The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-04-09
HOW To SELECT CLOTHING.
A Tanor's Advice as to How to Detect
Cotton Warp and Shoddy in Cloth.

"The stuff in this suit of black clothes
you made for me is not what took i
for" said one of an uptown tailor'l
customers to him the other day in
reporters hearing. II have just hae
them cleaned, and now see how they
have whitened at the edges"
"That's because of the cotton warp ir
the material, which the securing soor
makes apparent" replied the tailor, ge
nially.
"But you assured me particularly thai
the material wasn't shoddy."
$50 I did, and I told you the truth
But at the same time told you that ii
was cheap American goods, and that is
just what it is-a well-appearing Ameri'
can woollen manufacture with large
percentage of cotton warp. If you had
wanted shoddy, I could have sent you
where you'd have got something still
cheaper, for shoddy is kind of goods
won't make up for love or money. But,
if you will remember, I showed you
much better but more expensive goods,
of both foreign and American manufac.
ture, which 1 offered to recommend
heartily enough. But you were bent on
having the poorer but well.appearing
goods, and so consulted your own wishes
instead of my advice"
The customer seemed to have nothing
to offer against these statements, and
presently took his departure, apparently
much dissatisfied with himself, if not
with the tailor.
"How," asked the reporter, sis an in
experienced buyer to distinguish between
all>woolen goods and the material con-
tanning a cotton warp of which that gen.
tleman was complaining?"
"By merely raveling out the rough edge
of the material and inspecting the
threads" said the tailor. "Any one can
tell cotton thread from woolen thread.
The one will break short in two on being
tested, while the other will fray and floss
out, like yarn and worsted. In this way
you can readily detect a mixture of cot.
ton warp in sham all-woollen fabric ?"
Chow do you detect shoddy in cloth ?"
SIN just the same way, and even more
easily. Fray out two or three threads
from the rough edge, and untwist them.
If they contain shoddy it will drop out
of the twist, sometimes like sand, and
then again in an impalpable dust, that
will likely enough make you sneeze. If
you'd inhale enough of the stuff it would
be apt to give you both headache and
sore throat, for most shoddy is rank
poison. Ever in q shoddy factory ?"
"No,"
"Well, / was, and know something
about it. Fact is, / worked in a shoddy
factory just one week when was much
younger and more necessitous person
than [ am now. Necessitous? Well, I
should say so, for nothing short ofstarva.
ton could have driven me to seek EN-.
ployment in that poison mill. Talk
about quicksilver mining and that sort
of thing for turning live workers into
galvanized ccrpsesl Why, such employ.
ment is positively inyigorating compared
with shoddy mill? stood it just one
week, and was then laid up for six
months. Lucky I switched off when l
did, or I'd have been atrophied into
Kingdom Come long ago. Even as it
was it was close shave"
GLOW is shoddy made?"
II can tell you how it was made twelve
or fifteen years ago, when | served my
weeks apprenticeship at it. They may
have made improvements in the milling
since then, though of course the product
itself is just the same mean, swindling,
poisonous stuff it always was. l was
placed over sort of machine something
like patent straw cutter, only in lieu of
straw you fed it with cloth scraps, rem.
nants, clippings and rags. These passed
through the teeth of the machine on to
revolving knives, just as in b straw cutter
which minced them up pretty 6ne. AT.
ter that they passed through another and
yet another machine, getting minced
finer and finer at each operation, until
the stuff was reduced to coarse powder.
This powder was then bolted, and the
fine powder or duet that passed through
the last seive was the beautiful stuff
called shoddy or flock. Then came the
dying process, and the dirty job was
complete. Ineve1 got any further than
feeder to the primary machine. AL
though l kept q wet sponge tied constant
ly over my mouth and nostrils, the work
was almost too much for me even at the
end of the first day. Why, once an hour
| would squeeze out that sponge mueller
and the water that came from it would
be blacker than yourh hat, and smell worse
than any rag picker's sack. At the end
of the week I pocketed my Sc wages as
if I had stolen it, and slid for home like
rocket, where l was sick abed long
time afterward."
"How did the other operatives stand it
so much better than you?"
"Some of them didn't while those that
did had cast-iron throats and lungs like
bellows, suppose. Some men can stand
anything"
"How is the shoddy mixed with the
cloth ?"
at is simply twisted up with the warp
before the weaving. This gives fictitious
weight and durability to fabric whose
native himsiness would otherwise betray
its worthlessness. As it is, it takes a
very little wear and tear to dust out the
shoddy, and expose the general wretch
edness of the wool Young man, beware
of sboddy, whose presence in cloth you
can always detect in the manner have
told you"
"But in ready-made clothing?"
"There you have no means of detecting
it, save by wearing the goods. You have
TO trust TO the honesty of the firm of
whom you purchase. Though | don't
deal in ready.made goods myself, it is
no more than just for me to say that
many firms that deal in nothing else are
perfectly honest and trustworthy, and
whose guaranty Of what they warrant is
as good as gold. Only, in addition to
the precautions | have given you, be very
careful, in choosing goods, whether made
up or not, to know that the material has
been properly fulled. Without perfect
course of fulling, woolen cloth will
always shrink upon becoming damp"
"What is the exact meaning of full.
| ing 2"