davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

seigneury was in the Arces family. one
Knight" promenaded his chivalry as far
as Scotland. where he held high office
and returned here to be buried. His life
size ef1igy, kneeing, is still visible amid
faded vestiges Of mural Painting, and it
never troubled the old lady-comfortable
rent-free squatter in the ruin.
But of a winter afternoon, while she
sewed by freight. she felt queer, as
when some person secretly has entered
the room. She looked up. Nothing. She
looked round No one. But when she
looked again she saw the kneeling
knights eyes fixed on her. She changed
her place. The eyes followed her. She
began to get dinner. The eyes lit up in
the blaze, and followed her, till she ran
out in the snow, shiver,ng. But l must
not. stay out here, and scare my grand
children. coming home from SCHOOL, she
reflected. So she resolutely went back
and pasted brown paper over the knight S
face. 1t was no use. She felt the eyes
still spying on her, peeping through 1t.
So, in panic. she scratched them out
with the scissors. The commune began
a proceeding against her for degrading
an antique monument; but desisted
when ii learned she was supporting two
children on 50 cents per day.
Machine sewers earn from 40 cents to GO
cents for full days work. Machine en-
broiderers make - cents in moderate
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

where the Comte de ST. Feriol, its pres
ent owner, receives them courteously by
deputy of his housekeeper. and permits
them to stand reVerently before the IA
nous portrait of the chevalier without
fear and without reproach, comparing its
likeness to father and big brother.
Bayard's ruined chateau is down Pont-
charra way and Bayard's mother was an
Alleman, of the family that built Urage
chateau, and the portrait. obviously of
the epoch. has never left it. Some might
think it laughable-that the glovemaking
petty farmer and his son go smooth
shaved, with the clipped mustache. the
low bang. sidelocks and back hair of
Bayard's portrait: but they do resemble
it all over. and their father. grandfather
and on, away back, claimed the de-
scent and made the pilgrimage
1t keeps them high minded, with an
amusing point of condescension-differe
indeed, from the inherited republican"
spite of Berthe's father aga INST all those
rich enough to buy his gloves. 1t is all
because of Lesdiguieres, the wicked old
constable who gave Dauphiny to Henri
", and abducted a Grenoble glover s
bride to make her his duchess.
Sure, the constable was hard man.
A While poacher stealing his trout, he
hung him. and. to warn others, caused
a fish and a mans head to be carved
on a stone of his wall. This was in
1876. Goodness knows if any Brun
was then in Vizille! But during the
French revolution the carved stone
was torn from the wall; and. later
Berthes great-grandfather picked it
up and cemented it over the home
stead doorway-possibly as symbol
of the old nobility's wickednesS. And
now the Brun family has been telling
the story so long that Berthe's father
believes the victim to heve been his
anceStor-and hates the rich, especially
Americans. "They must be race Of
robbers and exploiters, to be able to
buy such quantities Of Gloves" he ar
CUES.
I'VE farmer-glovers are happy" ex-
planned Bayard. We are only pseudo
workmen, always small landowners, farm
ers above all; and our trade of glove
making is supplementary one. Our pay
from it is not our all, but large and
acceptable addition to a farmers budget
that already could, with simple living,
balance itself
Dignity, security, peace and content
shone in their faces.
But the Grenoble city glover. exclu-
sively glover, is a proletariat torn up by
the roots" continued Bayard. Special
lied in a unique labor. he has only his
trade to live on; his salary is his only
means of existence. Even should he de-
SIRE he could not save enough money
from it to reconquer the precious little
corner of land that his grandfather aban-
doned, tempted by the city industry that
has not always kept its promises. Gre
noble workingmen have to pay at least
SO per month board and lodging. Work
may slacken, but the board runs on. 1t
is frightful to think Of"
OF course, Grenoble city workers cry
against the country competition-aS they
cry against middle-class girls and women
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

such remote centers, TO become impor-
tant, prosperous and start prosperity in
others.
Indeed, this back to the soil' move
ment IS remarkable.
There are eighty-three big and little
glove houses in Grenoble. There are
forty-fve skin brokers. There are eight
cen 'megiss-ers," preparing raw skins
Three factories, working 700 hands, make
metal preston buttons. Megiss and dy-
ers viii work for any one. And there
are nobody knows how many contractors.
All for America! No wonder little Ma
RE de Bayard worries and inquiries:
x
rs il true, monsieur. that American
house painters work i'm chamois gloves?
/ have been told So All Americans wear
gloves, even bricklayers. They have no
fingers So. also, base ballers- Ameri-
can farm iaborers prefer dogskin or colt
gloves, but they are really thick lamb.
Do they know il? Is it true that even
employees of commerce in America dis
Gain to wear cleaned gloves? 1t is
pity Real kids clean WELL"
Her brother Joined in:
Monsieur, who are the cornhuskers?
Tourists in an auto told me they af-
feet gloves with a steel piece. Where
are they made-in Naples? What is
Gloversville? Their mocha skins wer@q
W onderfully velvety."
Low pink clouds hung close above
our heads, while the jagged Sierra
across the abyss cut off the setting
sun. Cow bells were longing, far and
mellow. We heard a dog bark. three
miles below. An eagle scared through
the silent air. George started the
motor.
lis it true, monsieur, that American
ladies have become so proud OF their
beautiful hands that they refused to
wear gloves this summer? faltered
Marie Shall We feel it's repercus-
sion?" STERLING HELLO.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15
The TORPEDO Boar LArrs ON

would not have sent over her fleet. Now
the Oregon cost in the neighborhood of
S6,O00,O00. and four additional Oregons
would have cost perhaps $4,000 600. The
Spanish war cost over 500. o0.000 above
that amount. So that had those Oregons
been in commission we might have saved
the cost of that war and have still had
our investment intact. One of the great
est advantages of a strong navy is that
1t prevents the other fellow attacking
you. strong navy insures peace and
therefore we must have the strongest"
Does it pay to have anything else?"
\
NO. Small ships are like the Lilipu-
tians against an army of Guliivers. They
are like one petty policeman against a
mob of toughs. 1t is the strong man who
is not attacked. OF course we must have
auxiliaries and scouts and destroyers,
too"
Give me some idea of our big guns?'
This is the day of the big gun, and
of the all-big-gun battleship We have
now twelve-inch guns and are about 10
make some of fourteen inches. a four
teen-inch gun uses a proJectile weigh
ing 1 400 pounds. It's bore is so big that
a good sized man could easily crawl
into it
Are other nations building such guns"
Yes. all the great European powers
and Japan are making big guns: The
British navy. has guns which are thirteen
and a half inches.
How do our ships compare with those
of the other great powers?
"Ship for ship. they are as good. In
number and armament Great Britain
leads. We are how second and in a Few
months we will be third. Germany has
a. number of great battleships under way,
and her navy will soon be superior TO
ours"
How many ships have We in our
heet?''
1--WE have twenty-one vessels of the
first line. and they are of the highest
degree of efficiency. We do not have
them scattered as they were in the past
They are now massed as divisions, OF
which there are four. They are known
as divisions and not as single vessels.
What is the f1eet?
1T is composed of these twenty-one
battleshps. One of these Is Tor the
commander-in-chiefa and the other twenty
are in four divisions of five ships each.
We expect to keep four ships or each
division in active commission, and the
fifth will be at the navy yard for over
hauling. a..
But is this fleet large enough"
1--WE think So >,
put suppose, Mr.. Secretary. you could
have a navy regardless of cost suppose
YOU were Aladdin and by rubbing the
lamp could call upon certain gem TO
sreate a navy for you in night Mhat
would YOU order SO as to make an apso-
lutely sure and safe protection for the
United States!
you mean without regard to Con-
gress, without regard to cost and Tor
the sole protection of our country and the
prevention of war;
Yes" said /, that is just what j
mean"
We'll. in that case l would have two
fleets like the one we have now. One OF
these would be for the Atlantic and the
other for the Pacific. l don't think there
would be any danger of any power upon
earth attacking us then. That Wouid
insure peace for all time to come.
"Can YOU tell me something of the
changes you have made as to the reor-
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15
Our Commercial Age.

Joseph MITCHELL CIIAPPLE, the
J magazine editor Of Boston. said in an
eloquent after-dinner speech In Houghton:
This is a commercial age. We try to
make our magazines artistic, but, IL We
make them too artistic they become less
valuable 1t is like poor Whistler. :.
when Whistler was living in the Latin
quarter in his youth a friend took him
to task one day for his idleness.
".Why don't you pitch in and paint
something?' said the friend. Pretty soon
your money will be all gone. and those
three rolls of canvas will still be standing
empty there behind the door, just as
they've been standing for the last six
weeks
whistler, as he lay on the bed snok-
ing his pipe. answered lazily:
But. you see, as long as there's moth
ing on the canvas / can sell it.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

the finest exhibition of scientific manage
ment they have ever seen. For instance,
take our craftsmanship At the battle
of Santiago, out of every 100 shots fired,
only three and one-half hit the mark.
Now. out of every hundred shots fired
thirty-three and one-half are effective. AT
Santiago it took five minutes to each
shot Now we can fire one shot every
thirty seconds and keep it up. The range
then was 1900 yards, or much less than
two miles. Now it is 10000 yards al
most six miles. In short, our present eff
ficiency in gun firing is 1870 times better
than it at the battle of Santiago
This has come from competition in gun
merry among the gun crews, and from
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

tanning. We have on each vessel of
war a foundry, and are able to make
ordinary repairs. 1t is only for serious
repairs that the ships have to go to the
yards"
What kind of ships should we have?"
1.-The most powerful. We want the big
gest ships and the biggest guns. One
volley from a single one of the American
battle fleet lately returned from Europe
would, it is said, had it been in the
hands of the Confederacy, been able to
destroy the whole northern navy. Ii
we had had four additional battleships
similar to the Oregon on the Atlantic, at
the time the Spanish-American war
began, we would have had no war. Spain
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

the training and developing of the indi-
vidual and the teams. In modern war
fare the battle efficiency Of any ship is
her ability to deliver the greatest number
of hits in the shortest possible time with
the least expenditure of ammunition,
after the enemy is sighted. Indeed, our
hitting efficiency is now the equal, if not
the superior, of that of any navy of the
world
What is the secret of a successful
navy?"
The fleet was the emphatic reply.
THE fleet is the navy and the navy the
fleet. The navy yards are merely the
adjuncts, the repair shops for the fleet.
We are trying to make the fleet self-sus-
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

drich. whether the money is properly han
died may mean Il saving or loss of more
than million dollars day
Take, for instance. the United States
Navy. with whose chief I have just hat
a long talk Its expenditures dur
ing the past five years have been upward
of ten million dollars a month. more
than one hundred and twenty million dol
lars year. 1t is building battleships
which cost eight or ten million dollars
apiece. and its schemes of potential war
fare afoat necessitate the employment
and handling of more than fifty thousand
men.
Such a department needs a good bust
ness man at it's head. and that, ii is be
Iieved we have i'm Secretary Meyer. Born
of a Boston family which was largely in
terested i'm business. he was educated in
the Boston schools. and after graduating
from Harvard began a business career
His first employment was outside his
relatives. He wanted to start at the bot
tom and make his own way without fear
or favor: and he did this so we'll that in
the course of two years he was able to
take a place in his fathers business and
hold his own
To show something of Secretary Meyers
the Provident Institution for Savings. a
director of the Old Colony Trust Com
pany and also of the United Electric Sc
curities Company. All these are of BoS-
ton. He Is also a director of the Amos
keaS cotton mills at Manchester, \. H,
one of the largest institutions of the kind
in the world and he has other business
interests of many kinds. He has learned
by personal experience how great cor
porations and factories are managed. and
also how to handle men and money SO as
to bring forth results 1t is this ability
which forms the keynote of his work in
the navy. and it is this business sense
which will be found running through the
conversation which follows
1t was by appointment that l met the
Secretary in his home facing Scott Circle
and our talk was more in the shape OF a
chat between business men than cut
and dried interview. The Secretary mas
the navy on the end of his tongue and
he overf1ows with ideas respecting 1t and
how it may be improved.
Ny first question was as to what
Uncle Sans navy is doing for his Ameri-
can children. The Secretary replied:
The navy is doing great deal for
Uncle Sans children. 1t is not only
building ships TO protect them, but
through its organization and training 1T Is
doing much to build men and American
patriots. About twenty years ago large
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

passes through the hands of seventy diff
ferent workers. factory economy mill
tates against their quality. Indeed, the
system as applied to all the processes
of the cut from thinning and equaliz-
ing the perfected skin to cutting form
ing and assembling the gloves parts. has
Iaiied IN france, except at Chaumont and
Millau-headquarters of the cheaper
lamb-kid product. destined TO Paris and
France in general Naples gloves are
the type of the system" 1t permits
part of the cutting TO be done by less
expensive hands. But in GrenobIe the
workman glover is allowed to do all his
trade. knowing the skin and keeping
the glove under his hands until ii is
ready for embroidery and sewing.
Regularly the workman-glover takes
the work home, the sign and mark of
Grenoble personality Often he is
helped by his wife. who is taught to cut
and form the forks between the fingers.
The only apprentice he is allowed TO take
is his own son. This is a peremptory
trade union law.
So throughout jealous specialties
abound There is the recent case of a
Grenoble bride who sold her hair to
bride her young husbands clandestne
instruction in sorting in white No
school or apprenticeship of the art ex
ists-the estimation of perfected skins
ready for dyeing. In small Grenoble
houses-they are legion-the proprietor
does il himself, at his own risk; and the
larger houses, up to the great interna-
tiOnals, pay their sorters from $40 TO S100
per month. which means double in Amer
lea. For a young man to learn the art
he must pick il up. in profound secret,
from a really intimate personal friend
The only machinery is the sewing ma
chine. but it has not altogether con-
quered. The embroidered backs of high
grade gloves are done by hand-connois-
seurs recognize their human and per
sonar look, which the machine cannot
give. And. in long, lonely. mountain
days. fine-finsered Old women. like
Mother Blind-Eyes. still set down the
ancient mechanism which George
Washington'S gloves were sewed in
Grenoble-clip the work IN, and pa
tiently pass the needle through the fine
absolutely first-class article" it's per-
feet regularity
All such so-called machines are mere
tools-like the 'etavillonnageur" whose
object is to place the cut skin on a
form figuring the hand and the fork
ing that follows to consolidate and fit
for sewing
All handwork-aH for America.
No wonder that the girls of St Martin
de uriage imagine that ALI Americans
are rich and elegant
X
Grenoble produces annually 1880. 900
pairs of kid gloves. OF course all do
not go 10 the United States. Canada and
south America buy heavily. as do Eng
land, Russia and Spain. But it Is typi-
cal that Grenoble workers know only
America.
When George Washington ordered
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

day. And so to buttonholers and sewers
earning some 20 and 16 cents, respectively
or even more. You see, the whole family is
at it. Father and brother may be work
men-glovers earning so cents each
the full day Everything is paid by the
dozen pairs.
We. the luckiest. do not work full
days" explained the modern Bayard."
who also cultivates tiny farm on the
edge of Beauvoir ruins. have mentioned
the Grenoble dyer who claims descent
from the Reveis and has bought the
ruined walls of that extinct great family.
Without floors or roof, nine tenths of the
masonry crumbled. Revel has been unin-
habitable these 200 years back But
the aspiring artisan has repaired an
ancient farmhouse adjoining, put in
country family to work his half dozen
acres-and sends his family to live with
them. gratis. in summer. Not a bad COM
b nation-and he Seigneur of Reveli
Pathetic, holy aspirations! In a land
like France, whose nobility has given out
in shiftlesSness these mountain peasants
revere their ancestors! Perhaps the de-
scent. is real The learned parish priest
of Castellane-Boni's baliwick-told me
that he has discovered nine peasant
farmers whose ancestors were great
mobiles before the year 1000.
The family of the modern Bayard"
believe implicitly. Small farmers, work
ing at elovemaking off and on, they make
yearly pilgrimage to Criage chateau,
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

who take in secret buttonholing or en-
broidery for pocket money inns scat
tered nature of the trade causes even the
great international houses to give their
work out far and wide.
:. ::
Some are, in a way. manufacturers.
They have beautiful great stone build
ings, with pillars and porticoes, like man.
sons, quiet and dignifed. Inside You see
numbers of workers. male and female
To impress visitors. they like to nave
animated cutting halls. And for rush or
ders, etc, they try to keep shift or cut
tiers on the spot.
Their great establishments are busy.
SURPRISING the skin broker and me
giss" they buy direct and prepare their
own white skins. SURPRISING the
glove broker, they sell direct TO the great
department stores.
Skins are sorted, marked and sent to
the dyer. Skins return from the oyer ana
are handed over in dozens to the WORK
men-glovers. There are halls full OF girls
chattering over vast tables piled with
hands and thumbs and men repassers
going over them, verifying, studying, rub
hing. brushing, fitting fnser-forhs, ETC.
are halls full of finished gloves;
Girls and women sort, stamp, dress
yerifv and pack at all kinds of little sal
aries from II cents per day up. Black
gloves. for instance, being dyed on the
outside only, and sewed with white
thread, deft fingers have to touch them
m with a secret. instantly drying dye. at
% cents per day. ,,o,.
Rut the real glove making-do not look
for IL in the establishment FOR h. 81
grade goods. their contre-maltreS d. 49,
70 81 200 per year run about Grenopie,
in and out queer houses. keeping mo-.
nandent workmen glovers on their dozens
and not in the bowling green. an lnde-
nendent lot, content, at piece WORK. WIN
60 cents or $1.25 per day. Other contre,
maitres at $40 per month chase ROUND
the suburbs in automobiles, in and out
among the choicer sewing women, verl-
fying, criticising, calculating.
10 Won want cheap kid gloves? They
are not quite the same product. Even
great American importers-anxious to
delight the public with special bargains
NAV go wandering toward Naples or
Prague. The extraordinary values which
our tourists pick up in Paris are of imi-
tation kid. from lambskin. I refer here
only to Grenoble bargain lots. real kids,
all handmade. A Grenoble workman can
not get decent board and lodging for
less than 81 or $12 per month. You
see? To scale down the selling price
Grenoble importer may deal with con-
tractors.
These contractors scour all Dauphiny,
over lone mountain roads, rent sewing
machines or even loan them gratis, fetch
up loads of material to isolated farms
and villages. give three months time to
finish it, and even settle town-disgusted
-glovers and their families in
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

OOk at your gloves.
IL they are suedes
of ia s h o n a b ! e
sweet ere "A m -
tint. unmistakable
inimitable, I n e Y
were dyed under
lock and key in
the private shed of
a slouchy, happy
go-lucky old Gre
noble artisan who
loafs with his
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

paid wOrkmen the cafe, and then rises.
saying: You boys stay till i send for
YOU
Alone in the disorderly dyehouse. amid
piles of roots. barks, logs. sticks, dried
plants. pastes and barrels of fundamental
liquids. the old fellow mixes and doses
FEELING his way TO an exclusive" tint
through old processes and antique for
nulas that demand consummate art and
experience rather than the least glimmer
or industrial chemistry. Only when he
mas perfected his secret bath of five vege-
table colors does he send for the com
panions' TO get to work on the soft
white skins" that have already gone
through SO many processes-before the
oSenouse dancer begins 1eading them
bare legged. in pure tepid mountain wa
Ter. to purge and supple them for color
only one of all the great international
eioVehouses OF Grenoble has its own dye
ing establishment. with scientific chemist
modern laboratory and mechanical din
pers and brushes: and to realize the
sweet cream shade they too were
forced. exactly like the others, to send
rule-of-thumb inventor of it What pure
fair tintS come out of the ramshackle
shed with its dirt floor,
1t was the same with the first complete
imitation of the American mocha" kid.
when for long the world-famed houses
hurried their skins 10 patron einturier
Revel, uneducated artisan with stained
hands, but proud and silent who imag-
ines himself lineal descendant of Hughes
de Revel, grand master of Malta in 1850
and has actually bought Cheap the ru-
ined medieval pile of his ancestors. -
without floors or roof, high above Do
meme as you shall see.
And IL is the same all through the
making of Grenoble gloves-highest
priced, exclusive product of European
hand labor and the chevreau, young
mountain goat c'chevre'). made. above
all. for America.
Neither modern science nor system can
help them.
2They cannot profit by machinery.
fAnd, although a single glove often
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

T is good to have
business men at
the head of Uncle
Sans great insti-
tutionS. This is
especially so of the
government de-
partments. Our ma
tional expenditures
are now about Il
billion dollars Il
year. and. accord
ing to Senator AL