of
the government seemed deranging everything; and again a social movement
was instituted in New England to promote "Oeconomy and Household
Industries." "The Rich and Great strive by example to convince the
Populace of their error by Growing their own Flax and Wool, having some
one in the Family to dress it, and all the Females spin, several weave
and bleach the linen." The old spinning-matches were revived. Again the
ministers preached to the faithful women "Oeconomists," who thus
combined religion, patriotism, and industry. Truly it was, as a
contemporary writer said, "a pleasing Sight: some spinning, some
reeling, some carding cotton, some combing flax," as they were preached
to.

Within a few years attempts have been made in England and Ireland to
encourage flax-growing, as before it is spun it gives employment to
twenty different classes of laborers, many parts of which work can be
done by young and unskilled children. In Courtrai, where hand spinning
and weaving of flax still flourish, the average earnings of a family are
three pounds a week. In Finland homespun linen still is made in every
household. The British Spinning and Weaving School in New Bond Street is
an attempt to revive the vanished industry in England. In our own
country it is pleasant to record that the National Association of Cotton
Manufacturers is planning to start on a large scale the culture and
manufacture of flax in our Eastern states; this is not, however, with
any thought of reviving either the preparation, spinning, or weaving of
flax by old-time hand processes.

CHAPTER IX

WOOL CULTURE AND SPINNING

_With a Postscript on Cotton_

The art of spinning was an honorable occupation for women as early as
the ninth century; and it was so universal that it furnished a legal
title by which an unmarried woman is known to this day. Spinster is the
only one of all her various womanly titles that survives; webster,
shepster, litster, brewster, and baxter are obsolete. The occupations
are also obsolete save those indicated by shepster and baxter--that is,
the cutting out of cloth and baking of bread; these are the only duties
among them all that she still performs.

The wool industry dates back to prehistoric man. The patience, care, and
skill involved in its manufacture have ever exercised a potent influence
on civilization. It is, therefore, interesting and gratifying to note
the intelligent eagerness of our first colonists for wool