Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-03-18
ABOUT COTTON.
Has Figured Throughout the History
of Civilization.

of Civilization.
Few things take one around the
world and back again." more thorough
ly or more incontinently transport one
to the remotest bounds Of history than
cotton. It Is indeed, like its feathery
self, a regular will-o' -the-wisp. The
historian cannot hold 1t. Its story Is
full of surmises and surprises. Its
entry into the life of people Is never
dated All that can be said is that 1t
first finds mention in such and such
year, but that the cotton fabric, how
ever woven and however fashioned,
may have been in use many years be-
fore that time.
That the fifth century B. c. cotton
fabrics were unknown or quite un-
common in Europe may be inferred
| from Herodotus' mention of the cotton
clothing of the Indians" So one his
torian, reaching out for something de-
finite, begins his story, and straight
way, bridging whole centuries in few
words he raises the curtain again when
the cotton industry is "flourishing in
Spain" in the middle of the thirteenth
century. Then comes the collapse Of
the Spanish power before the Noors
in the fourteenth century, and behold
the Spanish craft transferred to the
Netherlands. Here the historian,
eager to trace the cotton industry to
| it's present great world center, the
northwest of England, is reduced to
surmises once again. 1t Is surmised
that cotton manufacture was carried
from the Netherlands to England by
refugees during the Spanish persecu-
ton of the second half Of the six
teenth century.
But there is no absolute proof Of this
Workers in cotton may have been
amongst the Flemish weavers who fed
to England about that time, and some
of them are even said to have settled
| in and about Manchester, but, again,
proof is lacking.
At last, however, the historian comes
| to his first certain mention" and this
occurs in a petition to the Earl of Sal
isbury, about the year 1910, asking for
the continuance Of a grant for reform
| ing frauds committed in the manu-
facture of "bombazine cotton such as
groweth in the land Of Persia being
no kind Of wool" Then, finally, IN
another petition, dated some ten years
later, the trade is traced to where II
belongs so specially today, and thence
onward the historian has no more diff
ficulties. About twenty years past,
this petition declares, divers people
| in this kingdom, but chiefly IN the
county Of Lancaster, have found out
the trade Of making Of other fustians'
made of q kind Of bombast or down.
being-a q fruit Of the earth growing up
on little shrubs or bushes, brought in
to this kingdom by the Turkey mer-
chants, from Smyrna, Cyprus, Area
and Sydon, but commonly called cot
ton wool" Today, three hundred years
later, this fruit Of the earth growing
upon little shrubs and bushes" ranks
after grain, as the most important OF
the worlds crops, and wherever one
goes in the great cotton belt, the world
round, one finds the cotton field, from
Dixie to China and from China to the
banks Of the Nile.
| Meanwhile the divers people in the
coty of Lancaster" have grown into
great host, gathered into towns and
villages, covering a whole countryside
and sending forth Manchester goods
the utmost bounds Of the world. The
history of the Lancashire cotton trade
from which the modern cotton trace
/ everywhere springs is Of course one OF
the great romances of industry. The
story of Lewis Paul and John Wyatt
and of James Hargreaves and Samuel
Crompton, of Thomas Highs, Ark
wright, and John Kay carry one PACK
| to the very beginnings Of modern in
i dustrial England, whilst in and out
back and forth, runs the strange
spinner out into the hills and dales'
and, later on, the steam engine bring
ing him back again into the towns;
and now, today, the establishment OF
great central power stations through
out the land, holding out possibilities
of the cotton operatives taking to the
country once again.-Christian Science
Monitor.
355' The manor the natlon-tnal -
Glow starting to fight Is often slower