THE MIND FOR THE NEEDLE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 302, 15 September 1908, Page 5

THE MIND FOR THE NEEDLE.

Many women who have not the gift of intellect are endowed with the blessincf of clever fingers, that with the nicest skilhcan manipulate any kind of work from an elaborate silk embroidery to the re-covering, of furniture, darning of old brocade, orthe mending of old lace. And who shall- say that. this manual cleverness is not a gift; as much to be cultivated and appreciated ; as that of an intellectual brain? Many-men would think it preferable, and certainly many women would be happier in the possession, of a gift, within, the scope of all women's lives, rather than to be endowed with a mind which soars abovo the prosaic details of daily life, and which produces a woman restless and discontented with her ordinary homo life. . ,It is, however, very curious how .rarely you find a woman with a really artistic perament a good needlewoman. She can design, but not execute. She possesses the theory, but not the practice, which so often carries with it the key to their characters, for artistic people are too often vague and unpractical, full of ideas which they are not able to carry into execution, beautiful to talk to, but tiresome to deal with.—Lady Howard Vincent, in "The Young Woman." WRITERS AND THE SUFFRACISTSJ "■Woman's Franchise," the official organ of tho suffragist party in prints an interesting list of thoso writers for and against the cause. Men who 'arc strong supporters of the women's cause' are headed by George Meredith and Lord Morlpy, and include such men of thought as H. G. Wells, Bernard Shaw, Augustine Birrell, H. Belloc, I. Zangivill, as well as Chesterton, Galsworthy, Jerome Iv. Jerome, A/ E. )V. Mason, • Laurence Housman, Gilbert Murray, Edward Carpenter, and severai otliers. ' Of the women writers who are suffragists there are Olive Scliroiner, Sarah Grand, Beatrice Harraden, "Vernon Lee," Elizabeth Robins, May Sinclair, and Cicely Hamilton. The women who arc against the cause includo Mrs. Humphry AVard, Marie ■ G'orelli, Rosa N. Carey, and three writers less favourably ' known—Frank Danby, .Eleanor Glynn, and Victoria Cfoss. There is not one man writer of any note who is opposed to the suffrage. TOO COOD TO BE TRUE. A. lady, one day remarked to tho English novelist Bjilwer Lytton how odd it was that a dqye (Colombo) should have been sent out to find tfio old world, and Columbus (Colombo) should havo found the new. Sir Henry iprummond Wolff says in his recent book, "- " Random "Recollections," that Bulwer Lytton immediately replied: "Yes; and tho one came from Noah; tho other from Genoa'."