Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-26
AMERICAN-MADE LACE
MANY IRISH GIRLS HERE WHO
kHdr THE ART.
Effort Pr |mote the 1ndustry's
Growth n tai UNITED states--Point
and |roch Of Emerald Isle.
From the New York Tribune.


From the New York Tribune.
An effort to revive the Irish lace industry
on new lines in this country, whittier many
of the most skillful lacemaking colieens
have immigrated, Is being made by Miss
Marion DAILY herself an Irish woman who
has been intimately connected with the re-
vival of lace making In the old country
Attracted by the high wages and larger IN
dustrial opportunities offered by America.
and in many cases by the fact that their
kinsfolk have already crossed, the Irish lace
makers have left the little hamlets where
they used to live for new world. AT least
three of them have been located in New
York, and these and others who are scat
tered Miss Daily hopes to gather about her
perhaps later as nucleus of lacemaking
school or colony
Not every one who owns a bit of gOsSamer
Irish point or wears gown incrusted with
the popular Irish crochet knows that lace
making was of the ancient industries
Of the Emerald isle In the good old days,
before landlords became exigent and con-
V1ctlons common, gentleWomen-and peasant
girls alike practiced the gentle art, some or
the innate poetry of the Celtic genius pass
ing out of their finger tips into the sheer
fabric.>., eee. ia 49, ,s.s
Gradually lace making fell into decay.
People forgot the patterns, for got show to
set the stitches, lost their cunning with the
needle. Then, about twent y-five years ago,
began renaissance, the movement being
supported not only by the best people of
the country, but by Queen Victoria and all
the women of the royal family. Lady Cado-
gan was one of the titled women who, work
ed with hand, voice and purse to make lace
making success, and after she had taught
1t to her tenantry interested herself in get
: CHER fashionable friendsseto buy and
wear it.
. --s-s"s- s-r Lace Revival. ,@sss-s,~- -
Among. the others who early. interested
themselves in the revival were Miss Edith
-Keane and Miss Frances Keane, daughters
Of Sir John keahe. one Of the largest landed
propretors In Ireland.
IN Sappoquin,e County Waterford, the re-
viyal began. the gentry gathering together
the wives and daughters of the little town
and. the outlying villages, and teaching
those cobwebby Illusions of birds and
butterflies. flowers and garlands, wrought
into transparency. and delicate enough for
queen Titania'S wedding veil.
~1hat is where Miss DAILY learned to do it.
1t is hard for an American, accustomed to
nVing IN a country where some classes Of
labor are always undermined, and where
outside of large cities, there seems to be
work enough for all, to comprehend the i'm
portance of the revival of this particular
industry to the peasantry in the districts
affected. Families whose sole subsistence
was derived from the cow and the potato
patch. and with whom a coin of higher
value than a shilling was a rarity, found
themselves lifted into comparative opulence
through the industry of a daughter. Be-
t tferas natR, in artieular end % week
80 "Qne of thE adv4ntages ofIacemaling as
a craft. saidzMsN Daily to asTribune repre-
sentative. fg thaE almost fran the FIRST If
a girl works neatly and handily, her prod
lxata No
So it came about that in the lacemaking
district-one of the most picturesque and
romantic in all Ireland-many a young
woman earned more money in week than
her whole family had been able to earn in
months. a.
- Continent al Composition.
This happy condition did not last long,
however Foreign competition interviewed,
whole families in France and Germany took
up the industry, spending their nights at it
affair." thaies=long days III the fields. and
making pastime of it, so they could sell
their work at much lower price than the
Irish girls could sell the cheapest of their
handmade laces.
Only system of governmental protec-
ton could have prevented ruin. In the alb
sence of this wages were, reduced. some of
the girls married, others, who had saved a
little money took ship and joined their kin
in America.
Miss Days idea is to interest some tech
meal institute or trade school for girls here
in, starting class or school of Iacemaking
with her to teach and superintend.; hast
year she was asked by Mr. Walker, the sec
rotary of the congested district board for
Ireland, under Sir Horace Plunkett, de-
partment of agriculture and technical edu-
cation, and by the women a the head of the
science and arts department in Cork to
open in that city a class of lacema king
of fnSI
AS her brother, John J. DAILY, of the Depart
ment of Commerce and Labor immigration
service at Ellis Island, and others of her
relatives are here, she concluded to follow
them. .
ZEE withstanding it's delicacy the making
of this lace does not affect the sight ac-
cordins to Miss DAILY.
1--WE used to put in long days at our
needles, but no one ever complained of her
eyes or had recourse to glasses" she said.
I'm this respect it seems to be much less
trying than many things Americans already
do
Among the beautiful specimens of her
handwork which Miss Daily shows are
collar and cuffs, in Italian point from the
border of the fan which the women of
County Waterford presented to Princess
Beatrice on her marriage, This fan was
made in Cappoquin by the Irish lacemak-
ers. The collar took three weeks to COM
plete. so fine are the seed-lke stitches And
so liberal was the lace education that Miss
DAILY and her associates received that En-
glish rose point, Greek lace in old fifteenth
century patterns and drawn work are in
Guided in her repertoire, together with the
designing of patterns and monographs and
the improvement modification of pat
terms, With the growth of luxury in Amer-
can life rich families are having their crest
or monogram worked in fine laces and APP
piled to napery, bed linen and the orna-
mental linens of the household 1t is just
such refined and original work as this that
the revival of lacemakng in Ireland has
fitted the workers to do.
Farewell, Thou Lob! --.-e-
From the New York Sun.