The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1896-12-12
THE ART OF NEeDIEwopv
Neat Sewing Is as Great an Accor,,,
ment IA Ever

$500 '-o - '-o oisAb al Rccomntt.x
ment as Ever.
The complaint is often made that ~,
art of needlowork belongs TO the nas.'
that with so many peaceful arts Of ~,
years gone by 1T has been snpersedeah,,
the genii of machinery. The secrets =,
Aladdin's lamp for rearing palaces IN
single night are almost within the roc
sibilities of modern man. The tbeorr
of many people is that all the eentls
handicrafts of old must give way to in,
vention, and that machinery can do MI
Whatever progress has so far bean
made in this direction, we have not vet
arrived at the point when we can afford
TO do away with the steel needle. which
was the wonderful invention of a few
centuries ago, for all the garments ~
Helen of Troy, al the gorgeous court
robes of the court of Charlemagne. all
the beautiful gowns of Guinevere were
made with wooden thorns. At best
they were but basted together, in
style that beggar of to-day would
despise. The machine supplements
the needle, and, strangely enough
since the time of Elias Howe there has
been but little change in the score Of
machine work. In spite of the vast
improvements over the first clumsy
model, there has been no new stitch
We have nothing that takes the place
of the hand hem, nothing that gathers
in as perfect manner as the hand
gatherer, though most machines have
some sort of an attachment by which
an awkward kind of gathering is ac-
complished. We have no machine
stitch that can darn, or do the over-and-
over stitch so necessary in the making
of pillow-eases and sheets. No neat
housekeeper is content to have the sell
wages of her pillow-case eottons sewed
up in a seam, though this is the way
they are manufactured in the shops.
The neat seamstress is as useful and
rs necessary as she ever was, yet for
some reason or other there is a DISPOSE
ton to neglect the education of girls in
| the art of needlework. Charity sewing
| schools, it is true, have been started I'M
various large cities to meet the con.in-
ual demand for expert seamstress
work But in spite of them, the fact re-
mains that the expert and capable
seamstress Is one of the most indie
| pendent of modern workers, and is
more secure Of her work because she
has more demands on her time than she
can possibly meet. If she rises to that
height in her calling where she unites
taste with judgment and some business
ability, she can command fortune as
a dressmaker This is true, indeed, Of
every trade in the world, but 1t is espe-
cially noteworthy in this branch OF
woman's work No inequality of pay
disturbs her. No trades union is nec-
essary, for there is little competition
for her to meet on the highest plane in
such work as hers.
The great shops contend as sharply
for their expert women as they do for
expert men, and pay them fully as
high a price. 1t is not to the higher
class OF needlework, where the lsnowl-
edge of the skilled cutter is united to
that Of the needlewoman. that we re-
fer so much as to the simple seamstress
who knows only the simple stitches
taught in the sewing school, but who
knows them thoroughly and well
with exactness, can always command
fair price and continual work There
is scarcely village and no great city
where there is such superiority Of
such workers as these. What becomes
then, of the cry of the sweatshop and OF
the suffering seamstress, of which We
hear daily and hourly?
1t must be answered that these peo'
pie are not exact workers. They are
incapables, who have picked up theii
calling from necessity, and not from
any genuine desire to excel in it. They
have never learned to do any work ex
actly and thoroughly. They are mere
human machines, In the power of over
seers, because of their own incapacity
They are not the less to be pitied, moi
the less to be helped and lifted out Of
their slavery. But their woes are moi
those which would assail capable and
intelligent seamstress. The chief rea'
son Of the scarcity Of exact workers in
this calling is the same that applies to
all trades, those of ,nen as well as wom'
en-. People do not do their work be-
cause of love for it or respect for it, but
because Of the fee. IF your work Is
first with you and your fee second,
work is your master and the lord OF
work, who is God. But If your fee IS
first and your work second, fee is your
master and the lord of fee, who is the
| devil IN Y Tribune