-for-notliing body had been purified, strengthened and made whole by the act of charity that not one out of a thousand persons could ofTer. Pure blood did not run in every set ot veins. Had the girl been a needy person who was making the blood sacrifice for the twenty-five dollar fee she could earn, Cranborn might -have remained the Cranborn of his early manhood. But the fact that a girl, beautiful, wealthy and refined, had offered practically her life that his might be saved flung Cranborn once and for all time into a where no shadows of past failures were to darken the way. After the successful operation he lay regaining bis strength and planning some kind ot a future for himself. - The girl, Edith McVicker. came a few days afterward to.-see how Cranborn was progressing and to assure ftim that she bad in no way-suffered by the transfusion. Doctor Lyman had advised the call, since Cranborn was torn by doubts as to ber welfare. “But why do you feel called upon to risk your life in this way for one that tbay be worthless? Doctor' Lyman tells me that your name is down on the lists of four surgeons, and that you might be called upon at any time to make this sacrifice?" Cranborn

Asked her, while his eyes looked steadily into her dear, sparkling ones. “Principally because the dearest brother in the world was saved to me by the generous transmission which mas offered him by a man who was down and out. I have always vowed to seek and seek until I could give a life for a life and in some way repay the great debt of gratitude. The man who saved my brother has climbed up the ladder of fame now and —” % “And you have given your life to me,” C ran born said softly, “and I, too, God willing, will build up this physical body of mine so that my name will one day appear on the surgeon’s list that is honored by yours. I, too, will plan to give a life for a life.” When she had left him C ran born realized that from the moment of her coming >into his life ne had seemed to be a different man. Was it her influence or merely the awakening of the latent ambition within him? He chose to attribute the change to Edith McVicker and her wonderful fund of sympathy. That was happier for having saved his life was more than evident in the calm joy that radiated through her being. She had not so definitely expressed that feeling at the first meeting, and Cranborri knew that If' doing good makes one so completely happy, then good it was that he intended to do. He smiled softly in silent condemnation of the idle poor —the circle from which he had flown. Perhaps, then, a year or two later, the happiest day of his life occurred when he saved a life and felt the same radiance flooding his being that Edith McVicker had felt when she had given life blood to a dying man. Cranborn had been riding his mare in the early morning when a second mare, frightened by the din of a motorcycle, dashed toward him. Cranborn had only time to grasp the situation, see the rocky precipice over which the frightened mare would hurl her rider and to swing himself like a flash from the saddle. He opened his eyes after being dragged and looked straight into Edith McVicker’s own. He felt her sigh of relief. “I thought I was never going to find you,” was all Cranborn said in the first dazed moment. He was dazed principally because the girl’s soft fingers were trailing over the bruise on his forehead just as they had often trailed in the dreams he had of her. “We seem destined to keep each other in the land of the living,” the girl said a trifle unsteadily, for aside from the Bhock of that frightened horse Cranborn’s eyes were gazing wonderingly at her. A deep color sprang into her cheeks. “We can make them lives that are well worth saving if —if ydu could love me. I have been most successful since you came into my life and I have wanted to tell you that and else so at least for two years!” Edith laughed softly and remembered the many hours she had sat trying to think of someone except the man in the hospital who had tried to refuse to permit her blood to be transfused into his veins. “Two years is a frightfully long time,” she said with eyes that encouraged an immediate making up for lost time. (Copyright, 1915, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.!

Dog That Saved His Master.

I must write you just one story that came to me at the ambulance just before Christmas, even though it is a little late. We had a French soldier brought in frightfully wounded. He came from the region around St Mihiel. One leg had to be amputated, and, besides that, he had half a dozen other wounds. _ His dog came with him —a hunting dog-of some kind. The dog had saved his master’s life. They were in the trenches together, when a shell burst in such a way as to collapse the whole : trench. Everyone in it was killed or buried in the collapse, and this dog dug and dug until he got his master’s face free, so that* he could breathe, and then he sat by him until some re-enforcements came and dug them all out. Everyone was dead but this man. “Isn’t that a.beautiful little story? We have both the dog and' the man with us. The dog has a little house all to himself in the court, and he has blankets and lots of petting, and every day he is allowed to be with nis master for a little while. —Letter from Dr. Mary Merritt Crawford, in Paris, to Ndw York Times.

To Study Coal Tar Products.

Thomas N. Norton, late American Consul at Chemnitz, Germany, has been appointed a commercial agent of the .department of commerce to undertake a special investigation of the chemical industry in the United States, particularly in respect to coal tar products. It is hoped by the department that his report will be helpful in the development of synthetic dyestufT manufactured in the United States. Those who wish to offer Suggestions to Mr. Norton may address him in care of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Washington, D. C. He is an expert chemist, and the author of two monographs on chemical subjects.

Couldn’t Lose Him.

*T understand your pasty threw you overboard at the contention, ' remarked one political candidate to another. , “Yes, that’s right," replied the ether, “but fortunately i was strong enough to swim to tne other side."

The Court of Heaven

By REV. L. W. GOSNELL

TEXT—I heard the voice of many angola round about the throne.—Bov. C:ll> The Bible represents God as a king upon his throne. About the throne

1. We are known at court In the book of Esther (6:1) we are told how the records were brought to King Ahasuerus one night when he was sleepless. He found therein an account of a great service rendered to him by Mordecai. the Jew, and Mordecai fared well because his name was in the annals of the Persian court How may we rejoice that our names are “written in heaven” (Luke 10:20; Hebrews 12: 23), and, more specifically, “in the book of life” (Phil. 6:3). Ahasuerus asked, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor?” And we may inquire, What shall be done to the man whom the King of kings delighteth to honor? 2. We are served by heavenly courtiers. “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” A Remarkable Experience. When Philip Doddridge, the noted espositor and hymn writer, .was a boy, he fell from a horse and people pronounced it a miracle that he was not killed. Late in life he dreamed he had died and gone to heaven. He was taken Into a gallery of pictures exhibiting scenes from his early life, and lo! here was set forth the almost forgotten event of his boyhood. But in the picture he saw one figure whose presence had not been thought of be-, fore; a mighty angel was shown, Searing him up in his hands as he fell from the horse, lest he be dashed against the stones. How may we rejoice that he gives his angels charge over us, and can tell how many wondrous deliverances and unexpected ministries have been wrought by angelio hands! Their blessed ministry not only pursues us through life, but blesses us at death. “The beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.” One suggests that they may have taken Lazarus around by the Milky Way ondiis journey home. Matthew Henry quaintly says: “One angel one would think sufficient, but here are more, as many as were sent for Elijah. Amasis, king of Egypt, had hie chariot drawn by kings, but what was that honor to this? Saints ascend in', the virtue of Christ’s ascenBion; but this convoy of angejs is added for state and decorum —what were the bearers at the rich man’s funeral, though probably those of the first rank, compared with Lazarus' bearers? The angels were not shy of touching him, for his sores were on his body, not on nis soul; that was presented without spot or wrinkle or any snch thing.” Earth Teaching Heaven. 3. We instruct these heavenly courtiers. Paul tells us that God’B gracious work for us through Christ is “to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God" (Eph. 3:10). ' Earth teaches heaven about the “variegated” wisdom of God. Angels learn in us how God can be just and yet justify the ungodly! In the cross they find the ahswer to the question and marvel and adore. When Christ came and was rejected by the world, with what wonderment they muss have seen him begin to gather from that world of rebels a “people for his name,” who should be his own body and bride. They behold a blasphemous, slavedealing sailor named John Newton, eo transformed that he begins to sing:

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer’s ear; It soothes bis sorrow, heals bis wounds, And drives away bis fear. The love and grace of God is displayed to angelic eyes on the background of a world of sinners. 4. We shall be received at court. “Whosoever* shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man. also confess before the angels of Qod” (Luke 12:8). Suppose we knew we would one day be received, by the king of England. How would we practice the graces becoming the king’s presence! Are we wearing the garments of salvation?’ Are we learning the language of Canaan? Are we walking “worthy of the vocation wherein we are called?”

The loud laugh, that speaks tbs vacant m l |> 4 —finMimnii

are the angels, the courtiers of heaven. They appear in graded ranks, “principalities and powers, mights and dominions;” there is an “archangel,” and there are some who “stand in the presence of God.” We believe that these facts are of practical value for our daily life.