Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-26
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The Spinning Wheel Fad May Revive
the Good Old Art of Spinning.

From the Kansas City Star.
Along some ancestral line nearly every
American woman can find some charming
great-grandmo who wore paint and
patches, who powdered her hair used the
spinning wheel, rode a pillion and knit
ted with huge needles that were warranted
to do as much execution with the hearts
of admiring SWANS as with the worsted
they fashioned into hosiery, gloves and
| headwear.
1t is this which makes the spinning wheel
| a JOY forever, if not thing of beauty The
humble invention is stock ornament for
a parlor or boudoir, old-fashioned din
ing room or even a Kitchen 1t comes into
| vogue every ten fifteen years and then
! is put away to await a return of the old
romantic feeling.
| In some parts of the country there are
! still spinning wheels in daily employment
| A few must be a century old. 1t may be
noticed that these stanch pieces of the
carpenters handcraft are strong heavy
! and somewhat awkward. They have not
| the artistic finish Of the neatly turned and
| carved wheels which are found in so MANY
esthetic parlors. Some of these artistic
wheels delicate and dainty that they
would break the moment they were set to
! work al making strong, thick thread
This difference does not discourage the
modern young woman, who is confronted by
a dire dilemma. She must have a spinning
! wheel because 1t is romantic and historic,
| and then the wheel must be an object of
| loneliness to match the furniture in the
! boudoir of her own style of comeliness Be-
! tween these two alternatives the poor wheel
does not have much of show. The fun
| niest thing about this revival is that it has
| been brought about by the class which
never works, and would not know how if
! it tried to.
| Our great-grandmothers were very busy
damsels and DANES. The spinning wheel
was no ornament, but very serious mat
ter of daily life. They made the machine
| spin by the hour, while they reeled off
| the thread that they were to knit or weave.
| The we'll educated women of those years
| was a spinner, weaver dyer and tailor all
combined in one. l wonder how many of
their fair descendants can emulate them
! in these lines?
Nevertheless they have brought about a
| Furnishing manufacture of antique wheels
| and many of the organizations have adopt
| ed the wheel with or without the distaff
| and treadle as club badge or a coat-of-
| arms for their club paper
| In the finishing of the modern stage the
| humble spinning wheel holds prominent
part 1t would be difficult to give Faust"
without one in the center OF the stage
! where poor Marguerite sings, smiles, hopes
| dreams and weeps, and in the BARNARD
dramas it is even today more important
| than the melancholy cow or the we'll where
| the "old oaken bucket prlnss up sparkling
Croton from the cellar under the stage En-
! terprising photographers keep one as a
| stock property along with the drop curtain,
trenresenting a classic temple the can
vas logs on which young ladles Sit and pose
as Maud Muller resting.
One of the oldest things about the spin
ming wheel, anent the is that the aver
age owner never takes the trouble to learn
how 70 work the machine. She plies it in
both directions leaves off the connecting
cord and even goes so far as to decorate
it with ribbons in way winch would pre-
vent it ever being put to practical USE