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 Return to WOMEN Main Return to BROOKLYN Main