The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-05-29
ARP's COTTON SPIN.
Southern Staple Continues to BE
King Of An
How It was First s~pun-BIlI's Mother
Used to Pick Seed from the Lint
Then Came the Gin and spiR-
ning Jenny.

12A4 y ~ y az !
FIRST said that, but it is a fact. It is the
most useful and most important prod
uct in the world and has the most in
Huence on it's commerce. l was rumi-
mating about this because Of some let
ters Of inquiry that from time to time
II have received concerning cotton. The
last q from an old friend, Col. Saxon,
says he cannot learn from the depart
ment at Washington when cotton cloth
was first imported to this country.
And so I will venture a few remarks
onsthis subject in general, for it is full
Of remarkable facts and illustrates the
blindness OF Providence to His crea-
lures. Providence is always kind and
whenever we need anything He unlocks
another door Of His treasury and says
here it IS.
There IS no doubt at all that the cot
ton plant was created .in the pegin-
ming" and with q design for the use
and benefit Of mankind when it should
be needed. Attention was attracted to
it away back in the centuries. Four
hundred and fifty years before the
Christian era Herodotus wrote about
it as a plant bearing heeces more deli
cate and beautiful than those of sheep
and of the Indians using it for the man
ufacture 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 the Hindoos have been ex-
celled only by the most perfect ma
chinery of modern times. We read of
a Hindoo princess who came into a
court reception and the king said: go
home-go home, my child-you are not
decently covered" And she replied:
Father, / have seven suits ON" But
they were of cotton muslin so thin and
delicate that the king could see through
them. The famous muslins of Decca,
in Calcutta, were called "webs of woven
wind," and when a piece was laid upon
the dew-covered grass it was not dis
cernible.
Imagine the wonder of these fabrics
when there was not a spindle, but the
distaff and only a loom that the weaver
carried about with him, setting it up
under a tree and digging q hole in the
ground for his feet to work the treadle.
But the manufacture of cotton for the
common people was smothered during
all these centuries and only wool and
flax were used for clothing. The an
Client Egyptians used it to some extent,
spinning it with the distaff and weaH'
ing it with the primitive looms, but
the plant was not cultivated. 1t was
Indigenous to that country and the
fleece was gathered from the wilc
stocks. It was not until the tenth cen
fury that the cultivation began, anE
that was by the Moors in Spain, Tht
Venetians engaged in it in the four
teenth century and the English in thu
early part of the eighteenth. But it,
use was very limited, for the seed wert
in the way.
But now comes the evolution Of cot
ton; the revolution that in a few year!
made it king. Nothing so wonderful
has ever transpired in commerce ant
manufacture. There was a commune
ton of the three things that were neces
aary to bring about this revolution
The cotton gin by Whitney in 1898, tn,
4 spinning jenny by Arkwright in 17s'
4 and the power loom by Cartwright il
/. 1889, all startled the world about tn,
4 same time and gave an impulse to tn
. growth and use and manufacture o
r cotton that was pregnant with grea
4 results. One of these results was tn
fixing of salary as nm institution upol
Z the southern states. Up to that tim
d it was not considered either safe o
profitable to encourage their importa
ton from the northern states. But o
course, 1t took several years for thes
inventions to become generally intro
duced. My mother told me that as lat
a as 1878 she used to spend most of tn,
n winter evenings picking the seed fron
the cotton by hand-with half a dozel
or more OF the family servants sitting
in q circle around the fire. She vie'
o with them IN trying to excel in tn
quantity seeded. This was in Libert,
county in this state, and the cotton wa
probably the long staple variety.
Whitney became involved in inter
r minRbde law suits and his gin, whic.
9 was for only the short staple cotton
a was not in general use for many year
after it was invented. My father pu
a up the first gin in Gwinnett county j
q 1928, and seed cotton was hauled to j
Z from all the adjacent country. Prev
{ Gus to the use Of the gin it was con
sidered a fair days work to seed enougl
n to make a pound of lint. But the gil
n with two attendants picked 400 pound
9 in aday. At that time the ~old-fashione,
y spinning wheel was in general use an
a days work for the spinner was 81.
Q cuts-a cut being 140 rounds on tn
b reel, but the first spinning jenny wit
one attendant did 80 times as niue
n and did it better. Later on it did 200
y times as much. The saving in weavin
. by the power loom was in similar pre-
q portion and hence it suddenly cam
about that ten mem could do the wor
= of 10000. No wonder that Hargrave
:. and Arkwright were driven from thei
homes by the spinners and the spin
sters. Excuse me for telling the girl
r just here that a spinster is the feminin
l. for spinner, and used to mean a MAJ
riageable girl who had made herse.
9 eligible and fifteen to be married b