erembodeghem is a commune of about 6,000 inhabitants, tho the pretty winding street by which we entered, with the picturesque, red-tiled houses clustered irregularly along both sides of it, suggests a smaller village. nearly all the women in this town, as in kerxken, make lace, and again it is chiefly needle point and venise. the convent, which furnishes the customary directing and stimulating center, has no superior in the country for its particular laces, unless one grants preference to its own mother house at opbrakel.
as we entered the courtyard, a group [190]of french soldiers were warming themselves before a fire they had lighted beneath a dripping canvas tent-roof stretched across a corner of the wall. in the dreary rain the fire flaming against the brick wall, and the horizon blue of the uniforms were a cheery greeting. but inside the convent, alas, there was less cheer; indeed, there was the chill of the tomb, no coal for the poor sisters, who were for lack of it unable to conduct the regular school classes. they told us of their distress over the idleness of the children, who had been turned into the streets by the germans many weeks before, and whom they were not yet able to reassemble. “their manners are already so bad,” sister a. said, “that we are ashamed to own them as our pupils.” the germans left the class-rooms in the familiar condition, and the sisters had no sooner finished patching and disinfecting, than the italian soldiers were billeted [191]there. they were too loyal to criticise but i suspect that their experiences after the departure of the italians must have convinced them that, after all, a new army is just another army. the french followed, but they at least were occupying only four class-rooms, and the sisters were trying to be optimistic. “we believe they must be better,” one of them said, with a smile; “however, we shall not know until they are gone.”
“at any rate,” she continued, “our lace-room has not been requisitioned; we have had enough coal to keep a little fire there. during all the four years that work has never stopt.” since it was saturday afternoon there were many vacant chairs in the class-room, but still enough girls were present to enable us to judge of the kind of lace school this is.
little girls between nine and ten, sitting up very straight in their high-backed chairs, were working with swift, steady [192]fingers and already producing a good venise insertion of a simple leaf pattern. several of the other girls were busy with the now well-known venetian point medallions representing the arms of the allied nations, and the provinces of belgium; still others were executing flower details for yard lace. all this venise they were making with a needle and single linen thread, for this convent works exclusively with linen thread. they were handling the black cloth patterns, eight to ten inches wide, with apparent ease, turning them with almost every stitch. this mere mastery of the pattern is in itself impressive.
in a corner, near one of the great windows overlooking the walled-in winter garden, a slim, darkly clad girl about sixteen was absorbed in pricking a complicated pattern. sister a. led me a little aside to explain that this was their feeble-minded girl and that tho they could not [193]explain it, she was able to interpret correctly very difficult drawings.
venise banquet cloth presented by the lace committee to h.m. queen elizabeth on her return from exile
design by m. de rudder; executed by the 30 best venise-makers in belgium in six months
at the committee bureau i had seen many of the wonderful cloths made from venise details from this convent (among them the cloth typifying the burning cities, presented to mrs. hoover), but i had never imagined anything so lovely as the exhibit the sisters had been arranging on the long, low table, while we were passing from chair to chair following the magic needles.... we turned to find the separate parts of a banquet cloth to be offered to queen elizabeth on her return from exile, assembled for us. two hundred and twenty details, there were, on which during the darkest days of the war, women had worked with unfaltering faith and love. m. de rudder, a well-known belgian artist, had drawn the design for the lace committee. the border, edged with ivy, the symbol of endurance, is composed of ferns and wild flowers, eels and [194]sea-weed, suggesting the forests and fields and waters of belgium. adjoining them are the coats of arms of destroyed cities, bordered by a band of lilies of the valley, signifying the return of happiness. in the center, the four patron saints of brussels, saints michel and george, and saints elizabeth and gudule, are enwreathed with olive branches. saint elizabeth, above the red cross, represents the queen and her devoted service as nurse during the war, while the eight medallions near her carry the names of the beatitudes. opposite saint elizabeth is saint george, who represents king albert. below him is the belgian decoration for bravery, and in the surrounding medallions are woven the names of battles won by him. between saint elizabeth and saint george, are the immortal words spoken by his majesty as he went from the chamber, sword in hand, on the 4th of august, 1914: [195]“j’ai foi dans nos destinées! un pays qui se défend s’impose au respect de tous, ce pays ne périt pas!” it is one thing to mention a few of the two hundred and twenty details of this glorious cloth, it is quite another to hold any one of them in one’s hand and realize its perfection, its incredible combination of softness and delicacy and firmness and regularity. the twelve sisters gathered happily about us, as we sat before the table quite breathless over the discovery of one new beauty after another in their truly royal gift.
and then they brought us something much less important, but nevertheless exquisite, the work of sister s., which they show rarely, a length of rose point about four inches wide, and which even the women of the committee after their long years’ constant experience in lace, said they had never seen surpassed. the linen thread ordinarily used in venise runs from number 200 to number 300. this [196]lace, whose base is formed by an ethereal interlacing of vines and tendrils, is made with number 2000. one can work on it scarcely more than two or three hours a day, and then only under the best light. sister s. brought me the magnifying-glass, without which i could not have followed the exquisitely varied points, and lifted the infinitesimal petals of the tiny flowers incrusting the background of interwoven tendrils. in some of these microscopic blooms were as many as four layers of petals. it would be useless to attempt to describe the loveliness that results from the blending of the background of vines and lifted blossoms. i asked what a meter of such lace would bring and learned that it will probably be sold in paris for 1,000 francs, tho these sisters would be happy to guard it as one of their convent treasures.
cushion cover in venise
pekinese dog design, by m. allard
[197]
table center in flanders with center and border of venise
design by lace committee; executed in west flanders by five workers in 15 days
we had intended going into some of the neighborhood houses to watch the work of the older women, but it seemed impossible to look at any other lace that day and we said good-by. and while the chauffeur brushed away the small boys clinging to or crawling over the car, we again tucked our sister in, to carry her home to kerxken; it had been a great day for s?ur robertine and for us.
