Art and Handcraft in the Woman's Building
of the World's Columbian Exposition

ITALY. TO woman as a “ ministering angel” a responsive world has rendered homage for centuries. Of woman in her “ hours of ease,” of the dainty work that occupied her fingers and thoughts in the centuries prior to the invention of printing, little lias been said or sung, if we except the famous Penelope, with her rather wearisome embroidery, and the equally renowned tapestry of the wife of William the Conqueror. It is said that if all the portraits painted by Titian could be placed together, we should have an absolutely perfect historical collection of the great personages of his century. Were it possible to make a complete collection of lace and embroidery, it would be an equally valuable pictorial history. There exists in England a piece of lace made in the reign, of Elizabeth which tells the story of the Spanish Armada; the angry waves are as billowy as lace can make them, and the discomfited galleys are historically interesting in outline. It is a pleasant thought that the art of lace-making, like the early pictures of Cimabue and Giotto, was called into being and encouraged by the religious spirit of the age. Pleasant, because the old masters were “ teachers of men,” and, before the invention of printing, sought to bring holy thoughts to men’s minds by the power of their art; indeed the Italian peasant still calls lace “ nuns’ work.” Lace is, however, of far more ancient origin. Recent discov- eries have proved beyond a doubt that the making of lace was practiced by the Lake Dwellers; fragments of drawn work have also been found in Etruscan tombs and wrapped about Egyptian mummies, and specimens come as well from the savage tribes of Africa; in fact, wherever woman has made a home the needle has told its story. The story may be woven in the costly meshes known as Argent an or Alen<gm, or in the less complicated “ points ” of Brussels, Mechlin, and Venice, but to the thoughtful, each piece of lace is the history of a portion of a woman’s life. In Venice a sailor once brought his lady-love a sprig of coral (226)