The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-02-15

n TafIor's Advice tn How To De.
tece Cotton Warp and Shoddy
I'm Cloths.
New York SUM-


you made for me is not what took it
for" said one Of an up town tailor's Gus.
TONERS to him the other day in report
er's hearing. II have just had them
cleaned, and now zee how they have
whitened at the edge"
That's because of the cotton warp in
the material, which the securing soon
makes apparent" replied the tailor,
genislly.
"Bu. you assured me particularly that
the material wasn't shoddy."
$50 l did, and I told you the truth.
But at the came time / told you that it
was cheap American goods, and that is
just what it ia well-appearing Ameri-
can woollen manufacture, with large
percentage of cotton warp. If you had
wanted shoddy, could have sent you
where you'd have got something cheap
er, for shoddy is kind of goods / wont
make up for love or money. But, if you
will remember, showed you much bet
ter but more expensive goods of both
foreign and American manufacture,
which / offered to recommend heartily
enough. But you were bent upon having
the poorer but well-appearing goods, and
30 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, els an in
experienced buyer to distinguish be-
tween allwoollen goods and the material
containing a cotton warp, of which that
gentleman was complainingf
"By merely ravelling out the rough
edge of the material and inspecting the
threads" said the tailor Anyone can
tell a cotton thread from woollen
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 cotton warp in 8
sham all-woollen fabric"
"How do you detect shoddy in cloth?"
"In 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 like enough make you sneeze. If
you'd inhale enough of the stuff it would
be apt to give you both a headache and
q sore throat, for most shoddy is rank
poison. Ever in shoddy factory?
"No."
"Well, was, and 1 know something
about it. Fact is, worked in a shoddy
factory Just one week when was much
younger and more necessitous person
than i am now. Necessitous? Well, ]
should say so, for nothing short of star.
walton could have driven me to seek EN-.
ployment in that poison mill. Talk
about quick silver mining and that sor,
of thing for turning live workers into
galvanized corpses! Why, such EN-.
Iloyment is positively invigorating com.
pared with shoddy mill stood i.
Just one week, and was then laid up fol
six months. Lucky l switched off when
/ did, or I'd have been atrophied into
kingdom come long ago. Even as it was
it was q close shave"
"How 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.
/ was placed over sort of machine
something like patent straw-cutter,
only. in lieu of straw, you fed it with
cloth scraps, remnants, clippings and
rags. These passed through the teeth OF
the machine on to revolving knives, just
q in O straw-cutter, which minced them
MP pretty fine. After that they passed
through another and yet another ma
chine, getting minced finer and finer al
each operation, until the stuff was re-
duced to coarse powder. This powder
was then bolted, and the fine powder oil
dust that passed through the last SEW,
was the beautiful stuff called shoddy, Oh
flock. Then came the drying process
and the dirty job was complete. / never
got any farther than feeder to the pri
mary machine Although ! kept a we
sponge tied constantly over my mouth
and nostrils, the work was almost tot
much for me even at the end of the frs
day. Why, once an hour | would
squeeze out that sponge mueller, anc
the water that came from it would b,
blacker than your hat, and smell wors,
than any rsgpicker's sack. At the enc
of the week pocketed my Sc wages a
II had stolen it, and slid for home lik,
a rocket, where | was sick abed a Ion;
time afterwardP
"How did the other operatives stans
Il 20 much better than your
"Some of them didn't, while those tina
did had cast-iron Threats and lungs lik,
bellows, suppose. Some men can stane
.How is the sboddy mixed with tn,
clothf"
at is simply twisted up with the war
before the weaving. This gives 6ctitiou
weight and durability TO fabric who's
native finishes would otherwise betra,
its worthlessness. As it is, it takes
very little wear and tear to dust out tn
shoddy, and expose the general wretch
edness Of the woof. Young man, bewar
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