, 1884-06-26

lEliza AfchnTd in New Nork orld.I
Fnncy work is the small vice of the female
sex. II is TO women what smoking is to men.
In some respects it is worse in eed, Tor man
can read or write aud smoke at the same
tIuc. Fancy work, on the contrary, is so ab-
SO binE as au intellectual exercise that It is
not pos. bic for u woman to mako the Ken
sington stitch and do anything else, unless it
be to gossip.
In Lrief, we arrnign female fancy work Us
n water OF time, II destroyer Of cyesight aud
health, a dendener to al nobler ambitions,
and n promoter of scandal besides. We shall
prove it.
Fancy work is an uncanny thing. There
Is some strange fascination in the miserable
dnIning and knitting that blinds their eyes
to the nobler achievements that lie all about
them. In the summer hotels and winter
hotels groups of fair young mutruns sit,
hour after hour, their bright eyes bent over
some queer, faEzy-iookirE, contemplate
little stuff, as though tho salvation
Of the world depended on banding
the equator with n girdle of mot
-ringe before tomorrow morning. Now
they cover Ehostly pillow-shams with weird
cIatn-stltch. Now it is ric.rac, and ngnin il is
crazy quilts. AT this point it may be re-
marked that of all cOutrivRnces that arc ugly
enough to sculch ones eye-lalls the crazy
quilt goes up head. Anon, the fancy-work
mrdness drives them to the production Of
tapestry pictures that make your hair stand
ON Ind.
Or mny be tits alarmed net" This is the
h ad-feni Of fancy-wovk. 1t is safe to say
that on the average dnInod net drives 1000
American women q day TO premature spec
tscles.
"Prettyi Yes, it ought to be pretty. 1t
nearly put my eyes out"
She had mude her lite daughter a robe Of
this demonish, woman.killing fabric. Her
eyes were red and s~TOl.en, her nerves were
Hll unstrung so that She kept springing like a
jumping jack Mt every little sound. She had
got herself in such u state over the pesky
stuff that she hadn't slcpt for two nights.
"lm just ready to cryT' she said. No
wonder. The time aud labor she bad spent
on that execrable gown would nave made
her an accomplished student in microscopy,
and not hurt her eyes either. Then she
would have had a peep into the fairy land
OF science, and at least learned enough TO
mako her n charming and entert lining COM
panion for IA month. And q month is a long
time when it comes to entertaining anybody,
especially ones husband.
We lrrgign fancy work because it dwarfs
women's intellects. 1t gives them just &C.
curation enough to make them believe they
are doing something. They sit and moon
over their one, two, three cross-stitch till the
practical interests Of life fade f.om their
mental horizon. They ore the true hnshocsh
eaters. Fancy work is u genuine deadening
drug, cheating ladies into a FOOLS paradise.
While they delude then selves with think.
ing they We at work they nre doing abso-
lutely nothing at nil that is " orth while. 1t
is worse than nothing. It ought TO be rele-
lated wholly to very uged women, so old
that they have lost all interest in active af-
fairs, and have nothing TO do but snooze
through the days like placid Old Tables.
doors enough t. give them a decent complex
ion, you know, " says the Englishman.
Trimming Is the wTIch that il to hama