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FEMALE INDUSTRY IN IRELAND. 307
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.
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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.
_. . . . The Irish Female Population Has...
petition with them , and importantly raised the wages of women ' s work . It resisted an effort to introduce the making of foreign
pillow laces , by paying the hands much more than they could realize by such occupation . The weekly earnings at crochet -were
from 6 s . to 10 s . and 15 s . ; they held up steadily for about three years , and attained their highest scale of remuneration in 185 7 .
The early specimens of it were beautiful pieces of workmanship comparable to mediaeval " guipures" and " points" of continental
, celebrity , and were , in fact , imitations of them . The attempt to resuscitate their styles , and rival their repute , were by no means
contemptible . Great aptitude for this revival was displayed . The art was easily acquired , the materials inexpensive , and the market ready .
It freely propagated itself , and after the manner of lace , showed adherence to habitatand tenacity of type . It settled into several
centres , Cork and Clones , becoming the most important of them , and these maintained their distinctive characteristics most determinedly
all through , and the recognition of the products of the different districts is well established in the trade .
The foundresses of the schools were the first merchants of this commodity . Some of them did large wholesale businessand others
, confined themselves to private sale . The transactions of the former were from £ 100 to £ 500 a month with warehouses ; and the latter
sent £ 20 and £ 30 worth of work a week to friends in more favored landsto dispose of for them . In this wayEngland , France ,
, , America , and our colonies received a quantity of the production . Crochet became the fashion . Sympathy poured in heartily , and
lightened the labor of charity . Consumers increased and _multiplied , and no effort was spared to secure their approbation and merit their
favor to be , and adorned with by such li Irish success point , that . " even The royal simp garments le agency did by not which disdain our
wide-spread trade was carried on , was the sending out of a little pattern by post , and a request for orders . The reply to the humble
message was most cordial , and men of business especially came forward to helthe enterprise to maturity . By these early customers
the matter was p wisely and kindly taken into consideration . Every facilitwas offered to ladies to enter into _correspondence with them ,
y and commercial arrangements were made easy to their inexperience . In this commencement of the tradebefore speculators entered the
fieldthere were men found to deal , in it witha truer human interest , than pecuniary proceedings usualldevelop , . The position
of the unprepared , disinterested , gratuitous y tradeswomen was well understood by them ; and they assisted them to maintain their
difficult undertakings in a manner that claims a very grateful acknowled The women gment who . made this exertion did a good deed for their
sex ; they dealt _practically with the subject of commercial employment for educated femalestested its difficulties by personal
experience , and under circumstan ; ces which renders their example very
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Female Industry In Ireland. 307
_FEMALE INDUSTRY IN IRELAND . 307
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1862, page 307, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071862/page/19/
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