The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-28
THE WORLDS FINEST LINENS
GIRLS WITH TROUSSEAUS TO BUY
 IN HARD LUCK.
Prices Away Up This Year-Damasks Never Lovelier, Though-France and Ireland Make the Best-Wonderful Italian Towels Little American Lin- en Made.


 Italian Towels-LittIe American Lin-
 en Made.
 The girl who had to buy her trous- seau this year is in hard luck, if money is 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 economize, that thing is linen.
 For several years the prices of table < linen, towels, etc.. have been steadily rising, and this season finds them high CT than ever. Yet. for the first time in four years, the merchants say the linen trade is booming. For three successive seasons scarcity of flax has kept prices up and buyers have waited for a de- 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 market when she comes to the point of marrying and furnishing house. It Is pity that the rousseau chest idea is { not more popular in America, for 1t is < one foreign custom well worth importa- \ ton. Once in a while even here, sen- Nsible mother does start a linen chest for her daughter, and though at 10 the Ss child proba bly, doesn't see the beauty W Of fine napkins, and would prefer a doll to the handsomest of tablescloths, later in life she will rise up and call the mother blessed.
 There was never time when damask low All ho if ic The rJ1A1- 7 ity has not improved; at least, the fin est damask Is no finer than 1t was cen- turies ago, but new designs appear each season. and many of the modern designs are very beautiful. For all- white damask Ireland and France hold 4 the palm One hears more of Belfast linen than of French linen, and the plain linen cloth woven In Ireland is < perhaps the best in the world. But < when 1t somes to figured damask the quality of the French linen equals that of the Irish, and the proverbial French genius for artistic designing produces marvellous results.
 Ireland has an advantage over Z France in her climate, and that same moist climate has enabled her to keep < her place in the linen industry of the world. But France overcomes that diff f1culty by importing Irish yarn, or in many cases sending it's own flax to Ire land to be spun into yarn there and shipped back to France. In order to spin very fine yarn the threads of flax must be kept moist Continental man. ufacturers have tried to manage this problem by providing artificial mois- lure in the factories, but nothing quite equals the natural dampness of the < Irish air.
 Irish flax is good, but other countries raise as good In fact Ireland imports about seven-eighths of the flax used there from Russia, which is the great flax producer of the world. France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, all go to --Russih for flax but In many localities &s lodghout the Europe small quantities ( of flax are grown, which in quality sur mass anything that Russia has to of. fer. The finest flax of the world is raised around Courtrai, and it is from Courtrai flax that the most exquisite a Of the cobweb handkerchiefs in which women delight are made. But the { (sourtrai flax is too fine to be spun in x Belgium, and almost all of it goes to Y Ireland to be spun there and reship- ped
 There is another linen besides the snlain white linen stuff in which Ire iand leads the world Tn the cheaper Z grades of hand-embroidered linen, hand x embroidery for the masses, Ireland has Ayerything her own way. The work has been going on there for nundreos nf years. and no other country can compete with Ireland successfully in 1t. II, certain kind of hand embroidery the French are past masters, but em- < 3broidery costs in France twice that it does in Ireland, and the cheap grades ' of French embroidery will not bear Z comparison with the Irish.
 When it comes to fancy linens, color- \ ad ianasks, linen elaborately bordered, S8embroidered, hemstitched, etc, Ger many and Austria have their innings. < Leaving white damask out of the ques- I&fion. although beautiful white damask l5fe woven in both Germany and Austria, ssail of what wholesale dealers call the ultra fine linens, are from these two < countries, and most of them come from esilesia. All of both German and Aus stria Silesia is given over to the linen industry. 1t has always been so. Back ain the middle ages the linen weavers nf Silesia were turning out goods quite as fine as those they produce now.
 The land is unspeakably barren and moor. For centuries linen has kept the whole population alive. though the Y money earned by a weaver seems hard H3ly enough to keep the breath in any one's body. The work is done on hand looms, as the finest linen weaving is x done everywhere, even in this day Of improved machinery, and the grim Teutonic patience of the workers has given them control of the market for { tedious, intricate work. Every girl grows into a linen weaver, lnheriting the traditions of generations before {. her: and, for possible $2 a week, she works away with infinite patience, year after year, on fancy colored table linen. elaborate towels, bureau scarfs, < tray cloths, etc.
 Many of the designs used by the workers to-day were used by their an- cestors centuries ago. The three cres- cents entwined, which is favorite silesian pattern, is the crest of the old r,,rl-ee of Poictiers, and many feudal coats of arms and insignia are woven into the linens for modern homes. t,n the