Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1898-08-25

partlcularly. ...... IS, ...... ..
| PURPOSE Oh THE TEXTILE SCHOOL.
Textile is applied to all fabrics
which are woven in loom, and its
treatment must, of course, include
every process from the raw material
to the finished products prepared for
the market. Clothes of some kind
or other have been used by the
human family since fig leaves and
the hides of beasts were dispensed
with as clothing and will be to tho
end of time.
We have detailed accounts of the
clothes and manner of making them
running back $500 years, and while
the speed and fineness have been
wonderfully improved, still the gene
raj principles are the same to-day
that they were i'll the most ancient
times. The process, is described in
the earliest accounts, consisted of
hanging certain number of strings,
as the warp was then called, from q
stick and fastening at the lower end
of each weight, 80 that they would
not lose their position. The filling
was called weft, and wound uron a
short bobbin, which was placed in
side a hollow boat shaped piece of
wood, so as to revolve as the shuttle
was passed by hand in and out
through the warp, and ct right
angles with it; after each passage of
the filling a wooden sword-shappd
implement was introduced between
the threads Of the warp, aud many
quick, sharp blows given to drive
the filling close up.
"a YARD A DAY."
AS may be imagined the process
was very slow and the most expert
weaver could not weave a yard a
day. Think of that compared with
the thousand yards day which good
weavcrs on the latest looms are now
making. In the very early times,
however, a clumsy harness was used
to keep the warp threads apart, as
the shuttle passed between, and this
was operated with the feet, by a
| treadle, very much as our hand looms
of to-day work.
Soon after this heavy comb
shaped tool was used to beat up the
filling, the teeth passing between the
threads of the warp. In ancient
times the women did all the weaving,
and though the process was slow,
and the implements rude, still some
Of the clothes produced were won-
ders in beauty and skill and dura-
bility. An early Christian sarco-
phagus in the Lateran has the SYM
bolical relief representing God con-
demning the future world to labor,
tilling the soil for the man, and
weaving for the woman. He gave
ears of corn to Adam and sheep to
Eve.
! TUE INDUSTRIAL SOUTH.
Some thoughtless and some ignorant
people have questioned the wisdom
of the South engaging in manufac-
turing to any great extent, on the
ground that it intcrferes with the
farming interests Of this country by
absorbing the labor; aside from the
well established economic actium,
that diversity of interests in the life
of any country, we know from our own
experience that Notwithstanding the
growth of cotton industry from few
thousand spindlcs in 1896 to 4,O0O,-
600 in 1898, that the South has raised
large crops of cotton and all the
cereals than she did before the manu-
features were in existence, 30 we
reap as much advantage as ever from
farming, and whatever advantage
there is in the money spont for manu-
featuring.
Leaving aside the many arguments
usually made to show the advantages
which the manufacturing country
offers, let us examine one minute
what the difference is to the country
that raises and manufactures one
bale of cotton, as compared with
selling it, to be worked ZIP elsewhere.
Suppose the bale weighs 500 pounds
and is sold at cents tho country
gets the benefit of $50, to be dis
tributed between tho rent of the
land, tho labor, the fertilizer, the
man who makes agricultural imple-
ments, otc.; not much profit to any
of those engaged, and only $50 il
produced for tho country now lot
q factory in tho same country where
tho cotton is raised buy this cotton
1t pays the same $50 for it that the
foreigner would have paid, and the
man who raised it gets the same
benefit. Let the mill now manufac.
turc it into say yard-w shceting