15 



DOMESTIC DBPARTMENT. 



It may uot be amiss, iu giving our report this year, to 

 remind our contributors, although our display in the various 

 departments were tasteful and beautiful, we have hardly 

 commenced to arrive at the excellency of quality of work 

 which distinguished our ancestors. 



Some of their accomplishments were : the finest stitching ; 

 two threads to every stitch, gathers likewise, and each gather 

 sewed in place, each thread being counted ; the finest of thread 

 lace knitted with a steel needle, in most elaborate and beautiful 

 designs, some of which has been handed down to the present 

 generation ; linen woven so fine, it is like silk for evenness. 

 These were , some of the finer work. Beautiful tapestries, 

 which to this day retain very much of the original color ; spin- 

 ning and weaving the homely cloth Avoru by their honored 

 husbands and sons, were but a small part of the many things 

 their willing hands found to do. Many left homes of wealth, 

 where their youth had been passed in receiving the highest 

 culture of the time. Yet, for the Jove they bore to the 

 Supreme Ruler, they were willing to come here to build a 

 country : i. e., the society which has so kindly fallen to our 

 lot, with all its helps and very little of their hindrances. 



It seems strange that our children, as a whole, think these 

 essentially icomanly accomplishments so needless. 



No woman iu those days but was an adept with her needle. 

 Neither did she sit down of an afternoon idle^ when her neighr 



