The Toledo Chronicle

Plea for a Homely Branch of Industry,

Since the pens of some clever writers have been recently employed in decrying the practice of darning, and advocating its disuse, may it not be allowed one of the despised sisterhood of darners to speak a few words in behalf of an ancient and useful, if not time-honored occupation? If every woman, like a very few of whom we hear, could handle her pen so cleverly that all it touched should literally be turned into gold, it might be false economy to use time in repairing one garment, when half that time spent in composition would purchase half a dozen new ones. But the talents of every woman are not so readily, if at all, convertible into money. If, then, she uses moments that might be idle in work that contributes undeniably, if in a slow way, to the comfort of her family, ought she not rather to be commended than blamed?

We confess to feeling honest indignation that so-called reform should take this direction, since it really seems not only unneeded, but to have an actually injurious tendency when addressed to the young and those of unformed characters.

Think a moment. Who are those that spend time in darning, and what is the motive that induces them to tie themselves down to an employment in itself so dull and monotonous? Is it not those who cherish a laudable desire for themselves and their children, that they should never wear torn or untidy garments, and with self-sacrificing patience toil to effect their object? Does the number of industrious home-staying women so trouble the earth that they should be held up to ridicule? Surely to persevere in any pursuit having for its simple aim decency and the good of others is in itself ennobling. Oh! the comfort that nestles within the housewife's Saturday evening basket, heaped high with neatly darned stockings! Let not its familiar presence be banished from the workstand, that homely but beloved center of many a cheerful fireside. Wit and wisdom will flow none the less freely because mother and daughter ply the busy needle while they cheerily converse. Must it not lend sweetness to the tenor of thought that the fingers move in the service of members of the family, more helpless but none the less dear, or mayhap noble, "for a' that?" And we speak only of what we do know and have seen exemplified.

We would especially urge the re-installation of this feminine avocation in a place of honor, because we really believe that in its discarding our daughters will cast aside an apparently insignificant, but really powerful, means of giving to their characters that thoroughly rounded and perfect womanliness which all admire, but which is daily becoming more rare. Just let a young woman accept the dogma that it is beneath her to darn stockings, a false economy, forsooth, too pitiful to practice. She will nevertheless hesitate to commit the extravagance of throwing away a pair of expensive Balbriggan hose because they have in them a small hole. Once consent to slip that dainty little foot into such chaussure, next time it will require less effort, and ere she admits the fact to herself, stylish Arabella almost daily has holes in her stockings. High-arched though her instep be, and graceful the curve of her well-turned ankle, can they atone for the defect? Shall we admit that we have seen this, too, exemplified in young-ladyhood of the present day? Beware! Think you not there is some subtle connection between not only soundness of mind and body, but also raiment? Is there not a certain integrity of soul that must find outward expression by clothing itself in vestments that are likewise without flaw or blemish?

But to acquire even so humble an art as darning, a woman must apply herself to the task with diligence, and from childhood, if excellence is to be attained. Our little girls, though, are so very quick nowadays to imbibe the sentiments and tone of thinking prevalent among grown people, that if their older sisters slight and neglect the duty of darning, it will be vain to impress it upon them that it is any the more worthy of their attention. Yet there was pleasure in a little incident occurring recently, to confirm the idea that our age had not reached the point of progression where the old hand-maid darning might be dismissed as a useless, worn-out jade. Pausing in the vestibule of a place of evening entertainment, a young lady of bon ton and highest culture laughingly held up her hand, gloved in delicate kid, and challenged us to find the darn which she had resorted to in order to conceal a cut made by a diamond ring. We admired, and on the other hand, her aunt held up her sleeve of point lace, showed a rent just accidentally made, and invited the further display of her skill. The stitch used in constructing some of the finest laces, you know, is but a modification of darning.

From gentlemen, too, we have heard so many and such touching complaints of woes consequent upon having no one to mend for them that we are inclined to believe rather that the skill of the darner will be more and more in requisition than that the world will agree to dispense with it altogether. Some of these suffering parties were married men, too, and one wicked creature has been actually heard to declare that he had never known comfort since, in a moment of unguarded confidence, he resigned to his wife a certain little green silk bag of sewing materials which had never failed him in his bachelor days.

Sisters, should these things be so?

The calling of a raccommodeuse, or needle-woman who devotes herself entirely to mending, is familiar in wondrous Paris; might it not flourish in our own land? May there not be found in this pursuit one of those legitimate outlets for womanly genius and enterprise, more of which are every day opening, and forcing the world to acknowledge how important and expansive is this sphere of woman's work?-Harper's Bazar.