The Arts and Crafts in New York 
A GROUP OF POTTERY 
Orleans and the western boundary of the 
State. There is here a settlement of French- 
speaking farmers descended from the Acadians 
who were expelled from Nova Scotia in 1755. 
They live apart from more recent comers, 
preserving their own language, national traits 
and the customs of the last century. To-day 
they spin and grow their own cotton, which 
is still hand-carded. Before the war the 
sugar planters and their families wore suits 
of the Attakapas cottonades, woven by the 
Acadian weavers, who found in them a ready 
/-w-% 7 
market. 1 he war interrupted this demand 
and the subsequent depression threatened to 
destroy the industry. Mrs. Leeds, who was 
brought up in the neighborhood, felt such a 
deep interest in these people that she took 
five of the Acadians to the World’s Columbian 
Exposition at Chicago, where they reproduced 
an Acadian interior with their spinning 
wheels and looms, and showed the methods 
and results of their industries as part of the 
Louisiana Exhibit. Their work received 
medals and recognition at exhibitions at 
New Orleans, Buffalo, Atlanta and at the 
Minneapolis Industrial Exhibition. 
1 he fabrics woven by them form the chief 
occupation for about thirty families and are 
sent to Arts and Crafts exhibitions and 
Women’s Exchanges; and the women are so 
faithful that poor work is not often found. 
In many cases the price of the work is ad¬ 
vanced to needy workers who cannot always 
wait until their things are sold. 1 he weav¬ 
ing designs are very simple, being mostly 
checks and stripes. The strong, durable 
Attakapas cottonade suitings, flannel blank¬ 
ets, woven rugs, hand-spun and hand- 
netted fringes sent to the New York Exhibi¬ 
tion showed more than ordinary merit in the 
hand-crafts of this interesting community. 
Another association which has also aided 
the revival of the old coverlet-weaving, 
showed some excellent examples of bed¬ 
spreads, not only in the blue and white, but 
in the old madder colors. These came from 
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