The National tribune., 1899-10-12

1
aians, MendocinoC County, Cal tits said that
basket-making is as much i work OF ant
among the Pimas as the making of Turk
ish rugs in the Orient. In many of them
the fite-s are so fine and delicafely woven
that it almost takes a microscope TO DIS
cover them, and yet they are as lasting
as metal. Basket-making is becoming
lost art among the Indians; it is slowly
deteriorating The railroad whistle SOUNDS
the alarm OF civilization" that does not
always civilize art. The tourist, tie rail-
road, the touch of the white man. has
forced bad imitation. The slow process
of minute detail and technical construction
has been superseded by the hurriedly-
made basket for the unappreciative tourist
who makes his purchase from car window.
Prof. Mason and Prof. Holmes are TO be
congratulated for securing this marvellous
collection for the National Museum.
When the visitor studies this collection,
let him remember what all these geometrical
figures meant to these women when this
science from the occult currents fioated
around them, for they found expression
in a later day through Plato and a KEEP
Ter. Do not leave the building without
finding the Tapee cloth pounded and rolled
from bark fiber. On this cloth can lie
read the legend OF printing and lfthcgraphy-
Do not commiserate these fore-wornen for
the fabric they Wore. Their genius was tie
silent breath of these two arts that swept
over the world until some vibration struck
the ears of Dufray or Senefelder. and
these women come forward in this fabric
to claim their birthrights as the first print
ers.
By looking little farther you cone to
case that represents the first miller. Here
she stands grinding corn between two
stones. Emerson said. Mature never
rhymes her Children" but in looking at
this one simple process of reducing corn
to meal, you are carried back to the old
burrstone grinders, and from them to the
patent roller-miils, and you find nature
huns the old well-known airs through
innumerable variations, and the click
clack of the patent mill got its keynote from
the woman grinding at the mill"
While the hunting and fighting filled
sne days with fuIlness for the men, the
women were faithfully carrying on the
role of industrialism, and We have speci-
mems almost numberless of the pottery
makers from prehistoric tombs, from the
Of Nicaragua and all bearing the grace
ful touch of woman's hand. 1t was too
.nenial service for men. They might as
well be dishwashers as dishmakers. II
was only when there came a commercial
value that bridge was formed of such
responsibility that men could cross it and
become potters. We find also in the deco
rations on pottery and basketry that women
were the first artists. 1t was kinder.
garden Of art, but it evolved in this 18th
century Rosa Bonheur and a Harriet
Hosmer.
In the great inventions that are the
wonder of the world today very many OF
them can be traced back TO the primeva
days. The first patent issued TO a woman
was for straw weaving with silk or thread
This was May 5. 1909. II is a short road
back to the primitive woman, who founc
the warp and woof for mat and basket il
the waving grasses, palms, and calamus
surrounding her door.
Since the Patent Office was established
in 1890, little more than 100 years ago
there have been issued over 1000 patent.
to women. We wish to draw attention
here to the broad differences between al
inventor and a patentee. Many AM
varied are the inventions of women, bu
comparatively few have the money t
secure patent; therefore, they appea
in the Patent Office under the name of tn
patentee, the woman having given he
invention away or sold it for meage
sum. This state of things also exists wit
men inventors, and we could almost sa
that it is the exception when the invento
reaps the reward of his discovery.
Yet we have many worthy example
given us OF women inventors, which prove
very conclusively that they have caugf
the after-glow of the fore-world in this lot
century, and We step out of the Nation;
Museum loaded with fact and history int
the Patent Office, and see where the de
fingers and active brain Of women al