Morning journal and courier., 1889-06-22

they nave all owed their reaWakenfuu or ori- gin to the great famine which remorselessly # spurred effort into any form of labor that l. would ward off starvation, and the aid iu
 technical instruction on the part of individ-
 uals and associations of wealth, both in Eng ? land and Ireland, which universal Irish suf- o fering fortunately prompted.
 The simplest of all Irish laces are the cro- :. chet Iaces, and the introduction of the cro- chet needle proved a godsend in thousands of Irish homes. At the Ursaline convent of B Black Rock. county Cork, the nuns began in
 1S40 giving their "poor sehelsrs'' the most
 I rigorous training in it's use. Such proRress : was made that in 1845 they received about i've hundred dollars for the product of their pupils labor. From this humble beginning
 crochet work spread over the south and west of Ireland, and thence. through the efforts of lady ot Kildare, who took up and de- E Veloped the industry by teaching poor girls
 who took solemn pledge to train free three ) ! others, into every county of Ireland Seven } hundred girls were employed in Kildare
 alone. The best trained teachers were for 8
 time sent into the remotest districts One
 came to the wife of the rector of Gloves,
 Mrs. Howe, who, herself learning the art,
 taught hundreds of girls about Cloves the
 best designs were purchased and copied; fine
 Italian and Spanish patterns have been in
 troduced everywhere; and the recent appli-
 cation of beautiful silk threads have given
 the work popularity which renders crochet
 lace-making boon to the delft workers in
 thousands of Irish homes.
 Perhaps at sne present time the greatest
 number of crochet lace-makers may be found
 in counties Down, Antrim, Armagh, Fer ! managh, Derry and Donegal. But there is no system or organization about the work ! whatever. The great lace houses of Belfast | which are becoming so rich out of Irish lace ! that one firm, which began eight years ago supplying mail orders on credit not exceed ing one hundred pounds, have just erected froH fifty thousand dollars, have clever way of doing business. They recognize, ss all lace dealers in Ireland do, that peculiar indepen. dence of character in the Irish woman work CT, making her prefer starvation wages at home in remote country places to any possi- ble rewards of labor within the evil associs- tions of Irish cities, and profit outrageously by the same. They appoint some impecuni- ous tradesman or other individual, often the postmaster, in every little village or cross roads hamlet as their agent or factor The factor receives the material and patterns from the Belfast firms by ''parcels post" and distributes the work from his shop or post office. The dealer fixes a maximum price ! for the labor, paying the factor 8 triiipg | commission for his trouble. The object of | the latter is solely to get the work done for l as much less than the dealers price as possi- | ble, for the difference is his gain. Girls and | women often walk from the mountain dis ! tricts for distances of from twenty to thirty I miles to get the work; and this is the way | they are usually treated.
 Girl-"An' it's blessins' an yer honor, the | mornin. an might yez be afther hsvin' the l wurrk from Belfasta'
 Shopkeeper-"Wurrk,i is it. Indade n it's | sorra mite they do be givin'. There's twin ty thoussn' cryin' an pIaydin' fur the wan | collar they're wantin'. Wurra, its haythen ! times we're havin'l"
 Girl-"Aisy now, an be afther helpin' I poor craythur that's stepped out twinty | miles for stitch. Hevin's blessings'n be an yez for that same."
 in, me cushla, but yell get nothin' fur noth-
 in here fur that same"
 Girl-"Its not for blackguardin' I came the day; it's wurrk.''
 Shopkeeper-"An' it's naythur yell get l tell ye find & civil tongue. Yer wurrk's bad, l an yer manners is worser; yez can switch | the primer (take an oath) to that. Get along out O this wid yez."
 The poor work seeker goes out disheart-
 ened and returns pleadingly two or three |
 pletely worn out, and willing to do the work | for any price the shopkeeper may fix, he finds that he has some material and patterns, which he pretends have been engaged by an | other worker twenty miles away on the op-
 posite side of the village; and after shame I less blackguarding and haggling he bestows ! the work as an out-and-out charity, after |
 outrageously lowering the just price, and se- curing solemn promise from the woman | that half the amount to be paid her shall be | taken out in "truck' at his vile little shop. | It is this dastardly outrage upon labor en- forced throughout Ireland upon the peasan- try by every soul from landlord to such pet ty brute as this, which keeps the Irish peo- pie in suffering, and forces emigration to | other lands at the astounding rate of nearly l one hundred thousand souls per year. But the crochet lace. makers toll bravely on. At every hovel you will find something of the sort eternally iR progress. The nimble fn- gers futter and ply, keeping time to the heart-throbs of hope, ever and ever. Months of labor may secure for them few shillings; and finally the work is returned almost black from the toll upon it, and reforwarded | through the factor to Belfast; where the lace dealers, pretending to hold it all in fine con- tempt flor the smell of peat that's on it," build great churches and trade palaces out of ! the more than a thousand per cent. profit ! they invariably make ont of every transac- tion.
 In Limerick alone of all Irish oties has ! there ever been anything like attempt at the manufacture of lace, and here lace-naak- l ing has been, during certain periods, extra ordinarily successful. It was introduced in | 1899 by a man named Walker, about twenty lace makers having been imported from Not- ! tingham. By 1850 nearly two thousand wo- | men and girls were employed in various branches of the work as tambourers, run. q muslin embroiderers and lace open workers The groundwork of all this lace is made by machinery. The quality has always been I superb, far excelling any partly machine made lace manufactured either in England 1 or upon the continent; but of late the in- ! dustry has suffered from Swiss machine competition; and workers were never per mitted to earn wages exceeding from three to | seven shillings per week. The Carickma- cross lace derives it's name from the intro duotion of both applique and guipure lace making into the parish of Carrickmacross l In county Monaghan, as early 1920. It is a most interesting region under the shadow ot the Slieve-Besgh mountains, and the en- 1 vironments of the peasantry to this day are of the most primitive sort. The cabins, 1 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 roofs. A hole in the roof end gives the smoke opportunity for escape, and where clay and stick chimneys are in dulged in, an old frkin, or few slivels of freestone rock, form the picturesque chim- ney pot. Potatoes with occasionally a little I buttermilk or sweet milk, constitute the all most exclusive articles of food; and vet ! from out of the hands of the daughters and mothers of this region, and of county Ar msgh, into which Carrickmacross lsce-mak- ing has extended, come daintier fabrics in | applique than were ever conceived in Brus- sels, and copies In guipure that are marvel ous improvements upon the originals in Gre tan.
 The Innishmacsaint lace comes from a 1 still more interesting region, not only from the loveliness of the scenery about the Up per and Lower lakes of Lough Erne, that splendid northern rival of glorious Killarney In Kerry, but as well from the singular beau ty of the mRidens and mothers who dwell and labor amid these mountains, vales, ylens and upon these transoendent shores. I itself is dainty island half B mile from the shore in Upper Lough Erne. A famous abbey was founded hers in the sixth century by St. Nenn or Nervid of the royal blood of Ireland The saints bell, or aamented with gold and silver, is still pre- served here as sacred and precious relic. The parish, partly in county Donegal and partly in Fermanagh, derives it's name from l 4 he island of ruins, and the entire peasantry ,f this wild and beautiful region, in manner md dress strikingly remind one of the pie f folk of the Tyrol. Nearly every .anily has member who is lace-maker; md without organization, technical instruc- ion or any attention whatever to preserving ,r developing artistic effort. these blue-eyed,