Less than a century ago there were growing up in some of the cultured Christian homes of New England many children who later realized with regret that during their childhood days they had never known the symbolism or ever heard the name of Easter. Yet no more significant, spontaneous, or universally attractive festival has ever been instituted than that which celebrates the return of spring, the budding of leaves and flowers, and the triumphant hope that eternally beckons forward the human race.
Older than Christianity and deeply rooted in the love of life itself, the spirit of Easter finds its most perfect expression in the Resurrection story of Jesus, There is, indeed, good cheer in the sight of flowers lifting their faces once more toward the sunlight, after the frosts and storms of winter have spent their force. The swelling seeds and changing tints of green give promise of the coming harvests and assure us of nature's ready response to our physical needs. The songs of the birds and the humming of the bees remind us of the rising tide of life that surrounds us and through countless channels is rushing onward with the pulse beat of recurring years. In all this stir of creative energy, this bursting of winter's fetters and the renewal of life's struggle for undisputed supremacy, we feel a kindling interest and secret joy, which carry us outside the old limitations and broaden the horizons of our purposes and hopes.
But did the springtime come and go with no other message of inspiration, the world of mankind would grow old and weary and discouraged with its toil and disappointment, its wasting wars and ceaseless oppressions, its heroic attempts and saddening failures, and the oft recurring sight of its shining ideals cast to the earth and trampled upon by the gross feet of selfishness and indifference. Humanity knows but too well its own weakness and defects. Memory as well as science reminds us that one spring is like another, that man's life too is but a coming and a going, as the budding spring bursts into summer and comes at last to rest beneath winter's snow. But Easter adds the everlasting crown to man's hope and inspiration in the Resurrection story. Therein we pass from intimations of nature into the realm of human struggle and aspiration where the organizing forces of life surge to and fro with tragic consequence and man more often questions the worth of the final result.
Back to the Gospel source go those whose faith in human possibilities and courage for unmeasured tasks must needs be renewed in some lifegiving stream. Not only in the buds and blossoms may we see the victory of life, but also in the story of Calvary and the Garden, where we find goodness and righteousness eternally triumphant over villainy and injustice, non-resistence over aggression, humility over pride, holiness over sin, love over hate. We are assured that though evil may hold the reins for a season, dominion and power belong ultimately to justice and right. However complete may be the temporary defeat of truth, error shall not always abide.
Easter proclaims that man shall overcome all his foes, including death itself. His pathway may lead him through the sorrows of Gethsemane, the pain and darkness of Calvary, nevertheless his winter of distress will yet turn to the spring of delight, defeat will be forgotten in the joy of final victory, and the life of the spirit will rise in glory from the shadows of the grave.
I cannot agree with some people, that Paul has been sleeping in the grave, and is still there, after the storms of eighteen hundred years. I cannot believe that he who loved the Master, who had such a burning zeal for Him, has been separated from Him in an unconscious state, "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which Thou has given me." This is Christ's prayer. Moody
Description of Coloring Page: from a Belgian MS, four gospel symbols: the winged man, an eagle, a winged lion and a winged ox. The blessing of Jesus, second person of the Holy Trinity makes his sign with two fingers lifted, seated in the throne room of Heaven
Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image
as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question
about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located
directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I
can.
Description of Coloring Page: Passiflora, known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, the type genus of the family Passifloraceae.They are mostly tendril-bearing vines, with some being shrubs or trees. They can be woody or herbaceous. Passion flowers produce regular and usually showy flowers with a distinctive corona.
The flower was named after the Passion of Christ by Catholic priests during the 15th Century, The five sepals and five petals symbolize the 10 apostles faithful to Christ during his persecution (holy week) and the corona filament represent the crown of thorns that Jesus wore as he hung on the cross.
A photograph of a passion flower, most are purple to blue in color.
Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image
as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question
about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located
directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I
can.
"Neither will I offer unto the Lord my God that which doth cost me nothing.'"
Within a crowded dwelling-place, Climbing its narrow stair, A little maid is toiling slow, Who in her hand doth bear A jug of water, which she guards And holds with anxious care.
Slowly she climbs the stairway dim, So narrow, steep, and high, To where her little window looks Out on a patch of sky; And o'er a flower upon its ledge She bends with loving eye.
The only treasure that is hers! She dreams of it by night, Guards it by day; the blue eyes watch Its opening to the light. Was ever lily seen before So pure, so fair, so white?
Soon, very soon, is drawing near The blessed Easter Day, When from a grateful, loving heart We give our best away. What offering could the dear child make? She ponders day by day.
Such scanty earnings naught could yield, From them she fears to take ; But there upon the window-ledge- Oh! can she, can she make Such sacrifice, and give her flower For Easter - and His sake ?
The glad-voiced bells are chiming clear, The dim-lit church is sweet With font and chancel filled with flowers, This Easter morn to greet, When up the silent aisle there comes A child with faltering feet.
Softly the notes from organ grand Are stealing through the air; Beneath the Altar's gleaming cross She lays the lily fair, And then all timidly she kneels, And clasps her hands in prayer.
'Tis all I have," she murmurs low, "Dear Lord, to give to Thee, And so I bring this flower I love. An offering from me; For on this holy Easter Day Thy child I pray to be."
Amid the throng at service hour, In anthem, chant, and hymn, One sweet voice rang, until it made The older eyes grow dim; They did not know what filled her heart With gladness to the brim.
The best that it was hers to give, That she had given away; Not "that which cost her nothing," but What nearest her heart lay. Lord, grant that we may also give Our best on Easter Day.
MY soul hastens forth with hosannas, To wave for the Victor her palm; Every hope presses forward to meet Him, Every thought rises up with a psalm.
The stones of the roadside sing praises; Praise ripples the brook by the way; The dumb heart of Nature rejoices; Even silence is vocal to-day.
He goeth to cruel betrayal, - The thorns and the spear-thrust to meet: He refuseth no drop of death's anguish, - The bitterness Love shall make sweet.
We would taste Thy cup with Thee, O Master! We would share in Thy life, through Thy death! For Thy sacrifice makes us immortal, And we live but in breathing Thy breath.
Ride onward, O King of the lowly, And trample our pride in Thy path! Let us follow Thee, asking no honor Save the blessing humility hath!
Ride on, and release us from evil! Ride on, and redeem us from sin! Every gate of our being flies open: Ride on, to Thy Kingdom within!
Description of Printable Paper: restored bookend paper, Easter baskets, Spring baskets, flowers, for your personal crafts only, field
of drawn rabbits, colors: peach, blue and yellow, very vintage, Read
Terms of Use folks
"Poor, anxious, over thoughtful man ! He plods his dreary way - bowed down with earthly care - borrowing sorrow from the days to come - forgetful of the Heavenly Provider.
Sweet flowers! Do you breathe of hope to his dim faith - whisper to his sinking heart of Him who so clothes the grass of the fields from day to day. Wherefore taketh he thought for the morrow? His Father knoweth his need. He will provide out of His own rich fullness. He will lift the shadow of care that smothers him like a pall. Oh! that he would but consider the Lilies!
Has all pleasure faded out of your life? Do the clouds of disappointment shroud your sky? It is better for you to die than to live, think you? Nay - consider the Lilies, with which God so clothes the grass of the fields. Life is not all a barren waste. Ah! through blinding tears, you can see no loveliness; but it is there - all around you still. Let your gracious Father wipe the tears away, that you may see clearly. He waits to be gracious - to do all you need - to comfort you, exceeding abundantly above all you can ask or think, for His own good pleasure. He giveth not according to desert; He measureth not His gifts by desire; out of His own rich fullness in Christ the Lord, He bestoweth to the full measure of the need, heaped up and running over - He giveth without measure, to the sons of His love in Jesus. If His face be hid for a moment, His kindness is everlasting. Ah! would you but consider the Lilies, and turn to Him for comfort and consolation!" A. Buchanan.
"Consider the lilies...
Our Burial Places Sacred.
How we linger around the cold remains of a friend till absolutely driven from it! How we care for it, as for some precious gem not always to be trodden in the dust! How reverently we commit it to the keeping of its mother earth; bidding it good night as if in attendance on the councils of royalty!
How sacred is the spot where he lies! How often do we retire not alone to weep but to hold sweet communion with the departed, and say, "We shall meet again." - Rev. McClelland, D. D.
The Nesting Bird's Box by kathy grimm as seen from above.
Although the assembly of this little box may be a bit challenging in at first, most of you will get the gist of it after a few seconds of trial and error.
Just imagine how different my box might look if I were to use paper or paint to decorate it? I loved the soft, tactile surface of this box. And the neutral brown shades gave it a bit of a modern twist in the finish, I think. It makes for an unusual Easter surprise!
Supply List:
small empty, clean carton with a screw top spout
paper or plastic bowl
cardstock or cardboard
masking tape
white school glue
plastic or styrofoam eggs
yarn for nest, eggs and bird
feathers
scissors
tissue paper
Sculpey clay (just a small amount)
hot glue
Step-by-Step Directions:
Clean with warm warm water and soap a screw top spouted cream carton. Then cut the top off including a generous piece of cardboard surrounding it. (see photo below)
Cover the bowl's surface with masking tape on all sides.
Take the paper or plastic bowl and turn it upside down on a piece of cardboard and draw around the edge to estimate the circumference of it's opening. Cut around this circle leaving about a half inch in excess from the drawn circle.
Remove the plastic lid from the carton piece and trace around it on top of the cardstock where ever you plan to have the box open. If your making a nest similar to mine, put it roughly in the middle.
Punch a whole in the center of this smaller outline with the tip of your scissors and cut the small whole out. Make sure that the lid top fits neatly through the hole.
Cover the top with masking tape. Cut out the hole shape if you cover this with the tape.
Now push the lid opening and it's attached backing through one side of the container's lid. (see photograph below)
Tape this secure and flip it over to screw on the plastic lid top.
Notch around the half inch cut so that the edge may be turned under or up slightly and then squeeze glue around this edge and nestle it on to the top of the bowl. Mask the top edge firmly to the bowl top. Let this form dry.
Use glue and making tape to position and secure the plastic egg shells around the inside of the nest.
Now unscrew the lid from the top of the box. Crush the tissue into the shape of a small baby bird and glue this to the lid's top. Be careful not to get tape, glue or paper on the inside of the lid so that it will continue to screw on and off of it's lip properly.
Mask this tiny bird with the tape.
Sculpt a bit of clay into a open beak for the bird. Fit it onto the small bird's head to make sure that it looks the way you want before baking it into it's permanent shape.
After baking this according to directions, let cool and then hot glue it to your baby bird.
Now use the white school glue to cover your nest with yarns of your own choosing. This will need to be done in stages, the bottom first and so on... Let the glued surfaces dry between stages over several days. (see detailed photos below)
Include a secret letter and perhaps a bit of money inside your bird's nest box to give as a special gift for Easter or a child's birthday.
Left, "Clean with warm warm water and soap a screw top spouted cream carton. Then cut the top off including a generous piece of cardboard surrounding
it." Right, you can see that I have cut a whole measuring the same size of the lid into the top of the cardboard "nest."
Left and Center, "Now push the lid opening and it's attached backing through one side of the container's lid. Right, the opening of my Nest Box is neat, clean, and ready for decorating.
Left, "Now unscrew the lid from the top of the box. Crush the tissue into the shape of a small baby
bird and glue this to the lid's top. Be careful not to get tape, glue or paper on the inside of the
lid so that it will continue to screw on and off of it's lip properly." Right, "Use glue and making
tape to position and secure the plastic egg shells around the inside of the nest."
Above is the top of the screw top lid covered with furry brown yarn, a Sculpey beak and real feathers, made to look like a baby bird. I went for a simpler look and opted to leave the beak
unpainted this time. In the photographs below you can see the yarn covered box from
different points of view as well as a close up shot of the box with the led unscrewed.
Unscrew the bird to reveal the empty box within.
See the bird and nest full of eggs from different angles.
Getting ready to roll eggs across the lawn I guess!
March and April in Washington spell for the adult the perfection of a climate which at its best no capital on earth can surpass. Color, fragrance, and an almost indefinable sense that the appropriate necessary mood is one of languid leisure are pervasive. The spring odors and flowers seem suddenly to flood the gardens and lawns. In the tiny six-by-two bed under a bay-window and in the stretches of living green by the river the daffodils have succeeded the crocus; hyacinths and flaring tulips fill the borders, and even the stems in the hedges are full of color. Over every tree there is a smoky veil where the swelling leaf-buds have blurred the winter tracery of bare twigs against the sky, but are not yet heavy enough to cast a shade.
Only the children seem energetic, especially on Easter Monday, the great day for Washington babies. Along Pennsylvania Avenue they stream‚ well dressed, nurse-attended darlings mingling with the raggedest little poor children that ever snatched an egg from a market-basket. The wide street looks as if baby-blossom time had come, for there are hundreds of children who on this special afternoon storm the grounds of the White House for their annual egg-rolling. Long ago the sport took place on the terraces below the Capitol, and a visitor to the city then wrote:
"At first the children sit sedately in long rows; each has brought a basket of gay-colored hard-boiled eggs, and those on the upper terrace send them rolling to the line on the next below, and these pass on the ribbon-like streams to other hundreds at the foot, who scramble for the hopping eggs and hurry panting to the top to start them down again. And as the sport warms those on top who have rolled all the eggs they brought finally roll themselves, shrieking with laughter. Now comes a swirl of curls and ribbons and furbelows, somebody's dainty maid indifferent to bumps and grass stains. A set of boys who started in a line of six with joined hands are trying to come down in somersaults without breaking the chain. On all sides the older folk stand by to watch the games of this infant Carnival which comes to an end only when the children are forced away by fatigue to the point of exhaustion, or by parental order."
When the games proved too hard a test for the grass on the Capitol terraces. Congress stopped the practice, and the President opened the slope back of the White House. No grown person is admitted unless accompanied by a child, but even under this restriction the annual crowd is great enough to threaten the survival of the event.
This film of babies tossing eggs for Easter was made
Flowers speak the language of the heart. They convey the most personal and individual sentiment, while appealing to common universal taste and imagination. This characteristic of flowers, fits them especially for uses of religion and of church service, since they both express private affections of the giver and enrich symbolism of the altar. A basket or cross of flowers can say all the heart wishes to say, and say it without obtruding personal feeling. In medieval times flowers spoke a definite language, the interpretation of which has seemed almost lost. The palm--the ancient classical symbol of victory--was early assumed by Christians as a symbol of martyrdom. It was placed into hands of those who suffered in the cause of truth, as expressing their final victory over powers of sin and death. It also figured on tombs of early martyrs.
Above are the finished versions of the simple fabric napkin rings for Easter dinner.
This simple sewing project may be ac-
complished in one or two afternoons prior
to a party by a child as young as 10
or 11 years old.
It's important for parents involve their children in both the presentation of a family party and also in the execution of a party, especially if they are old enough to help out. Young people can easily decorate a table setting for a holiday event with things like: floral displays, name place tags and napkin rings.
I've included here a sewing project that would be simple enough for a preteen to put together for their family Easter table. The felt bunnies and chicks came from a Hobby Lobby and the fabric from a local Joanne's store. Both items together did not cost me more than five dollars.
The craft takes a little advanced planning. You will need to probably color coordinate your fabric selection with the dishes you plan to use. Let your child take a sample plate to the fabric store and hold it up next to the fabrics in order to choose something appropriate. Give him or her several days to complete this sewing project, if they have never attempted to sew before. Their stitching doesn't need to be perfect but you should give them time to practice if they are to attempt it to completion without parental help.
Cut the fabric into strips measuring approximately 3 inches wide and 5 inches long. Allow for a seam of about half an inch. With the right sides together, sew around the perimeter of the strips after folding these in half and leave one end open in order to turn the finished tube inside out. Whip stitch the ends shut and then stitch both finished edges together with a blanket stitch. Iron or glue the felt animals onto the napkin rings. Insert pastel colored napkins (fabric or paper) and set the Easter table for company.
If your youngsters enjoy this kind of project, why not assign the responsibility to them every year?
These little butterflies are easy to craft. All you will need are a few pom-poms, wiggly eyes and paper doilies. I hand-colored my doilies for the blue butterfly and left another set white for the second version of this craft.
You will need to accordion fold two paper dollies and glue four pom-poms on top of each other and let these dry over night before assembling the butterfly. Use a very tacky white glue for this project and it will prove far less frustrating to complete. You could use a hot glue if you'd like, but this glue is not safe for little ones to handle.
These bunnies are perfect for an Easter greeting card or two.
Description of Printable Paper: restored bookend paper, from an old copy of "The Velveteen Rabbit" for your personal crafts only, field of drawn rabbits, colors: peach, blue and lime green, very vintage, Read Terms of Use folks
This year I decided to decorate my Welsh cupboard in whites and pastel colors. Because Easter is so early this year, these decorations actually went up during a birthday celebration in our home. Since then the lilies have gone and the hydrangeas have dried nicely.
This old cupboard was my mother-in-laws.
The old china is from a relative whom, sadly, moved away.
I picked up this egg candy dish for five dollars at a flee market this year.
Hydrangeas are some of my most favorite flowers.
The woven, porcelain basket was acquired
several years ago at another flee market.
One of my happy finds at a local antique mall, a covered
porcelain dish covered with three dimensional daisies.
White Easter lilies are now gone but I
have this lovely photo to remember them.
Decorated crepe paper tulip cup cake holders and tulip favors may be happily arranged on this spring table trimmed for Easter. Yellow tulips are cut out and appliqued on the circular paper cover; the tulip border is combined with plain yellow paper for the runner and again appears in the hanging dome decoration. Fringe cut and then scalloped hangs between the border pieces on the chandelier decoration, and narrow streamers extend from it to the sides of the room.
A flower pot covered with two different colors of crepe, (stripes)
and filled with paper tulips in which favors are attached,
makes this little display unique. These little coordinating
accessories: potted tulip place holder and cup cake holders
complete the theme.
Mrs Marchand puts the finishing touches on a porcupine. On the table stand a finished ostrich and deer.
Berthe Marchand used her ingenuity. Needing something original for
the Easter table—something for the children to admire—she hit on the
idea of making an entire zoo of animals, using colored Easter eggs and
other odd bits of material easily obtained for a few cents at any
stationer’s.
Why don’t you do the same? It just takes patience, nimble fingers,
and extreme care in handling the eggs— which can be dropped only once!
Far left, Making a porcupine. A paper-shell nut is inserted into a clay neck on an egg. Next, the peanut legs are being carefully affixed to the roughed-out figure. Head feet, and all parts of the body not covered by clay are painted. And last, after he's got his paper eyes and comb, "Porky" receives his quills.
The finished porcupine with toothpicks for quills.
Left, Mr. Penguin. Egg, peanuts, clay, felt toothpicks. Center, The giraffe
has neck and legs of red soda straws, of course. Right, The kangaroo,
above, has a yellow-painted-egg body, a cotton pouch, and peanut legs.
The swan, just above, is made of egg, cotton,
paper fringing, and colored pipe-cleaners.
Left, The ostrich--with egg body, pipe-cleaner legs and nick, ad a
ball -with-a-hole head. Right, The most fee-ro-cious lion ever made.
Walnut head and peanut feet.
All the traditions connected with the Easter egg, its decoration, cooking and eating, are, of course, decidedly old world, and yet there is some myth among the legends of the Inca Indians which tells of a magic egg and how it may be found in some mysterious spot, and of its wonderful power. Whether or not this is one of the superstitions of the far east which Manco Capac brought with him from the other side of the Pacific is altogether unknown, but certain it is that in Asia, Africa and Europe feasts were kept in most ancient times when the egg played a prominent part. The Jews used eggs in their feast of the Passover long before the coming of Christ. In Persia colored eggs are presented at the celebration of the Solar New Year's, and extremely ancient custom with this people.
From Germany comes the singular connection of a rabbit with the Easter eggs. It is believed that this little animal steals into the house when all is quiet and hides a store of pretty eggs in most impossible places, giving the children, who must search for them, a great deal of trouble and excitement in finding them. The house mother prepares by procuring a quantity of eggs and colors them herself by wrapping them in colored calicoes, some plain and some figured.
To the country boy or girl of America Easter or "Paas," in rural vernacular, resolves itself first and foremost into a contest to see who can accumulate the greatest store of eggs, and secondly, who can eat the most.
You can enlarge this puzzle in a Word Doc. to make it easier to read.
The answer key below is in white text. Cut and paste it into a Word Doc, then change it's color to a dark type if you wish to print it out. Otherwise just highlight it with your mouse to see the answers.
For further inquiries about the original work, go to the Stranraer Museum.
At the exhibition of the Royal Academy, in London, the great canvas by Sigismund Goetze, entitled “Despised and Rejected of Men,” (right) has created an artistic sensation. It is declared to be a “powerful and terribly realistic presentment of Christ.” in a modern setting, and is described by a writer in The Christian Commonwealth (London), as follows:
In the center of the canvas is the Christ, standing on a pedestal, bound with ropes, while on either side passes the heedless crowd. A prominent figure is a richly vested priest, proudly conscious of the perfection of the ritual with which he is starving his higher life. Over the shoulder of the priest looks a stern-faced divine of a very different type. Bible in hand, he turns to look at the gospel has missed its spirit,and is as far astray as the priest whose ceremonial is to him anathema. The startled look on the face of the hospital nurse in the foreground is very realistic; so is the absorption of the man of science, so intent on the contents of his test-tube that he had not a glance for the Christ at his side. One of the most striking figures is that of the thoughtless beauty hurring from one scene of pleasure to another; and spurning the sweet-faced little ragged child who is offering a bunch of violets. In rejecting the plea of the child who knows that the proud woman is rejecting the Christ who has identified himself forever with the least of these little ones. The only person in the whole picture who has found time to pause is the mother seated on the steps of the pedestal with her baby in her arms, and we can not but feel that when she has ministered to the wants of her child she will spare a moment for the lover of little children who is so close to her. In the background stands an angel with bowed head, holding the cup which the world He loved to the death is still compelling the Christ to drink, while a cloud of angel faces look down upon the scene with wonder. As the visitor turns away he is haunted with the music of Stainer’s “Crucifixion,” “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?”
Something happened two thousand and 40 years ago in the gray light of the first Easter morning which transformed and transfigured the face of the earth. History began again. The world's heart beat with new and gladder thrill. Henceforth and forever, beneath the all-beholding sun, there is nothing which is "too good to be true." It has not entered into the heart of man to conceive a good which is better than the reality of things. But we are afraid of imagination. It is a vain thing, and must be yoked to a servile mass of matter lest it soar upward and outward, into the blue sky, above the mountain tops, toward the glorious sun, and lose itself in the eternal truth of God!
O brother-man or sister-woman, are you afraid of your own prayers? He is God. He is the Father-God, the Mother-God, the God of the buttercups and daisies, of sunshine and spring, the God who cares for the sparrows and clothes the lilies, who spreads out the heavens as a curtain and calls all the stars by name, who longs for you as the child of his heart, and loves you with an everlasting love, so that sin and death cannot separate you from the might of His affection nor quench His hope in you. Morning light shames our midnight fears. And the shame is that in the darkness you were not sure of the coming dawn. You ought to have known that after midnight comes the morning; in the blackest night of the year you ought to have kept God's sunshine in your soul. Angels have rolled the stone away from the grave of your ascending Lord. Clouds turn to solid rock beneath your feet. And Christ is risen indeed. --Rev. C. F. Aked
"When John Holland died, it was about five or six in the evening, the shadow of night was gathering around, and it was growing darker and darker. When near the last moment he looked up, and said to the family: "What is this? What is this strange light in the room? Have they lighted the candles, Martha?" "No," she said. He replied; "Then it must be heaven. Welcome, heaven." Talmage
Below, I've included an article from 1898 describing two sisters that made their living from the meticulous crafting of pine needle baskets. These baskets were first crafted by indigenous peoples long ago but American women soon learned the art of weaving these little beauties during the late 1800s. Pine needle baskets are still highly sought after by collectors today; perhaps you may find inspiration here to continue the art of weaving a few treasures for your friends and family this Easter?
Basket Making for Profit, Two New York Girls Have Discovered a New Road to Fortune Which Other Women May Follow, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 1898
If you have ever bought a basket of candy in Mexico your attention has no doubt been attracted to the dainty basket as much as to the sweets. The Indians and Mexicans and the "cracker" women of the mountains of the South are expert basket makers, but it is only quite recently that a young woman of New York, trying to solve the difficult poroblem of how a woman may support herself, was attracted to this employment.
a pine needle basket
While visiting at Aiken, S. C., Miss Mabel Compbell and her sister Stella observed the pretty baskets made of pine needles that were sold at the hotel by the country women. Miss Stella made a little basket after spending a day with the women who taught her, and before she left Aiken became quite expert. The following year Miss Mabel went out West, 'way out in the Indian country, as teacher in a family. The Indians in the neighborhood made many beautiful baskets. At Christmas she sent her sister Stella the prettiest basket to be found. Miss Stella was a typewriter, but disliked the work very much. She suggested to her sister that she learn all she possibly could concerning the making of the baskets, which she did, and also about the curing of the grasses, and in fact, invented many patterns of her own. She forwarded her sister a dozen of the baskets which she had made herself, and a lot of colored grass, in order that she might try her own hand at the art of weaving. Miss Stella combined the Indian and Southern material into a basket of an original design, which she sold to a florist for a good price. Afterward Miss Campbell went to Asheville, N. C., and pursued her quest for information concerning basket making. She returned to New York to find her sister had lost her position, her employer having gone to the war. Florists were consulted, and their orders were so large that it was decided to give all their time to the work.
A month ago they were obligated to engage a young woman to assist them, and they regard the business as in quite a flourishing condition. They have many more orders on hand than they can fill at present. The baskets are in great demand in other cities than New York--in fact, the largest order they have had to fill came from Washington-and the baskets will be used wherever flowers or fancy candies are sold. They anticipate orders from Chicago and Boston. When the winter season begins it is probable that they will take several girls into their employ, and will be obliged to go into larger quarters. Their summer home is a cottage in the Adirondacks, and they work in an ideal way, out on the veranda, or even taking the work into the woods, sometimes staying for several days at a time.
A party of young ladies visited them the other day, and, while it was impossible to fill the order they wished to leave, a bright suggestion of one of the girls was well received. She said she would like to take a course of lessons in the art of basket-weaving to add to her other accomplishments, embroidery and painting. Miss Campbell thinks it will be profitable to have classes in New York this winter.
Miss Campbell, when asked if the work is hare, shrugging her shoulders, said that she had never seen anything worth while that was not hard. There is some drawback to everything, but this work is not so confining as other work taken up by women. It can be accomplished at home for one thing, it is clean, and it does not strain the back or muscles. It must be learned like everything else, the principal requirement being the ability to invent new shapes. Miss Campbell and her sister have found it pleasanter and much more remunerative than either teaching or typewriting, those occupations most affected by the women who are not so fortunately situated as to have homes of their own and a competency.
