is ornamented with a fine display of lacing and embroidery. The same fondness for ornamentation is exhibited in work in bed curtains of unbleached linen, and the white covering with yellow embroidery worn by women on the occasion of churching. In the south of Moravia everything is decorated with work of floral designs, not only the dress, but the walls of dwellings, the furniture, mugs, dishes and plates.
Whoever regards the specimens of Bohemian needlework, involuntarily asks himself: “Who made these nimble miracles of art and taste?” Those who wear them themselves make or made them. When the country people ceased to wear their national dress, some of the workers who formerly had supplied only the requirements of their neighbors began to work for a larger circle of customers. The people’s art developed into an important home industry. This was the case of the lace workers; their laces are originally made for local use to adorn caps, coils, kerchiefs, etc., of the village people, but when times changed, peddlars trading amongst the people carried their work to the distant towns and villages. These home industries soon got beyond the peddlar stage of its existence; in some districts they are now organized by diverse societies who bringing their trained experience and capital into the business have succeeded in largely increasing the trade. The art of lace making is the special object of certain industrial schools and the efforts of the teachers have been rewarded by a large measure of success.
In Bohemia and Moravia, earlier perhaps than in any other part of Central Europe, much attention has been bestowed on the apparently vanishing innate inventive powers of the country people. Some forty years ago articles of dress, furniture, pottery and such like were collected in Museums, and a great number of exhibitions brought to light quantities of interesting objects of textile and ceramic industry, along with various small household utensils from all parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. All these proofs of genuine inventive spirit of the people and their peculiar aesthetic taste had so much artistic value that there was a general desire to save this art from utter extinction. This was aimed at in two ways. First by preserving the old customs and taking steps to encourage the genuine inventive spirits in the various districts where the old traditions still survived. This is hardly possible in Bohemia, but more so in Moravia and Slovakia. There the old art of embroidery still fourishes and is executed in the traditional manner and style. In certain districts potters are even now able to produce ware in the old original style and form of ornamentation.
Many things that had a high artistic value and the great charm of antiquity cannot, alas, be again revived; nevertheless, the examples found in national and municipal collections ought not to be consigned to museums and as it were buried. We are convinced of their worth, and all who are interested ought to study technical peculiarities, the designs and style of ornamentation, and endeavor to extract from the consideration of ancient art an inspiration for new artistic creations.
Cannon Barry on the Austrian Problem.
America’s interest in foreign affairs is of recent date. That is the reason why our magazines, both those that sell for 15 cents and those costing 35 cents, seldom contain articles on international questions of such interest and authority as are found in every issue of noted London reviews as the Nineteenth Century, the Contemporary Review, the Fortnightly Review or the New Europe. Articles on foreign topics in our most serious monthlies are elementary in character and are generally written in a popular vein by men whose acquaintance with the subject is seldom of long standing. The English reviews have contributors who are experts in their subject and who write for readers familiar with the general situation in the country under discussion.
The best analysis of the problem of Austria-Hungary from the point of view of England, and that means America as well, will be found in the November issue of the Nineteenth Century. The author is Cannon William Barry, and the article in question is his second essay on the same subject. His first discussion appeared in the September issue of the Nineteenth Century under the title “Break Austria.” Great deal of interest and debate was stirred up by the first article, so that Cannon Barry decided
