The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-06-12
o MAKING.
The Process Described as Seen in
an English District.

"A pan Va S4ofSS, IL Nou plCSsO.
Eyes, sir. Kid gloves?'
The customer indicates the kind of
gloves he requires; and down comes a
long shallow box, divided into several
compartments, in each of which there
lies a neat bundle of gloves of various
colors and shades, held together by a
band of paper.
"What size, sir?"
The size is mentioned; and one of
the bundles is lifted out of its compart-
ment and quickly and carefully opened
at one end. Gloves of the exact size and
shade required are selected, the price
is paid, and there, for the most part.
the transaction ends. How MANY of
the thousands who every day 90
through this process have any idea of
where and how the soft, delicate, tight
ftting sIyvcs they wear are made
|. Enormous numbers-said to exceed
two-thirds of the entire consumption
are imported from France, Germany
and Sweden. But there is a large home
manufacture, which is carried on to a
considerable extent in and about Wor-
cester, but principally in the west of
England.
If the reader will glance at a railway
map, and let his eye follow the main
line of the London & Southwestern
railway, he will find. about midway
between Salisbury and Exeter, a station
marked YeoviI junction. Should he
actually travel down the line and
change at this junction, he would
speedily find himself landed at the an
Gent market-town of Yeovil, the cen
ter and capital Of the glOve-trade, or
as it is locally described, 1.-The glowing
"A town Of about eight thousand in
habitantS. A visitor from the North
or the Midlands would probably be sur
prised, OF entering the glowing metrop-
oils, to find nothing Of the noise or dirt
which is usually associated with manu-
featuring industry. No tall chimncys
belch out black clouds of smoke; no
gaunt factories rear tt mselyes aloft
above the houses; no ponderous ma
chinery makes its throb felt even by
passers-by in the streets. No Obtru-
slve signs of the trade which
is being carried on meet the
eye anywhere. The place is clean
and bright and quiet; and surrounded
by green hills and luxuriant valleys
dotted we with magnificent timber.
Yet it looks-what, indeed, inquiry
proves it to be-a prosperous and
thriving town, presenting a marked
and agreeable contrast to most Of the
sleepy old towns whose glory has long
since departed, in this beautiful west
country. In this respect the capital is
a fair sample of all the glowing CEN
ters-a general air of prosperity per-
vades them all.
The area over which the trade ex-
tends is not large. A line drawn east
and west through Yeovil and continued
for ten miles in each direction would
intersect the whole district, which lies
on the borderland of Somerset and
Dorset, and includes some half-dozen
small towns and fair-sized villages, of
which Milborne Port, Sherborne,
Observation-Disclosures and Martock are
the principal. Nor can the trade itself
be compared for magnitude with many
other industries; it is a mere pigmy be-
side the cotton, the iron or the wooden
trade.
Let US have the pleasure of conduct
gthe reader over one Of the glove fac
tories, fourteen or fifteen of which may
be found in Yeovil alone, that he may
see the present state Of one of the most
ancient industries in the country, and
have an idea Of the number and variety
Of the processes and hands through
which his gloves have passed. Begin
ming at the beginning, we enter a room
in which the raw material lies before
US in the shape of hundreds of bundles
OF sheep-skins tanned and bleached as
white as the driven snow. Handling
them, we find them soft and elastic to
the touch. These are not the skins of
our high-bred English sheep, which are
unfit for the purpose, but the
Of half-wild mountain-sheep,
which are collected by Jews over the {
Of Europe and the western part Of
The glover does not care for the '
'kins Of your wool-producing sheep; y
lis dictum is ''the rougher the hair,
he better the pelt' (skin). These !
'kins were formerly imported untanned; +
nut the German tanners have now 9
beaten the English tanners out of the
and they are bought in the /