River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-07-04

Der as a small child during the siege
of Strasbourg playing sometimes in
the sheltered garden of a brewer at
Schiltigheim, and was much pleased to
find, twenty years or more later, that
he had installed a brewery at Nancy
on a really gigantic scale. Cabbage
picked in salt, which is a national
dish of the Alsatians, is fabricated
here for the whole of Alsace and is
sent all over Europe.
Noted for Many Arts and Crafts.
Embroidery and the making of boots
and straw hats keep thousands OF
hands busy In Nancy, which central
ICES the work Of the villages and ham,
lets surrounding it. Before the war
the yearly export of boots and shoes
amounted to over $4.O0O,000, divided
among 25 manufacturers. They were
Of common variety, sewn by machine,
generally with nailed soles, and were
almost solely destined for export. But
the chief industry of Nancy is the max
ing of straw hats, which once -four
ished all over Alsace, and after our
defeats migrated to Nancy.
In the town itself, as / saw during
my late visit, most home workers are
employed at making hats, while the
large factories often employed as
many as 5000 work people-and two
thirds of these were women. This
trade, Of which Nancy has the monopo-
ly In France, has been a great loss for
Germany, especially for the Rhine and
Saar provinces, where, strangely
enough, most of the towns continue to
work for Nancy. The plaits, however,
which serve to make straw hats, are
quite an industry in themselves. In
their raw state they come chiefly
from China, and are sent to Italy and
! Switzerland for the bleaching process,
whence they are imported into France.
England, which is the chief intermedi-
airy, yearly imported half a million
| tons of plaits. But even here Nancy
was making great progress before the
war, and with groups which had
formed in Lyons and Caussade was
trying to make herself independent of
both England and Switzerland.
Straw Hat and Printing Press.
The trade of straw hats gives rise to
many others, for Nancy, after having
received the raw material, turns out
every kind of hat trimmed and ready
for export, and for this accessories of
| all kinds are needed. What struck me
most when walked through the large
workshops were thousands and thou
sands of bell-shaped hats, put one into
the other, forming immense pyramids.
| It was the Panama hat, the light,
white head cover which is so great a
favorite and almost endless in it's
wear. These hats in their primitive
| state are the product of the Bourbon
| palm or latania, and are sent by the
republic of Ecuador. The dressing of
the Panama hats is one of the great
industries of Nancy, and it is all the
more important at the present time
when our women have been compelled
to take the place of men, for this is a
light industry, well within their pow
ers.
| The printing works OF Berger-Lev-
rault form one of the most interesting
features of Nancy. They are famed
not only all through France, but may
say the world. Here is the printing
done of almost all the branches of the
French government, and the proprie-
i tors are the publishers for the minis
tries of war, finance, police and many
other departments, for which they pro-
vide millions of copies.