Norwich bulletin., 1918-03-12
ART ASSOCIATION
 MEETS AT oLDELEs.
Miss Gertrude Whiting Delivers ln-
 structiss Talk on Lace.

 day night with the Misses Crowen at Oldelm. Previous to the evenings program, a short business session was held, Mrs William Birge, the preSi- dent, presiding Minutes of the Febs ruary meeting were read and the treasurer's report
 Miss Mary Lucas, chairman in charge of the memorial to be given by the association for Miss Kate Morse, reported the progress of the committee.
 Miss Crocker read an interesting letter written by little Simone Jordic, a fl year old girl, daughter of al French artist, whom the association has recently adopted, making tht fourth child for whose welfare they are responsible.
 The evenings program opened with the reading of a knitting poem by
 Miss sCaruthers. entitled A Red Cross Panoply Following this, the audience
 had the great pleasure of listening to two Victrola records as sung by Galli- ct Juliette and the Bell Song, in
 which the beautiful quality of the singers voice was heard to finest ad- vantage.
 These records are the property of Mrs. Oliver l.. Johnson, and avote of thanks was rendered her by the as- sociation for her kindtess in ioaning them.
 Mrs. Birge next introduced the \ speaker of the evening. Miss Gertrude
 Whiting of New York president of the
 Needle and Bebbin club, who gave a
 most interesting and instructive talk | on lace. l Miss Whiting began by stating that I i17ta n l nowadays, such interest should nat uraHy include search into the fasci7 hating history of Flemish lace and l lace making. There is a question about l the origin of Flemish lace, and a most picturesque legend is told of a I little lace maker, Serena of Bruges, for whom the Virgin worked mira cle, so that the little peasant girl was
 able to copy the intricate pattern of a fragile spider web with the beau
 tifri lace, for which she presently be- l came famous.
 l However, as always, there is con troversy, and Italy claims that the invention of lact making belongs to her rather than Belgium; there are J books printed in 1527, 1520 and 15S1
 showing lace patterns, they claim.
 d The Italian Renaissance thread is so fine that it certainly resembles the
 Flemish. It is made in a damp cellol and is so very fragile that it can only ! be seen by feeling, so to speak. The finest thread in the world is made 1T the low countries, which have giveT as much thought and time to making such gcssaner thread as they latei ispent on exploiting their tulip beds.
 The Flemish lace consists of fnel. wrought scrolls, connected by so bridges of thread, which meet. Tn, history of this lace has been one o 7 action and reaction. It lost ground 7 for a while, then France took it ur land the Flemish in turn began worl } with the bobbins again.
 There are four kinds of Belgian lac } 3-t7le flat. corded, ribbed and needle The fiat lace is spidery, fine and ex quisite. During the 17th and 15ti centuries it had a net ground, late : developing into fine Valencinnes. It : necessary to be young if one woul : succeed as a lace maker; after 3 years of age one's eyes are not suf 5 ficiently strong. It took one skille s worker, working 15 hour,sa day for 1 l months, to make one pair of gentle mems cuffs. which sold for four thou : sand pounds, The thread grows i [ value 30 times in the making on ac
 count of the number of bobbins use
 in its manufacture.
 The corded or Mechlin lace has . l fine mesh background; this is calle the queen of laces because backgroun
 l and design were so beautiful and th ] scrolls so charming. Flowers, rose I and carnations are faithfully repro
 l duced. The Lille lace has never bee
 so popular. though artistieally consio = cred it is very fine. This shows a DO l. i of. flowers usually, sometimes dov e l All lace of, this kind has a continuou : ] thread making background and motiv Il In 1437 there was saying to tE : effect that England wins by tf
 sword-Belgium by the loom" Lat y at this time was very expensive ar i. l the people wildly e1travagant 1T n English merchants smuggled lace in n London and. back again. to France : most ingenious fashion.
 ri Bobbin~ lace was made on pillow u The Rohan family passed all the e faces down as family not person 'f heirlooENs, and it is said that u 1T great. Cardinal Rohan wore no cert g monial occasions an aloe of point lat ' lvalued at $50o,o00.
 e3 After a while these sleeves al d 1 crayats went out of fashion, and tn T l was terrific blow to the lace indul c try, but in 1910 someone invented u Is art Of the machine made variety; u IS real lace was used only by the nobil O ty, weddings and festive occasion = That led to revival and originaii 1T in new patterns. The machine ma, > quality is stiff and wiry, while u 'e hand made is very soft and fr4 e woven.
 le Lace making in present Belgium y divided into three factors;s the etern struggle, the dealer, the hidden; IS and the maker, who is at the mert of of both the first two. The fate
 the women who work in the hands
 fthose who buy. The lace markers a livery poorly paid; the women in t c lcountry do not know how to sell the '' work and are ignorant of the prop
 laws made for their protection The ; are two kinds of schools where lit schools and the convent schoo ld There they work from eight to nj ! hours a day, earning maybe one IS two francs. It is child slavery pc 10 sonified and the parents are only. t ie willing to press their little girls irl r. service as early as possible. Stut as workers are better paid. The lure e. the city calls the girls from tn, IT. native towns, leaving the old wom tn 1 to continue the industry at home al The patriotic ladies of Belgium 2 O. trying to keep the lace workers III their looms, so that the original Ils and beauty of the Flemish batter
 may be sustained. One patriot ev 2, sent to Columbia university to ha
 new patterns made for the use of l
 townspeopie.
 10 Miss Whiting urges the women
 America not to buy the machi made lace, but rather to wear pls D. hemstitched linen if they cannot affe i'd the real article If we are to h, ~ 1 thasa rolfrn ori ifsciratr ReIaii1rn urorr