The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1886-04-03
WAMAMAKERS.


For pillow-case linens we 90
no farther than Flanders F.; for
underwear linens we stick to
the Emerald Isle.
If we were telling of muslins
we should say we keep the
works of the mills you happen
to know and have the local
habit Of expecting to find.
We should not argue the case
for one and against another.
You know more of muslin.
There is less to be learned
about the different makes and
bleaches. The way to learn is
to guess and buy and use, or
at most to ask questions.
Every housewife has her mus
lin experience. Every shop
keeper has his store of second
hand experience-better than
home experience too, if he
tells you the truth, because it
is wider. The man who sells
is the one who has the means
of finding out the values of
easy merchandise.
Not so with linens. The
linen world is not nearly so big
as the muslin world; but the
differences in it are vastly
more serious aud hard to get
at. Nobody knows too little
to deal in muslins. Nobody
knows too much to deal in lin
ems. Among the merchants
and buyers of Philadelphia,
wholesale as well as retail,
there are not SO many as half
a-dozen linen experts. No
body not a linen expert, or
without the help of a compe-
tent one, is fit to touch linens in
any but the narrowest way.
The merchants understand
this delicate, dangerous fact !;
and what's the result ? Why
almost nobody deals in linens
except in a little, narrow, IRE
sponsible, shopkeeping way.
Our linen buyer is the only
Lone who goes beyond New
cue UIUIT1o AsO 0UIilNI
York for linens from a Phlla-
delphia retail house. So far
from there being such skill
and care employed in other
stores as we consider necessary
in gathering linens, there is
only one other store in the city
in which no mixture of cotton
and linen is tolerated. If a
store sells cotton-and-linen for
linen what do you think of its
linen?
We are not saying that
good linens are not to be got
except of careful linen mer-
chants. We are saying that
all but two of the larger Phila-
delphia merchants seem not to
care enough about what they
sell to keep cotton out of their
linens. The little shopkeepers
can't; they are not to blame.
The stress of what we are
saying today is not on cotton
mixtures. If we we're talking
of handkerchiefs, cotton would
be the bug-bear; for half the
so-called linen handkerchiefs
are partly cotton. But in buy
ing pillow-case and underwear
linen, cotton isn't the danger.
The danger is tow. You think
you might trust yourself for
cotton ; you can't. But how
about tow? Can you pick out
tow? Have you any skill
whatever in recognizing the
grades of flax? Are you not
blind as to flax? We know
you are. The merchant
knows you are. The little
) shopkeeper knows you are
Everybody knows you are
blind as to flax. Where then
is your safety? Buy of a
man who is building up a per
mament trade" you may say
, That isn't enough. We add
! you had better buy of a mar
f who knows the fine distinctions
in linen you had better buy
e of a man who can tell you be
e forehand how a piece of liner
;. will wash and wear you haC
:. better buy of a merchant whc
takes habitually a proper re
: sponsibility for whatever he
a sells.
e We haven't forgotten on
r subject.
e There's nothing like Iris.
n n linen for both. There's moth
v ing like Irish linen for sheeting
- IL nALnr L..