The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-29

she herself origfnated-that of making and dyeing cloth. Even so recently as in the pioneer days of our own aho women still had the spinning ana weaving in their own hands.
 Dyeing was an exquisite art among the pioneer women. Like the orientals' ancient and modern, our great grand mothers used vegetable dyes. and these never faded. Indigo colored everlast- ing blue, peach tree leaves made won derful yeliows and greens, walnut hulls clear, bright brown. The choic- est treasures of American women de- scended from our "old families are the rugs. coverlets and scraps of flannel garments their woman ancestors spun dyed and wove. These are as bright and firm in color almost as the day were were made.
 Aniline dyes were discovered gen. eration ago, exquisite as rainbow tints, but as evanescent too. Man perceived here cheap way of coloring textile fabrics, so clapped the aniline dye stuffs upon his machine made cloth. From that day to this fast colors have departed from woven goods One Of the chief reasons why Persian and oth- CT oriental rugs and hangings are val uable above all others Is that they do not fade, but wear out with colors un- dimmed. It is because they are made from vegetable dyes, the secret of whose preparation is known only to the eastern makers and sacredly kept by them.
 Some knowledge of oriental dyes was probably brought to Europe when tap estry weaving was begun in the twelfth century. The middle of the fifteenth century the Gobelin brothers became famous-for their wonderful dyes. They had an establishment at Paris and there turned out such marvellous fast colors for textile fabrics that they grew wealthy and were ennobled Ear ly in the seventeenth century the site of their dyeing shop was turned into royal tapestry factory The secret of the marvellous dyes seems to have been handed down to those who originally engaged in tapestry making, but was lost after several generations, and 1t is said that now no mortal can reproduce the lost Gobeln dyes, unless, indeed, this has been done by Miss Charlotte Pendleton. of Philadelphia.
 Miss Pendleton is a lady of means, tall and dignifed, with dark keen look ing eyes and a will and intellect full of power. Being the intellectual woman she is. her mind could not help going out beyond mere petty, fashionable dressing and amusements. Like all true women of brains, she felt an in terest in industrial employments for her own sex. Women of brain breadth cannot help such a feeling. Miss Pen dleton was also artistic. Pondering long on the woman question, she won- dered whether there could not in some way be even in our time a remunera- tive return to the feminine occupations of century ago in this country. While she pondered the woman ques- ton Miss Pendleton was meantime also intensely interested in dyes and the textile industry. She made many ex- periments with her own hands in col bring s'lk and wool fabrics. At length this w' became so absorbing that she withd lietly from the Philadel- phia -cle In which she was a pri' and went away Many ol' whither she had fiit- answer.
 IT ago that Miss As a matter of ia the semirural home of lear Washington and there lying and experiment. ing. Tn ,Ase was an old stone man. sion and one of its outbuildings was an unused hennery. with windows running across the sides. letting in enough
 
 Charlotte Pendleton conveyed her dye stuffs, dyeing utensils. woolen mate rials. books and papers. and there for six months the rich society woman studied. thought and wrought with her hands eight hours each day. There is no other way for her or for anybody to work out a problem. When in Europe Miss Pendleton had previously visited and taken notes of the famous dye ing establishments in France There she began to work out her problem in the former hennery near Washington
 That is where she was. What she was doing appears in the shape of a remarkable exhibit in the Building of Varied Industries at the St. Louis fair. that at once attracts the eye by the lustrous appearance of the skeins of colored yarn that are inside of 1t. The woolen skeins have such a shine upon them that passersby stop to ask wheth- CT they are wool or silk. In that ques- tion lies the heart of one discovery in connection with the dyeing of wool en goods.
 The thing Miss Pendleton sought to do when she shut herself up in her laboratory outside of Washington was unfading colors which make the old French tapestries worth their weight in gold. If not that, then the experi- menter hoped at least to find the secret of making other pure dyes, also unfad- ing. To her unspeakabIe delight. she not only achieved what she believes to