The Arizona sentinel., 1886-05-01
LACE-MAKERS.
Some Historical Philanthropists
 and Artists in Their Line.

and Artists in Their Line.
 When we wander through the old Flemish towns, such as Mechlin and Bruges, we see in the streets where the poorer families live (be it in Summer and sunshine), in the open doors, wom- en and girls seated on the ground with their work on their knees, while their nlmble fingers ply, with fairy-like swift ness, the bobbins, so named on account of their form, slip and rattle, strike and buzz. On the pavement, between whose stones the grass often springs up, resound the wooden shoes of the bustling townspeople and the boys and girls. Through the clear air, from the steeple on the great square, sounds out every quarter-hour the soothing melody of the chime of bells. The industrious women sitting there with the Spanish faces and the Low Dutch names are making the beautiful mantillas, the airy vails, which, during the next Win ter, at dinner or ball, will fall over glimmering satin, cling around dag Zling shoulders and rest on glossy hair. Thus we have often observed the lace makers in Belgium. The most lovely ornaments for women are, however, not made here, but in Germany, and not along the coast, but on the heights Of the Hartz mountains, in Saxony. And as is the place, so also is the man. .--C-- II Al r gium.
 Whoever for the first time,'' so reads the description which lies before us, ''steps into room in which all the members of the family, both boys and girls, and from the six-year-old child to the gray-haired grandmother, are busy with bobbins, is astonished at the sight. One often finds in a little room from six to eight persons at this work. Be- yond the rattle which the striking to- gether of the wooden bobbins as the thread is interwined during the forma- ton of half or whole pattern silence reigns. This is only broken when some one races, counts or bets, that is to say, urges herself to greater activity by measuring her skill and speed against
 
 tween a mother and her children, or be- tween an expert and less dexterous lace maker. Thus the mother gives to the child hundred pins already set up. Then the child says, after she gets pin: "A hundred, and the mother says One, and so both number onward until the mother calls out the same number as the child, and has reached or over taken her.
 'For even numbering itrequires lace makers of equal skill After the pins are set, the first one cries Count one to me- Whereupon the second having set up her pins, answers, None to me- So the two continue until the first per- haps breaks her thread. The other works on meanwhile, saying at the same time: Count me one, count me two. count me three, and so on until the first again overtakes the second. The work and also the time of Its termination is fixed by wager. The lace-maker who first completes her task gets pin from each one she beats as her reward"
 This picture is of the winter life. In summer the women gather together in companies and go out into the open air under the shade of the trees to work. Among the mountain people, the men take their p; Tt with the women if there is no other work to be had. In former times one only saw the lace-makers at the table, on which in the long winter evenings the light of single dim lamp was heightened by being reflected through fasks and glass globes, to make it shine upon as many lace cushions as possible.
 The Hartz mountain is a region of in- dustry. After it ceased to be rich it be- came industrial. The mines were ex- hausted, invention succeeded. The peo- pie looked upon the silver which they afforded as Gods gift, and as such grate- fully accepted it. As the rich store of one mine after another gave out the miners began to apply themselves to the various trades by which to-day they seek their support, no one of which has from the beginning been so universally suc- cessful as lace-making.
 Already in their seventh year the chil- dren begin to make easy patterns. All the time which is not spent in the ordi- nary day school is devoted to the schools 1 for learning lace-making, of which five and twenty are supported by the gov ernment In many of the same perhaps a hundred diligent little creatures sit | with unmovable gravity at work. In the mornings from ten to twelve and in the afternoons from three until six, or even in winter often until ten. All the girls learn without exception and third | of the boys, the latter, strangely enough, | often showing more skill than the for mer. And the skill of which they be- come possessed in the end is the result | of the constant drill of these schools. From the eastern end of the Hartz noun tains up to the border of the Vosges, from the crest of the mountains down to the foot, to nearly all the women of the mountain people, the wood carvers, hammer, nail and spoon makers, lace work serves as exclusive employment, |