Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-15

Lle nature Ol Tie oluu = buEllh anu ell "
gether. Precipitation mats and stiffens it,
and so does every sort of dampness. Silk is
a great absorbent, because its fbers are so
CLASSY fne-a spidery catgut, one may say
and fluids, water or oil creep between the
fbers and are held, vet will pass outquickly.
eyaporating and drying, or will wash out
readily.
SIT is like glass" says the manufacturer;
nothing clings to il. For this reason it is
necessarily hygienic and salutary. In its
natural color silk accumuiates no germs of
disease, and moths and buffalo bugs find no
home in it.
The Sponge Silk Fabric.
awe take the short combings of silk" the
maker goes on to say, ''and spin them into a
soft yarn, like o~ld-fashioned homespun or
softest zephyr wool. We get the body of silk
at low cost, and get all the benefits of it, in
fact more than in the same weight of long
silk, which would necessarily be so dense as
to admit less ventilation. A shirt the weight
of ours made of long silk thread would cost
perhaps S25."
tits called sponge silk, because it is really
a very soft and spongy fabric, capable of the
greatest absorption of any known fabric.
One great use of the cheaper grades is for
wiping the oil from machinery in the huge
factories OF New England and Old Eng
land. One of the hemmed machine cloths,
IL inches square, will take up nearly a quart
OF oil, manufacturers say, and mark how
CLOSELY these great concerns study that econ
omy which YOUR Bridget and Bridget's mis-
tress too often both disdain. These cloths
are NOT flung away like the waste cotton
, formerly used, but are pressed, the oil col
lected and cleansed, and the cloths washed
by the hundred cleaner than our busters, 1
am afraid. The great advantage of these
silk wipers is that they never generate fire
when wet with oil, whereas the oil-soaked
cotton has caused many fires.
Advantages for Underwear.
This sponge silk fabric is the best sanitary
underwear made. Any one who wears silk
next the skin knows the difference from wool
IN its power of holding damp. Wool grows
sodden and chills the body dangerously. 1
cannot say how often 1 have heard active
persons complain of getting chilled after ex-
ercise in warm wool underwear. Silk seems
to keep the skin comfortable and one does
not take cold in it-that 1 know from ex-
perlence, having omitted my usual winter
cough by wearing silk.
After throwing off thick, fine wool under
wear for a suit of sponge silk you look
round to see II you have shed your body,
you feel so light. You also acquire a con-
tempt of weather, TOR you have an inner
coating very like the short feathers next the
skin which keeps birds so deliciously warm.
L write this for one thing, as some corre-
spondents have expressed themselves wofully
disappointed because the new fabric was not
pretty. Did 1 not explicitly say it was not
pretty, to avoid any mistake on the point?
But these people rushed to the conclusion
that they were going to find a glossy, high
colored fabric for % and 80 cents a yard.
/ Gill ~fuya ~ "a -.- l.Iz
shrink, and the travelling man who wrote
that he intended to use it because the hotel
laundries shrank his wool undershirts so he
could not wear them was entirely level
headed. Silk shirts don't shrink; thew
stretch by washing so that they have to be
made small purposely to begin. This elias
ITCHY makes them very easy to get in and
out of after being once washed. AT first
there is q crispIness to the fabric, owing to
its gummy nature, which softens When it is
warm on the skin and wholly disappears
after washing once.
Don't Send to the Laundries.
But you don't want to put such fabric
through laundries, for scalding and boiling
will ruin it. The sponge silk and all silk
should be washed in lukewarm water, with
mild soap, and rinsed in clear lukewarm
water the same temperature. II does not
uE6u Tie SCllu1uS HulCu WOOl dHu COlLO0 re-
quire to get the sweat out, as old washer
women say, for it doesp not hold 1t as they
do. Consequently it has not the rabid scent
which common clothing Will acquire in
warm weather when travelling without
baths. 1t is not pretty, true, but it has all
the other good qualities, and every time it is
washed it improves, taking the clean, Witty
look of nice crash, q wholesome look that
wears vastly better than your cream and
pink and blue silk fr1ppery.
twill it do for babies wear?" anxiously
asks a mother, imagining, no doubt, some
glorifed material. Well, yes, it is soft
enough washed twice before it is put on, but
it is not SO fine a fabric as we expect for
babies ~legettes. With the film of cambria,
which good doctors say is the only thing
that should ever touch a baby's skin, and
barrow coats of the sponge silk, baby is de-
lightfully warm and healthfully so. For
children that can run about it is the best
possible wear, as it keeps them free from
colds without overheating and burdening
them like wool. Doctors protest angrily
against swathing children in such quanti-
ties uf flannel as some mothers find neces-
sary, and these over-dressed children are the
very ones to take Group and diphtherla or
get eczemas.
How to Make 1t Up.
vi Tile nluCI SpOuSC oiAh III IuCuCo hlhc
it takes three yards or less to make a mans
undershirt and two yards for drawers, which,
by the way, should be faced broadly with
white washing silk to wear well. Pray
don't allow any more than these measure or
you may repeat the experience of the liberal
sort of women who cut her silk skirts as she
would flannel, to nave them returned after
washing with the remark from her husband
that he didn't wear his day shirts down to
his knees. By all means get the material
and have it made for fullest satisfaction.
Sponge silk is a fortunate discovery TOR the
health of American people. 1t is the equal
izer we need for the changes OF Temperature,
the embodiment of light, comfortable, health
full clothing. If it were 4 German
discovery we should have it sold by a stock
company at fabulous prices with doctors
certificates galore in all the newspapers.
AT present it is worn by two classes OF
people in Boston, the car drivers and the
gentlemen athletes, and either of them are
bound to know what is best in clothing.
The drivers wear it because ii keeps them
warm in their exposured duty, and a Boston
street car driver III his Japanese woliskin
coat and silk fiannels is 4 very comfortable
looking being, different enough from the
pinched creature one sees in his place IL
other owns. SHIRLEY DARE.
She Isn't n Countess.
the newspapers generally in announcing