532 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tlie finest laces of the Brussels market, smuggled them over to Eng- 

 land, and sold them as English point (Figs. 7 and 8). 



The smuggling of lace is a very important and interesting feature 

 in its history. From IVOO downward we are told that in England the 

 prohibition of lace went for nothing. Ladies would have foreign lace, 

 and if they could not smuggle it themselves the smuggler brought it 

 to them. " Books, bottles, babies, boxes, and umbrellas, daily poured 

 out their treasures." Everybody smuggled. 



" At one period much lace was smuggled into France from Bel- 

 gium by means of dogs trained for the purpose. A dog was caressed 

 and petted at home, fed on the fat of the land, then, after a season, 

 sent across the frontier where he was tied up, half starved, and ill- 

 treated. The skin of a bigger dog was then fitted to his body, 

 and the intervening space filled with lace. The dog was then allowed 

 to escape, and make his way home, where he was kindly welcomed, 

 with his contraband charge. These journeys were repeated till the 

 French custom-house, getting scent, by degrees put an end to the 

 traffic. Between 1820 and 1836, 40,278 dogs were destroyed, a reward 

 of three francs being given for each." 



The thread used in Brussels lace is of the first importance. It is 

 of extreme fineness, and the best quality, spun in underground rooms 

 to avoid dryness of the air, is so fine as to be almost invisible. The 

 room is darkened, and a background of dark paper is arranged to 

 throw out the thread, while only a single ray of light is admitted, 

 which falls upon it as it passes from the distafi". The exquisite fine- 

 ness of this thread made the real Brussels ground so costly as to pre- 

 vent its production in other countries. A Scotch traveler, in 1787, 

 says that " at Brussels, from one pound of flax alone, they can manu- 

 facture to the value of seven hundred pounds sterling." 



In fijrmer times, the ground of Brussels lace was made both by 

 needle and on the pillow. The needle-ground was worked from one 

 flower to another, while the pillow-ground was made in small strips 

 an inch wide, and from seven to forty-five inches long. It required 

 the greatest skill to join the segments of shawls and large pieces of 

 lace. The needle-ground is three times as expensive as the pillow, for 

 the needle is passed four times into each mesh, but in the pillow it is 

 not passed at all. Machinery has now added a third kind of ground, 

 called tulle, or Brussels-net. Since this has come into use, the hand- 

 made ground is seldom used except for royal trousseaux. The flow- 

 ers of Brussels lace are also both needle-made joorn^ d V aiguille dindi 

 those of the pillow " point plat." In the older laces the plat flowers 

 were worked in along with the ground, as lace applique was unknown 

 (Figs. 7 and 8). 



Each process in the making of Brussels lace is assigned to a difier 

 ent hand. The first makes the vrai reseau; the second the fiaoting; 

 the third makes the point d Vaiguille flowers ; the fourth, the plat 



