Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1880-07-01

ITcscnJ the bI)TtBS are RCucThlly beNHt as
they are completed by the work-women,
on blue paper, and then united by another
hand, eilhcr on the pillow by ''cut-works"
or ''purling" or else joined with the
needle by various stitches. The patterns
of these sprigs are In the first place pricked
with needles on a kind of shining brown
millboard known as parchment paper, ="
by women who often devote themselves
exclusively 10 tins branch Of the business.
Among the cOmmOnest sights of fine sum-
mer evening in East Devon are the lace
makers, each seated at her door, with their
ce-pillows (Which resemble thick circular
pads) on their laps, and the small children
around them on their little stools, all busily
occupied ir making these sprigs, whether
turkey tails, " ''blackberries," or ''stars. p"
Similarly in winter the steady ''click, click,
click" of their pins proceeds from every
cottage, just as in a NOttihghamshire viii
lage ii heard the incessant jar and rattle of
the stockingers' frames.
The picturesque village of Beer, near the
chalk headland of the same name, SO famous
of old for smugglers,, is now celebrated for
its exquisite HOniton lace. Here the
Queens wedding dress was made at cost
of .el, 900. 1t is composed of Honiton
sprigs connected ona pillow by variety of
open-wOrl stitches. Ihe Princess Royal,
Princess Alice and Princess of Wales also
wore wedding dresses of HonitOn point
made at Beer and the neighborhood. Capt.
tai workmanship in this lace was shown at
the International Exhibition in 1862, but
the patterns were conventional and clumsy,
arabesques, made lions and poor limitations
of nature. Hence may be traced in great
measure its decline in public estimation,
though its costliness must always initiate
against it's general use. In consequence of
this deficiency prizes were offered in con-
nectIon with the Bath and West of Eng
land Society for natural work in Honiton
lace, which produced such admirable speci-
mems that the Queen ordered them TO be
sent to Windsor Castle for her inspection.
From very tender years children are taught
to make HonitOn lace in what are termed
lace schools. The little things collect in
DANES room, and under her tuition, fire.
Quently seconded by IA cane, are taught the
mysteries of the art. They are appren-
ticed TO Tie trade in Devon at eight, nine,
and ten years OF age (but in Bucks and Beds
commonly at six years, often at four or
tive), earuiag nothing in their first year,
and sixpence per week In the second.
Afterwards they are paid so much per
sprlg, the price varying with the demand,
value OF cotton, ETC., but being generally
I'D, 3D., or Sd. per spng. Il can make
iour turkeys tails day, and get / id. for
each, glrl of ten lately told us with par
d ,nable pride. A child of five years old
viii earn penny in four hours by making
six flies" One master in the trade is
said 10 employ as many as 5000 of these
wOrkchiIdren. A clever adult hand will
easily earn d shilling day a. her lace-pil-
low in good times; in many parts of Devon,
however, the work is paid for on the truck
system. The average earnings of a quick
hand may be put down at three shlllIngs or
three shillIngs and sixpence a week. AT
Nalenciennes the workers used TO toll in
underground cellars from in the morn
ing till at Right, and scarcely earn ten
IeIce day. The abuse connected with
the lace schools were lately exposed by the
Children's Employment Commission. Ii
WAS found that the hours of work in them
were genera Iy excessive, and the Gtmos-
phere extremely bad, owing to the crowded
state of the small rooms in which the
children work. Discipline is rigidly en-
forced, and in some schools, in order that
the lace may be kept clean, the children sit
without shoes on brick or stone floors.
These causes, coupled with the constrained
position of the worker, who must bend
over the pillow which rests in her lap, lay
the seeds of illness and frequently of con-
sumption in after life. The morality
amongst the lacemakers of Devon, We
can testify. from personal knowledge, is
large. They are thin and sallow, inclined
to that bold, false independence which is
always engendered when women neglect
the domestic virtues. The children are
often defiant and disobedient to parents,
and, on the whole, the occupation of lace
making cannot be called one favorable to
morality.