Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-07-30
Muslin.

use in Europe and America, the manufac-
ture of which is everywhere understood.
and throws us back upon the higher quail
tiles of India. 1t is frequently said that
English and French muslins now produced
by machinery rival in fneness of texture
and beauty Of finish those of the East.
But it is not true. A native woman with
her fingers and spindle alone, aud a native
man with his toes and bamboo-loom alone,
will spin a thread and finish piece of
muslin which cannot, by the application of
the most delicate machinery, be produced
outside of India.
There is one quality of Decca muslin,
for example, which is termed ,coren AIR.
1t is made only for kings daughters. So
short is the staple of the raw material, and
70 brittle its fbers, that it must be spun
by woman under twenty-five, and before
the dew has left the grass in the morning.
As substitute for natural moisture, the
evaporation of water from a shallow pan
is sometimes used. but the quality of the
work in that case is inferior. And yet,
though the most delicate and finest of
fabrics, piece four yards in length by one
yard in width weighing less than one
ounce avoirdupois often, it is exceedingly
durable and will wash. Since the disap-
pearance OF many of the native rulers of
India, this eUening deac, as it is also called,
is not largely made but as there are those
who will pay ten and twelve dollars yard
for it, the art is not likely to be lost.
The professional story-tellers of the
East, swaying their bodies to the cadences
of their voices, will tell you in rhythmical
Hindoostanee of the anger of Aurungzebel
with his daughter because her arms could
be seen through the seven jatn,as she had
on and of the weaver who was banished
from Decca because his COW, unable from
its 6neness to see the piece of Abrora7l
which was spread upon the herbage, ate
up six yards.
There is a class of persons in India
whose deftness in repairing these Decca
musins is quite as remarkable as that of
the spinners and weavers. They are
called rafugers, or fine-drawers. No mat
ter the length of the piece, they will draw
out every broken thread, remove every
spot, repair every hole, and reproduce the
muslin every whit as good as new.
The saree of Hindoo lady. which i:
simply single piece of muslin serving for
both garment and turban, is sometime
sixty yards in length. 1t is worn il
graceful folds. There is no dress in the
world that shows fine figure or sets of
a coquettish style to such perfection. L
is perfect protection. can be arranged il
a thousand ways. and usually possesses
sobriety and harmony of color which al
Indian woman acquires by some instinct o
her nature. Every one who has resided il
India knows that the agile fingers of ever.
beauty will change her garment on tn
bank, after bathing in the Ganges, withou
the slightest exposure of the body.
1t is nearly one hundred years since tn
steam engine was first applied to cottol
spinning and weaving, and more thai
eighty since yarns were fine enough to pro
duce muslin and yet though all the wit o
Western civilization has in that time bee
employed in perfecting cotton machinery
the wonderful power-loom of England ha
not swept away the loom of India. Tn
latter, produces a softer article, more por
Gus, and of better taste in ornament
three things about which the natives art
fastidious.
Curiously enough the perfection of Hin
doc muslin is referred to the imperfection
judged according to standards of the con
trivances used in making it. Microscopes
say that cotton 6bers in their natural stat
are fat and transparent. Now while ou
hundreds of spindles, governed by a singh
hand, twist these tibers out of their natur
al shape and limpid translucency, the. sin
pie fusiform axis of steel on which tn
dusky maiden of Cashmere twines he
thr cad, preserves in the yarn the Aattene
shape and pearly clearness of the fiber
! Hence English and French muslin cal
never rival this muslin, whether fine Q
=, coarse, which is made in the East.
a A still more beautiful product of Indi
is the figured muslin, Into this silve
threads of extreme delicacy, prepare
e with utmost care and drawn finer than al
infants hair, are worked with such exqui
i site taste that the fabric reflects the ligh
!, like the sheen of the pigeons breas
These metallic threads never tarnist
They wash as we'll as the cotton. Their
. is nothing garish about this muslin, eve
4 in the strongest tropical sunlight. 1t
very expensive, fetching price often {
twenty-five dollars ya.d, when only 81
e inches wide. On the ends of the seal
q that confines the sSree of the dancing gil
as she tinkles her belled ankles and arm
= in graceful saldams, on the fringed border
of the waist-cloth of the female devotee
and edging the canopies of embroidere
e silk in the palaces of Rajahs, the travelt
constantly remarks the subdued OBJECT {
J. this gold wrought figured muslin. II
e West lacks both the taste and skill to prt
y duce anything as beautiful.
However, spun and woven muslin, a
q everybody knows, needs to be bleached b
!, fore it can be rendered to commerce in
state of perfect whiteness. Air-bleachir
!, is the Asiatic, and used to be the Europea
y method. But it was too tedious for OF
D, modern business, and hence chemicals b
IT gan to be used. Even before the adoptio
d of these agents, sour milk and acidulate
'e water were applied to cloths to hasten o
le ward the tedious process of many month
ID Now, however, by the aid Of chloride
< lime, what once took from January
i; October to accomplish, is done in fl
D. weeks. A limited amount of air -bleachil
,e still goes on, however, in Europe and wi
lie us, especially where the cloth is to be dy
ID Turkey red.
70 THE BUFIALo.GKAss OF COLORADO
.s .s The Denver correspondent Of the Chicai