T

HE PRODUCTS of the Royal Worcester Corset Company, of Worcester, Mass., are too well and too favorably known to call for much more than passing praise at this time, for the factory, founded in 1861 by David H. Fanning, has added year by year to the popularity its admirable corsets won right at the start. Every woman who has worn a Roval Worcester is thankful that it was brought to her notice, and once a wearer of this corset, always a wearer of it.

The Roval Worcester Manufactory is a model establishment. It is not only of great size, to meet the demands made upon it, but admirably equipped with all the modern appliances for the production of the best, as well as the comfort of its employees.

The main building, which covers two sides of an entire block, has recently been enlarged by a four story addition on the north wing, increasing by half the capacity of the plant. The working conditions of the factory are ideal, the equipment complete, and lighting, heating and sanitary features are perfect.

The executive offices and private suites for the offices of the corporation are on the first floor, their handsome finish and furnishings being in keeping with the gigantic scope and interests of the establishment.

Besides the actual designing, cutting and making of corsets, all the advertising, printing and box-making of the firm is done on the premises, each department a large one in itself. Electricity is the motive power for all machinery, eliminating the unhealthiness of dust and the dangers from belting.

The ventilation is by the blower system, which continually infuses fresh air into the workrooms by means of huge fans in the basement, where the outside air enters direct on the heating apparatus.

Special precaution against fire is afforded by an automatic sprinkler and alarm. system throughout the structure, while wide, double stairways of heavy steel construction at either end of the building, and large and substantial fire escapes are conveniently placed for quick exit. In the basement is a white tiled dining hall for the employees, the recesses of which are studded with palms and potted plants in variety.

There you will find a library, also, for the use of the employees, containing all the magazines and periodicals of the day. A hospital room on the second floor, fully equipped, ministers to the needs of the workingmen and women. If, on examination, any employee shows signs of tuberculosis, he or she is sent away to a sanitarium until cured at the expense of the company.

Summed up, everything which makes for the comfort of employees and the successful operation of the business, is amply provided.

As a result of Mr. Fanning's broad, aggressive policy, and strict business integrity, the Royal Worcester Corset Company has been for years established as one of the great industrial institutions of the world. Nearly two million dollars has been expended in advertising its products in magazines, newspapers, booklets and other mediums, which has resulted in making the three trade-marks, "Royal Worcester," "Bon Ton" and "Adjusto" internationally famous. Every pair of corsets that leaves the factory is the final result of painstaking care, from designing to shipping room, of skilled labor, the best materials (all fabric is put to the severest kind of test to prove its strength), and the most modern and exacting details of designing, cutting and making. In short, no expense or labor is spared to make the industry the worthy expression of a high commercial ideal.

Factory, lawn and employees of Royal Worcester Corset Co., Worcester, Mass, 50th anniversary. Souvenir photo taken Sept., 1910.

W

HEN THE Italian population of San Francisco threw their strength into the rebuilding of their burned Latin Quarter, they fell to work with a confidence that warmed and encouraged the entire stricken city, and accomplished the restoration with a rapidity amazing. Best of all were the lines on which they worked. They replaced none of those ramshackle tenements and huddling rookeries that in the old days had rendered the sides of Telegraph Hill so picturesque and so unsanitary; but erected instead only neat light and airy modern buildings of small flats.

These Southern lovers of sun and warmth were not, however, to be deprived of yard space by the fact that the new structures covered their entire lots. So, with hardly an exception, their building plans embraced the erection of stairs to the level roofs, where, with floors and railings, hydrants and clothes poles, homemale benches and hammocks, they converted the housetops into sunny, breezy, spacious vards for community use of the crowded tenants below.

Now life has adjusted itself to use and enjoyment of these unique housetops. Today they are a very city in themselves. The student of humanity could ask no more splendid vantage ground whereon to study the ways of the transplanted Italians and Greeks than is here afforded him in the open.

The superb views of city and hill and mountain, bay and inlet and island, point and shore and waterfront, are of themselves more than worth the climb, even did

the life of the foreground hold no interest. Up here on the populous roofs, flowerboxes fill many an angle, with nasturtiums to trail the railings and parsley and sage in the corners for thrift. Clotheslines flap overhead, comical with undergarments shaped forth in the wind, or gaudy with the vari-colored calicoes and turkey-red flannels the Southern eye loves. Bedding hangs over the rail to air and sun. Here or there a dog sleeps in a warm corner, or a boxful of kittens; while on an occional sky-yard a coopful of chickens defy the new city ordinance aimed at them. Nearby, perhaps. a pet bird sings in its

cage.

In warm weather these roofs teem with human life. On fine Sundays they are fairly swarmed with the Latin population at work and rest and recreation.

The little children are to be seen there, laughing and quarreling at their games, or bathing their pets in the sun. There the big girls come to con their lessons, and the big boys to make their nets or whittle their boats. There, too, the mothers sit sewing or preparing vegetables for the pot, or nursing their babies, which they seem to bring forth almost annually. And there the fathers come to sleep in the fresh air or read and discuss the news of their "Voce del Populo."

There, too, on Sunday mornings, come the young women, busy all week at their work in the candy and cracker and paste factories, to write their love letters or wash and dry their masses of dark hair, or work at their finery for the next dance at their favorite Garibaldi or Colombo Hall.