The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-28
QUAINT MAKERS OF LACE.
WITH THE COMING TOGUE FOR THIS FABRIC,
A Renewed Interest Is Being Taken In
 the Women who Make 1t,

The present remarkable vogue of lace
 trimming on hats, neckwear and gowns 1 of every description is arousing a | widespread curiosity in those quaint l women across the sea whose nimble
 fingers keep the market supplied with l the delicate fabric. The great mass of | the expensive handmade lace seen on fashionable women to-day is produced 1 in the humblest of homes, or some l times in tiny workshops, where young
 girls, busy matrons and women bowed | with years bend over their needles or
 bobbins with never ending patience. 1 Belgium is truly the cradle of the I lace industry. All northern Europe, it
 is said, took lessons in the art from the | low countries in mediaeval times, and I no other country has even to-day sur 1 passed Belgium in skilful workman ship, nor has any outside rivalry been | sufficient to cause a decline of the art l in it's original home. Naturally, the | greatest lace producing center is Brus- | sels, and one who has visited the city | can hardly speak it's name without a vision of this lovliest of all Belgian | Pi eduAtS' fioot uppicPi iutCiSf top, 'lpl only are the lace makers women, but l the large majority of the lace retailing establishments appear either to be owned or managed by women It is al- | ways a woman who decks the window with exquisite taste, and who stands in | the door of her tiny but Fascinating shop in the Rue de la Montague to en- tice In the passer by. Instinctively she knows the American tourist at sight, | and presses her in pretty broken Eng fish only to come in and look at the new patterns she has to show As an added inducement she suggests that Madame will like to see them make the lace" an appeal which the new conner at least seldom resists.
 Many of these little shops have one
 or two women at work in conspicuous
 places, since the process Is always at tractive to the foreigner. In the more stately establishments, also of the Rue
 Royale, one is invariably met by wo-
 men who know how to show off to per
 lection the beauties of their laces.
 The finest pieces of Brussels lace are
 made in the city itself, and a number
 of workers may be employed on the
 same piece. This system of division
 of labor in lace-making Is peculiarly ,t
 Flemish idea, ,and did much in early
 days to further the industry in Elan
 ders, or modern Belgium Some wo-
 men cut the foundation pieces, others
 put them together while still others
 have in hand the working of the fig
 ure. or so-called flower" Nearly all varieties of Belgian lace are made on pillow, the Brussels needle point" be- ing the most delicate.
 Lace-makine is one of the most con- servative of industries For five centu- ries the characteristic patterns of each center of trade have been handed down from generation to generation. and "Mechlin point' Is as distinct from the point of Bruges as that of Courtral is from the ''pot lace" of Antwerp.
 Some of these peculiarities and To- 1 calisms are interesting in the extreme. | Antwerp has clung persistently to ! quaint flower pot design that has | adorned the lappets of the womens | caps since the time when that city I stood at the head Of the world of com merce. The well known Valencennes | lace has been transplanted from it's na- tive soil, where the art seemed to lan- sllish after the town came into the pos session of the French, and now four
 shes most at Ypres and Alost At the former town is produced the widest Va lenciennes lace known. But much still is necessary in the making of this broad lace, for it is said that nearly twelve hundred bobbins are required for each pillow. The use of the bobbin varies in the different towns where Va lenciennes lace is made, and causes slight variations in the finished effect Mechlin lace, which is of the delicate,