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diff --git a/old/60275-0.txt b/old/60275-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5c55980..0000000 --- a/old/60275-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5241 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bobbins of Belgium, by Charlotte Kellogg - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Bobbins of Belgium - A book of Belgian lace, lace-workers, lace-schools and lace-villages - -Author: Charlotte Kellogg - -Release Date: September 11, 2019 [EBook #60275] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOBBINS OF BELGIUM *** - - - - -Produced by F E H, MWS and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes - - A few words in relation to era/dialect have been retained e.g. tho, - possest, stopt, dropt, slipt, distrest. - - The frontispiece spelling of the Queen of Belgium is Elisabeth, - as shown in the photo with her signature. Throughout the main - text however, it has been spelt Queen Elizabeth. These spellings - have been left as printed. - - In the Appendix, where there are two or more illustrations per page, - the words (Top), (Middle), (Bottom) have been used, to indicate the - link with the text and illustration. - - p.292: changed 4 to _d_ - - Printer errors have silently been corrected. - - - - -BOBBINS OF BELGIUM - - -[Illustration: H.M. QUEEN ELISABETH OF BELGIUM] - - - - - BOBBINS OF BELGIUM - - A BOOK OF BELGIAN LACE, LACE-WORKERS, - LACE-SCHOOLS AND - LACE-VILLAGES - - BY - - CHARLOTTE KELLOGG - _Of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, and Author of - “Women of Belgium”_ - - - FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY - NEW YORK AND LONDON - 1920 - - - COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY - FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY - [Printed in the United States of America] - Published in February, 1920 - - - Copyright Under the Articles of the Copyright Convention - of the Pan-American Republics and the - United States, August 11, 1910. - - - - -DEDICATION - - -To the women of the Brussels war-time lace committee—Madame Allard, -the Vicomtesse de Beughem, Madame Kefer-Mali, and the Comtesse -Elizabeth d’Oultremont, with admiration and gratitude. - - - - -CONTENTS - - -CHAPTER PAGE - Preface 15 - Introduction 25 - I. Turnhout 49 - II. Courtrai 79 - III. Thourout-Thielt-Wynghene 97 - IV. Grammont 127 - V. Bruges 143 - VI. Kerxken 169 - VII. Erembodeghem 189 - VIII. Opbrakel 201 - IX. Liedekerke 215 - X. Herzele 231 - XI. Ghent 247 - XII. Zele 265 - XIII. Appendix 275 - Index 307 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - FACING PAGE - - H.M. QUEEN ELIZABETH OF BELGIUM, _Frontispiece_ - - FIFTEENTH CENTURY PORTRAIT 32 - Showing heavy brocade as yet unrelieved - by linen or lace trimming. - - PORTRAIT OF CHARLES IX (1570) 33 - Linen collar showing picot edge made with - the needle. - - PORTRAIT TOWARDS END OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY 40 - Showing collar ornamented with bobbin-made - cluny. - - ANNE OF AUSTRIA BY VAN DYCK 41 - About 1635, cluny lace made with bobbins. - - ABBÉ BERRALY SCHOOL, TURNHOUT 56 - General view. - - NINE-YEAR CHILDREN MAKING POINT DE PARIS 57 - - POINT DE PARIS CLASS 64 - On dark days lamps are lighted behind bottles - filled with water, the rays passing - through, fall in spotlights on the cushions. - - WINDING BOBBINS FOR THE CHILDREN 65 - - POINT DE LILLE, OR POINT D’HOLLANDE 72 - Mesh showing “Esprits” or dots characteristic - of this bobbin lace. - - END OF A POINT DE PARIS SCARF ABOUT 2½ YARDS - LONG ON WHICH COLETTE WORKED ONE YEAR 73 - - IN THE ABBÉ BERRALY SCHOOL, COLETTE, 16-YEARS - OLD, WORKS WITH 1,000 BOBBINS 73 - - BELGIAN LACE MESHES (Plate I) 80 - After Pierre Verhagen in “La Dentelle - Belge.” - - BELGIAN LACE MESHES (Plate II) 81 - After Pierre Verhagen in “La Dentelle - Belge.” - - BOBBIN LACES 88 - Malines, Point de Paris, Valenciennes. - - CUSHION COVER REPRESENTING BELGIUM’S GRATITUDE - TO AMERICA FOR BREAD 89 - Point de Paris lace combined with linen. - The lower right-hand centerpiece shows the - rose design, emblem of Queen Elizabeth. - - BOBBIN LACES 104 - Torchon, Cluny, Old Flemish, Binche. - - TABLE CLOTH SHOWING ARMS OF THE ALLIES 105 - Cut linen with squares of Venise surrounded - by filet and cluny; Venise made - with the needle; cluny with bobbins. - - A “MARIE ANTOINETTE” IN CHANTILLY LACE 128 - Made with bobbins, near Grammont. - - CUSHION COVER 129 - Center Venise, borders Valenciennes, lace - executed by 12 workers in one month, - embroidery and mounting by four women - in two months; design by M. de Rudder. - - TEA CLOTH 129 - Point de Paris, cock design. - - LACE MAKERS OF BRUGES 144 - - BRUGES AND SIMILAR BOBBIN LACES 145 - - LACE NORMAL SCHOOL, BRUGES. BEGINNER’S - CLASS 152 - Symbolic color pattern on left-hand easel; - demonstration bobbins attached to colored - threads at right. - - BED COVER IN DUCHESSE OR BRUSSELS LACE 153 - Made with bobbins; executed in Flanders by - 30 women in three months; design by the - Lace Committee. - - ROSALINE, WHICH CLOSELY RESEMBLES BRUGES 160 - - DETAILS FOR BRUGES LACE 160 - Made with bobbins on round cushion. - - DOILY SET IN POINT DE PARIS IN THE “ANIMALS - OF THE ALLIES” DESIGN, EXECUTED AT TURNHOUT 161 - - POINT DE FLANDRES OR FLANDERS LACE 176 - Flowers made with bobbins, mesh with needle; - designs by the Lace Committee. - - HANDKERCHIEF IN NEEDLE-POINT 177 - Made near Alost. Both mesh and flowers - made with needle. - - DETAIL SHOWING SEVEN DIFFERENT FILLING-IN - STITCHES 177 - - VENISE DESIGNS BY THE BRUSSELS LACE COMMITTEE 180 - - HANDKERCHIEF AND JEWEL BOXES; FLANDERS AND - VENISE OVER SATIN AND VELVET 181 - - VENISE BANQUET CLOTH PRESENTED BY THE LACE - COMMITTEE TO H.M. QUEEN ELIZABETH ON HER - RETURN FROM EXILE 192–193 - Design by M. de Rudder; executed by 30 - best Venise-makers in Belgium in six months. - - CUSHION COVER IN VENISE 196 - Pekinese dog; design by M. Allard. - - TABLE CENTER IN FLANDERS WITH CENTER AND - BORDER OF VENISE 197 - Design by Lace Committee; executed in West - Flanders by five workers in 15 days. - - “THE TOURNEY” BANQUET CLOTH 208 - Design reproducing a mediæval painting in - Tournai, executed in Venise lace by 10 workers - in one month, mounting and embroidery - by five workers in one month. Price in - Brussels, 1,000 francs. - - “ARMS OF ALLIES” CUSHION COVER IN VENISE, - WITH DETAILS IN FLANDERS 209 - - NEEDLE-POINT SCARF EXPRESSING GRATITUDE OF - BELGIUM TO HOLLAND. PRESENTED TO H.M. - QUEEN WILHELMINA 216–217 - Executed by 30 workers in eight months. - - BOBBIN LACES 224 - Malines; Application, flowers sewn on tulle; - Duchesse, with Needle-Point insertion. - - APPLICATION DETAILS TO BE SEWED ON TULLE 225 - Upper flower shows open spaces left by - bobbin worker for needle worker; lower - flower shows both bobbin and needle work - completed. - - WEDDING GIFT OF MR. HOOVER TO MRS. PAGE 240 - Executed in Venise and Flanders lace by 30 - women working three months. American - eagles with outspread wings, protecting the - Belgian Lion enchained in the four corners. - - FLANDERS—NEEDLE MESH, BOBBIN FLOWERS 240 - - VENISE LACE CENTER, BORDER OF VALENCIENNES 241 - Lace executed in Flanders by 40 women in - two months; embroidery and mounting in - Brussels by four women in three months. - - VALENCIENNES, SQUARE MESH 241 - - FAN IN NEEDLE-POINT 256 - Executed by three women in six weeks. - “Shields of the Allies,” design drawn by - M. Knoff for the Lace Committee. - - EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MARRIAGE VEIL IN NEEDLE-POINT, - BELONGING TO THE COMTESSE ELIZABETH - D’OULTREMONT 257 - It would take 40 workers about a half year - to copy this veil. - - AT WORK ON DETAILS OF A NEEDLE-POINT SCARF - TO BE PRESENTED TO QUEEN ELIZABETH 268 - - NEEDLE LACE CLASS-ROOM IN THE TRADE UNION - LACE SCHOOL AT ZELE 268 - - NEEDLE-POINT ILLUSTRATION FOR THE FABLE OF THE - FOX AND THE GRAPES 269 - - IN THE ZELE LACE SCHOOL. JOINING DETAILS OF - THE NEEDLE-POINT SCARF PRESENTED TO QUEEN - ELIZABETH 269 - - - - -PREFACE - - -I entered the lace-world by the grim door of war. For it was the -war-time work of the women of the Brussels Lace Committee that opened -the way to me. - -Long before the war, Queen Elizabeth in Belgium, like Queen Margharita -in Italy, had sought means to protect the lace worker, through -centuries the victim of an economic injustice, not to say crime, and -to rescue and develop an industry threatened from many sides. In 1911 -she gave her royal encouragement to a group of prominent Belgian women -who organized as “Amies de la Dentelle,” Friends of Lace, and began -a lace-saving campaign by trying to remedy the deplorable condition -of most of the lace schools, the defective teaching, long hours, and -pitiful pay. They could insist in the schools, as they could not -elsewhere, on the right to inspect, to grant or refuse patronage. They -subsidized worthy institutions, and advocated the establishment of a -lace normal school and of a special school of design. Education they -felt to be the main road leading out of the prevailing misery, and they -were making progress along this road, when suddenly the Invader poured -over their borders. - -While other women hurried to open refuges and hospitals and -soup-kitchens, a few of the Friends of Lace remembered first the -lace-makers; and by November 1914, had effected a war emergency -organization, known as the Brussels Lace Committee, with Mrs. Whitlock -as honorary president. Unfortunately most of the lace dealers failed to -cooperate with them, but they won the approval of the powerful Belgian -Comité National, which, with the Commission for Relief in Belgium, -carried on the relief of the occupied territory throughout the war. -And with an initial gift of $25,000 from America to be converted -into lace, they were able to start their work. It soon came to be -directed altogether by four women; The Comtesse Elizabeth d’Oultremont, -Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth; the Vicomtesse de Beughem, an -American; Madame Josse Allard, and Madame Kefer-Mali. At the same time -the aid and protection of workers on filets and other commonly called -“imitation” laces, was assigned by the Comité National to another -group of women, the “Union Patriotique des Femmes Belges.” - -The Brussels Lace Committee employed, as trusted business director of -their offices, M. Collart, generously released to them by the Allard -Bank, and as technical expert, Madame Sharlaecken, before the war with -the Compagnie des Indes, one of the largest lace houses in Belgium; -and as the work developed, an increasing number of designers and aides -necessary to a lace business were added. - -During the first few months the situation seemed utterly hopeless; -thread was impossible to obtain; and even if the thread were -forthcoming, no one could say who would buy the laces they might -encourage the women to make; the Germans were cutting off successive -sections of the lace-making areas where they had established -sub-committees, and were forbidding communication with them. And yet -these four women continued bravely to create the foundations of a great -lace business—for an extraordinary commercial organization grew from -their efforts. - -However, despite all their intelligence and devotion, such a result -would have been impossible but for a hard-won diplomatic victory. -In early 1915 Mr. Hoover forced an international agreement which -permitted the C. R. B. to bring thread for the Lace Committee into -Belgium, and to take out an equivalent weight in lace, to be sold -in the Allied countries for the benefit of the workers. England -required a rigid control of the thread, and that it be given only -to establishments open to inspection by the C. R. B. At one time -these thread shipments were stopt—a period of cruel anxiety for the -women—but happily after a re-adjustment they were continued. And -once these international guaranties were obtained, the Belgian Comité -National was able to arrange for the distribution of the thread to the -various, even remote, lace centers, and for the return of the finished -laces to Brussels. They granted the women a subsidy of $10,000 and -insured to each _dentellière_ the chance to make at least three francs -worth of lace a week—a small minimum, to be sure, but every one -understood it might be increased later, and that if each of the many -thousands of workers was to have an equal opportunity, it could not -in the beginning be more. After this the Lace Committee had at times -as many as 45,000 women on its lists. The work in the schools and out -of them began to bear fruit. The sweating system, and payment in kind -(in clothing and food) were practically wiped out, and inspection and -control established. Everywhere the standard of design and of execution -was raised; old patterns were restored and improved, and by the end of -the war 2,237 new designs had been added. - -But this was not advance through open country. There was constant -danger that at any moment the way might be completely barred; at -any time the guaranties covering the thread importations might be -withdrawn. The Germans early originated a “Lace Control” of their own, -and tried in every possible way to win over the Belgian workers, -and to buy up all the lace in the country. They accused the Brussels -Committee of being a political and patriotic body existing chiefly -to defeat the occupying powers and the Flemish activists. Then there -were other courage-testing difficulties. But despite all obstacles and -perils, the women persisted, and continually the precious skeins of -thread, with their message of “Carry On” were flung out from Brussels -to the farthermost corners of the land, binding all together in a firm -and beautiful web of hope and confidence. For the enemy was right in -suspecting the Committee of a purpose deeper than that of merely trying -to save women from the soup-line; they carried on a patriotic work of -highest importance. To them I owe a personal debt of gratitude, for -they permitted me to follow their devoted service closely, and they -opened the door for me to a new world of beauty and interest. - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -Lace is a tissue composed of mesh and “flowers” (pattern), or either -one alone, produced with a needle and single thread, or with several -threads manipulated by means of bobbins. It is the product of a natural -evolution from early embroideries and weaving. - -We possess no contemporaneous history of the origins and development of -the lace art, partly, perhaps, because of the tradition, strong among -the initiated, of hiding its secrets, and of the consequent difficulty -of an outsider to master them, and partly because successive wars and -world cataclysms have interrupted or destroyed its progress. - -We have ample proof, however, that lace in some form existed in remote -antiquity,—in early Egypt, in Persia, in Bysance and Syria, where it -was chiefly made by slaves; the Greeks and Hebrews speak of needle lace -as known throughout all time. It was not, in these oriental countries, -the delicate white mesh that we call lace, which would have been most -unbecoming to dark skin, but included richly colored passementeries -and filets and fringes, woven of gold and silver thread, of dyed wool -and cotton, and of the coarse linen fiber of the Nile Valley. It was -usually of hieratic and symbolic design, and sometimes sown with -gems—all capable of brilliantly enhancing the beauty of the East. -Egyptian ladies of 6,000 years ago trimmed their robes with elaborate -lengths of filet, and covered their dead with it. In the Cinquantenaire -Museum at Brussels there is the photograph of a remarkable little woven -linen bag, similar to one we might carry to-day, which was found in -the tomb of a Priestess of Hathor, bearing the mark of one of the -earlier dynasties. Its mesh is almost identical with that of our modern -Valenciennes, and it was undoubtedly made with bobbins. - -Between ancient and mediæval times, the lace-gap is unbridged by -written record; we must gather what we can from the archeologist -and from the works of the sculptor and painter. Occasionally we are -thrilled by such a discovery as that of M. Bixio, who in excavating -at Claterna, an old Roman City near Bologna, came upon a set of bone -bobbins, lying in pairs, as we employ them in lace-making to-day. But -interesting discoveries are rare, and the body of our knowledge of lace -history so far is meager. - -However, we are interested primarily, not in the ancient origins of the -two great lace groups, nor in early passementeries and filets and their -processes, but in the marvelous efflorescence of the lace art of the -Western Europe of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and in its still -lovely expression of to-day. - -In mediæval painting, before the appearance of linen and its use as -trimming, or as lingerie, I know of no picture showing lace. Stuffs -were stiff and heavy, and ornamented with metal, or with gold or -silver thread. As they became more supple, we find, as in the portrait -of Wenceslas of Luxemburg (about 1360) decoration introduced in the -clipped cloth border of the collar and hood. This serrated edge -suggests the first simple Cluny lace patterns that appeared later. Then -we see the first linen showing through the slashed sleeve or above the -corsage,—one of many paintings illustrating this development, is that -of the Duke of Cleves, by Memling (second half of the 15th century). -And shortly afterward the first lace edgings appear, the beginning -of our lace of the middle ages, of its rebirth in Western Europe. The -search for these details of progress in the paintings of European -galleries is a fascinating and rewarding game; a Belgian friend of mine -has spent many years at it. - -The flowering of the lace-art was part of the great Renaissance -(lagging behind, to be sure, the major arts) and now was no longer the -work of slaves, but regarded as an important, independent _métier_, and -happily it usually escaped the despotism of the mediæval corporations. -Italy, probably through her exploitation in the early part of the -15th century of her Greek Colonies, was its first western home, and -Venice, the center for the exquisite needle laces of which our museums -fortunately still preserve specimens. While laces made with the needle -and single thread were flourishing under the Doges, bobbin laces, -twisted and braided with many threads, were being made in Sicily and -in other sections of the country. - -From Venice, the secrets of the art traveled easily in several -directions, and probably about the close of the 15th century by way -of the thriving port of Antwerp, to the industrious and beauty-loving -Flanders, where the seed fell on most fertile soil. Flanders possest a -multitude of workers already skilled in an allied art, that of weaving, -and the necessary lace material in her valley of the Lys, the finest -flax region of the world. Valenciennes, Lille, Malines, Ghent, Bruges, -turned to lace-making with a veritable passion; it spread throughout -wide districts of what are now Northern France and Belgium. - -During the 16th and 17th centuries, the lace industry made phenomenal -progress, both extensively and intensively. Holland and England sent -continually larger orders to Flanders. As cloths grew finer and -softer, and the mode of wearing them more graceful, and as daintier -linens were increasingly employed, lace became ever more filmy and -exquisite. A worker spent perhaps a whole year on a single meter of -Valenciennes, one head-dress cost as much as 200,000 livres. Every lace -had its time, its season. During this epoch, needle laces were supreme, -as bobbin laces were to be in the 18th century. - -Under Louis XIV lace reached its climax of perfection and beauty. -Colbert imported lace-women from each center where they had been -conspicuously successful. He encouraged the invention of new designs -and technique; he subsidized schools in many cities, at Reims, Alençon, -Arras, Sedan, and he threatened with the death penalty those who might -attempt to carry lace secrets beyond the French borders,—in every way -he sought to develop an art that should belong peculiarly to France. -Thus directed and subsidized by the state, and nurtured and stimulated -by a beauty-seeking court, whose love of luxury was still controlled -by taste and refinement, it is not surprizing that this lace-period -surpassed any other known. It was true of the Court of Louis XIV as -of that of Louis XIII that a _seigneur_ was known by the number and -quality of his lace points; some of them possest several hundred -garnitures. Unfortunately the workers did not profit by this brilliant -development,—they seem from the beginning predestined to be the -victims of a social and economic slavery. - -But there were already evidences of an attempt to control a demand -for luxury that threatened disaster. With the 16th century, heavy -duties and excess taxes were levied upon lace. An edict, dated -1729, prohibited the wearing of it, in the hope of checking -over-extravagance in dress. - -[Illustration: FIFTEENTH CENTURY PORTRAIT - -Showing heavy brocade as yet unrelieved by linen or lace trimming] - -[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF CHARLES IX (1570) - -Linen collar showing picot edge made with the needle] - -After its _apogée_ under Louis XIV, lace-making was caught, along with -the other arts, in the tide of degeneracy. Its designs were marked -by fantasy and grotesqueness, rather than by the delicacy and beauty -of the preceding period; tho while it deteriorated in design, its -technique grew constantly finer and more complicated, until, from the -point of view of the workmanship at least, it seemed almost superhuman. -But in the second half of the 18th century, wearied of complications -and extravagance, people amused themselves by a return to simplicity. -The Marquise de Pompadour affected laces sown with simple “flowers,” -and Marie Antoinette went further in preferring a pattern of scattered -“points” or peas. With this return to the primitive in design, the -technique of lace reverted also. In many quarters, the sheer muslins -of the Indias gained favor over lace. Trade, already burdened with the -duties and imports that had grown up around the extravagant laces, -suffered further from the sudden popularity of the simple costume. - -The death-blow of the industry in France was to follow close on the -heels of this new fashion. Since lace had been the particular pride -of the aristocrat, the Revolution made it a crime to appear in it. In -such one-time famous centers as Valenciennes and Lille, the bobbins -ceased, tho the industry of that region sought refuge farther west, in -Bailleul,—in Bailleul, dust and ashes to-day! Fortunately in Belgium, -lace-making generally survived the crisis of the Revolution, tho it has -suffered from succeeding disastrous influences. - -At the opening of the 19th century and under the Empire, taste was -heavy, design rigid and military, with nothing in common with true -lace motifs. During the opening years of 1800 the invention of -machine-made tulle, brought from England to Calais, effected further -sad changes in the lace-world; scarfs, veils, entire robes of tulle, -ornamented with applications of needle or bobbin-made details—often -palms and laurel wreaths—were all the mode. People preferred these -to the exquisite lace jabots and flounces of the preceding century. -In 1833 cotton thread began to be used instead of the stronger linen -of the best lace periods. The delicate lace-art continued to suffer -with all the others under the general decadence of the reign of Louis -Philippe and the Second Empire. Industrial and commercial development -was the note of the age; the rich amused themselves in travel, in -new scenes and sports, rather than in fostering the arts. In fact, -during the thirty years following the war of 1870, lace seemed almost -forgotten except in America. The number of workers in Belgium fell -from between 100 and 150,000, to 50,000 or less. - -But before the world was plunged into this last, most destructive of -wars, there had been signs of a renaissance in the decorative arts. -People had begun to read and compare, and refine their taste. The -rulers of Italy and France and Belgium were winning results in their -attempts to rescue, and to revive and develop the lace-art, which -had seemed threatened with extinction. Then came the war—and the -devastation of entire lace regions, like that of Bailleul in France, -and of Ypres in Belgium. It is true that many of the refugee lace-women -have been employed and encouraged during the four years, by certain -committees in France and free Belgium. And in occupied Belgium, the -unceasing efforts of the Brussels Lace Committee have borne rich fruit. -Whether the higher standards of lace design and technique, and the -improved condition of the lace workers—better education, shorter -hours, higher pay—will be maintained under post-war conditions is yet -to be proved. Over this difficult hour of reconstruction, of transfer -from war to what we fondly call normal conditions, we can but hope to -carry the hard-won gains of the testing period. - -In this little book I make no attempt to present a history of lace, -or a detailed analysis of its processes. I have wished merely to set -down in simple form a few of my observations in the lace districts of -Belgium, as the war has left her. To follow them one does not need -even an elementary knowledge of the important lace forms, tho that is -easily acquired. For there are but two large groups; the needle-lace -group, and the bobbin-lace group, between which we learn quickly to -distinguish. We can not prove the time of their respective origins; as -we know them, they seem to have existed side by side, as they do in the -Belgium of to-day. Sometimes one was more popular, sometimes the other. - -To place a piece of lace, we have first but to ask the question, “Was -it made with a needle, and by looping and twisting and weaving a single -thread; or was it made by braiding and twisting and weaving several -threads, by means of bobbins and a round or a square cushion?” - -In general, there is but one technique for all needle laces, tho -there is no limit to the variety of stitches the needle worker may -employ. I have seen a scarf, made during the war for Queen Elizabeth, -in which there were many hundred different points. One comes soon to -recognize the important needle laces; the exquisite French Alençons and -Argentins of earlier days, with their meshes made with a buttonhole -loop, and their flowers stiffened with horsehair; the various -Venetian points,—Venise, Burano, and Rose point; and the extremely -popular Brussels point, with its gauze mesh and raised flowers. It is -characteristic of these needle laces, that the flowers are thrown into -relief, sometimes high, sometimes scarcely perceptible. - -Bobbin laces may be made with a dozen or with one hundred times as many -threads, according to the design and width of the lace. They fall into -two sub-groups, the first including laces made with uncut threads, -in a single piece; the second, those made detail by detail, in which -the threads are cut as each is finished, the completed lace piece -being made by joining these separate parts. This second method was not -introduced until the latter half of the 17th century. - -In the first group, made with uncut threads, are the early Clunys and -the common Torchons, Old Flanders, the beautiful Valenciennes, Point -de Paris, Point de Lille, Malines and Binche, with their delicate -round, or square or hexagonal meshes, from which the pattern blossoms. -Their flowers are flat, never lifted in relief, tho a heavy outlining -thread often sets them off brilliantly from the surrounding field. - -The second bobbin group, in which the final lace piece is composed of -united details, includes black and white Chantilly, Blonde, popular -with Spanish peoples, Brussels Duchesse and Bruges Duchesse, most -frequently displayed in our American shops, and the finer Rosaline, -which was in great demand when the war broke out. This group of bobbin -laces admits a kind of relief. - -[Illustration: PORTRAIT TOWARD CLOSE OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY - -Showing collar ornamented with bobbin-made cluny] - -Some laces combine both needle and bobbin points. In the lovely Point -d’Angleterre, increasingly difficult to obtain, bobbin-made flowers are -united by an airy needle mesh. And the coarser Flanders lace has the -same composition. - -[Illustration: ANNE OF AUSTRIA BY VAN DYCK - -About 1635, cluny lace made with bobbins] - -There are, besides, the familiar and often beautiful Applications, in -which either needle or bobbin-made flowers are stitched, or _appliquéd_ -on machine-made tulle, or, rarely, on a tulle made by hand. And various -mixed laces, fantasies and embroidered tulles, as well as a whole -company of cheaper tissues called lace, but which can not honestly -claim the name, are trying always to crowd the true lace from the -market. - -Naturally, the technique of any given kind of lace has undergone -various transformations through the centuries. The Valenciennes mesh, -for instance, first had round spaces, while square ones became more -popular later. During a certain period the introduction of jours, or -open-work effects, added an airy lightness to many laces. - -I had the pleasure recently of being with a friend of mine, the -sister of the Belgian Consul-General at New York, Madame Kefer-Mali, -who has devoted twenty years to the study of lace, when she first -examined a lace collection lately presented to the Cinquantenaire -Museum. With magnifying glass I followed from case to case, as she -placed each specimen in its country and century, according to its -design, its mesh, the manner of directing the threads, the relief of -the flowers, the various stitches or the kind of thread employed. As -I listened to her, it was easy to appreciate why lace may become an -all-absorbing interest. Madame Kefer-Mali’s love for the lace itself -is now subordinate to her passionate desire to secure justice for the -lace-worker. As she takes a filmy length in her hand, her first thought -is of the talent and patience of the girl or woman who made it, of the -eye-straining, meticulous labor it represents, and of the pittance -still paid her for her gift to the world of art. Madame Kefer-Mali has -already won something for the _dentellière_ and she will continue to -fight for more. - -Tho there are lace sections in widely scattered parts of Belgium, none -(except Turnhout) is so important as those of the two Flanders. Western -and Eastern Flanders form an almost continuous and unrivalled lace -region, which breaks up irregularly into districts, each celebrated -for a particular kind, or for several kinds of lace. However, it would -be impossible to draw an accurate map illustrating the Belgian lace -situation, either from the point of view of the varieties made and -their quality, or of the workers. It seems, indeed, at times that lace -was invented to defeat the statistician, for he no sooner reaches a -conclusion than it proves inexact; a factory rises near a certain river -and the lace women desert their cushions to accept its better wages; -in a village long devoted to Needle Point, young girls discover that -the bobbin-made Clunys pay better, or they marry and make no lace at -all until their children are partly grown; poor crops and resulting -misery may send others who have not for some time been listed as -workers back to their cushions. For, since despite the many schools and -work-rooms, the great majority of women still work at home, lace-making -is peculiarly sensitive to every change in family and community life. -We may say, however, that despite constantly shifting conditions, -Western Flanders forms a great bobbin-lace area, unquestionably the -most important in the world to-day, while Eastern Flanders has been for -centuries and still is, famous for its needle points. - -Unfortunately, too, because of the miserable lace-wage (in Belgium, -before the war, it averaged about a franc a day) this industry has -been regarded always as a supplementary occupation, on which the -family could not rely for its main support, and which was not capable -of organization and amelioration as other industries are. The slavery -conditions have undoubtedly been due chiefly to lack of good schools -and constructive lace training, and to the system by which a _facteur_, -or first buyer, collects the laces, to re-sell them to a _fabricant_, -or dealer, who in turn may sell them to a larger fabricant—a system -permitting any number of intermediaries—and also to the fact that the -women, scattered as they are throughout the agricultural regions, have -never protected themselves by forming syndicates. The first step toward -emancipation has been taken; the new teaching is under way. The fatal -system of the many intermediaries remains to be dealt with—to be swept -away. And it is hoped that feeling the new power education will give -them, the dentellières will at last find ways either through unions or -by other means, of protecting themselves. - -For the rest, fixt data are difficult to obtain. The lace industry can -not be captured and subjected to cold analysis and tabulation. It must -be studied differently from other industries that can be localized. As -in learning to know the garden flowers of a country, one must go from -doorstep to doorstep, so if one wishes to understand lace, one should -become familiar with its _milieu_, the family and community life from -which it springs. In a sense, then, these little journeys to lace -districts which are the subjects of my chapters, may suggest more about -what lace really is than a more technical and formidable volume. - - - - -I - -TURNHOUT - -_Lace Children of the North_ - - -Lace is the flower of Belgium; the white blossom that springs from the -teeming plains of the Flanders, from the agricultural districts, and -from the mournful Campine of the North. During the long and solitary -winters, when work in the fields is impossible, thousands of women -and girls and little children turn to their lace cushions, and dreary -rooms are enlivened by the music of the flying bobbins. If the lace is -Needle Point, and lacks the accompanying click-clack of the shifting -_fuseaux_, it nevertheless gives purpose and value to the otherwise -almost unsupportable winter days. However, despite the time that must -be subtracted for weeding, for gathering the all-important potato -crop, and for other farm duties, summer with its bright light and long -day, is the true lace season; it is only then that some of the finest -varieties can be executed. Coarser pieces must be substituted for the -dull, eye-straining days. - -To be sure, some lace-making is still carried on in certain cities, -but very little. This delicate _métier_ can not successfully combat -the influences of the social and industrial groupings of the larger -centers; the living wage, the shorter hours, the distractions of -cinéma and café. The cities remain the logical centers for the normal -and training-schools, for assembling, and display, and sale; but the -age-old patience of the lace-maker is born of a certain ignorance and -isolation. This does not mean that the industry may not persist still -on the fringes of some of the larger cities, or flourish in nearby -villages—it does; and in three conspicuous instances, until the war, -it remained the dominating activity of a city. Bruges, Ypres, and -Turnhout, could truly be called “lace cities.” Now there are but two; -for Ypres, the pearl of Flanders, is gone. - -Turnhout, a town of 24,000 inhabitants, in the Northern Campine -district, is not only a “lace city,” counting 6,000 workers, but if one -considers its long list of excellent lace-schools, the fine varieties -made there, and the quality of the workmanship, it appears sufficiently -important to challenge the leadership of Bruges. However, Turnhout -stands practically alone in the north, while Bruges is the center -of western Flanders, one of the largest lace contributing areas in -Belgium, and promises, therefore, to hold for a long time her title of -first lace-city. - -It is strange to think of Turnhout as a remote town, since it is -scarcely two hours by motor from Antwerp; but the first glimpse of -the intervening sand wastes of the Campine region awakens at once a -sensation of loneliness, of isolation. I made the journey in late -November, reaching Turnhout about noon of a low gray day, just as -hundreds of golden-haired children—no mists could dull the bright -gold of their hair—were clattering along the stone sidewalks in their -wooden shoes, on their way home from school. As always, I marveled -at the way they could leap and run without losing their sabots. They -were “lace children,” nearly all of them part of the little army of -1,800 in the lace-schools, and because of the intelligent work of the -soup-kitchens and dining-rooms for debilitated children during the four -years of war, were probably, many of them, in better physical condition -than they had been at its beginning. The women of the Brussels Lace -Committee had succeeded, too, in augmenting their food ration from time -to time. Their chief visible need was for stockings and shoes—and -I knew from the teachers later that they sadly lacked underclothes. -Mothers can patch and repatch, and add in various ways to outer -garments; but after a certain number of washings, undergarments simply -disappear. - -I went first to the convent of the Abbé Berraly which, during the -war, encouraged by the advice and support of the Lace Committee, has -developed into the model school of Belgium. It is situated in a crowded -part of the town, but its own fine brick buildings cluster about a -spacious courtyard and vegetable gardens. In summer the children work -much out of doors, tho when they are inside their class-rooms it seems -still impossible for the teachers to break with the tradition of the -closed window. - -I began my visit in a little room at the right of the entrance hall, -where six older girls were still at work, tho the 500 other pupils had -gone for their lunch. Dozens of rubbed carbon copies of lace patterns -were pinned to the walls along with executed samples of the lace they -represented. This was a _piqué_ class-room; the young women seated at -high, narrow tables, were carefully at work on pieces of glossy green -cardboard on which the lace design had been drawn and which they were -pricking with pins, or covering with tiny holes, that indicate the -position of the pins that must hold the thread as it is twisted or -looped or braided, by the worker. The cardboard piqué is in a sense -both the beginning and the end of the lace course; the beginning, since -no pupil can start his lace without the piqué, or interpreted pattern, -and the end, since it is the most difficult of all the processes in the -technique of the lace. The _piqueuse_ must understand the design and -its practical execution, must interpret the picture to the worker in -terms of pin-pricks marking the progress of her thread. A good piqueuse -knows immediately, on looking at a drawing, whether it is a true lace -design, or must be adapted, and also in which kind of lace it can be -best exprest. As she shifts a pin-prick less than a hair’s width to -the left or to the right she varies appreciably the resulting mesh -or flower. She has considerable liberty in deciding which particular -stitches will be most effective to fill in the jours, or open-work -spaces indicated in the pattern. - -One of the great evils of the past has been the absence of -training-schools, and the consequent lack of piqueuses; in each -generation there have been but a few good ones, who have, in a sense, -held the lace industry in their hands. Before the war, Ypres had two -famous piqueuses, to whom patterns were sent from an entire region; -and in the town of Turnhout to-day, with its thousands of workers, tho -there are several less experienced piqueuses, there is but one woman -to whom the finest and most complicated drawings can be entrusted for -interpretation. She is the only person, for example, who could make -the piqué for the beautiful scarf, which I saw later being executed -in the Point de Paris room—for that she received 90 francs. It is a -common saying that one must be born a piqueuse to succeed; at least it -remains true that in addition to her capacity for an intricate and most -meticulous labor, the piqueuse should possess a high sensitiveness to -art values. - -The little room in the Abbé Berraly’s school is one expression of the -Lace Committee’s conviction that the emancipation of the industry and -of the lace-maker will come only through education. - -[Illustration: ABBÉ BERRALY SCHOOL, TURNHOUT - -General view] - -[Illustration: NINE-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN MAKING POINT DE PARIS] - -In general the women of the past have sat dumbly before their cushions, -helpless to do anything but continue to execute, year after year, -the particular cardboard pattern the facteur, or lace agent, placed -before them. They had little or no conception of the rich art world -of which their flowered flounces were a part, and no feeling at all -of their power to influence that world by interpreting a design for -themselves, or by correcting or improving it, or even perhaps by -creating a new one. Not that all workers should become designers, or -even piqueuses—progress depends, as it does in other industries, on -specialization; but at least trained workers will enjoy the freedom -to choose and the feeling of independence that comes from a thorough -knowledge of their _métier_. - -In this room then was a class of specialists, six smiling, intelligent -young women between 16 and 18 equipping themselves as experts in -interpretation. The designs on which they worked, many of them revivals -of classic ones long forgotten, or beautiful recent creations of -Belgian artists, had been sent up to them from the Committee’s central -room of design in Brussels. Before the war, they would have come from -the particular lace dealer to whose agent their laces were sold. - -Opening from the little pattern room I found the office with its great -oak armoire, where the costly finished laces are stored until the day -they are taken to Brussels, to be combined into beautiful confections -for the salon or bedroom or dining-room, or for personal adornment. -Of course, some are always resold by the meter, but one of the chief -successes of the Lace Committee has been the employment of motifs and -yard laces in the production of cloths and spreads and innumerable -articles of a loveliness hitherto unknown. - -From the office and the little room where the pricked cardboard -patterns are prepared for the cushions, I went further along the hall, -and turned to the left, where at the foot of a staircase were new -wooden benches awaiting the sabots of the returning children. These -benches were new because the Germans, who, here as elsewhere, had -driven the children from their school, had burned their benches, and -not only the benches, but all visible wood—they had torn casements -from the windows and doorways, as well as removing every knob and -fixture. This was disgusting, but more or less understandable. Their -country demanded more cannon, therefore they took brass and copper; -they were cold, so they ripped off the nearest available piece of wood. -But wood and metal failed to satisfy them; upstairs at one end of the -largest room there is a pretty stage arranged for school festivals, -with a painted forest background, and side wing-drops picturing -meadow-lands. These fathers and brothers of German children slashed -and ripped the painted canvas forest and ran their bayonets through -the foreground meadows, with no spur beyond that of the pleasure in -the act; for no inch of the canvas had been taken away—I could have -replaced the whole from the rags. - -It was still only a little past one o’clock, and the children had not -yet returned. I went into the beginners’ room, where large windows -let in all the light there was on this gray day, and saw the long, -even rows of low rush-seated, high-backed chairs, with the school-room -sabots (where the children were fortunate enough to possess this second -pair) hanging from the backs. Before each chair was a round or square -work-cushion and over each cushion a white cloth carefully spread to -protect the precious thread-bearing bobbins beneath. The whole empty, -silent place seemed prepared for a ceremonial or religious rite; and -every snowy cushion a tiny altar awaiting its ministrant. - -At last they were coming back, the younger children clattering in -ahead of the older girls, to deposit their muddy street sabots on the -benches. Such a rush of yellow-haired babies for their chairs—several -of them were no more than seven years old; many were between nine -and ten. Little feet slipt into the clean sabots, white cloths were -carefully lifted and folded, sisters and teachers began their rounds of -inspection and instruction, as tiny hands took their positions over the -heaps of bobbins—one at the left, one at the right—and the cadence -of the clicking wood began. It was impossible for me to follow these -incredible little fingers as they twisted and braided from pin to -pin. I had seen scales so rapidly played that the successive motions -were only a blur, but these shiftings back and forth of the bobbins -were even more bewildering. More strangely moving than the picture of -any great orchestra where gifted fingers wrung melody from a myriad of -strings, was this of the play of hundreds of baby hands over threads -and bobbins, as the flowers blossomed beneath them. It is said that to -become a good lace-maker one must begin, as he would if he expected to -become a distinguished pianist, at latest at the age of seven or eight. - -The greater number of these little girls were making Point de Paris -edgings. They had their pricked patterns pinned near the top of the -square linen-covered cushions and were working the threads vertically -toward them. Since the pins which hold the threads in place must be -constantly moved along as the work proceeds, it is very important -that the cushion should be stuffed with something that the pins can -easily penetrate. These particular cushions were stuffed with wool, -some contain straw, and the linen covering was blue, tho it is often -the natural color. Besides guiding the tiny brass pins (which vary with -the delicacy of the lace) that hold the thread, each child must know -how to manipulate the long brass pins which separate the various groups -of bobbins not in actual use. She learns, too, to roll each finished -section of her lace in blue paper and tuck it carefully away in the -little drawer below the upper part of the cushion; the true lace-maker -prides herself on the snowy whiteness of her lace, which she protects -in every conceivable way. - -While I was moving from one to another, a sister had gathered a group -of seven to ten year olds nearer the stove—a company of Fra Angelico -angels they looked, as I bent over them to watch their little hands. -They placed brass pins in the holes pricked in the pattern to hold the -rather coarse thread, twisted first two threads to the right, then -two to the left, then braided them to form the familiar hexagon of -the Point de Paris mesh. When they reached the pattern, a most simple -conventional one, other bobbins had to be brought into play. They held -the threads always from the top of the cushion vertically toward them, -with the seam edge of the lace to the left and the border to the right. -Even these babies had from 50 to 200 bobbins to keep in mind, rather -long beech-wood bobbins, these for Point de Paris, with the thread -tightly wound at the top, and a considerable pear-shaped bulge at the -end. Each lace is supposed to require a particular bobbin, especially -suited to the weight of thread employed, but workers often use them -indifferently. Some fortunate ones pride themselves on their fine ebony -or ivory sets. Of course, bobbins must be constantly resupplied with -thread, and in a corner of the room I saw a white-haired grandmother -with her _dévidoir_, or spindle, busily winding thread on the bobbins -for the children. She made a beautiful picture there at her wheel with -a dozen little girls with their cushions crowding near her. I asked if -the beginners were able to earn something and found they were making -about 10 and 15 cents a day. - -[Illustration: POINT DE PARIS CLASS - -On dark days lamps are lighted behind bottles filled with water, the -rays passing through fall in spotlights on the cushions] - -[Illustration: WINDING BOBBINS FOR THE CHILDREN] - -In this model school, for all children under sixteen years of age the -lace work alternates with regular lessons, as it should of course, -in every school. Those above that age may give their entire day to -the lace. The hours for girls between nine and thirteen are: from -8 to 11 o’clock, lessons; from 1:30 to 4 o’clock, lessons again; -and from 4 to 6:30 o’clock, lace. This is still a sadly long day -for growing children, but it nevertheless registers a most cheering -improvement over the former cruelty of a far longer day. It has been -the Committee’s hope that such a system as this might be instituted -throughout Belgium, and that from it they might advance to still better -conditions. Children from thirteen to sixteen come at 7:30 o’clock, -make lace till 11:30, and again from 1:30 to 4:45 o’clock. From 5 -until 6:30 o’clock they have regular school lessons—one wonders how -much education can be crowded into one and a half hours at the end of -a day that began at 7:30 o’clock! The girls over sixteen years of age -make lace from 7:30 until 6:30 o’clock. One thing to remember always, -in looking at these distressing figures, is the frequent number of -holidays in Belgium; the children are saved by their numerous _fête_ -days. - -It was not easy to leave the tragic and marvelous primary room; the -fairy-like fingers and the golden heads above the cushions. But I had -to go on to room number one on the ground floor where there was another -Point de Paris class, for girls about twelve years old. In the Abbé -Berraly school the girls must pass through at least three classes in -Point de Paris before they proceed to Point de Lille, to go on from -there to the “spider-web,” or delicate and most difficult Malines. - -The first striking difference between this room and the primary, was -in the number of bobbins piled on the cushions—there were hundreds -now instead of dozens. The cushions were larger, too, and most of them -were round, for many of the pupils were working on collars and doily -and handkerchief edgings. The designs were already complicated, one -of them represented, for instance, the animal symbols of the allied -nations. This class promotes to the advanced class in Point de Paris, -where I found several cushions with over 500 bobbins heaped upon them, -and girls of fourteen and fifteen years shifting that number with a -swiftness not to be followed. - -Since the heavy rain was making seeing difficult, the teachers moved a -number of iron stands (resembling umbrella stands) to various points -in the room, placing on top of each stand, in the middle, a small -kerosene lamp, and, near the edge, a large globular carafe, filled -with water. The light from the lamp passes through the bottle to fall -with concentrated and magnifying effect directly on that spot on the -cushion where the work is in progress. The rack may be turned, the -bottle raised or lowered, and usually four girls profit by the light -from one lamp. It is a picturesque and primitive system, which many -still prefer to the more modern and expensive electricity, because it -is an advantage to have the working spot on the cushion thrown into -high relief, while at the same time the bottle light is softer and less -tiring to the eyes than electricity. These iron stands and lamps were -very practical and satisfactory, but I have often seen, in poor little -rooms, the bottle set on the table on a rough wooden block, with a rude -oil dip in a cup propped up on bits of stick or stone behind it to lift -it to just the proper height; as the work progresses, the position of -course must be altered. - -While the girls were pulling their chairs closer to the bottles I -talked with the teachers about the place of Point de Paris in the -lace world. There is no fine lace, they told me, which is so much in -demand to-day as Point de Paris, for no lace so successfully combines -durability and beauty. It is more used for dainty lingerie than any -other variety. Paris buyers seem never to be able to secure sufficient -Point de Paris, which tho it was christened by that city and was -largely produced there during the 17th century, must now be supplied -by Belgium. Its strength depends on its solid hexagonal mesh, always -the test of lace, which is made with eight cotton threads, usually of -fairly coarse quality. From this substantial mesh may blossom a pattern -of extreme grace and beauty, the closely woven flat parts or toile, -being relieved by open-work spaces, or jours, and the whole design -outlined and thus thrown into a kind of relief by a heavier thread. The -roses of the Queen design, drawn for the Brussels Committee by Mlle. -Brouhon (who has since died), is one of the loveliest of the recent -ones. I saw, the other day, a box scented with lavender and filled with -rolls upon rolls of this rose pattern lace, ready for the day when a -château can be restored, and fine linen sheets and pillow slips with -their Point de Paris edgings can once again be spread on the beds. - -Point de Lille could never be successfully used for either lingerie -or table or bed linen for it is not sufficiently durable. In room 3, -girls from fourteen to sixteen years were beginning to execute this -more difficult lace. Its clear, transparent mesh originated in the city -from which it is named, where in 1788 there were as many as 16,000 -women employed on it. Its fragility results from the fact that but four -threads (instead of the customary eight of Point de Paris and Malines, -and of the mother of them all, Valenciennes) are used in twisting -and braiding the meshes. On its light, clear mesh, the designs are -now often very elegant and free, tho the traditional Point de Lille -edging has a straight border and rather rigid pattern. They are always -outlined by a heavier thread, as are the flowers of the Point de Paris -and Malines, but unlike these other laces, the Point de Lille is -characterized by little _pois_, or peas or dots, scattered through the -mesh. It is sometimes confused with Malines because of the transparency -of its mesh, which, however, is not so delicate as that of Malines, nor -so difficult to make, nor, because of its fewer threads, so solid. - -One of the most popular and more solid varieties of Point de Lille -is better known as Point d’Hollande, because it is chiefly sold to -the well-to-do Dutch peasants for their handsome bonnets. It is wide -and often of sumptuous design, a sole branch or flower frequently -furnishing the entire wing of a bonnet. - -[Illustration: POINT DE LILLE, OR POINT D’HOLLANDE; MESH SHOWING -“ESPRITS” OR DOTS CHARACTERISTIC OF THIS BOBBIN LACE] - -[Illustration: END OF A POINT DE PARIS SCARF ABOUT 2½ YARDS LONG ON -WHICH COLETTE WORKED ONE YEAR] - -In the class-room, I went directly to a dark-haired Josephine, whose -cushion seemed to hold the largest mounds of bobbins—“Yes, there are -over a thousand,” she admitted shyly and smilingly. The directress came -to help her open the little drawer beneath her round cushion, and -to shake from the blue paper a most lovely wide scarf with a charming -flower design. “I began it last January,” she added, “and I hope to -finish it this January of 1919.” One year with a thousand bobbins, and -at best 50 cents a day for her work—which was so much more than she -could have made before the war that she had no thought of complaining! -I wondered if the woman who would throw this filmy flower-sown veil -over her shoulders would care to know about the dark-eyed Josephine and -her year with the 1,000 bobbins. - -[Illustration: IN THE ABBÉ BERRALY SCHOOL, COLETTE, 16 YEARS OLD, WORKS -WITH 1,000 BOBBINS] - -But there is much more beautiful lace than either Point de Paris or -Point de Lille taught in the Turnhout school. The girls pass from -the Lille room to Malines, known in the city of its birth as the -“spider-web of Malines.” Nothing could be more airy and exquisite than -its delicate hexagonal mesh, much more difficult to make than either of -the preceding varieties because it must be worked without the aid of -pins, with only the eye to guide in securing the requisite uniformity -and exactness. No lace demands greater skill or greater patience; since -in addition to the difficulty of working without supporting pins, is -the difficulty of handling the extremely fine thread employed. The -patterns are usually of delicate flowers and leaves, with open-work -stitches introduced to add ever greater lightness to the whole. - -The dentellières in the Malines room work chiefly on insertions and -flounces to be used for handkerchiefs or fichus or dainty blouses, or -perhaps for wedding gowns. The Committee has given them, too, many -orders for inserts for table centers or doilies, so exquisite that one -feels they should be used only under glass. - -Scarcely an important family in Belgium but treasures a bit of old -Malines. Among my rarest pleasures were those I enjoyed, when the -conversation turning upon lace, a friend has said: “But would you care -to see my mother’s Malines, or my great, great-grandmother’s?”—and -she has brought from a brocade box a filmy, ivory-colored collar or -flounce, or a scarf or bonnet, all of a breath-taking loveliness and -delicacy never to be reproduced. I remember, too, a Christmas mass -and the marvelous flounce that fell from beneath the white and gold -chasuble worn by Cardinal Mercier over the scarlet of his robe. - -It is only in Turnhout that any considerable quantity of Malines is yet -made, and despite all the efforts of the Committee and of other lovers -of beautiful lace, there is little hope that it will live much longer. -When the old artists, for so they should be named, die, few young women -are found willing still to sacrifice their years to the spider-web. - -The women of the Lace Committee believe there is no future work more -important than that of improving the 200 and more lace schools of their -country. In the lace normal school at Bruges, in the national school -of design at Brussels, the excellent Needle Point school at Zele, and -in such schools as this one at Turnhout, they see the hope of the lace -art; they urge that the Government increase its subsidies to these and -other deserving institutions. Education and ever better education of -the lace-woman is their watchword. - - - - -II - -COURTRAI - -_Early Home of Valenciennes_ - - -For years I had heard of the blue flax fields of the valley of the Lys, -and of the season between April and September, when along miles of its -course, the river is filled with boxes floating the finest linen fiber -of the world, the flax of Belgium, North France and Holland, which can -be better prepared in its waters than anywhere else. - -Unfortunately I could see it only under a January rain, but Monsieur de -Stoop, a prominent weaver of Courtrai, the town of 36,000 inhabitants -which is the valley center, made the Flanders fields bloom again as he -described to me the successive steps which lead from them to the woven -linen his factory produces—I should say, produced, for the Germans -left his plant, along with seven others, an utter ruin. He was unable -to explain and apparently no analysis has yet determined, just why the -waters of the Lys river surpass all others in their power to rot the -encasing straw and generally to cleanse the flax; but one thing is -clear, they have established Courtrai as a world market for fine raw -linen. Sometimes the stalks need be floated only two or three days, -sometimes it requires very much longer to macerate them, the period -depending chiefly on the weather, and particularly on the temperature. - -[Illustration: BELGIAN LACE MESHES (Plate I) - -After Pierre Verhagen in “La Dentelle Belge” - -All meshes made with bobbins: 1 and 4, Valenciennes, round mesh; 2, -Valenciennes, square mesh; 3, Valenciennes, mesh almost round; 5, -Chantilly; 6, Old Flanders; 7, Point de Paris] - -[Illustration: BELGIAN LACE MESHES (Plate II) - -After Pierre Verhagen in “La Dentelle Belge” - -Meshes, 8 to 12, made with bobbins: 8, Binche; 9, Malines; 10, Point de -Lille, made for France; 11, Point de Lille, destined for Holland; 12, -Gauze Point, made with needle, used in Point d’Angleterre; 13, Brussels -machine-made net; 14, Ordinary machine-made net.] - -After its soaking and cleansing, the linen fiber starts again on its -journey, this time to the various countries where it is to be made into -thread and woven into tissues. Much goes to England and to Ireland, -to such firms as Beth and Cox. From there it returns to Belgium in -the form of linen thread for fine laces, quite a different variety, -of course, from that employed in sewing. Lace thread, both cotton and -linen, may be used for sewing, but never sewing-thread for good lace. -An outsider can scarcely estimate the importance of the quality of the -thread to the lace-maker. Of two skeins bearing the same number, one -may be supple and easily led, while the other is brittle and wayward. -We hear many stories of how women used to spend their lives in damp -cellars, in order to keep their thread moist and soft. I have been told -several times, for instance, that a certain piece of lace had been made -below ground, because only there was its marvelous technique possible. -Whatever the degree of truth or legend in these assertions, it is known -that the rarest laces require certain atmospheric conditions, and are, -above all, dependent on a superior fineness and pliability of the -thread. - -The English and Irish spinneries lead the world; they produce -most of its lace thread. One of them; the Coates firm of Paisley, -has established in Belgium branches in which Belgian capital is -interested,—at Gent are the _filteries_, which prepare thread for -weaving, and at Alost and Ninove are the _filatures_ or spinneries -which turn out the finished sewing and embroidery thread. The cottons -and linens of these mills are too coarse for the delicate laces; -however, during a single war year, the Brussels Committee was happy to -be able to buy from Alost as much as 600,000 francs worth of thread. -By some miracle, the Ghent filteries escaped the practically universal -ruin visited on mills and factories, and should be operating before -peace is signed, but for the spinneries of Alost and Ninove, the future -is still dark. - -During two years the enemy, feeling they might one day run the mills -where they stood, left them intact, tho they requisitioned their -stocks of thread. Then as they saw they might not perhaps be able to -continue their beneficent occupation of Belgium, even if they won the -war, they began to remove the mill machinery to Germany. They were -especially ruthless when the mills were known to be of English or -French ownership. They stole the secrets of the factories and finally -they deported the workmen. These men are scattered everywhere. Even if -the machines of the factories were not completely destroyed it would be -impossible under a considerable time to reassemble the skilled workmen -essential to the spinning industry. The Germans will undoubtedly try -to capture the trade, and to market their goods, if they must, through -such neutral countries as Denmark and Switzerland. - -When I arrived at Courtrai, Monsieur and his family were just moving -back into the house from which they had been ejected. They apologized -for the room they so hospitably offered me, in which the original bed -had been replaced by an iron one they recognized as having belonged to -an English family of Courtrai. The brass trimmings were gone, and the -mattress had of course been removed, but Madame had been able to find -one stuffed with sea-moss for me. The curtains were slashed, blocks of -wood nailed to the once handsome walls, there were no lights, no metal -knobs or fixtures of any kind, no service wires left. Below, the cellar -had been almost filled with concrete to provide the conqueror a safe -refuge during danger periods. It requires a special kind of courage to -take up life again in a place like this, but these good people said: -“We can not complain, we are so much better off than others, and at -least we have saved our health; with that we can be sure of being able -to build again what they have destroyed.” - -From there I went to Baron de Bethune, a connoisseur of laces, who -had before the war opened a lace museum in Courtrai, chiefly for -Valenciennes. I found him ill in a little house in the town; he had -long before been driven from his château in the suburbs. His sister, -who had with great difficulty made her way from Louvain, received me -with apologies in the midst of a heterogeny of boxes and packages, the -few personal possessions they had gathered together in the hope of -some day having a home again. I was not to see the old Valenciennes -and other specimens of the famous lace days of Courtrai; fortunately -for his museum, Monsieur had succeeded in getting them to Brussels -where they were still, to my personal regret, hidden away. However, I -was not surprized, for I had been unable before starting for Flanders -to see the celebrated collection of the Cinquantenaire Museum at -Brussels, for that, too, had been successfully secreted. Museums are -slow in rehanging their treasures. Even tho the presence of the three -neutral Ministers, the Spanish, American and Dutch, in the capital, was -supposed to be a guaranty of protection to the national collections, -and undoubtedly it was only their presence that prevented in Belgium -what happened to the Museums of Northern France, the Belgians with -unwearying ingenuity concealed what they could. Whenever I hear of -hidden laces, I am reminded of a morning at Malines and a sad little -basket containing a fine collection of old Malines lace, I saw exhumed. -It had been buried deep in a box, along with the family silver, and as -the daughter of the mother who had worn it took its once lovely flowers -and webs, now gray and earth-stained, between her fingers, they -powdered to dust. - -Monsieur suggested that I see Mlle. Mullie, a leading dealer of -Courtrai, who still handles a large output of Valenciennes; tho -Courtrai, which was once a brilliant production center, is no longer -of great importance. After the French Revolution, which killed -Valenciennes-making in its original home, it migrated to other parts of -Northern France, and to the two Flanders; to Ypres, where it enjoyed an -especially happy development, to Bruges, Ghent, Dixmude, Furnes, Menin, -Nieuport, Poperinghe and elsewhere. For a long time Ghent led all -these, with over 5,000 workers listed in 1756. But starvation wages and -successful imitations have told against this, as against other laces. -Nevertheless, in the census of 1896, Bruges was still credited with -2,000 Valenciennes workers, and Poperinghe with 500, while there were -scattered groups of considerable importance in a great number of the -villages of Western, and some of Eastern Flanders. - -Courtrai and the nearby villages where the lace is actually made, -still stand, tho many buildings have been destroyed, but while her -people were not forced to become refugees, lace-making was seriously -interrupted; workers were evicted from their homes and their schools. -And they suffered further because there was scarcely any thread left, -the dealers often asking as much as 20 cents for ¾ of a yard of lace -thread, about the previous value of the same length in finished lace. -Under these conditions it was especially easy to see the importance -of the efforts of the Brussels Lace Committee, which furnished thread -at the normal price, and gave more for the lace than was ever offered -before the war. - -[Illustration: BOBBIN LACES - - First column: Malines, Malines, Point de Paris, Point de Paris, - Valenciennes (square mesh) - - Middle column: Point de Paris - - Third column: First three, Valenciennes; fourth, Point de Paris] - -[Illustration: CUSHION COVER REPRESENTING BELGIUM’S GRATITUDE TO -AMERICA FOR BREAD - -Point de Paris lace combined with linen. The lower right-hand -centerpiece shows the rose design, emblem of Queen Elizabeth] - -Unfortunately the German facteurs (agents for lace dealers) worked -cleverly here, too, as in other districts. They had always plenty of -requisitioned thread to offer, and succeeded in buying considerable -lace, for which they offered high and varying prices. - -The younger women of the Courtrai region have been rapidly giving up -Valenciennes to make Cluny, which pays better. A Valenciennes beginner, -for example, must work a year as an apprentice, during which time she -is able to earn scarcely more than five cents a day. The wages of the -good workers have advanced, but unless they can be increased even more, -there are few who will continue to make this difficult lace. - -After 60 years’ experience in lace, and latterly she has employed 1,000 -women, Mlle. Mullie says that one is fortunate, among 5,000 workers, -to find five who can execute a sample from a drawing not already -interpreted or pricked for the worker. Before the war there were two -good piqueuses in Ypres to whom Courtrai sent her difficult patterns, -but only one of these still lives. - -In peace-time the greater part of this Courtrai lace goes to Paris -(some is sent to New York), which is all one needs to say in tribute -to its pattern and its quality. Paris knows lace better than any other -city in the world; she accepts only the best. We were talking of the 60 -per cent. duty the United States Government levies on imported laces, -and the harm it works to the Belgian industry. “That is our greatest -discouragement, but there are other Government stupidities,” Mlle. -Mullie smiled. “France, for instance, charges 10½ francs on a kilo -of Valenciennes, and the same amount on an equal weight of Cluny; the -Valenciennes may be worth several thousand, and the Cluny three or four -francs!” - -The true old Valenciennes mesh, called “Rond,” is still made at -Courtrai, as well as at Bruges; the modern Valenciennes commonly has -a square mesh, which is preferred by many connoisseurs, since it is -more transparent and sets the flowers off more strikingly. “Whether or -not you prefer it to the square, you must see the traditional round -Valenciennes mesh,” Mlle. Mullie said, and we started off in the rain -for a group of tiny brick houses, the Gottshuisen (God’s houses) which -the city furnishes free to certain old people. - -Before we reached the first, I saw two white heads near a window, -bending over cushions; and once inside, on those cushions, lengths of -snowy Valenciennes of the old round mesh, of an admirable regularity -and loveliness. These two women were both over 70 years old, and they -sat before their bobbins, twisting and braiding the eight threads of -the mesh as they had twisted and braided them for over a half century, -and still cheerfully hoping that they might some day win more than 15 -or 20 cents a day for their work. “Now we must have more,” they said -gently, “because thread and oil are so much more expensive than they -were before the war.” - -In the next house, the old woman whose sister was ill could afford no -light at all; when dusk fell she had to leave her bobbin mounds and her -mesh and flowers and go to bed—what else could she do without coal or -oil? - -It was the last day of 1918, and I decided that Mrs. Bayard Henry of -Philadelphia, who had sent me a little money to use as I chose, would -be happy to give to these sweet, faithful women and their thirteen -neighbors, candles and oil as hope symbols for the New Year. I left her -gift with Mlle. Mullie. - -It was already very late, and I had not time to go to Wevelghem and -Gulleghem, two of the most important lace-villages contributing to -Courtrai. Mlle. Mullie was facing the future with courage. “I am sure,” -she said, “that Peat, from whom I have bought thread for forty years, -will not forget me, and that I may be able to count on a shipment -from England at a just price as soon as anything can come through. -That I have been cut off during four years will make no difference. -I shall write, too, to a friend in France, and from Puy I may have a -few skeins. The question of pins and bobbins is serious—they seem to -have disappeared, and one can not start a worker on less than a dozen -bobbins. Those I have thus far succeeded in finding cost 95 centimes -the dozen, as against the 28 centimes of pre-war times. There seem -literally to be no pins. However, despite everything, I, at least, hope -to see my thousand women at some not too distant time again busy over -their cushions. A few have already sought me out to let me know they -are ready, waiting only for the precious thread. I regret infinitely -the passing of the fine ‘Val,’ but we shall continue to produce as -much as we can, and at any rate we shall try unceasingly to raise the -standard of the Clunys and Torchons.” - - - - -III - -THOUROUT-THIELT-WYNGHENE - -_In the Important Bobbin Lace Area_ - - -On a spring-like Saturday in early January, I left Bruges by the -Thourout road for Thielt. As I turned beyond the Porte, I found myself -speeding toward the great arms of one of those Dutch windmills that -so frequently, in the lowlands, close the long vista. The farther I -rode into the Thourout region, the more it seemed the loveliest bit -of Western Flanders I had yet seen. The gentle outlines of the low -red brick farmhouses followed with satisfying harmony the landscape -contours. Farm succeeded farm in swift succession, small farms, where -every square foot of soil was green with sprouting grain or vegetables, -and in the morning sunlight the thickly sown cottages shone like jewels -on the plain. - -Pink and white geraniums blossomed behind many of the quaint windows, -and I knew that near them grandmothers, or mothers, or daughters (or -possibly all three together) were sitting before their cushions, and -from pin to pin were twisting and braiding Cluny and Duchesse, the -characteristic laces of this section. This was an excellent day for -lace-making with its sunshine of summer. - -To the south and east of the badly shelled town of Thourout, I visited -the districts of Iseghem, Thielt and Wynghene, all celebrated for their -guipures. Guipure, a rather vague commercial term covering two widely -different groups of lace, may be loosely defined as bobbin lace without -a mesh base. One group of guipures includes the Clunys (named after -the Cluny museum in Paris because they employ many old Gothic designs) -which are made in one length or piece. They closely resemble the more -common Torchons, surpassing them, however, in fineness and firmness of -execution, and in brilliancy of design—the distinguishing connecting -bars of Cluny often throw the figures into conspicuous relief. While -this one-piece lace is usually made of the coarser threads, fine linen -or cotton, or even silk thread, is also employed. In the second group -of guipures are those made in separate small bits, or details, which -are afterward joined to make the flounce or piece, the most common of -these varieties being Flanders and Duchesse. In the schools of Thielt -and Wynghene all the kinds are taught. Because they are made of coarser -thread and therefore more quickly than such laces as Valenciennes or -Needle Point, are less taxing to the eyes, and pay better, these -guipures have gained ground in almost every lace center in Belgium, and -often threaten the very existence of the finer laces. If it had not -been for the leadership of the “Amies de la Dentelle,” of a few of the -more intelligent and disinterested dealers, and above all of certain -convents to whom Belgium owes the preservation of many of her finest -designs and varieties, it is a question if any but the few remaining -old women, who for forty or fifty years have preferred to follow one -pattern, would still produce the old meshes and points. Much hope now -centers in the corrective influence of the recently founded Normal -School at Bruges and of the other schools of Belgium, but, despite all -the efforts of these combined groups, delicate laces like the Malines -have been fast disappearing. - -The little farmhouse, if one can call two rooms a house, I visited -on the edge of Thielt demonstrated clearly what is happening. It -was Saturday afternoon and the mother of the large family of boys at -play on the neat brick path outside, was scrubbing the tiled floor, -moving the small baskets of potatoes and heaps of tobacco leaves and -sabots and the winter sled from place to place as she proceeded. The -socks to be darned, each already a fantastic patchwork, were piled -on the window-sill, where there was room beside for a geranium and a -fern. The stove and the table were also crowded into this, the general -living-room, which despite all attempts to arrange things, boasted -scarcely one unincumbered foot of floor space. However, over near the -window with its two plants, were the customary chair and the cushion, -and the girl of sixteen, absorbed in her lace, quite oblivious of the -water her mother was splashing about her feet. - -The adjoining room was similarly crowded; it had to serve as bedroom -for this large family. There was the mantel-piece with the familiar -row of bright plates and vases,—the place where the family’s art -sense finds concentrated expression. Fortunately, this room, too, had -a window with other plants, and before it sat the grandmother in her -black cap and shawl, who, as I entered, was just slipping her battered -eye-glasses into the little side drawer beneath her cushion. She -smiled a friendly greeting, and uncovered her lace, a filmy flounce of -Valenciennes about four inches wide, firm and regular, and of a good -old design. She had been making Valenciennes all her life; she would -make it to the end. She was delighted to show me how she twisted four -threads to form one side of the hexagon of the mesh, and four to form -the opposite, and the union points where the eight met. Then she held -up a length of her lace and told us that a facteur (neighborhood buyer -for a large business house) had been there just before we arrived, -to try to buy her flounce at nine francs the _aune_, which would be -roughly, about $2.50 a meter. The committee has been giving her 19 fr. -50 c. ($3.90) for the same amount, and she asked anxiously, tho still -smilingly, if she might not continue to hope for the committee price, -even tho the war had stopt. It is pathetic, day after day, to hear that -question repeated, and not yet to be certain of the answer. However, -one can always reply truthfully, that the women of the “Friends of the -Lace” will work unceasingly not only to hold wages where they are, but -to advance them. - -I turned from this delicate lace to the granddaughter’s cushion—she -was making guipure de Cluny, of coarse linen thread. Marie’s pattern -happened to be a good one and she was working swiftly and evenly, sure -of a fair day’s wage. - -Here, then, was a suggestive contrast, and however one may regret it, -it exists in the large majority of lace-making households in Belgium, -and is only to be expected. It is but the deserved penalty of a past -and present economic blindness or callousness. Where they are not -making Cluny, the younger women of this district give their time to -ordinary varieties of guipure which they call Bruges and Milan, or -Point de Bruges, and Point de Milan. - -[Illustration: BOBBIN LACES - -(1) Torchon (2) Cluny (3) Old Flemish (4) Binche] - -[Illustration: TABLE CLOTH SHOWING ARMS OF THE ALLIES - -Cut linen with squares of Venise surrounded by filet and cluny. Venise -made with the needle, cluny with bobbins] - -While I had been watching the Valenciennes and Cluny, the mother of -the household, who had the mop of fuzzy dark red hair often seen in -this region, had hurried her scrubbing to an end, and wiping her hands -on her blue apron, was ready to uncover her own cushion. I looked -at the chapped, rough skin and the hands used to pulling weeds and -digging potatoes and scrubbing, and realized that they could not -possibly hold a piece of fine sewing—the thread would catch with -every stitch—and yet that she could turn from her scrubbing-brush to -the little wooden bobbins (her fingers need not touch the thread) and -proceed without difficulty on a snowy bit of Valenciennes—for happily -she was following her mother in Valenciennes. - -There are three schools in Thielt, of which the convent schools de la -Charité and de l’Espérance are the more important. I went first to the -Convent de la Charité, with Mlle. van der Graeht, who has throughout -the war been devoted to the workers and the lace. Tho Thielt lay in the -danger zone, she refused to choose a safer city, remaining to share the -work of her father, who added to his arduous duties as administrator -of the _arrondisement_, those of the representative of the Brussels -Lace Committee. Two weeks before the end, however, the Germans drove -these patriots from their house (three bombs from Allied aeroplanes -had already fallen on it) and they were denied the experience they had -been waiting for throughout all the years, that of seeing the Allied -soldiers march into Thielt. One of the Germans was frank enough to -tell them that they were being forced away chiefly to prevent their -“assisting” at that deliverance. - -Immediately after the armistice they returned, and installed themselves -comfortably once more on the first floor of their almost roofless -house. When I arrived they had not yet come in from their first -inspection trip of the communes just behind the lines, and I was -welcomed by pretty, brown-haired Flavia and her six-year-old Albert. -Flavia’s husband had been killed at the front during the first months -of the war, and she had served in this household throughout all its -terrible duration. As I looked from the windows of the drawing-room, -still intact, across the rear garden, to the mass of wreckage that was -once the neighboring house, I understood the feeling of the impotence -of all effort produced by the casualness of these bombs, that spare -here to strike there, and why in the war one inevitably becomes a -fatalist. And as I looked across the garden, Flavia told me something -of her experience with the thirteen Germans who took over the house -when they drove her master out and of how whenever the shelling was -severe they ran to the cellars, and several times tried to persuade her -to go with them but she always refused. “I preferred,” she said, “to -die alone with my little boy in the open, to risking being killed with -them in the cellar.” On Sunday, October 13, between 11 and 2 o’clock, -sixty shells fell on Thielt, and all day Monday and the following days -they continued to fall, until on Saturday the 19th, the French marched -into the town. To add to the horror of this period, people were dying -in large numbers of influenza. Flavia told me of the street-sweeper who -died at the corner with her broom in her hand. By some miracle she and -her little boy escaped both shell and pestilence, and when Monsieur -and his daughter returned they found her scrubbing and restoring as -best she could after the flight of the enemy. This was one of the -centers where during the four terror-years a bright beacon burned for -all the surrounding territory, for it was here that the people of the -villages and the convents could bring their laces for the committee, -knowing they would be accepted and paid for. In 1916, the Baron van -der Graeht was encouraging the work in no less than seventeen communes -and of as many as 3,500 lace-workers. Flavia smiled as she remembered -something—“What good luck, there will be a sister coming this very -day about 2 o’clock, with her laces.” As she said this, the door -opened—father and daughter were back from their pony-cart expedition -to the front-lines. - -Monsieur was still visibly moved by what he had seen, even after his -own four years’ experience. “Madame,” he said, “I can not describe my -emotion on going about in those little shattered villages just behind -the lines, where the women have insisted on remaining, and where day -by day, and year after year, they have sat calmly before their cushions -making lace, while the shells burst before and behind them. After such -a victory as theirs, the lace industry of Belgium must live.” - -Mademoiselle gave me the list of the badly destroyed villages, and -then the names of those which had suffered less and that, with Thielt, -produced the most lace. Among them were Pittham and Ardois (which -specializes in old Bruges); Ruysselede (with an excellent school for -Valenciennes), Aerseele, and Maria Loop. Thielt, itself, had at the -beginning of 1919 about 300 workers, of whom a hundred were in the -school of the convent de l’Espérance, and about 60 in the Convent -de la Charité. There had been times of great discouragement; in one -particularly dark hour in 1917 many of the workers had turned back to -the old facteurs, or village agents, for help, and unfortunately some -of these sold to the Germans, who were constantly trying to win them by -offering large sums for their laces. Since he was under no obligation -to turn over a fixt wage to the workers, the facteur might reap any -profit he could secure. - -We abandoned this unpleasant subject to talk of the schools, the hope -of the future, and after lunch I went with Mlle. to visit one of these, -the Convent de la Charité, on the edge of the town, with its 60 girls, -who have supplied the committee with much old Flanders and Cluny. Even -tho this was a Saturday afternoon in winter, 45 of the 60 chairs were -occupied by girls between 12 and 16. One rarely finds a girl over 18 -in the schools; once she has learned her trade, she prefers to work at -home with the mother and grandmother. - -Unfortunately in this, which is considered a “good” school for -Flanders, I found the longest hours I had yet met, that is, summer -hours. In winter, because of the poor light, they are shorter. It seems -unbelievable, but the sisters told me that in summer the children come -at 5:30 o’clock and work until 8 at night—with only three half-hours -for recreation—one at 8:30 o’clock, one at 12, and one at 4. A day of -13 hours for growing children, and girls who are maturing! It is such -cruel conditions as these that the Committee have done their best to -ameliorate. In this case, tho the hours are still criminal, the wages -have been improved. - -However, “improved wages” leave much still to be fought for. I talked -with a girl of twelve in the front row, an apprentice, and found that -she earns between 40 and 50 centimes a day, or about 10 cents for her -13 hours’ labor, which tho it is almost double what she could have -earned before the war, is nevertheless only 10 cents per day. The -Committee was able to add the war-time subsidy of 20 per cent. to this. -Naturally, the learner can not yet make what is called good lace, and -unfortunately her parents are often only too content to have her bring -home 10 cents a day. The older, more experienced girls, were earning -from one to two francs a day, or from 20 to 40 cents, that is, on a -summer’s day or full day. - -Monsieur told me later that in his region if the wage of the good -worker can be raised to 50 cents per day, she will be able to live, and -will be content to remain at home before her lace cushion rather than -to go to the shoe and cotton factories of Thielt. - -The advanced pupils were eager to uncover their treasure. Nearly all of -them had protected their round cushions with a circular piece of thick -blue glazed paper, with a hole in the middle. Through the hole they -worked with their rather heavy cherry wood bobbins, on the meshless -guipures of Cluny and Bruges and Flanders, which this school prefers. -Several were finishing the collar and cuff sets of rather coarse -but pretty Bruges with its characteristic rose and trefoil, seen so -commonly in shop windows, and which are especially effective when worn -with cotton or linen frocks. The Guipure de Flandres pupils were making -square insets for table and tray-cloths of simple, geometric designs. -Two girls were at work on what they called Guipure de Milan, of a wide -spreading branch and flower pattern. - -However, the most interesting lace was not the guipure but the Point -de Flandres or Old Flanders, with its elaborate mesh base, just now -experiencing an interesting and encouraging revival, in which the -zealous Baron van der Graeht felt Thielt should assist. A half-dozen -older girls were executing doily and table center rounds in this lace, -after the Committee’s very popular Swan pattern. They were using a -fairly coarse linen thread, and working the rich, solid mesh with eight -bobbins. “Whoever would make the Old Flanders mesh must be willing -to play a game of patience,” Madame had once said to me. The dull, -plain woven parts of the pattern are brilliantly outlined by a still -coarser thread, and in the “jours” or open-work spaces are the much -loved snow-balls characteristic of Binche lace. Because of its combined -strength and beauty, there could hardly be a more successful lace for -general use than this Old Flanders, sometimes called Antik. - -While it was once the most generally made and most celebrated of -Flemish bobbin laces (it was known in every part of Flanders in 1500), -it had been almost forgotten for generations, but even tho it has been -little remembered for some time, Old Flanders may be said never to have -died. In certain regions, that of Antwerp for instance, it is found -continuously on the garments of priests. It is the lace that remained -always at the base and from which the other bobbin laces, from time to -time, sprang. It is to be hoped that the Committee’s laudable effort to -revive it will bear increasing rewards. - -Tho they could understand no French, and I knew only a few words -of Flemish, these little and big girls found much amusement in my -visit, and in my inability to follow their swift fingers. These were -fingers accustomed, too, to weed the fields and to dig potatoes, for -there is practically no lace made here during the weeks of August and -September when the potato-crop is gathered. The Sisters of Charity, -teachers in this school, were poor themselves, as their surroundings -testified. They had no fine carved oak armoire for their laces, but -brought from some safe place a tin box, like an ordinary bread-box, in -which were the dainty white packets ready to be sent to the Committee -at Brussels. As they were exhibiting piece after lovely piece, they -unfolded the swan pattern doily rounds of Old Flanders, and after a -moment’s hesitation, Sister A. ventured, “There is one thing you might -do for us, Madame; when you return to Brussels, could you not tell the -Committee that while the small swan doily rounds are sufficiently paid, -this large centerpiece round is not? It is our fault in estimating; we -did not realize how long it would take to make it.” I could not resist -teasing them a little and replied that I should be delighted to carry -the message were it not for the fact that it was precisely this set of -swan doilies (as it was) that the Committee had given me for Christmas. -“Should you like me to tell them,” I asked, “that they had not paid -enough for my present?” They were covered with confusion, as I expected -they would be, and then how they laughed, those frail little sisters. -“_Mais_, Madame, that would indeed be difficult; we will write; we had -forgotten. _Non_, Madame, you certainly could not tell them that! But -we can write letters now whenever we wish—can we not? One loses the -habit in four years.” And then they laughed again all together. - -It was already late when I reached Wynghene. The shell-pitted roads of -western Flanders had made all my traveling difficult and I could not -see Mlle. Slock, one of the rare lace dealers who has looked beyond -her immediate purse and has taken time to revive old models and invent -new ones, seeking in every way to raise the standard of the present -production in all her region, which is chiefly devoted to Cluny. I had -not time to stop in the village, but hurried on beyond it to a cheerful -red brick manor house set in a forest, the home of the Burgomaster of -Wynghene, whose wife has been the untiringly devoted representative of -the Committee for this section. - -As we sat at tea together, near the conservatory windows, where we -could look through the naked garden trees across a meadow to the -forest beyond, the Burgomaster told me of the morning when they stood -at these windows, after the shells had been falling for days all about -them, waiting and watching, scarcely daring to breathe, and of how as -they watched, he saw through the trees of the forest what looked like a -brown shadow, but the brown shadow moved, and then running across the -meadow, where he had always believed they must break through, came the -Belgian soldiers, the soldiers of deliverance. “I know our hearts stopt -beating; we stood choking, incapable of motion, as we watched them -come—still unable to believe after four years of waiting.” - -We were silent for a few minutes, then we began to talk of the lace. -As his wife turned to get the list of her villages, I asked if the -Germans had attempted to get her workers away from her. “They had their -agents here, as everywhere,” she answered, “and I regret to admit that -one of their most successful ones was a Belgian woman, who had been a -facteur, or lace gatherer for larger houses, before the war. When the -Germans offered her large prices, she consented to serve them. If she -had been sacrificing herself for what she believed to be the good of -the workers, we might have forgiven her, but it was obvious that she -was not—she is pretty and likes pretty clothes—_Voilà tout!_ Along -with several other disloyal citizens, she was imprisoned the other day, -but unfortunately after only twenty-four hours, succeeded in freeing -herself. However, the people will never forget that she trafficked with -the enemy.” - -I had known of the German lace organization first through seeing the -huge sign, “_Allgemeine Spitzen Centrale_” (Central lace depot), just -across from our C. R. B. offices. And as soon as I got in touch with -the loyal work of the women of the Belgian Lace Committee, I was -daily hearing of this or that attempt of their oppressors to capture -the designs and the output of the country. They might succeed with -the simpler, more helpless workers, who because of their great misery -may be forgiven for selling to them—and with the deserters and -activists—but they were daily defeated by the Committee patriots. -I was thoroughly interested to hear, now, from one of the patriots, -that the idea of the German “Lace Control” possibly had its birth in -Wynghene. In February, 1915, a certain Freiherr Von Rippenhausen was -stationed at Wynghene. He had with him his young American wife—they -had been married but a short time, and the people of the village were -kind enough to say they believed she was not German by conviction! -However that may be, the Von Rippenhausens requisitioned lodgings in -the house of one of the lace buyers of Wynghene, and in this house -they naturally discovered much regarding the lace situation, the lack -of thread, and the distress of the workers, and of the Belgian system -by which the facteur furnishes the thread to the worker and buys -the finished products, which he in turn sells to a big lace house, -reaping what profit he can as intermediary. Frau von Rippenhausen, -in particular, informed herself thoroughly, and together she and -her husband, it is said, organized the German “Lace Control,” with -headquarters at Brussels. - -Since the Germans had requisitioned all the thread they could lay -their hands on, of which there were enormous stocks in Belgium, it was -not difficult for them to offer it to the workers. They sent German -soldier facteurs into every corner of the country to offer large prices -to native facteurs or to individual workers. On receiving a piece of -lace, they supplied an equal weight of thread to the workers, thus -establishing a continuing chain of material and product. And they -claimed to be selling their lace in America! They were clever enough to -profit, in 1917, by the Committee’s apparent inability to go on at that -moment, exercising every pressure they could, and naturally they gained -ground. No one can say yet how much lace they were able to buy, but the -amount of inferior lace was considerable. - -Madame Van der Bruggen’s records show that before 1917 there were in -Wynghene, contributing to the Committee, 400 workers on Cluny and -Duchesse, about 200 on Cluny and Valenciennes in Beernem, 200 on -Valenciennes in Oedelem, and 350 in Oostcamp, all grateful to have the -Committee’s fixt minimum of three francs’ work a week insured to them. -Some of these villages, Beernem and Oostcamp for instance, are usually -included in the Bruges district. - -She praised the Committee’s method of raising the wage by standardizing -the values of certain designs as executed by an average worker; the -poorer workers then gained less, the superior ones, more. “I thought -I realized,” she said, “how cruelly underpaid our women were, but it -was not until I saw their joy when the Committee promised them that at -least they should always have a minimum of ten centimes an hour for -their work, that I really understood. Ten centimes (two cents), just a -postage stamp, for a whole hour’s straining effort; and they were happy -because that was so much more than they had been sure of winning before -the war!” - - - - -IV - -GRAMMONT - -_Belgian Home of Chantilly_ - - -The Committee was discouraging about Grammont. When I told Madame de -Beughem of my plan to go there to see Chantilly lace in the making, -she answered, “But that will be a futile journey; the women have had -practically no black or white silk thread since the war, and the few -who were still working in 1914 will have stopt; that one-time important -branch of the industry has almost ceased to exist.” I decided, however, -to visit the tomb of Chantilly, the lace so closely identified with -Grammont that in Belgium it takes its name from that city, rather than -from its original French home. - -And Grammont itself, a town of 13,000 inhabitants, was well worth the -journey, situated as it is in a lovely region of rolling hills, and -deriving its name from the steep slope (Grand Mont) to which part of -the city clings. The surrounding undulating country is dotted with -quaint, clustered villages, some with thatched, some with tiled roofs, -and only twenty miles away is the charming town of Audenarde—poor -Audenarde, so cruelly wounded by the war! - -I reached Grammont about noon, having lost an hour on the way through -the difficulty of passing camions and artillery and marching companies -of Canadian soldiers. Between Ninove and Grammont, too, were many -squads of German prisoners at work on the ruined road. They were -guarded by the French, but it was a rather lenient surveillance, at any -rate the sullen groups in their trailing gray capes appeared to be -casually tapping the mud with their spades instead of being genuinely -at work. - -[Illustration: A “MARIE ANTOINETTE” IN CHANTILLY LACE, MADE WITH -BOBBINS, NEAR GRAMMONT] - -[Illustration: CUSHION COVER - -Center Venise, borders Valenciennes, lace executed by 12 workers in one -month, embroidery and mounting by four women in two months, design by -M. de Rudder] - -[Illustration: TEA CLOTH - -Point de Paris, cock design] - -My Belgian chauffeur, whose health is broken after three years of -forced labor in Germany, would have been delighted to run them down, -and at one point did succeed in splashing a group with mud, as he -called “Boches” and something I did not catch. I began to understand -the ruling that released Belgian prisoners shall not be placed over -Germans still held here. - -After lunch I started with Madame Cuseners to the little lace school -whose director has courageously carried on during the four years. We -walked through a narrow arched passageway beside a brick building -and into a large hall at the rear which was at one time the lace -class-room. Instead of lace-workers, however, we found Scotch and -Canadian soldiers busy tacking the Union Jack and Belgian flags on -the wall, and hanging boughs and festoons of colored paper rings—they -were making ready for a “grand” New Year’s Eve dancing party. In -the courtyard still farther back a half-dozen Scotchmen had built a -campfire, protecting it with a low canvas roof, and it was burning -brightly despite the dismal rain. - -It shone on the windows of the long, narrow room at the side of the -court, which looked like a conservatory, but which had become the -refuge of the lace-workers, when because of lack of thread and fuel, -they could no longer occupy their hall. I found fifty sweet-faced girls -between thirteen and fifteen busy over their cushions, a faithful, -tired-looking old Abbé and an enthusiastic young woman teacher. They -were not making black nor the less important white silk Chantilly, for -they had long been entirely without silk thread. Nevertheless, they -were preserving the art of making it, since they had been kept at work -on Chantilly designs executed with bobbins and the white cotton thread -furnished by the Committee. They had some fine flounces, which were -not, however, to be compared with the traditional black silk ones of -the great Chantilly days. - -For Chantilly has seen great days. It appeared first in France -about 1740, where it achieved a phenomenal popularity, which was -unfortunately rudely ended by the Revolution, for since it was a -favorite lace at court, the Revolutionists made it a crime to appear -in Chantilly. Later, under the Empire, it enjoyed a revival, the -fabrication of the silk laces spread in France; Bayeux became a -celebrated center; and, finally, toward 1835, it crossed to Belgium, -where Grammont was early recognized as its home. In 1851 all of the -forty-nine schools of that province taught the technique of this -lace. Then toward 1870 true Chantilly seemed doomed a second time -to extinction by the success of the machine imitations of St. Pierre -des Calais, and also because the vogue for black lace had passed. But -again the pendulum has swung back; the imitations are now greatly in -favor and there is a cheering increase in the demand for the true lace -flounces. - -The Abbé brought out from dusty drawers the school’s stock of designs, -elegant groupings of bouquets and foliage, with occasional striking -geometrical details introduced, all joined by a fine hexagonal mesh, -which resembled at first that of Malines, and later, more closely, the -Point d’ Alençon mesh. The fact that this lace is often used for scarfs -and gowns, and that the customary flounce is of generous width, has -encouraged the development of elaborate patterns. Some of the sketches -were divided by heavy pencil lines into the separate narrow strips -on which the lace-maker actually works. To achieve the wide flounce, -these strips are attached one to another by special workers who employ -a joining stitch that defies detection. The individual pattern strips -include both mesh and flowers and follow irregular lines, curving, it -may be, to include a full-petaled rose. When one examines the fineness -of the clear hexagonal mesh that forms the base of Chantilly, it seems -all the more remarkable that the division lines are not visible. This -Chantilly mesh has differed during various periods and besides there -are always almost as many varieties as there are workers, for one -weaves more closely or more firmly than another. I came soon to realize -how great a difference in effect results from a practically invisible -variation in the thickness of the thread, or in the manner of twisting -or looping it or in the placing of the pins. One of the distinguishing -characteristics of Chantilly is the relief produced by a heavier thread -that outlines the pattern and forms the twigs and veins of the leaves. -In securing a brilliant relief, the French have always succeeded better -than the Belgians. - -These Grammont pupils were also making Blonde, a favorite lace with -the Spanish people, and introduced into Belgium from France at the -same time as Chantilly. Its processes are very similar, tho it is -easily differentiated from its sister by the heavy glossy petals of its -flowers and their conspicuous open-work centers in the Point de Paris -stitch. The name Blonde is derived from the écru silk which was first -employed in its making; now it is made of white or of black silk, and -chiefly in the form of scarfs or mantillas. The girls were making their -war-time Blonde of cotton, the good Peat cotton of Nottingham, brought -in by the C. R. B. for the Lace Committee. It is practically only in -the Grammont and Turnhout regions that Blonde is still made. - -The instructress showed me the little bundles of poor, crooked brass -pins that were all that remained after four years of the occupation, -explaining what harm poor pins can work in a fine mesh like that of -Chantilly. Then she asked if I could not tell them when they might -expect new ones. Alas, these disheartening months of the winter of -1918–1919 when one hope after another has been deferred; so many things -to be done at once, and all depending on the re-establishment of a -system of transportation utterly destroyed. - -I went from the school-room, past the fire in the courtyard, back to -the large hall where the Canadians were still decorating for their -party, and where we wished one another a Happy New Year—brave -Canadian boys well loved by the Belgians—then on to the house of -Madame’s mother, who for a half-century has been a lace _fabricant_, -or dealer, and whose front room served easily as combined salon and -office. Precious laces need very little space; they can be stored in a -handsome carved oak armoire, which is at once a safe and a beautiful -article of furniture. This old lady’s hair was still dark and glossy, -as is so often the case with grandmothers in Europe, and her brown -eyes were bright and keen. She talked of the time when there were more -than twenty dealers employing over 2,000 workers on Chantilly in the -Grammont region, and of the gradual decline of the industry. “Certain -empty houses on the heights above the town tell the story. Long ago the -lace-makers left the valley at the foot of the slope, and seeking the -brighter light on the hill, formed a lace colony there; but they have -come down again, the houses on the hill are deserted. One by one the -skilled old workers have died, and their secrets with them. There is -only one really excellent piqueuse left and she is a baker-woman who -exercises her talent of pricking patterns between baking! And I believe -that instead of the former thousands, we have not more than eight -hundred dentellières to-day. Here, as elsewhere, factories have come, -and the lace has fled. With us it is the cigar and the match that have -banished it, they furnish better wages and our women follow. However, -if we can win a higher pay for the lace, and can but develop the little -school you have just visited, and continue to train our girls, we shall -yet be able to restore Chantilly. Especially,” she added, “if we can -be helped by that fickle Mistress Fashion, who last year smiled again -on the black lace gown. Some of our patterns for robes can be made in -a few weeks, but the truly fine ones take months, even a year to make. -All depends on the design and the number of threads. We have had much -to combat in the success of the marvelous Calais machine imitations of -Chantilly, but true lovers of lace will never be content with them, -however clever they are.” - -She shook out a folded triangular shawl. “There is no lace in the -world more beautiful than this,” she said, as she spread it on the -white tablecloth, the better to display the wealth of its black flower -clusters and long fronds, and then had me squeeze the delicate mesh in -my hand to test its resiliency. I could not but agree with her. Her -daughter brought out an exquisite collar, a tendril and flower pattern, -with long tabs that could be crossed in front and let fall like a sash -behind, a “Marie Antoinette” of most tempting loveliness; then a dainty -parasol and a fan and a few filmy winged butterflies—all pieces made -before the war, before the Germans set a wall of fire between the women -of Grammont and the silk thread (Grenadine d’Alays) which meant their -bread. - -I was glad to have a few hours of sweeping hill country between these -elegant black laces and the Valenciennes I was next to see; for the -moment all white lace seemed negligible. - - - - -V - -BRUGES - -_Queen of Lace Cities_ - - -After a day beside the graves of Nieuport and Dixmude and Ypres, the -first glimpse of the singing towers of Bruges against the evening sky -seems an unearthly vision. During four years no one had known that -Bruges would not perish as her sisters had perished. One must have come -direct from the desolation of Nieuport, to her pignons and bridges, -from the skeleton of Les Halles of Ypres to her Hôtel de Ville, to -estimate her incomparable beauty. Since Ypres is dead, only Bruges and -Turnhout remain as true lace cities of Belgium; Ghent, the elegant -neighbor of Bruges, and herself once a Queen in the lace world, -has turned to her factories and no longer counts. Except Turnhout, -then, with its famous schools for fine laces, no Belgian city to-day -challenges the leadership of Bruges, and beyond Belgium, she has but -one great rival—Venice. - -[Illustration: LACE-MAKERS OF BRUGES] - -This claim to leadership rests on a solid foundation. Bruges is of -ancient lineage in the lace world; she has preserved unbroken, through -at least four centuries, the traditions of that world. There are -those even who believe that mediæval bobbin lace had its origin in -her territory, and they are at least supported by legend. A pretty -story tells of a poor and infirm widow, who with her many children -lived in a little street of Bruges. The entire family depended only -on the work of Serena, the eldest, who from dawn till dark turned her -wheel. She had long been loved by a neighbor, Arnold, the son of a -great merchant, and she did not view him with disfavor. But as winter -and misery settled again on the poor little hut, and Serena saw that -all her efforts appeared vain, she vowed to the Virgin never to marry -unless her family could be rescued from their suffering. Then one day -when near the Minnewater, as she was making sad thoughts, suddenly -she saw a light, and from the Virgin threads descended toward her, -which, skipping the branches, dropt in her lap, where they by chance -designed lovely patterns. Serena understood this to be the response to -her prayer, and she tried at once to reproduce the arabesques in linen -thread. She ended by attaching little woods to them and by aiding them -with pins. And thus to the great emotion of Bruges bobbin-lace was -born. And all the rich seigneurs and bourgeois wished to possess it. -Ease came and Serena married Arnold, and they had many daughters, all -of whom she taught to make lace. - -[Illustration: BRUGES AND SIMILAR BOBBIN LACES - - First column: Bruges - Middle column: Bruges, Bruges, Bruges, Rosaline - Third Column: Rosaline, Old Flanders, Old Flanders, Duchesse] - -The often quoted picture in the Louvre Gallery, painted by Hans Memling -(14—to 1494) and representing the Virgin and the Infant Christ -surrounded by gift-bearers, among whom is a rich Brugeois wearing a -gray costume trimmed with a bobbin-lace edging, certainly indicates -that the industry existed in this epoch, and possibly had its center at -Bruges, then the principal city in Flanders and the seat of the court. -Furthermore, records prove that already at the opening of the 16th -century, lace-making was included as a necessary part of the education -of women. The edicts of Charles V requiring that it should be taught -in all the schools and convents, greatly stimulated its development in -Bruges, as well as throughout the entire Flanders and the provinces -of Hainaut, Brabant and Antwerp. It became so popular an occupation -for women that Charles’s successor, Philip II, required that the -magistrates of Ghent and Bruges restrict the number of lace-workers in -their cities, in order that the rich might find some women left willing -to serve them. Another enlightening document shows that in 1544 Bruges -counted 7,696 poor among her population, and that the department of -public charity required of the young women among them that they should -cease to walk the streets and should learn the lace industry. There -were at that time many lace schools. During the following centuries, -Bruges maintained her position as a lace center and was able to -survive the death-blow the French Revolution dealt the industry. For -we find, about the middle of the 19th century, the city still counted -seventy-nine schools, attended by 2,722 pupils, while in Valenciennes, -for example, lace-making no longer existed. - -There is, then, a rich and ancient past back of the clicking bobbins -of the Bruges of to-day. After four years of German rule it is still -difficult to give accurate statistics, but generally speaking, in this -city of 54,000 inhabitants, as many as 5,000 women and girls make lace -of some sort. If you question the average woman, she will probably look -at you in surprize and say: “How many lace-makers? Why, everybody; -there is hardly a house in Bruges without its cushion and bobbins.” -While if you put the same question to such a celebrated lace dealer -as M. Gillemont de Cock, who counts gold and silver medals from many -nations, he will be very apt to answer: “Madame, before the war I knew -of about thirty, now I can not say!” The Lace Committee at Brussels -considers 5,000 a fair estimate for Bruges and her contributing -villages, which is the number given, too, by Professor Maertens of the -Normal School. - -By the Bruges district is meant chiefly Bruges, quite the contrary of -the usual situation. One hears of the Alost region, for instance, and -finds that while the villages of the surrounding area count thousands -of workers, in the city of Alost itself very few are left. However, -Bruges, too, counts some few outlying villages. Madame Ryeland, -representative during the war of the Brussels Lace Committee, told me -that forty communes contributed to her committee, the most important -being Syssele (where Valenciennes is the favorite lace), Maldeghem -(applications and filet), Saint Andre (Cluny and Valenciennes), -Oostcamp and Lophem (Valenciennes), Saint Croix (Cluny and other -guipures), and Saint Michele (an unusually beautiful Duchesse de -Bruges). - -In Bruges itself there are three important convent lace schools, -working largely for the shops, but which also execute private commands; -the convent school of the Apostolines, typical of those where the -children learn a little Flemish, a little French, much catechism, and -for the rest make the laces of the region from morning till evening; -the school Defoere, and the well-known school Josephine. Each has -between 100 and 200 dentellières, who make the popular Torchons and -Clunys and Valenciennes, and also the more difficult Binche, with its -mesh characterized by the airy “_boules de neige_,” snow-balls. They -make, too, Old Flanders, which has a particularly strong and elaborate -mesh; and of course the Duchesse de Bruges, or Bruges, for which the -city is famous. In addition to the convent schools and a few other -less important laique schools and some work-rooms, one finds in the -Hospices, or free homes for the old, another goodly company working -together. In their picturesque retreats some 200 old women pass their -days making lace, chiefly Valenciennes. - -There remain the individual households; to the common statement that in -each one, some member makes some kind of lace, one might add, at some -time during the year. If the children from these homes do not go to the -schools to learn, they are taught by their mothers and grandmothers. A -favorite Christmas gift to children is a cushion and set of bobbins, -with which they soon learn to produce simple patterns. For example, -Madame Roose, the daughter of the concierge of the Groothuis Museum, -which houses the marvelous Baron Liedts collection of old laces, -accustomed from childhood to see and hear of these laces, became -herself a lace-maker and later a successful dealer and now has five -daughters of her own, all of whom she has herself taught to ply their -bobbins. The Lace Committee told me that during the war the clothing -committee had difficulty in finding young girls and women who could -darn and sew even moderately well; since childhood they had given all -their time to lace-making. Conscious of the danger in this situation, -the Lace Normal School preaches that until she has learned other -necessary things, no young girl should be allowed to spend more than -half a day over her cushion. - -[Illustration: LACE NORMAL SCHOOL, BRUGES, BEGINNER’S CLASS - -Symbolic color pattern on left-hand easel; demonstration bobbins -attached to colored threads at right] - -By far the greater number working at home make Torchon, Cluny and -Valenciennes, tho the Bruges district is celebrated, too, for Rosaline -and Binche and Old Flanders, and above all for the Duchesse de Bruges, -once so named because it was thought worthy to adorn a Duchess. Bruges -lace has always been made entirely with bobbins, in separate flowers, -or details that are united not by mesh, but by little picot-edged cords -or bars. There are many varieties of this familiar lace; between the -coarse, much marketed modern Bruges, with its well-known roses and -trefoils, sometimes scarcely meriting the name of lace, and the Bruges -of the robe presented in 1901 to Queen Elizabeth, then the Princess -Elizabeth, there is a deplorable distance. The individual trefoils -and arabesques and roses of the coarser kinds are made very quickly -on the round cushion, which can be readily turned, and are produced -in great quantities in many of the communes of the Bruges region, -while fortunately in such a village as Saint Michel one can still see -exquisite examples of the finer Bruges in the making. - -[Illustration: BED COVER IN DUCHESSE, OR BRUSSEL’S LACE - -Made with bobbins; executed in Flanders by 30 women in three months; -design by The Lace Committee] - -Rather than be introduced to the lace-making of Bruges by the younger -workers in the schools, or in one of the thousand homes given over to -it, I preferred to go first to the place where probably more strangers, -especially English and Americans, have been initiated into the -mysteries of the cushion and its bobbins than anywhere else in the -world. There have been other famous Béguinages in Belgium—congeries -of houses maintained by private endowment, for women, who, while -they object to taking the vows of the convent, yet wish to live in -a kind of partial retreat from the world and under the protection -of the church—but none lovelier than this one of Bruges, with its -sixteenth century buildings of pure Flemish architecture, grouped -about a wide green court shaded by elm trees. Naturally the Béguinage -has not been a mecca for travelers and artists merely because several -of the gentle old ladies in retreat there made beautiful lace; they -have come in search of its quaint pignons and doorways, its inner -gardens, the bridges that span the surrounding canals where the swans -paddle peacefully. And they have been delighted to find included -in the picture the white-capped women before their lace cushions, -intent (doubtless unconsciously) on perpetuating other beauties, as -old as those of the buildings encircling the court, the designs of -Valenciennes that have been handed down by French and Belgian mothers -to their children through generations. These ladies of the Béguinage -may keep their private fortunes and pay for the privileges of the -retreat. They are supposed, however, to live austerely; their charming -brick houses are white inside—wall-papers (as being too gay) are -forbidden—while the floors are covered with a kind of pretty, rude -rush carpet. They may not go on journeys, and no man outside, except -the clergy, may enter the sacred precincts of the court, the gates -of which are closed at 8 o’clock. Can one imagine an atmosphere more -encouraging to hours spent patiently in lace-making? It is recorded -that in the Béguinage of Ghent, in 1756, there were as many as 5,000 -women engaged in making the Valenciennes for which that city was -famous. But the day of this particular kind of retreat has passed, and -even at Bruges many of the houses are vacant; when the old die, there -are few who wish to take their places. And it is only because those few -who remain preserve the best traditions of the lace that they count -in the lace-world of to-day; the quantity produced is negligible. -Nevertheless, I was delighted that my first knowledge of Bruges lace -should come through the few wide Valenciennes flounces of exquisite -flower and vine pattern and firm and even workmanship that I found -still pinned to the cushions of the Béguinage. - -Curiously enough, in this retreat, pervaded by the sadness that -inevitably reigns where the old order changes, I found the young and -enthusiastic Vicaire, Professor Maertens, assistant director of the -new Lace Normal School of Bruges. He lives with his aunt, who is the -mother director of the Béguinage and called “Madame, la Grande Dame,” -tho she is still Mademoiselle. The Béguinage may in one sense represent -the despair of the lace, since what is happening there is happening -throughout Belgium. But in the person of Professor Maertens of the -Normal School, the Béguinage represents, too, the hope of the lace. -In the plain little room of his charming Gothic house, he explained -with admirable clarity the necessity which led to the founding of -this Normal School by the State in 1911, and the system which it has -developed. He then arranged that I should “assist” at the _réouverture_ -of the school the following morning. There was to be a reopening -because, in common with so many schools of Belgium, the Lace Normal -had been driven from its quarters by the Germans, and tho after their -eviction the teachers had persisted in continuing their classes in a -convent, where their persecutors forced them to receive two Austrian -pupils (from whom, however, they concealed much), they were in the -true sense to begin again on January 7, 1919. That was fully four -weeks after the invader had had to evacuate, for eager as they were to -commence, with their best effort, they had not been able before this -to prepare three school-rooms and a few smaller ones on the ground -floor for use. We are accustomed to the pictures of the territories -desolated by the Germans, but unless one goes from house to house in -the districts supposed to be left unharmed, he can have no conception -of the state in which they were left. However, by Thursday morning the -few rooms on the ground floor had been disinfected and whitewashed, -and the Lace Normal School of Belgium re-opened its doors at 8:30 -o’clock. Poets have described the shining faces of children on their -way to school—but after pupils and teachers have been ground under the -heel of an implacable oppressor for four years there is still another -light in their faces as they reassemble in a free school-room. It was -generous of them to allow me to share their first morning. - -The teachers’ course covers two years. In order to insure careful -individual training the directors prefer to have no more than eight -or ten earnest students in each year’s class; they prefer, too, that -these shall not have been lace-makers before entering, and that they -be between sixteen and thirty years of age. There are, then, two -class-rooms, light and airy, and equipped with blackboards and charts, -and the all-important large demonstration cushion with its gigantesque -bobbins attached to heavy colored wool threads to aid the eye and -brain. Each young woman records the steps of her progress in a series -of copy-books so beautiful in their penmanship and their drawing as to -recall at once the manuscripts of long ago. - -What, then, is the instruction which they receive? Since there had -never been a system of teaching lace-making in Belgium, the directors -of the Normal School were obliged to develop one, and as it exists -to-day, logical, comprehensive, far-seeing, it belongs exclusively to -the School of Bruges. By the defective method employed before, a pupil -was taught to make one kind of lace, then another, and another, but -tho she might become proficient in the execution of thirty kinds, she -might still be incapable of executing a new thirty-first variety if it -were presented to her, because she had not been taught the underlying -principles. - -[Illustration: ROSALINE, WHICH CLOSELY RESEMBLES BRUGES] - -[Illustration: DETAILS FOR BRUGES LACE - -Made with bobbins on round cushion] - -The Bruges directors found, after a long and careful analysis of the -processes employed in all known laces, that they depend on but -between twenty and thirty major operations, and that, in the final -analysis, for the bobbin laces, these reduce themselves always to the -simple question, “Does the thread pass from left to right, or does it -pass from right to left?” - -[Illustration: DOILY SET IN POINT DE PARIS IN THE “ANIMALS OF THE -ALLIES” DESIGN, EXECUTED AT TURNHOUT] - -They chose specific colors, red, purple, green and others, to represent -specific movements of the threads, thus establishing a symbolic color -system of design which enables the pupil to read a blackboard drawing -as he would a written page. And they realized that before the processes -are portrayed by lines on the blackboard, they should be executed with -the gigantesque bobbins and the colored wool cords. - -They then outlined the two years’ work, which they made to include -classes in practical lace-making, in design, in commerce and English, -in the history of lace-making, and religion. Because the two years’ -course was already over-crowded they did not attempt to teach the -needle points, which, according to them, do not demand a system of -instruction in the same sense that the bobbin laces require it. -Besides, they look upon bobbin lace as more uniquely Belgian and as -therefore more necessary to develop. Dr. Rubbens of Zele, farther east, -plans soon to have a needle lace Normal School in operation in that -town. - -In the first year class, a demonstration of the use of the tools, the -winding-wheel, the cushion and bobbins is followed at once by the study -of the Torchons, which tho they are the commonest known laces, yet -in all their varieties employ all the more important lace processes. -The Torchons once thoroughly mastered, the student has traveled a -considerable distance on the lace journey. The study of Torchon is -succeeded by Cluny in all its varieties and Cluny is in turn followed -by a kind of barbaric Russian lace, of baroque design, which is, -like the Torchons and Clunys, made of linen thread, and resembles -them closely in other ways. The finer laces, Valenciennes, Duchesse, -Flanders, and others are taught only after these first three groups -have been mastered. - -Along with the actual lace-making, the students follow courses in -design, where they begin first with simple studies in geometry and -in drawing. They then execute geometric designs and adapt them to -lace-making. From these studies they proceed to drawing from nature, -and to what is more difficult, the adaption of the drawings from nature -to lace designs, for it is one thing to create a beautiful flower and -leaf arabesque, and quite another thing to draw it so that it may be -exprest in thread. - -The important classes in commerce and English and those in history and -religion run parallel with the studies in lace-making and design. - -Of great value to these future teachers of Belgium is the model -practise school across the court from the main rooms, where at four -o’clock each day the poorer children of the neighborhood come to be -taught. Each has her cushion and bobbins and pins and thread furnished -by the Normal, and enjoys all the advantages offered by its excellent -system; while the coming teachers find here the opportunity to perfect -their methods. - -I asked if these teachers could look confidently to finding positions. -Since only the initial class had graduated before the Germans were upon -Belgium and since that class was composed almost entirely of women -sent from the already existing convent schools, who sought to improve -their methods, it is as yet impossible to answer this question. But as -this is the single training-school in Belgium (the Brussels School, -so capably directed by Mme. Paulis, being chiefly a school of design) -there seems to be every reason to hope that once the country has risen -from the chaos into which it has been plunged, the Bruges graduates -will have no difficulty in securing places. Teachers are as yet very -poorly paid, but as regards salaries, too, there is reason to hope. The -ideal plan for a school would seem to be that it should be in charge of -a graduate of the Normal School, while a specialist in design from the -Brussels school should come once a week with her charts and drawings to -give particular instruction in that branch. The vital decision as to -the part lace-making should have in the curriculum of the communal or -free public schools is still in abeyance. - -Since factories have killed the lace industry in every other city in -Belgium except Bruges and Turnhout, people often ask if it can persist -much longer in Bruges. There seems to be good ground to believe it -will. Under the Germans the port of Zeebrugge acquired a momentary -prominence, but with Antwerp so near, there seems little chance that -it will ever become important, or that Bruges herself may look forward -to any large industrial development. Lovely, tranquil city guarding a -beauty of long ago, it is probable that Bruges will maintain her right -to the title “Queen of Lace Cities.” “Yes,” M. Gillemont de Cock would -add, seeing the patterns and quality of the Valenciennes and the modern -Old Flanders and Bruges, and Binche, pinned to her cushions to-day, and -remembering the exquisite delicate webs of a few decades ago, “_Une -Reine, Madame, c’est vrai, mais une Reine bien malade_”—“a Queen, -Madame, it is true, but a very sick Queen.” The Lace Normal and other -schools can help greatly to restore her. - - - - -VI - -KERXKEN - -_Sister Robertine_ - - -On a wet, cheerless day between Christmas and New Year’s, I started -with Madame de Beughem and Madame Allard for the most important lace -district of Eastern Flanders. The Alost region, which in 1896 counted -8,500 workers, is known throughout the lace world for its Needle Point -and Venise. - -We went first to Alost itself, the center of the area, where, however, -modern industries have won their already oft-repeated victory over the -lace. It was in Alost, the 16th of November, 1918, that my car had -scarcely been able to push its way between the two lines of Belgian -soldiers of deliverance holding back the smiling, tearful population, -and where, too, I passed Burgomaster Max free after four years in -prison in Germany, on his way to King Albert at the Army Headquarters -near Ghent. - -A short distance south of Alost we passed Haltaert, from which this -lace section might more justly take its name, since in Haltaert there -is scarcely a household without its needle or bobbin workers. And but -a little farther south lay Kerxken, which even in the rain, looked a -friendly village and where beside fully three-fourths of the windows -women were plying their needles. - -Before the war companies of the men of this region went to France to -work in the harvest, as many as 40,000 migrating annually, because even -before the war, France was short-handed agriculturally and the French -fields offered higher wages than their own. The women and girls helped -those who remained to gather the crops, and in the fall, when the -men came back and the season for working the farms had passed, whole -families turned to lace-making as a means of piecing out the gains of -the summer. Sometimes the men cared for the children or assisted with -the housework so that the women might sit uninterruptedly before their -patterns, and in certain instances they themselves made lace—the -census of 1896 lists 117 men lace-workers in Belgium. In Kerxken we -found that thirty young men who had been silk weavers before the war -had during the occupation been able to make lace—not true lace, but -such imitations as filet, really a form of embroidery. They made, too, -Application, not genuine Application where true lace details, made -either with the bobbin or needle, are sewed upon the tulle base, but -tulle ornamented with machine-made lacets, narrow braids of various -sorts that come to the region from Calais. Lacets usually have a strong -thread along one edge, which can be drawn so that the braid may be more -swiftly fashioned into curving leaves or flowers. These distressing -imitations, which unfortunately pay much better than the true laces, -since they can be made with great speed and find a ready market, are a -constant menace to them. “_Voilà notre ennemie!_” said Madame Allard, -as we looked into a work-room where the table showed little piles of -lacet collars. The only method of fighting this enemy is through higher -wages for the genuine lace. - -We could not see Adele Rulant, once with hardly a peer in Needle Point, -to whom people from far and near had sent their old pieces, even -shreds of their family treasure, for restoration, knowing that almost -certainly her artist’s needle would recapture the lost mesh or flower. -Adele Rulant had died and we realized again how surely one by one the -famous dentellières of the last half of the 19th century are dropping -out. - -We turned down a lane and were soon at the green door of the convent -of the black-robed Franciscaine Sisters, who dismayed, but smiling, -hurried forward to greet us, very fresh looking in their white lined -coiffes and collars. I say dismayed, because through an error they had -expected us the day before and had kept a fire burning for hours, a -supreme expression of hospitality in this bitter, coalless winter; this -was Saturday afternoon, there was no fire, and the lace-workers were at -home scrubbing their tiled floors and doorsteps. But they would light -a fire at once, and send a Sister to the nearest houses to recall at -least a few of the women; they would prepare lunch for us, a plate of -little cakes and a bottle of wine had already been set on the table. -Such an apologetic bustle of welcome was heart-warming on a cheerless -day. Nothing less, I am certain, would have made it possible for me to -drink an entire glass of sour red wine at 10:30 o’clock in the morning. - -I wished particularly to visit the convent because I had known during -the four years of Sœur Robertine’s successive victories over the -Germans. After they refused to let laces pass except through their -hands, which taxed and had frequently stolen from the parcels, time and -again she outwitted them, crossing the forbidden village frontier and -carrying the precious rolls herself to the office of the Committee at -Brussels. - -Beneath the calm of that office there was always tense expectancy; at -any moment anything might happen, even the worst thing. One day after -weeks of being entirely cut off from many of their lace sections, -when the women were more strained and anxious than ever before, the -door opened quietly and Sœur Robertine, of Kerxken, a prohibited -district, stood before them. Fear for her quite overcame their joy at -seeing her; they quickly turned the key and hurried her into a rear -room. “But why have you come? We did not send for you—we should never -have allowed you to take such risks!” - -At first only Sœur Robertine’s twinkling, keen gray eyes answered, -as she slowly threw off her long black cape and from beneath other -garments began unwinding meter upon meter of lovely white lace, till -the billowy lengths covered all the table. “It was very simple—I -had to come. For weeks our thread has been exhausted; the women are -suffering for need of their earnings. I found a way, and I’ll find a -way back, never fear; we’ll all return safely to Kerxken—the thread -and the money and I—even tho we may have to slip in under the very -nose of the Boche!” She was still laughing and still producing lace, -little packets now of square insets and bouquets, when I had to leave. - -It was a delight to meet her again here freely directing her -convent—she who had so bravely held her right to freedom. Her parents -had been shop-keepers and she had brought to the Order a goodly store -of practical knowledge and a general alertness and good sense, which -added to her unselfishness and swift sympathy and ever-ready laugh, -easily explained the admiration and affection generally felt for her. - -[Illustration: POINT DE FLANDRES, OR FLANDERS LACE - -Flowers made with bobbins, mesh with the needle: designs by The Lace -Committee] - -[Illustration: HANDKERCHIEF IN NEEDLE-POINT - -Made near Alost. Both mesh and flowers made with needle] - -[Illustration: DETAIL SHOWING SEVEN DIFFERENT FILLING-IN STITCHES] - -While we were sitting in the large, cold reception room, waiting for -the workers to reassemble, I asked Sœur Robertine about a painting -over the door—a striking portrait which proved to be that of the Curé -Van Hoeimessen, who, in 1857, founded the convent in an attempt to -relieve the misery of the village. A short time before this, greatly -distrest by the idleness and poverty of his parishioners, he had asked -that a teacher be sent to Kerxken to instruct a few girls in the art -of lace-making, and since there was no building in which to start a -school, he called the class of five or six girls together in his own -house. Then, later, as the experiment succeeded, he invited a group of -sisters to come and founded for them the convent of the Franciscaines, -which from that day has held unswervingly to the traditions of its -foundation in teaching and executing the fine needle laces. There are -at present 15 sisters, and about 150 true lace-workers in their lace -school. In addition, 300 makers of filet and “imitation” are connected -with the convent. - -From the salon we went to the work-room, which looks on a deep -walled-in garden, a treasure-plot for potatoes and cabbage during -the famine years. About a dozen girls and women had dropt their -brushes and brooms and hurried through the rain in their wooden shoes -to take up their patterns and go on with the delicate traceries of -Needle Point and Venise. It was easy to pick out their leader—a -beautiful-faced, white-haired woman wearing a black crochet cap, at -work on a Venise insertion. She was Sidonie, the best piqueuse, or -interpreter of design, in the convent. There were no cushions here, as -in the bobbin-lace classes, and the workers held the small, shining, -black cloth pattern in their hands, following the pricked holes with -their needles; there were fewer of these guiding pin-pricks than in -the bobbin-lace picqués. The patterns for Venise and Needle Point are -usually small because most women object to large details, as difficult -to turn in the hand. Later in a neighboring convent I noticed that the -patterns were considerably larger than those at Kerxken, and Sœur -Robertine, pointing to them said, “I should have to cut those in two -for my girls.” Fortunately a detail can usually easily be separated -and later rejoined. To protect her lace, the worker covers it with -thick blue paper, cutting a hole about the size of a twenty-five-cent -piece through which the needle and thread may move freely. Here it -was not the marvel of the flying fingers, as in the bobbin-rooms at -Turnhout, that most won our admiration, but the skill in directing the -fine threads in complicated designs of incredible delicacy. I chose -to sit beside fifteen-year-old Colette who held the partly finished -section of a handkerchief square beneath her needle. She explained -that it was Point de Gaze, gauze point, a name more recently given -the old Needle or Brussels Point. And the fragile hexagonal mesh she -was weaving between two beautiful full-blown roses, whose raised -petals curved outward from elaborately worked centers, seemed most -appropriately named. Her cotton, for Needle Point is made with cotton -thread, was so fine that I could not, despite her amused reiterations, -believe it did not break with every second stitch. A heavier thread -had been used to make the flat, closely woven portions of the flowers, -and a still heavier one to outline each finished petal or leaf with -the _cordonnet_ (cord) or _brode_, produced by an extremely firm and -regular buttonhole stitch. This cord throws the flowers into very -brilliant relief. - -[Illustration: VENISE DESIGNS BY THE BRUSSELS LACE COMMITTEE] - -Colette had not woven the roses, for because of the difficulty in -making it, workers usually specialize on the various individual parts -composing this extremely popular lace. A second girl had made the -flowers, and a third the exquisite open-work details introduced to -lighten the whole. Considerable freedom is allowed the lace-worker -in the execution of these open-work stitches. If she has talent she -may obtain many interesting original results in filling in, for there -is apparently no limit to the number of stitches she may employ. -In Colette’s little handkerchief square, I discovered miniature -marguerites and stars and airy balls. Each group had been made by a -specialist (many women have spent their lives in making just tiny stars -or wheels), and sent to the convent to be bound together with the -leaves and roses into a beautiful whole by the clear mesh that dropt -hexagon by hexagon from Colette’s swift needle. - -[Illustration: HANDKERCHIEF AND JEWEL BOXES, FLANDERS AND VENISE OVER -SATIN AND VELVET] - -Colette’s neighbor was making the same mesh, but as a background for -bobbin-made clusters, sent here from a bobbin-lace village to make -the rare Point d’Angleterre, a small quantity of which Kerxken still -produces. - -In the corner of this class-room were the shelves with the essential -skeins of thread; cotton for the Needle Point, linen for the Venise. -The linen is more and more difficult to obtain, and since it is hard -to handle and breaks easily, has been largely supplanted by cotton -thread. There were large cardboard boxes for the drawings and the -pricked working patterns; others for the little bobbin-lace roses and -leaves and vines that were to be worked into Brussels Point; and still -more boxes for the finished meters and insets ready to be sold to the -Committee, and later to the dealer who will replace the Committee. -While we were examining the boxes a pretty, dark-haired dentellière -of about sixteen came in, with work she had finished at home, two -handkerchiefs with Brussels Point borders, and two and a half meters of -Venise, on which she had worked five and a half months and for which -she asked 160 francs, or $40.00. - -In the “imitation” room we passed quickly by the lengths of inferior -filet and the piles of cheap collars made by men; there was little -temptation to linger there. The only defense against that room is more -pay for the work across the hall. - -We climbed the stairs shivering and looked into the neat little -bedrooms with their white board floors, and into the icy chapel where -Sœur Robertine declared she could be quite comfortable with only a -small black woolen shawl over her shoulders. - -We had brought our lunch, but were not allowed to eat it. Sister A., -an excellent cook, had prepared hot soup, potatoes and meat, and a -dried apple mousse which we persuaded Sœur Robertine to share with -us. And after lunch, the orphan and refugee children came in to shake -hands, also Janiken, the poor “_idiote_” who is forty-nine years old, -but still a child, with a strange, animal-like expression on her face. -Sœur Robertine held her hand for us to shake, otherwise little -Janiken seemed able to direct her own movements. She smiled and chatted -in Flemish, then waddled off quite happy with the candies and cakes we -had brought. Janiken spends her days making bead collars and bracelets -for the sisters, whom she loves, and when her bead boxes are empty she -places them at the foot of the statue at the end of the narrow corridor -upstairs, and prays the good Saint Anthony to refill them, that she -may weave more necklaces. At night as the sisters pass silently by the -statue, they snap the threads of their former gifts, letting the beads -shower into the boxes, and in the morning Janiken is happy again. - -Sœur Robertine had never ridden in a motor, and when we proposed -that she accompany us to the Franciscaine convent at Erembodeghem, not -very far away, her eyes shone. And I shall not forget the faces of the -others, as after a further bustle of leave-takings and good wishes, -they leaned from the green doorway in the rain, clasping their hands -and laughing and nodding, while we tucked their beloved sister into -our car. Sœur Robertine herself sat silently and ecstatically in a -corner, determined to miss no part of this extraordinary experience. - - - - -VII - -EREMBODEGHEM - -_The Queen’s Cloth_ - - -Erembodeghem is a commune of about 6,000 inhabitants, tho the pretty -winding street by which we entered, with the picturesque, red-tiled -houses clustered irregularly along both sides of it, suggests a smaller -village. Nearly all the women in this town, as in Kerxken, make lace, -and again it is chiefly Needle Point and Venise. The convent, which -furnishes the customary directing and stimulating center, has no -superior in the country for its particular laces, unless one grants -preference to its own mother house at Opbrakel. - -As we entered the courtyard, a group of French soldiers were warming -themselves before a fire they had lighted beneath a dripping canvas -tent-roof stretched across a corner of the wall. In the dreary rain -the fire flaming against the brick wall, and the horizon blue of the -uniforms were a cheery greeting. But inside the convent, alas, there -was less cheer; indeed, there was the chill of the tomb, no coal for -the poor sisters, who were for lack of it unable to conduct the regular -school classes. They told us of their distress over the idleness of -the children, who had been turned into the streets by the Germans many -weeks before, and whom they were not yet able to reassemble. “Their -manners are already so bad,” Sister A. said, “that we are ashamed -to own them as our pupils.” The Germans left the class-rooms in the -familiar condition, and the sisters had no sooner finished patching and -disinfecting, than the Italian soldiers were billeted there. They were -too loyal to criticise but I suspect that their experiences after the -departure of the Italians must have convinced them that, after all, a -new army is just another army. The French followed, but they at least -were occupying only four class-rooms, and the sisters were trying to be -optimistic. “We believe they must be better,” one of them said, with a -smile; “however, we shall not know until they are gone.” - -“At any rate,” she continued, “our lace-room has not been -requisitioned; we have had enough coal to keep a little fire there. -During all the four years that work has never stopt.” Since it was -Saturday afternoon there were many vacant chairs in the class-room, but -still enough girls were present to enable us to judge of the kind of -lace school this is. - -Little girls between nine and ten, sitting up very straight in their -high-backed chairs, were working with swift, steady fingers and -already producing a good Venise insertion of a simple leaf pattern. -Several of the other girls were busy with the now well-known Venetian -Point medallions representing the arms of the Allied nations, and the -provinces of Belgium; still others were executing flower details for -yard lace. All this Venise they were making with a needle and single -linen thread, for this convent works exclusively with linen thread. -They were handling the black cloth patterns, eight to ten inches wide, -with apparent ease, turning them with almost every stitch. This mere -mastery of the pattern is in itself impressive. - -In a corner, near one of the great windows overlooking the walled-in -winter garden, a slim, darkly clad girl about sixteen was absorbed in -pricking a complicated pattern. Sister A. led me a little aside to -explain that this was their feeble-minded girl and that tho they could -not explain it, she was able to interpret correctly very difficult -drawings. - -[Illustration: VENISE BANQUET CLOTH PRESENTED BY THE LACE COMMITTEE TO -H.M. QUEEN ELIZABETH ON HER RETURN FROM EXILE - -Design by M. de Rudder; executed by the 30 best Venise-makers in -Belgium in six months] - -At the Committee Bureau I had seen many of the wonderful cloths made -from Venise details from this convent (among them the cloth typifying -the burning cities, presented to Mrs. Hoover), but I had never imagined -anything so lovely as the exhibit the sisters had been arranging -on the long, low table, while we were passing from chair to chair -following the magic needles.... We turned to find the separate parts -of a banquet cloth to be offered to Queen Elizabeth on her return from -exile, assembled for us. Two hundred and twenty details, there were, -on which during the darkest days of the war, women had worked with -unfaltering faith and love. M. de Rudder, a well-known Belgian artist, -had drawn the design for the Lace Committee. The border, edged with -ivy, the symbol of endurance, is composed of ferns and wild flowers, -eels and sea-weed, suggesting the forests and fields and waters of -Belgium. Adjoining them are the coats of arms of destroyed cities, -bordered by a band of lilies of the valley, signifying the return of -happiness. In the center, the four patron saints of Brussels, Saints -Michel and George, and Saints Elizabeth and Gudule, are enwreathed with -olive branches. Saint Elizabeth, above the Red Cross, represents the -Queen and her devoted service as nurse during the war, while the eight -medallions near her carry the names of the Beatitudes. Opposite Saint -Elizabeth is Saint George, who represents King Albert. Below him is -the Belgian decoration for bravery, and in the surrounding medallions -are woven the names of battles won by him. Between Saint Elizabeth and -Saint George, are the immortal words spoken by His Majesty as he went -from the Chamber, sword in hand, on the 4th of August, 1914: “_J’ai -foi dans nos destinées! Un pays qui se défend s’impose au respect -de tous, ce pays ne périt pas!_” It is one thing to mention a few -of the two hundred and twenty details of this glorious cloth, it is -quite another to hold any one of them in one’s hand and realize its -perfection, its incredible combination of softness and delicacy and -firmness and regularity. The twelve sisters gathered happily about us, -as we sat before the table quite breathless over the discovery of one -new beauty after another in their truly royal gift. - -And then they brought us something much less important, but -nevertheless exquisite, the work of Sister S., which they show rarely, -a length of Rose Point about four inches wide, and which even the women -of the Committee after their long years’ constant experience in lace, -said they had never seen surpassed. The linen thread ordinarily used -in Venise runs from Number 200 to Number 300. This lace, whose base -is formed by an ethereal interlacing of vines and tendrils, is made -with Number 2000. One can work on it scarcely more than two or three -hours a day, and then only under the best light. Sister S. brought -me the magnifying-glass, without which I could not have followed the -exquisitely varied points, and lifted the infinitesimal petals of the -tiny flowers incrusting the background of interwoven tendrils. In some -of these microscopic blooms were as many as four layers of petals. It -would be useless to attempt to describe the loveliness that results -from the blending of the background of vines and lifted blossoms. I -asked what a meter of such lace would bring and learned that it will -probably be sold in Paris for 1,000 francs, tho these sisters would be -happy to guard it as one of their convent treasures. - -[Illustration: CUSHION COVER IN VENISE - -Pekinese dog design, by M. Allard] - -[Illustration: TABLE CENTER IN FLANDERS WITH CENTER AND BORDER OF VENISE - -Design by Lace Committee; executed in West Flanders by five workers in -15 days] - -We had intended going into some of the neighborhood houses to watch -the work of the older women, but it seemed impossible to look at -any other lace that day and we said good-by. And while the chauffeur -brushed away the small boys clinging to or crawling over the car, we -again tucked our sister in, to carry her home to Kerxken; it had been a -great day for Sœur Robertine and for us. - - - - -VIII - -OPBRAKEL - -_Mother House of a Famous Lace-making Order_ - - -After Kerxken and Erembodeghem I was not surprized, when inquiring -about needle laces further south, to learn that the only school whose -work could dispute first place with them was that of the mother house -of the same order at Opbrakel. I had come to know that the finest -needle laces of Belgium are made in these convents of the Sœurs -Franciscaines. - -It was a bitter day, but I determined to reach Opbrakel despite -shell-pitted roads and rain. I succeeded even in making a short stop -on the way at Cruyshautem Convent, famous, too, for its Needle Point, -where the sisters would have detained me longer to describe again and -again the entry of the American soldiers at 9 o’clock in the morning on -All Saints Day—the wonderful American soldiers who had arrived to free -them from their oppressors of four years, and who had remained to buy -every scrap of lace in the convent, carrying away the address with the -promise to send for more. - -In my journeying I discovered a pretty way of learning whose army -occupied a particular village—I looked for the first small boy to see -which soldier’s cap he proudly wore. Thus at Opbrakel, tho it was late -afternoon when I arrived, there were children still playing in the -street, and the boys jauntily wearing the horizontal blue announced to -me that the French were there. These small boys, and later the soldiers -themselves, examined my mud-splashed car with much curiosity, as it -drew up in front of the convent door. - -My visit was quite unannounced, but the sisters held out their hands -in welcome, and drew me in out of the rain, speaking, as they did so, -words I had almost forgotten, “Hot milk; you must drink a cup of hot -milk at once, Madame, and your chauffeur also; this is a cruel day -for journeying.” They led me to a little room, where I found another -unaccustomed comfort, a tiny fire burning brightly. As I sat before -it, sipping the sweet milk, the first I had had since leaving America, -I remembered the gratitude of travelers in the middle ages toward the -convents and abbeys whose doors they found open. The war had brought a -return of many of the difficulties and perils that beset them, with the -comfortable hostelries of pre-war days pillaged and ruined, the little -restaurants or cafés that could do business filled to overflowing -with soldiers (I have spent hours in the wind and rain at night vainly -trying to find a bed, or a place for my car), with roads wrecked, -neither post nor telegraph, nor train, and natural accompaniment of -all this disorganization, the necessity of being ever on guard against -thieves—in the midst of conditions like these we can appreciate the -meaning of the cheering hospitality the convent offers. - -While we sat before the fire the Mother Superior had one of the sisters -show me a treasure of the school, a framed exhibit, illustrating in -miniature all the processes employed in the making of the needle -laces, which they had prepared for the last International Exposition -at Brussels. Then she recounted for me a little of the history of her -lace-making convent, which celebrates its centenary this year, this -free year of 1919. I could imagine what it would have meant to try to -be joyful over such an anniversary with the enemy heel still on one’s -back. - -One hundred years ago the commune of Opbrakel was in such a wretched -state of poverty and misery that among its 2,000 inhabitants, 800 -were beggars; and as often happened elsewhere during the period of -suffering following the Napoleonic wars, the curé of the commune -sought to relieve it by founding a convent which should teach the art -of lace-making, to furnish a means of earning bread. He called the -Franciscaine Sisters who soon had 100 pupils in their lace-classes, -and among them a number of boys. From those days to these, lace-making -in this convent has never ceased; there are now not more than 125 -pupils in the excellent school, but in the homes of the entire region -are those who have learned their art there. The sisters taught first, -Chantilly (Opbrakel is very near Grammont, the Belgian home of -Chantilly), but about fifty years ago changed from bobbin to needle -lace, and since about twelve years ago, they have specialized on the -particular needle lace, Venetian Point, in which they are unexcelled. -Few of the enraptured tourists in Venise realize that the laces they -are buying there were very probably made in Flanders! - -Important lace schools and work-rooms have from time to time -concentrated all their skill on the production of a masterpiece -that might represent them to the world and awaken wide interest and -approval. We have a long list of such _chefs-d’œuvres_ from the -lace-rooms of Belgium, of lovely scarfs and cloths and robes offered -to sovereigns or distinguished patrons. And happily during the war the -Committee could encourage this practise by giving orders or special -“commands” to be executed as gifts for benefactors. Several of these -presentation pieces will have enduring value historically as well as -artistically. - -More than one command fell to the share of Opbrakel, and among others -that for a scarf offered to the Queen of Holland in appreciation -of her country’s generosity to Belgians within Dutch borders. The -dentellières, each proud to be selected for the royal task, worked -many months on the countless exquisite needle points in this delicate -veil. On the scarf ends they united the arms of Holland and Belgium, -engarlanding them with hyacinths and tulips, the Dutch national -flowers, and about these in turn they wove lilies of the valley, -symbolizing the return of happiness. Below the medallion rest the -Belgian provinces, enchained, and above them they represented the -children of Holland showering flowers of abundance upon the martyred -children of their sister kingdom. - -It would have been pleasant to talk of other master-works, but we had -already sat too long before the fire and we hurried now to reach the -large, airy class-room across the court before dark. When starting -on my lace journey, I had been warned that, once I had visited the -bobbin-lace work-room with all the picturesqueness of the cushion -with its mounds of bobbins and clustered pins, and of the flying -fingers and the continuous cadences of the clinking wood, I would find -needle-lace classes uninteresting. In the beginning this was true; -there was nothing particularly dramatic or stirring in a great room -filled with girls and young women holding little black paper patterns -in their hands and plying a needle above them. But the more I watched -these little patterns and the fingers directing the needle and thread, -the more marvelous the accomplishment appeared—cotton and linen -so fine that it seemed impossible that any finger should control -them—cobwebby, diaphanous meshes, richly petalled tiny flowers, and -delicately veined leaves growing beneath just a common needle and a -single thread. In the end I looked eagerly for the needle rooms. - -[Illustration: “THE TOURNEY” BANQUET CLOTH - -Design reproducing a mediæval painting in Tournai, executed in Venise -lace by 10 workers in one month, mounting and embroidery by five -workers in one month. Price in Brussels, 1,000 francs] - -[Illustration: “ARMS OF YPRES” CUSHION COVER IN VENISE, WITH DETAILS IN -FLANDERS] - - -And this was the most rewarding one I had yet visited. It happened that -the majority of the pupils were busy on the details of a tablecloth -recently designed by Madame Allard, in which the linen center is -encircled by a family of little beasts as gay as any ever gathered -together to cheer a dinner company. I laughed outright, as a little -girl, herself laughing, held up an exquisitely worked and most vividly -real group of happy ducks floating on a pond. The next showed her -enchanting rabbits, another her deer—all along the line they were -chuckling over the success of their particular pets. They had captured -the sunshine and happy motion of a farm-yard world with just a needle -and a single linen thread! Here, as at Erembodeghem, only linen thread -is used, because tho it is more difficult to handle, it produces a -finer and stronger lace than cotton. After several months (it took six -months to execute the first cloth of this design) the details would -be assembled and joined by special workers, following the large paper -pattern the sisters were now spreading across a table, which had been -sent down to Opbrakel from the room of design at Brussels. And the -finished cloth, as delightful as an early naive tapestry with its -smiling animals, would be sent to the Committee for sale. - -Opbrakel stands unquestionably first in Belgium in the production of -figures in Point de Venise. During the war, its workers have repeated -several times for the Committee their beautiful “Fables de La -Fontaine” series of medallions, as well as those which represent so -charmingly “Little Red Riding-Hood,” “Puss in Boots,” “The Sleeping -Beauty,” and other much loved fairy-tale figures. These medallions -have been sold separately as doilies, or have been combined with -Flanders lace or linen in handsome cloths. - -It was fast growing dark, and the 125 girls began folding their -patterns, and carefully wrapping their delicately pictured little -rabbits and ducks to keep them clean till the morrow; maids appeared -with dust-pans and brooms, and we gathered up our skirts and stept out -into the courtyard. As we crossed it in the dark and the rain it was -difficult to refuse the further hospitality of these sisters, who would -have kept me for the night. - - - - -IX - -LIEDEKERKE - -_The Last Lace Stronghold of Brabant_ - - -In the court in front of the big brick convent building with its odd -little steeple, two sisters, skirts tucked up, and pails swung over -their shoulders, Chinese fashion, were about to begin the Saturday -scrubbing. Madame Kefer-Mali and I were on our way to Liedekerke, the -principal remaining lace center in Brabant, and had stopt in this less -important village of Heckelgem for a look at the convent school opened -nine years ago. - -In the village itself we had found about 150 of the 2,000 inhabitants -busy with their needles, for this is distinctly a needle-lace commune, -producing a fairly good quality of Venise. Which means that there are -as yet no local mills, and tho an adjacent match factory has already -attracted a number of Heckelgem girls, most of the women are still -content to spend their time making Venise, which they take to the -convent, to be sold there to Brussels or other agents. - -The convent class-rooms were warm and cheery; fern baskets hung from -the ceilings and every window was gay with potted plants. Practically -all the village children were gathered inside, and since it was 11 -o’clock when we arrived, were happily engaged in drinking their daily -Comité National cup of cocoa and in eating the good white biscuit that -goes with it. Saturday morning is mending time and on the girls’ desks -I saw more of those amazing patchwork socks and stockings, the result -of three or four years’ weekly attempts to hold them together. - -[Illustration: NEEDLE-POINT SCARF EXPRESSING GRATITUDE OF BELGIUM TO -HOLLAND, PRESENTED TO H.M. QUEEN WILHELMINA - -Executed by 30 workers in eight months] - -In the advanced lace class-room, thirty girls, between thirteen and -sixteen, were working with cotton thread on Venise insertions and on -details for larger pieces. They had come at 8 o’clock that morning, a -more humane beginning hour than most schools allow, and would remain -as long as there was daylight—looping and weaving with a needle and -single thread. I stopt beside Rosalie, who was making a pretty flower -detail for a cushion cover. She had begun it five days before and hoped -to finish, and receive the seven francs she was allowed for it, that -night. - -On the table was a pile of chairbacks in Venise, with figure centers -and surrounding garlands of flowers all connected by the bars -characterizing this lace—an order for a Brussels dealer, who had -recently offered fifty-two francs each for them. The sisters were -excited and happy over this new price, which was considerably more than -anything Heckelgem has hitherto been able to command, one and a half -francs a day having been the average wage of the best workers. - -A little farther to the south and still in Brabant, tho it lies near -the Flanders border, is the much better known convent of Liedekerke, -which boasts an unbroken record of sixty years of lace-making, and -which before the war received a yearly subsidy of 800 francs from the -“Amies de la Dentelle.” As we walked beside the pretty orchard and -vegetable garden, bright with purple cabbages, that form the entrance -court, toward the rather impressive red-brick buildings, again with -their odd miniature steeple, I saw the great arms of a Dutch windmill -turning lazily somewhere in the rear. And nearer the door, off at the -left in a side court, a war-kitchen with tiled floor and uncertain -roof, where hundreds of the village poor still were coming for their -daily pint of soup. Of the 4,000 inhabitants as many as 2,900 were -forced on to the soup-line during the occupation. - -This, then, was one of the important and successful convent schools of -Belgium; but in January, 1919, it was in a much sadder plight than the -little neighboring school at Heckelgem. There was no coal, not a class -was in session, not a child at work with her bobbins. At 4 o’clock in -the afternoon, on Monday, October 28, when there were between 800 and -900 children, among them 100 lace-workers, gathered in the various -class-rooms, German officers had appeared to announce that by 7 o’clock -the rooms must be cleared of both teachers and children. I had already -had many demonstrations of what taking possession of school-rooms -meant. It was not necessary that the sisters should lead me from room -to room, pointing out this or that ruined wall, or casement torn -away, or vacant space where the benches or chairs burned as firewood, -once stood; but I followed them about for their own sakes. There was -at least a kind of comfort in being able to furnish proof of these -outrages to somebody. - -One small room was undisturbed, but it was a sadder room than any of -the others. The primary lace-class had occupied it, and several rows of -little girls were learning to make their first flowers and leaves when -the enemy drove them out. The baby chairs and the cushions were just as -they left them, tho thick dust dulled the blue of the linen covers and -the tiny unfinished white roses and tendrils held by the rusty pins. -One would have liked to bring the enemy mothers into this room with its -baby chairs, and its dust-covered unfinished roses. - -In the large adjoining hall Sister M. kindly came to work at a -table, on Application, one of the laces for which Liedekerke has been -especially distinguished. Before the English invention, early in 1800, -of machine-made tulle, which had an incalculable influence on the -development of the lace-industry, all meshes had to be made either with -the needle or with bobbins. The factory substitute for these difficult -processes won instant favor, and with the general public the more -swiftly made and cheaper tulle Application, supplanted the exquisite -Point d’Angleterre, which it imitated. Liedekerke, for example, had -begun its lace career with Point d’Angleterre, and in changing later to -Application, was merely responding to popular demand. Its sixty years -of lace-history reads: Point d’Angleterre, Application, Rosaline. - -These things Madame Kefer-Mali explained, as Sister M. was placing -her square of blue paper on the linen of the table cushion, and then -the bobbin-made bouquet, wrong side up on the blue square, pinning it -carefully and smoothly through the paper to the cushion. Over this -she stretched her scarf length of tulle. I was surprized at the time -and painstaking effort she gave to these simple operations, until I -saw later the effect of the slightest carelessness on the finished -flounce. Almost any clever needlewoman can join a flower to a piece -of tulle—but only an artist can produce a beautiful scarf or veil in -Application. Once the bouquet was properly placed and pinned, Sister -M. began to sew, lifting the tulle lightly with each stitch, and -smoothly attaching all the edges, for this bouquet was being appliquéd -on the body of the scarf. Had it formed the border one edge would have -remained free. - -Liedekerke Convent, to which some 200 of the villagers bring their -laces and which once made little else than Application (many beautiful -robes and flounces and scarfs have gone out from the commune and the -school), now makes comparatively little of it; for during the last -six years Paris and other markets have asked for Rosaline. It is to -be hoped that this small quantity may be continued, and that the lace -world may still win at least a few pieces yearly of the earlier, more -exquisite Point d’Angleterre. - -Point d’Angleterre, so named because of its great popularity in -England, reached its height in beauty and in favor during the -seventeenth century, when it occupied the talent and energy of all the -lace-workers of Brussels. It differs from Needle Point, in which both -flowers and mesh are made with the needle. It is one of the loveliest -of all laces, combining in rare beauty, rich bouquets and arabesques -and birds of finest bobbin work, with a frail transparent needle mesh, -the flowers themselves becoming frequently more light and delicate -through the introduction of charmingly varied needle-worked open -spaces. Certain workers make the flowers, and others the connecting -mesh. If one can imagine the softness of a kind of sublimated or -diaphanous velvet, added to the fragility of an airy and cobwebby lace, -one may have some idea of the effect of good Point d’Angleterre. And -if one would possess a collar or a flounce, one should buy it quickly, -for Point d’Angleterre is going the way of the other difficult and -exquisite points. Such villages as Kerxken, Liedekerke, Destelbergen -(near Ghent), and those of the Alost region still make occasional -pieces. - -[Illustration: BOBBIN LACES - -(1) Malines (2) Application, flowers sewn on tulle (3) Duchesse, with -needle-point insertions] - -[Illustration: APPLICATION DETAILS TO BE SEWED ON TULLE - -Upper flower shows open spaces left by bobbin worker for needle worker; -lower flower shows both bobbin and needle work completed] - -The more ordinary Point de Flandres, or Flanders, so generally produced -to-day, has the same composition as Point d’Angleterre, since in it -bobbin-work flowers are joined by a needle-mesh. And even tho coarser -and less complicated than Point d’Angleterre, Point de Flandres -is also difficult to make, and should be much better paid. There are -innumerable differences in quality, and many ways in which this lace -may be employed. The Committee has used it chiefly in elegant table -centers and cloths, in lamp-shades and in various articles to embellish -a drawing-or dining-room. And this summer of 1919 it is being used -with much success by important French houses as trimming for dainty -_ninon_ underclothing. Nineteenth century Point de Flandres, then, is -little more than a commercial name for a very coarse kind of Point -d’Angleterre. - -This Point de Flandres must not be confused with Old Flanders or Antik, -the ancient bobbin-lace experiencing a happy revival at present. Old -Flanders is, like Cluny, made entirely with bobbins and with uncut -threads; in other words, in single lengths, and not in separate or cut -details. - -Liedekerke, then, first made Point d’Angleterre for which, after a -certain time, it substituted Application, changing again about two -years before the war to Rosaline, suddenly become a popular lace. - -Rosaline is not very different in appearance from the finer varieties -of Bruges; in fact, it employs much the same technique, and is made -as is Bruges with bobbins, in small pieces, which are later joined by -special workers. A dentellière who can make fine Bruges can usually -make Rosaline. Each small piece is composed of elaborately interlacing -flowers and leaves and arabesques, without a connecting mesh, but -joined by _brides_ or bars, with a picot edge. Sometimes the tiny -incrustations called pearls, common to Burano lace, are added, to -further ornament the richly covered ground. - -I watched a Rosaline cushion, on which the pattern of an arabesque -detail was pinned, and Sister A., as she began to shift in pairs the -fourteen bobbins needed to execute it; one pair, the _voyageurs_, were -continually traveling from right to left and back again as she wove -the flat parts of the leaves and blossoms. The Rosaline technique is -particularly difficult, since the pins must be continually and rapidly -changed as the worker, with a crochet-hook, lifts the thread to pass -her bobbin through in the characteristic loop stitch. This delicate -operation, constantly repeated, strains both eyes and nerves. The pins -are placed along the outside edge of the flowers, instead of inside, as -in Bruges, which produces the picot or looped-edge effect of Rosaline. -In Bruges the flower edges are even. - -I turned from the arabesques just beginning to grow on the cushion, -to a lovely little finished detail, about four inches square, one of -several in a box which was to hold them till they could be joined to -make a scarf. It had taken seven days of thirteen hours each to make -this four by four piece, which meant that the maximum a skilled worker -could earn in executing it was about two francs a day. - -The Liedekerke convent school does not accept children under twelve for -more than two complete afternoons a week and for more than one hour -each of the other days, these hours being lengthened gradually until -the girl of sixteen gives her entire time to her lace. The sisters -hope that once they find coal and thread and can put their class-room -in order, they may again have 100 pupils, and that the village may -continue to count at least 200 good dentellières. - - - - -X - -HERZELE - -_A Château of Refuge_ - - -There are certain châteaux in Belgium that will be remembered -throughout this century as harbors of refuge; they dared not flare -beacons from their roofs, but during four dark years, people of the -nearby communes knew that day and night lights burned there for them. -The château of the Comte du Parc was such a one, a property lying -on the edge of the village of Herzele, south of Alost, which, tho -the house itself is unpretentious, embraces a lovely park and wood, -and from which, incidentally, the Germans cut 1,000 trees. It is no -longer only the estate of the du Parcs, it is the loved shelter of -every villager accustomed to hurry toward it in sad or perilous hours. -The morale of the entire region was sustained by the knowledge that -the people of the château had not left, as they easily might have, -for their safer Brussels home, in the zone of civil administration, -where if not free, they would at least have been less imprisoned, but -had chosen to remain in the military zone, utterly cut off from their -relatives and the rest of Belgium. - -They might have considered several reasons sufficiently important to -call them away (the Bourgmestre of Herzele had found at least one, his -ill-health); among other things their château was as yet practically -uninhabitable. It had been begun only a short time before the war broke -out, and with the sounding of the first alarm the workmen had rushed -out to report to their officers, leaving electric cords dangling, -unmounted fixtures standing against the walls, and neither hot water -nor heating systems installed. Madame told me later of her desperate -and amusing efforts to fasten locks on the most important doors. As she -and her husband were debating how they might arrange one large room in -the left wing as their single general living-room they could already -see the villagers coming anxiously along the tree-lined avenue and -across the park to inquire if they were still there. “After the first -troubled questions,” Monsieur said, “even if we had not already decided -we must stay, it would have been quite impossible to go away.” - -The soldiers of the village were leaving with scarcely time for -good-bys; Madame understood the fears of the women who came to the -château for comfort; her only son, too, a brave, handsome boy, was off -to join the colors—her brave, handsome boy, who now lies buried not -far from the Yser. - -In October the victorious Germans pushed southward, and from the 14th -to the 18th, shrapnel fell like rain on the park, but the château -escaped unharmed. Then three officers of the occupying army rode up on -horseback, revolvers in hand, demanding that the Comte present himself -immediately. Madame followed her husband, not knowing what to expect. -To their first threat, Monsieur replied calmly, “I do not like those -objects,” and after a moment’s hesitation the officers lowered their -weapons. Then they demanded guaranties that they would be absolutely -safe from attack by any person, either of the château or the village. -“I can, of course, speak for my château,” Monsieur answered, “but I -can not be responsible for the villagers if they are pushed too far.” -These villagers themselves told me later that they were convinced it -was only the presence of the Comte (the bullies were frequently servile -before titles and powerless before fearlessness) that saved Herzele -from destruction. “We always expected the worst,” they said; “in the -early days, when the Boches lighted a great fire in the wood, we rushed -to the château, believing it was burning.” - -From the beginning, Madame and her two daughters looked for some -constructive aid they might give their women, something more than the -general relief furnished by the Comité National. - -Of the 2,500 inhabitants of the village, 1,700 were soon on the lists -of the helpless or destitute; among these were many tuberculosis -victims. The château living-room became first a clothing bureau, where -daily all sorts of garments, sent from America, were distributed. -Madame engaged some of the women of the village to patch and re-fashion -these, and with certain sums of money that succeeded in reaching her -from time to time from an American lady who had “adopted” Herzele, she -was able to purchase new materials and offer further saving employment. -I do not know the American lady, but if she could have seen Madame’s -eyes as she told me of what it meant, imprisoned as they were, to -receive these gifts from some one outside who remembered them, I do not -doubt she would have felt sufficiently rewarded. - -In 1916, when I was in Belgium as a member of the Commission for Relief -in Belgium, the Germans prevented my going near Herzele, or any point -in the zone of direct military preparation, so I could follow the -work of Monsieur and Madame only through the Brussels Lace Committee, -which had itself great difficulty in keeping connected with them. They -made their judgments from the ever increasing quantities and improved -quality of the laces that somehow came through. - -The room in the château was the lace office not only for Herzele, but -for eleven additional villages, where between 2,500 and 3,000 girls -and women, encouraged by the Committee support—its designs and thread -and money—were busy with their needles and bobbins; for while this is -chiefly a needle-work district, large quantities of bobbin laces are -also made. To be sure, none of these laces is superior, but they are -good, and marketable. They include Cluny, Duchesse de Bruxelles, a kind -of coarse Flanders (where the flowers are made with bobbins and the -mesh with the needle), Venise, and Rosaline; and of these the Flanders -and Venise are most important. At times it was not difficult for the -dentellières to take or send their finished lace to the château, at -others they were threatened with fines and imprisonment if they were -discovered trying to get it there. To refer to but one instance, the -facteur of the village three miles distant was fined seventy-five -francs when caught on the way with his pieces. The Germans were doing -their utmost always, to attach lace-makers to their _Spitzen Centrale_, -and despite the international agreement which engaged their protection -of the work of the Brussels Lace Committee, they interfered with and -obstructed its work again and again. At one point they insisted that -all deliveries to the Committee should be made through them, and that -they be paid 1 per cent. on the value, in gold, for transmission, where -transmission, unfortunately, only too often spelled for them retention. - -In the village Madame and her daughters went from house to house, -instructing and comforting. The days of the deportations were more -terrible than any others. In remembering that first hideous deportation -night in Herzele, one remembers, too, that early in the war Cardinal -Mercier said that while there was once a time, when to make people -believe, we felt we must heighten, or embellish the cold facts, that -now in order that they should believe, we must withhold part of the -truth. That first night, men and boys were torn from their beds and -herded into the school, from there to be carried off in cattle-cars -to Germany. There was neither light nor heat, and in the cold and -the darkness, the tortured little village broke into a great cry of -lamentation, while the château was filled with wives and mothers -seeking comfort. - -Later, when the activist troubles became acute, the two daughters held -meetings even in the cabarets to urge loyalty to a united Belgium. They -believe that not one person in their entire village can be said to -have worked for the enemy, except when deported bodily, or otherwise -coerced. - -Somehow the years passed, and then one day, the 16th of September, -1917, bits of white paper fell like snow from the clouds. The family -rushed out to gather them and found Lord Northcliffe’s celebrated -posters, “The First Million,” representing a vast multitude on the -march, the statue of liberty in the background, the fields of France in -the foreground, and a continuous bridge of ships connecting them. This -snowfall was followed by others, and each brought hope. - -Finally, in October, 1918, the Germans, knowing the Allied Army of -Liberation was almost upon them, again pulled their guns up into the -château grounds, but in the final fighting, as in the earliest, the -house somehow escaped. - -[Illustration: WEDDING GIFT OF MR. HOOVER TO MRS. PAGE - -Executed in Venise and Flanders lace by 30 women working three months. -American eagles with outspread wings, protecting the Belgian Lion -enchained in the four corners] - -[Illustration: FLANDERS—NEEDLE MESH, BOBBIN FLOWERS] - -When I reached Herzele, in January, 1919, the wide park was beautiful -and still, green things were sprouting beneath the trees, there were a -few birds; to a stranger there was little evidence of the terrible -years. But inside, in the cold, unfinished hall, the electric cords -still dangled; everything was as the Belgian workmen had left it four -and a half years before. And in the single living-room at the left, -rudely furnished, but including through large windows the beauty of -the park, there were still the war-time desk and long table with the -piles of trousers and shirts at one end, and the rolls of white lace -at the other. I shook out a scarf of Duchesse de Bruxelles of flower -and leaf pattern, with insets in needle work, and several wide flounces -of Flanders lace, of the same pattern I had seen used in the charming -lamp-shades on sale in the Committee room at Brussels. There were also -rolls of Bruges, and Rosaline, Application, and Point d’Angleterre. - -[Illustration: VENISE LACE CENTER, BORDER OF VALENCIENNES - -Lace executed in Flanders by 40 women in two months; embroidery and -mounting in Brussels by four women in three months] - -[Illustration: VALENCIENNES, SQUARE MESH] - -As I examined them, Monsieur got out his records and discust the -future of his lace-workers. “I am convinced they will be happy to -continue in this district, if only they can be sure of a living wage. -And apart from other determining factors, to make that, they must -learn to execute laces of better quality. We need, above all, a school -which will offer along with its courses in practical lace-making, -training in design. During the war we had many beautiful designs from -the Committee, but each time we were cut off from them we realized -our helplessness. In one of the villages the patterns are drawn by a -furniture-maker. One reason for the wretched condition of the workers -before the war was their entire dependence on the particular lace -dealer who furnished them their patterns and their thread, and who, -of course, protected his models by copyright. The old, unprotected -designs, which may be copied by any one, are little in demand, and -during the process of generations of recopying, many of them have so -greatly deteriorated as to become scarcely recognizable. If our women -were trained they could restore these, and, what is more important, -some of them, at least, could invent new ones.” - -I asked what it would cost to found a school and support it during its -first year. “Perhaps 20,000 or 25,000 francs; we might hope that the -State would undertake such a work, but with its present overwhelming -burden, it is a question if the Government can occupy itself with -lace needs. If it could be started by private initiative, and prove -successful, I believe there is no doubt that the Government would be -willing later to subsidize it.” - -Madame brought a picture post-card from the mantel, of three brothers -who had been deported, two of whom had not returned. Other men were -drifting back from Metz, where most of the _déportés_ from Herzele -had been for over two and a half years, but these two would not -return, for they had been frozen to death. I understood at once, for -I remembered the sixty-five men with black arms and legs who had been -“returned” to the Brussels Hospital in 1917. “No”; Madame looked at -the portrait of her boy, with the Belgian colors above it and a vase -of flowers in front, and then again at the little post-card; “No,” -she said simply, “I have no desire yet to go to Brussels. I prefer to -remain here with my people, where we may still, from time to time, weep -together.” - - - - -XI - -GHENT - -_A Lace Queen of Long Ago_ - - -Of the cities I visited during three months’ continuous travel in -Belgium following the armistice, Ghent appeared to me to be attacking -her problems with greatest speed and vigor. Brave old Burgher city of -canals and mellow buildings and bell-towers, this Flemish capital is at -the same time an active, modern, commercial center; which explains why -Bruges has been able to win from her the title she once proudly held of -“Queen of Lace Cities.” - -The lace history of Ghent begins with the lace history of Belgium, in -the sixteenth century; but her great period dates from the seventeenth -century and the introduction of the epoch-making mesh of Valenciennes. -The activity of her women and girls, following the appearance of this -new lace, surpassed anything she had hitherto known; it was not long -before the music of 1,000,000 bobbins rose to meet the riotous pealing -of her bells. In the sixteenth century Malines had undisputed first -place in lace; Ghent now out-stript her. One wonders if part of the -fascination of this city for the men the United States sent there in -1814, to make peace with England, and who, after six months’ lingering, -had to be urged to return home, lay in its clicking bobbins and the -joyous garlands that blossomed under them. - -There is a portrait in the Hôtel de Ville, where one may see the -Empress Marie-Thérèse, wearing the marvelous Valenciennes and the -Needle Point robe presented to her by the Canton de Gand in 1743. And -scarcely more than a century later, in 1853, the city made its last -gift of similar magnificence—another robe, valued at 20,000 francs, -on which 80,000 bobbins were employed unceasingly during six months, -and this time offered to the Duchess of Brabant, Marie-Henriette. There -were no succeeding world-stirring gifts of lace because Ghent had begun -to think of other things, of industrial and commercial development, and -as she advanced in these, the art of lace-making declined, until to-day -it has ceased to exist. - -However, in the surrounding communes (the region counts fifty) there -are still perhaps 2,000 dentellières making most of the bobbin and -needle varieties, the best among them being Valenciennes, Flanders, -Duchesse, Needle Point, Bruges and Rosaline. The Comtesse de Bousies, -chairman of the Ghent Lace Committee during the war, did her best to -encourage the work in these outlying districts, and was able to help, -in addition, many needy women in the city itself. - -In 1917, for instance, Celine appeared at the office to ask for thread. -She was twenty years old, and before the war had been one of the -10,000 women employed in the linen spinning mills; her mother was ill -with tuberculosis, her father without work, and also ill; there were -five younger children. “I know I have not proper fingers,” she said, -as she held out her rough hands, “but if you will only promise I may -bring my lace, I believe I can learn.” The Committee believed this, -too, and because she worked with intelligence and with almost feverish -eagerness, she was soon assured the minimum wage of three francs a -week, and later the larger sums made possible with the Committee’s -success. Shortly before the armistice, the mother died, and only last -week Celine came again to the desk to ask anxiously if the Committee -could not somehow arrange, that even after they had disbanded, she -might continue to make lace. Her father had found a little work; she -wanted to remain at home where she might at least direct the younger -children, and she could, if only she were sure of her war-time -wage. Could not the Committee promise the sale of her laces? Often -repeated question during these courage-testing days, when emergency -organizations are breaking up, and poor women do not yet see what is to -replace them. - -Among the more important communes on the Ghent committee list, I found -Oosterzele, Baelegem, and Landsanter, all three producing a good -quality of Duchesse, Flanders, Needle Point and Venise, and counting -together about 160 lace-makers; Gysenzeele and Destelbergen, which make -fine Flanders, and Duchesse, Knesselars, with 250 Cluny workers; Asper -with 60 in Venise; the convents of Scheldewinkle and Eecke, the first -occupied with Venise, the second with Needle Point and Duchesse, which -it sells to an American house, and finally, the larger Deynze district, -including Vynck, Lootenhulle, Machelin, the Valenciennes convent school -at Ruysselede, and Bachte, with perhaps 400 lace-makers in all. - -I got my orientation for this last southern district from the Comtesse -d’Alcantara, who has been indefatigable in her double rôle of chairman -of Deynze and vice-chairman of the regional committee. Constantly -throughout the war, she might have been seen starting from the handsome -château at Bachte—one of the most imposing in Belgium—on bicycle or -on foot on her way to one of the lace villages, with thread and money -for the workers, or at night returning with the rolls of lace which she -had then to get to Ghent and from there to Brussels. The Germans never -succeeded in obstructing her work, nor that of her father and mother, -for their villagers and for the orphans of the entire region. Women -came between shells to bring laces. It was a moral help just to be able -to talk about their work. - -As I crossed the moat and passed under the archway, I saw the spot -where the last Allied shell exploded, killing nineteen Germans, while -the family and the 200 villagers in the cellars, where they had been -for two weeks, escaped unharmed. In fact, in all the Deynze country I -was in the midst of the destruction accompanying the final push of the -liberating army, and was vividly reminded of what would have happened -to the rest of Belgium had the armistice been further delayed. - -But already in the partially wrecked villages many of the women had -gone back to their cushions—their reason-saving cushions, for they -furnished practically the only employment to be had, and however small -the earnings, they at least insured a few francs a week, and best of -all they proved that something of the past persisted. - -In Vynck, a poor little town of 1,700 people, I found 40 -Valenciennes-makers, and heard that 100 young girls were being taught -at home by their mothers. I talked with two maiden sisters—one 68, the -other 72—whom I spied hidden behind a window-screen of potted plants, -working, with 450 bobbins each, on a kind of Valenciennes one finds -only on the cushions of the past generation. They could not repeat -often enough their gratitude to the Committee, which had been paying -them 44 francs ($8.80) a meter for their lace, so much more than they -had received before the war from the Courtrai facteur to whom they had -sold. They counted on making about five meters during the winter ($44 -worth), and they work from dawn sometimes till nine at night. - -In a neighboring house was a grandmother of eighty-one and her -granddaughter, and on the grandmother’s cushion such a covering and -re-covering of bobbins and lace, to keep them spotless. Over all she -had spread a large towel, beneath it a worn napkin, then a piece of -pink gingham, and below that two remnants of white and blue cloth, -and it seemed appropriate that the snowy treasure, Valenciennes, too, -should be revealed to me only after such a ceremony of unveiling as -this bent old woman of Vynck performed. - -I passed quickly through Lootenhulle with its 125 workers, who make, -among other varieties, good Duchesse and Rosaline; and Hansbeek, which -produces a superior Valenciennes; and Ruysselede, with its excellent -school for Valenciennes; to cross from the south to Destelbergen, which -lies almost directly east of Ghent. All the plain was white under the -first deep snow of winter, but to enjoy its loveliness one had to be -able to forget the torn roofs and fireless hearths. - -At Destelbergen I went at once to the atelier of Mme. Coppens, to -whom women of both France and Belgium send their old Applications and -spider-web meshes, for restoration. Before the war she employed seventy -expert lace-makers in her school, now she can depend on no more than -twenty—tho there are some 100 less skilful ones in the village. On -this particular January day the school was empty. As Mme. Coppens -received me, she said, “I regret, Madame, but I am without coal, and -without thread; I have been forced to close my work-room; however,” -she hesitated an instant, “if Madame does not object to coming into -the kitchen, she may yet see Stéphanie, the first lace-maker of the -village, at work.” - -[Illustration: FAN IN NEEDLE-POINT - -Executed by three women in six weeks. “Shields of the Allies,” design -drawn by M. Knoff for the Lace Committee] - -[Illustration: EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MARRIAGE VEIL IN NEEDLE-POINT, -BELONGING TO COMTESSE ELIZABETH D’OULTREMONT - -It would take 40 workers about a half year to copy this veil] - -Remembering the glistening shelves and floors of other Flemish -kitchens, I did not mind; happily not, for in the end Stéphanie was -more to me than many villages. She was bending over an immaculate -cushion, seventy-eight and unmarried, and all her person as -scrupulously neat as her cushion, from her odd little peaked black -crochet cap to the felt shoes she had made herself. She was weaving -the flat surfaces of a dainty French bouquet, and as I stept toward -her chair, looked up, delighted that some one was interested in what -she was making. When I picked up a Bruges collar on the nearby table -she tried in ejaculatory Flemish to make me understand, that even tho -she had made parts of it, she disowned the whole as unworthy the name -of lace, and she brought my eyes back to the delicate texture of the -leaves and petals on her cushion. - -I wished to know what Stéphanie was getting for a day’s work on -her fine bouquets. She has been making lace for seventy years, is -intelligent and quick, and her maximum wage is two cents an hour, a -franc for a day of ten hours. I asked about the future—she has thought -of that, not without anxiety, and is providing at seventy-eight for -what she calls “old age” by trying hard to put by two cents a week. -Madame C. has been kind to her, and gives her as much freedom and -comfort as she can offer; for instance, when Stéphanie was ill for -three days last week, she did not deduct her wages. She would gladly -double her pay, or triple it, for she realizes there are few like -Stéphanie left, but the Paris firm to whom she sells pays so little -for her lace that she has never been able to offer more than a franc a -day. “If I could give two francs, I could quickly gather a company of -1,000 contented lace-makers, I am certain,” she said. “But when my old -workers fall ill or die, I find no young girls willing to come to me; -they prefer the twenty francs a week they can make picking wool. When -Stéphanie goes, I shall have no single artist to replace her.” “_C’est -un vrai cœur de dentelle_” (she is a true heart of lace), she said -affectionately, as she patted her on the shoulder. - -And then she went to fetch a cardboard box and I took a chair by the -table, to watch her unfold what it might contain. She spread three -beautiful widths of Application on blue paper so that I might better -see the tiny bouquets and scattered buds and leaves that blossomed -from the fine quality of machine-made tulle; all these had come from -Stéphanie’s bobbins, and she was having difficulty to continue at her -cushion because of her eagerness to explain them. They were French -designs, as their charming lines had made me suspect. In the box -with the Application were two rolls of Point d’Angleterre, the lace -one finds rarely at present. We held the first one, a length of four -meters, six inches wide, against the light, and then Stéphanie could -sit still no longer; she knew something about this piece, for she -had made its first flower in 1911, and not finished its last until -the war was half over. She pointed out the spaces where a special -needle-worker had introduced almost microscopic open stitches into her -leaves and blooms to give them even greater airiness, and showed how -almost impossible it would have been to execute these needle-stitches -with bobbins; and how difficult is the stitch made with a special -crochet-hook required for the raised veins and outlines (brodes) of -the petals and leaves, since the hook must catch and attach the thread -each time beneath the surface. Finally, a needle-worker, again, as is -always the case in Point d’Angleterre, had spun the clear web between -the flowers, uniting them all into the finished flounce. Stéphanie -pointed to a single detail. “It took me five days to make that tiny -bouquet, and the needle-worker one and a half days more to add the open -stitches.” - -Since the snow-covered roads made traveling extremely hazardous, I -decided that I could not stop longer, no matter how absorbing the -Applications and Points d’Angleterre, or how endearing the personality -and contagious the enthusiasm of Stéphanie. I said “Good-by,” -explaining that I had yet that day to visit the needle-lace school at -Zele, twenty kilometers away. - - - - -XII - -ZELE - -_Stéphanie Visits the Trade Union Lace School_ - - -But I was not to have to part with Stéphanie. When her Flemish ears -gathered from my French that I was starting for Zele and the school -founded three years ago, which had been the talk of the region ever -since, her eyes fairly spoke her eager desire. Seventy-eight and -earning twenty cents a day, and yet consumed by a love for her art (for -with her, lace-making is a true art), and a passion to learn more about -it! I asked Mme. Coppens if Stéphanie might not come along in the car. -In answer she began bustling about, tears in her eyes, to help get her -ready, and Stéphanie in her odd little woolen cap could scarcely tie -her long black-hooded cape because she was constantly throwing up her -hands, and exclaiming, and pressing them together, as she tried to make -me understand that in all her seventy-eight years she had only twice -ridden in a wagon and never had she dreamed of being in an automobile -before she died. What would the neighbors say? We bundled her into the -corner of the car and were off, but she could not sit still, leaning -forward to exclaim over the beauty of the snow, or a windmill, or the -children skating in their sabots, or huddling down to cover her face -with her hands in swift shyness if some one had seemed to see her; no -spirit was ever so bubbling and gay and eager and timid all at once as -Stéphanie’s as we rode through the snow toward Zele. - -Nor so patient as hers after we arrived; for instead of going to the -school, I had to leave her in the car while I went to the house of the -director, Dr. Armand Rubbens, unfortunately ill with rheumatism, who -is not only the founder of the school but the inspiration of all the -unusual accomplishments of the lace-workers of this town, where his -father is Burgomaster. After her long wait, Stéphanie’s only comment as -she looked a little fearfully at the gathering dusk, was: “It is not -yet too late to see the school.” - -Inside, Dr. Rubbens, who since taking his university degree has not -been strong enough to follow his profession, and has devoted himself -to the 800 lace-workers of his district, explained the organization of -the Zele “Trade Union Lace School,” founded three years ago and the -only one of its kind in Belgium. I felt, as he talked, that he was -reproducing in miniature a Henry Ford plant, and when I told him this, -he smiled. “I begin to think I should see one of Mr. Ford’s factories, -for in reading an account of his system in the Paris _Matin_ last week, -I was astonished at the number of his ideas I had incorporated.” - -The fifty advanced workers in the atelier (there are 140 apprentices) -share the profit of the lace sales in proportion to their wages, and -own part of the stock of the union. The best workers of this group -make twenty-five centimes an hour, or two and a half francs (fifty -cents) a day of eight hours, the highest pay I know of, so far, -gained by a lace-maker. The girls may go four hours each week to a -school of domestic science, without losing pay; there are illness and -pension funds, and other provisions for the health and protection of -the members of the school. Dr. Rubbens has seemed to accept every -opportunity as a privilege. - -[Illustration: AT WORK ON DETAILS OF A NEEDLE-POINT SCARF TO BE -PRESENTED TO QUEEN ELIZABETH] - -[Illustration: NEEDLE LACE CLASS-ROOM IN THE TRADE UNION LACE SCHOOL AT -ZELE] - -I looked over the files and photographs and records, for even tho Zele -is a remote town of but 6,000 inhabitants, this wide-awake director has -made it provide for him a better set of records and announcement and -advertising cards (some of them in English) than I have seen anywhere -else in Belgium. While I was inspecting the books, he opened a chest -and spread on the table a finished model from his school—a Needle -Point scarf or veil, sown with marguerites and varied by a bewildering -succession of open-work stitches, each seemingly more exquisite than -the preceding and some of them invented for this particular veil. The -needle-workers who had made it had given about 9,000 hours to its -flowers and gauze, and it would bring 3,000 francs to the Trade Union -treasury. - -[Illustration: NEEDLE-POINT ILLUSTRATION FOR THE FABLE OF THE FOX AND -THE GRAPES] - -[Illustration: IN THE ZELE LACE SCHOOL; JOINING DETAILS OF THE -NEEDLE-POINT SCARF PRESENTED TO QUEEN ELIZABETH] - -I felt that I must fetch Stéphanie to see this, but Dr. Rubbens advised -hurrying now to the school, where there was something still more -beautiful to be seen—the scarf just completed that will be presented -to Queen Elizabeth, and so far the _chef-d’œuvre_ of the Zele -lace-makers. I told Stéphanie about it on our way through the village. - -Once arrived, we went directly to the most advanced class, where -Stéphanie might find most to interest her. The young women were at work -on Needle Point collars and medallions, a series of tableaux from the -legend of the Fox and the Grapes, and she was all eyes and ears as she -went eagerly from chair to chair, trying to see what these girls had -been taught that she had missed learning, and to add to her lore, if -she could. I believe it is only in such a modern school as this that -an outsider would have been allowed to examine, as Stéphanie did, the -stitches and patterns, for the tradition of the locked door and the -carefully guarded secret still prevails in the lace word. - -I was impatient to see the school’s masterpiece, the royal scarf, and -it was now brought from the safe and held before us by three young -women, as the directress led us from point to point in the airy mesh -spun between its rose garlands and medallions. On either side of the -center medallion, the arms of Belgium, were two others, in which human -figures symbolized cities the war has made immortal. For Nieuport a -fisher-maiden stood on the shore with her basket, and about her the -net took up a cockleshell motif; Poperinghe had the graceful hop-vine -as its device; for Furnes there was a dairy-maid with her churn in -the midst of blossoming butter flowers; while Ypres was represented -by a beautiful Flamande sitting before a lace cushion heaped with -bobbins—countless stitches, occupying 12,000 hours, and the entire -weight 125 grammes! And yet, at the end, Stéphanie tilted her dear old -head and said: “Nevertheless, Madame, for the Queen, I should have -made the mesh yet finer.” - -This Trade Union is in a sense a professional school, since it -teaches design, but there is the weak spot in an otherwise remarkable -achievement. The designs executed by Dr. Rubbens and the school are -often the kind that have led foreign lace-buyers to order through -Paris, which could furnish the drawings, rather than direct from -Belgium. They lack the lightness and grace that lace designs should -unfailingly possess, just the qualities which the Friends of Lace have -done so much to encourage and cultivate. If Dr. Rubbens can see his way -to follow their suggestions, or to employing a French teacher, there -seems no limit to what he may accomplish. - -He is now attempting to establish a true needle-lace Normal School, -which will offer courses in commerce, English, history, and all the -branches necessary to a complete lace education. This will supplement -the instruction of the Bruges bobbin-lace Normal, already well under -way. He holds that the teaching of the fine needle points is more -tedious and difficult than the teaching of the bobbin points, and that -it takes more years to become expert in needle laces than in others. - -On the way home, Stéphanie asked what she might do for me. “You may -pray for me, if you wish, Stéphanie.” She was silent a moment. “But, -Madame, should I not make a pilgrimage to Lourdes for you? On one of my -trips in the wagon, I saw the sea, and for three years after that the -sea was every day just before my eyes. And to-day will remain until I -die just in front of my eyes. Madame, should I not go to Lourdes for -you?” - - - - -APPENDIX - -[Illustration: Map showing important lace areas in 1919, especially -prepared for this volume by the Brussels Lace Committee. - -The size of the circles indicates the approximate geographical extent -of lace-making activity, and has no reference to the quality produced. - -The finest varieties are made in the areas indicated by circles 3 -(noted for Valenciennes, Bruges, Cluny), 4 (Bruges, Valenciennes, -Cluny), 11 (Duchesse, Application, Rosaline), 15 (Maline, Pt. de Paris, -Pt. de Lille, Binche). - -Second quality, circles 5 (Val., Cluny), 6 (Val., Bruges, Cluny), 7 -(Duchesse, Needle Point, Val., Cluny), 9 (Point d’Hollande, Val., -Venise, Needle Point, Cluny). - -Third quality, circles 8 (Duchesse, Needle Point), 12 (Venise Needle -Point, Duchesse, Chantilly), 10 (Bruges, Duchesse, Val., Cluny), 14 -(Needle Point, Application), 13 (Cluny, Torchon), 16 (Cluny). - -The least important laces are found in regions 17 (Venise, filet), 18 -(filet, Torchon), 19 (Point de Paris, Chantilly).] - -[Illustration: _a._ Pattern] - -[Illustration: _b._ Worker’s piqure made from pattern] - - - - -APPENDIX - -_With Drawings by the Directrice of the Brussels School of Design, Mme. -Lucie Paulis_ - - -From the point of view of technique, all laces are divided into two -groups; laces made with the needle, and laces made with bobbins. - - -_I.—Laces Made with the Needle_ - -All needle lace is executed in the same manner. First, the design of -the whole is divided into details sufficiently small to allow of their -being easily held and turned by the worker. The design of each of these -details is reproduced on a special kind of black paper by means of tiny -pricked holes that follow all its lines. - -The lace worker sews this pattern (or _piqure_) to a piece of double -white cloth, which gives it solidity. She is then ready to begin the -_tracé_ or outlining process. A strand of two or three threads is -appliquéd along all the contours of the pattern by means of a very fine -needle and very fine thread, which catches the cloth below the black -paper, passing and repassing through each of the holes of the pattern, -thus holding the outlining strand in a sort of embrace. When all the -contours of the drawing have been traced, the second part of the work -begins, the execution of the points that are to fill in the spaces. - -[Illustration: _c._ The outlining or tracing cord] - -All the points or stitches of needle lace are loops, simple or twisted, -formed by a needle carrying a single thread. (The worker holds the -needle with the base instead of the point, forward.) The first row of -loops is attached to the threads of the outlining strand. Arriving at -the extremity of the space she is working, the lace-maker begins a -second row of loops running in the opposite direction, attaching each -loop to the corresponding loop of the first row. At the end of this -row she fastens it to the outlining strand by one or two stitches and -starts on the third row, repeating this operation until her space is -completely covered. - -The _points_ or stitches most frequently employed are: - - 1. The plat (sketch d), or stitch which forms the flat woven parts, - which can be more or less tightly drawn, and serves for all the - opaque parts of the lace. It is made by simple loops, each row being - consolidated by means of a stretched thread as illustrated in the - sketch. - -[Illustration: _d._ Stitch for the _plat_ or surface] - -[Illustration: _e._ Stitch one] - - 2. The _jours_ or open-work stitches. Among the fantasy stitches - employed in the jours are: - - [Illustration: _f._ Mirror stitch] - - _a._ The _point one_, or stitch one, (sketch e.) - - There exists also a stitch _two_, and stitch _three_, which differ in - the number of loops forming the group. - -_b._ The _mirror_ stitch (sketch f.) and a kind of _ball_ stitch -(sketch g.), and lastly the famous extremely transparent _point de -gaze_, or gauze stitch (sketch h.), which constitutes the mesh of the -popular Brussels lace. - -[Illustration: _g._ Ball stitch] - -All the surfaces having been covered, the lace is further embellished -by the confection of _brodes_, or firm outlining cords around the -filled-in spaces, which produce a more or less striking effect of -relief in needle laces. This _brode_ (sketch i), is made of a strand of -fine or heavier threads, appliquéd as was the original strand outlining -the pattern spaces, and then beautifully covered by the buttonhole -stitch. When the brode is well made, the buttonhole stitches follow -closely, touching side by side. - -[Illustration: _h._ Gauze mesh stitch] - -Many differing little details which help to give to needle lace its -richness and brilliancy (balls, rings, etc.), are also varieties of -brodes, and are made for the most part in the buttonhole stitch. The -bars forming the base of Venise lace are made in this way. - -The execution of the brodes is the final work in needle lace. After -they are finished, the lace detail is detached from the underlying -pattern by cutting the thread between the black paper and supporting -cloth, the fine thread which in the beginning attached the outlining -strand. There remains only to join the separate details of the pattern -by a very fine stitch called the _point invisible_. - -[Illustration: _i._ Brode, buttonhole stitch] - -The varieties of needle laces are: - - _a._ Venise (_fond_ or base composed of _brides_ or bars). - - _b._ Reticella (Venise lace of geometric design and made without - brodes or outlining relief cords). - - _c._ Rose Point (Venise with a design of fine branches and tendrils). - - _d._ Brussels Point or Needle Point (very fine lace in which a gauze - mesh replaces the bars employed in Venise). - - -_II.—Bobbin Lace_ - -Bobbin laces fall under two groups: (1) Those made with cut threads, -and (2) those made with continuous threads. - -1. Laces made with cut threads, or of repeated details, are executed -on a round cushion, which can be easily turned and they require but a -limited number of bobbins (generally not more than two dozen). They -may be said to be composed essentially of a braid which grows wider -or narrower as it follows all the variations of the pattern, and is -interrupted as often as is necessary. - -The parts in process of operation are attached to those already -finished by veritable running knots made with the aid of a little -crochet needle, a tool absolutely indispensable to the making of this -kind of lace. The design of the whole is divided into portions so small -that they cover only the middle of the cushion. It is necessary to have -all around the detail, space for the bobbins, each of which carries a -thread about four inches long. - -[Illustration: _j._ Bobbins used in making Belgian laces - - _1_, _2_ and _3_ Valenciennes - _4_ and _5_ Malines] - -[Illustration: _j._ Bobbins used in making Belgian laces - - _6_ Malines - _7_ Point de Paris - _8_ Application - _9_ Torchon - _10_ Duchesse] - -[Illustration: _k._ A pattern for bobbin lace, with l, m, n, the braids -in which it must be executed] - -Each fragment is traced on a dark blue paper or _patron_ on which -the place for the pins is not indicated (sketch k.). The lace-maker -pins this blue paper to the middle of her cushion, covering the whole -with a piece of dark blue linen which has a hole in the middle large -enough to leave free the part of the pattern actually being worked. The -lace already finished is thus protected. She then places a pin on -the spot where she decides to begin, attaching the necessary number of -bobbins and starts to weave as a weaver does, first from right to left, -then from left to right, carrying the two bobbins holding the threads -forming the woof (_trame_) successively above and below the threads -forming the warp (_chaine_). Each time all of the threads of the warp -have been crossed by the threads of the woof, she places a pin, and -now the two woof threads caught by this pin lead back to the opposite -side. She turns her cushion according to the direction of the braid -she is executing, so that the threads forming the warp always fall -vertically. - -[Illustration: _l._ A braid which forms the _toile_] - -[Illustration: _m._ A _grillé_ braid] - -[Illustration: _n._ A braid of 4 threads] - -The fundamental stitch in these laces and that which forms the greatest -part of the braids is the _point de toile_, or _toile_ (sketch 1.). -Certain open stitches are also employed, the most common being the -_grillé_ or half-stitch (sketch m.). - -The different varieties of bobbin laces made with cut threads, or in -repeated pieces are: - - _a._ Bruges, the flowers are united by brides or bars that are braided - with four threads (sketch n.). - - _b._ Duchesse (made only with fine thread, loosely worked and - producing a not particularly pleasing result). - - _c._ Rosaline (an imitation with bobbins of Rose Point. Brodes, or - raised outlines made with the needle, give it relief). - - _d._ Flanders (in this lace the base of brides or bars is replaced by - a net mesh base executed with a needle). - - _e._ Application (the flowers, executed like those of Bruges are sewed - upon tulle). - -2. Lace made with uncut or continuous threads. Laces of this group are -executed on a stationary cushion. The design, before it can be used by -the worker, must pass through the hands of a _piqueuse_, or interpreter, -who prepares what is called the patron or pattern (sketch o), that -is to say, determines in advance the places where the pins destined -to hold the threads, must be placed (sketch of a piqure, p.). This -work of the piqueuse demands great skill and infinite patience. Upon -her interpretation will depend the aspect of the lace, for the worker -follows her indications rigidly. This pattern is pricked on a supple -and resistant cardboard (in olden times it was made on parchment) and -is pinned to the cushion with the selvage of the lace at the left. The -worker then attaches to a row of pins placed all across the top of the -pattern, the threads which she will need, often many hundreds. - -[Illustration: _o._ Pattern from which piqure is made] - -[Illustration: _p._ Piqure] - -Now she commences her work, braiding, twisting, intercrossing the -threads in diverse ways, and placing a pin each time the threads must -be held in a position which they can not retain without the aid of a -fixt support. When she arrives at the bottom of her pattern, with great -care she takes out all the pins, and lifts her work to the top of the -pattern, replacing the pins so that the lace will be kept absolutely -regular. She then recommences her work of braiding or weaving, -repeating the same operation till the length of lace she must make is -finished. The patterns are usually about a foot long. - -[Illustration: _q._ Valenciennes mesh] - -The bobbin laces made with continuous thread comprise: - - _a._ Cluny and - _b._ Laces with a mesh base: - 1. Valenciennes, - 2. Binche, - 3. Malines, - 4. Point de Paris, - 5. Point de Lille, - 6. Chantilly. - -The varieties in Group _b_ may truly be called woven lace, because they -contain a veritable tissue in which, tho the threads are combined in -such a way as to produce more or less open effects, the opaque parts -are woven regularly, that is as linen is woven. The pattern of the mesh -of each of these laces is different. - - Valenciennes (sketch q.). - Binche (sketch r and s.). - Malines (sketch t.). - Point de Paris (sketch u.). - Point de Lille (sketch v.). - -Further, Malines, Chantilly, Point de Lille, and Point de Paris are -characterized by the presence of the _bourdon_, or heavy thread, -slightly twisted, outlining all the details of the design. - -Grammont, or Chantilly lace, is usually made of black silk thread. -The mesh is the same as that of Point de Lille. In it the toile is -replaced by the grillé, which adds greatly to the lightness of the -effect. - -[Illustration: _r._ Binche mesh] - -N. B.—To be understood technically, all these laces made with -continuous thread should be considered from the point of view of -the place they occupy on the cushion of the worker: They are held -vertically with the selvage at the left. - -[Illustration: _s._ Mesh of “snow-ball” pattern, used in Binche] - -It is necessary to mention with these laces, Torchon, the most common -of all, which has little artistic value, and has entered more and more -into the domain of the machine. Torchon base (sketch w.). - -[Illustration: _t._ Malines mesh] - -[Illustration: _u._ Point de Paris mesh] - -[Illustration: _v._ Point de Lille mesh] - -[Illustration: _w._ Torchon base] - -[Illustration: _x._ Picot] - -[Illustration: _y._ Cluny pattern] - -Group _A._—Cluny laces demand great ingenuity in execution. The most -simple are made entirely by braiding in such a way as to produce an -effect of interlacing (sketch y.). The braids are formed of four -threads; when the interlacing is more important they become more -complicated. At times the braids group themselves to form the flat -surface or toile which later will resolve again into braids. They -unite and part, sometimes dividing into strands (brides) of two -threads according to the lines of the design. This design should be -absolutely precise. And since in it the future employment of each -thread must be constantly foreseen, it is quite impossible to compose -a Cluny lace pattern without a knowledge of the technique of that lace -(sketch y). - -[Illustration: _z._ Interpreted Torchon pattern] - -[Illustration: Completed lace] - -Sometimes the general name guipure is given to Cluny, as well as to all -laces made with continuous thread which have not a mesh base. - - - - -INDEX - - - Aerseele, 110 - - Albert King, 194 - - Alcantara, Comtesse d’, 252 - - Alençon (town), 31 - - Alençon lace, 38, 132 - - Allard, Mme. Josse, 169, 172, 209 - - Alost, Lace region of, 149, 169ff, 224 - Spinneries of, 82 - - America, Aid from, 17, 235, 236 - Lace buyer of, 252 - Laces displayed in, 40 - - Americans in Ghent, 248 - - Amies de la Dentelle, Convent subsidized by, 218 - Lace quality conservation by, 100, 272 - Prices under, 103 - School reforms under, 15 - War committee, see Brussels Lace Committee - - Antik lace, see Flanders, Old - - Antwerp, Old Flanders in, 115 - Port of, 30, 166 - Province of, 146 - - Application lace, 226, 241 - Areas producing, 277 - Bobbins for, 289 - Lacets for, 171 - Method of making, 221ff, 292 - Restoration of, 256 - Tulle base for, 41, 259 - - Ardois, 109 - - Argentin lace, 38 - - Arras, 31 - - Asper, 252 - - - Bachte, 252 - - Baelegem, 251 - - Bailleul, 34 - Devastation of, 36 - - Bayeux, 131 - - Beernem, 123 - - Béguinage of Bruges, 154ff - of Ghent, 155 - - Berraly’s convent, Abbé, 53ff - - Beth, Thread firm of, 81 - - Bethune, Baron de, 85 - - Beughem, Vicomtesse de, 17, 127, 169 - - Binche lace, 115, 150, 152, 166 - Areas producing, 277 - Mesh designs, 297, 298 - Method of making, 40, 296 - - Bixio, M., 27 - - Blonde lace, 40 - Method of making, 134 - - Bobbin lace, 37 - Areas producing, 97ff, 144ff - Method of making, 39, 287ff - Teaching, 161 - Varieties of, 39, 40, 292, 296 - - Bousies, Comtesse de, 249 - - Brabant, Lace area of, 215ff - Province of, 146 - - Bruges (town), 30, 51, 87, 91, 124, 247 - Lace region of, 143ff - Lace Normal School of, 76, 100 - - Bruges lace, 241, 249, 257 - Areas producing, 143ff, 277 - Collars and cuffs, 113 - Duchesse, 40, 149, 150, 152 - Method of making, 292 - Old, 109 - Point de, 104 - Rosaline and, 226ff - - Bruggen, Mme. Van der, 123 - - Brussels (town), 19, 21, 85, 204, 210, 216, 217, 232, 241, 253 - German “Lace Control” in, 122 - Museum, 26, 42, 86 - Point d’Angleterre in, 223 - School of Design, 76, 165, 279 - - Brussels lace, - Duchesse, 40, 237, 241 - Point, 39, 179, 182, 283, 286 - Method of making Brussels Point, 286 - - Brussels Lace Committee, 127, 148, 151, 195 - Agency, purchasing and sales, 108, 116, 174, 182, 206, - 210, 225, 237, 241 - Designs of, 58, 193, 242 - Educational aims of, 56, 75, 115 - German interference with, 123, 238 - Improvements through, 36, 53, 121 - Map of lace areas, 276 - Origin and purpose of, 15ff - Personnel of, 17 - Prices paid by, 103, 112, 123, 124, 254 - Representatives of, 105, 118, 149, 236, 252 - Thread supply for, 82, 88 - - Burano lace, 39 - - Bysance, 26 - - - Calais, 35, 172 - - Celine, 250 - - Chantilly lace, 40, 205 - Areas producing, 127ff, 277 - Method of making, 296 - - Cinquantenaire Museum, 26, 42, 86 - - Claterna, Ancient bobbins of, 27 - - Cluny lace, 28, 44, 89, 94, 98, 111, 118, 123, 149, - 150, 152, 162, 225, 237, 251 - Areas producing, 277 - Designs, 302 - Duty on, 90 - Guipures of, 99, 103, 104, 113, 149 - Method of making, 39, 296, 302, 304 - - Coates, Thread firm of, 82 - - Cock, Gillemont de, 148, 166 - - Colbert, 31 - - Colette, 179 - - Collart, M., 17 - - Comité National, Cooperation of, 16, 17, 19 - Relief work of, 216, 235 - - Commission for Relief in Belgium, 120, 236 - Cooperation of, 16, 19, 135 - - Compagnie des Indes, 17 - - Convents, Lace-making - Bruges, 149 - Cruyshautem, 202 - Eecke, 252 - Erembodeghem, 189ff - Heckelgem, 215ff - Kerxken, 173 - Liedekerke, 218ff - Opbrakel, 201ff - Ruysselede, 252, 255 - Scheldewinkle, 252 - Thielt, 105, 110 - Turnhout, 53ff - - Coppens, Mme., 256ff, 265 - - Courtrai lace region, 79ff - - Cox, Thread firm of, 81 - - Cruyshautem convent, 202 - - Cuseners, Mme., 129 - - - Designs of various laces, 278ff - - Destelbergen, 224, 251, 256 - - Deynze district, 252, 253 - - Dixmude, 87, 143 - - Duchesse lace, 98, 123, 163, 249, 251, 252, 255 - Areas producing, 277 - Bobbins for, 289 - Bruges, 40, 149, 150, 152 - Brussels, 40, 237, 241 - Guipures, 99 - Method of making, 292 - - - Eecke convent, 252 - - Egypt, 26 - - Elizabeth, Queen, 17 - Laces for, 38, 193ff, 270ff - Patronage of, 15 - - England, 30 - Thread from, 19, 82 - Tulle from, 35 - - Erembodeghem, 185, 210 - Lace region of, 189ff - - - Flanders (district), Lace industry in 30, 43ff, 146 - - Flanders lace, 41, 99, 163, 237, 241, 251 - Details of, 224, 114ff - Guipures of, 113 - Method of making, 292 - Old, 40, 111, 114ff, 150, 152, 166, 225 - - France, History of lace in, 30ff - - Franciscaine Sisters, 173ff, 189ff, 201ff - - Friends of Lace, see Amies de la Dentelle - - Furnes, 87, 271 - - - Gand, Canton de, 248 - - German depredations, 51, 59, 80, 82ff, 88, 231 - facteurs, 88, 119 - interference with lace workers, 18, 105, 110, 119, - 120ff, 157ff, 174, 190, 219, 237ff - “Lace Control,” 20, 120ff - - Ghent, 30, 87, 143, 147 - Béguinage of, 155 - Lace Committee, 249ff - Lace region of, 247ff - Spinneries of, 82 - - Graeht, Baron van der, 105, 108, 114 - Mlle. van der, 105 - - Grammont, Chantilly lace region, 127ff, 206, 296 - - Greeks, 26 - - Grenadine d’Alays, 139 - - Groothuis museum, 151 - - Gulleghem, 92 - - Gysenzeele, 251 - - - Hainaut, Province of, 146 - - Haltaert, 170 - - Hansbeek, 255 - - Hebrews, 26 - - Heckelgem convent, 215ff - - Henry, Mrs. Bayard, 92 - - Herzele lace region, 231ff - - Holland, 30 - Lace for Queen of, 207 - - Hoover, Herbert C., 18 - Mrs. Herbert C., 193 - - Hours of lace workers, 65ff 111ff 217, 228, 255, 268 - - - Imitations, 17, 41, 171, 183 - of Chantilly, 132, 138 - of Point d’Angleterre, 221 - - Import duty on lace, 90 - - Ireland, Thread from, 82 - - Iseghem, 98 - - Italy, 15, 36 - Ancient bobbins in, 27 - History of lace in, 29 - - - Kefer-Mali, Mme., 17, 42, 215, 221 - - Kerxken lace region, 169ff, 224 - - Knesselars, 251 - - - Lace areas, List and Map of, 276ff - History of, 25ff - Methods of making, 279ff - Schools, 146, 147, 242ff - Amies de la Dentelle and, 15ff, 76 - Chantilly, 129, 131 - Convent, 53ff 105, 149ff, 177, 190ff, 205ff, 215, 218ff, 252 - Coppens’, 256 - Normal, 100, 110ff, 152, 156ff, 273 - Trade Union, 265ff - Varieties of, see Bobbin lace and Needle lace - - Landsanter, 251 - - Liedekerke lace region, 215ff - - Liedt’s collection, Baron, 151 - - Lille, 30, 34 - - Lootenhulle, 252, 255 - - Louis XIII, 32 - - Louis XIV, 31, 32, 33 - - Louis Philippe, 35 - - Lys River valley flax, 30, 79ff - - - Machelin, 252 - - Maertens, Professor, 148, 156 - - Maldeghem, 149 - - Malines (town) 30, 86, 248 - - Malines lace, 40, 100 - Areas producing, 277 - Bobbins for, 288, 289 - Mesh design, 299 - Method of making, 73ff, 296 - Old laces, 86 - Point de Lille and, 71, 72 - - Map of lace areas, 276 - - Margharita of Italy, Queen, 15 - - Maria Loop, 110 - - Marie Antoinette, 33 - - Marie-Henriette, Duchess of Brabant, 249 - - Marie-Thérèse, Empress, 248 - - Menin, 87 - - Mercier, Cardinal, 239 - Malines lace of, 75 - - Milan lace, 104 - Guipure of, 114 - - Mullie, Mlle., 87, 89, 90 - - Museum, Brussels, 26, 42, 86 - Courtrai, 85 - Groothuis, 151 - - - Needle lace, 37ff, 201, 206, 208ff, 273 - Method of making, 279ff - Varieties of, 38ff, 286 - - Needle Point lace, 44, 99, 162, 169, 189, 202, 223, - 248, 249, 251, 252, 269, 270 - Areas producing, 277 - Method of making, 178ff, 286 - - New York, 90 - - Nieuport, 87, 143, 271 - - Ninove, 128 - Spinneries of, 82 - - Northcliffe’s posters, Lord, 240 - - - Oedelem, 123 - - Oostcamp, 123, 149 - - Oosterzele, 251 - - Opbrakel convent, 189, 201ff - - Oultremont, Comtesse Elizabeth d’, 17 - - - Paisley spinneries, 82 - - Parc, Comte du, 231ff - Mme. du, 231ff - - Paris lace market, 69, 90, 196, 223 - - Paulis, Mme. Lucie, 165, 279 - - Peat, Thread firm of, 93, 134 - - Persia, 26 - - Pittham, 109 - - Point d’ Alençon, 132 - d’Angleterre, 181, 221, 241, 260 - Method of making, 40, 223ff - de Bruges, 104 - de Flanders, 224ff - de Gaze, 179, 283 - d’Hollande, 72 - Areas producing, 277 - de Lille, 40 - Areas producing, 277 - Mesh design, 300 - Method of making, 71, 296 - de Milan, 104 - de Paris, 40, 134 - Areas producing, 277 - Bobbins for, 289 - Mesh design, 299 - Method of making, 62, 296 - Various uses of, 69, 71 - de Venise, see Venetian Point - - Pompadour, Marquise de, 33 - - Poperinghe, 87, 271 - - Prices paid for lace, 88, 103, 117, 183, 196, 217, 254 - - Prices paid for supplies, 88, 93 - - Priestess of Hathor, 27 - - Puy, Thread firm of, 93 - - - Reims, 31 - - Reticella, 286 - - Retreats, 154ff - - Rippenhausen, Freiherr von, 121 - - Robertine, Sœur, 174ff, 197 - - Rond mesh, 91 - - Roose, Mme., 151 - - Rosalie, 217 - - Rosaline lace, 40, 152, 221, 223, 237, 241, 249, 255 - Areas producing, 277 - Method of making, 226ff, 292 - - Rose point lace, 39, 195, 292 - Method of making, 286 - - Rubbens, Dr. Armand, 162, 267ff - - Rudder, M. de, 193 - - Rulant, Adele, 172 - - Russian lace, 163 - - Ruysselede, 110, 252, 255 - - Ryeland, Mme., 149 - - - St. Andre, 149 - - St. Croix, 149 - - St. Michel, 149, 153 - - St. Pierre des Calais, 132 - - Scheldewinkle convent, 252 - - Schools, see Lace schools - - Sedan, 31 - - Sharlaecken, Mme., 17 - - Sicily, 30 - - Sidonie, 178 - - Sister A., 190ff - - Sister M., 220ff - - Sister S., 195 - - Slock, Mlle., 118 - - Spain, Blonde lace for, 40, 134 - - Stéphanie, 257ff, 265ff - - Stoop, M. de, 79, 84 - - Syria, 26 - - Syssele, 149 - - - Thielt lace region, 97ff - - Thourout lace region, 97ff - - Torchon lace, 40, 94, 99, 150, 152, 298 - Areas producing, 277 - Bobbins for, 289 - Designs of, 301, 303 - Teaching of, 162 - - Turnhout, 43, 135, 143, 144, 165 - Lace region of, 49ff - - - Union Patriotique des Femmes Belges, 17 - - - Valenciennes (town), 30, 34, 147 - - Valenciennes lace, 31, 40, 85, 89, 94, 99, 102, 105, - 123, 149, 150, 151, 152, 155, 156, 163, 166, 248, 249 - Areas producing, 79ff, 87, 277 - Bobbins for, 288 - Duty on, 90 - Mesh, 27, 41, 71, 90 - Mesh design, 295 - Method of making, 296 - Prices paid for, 254ff - School for, 110, 252 - - Values of lace, 31, 88, 90, 225, 269 - See also Prices - - Van Hoeimessen, Curé, 176 - - Venetian Point lace, 206 - Medallions, 192, 210 - Varieties of, 39 - See also Venise - - Venice, 29, 30, 144, 206 - - Venise lace, 39, 169, 182, 189, 216, 237, 251, 252 - Areas producing, 277 - Method of making, 178, 192, 285, 286 - “Queen’s Cloth” of, 193ff - - Vynck, 252, 254 - - - Wages paid lace workers, 44, 65, 73, 89, 92, 110, 112ff, - 124, 172, 218, 228, 250, 258, 268 - - Wevelghem, 92 - - Whitlock, Mrs. Brand, 16 - - Wynghene lace region, 97ff - Burgomaster of, 118 - - - Ypres, 36, 87, 90, 143, 271 - - - Zele, Lace school at, 76, 162, 265ff - - - - -WOMEN _of_ BELGIUM - -TURNING TRAGEDY TO TRIUMPH - -_A Book of Gripping Human Interest_ - -By CHARLOTTE KELLOGG - -An absorbingly interesting narrative of personal experience by the only -woman member of the Relief Commission, who tells in moving language the -story of the unbreakable spirit sustaining the Belgians and the noble -service the Belgian women have rendered and inspired in a land made -desolate by war. - -Introduction by HERBERT C. HOOVER, - -_Chairman, Commission for Relief in Belgium_ - - To quote from Mr. Hoover’s own foreword: “The soul of Belgium received - a grievous wound, but the women of Belgium are staunching the flow, - sustaining and leading this stricken nation to greater strength and - greater life. We of the Relief have been proud of the privilege to - place the tools in the hands of these women and have watched their - skilful use and their improvement in method with hourly admiration.... - Mrs. Kellogg has done more than record in simple terms passing - impressions of the varied facts of the work of these women, for she - spent months in loving sympathy with them. We offer her little book - as our, and Mrs. Kellogg’s tribute in admiration of them and the - inspiration which they have contributed to this whole organization.” - -_12mo, cloth, $1.00; by mail, $1.12._ - - -_What Leading Periodicals Say of_ - -WOMEN _of_ BELGIUM - -By CHARLOTTE KELLOGG - - “So impressed was Mrs. Kellogg by the greatness and value of what the - Belgian women are doing to help save the Belgian people that she has - written this book, in which each chapter describes some phase or tells - some incident of what she saw. The simplicity with which she writes - makes the wonderful story of the devotion, the unstinted service, - the utter self-abnegation with which many thousands of Belgian women - are giving themselves completely to this work stand out all the more - grandly.”—_Times_, New York. - - “Among the thousands of books that have been written on the - war, in this country and abroad, the pen of a woman has given - us the truest portrayal of the real heart of a heart-broken - people.”—_Constitution_, Atlanta, Ga. - - “The pages brim with information and with profoundest pathos. - As you read some of them you will feel a lump in your - throat.”—_Knickerbocker Press_, Albany, N. Y. - - “It is a book of tears, heart-throbs, and of devotion.... We do not - think that anyone who reads it will regret sending a son to redress - the wrongs of humanity.”—_Inquirer_, Philadelphia, Pa. - - “The farther you read the more you will wish to read, so great is the - charm, so intense the interest.”—_Eastern Argus_, Portland, Me. - - “It is full of the kind of stuff that makes us proud of the part - played by Americans in the work of saving Belgium from famine during - the long, sad months that Germany had its iron heel on this stricken - land.”—_Evening Star_, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. - - “The only American woman member of that Commission wrote the - book—Mrs. Charlotte Kellogg—after spending eight months on Belgian - soil; and her strong sympathy, her unfailing appreciation, intensify - the literary charm of its pages. Learning how these women have - labored, in their mothering of smitten millions, we get from this book - side-lights upon the effects of the war.”—_Richmond Times Despatch._ - -_12mo, cloth, $1.00; by mail, $1.12._ - - -FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers - - 354–360 Fourth Avenue, New York - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bobbins of Belgium, by Charlotte Kellogg - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOBBINS OF BELGIUM *** - -***** This file should be named 60275-0.txt or 60275-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/2/7/60275/ - -Produced by F E H, MWS and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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