Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-03-16
HOW TO SELECT CLOTHING.
A Tailor's Advice as to How to Detect
Cotton Warp and shoddy In Clothes.


"The stuff in this suit of black clothes
you made for me is not what l took it
for" said one of an uptown tailor's
| customers to him the other day in re-
porter's hearing. II have just had them
cleaned, and now see how they have
whitened at the edges"
That's because of the cotton warp
| in the material. which the securing soon
makes apparent" replied the tailor,
genially.
"But YOU assured me particularly that
the material wasn't shoddy."
$50 did, and told you the truth.
But at the same time told you that it
was cheap American goods, and that is
Just what it is-a well-appearing Amer
lean wooden manufacture, with large
percentage of cotton warp. If you had
wanted shoddy, could have sent you
where you'd have got something still
cheaper, for shoddy is kind of goods l
won't make up for love or money. But,
if YOU will remember, l showed you
much better but more expensive goods.
| of both foreign and American manu-
| facture, which offered to recommend
heartily enough. Bat 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, ''is an
inexperienced buyer to distinguish be-
tween all-woolen goods and the mater
ial containing a cotton warp. of which
that gentleman was complaining"
by merely raveling out the rough
edge of the material and inspecting the
threads" said the tailor. ANYONE can
| tell a cotton thread from a 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 mixture of cotton warp in a
sham all-woolen fabric"
.How do you detect shoddy in cloth?"
"In just the same way, and even
more easily. Fray out two or three
threads from the rough edge, and un-
twist them. If they contain shoddy, it
will drop out of the twist, sometimes
like sand, and then again In an impal-
pable dust, that will like enough make
you sneeze. If you'd inhale enough of
the stuff it would be apt to give you both
a headache and sore throat, for most
shoddy is rank poison. Ever in shod-
dy factory"
NO"
well, was, and know something
about it. Fact is l worked IN a shoddy
factory Just one week when l was a
much younger and more necessitious
person than am now! Necessitous?
Well. should say so, for nothing short
of starvation could have driven me to
seek employment in that poison mill.
Talk about quicksilver-mining and that
sort of thing for turning live workers
into galvanized corpses! Why, such
employment is positively invigorating
compared with a shoddy mill! l stood
it Just one week, and was then laid up
for six months. Lucky l switched of
when did, or I'd have been atrophied
into kingdom come long ago. Even as
it was il. was a close shave"
''How is shoddy made?"
Il can tell you how it was made
twelve or fifteen years ago, when l
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 q sort of machine
something like q patent straw cutter,
only, in lieu of straw, you feed it with
cloth scraps. remnants, clippings, and
rags. These passed through the teeth
Of the machine on to revolving knives,
Just as in straw cutter, which minced
them up pretty fine. After that they
passed through another and yet another
machine, getting minced finer and finer
at each operation, until the stuff was re-
duced to a coarse powder. This pow
der was then bolted, and the fine pow.
der or dust that passed through the last
seive was the beautiful stuff called
shoddy, or flock. Then came the dy-
ing process, and the dirty job was COM
plete. l never got any further than
feeder to the primary machine. Al
though l kept wet sponge tied con-
stantly over my mouth and nostrils, the
work was almost too much for me at
the end of the first day. Why, once an
hour l would squeeze out that sponge |
mueller, and the water that came from
it would be blacker than your hat, and
smelled worse than any ragpicker's
sack. At the end of the week pocket
ed my $6 wages as if l 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, l suppose. Some men can
stand anything"
ut is simply twisted up with the
warp before the weaving. This gives
fictitious weight and durability to a
fabric whose native flimsiness would
otherwise betray the worthlessness of.
the wOof. Young man, beware of
shoddy, 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 detect
ing 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 ma
terial has been properly fulled."
"What is the exact meaning of full
ingp''
'.Fulling is the last or finishing pro-
pass fbronrb which olntb posSos nr