The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-04-28
LACE-MAKERS.
Some Historical Philanthropists
ard Artists in Their Line.

Some Historical Philanthropists
ard 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
nmble 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
busting townspcople and the boys and
girls. Through the clear air, from the
5teeple on the great square, sounds out
every quartcr-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 walls, which, during the next Win
ter, at dinner or ball, will fall over
glimmering satin, cling around daz-
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
ner of work different from that in Bel
GUM.
'Whoever for the first time, SC 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 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 torma-
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 aud speed against
another's. The contest takes place be-
tween mother and her children, or be-
tween an expert and a 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 hundc ID 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 a 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 90 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 TASKS and glass globes, to make
it shine upon as many lace cushions as
possible.
The Hartz mountain is region OF in.
! try After it ceased to be rich it be-
calhe industrial. The mines were ex-
hausted, invention succeeded. The peo-
pie looked upon the silver which they
afforded as Gods gift, and as such CRATE
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 sue
cessful as lace-making.
Already in their seventh year the chill
drcn begin to make easy patterns. All
the time which is not spent in the ordi-
nary day school is devoted to the schools
for learning lace-making, of which five
and twenty are supported by the gov
eminent 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.
talns 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 sand spoon makers, lace
fNtstr I 4