Morning journal and courier., 1880-12-29
Price Four Cents.

northeast of Smyrna (it numbers g. 900 in
| habltants, chiefly Turlns), the carpets known
as Persian are initiated to perfection Three
qualities are made. The finest are called
hall or kiln, and are of large size contain
| ing sometimes as much as 100 square Yards
then there are the sidjiadeh and the kiari
kadim-rugs and small carpets which do not
exceed five or SIX square yards, and are often
| made much smaller for the native divans
About twenty thousand yards of all these
| sorts are produced annually at Ghiurdhes.
The wel-known oblong carpets of arough-
| er quality, often Joined down the middle
| and called in some places Karamanian, are
| made by the nomad Yuruks in wooden
frames, to which the web is fixed by sort
| of comb made of iron. This tribe came into
| Anatolia centuries ago. They now speak
Turkish, and although they profess belief
in Mahomet they in reality follow no re-
igion and have neither church nor priests.
They possess large herds of cattle, camels
and goats. In the summer they 90 to the
mountains and in the winter descend into
the valleys and plains. They are not aeri-
cultural, though they breed their own cattle
and make butter and cheese. They are also
wood-cutters and hunters and are very hos
pitable, which does not prevent them from
thlev1ng and marauding when opportunities
offer.
The figures that have been given above
for wages and materials show that these car
P0tS cdn De pFOuuceu at a moderate expense.
They are not in reality the costly luxuries
which, before the development of trade and
the consequent competition, they were long
considered in Europe. One of the most
trusted merchants in Smyrna now offers the
finest Ooshak in which all the reds are coch-
meal, for little over Is shillings a square
yard the second quality in which the reds
are half cochineal, half madder, for less than
u shilhngs, and the Ghinrdhes carpets he
prices at 15 shill1ngs, free on board The
prices seven years ago were about the same
But thirty years back they were not more
than three-fourths of these rates Within
that period the constantly growing demand
and the consequent increase in the cost of
labor, combined with the dearness of the
best dystufs, induced some makers to en-
deavor to reduce cost price by using cheaper
colorlng matters, such as aniline the results
were brilliant and startling colors with a
falling off in quality and solidity These ad-
venturers soon became convinced that the
Innovation would invitably destroy the re-
putation of Turkey carpets and spoil their
market, and they happily returned to the old
methods
But there is q danger to be quite as much
dreaded danger which threatens not alone
the colors, but the designs of the old pro-
ductions. Some of the manufacturers, too
desirous of complying with the demands of
vulgar taste-and it is melancholy to think
that these demands chiefly come from Eng
land-a1e replacing the inimitable old free
Turkish designs by stiff modern patterns
The merchant whose prices have been given
above offers to execute any order no matter
what the dimensions or patterns may be-
and the same fatal complacency has penetrat-
ed even to the weavers in the interior of An
atolia If the evil goes on it will soon bring
to an end the ancient carpet industry of Asia
Minor.