remote districts of the Higlilands. The fabric is rough and coarse, but well adapted to its purpose; the colouring is varied, and often very beautiful. Women card the wool and spin it into thick yarn on the picturesque old spinning-wheel : women carry on the knowledge from one generation to another of the various plants and trees from which delicate and artistic dyes are extracted : women weave the yarn into bed-covers and rugs, blending the colours in simple patterns at the cumbrous old-fashioned loom. The industry is already declining; shop dyes are superseding the extract of native plants and roots; cheap and gaudy materials are beginning to replace the durable homespun woollen, and one of our few remaining home arts will probably succumb, in a generation or two, to the ' advance of trade.' As a means of liveliliood not much can be said now- adays for the spinning-wheel and the handloom — machinery has driven them from the field; but as an adjunct to other industries, women may ply them still witii some advantage. In the intervals of household work, or in the long winter evenings, the old homely arts may still be remembered and pur- sued ; still our homes may be made beautiful and com- fortable by fabrics which tell, not of a mill-hand's drudgery, but of a thrifty woman's thought and fancy. Tiie lace-making industry, which, in spite of machine-made imitation, still employs so many women in other countries, seems never to have fairly taken root in Scottish soil. English and Irish laces are well known, but Scottish lace is unknown to fame, though tradition says the patterns of the fine Shetland shawls were copied from Spanish lace when some storm-driven vessels of the great Armada took refuge in the island ports. Beautiful reproductions of ancient Venetian and other point laces are worked in Irish convent-schools and in Irish cottage homes under skilled superinten- dence ; but though most kinds of needlework, neces- sary or decorative, are admirably wrouglit by Scottish hands, lace-making takes no place among the art industries of our women. The earnings of women employed in making the most rich and delicate lace are but small, but insignificant as is the daily wage of the worker, lace must, from the length of time necessary to produce it, remain one of the luxuries of the very rich, and it is not likely that the industry will spread to any extent. The question may now be asked. In which of these art industries is it most desirable for women to engage who are about to choose a profession .? And I would reply without hesitation that the art of design, demanding as it does the greatest intelli- gence on the part of the student, yields also the highest measure of success to those who attain pro- ficiency in it. Wlien combined with the practice of mechanical art, a knowledge of design places the worker at once on a higher level than those who can only follow the lines sketclied out by others ; and when studied in detail with a view to the require- ments of any special manufacture, design is in itself one of the most necessary and best paid of industries. Of the manual arts it matters little which is chosen ; let it be the one in which the greatest interest is felt. But whichever that may be, let no pains be spared and no time grudged in obtaining a com- plete mastery over it. Let the stigma of ' un- workmanlike,' or the faint praise of 'very well done for a woman,' be overcome by earnest thoroughness and steady application. Here we touch the chief difficulty experienced by women who wish to embark in one of these industries, viz. the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient training. This stumbling-block has been felt in other countries besides our own, and in Germany a society has been founded called the Lette-verein, whose object is to give women thorough instruction in various arts and handicrafts by which they may earn a living. The comparatively few wiio sliow an artistic bfent are tauglit to engrave on copper, to carve wood, to emboss leather or metal, to decorate pottery, and so on, while the many wlio have no aptitude for such pursuits are duly instructed in household matters. The greatest care is exercised in making the train- ing really serviceable by impressing the earliest rudiments of every industry firmly on the mind; each successive step is practised till the student is perfect in it, and advance is thus made sure and steady. The Society interests itself in obtaining employment for those of the students who attain proficiency in any branch. It bears a certain resem- blance to the Working Ladies Guild of London, but seems to have a wider and firmer base, and a more extensive field of operation.
If women are not more largely employed in the different industrial arts than is the case at present, the fault is their own. Let a real proficiency in any brandi be once attained, and success will surely follow. Women often ask, If I learn such and such an art, is there any guarantee that I sliall obtain employment afterwards? I would answer, No one can guarantee you employment but yourself. Be you only ready to take what work is offered, and able to satisfy an employer's reasonable demand that it shall be well and punctually performed, and your hands will not long be idle. If there are any who doubt this, let them try !
C. P. Anstuuther.
