The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1897-04-09
BILL ARp'S WEEKLY LETTER.
s BRIEF HISTORY OF COTTON AND
IT'S EARLY MANIPULATION.
THE FLEECY STAPLE IS STILL KING.
The Lint Was First Picked From Seed.
Then Came Gin and Spinning Jenny;
tr.crwnrd the Modern Loom.

most useful and most important pro-
duet i'll the world, and has the most
influence on its commerce. l was
Illuminating about this because of some
letters of inquiry that from time to
time have received concerning cot
ton The last one from an old friend
Colonel Saxon, says he cannot learn
from the department ~ Washington
when cotton cloth was first imported
to this country.
And SO l will venture Il few remarks
on this subject in general, for it is full
of remarkable facts and illustrates the
kindness of providence to His oreat-
ures. 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 nj all that the cot
ton plant was created Sin the begin
ming" and with II design for the use
and benefit Of mankind when it should
he needed. Attention was attracted
to 1t away back in the centuries. E"rr
hundred and fifty years before IT,"
Christian era HvruGotTs wrote about
it as Il plant bearing hcrcrs NOR" deli
cate and beautiful than those Of sheen
| and Of the Indians using il for the
| manufacture of cloth. From India Il
| was introduced into Greece and Rome
! and Caesar used il fov his army tents
ana covered the forum with it. The
cotton fabrics OF the Hiuduos have
| been cXcclcd only by the most perfect
machinery of modern times. Wercad
of a Hindoo princess who came into
Il court reception and the king said,
"Go home-go home my child-you
are not decently clad"-and she re-
| piled, "Futher [ have seven suits ON, ="
but they were of cotton muslin SO thin
and delicate that the king could see
through them. The famous musiins
of Decca, in Calcutta, were called
"webs of woven wind" and when II
piece was laid upon the dew covered
grass it was not discernible.
Imagine the wonder of these fabrics
| when there WAS not spindle, but the
| distatf and only n loom that the weaver
carried about with him setting it up
under n tree and digging II hole in the
| ground for his feet to work the treadle.
But thc manufacture of cotton for the
comilOn people was smothered dur
ing all these centuries, and only
wool and flax were used for
clothing The ancient Egyptians
used it to some extent, spinning
it with the distaif and weaving it with
the primitive looms. but the plant was
| not cultivated. 1t was Indigenous to
that country and the fleece was gath
cred from the wild stocks. 1t was not
until the tenth century that the cUlti-
vation hogan, and that was by the
Moors in Spain. The Nenctans en-
| gagged III it in the fourteenth century
and the English in the arly part of
the eighteenth But its use was very
! limited, for the seed We're in the way.
But now comes the evolution of cot
ton; the revolution that in few years
made it king. Nothing so wonderful
has ever transpired in commerce and
manufacture. There was conjunc-
ton of the three things that were nee
essary to bring about this revolution
The cotton gin by Whitney in 1913;
the spinning jenny by Arkwright in
1887, and the power loom by Cart
wright in 1889, all startled the world
about the same time and gave an i'm
pulse to the growth and use and man
ufacture of cotton that was pregnant
with great results. One of these re-
suits was the fixing of slavery rs an
institution upon the southern states.
Up to that time it was not considered
either safe or profitable to encourage
their importation from the northern
states But of course, it took several
years for these inventions to become
generally introduced. My mother told
me that as lato as 1918 she used tC
spend most of the winter evenings
picking the seed from the cotton by
hand-with half dozen or more OF
the family servants sitting in circle
around the fire. She We'd with them
in trying to excel i'll the quantity seed
ed This was in Liberty county OF
this state. and the cotton was probably
the long staple variety.
Whitney became involved in inter
minable law suits and his gin, which
was for only the short staple cotton
was not in general use for many years
after it was invented. Ny father pm
up the first gin in Gwinnett county ir
1923, and seed cotton was hauled to i
from all the adjacent country. Pre-
vious to the use of the gin it was con
sidered a fair days work to see,
enough to make n pound of lint. Eu
the gin with two attendants pickle
400 pounds in day. At that time
; the old-fnsh;oncd spinning wheel wa
III general use and n days work fo'
. the spinner was six cuts Il cut being
5 40 rounds on The reel, but the frs
spinning jenny with one attendant Iii,
eighty times rs much and did it bet
ter. Later on it did 1000 times IA.