The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-10
A QUAINT SEARCH.
Continued from Page Twenty-four.

pin. That first pin possibly was one
of the first things that man tried to
make. For as soon as he began to
wear even the most primitive garment
he met the necessity of holding it on,
and something sharp to stick into 1t
was the natural things that suggested
itself No doubt he used a thorn at
first. But thorns were rarely of the
proper shape and the busy human
brain was not content till it had de-
vised something better. So it was not
long before some ingenious cave
dweller aroused the envy of his less
enterprising friends by appearing with
his mantle of skins nobly pinned to-
gether with slender, white fish bones.
Fish bones served nicely until man
began to long for beauty, probably
without knowing it. Being simple and
direct he soon gratified his desire by
personal adornment. So the cave
dwelers began to rub the smaller ami
NAL bones on flint till they had ground
them into fairly good pins and skew
ers.
From that it was only step to the
highly ornamental pins that have been
found in the ancient lake dwellings of
Central Europe. Some of these had
double shanks like our modern hair
pins. Others were shaped like safety
pins Most of them had decorated
heads.
OF course pins would not serve all
purposes, and the ancient man soon
had to devise something that was like
a pin and yet would drag sineW or
| other binding material through his
| skin garment so that two pieces, of 1t
| could be fastened together. Again the
| fishbone had to serve, and when a
cave-dweller discovered that by tying
a piece of deer sinew to 1t he could
stitch his clothes together, the first
sewing society of the world was start
ed. 1t probably held its opening fss-
sion in some cave in Southern France.
From fish bones and animal bones
to metal was the next great advance
made by the world. Man was still
very primitive and uncouth when he
found that he could do things with the
ores of the earth. Perhaps he got his
first idea of 1t from seeing volcanic
fire fuse the great rocks. AT any rate,
he began to make his pins and needles
out of bronze before long.
The first needles were merely
straight. pointed pieces of metal. The
sinew or fiber that served as thread
was tied to one end. An inventive
genius improved on this one day by
making a little hook in the end to
prevent the fiber from slipping off, as
it often did. The next man improved
InaL Dy cutting nOLCn instead Oh
making the clumsy hook.
Then for many ages the world did
not make any notable improvement in
needles. Folk used clumsy metal con-
trivances and did not dream that they
were not good enough, until the Moors
entered Spain at the time of the great
invasion of Europe by the grim and
terrible Saracens. The Moors brought
with them, besides much other culture
M rf Of Il inc nj nf
steel. Gradually the knowledge spread
through Europe, and 100 years before
Columbus discovered America the men
of Nuremburg began to make them.
That was a queer industry then; for
the needle makers were the armorers,
too, and the same man who beat out
So-g-PP cmfwy shrd cmfw cmfwyp
tiny needle to be used by the delicate
fingers of a woman in embroidery and
hemming might be busy in another
hour forging a tremendous double
handed sword of the kind that the old
fighters loved to WELD
And By the way isn't 1t queer to
think that many of your pretty and in
nocent toys are made now by the de-
scendants of those same old Nurem-
burg craftsmen who sent out the weap-
ons that made poor Europe bloody for
so many generations?
Nobody could beat the Nuremburg
craftsmen in those days, and so before
many years almost everybody else had
ceased trying to compete with them
except the Moors. And the Moors could
not spare the time to make many nee
dies, for they soon had work that de-
manded tools far more grim. So the
secret became almost lost to the world
at large.
Then, one day in 1913. mysterious
stranger arrived in London and opened
a shop in Cheapside. Soon his neigh
bors began to whisper that he was a
Moor who had escaped from Spain, and
as the Moors then were suspected of
corcery, it was not long before folk
said that he had dealings with the evil
one, for the Moor had for sale wonder
full steel needles that were SO line and
tiny that no one could believe that 1t
was possible for man to make them.
But the rich English women were so
glad to get such needles that they
protected the Moor with all their in
huence, and they defeated the designs
of many persons who would have been
very glad to extort the secret from the
man under pretence of Furnishing him
for witchcraft. The Moor finally died
in peace and his secret died with him.
During Queen Elzabeth's reign a
German arrived In England and made
Spanish" needles. Before long an
Englishman imported twenty-five Ger
man workingmen. That practically
founded the great matchmaking in
dustry of England.
1t is a far cry from the poor fugitive
Moor In ancient London, sitting In his
little shop and turning out a few doz-
ems Of needles a day, 10 the roaring
machine shops Of Connecticut. II Is
Just as IL Uncle Sans tax census gath
erers had spread a magic carpet for
you TO sit on, which whisked you at
once from to-day into yesterday and