ABSTRACT
Within the last decade there have sprung into existence with great rapidity many associations styling themselves Arts and Crafts Societies, or assuming names adapted from that of the London Society of the same name, for the promotion of handicraft. These associations are usually composed of a very small minority of persons who are masters of any craft, and a large majority of those interested in varying degrees and from divers motives. One is forced to suspect in many cases that genuine desire for the exercise of the product of handicraft furnishes but little of the incentive to membership in these societies; that for the greater proportion numerically, this interest has temporarily supplanted, or perhaps only varied, the diversions of Society, the literary club and the charity ball. The rumor that well bred people now-a-days make things and have exhibitions may not infrequently have suggested the relief of ennui.
