Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-03-26
ter, Matilda of Flanders, wife of William

the Conqueror.
"An epic in embroidery" must recessa-
rily be an elaborate and time-consumins
piece of work. Matilda and the ladies II
her court wrought for years upon this en-
broidered panorama, as it might be called,
and it is still treasured at the Hotel de
Vile, Bayeux. France.
Miss Strickland, the historian, says of
it: ''It is beyond all competition the most
wonderful achievement in the gentle craft
of needlework that ever was executed by
fair and roya, hands" 1t is q coarse linen
cloth, two hundred and fourteen feet long
and twenty inches wide, on which is
worked in woolen thread of various col
ors a representation of the invasion and
conquest of England by the Normans. 1t
contains the figures of about six hundred
and twenty-five men, two hundred horses,
ffty-five dogs, forty ships and boats, be-
sides quantity of animals, birds, trees,
houses, castles and churches, with names
and inscriptions over them explanatory of
the story. It is valuable historic rec
ord since it gives correct and minute
portraiture of the Norman costumes and
manners.
Think Of the long, long days, worn
away by these Norman danes in the
queens bower patiently setting those mul-
titudinous stitches, and marvel at their in.
dustry and devotion! But the work may
have been to them the one fasoin ating en-
ployment of their lives, and then they had
so little else to do. No teas, luncheons,
dinners or receptions, no missionary meet
ings or whist parties, no balls, Browning
societies or Blsvatsky circles; no Sorosis,
no suffrage clubs; no bazars, no Gounod re-
hearsals, no ghost parties, no Delsarte
classes, no Psderewski recitals.
They did not skate, or row, or play ten
mis-; they did not go about with the cam
era, or play on the violin or typewriter, or
study for degrees, or lecture upon the
Wherefore of the Unknowable. In fact,
those who spend and are spent in the con-
tinuous effort to meet their duties and en-
gagements may wonder little what else
they could have found to busy themselves
about, and are grateful that while the men
of the court were gallantly breaking each
others heads, the women could attend the
daily sewing society and in peace discuss
the management of husbands or the latest
sweet thing in necklaces.
TO VOICE THE SORROWS OF THE OPPRESSED.
Soonderabsi Powar, Christian woman
of India, and successful zenana worker
in the city of Bombay, has been commits
stoned to represent the women of India be-
fore the Woman's Anti Opium League of
Great Britain. The object of this league
ia "to spread information on the opium
question, in order to bring about national
humiliation for the national sin, and to
unite the women of Great Britain in de-
termined and prayerful effort for the
speedy abolition of the opium traffic"
Miss Powar is now speaking before large
audiences and attracting much attention
She is student and linguist, and pleads
with much eloquence and earnestness,
though with great implicitly and modesty,
the cause of those who are suffering
the evils of most nefsrious traffic, en-
couraged by government which processes
to guard and befriend its dependent peo-
Piles.
cit is useless says Miss Powar, ''to
spend money on missionaries, and to pray
daily for the coming of Christ's kingdom,
while the promotion of the opium traffic il
delaying that kingdom "Go and con-
vert your Christian government first, then
come and tell US about Christ" is an ex-
preston which she has repeatedly heard.
The native women of India are active il
the anti-opium movement. An appeal
souG ny tucu W LILO AonSuo pAouoS oeAoh-
uously for the restriction, if not for the
abolition, of the trade which places the
deadly drug within the reach of the poor
est.
In October of last year, in the city of
Lucknow, a large number of Mohammedap
women held a semi public meeting at which
this matter was freely discussed. Said
one, in the bitterness of her heart: "We
will thank the government to take th.
sword and kill the wives and children of
opium-smokers, 80 as to rid us of th.
agony we suffer-"
From Bombay comes the message: "Tell
the English people that if they will stop
this trade we will regard them as our
gods" From northern China also the native
Christian women have sent most pathetic
plea, urging the League to help them; tn.
wives of missionaries too have forwarded
appalling statements concerning the ruin
of home life caused by this evil and its in
reference with missionary work. Every
year, they assert, thousands of Chinese
women commit suicide through its blight
ing influence upon their lives.
A series of public meetings have been ar
ranged in the large cities of England and
Scotland. and it is hoped that public sen.
timent will be 30 aroused that the British
government will be obliged to acknowledge
the infamy of a traffic which they hav.
forced upon their unwilling subjects and
which, on account of immense pecuniary
gains, they have refused to restrict, al
though throughout Great Britain the fatal
poison is permitted to be sold only in small
quantities by licensed chemists of good re-
pute. HILARY.