The story of textiles; a bird's-eye view of the history of the beginning and the growth of the industry by which mankind is clothed

Foreword

As clothing has from time immemorial been one of man's necessities and almost as essential to his welfare as food, it is not surprising that the textile industry has long in value of output been second only to the production of foodstuffs. Important, however, as the industry is, its history, so far as the writer knows, has never, at least in America, been published. Aside from its importance the industry possesses much of interest not only for the student, but also for the man of affairs. Different branches of the industry, such as wool, silk, cotton, and linen, have been treated separately, but nothing has been written about the origin and growth of the industry as a whole.

This book, of which some explanation is necessary, is an effort to fill this gap. Although a complete history of the industry has not been the aim of the writer nor the desire of the publisher, the purpose has been to present to those interested in the textile industry a bird's-eye view of the leading facts which have marked the progress of the industry up to the firm establishment of the manufacture of textiles on American soil, together with such intervening facts as are necessary to give one a comprehensive view of the subject.

The book deals largely with the development in England and America, because in these two countries originated the inventions that have brought the industry to its present efficiency, and in them also was evolved the factory system

4 FOREWORD

which has so greatly revolutionized social life in England and America.

All of the facts have been verified by careful investigation, some of which has gone back to original sources. As far as it goes, this brief history endeavors to be authoritative and comprehensive. Much attention is given to the American development, particularly that relating to the cotton industry.

To cover the subject as it deserves would require more space than could be contained in a single volume. And, while a more complete history might be more interesting to the student, it would be less so to the textile man for whom this has been primarily written, because of the necessary introduction of a mass of minor details that would be too tedious for him to peruse. The writer hopes that the man interested in the textile business, whether he be a manufacturer or a clerk behind the counter, may obtain from these pages a clear view of the development of America's leading industry, without having to give the subject the time that a fuller narrative would require.

Mr. John S. Lawrence, for whom this book has been prepared and by whom it is published, is a partner of the firm of Lawrence & Co., one of the largest commission houses for the distribution of textile products in America. Many of its former members have filled important places in the establishment of the industry in the great textile centres of America.

The writer desires to acknowledge the courtesy shown in facilitating the preparation of this book by C. J. H. Woodbury, Sc.D., secretary of the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers; L. W. Jenkins, Curator of Ethnology, Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass.; W. P. Wilson, Sc.D., Director Commercial Museum, Philadelphia; Miss

/37

FOREWORD 5

S. G. Flint, of the Textile Department of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.; and also to acknowledge his indebtedness to the following authorities: "Silk Industry in America," by L. P. Brockett; "Manual of Power," by Samuel Webber; "Loom and Spindle," by Mrs. Harriet Hanson Robinson; "Illustrated History of Lowell," by Charles Cowley; "Introduction of the Power Loom and Origin of Lowell," by Nathan Appleton; "Draper's Dictionary," by W. Beck; "The American Cotton Industry," by T. M. Young; "Introduction and Early Progress of the Cotton Manufacture in the United States," by Samuel Batchelder; "The Textile Industries of the United States," by William R. Bagnall; "History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain," by Edward Baines; "Fabrilla: A Substitute for Cotton," by Stephen Merrill Allen; "Historical Sketch of the Town of Pawtucket," by Rev. Massena Goodrich; "The First Cotton Mill in America" (in Essex Institute Historical Collections), by Robert S. Rantoul; "A Compendious History of the Cotton Manufacture," by Richard Guest; "History of Lynn," by A. Lewis and J. R. Newhall; "Economic and Social History of New England," by William B. Weeden; "Lancashire Worthies," by Francis Espinasse; "Brief Biographies of Inventors of Machines for Textile Fabrics," by Bennet Woodcroft; "Life and Times of Samuel Crompton," by G. J. French; "Memoir of Cartwright," by his daughter; "History of Lawrence," compiled by H. A. Wadsworth; "Annals of Providence," by William R. Staples; "History of New Bedford," by Leonard Bolles Ellis; "History of Manchester," by Maurice D. Clarke; "The Cotton Industry," by W. B. Hammond; "The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain," by Andrew Ure; "Memoir of Patrick Tracy Jackson," by John A. Lowell; "Memoir of Samuel Slater,"

6 FOREWORD

by George S. White; "Memoir of Eli Whitney," by Denison Olmstead; "The Factory," by Jonathan Thayer Lincoln; "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the End of the Century," by Edward Field; "History of Philadelphia," by Scharf and Westcott; Chambers's "Book of Days"; "A Comprehensive History of the Woolen and Worsted Manufactures," by James Bischoff; and "History of Manufactures," by Bishop; also "The Report of the Tariff Board on Schedule K" and articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Universal Encyclopaedia, Encyclopaedia Americana, the Textile Manufacturers' Journal, the Textile World Record, the Fall River Herald, the Fall River News, and the various census reports relating to linen, wool, cotton, and silk.

Thanks are also due The Macmillan Company and the Houghton Mifflin Company for permission to use reproductions of illustrations from their publications ; also to Job L. Spencer for the illustration of the Old Slater Mill, from a sketch by his son; to the Rhode Island Historical Society for the courtesy extended in securing the portrait of Moses Brown; to the New Haven Colony Historical Society for the portrait of Eli Whitney; and for the facilities extended in the preparation of this work by The Commercial Museum, Philadelphia; A. H. Baldwin, Chief of the Bureau of the Department of Commerce and Labor, Washington, D.C.; Dr. F. H. Bowman, of Manchester, England; Miss Henrietta C. Cattanach; Miss N. L. Kingman; George R. King; Chicopee Manufacturing Company, Chicopee Falls, Mass.; the Draper Company, Hopedale, Mass.; and to Potomska Mills, New Bedford, Mass.

CHAPTER I Beginning of Textiles 13

Prehistoric Evidences of the Art — Textile Industry among the Ancients — Early Existence in North and South America — The West's Textile Indebtedness to the East.

CHAPTER II Flax, Linen, Wool, Cotton, and Silk 24

Flax and Linen — History of Linen — Production of Flax and Linen — Wool — Efforts to improve Wool — Early Use of Wool — Cotton, the Plant, Growth, and Distribution — Early History — Columbus and Cotton — Silk — Early History of Silk — Silk Industry in America.

CHAPTER III Factory System 59

Growth of the Factory System — Earliest Record of English Factory — English Names derived from Industry — Causes of the Concentration in Lancaster — Separation of Agriculture and Spinning and Weaving — Early Relationship of Employer and Employee — Inventions and the Factory System — Influence of Factory on EngKsh Social Life.

CHAPTER IV Era of Invention 71

Era of Invention — Early Improvements in Textile Machinery — John Kay — ^Paul and Wyatt — ^James Hargreaves — Richard Arkwright — Samuel Crompton — Edmund Cartwright — ^Inventions of Knitting Machines — Ipswich Mills — Joseph Marie Charles Jacquard — Machines for spinning Flax — ^James Watt — Eli Whitney — ^Improvements of the Basic Machines, and Further Inventions — ^Bleaching — ^Dyeing — Printing — Mercerizing Process.

8 CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER V American Industry before the Revolution 122

American Industry — Earliest Traces of the Industry — ^Fostering Legislation — First Cloth made and First Mill erected at Rowley — Slave TraflSe and Importations — English Efforts to hamper the Industry — First Worsted Mill — Skill attained in Textile Work — Bounties and Monopolies to stimulate the Industry — The Spinning Craze — ^Approach of the Revolution — Improvements in English Textile Machinery — Condition of the Market immediately after the Revolution — American Effort to secure English Machines — ^England and Cotton — Starting of Cotton Cultivation in the South — Origin of Sea Island Cotton and Beginning of its Cultivation in the South.

CHAPTER VI American Industry after the Revolution and before

Slater 148

First Manufacturing in Pennsylvania — First Cotton MiU in New England — First Textile Trade-mark — First Textile Advertising — ^Boston Sail Cloth Factory — Commencement of the Cotton Industry in Rhode Island — First Woolen Mill — Washington inaugurated in Suit of Domestic Woolen — ^First Woolen Mill operated with Power Machinery.

CHAPTER Vn

Era of Samuel Slater 168

Slater's Arrival in America — Goes to Providence — Starts First Cotton Mill with Arkwright's Machines in America — Payment and Discipline of Employees — Starts his Second Mill; the First with Arkwright Machinery in Massachusetts — First Commission Houses — Shepard starts Mill at Wrentham — Other Mills start — Whittenton Cotton Mills — Start of the Industry in Connecticut — Spread of Industry through Influence of Slater — Gilmore's Loom — ^Beginning of Power Woolen Mills in Rhode Island — Southern Development.

CONTENTS 9

PAGE

CHAPTER VIII Era of Lowell, Appleton, Moody, Jackson, and Boott, 192

First Complete Cotton Mill in the World — Lowell visits English, Mills — Organization of the Boston Manufacturing Company — Care of Employees — Sale of Goods — Waltham versus Rhode Island System of Manufacturing — The Foundation of the City of Lowell and the Starting of the Merrimac Manufacturing Company — Naming of Lowell — Starting of First Mills.

CHAPTER IX Other Textile Centres 210

Philadelphia the Greatest Textile-producing City of America — Silk Industry in Philadelphia — Development of the Woolen Industry — Textile Machinery — Carpet Industry — Later Growth — Foundation of Lawrence — Beginning of Fall River —Colonel Durfee's MiU— The Troy and Fall River MiUs— Early Looms, Work, and Wages — Other Companies — Providence — ^Paterson, N.J. — New Bedford — Manchester — Amoskeag lays out a Town — New York — Amsterdam — Woonsocket, R.I. — Conclusion.

Index 253

Errata 275

ILLUSTRATIONS

American Indian Weaving Frontispiece ^

Facing Page

Warrior of Gilbert Islands, South Pacific Ocean . . 13 '^ Greek and Roman Method of Spinning and Weaving . 16'^ Navajo Woman making Yarn of Native Wool .... ^0*^ Specimens of North Dakota Grown Russian Seed-flax; Cutting Hemp 24*^

Linen Mummy Cloths 28"^

Egyptian Tunic; Peruvian Tunic 32"^

The Cotton Plant 36*^

Fabrics Woven by the Bakuba Tribe 40*^

The Eggs, Caterpillar, Cocoons and Moth of the

Silkworm 44

Enlarged Reproductions of Textile Fibres 48*^

Japanese Spinning and Weaving 52*^

The Mule 56*^

Ancient Egyptians Spinning and Weaving 60^

Bowing of Cotton, as practised in India and China; A Hindu Woman spinning Cotton Yarn on the

Primitive Wheel of India 64*^

Domestic Flax Wheel; Hindu Spinning and Weaving, 68 '^

Hindu Weaver at his Loom 72'

John Kay 76*"

Sir Richard Arkwright SO'"

Samuel Crompton 84"^

Dr. Edmund Cartwright ' 88"

Cartwright's Loom 92

Amos A. Lawrence 96

12 ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing Page

Eli Whitney 100''

Distaff Spinning 106'''

Handicraft Carding, Roving, and Spinning by the

Hand Wheel 112^

Peg Warping 118"'

Warping 124^

The Loom that preceded the Power Loom ISO''

High's Jenny 136^

The Improved Jenny 142^

A Handicraft Weaver at her Loom 148"

Arkwright's Original Water Frame with the Specifications ON the Original Patent Papers taken

OUT by him on July 15, 1769 154^

The Old Slater Mill, Pawtucket, R. 1 160'''

Carding, Drawing, and Roving as it was in Samuel

Slater's Early Mills 166^

Samuel Slater 172"^'

Moses Brown 178"''

Washington's Visit to the First Cotton Mill at

Francis C. Lowell 190'

Nathan Appleton 196

P. T. Jackson 202

A Modern Mule Spinning-room 208 '^

Samuel Wetherill 214"^

Abbott Lawrence 220'

Interior View of a Modern Ring Spinning-Mill . . . 226

Amos Lawrence 232

Interior View op a Modern Weave-room 238

Modern Automatic Northrop Looms 244

WARRIOR OF THE GILBERT ISLANDS, SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN

(From an Exhibit in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass.)

His armor is woven of cocoanut fibre, and is a protection against the native weapons which are edged with swords' teeth. The mat at his back is a protection against stones thrown at the enemy by the warrior's wife, who follows in the rear. This shows a most primitive form of weaving.

Chapter I Beginning Of Textiles

PREHISTORIC EVIDENCES OP THE ART — TEXTILE INDUSTRY AMONG THE ANCIENTS — EARLY EXISTENCE IN NORTH AND SOUTH AMER- ICA — THE west's TEXTILE INDEBTEDNESS TO THE EAST

A bit of cloth — whether it be woolen or cotton, linen or silk — is one of the most interesting evidences of man's climb from days of savagery to twentieth-century civilization.

As one notes how finely spun and how intricately woven are the threads and how beautiful often is the design, the wonder grows that a piece of cloth can be so dexterously fashioned. And yet, as one reads of the painstaking efforts — spread over many centuries — which man has put forth to attain perfection in spinning and weaving, the wonder fades into admiration for the infinite pains he has taken to perfect the art. Civilization's pathway is strewn with the evidences of the labor to compass a mastery of the industry. Older far than recorded history is the tale of fabrics.

To find its beginning, we must go beyond the dawn of history into the darkness of prehistoric times; for, when man first began to scratch his deeds on the rocks of his dwellingplace, fabrics, more or less perfect, were being fashioned, ornamented, and dyed.

Even the archaeologist cannot fully enlighten us. No matter how deeply he may delve into the most remote past to which he can sink the plummet of his research, evidences of spinning and weaving are found among the vestiges of the rude home of prehistoric man.

PREHISTORIC EVIDENCES OF THE ART

The art was practised in the earHest Stone Age. How much farther back it was a domestic art it is impossible to learn, owing to the perishable nature of the materials from which many fabrics were fashioned. According to some authorities it may have been contemporaneous with the discovery of fire for cooking and the building of shelter. Others are sure it is older than the fashioning of domestic utensils by the art of Pottery.

It is believed that sinews and intestines of animals, strips of skin, flax, hemp, wool, the bast of the linden, and the fibre of the palm and cocoanut and other trees, and various wild grasses were used in the making of mats, baskets, nets, and rude fabrics at the dawn of the earliest era of the Stone Age, if not before, — many thousands of years before the beginning of civilization.

Evidences of the industry have also been found among prehistoric or savage races in parts of the world so widely separated that it is quite certain a knowledge of the industry sprang up independently, in different places.

It is fair to conjecture that thousands of years before the dawn of civilization some savage matron, sitting in front of the cave or rude hut which sheltered her, wove the original basket from the rushes of a brook that perchance may have gurgled at her feet, or may have cut strips of skin from the animal her lord and master had slain, and plaited them into the original fabric that was the beginning of textiles. It does not require much stretch of the imagination to conceive of this taking place in the diflFerent parts of the world where the industry began.

Flax fabrics dating back to a period thousands of years ago have been unearthed in England. The ruins of the Lake Dwellers of the Stone Age in Switzerland have produced them. Textiles of much beauty that belong thousands of years before Christ have been discovered among the earliest ruins of Peru, Mexico, and Egypt, and in the cave dwellings of New Mexico and Arizona.

The ruins of the Swiss Lake Dwellers, which were discovered in the winter of 1853-54, abundantly prove that the art was known in the earliest era of the Stone Age, — the period of the mammoth and cave bear. The winter of 1853-54 was cold and so very dry that water in the alpine lakes of both Switzerland and Northern Italy receded so far that the dwellers on many of them saw evidences of ancient dwellings built on poles projecting from the lakes. Some sections were dyked, and many excavations commenced which unearthed village after village that had been covered by the mud of centuries. Wangen in Lake Constance, a village in Lake Mosseedorf, Robenhausen in the bog of Lake Pfaffikon, and Auvernier in Lake Neuchatel were the most interesting.

Some of the lowest villages were many feet down, and belonged to the earliest Stone Age. In them were found crude but serviceable fabrics of bast, flax, and wool, and signs that the growth and manufacture of cloth of flax and wool at so early a date was an important industry. Spindle whorls were without number. Flax in all stages, from the unprepared straw with seed capsules in perfect preservation to excellent specimens of plaited and woven fabrics, was unearthed, and some of it was ornamented with rude human figures. Strings, yarns of flax in bales ready for the spinners, rope and cordage, were also found.

Specimens of these fabrics may be seen in many museums, and show that the Lake Dwellers of the oldest Stone Era plaited, wattled, and wove cloth, and knew all the operations, from binding and tying, basket and mat plaiting, to weaving. Basket making on a finer scale, w^th the flax twisted into a thread, probably led to the textile industry which these prehistoric people practised.

So perfected had the industry become by the time the Bronze Age arrived that rude spindles and looms were employed which were very similar to those used to-day by some of the uncivilized tribes, and the art had reached a state where various designs were worked into the fabric with needle and thread.

Evidences of a similar textile industry have been found in the barrows of the early Bretons, where bodies were discovered that were wrapped in plaited woolen cloth. Similar fabrics, of an era so many thousands of years ago that archaeologists cannot accurately fix the date, have been discovered in the homes of the ancient Cliff Dwellers of South-western America.

TEXTILE INDUSTRY AMONG THE ANCIENTS

At the dawn of history, wool, flax, cotton, and silk were being woven in the East with the greatest skill, and which was the first material used in weaving is not known. It is probable, however, that the possession of flocks and herds led to the spinning and weaving of wool before either cotton, flax or silk was so used; and the fact that here and there ancient records speak of fabrics of cotton and silk as if they were rare luxuries would indicate that linen and woolen fabrics were too common to receive much attention, and that those of the other materials were relatively novel.

The earliest ancient history describes Eastern nations as having already attained a high degree of skill, not only in the spinning and weaving of fabrics, but in their dyeing and ornamentation. On the walls of Nineveh, Babylon, Thebes, and the ancient cities of Peru and Mexico, throughout most of the ruins of Assyria, Persia, Egypt, and among similar ruins of both North and South America, is depicted the whole process of the textile industry, from the raising

GREEK AND ROMAN METHOD OF SPINNING AND WEAVING

(From old woodcuts)

of the sheep or growing of the flax to the spinning of the yarn and weaving of the fabrics.

The Bible in Genesis and Exodus refers to the art, Homer, Herodotus, Confucius, and PHny, all relate traditions of how and when it originated. It is a fact estab- Kshed by thousands of hieroglyphics and confirmed by the oldest of Eastern historians that the Chinese, Hindus, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, and Hebrews practised spinning and weaving with great skill at a very remote period.

One Chinese tradition is that silk weaving was practised in Kiang Nan, China, in 2640 B.C. Another is that cotton originated in India, and that shawls and carpets were first woven in Persia. Fabrics of wonderful excellence were wrought by the Egyptians certainly twenty-five hundred years before Christ, and probably three thousand. At this early period the dwellers along the Nile wove linen cloth of a fineness that is still unequalled. About one Egyptian mummy was found linen cloth containing 540 warp threads to the inch, while the best woven in England up to a recent date had but 350 threads to the inch.

It is said that the Egyptians put a shuttle in the hands of their goddess Isis to signify she was the inventress of weaving. Joseph in Genesis about 1600 B.C. records that Pharaoh "arrayed him in vestures of fine linen." Another early reference to weaving is in the Bible (Leviticus xiii. 47-59) which speaks of the warp and woof of woolen and linen garments, their defilement from leprosy, and the necessity of their being burned by the priest, and shows that in 1500 B.C. the Israelites knew the art. Mummy cloths from the pyramids have borders of blue and fawn color which were made of threads colored in the yarn. Fabrics of many textures and degrees of fineness were commonly used by the Egyptians for clothing, draperies, banners, and for many ceremonial uses. Wool, flax, and cotton were all known and used by the Egyptians, as their tombs attest; and the process of dyeing was well established.

According to Pliny, the Assyrians believed Queen Semiramis invented weaving, although he gives the honor of the invention to the Egyptians. Among the Greeks, Minerva is shown with a distaff, and is recognized as having first taught man the art. Again, the Mohammedans say that the art originated with a son of Japhet; while the Peruvians point to Mama Ocllo, wife of Manco Capac, their first sovereign, as the originator. The absence of any authentic written records ' means unmistakably that it was prehistoric among different peoples about the same time.

Homer, the Greek poet, who lived 850 B.C., was the first historical writer to tell of weaving. He describes Penelope waiting for the return of her husband Ulysses from the Trojan War. Ulysses had endeavored to escape being called to war by feigning madness, but his trick was discovered, and he was compelled to serve away from home more than twenty years.

In the mean time the chieftains of Ithaca and the neighboring island wooed Penelope. Loving Ulysses, however, and hoping for his return, she refused to accede to the pleasure of the suitors, who remained, wasting Ulysses' means, insulting his son, and bribing the servants.

"Wait," said she, when they became impatient, "until I have woven a winding sheet for old Icarius, the father of Ulysses, so that I shall not lose my threads."

And she is described at her loom undoing each night the day's work, so that the web might never be finished. This went on for three years until her maids revealed her strategy, and she was driven to desperate straits to keep off the suitors. Ulysses finally returned in time to save her, and husband and wife were united. And thus it was that Penelope became among the Greeks and Romans the goddess of weaving.

EARLY EXISTENCE IN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA

The art in North and South America seems to have sprung up independently of the rest of the world, and also at a prehistoric date. The ancient Peruvians and ancient Mexicans wove cloth of wonderful fineness and with a finish not unlike lustrous silk. Many of the beautiful shades cannot be surpassed by the best skill of to-day.

Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, found the art in 1533 had reached a perfection beyond the best artisans of Spain. The wool was furnished by the small llama and the alpaca, long domesticated, and by the vicuna and guanaco, which ran wild among the fastnesses of the Andes. A wild kind of cotton was also employed. Both sides of the fabric were woven alike, and the design and brilliant coloring of some of the specimens in the museums show a skill and art even now rarely excelled by the best artisans.

The resemblance between the Peruvian fabrics and those found in the tombs of the Egyptian kings is striking. In both cases the textile industry had reached equally high development. The Peruvian spindles were of wood, and had solid sun-burned clay whorls of beautiful finish. Yarns were twisted by wetting and rolling between the fingers and part of the body. The needles used were made from wood, bone, or copper. Among the fabrics thus woven were vests, smock-like outer garments similar to the poncho, loosely woven cloths, loin girdles, head coverings, and sandals, home drapings for walls, doors, awnings, banners, and blankets. The ceremonial fabrics were of high color.

These fabrics of the Incas are at least one thousand years old. Color and design are of a high order, and are as beautiful to-day as when woven, showing that even the use of dyes had been highly developed. Geometric, conventionalized animal and human figures are shown on mummy cloths. Both cotton and wool were used, and the material was woven upon simple hand looms from yarn spun in the crudest way.

Some of the American Indians wove fabrics of a high order. Blankets made by the Navajos of Arizona and New Mexico are of so close a texture they will hold water, and in design and brilliancy of color are most striking, although woven in a primitive manner, by hand.

The beautiful white "Tappa" cloth of the South Sea Islands was made in a peculiar way, especially by the natives of the Marquesas Islands. Instead of being woven, it was beaten together. The exterior green bark was stripped from the branches of the so-called "cloth" tree, a species of the mulberry, which grows luxuriantly in those regions, and the remaining fibrous substance was then removed from the stick to which it had adhered. A quantity of this fabric wrapped in large leaves, and secured by fibrous cords to prevent its being swept away, was placed in the bed of a running stream. After two or three days' immersion the bundles were opened and the fibres pulled out and exposed to the air. Each piece was inspected to ascertain whether it was ready for the remaining operations. If not, it went back to the bed of the brook until the conditions were such as were desired.

When evidences of decomposition were shown by the fibres becoming soft and flexible, the natives knew that the material was in the proper condition for the next step of the operation. The different strips were then laid in layers upon a smooth surface, such as the prostrate trunk of a cocoanut-tree, and were beaten with a kind of heavy mallet, made of ebony, in shape somewhat like an old-fashioned razor-strop. Upon the surface of the hammer were shallow parallel indentations, which varied in depth on different sides, so that it was adapted to the several stages of the operation. The hammering thus produced the corduroy stripes that were prominent in the *' Tappa."

The fibres of the "Tappa" were thus beaten, and layer after layer was put on until the whole was merged into one mass. The beating then continued, water from time to time being added, until the material reached the required thinness, according to the purpose for which it was to be used. It was then placed on the grass to bleach, and came out a dazzling whiteness; or it was impregnated with vegetable dyes, which gave it a permanent color. Brown and yellow were generally the common tints.

According to Captain Sylvanus Nickerson, who commanded the clipper ship "Huguenot" when she was lost in 1880 off the island of Java, the Malays of some of the islands of the Ombay Straits still weave their garments of cotton which is grown in the same row with the corn, with little or no cultivation, and without any effort to separate the plants. They take the cotton as it comes from the boll, and, making it into a ball, twist the fibre with the fingers, pulling it from the ball. As fast as the cotton is twisted into the required thread, the crude thread thus formed is wrapped on a piece of bamboo about five or six inches long. When a sufficient quantity has been prepared, it is put on the loom for weaving. The loom consists of two upright posts, or sticks, driven into the ground at the distance required to give the fabric a certain width. The warp is wrapped about these sticks, and the weft thread is worked in and out with a crude needle and pounded into position.

The method of weaving practised to-day by the Navajos is the same as that employed by the hand weavers of India and China, and is virtually identical with the method that has been used from the beginning by primitive weavers the world over. The warp is stretched between two parallel poles suspended between upright posts, and the weft threads are drawn in and out of the warp with a rude wooden needle somewhat like a fisherman's needle and beaten together with a stick. Seated upon the ground, and with no pattern save that in the mind's eye, geometric designs and quaint figures are worked in the fabric with threads of beautiful colors.

Basket weaving of hemp and the soft bast of linden was quite generally known by the savages at Wellfleet. Among the Algonquin Indians feathers of the wild turkey and other birds, and white hair of the moose were beautifully woven into hempen garments and articles of utility. In 1785 Eli Twichel, of Bethel, Me., received from Millocket, an old Indian woman of Oxford, a twofold pocket-book which she had woven of hemp and beautifully embroidered with long white hair of the moose. It shows admirably the high state of art reached by the Algonquins, and is now in the Maine Historical Society.