The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1897-04-13

Used to Pick Sesd from the
3S-The Advent Of tho Cotton Gin, tho
Bspinning Jenny and tho Power
Loon,--A Revolution in Com
meroe and Manufactures.

VINO nrst salu CDat, but IL ls 1act.
Ills the most useful and most i'm
1portant product in the world and has
the most influence on its commerce.
was ruminating about this because
Of some letters of inquiry that from
time to time I have received con-
corning cotton. The last one from
an old friend Colonel Saxon, says he
cannot learn from the department
at Washington when cotton cloth
was first imported to this coun-
try.
-. And so I will venture few re-
marks on the subject in general. FOR
it is full of remarkably facts and
illustrates the kindIaesess of providence
to His creatui1ffes. Providence is
always kind and whenever we need
anything }1ie unlooks another door
OF i1sStreasury and says here it
..y8here is no doubt at all that the
cotton plant was created "in the be.
ginning" and with a design for the
use and benefit of mankind when it
should be needed. Attention was at
tracted to it away back in the CEN
tu1ies. -Four hundred and fifty years
before the Christian era Herodotus
wrote about it as plant bearing fee
ces moro delicate and beautiful than
those Of sheep and of the Indians
using it for the manufacture of cloth.
From India it was introduced into
Greece and Rome and CAESAR used
it for his army tents and covered the
forum with it. The cotton fabrics
of tho Hindoos have been oxcelled
only By tho most perfect machinery
Of modern times. We read of a
Hindoo princess who came into q
court reception and the king said,
"Go home-go home. my child-you
are not decently covered" and she
replied, "Father, I have seven suits
on" but they were of cotton muslin
80 thin and delicate that the king
could see through them. The fam
ous muslins of Decca, in Calcutta,
were called "webs Of woven wind"
. and when piece was laid upon the
dew-coverod grass It was not discerni-
BILE.
Imagine the wonder of the fabrics
when there was not spindle, but
the di taft and only loom that the
'''s weaver carried about with him set
ting it up under tree and digging a
hole in the ground for his feet to
work tho treadle. But the manu-
facture Of cotton for the common
people was smothered during all
these centuries and only wool and
flax were used for clothing. The an
cient Egyptians used it to some ex-
tent, spinning it with the distaff and
weaving it with the primitive looms,
but the plant was not cultivated. It
was indigenous to that country and
the fleece was gathered from the
wild stocks. It was not until the
tenth century that the;culivationf be-
gan and;that was by the Moorsa Fin
Spain. The venetians engaged in
it in the fourteenth century and the
English in the early part of = the
eighteenth, But it's use was very
limited, for tho seed wore in the
way. ...}>: p =
'RBut now. comes the evolution of
c,otton; the revolution that,in a few
,s5Sars mado it king. Nothing SO
;: wonderful has ever >transpired in
commerce and manufacture. There
was a conjunction of the three things
that wore necessary to bring about
this revolutions: The cotton gin by
Whitney in <l793; tho spinning
jenny by. Arkwright in 1857, and the
D.. power loom by Cartwright in 1880,
all startled the world about the same
time and gave an impulse to the
growth and use and manufacture fo
cotton that was pregnant with great
results One IF these results was
The fixing of slavery as anfinstitution
/, upon the Southern States. Up to
that time it was notconsiderede either
safe or profitable to encourage their
: importation from the Northern
States. But of course it took sew
.".. ...E% ; =. ...ty 49, s x, +