0An Excellent Opening for a Business Girl- How to Learn the Work - Duties and Wages of a Learner - Processes of Cleaning and Dyeing - Prices - Household Goods - The Quest ion of

Unpicking

"If I had £50 capital, I would rent a shop and fit it up as a dyer and cleaner's receiving office, take orders, and send the goods to a trade dyer and cleaner. The business is highly profitable. A skirt a customer pays me 4s. 6d. for dyeing bears a profit of about half, and that, you know, is a high rate."

Essentially Women's Work

This statement sounded promising, coming as it did from the lips of a young woman who had had nine years' experience of the business; and, on further investigation, the prospects afforded by the work of a receiving office are worth the consideration of a girl who is ready to undergo the necessary training, for to-day, dyers and cleaners multiply and flourish in every street. They are as necessary in our complex modern life as the steam laundry or the shampooing saloon.

Moreover, the head of a receiving office is naturally a woman. As one explained:

"How can a man understand the intricacies of dress trimmings, and advise concerning such an article as this grey gown, with its silk collar? The collar will not dye well; but what man would suggest replacing it by so-and-so? Besides, a woman does not care to bring her garments to a counter where a man receives them."

It is evident that a thorough knowledge of the cleaning and dyeing processes, and the colours certain materials will "take," likewise quickness in estimating the probable cost and time for cleaning or dyeing, can only be attained after years of practical experience. Therefore, anyone who wishes ultimately to manage a receiving office should start at the very beginning, when a young girl. She might apply to an office to be taken on as a learner, or go to the nearest Labour Exchange when she leaves school. Many girls leave elementary schools at fourteen

Apprenticeship

The first month she will be on trial, and receive no payment. If she proves quick, and free from the fatal nervousness in addressing customers, which it. seems is the stumbling-block of many girls, she may be taken as learner at 2s. 6d. a week for six

Woman's Work months; then at 5s. 6d. for the next six months; at 7s. for the following year, and at 9s. for the next two years. During the fifth year she might be paid 12s. and 14s. a week.

All this time the girl learns marking, pricing, packing, listing, and booking; how to address customers, the nature of materials, and the possibilities of each article brought to the office.

Business Hours

Her hours are from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and till 1 p.m. on Saturdays, with a fortnight's holiday in the summer. She will live out.

If the office in which she works is the branch one of a company, she will have to be very particular over marking. A letter of the alphabet indicates the branch office, and a figure the number under which the article is booked. In the book are entered also the name and address of the customer, and particulars of the order, as, for instance,

Grey silk blouse to be dyed black," also the price quoted to the customer. A copy is made of this, and the list is sent with the articles, while another is filed at the office. The marking is done in thread, and the blouse put into the "Black dyeing" bin.

At the end of the day the articles are packed in separate hampers, "Wet clean," "Dry clean," "Colour dye," or "Black dye," and sent to the works.

About this time the learner will do well to get transferred to the despatch-room at "the works, in order to gain knowledge of the processes of cleaning and dyeing, of finishing, and of sorting and distributing. She thus gets a grip of the whole business, and can start managing a branch at a weekly salary of from £1 to £1 5s., or perhaps £1 10s. in a large West End office. By that time she must have proved her business capacity, and ability to control learners and assistants under her.

A girl who is taken as an apprentice at a cleaning and dyeing works (usually through the influence of someone already employed there) starts with a weekly wage of 5s., and is bound for three years. There she probably works in the dispatch-room, and receives the cleaned articles as they come in from the finishing-room. She sorts them for the offices, and each must correspond to the list, and be placed in its own hamper.

Goods on arrival are sorted, as before mentioned, into wet clean, dry clean, colour dye, and black dye. When a dress arrives in four or five pieces care is necessary to prevent their detachment.

Good lectures are given at Leeds University.

The Blundering Beginner

One of a manager's trials will be the blunders of a beginner who mis-sorts, and she will have to check the listing most carefully, lest some article expected to be brown, returns from the works blue. She needs to watch all that goes on, in case an assistant errs in advising a customer. It needs some discrimination to be certain whether a Navy blue material is too much faded to warrant re-dyeing blue, and to say, "There is nothing to be done to this but to dye it black."

In quoting prices, it is never safe to state a fixed one, but always to give limits; to say, for cleaning, from 3s. 6d. to 7s. 6d.; for dyeing, from 4s. 6d., because, though a garment may appear to be plainly made, much unexpected work may nevertheless be involved in the cleaning or dyeing, and few things vex customers more than to receive a bill with a charge higher than was anticipated.

The actual methods of cleaning and dyeing are much the same everywhere; dyeing, for instance, being quite as well done in London as in Perth. With the increase of materials to be cleaned or dyed has come increase of processes, new chemical dyes, and elaborate machinery.

Ladies' Dress

It is interesting to consider some of the articles dealt with at a receiving office, and sent on to the works. Under "Ladies' Dress" come silk, satin, woollen, and tweed dresses (dry cleaned by the Barbe machine); cotton, muslin, and linen dresses (wet cleaned); kid and satin gloves and shoes (dry cleaned), besides cloth and tweed jackets, riding habits, dressing-gowns, opera-cloaks, silk underskirts, feather and fur boas.

Men's garments to be cleaned or dyed include coats and overcoats, vests and suits, especially flannels for tennis, cricket, and boating (wet cleaned), from which mud and grass stains have usually to be first removed.

Under "Household Goods," carpets, hangings, tablecloths, curtains, and bedding, in wool, velvet, satin, serge, chenille, plush, silk, eiderdown, cretonne, and chintz (both the latter wet cleaned) are treated. Lace curtains are cleaned at the owner's risk at from 9d. to 4s. a pair, according to material and finishing.

Carpet Cleaning

Furniture covers and carpets are dry cleaned and usually require some time to do. Estimates are given for taking up, beating (by steam), cleaning or dyeing, and relaying carpets. Beating is charged at Id. or 2d. a square yard, cleaning at 5d. per linear yard, or 6d. per square yard, up to Is. 6d. per square yard for real Axminster.

When blinds are to be cleaned and calendered, the hems should be undone before they are taken to the office; but arrangements can be made for ripping, re-mounting, and re-making, also glazing outside blinds.

Hair and wool mattresses can be wool steamed, carded, and re-made in new union ticks, at 4s. per foot in width.

As to the amount of unpicking necessary in a dress, it is best to consult the manageress at the office. She may be quite willing to do the necessary unpicking herself, and between booking the orders has ample time for it. To be continued.