Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-05-05


The hands that first strung warp on
frame and set wool of beauty on its
threads were those of women.
The finest of the beautiful eastern
rugs, says a writer in the New
York Tribune, so much admired
by art lovers, are wrought by the
fair hands of the princesses Of
Persia; those in which the soft hucs
blended, showing how the weaver
caught from land running over with
sunshine and beauty the true art of
harmonizing tints.
The difficulty of the task is never
given thought; one rug often repre-
sents life work. 1t is one of the laws
of the Persian religion that artists
should not copy nature. yet many of
their rugs show floral designs, and
others picture neurological and his
torical legends The tree of life, the
cocoss or sacred tree, the weeping will
low, the lotos and the palm are used
in these designs, as we'll as the figures
Of animals, each having its own sig
nificance, the lion meaning light, the
monkey appearing in the rugs where
the theory OF evolution is represented,
even the duck and goose having their
places. These last were thought to be
able to give warning when danger
threatened the happiness Of family,
and for this reason they are often used
in the designs of wedding rugs.
The carpets and rugs derive their
names from the provinces in which
they are made. In the work Is seen
the effect on the mind of the beauties
of the world of nature by which the
rugmakers are surrounded. The rugs
Of the north, for example, the Daghes-
tan, Bokharas, KAYAKS and Tifiis, are
covered with geometrical designs and
are colder in coloring than those Of
the south, which, coming from Teher-
an, Kirman, Serapi, Ispahan and Khor-
assam, combine both geometrical and
floral patterns, and seem to have
caught the warmth of color always
associated with the sunny lands where
they are made. In these same prov
incas are also found the story weav-
ers, who tell their romances and le-
gends in the intricate threads of their
beautiful work.
The Perisians' rugs rank first, not
alone for the beauty Of their coloring
and design, but also for the firmness
of their weave, the finest qualities hav-
ing from two hundred to six hundred
knots to the square inch. There is a
beautiful example in the famous Sadik
collection of an antique Persian silk
carpet of the Trichnium design, which,
according to the inscription on the
border, took ninety-eight years to per-
feet, and is 206 years old. Age alone
mellows that sheen so much admired
and sought after by the collector.
Among the most distinctive Of these
gems of the weavers' art are prayer
rugs. They are small, about S feet by
feet, always having their designs,
either in the terminal of the panel or
in the decoration of it, q truncated
point. These rugs often picture the
growth of life, the conquest Of death
and Immortality of the faithful. The
true believer never travels without one,
and, while using it, the point is al
ways laid toward Mecca.
Made smooth some centuries ago
BY praying eastern devotees
Blurred by those dusky naked feet,
And somewhat worn by ruffling
kneSS
In Ispahan.
It lies upon my modern floor
And no one prays there any more.
So. with much of the art that the peo-
pie of today have gathered about them
in their absorption Of civilization, they
lose perhaps the inmost spirit that
was woven and worked in to the pray
err rug by its maker, and who shall say
that, great as is the admiration of those
maryels of color and texture, one fully
appreciates their beauty, since it is i'm
possible to understand the inner fan
cies which possessed the minds of the
ancient weavers as they worked and
dreamed?