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277 



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LACE-MAKING !N COTTAGE AND 

 FACTORY. 



AN INDUSTRY THAT EMPLOYS 

 THOUSANDS. 



By E. A. L. Douglas. 

 Dr. Johnson described net, the mother of lace, 

 as a texture ''woven with interstical vacuities." 

 If he were here today to consider the cunning 

 in-workings through which nets evolve with the 

 help of machinery into lace, and to observe the 

 variety and scope of their generation, he could, 

 filled with the spirit of modernity and its metaph- 

 orical truthfulness, define lace as the" bread and 

 butter of a great number of the British people." 

 The lace-making industries of Great Britain 

 give steady work to thousands and thousands of 

 the population. And, not only that, they are in- 

 creasing year by year, and receiving wider re- 

 cognition throughout the world, doing much for 

 the national prosperity. Further, they give work 

 thatis safer, more hygienic and more appropriate 

 for the employment of women than perhaps any 

 other industrial occupation in the kingdom. 

 Accidents are exceptiunally rare. In the last 

 statistics available the fatalities in the combined 

 lace, silk, and hosiery factories are stated as the 

 fewest of all the British Industrial work-places 

 — there having been three for the year, the 

 next lowest being eight. 



Much of the work connected with the lace 

 factories is done by women in their own homes. 

 Among other thing3, after coming from the 

 looms, the lace must be bleached, dyed, dressed, 

 starched, ironed, mended, measured and car- 

 ded. From whichever point of view it may be 

 regarded the captains of industry have every 

 reason to regard their lace factories with com- 

 placency. The maids and matrons of industry 

 also, on their part, can look on the revival of 

 the beautiful old point and pillow lace craft as 

 the greatest blessing which has ever come to the 

 cottage folk of the Midlands, of Devon, and of 

 Ireland. 



NEARLY A TOWNFUL OF WORKERS. 



In Nottingham alone there are more than 

 187,-500 people engaged in the lace trade. Yet 

 Nottingham does by no means raonoplise the 

 lace business. Much lace machinery is cons- 

 tructed there, and sent out to neighbouring 

 towns and other districts, where vast factories 

 employ many people. The greatness of the lace 

 industry permeates the life of Nottingham. It 

 may be called the keynote of its existence. The 

 School of Art and the university there appreciate 

 its importance to such an extent that they de- 

 vote special departments to the designing of 

 lace, dyeing, etc., and to the construction and 

 working of lace machinery. They even hold 

 evening classes for the express benefit of the 

 artisans. An authority, who speaks of the Not- 

 tingham looms as "marvellous triumphs of in- 

 genuity,' says ; "If we wonder at the work of 

 the lace-makers (real-lace workers), it may be of 

 even greater wonder that human intelligence 

 should have compelled steam and machinery to 

 do so nearly the same ! " 



One of the pleasing features of the lace trade 

 is the fact that, instead of being rivals, the 

 makers of real-lace and the manufacturers of 

 machine made lace work together for greater 

 trade, each appealing to distinctly different 

 classes for distinctly varying purposes, and each 

 benefiting the other. 



A RESULT OF THE FAMINE. 



All the lace industries in Ireland (except the 

 Carrickmacross and Limerick industries) were 

 developed as a direct result of the famine years 

 of 1848-7-8. Most of them grew out of the tireless 

 efforts of brave women, who, single-handed, and 

 with nothing hut hits of old lace to guide them, 

 taught the intricate stitches to the starving 

 women and children, and thus gave them an 

 able weapon with which to fotnbat the terrors 

 of their poverty. 



