The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-06-17

| can public opinion remains far behino
that OF China that our girl babies must b
| allowed to live, we must do something fo
our surplus women. They must marry. o
vote, or work. Some New York ladies hav,
| started society of Decorative Art with The
very sensible purpose Of helping women tc
earn living in womanly ways The society
which began very quietlynsw occupies The
| New I ork Times says-a fairly good house
| at No. "a East Nineteenth street. Down
stairs, in the drawing rooms, there are ex
posed number of artistic objects Here
| are panels cups, saucers, pictures: fans. eta
| CERES, plaques, and screens decorated in al
! the prevailing styles. Some are Japanese
and strongly So others are realistic in orn.
| amentation. The feeble and puny seem,
| under proper selection, an artistic
stripiculture possibly, to have been weed
| ed out. This mascuhnity is good omen,
and shows that the weak and the limp in
woman art-etforts are no longer "a la mode
Here are pretty bits of Irish werk, ,-collars
of lace, sent to the society for sale by some
Irish farmers wives. the proceeds to be
spent tor the famine fund Then there are
numberless articles of table, toilet, and
buffet drapery, white linens all tucked and
with intricate open-work, and with fine
lace designs on them, the acme of needle
tracery. The society Is not only creative
but it takes upon itself restorative funct-
ion. Had you a Gobelin that hung in rags
and had tendency towards tatters. there
is ability enough in the society to take the
delapidated fragments and to save it from
destruction. Here is department where
those who want artistic material in woolens
or crewels, trle tapestry threads, can buy
what they waHt Then there is library
1t is devoted to books in art 1t is modest
IN hiItfI fIlf- Ia uon h,,p NOD
Those volumes 90 all over the land from
Maine to Minnesota. Honest girls in the
Viii Mountains write: "We have no op-
portunites to see anything artistic.' Then
IA book is mailed to them, and the lending
OF it at one cent day more than paid the
cost Of transmission. Think of the honesty
Of the business, when but single book has
not been returned. Tie book room has a
dozen women in it, employed by the day,
busy in executing orders taken by the socle-
ty. The society intends to open a class in
Newport next month; to have saesroom
there in the Travers Block and TO impart
instruction and to dispose Of its goods
This fall il will have lean exhibition of
antique stutfs and embroideries with old
silver, to be held in the Academy of De-
sign. The progress made during the first
three years of the SoCietys life is amazing
During the first year it had 200 c0ntribu-
tors at the close of 1879 there were S45
names registered upon the books of the
committee on admissions to whom, after
deduction OF 10 per cent was made for
commissions, the very handsome sum Of
531 ,664 50 was paid. The society has writ
ten / POO letters of instruction and criticism
to contributors who have been anxious to
learn what wanted in art, SO that 1t
would sell. In the needle work department
not quite 1000 orders have been executed
ranging from wall hanging to the mark
ing of house lod linen. In the free needle
work classes IA pupils have been taught,
and tWo-thirds Of these have had a second
course The society turns pupils into
teachers and there are now thirty who
now exercises their professional calling in
other states. There are 2SS paying pupils,
and l34 private lessons have been given.
There are in the classes of painting on china
over 800 pupils The committee on admis-
sion has the project of a partial loan de- /
whence materials and designs ap |
proved by the committee can be sent TO |
contr. .butors whose pecuniary circumstances |
render such assiStances d substantial aid. |
The cost of such material, postage, ETC.. is
deducted, and the contributor receives the
net profit when sale is made. With
fund of not quite $1,000, the Fl
lancial management of the society seems TO
nave been excellent 1t asks for no money
or sustenance, but what it would like to
lave would be some foundations for free
for, if few such were provi-
led for. the means OF advancing certain
pupils would then become pos
ible.
The officers of the society for 1890 ;r.
President Mrs. Richard NJ. Hunt vice pres