Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-10-03
rHR MUIaIcAulrs MANIA.
'4hs Nulherry Fever which Prevailed rlny
Years Ago.
Harporn NnQaelno

the Millinery Fever Which Prevailed Fin,
) Years Ago.
Harpern Magazine.
I, The year 1929 marked the origin 81
: the 5lorus maiica,ais mania, which
, ragged rs fevor from 1880 until il cul
! minated and collapsed in 1889. Con.
gress had referred an inquiry on silk.
culture in 1925, to the COMMITTEES ON
Agriculture, which, in 1896, reported
M iayer OF its promotion, stating in
the report that the imports OF silly
goods in 1925 were nearly double tho
exports OF breadstuhs-a fact scarcely
creditable now. The same wear Gid
con X. Smith, Of Baltimore. planted
there what is claimed to have been tho
first M0gus Dssdticduii, tree in Amer
lea. The Secretary OF the Treasury.
Richard Rush, was directed to prepare
a manual on silk-culture, and the fa-
nous "Rush Letter" was accordingly
issued in 1928, together with several
other treatises. and circulated broad
cast. In 1880 an article by n DIR.
Pascalis, on the Morus nanlticauiis. In
the American Journal OF Science di-
rrectly started the mulberry fever. The
Massachusetts Legislature ia 1881,
provided for Il manual OF silk culture
which was made by manufacturer OF
Dedham and Mr.. Cobb, and most OF
the States began to offer bonnties and
premiums on trees, cocoon and reelcd
silk-comnlonly ten cents a pound on
cocoons and fifty on silk. The report
to Congress i'm 1920 proposed grant
OF forty Thousand dollars to one M.
DHomergue for the establishment OF
normal school OF filature Mt Phila-
delphia, where sixty young men might
have gratuitous instruction for tws
years, and for travelling about the
country to teach silk-growing to far
mers and this silk bill,p though de-
feated IN 1882, and reported against rs
unconstitutional in 1885, would not
down till 1887, when still another
committee reported as n substi-
tute scheme to lease public
lands without rent for the cultivation
oil the mulberry tree or the sugar beet.
The whole country now went wild.
The fever seemed only 20 get fresh fuel
OF excitement from the panic OF 1887.
Orchards OF the multicdslis were plant
ed in every State; farmers everywhere
set their wives and children TO feeding
worms; multitudinous books, public
documents, periodical on sills-cuiiure,
constituted the bulk OF the reading OF
the day; stock companies for raising
and manufacturing silk sprang up like
puff-balls; silk conventions were held,
and United States Silk Society was
A thrifty nurseryman ON Long Is
land gave help to the excitement by
canny plan. After selling consider.
able supply of the trees to New Eng
land dealers, he started off one night
10y the Providence boat, and with great
pretense OF eagerness made the rounds
Oi all his customers, excitcdly Offering
ifty cents apiece for trees. or course
he didn't get them, but he presently
was able to sell all he had for dollar
instead of fifty cents apiece.
In Burlington, New Jersey, over
hree hundred Thousand trees were
'aised and sold; in December, 1888, Of
erings at one dollar per tree or per
wig, were refused at Boston sales, and
i've dollars was sometimes got for trees
me season old. IL was satisfactorily
on paper--that nm acre
Df trees was good Tor ono thousand
lollars worth Of silk, but the price OF
rees had no relation to figure, even
he most rose-colored. One farmer
old six thousand dollarsw worth OF trees
rom three-qrarters of an ncre. In a
ingle week in Pennsylvania three
hundred thousand dollars worth were
old.
In 1889 the bubble burst, and the
iters were bitten. Among them WIS
he speculative Long-Islander He
ad caught the disense by which he
ad profited, and bad sent an ngent TO
france with eighty thousand dollars
D buy million more trees. When
hey came. they were worth part Of
cent apiece for pea-brush. Some
peculators endeavored 10 get even
nth fate by shipping a cargo from the
,ast to Indiana by way of New Orleans
4 an unworthy ship heavily insured,
ut the goods unfortunately reached
leir destination. Multitudes Of men
'ere ruined by the crash. But Amer
,ans have faculty OF falling on their
set, and some Of the unhapy mulber-
y-growers OF the thirties became the
Iccessful manufacturers Of later days.