LyonsThe Velvet Metropolis and Its Factories
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SILK WORKERS ARK HARK-A UM EI), BARE-HEADED GIRLS.
IN THE SILK REELINO ROOM.
(Copyright, VM2, by Frunk O. Carpenter.)
f . YONS, Franco, Oct. 13. Sperlul
I 1 I Correspondence of The Hoe.) 1
1 I om lii Ihn Hilk renter of I he
world, where for more than four
inf urli I III' 11 II I K t L'OWIIH of the
belles of all natlotiH have been turnrd out
on common hand Iooiiih. Lyons makes
about $ltO,OUU,uuu worth of 6llks and Bilk
goods every year. Its satins and velvets
go all over the world, and within the pnm
few months It has been busy making l ho
rich rd velvets which were worn at the
coronation of King Edward VII.
The city Is tho commercial center of
middle France, and, next to Paris, the chief
city of this republic. It took me eight
hours on the railroad to cover the 200
mlleB between here and l'arls, and I now
find myself In tho rich valley of the Rhone,
In one of the moBt beautifully located of
cities.
Lyons Is surrouuded by hills. It lies on
the lowlands, under tho mountains, at the
confluence of the Rhone and the Saone.
On the other side of the Saone are the
Heights of Fourvleres, with a great tower
upon them, up which we shall climb for
the view. We walk through the town,
passing the site cf a Roman palace In
which the most cruel of the Roman em
perors, Claudius and Caligula, wero born;
we go over one of the Saone bridges and
by a cable railroad are elevated to the foot
of the tower. Another elevator takes us to
the top, and we are 600 feet above the
river, hanging, as it were, high over the
city. Uchlnd us are the Golden mountains
of Lyons, and beyond them, over a valley
of gardens and treeB, aro tho mighty Alps,
their snowy peaks forming a ragged silver
man against the clouds. The day Is clear
and we can see tho snowy cap of Moul
Ulanc 100 miles away. Turn about now
and look down Into tho valley. There Is
the Khone, fresh from Its glacier cradle
In Mont St. Gothard, and nearer still, flow
ing almost at our feet, la the Saone, wind
ing about through the town slda by side
with Its twin sister, tho Rhone. Between
the two Is the greater part of Lyous, and
as we look we see tho Bllvery streams em
bracing the municipal maiden in her silken
clothes and going singing on together to
the sea.
Stop a minute and think whre we are.
We are In the heart of one of the oldest
parts of Europe and on the site of one
of the moBt famous cities of France. This
Rhone valley was a trade route In tho
days of Julius Caesar and great fairs were
held here In the middle ages, to which
merchants from Amsterdam to Venice
and from other parts of Europe came to
buy and sell. Tho Gauls had a town on
this site 600 years bi fere Christ was born
and at the time Christ lived h"re was a
Roman city. On this very hill c ne Roman
emperor caused 20,000 Christians to be
massacred and In the days of the French
revolution tho Tribunal, finding th;it the
guillotine would not kill thj Ljons aris
tocrats fast enough, tied them together
with ropes In rows of sixty and executed
them by wholesale with canntn leaded
with grape shot.
The Lyons of today, however, devot
Itself more to business than to politics
or religion. It Is a great manufacturing
center. It contains 000,000 people and
with Its suburbs has about three-quarters
of million. Standing here on th'
tower you can see the smokestacks of Its
car shops, tanneries and chemical work
and there, across the valley, on the other
side. Is the famous Croix Rousso (Red
Cross), the hill where the silk makers
live, where the fashions of generation
have been woven and where today some
of the most beautiful cloths of the world
are produced. The hill looks but little
like a manufacturing center. It has no
vast brick buildings, walled with window,
such as you see In the factory towns of
our country; It has no smokestacks pour
ing volumes of black Into tba clouds and
K-ji-r.-r - y- .SS, --" ' '-
It looks more like a residence section
than an Industrial one. Still Lyons has
hundreds of silk factories snd the nw.t
of them are situated upon that hill.
Suppose we visit it. We descend by tho
Saone, cross the bridge and take the trolley
car through the city to the cable station at
tho foot of Croix Rousso. We go Into tho
car, dropping a sou, or 1 cent, at the turn
stile, for that is what is charged for tho
ride. We enter a box car where a score
of silk workers are standing, and in a mo
ment find ourselves riding to the top of the
hill. A few steps from the station above
takes you into the heart of the silk Indus
try of Lyons. We can tell It by the click!
click! click! which Is heard on every street
and In every hallway. The houses are lean
five-story structures, built along alley-like
streets, with narrow entrance doors. They
look like tenement buildings and they are
Indeed little more than tenements, great
beehives filled with laborers, every cell of
which Is a little factory. Most of the work
in the great silk depar.ment of the Rhone
Is done on hand looms, and there are 400,
000 men thus employed In this department.
Even where power looms are used the work
Is largely that of house Industry, several
weavers having, in a single room, looms
worked by electricity, paying therefor a
few cents per day per loom.
We enter one of the buildings and walk
up the narrow stone stairs. We hear the
clicking going on as we mount from story
to story. The building Is rudely constructed
and without modern conveniences. We
knock at a door, pounding loudly in order
that we may overcome the noise of tin
weaving. A Frenchman In his shirt sleeves,
with a cap on his head, opens the door and
asks us to enter. He has Just left his loom
and at our request he again goes to work.
The loom Is old-fashioned, and he works it
with his feet, throwing the shuttle by hand
from one side to the other through the
silk threads. He Is making a pattern of
dress goods which may eventually be worn
by some of the four hundred, .'r may shine
perhaps on a Virginia belle at a White
House reception. I ask him his wages.
11m replies that he earns 3 francs and a
half, or 70 American cents, a day of eleven
hours. He has be working at his trade
GENERAL VIEW OF LYONS FROM FOU
ten years, and is one of the best paid men
In the building.
Going on, we enter room after room.
Each has one or more looms, with bare
armed, bare-headed nun and women weav
ing away. All kinds of silks are turned
out and the wages in all cases are low.
The men earn on an average 60 cents a
diy and the women 48 cents. The best
workmen sometimes earn from $1 to $1.23
and a very few as much as $2.40, or 12
francs per day.
In some buildings we find the looms
worked by electricity, the lightning hav
ing been called to make brocades and silks
for our women's dresses. The electricity
Is furnished by a society at such a rate
that a man gets electrical power for 5
cents a day and pays for his loom on in
stallments. With such looms the men
can make better wages, working In the
same room In which their families have
been living and working for generations.
I have talked with many of the silk men
of Lycns, both factcrs and laborers. I
find a general belief that the days of suoh
hcuse industry are numbered. Lyons has
been gradually losing its standing as the
chief silk-making center of the world.
Other countries are coming into competition
with it, and its trade is slowly but steadily
falling. Germany is making beautiful rill's
with the best cf modern machinery at Kre
feld, not far from the left bank of the
Rhine; the English have leng neen k':own
as makers of fine silks, the Russians are
doing some wonderful weaving near Moscow
arid the Italians are rapidly regaining the
place they held in the middle au os one
of tho chief silk-manufucturing peoples cf
the wcrld. It used to be that thj most of
the raw f ilk brought from Chin came to
Marseilles; a largo part of it new pots to
Genoa on the North Gerrann Lloyd Atlatlc
lines, and the output of Italian silk gooes
steadily grows.
The United States, howe.T, Is Injuring
the trade of Lyons more than any of (he
European countries. Before our civil war
we annually contributed about $.10,0?).'VO to
the Lyons silk weavers. Now we Moke 90
per cent of the silk we consume, and, not
withstanding our enormous increase in
wealth and population, our Lyoas pnrc'ias?
RVIERES.
da not amount to more than $10,000,000 a
year. The French writes claim that the
falling off in their trade i'i due to our pro
tective tariff, which has built up the tllk
industry of Taterson on J other American
cities. In these places the silk is vr.ule In
large mills, and the cost Is so reduced that
American commercial travelers ere now
selling American silks in Europe. We al
ready weave two-thirds as much Bilk as
France and cur silk exports may yet be
come cno of tho features ot tho tmerlcsn
commercial invasion of Europe. I am told
that a number cf the Trench factors have
already removed th.'ir plants to the United
Stales, and that others are remolellng the'r
mills on tho Amorioan plan.
I visited this afternoon the biggest silk
mill of this country. It has 420 looms and
two or three times that many employes. The
hands are bare-armed, bare-headed girls,
well dressed and in many case good look
ing. They are the daughters cf the mea
who work cn the house looms and are tho
descendants of many generations of eilk
weavers. The mill Is somewhat like a great
cotton faittry, save that more bright col
ors are uued. In the reeling room thi
threads are of all the hues ot the rainbow,
and the thcusanda cf spools make a maze
of brilliant tints and shades. The factory
is well lighted, and it is equipped with all
the modern conveniences of our factories.
Tho wages arc very low and there ia no
trouble in getting employes.
I was interested In the velvet w.rks. Th
finer of such goods arc made by house in
dustry, although power looms are generally
used. The weavers have found they can
not make wages' by using their old hand
looms and they have had them remodeled
so that they can now earn 73 cents and up
wards per day. Much of the velvet woven In
Lyons is brocade, and that In most beauti
ful patterns. Silk and velvet curtains are
made, some of which cost as much as $800
a pair. I saw velvets today which sell for
$70 a yard, and was shown curtains which
require four months to weave. The finest
of the velvets - are made In these little
rooms.
The velvet is woven about wires, the
threads being cut through to the wires with
a knife and the wires taken out. The vel
vet has to be made thread by thread, each
lice being cut separately, so that a slip ot
tho knife would ruin tho cloth.
I visited one factory which made 8,000
yards of red velvet to be worn at the coro
nation of King Edward, and another where
I was Bhowu specimens of furniture cover
ings made for one of .hi Vauderbilt fam
ilies at a octet of $21 a yard. Think of
paying til for a chair Kail And this la
what the stuff costs in France. The price
will bo doubled by the lime it gels into
one cf tho Vanderbilt palaces and is fitted
on to its luxurious sof.us. Every time oik
bi.s down upon it lie r s'.ie wl.l eovir a
yard of it. It would make n.e ulicounortable
to tit down on $42 at one Uiik
The very best of tho Fri nch silks seldom
get to the I'nited States, as our dutUs make
them almost prohibitory. Velvets whU-h
will Bell for $1 a yard in Lyous would cost
$10 a j aid in New York and silk brocaiUjt
at $3 a yard would be doubled in price
after they had passed through our custom
house and paid the charges of tha middle
men. I have gone through some of the largest
cf th9 Lyons silk stores. They are to hi
found in buildings not unlike factories. You
entcran unpretentious stairway and on the
second or third floor may find a door v. I h
a little brass sign marked with the name of
the merchant. Entering you come into
large rooms with long counters running
through them. There Is no Bilk on view,
for the goods are stored away in cases or
drawers until brought out for customers.
The rooms are well lighted and parts of
them are walled with mirrors in order that
the colors may be shown by reflected as well
as by direct light. Some of the oldest
styles are the most beautiful, and these
are repeated from age to age, new designs
are being continually invented an 1 the great
est artists of France are engaged iu design
ing. The French are noted as designers,
and they have schools here which teach de
signing. Some of the factories make pic
tures in silk both for tho decoration and
wall covering. The faces of the most noted
men of France are thus woven as well as
fancy pictures of all sorts.
Lyons is doing all it can to foster its silk
industry. It. has its technical schools which
teach all branches ot silk manufacture.
Young men come here from all parts of the
world to study how to make silk, and many
work in the mills for that pjrpose. There
Is one school which charges from 800 to
1,200 francs a year as tuition. The 800 francs
Is the charge tor Frenchmen and the 1,200
francs that for foreigners. In this school
the best of modern silk weaving machinery
is used and a great part of it bears the
mark of American manufacturers. An
American sewing machine sews the pattern
cards together, and American methods ot
weaving are employed. All kinds of silks,
velvets, plain and figured goods are made
here, under the superintendence cf the most
skilled workmen, the boys daing the wort,
themselves with the professional silk men,
as overseers.
I visited the Lyons municipal silk school,
on the Croix Rous-se, after going through
the silk factories of that neighborhood. This
school Is sustained by the city, and li open
only to Lyounese youths. Any Lyons boy
who has reached the age of 13 can euter
upon the payment ot $1.73 and learn all
about silk weaving, designing and pattern
making. The course of day study is ten
months, and there Is In addition a night
school, in which a course of three years U
required.
There are about 300 pupils In this school.
They belong to the rich and the poor, many
of them being the sons of common laborers.
Every boy has to keep a diary ot his work,
with the patterns ot the Bilks he has matt.
and also copies of bis designs. The school
teaches all matters about the breeding of
silk worms as well as all kinds cf weaving
and designing. The professor in charge, a
kind looking o!d Frenchman, wearing a
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