Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-04-13
Rug.MakIng at Mlrzapnre.

The name has doubtless become
familiar to all Americans within the past
lew years in connection with its great
rug and carpet industries, and there are
now few of our homes in which this SER
viceable and beautiful branch of house
furnishing has been at all followed where
the rMirzapore rug is not highly priced
and Justly valued -
The town is beautifully situated on the
south bank of the Ganges, in the province
OF Aliahabad, but thirty miles below the
ancient city OF Benares. and is directly
approached from Calcutta by a journey
Of three hundred and fifty miles on the
trunk line of the great East Indian Rail
way. Prior to the period of the mutiny
when the vast internal commerce of the
empire was confined to its rivers. and the
accumulated products of its rich ano
varied soil sought by Natures course its
markets on the bosom of the Gauges
MirLapore was one of the largest inland
trading towns OF Hindustan, great in
digo and cotton depot. and the residence
of considerable colony of opulent Eu
ropean merchants and traders; but the
advent of railroads has changed its char
acter, and its extended reach on the
Ganges' bank, once the busy scene OF
commercial strife, is almost deserted
and in its stead clusters of native habita
tons and inferior Hindoo temples ART
seen among the growing trees.
few of the other European residents
indigo growers, whose plantations lie
in the surrounding district-retain their
early residences or town bungalows and
! dispense their proverbial hospitality to
the traveller; but with a single exception
that of Mr.. Bernhardt Howard, the
| father OF the Mirzapore carpet industry,
which he has fostered for thirty years
| the European mercantile class is unrep.
resented. The truly Oriental beauty and
perfect quality of the rugs, so much
sought for and SO highly valued in the
| European and American markets, are
almost entirely due to the quiet energy,
correct taste and knowledge of Oriental
design of this gentleman. To person
of taste, or the love of Eastern art, what
can appear more glaringly absurd or
painful than cold, stiff English pattern
in rug, prominently offensive. and
| spelling at the same time its wealth OF
Oriental color? How many Turkish aud
Persian rugs are thus ruined; yet what
n number are seen about us the result Of
careless purchase or Indifferent taste.
In the dirty mud huts of the villagers
| it is most interesting to observe the slow
yet regular growth of the beautiful pat.
terms as developed by the busy. untirine
hands of dozen or more half naked
natives, and which the visitor traces in
Imagination to their future display in the
attractive windows of Regent Street OF
IL Al
bers of Western homes.
AS the native quarter of the city is
approached the busy wool-carders, the
spinning of the native women, the
labyrinth of dye-pots, the dyeing yarns
of various colors in the sunlight, beSpeak
the industryof the place. The huts, OF
common structure and one material,
mud. contain but one apartment. Sunk
in the ground to depth of two or three
feet is longer roller of wood, perhaps
six inches in diameter and three or foul
yards in length, supported at either end
by iron rods aud movable at pleasure:
upon this shaft the rug is rolled as the
work advances; attached to the roller
and extending to the beams above are
the close. strong threads of the wary
and in the rear, suspended from the cell
ing, with hanging ends of a convenient
distance, are countless balls of yarn OF
varied color and shade; beneath these
sit the native workmen and boys. I'm.
mediatelv opposite, at the front of the
hut, seated upon a mat, is the pattern
reader or Overseer, while upon the
ground before him is the reversed pat
tern Of the rug whose manufacture he sc
skillfully directs; it requires the very
! closest attention, rapidity of thought
sight aud unhagging application on his
part to keep the dozen or more men
before him busy, for not a thread is
woven but at his direction or verbal or
der, as calling each workman by name
and noting his position, he orders the
number and color of the yarns to be used,
rs he traces them upon the pattern at
his feet. The workman in the real
seizes the end of the yarn called, weaves
the number ordered, the substance is
driven home by an iron comb, the rough
edges clipped and the rug rolls on tc
completion, every thread of wool and
every stitch by hand
The western demand has so vastly
increased as to treble the production
within the past four or five years, and
\ there are now many thousands of people,
men, women and children, engaged in
/ the manufacture of rugs alone at this
centre. Yet, when the slow progress of
hand work is considered, aud the fact
that an ordinary drawing room rug is
the result of the united labor of three or
/ four men for perhaps a week or more,
/ the product is not alarming, nor is the
/ cost of skilled labor, which commands
in this particular branch from five to
twenty cents per day.
The extensive demand for eastern rugs
arrested the attention of the Indian Gov
eminent some years since and suggested
the expediency of profitably utilizing
the convict labor and establishing the in.
dustry in the Central and Presidency
/ jails. Itwould naturally appear unjust
and undignified for the General Govern.
ment of country to thus enter the open
market in competition with private CAPT
tai, and it has since occasiOned no little
comment; yet it is a question if this
venture has not improved and advanced
the art in the northwest, as the rugs
manufactured at the Agra and Lahore
jails command to-day higher prices than
any other grade or make in India, the
quality naturally being superior, the re.
suit of the slow skilled labor of lone
term or life convictss
General Grant and party, during thei,
tour in India in 1879, were greatly inter.
ested in the work as seen at the Agra
Central Jail, and their visit to that insti.
tuition resulted in the booking of quite
extensive orders from the General and
his friends IN ho anhsonuortlxy 6no1