The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-12-15
TIE SILK INDUSTRY I'M AMERIoA,

sally interested as the different silks
which are displayed in the shop win
dows of all the principal cities, labeled
with attractive figures which attest
their quality and price.
1t is intimated, in an Introductory
chapter to an interesting work under
the caption that heads this article, that
when our mother Eve draped herself
in the broad leaves of the banian fig,
she must have. inaugurated the silk
dress mania; and, if we are to carry out
the. simile to'its conclusion, as we be-
hold the effects of that act observable at
the present day, We must admit that the
desire for silk, like the original trans
gression, increases according to the de-
mand.
Belonging to the feminine order, and
lacking none of the hereditary fOndness
for silk which mother Eve so univer-
sally transmitted to her children through
hurrying up the process of manufacture
by appropriating her first installment
in the fig leaf state, rather than wait for
worms to eat the fibre and spin cocoons,
and having outgrown the hurry while
enjoying the fondness, behold the writer
at the Cheney Silk Works in South
of dollars, scores and scores of looms,
thousands and thousands of spindles,
and hundreds and hundreds of opera
tives are employed in improving upon
the original fig, or mulberry Leaf, which
the persevering worms of China and
Japan have died to manufacture, or es-
Gaping death, have pierced and gone
forth to propagate, leaving their former
homes to be gathered up by patent
process and taken through hundred
different stages of treatment, bringing
them out at last in the elegant groS
grain fabrics of commerce, which are
such an improvement upon the original
fig leaf as to cause the beholder to won
der why it is that croakers are always
harping upon the good old times when
there were no Corliss engines to drive
the spinning jenny and no Cheney
Brothers TO build South Manchester
Mills.
These brothers are the sons of a
farmer in South Manchester, Connecti-
cut, and cultivated a few mulberry
trees and reared a few silk worms in
their boyhood; but, as they grew up,
they became scattered, after the manner
of American boys. They were a good
old-fashiOned family, too, of seven or
eight brothers, most of whom distin-
guished themselves in some branch OF
trade or the professions before engaging
in the silk business. Some became ar
fists, some farmers, one a merchant,
and the younger ones remained at home
with the parents.
Years after, and while these brothers
were in the very prime of successful
life, they were attracted again to the old
farm, the home of their boyhood, an un-
dulating tract of wood and field-land,
well watered and in high state of culti-
vation. Here, in January, 1888, Ward,
Bush, Frank and Ralph Cheney started
the Mount Nebo Silk Mills. After q
while the mills were temporarily closed
when Ward, Bush and Frank removed
to Burlington, New Jersey, where they
established mulberry orchards, cocoon.
cries, etc., and conducted and published
from July, 1888, to July, 1910, the mag,
azine known as the SJLE GrOlUerS' Nan.
udL. Other members of the family es.
tablished mulberry plantations neal
Augusta, Georgia, also in Florida, anC
at Mt. Healthy, Ohio. Reopening tho
Mount Nebo Mills in South Manchester
they commenced the manufacture o
sewing silk and twist, to which they
shortly added ribbons, handkerchiefs
and eventually.broad goods. They alsC
made the first successful experiments il
the production of spun silk from the
pierced cocoons, floss, silk waste anC
whatever silk cannot be reeled. Thii
they soak, boil, card, spin and weave
with machinery especially adapted fo
preparing it, and it is now made int
substantial, durable dress goods, fo
which there is large and constantly
increasing demand. OF these silks tn,
writer is in constant receipt of the mos
favorable recommendations from ladie
who aver that they will wash and iroI
: like muslin and outwear any other othe
goods in market. These silks are some
f what wanting in luster, having the ap
pearance of French poplin, but arr
much cheaper, of better width, ant
vastly more durable. In addition t,
these lusterless, or spun goods, they
have manufactured limited stocks O
! dress goods from reeled silks, that hav,
for the past three years excelled all i'm
, ported fabrics of their class. They ar
= also, at present, large manufacturers o
, of pongees, lining and trimming silks
, handkerchiefs, twist, etc., etc., gener
, ally making only such goods as are or
D dered by large dealers.
The brothers occupy elegant mansion
, on the old farm site, with numerou
tasteful dwellings for the operatives il
view of the mammoth mills, where EN-
ployes are paid for their labor accordinj
, to the work instead of the sex of the la
hOrprs