Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-10-16
FACTS ABOUT RUGS.
Where and How the Best and
Costliest Are Made.

OOSCIl6SG are mace.
According to a Chicago Importer Carpets
Are Being Discarded by Wealthy
People for Oriental Rugs-Facts
for Housewives.
SIT is only a question of time,n said one
Of Chicago's most extensive importers to a
Times reporter, "when carpets will be dis
carded by all people of means and their
place taken by rugs. Rugs combine the
excellencies Of elegance and durability to so
much greater an extent than carpets" he
continued, ''that they recommend them
selves to all who have money to buy hand
some and desirable appointments. A good
rug not only lasts for generations and is al
ways far more artistic and effective for the
Moor, but 1t can at any time be gathered up,
carried out of doors, and shaken. A carpet,
however fine, wears but . few years at
most. When it Is once stretched on the
floor it must lay there until the recurrence
Of each dread house-cleaning epoch.
rugs in the greatest demand now are,
Of course, the oriental, made either in
Turkey or Russia They are all hand
woven. The occupation Of rug making, an
important industry in these countries, is
followed by both men and women. Certain
patterns and designs have been handed
down In families from parent to child from
time back Of reckoning. The durability
OF the rug is due in great measure to the
dyeing of the material from which it is
manufactured. No destroying chemicals
are used in the preparation Of the dyes, the
coloring substances being all vegetable.
To use aniline dyes is, in fact, capital
ofIense, and man or woman is executed
for this crime with as little compunction as
If guilty Of atrocious murder.
"Rugs take their trade names from the
province in which they are made There's
the Afghan, Blandhor, Candahor, Khoras-
san and the MirZapoor, which, by the way,
is made Of a sea fiber, SO soft and flexible
and closely resembling wool that none but
an expert can detect the difference; it is al
most indestructible, and wear gives it a
sheen like satin. There are the Koonah,
Persian, Savaler, Ahloowaled, Ouchak and
Cabul, all valuable rugs, with a recognized
place in the market. The Delhi is high
priced rug, but it is now very scarce.
There are excellent rugs OF American
manufacture, made in imitation of the
Oriental, but they do not possess the wear
ing qualities of the latter, which are dyed
with vegetable coloring and hand-woven.
Good rugs range in price from $3.50 to
81, 500. They are used not only for the floor,
hangings. Very fine and rare specimens
are now placed in handsome fret-work
frames and hung the same as pictures.
''The silk Afghan is particularly hand
some rug. 1t is not made of silk, but of the
finest wool, possessing the gloss of silk. It
will last for generations, and the longer it
IS used the more beautiful it becomes. The
peculiar sheen of the mrch-sought prayer
rug is the result of long usage. The agents
who are employed in the rug-producing dis
trictS are always on the lookout for some
Moslem who has become sufficiently degen-
crate or impoverished to commit the sac
rilege OF selling his prayer rug TO the unbe-
lever. Prayer rugs find their way by some
means, too, out of the mosques into the
hands Of the dealers.
"Only long experience in handling rugs
enables person to judge of their value and
decide where they are made. There is no
other method to guard against imposition
and deception in the rug trade than the use
OF judgment. Unlike carpet man9factur-.
ers, oriental rug makers are unknown and
oftentimes unreliable. The workers of the
East manufacture the rugs in their own
homes, either contracting with agents for
their sale or disposing of them haphazard
as any chance buyer may come along.
Newly made and inferior rugs are often
and of great value.
"The genuine oriental rug, to which long
usage has impaired the indescribable gloss
that only comes by age and service, always
commands a high price. IT is never wide.
1t is impossible to find one OF wide weave.
None but narrow rugs come from the
olden-time looms. The people of the
Orient laid them only in the center of
the apartment. Upon either side were
still narrower rugs, similar in width
to our stair strips. At the head of
the room always sat the host. The
guests were seated down the length of the
middle rug. At the foot the servants stood,
waiting for orders. When serving the
guests they passed up and down back of
them on the narrow rugs. One end of the
wider oriental rugs Of by-gone manufact-
ure will always be found to be much more
worn than the others. The nap has been
pressed down by the feet Of the servitors
who patiently awaited the commands of the
master.
.eThose who are replacing carpets by fine
rugs are storing up legacy for their grand
children of the fourth and fifth generations,
and FAR beyond that. There are rugs in
existence that were woven in the far East
thousand years ago. The modern rug
manufactured in the same localities is idep-
teal with them in texture, pattern and col
oring, with the exception that the hues of
tNese ancient specimens have been toned
to wonderful softpess Of tint as the cent
nrieS passed them by. 4 thousand or /, 500,
or even z, 200, years from now the fine rugs
that adorn so many elegant mansions In the
United States may have place in the muse
! rms c;!ns Of the land or be held in possession by
descendants of their present owners who
win proudly reckon long line'of free-born
American ancestry