New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-03-03

dOlefully at home while her daughters
nuptials are celebrating elsewhere, because
she is too poor to go to the royal wedding
and wear gown good enough for the oc-
casion; when every European country lays
bv its richest and most expensive goods for
the American market; when the wife of an
American gentleman buys in Europe a set
of laces which every queen OF fashion on
the continent, from Eugenie in her palmy
days down to a score OF petty duchesses
and princesses. had looked at with longing
ewes, and could not buy because it was be-
yond her royal means; In such times as
these, it is perhaps just as well to consider
whether we cannot spend more OF our
money at home, or at any rate be sure that
we do not 20 to our shops and buy American
goods under the impression that they come
from Europe.
These things were brought more fully I'M
der the writer's consideration week or Two
ago, when spending few days IN Connecti-
cut, near the silk mandatory of Cheney
Brothers. in Hartford, who carry on the
manufacture OF silk goods more largely than
any other firm in this country. The tacto-
ries are in South Manchester and IN Hart
ford, Connecticut. and make all kinds OF
dress silks. silk poplins, lining silk, ribbons,
etc, in quantities and with a perfection
which is surprising to one who for the first
time sees the extent to which the work is
American silks are made is brought from
foreign ports. Cocoon culture or the rails
ing of silkwOrms has never tiourished IN
this country, notwithstanding some vigor-
Gus efforts made to introduce it. Everybody
has heard-if he does not remember-of the
nOrus muhicauls fever which possessed a
part of this country thirty or forty years
ago. and how many hundreds of persons
undertook the culture of mulberry trees.
7 of tp .i1
in California has been attended with
better success. There are now large nurse
ries on the Pacific coast for this petted and
much priced worm, bit as yet the silk pro-
Iuced there is not sufficient in quantity to
keep the looms in Manchester running one
week in the year. Therefore we go to
China, Japan France and Italy for our raw
material. and bring it here reeled Gil the
cocoons in gossamer skeins, which look as
if they might be the product of the spinning
jennes OF Moth. and Cobweb, and the rest
of Titanias aerial attendants. The Italian
silk is the best and most costly, not because
the cocoons are any better l fancy the silk
worm does his work the same the world
oyar). but because the Italians have the
happiest knack of Keeling Oft the slender
thread into smooth and even knots. These
fbers of cocoon silk are subjected to very
much the same processes of spinning and
weaving as those used in our cotton factO-
ries, except that the machines are much
more complicated, and must handle
more delicately the silk tibers, SO
much more precious than the cotton
threads. which are spun and woven by
similar methods. When, at last, the per
feet product OF the loom comes forth, the,
goods are of various degrees Of glossiness,
according to the method OF finishing and
the character of the raw material used.
The theory advanced by SEINE. that in the
cheaper American silks there is mixture
of linen or cotton fiber with the silk, is en-
tirely grOundless. Every thread of all the
silk and ribbon in the manufacture visited
is of pure, unadulterated silk, as it comes
from the cocoon. The black silks for ladies'
dresses are sold at retail at prices varying
from s. to 81 per yard, according to quality.
Marceline silks OF every hue. and with a
purity and brilliancy of color which it is
generally supposed can not be attained by
any but French or German dyers. are made
in this factory. and are not to be disfin-
gushed from the French goods of similar
texture.
The American manufacturer is understood
not to claim that he makes any goods yet
as elegant and glossy as the very best, and
alas very expensive goods which Bonnet
and two or three other Lyons manutactur
ers send here. What is claimed, and with
Justice, is that the American factories
make dress goods for women which COM
bine elegance with cheapneSs and durability
in a greater degree than any foreign fabric.
For. do not women know that an elegant
black LYONS silk, which often costs from
$500 to $500 when it leaves the hands of the
New York. Boston or Chicago modesto, will
begin, after half dozen tunes careful wear
ing. to crack on the sleeves, and waist
seams, and skirt-plaits, and that new
black silk nowadays there are traditions
that they lasted longer in our grandmOthers'
time) is a very unsubstantial pageant in
deed. For half of what the foreign silk
would cost. an American silk could be had.
which would defy all weathers, and outwear
two or three of the former. 1t is not only
possible, but an absolute fact, that we shall
be able shortly to make silks which will
rival the very best in France and Italy.
There is only one problem to solve: We
must make machine labor as perfect as
hand labor. The American principle of
manufacture, as the Tribune has main
tanned, is the application of machinery to
all things made abroad by patien: hand
toll. In India. the handmade shawl has
the life-blood of generations woven into its
costly tissues: the laces of Brussels are
knitted by fingers whose owners go blind
over their toll. and learn to accept blind
ness as destiny: the looms Of LYONS are the
dull hand-looms. no whit improved for a
dozen generations. In America, we have
changed all this. We have. to a
great degree. automatonized all forms
of human industry. We make ma
machines, and the best machines. for all
kinds of work. We have recently succeed
ed in making dumb wheels and bands that
rival the educated fingers of Swiss artisans.
and make watches as well as the slow hand
processes of Geneva. In sIlkweaving and
embroidery. our swift machinery can not do
as well as the slow handloOms or the slower
fingers of the patient toilers in Europe.
But we shall yet do it 1t is our destiny to
emancipate human beings, so far as posi-
Bile. from the slavery Of labor which OPP
presses the Old World, and make mechan-
ism do the work of men.
just now. when the agitation between
capital and labor has become so noisy as to
excite the interest, and perhaps even the
alarm, of the philosophic student of human
nature. this visit to the little village of
Manchester was peculiarly interesting The
village is, for the most part, made up of
the employers and employees in this bust
ness.
The site is one of those lovely little
valleys so common in rural New England.
The houses of the owners. and those of
the laborers employed by them. are all
built in a circuit of a mile about the fac
tory. There were none of the hideous
blocks of dwellings which generally mark
Il factory town, but, instead. beautiful
cottages, with porticoes and piazzas. and
with lawns and gardens. blending into
each other without the dividing line of
fences. In the centre Of the little com
munity stands handsome. substantial
building, which serves as a place of Worship
with hall of all kinds of wholesome pub
lie entertainment, and q public reading