The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-28

posed II would not be long before the
beauty and comfort of Marking would ne
| destroyed. He had also boen informed
that they are to be placed IN charge OF
| foreign expert cotton factory hands whose
chief employment VIII be TO teach the
natives TO apply their natural skill to
| machine work.
Further investigation at Canton prov
ed to me that though still almost entirely
carried on for home consumption, the
manufacture of cotton in China, even
though it is all hand work, IS Of immense
extent, and the records of this treaty
port show that for the past three years
there has been a steady decline IN the
cotton goods Importation from Great
Britain, while during the past year the
figures were reduced to half the value
Of this trade four years ago, and now
China is exporting her cotton materials
known as nankeens. l had been much
impressed with the methods Of the home
manufacturers l saw at Marking, bur
until l visited Canton ! could not real
lie the extent of work turned out in this
way.
Il was so interested that 1 returned to
Marking. determined TO make note Of
the ancient methods so deXterously en-
ployed / saw the new material emptied
out OF coarse sacks, such as tea boxes
are covered with. and placed upon tables
of about two and a half feet high, having
strongly built horses beneath them, and
beaten in the ginning process. In doing
L THIS the CnlneSe employ a SUCK lhuCH re-
sembling those used by our society
golfers. and a dumbbell-lOokng arrange
ment-one in each hand-with which they
soon remove all the seeds by means of
a bowstring attachment, such as was used
in Georgia before the saw gin was in
vented, and gave the name of bowed
Georgia to the cotton first grown in
that state.
when thoroughly eeansed that which
is to be used by customers, in the imme-
date vicinity, is placed lightly into cylin-
drical baskets, about three and a half
feet high and two feet in diameter, while
that to be sent away any distance is tight
ly pressed and covered with strong mate
rial securely roped, and well decorated
with Chinese characters in the way of
| label.
THE spinning, reeling preparing the
warp and weaving, is done entirely by
the women. They come to the merchants
and get their baskets, which il is their
right to see weighed before accepting
and, paying cash for the same, carry
their purchase home. The first process
the spinning, is uninteresting, except for
the dexterous manner in which the
women manage to attend to their children
without letting their wheels STOP after
| having started until finished. The Sec
ond process, that of preparing the. warp,
| through a simple operation, is done with
astonishing rapidity, as is also the reel
| ing. 1t is the weaving, however, that
shows the skill in which the operators
! hands move like machinery and never
/ make a bungling stroke, all of which
goes to show what these women will do
] when taught to operate with modern
/ machinery. Their hands are smaller and
| better adapted to such work than west
ern women.
THE viceroy of Marking Wong-Chou
| Shoe by name, related what he called the
! true history of cotton in China for my
| benefit, some points of which 1 had not
| heard or read before. He scoffed at my
! seeming opinion that the plant was just
about in the act Of being introduced to
the sacred soil of the old empire, and at
| the same time seemed hurt that it was
| not so old product as many others the
| land produces There are records, he in
| formed me, of the production of the lat
| ter as far back as 100 years before the
Christian era, but cotton Is not men
| toned until 200 wears prior to that period.
| For the first 800 years. said the
viceroy, the material was held as sacred
| TO the person of the emperor. 1t was
| very rare and precious, while silk was
| common, and when wishing to claim the
| nigh court, the planters growing it for
the royal wardrobe would send it in pres
ents to the ruler, which act was consid-
| cred the very highest tribute. When the
| emperor Ou-ti assembled the throne in
502, his coronation robe was made entirely
| or cotton, and the flowers of the plant
to the rare beauty of which our Doets
and authors have paid special tribute
| were strewn in his path. Not until the
eieVenth century was cotton commonly
grown and used by the people, and from
That time dates the history of its manu-
facture in China 1t was in 1880, the pc
ROD of the conquest by the Mongol Tar
tars, that the staple was formally intro
duced by royal edict, and its manufacture
ordered, since when frequent encourage
ment has been sent out to the planters
70 influence them to increase its produc-
tion, and being made up into material
At one time, in the sixteenth century
China arose to special eminence for its
cotton trade, but early in the eighteenth
century its production was greatly de-
| creased. a far mir
Now, however the government at Pekin
is determined to seek cotton fame again.
and expects. with the aid of foreign
framed men, 10 establish the cotton mar
ket of the future. A great change is
spreading among usl
In conclusion, 1 have this to saw.
which should be taken into serious consid-
| Grafton by my cOuntrymen: We are not
going to be able to grow cotton uucb
| longer. Aside from Chinese rivalry the
labor question in our dominions is going
70 crowd the cotton plantation out in
time, and so the Mongols can only has
ten us to decide what industry shall take
its place-what agricultural revolution is
10 take place in the south? Shall it be
grain?
The general American impression 6f
Chinese labor is very faulty. The 'hea-
| then as we term them, are not large
strong, healthy men, as a rule but
they are wiry, quick and especially skill
full IN any such light work as cotton
picking. Then, too, they will work from
sunrise to sunset for a quarter of what
our American pickers cost As for the
soil, it is, as 1 have already stated in
my observations of the country, Just as
well adapted 70 the purpose as our cotton
country. 1 am thoroughly satisfied. and
1 think my brother Americans will agree
with me, on careful consideration of ex-
listing circumstances, that for the same
reason that the attempts to raise tea in
our land had to be abandoned, our cot
ton plantati tons viii have to be abandoned
when China gets established in its culti-
vation."
Charles Dana Gibson has already had