288 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



matter.* For embroidery purposes pearls are now not a little used. 

 Hosiery making is strong in the district of Santerre. Rather a peculiar 

 type of hand embroidery lately introduced and not a little practised 

 is the making of batik, a speciality copied from what is done in Java, 

 where it is a national form of ornamentation, the cotton fabric being 

 curiously prepared with castor oil and wax. The fair fame of the 

 curious product threatens to be marred by counterfeit imitations, 

 which are freely manufactured in America. If the making of straw 

 hats has declined, and the German brushmakers have gained to some 

 extent on the French, who, nevertheless, still cut a creditable 

 figure in the country of Beauvais, profiting by the abundance of 

 beech forest in the neighbourhood — wickerwork and basket-making 

 continue active, and hand-shoemaking and the making of wooden 

 shoes continue to hold their heads high. Wooden shoemaking in 

 1906 employed some 55,000 people, of whom about 1,500 were 

 women. And the making of white linen shoes with cord soles is 

 steadily extending. The colonial expansion of France is expected 

 to widen the market for this particular commodity still more. Near 

 Nancy alone there are about 6,000 people employed upon it. And 

 " gloving " (in leather) is distinctly on the increase. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Grenoble alone there are about 20,000 women employed 

 on it. Milhaud, in the Aveyron, is another important centre. The 

 musical instruments sold in Paris are for the most part made in 

 villages, mainly in the Vosges and the Eure. Mirecourt, in Lorraine, 

 is the headquarters of the manufacture of violins, all by hand. In 

 the Eure lately, in the place of rosewood and ebony and similar 

 woods, the wood of holly and box has been employed as preferable. 

 The remarkable growth of boxwood in the neighbourhood of 

 Betarram (in Bearne, the " Box Hill " of France), where box trees 

 grow to the height of 15 feet, is taken advantage of for a quite 

 peculiar hand industry, the manufacture of rosaries for the use of 

 devout Roman Catholics. This has become a flourishing industry. 

 There is a good deal of other woodwork done, as well as, of course, 

 work in cork-wood. Metal industry likewise continues strong. 

 Hand-made locks of Vimeu are prized ; and places like Thiers, 

 Bar-le-Duc and Langres still hold their own with their famed cutlery. 

 The French Jura contributes its goodly quota of hand-made watches 

 of the well-known Swiss type. And pottery — partly for stove 

 building — manages to live on well in the Sarthe and the Nievre. 

 Then there is the eyeglass making of Morez, Ligny-en-Barrois, Saint 

 Mihiel and some other places. Altogether hand industry has still 

 * See my " Country of the Vosges." Longmans. 



