Part 10 (1/2)
The proverbial neatness of the ancestors of the Dutch colonists in America was characteristic of their homes in the new land. This is well ill.u.s.trated in the following description of a Pennsylvania Dutch farmer's home, similar to the one in which the quilting above mentioned took place: ”We keep one fire in winter. This is in the kitchen which, with nice housekeepers, is the abode of neatness, with its rag carpet and brightly polished stove. Adjoining the kitchen is a state apartment, also rag-carpeted, and called 'the room.' Will you go upstairs in a neat Dutch farmhouse? There are rag carpets again. Gay quilts are on the best beds, where green and red calico, perhaps in the form of a basket, are displayed on a white ground; or the beds bear brilliant coverlets of red, white, and blue, as if to 'make the rash gazer wipe his eyes.'”
There are many things to induce women to piece quilts. The desire for a handsome bed furnis.h.i.+ng, or the wish to make a gift of one to a dear friend, have inspired some women to make quilts. With others, quilt making is a recreation, a diversion, a means of occupying restless fingers. However, the real inducement is love of the work; because the desire to make a quilt exceeds all other desires. In such a case it is worked on persistently, laid aside reluctantly, and taken up each time with renewed interest and pleasure. It is this intense interest in the work which produces the most beautiful quilts. On quilts that are made because of the genuine interest in the work, the most painstaking efforts are put forth; the pa.s.sing of time is not considered; and the belief of the majority of such quilt makers, though unconfessed, doubtless, is the equivalent of the old Arab proverb that ”Slowness comes from G.o.d, but hurry from the devil.”
All women who are lonely do not live in isolated farmhouses, prairie shacks, or remote villages. In reality, there are more idle, listless hands in the hearts of crowded bustling cities than in the quiet country. City women, surrounded by many enticing distractions, are turning more and more to patchwork as a fascinating yet nerve-soothing occupation. Not only is there a sort of companions.h.i.+p between the maker and the quilt, but there is also the great benefit derived from having found a new interest in life, something worth while that can be built up by one's own efforts.
An anecdote is told of a woman living in a quiet little New England village who complained of her loneliness there, where the quilting bees were the only saving features of an otherwise colourless existence. She told the interested listener that in this out-of-the-way hamlet she did not mind the monotony much because there were plenty of ”quiltings,” adding that she had helped that winter at more than twenty-five quilting bees; besides this, she had made a quilt for herself and also helped on some of those of her immediate neighbours.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WILD ROSE
That loves to grow in fragrant, tangled ma.s.ses by the roadside was made to march in prim rows on this child's quilt]
American women rarely think of quilts as being made or used outside of their own country. In reality quilts are made in almost every land on the face of the earth. Years ago, when the first New England missionaries were sent to the Hawaiian Islands, the native women were taught to piece quilts, which they continue to do down to this day.
These Hawaiian women treasure their handiwork greatly, and some very old and beautiful quilts are to be found among these islands. In creating their patchwork they have wandered from the Puritanical designs of their teachers, and have intermingled with the conventional figures the gorgeous flowers that bloom beside their leaf-thatched, vine-covered huts. To these women, also, patchwork fills a place. It affords a means of expression for individuality and originality in the same way that it does for the lonely New England women and for the isolated mountaineers of Kentucky.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, immortalized by ”Uncle Tom's Cabin,” produced other stories, not now so familiar to us as to our countrymen of the Civil War period, which showed an intimate knowledge of the home life of the American people as well as the vital questions of her day. In her novel ent.i.tled the ”Minister's Wooing,” which ran first as a serial in the _Atlantic Monthly_ in 1859, she describes a quilting supposed to have been given about the year 1800. Here we can view at close range a real old-fas.h.i.+oned quilting, and gain some insight into its various incidents of sociability and gossip, typical of an early New England seafaring village, as set forth in Mrs. Stowe's inimitable style:
”By two o'clock a goodly company began to a.s.semble. Mrs. Deacon Twitchel arrived, soft, pillowy, and plaintive as ever, accompanied by Cerinthy Ann, a comely damsel, tall and trim, with a bright black eye and a most vigorous and determined style of movement. Good Mrs. Jones, broad, expansive, and solid, having vegetated tranquilly on in the cabbage garden of the virtues since three years ago, when she graced our tea party, was now as well preserved as ever, and brought some fresh b.u.t.ter, a tin pail of cream, and a loaf of cake made after a new Philadelphia receipt. The tall, spare, angular figure of Mrs. Simeon Brown alone was wanting; but she patronized Mrs. Scudder no more, and tossed her head with a becoming pride when her name was mentioned.
”The quilt pattern was gloriously drawn in oak leaves, done in indigo; and soon all the company, young and old, were pa.s.sing busy fingers over it, and conversation went on briskly.
”Madame de Frontignac, we must not forget to say, had entered with hearty abandon into the spirit of the day. She had dressed the tall china vases on the mantelpiece, and, departing from the usual rule of an equal mixture of roses and asparagus bushes, had constructed two quaint and graceful bouquets where garden flowers were mingled with drooping gra.s.ses and trailing wild vines, forming a graceful combination which excited the surprise of all who saw it.
”'It's the very first time in my life that I ever saw gra.s.s put into a flower pot,' said Miss Prissy, 'but I must say it looks as handsome as a picture. Mary, I must say,' she added, in an aside, 'I think that Madame de Frontignac is the sweetest dressing and appearing creature I ever saw; she don't dress up nor put on airs, but she seems to see in a minute how things ought to go; and if it's only a bit of gra.s.s, or leaf, or wild vine, that she puts in her hair, why, it seems to come just right. I should like to make her a dress, for I know she would understand my fit; do speak to her, Mary, in case she should want a dress fitted here, to let me try it.'
”At the quilting Madame de Frontignac would have her seat, and soon won the respect of the party by the dexterity with which she used her needle; though, when it was whispered that she learned to quilt among the nuns, some of the elderly ladies exhibited a slight uneasiness, as being rather doubtful whether they might not be encouraging papistical opinions by allowing her an equal share in the work of getting up their minister's bed quilt; but the younger part of the company was quite captivated by her foreign air and the pretty manner in which she lisped her English; and Cerinthy Ann even went so far as to horrify her mother by saying that she wished she'd been educated in a convent herself, a declaration which arose less from native depravity than from a certain vigorous disposition, which often shows itself in young people, to shock the current opinions of their elders and betters. Of course, the conversation took a general turn, somewhat in unison with the spirit of the occasion; and whenever it flagged, some allusion to a forthcoming wedding, or some sly hint at the future young Madame of the parish was sufficient to awaken the dormant animation of the company.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MORNING GLORY
It must be ”early to bed and early to rise” for the child who would see the sweet morning glory in all its loveliness, as it must be found before all the dew is gone]
”Cerinthy Ann contrived to produce an agreeable electric shock by declaring that for her part she never could see into it how any girl could marry a minister; that she should as soon think of setting up housekeeping in a meeting-house.
”'Oh, Cerinthy Ann!' exclaimed her mother, 'how can you go on so?'
”'It's a fact,' said the adventurous damsel; 'now other men let you have some peace, but a minister's always round under your feet.'
”'So you think the less you see of a husband, the better?' said one of the ladies.
”'Just my views!' said Cerinthy, giving a decided snip to her thread with her scissors. 'I like the Nantucketers, that go off on four years' voyages, and leave their wives a clear field. If ever I get married, I'm going up to have one of those fellows.'
”It is to be remarked, in pa.s.sing, that Miss Cerinthy Ann was at this very time receiving surrept.i.tious visits from a consumptive-looking, conscientious young theological candidate, who came occasionally to preach in the vicinity, and put up at the house of the deacon, her father. This good young man, being violently attacked on the doctrine of election by Miss Cerinthy, had been drawn on to ill.u.s.trate it in a most practical manner, to her comprehension; and it was the consciousness of the weak and tottering state of the internal garrison that added vigour to the young lady's tones. As Mary had been the chosen confidante of the progress of this affair, she was quietly amused at the demonstration.
”'You'd better take care, Cerinthy Ann,' said her mother, 'they say ”that those who sing before breakfast will cry before supper.” Girls talk about getting married,' she said, relapsing into a gentle melancholy, 'without realizing its awful responsibilities.'
”'Oh, as to that,' said Cerinthy, 'I've been practising on my pudding now these six years, and I shouldn't be afraid to throw one up chimney with any girl.'
”This speech was founded on a tradition, current in those times, that no young lady was fit to be married till she could construct a boiled Indian pudding of such consistency that it could be thrown up a chimney and come down on the ground outside without breaking; and the consequence of Cerinthy Ann's sally was a general laugh.
”'Girls ain't what they used to be in my day,' sententiously remarked an elderly lady. 'I remember my mother told me when she was thirteen she could knit a long cotton stocking in a day.'