The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-09-21

one day and asked why he sang all
night.
Because IT makes me happy said
the weaver.
And it makes me unhappy said
the rich man, for it will not let me
sleep. 1 give you $500 if you do not
sing at night
-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 1
sing no more
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 weav-
er he know not what to do. Every
day he hid his money in new place.
He could not eat nor sleep, thinking
some one would find it. He put it in
side his shirt and it 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.
" I gives you your money said the
weaver to the rich man. I keep NV
song
He, he, he." chuckled the frau
weighing great balls of rags sent in by
an uptown hospital. Money can not
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 foot
prints of children of wealth.
The mainstay of the surviving hand
looms are the charitable institutions.
To keep inmates or convalescent aa
tents employed, cast off garments are
given them to cut into strips and pre-
pare for the weaver. for rag carpet
strips are always useful in large insti
tutions. Where formerly tenement
denizens found it more profitable to
buy machine made carpets. since old
rag brought prices almost equal to
that asked for the machine Garnet.
which suggested luxury, they find to-
day it 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.
On the other hand, ready made gar
ments have been brought to such per-
lection in the making and at SO small
a cost to the consumer, that once.
where wealth found it profitable to dis
pose of cast off garments to second
hand dealers, they nov receive so little
that, in lieu of poor relations or send
ing them to institutions, they are, in
compliance with fashions behest. cut
ting them up into rag carpets
Does Life offer a more literal way of
tramping its vanities under foot!
Much of the durability of a rag car
pet depends upon the quality of it's
warp. Cotton warp wears better and is
much firmer than wool or linen. The
beauty of a rag carpet lies largely in
the quality of the material used and
the dizziness with which the weaver
throws the shuttle. Carpets confined 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 handi-
craft. Ono yard width is the limit of
the carpet loom, which is not designed
to weave large portieres. They call for
a 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 wonders in the blending of
the bobbins. Two pounds of rags are
allowed to one yard of carpet. Thirty
cents a 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 balls, are
brought to the weaver, until he finally
rolls it into carpet for delivery to the
customer, it has six separate landings.
Consider this labor, and that one yard
an hour is the largest output, at thirty
cents yard, and well may it be said
that, for the hand loom weaver. time
was made for slaves, and Wealth is a
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