South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-07-29
War Laces'' Are
Brought to u. S.
Fine Old Pieces Made More
Than a Century Ago Are
Among Them.

The New York Evening Posts Par
ticular Person" has this 10 say of the
..war I.aces." recently brought to the
United states by the commission for
relief in Belgium:
1t might have happened TO you or to
me-that we sat before a white-cur-
tanned window bending over the deli
cate lace pattern held on a pillow
when the soldiery poured in. 1t is just
a happen that we were not Belgian
grandmothers putting the last stitches
in a piece of lace 10 which 10 years
of eyesight had been given when
shrapnel came in the window. Then
when the Belgian women needed
money for food, the market for their
laces disappeared in a night. The
manufacturers who kept an eye on the
progress OF the lace making and made
the arrangements for the sale of the
pieces had Joined in the lighting. What
was war when a table scarf which
had been passed from hand to hand.
here for a lace flower. there for
filling OF fine net, was finished, ready
to be turned into money, dreamed of
with every shuttle of the bobin?
War was just an overwhelming
scourge TO the lace-making women of
Belgium, until the relief commission
started through the lace-making coun-
y
one with the name of the maker,
bringing them 10 Market market
across the ocean in America where
women could still look upon laces
War or no war, a good deal of the
Belgian lace would have come to
America. but would the aristocratic
family OF Brussels have given up the
exquisite old DroOchel wedding veil
which was made for them in 1900 and
H' ed for their weddings for over
century? The center of the veil is
finest net, and the edges and corners
hold a delicate design sparingly ar
ranged TO get the full beauty of con-
trast of flmy net and close lacework.
There is a long story threaded in the
mesh of this veil. One would expect il
TO be properly yellowed with age, but
1t shows just a tinge of creamy tint
You know then that it was not laid
away in state, but honored again and
again as numerous daughters and
granddaughters draped II about them
on their bridal day. Pieces of old lace
less enchanting, less delicately en-
bodying purpose in the design. are
framed in state in public buildings
For the sake of the Belgian daughters,
whose most priced heirloom il is, those
who are representing them hope this
piece will eventually be purchased for
some public exhibition.
You may buy even little wisp of a
handkerchief for 81, with a dainty
Bruges lace edge; or you may pay as
much as 500 for a square of linen
with Mechlin edge as fine as any
cobweb. If you have a magnifying
glass, by all means hold it over the
exquisite Mechlin edge Look sharp.
You may the letters c. r. 3.
worked in some weblike corner in
finest threads This will tell YOU a
story much longer than can be told
now When the American friends be-
gan 10 explain to the distracted lace
makers the plan for aiding them. they
adopted the fashion OF entwining these
letters in the tendrils OF their designs
order not only TO express their graft
tude, but TO identify the particular
pieces as lace marketed by the help
of the commission for relief in Bel
GUM.
To one not expert In such wares
the different kinds of lace which the
Belgian women have sent to America
are bewildering One is shown pieces
of Flandre, Rosaline, MechIin. Nene-
ton Point, DrOOchel, Duchess. Bruges.
Point de Paris. and more familiar
Cluny, TorchOn. and VaIenciennes.
Each piece is marked with the num-