Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-28
IRISH COUNTRY LIFE
A Pen Picture of.the Girls Who
Dwell in upnegal.
all ARE EXPERTS AT EMBROIDERY
The spriggiog Camp IS One of the
Institutions of Winter.
COU RTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE

NN'PsiiSH i''"', ny SeumaS MacManus.D
Written for The Evening Star
Sprgging Cor embroidering on fine muslin
ana hnem and knitting are characteristic
nome industries In which our girls employ
their nimbie fingers. The sprigging is done
for the big Belfast houses which export the
work all over the world. Since America be-
gan imposing heavy tariff on manufact-
ured imports this industry has fallen of
fifty per cent and the remuneration has
fallen at least thirty-three and one-third
per cent. Formerly a skillful girl who
sprigged for living and sat at her work
all day (Which means till 10 O'Clock at
nighD could earn from twenty-five to thirty
cents, and occasionally even thirty-ffve
cents; but eighteen to twenty cents a day
Is considered a big earning now
only small percentage of our women
follow spr1gging for living in present con-
a'tions; only those who have no land and no
other way OF earning; and even they keep
half a score of laying hens to help them.
Most of our girls for they all sprig) take
II up IN the fnterms between household
duties. and after the days work is over.
The few shillings a week they earn keep
them in dress and furnish the household
with tea and sugar. skilled sprigger may
often be recognized at the fair and at mass
by good dress and tasteful turnout. The
sprlgger travels everywhere from three to
seven Irish miles to the village to get so
cents worth of work, and the same distance
10 return the finished pieces. The greater
portion OF the embroidery consists of hand
kerchiefs, but childrens robes, bed room
linens, table cloths, cushion covers, etc,
are also wrought.
SpriEEing Camps.
Throughout the winter sprigging camps"
are the order. AS night falls and the days
work has concluded, all the spriggers of one
hillside, or one little valley, bringing with
them each her work and her stool, gather at
the house of one, and night after night they
visit the houses of one another in rotation
The girl in whose house the camp gathers
supplies the light. In the middle of the
floor the spriggers form a circle, with
the light (Which used to be candle,
but is oftener now OLD in the center The
boys of the district follow the camp from
house to house. They sit around the walls
and pass the time merrily for themselves
and the girls in jest and joke and in telling
funny stories.
The fun is always great in the camp
house. and the greater part of it consists in
witty MISUNDERSTANDING" we call it. AS
they rapidly ply their fingers and keep their
eyes steadfastly on their work, the girls
can cast over their shoulders Roland for
every Oliver given them by the boys And
woe betide the boy who, having had the
temerity to cross weapons with one of the
noted wits in the feminine circles, comes
off second best. The boys wit in these
cases is necessarily playful. yet gets home
some effective little thrusts; but the girls
tthe noted wits in particularly has always a
rasping edge that is certain to tell. AT
about II o'clock the camp breaks up and
the boys. shouldering the Stools convoy the
girls home.
Knitting and Spinning.
The other industry, knitting-hosiery,
gloves and underwear-has grown In i'm
portance as sprigging declined. 1t is not
nearly SO trying an occupation as sprigging.
and girls can make rather less money at 1t.
The knitting is done for the local agents of
English houses chiefly. A girl will knit
two pairs of socks or two pairs of gloves
in the day.
Spinning is now very far from being the
great home industry it was a generation
ago when every girl had her task of
flax TO do daily, over and above her
household duties; and, after completing her
task, had for her own benefit ali she spun
beyond. Those were the days when the
linen trade Observation-Disclosures the introduce
industry The girls had then their spinning
camps, and carried their wheels (ratller
their boys carried them to the camp house
nightly.
In the busy days of Ware {the shrine
time) the girls do their share in the plant
Ing of the crops-being always asked to
perform the tasks that are not laborious
At the hay harvest the gir,s do everything
except NOW. Many Of them are expert with
the hook (sickle) and shear the corn, hint
for hint" with their father and grown
brothers.
In those parts of our country from which