The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-10-21
AN IRISH LABOR
Which, If Given the Support it
Deserves,
Will Help the Colleens to Stay
in the Old Home.

October Margaret NJ. Halvey has con
tributed timely and deeply interest
ing article on Irish Lace as Facto
in Ireland's Prospective Prosperity.
AS may be inferred from the title, tn
gifted writer devotes her pages not t
discussion of the technique of lac
making, interesting to the few, but t
a demonstration of the Importance o
the industry, hitherto unrealized, ant
its claims upon the support of thos
who would help the Irish to stay a
home"
At the outset Mrs. Halvey caution!
her readers that much of the informa'
ton from outside sources regarding
the Irish lace revival needs the pro.
verbal grain of salt before being
assimilated:
GAS an instance in point there comes
long ago in the interest of depart
ment store where Irish lace was offered
as one Of the attractions of an open
ing day.
Irish crotchet,' wrote the grand
Eloquent scribe, has the marvellous his
tory of being within one old woman OF
a lost art. For when Lady Aberdeen
began her work among the peasant
girls of Ireland there was but one old,
n hnr hn
stitches. From this old peasant Lady
Aberdeen learned and herself taught
the Irish peasant girls how to make
the exquisite, snowy lace that the
world has been SO mad for ever SINCE
Somebody has said that we must
never be grandiloquent when we would
have truth strike home, so let us
hope that this extraordinary misstate-
ment, surrounded as it was by a Wild
In adjectives, escaped the observation
of the public. No one appreciated its
unintentional humor more than Lady
Aberdeen herself, who, when shown a
copy, remarked that she had grown so
much accustomed to seeing misstate-
ments in print she no longer troubles
to contradict them. Everybody, how
ever, does not share her energetic lady
ships placidity OF temperament, and
many there are whose fingers ache to
displace occasionally the llbelous labels
that nowadays crowd the windows and
counters where coarse cottony fabrics
from thirdrate factories and filmy Or
nate webs from Cannes and st. Gall,
masquerade as genuine Irish laces, or
sometimes, in the jargon of the dry
goods trade, Point Irlandais.'
Point lrlandais,' Inagh! Can our
Irish readers fancy the feelings of the
gray-haired Shanachie whom native
artist has pictured for us at her linen
wheel, were she TO hear this fine sound
Ing name applied to her beloved crosha
work" From girlhood it was her I'M
failing companion while she and the
'neighbor girls kept twilight tryst by
stile and borcen, and in the long win
ter evenings, too, when seated on set
tie and bench in the brown aftered
kitchens, they piled the busy needles
that needed no guiding light but the
fitful glare of 'roarin' turf fire. set
between the big hobs Of home.
A. If your feet have ever trod the
country ways of Ireland, this dear old
figure in the shoulder shawl and frilled
cap is as familiar to you as 1t Is to me,
and you and know equally we'll that
she is by no means the solitary old
woman of the lost art. There are,
thank God, many Of her abroad
through the green length and breadth
Of the old country, and even here in
the new land, where shoulder shawls
and frilled caps do not obtain, her type
is not quite extinct.
"All this Misrepresentation goes to
prove how exceedingly fashionable our
Irish laces have grown, Paris herself,
Paris, the stronghold of fashion and
originality, having initiated system
Of imitation, and imitation has long
been conceded to be the sincerest form
of nattery. At this late day we may
not stay to question a conclusion so
generally accepted, but the fact re-
mains in this particular case imita-
ton means deterioration and cannot be
tolerated, much less encouraged by
those who have at heart the further
ance of Ireland's prosperity.
mot in the spirit of mere CONNER
cialism need the struggle be inaugur-
ated, nor yet entirely in the name OF
sentiment, though were 1t the latter
few could wonder and countless one.
would say, 'Godspeed!'
Irish laces need not fear compari.
son with any; while differently beauti
full, they are equally artistic. Their
is about them certain spontaneit!
and boldness Of design which, like Gel
tic humor and Celtic genius, is charac
teristic of the birthland, and they owl
in most uncommon measure the homel
virtue Of durability so rarely the &C
compartment of beauty. Patronizin
them today we find ourselves in wha
poor Goldsmith called 'high-lived com
pany,' aristocratic enough indeed