The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-07-23
Lace Making In Flanders
BY BELLE kEARNEY.

Eight years ago the census of the
government showed that there were A.
Oh women lace makers in Belgium
Millions of francs are realized from this
industry and, as lace has become more
fashionable than formerly. there has
been an increase of women workers, a
vast addition made to the income re-
sulting from their creations, and lace
schools are being steadily esta blished.
Flanders is the only province in Bel
GUM where lace is made; consequently
IL can be bought more cheapiy in Brus-
sells and Antwerp than anywhere else
in the world. In that portion of Elan
derS which now belongs TO France a
great deal of Valenciennes is made. In
some cases persons have gone from the
Flanders of both countries to other
places to teach the art of lace making.
Thirty years ago there weer a num-
Der OF women lace makers in Antwerp,
but the business did not pay as the
expense of living in the city was so
heavy Now the lace makers reside
only in the villages near Antwerp.
Where Art Is Taught.
The art of making lace is taught in
the converts, where the public schools
are also held, but there are very few
converts in Belgium now where lace
is made The village, or commune,
pays for the instruction. The lace made
by each girl is the property of her
AeNbAACAs anu lG Sells II 10 TIE uEdleIS-
In one room in a convent in the viii
large of Beveren, in Belgian Flanders,
L saw one hundred and thirty girls
working. All had on wooden shoes, eX-
cept those who had slipped them off
to cool their feet. All were poor and
dressed plainly, and many looked dirty.
They ranged in age from 10 to IS. One
nun supervised, and there were two
older women of the village who had
beginners on either side, teaching them
NgaaFgn ~
desk. and upon the cushion holding the
leather pattern was fastened the linen
/ thread, at the ends of which We're Gu
riOuS little wooden bobbins used in
making the lace. The hands of the
girls flew and the lace grew like magic,
the threads in their intricacy neither
breaking nor tangling. Under each
desk there was a wooden foot rest.
After the pupils have progressed to a
certain degree in the art, they go to
old women in the village and learn
from them how to make finer laceS,
I for the secret lies with them and they
fashion the best Nearly all the max
ers of lace of the highest quality are
advanced in life These old women
work in their homes which are small
but clean. They look like brown crOnes
with skin so hard and Wrinkled that
little would apparently be required to
break it. Each wears a small black
or brown lace bonnet which is very
rusty ana ancient Inc women are
usually taciturn, for they are pledged
not to tell about the contracts they
have made, nor about their work. A
fee sometimes has the power of I'M
sealing lips, and we learned that if a
woman worked from early morning
until late in the evening she received
? francs a day, which is equivalent
to 40 cents in American money. From
these little homes and from those old
hard fingers come the exquisite Brus-
sells, Duchess, Flanders, Venetian,
Chantilly, Rose Point and other fine
laces, which delight the souls of wO-
men around the world.
Each Woman Has Speciality.
a woman makes a speciality of a Ger
tain kind of lace and produces that
alone For instance, the person who
makes Duchess knows nothing of the
others. as a worker in a factory will
spend his life in making the sleeve of
a garment or a spoke in a wheel. There
are from seven to fourteen hands be
tween the fingers that create the lace
and the person who wears it; each of
these must have a profit from it. The
woman who makes il gets the least.
They often receive only from to 10
confines an hour, that is, from IL to
, cents, when the dealers are unscrupu-
lOuS and use the sweating system. The
low price for work continues when the
dealer comes between the la-~ makers
ana the merchant. Out II the IranSaC-
ton IS made by the merchant with the
lace makers, the latter get better pay.
However. it all depends upon the char
acter of the Individual For a long
time the production of lace was in the
hands of the nuns with no public su-
pervision; but it was found that the
girls were oVerWOrked and underpaid
so il is now under the control of the
village councils. In Roman Catholic
countries the orphanages are under the
direction of the nuns. These charity
girls in Belgium and in France are
taught lace making and are treated
so cruelty that occasionally there is a
revolt and the public interferes.
Mistreatment of Girls.
In Nancy. France, the girls in the or
phanage were beaten and put under
water Some Of them told of the stu
alton, which led to a full revelation
The bishop himself interfered and the
girls were taken away, While some of
the nuns were punished. In BELGIUM
also. the nuns are sometimes punished
for cruelty to orphans, but such affairs
are usually hushed UP. Under the sys-
tenn of working the children in the or
phanages, the nuns We're enabled to sell
the lace cheaply and make a great deal
OF money. At the age of 80 or 40 the
woman lacemakerS who are kept in the
orphanages. have their eye-sight ruined
When they are no longer useful. they
are turned away The strain on the
eyes of the laCemakerS generally is so
terrible that. in the course of a few
years, many of them become blind. The
laces are made entirely by hand The
very humbleSt of the earth produce the
beautiful gOsSamer-like fabrics: the
poor little girls. the poor old women
Like the minute animals which die that
coral may be made, so the children and
women Of certain parts of Europe lay
down their lives that others may be ar
rayed as queens.
Another industry in Belgium in