440 ART AND COTTAGE INDUSTRIES. 



" Any work that can be done by the needle we undertake to do, and in the 

 best manner. Books embroidered on parchment or satin are a specialty, also 

 church embroidery of all descriptions. I would particularly call attention to 

 an Altar frontal which we have lately finished, and which can now be seen in 

 Kildare Cathedral. It is elaborately embroidered on alternate panels of 

 cloth of ^old and crimson damask, and I think I may say, without fear 

 of contradiction, that it is about as g"Ood a specimen of artistic needle- 

 work as the present day can produce. An equally rich and elaborate 

 frontal, with a figure of St. Patrick in the centre panel, has been more recently 

 made for St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. Under the superintendence of our 

 manager every description of needlework is executed. Patterns can be sent 

 on approval, and we are always glad to receive orders for embroidered dresses 

 for drawing-rooms, weddings, &c, I may add that we have access to many 

 beautiful embroideries in the National Museums and in private collections. 

 We are also in correspondence with some of the best designers of the day, so 

 that we can copy or originate according to the wish of our patrons. In con- 

 clusion, I would put forward one more motive for giving support to such 

 efforts as we are engaged upon. It is well known that nothing lowers the tone 

 of the mind more than a low tone in the surroundings ; and it will be remem- 

 bered that it was the rule in Greek domestic life that no object in daily use, 

 however lowly it might be, should be fashioned after a low or sordid type. In 

 the poorest households the child's eye grew accustomed to forms of beauty and 

 art, fashioned out of the rudest material. So let it be with us ! " 



Of the Dalkey Society, which is a co-operative institution. Lady Betty 

 Balfour writes : — 



** I happened not long ago to be with a party visiting one of the most 

 successful new creameries in the West of Ireland. 

 Dalkey Co-operative A fellow-visitor then made a criticism which struck me. 

 Embroidery Society. It was to the effect that though, no doubt, these 

 factories were beneficial to the trade of butter-making, 

 they had to a large extent robbed the farmers' daughters of their home 

 employment. The cow still had to be milked, and the milk conveyed by one 

 member of the family to the creamery, but the actual butter-making which was 

 formerly carried on in each individual farmhouse, being now transferred to the 

 creamery, the girls at home must sit with idle hands. 



" The reply seemed obvious. If the fathers had found the methods of co- 

 operation unfailingly successful in the industries of butter-making, bacon- 

 curing, the cultivation of flax, &c. , why should not the daughters pronounce 

 for themselves this ' open sesame ' and co-operate on similar principles for 

 such industries as dressmaking, embroidery, needlework, millinery, artificial 

 flower making, basket work, lace work, &c. 



" Surely no one will venture to say that where men have successfully com- 

 bined for business-like purposes, women are incapable of doing so. 



" Under this system the skilful and capable girl need not wait for an 

 employer, the willing but ignorant one for a teacher. Let them combine to 

 procure the implements, materials, and technical training necessary for the 

 production of a marketable article, and they will have secured for themselves a 

 livelihood. 



" The suggestion that women as well as men should combine to work an 

 industry under the new system has, in one case, already been most successfully 

 tested. 



"The Co-operative Needlework Society which has been started at Dalkey 

 has set an excellent example to girls elsewhere in Ireland. 



