Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-26
SOURCE OF OUR LINEN
Famous Mills of DunfermIine
the Greatest in Scotland.
LOW WAGES, LONG HOURS
Operatives Better OFF Than Those
Upon the Continent.
HAND WEAvERS WERE BEST
Romantic Chapter in the Life of
Robert The Bruce, King
Of Scotland.
HAND WEAVERS WERE BEST
BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.


which absorb the employment Of nearly
all the young women in town and a great
many of the men. Hand waving and
household weaving are obsolete. All the
work Is now done in the factories by labor
saving machinery. The hours seem long
and the wages small compared with those
Of factory operatives in the United States.
They work here fifty-five and a half
hours a week, ten hours a day. five days
in the week and five and a half hours on
Saturday They begin at 6 o'clock in the
morning, with an hours rest for break
fast between and ~. an hours rest for
lunch between and ) and the machinery
stops at 8. An act of parliament COM
pels all the operatives to clear out from
the mills during the resting hours, in
order to have the benefit of a cnange of
air and exercise. They are not allowed
to even eat their luncheon in the fac
tories.
Wages Paid Operatives.
The men are paid from 81 to 35 shillings
a week. according to, their jobs and eff
cheney. The women are paid from IL to
"a shillings a week-the younger ones
from II to IA and the older ones % and
"a shillings. The latter price is the maxi
mum for women, as 35 is the maximum
for men. The United States takes TO per
cent of the output. and all the principal
mills have permanent agencies in the
United States. Mr.. George Riggs. agent
of Henry Reid & Son in New lork, Is
the husband Of Kate Douglas W1ggin,
who wrote "Penelope's Progress" "Pene-
lope's Experiences in Ireland" and other
witty and charming travel stories.
Mr.. John Fisher. managing partner or
that house here, tells me that the credit
of introducing damask weaving into
Dunfermline Is due to James Blake, a
man of ingenuity, courage and enterprise,
| who disguised himself and pretended to
be of weak intellect until he contrived to
| find his way into weaver's sop.
To crafty his curiosity about SO strange
a feat of machinery as loom appeared
to be- he was permitted to examine IT.
and, having remarkable memory and a
| thorough knowledge of mechanism, he
| learned the secret, which he reduced tc
successful practice upon his return to
Dunfermline and established the first
| weaving shop in the old tower Of the
ruined abbey. There is still in existence
| napkin woven by him with the date
| January 30, 1919, the same day on which
King Charles I, native of Dunfermline
| was beheaded in London. Woven into
| the napkin Is a Latin motto which Is
| translated l Follow Fortune and the
Cause"
Hand Workers Hated Machines.
Old-fashioned looms were used until the
year 1925, when the jacquard machines
invented by a weaver Of Lyons. France
were introduced. Jacquard was originally
an obscure straw-hat weaver, who saw In
a newspaper an offer Of the British So.
ciety of Arts to any man who would pro-
duce a net by machinery. He decided tc
| undertake the construction of such a ma
chine. but the opposition to mechanical
inventions which competed with hand la
| Dor was so intense that when his purpose
| was discovered he was several times ex
posed to assassination. and his first ma
| chine was broken up in the public plaza
| by the order and in the presence of the
city authorities Of Lyons. He was obliged
| to flee and hide himself from the ven
geance Of the weavers of that city. Blu
| he not only lived to see himself fully re-
stored to the confidence and esteem o.
| his fellow-citzens, but his invention
brought so much prosperity to them tina
! they voted him pension of thousand
gion of Honor and a statue was erected
| to his memory.
A Very Bad Year Was 1907.
eve have had very bad year." con-
tinued MA Fisher, land trade has
| dropped at least 90 per cent but is pick
| ing up a little now. We did not shut
| down, but shortened hours. in order to
keep our operatives together and give
| them something to live on, because few
of them have anything laid away, and we
| feel under obligations to take care of
| them The linen mills are the only
| places where people can get employ
| ment in Dunfermline except In the coal
| mines which surround the town. Some
women from the miners families come
| =, ,,@g1-c hut
competent operatives as the daughters
| of generations of weavers. who, as the
| saying is were born with hank of yarn
in their hands. The influence Of heredity
| comes out strong in handling looms. In
| some Of the mills are women who have
worked there for forty seven years and
| their mothers before them. Weaving has
| been going on here for $50 years, and the
| trade has been followed by successive
| generations of the same families.
| In old times, 1t is said, the mother
| filled the pirms, the father worked on the
| looms and occasionally was assisted by
| his sons and daughters and other mem
| bers of the household until the modern
| machinery was introduced.
New Generation Wants More Pay.
Women who have been brought up in
weavers' houses are much more capable
than new blood, although the sons and
| daughters Ol tilc pEeSSHt odS orc 'ioe 81
capable as their fathers and mothers
They are more frivolous and take less
| interest in their work. They want more
pay and more play. At the same time
| they are more temperate. drink less
| whisky and save more money than thell
| ancestors as the savings banks Will
| show They are better educated, too, al
| though they are less religious and do no,
| observe the Sabbath so strictly as tnell
fathers and mothers did. Forty years
ago there would have been a riot II bi
| cycle or motor car had appeared in the
| streets OF Dunfermline Sunday, while
these days a procession OF them is com
ing and going all Sunday afternoon. anc
nobody thinks anything of 1t. The young
people spend their time in the glen anc
| in seeking other pleasures Sunday after
moons and evenings, when the previous
| generation would have been studying the
| catechisms, reading the Bible or attend
ing church and Sunday school.
Old Hand Weavers Were the Best.
1.-The old-fashioned hand weaver was
very intelligent man. He was a skillfu
machinist and could do everything to
loom. He was a thorough Bible student
a theologian, a radical in politics,
Calvinistic Presbyterian and a great de
batter. The hand looms permitted tn.
weavers to discuss things and somebod!
around the loom would always be read
| ing a paper or a book. But those condi
tions are gradually disappearing. Til,
Weavers still have debating societies ant
ho lC hat