Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-02-17

times you will find the tint changing
with every two or three threads. The
power loom will not do it.
Zurich turns out a great many
silks, mostly of the cheaper varieties,
particularly the little checks and
stripes, but the United States manu-
facturers have practically driven
Swiss taffetas ont of our market.
''The price of silks has tumbled as
tonishingly, too, with the rise of the
power loom and the constant i'm
proyements in the machinery of our
silk mills. You can buy silk at the
retail shops now for SIS a yard. per-
haps higher, but that is the great eN-
ception and. like most of the superb
Lyons materials, it usually goes in
to theatrical costume. High-grade,
fancy silk manufacture couldn't live
today without the theatrical profess
sion.
"Now, in the old days I've handled
plenty of silk here ut wholesale for
from $50 to $50 a yard. The same
silk wouldn't sell for half that now.
if it sold at all. Machinery has
brought all silk prices down on the
run, and il gives MS such beautiful
materials that even wealthy women
don't see any necessity of spending
money on handwoven silks"
do Japan and China send us many
silks?' asked the reporter.
Wash silks. yes. They make them
more cheaply than we can because
labor costs so little there. China and
Japan do not cut much figure in the
silk world. though, save aS they fur
nish raw silk"
What about mercerized goods?
Have they affected the silk market?''
Not "a bit. Men have always tried
TO make cotton take the place of silk
literally and figuratively but they
haven't succeeded. Mercer has come
as near to it as any one. This pro-
cess is, of course, kept secret, but in
some way the separate threads are
highly polished before being woven.
Here's piece of mercerized
goods. Look at these threads when
they are travelled. You see each one
of them is shiny on all sides. When
they are woven they are found TO
make IL fairly lustrous material, far
SUPERIOR to the surface tuStre ma
terials that were the result of earlier
experiment along the same line.
There is large quantity of mer-
cerized goods sold, but the fad isn't
as pronounced as at first. and | be-
Iieve it affects the cotton goods trade
more than the silk. The women who
want silk and can afford it Will buy
il anyway, but some women like the
siIl<-fnisheG cottons better than the
ordinary cottons.
The mercerized goods and the 9th
err new silk substitutes may cut into
the silk lining trade slightly. but they
don't make enough difference TO wor-
nv MS. The women who couldn't buy
silk are better off than they were
for. they have something much more
satisfactory in appearance than PLAIN
cotton: but the women who can nave
silk still have it. Nothing quite takes
its place. ~
New uses for silk are constantly
arising to help the trade along /
suppose you've no idea how the mania
for dust cloaks made the silk maISI-
facturers Jump. Theatre cloaks. car
riape cIoaks. elaborate silk cloaks of
every sort have been more common
this year than ever before. but the
tafTcta silk cloak for travelling. drlN-
ing. etc. was the thing that touched
uD the silk business last spring.
This spring it will be epidemic.
Naturally the color most in demand
for this purpose will be black, but
biscuit and the shades of mode will
be very popular.
biscuit is Il strong note in all SILK
output this year. but the manufac-
turers expect another white season.
Next to the black, which is always
i'm excess. the largest silk supplies
are being made in white. ivory ana
ecru. Moire in those shades is heav-
lily called for.
.After the whites and ecrus come
biscuit. beige and their kindred, ana
then the usual gamut of green, Dlue'
rose, etc There are good many
fancy silks. some of them rather
startling i'm their frank coloring yaf-
ter the reign of pastel shades.
.The foulards are not especially
different from those of last season.
Blue and white. white and black,
Green and white and biscuit and
white are the most popular combi-
nations.
..Tbc louisincs and other wcaves
introduced in an effort to rival tar
fcta hold some vogue. They are beau
tifuI, but the women are not enthus-
iastic over them. The louisine, for in
stance. slips. That is, the thread IS
not woven tightly enough to hold
firm, and, particularly in undergoing
cleaning, will separate and leave
ugly spots. The end of the reign of
taffcta isn't vet in sight"