The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-28
WORLDS FINE LINENS.
GIRLS WITH 1ROUSSEAU TO BUY ARE IN HARD LUCK.
Prtcos Away Up-Damasks Were Never
 Lovelier-France and Ireland Make tho Bost-W Wonderful Italian Tow

Lovelier-France and Ireland Make tho Bost-WonderfuI Italian Tow eIs. < The girl who. has to buy her trous- lEeau this year is in hard luck, if money { Is a scarce article with her. Her house. hold linens will cost her pretty pen \ ny, and if there is one thing upon which the normal woman refuses to N economize, that thing is linen.
 X N For several years the price of table x linen, towels, etc., have been steadily rising, and this season finds them high Ter than ever. Yet for the first time in \ four years, the merchants say the linen W trade is booming. For sthree successive X seasons scarcity of flax has kept prices IEup and buyers have waited for de- l cline. Now prices are still up, but the need of the buyers has become urgent, < and so the trade rolls merrily along The girl who has a linen chest is proof against the vagaries of the linen x market when she comes to the point of M M1narrying and furnishing house. It is X N pity that the trousseau chest idea IS Sriot more popular in America, for it is < one foreign custom well worth importa- x tf0n, Once in while, even here, sen sible mother does start linen chest TOT Her. daughter, and though at 10 the { Etild probably doesn't see the beauty or liiie napkins, and Would prefer doll \ to the handsomest of tablecloths, later X in life she will rise up and call the # mother blessed.
 'N& There was never time when damasK \ was lovelier than it is now. The qual- &ssity has no Improvements; at least the { finest darnask is no finer than it was centuries ago, but new designs appear E e4icl1 season, and many of the modern x yieBiRns are very beautiful. For all-
 white damask Ireland and France hold ss tte palm. One hears more of Belfast Ns1frien than of French linen, and the
 plain linen cloth woven in Ireland IS sperhaps the best in the world. But when it comes to figured damask the tIiiality of the French linen equals that ! of the Irish and the proverbial french rei1ius for artistic designing produces \
 2 marvellous results.
 .l s IRELAND IN THE LEAD.
 Ireland has an advantage over f'rance < kfr, Her climate, and that same most ch- mate has enabled her to keep her place x sfit, fife linen industry of the world But Y #sF trance overcomes that difficulty by i'm W sSOrting Irish yarn, or in many cases { @Kartfiing it's own flax to Ireland to pc " g$sgy,,,n into yarn there and shipped pacK Ss TX france. In order to spin very me Z 8Hi ilt,en warn the threads of flax must De { 5Ea,3t moist Continental manufacturers
 ,savn tried to manage this problem py 3Srnv,fling artificial moisture in the rac- ss ,,rfas hut nothing quite equals the -x,,ral dampness of the Irish ar 8Triah flax is good, but other countries x ,,si.a as good. In fact Ireland imports ! sss.s+ -eighths of the flax used x E4vSsra from Russia, which is the great x ss ss.s. .,rod,,cer of the world France, gsss ss.,,,,r, Germany, Italy all go to Rus N N !, s,s, sror f7ax. but in many localities X ~ sho,,t Europe small quantities of sas,., ra grown which in quality sur sss.Ss ". !. ,,rthine that Russia has to offer z x 3ysss. tJ,,ast flax of the world Is raised
 sTo,fnd Courtrai, and 1t IS rom < Ss,,,,r+rai flax that the most exquisite or \ 5tyA cohweb handkerchiefs in which wo- \ x x sss aa,ioht are made. But the Cour- tyai flax is too fine to be spun in Bel
 sr,(im and almost all of it goes to Ire iand to be spun in Belgium, and almost x ssiI of If goes to Ireland to be spun
 there and reshipped
 x sS vrrara is another linen besides the , nfayn white linen stuff in which Ireland { < 5aads the world In the cheaper grades
 \ nf hand- embroidered linen, hand em- t,roiierv for the masses, Ireland has ev- x Ss9nrv+l,inp her own way The work mas @ r,a1n going on there for hundreds Of
 years. and no other country can com
 snatA with Ireland successfully Tn It.
 1n a certain kind of hand. embroidery
 Stfe French are past masters, put em- x hroidery costs in France twice what It
 does In Ireland, and the cheap grades or French embroidery will not pear coin-
 parison with the Irish
 when 1t comes to fancy linens, colored
 darnasks, linen elaborately bordered'
 ernproidered hemstitched etc. Ser
 many and Austria have their innings. ss WI ,eaying white damask out or the ques- Htion. although beautiful white damasK t kfs woven in both Germany ana Austrla, S all of what wholesale dealers call the sEEtiltra fine linen are IrolH these e"o
 Pcountries and most of them come from
 .Silesia. All of both German ana Au- % stria Silesia is given over to the linen
 Industry. It has always been so. Back
 " the middle ages the linen weavers or
 siIesia. were turning out goods quite as '@s fine as those they produce now. M The land is unspeakably barren ana
 noor For centuries linen has kept the < whole population alive, though the
 ynoney earned by a weaver seems hard
 1v enough to keep the breath in any
 o.,e,s body The work is done on mana
 1oon,s. as the finest linen weaving IS
 done everywhere, even in this day Of
 Improved machinery and the grim
 re,1tonic patience of the workers has
 given them control of the markets Tor
 +adious. intricate work. Every girl
 grows into linen weaver, inherit1ng
 the traditions of generations perore
 Her. and. for possible $2 a week. she
 works away with infinite patience, year
 oYter year. on fancy colored table llnen'
 aiahorate towels, bureau scarfs, tray
 cloths etc.
 ANCIENT DESIGNS. ,,.sasas sn1,,vsof tne designs used Dy tne