Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1893 — STARCH AND STARCHING. [ARTICLE]

STARCH AND STARCHING.

The Flemish Woman by Whom They Were Introduced Into KnglUh. Troy, the greatest laundry town in the world, will be especially interested, says the Times of that city, in an article on starch written by William Elliot Griffis and published in the current number of Harper’s Bazar. Mr. Griffis informs us that it was Queen Elizabeth of England who introduced fashions that established the laundry on a permanent basis and created starch factories. She not only enlarged the ruff, multiplied undergarments, increased the lady’s inventory and the bride’s trousseau, but it was she who began the fashion of the farthingale or crinoline. This wheel-shaped arrangement puffed out the dress like a balloon; and right royal was the rustle of the stiffened skirts as the Queen and her ladies moved about. So great was the demand for starch to stiffen properly the ruffs, collars, cuffs, and crinoline that it seriously atfccted the price of wheat. CompLaints were loud and long that bread was being taken out of the mouths of the people. The potato was then unknown or too much of a novelty. Its virtues and potencies of supply to the laundress and the alleged sugarmaker were then unsuspected. To whom were the English and their doughty Queen indebted for this wonderful addition to the resources of civilization and of personal neatness? It is not thak own invention, but the gift of fflk Low Countries. It came in with casT riages, which also were impoited, to the amazement of the common folk. Elizabeth was unable to monopolize starched ruffs, for presently the gentlewomen of England began to send their daughters and nearest kinswomen to Mrs. Dinghen to learn how to starch. Would the reader know who Mrs. Dinghen was—she who first made English ladies so fine and British housemaids so neat? We bless the memory of Mrs. Dinghen every time we are daintily served in an English home. The daughter of a , knight of Flanders, and driven out by Spanish oppression, she with her husband found refuge in London. Being probably penniless, she so turned her hand that the pounds soon flowed in. While Mrs. Boonen starched for the Queen, Mrs. Dinghen van den Plasse, as her full name was, taught starching to the ladies. Her price was £5 for teaching how to starch, but £2O for showing “how to seeth starch.” In a little tim& she got an estate, being greatly encouraged by gentlewomen and ladies. She was “the flr.-t to teach starching in those days of impurity,” adds the historian, with pathos and appreciation of the previous facts. “Blessings on Mrs. Dinghen van den Plasse!” says Mr. Griffis. And every Troy laundress responds “Amen!”