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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1902)
Renaissance of the Humble Rag Carpet V i j. n mini - -T -tiT " ITlpr-i it 1 1 r I j r-r j V .'"-" ...., 4 iffl . .. ;v.y, .-.,. '''T'-p-l l-j rf-"i-fyf -TfTTT "jf ll illMl HHIMI III llj lHL.U.U 'umimt . i - I UliJiT-iUMWMMHI SPINNING WHEEL OF TODAY. X I Industrial world, products of th; 1 liiimnn Vi-iti.1 n r.l 11 tr ! i n in thi IIUIMU11 11(1111 l v. f5 1 " " tore. Handicrafts are sin-inK-ine ud on every side. Not in competition with or antagonistic to the machine, which has done so much to brinw utility ana beauty into lives that might otherwise have never known either, but as a natural expression of in dividuality, are handicrafts multiplying. Periodicals devoted to hand made arts threaten to become as formidable as trade journals. It Is the Inevitable result of two growing factors In American life. Educated wealth Is spreading, and with It desire to possess exclusive objects of art which bear the Impress) of Individuality and which can not be duplicated, as aro machine made things. Educated wealth is learning to recognize and appreciate the intrinsic value of human skill as mani fested in the various handicrafts. Ready to meet this taste and demand upon the part of educated wealth are men :and women of ideas who have learned to think and to execute for themselves. Breaking away from he employer and the salary, they have set up their tools under their own roof tree, and from designs of their own fashioning, out of clay, brass, copper, wood, straw, rags, leather and other mediums, they are making for util ity and beauty articles that bespeak the thought that is within them. In out of the way corners of large cities are numbers of little handicraft shops where a single worker creates and stamps his or her hand made work, as did the Henneventu Cellinis of the middle ages, with their personal signature or trade mark. Knowing no taskmaster but the satisfac tion of their Individual sense of the true, they withhold their work from Jie uuyer until it realizes as near as possible their id al. Their own designer, executor, task master, their salary is their profits. These little shops nestle for the most part under sky roofs, or are burled in cellar basements. So rapidly have they increased in number, and of such superior excellence is the work they turn out, that In more than one large city dt pots have been estalilU-hid for their exhibition, with hope of commanding a larger market than is possible in the se cluded shop or studio. In this refreshing revival looms a long discarded art the weaving of rai; carpets. As the dean of caipet weavers swings his gaily-tilled chut ties those days he marvels at the change in the clientele that find.s its way to his basement home, where his loom of nearly forty years' service has long been a curiosity to the passerby. In lieu of an occasional housewife or the matron of a charitable institution comes now. to the old man's p-rplexity, my lady's maid with balls of cut rags, or a monogramed. per fumed note asking him to call at No. S i and So and collect material prepared for the weaving of a carpet, rug or portiere. "It's tl'.e Americans the rich Americans," c hiu kli s ihe old weaver, "who have t t mj loom a singing in its old age." When the dean came from Havaria with his good frau less than forty years ago he found In New York more than 1,000 carpel weavers, all doing a thriving business. "1 owned four looms," sighed the old man with a blink in hifi merry brown eye. "All the big stores bought my carpets, and great ladies living in fine houses in Bond Btreet and Lafayette place used to bring me their fine gowns cut up Inta strips to weave into carpets not for the kitchen, I would have you know, but for their own beautiful bedrooms." WEIGHING THE RAGS. With the coming of the machine-made carpets, among the first to desert the hand weaver were the foreigners. Today th dean knows of but three hand looms on tin East Side of New York and doubts if there are a dozen weavers who make their bread swinging the shuttle. "The old wenvers have nearly all died off, and their children would not learn tin trade. It was too slow. They followed the trend of the times and took to the machine or fought work in other fields. "Ach! 'Tis.hard, hard work," said t hi' dean's frau, threading the loom. "All i so big and heavy and clumsy." "Come, come," laughed the dean, "you would not give up threading this, old lady, and sorting out the bobbins and wenvim; romances around each pretty bit of silk or volvcit for the wealth of the Vanderbilt s." "Wealth is all very good," continued the philosopher, light-hearted as a boy, despite his seventy years, game eye and Avenue A basement home, "but it's not everything. There was a weaver in my town in Itavaria who made soap by day and spuu carpet by night. The lilt of the shuttles always set him a singing, and in song he forgot he was poor or tired or lonely. There was a very rich man lived near by who could nut sleep at night for the weaver's song. He sent for him one day and asked why he sang all night. " 'Because it makes me happy," said the weaver. " 'And it makes me unhappy,' said the rich man, 'for it will not let me sleep. 1 give you $100 if you do not fcing at night.' " 'Four hundred dollars,' said the poor weaver, who had scarcely owned as many pennies at one time in his whole life. 'I take your money and I sing no more.' "When people heard the story they came from all Bides to see the weaver. Every- THE DEAN OK THE l.OOM. one had a new way for him to invest his moneys, until the poor weaver he knew not what to do. Every day he hid his mniey in a new place. He could not eat nor sleep, thinking some one wi uld find It. He put it iinid" his shirt tin I it burned him. Every time he threw Ihe shuttle his throat parchul for want of song. The m niey and tin- song bursiing to be mil made him si. sad lie could no more eat nor drink nor sleep. lie was like a ghost, and the ear pels he wove lost their color. Hue il ay he could stand it no more. He took th" money and he went to the ri h man's house. " 'I gives yi u yi ur money,' said th" weaver to the rich man. 'I keep my rung.' " "He, he. he." "buckled I lie frau. weighing uriat balls of rags sent in by an uptown hispital. "Money cannot buy a light heart." "But it send- us customers," said the dean; "rich customers, where once we had only the very poor." Turning to the long bin In hind his seat at Ihe loom, he tossed up merrily the sorted colors of th" bob bins waiting to be woven Into a carpet to catch the footprints of children of wealth. The mainstay of th" surviving hand lo ma are Ihe charilable Institutions. To keep inmates or convalescent patients employed cast off garments are given them to cut Into stripes and prepare for the weaver, for rag carpet strips are always usi fail In large institutions. Where formerly tene ment denizens found it more profitable to buy machine-made carpels, since old rag brought prices almost equal to that asked for the machine carpet, which t tiggit d luxury, they find today it does not pay to save them for the rag man, so mightily has the price fallen, owing to thi' substitu tion of wood for rags in the manufacture of paper. tin Ihe other hand, reudy-iuadc garments have been brought to such perfection in Un making and at so small a cost to the con sumer that once, where wealth found il profitable to dispose of cast off garments to second -hand dealers, they now receive to little that, in lieu of poor relations or send ing them to Institutions, tiny are, in com pliance with fashion's behesl, culling them up into rag carpets. Hoes life oiler a more literal way of tramping its vuuities under fool! Much of the durability of a rag carpet de pends upon the quality of lis warp. Cotton warp wears belter and is much llruier than wool or linen. Tlio beauty of u rag curpet lies largely in the quality of the material used and the deftness with which the weaver throws the shuttle. Carpets con fined lo one material cotton, wool or silk - are more effective and durable than those of varied stuffs. Silk is the favorite fabric for decorative rugs, always prized by the lover of skilled handicraft. One yard width is the limit of Ihe carpel loom, which is not designed to weave large portieres. They call for a separate apparatus. While the old-fashioned hand loom does not admit of Ihe weaving in of designs after the manner of tapestry, the trained weaver hi; of color percept ion and arllsllc can achieve won ders in the blending of the bobbins. Two pounds of rags are allowed to one yard of curpet. Thirty cents a yard is the price of weaving one yard. Kroin the time the rags, cut and sewed into strips, generally of an inch width and wound into great bulls, are brought to I lie weuver, until he finally rolls It into carpet for delivery to the customer, it has six sep arate handlings. Consider this labor, and that one yard un hour is Ihe largest output, at 30 ceuts a yard, and well may it be said that, for the band loom weaver. Time was made for slaves and Weulth Is a chimera. Episodes and Incidents in the Lives of Noted People i tie- nrsi minister 10 ine uniieu I I States from the repubMc of Cuba, iioiiaiu ue iutsuua, is ui uu uiu revolutionary family of the island, whose name has been prominent In every effort made for the liberation of iCuba from Spain, by rebellion or filibuster expeditions alike. Mr. Quesada came to the United States as agent of the Cuban repub lic In 1897, but was of course unrecognized, .as his accrediting government had no ex istence. He Is still in the 30s and earned many friends in his previous sojourn In Washington. In some parts of Germany the Inns In small towns are accustomed to substitute chicory for coffee a practice not altogether unknown to American landlords, It la bty lieveJ. Bismarck arrived at such a place one day and asked the landlord if he had any chicory. The host answered affirma tively and the chancellor eald: "Bring it all to me." The landlord did so and Bismarck aid: "Is this all the chicory you have In the house?" "It Is, meinherr," was the re ply. "Then," said the man of blood and Iron, "bring me a cup of coffee." Lord Lovat, whose scouts were bo suc cessful during the war In South Africa, is to receive a Highland welcome on his re turn to Scotland from the Clan Fraser, of which he is chief. This is not the first time that the head of the Fraeer clan has raised men for the British army. A regiment called the Seventy-eighth Fraser Highlanders was raised in 1757 by Simon Ijord Lovat as a mark of his gratitude at getting back to his native land after exile. 'Thlt regiment served In America. Again in l"7i Lord Lovat raised a Fraser regl m nt the Seventy-first which also fought in America and was discharged In 1783. It Is said that only once was Mr. Marshall Field known to lose his nerve. After the great fire of 1S71, relates the Saturday Evening Post, a prominent Chicagoan en tered the room in which Mr. Field and hla partners were taking stock of their misfor tunes. The latter were urging the feasi bility of continuing the business, but Mr. Field could not share their hopeful outlook. "What's the matter, Marshall?" Inquired the kindly caller. "I tell them it's no use," responded the young merchant. "We've lost everything and there's no such thing as going on with the business. Why, we couldn't do It with less than a million dollars!" For a moment the caller was silent; then he quietly remarked: "Well, Marshall, you can have your million and you'll come out all right, too." This man was the late Cyrus McCormlck, and he kept his word, with the result that Mr. Field is today recognized as one of the foremost merchants of America. British public opinion is strongly in favor of keeping Lord Kitchener at home in stead of sending him to India. His lord ship does not stand so well with the aris tocracy, to many members of which he has given offense by refusal to meet their wishes. For instance, there is one great nobleman who desired that his favorite son be sent home from South Africa. So he telegraphed to Kitchener: "Please send my son home at once; urgent family affairs" Kitchener replied: "Your son cannot return at all; urgent military affairs." ?. The street car conductor with a talent for icpartee of the neat and polished order Is rare, and note should be made of him when found, says the New York Times. A dissatisfied passenger found one out In the neighborhood of Bronx park last week, when two women who had been trying to get to the zoological show complained of the difficulty they had had In eliciting any Information about its whereabouts. "Yes, madam," the dissatisfied man a stranger to them chimed In, "I can quite sympathize with you. The fact Is, I don t believe these conductors know the differ ence between botanical gardens and zoo logical. I doubt If any of them could even tell a monkey from a man." "Fares, please," said the conductor. In terrupting the conversation Just at that point. "Fares, please. None of our busi ness what you are so long as you pay your fare. Two, ma'am?" Kiankla, descendant of a long line of distinguished Indian chiefs, died a few days ago in a little hut In a se cluded spot near the shores of the Raritan river, about two miles from Flem ington, N. J., and with his passage dis appeared the last of the once great and proud tribe of the Delawar. s. Arthur Tenbroeck of New York City, who ha spent many summers In the neighborhood of Flemlngton, and who made the acquaintan?e of the aged chief of an extinct tribe about three years ago, superintended his burial and says that his wishes that he shnulJ b- laid away under the shadows of un ancient elm, where once his forefathers fat In solemn council were carried out. Mr. Ten broeck says that Kiankia Informed him soino time before his death that he was 'J.1 years old. "It was generally supposed," sa d Mr. Tenbroeck, in discussing the death of the last of the Delawares, "that old In dian Anne, who died In Mount Holly In ls94, was the last of the famous tribe, but it was not known then that her brother, Kiankia, was still alive." George S. Boutwell tells in his recently published book of reminiscences that he was present at an Interview between Gen eral Joe Hooker and Charles Sumner, to whom Hooker applied to assist him In ob taining a Massachusetts regiment on tho plea that he was a native of that state. "In the course of tho conversation Hooker said that if he could obtain a regiment he would come to the command of the army and take Richmond." This was in May, 1 SCI ; Hooker "had then recently arrived from California and his appearance indicated poverty. Ills dres was worn and his apparel was that of a del ayed man of thu world." At the time of King Edward's recent operation the nurse who had been present to assist left the room on his recovering consciousness, but not before the king had caught sight of her face. Directly after he asked one of his physicians who she was, for ho had seen her somewhere, and quite lately. The doctor admitted that this was so, for but a Bhort while before his majesty bad presented this same nurse a medal for her work in South Africa. Tb gift ha& been rendered doubly precious to Us recipient, for the king asked for the nurse and shook hands with her, saying at the same time: "1 have proved for myself how well you deserved that medal." Naglyaupe, a full-blooded Sioux Indian from Fort Shaw, Mont., has just been elected It adcr of the municipal baud of Carlisle, Pa , and thus enjoys the distinc tion t being the first red man to assumo dictatorship of a musical organization composed entirely of whites. Nagiyanpe, wh: is a modest and unassuming young fe.l'jw, bus assumid tlio name of Robert Iliuce in his inter. ourse with the pale face. He is an excellent performer on the trom bone and has I ecu a professional musician for some time. When liion Iloutieault was playing "The Vampire" at tho Princess theater in I.oulon h:: nave a gnat deal of attention to the opining scene, which represented an Alpine landscape with a distant thunderstorm. The thunder was pnnlu cd us usual, and some remarkable fine moonlight effects were In troduced. One night whin the s as u was at its height a tremendous clap of thunder startled the audience and interrupted Mr. H. ucit ault in the middle of a speech. low ering his voice so that he could be heard only by the property man, he said: "Mr. I'avies. you are making more mis takes. ' Thai thunder came in the w rong place." Mr. Uavies replied in tones which could be plainly hard all over the auditorium: "No t a ul t of mine, sir, it wasn't my thun der. Thunder's real i ul of doors; perhaps yi u i an stop it there."