LADIES’ WORK
8 February 1878
Brooklyn Union Argus

What It Is, By One Who Knows All About It.
The Trifles Some Women Spend Their Time About 
How Ladies’ Work Affects the Domestic Circle 
Where It Is Most Appreciated.

	A few years ago the female part of the community became possessed with a
mania for fabrication of sundry insubstantial articles which now go
under the general appellation of ladies’ work.  A gentleman would come
to dinner at the usual hour in the expectation of seeing the tablecloth
laid, when instead of any such blissful vision he would find only an
array of cuttings of stout paper shapening into card trays or toilet
tidies.  He would lift up his eyes to the parlor mantel, and remark with
astonishment that instead of elegant china vases or glass chandeliers
which formerly adorned it, there was now a crowd of ineffable
compositions of pasteboard, gold paper and narrow blue ribbons, bearing
the shapes of baskets or match holders or pintrays - ghastly
inessential-looking things, fit only to ornament a house inhabited by
children’s dollars, or to be offered as gifts to the fairies.  He would
remonstrate, but he would be told that he was no judge of such things.
Then turning to the walls he would see several flimsy picture frames
made of pressed leather or chips, while in the center of the table
appeared  a cardboard slipshoe standing bolt upright on

   The Tip Of The Toes

with a hook inside, just in the center of the heel, on which hung one of
the girl’s watches.  Pater would be told that he was a man of no taste,
and that the ladies’ work executed by his wife and daughters had been
universally admired.  Bella’s neatness of hand in making pincushions out
of shells, was allowed to be astonishing.  Grace had produced several
bouquets of dried seaweed, collected at Coney Island and Rockaway, which
several young gentlemen that visited the house had spoken of in the
warmest terms of commendation.  Mamma had chiefly distinguished herself
in covering card cases with gold stars.  It was quite astonishing how
far 50 cents’ worth of colored paper and few slips of gold edging would
go to decorating a house.  Besides, they were turning their industry to
some account in making things for themselves.  They had all got new
waistbelts of velvet embroidered with glass beads, the prime cost of
which did not exceed 50 cents each, while at the stores they would have
cost $2 apiece.  Ella had made considerable progress in knitting a silk
purse, while Lottie had just finished a fine fringe for a black silk
dress, out of a quantity of jet which she had found on the top shelf of
an almost unused closet.  These and other like demonstrations would be
poured upon

    The Head of The House

by his indignant women folk and the result would probably be, that
merely to preserve peace, he would say no more for the present on the
change of scenery which had been effected on the mantle.

	His wife and daughters would of course continue their operation, which
extended by and by to the decoration of egg shells with gold paper and
perhaps pictures of George Washington or Lincoln, and as the mania went
on and thickened they would dive into the kitchen, where, over a
diabolic caldron, they could be found covering a wire basket with a
liquid cement preparatory to powdering it with pulverized glass.  For
this they would have the assurance to request that he would order a
glass cover, beneath which it might be preserved free from dust and
damaging contact in the center of the parlor table!

	The fit, if not prolonged by an injudicious opposition, generally lasted
a few weeks, during which time enough of ladies’ work had been produced
to cover almost everything in the shape of shelf, bracket, mantle and
table that the house contained.  It then became an amusing study to the
head of the house to observe the progress of natural ruin amongst his
many eye-sores.  White card brackets would degenerate into brown; gold
stars and edgings would peel off;  gilded and painted egg shells would
vanish; crystalling encrustations would tumble off and the leaves fall
from the picture frames even as they do from the trees in autumn. In
short ladies’ work would be found to be

  Somewhat Like Snow Houses,

got up by boys - scarcely calculated to survive the freak which created
them.  Finally the handiwork would disappear entirely into the out of
the way drawers and cabinets.
 Such were the beginnings, middles, and ends of fits of ladies’ work as
they used to affect the domestic circle alone; and for a few years the
unfortunate head of the family was the only person whom ladies’ work in
any afflicted.

	But, by and by, it was discovered that the field of annoyance might be
much extended.  Human nature is such that people can scarcely give their
money for charitable objects.  If an institution be suffering for want
of funds, the wealthy can do nothing to relieve it till they have first
put their hearts and purses in a ball or concert or a dramatic
entertainment or a fair.  Some ingenious individual, who had studied
this peculiarity of the human character, conceived the felicitous idea
that large sums might be realized, for charitable ends, even from
ladies’ work, if only the fair ladies themselves would condescend to
become the saleswomen.  To work, then, went the ladies, with redoubled
ardor, modifying bristol board, gold paper, egg shells and crystallized
wire, into all imaginable shapes, and when an enormous quantity of
things had been prepared they were brought together into a church or a
school room, and made the subject of what was called a Fancy Fair.
Stalls were erected, where lots of the work were exhibited under the
superintendence of its prettiest manufacturesses.  The thing took. Fancy
fairs were found to be a most efficient means of promoting charitable
objects,.  Ladies’ work therefore became a thing of vast consequence,
and was and is universally practiced.

Transcribed for the Bklyn Info Pages by Nancy Spader Wilson
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