Sailor's Rib

SEINE, n.  A kind of net for effecting an involuntary change of environment.  For fish it is made strong and coarse, but women are more easily taken with a singularly delicate fabric weighted with small, cut stones.

The devil casting a seine of lace,

(With precious stones 'twas weighted)

Drew it into the landing place 

And its contents calculated.

All souls of women were in the sack--

A draft miraculous, precious!

Bet ere he could throw it across his back

They'd all escaped through the meshes.

Baruch de Loppis.

Three-Stitch Twisted Rib

K,  is a consonant that we get from the Greeks, but it can be traced away back beyond them to the Cerathians, a small commercial nation inhabiting the peninsula of Smero.  In their tongue it was call Klatch, which means, "destroyed."  The form of the letter was originally precisely that of our H, but the erudite Dr. Snedeker explains that it was altered to its present shape to commemorate the destruction of the great temple of Jarute by an earthquake, circa 730 B.C.  This building was famous for the two lofty columns of its portico, one of which was broken in half by the catastrophe, the other remaining intact.  As the earlier form of the letter is supposed to have been suggested by these pillars, so, it is thought by the great antiquary, its later was adopted as a simple and natural--not to say touching--means of keeping the calamity ever in the national memeory.  It is not known if the name of the letter was altered as an additional mnemonic, or if the name was always Klatch and the destruction one of nature's puns.  As each theory seems probable enough, I see no objection to believing both--and Dr. Snedeker arrayed himself on that side of the question.

Fishtail Lace Panel

TELESCOPE, n.  A device having a relation to the eye similar to that of the telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague us with a multitude of needless details.  Luckily it is umporvided with a bell sommoning us to the sacrifice.

Tulip Lace

TELEPHONE, n.  An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.

Vandyke Lace Panel 2

PERFECTION, n.  An imaginary state or quality distinguished from the actual by an element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic.  The editor of an English magazine having received a letter pointing out the erroneous nature of his views and style, and signed "Perfection," promptly wrote at the foot of the letter: "I don't agree with you," and mailed it to Matthew Arnold.

Vandyke Lace Panel 1

T, the twentieth letter of the English alphabet, was by the Greeks absurdly called tau.  In the alphabet whence ours comes it had the form of the rude corkscrew of the period, and when it stood alone (which was more than the Phoenicians could always do) signified Tallegal, translated by the learned Dr. Brownrigg, "tanglefoot."

Little Chevron Rib

IDLENESS, n.  A model farm where the devil experiments with seeds of new sins and promotes the growth of staple vices.