EUROPE 61 



women make here, but it is exquisitely fine and of 

 very graceful patterns. I wanted to buy some, and 

 while we were making our purchase Cecile and I 

 went into one of the houses where one of the lace 

 workers lived. We came first into a little kitchen, 

 where everything looked poor as poverty, but as neat 

 as wax; a httle fire burned in the chimney, and they 

 were preparing their scanty supper. Out of that led 

 another room not much larger, where we found the 

 father of the family with two daughters working at 

 different parts of music boxes. They w^orked before a 

 window through which they looked out over the slopes 

 of the Jura to Mt. Blanc, but I believe if Paradise 

 lay before them they would not raise their eyes to look 

 at it, they are so afraid of losing time; and the father 

 told me that in beginning their work at four o'clock 

 in the morning and never ceasing till nightfall they 

 found it difficult to earn thirty cents a day. They 

 were in rags, but they looked perfectly clean. In that 

 little chamber slept the whole family, six in all, the 

 father and mother, two daughters, and two old men, 

 the grandfathers, and yet everything was as clean 

 and neat as possible. One of the beds was not made 

 and the father apologized, saying, "The two old men 

 sleep there, and we like to let them rest, so (that) 

 we cannot make their bed before daybreak as we do 

 our own, and not to lose time during the daylight, 

 we leave it till it is too dark to work." The mother 

 worked at the lace, of which I purchased three yards, 

 but only two and a half were finished. I said to her, 

 "Never mind, I will pay you now and you will send 



