Page:A happy half-century and other essays.djvu/247

 Rh waves that only close scrutiny revealed the thousand tiny holes of which its billowy softness was composed. The cleanness and dryness of pins commend them to our taste after a long contemplation of varnish and glue pots; of "poonah work," which was a sticky sort of stencilling; of "Japan work," in which embossed figures were made of "gum-water, thickened to a proper consistence with equal parts of bole ammoniac and whiting"; of "Chinese enamel," which was a base imitation of ebony inlaid with ivory; and of "potichomanie," which converted a piece of English glass into something that "not one in a hundred could tell from French china." We sympathize with the refined editor of the "Monthly Museum," who recommends knotting to his female readers, not only because it had the sanction of a queen,

but because of its "pure nature" and "innocent simplicity." "I cannot but think," says this true friend of my sex, "that shirts and smocks are unfit for any lady of delicacy to handle; but the shuttle is an easy flowing