The morning times., 1895-12-29
BEST NEEDLE WOMEN.
Are Always Semi-Civilized People, as
for Example, he Persian


In Mexico giris are educated in fancy
work Irum their earliest chiidnnod and
there is scarcely n MeNican cottage that
has not among its women one proficient
in drawn work. Children are put To draw
ing threads until old enough to handle
the needle skillfully.
Considering the almost priceless art
stic value of some OF these products,
they are sold for an extraordinarily small
sum, owing to the cheapncss oi Mexican
labor. You can get a Mexican woman to
come Ia your house and work lor 70
cents a day and her dinner, although
they, as a rule, prefer to work at home,
as they depend upon their noon siesta;
besides they are not Industrious aud OBJ
ject to being held steadily to their work
all day; they get to nuddipg over their
frames, and resort to various methods
to kill time. In their own homes they
work only three ur four hours a day
and often are employed year upon one
piece of work which retails at 500. They
have no sense of values aud Will part
with an exquisite piece of work for what
ever they happen to be wanting at the
moment. II pair OF shoes, well and
good; but If ON the other hand they are
longing for pony, pony IL must be.
II is rather curious fact that 1t has
always been the semi-civilized people whn
have particularly eNcelied in needlework.
The lower class Persian Hndustans,
Mexicans, and even Indians have shown
wonderful cleverness in this direction,
when every other department of artistic
work was sealed book to them.
The origin uf Mexican work is rather
clouded in the filmy traditions surround
ing the conquest uf Mexico by the Span.
iards, who had learned this Work from the
MouTs, who in their turn had learned IL iii
the far East. IL was somehow transferred
to Mexico and taught the serfs OF the con
querers, and the descendants of these poor
serfs have preserved and improved upon
it, until now many of the articles are as
dainty as cobwebs and as exquisite as the
frost On window panes.
Centerpicces, doilieS, and sets for dress
ing bureau and toilet Ia bic are perhaps the
articles most in vogue at present. though
it enters largely into all bed and table linen,
and has even been used to form the cross
on the surplice uf an ecclesastic.
Except for very meager livelihood,
through the natural products of the soil,
with many Mexican families, the sale of
this work furnishes their only means of
subsistence; and II naturally follows that
their living must be OF the most primitive
sort. A very usual house with them is the
one which they make uut of drygoods boxes,
putting on a matched ruof, and filling up
holes with stray tin cans, and of course an
earth flour.
They live almost entirely upon the tor
tdla, sort of corn cake, and frijoles. We
have read about the 1.-TWO women grinding
at the mili' in Palestine 1000 years ago.
and just so the women grind in Mexico to-
day. They soak the corn in lye to remove
the hull, then laysit on fiat stone called a
metate, and with another stone they grind
the corn to paste, This paste is patted into
thin cakes and baked quickly on another fiat
stone or metal plate. The frijoles are q
kind of brown bean, and form the principal
food of the people. They spread the beans
on the corn cake. holding the cake as q
plate. They double up another cake for a
scoop with which they convey the beans to
their mouths, when the beans are gone they
eat the plate and scoop, thus avoiding any
great amount of dish washing. They are
really a very dirty people, and it is a
mystery how they keep their beautiful
work so clean. Doubtless because they
lave learned that it is very much more
difficult to find sale for 1t, II it requires
to be laundered.
Kindly nature supplies the patterns for
these women. They reproduce in lace the
various delicate touches of nature about
them, such as the spider web, the birds
nest, leaves and fruits. They are very
ambitious to originate new designs, and
when one is evolved great fete is given.
and the inventor is crowned with flowers
and honOred in every manner within the
range of their limited possibilities.
All grades of linen are used for this work,
from the butchers linen to the dainty hand
spun linen lawn and Chinesegrass linen, and
thread from No. 80 to ESQ, the last pro-
ducing work as delicate as the finest Mechlin