On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    IN THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 337

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    . ^P Withik The Last Ten Years A Vast Ch...

    _wliere it is brought to the greatest perfection . But tlie sale for those _refiaied and expensive sorts of work is limited , and

    they fear entering into it too deeply ; the cheap and common kinds of collars , sleeves , etc ., finding by far a readier sale . Therefore ,

    ——unlike manufacturers , seeking for their own profit upon the work—the nuns' schools are most sought for by the workers , who

    , there obtain higher prices than they receive at the manufacturers ; where , we have heard , the profits to the proprietors are twenty per

    cent , at least , crochet work , of all kinds , realising more in England and the colonies thaai it does in Ireland .

    Another branch of female employment in this country we must not omit ,- —we allude to the beautiful fabric known as Limerick

    lace , and which is now exported all over the civilized world . Indeed , no bride deems her trousseau complete without some article of

    this light and beautiful texture being contained in it , and very frequently are wedding dresses almost entirely composed of Limerick

    lace , its price enabling those who consider Honiton , or Brussels , beyond their means—to obtain it instead . In the city of Limerick ,

    where it is exclusivel , manufacturedthere are about two thousand females employe y d in its workmanshi , p ; it is wrought in

    frames , several women embroidering at the same frame , if the article is of large size . The girls who are employed at the

    manufactories are apprenticed , generally for seven years , —at first only earning about two shillings a weekand when perfect at their

    , trade , their wages not averaging more than from seven to ten shillings a week . Besides the workers , there are also designers

    employed , whose business it is to draw and invent patterns , which are tacked under the lace , and then traced accurately with the needle

    upon its surface . This style of needlework however , we may consider altogether localas we are not aware of its being carried on

    , in any place but the city whose name it bears _. There is in the county of Waterford at a small town called

    Tallow , a school carried on by the nuns of the convent there , for the production of Maltese lacein the manufacture of which they have

    arrived at great perfection , . Some specimens we have seen , being not inferior to that brought from abroad , and highly creditable to

    the poor girls who make it , and who we believe are well paid for their work .

    We are well aware that it is the fashion of the present day , to decry of work the children and the of writers the poor and being speakers taught against any of it the argue above that sorts it

    unfits them ; for the description of labor they may be required , to practise in domestic life . One writer affirms that the generality of

    females who earn money in this way , seldom know how to spend it , that they can certainladorn their clothes with tawdry finery , but

    would be unable to darn y or mend them if torn . This is all very well to theorize aboutbut let him step into any of our cottage

    homes in the country , , or lodgings for the poor in the city , and

    voii . i . 2 a

    In The South Of Ireland. 337

    IN THE SOUTH OF IRELAND . 337

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1858, page 337, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071858/page/49/