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

228 ART AND HANDICRAFT from distant seas, and she, sitting dreamily, in his absence, copied the delicate branches in lace, and thus produced one of the love- liest of Venetian designs. Venetian lace resembles the foam of the Adriatic as the waves break on the Lido. Just as her famous glass has caught in its iri- descent splendor the matchless delicacy of her sunsets over the lagoons, so her point laces express in their lightness and variety the unique charm of the place. Compare them, foi instance, with the Flemish laces, dear stolid Antwerp with her “ pot lace that is COLLECTION OF LACE NEEDLES AND BOBBINS. Exhibited by the Committee of Italian Ladies. so in request by old ladies for their caps! The flower-pot is all that is left of a once charming design of the annunciation; the graceful figures of the Virgin and of the angel Gabriel have dis- appeared, but the lily in its pot on the window-sill has survived. In the splendor-loving days of France, girls with little baskets of lace went about the streets of Paris selling dainty -jabots and collars, as flower-girls sell their wares nowadays. The prejudices against this most feminine industry are hap- pily dissipating before the well-authenticated statistics concerning the physical and moral well-being of the lace-workers of this