The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-10

over to carpet weaving and to chair
Gaming. A blind man sat at his loom
the other day. The shuttles shot
swiftly back and forth, the loom clat-
tered and at the rate of nearly two
yards an hour the carpet grew. In
explanation Of his work the blind man
said:
They Are Dexterous.
"The warp, composed Of hundreds Of
the front of the loom. The warp
threads are those that run lengthwise
through the carpet, and each of them,
before I begin to weave, must be pass
ed through certain little guiding eye
let's and compartments that are called
heddles and reeds. To pass each thread
through its respective reed and heddIe
correctly is the hardest part of my
work.
1.-The shuttles contain the shorter
threads that run crosswise through the
carpet. 1 am using three shuttles one
of white, one of red and one of green
Each shuttle must go back and forth a
certain number of times, then come out
and give place to another shuttle. The
white runs six times, the red four and
the green five. 1 keep my shuttIes in
that box behind me. How do [ tell
colOrs? Oh, by their location in the
box. The white is in the box's right
compartment, the green in the middle
and the red in the left.
Every little while you'll notice that
l run my hand across all the threads Of
the warp and wool. I do that in order
to detect broken threads. When 1 find
fracture I must gather up the two
ends and knot them together neatly.
This is a difficult thing for blind man
to do.
'To learn to weave requires three
months. To learn to be a fast weaver
requires year. A weaver of average
speed turns out a yard and half of
carpet an hour. His rate of pay is 10
cents an hour. Thus he earns $3.50 a
day, or SO a week"
In room farther on were the chair
Gamers. Their chairs were screwed
tight upon stands, and leaning over
these stands they plated the straw in
neat patterns across the seats with
great speed. The work was simple;
they said it could be learned in a day.
Speed the Desideratum.
But to get the speed, that is the
thing" blind man added. ct takes a
long time to get speed enough to cane
two chairs day. The pay is so cents
chair. 1 average 81 a week."
The main business of the factory is
broom making. Guided only little by
one or two men with sight, the blind
employees sort out broom corn. Accord
ing to its length and quality; they dive
1t green. they cut it upon machines.
they fasten and clamp and sew it on
wooden handles, they trim and pack in
bundles the completed brooms. To see
them at their work it is marvel. thew
are so quick and sure of hand. and in
the great room where they stand in
long rows, each at his machine. thew
have so singular an air of happiness.
the big, clean place, full of wholesome
odor of California broom corn. resornd-
ing always with laughter, with CAV
voices and with singing that is very
true and musical
Six Of the men at the factory are
like Helen Keller, deaf, dumb and
blind. Nevertheless, they work well,
though they are little slow The over
| seer to talk to one Of them gives him
his hand, and while the man holds fine
hand delicately in both of his own. the
| overseer spells in the deaf mute alpha
bet the words that he wishes to saw.
A number of the men are good mn
sfcians. They have comets. violins
mandolins. The janitor of the factory
John Boone, tells Of one of them an al
most incredible anecdote
Il will take a new piece of music "
says the janitor, "and I'll read II ia
this blind man from beginning to end.
c, A, ID, B-sharp, E-sharp, r. q. a.
and so on. When am through he will
put his fiddle to his chin and Dlav the
piece without q mistake"