The National tribune., 1899-10-05

| of being the first inventors. They have
followed her through her daily cares, that
they might comprehend the significance OF
her part. This is their message to us:
Out of the heart of conditions results were
born; from helpless child-life there came a
dependence that asked for the protection of
a home shelter. Woman by her skill
placed the first tent-pole and around it
built shelter of boughs or skins. and while
her infant slept in the rude hammock hung
from the branch of a tree, whence comes our
nursery rhyme, "Rock-a-by baby upon the
tree top, she gathered reeds by the river
out of which to build their rude home. By
this act woman became the first architect
The next they show us the returned
hunter and the slain deer lies before the
door. The woman strikes off n small flake
Of flint for knife; she places it in a wood
handle, and becomes the first cutler This
knife has been known through the ages as
woman's knife, and can be seen in the
museum in the case of cutlery. By this act
she became the real founder of Sheffield.
With this knife she carefully removed the
skin from the deer-little did she think she
was thereby making herself the patron
saint of all subsequent butchers.
She rolls up the hide, then dresses it with
brains, smokes it, curries it, breaks it with
implements of stone and bone with much
toll and sweat, and thereby becomes the
first currier and tanner. This process can
be seen in the case of still life in the museum
Just as it is done by savages to-day.
With needles of bone and thread of
sinew and her woman's knife she cuts the
skins and makes the clothing for her family.
What was she but the first tailor and
clothier? From the skins carefully pre-
pared she cut and made moccasns for her
husband, by this she added wings to his
speed, and so they tell us she was the first
shoemaker. Compared with the progress
of the barefooted man in the chase they
found they were indeed to him as the winged
sandals Of Hermes, and she the original st.
Crispin.
From the grasses around her door she
| constructed the floor mat, the mattress,
the sail, and they point her out as the
original spinner; but we note that the
great factories of the world run along
without jar since OmphaIe taught Her
cules to spin. 1t was these primitive
women who discovered that nature had
provided in her palms, bamboo, calumus,
and waving grasses the warp and wool
that made the weavers and embroiderers,
the mat and basket makers of the world.
AS she sat on the cabin floor and deftlv
braided out and in and over and under
the strands that made the basket cradle.
or blanket, the very monotony of the work
pressed her to reach out for a change in
the plat. Thence came the skipping of
two strands instead of one, dropping five,
and taking up two, and for a little color
berries and roots gave it to the other grasses,
so by counting and varying and adding
bits of color she worked out the chevrons
the herring-bones, frets, and scrolls of future
art, and every geometricai figure known
can be found in their basketry in perfection
| We have often seen artists from the gold
and silversmiths' guilds in the Nationa
Museum patiently tracing these beautiful
designs. The art of these women has
become the goldsmith's admiration, ant
woman fifty holds the place she won as
the first geometrician. The breath O.
weaving swept over the world from thes,
primitive basket-makers.
CTo be continued)