Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20

and spun carpet by night. The Tilt OF the
sh hs fort b set him singing and In
lonely. There was a very rich man lived
nearby who could not sleep at night for
the weaver's song. He sent for him one
day and asked why he sang all night
Because it makes me happy said the
weaver.
"'And 1t makes me unhappy said the
rich man. for it Will not let me sleep I
Four hundred dollars said the poor
weaver, who had scarcely owned as many
pennies at one time in his whole life, I
take your money and l sing no more.
Advice Plenty.
When people heard the story they came
from all sides to see the weaver. Every
one had a new way for him to invest his
moneys until the poor weaver did not know
what to do. Every day he hid his money
in new place. He could not eat or sleep,
thinking some one would find it. He put it
inside his shirt and 1t burned him. Every
time he threw the shuttle his throat parched
for want of song. The moneys and the
song bursting to be out made him so sad
he could no more eat nor drink nor sleep.
He was like a ghost, and the carpets he
wove lost their color. One day he could
stand it no more. He took the money and
he went to the rich mans house:
- gives you your money, said the
weaver to the rich man. keep my
song
He, he, her, chuckled the frau, weighing
great balls of rags sent in by an uptown
hospital. Money cannot buy light heart"
But it sends us customers" said the
dean; "rich customers where once we had
only the very poor" Turning to the long
bin behind his seat at the loom, he tossed
up merrily the sorted colors of the bobbins
waiting to be woven into a carpet to catch
the footprints of children of wealth.
The mainstay of the surviving hand
looms are the charitable institutions. To
keep inmates or convaleScent patients en-
ployed. cast-off garments are given them to
cut into strips and prepare for the weaver.
for rag carpet strips are always useful in
large institutions. Where formerly tenement
deniZens found 1t more profitable to buy
machine made carpets since old rag brought
prices almost equal to that asked for the
machine carpet, which suggested luxury,
they find today 1t does not pay to save
them for the rag man, so nightly has the
price fallen. owing to the substitution OF
wood for rags in the manufacture Of paper.
Vanities Under Foot
On the other hand, ready made garments
have been brought to such perfection in
the making and at so small cost to the
consumer, that once, where wealth found It
profitable to dispose Of cast-off garments
to secondhand dealers, they now receive
so little that, in lieu of poor relations or
sending them to institutions, they are, in
compliance with fashions behest, cutting
them up into rag carpets.
Does life offer more literal way of
tramping it's vanities under foot!
Much Of the durability of rag carpet
depends upon the quality Of its warp. Cot
ton warp wears better and is much finer
than wool or linen. The beauty of a rag
carpet lies largely in the quality of the ma
terial used and the dizziness with which the
weaver throws the shuttle. Carpets con-
fined to one material-cotton, wool or silk
are more effective and durable than those
of varied stuffs. Silk is the favorite fabric
for decorative rugs. always priced by the
lover Of skilled handicraft. One yard width
is the limit of the carpet loom, which is not
designed to weave large portieres. They
call for separate apparatus. While the
old-fashioned hand loom does not admit of
the weaving in of designs after the manner
of tapestry, the trained weaver-he of color
perception and artistic-can achieve won
ders in the blending of the bobbins. Two
pounds Of rags are allowed to one yard of
carpet Thirty cents yard is the price of
weaving one yard.
From the time the rags. cut and sewed
into strips, generally Of an inch width and
wound into great Ealls. are brought to the
weaver, until he f4a1ly rolls it into carpet
for delivery to tie customer, 1t has six
separate handling$ Consider this labor
and that one yard an hour Is the largest
output, at 80 cents b yard and well may it
be said that, for the hand loom weaver,
time was made for slaves and wealth Is a
chimera.