Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1895 — Lace and Lacemaking. [ARTICLE]

Lace and Lacemaking.

Brussels was the favorite lace at the court of the first empire, and when Napoleon and the Empress Marie Louise made their first entry into the Belglc capital they gave large orders for lace of the richest point The city gave to the Empress a collection of its finest laces, also a curtain of Brussels point for draping the cradle of the King >of Rome. Lacemaking is a great source of national wealth to Belgians, over 300,000 women being thus employed. Lacemaking forms a part of female education since the mandate of Charles V. to that effect and there are 1,500 lace schools in Brussels. The thread used In Brussels lace is of extraordinary fineness. The finest quality is spun In dark underground rooms, for contact with air causes the thread to break. A fragment of lace in the Collection at the World’s Fair was worked with the needle upon muslin, leaving a few meshes unfinished. It is an heirloom bf the Bonaparte family of Baltimore. Napoleon 111. was a great lover of lace. The flounce in the trousseau of Eugenie, Empress of the French, was valued at 50,000 francs and took forty women eighteen months to complete. The Duchess of York is a great admirer and connoisseur of lace, using the Billow herself. One notable piece sent

by her belonged to a descendant ot Lord Anno Hamilton, who was the grandson of Queen Anne. Another specimen of historic Interest was an apron given by Queen Elizabeth to Lord Fairfax; still others, a gown manufactured for Queen Adelaide, and Princess Charlotte’s christening robe. In the year of the great famine in Ireland, 1847, when thousands of children were left orphans in the bands ot the landed proprietors, the Irish ladies at once bethought themselves of occupations whereby they could be made to gain their livelihood. Lady De Vere was first to teach the mistress of a school on her own estate the art of lacemaking. Irish point and Carickmacross, Limerick, and Honlton laces are great favorites with Queen Victoria and her daughters.—New York Churchman.