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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 408626, member: 5833&quot;]Does that look like a child-size stocking?&nbsp; Maybe repairing cast-offs, hand me downs, for the needy or orphans?</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Well-to-do may be overstating it; I don&#039;t see as much jewellery as I would expect.&nbsp; If you were the daughter or wife in a farm family that was reasonably prosperous, you could have dresses, jewellery, boots, not to mention smocks, like these.&nbsp; Same if you lived in some small town and father/husband made stable living, even if not lavish.&nbsp; They would not necessarily have to be from a city or earning their own wages.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I make the opposite conjecture: that if you were a mill worker who got the opportunity to have your photo taken, you would want to look like a lady and would not wear your best clothes only to have them hidden under what you wear to work, maybe with a stocking hanging on your shoulder.</p><p><br /></p><p>The only way I can make sense of being photographed in good clothes under plain (except that apron, which looks like Sunday best too) homemaker&#039;s wear, with the indication to the viewer that all four of you engage in this one same mending activity - which is what the photo is about - is if it is a voluntary project.&nbsp; They have the choice to have themselves recorded engaged in this humble, virtuous activity; they have the means to have themselves photographed in all their finery too.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s the sort of thing that used to make the newspaper in small places:&nbsp; Mrs. X, Mrs. Y, Mrs. Z, and Miss Q, of the Ladies Group of the First Methodist Church, have been busy this year mending worn out stockings for distribution to the less fortunate among us.&nbsp; They are proud to report they have given out sixty-eight pairs to date.&nbsp; Donations of worn or outgrown stockings are greatly appreciated.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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