Arizona republican., 1901-03-26
SOURCES OF SILK.
The Yellow Spider Silk of Paraguay
 Is Woven Into Shawls.

Almost every worm of aerial habits | is more or less a silk worm. Witness the caterpillar's nest So frequent in orchards and shrubbsry. Each of them Is no more or less than big unkep; and composite cCccoon, spun by all the caterpillar swarm as a collective refuge. Solitary creepers have the same power of silk production. In fact many cf them emulate those gentlewomen, the spiders. in letting themselves up or down, or round about. with threads of their own spinning. These aerial road ways indeed fairly criscross the sum- mer air lIihey are invisible save when a glancing sun-ray strikes across them, notwithstanding their use is often made too palpable by big wriggling some thing slipping up an unsuspecting head or arm.
 After the caterpi'lars one must reck- on the genuine silk spinning spiders. These are distinguished from the com mon web spiders by the nature of their product. It is true silk, strong, elastic, beautifully lustrous. It Is produced, toe, more abundantly in proportion to
 
 Stockings, mittens. many such small deer. have been knitted of the spider silk. The only bar to it's production in commercial quantities is the war-like habits of the insects. Whenever three encounter there is a battle royal, which ends only with the death or disabling of all the fighters. Down in Paraguay there is a spider which spins bril- liant yellow silk in such profusion the natives and the Spaniards collect 1t and manufacture it, on rude native looms, into shawls, ribbons and short lengths for jackets. The color deepens and brightens with use, and is said to be ln- imitable-a glowing golden hue no dyer can produce.
 The silk worm proper is an embod- jed apetite. Unlike the leopard, he can cast his skin. 1t does cast 1t. indeed, five times between matching and matu- rity. Between moults he eats, eats, never hasting, never resting. He has been commercialized to such a degree tAat it is possible to estimate before hand just how much silk he win turn out from a given weight of fresh null t.sTy leaves. They are white mulber- " tsaves--to be eXact-morus multi eaulis. The botanical name suggests Ong af the most curious and irrational cSases Which ever laid hold upon the public mind. in the late thirties and es."iE fCrtbEs cf the century just past the RhO,s country went wild over po- tential silk production. Facts, so- called. were aaduced to prove that thsre were mlliors in ,he business not only all the millions that Americans spcnt for silk, but outside millions whicA you'd flow in for the silk. In- deed, tkeSR United States were to dom- lnats the silk market as they aomnat- cd the cotton market Even thus early taeT~ was 8 popular slogan that "cOt- ton NAs king"
 Men dealt in silk worm eggs and mui- berry stoehs as they DOW deal in fW- turpS. tt Was a poor aud splritless vIi- Iaxr or ReiHhbaoFhclsa that could net show Ste stock company including ew- cry uAAa Sf substance souna a6oat. SAYvnsTe, PlaRtsgx, artisans, naa2s haste to plaht the precious mulberry. eoR- Fi@ced by fAe GEi-SoO-elogp@at figures that ihelF ls&Gss would turn into gold. TSs@ sAlG RoEusS wsFa Co De hSRe -hFe8. CNSii the tWeeS were FSAdy tO furnish leaves fST them, thtnGr FWuss go sto~iy. Hut money ~Rs sashiy i@vcsse1 in Rf- EtNrsS 1Ra Fselineg alSele iN use gp tas silk 6S, -n @oSms fe'8 o@ 1&r SUEnmcm blsck shaieeFFy ieaVes.-s:K.