The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-04
BEST LAUNDRY WORK.
IT is DONE BY WOMEN IN SILK con-
DITiONING HOUSES.

Requires a Life Time to Learn the
Business ThOrOughIy-This Assay
ing Pays Handsomely and Men Can
Not Begin to Compete with WO-
men in the Accuracy and knacIk
With Which They Do Their Work.
New York, March. 2.-The most i'm
portant laundry workers in the world are
the women employed in the silk condition
ing houses. They wash, boil bleach,
rinse and dry, just as the women who
work in the most ordinary laundries, but,
instead of ironing. they weigh and reweigh
their pieces with the most minute ex-
actness, and the values comprehended
in each separate operation amount 10
thousands of dollars.
The doer-up of linen, dimity and cotton
pieces may become an expert in her
line after couple of years practice and
no particular education, but it takes the
silk ''boiler off, treble that time to attain
mastery of her profession. The condi-
TONERS deal only with the raw silk as it
comes from the cocoon filmy, deceptive
substance to work with.
How long did il take me 10 learn this
business?" said a woman assayer as she
SttFT6u UeT DuDDtilS UdSS. "A llLeliine,
It's thirteen years since I started in bus
mess and I've been conditioning all that
time. Ny father and grandfather were
conditioners. They learned silk in the old
country"
II took up silk conditioning because it
pays bettE than stenography, and l had
the right feel of the fingers" said another
bo2er off. mo matter how intelligent
girl is if the silk sticks to her fingers she's
a failure, but l found out quite accident
ally. after | had settled on being a sec
rotary, that I was a born silk worker.
Women having the right knack with silk
can always make good money, and the
silk industry is one line of work i'm which
women are absolutely indispensable. For
instance. only women are employed in
the warp room of any silk mandatory
and this preparing of the lengthwise
thread for the loom in most important and
a department. enabling the industrious
workers to make s25 week Men are ex-
eellent weavers, good foremen and
weighers but when it comes to di-
rect handling of the raw fiaments they
yield the palm. You may have seen very
smart intelligent peope try to make the
slip knot in tatting and fail, and some
such unexplicable sleight of hand is requis-
lite for the worker in raw silk
Now, in silk conditioning or assaying
not only this proper feel of the fingers is
needed, but the proper judgement and
nicely of calculation. If l let my drying
silk scorch, for instance. or If don't boil
the gum out of 1t thoroughly. and if l err
even so much as a deneir or a gram in
computing my weights, there's a peck of
trouble The value of The whole babe of
silk is reckoned from the conditioned sam
pie, Chat sample composed of three parts
drawn at random from the bale) and the
raw silk that travels all the way from
India, China or Japan is worth some
thing"
DessicntIng Raw Silk.
A professor who never graduated from
any college is in charge of the raw silk
conditioning where the women work a
man who knows every sort of adulterant
or cheatery even practiced by silk grow
ers since time was, and TO whom manu-
facturers and importers appeal with their
perplexities. But this director leaves the
actual work of discovering these admix-
lures to his lieutenants, fully assured of
their reliability. Before the hanks of yell
low and white raw silk are pumped into
the boilers to be boiled off" they are
subjected to the dessicating apparatus
TO determine the exact percentage or
moisture absorbed by the silk since the
worms spun II. Silk, like all textile fbers
contains certain degree of moisture but
a babe of silk is capable of holding from
Is to 25 per cent of water without showing
a sign of II.
The Oriental silk farmers always start
TO reel their silk from the cocoons in the
beginning of the rainy season. The i'm
porters and manufacturers do not relish
paying for water at raw silk rates, hence
the conditioning houses. After the mois-
ture has been thoroughly expressed from
the hanks of silk, they are put into lit
tie white bags and boiled twice in a bath
OF boiling soap suds, rlnsed dried by hot
air again and then put through the other
tests. The scene Is quite domestic as the
women manipulate the dozens of samples,
weighing them with the accuracy that
apothecaries use in weighing out critical
drugs and managing every operation with
extreme neatness because of the costly
nature of the goods.
AduIternting the Thread.
The cocoons are put in water prepara-
tory to Keeling the silk Off. A brush some
thing like a whisk or a sink broom is
used to catch the end of the thread for
the Keeling. This reeiing is ordinarily
done in The houshold of the silk farmer.
and anything gummy that he can put In
the water for the cocoons to soak up
means that much gain for his pocket and /
that much damage 10 the purity of the |
silk. Rice water Is admirable for this pur-