The Irish standard., 1905-10-07

to be taught how to hold pencil or
| brush, the results Miss Elizabeth
Yeats has succeeded in attaining, after
| a few lessons, are astonishing, and
only serve to illustrate once more the
aptitude and innate cleverness of the
Irish.
In the carrying out of the work ev-
erything used is as far as possible of
Irish manufacture-thew wool Of the ta-
pestry and carpets, the linen of the
embroidery, as we'll as the paper on
which the books are printed, while at
the same time great care is bestowed
in applying the right kind of design
to the right kind of material. In fact,
the visitor to Dun Emer instinctively
feels the truth Of the saying that "A
work of art is bit of nature seen
through temperament" for tempera-
ment is never lacking here, and it is
good to know that many of the girls
taught at Dun Emer will in turn be-
come teachers to others, so that SINH
lar industries and interests will spread
Throughout the country. Already one
of Miss Gleeson's pupils conducts an
industry which was started by the
Congested Districts Board in Kelly,
where the work is confined to the
making Of carpets. Then there are
other industries at Mas and Loeb
Glyn, but these latter probably hardly
can be claimed as an outcome of the
Dun Emer inspiration, for they sprang
into life at much about the same time
fact that the idea of the revival of
the rural village industries is becom-
ing factor in the minds of many of
those social economists who are looking
around for some means of ameliorat-
ing the lot of the poor Irish peasants
in the forlorn country districts and OF
tide of emigration.
considerable amount of interest
from the beginning has been centered
on The Dun Ener printing press, for
to many it came as a new departure,
as indeed it is, that of the revival of
hand printing. Miss Elizabeth Yeats
has every reason to be satisfied with
the result of her experiment, for,
though many books are printed in Ire
land, one has TO go as far back as
the eighteenth century to find the time
when it was really practiced as an
art. The printing room of the Dun
Emer Press is by no means typical
times.
Inside the room the machines, type
cases, rollers, ETC., necessarily occupy
| the greater part Of the space, but the
walls are free to be used for deco
rative purposes. The whole of the sid,
| wall, for example, has a beautiful SYM
| boHcal picture painted by Mr. George
Russell (the poet A. E), where the
coloring is as wonderful as the color
ing of his pictures always is, while
the remaining space displays paintings
by the girls themselves, designs for
fans, book plates, etc. A good eigh-
teenth century font of type is used,
which is neither eccentric in form nor
difficult to read. AS might have been
| anticipated the very first book printed
at Dun Emer was written by w. b.
Yeats. In the Seven Woods" is new
collection of poems, chiefly founded on
those of the Homeric age; this edition
was limited to 325 copies, which were
all long since subscribed for. AS a
! matter of fact, those who were for
tunate enough to secure copies have
since discovered they made very ex-
cellent financial investment, as that
book and the one which followed, "The
Nuts of Knowledge" by A. e. (also
out of prinD, would now cost, if it
were possible to secure copies, several
times their original price. DR.. Douglas
Hyde's already classic Love Songs of
Connacht" has also been very success
full. "The Stories of Red Hanrahan,"
taken from w. B. Yeats Secret Rose"
has just been published. The frontis-
piece in this volume was designed by
Robert Gregory, son of the Lady Greg
ory to whom lovers Of Irish letters owe
SO much, and it represents the four
Cities of Wisdom in Celtic romance,
the cities from which the talismans in
Red Hanrahan' come. In this YER
sion Mr.. Yeats has altered the Ian
guage, making it very simple and more
akin to the existing spoken language
of the country people of Ireland.
1t will be readily understood that
the output of books printed with
hand press must Of necessity be some-
what limited, but other books shortly
to be ready include volume of select
ed poems by the late Lionel Johnson;
a volume of essays by John Eglinton,
the essayist Of the Irish movement,
and other books by Lady Gregory,
George Bernard Shaw and j. M. Synge.
The work produced at Dun Emer
is beginning to be we'll known on both
sides of the Atlantic, for while at
various English and Irish exhibitions
many gold stars and concentrations