I HOOPS AND BUSTLES How TheseFeniiui iie Indispcu sables Arc manufactured Tlie Western Trade Scores of busy girls sat before long rows of sewing machines in a big building on I Walker street swiftly stitching upon I strips of broad white tape says die New I York Sun Mounds of the tape were heaped before each machine and were quickly changed by the manipulation of the workers into single waistbands with broad ribbons of tape depending I from them like streamers Younger I girls gathered up the sewed tapes into loose and carried them to lose heaps carred over another I an-other cluster of girls who sat before rows of wooden frames that looked like big truncated cones These girls fitted the waistbands snugly over the top of the frames and in an instant were deftly braiding strips of linencovered wire I through the tape streamers that hung loose from the waistbands They worked 1 with surprising swiftness and chatted pleasantly in low tones I Here said manufacturer Malcolm I Smith you can view at a glance the interesting in-teresting details of an industry thatkeeps an army of girls busy eight months a year and which just now reaches its greatest rush These girls are making hoopskirts and bustles H pointed t a curly liaired blonde who sat before one of these wooden frames nimbly working with tweezers and strips of wire Watch her closely he said and just see how simple it is to make a hoopskirt hoop-skirt There were six streamers of tape attached at-tached t the waistband that the girl had fitted on the frame Each streamer had twentyfive little loops pockets cut in it and extending in a row from top to bottom bot-tom The girl ran strips of wire through the pockets of the six streamers ata wink and fastened them to each pocket with 1 little brass clasps by a deft twist of a pair of steel tweezers In just eight minutes the whole of the twentyfive rows of wire were in place and the ir lifted a complete com-plete hoopskirt of the ordinary style from the frame Of course all hoopskirts are not made BO quickly That one is the simplest and I cheapest made and the workers can average five dozen of them a day right along When it comes to making a skirt with a bustle and a skirt vith a bustle is the correct thing you know it is slower and more elaborate work The wires are sewed in place in each pocket instead of being fastened with clasps of metal and care has to be exercised in shaping the contour of the bustle skirts are all that the best worker can complete in a day I The tape used for holding the wires is manufactured on purpose for the trade and is sent to us with the pockets already cut All that is necessary to get it ready for the skirtmaker is to have our machine operators sew the tapes to a waistband That takes us about a minute The wire used for the hoops is flexible steel and can be bent or folded without breaking and will allow the hoopskirt to be successfully suc-cessfully packed in a very small bundle Anybody who ever tried to pack an old fashioned hoopskirt in a bundle will understand un-derstand at once what an advance civilization has made in this direction I over the days of our grandmothers The manufacturer walked down stairs into his show rooms Skirts hung upon I he walls on all sides and bustles were leaped in great profusion on the wooden counters The variety shapes displayed in the hoopskirts attracted the eye of the visitor Do the fashions in hoopskirts vary much muchWell Well I should say so One year theyre big the next year theyre small just as male trousers are tight one year and big and baggy the next But a singular thing about the hoopskirt fash ons that masculine creation knows nothing noth-ing about and even the women themselves them-selves are scarcely aware of is that the kind of skirt that the women of one sec ion of a country wear will not do for another an-other section Each demands it own particular style and gets it The manufacturer yanked a new made hoopskirt down from overhead a he said this and put it upon the counter before the visitor I may be truthfully said he continued con-tinued with 1 laugh that Boston just nowtakes the cake for big bustles There is a weird and wonderful expanse t their hustles that gives the women of the Hub an exclusive distinction in the matter of loopskirts This is the Boston style of skirt youre looking at now I looked like a giant conical rat trap that had been bulged out at the back The skirt was thirtysix inches long and the bustle of the same length Two strips of cloth were fastened at the back of the bustle They could be drawn together with a lace like the two parts of a corset The lace permitted the bustles to be contracted or expanded a a sailor might reef or shake out a ships sail I a Boston girl wants her dress to stick out very prominently behind the rnnnu factuer said she just takes a reef in the and is happy stays H1V AJ A lf f y i What do the Gotham girls fancy 1 the visitor asked a the Boston hoopskirt was hung upon the wall again They come down just six inches on the bustle part the manufacturer replied re-plied and they are mighty particular that the skirt shant be longer than thirty four inches The bustle is only twelve inches long and rests easily on the hips I is called a hip bustle The critical eye would direct furthermore that the New York girls dont take any reefs in their bustles They are made of flexible wire and covered over with light flounced or cloth puffed coth What do the Philadelphia girls wear 1 wearThats all said the manufacturer abruptly as he tossed a small bustle on the counter It was made of three coils of wire that I looked like sausage piled one above the I other So far as it concerns bustles he added Philadelphia is away behind the j Its girls wear the smallest bustles i awe It girs smalest j on the continent and they never appear I to change their taste about it either i despite the ambitious example set them by the girls Boston The Philadelphia bustle is a shy and retiring thing that I stands just above nowhere in the fash i ionale hoopskirt world The girls of the boundless and growing i grow-ing west the hoopskirt maker concluded I are not particularly prejudiced about any one style of hoopskirt or bustle I from the fashion They just take their pick fahion i I plates that are sent along with the orders I of retail dealers We sent a miscellaneous 1 mis-cellaneous assortment of all the styles to Chicago San Francisco and other big i cities out there every few months The I I shipments include everything in the market with one exception and that is Philadel bustle The Pllla the Philadelphia I Phiadelphia buste local and exclusive phia is a purely lol eXclSle I curiosity