Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-05-20
STORIES OF SILKS.
WHERE THEY COME FROM AND
HOW THEY ARE MADE.
from the Mulberry Tree Into Shim-
"ering Vestures of Gorgeous
Coioring- History of the
Silk Industry.

/ how the green wriggling crca-
. ture, fed fat on mulberry
leaves, spins himself shining ShrOud'
ont of which he will come with wings
that is if he comes out at all. For the
most part he does not.
The cocoons meant for reellng are
kilndried until the dormant life goes out
entirely. The largest aud fairest arc
saved for seed. Out of them come the
moths that lay eggs for a new genera
ton.
Three to G00is the usual number. The
eggs, called gram, are subject to fun
gus that does not destroy their vitality,
but makes worms hatched from them un-
healthy. They toll not, neither do they
spin. Instead they die, weak and
lauguid, to the disgust of the growers,
and the depletion of their pockets.
Keeling silk is almost fine art. The
cocoons are softened IN hot water. Loose
ends are taken up, from two to three at
once. and reeled as one thread. AS one
strand gives out another is Tapped on so
as to give q smooth, even yarn. The
natural gum makes it stick together.
Getting rid of it is troublesome and
tedious process. When it is accomplished
the yellow white nussy stuff is the raw
silk of commerce, ready for the throwster,
the dyer and the weaver.
From time immemoral India and
China have been great silk raising
regions. Japan is now added to them.
Thence comes more than three parts of
the worlds supply. India has not only
the silkworm, but the tussus moth,
which supplies the strong, yellowish
tussor silk so much worn of late. There
is also hardy spinner that feeds on the
leaves of the castoroil bean.
The ancients got all their silk from the
East. By Roman law, in the time OF
Tiberias, men were forbidden to appear
in public clothed in silk. 1t is part of
the reproach of Heliogabalus that he de-
fed that canon Of the Senate, aud sat in
the amphitheatrc in silk from head to
foot
About $50 A. d. Persian monks first
brought sllkworm eggs concealed in the
head of a hollow staff to Constantinoplc.
Thence silk culture spread into Greece.
A little later conquest carried it to
Sicily. From there TO Italy it was but
step. Soil, climate, people suited it.
The industry took root, grew, throve,
and continues to this day. The thrifty
peasant manages to get silk, and oil, and
wine from the same small holding.
First, he plants his mulberry trees. six
teen feet each way; next, he prunes the
heads into a hollow cup, and trains his
vines all over them; and finally, around
the edge he sets shelter of olive trees.
So all seasons bring him labor and the
reward of it.
Spain owes silk to the Moors, and
produces it in true Spanish fashion,
lazy, haphazard, picturesque. She it is
who supplies the silkworm gut leaders
for fy fishermen the world over. This
is the gorged gland of the worm just
ready for spinning. Barcelona silk IS
in great request wherever fiiament tine
and peculiarly strong is required.
France began to manufacture silk in
1921. 1t was forty years later that silk
growers began there. From the first it
has excelled in siken stulfs. Lyons is
to-day the headquarters of silk weaving.
All the best China and India silks, so
called, come thence. In fact there is no
sort of silk tissue not made there-and
better made there than anywhere else.
American silk weavers, though, fall
but little short of the glory of Lyons.
In printed silks they even go beyond
them. 1t would be strange if they did
not.
Genoa, the superb, was oucc pre-
eminent for velvet but now Lyons bears
the palm, as she does for the gauzes,
that got their name from GAIA, the
Eastern city where first they were made.
Damask, forerunner Of brocade, came
from Damascus. Indeed, there is q
flavor and fragrance Of the East through
all the beadroll of silken stuffs. It was
the damask loom that possibly made the
Jacquard. In fact, the main difference
in them is that in one human skill and
patience accomplish what the other does
automatically. The damask weaver puts
in thread after thread by hand, over,
under and through warp as the pattern
required.
The jacquard loom has weighted
strings passing over pulley to fall upon
perforated cards. Each motion changes
their position and lets some weights
through the holes so ss to be skipped 10y
the wool, while others strike the cards
aud leave their strands in place to b'
regularly woven. The result is some
thing wonderful. Glance along some
heaped counter on State street, and say
If the brush in the hands of a cunning
workman could do better than this loom
Here is satin ground. clear pearl, flint
and lustrous as the shell itself, with
trails OF pink roses and grass falling ir-
regularly over it. Besides it is a water