DOI Heft:
No. 151 (October, 1905)
DOI Artikel:Levetus, A. S.: The state schools for lace-making in Austria
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20713#0038
Austrian Lace Schools
COLLAR IN NEEDLE-POINT LACE
DESIGNED BY PROFESSOR UNGER
EXECUTED BY PUPILS OF THE GRASLITZ LACE SCHOOL
therefore, strong reason for the protection and aid
given them by the State. In many parts of the
Crown Lands the women are practically tied to the
soil by sheer force of circumstances. They rarely
leave their villages, except when they migrate to
the large cities in order to become servants ; but
these form only a small percentage of the popu-
lation. As soon as the usually scanty harvest is
garnered the men leave for the cities, there to gain
a meagre subsistence by hawking. The women
and elder children must look after the little ones
and themselves. At ploughing time the men are
back home again, and with the women and children
go to work in the fields for their general good. It
is a precarious existence, indeed, that is led by these
peasant folk.
The reasons for this poverty are, firstly, the
nature of the soil, which is ill-adapted for agri-
cultural production; and, secondly, the fact that
mining, at one time an important industry in many
of the Crown Lands, is practically at an end, for
the simple reason that the mines are exhausted.
Cut off from the greater world, then, as they are,
what can these folk do ? The girls have learnt no
trades, for there are none to learn; they cannot
work in factories, for there are none; and there is
no opening for them as clerks. The tilling of the
fields and the reaping of the harvest only occupy
them a few weeks in the year: they must have
enough to eat all the year round, and this they are
enabled to obtain by their home industries. The
conditions are harder in those parts where there
are no home industries, or at best only forgotten
ones, and the people have been accustomed to a
higher standard of living, as, for instance, in the
old mining districts.
Austria possesses a peculiar advantage in the
number and variety of her home industries, due to
the great diversity and intermixture of the races
settled in her dominions. This has proved a great
gain artistically, for it has brought about uncon-
sciously much diversity of thought in the arrange-
ment of designs. This is particularly to be seen in
the different embroideries met with, about which I
propose to speak in another article. Again, the
races learn from one another, and consequently
help one another ; for when one fashion in needle-
work dies out—say for instance cross-stitch—they
are able to turn to other forms of embroidery; for
it is surprising how great their resources are with
the needle. On commercial grounds, too, there is
need for co-operation on the part of the State ; for
it is important that, if the inhabitants are not to suffer
hunger, home industries should be brought to
districts where there are none, and new ones
taught where old-established ones are in danger of
disappearing owing to the caprices of fashion.
Only in this way can such suffering and misery be
avoided as was occasioned in the North of France
by the reseau lace going out of fashion. Bohemia
20
COLLAR IN NEEDLE-POINT LACE
DESIGNED BY PROFESSOR UNGER
EXECUTED BY PUPILS OF THE GRASLITZ LACE SCHOOL
therefore, strong reason for the protection and aid
given them by the State. In many parts of the
Crown Lands the women are practically tied to the
soil by sheer force of circumstances. They rarely
leave their villages, except when they migrate to
the large cities in order to become servants ; but
these form only a small percentage of the popu-
lation. As soon as the usually scanty harvest is
garnered the men leave for the cities, there to gain
a meagre subsistence by hawking. The women
and elder children must look after the little ones
and themselves. At ploughing time the men are
back home again, and with the women and children
go to work in the fields for their general good. It
is a precarious existence, indeed, that is led by these
peasant folk.
The reasons for this poverty are, firstly, the
nature of the soil, which is ill-adapted for agri-
cultural production; and, secondly, the fact that
mining, at one time an important industry in many
of the Crown Lands, is practically at an end, for
the simple reason that the mines are exhausted.
Cut off from the greater world, then, as they are,
what can these folk do ? The girls have learnt no
trades, for there are none to learn; they cannot
work in factories, for there are none; and there is
no opening for them as clerks. The tilling of the
fields and the reaping of the harvest only occupy
them a few weeks in the year: they must have
enough to eat all the year round, and this they are
enabled to obtain by their home industries. The
conditions are harder in those parts where there
are no home industries, or at best only forgotten
ones, and the people have been accustomed to a
higher standard of living, as, for instance, in the
old mining districts.
Austria possesses a peculiar advantage in the
number and variety of her home industries, due to
the great diversity and intermixture of the races
settled in her dominions. This has proved a great
gain artistically, for it has brought about uncon-
sciously much diversity of thought in the arrange-
ment of designs. This is particularly to be seen in
the different embroideries met with, about which I
propose to speak in another article. Again, the
races learn from one another, and consequently
help one another ; for when one fashion in needle-
work dies out—say for instance cross-stitch—they
are able to turn to other forms of embroidery; for
it is surprising how great their resources are with
the needle. On commercial grounds, too, there is
need for co-operation on the part of the State ; for
it is important that, if the inhabitants are not to suffer
hunger, home industries should be brought to
districts where there are none, and new ones
taught where old-established ones are in danger of
disappearing owing to the caprices of fashion.
Only in this way can such suffering and misery be
avoided as was occasioned in the North of France
by the reseau lace going out of fashion. Bohemia
20