Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-07-09
THE REVIVAL OF LACE.
It Is the Fashionable Dress Decoration
Now-How and Where it is Made.

THE REVIVAL OF LACE.
It is the Fashionable Dress Decoration
Now-How and Where it Is Made.
The revival Of lace as a fashionable
dress decoration brings from the seclu-
sion of old chests and boxes half-for-
gotten but priceless heirlooms of this
fairylike material and awakens new in
terest in the study of its exquisite va
rieties- There is something in this rare
old fabric which appeals to one with
strange pathos, as in looking at an an
tique founce or veil one remembers
that to its beauty were sacrificed the
lives of many highly organized women
whose names are undeservedly forgot
ten like those of the old carvers Of
stone on famous cathedrals- Perhaps
the saddest thing about it is that the
weavers to whose patient diligence and
rare skill the dainty fabric owes its ex-
istence seldom saw the beauty of its
completion.
Honiton laces are made up of bits and
bits fashioned by many different women
in their own little cottages-here leaf,
there flower. slowly woven through
the long, weary days, only to be united
afterward in the precious web by other
workers who never saw its beginning
There is pretty lesson in the thought
that to the exquisite perfection of each OF
these little pieces the rare beauty of the
whole is due-that the rose or leaf some
humble peasant woman wrought care
fully helps to make the fabric worthy
the adjoining of queen or the decora'
| ton of an altar, even as the sweetness Sc
and patient perfection in any life makes
! all living more worthy and noble. A
single flower upon which taste and fan
cy were 1avished. and which sustained
and deft labor only brought to perfec-
! ton for the Morisini donnas, represents
| the lives of many diligent women work
ers. These Morisini ladies were noted
| for their laces when Titan was the
| great portrait painter, and among the
| legacies left by them are found varieties
| which may not be fashioned under the
| gray skies of northern lands or in the
smoky cottages of northern peasants.
In executing its pattern the tactile, heX-
| ible fingers of Italian women draw the
| threads within the limits of the pattern
from the warp and wool of finest lawn
| and wove them beneath the c1oudless
| skies in the open air from the designs
copied from some old cathedral window
or the armorial bearings of knightly
| families. When the art of lace making
travelled north, the bobbin and cushion
were invented to save eyes and fingers,
| too, which could not keep the gossamer
! fabric clean in cottages where smoke
and dust conspired to make it yellow.
| The Roman Catholic Church is one OF
the most generous patroniZers of the
lace makers art, and the Morisini her
self, who was so popular when her hus-
band was Doge, that the people made
| her the DOgereSS when he died. might
envy the laces which officiating dignita-
ries wear on their priestly vestments.
Sicilian women, two or three hundred
years ago, excelled in the art of the
| drawn-work embroideries now so popu-
lar. They traced their patterns on
| linen. then drew the threads from the
parts that were to be transparent. and
filed in the openings with fancy stitches
| to give them lacy appearance.
Point de toile coupe is the parent OF
our degenerate cut-work embroidery. II
travelled from Italy to Spain in the old
days, and SO to our English ancestors
| Among coarser laces designed fol-
house decoration are those made by Ca
labrian women on strong net, which they
weave and darn in soft red and cream
cotton with festooned edge. Point de
Marguerite, the favorite for curtains OF
the queen of Italy, decorated with the
needle, is crewel and chain stitches and
Russian lace, which has been brought
so prominently forward in Paris this
season. This lace is happy fusion be-
| tween SOrchon and guipure, and is
made by the peasant women in the long
winter nights for bridals and burials.
| christenings and church affairs. Moth
ing but the purest linen thread is used
| for it, and the patterns which have pre-
served their simple traditions by being
handed down from mother to daughter
are picked out in blue, pale or royal
strong red, orange, and golden brown
The designs are barbaric and frequently
include birds and ducks, but these Rus
sian novelties, hitherto unknown out
side the empire of the car, lend them
selves very gracefully to the embroid
cred and colored cloths for breakfast
| and luncheon now SO much used.
| A precious lace cloth owned by New
York lady is known as 1.-The Last Sup
per Table Cloth. because it is the same
pattern in old point de Raphael seen il
one of the famous Italian paintings o.
the last supper.
American ladies are said to be par
ticularly fond of so-called "bedroon
laces.'' and one English writer, Will
the intel1ige nee of his kind concerning
American customs. says, 1T is becaus4
an American hostess asks her lad,
guests after dinner to sit not in the par
lor, but in her bedroom. IN. Y. Sun.
Sure Sign.
Plunlxett - DR.. Seelye, the colleg,
president. isn't married, guess