The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-04-14
4 SILK WORMS THREAD. :
Tho Wonderful Creation of a Still Moro
Wonderful Insect.

Tho wonderful Creation OF q Still Moro
Wonderful Insect.
Sikh What wonderful product it is.
and what q marvellous trade has sprung
out of it'll One of the astonishing facts
i'll tho history of the human race is tho
way i'll which great results arc attained
for it out of little causes 1t is conceiya-
bic that the food of man might have
been derived from some Of the largest
fruits or nuts or roots which grow upon
the earth. The bulk of the bread of man
kind-''the staff of lifo''-is, however.
drawn, rs all know, not from tho heavy
bread fruit or big tubers, but from the
comparatively minute grains of wheat,
barley and rye, millct and rice. In like
manner the larger portion of tho gar
ments of human beings is obtained from
the short wool on tho backs of sheep and
goats or from tho small pod of tho cot
ton plant, which hides it's seeds in a ball
of white fluff from which We spin tho
cotton. Silk is an especially notable in
stance of the way in which our race
makes much out of little for it's needs.
Hero is an insignificant worm which
feeds upon the glutinous leaves of the
mulberry and gradually fills itself with
sticky compound which has for it's di-
rect purpose to compose the cocoon.
When the time comes for tho worm to
undergo that strange motamorphosis
into the chrysalis, it ceases to eat and
slowly wcavcS round itself casing
composed entirely of one long thread.
Its spinning finished, the attenuated
creature takes the intermediate form
70
moth, nor is anything in nature more
full of creative mystery and design.
What the worm does for its own lonely
ends man undoes for objects of beauty,
fashion and comfort. The silk grower
patiently unwinds the lustrous thread
from the point where the silkworm be-
gan to that where its filny house was
finished, and from this tiny plumber
springs the whole vast cdifice of tho silk
industry. To the small pale worm beau
ty owes her most lovely and glittcring
raiment, nor has art anything more OK
Qulsltc to fashion, 10 ombroider to be-
stow i'll splendid folds or to initiate in
painting than the soft shining web
which is made from the poor worm s
patient labor.
Extraordinary is the difference be-
tween the minute cocoon and the great
bale of Lyons or china satir-the I'M
conscious toll Of the caterpillar and the
looms that i'll thousand factories and
workshops interlace the thin fiber into
such superb and dazzling patterns.
Nothing can initiate, nothing excel the
charm of that fine microscopic tissue
drawn by the worms magic from the
mulberry leaf. 1t possesses Il natural
glitter which is shared by nothing else
i'll the world and which makes il c.n-
bic under the microscope wavinl " irCs
of gold. Manufactured into cloth. il
gives us a substance at once light and
warm, durable and freely taking al
sorts of dyes, each creature contributing
i'll his cocoon about 200 feet of the
thin thread. The west knew nothing Of
silk mt all before the reign of Augustus,
though the Chinese had woven it ever
since 2100 B. c. Some Persian monks
first brought eggs of the silkworm in a
hollow cane to Constantinoplc, A d.
5o2. The Emperor Justinian took the
business up, and so it spread to Italy,
Spain and southern Franco, although
China was still tho chief source of sup
ply.-London Telegraph.