t half a century we were a people without decorative
needlework art in any form. The eyes and thoughts of women were turned
in other directions.

Of course there is always a reason for a change in public taste,
something in the development of the time leads and governs every trend
of popular thought. It may be the attraction of new inventions, or the
perfection of new processes, or even, and this is not uncommon, the
charm and fascination of some rare personality, whose ruling is absolute
in its own immediate vicinity, and whose example spreads like circles in
water far and far beyond the immediate personal influence. We cannot
trace this apparent dearth of the art to one particular cause, we only
know that in America the practice and study of music succeeded to its
place in almost every household. The needle, that honored implement of
woman, bade fair to be a thing almost of tradition, something which
would be in time relegated to museums and collections, to be studied
historically, as we study the implements of the Stone Age, and other
prehistoric periods.

I remember an amusing story told by a Baltimore friend, not given to the
manufacture of instances, that during those years of dearth soon after
the Civil War she was visiting a lovely southern family who had lived
through the days of privation. One day there arose a great cry and
disturbance in the house, which turned out to be a quest for _the_
needle, where was _the_ needle. Nobody could find it, although it could
be proved that at a certain date it had been quilted into its accustomed
place on the edge of the drawing-room curtain of the east window.
Finally it was found on the wrong curtain, minus the point, and this
disability gave rise to a discussion. Should it be taken to town, and
have the point renewed by the watchmaker? This decision was discouraged
by the daughter of the house, who related that the last time she had
taken it for the same purpose, the watchmaker had said to her, "Miss
Cassy, I have put a point on that needle three times, and I would
seriously advise you to buy a new one."

It was only in America that the needle had ceased to be an active
implement. In England it had never been so constantly or feverishly
employed. For the second time in its long history, its work became
purely personal. The same necessity which impressed itself upon the poor
little mother of mankind, when she sought among the fig leaves for
wherewithal to clothe hersel