Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-26
Mr.. Barton's idea.
GIRL WEAvERs OF sH0TTERY
Industry Gives Employment to the
Blind, Deaf and Dumb.

From the London Mail
In Shottery, scarce a mile from STRAIT
ford-on-Avon wise and clever woman
has made a corner of peace and sun
shine where some Of the weak may slip
out of the ranks that are marching too
fast for their strength-a little space
where the grind of competition does not
enter. nor the jar and clang of the in
dustries of the great world; space
where the crippled and dumb and blind
may develop their powers and quietly
grow, sheltered from the oppression of
the struggle for bread between weak and
strong.
The old cottage, with it's beams dating
back to Saxon times. it's smart new
thatch and lavender-bordered garden. is
the studio where are shown the products
of a factory none of whose workers is
fully equipped for life. yet their powers
have been SO drawn out and developed I'M
der the guidance of Miss Give Bayley,
the foundress of the industry, that they
not only produce work of artistic value
and lay the foundations of future imam
cial independence. but may claim, through
her instruction. to be pioneers IN the re-
vival of British art.
For round the walls of the little cottage
hang sumptuous hand-woven tapestries;
here a proud display of armorial bearings,
there a subject picture of great decorative
ValuC, ana DeyOnO d rug VI CdSlcTu
sign and coloring. On the floor lie strips
and fragments of carpet. made after the
manner of those which the girls OF Ia
briz and Kurdistan have knotted with pa
tient fingers through centuries of labor
to the accompaniment of monotonous
chant and song: on the table lies a fig
ure subject finely woven in silks. beautf-
full in texture and strange color, the work
of the lame girl who met us at the door.
In a neighboring cottage live the weav-
ILL - C114t< oyNd CTR 81 N0A fey
silence of the long room where they bend
over their frames. No laughter. none OF
the light foolish chatter of girlhood rises
above the sound of knots and strings.
Before one large frame four girls are
seated: one is blind, one deaf and dumb,
another crippled and the fourth can
neither write nor spell, though she is OF
full age.
Other girls work singly at smaller
strips and panels. and as We pass one
| looks up with unseeing eyes. one or two
smile as they see us. but can make no
reply to our greeting or questions. In
an adjoining room a girl Of sixteen
| painfully stunted in growth, sits cheer
panel the school will undertake, and we
leave her intent over a branch OF may.
our queens emblem.
And so they work in the sunshine with
the wide green country about them.
| fortunate few of the many infirm who
pass perhaps their whole lives in state IN
stitutions, where necessarily but little
| chance exists of developing what powers
| they may possess. Here at Shottery.,
under the care of the committee which
receives them from the state, they spend
three years learning to draw. to spin.
| to dye their woods and to weave. to study
plant forms for new designs, and if at the
| end Of this time they have become eff
| cient workers they are taken on as weav-
| ers for a regular wage. The lame girl fol
| instance formerly q sufferer from hip
disease and infantile paralysis. has be-
| come a weaver of some note, and is
| actually the most skilled worker in the
! school at present. She has just invested
| in government stocks the second G1OO
| that her own labor has won her.