Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-01-01
THE LOOMS OF INDIA.
Wonderful Work That Has Been Done
By the Natives

Wonderful Work That Has Been Done
BY the Natives.
The manufacture Of cotton in India
dates back to its earliest history. There
are illusions to 1t connected with India
In the Bible. In old Sanskrit records
mention is made Of it being used in
India nearly 5000 years ago. At the
time of Alexander's invasion Of India
the dress Of the Hindoos was described
as consisting largely of calicoes, pure
white or having figures. Among the
imports into Europe during the first
century, enumerated by the elder
Pliny, muslins and calicoes from India
are described as of superior quality.
Perhaps the earliest notice Of cot
ton is by Herodotus, about $50 B. c..
who speaks of the trees Of India
bearing as their fruit fieeces more
delicate and beautiful than those Of
sheep and of the Indians using them
for the manufacture Of cloth. From
India cotton cloth was gradually in
troduced into Greece, Rome and Sic
lily before the Christian era. Cotton
awnings were used in the theatre at
the Apollinarian games, and Caesar
afterward covered the Roman forum
with them, as also the sacred way
from his own house to the Capitolian
hill, which Is said to have appeared
more wonderful than the gladiatorial
exhibition itself.
The cotton fabrics of the Hindoos
have been excelled in fineness and
excellence only by the productions
of the most perfect machines Of mod
ern times. By these people were
made the fine muslins known to the
Greeks by a name which referred to
their coming from the borders of the
Ganges.
The city of Calicut, on the Malabar
coast, which, with Surat, was an an
cient cotton mart for the supply Of
the more western nations of Asia,
gave it's name to the variety of the
fabric known as calico" Some
qualities Of these were 80 fine that
one could hardly feel them in the
hand, and the thread when spun is
scarcely discernible.' Dacca, once
considerable and wealthy CITY, ly-
ing to the northeast Of Calcutta sent
out from it's looms in the early CEN
turies those wonderful tissues of fine
muslins made from a staple too short
to be woven by any machinery. named
on account Of their fineness "Abra-
wan." or flowing water" and "Shab-
man." or evening dew"
Even after the advent of the En-
glish I'm India there is an instance re-
corded regarding the fineness of a
piece Of muslin twenty yards long
and one quarter yard wide. weighing
only fourteen ounces. With the rud-
est of implements the Hindoo women
spun those almost impalpable threads
quality have never been successfully
initiated elsewhere. With the decay
Of the native Hindoo courts the chief
customers, the demand ceased. and
the manufacture has entirely stopped.
Dacca today exhibits little more than
a ruin.
Weaving in India divides itself in
to two branches-hand loom and
power loom weaving. The propor-
ton of hand loom made cloth to pow
er loom Is fully two to one-that is,
there is about twice as much hand
loom cloth made in India as there is
power loom made cloth.
The native hand loom Is a most
primitive affair. The Indian hand
loom as 1t now is is the same as 1t
was some thirty centuries ago. The
old English fly shuttle hand loom Of
a century ago is ages In advance of
the hand loom now in general use by
the native weavers throughout India.
OF course there are a number Of fly
shuttle looms in successful use in GER
tian localities for instance those
now in the mission schools. first in
troduced by the Danish or German
Lutheran missionaries In Madras, and
though in some instances they have
met with a certain degree Of success,
yet they have not succeeded in induc-
ing the native weaver to take to the
''fy shuttle" in the same business
like way as was done in Europe and
in America in the days Of our grand
parents.
The power loom can make cloth, II
not possibly better, certainly cheaper,
than the hand loom, but on account
of the disability under which manu-
facture labors in India the power
loom is not worked to its full produc-
tive capacity.
Outside competition and advance
ment in the art of weaving will event
ually force the improvement Of the
Indian power loom weaver and with
the coming of that condition will wit
ness the beginning of the end Of the
hand loom industry. 1t is claimed by
the more conservative that 1t is per-
haps we'll that India should keep to
the hand loom, but this is the same
economic question that has so often
arisen in other and more advanced
nations. American and European
countries have had to face it before
now, and as they have solved 1t so
may India.-New York Herald.
A RAILROAD WONDER.
New Air Line Which Runs Under
ground For Many Miles.
The latest and biggest project of
David M. Moffat. the Colorado railroad