Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-10-03
A NEW CRAZE
Maine Ladies' Busy Making Decorated
.sFir Pillows"

From heBoston Globe.
The reign Of the crazy silk quilt was over.
The log cabin had died a natural death long
since. The afghan like the Dutch repubIic.
passed the meridian OF a healthy life. Ken
sington Of all sorts had been buried with the
change of fashion. All enthusiasm for she
minor articles Of fancy work had been laid
away in ice for winter use. There had come
lull In the life of woman. The non-accom-
plished felt void in her life that no duties to
lover, husband or children could I'LL.
A foreigner from the region OF New York or
New Haven came to the shores OF Maine A
the alert. The idea assumes a substantial
form and Is q grand success. Linen, canvas,
pongee, satin and pushes are in great demand.
En- brodiery f1Osses of every conceivable shade
are brought out. Our woods are devastated
Our frs and even pines and sPruces, by mistake,
ar are Sreedly torn rom their motheT tree ' hS
tender fingers unused to scratches and pitch
Men and women who formerly knew not a pine
from q birch search for the tender, green spill
Languid youth glory in the title Of knights of
the Fir won by their arduous labor In the
cause OF the fair Never day passes that one sees
not some lady or middie-aged gentleman toll
ing up the hill, like Sinbad the sailor with the
Old Man of the Sea, bent under the weight of
vents women, young and old, from walking
through the streets with whole fir forests
strapped to their backs.
Dried in the sunlight the branches of the fir
spills falling from their stems form a brown,
fragrant carpet. Now the embroidered case
appears. An inner case of unDleached cotton
Is filled with the FIR, the pillow-case is slipped
on. sewed.a neat ribbon bow tackled on one
corner and VOLTA! we have the FIR pillow. Vari-
Gus are the devices on the pillow-case. Perhaps
there is a branch. q symbol Of the fir tree or a
forest on small scale. More often 1t is quota.
ton, as: "Give me of your balm, o fir treev'
Ihe murmuring pines and the hemlocks,"
dreams of the Forest and 1.-The breath of the
fir we have always with u.s." Besides their in
trinsic worth, which Is from SO to $5, they are
valuable for gifts and are far superior to the
ordinary sofa pillow.
II the sweet, soporfiic influence lulls us right
within the shade of the pines to pleasant sleep,
it must, indeed, be a bonanza to those within
the city's gates. OFT has the INITIATED O scOffer
of the virtues of the fir pillow, thrown himself
upon sofa and buried his head in an molten
sive-looking pillow. Slowly but surely the
sweet influence steals over his senses: he
yields to the magic of its charm, and sees the
gave birth to the pillow of fir. There he sees
o colony of young and old, each pulling" fir,
the mother to send to her boy in the city; the
young girl to place beneath the aching head Of
her troubled father; the old man for q sweet re-
storer for the tired nerves of his invalid wife.
The dreams OF hasheesh smoker must be
vague ana underlined compared to those en-
ticed from dreamland by the soothing balm of
the cares of business and the moving crowd are
the ripple and sparkle OF the waves, the fra
grance-iaden zephyrS, the quiet aiSles of the
woods, the iightness of a brain free from care.
the fir.
From Maine to California are these redolent
pillows sent. A welcome gift are they among
the Injuries Of Paris home. They dispel the
fog from the London air. They are borne to the
land of Ice by the Arctic explorer. They are
u pillow for the heads of Names sailor sons
upon the swelling ocean, and in the heat of the
tropics they wait homeward thoughts of her