The weekly tribune., 1894-05-04
4 SILK WORMS THREAD.
Tho Wonderful Creation Of q still Moro
Wonderful Insect.


The Wonderful Creation Of q still More
wonderful Insect.
Silk! What wonderful product 1t Is,
and what q marvellous trade has sprung
out Of it! One of the astonishing facts
In the history of the human race is the
way in which great results are attained
for it out of little causes. Itisconceiva-
BILE 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 thebread Of man
kind-''the staff of life''-is, however,
drawn, as all know, not from the heavy
bread fruit or big tubers, but from the
comparatively minute grains of wheat,
barley and rye, millet and rice. In like
manner the larger portion Of the gar
ments of human beings is obtained from
the short wool on the backs Of sheep and
goats or from the small pod Of the cot
ton plant, which hides its seeds in ball
Of white fluff from which we spin the
cotton. Silk is an especially notable in
stance Of the way in which our race
makes much out of little for its needs
Here is an insignificant worm which
feeds upon the glutinous leaves Of the
mulberry and gradually fills itself with
sticky compound which has for its di-
rect purpose to compose the cocoon.
When the time comes for the worm to
undergo that strange metamorphosis
into the chrysalis, it ceases to eat and
slowly weaves round itself q casing
composed entirely Of one long thread.
Its spinning finished, the attenuated
creature takes the intermediate form
preparatory to its winged state as a
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 filmy house was
finished, and from this tiny plundeI
springs the whole vast edifice of the silk
industry. To the small pale worm beau.
ty owes her most lovely and glitterine
raiment, nor has art anything more ex.
quisite to fashion, to embroider, to be-
stow in splendid folds or to initiate III
painting than the soft shining wei
which is made from the poor worms
patient labor.
Extraordinary is the difference be-
tween the minute cocoon and the grea
bale of Lyons or china satin-the un
conscious toll Of the caterpillar and thu
looms that in thousand factories an(
workshops interlace the thin fiber int
such superb and dazzling patterns
Nothing can initiate, nothing excel th'
charm of that fine microscopic tissu'
drawn by the worms magic from th'
mulberry leaf. 1t possesses natura
glitter which is shared by nothing els
in the world and which makes it resem
BILE under the microscope waving wire
of gold. Manufactured into cloth, j
gives us a substance at once light ant
warm, durable and freely taking al
sorts of dyes, each creature contributing
in his cocoon about 1000 feet Of tn
thin thread The west knew nothing G
silk at all before the reign of Augustus
though the Chinese had woven it eve
since 2700 B. G. Some Persian monk
first brought eggs Of the silkworm in
hollow cane to Constantinople, a. I
552. The Emperor Justinian took tn
! business up, and SO it spread to Italy
Spain and southern France, althoug
, China was still the chief source of SUI
ply.-London Telegraph.