HEALTH AND NEEDLEWORK.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2433, 23 January 1882, Page 4

HEALTH AND NEEDLEWORK.

Without contradicting what has beon said upon tha art of needlework there is something to bo nrped from a side of the question overtoiled hitherto ; that is, upon noedlework as it affects the health of the workers. Needlework is a sedentary occupation, and tb.3t in itself is a powerful argument against it« introduction into girls' aohools, whether as a eolaca end recreation out of school hours, or in the lees objectionable form of additional instruction. Boarding school girls suffer already, not niuch from ovor study, but very snuoh from too little exercise. The stiff walk on the high road, or the maroh round the playground, arm in arm, oomprises often enough the whole of a school-girl's recreation. Thore is little to bring the muscles into play, and even less to take hor thoughts away from her work, and in the end both mind and body lose elasticity, and consequently power. Girls should neither be encouraged nor allowed to spend the greater part of Saturday's half holiday at needlework. Mending may in many cases bo neoeesary, but it is a necessary evil to be kept within the otrioteet limits, and as to fanoy work, the less of that the better. For to most women the charm of needlework lies in the fsofc that while it occupies the fingers, the mind may ■wander over heaven and ourth at will. Many a one sits sowing far into the night, and tears fall over »eal or imaginary Borrows j to many an ovor-romantic maiden sowing is a veil behind which she may muse unehidden ; and many an anxious scholar, ostensibly darning her stockings, is really engaged in conning over the week's tasks, and fretting her soul lest her olais mate should rob her of her place. Far bettor to work with the brain during lesson hours, and then to find recreation in physical exercise, such as engrosses all the interest and all the faculties of the worker. 2?he boy must be an incorrigible grumbler who worries over the morning's troubles during the afternoon's criokot. A woman's toera fail oftener on the embroidery frame by the fireside than on the saddle galloping over a breezy oomaon. But it may be contended that for most women needlework of some kind is a necessity. Wauld wo tea our daughters orioketing in

rags ? Hardly that. Though if girl* are to learn needlework it might well be taught during school hours, in the place, if need be, of other less needful lessons. No one ifl the worse for knowing how to make her own clothes, darn her own stockings, and stretch her dross money to furthest limits. But to do that is not the sole duty of woman even after her education is said to be finished ; and it might well fill a moralist's soul with pity to see young girls stitohing away their eyosight and the best years of their life in the popular faith that the needle is a woman's most becoming friend. " I have no work. I really must get some work," says Sweet Seventeen to hor sister. She does not mean that she is a drone in the world's hivo or that she is living out her life without a purpose. Oh no! merely that tho last strip of embroidery or tatting bun come to an end, and that onothor strip must be forthwith begun. Sho will tit mooning through a winter's afternoon with the strip in hor lap, and if she has dona a quarter of a yard before badtime will plume herself on her industry. What good is the finished strip to any living soul ? Probably the coot of material would have bought a pieca of woven stuff quite as artistic As for the workor, shall wo valuo hor time at loss than nothing per hour ? " Work," as commonly used in the vocabulary of tho day, moans (for women) needlework, useless or useful, but still needlework. Reading (except lesaon-books at school) is not work, and often sot aside as waste of timo ; neither is walking, nor larrn tennis, nor lpttorwriting. It is pitiful to see tho result of this idea in all our drawing-rooms a-d in oharity bazaars; neodlework occasionally in season but more often out. We have lived through episodes of tatting, oroohet, lacowork, applique, cloth embroidery, macrame, netting, Madeira work, Berlin work, and crewel work; and now our houses are overrun with little boys and girls in outline. When shall these things have an end ? Whon shall fanoywork come to be work only for thoae whoso fancy or whose taste leads them to do it well ?

As to dressmaking and cutting out with the necessary darning and mending, that is another matter, though the dressmaking is probably more fitted to occupy the leisure hours of a girl who has left school than of one who is fully occupied in following tho usual sohool curriculum. Gutting out, especially if taught, as it now is taught by all the best teachers, on so-called mathematical principles, is a good training for eye and hand in accuracy and neatness ; but not many parents will be content to give up another lesson for this, and any addition to the list of subjects is undesirable. Mending, then, and plain sowing remain to be taught in school hours, and should, as I think, be taught to all. Even here, however, it is a question whether very fine work, such as stitohing by thread, should be insisted on.

Were it proposed to force ohildren to read for ever so short a time from school books printed in the smallest type—snoh as is to be found almost exclusively in prayer books or testaments—what an outcry would there be from parents, guardians, and oculists ? Yet the threads in moderately fine linen are far smaller than the separate letters of each word, and to pick up a oinglo thread on the point of a fine needle demands olcser looking than need be given to each letter of any word. Yet people who ought to know something of childlife and education are constantly heard to regret that fine stitching is relegated to the province of machines. All straining of the eyes is bad, but most of all bad for ohildren. If our grandmothers stitohed by the thread, and yet preserved their eyes longer than this generation seems likely to do, that is accounted for by their comparative freedom from book learning, and perhaps, too, by their short hours of artificial light. Last, but not least, must be considered the very unhealthy attitude oommonly adopted by needloworkers. In a fashionably low chair, with the head bent and the arms of neoessity drawn forward, girls in or out of school cannot spend too few hours. The tondcncy to consumption is not seldom fostered by the mode of life in cur fashionable boarding schools. By all means let women learn needlework, but lot it not be at the expense of their health. A Wobibb.