Evening Star Newspaper, December 3, 1922, Page 77

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 3, 1922—PART 4. Labor and Business Going at Full Speed in the French Capital BY FRANK G. CARPENTER. PARIS, 1922, ONDON sulks in the dumps, feeding its idle on governmen doles; Berlin, drunk at its mad Belshazzar feast, dances on a volcano with Mene, Mene, Tekel Tpharsin writ on its walls; Vienna, half naked and starving, fiddles like Nero while the Austrian capital burns: but gay, joy-loving, pleasure- mad Paris is busy at work. The horde of Americam tourists, rushing Lither and thith e u. " who show only the battleflelds, the mreat picture galleries, and. I regret 1o say, also the sparsely-clad females at Montmartre and the Folies Ber- Reres, may not see it, but I find work everywhere. The streets are thronged with iraffic. Trame: 4 great motor busses whose fronts look like a loco- mative's snowplow are loaded with Jaborers and elerks going back and Tor to the shop: taxicabs, rushing like fury. wind their way in and out through big motor trucks loaded with hoxes and bales: great farm carts, in from the country, drawn by two or three huge Percheron horses, fight for their places among donkey wagons and motor cycle delivery boys: even men are harnessed up and drag: zing goods through the street. The vehicles are beyond descrip- tion, and they all move on the run. Tt makes no difference in what quar- ter of the city, whether on the bouie- rds or the side streets, there is no ty for the foot passenger, and tourist is on the continual dedge the 1o prevent being tramped on by Paris at work. indeed, this city Is now one great hechlve of industry, with tens of thousands of individual workshops, and great factories outside making steel and iron, machinery, railway and building materials, airplanes and automobiles. Only this week I vi fted one establishment which covers more than hands seventy loaded Wbil 120 acres and has 16,000 busy as nailers. It has acres of buildings. and s with orders. It makes auto- trucks and 2 and almos upon wheels w 1 ref ’ a v that g as a fue nault factory. which pensive, high-cla of thousands namnitions and during the war. Now, speaking, it has tu sword to the plowsi standardized for peac ERITT R when the 14.000 men m although armistice i expects . BICARFENTERT W02 Lo TRHAVELS, FRANCE IS MAKING “FLIVVERS” OF HER OWN. ggg;&%‘l’lfil‘ AND THE HIGH COST OF GASOLINE, THE MACHINES ARE VERY LIGHT AND LOW- {for the customs. According to our tariff laws, no person can bring into the United States more than $100 | worth of new clothes without paying uty. The inspectors examine one's baggage, ang there is no way of voiding the tax without lying. It icosts $100 or more to get even a woolen gown made by one of the best ‘ Paris dressmakers, and costumes of velvet or silk range from $200 up- | ward. Lower prices may be put on !the bills which the tourists take home, but our customs officers are watchful and such frauds are often detected. Smuggling today is more difficult than it was in the past. It used to be that thousands of rich Americans came to Paris once a year to replenish their wardrobes, and the wealthier often went back with eight or ten trunks filled with dresses. Many would not even wear the dresses be- fore salling, and others would put on a half-dozen different frocks in a day, dircarding each in a few minutes in order to declare that it had been worn. Some sewed old labels into RABARAR, € € € their gowns and had other schemes [ to make the new things look old. | Tt was the same with some of the i New York dressmakers who brought In gowns without paying duty. and with the Paris modistes who took or- ders for future delivery and had the resses carried home by American friends. This wholesale cheating has practically stopped, although many things still escape the customs, and Lmes. touri with * * RIS sets the fashions for all the world. Most of our large stores send their buyers for gowns, hats and other Paris spectdlties to be sold the ‘next season. Such buyers will take | home only one dress or hat of a kind {to show in the windows and then take orders for coples. Such articles |are called models, and making them is a regular business. They are de- signed by the great artists in the | famous dressmaking houses, and such houses have exbititions, 10 which the American buyers are invited by card. | These occaslops are au'ts »nial, and beautiful women, employed for the purpose, walk back and forth, wearing the gowns, while the buyers pich out suel thi A peal to the American market. One famous dressmaker this year showed Eis creations at a supper given in a beautiful - garden. the mannequins walking about ameng the tables. Later there are exhibitions of the same models for individual pur- chasers, and copies are subject to sale or export by the establishment in which they originate. One can pay almost anything she rleases for a fine gown in Tarfs. The great dressmakers are artists, and IN 1HE H Frank G. Carpenter Visits a Motor Car Factory That Covers 120 Acres and Employs 16,000 People—Twenty Thousand Women Sewing and Designing Fashionable Gowns—Among the Dressmaking Establishments—How the Thrifty French Woman Shops—World-Famous Win- dow Display—A Big Department Store Owned by Its Clerks—Poor Business Methods That Waste Time and Labor. Zd e ART OF PARIS BIG TWO-WHEELED CARTS ARE STILL TO BE SEEN. AND HORSES ARE OFTEN HITCHED IN TANDEM MANNER. the back of the gown she had or- dered. The lady had by hibition by Worth, an ked out the design, but the little dressmaker made th The other nt with my daughter. who 1 living 1 the last two y to buy a new gown. She has learned thrifty meth- ods in France, and the establishment we visited had no sign facing th ON ACCOUNT OF THE HEAVY TAX ON MOTOR 1 vars like our “fi known “tin lizzles, ers” or the well only of a lower It 1s running to its capacit cannot supply the demand. Nearly «ll of the establishments that worked on munitions have been changed over to supply industrial needs. They are making typewriters, farming ma- chinery, furniture and paper, or Luflding materials for the recon- struction work In the north. * ¥ k% VEN In Parls itself there -re E numerous manufacturing cente: each ward having its own branch of industry. One district. for instance, has leather shops and carriage shops, and another is devoted to making new bodles and deslgning equipment for! automoblles. At Grenelle there are chemical' works, and at Saint Denls, Clichy, Saint Ouen and Pantin are sugar refinerles, broweries and boot and shoe factorles. The principal specialty here is such as jewelry, dresses, furs and fine notions. The city manufactures also clotks and bronzes, fins porce- lains, wallpapers and tapestries. It is famous for Its embroideries, dress trimmings and artificial flowers, and it has dye works and glass works and chemical factories. Indeed, Paris makes everything un- der the sun, from pins to locomotives, from buttons to flying machines, and from gloves to beautiful gowns. It has more than 20,000 women who are engaged on parts of ladies’ dresses, in contradistinction to the completed costumes, and they turn out a product worth about $10,000,000 a year. It has thousands working on corsets, not only for Paris, but for all parts of France and for shipment abroad. It has 5,000 furniture shops, each employing three or four hands. The furniture does not compare in dura- bility with ours, made by machinery, but it is exquisitely carved, ant a great deal is gilded. There are 2,000 shops here making watches to the ~alue ~f $5,000,000 per annum, and other thousands making articles de Parls, which means notions and fancy goods of all sorts, including jewelry, artificial flowers and dainty bits of leather, horn, bone and ivory. In fact, the French are producing almost anything one can imagine, and they make everything well. One of the big industries of Parils 1= in supplying millinery and gowns for the rich of the fashionable world. Just now the best market is the Tnited States, and every American woman who passes through carries home Parisian frocks and hats. Those ®bo have several should watch out and | luxury products, | own as the Citroen. devoted to‘flu v charge for their specialized skill. | street. It Is just one of thousands The ordinary Frenchwoman, however, | whence come the clothes, not of the does not patronize them, nor does she | actresses, horsepower and wu much finer body.!set her foot on the Rue de la Paix|rich profiteer: cXcept to go window shopping among , women gorgeous jewels displayed on each|who now, on account of high prices, Indeed, she hardly | must make every franc count. Iside of the street. | knows where Worth, Callot, Jenny or Paquin are located, unless by some lucky chance she has an {nvitation to their exhibition of new styles each season. She never thinks of buying {hats or gowns at the big houses. If {she is fairly well off she studies the {style books and photographs of the frocks designed by these masters, and ithen goes to her own little dress- i maker, who lives three or four flights up on a court in a back street, and together they plan out and copy the amous model she chooses. | way she gets her dress for one-fourth | the price. An American woman told me this | week how she walited in a dressmak- {Ing establishment while one of the {Paris soclety leaders, the wife of a ! prominent French newspaper owner, explained to the dressmakers just, {how many steel buttons there were {to be on each side and how many In this| { | i wives and daughters of but of the French of moderate circumstances, We directed our taxl to a narrow street in the business section of Paris. The dressmaker lived on court, and we climbed up three flights of stairs, because the house had not even one of the pillboxes that serve as elevators in most French business bulldings. Mme. | tened was of pearls, exquisitely set.| Marle met us with a smile. She|Had I a sweetheart I would have! brought out her models and the pic- tures of the new fashions. The ma- terial of the dress had already been chosen, and the wholesale dealer had sent in a bolt of lovely brown velvet to be tried for the effect. Then the little fitter, Mile. Jeanne, was called tn, and under her magic, like the mango tree of the Hindus, the beau- tiful creation grew under our eyes. Jeanne threw an end of velvet over my daughter's shoulder. She put a pin here and made a tuck there, and, presto! a copy of one of the most famous dresses designed this winter {1oops of ribbon were to be tacked onlby one of the masters sprang into i i A GREAT PART OF PARIS NOW GOES TO WORK IN MOTOR BUSSES, THE CITY. FIRST-CLASS PASSENGERS TAKE THE FRONT SEATS, | | being. within five minutes we had in the|in the little shops they are far mo mirror the gown as it will look when |artistic than ours. the material ix cut and all the stitches iput in. The French seldom have pat- | iterns, and each dress is made, as it were, on its future wearer. ame {4 headgear. There are ready-mu | hats, such us one sees in the win- Paris milliner I to an ex- material formed a draped sleeve, and | hardly compete with New York, but |quarters of Paris. This is so of even | of whit | A twist of another kind of | the larger establishments they can |the meanest shops in out of the way Take a frult store. a bed 15 big cheeked peach lLies in cotton, strawberries ch ros; grapes are laid out on the table as though for a banquet. Tt is the same in the grocery stores, where squashes piled up as at one of our county fairs, |and the chickens and game are | dressed with their heads tucked un- | der their wings. The chickens lie on | their breasts, with a little printed { price-mark pinned to the center of |each rosy back. They are clean { enough to kiss, and I do not wonder lzh»,\ sell. These displays all stop with the evening. The stores, which open at about 9 am., closo at 7 p.m., when every window is covered with a shut- ter that slides down from the top, making a wall of sheet iron over the front. At the sume time the clerks {leave, crawling out through a little {door in the iron about a yard high, a long procession of women and men zoing forth single file, like 5o man !dogs. They straighten up immedi- jately, however, and walk off so | jauntily that one would never imagine ‘Imey had been working all day. I * ¥ * ¥ | DARIS has a hundred small shops | | and factories where Chicago or Philadelphia each has one. }l—'rench nation is one of individualists, and every little store has its spe- 3ut there are also department alty. story ome of which cover acres and compare favorably with these of the |states. Here the business done is enormous. The buildings themselves are thronged, und the sidewalks are given up to counters, where one may see men. women and children pulling over the goods and fighting for bar- | gains. In the small shops there are often no price marks, but in the de- partment stores the goods have tags | with plain figures, and the tourist need not be on his guard against pay. ing more than he should. The clerks everywhere are uni- formly courteous and almost always well dressed. The woman clerks wear 4 black, and the floorwalkers have \long coats like those of the old-fash- ned preacher. Many of the clerks ave luxuriant whiskers, for in France the hair grows on man’s face Y1 may Yankees have seven bald heads where he French have one. There are quite < many yvoung beards as old ones, id I have middle-aged clerks wait- iz on me who look as though they had never been shaved. study the whiskers. They are beauti- BY J. A. WALDRON 3 ‘dows, but the arti {bullds his hat on the head of the buyer. The scissors clip out the lines | most becoming, and, with a plentiful | | supply of pins to bend and twist, the | | trick is performed. very woman | now wears some sort of a wreath on | | her hair in the evening, and this she |buys at a department store or fin! some small shop which has copled | | the creations of the Rue de la Paix. | The styies I see heie in Paris do | inot resemble the ones T left in New | E\'ork, nor those of the nouveau-riche | ! we brought across on our liner. The | short skirts which call down so much | wrath on the heads of our American | ! flappers passed away from Paris more ;man two years ago, and the skirts yof the present are so long they come jalmost to the ankle. The necks are jcut high, and even when there are no | * !sleeves at all the neck is as high a: | that of our afternoon dresses at home. | {As to the rolled stocking, T am told | it has never been known In *wicked | Paree.” i { There is nothing which shows so { well how Paris is working as a visit lto the shops. There are tens of thousands of stores, all full of goods ! {and all busy, and outside on the| streets are tables piled high with bargains and customers pushing and scrambling to buy. The store win- ;dows are museums of fine stuffs, nov- |eltles and new creations, and some ! ltiny shops have window displays| iworth a fortune. T stopped this aft- jernoon on a fashionable street before ! a store not much bigger than a piano | box whose little window contained a show of wrist watches such as, I ven- ‘ture to say, you cannot find in New York or Chicago. Behind the plate against a background of black velvet, were scores of wrist watches, {each as small as a postage stamp and {many but little thicker. One, the size of my thumb nail, had a face of platinum encircled with diamonds, land the bracelet to which it was fas- walked to Berlin to buy it. Other watches were fastened to ribbons of silk. Some were set in Ipearls and some hung on bracelets | decorated with dlamonds. In a store window farther on I saw a collection of nothing but cigarette | er: cases, gold and silver and dlamond | 120 ’;:;u;::,“f:rh.;a et st strewn. and In another, that of a fa-| ;) (e put there was no despondency mous drezsmaker, was a doll dressed ! ja g DUF (8 “A pretty phrase, dear. as a model. Tt represented a new your habit to be lonely.” costume, and the face was so artisti- -;:nny r:t lthal ‘(he ldolltrr;lghlm):loldu an | ¥ H maid, busy with the small lug- honored place in almost any seum. | | smiled into a bag she had open- The store windows here are better | 536, SIS s tendency. dressed than those of America. Inj little herself were modern. “On,” he retorted, “you'll find some engaging chap down there to keep you from melancholy. And I hope he may be platonic.” “And you think that if I don't I shall be home the sooner, eh?” Ehe smiled tantalizingly. “Why don’t you come along?" “We'vo gone over all that. An en- ervating climate, with nothing what- ever going on, would make a misan- thrope of me. il write you stimu- lating letters instead.” “About fanciful. happenings, with realities left out. Well, dear, be as good as you can. Separation may make us all the more fond of each other.” They kissed again and parted with smiles as the conductor of the South- ern Express cried, “All aboard All the Sayles servants except the chauffeur had been given a holiday for the period of Mrs. Sayles’ absence. Sayles would live at his club. He would need the chauffeur, who was a circumspect person. As Sayles hurried back through the terminal to his motor he was attract- ed by a very pretty young woman who had just emerged from a tele- phone booth. He stopped to give her an admiring glance, which she did not resent, although she did not re- spond to it. She hesitated a moment, and when he encouraged her pause SHALL be lonely while you are away, Agatha!” Berkeley Sayles was sending his wife €€ But it fsn't And Mrs. Sayles flirted a in retaliation. They WHICH SERVE ALL SECTIONS OF “SHE WOULD HAVE FALL Both knew Sayles' philandering |search for the | li i i il ; ’.l:l il N IF she blushed, ran out and disappeared in a taxi. Noting the number of the cab, off to a southern resort and |Sayles hurried to his motor and took think of it.” She found the | the same direction, but following was | ment and seemed reassured. out of the question in the crush. He drove to his club for luncheon. Here friends commented upon his absence of mind. He was thinking more about the charming girl he had een than about his wife speeding southward and he determined attractive stranger. None but a man with time on h hands would think of such an im- probable quest in New York. * % ¥ X FTER luncheon Sayles sauntered through hotel after hotel per- sistentiy. The afternoon was spent as he entered one in the thirties. Glancing into the women's waiting room, he saw the object of his search at a desk writing. Taking a seat from which he could observe her, S: les noted her grace and ease. Her face was turned from him, but he knew its charm. She fin- ally came out with several others. As she was passing again from the hotel desk she slipped on the tilesand would have fallen if Sayles had not caught her. She had turned an ankle slightly. He helped her back to the walting room. “Thank you,” she sald with a smile. “Haven't we met before?’ “I saw you at the terminal this morning and had the same notlon. Let's assume that we have met before. I'm lonely today and hate to dine alone. Please join me here.” He in- dicated the dining room, into which guests were swarming. There was mischief in her eves. Perhaps a spirit of adventure moved her. She laughed. “Would that be conventional?” “The conventions are broken every day by persons who respect them. What could be wrong In our dining to il i rhmn THT Lduw bl SAYLES HAD NOT CAUGHT HER" together here? We both feel sure we | have met.” “If I hadn't that idea I couldnt She studied him a mo- “Very we shall remember well. Perhaj where.” Sayles was amazed at his success, ibut did not distrust the girl. Her {honesty was as apparent as her self- Lconfidence. They went in to dinner and chatted upon many subjects. He found her astonishingly clever, and she was im- pressed by his ability to entertain. “I suppose you would like to know {my name—something about me?” he finally asked. i “No—mo! Not yet! I want to ses 1t i T can recall. I'm sure I've seen you— { or your portrait. | “I'm not a public charactor. You | must be mistaken as to the portrait. ‘liut you'll tell me something of your- self?” “Something—yes. But not my name vet. 1 have a week's absence from college and am on my way to my home in the west. I stopped in New York to shop a little and to make a call.” ‘Ah! Friends herc “An aunt. A dear woman. Haven't seen her si she married. 1 want to surprise her. Tried to get her on the 'phone at the terminal. If you'll excuse me TI'll ‘phone again.” They had finished dinner. “Certainly. I'll meet you in the lobby * % x % S she disappeared Sayles called up A his garage, ordered his chauffeur to drive at once to the hotei, and re- turned to the lobb: was Isn't it almost always “I'll try again later. she said. “Wouldn't you like to see 5th ave- nue and some of the bright streets at 507 night?’ he asked. *“Let me be your cscort. My motor will be outside in _|as hen eggs are each wrapped in a) ji [green leaf, and half a dozen blue ¥ |plums or three or four bunches of nd turnips, green beans and peas are | The | also on the head, for we! I like to! where the girl | fully combed, and now and then ;m\ned in the dle. Thousands of [ men wear mustactes, and some such fierce-looking ones they make me | think of Porihos or d’Artigan insulted |and ready to fight. There are several departiment stores | here that do a business running tnto the tens of millions of dollars a year., |One of these is on the co-operative principle, with the clerks amoug the stockholders. 1 understand the shares are stead increasing in value from year to year and that every clerk in the store gets a percentage above the amount paid hin: w In that store all employes are fed free of charge. They have a break- fast at noon which is much like our dinner. It consists of soup, meat vegetables and a dessert. There were 1000 men at the tables the other da when 1 entered dining room. ard several hundred women at weals in the room adjoining. The dining hail is 600 feet long, and it S about half an acre. It has dows 1 noticed that « of wine at hi one had coffee {meal. This stor ployes after they tain number of In many respeets it seems to that the merchants of Paris have poor business methods. The ordinary stors has no cash register nor cash carrier e nor even a cashhoy or cashgirl. Whe ¥ou ma the clerk mus: carr the t} or fou book behind a counter at one end or the midst the store. Here ows the & na her sales ship 1 per, wle | copies the items and fn his | ledger with ink and pr | Just vesterday I bought | zaar of the Hotel de Vil trunk as big as a writing desk. | frafl girl w prices bashe The s0ld it to me bent hal | double as she shoved it along throuzh | the aisles over the floor of the room | covering a quarter of an acre, till we larrived at the bookkesp on the opposite side of the store. 1 took out my watch and found that it took m just twenty minutes to have t chase recorded and order the sent to my hotel, llong queue of « < abe bookkeepers, and this clogs tie bus that ness. Indeed, it seems to me Paris often uses three men lo every one in New York or Boston. Ther: is a great waste labor in stores and the customer has 1o of the work ‘in eve 3 (Carpenter's World ! by Frank a moment. Afterward I can drive y to your aunt or back to the Lotel” She hesitated rhaps T have ve tured too far already iu dining witl we shall t. And re you Nonsense! I'm sure member where we've would en the ride, 1 know I should.” “Let's go!” Tiey entered his door. The ride was enjovable. was ingenuous and detached fro but the sights. Savles was inclir 10 become sentimen After explor ing the bright se of town they drew up in a fine res front of an imposing house Then suddenly rt car at the s “I've a little surprise for ¥ mid “What p! e is this™ “Mine. 1want you to see it He hustled her in and switched on lights. l “But—but——:" She hesitated in the hall. “There scems to be no one at home “Oh, is all right. The folks are n. surelr. 1 osl "t Yo must take me back L 1—at once—as You promis “In a moment yles walked over to a phonograph and started a dance tune. “Come! Just one danc He tried to take her in his arms. The girl broke away. “I can’t danc: here with you—alos <he look about timidly. Her eyes caught th portrait of a handsome woman on “Is that your wife? Why do v “That's my A A Better Sign. From the Florida Times-Union. A road sign reads: “Drive siow vyou might meet a fool” A better sign, in some instances, would be “Drive slow; two fools might meet.” ”