The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-06-26


postofhce. The dealer fixes maximum
price for the labor, paying the factor
trihing commission for his trouble. The
object of the latter is solely to get the
work done for as much less than the
dealers price as possible, for the differ
ence is his gain. Girls and women often
walk from the mountain districts for dis
tances Of from twenty to thirty miles to
get the work, and this is the way they are
usually treated:
Girl-"An' its blessins' an yer honor,
the mornin', an might yez be afther hav-
in the wurrk from Belfast"
Shopkeeper-"Wurrk is it? Indade N
its sorra a mite they do be givin'. There's
twinty thousan' cryin' an playdin' fur the
wan collar they're wantin'. Wurra, its
havthen times we're havin'.'
Girl-"Aisy now, an be afther helpin'
poor craythur that's stepped out twinty
miles for stitch Hevin's blessings'l II be
an yez for that same"
Shopkeeper-'I ioine talk yer aisy
givin' me cushla, but yell get nothin' fur
nOthin' here fur that same"
GIrl-'Its not for blackguardin' / came
the day; its wurrk."
tell We find a civil tongue. Yer wurrck's
bad, and yer manners is worses; yez can
switch the primer take an OATH to that.
Get along out O this wild yez."
The poor work-seeker goes out disheart-
ened, and returns pleading two or three
times during the day. After she is COM
pletely worn out, and willing TO do the
work for any price the shop-keeper may
fix, he finds that he has some material
and patterns, which he pretends have
been engaged by another worker twenty
miles away on the opposite side
of the village; and after shame
less blackguardingand haggiing he bestows
tine work as an out-and-out charity, after
outrageously lowering the just price, and
securing solemn promise from the
woman that half the amount TO be paid
her shall be taken out in truck" at his
vile little shop. 1t is this dastardly out
rage upon labor, enforced throughout Ire
land upon the peasantry by every soul
from landlord to such petty brute as this,
which keeps the Irish people in suffering,
and forces emigration to other lands at
| the astounding rate of nearly 100000 souls
per year. But the crochet lace-makers
toll bravely on. At every howell you
will find something of the sort eternally
in progress. The nimble fingers flutter
and ply, keeping time to the
heart-throbs of hope, ever and ever.
Months of labor may secure for them
/ few shillngs; and finally the work is re-
/ turned almost black from the toll upon it,
| and reforwarded through the factor TO
! Belfast, where the lace-dealers, pretend
! ing 20 hold it all in fine contempt "for the
smell OF peat that's on it, build great
/ churches and trade palaces out of the more
than 1000 per cent. profit they invariably
make out of every transaction.
/ In Limerick alone of ali Irish cities has
/ there ever been anything ike an attempt
| at manufacture OF lace, and here lace
! making has been, during certain periods,
/ extraordinarily successful. IL was intro
/ duced in 1929 by man named Walker,
about twenty lace-makers having been
! imported from Nottingham. BY 1850
/ nearly two thousand women and girls
were employed in various branches OF
/ the work, as Landowners, runners, darn
I ers, members, washers, fnishers, mus
! lin embroiderers, and lace open work
/ ers. The groundwork OF all this lace
/ is made by machinery. The quality has
I always been superb, far eXceiling any
/ partly machine-made lace manufactured
either in England or upon the continent /;
but OF late the industry has suffered from
Swiss machine competition; and workers
were never permitted to earn wages ex-
ceeding from three to seven shillings per
week. The Caricmacross lace derives It's
name from the introduction of both APP
! plique and guipure lace-making into the
parish OF CarrickmacrOss in the county
Monaghan, as early as 1920. 1t is most
| interesting region under the shadow OF the
| Slieve-Beagh mountains, and the environ
ments of the peasantry to this day are Ofthe
most primitive sort. The cabins, which
seldom have more than one room from
eight to twelve feet square. and never
more than eight feet high, with earthen
floors and straw-thatched roof. A hole in
the roof-end gives the smoke opportunity
for escape, and where clay or stick Chin
neys are INDUCED in, an old firkin or a
few sliyers of freestone rock, form the
picturesque chimey-pot. Potatoes, with
occasionally little buttermilk or sweet
milk, constitute the almost exclusive ar
ticles of food; and yet from out of the
hands of the daughters and mothers of
this region and OF county Armagh, into
| which Carrickmacross lace-making has
extended come daintier fabrics in applique
than were ever conceived in Brussels, and
copies in guipure that are marvellous i'm
! provements upon the originals in Cretan.
The Innishmacsaint lace comes from a
still more interesting region, not only
| from the loneliness Of the scenery about
the upper and lower lakes oil Tough Erne,
that splendid northern rival of glorious
Killarney in Kerry, but as well from the
| singular beauty of the maidens and
mothers who dwell and labor amid
these mountains, wales and glens, and
upon these transcendent shores. Innish-
macsant itself is a dainty island half a
mile from shore in Upper Tough Erne.
famous abbey was founded here
in the sixth century, by st. Nenn, or
Nernid of the royal blood OF Ireland.
| The saints bell ornamented with gold
and silver is still preserved here as a
sacred and precious relic. The parish,
partly in county Donegal and partly in
| Fermanagh, derives its name from the
island of ruins, and the entire peasantry
OF this wild and beautiful region, in man
ner and dress strikingly reminds one OF
the picturesque folk of the Tyrol. Nearly
every family has member who is a lace
maker; and without organization, techni-
cal instruction or any attention whatever
to preserving or developing artistic effort,
these blue-eyed, black-haired, red-lipped
women produce marvels in point-lace as
wonderful as were ever known in point
d'Alencon. / found one worker who had
been employed over five months upon
one handkerchief. She said two
months more would be required to com.
plete it. "What will you get for il? l in.
quired. "Faith, an I'm thinkin' pound
.41u GsA,J iii l.