T HE T A LE OF T HE SP IN N ING-WHEEL ELI'ABET H C' N T HIA BARNE' B'EL ” e ent Ma'r Flo d Ta llma d e Chc ter Da u hters R g y y g qo , g of the A merica'n Revo bwtian ILL' STRATED B' EMIL' N O'ES V A N DERP OEL A'T HOR OF COLOR P ROBLEMS A N D CHRONICLES OF A P IONEER SC HOOL F ELD C N N IC T LIT CH I , O ECT ' MCMIII T HE Ll B RA RV O F C O N G RES S, (3v sum C P ' IG T 1 903 B ' O R H , , ELI'ABET H C' NT HIA BA RNE' B'’EL ' NIV ERSIT ' P RE SS 0 J OHN W ILSON DEDICA TED IN G RA T E F' L AFFEC T IO N T HE MAR' FLO' D TALLMADGE CHAP TE R DA'G HTERS OF T HE AME RICAN RE V OL'TION W HOSE READ' S' MP AT H' A N D ENT H' SIASM HAVE N EVER FAILED IN W ORK FO R “ HOME A N D CO' NT R' INTROD' CTORY NOTE HE Tale o f t he Spinning-Whe e l is rev ised and enla rged from a paper rea d b efo re t he Lit c hfie ld Historical e t Lit c hfie ld e En Soci y , , Conn cticut ; New g la nd in t he Of N e w Society City York , f- N e w Waldor Astoria, York City ; Mary e . R . Floyd Tallmadg Chapter, D A . , Litch fie ld J e e A R s t ; ud a Chapt r, D . Wa hing on, Conne cticut ; Massachuset t s Socie t y o f the me o f m s K t Colonial Da s A erica, Bo ton ; a h e e . R . s e . rin Gaylord Chapt r, D A , Bri tol , Connecticut ; Connecticut Society o f the o f N e w n Colonial Dames America, Have , t f e e and also in Har ord ; D nv r Chapter , d R . a n . e D A , Denv r, Colorado ; Warren t ss s R . st Pre cot Chapter, D . A . , Bo on , Ma a Vl l INTROD' CTORY NOTE h tt c use s f s R . ; Or ord Pari h Chapter, D . A . , M s e t t n South anche ter, Conn c icu ; Natio al N e w e Arts Club , York ; Esth r Stanley N B a n n e . R . e w Chapt r, D A , rit i , Con ec t ic ut n f ; Annual Spri g Con erence, Connec t t ic ut . R . a t e D A , Middl own ; Dorothy e . R . t Co n Ripley Chapt r, D A , Sou hport , l k ne c t ic ut W i t w c t e . R ; y Chap r , D A K s N e w Lit c hfie ld ing ton , York ; Club , Lit c hfield e e t c . , Conn cticut , , etc viii THE TALE OF THE SPINNING WHEEL ueens o Ho mes un o ut o w ho m w e draw ' f p , f B o ur ro ya l HORA CE ' SHN ELL. THE TALE OF THE SPINNING —WHEEL — HE s pmnmg-wheel symbol o f the dig ’ T - nity o f W oman s labor . What wealth o f memory gathers around the homely im plement , homely indeed in the good Old — sens e o f the word because belonging to - a nd - the home . Home made home spun are r honorable epithets , eplete with significance , for in them w e l find the epitome o f the lives ' o f o ur and labors foremothers . The plough and the axe are not more symbolic o f the winning o f this country from the W ilder s o f w n o f ne s , nor the musket the i ning its m n - W w o m freedo , than is the spinni g heel in ’ o f SO a n s hands the symbol both . sym ’ ’ b o lic o f w n o f w is it also oma s toil , oman s n a nd disti ctive universal occupation , nay , “ ' o f n dis t a fi s woma herself, that the ide ” o f the hous e ha s al w ays been expres sive o f ’ “ ” w m n s is s the o a family , and spinster till the legal title o f unma rrl e d w omen in the m n la w o f n n o com o E gla d . Most ancient f ha s s all household implements , it been u ed 3 THE TALE OF o ne f o r in orm another by queen , princess , ’ - and serving maid, by farmer s wife and ’ n - noble s daughter , until it sta ds to day a silent witness to the fundamental democracy o f mankind . hen da m de e d a nd Eve s an W A lv p , Where w a s then the ge ntle ma n ' The mutual dependence O f spinning and ’ ’ Of agriculture , woman s work and man s , is also strikingly illustrated by a carving o n an o ld o f St sarcophagus in the Church . John n Lateran in Rome , depicting the Eter al Father giving to Adam an instrument of ' di t a fi s . tillage , and to Eve a and spindle ’ s n o n Thus , coeval with man s fir t appeara ce o f no this earth , no written page history , o r musty parchment sculptured stone , is so O ld that we cannot find upon it some traces ' of the spindle and dis t a fi with their tale o f joys and sorrows spun into the thread by the fingers o f patient women whose hearts beat o ur o w n - as to day , in tune with the common o f throb humanity . Though we may strain our eyes into the darkness o f prehistoric ages , when primeval woman used the tree 41 THE SPINNING—WHEEL ' fo r dist a fl trunk Of the forest a , we will still find there some evidence Of the use o f flax and hemp for threads and ropes . Even - o f b e in the lake dwellings Switzerland , n s e e longi g to the Stone Age , we their use in various ways — in the fishing lines and n fo r ets , in the cords carrying heavy ves e s s l , and in the ropes necessary to the erection o f these very lake-dwellings them u selves . Rough or nworked flax , says “ K e lle r n - , is fou d in the lake dwellings d ma e into bundles , or what are technically called heads , and it was perfectly clean and ready fo r use . S O f tepping across the threshold history , we learn that sixty - five centuries ago there lived in Egypt a king o f the recently dis d covered first ynasty , who , as his name , Me rne it - Ata , signifies , put his trust in the - O f goddess Neith , the all sustaining mother 5 THE TALE OF t he universe ; and in his tomb to-day has been found a large upright slab , five feet o f high, whereon are carved the emblems — this goddess two arrows crossed o n a n ' di t s a fi. n upright Here , in the dim mor ing o f ff n history , we find the dista already ho ored a s the sacred symbol of this fe mmme divin l n W E ity , hose eternal motherhood the gyp tians vaguely recognized that mysteriou s h Power from which all things proceed . T is no s O f s m was prehi toric age barbari , for in the ' niversity Museum in London are now to be seen the relics of this long lost firs t n w t he s dynasty , u earthed at Abydos ithin la t n — four years by Dr . Fli ders Petrie relics o f n a civilization already far adva ced . We stand face t o face with their weapons of war d 1m le and of the chase, their househol p s a nd ments , their exquisitely carved ivorie a nd n gold jewelry com , their very clothi g Of n n o f ns s o f h s fine li e , the work the spi ter t o e a nd h days , the brain reels with the thoug t that even before them there were generations upon generations of human beings living in organized societies and practi sing the arts and engaged in the occ upations of a high 6 THE SPINNIN(SP—WHEEL z u order o f C l Vl li e d life . The whole co rse o f is no w the first dynasty laid bare to us , n 4 700 . and we find that its beginni g in B C . is modern his tory compared with the periods o f n developme t that must have gone before , for there is proof positive that even before in this dynasty , ten other kings reigned a nd n o n Egypt , other ha ds grew flax the banks Of the Nile and spun a nd wove it into ’ - n Egypt s far famed linen .