The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-08-06
BY MRS. G. o. ROBINSON
Times Hobby Editor

AOh14NG IIAG SGdL 1OOO, OdA Oh
- Firth a very small girl liv-
ing in Hornbury, West Riding,
Yorkshire, England sat at her
sewing frame and stitched a sam
pier which today is preserved with
loving care by her great-grandSon,
Walter H. Green of this city.
Salhes sampler is worked upon
a piece of handWoven linen APP
proXimately nine inches square
and the design is the usual one
of croSs-stitched letters and num-
erals interspersed with hearts and
brackets of flowers.
OF course, Sallie included a re-
ligious verse in her sampler de-
sign, and being a discriminating
child she chose one of age and
distinction which had graced a
very early sampler dated 1894,
Love the Lord and He will be a
tender Father unto thee"
Here Sallie's pudgy little fingers
which had fashioned the letters
so perfectly, were betrayed by her
inability to spell. She omitted the
second e. in thee the only mis-
take in the entire sampler.
At the time that Sallie spent
many long hours placing the
stitches in her sampler with
painstaking care. undoubtedly she
was very young child, since the
work, although tidy and accurate,
obviously displays immaturity, yet
contrary to the usual practice her
age is not given.
Her signature simply reads,
Sarah Firth wrought this 1900"
suspect Sarah. I think that later
in life she ripped out the telltale
numbers and invoked the femi-
nine prerogative of subterfuge re-
garding her age.
Unfortunately Sallie'S sampler
could not be photographed be-
cause her artistic taste tended to-
ward pastel colorings, which have
been softened and mellOwed by
time until they are not sufficient
ly distinct to be reproduced by the
camera.
CARAH FIRTH came to America
~ in 1912 with her husband,
Chris Green, and died in 1859 at
Weston. III. If she could visit her
small feminine descendants today
doubtless she would not be recon-
ciled easily to the fact that SWIM
ming and craftsmanship instead
of sewing and embroidery are
present-day social requisites, yet
unquestionably she would be de-
lighted to find that in spite OF
their strenuous activities her
great-great-great granddaughter
remain perfectly hammered.
4 IDED and encouraged by her
"a husband and inspired by the
gem from Sallie's needle, Mrs.
Green made a collection OF
charming samplers which she
uses as wall decoration to COM
plement the many rare and beau
tiful antiques with which her
home is furnished.
Although lacking the intimate
association which is attached to
the heirloom, each of the other
samplers has an interesting story
including the circumstances of its
acquisition.
Helen Cases sampler, 1850"
f1aunts large cross stitched flow
ers. Ruth Thorn's work, 1890"
was made on coarse brown linen.
Sarah E. Prewitt, st. Magaal-
ems, 1841," created a distinctive
effect by working her design on
bleached linen and by making a
very wide and handsome border
Little Eliza Thinker Of England
made her sampler on very fine
material, called Tiffany, much like
our present day lawn, and her
stitches are so eXquisitely minute
and intricate that if she had not
signed it Eliza Thinker, Dec. /,
1913, aged 10 years" such perfect
needlework never would have
been attributed to a child.
Possibly she was a student in
one of the infant schools Of en-
broidery" which flourished at
that time.
4
A N unusually large sampler,
IA nearly fifteen inches square,
in Mrs. Green's collection, is Of
particular local interest because it
is signed Martha Jane Moore's
sampler, finished July IL, 1910,
aged IL. Martha Jane Moore, In
diana"
Evidently Martha Jane was
loyal Hoosier and also an embryo