The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1885-04-29
Crazy Work and San. Work.

fN VIZ "oiV osheu iaSoly W JOIN IN fhiHo
for "crazy" quilt made up Of nine thous-
and scraps Of elk and satin set together
with much ingenuity Of design and nice
ness of stitching. To The maker and her
friends itappeared monumental labor Of
taste, industry, and artistic talent. To us
1t stood for a misdirected energy and per
severance too common among women. II
it cost but ten minutes TO add one scrap to
another--an allowance far too small-the
quilt represented an outlay Of fifteen hun.
dred hours, one hundred and twenty-five
working days Of twelve solid hours each,
or one hour day for more than four
years. s.~s I, ass4
What might not this industrious young
woman have accomplished In that timer
If she really cared for decorative art, fl
teen hundred hours Of close study and
practice would have developed an admir-
able and remunerative skill in embroidery
or painting. They would have sufficed for
the acquisition Of modem language,
sound knowledge Of, history, poetry, liter.
ature, art, music. They might have been
exchanged for the important science of
housekeeping and kitchen chemistry. De.
voted to educational work, their helpful
influence could not be reckoned. "
The craze for decorative art has wrought
certain definite mischiefs with much good,
One. harm is that busy idleness has been
made TO seem improving. Crossstitch
dogs with bead eyes on rugs, and parrots
in high relief on lamp mats are now
Stunned as survivors of chrome civili.
zation"-wasters Of time and. slayers of
taste. But the makers Of Kensington-
stitch table-clolh borders, Holbein towel
ends, decorative waste-baskets, pen.
wipers, aatiron covers, lamp shades, and
"crazy patchwork" seem to have eaten Of
the insane root that takes the reason
prisoner. Their countless stitches and
ugly ingenuity appear to them the fit ex.
preston Of aesthetic instincts, and they
give thanks that they live in the cultivated
age which ornaments its whisk.broom
holders. Raphael and Leonardo would
never have though Of That.
It Is the chief misfortune and limitation
OF women that their aims are petty.
When those are conscientously pretty, as
in the misguided struggle for decoration,
It is naturally difficult to substitute larger
ones. The cumulative teaching of all
time having been that women should be
satisfied with patchwork, mental, moral,
and manual, 1t is perhaps unreasonable TO
expect them TO repudiate II. But most
women have ambitions, if not aspirations.
And most women need to be reminded
that the time they daily industriously
waste would do for them what Il does for
men-conquer new worlds.
Last winter great historian died. His
last book, The Conquest Of England, was
published after his death. For years he
had been struggling for life enough to fin
ish the great work he had planned to do.
He seized every opportunity of momen-
tary strength, of relaxation from pain, to
write. His preceding volume, The Max.
ing OF England, had been written in the
shadow of death. His wife says, in her
tender preface, that il was the opinion OF
his physicians that life was prolonged
from day to day, throughout that time
"only by the astonishing force OF his own
will, by the constancy of resolve that
had wholly set aside all personal aims"
1t was only when the pen fell from his ex.
hausted hand, that he said, 81 am weary;
| can do no more" "With such sustained
zeal, such eager conscientiousness, was
his work done, that much of il was wholly
rewritten five times, other parts three
times" The books themselves are Of pro
found interest, admirable in matter and
in manner. But no tale in them Is more
heroic than the patient, persistent toll
that achieved them, in spite Of suffering,
weakness, and natural sorrow.
They who see that civilization waits for
the advancement of women entreat them
to prefer the intellectual life. But this
does not imply constant companionship
with books. 1t was a wise and good say.
ing that "the essence OF intellectual living
lies not so much in extent of knowledge
or in perfection of expression as in the
constant preference Of higher thoughts
over lower" The patient student aud his
torian, John Richard Greene, may stand
for one class, the patient contriver and
piecer Of the "crazy quilt" for the other.
1t is not high qualities that women lack;
II is high directions Harper's Bazaar.
Erysipelas is dangerous disease. Not
unfrequently does Il take such form as to
carry of its victim after aperioj Of intense
suffering. Chas. II. Lucas, Of GAINESVILLE, o.,
writes; "For three years my wife has been
suffering from erysipelas. She has tried
numerous physicians but received no bene-
/ AZ tro,,n anu of than Gha oomn,QnCQd