The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-01-04

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mond and Gettysburg, thousands by
thousands. but it will take the arch
angels trumpet to find the million
graves OF the yaster army OF women
needle slain.
BESIDES all the sewing done for the
household at home, there are hundreds
OF thousands of sewing women, The
/ tragedy Of the needle is the trae ed =
OF hunger and cold and insult and home-
sickness and suicide-fve acts.
But-l hear the rush of wheel. Wom-
an puts on the band and adjusts the
instrument, puts her foot on the treadle
and begins. Before the whir and rattle
pleurisies, consumptions, headaches.
backaches, heartaches, are routed. The
needle, once an oppressive tyrant, be-
comes cheerful slaye-roll and rumble
ana roar until the family wardrobe is
gathered, and winter is defied, and sum-
mer is welcomed, and the ardors and se-
verfties OF the season are overcome:
winding the bobbin, threading the shuts
tie, tuckng, quilting, ruff1ing, cording,
embroidering, undertaking, set to mu-
sic; lock stitch, twisted loop stitch, cro-
chet stitch, a fascinating ingenuity. All
honor to the memory of Alsop and Dun
can and Greenough and Singer and Will
SON and Grover and Wilcox for their
Efforts to emancipate woman from the
slavery Of toll! But, more than that, let
there be monumental commemoration
of Elias Howe, the inventor of the first
complete sewing machine. What it has
saved OF sweat and tears God only can
estimate. In the making of mems and
boys clothing in New York city in one
year it saved $500, 600, and in ,Massa-
chusetts, in the making of boots and
shoes; in one year il saved s., ,00O, 600.
Nowonder that at some Of the learned
institutions, like the New Jersey state
normal school, and the Rutgers female
institute, and E1mira female college,
acqaintance with the sewing machine
is requisition, a young lady not being
considered educated until she under
stands it. Winter is coming on, and the
household must be warmly clad. The
Last Rose Of Summer" will sound bet
ter played ON a sewing machine than on
piano. Roll on, O wheel of the sewing
macnine, untii the last shackled woman
Of toll shall be emancipated! Roll on!
Secondly, look into the agricultural
world TO see what the wheel has accom-
phshed. Look at the stalks OF wheat
and oats, the one bread Tor man, the
other bread for horses. Coat on and
with cradle made out OF i've or six fin
gers OF wood and one OF sharp steel, the
harvester went across the field, stroke
after stroke, perspiration rolling down
forehead and cheek and chest, head
blistered BY the consuming sun and lip
parched by the merciless August air,
at noon the workmen lying half dead
under the trees. One OF my most pain-
ful boyhood memories is that OF my
father in harvest time reeimg from ex-
haustion over the doorstep. too tired to
eat. pale and fainting as he sat down.
The grain brought to the barn. the
sheaves were unbound and spread on a
thrashing floor, and two men with fiails'
stood opposite each other, hour after
hour and day after day. pounding the
wheat out OF the stalk. Two strokes,
and then cessation Of sound. Thump.
thump. thump, thump, thump, thump!
Pounded once, and then turned over to
be pounded again, slow, very SLOW.
The hens cackled and cluc.ied by the
door and picked up the loose grains anc
the horses half asleep and doing over
the managers where the hay mad been.
But bark to the buzz OF wheels in the