The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-04-18

With immor' al art t, COPE
Weave-desE airing ever!
| have often pictured her, as she sat, day afte
weary day, bending over her endless task, befor
her eye quite lost its lustre or her cheek its hu
man brightness. The motion of her long, attenu
ated fingers must have become instructive an
spontaneous, long before they likened to tn
hands that take hold in kings palaces VIVA
mattered il to her that the ethereal essence of he
soul was evaporating day by day, as she left it
lamp untrimmed, its cruise unreplenished. Sh
had staked her all on one desperate venture
and spirit must yied-and soon body also
And where were thought and feeling in tina
long wasting struggle? Could no spark from 6
kindred soul have rekindled the 5ying fame o
human sympathy Could no sunlight bathing
xks AI',. E C2lophon aslS hrs - e -syiEt
her ftinting spirit-amp in the fresh breezes o
Heaven? Yet her fingers never swerved-he
eyes never turned. No other earthly aim could viii
her ambition from the empire of the needle. Per
haps she viewed il, as il has since been termed a
one of the three great mechanical agencies whio
bear sway in our social sphere. Perhaps her
was n meaner ambition, mere rivalry. a val
craving for immortal distinction For this EN-
pire the Goddess of Wisdom strove-wisely an
too successfully for the destiny of her morta
rival. She dsdained not to weave the garland o
this conquest among the laurels which she ha(
won in the STRIFE of Intellect. Happy the woma,
who, like Minerva, brings to the mastery of tn,
needle mind richly stored with the gifts of i'm
mortality, and who adds thereto the rural activity
Of the "buskined goddess Such a one will
surely win, not fame perhaps, but that which is
far more enduring and precious-mfueacs.
have fancied Arachne bending over her frame
when the chaos of vacancy had settled over heH
soul, and its shadow was fast falling on her body
with the thick locks matted around the counte
nance, that no longer bore the stamp of Divinity
Oh the fable of her actual transformation to
loathsome insect reptile was not needed. The
transformation-th humiliation of the soul wa,
the saddest of all and it is that which has faller
upon many n one since Arachne
speak not now of the vast army of sufferers
Of victims to the Needles sway whose monu-
ments have been reared by other and ADLER hands
those who have fallen in the common warfare OF
sewing with starvation. But it is of a more linn
tied class that would make mention-those who
follow Arachne in her special branch of the art
Embroidery.
There are some who doom themselves to the LOT
of Arachne as voluntarily and as needlessly as
did their antitype-stitching the best energies OF
soul and body into yard after yard of paltry can
vass. No wonder John Foster stigmatized the
elegant embroidery he was called upon to praise
as red with the blood Of murdered Time Ht
might have added-dyed with the hues of muir
dered INTELLECT thing Time is not rich enough
to buy back again, When that which should BIZ
merely n recreation becomes whether volunta
rily or inv0luntariy on the part of the actor, ar
occupation, the mental frame dwindes into Ian
guor, MS would the physical frame if compelled
TO subsst upon light condiments for any length o.
time Such recreation is embroidery Fortu
nately for our sex and country, the epidemic o
worstedso has pissed by. few cases here anC
there serve the double purpose Of mementoes anC
warnings Occasionally, at a fair or an exhibi
ton room, some glaringy stitched prize landscape
wrought by the long labor of gentle fingers, anC
lit by the faded lustre of some treless bright eye
tell the old story Of ambition and industry rur
wild
But these are not the only victims Adversely
poverty, and the pride of taste which sometime,
accompanies them, have made many an Arachn,
since the olden day-more like her in her tire
lessness and in her fate, than those of whom WI
have been speaking. Among the poor-not tn,
very poorest, however, of our crowded cities, heI
saddest counterparts are to he found There ar,
some who have fallen from n luxurious station in
society, and. delicatey nurtured, shrink from the
treadmill drudgery of plain sewing or active
toll There are others, who raised in the lap OF
poverty herself drink in lessons of delicacy and
taste-it may be from the silvery clouds that
come floating across their little patch Of sky"
for they have few other teachers These seek
expression for the spirit Of beauty pent within
them, in the way stern necessity points Alas !
they too often weave the shroud of their own
souls You pass into one of those splendid shops
of a Broadway or Washington street, that rival
our chilJhoods gorgeous ideals of oriental ba-
hp I'll do nf N opla
didly wrought cape, labelled Persistence or a
kerohief "de Brussels" Come into this high
garnet Of q fve-story block, if you fear not to
trust your feet upon the rickety stairways, and
you may look upon the patient emaciated fingers
that fashioned it Look at the sbrunken, droop-
ing form, bent by unremitting toll at the low
frame-look on the sallow cheeks--but look more
closely into the "lack-ustren eyes that should
be the windows of a soul--and read the fable of
Arachne written on the tablet Of flesh and life
Ii you still question: sit down by one who has
spent years in this sou-wearing toll, and try to
rouse one idea from the rust of its sumbering
There are noble xceptions-therea are some among
the fashioners Of ornamental work who do not
neglect to feed the souls fire, even at the expense
of portion of the body's scanty livelihood But
in most instances you look into the spirits TEN.
pie, and find within "vanity of vanitiesp This
sef-sscrfce is offered up at the affairs of Poverty
and Pride-too often at the latter.
The old mythology was kind to Arachne, in
freeing her from bondage to the minds tenement
when that mind had deserted it. Nothing is SC
sad TO behold as WORKOUT human casket, robbed
of its immortal gem
The Needle, though, like the Pen, most un-
yielding and soul-crushing master, is nevertheless
most agreeable and invaluable servant. Though
mortaps span of life is too short to embrace ex-
celience In many points, and though few Of Mi
nervas daughters can or ought to rival our city
Arachnes in their peculiar art, still the sway OF
the Needle, in its relations TO utility and house
hold comfort, is not to be despised by the most
GIFTED woman who ever woke a worlds admira-
ton And the day of honor is dawning upon the
sphere Of the Needle. Women Of genius are
beginning TO comprehend that their genius may
be embodied in the actual and the comfort giving,
as we'll as the ideal-in the Needle as we'll as the
Pen. 1 know one of Americas most honored
daughters-one whose praises have been echoed
on other shores than ours and whose songs live
ia many hearts-who does not diSdain, even when
friends visit her humble but tasteful home, to EN-.
ploy her slight hands in the service of the needle
And the ideas in her beauty giving brain los'
none of their gracefulness thereby, the sentence,
fall from her lips none the less sweetly rounded
She disdains not TO extend the influence Of bel
good example, by offering at the public fairs thu
fruits of her busy handiwork-not in the shape
Of embroidery, however, but in forms which min
lister rather 10 utility than to taste All honor
20 such a one There are few herGh nowadays
Of whom could be made the old complaint heard
from the lips Of my grandmother
wish she'd leave her boOks, ard mend her clothes
thank nay stars, Iknow not verse from prose"
Misguided effort" is written on the fable and
Gata of racbna persevapappe We are told Ia