MARTHA'S VINEYARD. 403 



history repeats itself. In the matter of sheep husbandry in 

 this State this is true, so far as this. 



In the laws of Massachusetts Bay, October 18, 1648, it is 

 enacted that, " if any dog shall kill any sheepe, the owner 

 shall either hang his dog forthwithe or pay double damages 

 for the sheepe ; if the dog hath bene seene to course or bite 

 any sheepe before, not being set on, and his owner hath had 

 notice thereof, then he shall both hang his dog and pay for 

 the sheepe." 



In the legislature of 1882 the Massachusetts Senate passed 

 an amendment to the "dog law," to the effect that if the 

 owner of any dog having killed sheep was known, he should 

 pay for the sheep or kill his dog. 



This harmless and wise enactment was in the House 

 attacked by a Boston lawyer and dog-breeder so effectively 

 as to defeat it, by abuse of the dog law, ridicule of sheep 

 husbandry and derision of the formers, thirty odd of whom 

 there present sat cowed, abashed and tongue-tied as the dog 

 owners triumphantly killed the bill. Truly the men of 1648 

 were wiser in their generation. 



The display in the hall was exceedingly good. The women 

 of the island are as skilled with the needle as those of a 

 former generation were with the spinning-wheel and the 

 loom. 



Seventy-five years ago there were here three carding mills, 

 which carded 6,000 lbs. of wool, and there were two fulling 

 mills, which dressed 4,000 yards of cloth, out of the 17,775 

 yards of all kinds which the women of the island wove 

 on the eighty looms in the various farm-houses, valued at 

 about 75c. per yard, and they knitted 7,406 pairs of wool- 

 len stockings, worth $4,448. 



There was a large display of useful and of very handsome 

 articles of needlework, and the very great interest felt by the 

 women of the island, and their ingenious and active industry, 

 were manifested in 342 entries of the different classes of 

 needlework, fancy work, worsted work, mats, rugs and 

 knitting, with the inevitable bedquilts. 



To almost any one of these busy workwomen might be 

 applied the words of the w^ise man, " She seeketh wool and 

 flax and w^orketh willingly with her hands." 



