The Craftsman - 1902 - 01 - January

7/27/2019 The Craftsman - 1902 - 01 - January

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THE CRAFTSMANJANUARY MDCCCCII

CONTENTSNotes from the History of Textiles.The Life History of a Design.Brain and Hand.

l3y Irene Sargent.A Revival of English Handicrafts : The Haslemere Industries.

By M ary Schenck Woolson, Director Department of Domestic Art,Teachers Coll ege, Col umbi a Uni versit y.

The Fireside Industries of Kentucky.Prepared from not es furni shed by M rs. Het t i e W ri ght Graham.

PUBLISHERS ANNOUNCEMENTS

7 SUBSCRIPTIONS : Subscription price $2.00 the year, inadvance, postpaid to any address in the United States orCanada, and to begin with any desired number,7 RElVIITTANCES: Remittances may be made by PostOffice money order, bank cheques, express order, or inpostage stamps.aCHANGE OF ADDRESS: When a change of address

is desired, both the old and the new address should begiven, and notice of the change should reach this officenot later than the fifteenth of the month, to affect thesucceeding issue. The publishers cannot be responsiblefor copies lost through failure to notify them of suchchanges,The United Crafts, Publishers, Eastwood,

New YorkCoprri&t. 1901 by %VtavQ Stichlcr



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FOREWORD

T HE present issue of The Craftsman offers a num-ber of articles representing different phases of thetextile industry: historical, economic and social.From each one of theseit is plain to deduce that ahandicrafts must occur in tKartial return to long dpapersisusede near future, if the interestsof art are to be favored, and the good of the artisan to beconsidered. The description of the Hazle-mere industries recently established in Surrey, England,and the notes upon the fireside industries of Kentuckywill doubtless receive the attention which they merit.As an ally of the craft of weav-ing, the art of design can not be passed over in silence.But as the treatises and articles written upon this subjectfrom the aesthetic point of view, almost outnumber thepossible readers of the same, it has seemed best toinvite thought in a less usual direction. With this inten-tion an article has been prepared upon the life-history of adesign, tracing its origin, development and decay, asbiologists study the same phases in the history of a naturals ecies.R The method of study suggested is based upont e researches of Alfred Haddon, an eminent zoologist ofDublin, Ireland, The continuity of subject andaim which is desired by the Editors of The Craftsmanto be the distinguishin mark of their publication, will bemaintained in the Fe ruary issue. That number willcontain, as its principal article, a sketch of the life andwork of Robert Owen, one of the chief craftsmen of hisday, a promoter, toreform in Englan ,f ether with Sir Robert Peel, of factoryand a philanthropist whose heroic



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iV FOREWORD$;tkarrested the degeneracy of the English working

The series thus far presentedin The Craftsman offers : William Morris, the reviverof mediaeval handicrafts ; Ruskin, to a degree, the sourceof the nineteenth centu The Gilds of the Mid 3 English aesthetic movement ;e Ages, under whose influencethe handicrafts rose to a perfection never before or sinceattained ; and Notes from the History of Textiles. Anatural se uence will therefore be found in the considera-tion of the actory system and of legislation relative thereto.



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d

Set t l e and large arm-chair i n dark fumed oak



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Fir eside set t l e, w i t h cupboard; cupboard, w i t h l eaded glass ;roan-ski n seat cushion and pil low s



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Four- fol d screen i n U nit ed Crafts l eather, show i ng allnatural marks of skin



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THE DISTAFFldyl XXVIII. of Theocritus of Syracuse,

Third Century, B. C.T HE following Idyl (as the word literally signifies : alittle picture of manners and customs) is here intro-duced as an early tribute to one of the most important ofthe handicrafts. The Syracusan poet, Theocritus, aboutto sail from his birthplace to Miletus, a city of Asia Minor,at that time famous for its wool industry, chooses an ivorydistaff, as a gift for the wife of his friend, a learned andwealthy physician. Under cover of an apostrophe to thedistaff, he pays a delicate compliment to his future hostand hostess, in a manner wholly worthy of the accom-plished court-poet that he was. But this mere grace ofdiction is not the quality which gives a permanent valueto the Idyl. Its right of admittance to the history of tex-tiles is generally recoquoted, as showing ized, and it is most frequentlytF? esteem in which the crafts ofs nning and weaving were held, among the peoples oft e Mediterranean coasts, even after the decay of theliticalp systems which had made them great, and afteruxury had seized them with its enervating and disinte-grating tendencies.0 distaHM~H;~d in wool-spinning, gift of the blue-eyedLabor at thee is ktting to wives who seek the good of theirhusbands !Trustfu$lecosme thou with me to the far, famous city ofWhere standsthe temple of Venus uprising mid reedsgreen and pliant.Thither we ask of Jove his gift of smooth seas and favoring breezes,



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2 THE DISTAFFSo that (0 grateful sight !) Nicias, our friend, may greet

and be greeted,Nicias, -sacred scion of the charming and lovely-voicedGraces.So that, 0 distaff of ivory cunningly fashioned, I give theeInto th;ax$lof the wife of Nicias, the skilled and theSo shah thou weave mantles for men and transparent tis-sues for women.Twice in each year shall mothers of tender lands yield up

their soft fleecesTo be slhl; for Nicias fair wife, famed for her beautifulKnown for her industry also, and rich in all femininevirtues.Nor would I give thee out of our land to women carelessand slothful,For nagtivna$ thou of Syracuse, that city planted by,Deep i;;~dmarrow of Sicily, vineyard and oil-bearing.Now well shalt thou guarded be in the house of a manwise and gentle,Skilled idnems$sicine-making and most potent to ward off,Now shalt thd dwell in Ionia, in the lovely city Miletus;So that Nicias fair wife, Theu enis of the beautiful ankle,May in the choice of a distaff $;e favored above her com-.!30 ma~!~n~emember her friend, remember thy song-loving giver,And at;t;h$ht, 0 my distaff, shall one woman say toSurely great ghce lies in trifles and all gifts from friendsare most precious ! Englhli k& on by I . S.



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4 NOTES FROM THE HISTORY OF TEXTILES

46 he di staf f si de is a term of frequent occurrence in oldEnglish genealogical records, referring, as is evident, to thefemale line of descent. Indeed, all literature and historyfrom the Hebrew Scriptures and the Sonthe tales of the Puritans have celebrate f s of Homer towomen, eithervirtuous or frail, who have plied distaff and spindle for thefashioning of marvels of handicraft. Spinning was exclu-sively accomplished by women, and was often carried onby large numbers of workers in common, as if the factorysystem had been established on the shores of the Mediter-ranean three thousand years ago. So it i s evident thatthe kings daughter, the peasant-woman and the femaleslave were pledged by their sex to the same employments,and separated by no sharp line of demarcation such as to-day divides the self-supporting woman from her affluent,or aristocratic sister. To these women, who by the verynature of their occupation, were a civilizing force, theworld owes a debt of gratitude not often recognized. Forthey were the unconscious propagators and agents of his-tory. That mood or state best described as mental isola-tion, which is the accompaniment of manual labor, kepttheir ideas sharply defined, and shut out from their mindsthose rapidly succeedin impressions which confuse andblot one another until cL OS ensues. The spinners andweavers, plying their fireside industries, no less than therhapsodes of Greece and the Roman singers at the cross-roads were the sacred keepers of tradition. The distaff,equally with the stylus, i s the symbol and emblem of his-tory, The muse Clio, helmeted, shod with the tragic bus-kin, and raised to heroic size, no more fitly represents thestory of mans endeavor, than does the gentler, more hu-manly fair figure of the primitive home and hearth, Who as she plied the distaff,In a sweet voice and low,Still sang of great old houses,And fights fought long ago.And in countries where the



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NOTES FROM THE HISTORY OF TEXTILES 5_pressure of modern times is least felt : in the pastoral landsof the Orient, in the poor Italian villages, in the mountain-ous districts of Spain, the original types of these spinnersare still preserved. As an example, one may recall thehuts scattered about the ruins of the ancient Herculaneum,at the doors of which, on any bright day, there assemblegroups of spinninuring the flaxen tE women, from the blooming girl meas-reads which are to be woven into thehousehold linen of her marriagemother, sinister, scarred, seame rtion, to the aged8 and-: in every line and eaturea replica of Michelangelos spinning Fate.In passing, one simple fact re-ardingH these humble workers is to be emphatically noted.t would seem at first that their existence and interestswere a nameless part of that ephemeral, inconscient lifewhich Nature scatters with apparent carelessness through-out that favored and lovely region. But upon examina-tion, the thoughtful observer discovers that their labor isreally significant; since with appliances differing little, ornot at all from those in use in Homeric times, with nolabor-problem confronting them except that of satisfyingtheir personal needs, they produce fabrics perfect of theirkind : thoroughly honest in material, strong in texture,made not to sell and to consume, but rather to use and tokeep. Gradually, these observations of fact resolve them-selves into an argument for economic reform : that is, areturn to simplicity in method, the abolition of over-com-plicated mechanical contrivances, and, above all, the liber-ation of the craftsman from his present condition of servi-tude, which results from dividing the steps of manufactureinto parts so insignificant that no one workman may besaid to possess his trade ; from robbing the humawarz&n2of his individuality by undul increasing themultiplying the functions of tIIe machine ; by b ghtinimagination of the laborer in forcing him tYtheconstan y toconsider a part rather than the whole of the plan uponwhich he is engaged, and by depriving him of that keen,



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6 NOTES FROM THE HlSTORY OF TEXTILESexquisite pleasure which is derived from the sense of au-thorship,-a pleasure old as Creation itself, and re eatedwhenever an artificer looks upon his finished worR and sees that it iS good, whether that work be a world orapin. Returning from this moderndigression to our early spinners and weavers, we findthat their crafts were often carried over into the fine artsby distinguished women who recorded in their needlework the history which they, with their husbands andlovers, helped to make. Helen, the exciting cause of thefirst triumph of European civilization over Asiatic despot-ism is represented, in the Iliad, as engaged in embroideringthe combats of the Greeks and Trojans; the emotions ofAeneas, as he viewed the Carthaginian wall hangingswrought with the mat scenes of the Trojan War, areaamiliar to every SC 001 boy ; while two thousand yearslater, Queen Matilda and her maidens similar1the events of another turning-point in the worl cr picturedpreparing in the Ba s destiny:eux tapestry, through the medium ofa feminine art, an k torical document stronger, clearer,less susceptible of misconception than the words of theclerkly chroniclers who described the Norman Conquestof England, The crafts of spinning andweaving, which, as we have seen, long constituted atonce the distinctive labor and honor of woman, are plainlydependent upon agriculture. This fact, together with itslogical consequence-the interdependence of the sexes-has never, perhaps, been so well symbolized a ing upon an old sarcophagus in the Church of?!? a carv-aint JohnLateran, in Rome, wherein the Eternal Father is seen asthe Arbiter in the cause of Labor, giving to Adam an in-strument of tillage and to Eve a distaff and spindle. Fol-lowing this thought, it is interesting to study the primitiveindustries side by side; dividing the ancient world intosections, or belts, according to the animal or vegetable



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NOTES FROM THE HISTORY OF TEXTILES 7

products which furnish the raw material for the exerciseof the crafts of spinning and weaving. These same divi-sions practically hold good today, and in the first, we findmany of the most highly civilized portions of Asia, togetherwith Germany, Gaul, Italy and Spain : the raw materialbeing itself classified under the wool of sheep and beavers,the hair of camels and goats. In the Far East, we find avast region, whose people unknown to the Ind&ermanicnations, clothed themselves in silk. Along certain rivers,like the Nile and the Rhine, and always in low-lyinglands, the textile fabrics produced were varieties of linen.In larger tracts, north of the wool division of both Europeand Asia, hemp constituted the raw material furnished tothe feminine industry. Lastly, the great expanse of Indiaproduced, from immemorial times, the raw material, cot-ton, from which were spun light fabrics, the processes ofwhose manufacture were handed down intact from generation to generation, so maintaining an invariable stand-ard and quality. To thus distinguish the racesof men by differences in the material of their armentsseems at first an unusual and meaningless c !a racteri-zation. But upon second thought, the justice and fitnessof the scheme is quite apparent. The highest civilizationbelonged in antiquity and is still peculiar to the habitualwearers of sheeps wool. The mental qualities of theChinese and their similars, fine and exquisite, but ill-adapted to the practical work of the world, have theirparallel in the silk and tissues with which they delight toclothe themselves ; while a like comparison may be madebetween the Hindoo mind and the tenuous web of thekbriiwrry E in the regions where the doctrines of

U f lllinant. From each of the great divisionswhich we have indicated, it will not be without interest tonote a few facts regarding the raw material, the finishedfabrics and the means of cultivation, production and man-



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0 NOTES FROM THE HISTORY OF TEXTILESufacture there devised by human intelligence, In thisbrief survey, the elevated regions of Central Asia firstclaim attention as being, without doubt, the home of theprimitive stock of the entire race of domestic sheep, just asthey were the lands from whence migrated the parents ofthe modern European races of men. And the coincidenceis not accidental, as the management and use of sheephave, from the beginninH of histofeature in the condition 0 man. formed a strikingTXt these animals arenot natives of Europe is presumed from the fact that theirremains have never been identified among the bones ofquadrupeds found in ancient caves in any portion of thecontinent. The wool reduced in the coun-tries of the Orient was utilized in z e densely populatedterritolzl at the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean,espec y by the Phoenicians, whose intelligence and enter-prise as craftsmen and merchants have been paralleledonce only in histor -and that by the Florentines of theMiddle Ages. To txe great commercial and industrial citiesof the coast, like Tyre and Miletus, the wool-growers ofthe European districts beyond the Black Sea brouoducts, as well as did the shepherds of Asia.7 %?I

h\th;F erom the sixth century B. C., was most famous for its findsnow-white wool derived from shee reared in the interiorof Ionia, as may be learned from tKe Greek and Romanhistorians and poets, whose works teem with allusions toMilesian fleeces, carpets and shawls, much as modernwritings contain references to the fabrics of Cashmere andDelhi. To recline on Milesian fleeces was the ancientparallel of our own expression to lie on beds of down,and from our present knowledge of the art-crafts of classi-cal times we may believe that these fabrics merited thepraise bestowed upon them. The lovely Ionian city,as Theocritus names Miletus, in his idyl, The Distaff,also became the mother of a colony which, planted in adistrict of the country now called Circassia, attained a rank



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in the manufacture of textile fabrics second onIy to that ofits metropolitan city : gradually obtaining trading relationswith tribes representing several hundred differing speeches,and bringin8 into close and peaceful contact the most re-fined and e most uncultured peoples, From this oneinstance, therefore, is apparent the value of the crafts ofspinning and weaving, not alone in the economic rolewhich they necessarily filI in the modern world, but, farmore, as civilizing agents of the first importance. And ifwe review in succession the peoples who have establishedand protected these industries, particularly when appliedto woolen manufactures, we sha.II find, in each case, thesame happ results; whether we recall the Netherlanderswho owe J to them their populous, wealthy towns, inwhich countless looms, busy for centuries, lapsed intoidleness only when wars and religious dissensions haddecimated the burghers; or yet again, if we instance therapid increase in wealth secured to England through theprotection of the wool industry by Edward III. and hisqueen, PhiIippa of Hainault, or if, finally, an example bemade of the Florentines who supplemented and improvedthe work of the wool crafts of the Netherlands, with a sosignal degree of success that a little people of artisans andshopkeepers rose to an almost controlling influence in thefinance and the diplomacy of the worldAgain returning to ancient his-tory, we find the Greek colonies of Lower ItaIthe finest white wool, sin&r to that of Isi producingiletus. Toassure this quality of product, the sheep were reared inthe huts of the shepherds, and were kept covered withskins, in order that the first delicacy and softness of thefleece might be retained in the adult creature. The ani-maIs not so treated were known under the name of haisheep, and from these came brown and reddish wooprobably identical MI-I the naturaIIy colored productswhich are often to-day employed in the weaving of Orien-tal rugs. The white wool was used in the fine, closely-



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10 NOTES FROM THE HISTORY OF TEXTILESwoven fabric from which were fashioned the togas of thecitizens, the creamy whiteness of which was jealouslyY

arded by their wearers. The brown and grayish pro-ucts were wrought into coarse textures which suppliedclothing for the populace : so making of Rome, especialIyin its densely-crowded artisan quarters, the sombre, grave,forbidding city so vividly described by Crawford in his Ave Roma.of the Em ire, As for the Western provincespoor texti es. The Germania of Tacitus notes an

they produced only indifferent wool andabundance of ffocks, to ether with an absence of &II insheep-breeding; whiIe ta e GalIic raw material, resemblinghair more closely than wool, furnished the stuff for thehooded garments which were used by the native people,and aIso exported to the capital, there to be worn by slavesand needy dependents, for a fence from wet, as appearsfrom a satire of Juvenal. In Britain, the people of Kent,who were of BeIgic origin, and more refined than theoriginal inhabitants, first acquired the arts of spinning andweaving, But, in the fourth Christian century, sheep-raising was actively pursued in all parts of the island, asmay be learned from a congratulatory address presentedto the emperor Constantine, upon his accession to powerat York ; in which document the writer describes thecountry as rich in an innumerable multitude of tameflocks, distended with milk and loaded with fleeces. Butover the western countries already mentioned Spain heldan undeniable advantage.duce a correspondin

Its varied surface came to pro-the Iar er animals variety in the breeds of sheep, fromof the gher mountains.B the richer plains to the smaller racesFurthermore, the course of his-tory as developed in the peninsula co-operated favorablywith the physical qualities of the country. The races ofths wool-bearinand modified by t animals were advantageously crossedesuccessive introduction of distinguishedand differing species : first, from Asia, by the very early



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Phoenician colonies in the region of the modern Cadiz;secondly, from Africa bbrief possession in the the Carthaginians, during theirtiiird century B, C.; thirdly, fromItaly by the Romans, during their dominion of six hundredyears ; lastly, again from Africa by the Moors who main-tained a foothold in the country for nearly eight centuries.The various species, modified by crossings, climatic influ-ences and food, finally resulted in the large, long-wooledsheep of the plains often naturally colored brown or black ;the mountain sheep with fleeces of widely differing fine-ness and color; among these the merinoes, which held thefirst rank in all Europe until the high development in ourown day of the sheep of Saxony and Silesia.To separate the history of thecrafts of spinning and weaving from that of the raw ma-terials upon which they are exercised, is a difficult task ;especially if the consideration be not limited strictly to thepresent day, when the means of transportation are so manyand ra d that amaterialproduced in any givencountry maybe tlEl2 ed at the antipodes without serious loss of time.Therefore, it will be well to note things of special interest,as they occur in the history of the same crafts applied tomaterials other than wool ; afterward, to gather an idea ofthe factory system as developed in the eighteenth andmodified in the nineteenth, and as probably about to be-come in the twentieth; finally to note the evolution of thecraftsman with a view of understanding and furtheringthat which makes for the welfare of those who, togetherwith the tillers of the soil, form the class most of allnecessary to the continuance ofof human life itself : a truth w overnment, of society andBich was recognized agesbefore the birth of political science; when Plato conceivedhis ideal republic, with the artisans in the commonwealthcorresponding to the primitive passions in man ; and whenRome gave to the same class the significant name of pro-Zeta%, that is, the class necessary to the State for the production of offspring.



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In accordance with the plan in-dicated, the silk industry should next claim attention, Therearing of silk worms and the use of the filaments com-posing their cocoons for the making of costly fabrics werefirst practised in Oriental lands, India, Persia and China(as we now know) being most skilful in these processes.In the last named country, the tradition of the silk cultureis carried back into the mythological period, and is co-aevalwith the origin of agriculture itself. The two pursuits,husbandry and silk-manufacture, form the subject ofone of the revered and ancient Sixteen Discourses to thePeoplert And it is there observed that from ancienttimes the Son of Heaven (the Emplough ; while the Empress planted tr ror) directed thee mulberry tree ; and that these exalted personages, not above the racticeof labor and exertion, constantly offered an examp e to allmen, with a view of leading the millions of their subjectsto be faithful to their essential interests,From India, as it is belie&dupon the authority of a court historian of the ByzantineEm p e, silk-worms were secretly brought to Constanti-nop e in the sixth century A. D., the worms being con-cealed in the hollow staves of two commercially inclinedmonks, The same historian (Procopius) relates in hissecret history, which is the contrast of his official annals,the story of the ruin of the silk industry and trade in Con-stantinople and Tyre, through the eed

Pand blindness ofthe government.iir&b The Emperor ustinian, actuated at

Ka praiseworthy economic impulse, succeeded,

free o the excessive charges demandedthe aid of the monks, in securin i; raw materialmonopolists. y the PersianHe fostered the breeding of silk-worms, and,consequently, the culture of the mulberry tree, Then,having benefited his subjects by the development of anattractive and lucrative industry, he proceeded, like manya modern official, to deflect the rofits of the great enter-prise from public channels to s personal enrichment,



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By a series of tyrannical acts directed alike against themanufacturers and the merchants of silk fabrics, he effectedthat the industry should be thereafter conducted solely bythe Imperial Treasury ; thus apparently protecting the in-terests of the trade, while he resorted to the basest meansof causing its ruin, His schemes were favored and ad-vanced by two accomplices of power and great subtletone being the imperial treasurer himself; the other, tK:eEmpress Theodora, who often reverted from the rincelyrole, which she tried so hard to assume, to the ow, im-moral instincts of the class and profession from which shehad been elevated through the caprice and infatuation ofthe emperor. From the eastern shores of theMediterranean, the silk industry spread into Greece; towhich country the breeding of the worms and largely themanufacture of the fabric were confined, until the middleof the twelfth century. At that time, the king of Sicily,having seized Corinth, Thebes and Athens, gained con-trol of a large number of silk-weavers, whom he trans-ported, with the apparatus and materials necessary for thepractice of their craft, to Palermo, where he forced themto reside. From Sicily the industry was extended toSpainand to all parts of Italy ; the first manufactory in thelatter country being probably the one established in theTuscan town of Lucca. There, the weavers, obedient toan impulse always peculiar to their craft, agitated politicaland economic questions incident to the time, and, for thereward of their pains, were ejected from the city, in theearly years of the fourteenth century. Dispersing, theycarried their art to Venice, Florence, Bologna and Milan,in all of which towns it is yet to-day more or less active.Always interesting to observe, the industry is more thanusually attractive, as it is practised in the Lombard Plain.There, nature really just i f ies the expression : a smilinlandscape, for, as it appears in early June, sunlight, soRcolor, and picturesque objects combine to make a whole



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14 NOTES FROM THE HISTORY OF TEXTILESenchanting to the traveller who, for the first time, visitsthis region of. exquisite beauty. In the vicinity of Milan,as one approaches that city by the Lombard-Venetianrailway, from the east, as far as the eye can reach, thereIies an expanse of young verdure, suggesting by its inde-finable and yet very evident uality the words of Carducci :The divine green siIence o the plain.f The rice-fields,with their tender plants of short growth, are tended bycomely peasant-women who stoop gracefully to their task.Then, far and near, stretch Iines of the famous popIarswhich received their name from this district of Italy, andwhich are still garIanded with vines, in accordance withthe practices of husbandry prevailing in the times of thepoet Horace. Thickly scattered among the tall poplars,are short over-spreading trees bearing broad tri-lobedleaves not unlike those of the gra -vine, massed in aheavy crown. Amid this dense fo age, a man is oftenYeseen standing at the junction of the trunk and limbs of thetree, and carrying a large open bag, much Iike that of apostman and worn in the same way. In his right hand, hegraspsa knifewhich hemanageswithshort decisive strokes :at each one severing a number of leaves which, directedby his motion, fall into the open receptacle. The tree isa mulberry, and the leaves are destined to feed the silk-worms, of which there are extensive cultures in the vicin-ity and suburbs of Milan,a Iar The city proper also possessese artisan class employed in silk manufacture, andprou$ of its historic past; since these craftsmen, turbulentand revolutionary, accordin to the traditions of spinnersand weavers, fought in a e insurrections against the%ranny of Austria, when that power held Lombardy, att e middle of the nineteenth century, and thus made them-selves a factor not without importance in the cause ofItalian unity. The beauty of the Milanese manufacturesin silk is too well known to warrant comment, but thecolor-note lent to the aspect of the city through the dis-play of exquisitely tinted fabrics forms a distinctive mem-



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ory in the mind of the traveler,-and one not unworthyto be associated with the great white cathedral and theScala theatre. In the history of the development of silk manufacture, France naturally follows closelyupon Italy. As a consequence of the French expeditionsinto the peninsula, during the wars of the fifteenth cen-tury, white mulberry trees were extensively planted in thevalley of the lower Rhone. The culture was afterwardcarried throughout France, the gardens of the Tuileriesin Paris alone receiving from fifteen to twenty thousandplants. But it was under the administration of Colbert,the brilliant, far-seeing minister of Louis Fourteenth, thatthe silk manufacture, together with the other great indus-tries of modern France, received the impetus which it hasnever yet lost. Today, the trees producinfood of the silkworm are found F the necessaryming ed with olivegroves, throughout the Southern provinces, and follow-ing the course of the Rhone as far northward as Lyons.Again, in this city-as famous in modern times for itsbeautiful, costly silk manufactures as were Venice andFlorence in the Middle Ages-we find the spinners andweavers restless under authority, and even madly anar-chistic. The traveler having mounted to the site of theRoman forum, and overlooking the panorama of the citywith its two historic rivers and its picturesque quays, isturned by his guide toward a densely populated, squalidquarter, designated as La Croix Rouge, which is thebreeding-place of plots against governments, sovereignsand capital. These lodgings and wine-shops harboredthe group who sent forth the assassin of President Car-not, in 1894, and they today teem with the similars ofBresci and Czolgosz. Thus the craftsmen of Milan, ofLyons and of our own Patterson spin their fatal webswhich reach over the Alps and across the Atlantic ; mer-cilessly involving their victims, and indifferent to the perilthat they may be caught in their own toils.



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16 NOTES FROM THE HISTORY OF TEXTILESPassing from the history of the

silk to that of the cotton industry, we find that the latter,as a great modern English and American enterprise, isbest treated in connection with the rise of the FactorySystem, But a few points of antiquarian interest may berapidly noted. This industry has always been charac-teristic of India, and the father of profane history, Herodo-tus, quaintly records that the Indian trees bear fleeces astheir fruit, surpassing those of the sheep in excellence andbeauty. Tents or awnings of cotton, in the Augustanage, protected the Roman Forum from the rays of the sun,in order that the persons engasuffer sun-stroke. In the Mid di ed in lawsuits might note Ages, the beauty of In-dian cotton fabrics excited the admiration of the Venetianand Portuguese navigators, and on the discovery of theNew World, cotton was found to be the principal cloth-ing material of the Mexicans. In India, the cotton manu-facture is not confined to a few larIt is universal, and the growth Be towns or districts.o the raw material isnearly as general as the production of food. Everywherethe women spend a portion of their time in spinning, andalmost every village contains its weavers who supply theinhabitants with the scanty clothing required. Being adomestic manufacture conducted with the most primitivea paratus, it demands neither capital, mills, nor an assem-b%ge of various crafts. But the methods employed areworthy of attention, as being triumphs of patience andskill. The yarn spun by the dextrous use of finger andthumb, imbibes, during this process, a degree of warmmoisture which incorporates the separate threads moreperfectly than can be done by any mechanical means.The fine finish and the durability thus assured have givenrise to a popular belief in the superior merits of Indiancotton, which, however, being subjected to scientific ex-amination, is proven the inferior of the best grades pro-duced in the United States. So that all praise is due tothe spinner who, in her own way, equals the manual



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dexterity of the Hindoo weaver, whose acuteness of touch,flexibility of fin er, and hereditary instinct (by caste-lawshe is bound to tae occupation of his ancestors) give him anunique place among his fellow craftsmen throughout theworld. And this in spite of little or no aid from science,and in an almost barbarous condition of the mechanicalarts. In view of the beauty and thesmall cost of Indian cotton fabrics, a period occurred whenthe manufacturers of all European countries were fearfulof ruin through competition. In the seventeenth century,the Dutch and English East India Companies importedthese fabrics in lar e quantities; while the self-deceivedpatriots and aamp eteers of the day made their moanagainst the ruin of home industries. In the year 1678, apamphlet was issued in England under the title : TheAncient Trades Decathe author bewailed tKed and Repaired Again, in whiche interference of the imported cot-tons with the home manufactures of woolens ; recommend-ing that a very high impost be placed upon the formerarticles. The same writer favored the prohibition ofstage coaches, on the ground of the injury which theydid to the hosts of the wayside inns, by conveying trav-elers too quickly to their places of destination, and at tooslight expense to themselves. From these two instancesmay be gathered an estimate of the economic sentimentand knowledge of the period, which, after all, differ onlyin degree from many actually existing prejudices. At theperiod mentioned, even so sagacious and far-sighted anauthor as Daniel Defoe did not escape the general errorthat it was not merely injurious to the En lish woolenand silk industries, but also a nafional &i H to obtainclothing cheaply from abroad, rather than to manufactureit expensively at home. This opinion expressed inThe Weekly Review edited by the author of RobinsonCrusoe, compares very unfavorably with many opinionsupon trade, credit and currency, which are contained in



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18 NOTES FROM THE HISTORY OF TEXTILESthe same periodical, and have a distinct flavor of moderneconomic thought. Furthermore, in extenuation of Defoesillogical reasoning, it is but just to say that they reflectednot on1r the popular sentiment, but also the governmentalideas o the time ; since, in the year 1700, nearly a decadebefore the utterance quoted from The Weeklan act of William III. prohibited the J Review,intro uction intoEngland of Indian calicoes, muslins and silks for domesticuse, either as apparel or as furniture, under atwo hundred pounds sterling to belevied upon tRenalty ofe weareror the seller. As we know, the English woolen industriessurvived the perils occasioned through the influence ofthe East India Company. The g sustained also the farmore formidable competition of t e home cotton manufac-tures, when it was gradually forced upon them towardthe beginning of the nineteenth century. The makin offine muslin was attempted in both Lancashire anf atGlasgow, about the year 1780, with weft spun upon thejenny ; but the attemptthe yarn employed. failed, owing to the coarseness ofWhen, however, the mule wasbrought into general use, a few years later, both weft andwar Kwere produced sufficiently fine for muslins, And souicP, ly did the weaver profit by the improved quality oft e yarn, that no less than five hundred thousand piecesof muslin were manufactured in Great Britain in 1787.Simultaneously with the rise ofthe English cotton industry, the Indian craft declined, un-til, in 1831, the manufacturers of Bengal presented a peti-tion to His Majestys Trade Council, in which documentthey set forth the ruin of the home industry and pra edfor relief from the excessive imposts levied upon their abtics in Great Britain ; alleging the injustice of fixing cus-toms duties upon the Indian fabrics, while the cotton clothof English manufacture was admitted into their ownprovince free of taxation. From this time, therefore, as acommercial enterprise, the Indian manufacture graduallyfailed. But as a fine-art craft and a village industry, it



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can never cease to exist, as long as the Hindoo hand re-tains its cunning, the Indian trees bear their fleeces, andeach separate hamlet seeks toarticles of use and consumption. supply its own necessaryThere now remains to be men-tioned but one other raw material : flax, which is largelyemployed in the crafts of spinning and weaving, Its useis most ancient, since it appears in the hieroglyphs, isfound in the swathing-bands of the mummies, and fur-nished the substance of the textile from which were fash-ioned the garments of the priests of the great oddess Isisin E t.Yp It best flourishes, as has been aE eady men-tione , along water-courses and in low-lying lands: por-tions of Russia, the Netherlands, Northern and SouthernFrance, and certain localities of England being especiallyadapted to its production. Its manufactured product,linen, constitutes an important branch of industry andtrade in England and Ireland, which can be included inthe notes upon the factory system now to follow.This schemeof labor, althoughlargely a growth of the eighteenth century, and a conse-quence of the application of machinery and steam powerto industry, was not unknown in the ancient civilizations,where we find the factory under the disguise of the slave-shop. In the Middle Ages, the factory system may besaid to have developed with the ilds, since it is recog-nized in the constitution of the worf shop, with its master-craftsman, its journeymen and apprentices. But the firstfactory, in the modern sense, was one established for theproduction of silk fabrics, by Sir Thomas Lombe, in Der-byshire, in 1719, Throughout the eighteenth cen-tury the system extended itself, through the localizationof certain great industries; the separate processes of agiven manufacture, which formerly had been conductedas domestic labor, being brought together and carried onin buildings adapted to the purpose. In these places of



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torture were now gathered men, women and children,who worked the longest hours possible with the mostmeagre wages, and under the worst conditions of sanita-tion and morality. These were the days of absoluteIdssez-faire, when the free competition of individualswas carried to its limit, No factory laws existed and thecondition of the employed depended solely upon the dispsition and temper of the employer. The laborers of Eng-land were as wretched and hopeless as in the reign ofEdward Third, and no Black Death came to lighten theirmisery by halving their numbers. They worked likeanimals, being, in truth, yoked to machines, and theywere housed worse than their brothers of the stable andthe stye. As time passed, women operatives replacedmen, wherever such substitution was possible, and chil-dren women ; such measures assuring a large increase ofprofits to the capitalists. Pens were established on thebanks of canals, in which boys and girls were collectedfrom the scattered cottages, country alms-houses and townstreets. They were seized by force and whipped by thebargemen to the very doors of the merciless mills. In-fants of five years were allowed to work in cotton facto-ries, from five oclock in the morning until eight at night,and children of eleven were confined throughout the work-ing-day in bleacheries, in an atmosphere averaging onehundred twenty degrees. In addition to this severe laborwhich they accomplished under the most aggravatingconditions, they often waIked a distance of twenty milesa dachildy

, to and from the factory, and many records exist ofren too young to be trusted alone, who were literallydriven by their mothers, at the dead of night, to begintheir hours of torture. The rising industrial system soconducted, occasioned the most unhappy results for Eng-land. In the closing years of the eighteenth century, halfthe children born in the manufacturing centers died beforearriving at maturity, and those whose tenure of Iife was



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the strongest, were phentrance upon the r ea?

sically exhausted long before theirduties of life, There followed anotable decrease in the height of the adult population andindications of degeneracy caused the rejection of largenumbers of recruits offering themselves for the army andnavy* Indeed the condition of the working classesthroughout Great Britain durineighteenth and the early years oH the latter part of thethe nineteenth centurywould be incredible, were it not well attested by the mostreliable witnesses,

But in the economy of Provi-dence an evil is notcompetition of indivi8 rmitted to be lasting. The freeuals was found to be most harmfulin its results upon the people. The great questions arose:Has the Government the right of interference ? Shallsociety suffer that individuals may profit ? Shall the nextand succeeding enerations be weakened that privateestates may be e -L rged ? These momentous questionsoppressing the public mind, were first agitated in Parlia-ment by Sir Robert Peel, himself a master manufacturer,who had risen to wealth, power and station through thenew system of labor. He was therefore fitted by an ex-perience to understand the evils which he chose to com-bat and his Bill, presented in 1802, had for its object tointerfere legally with the natural tendencies of unrestrictedcompetition in the labor of human beings.. It was en-titled : An act for the preservation ofthe health and morals of apprentices and others employedin the cotton and other factories.This bill was the forerunner oflater and more comprehensive Factory Acts, introducedin successive Parliaments by Sir Robert Peel and the fol-lowers of his initial step. From time to time, the work-ing classes obtained new concessions and a larger freedom,until in 1878, the laws regulating the terms of their em-



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ployment were thoroughly codified, the workman beingthereby given the widest freedom and the employe re-stricted within the narrowest limits of personal power con-sistent with the spirit of the times.To the name of Sir RobertPeel must be joined that of Robert Owen, the apostle offactory reform. He was like the great parliamentarian, aman skilled in economic and philanthropic questions. Buthis wisdom came from his first experience as a workman,rather than from that of his successful later life ; for begin-ning as a child cotton-spinner, he rose, at the age of nine-teen, to be the overseer of five hundred operatives. Andalthough the manufacturer, his employer, was a man notunkind to his workman, yet the system so overpoweredindividual will and effort that the evils were almost intol-erable. When the young Owen had made himself theablest member of his craft in the Limited Kingdom andained acknowledgment of his great administrative ability,Ke turned to remedy the abuses whose enormity he hadlearned to understand during his experience as a childlaborer. He consecrated his mature wers and hisChrist-like sympathy to rescue English c dren who hadknown no cradle but the hut or the cellar, and who, ex-cept for him, could have looked forward to no rest on thehither side of the grave. The spirit of Robert Owenwalked abroad, stirring alike Parliament, economists, peaple, and, at last, mingling with the new English art.MiIlais and Holman Hunt of the Pre-Raphaelite Brother-hood, each condensed within the narrow limits of a can-vas the story of the Divine Carpenter ; giving it a modernsignificance which compelled attention, even though it ex-cited the ridicule and scorn of the critics and LondonThe earlier of the two pictures was that of Mif-L?,e$ho named his book: Christ in the house of hisparents, a title which was often than ed into that ofThe Carpenters Shop. At the time of its first exhibi-tion, a critic, in Charles Dickens Household Words,



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wrote of it a detailed description which is a grim com-mentary on the then attitude of London toward its poor.The critic condemns the picture as mean, odious, repul-sive, revolting ; as reminiscent of the gin-palace, the hos-pital and the East End. Today, no journalist woulddare so to express himself, for the claims of Whitechapelto consideration, pity and assistance are broadly recog-nized. And Millais, like Robert Owen, pleaded the causeof the child-laborer, when he showed the little Christ inthe company of the older, distressed and besotted ca n-ters, with his hand sorely wounded by his tools, see aid from his parents. gAnother phase of the same subjectwas treated in the second picture : HoIman HuntsShadow of the Cross, in which the interior of the car-penters shop is again displayed. This time, the innocentvictim of society is represented as a mature man, with hisfoot treading a Ionlength across the H serpent-like shaving which trails itsloor, and his arms stretched out inweariness, projecting the shadow of the Cross: that othername for the daily crucifixion of toil.In our own day of science-social as well as physical-the rights of the workman tothe free gifts of nature are recognized. Darkness, dirt,sewage and smoke are no longer regarded as the fit envi-ronment of the laborer, and the time of his liberation fromthe town of weary, sickly drudges, immersed in dust andgerms is near at hand. Science, in the form of free sani-tation, good food, pleasurable thought and recreation, is tolead him back to nature.

The factory system, with all itscrying abuses, is now seen to have been a necessary stepin social evolution. Indeed, it has been characterized byMr. Carroll Wright, the United States Commissioner ofLazznas far in advance of any previous system of pro-, . The evils of the earlier days hebelieves to have been the results of labor which had be-



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REVIVAL of ENGLISH HANDICRAFTS 8The Haslemere Industries

Moderncivilizationprides itselfon its powermachineryand devicesfor savinglabor andincreasingproduction .Our owncountryleads theworld in thisclass of in-ventive abil-ity. It is pleasant, therefore, to those who have fearedthat the hand might forget its cunning, to know that inthe very midst of this busy factory life there are placeswhere the old handicrafts of long ago are being re-established. Quietly, through England, Ire-land, Scotland and Wales, such crafts are getting a firmfoothold, The advent of machinery and steam had wellnigh crushed them out, but in far quarters almost inacces-sible to the busy manufacturing centers and dependent ontheir own resources, the spinning wheel, the loom, the

simple tool had never ceased, and were ready to be calledinto active work again, For thirty ears this revival hasbeen slowly gaining force, Gradu,JTy a keen desire for ageneral renewal of the ancient handicrafts was felt.



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26 REVIVAL OF ENGLISH HANDICRAFTS

Through the length and breadth of the British Isles, insmall hamlets, in parish rooms, in distant lonely cottages,and even in great rushin London and Birmin ham thehand began again to wora with the old time tooE .Many interests united in thisimpetus toward handwork. Ruskin, Morris, Burne-Jones, and others, used their efforts for an art upliftingand joyful, where hand, heart and mind would work to-Bether; earnest women of the highest rank gave their in-Iuence to the movement to hel increase the incomes oftheir poor tenantry ; social worKers called for handicraftsthat the people might keep happy and employed in thehome villages and not rush into the crowded cities ; phil-anthro ists saw herein the opportunity of giving the bless-ing of !a ppy work to the lame, the blind, the aged whoare obliged to pass the weary hours idly.So widespread was the move-ment that a combined action of all of these workers wasfelt advisable, and about eighteen years ago the HomeAh and Industries Association was formed with itsheadquarters at Albert Hall, London. In this interestingAssociation are banded together handworkers of evedescription and aim. Itmaybebutaclassofafewli ezychildren making baskets in some lonely parish, or it maybe an industry with its work placed on a businesslike foot-ing, which asks for patronage not on account of the needsof infirmities of the workers but for the intrinsic value ofthe product. All are united, however, from the least tothe greatest in creating hi her ideals in the pe le, inmaking good conditions of ziabor, and in bringingf$ness through interesting, useful handwork. ppi-It is to the class known in theHome Arts and Industries Association as a developedindustry (regularly competing in the open market) thatthe Weawing and Tapesfry Houses of Haslemere belong.A more ideal setting for a vi&lage industry, whose avowed purpose is to make good



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REVIVAL OF ENGLISH HANDICRAFTS 27hand-made materials under ideal conditions, could scarcelybe found, In the southwest corner of Surrey, in a deevalley between wooded cliffs, is the little town whit Rstraggles picturesquely in winding lanes like wanderingvines up the steep slopes. In summer, in the near dis-tance, the eye traverses stretches yellow with orse andbroom, and purple with heather u to the high, & rk rid eof Hindhead. On the top stands gh against the skyi 8 ecross which marks Gibbet Hall, where the execution of asailors murderers once took place. Below the cross is aromantic lonely hollow called the Devils Punch Bowl,around whose rim Smike and Nicholas Nickleby, as theywere going from London to Portsmouth to seek theirfortune, walked and read the description of the sailorsmurder.is artistic and literary. The atmosphere of HaslemereHere George Eliot lived on theShotter Mill way, Tyndall built high on Hindhead andTennysons home looked out on the Blackdown, Artistsand writers still gather here.The village keeps its mediaevala pearance.sf!an Th e cotta es of the people are low withting tiled roofs. T!&se ancient hand-made t&s ofmany varieties are well known to architects and anti ua-rians. The lanes are often so steep that the sidewa & isonly on one side, while a high, abrupt cliff rises on theother. The sidewalk gradually ascends above the road-way and the cottages open on the sidewalk with a steepstaircase descendin to the road. This gives a curiousand picturesque ef7 ct to the old stone cottages and thehalf timber houses with their overhan ing stories. Theworkers in the Haslemere Industries ve in such homesas these, surrounded from birth with charming nature andthe simple artistic handwork of man.In only one instance does Hasle-mere leave its quaint, old-time life and become an uglymodern business village, From the railroad station deep



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28 REVIVAL OF ENGLISH HANDICRAFTS

in the valley to the quaint little Weaving House modernfactory conditions seem to struggle for a footing. FoundryRoad is a paved street with work shops, stores and work-ing mens houses crowding one another to ether.the road begins to rise out of the narrow va Wheney, the Weav-ing House and its close companion, the Tapestry House,stand as if to utter a protest and block the way againstthe farther march of ugliness. Beyond them the openvalley stretches, the wooded hills show winding paths andthe birds sing in meadow and copse.

In front of the Industries the roadslopes upward, so that the buildings are partly below thelevel. Bridges swing across from the road to the secondstories, and steps lead down to the ground floors of thebuildings. From the open windows of theWeaving House the steady click and thud of the loomsand the whirr of the wheels are heard by passers-by. Asign hangs over the gate on the bridge bearing the name:Haslemere Weaving Industry, and below, a placardbids visitors welcome. More than eight years a othese industries were started that the village girls miga thave happy employment and remain in the fresh whole-some village life instead of drifting to London. It wasfelt by the public spirited founder, Joseph King, whosehome was in their midst, that beautiful hand-made ma-terials were needed and would have purchasers if theopportunity were offered. His confidence was justified.E?nnda small beginning the industries are now wellTwo workshops of two stories each, simple,attract&e, adequate to the needs, are filled with happy,appreciative workers. The designer for both houses isMr. Godfrey Blount, a well known artist. His wife isthe inspiring director of the Tapestry House. TheWeaving House is also under a capable manager, whogoes in and out among her corps of workers, advising, di-



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REVIVAL OF~NGLISH HANDICRAFTS 29

recting, assisting-sometimes at the spinnin wheel, againat the loom over some intricate pattern L ch must beworked in by the hand rather than by the shuttle,Each day has its visitors whohave heard of the rare linen and cotton fabrics, and haveoften come long distances to see them. At such timesthe workroom is a low with color, for out from deepcarved chests and rom high old presses are taken thegwoven stuffs, delightful in texture and harmonious incolor, and hung up or thrown over tables. The ma-terials are aII handwoven and sometimes handspun.They are used for many purposes-hangings, table andsideboard covers, dress goods, etc, A revival of a beau-tiful old Scandinavian craft is seen in the pattern weav-inA6 , and sim Ier desiCL Rns are made with treadle weaving.have a stmct c aracter of design which belongs tothe Haslemere Industries. The viIIage ls can be seenat the looms making like materials, ?g e warm coloredwalls and sloping ceiling make a constant sunshinewithin, Soft green window draperies obscure the toobriIIiant afternoon right which pours through the largewindows. The cheerful, healthful work-rooms, the mediaeval furniture of chests, presses, wheels,reels and looms, the bold fine colorinwhite aproned village workers. and t of the stuffs, thee wide stretchinmeadows and steep hi& of fair Surrey, as seen througathe windows, are a pleasant picture of labor under idealconditions. The first floor of the WeavingHouse is used princiP y for the preparation of the w .Here the village @r are at work at spinning wheez ,spooling jacks, warping miII and warping frame.The Tapest r House beyondhas tapestry and rug looms on its first f oor. Wool rugswith harmonious designs and colorings are a specialty of



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30 REVIVAL OF ENGLISH HANDICRAFTSthis branch of the industry. Great stores of soft coloredvegetable-dyed wools line the shelves on the walls.Welsh and Scotch cottages supply much of this material.The second floor of the Tapes-try House is devoted to peasant tapestry, a rich Iinenapplique work suitable for wall hangings and ceremonialuses, as weII as for enriching materials for home decors-tion. This is Iike its sister, the weaving room, in itscolorin .

fOn the upper side walk Mr. Blount haswroug t in gesso with his own hands fine characteristic

designs, On shelves stand German and English hand-made pottery picked up by Mr. BIount in his journeysamong peasant home workers. Rugs and applique em-bwoo rich with traditional design, hang on the lower. The same workers continueyear after year.preciation of it. They have pride in their work and ap-As yet they do not carry out their owndesigns, though Mr. Blount would desire this if possible.The spirit of the workrooms ishappy, helpful, natural and industrious. Rush and worryare never present. Haslemere materials are to be foundin use in the homes of the workers, showing their lovefor their handicraft. The industries are self-support-ing, though not yielding heavy revenues. The wagesare not large, but, as it costs less to live in Haslemerethan in London, the sum received is perhaps of equalvalue, The sales of material are continuous though not

extensive. They have increased in amount in proportionas the EngIish people have grown to appreciate the valueof handwoven stuffs. They find their market in Hasle-mere in the daily visitor, and in London at the PeasantArts Society, 8 Queens Road, Bayswater W.; the Gildof Handicraft, 9 Maddox St., Regent; the yearly springsale and exhibition of the Home Arts and Industries Ass*ciation, and also, at times, at Libertys.



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REVIVAL OF ENGLISH HANDICRAFTS 31

From the designer and hand-worker, Godfrey Blount, Haslemere receives the inspira-tion which gives these hand industries their unique char-acteristics. Believing that the redemption of art mustcome from workers who, with loving touch, decorate use-ful things-be it only simple articles of every-day use-Mr. Blount himself lends his hand in all parts of the work.He does not expect every village worker to become capa-ble of originating beautiful designs ; he feels the creativeimagination to be a rare gift. But he does successfullyendeavor to cultivate among his band of workers an ap-preciation and spontaneous imagination which will inspirethe hand to express itself in some way. That such workmay give opportunity for higher aims, he would haveKpils learn to draw and also to design. He would alsoave them study the traditions of art, not merely to copythe results, but to feel a sympathy with the spirit of artthat in their hearts they may realize anothers heart backof a design. His own loving study of thepast shows itself in his characteristic use of Coptic mo-tives in the materials and in his book, Arbor Vitae.He feels that the present revival of handicraft will meanlittle for art if it be but a philanthropic occupation for idlehours or a means of keepingIt must be the dawn of nob er conceptions of the charm ple from the public houses.of labor and of the unity of life. Workers everywheremust feel the happiness of impressing their own highestfeeling on the objects they are making.

The success of the HaslemereWeaving and Tapestry Houses is drawing other hand-workers to Haslemere. On the hills far back in the copsea wheel, warping frame and loom are at work in thehands of an artistic charming woman. Cheerily shemakes soft, clinginf cotton and linen materials in E rewhite or with the elicate coloring of pale sunset s es,such fabrics as the Greek matron would have delighted to



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32 REVIVAL OF ENGLISH HANDICRAFTSuse for chifon or &OS, or with which the Churchcould deck its altars. On a high terrace looking downon Haslemere a small kiln has been built. Anotherworker, long connected with one of the noted potteriesin Southern England, is now working out his own de-signs on hand-made tiles.artist and designer of Across the narrow valley, anple little building. long experience has secured a sim-During the summer Mr. Hooper wasbusily at work putting hand looms in place and settingup the mysterious cobwebs of the Jacquard harness. Bythis time exquisite brocades with wonderful designs car-ried out in pure silk and threads of precious metals arecoming from the little shop.These hand industries of Hasle-mere seem to rophesy a new birth of art. ThroughoutGreat Britain Klike crafts. undreds of villages are quietly working atCottages once poor and dismal are becomingprosperous and happy. In America, too, we have a fewsuch garden spots where the hand is employed in noblework. Deerfield and other places are raising in us theappreciation of true workmanship, for, in the words ofthe Duchess of Sutherland, who has worked successfullyin the far Northern Highlands and Islands of Scotland forthe return of the old handicrafts,

Mens eyes see again,Mens minds live again,Mens hands fashion again.



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THE LIFE HISTORY OF A DESIGN

I is most usuaI to consider decorative art from theaesthetic point of view; but it may, with profit, betreated by the biologist; for aII delineations used as orna-ment have an individuality and life-history which are in-teresting and valuable, independently from their artisticmerit. The lotus-border, the Greek egg and dart mould-ing, the aIligator derivatives of Oriental text&s may bestudied as so many specimens in natural history. Andrightl to understand and classify them they must be approa CK d with scientific methods. In biology, it is recog-nized that in order to seize and to understand the phenom-ena of life, the student must form a series: comparin thecomplex and highly developed animal with a lower orm,and this latter in turn with a stilI simpler and less special-ized or anism.the d The same means must be employed instu y of the arts of design, whenever their history andevolution become things of moment.tion adroitly conceals its source and A complex deIinea-oriwhich the investi Hin, to determineciaIized forms bat ator must follow its ess and less spe-Eward into barbaric art, and thence intosavage ornament, which is the anaIogue of the lowestforms of organic life, It is now recognized that biologists, ethnologists and art-critics may work side by sideand with reciprocaI profit; that science has broken ormade thin the waIIs stelIectuaI activity. arating the various divisions of in-Therefore, the term life-history, asappIied to a given example of ornament, wilI be acceptedwithout question, The Iife of a design, Iike that of ananimal or a plant, consists of three stages, or periods : in-fancy, maturity and old age, or, more simply, birth,growth and decay. It is never stationary ; but, Iike Iiv-ing things, undergoes a slow and constant change.It is true that the greater part ofartistic expression owes its origin to realism: the deIinea-



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34 THE LIFE HISTORY OF A DESIGNtor yielding to that desire to imitate which is among thestrongest impulses of human nature. The first represen-tation of an object, employed as ornament, is intended tobe true and suggestive; but especial1people, the delineation fails, because or among barbarouslack of skill in theartist, or the unsuitability of the materials employed.This first representation corresponds to the birth of a neworganism into the world of living things. As the animalor plant, immediately on birth, becomes subject to influ-ences which determine to a degree the course of its life ;so the design, which, although it can not lose the impressof the race and civilization which produced it, is et actedupon by forces which give it individuality, andyprovidefor, or arrest its development. Among these external in-fluences may be mentioned the following :Degeneration of the design through incompetentCopying~Conventional treatment for decorative purposes.Simplification through repeated copyin .Debasement resulting from an impe$ ect or per-vetted artistic instinct. For purposes of illustration, thelotus-design offers a most inviting study+ First of all, aword must be said regarding the division of ornament towhich it belongs. According to the terminolotl? adoptedby an eminent scholar, whose theories form e basis ofthe present article, it is a phyllomorph (plant-form), and,as such, Won s to a small class; inasmuch as plant-lifeis passive an 8 does not force itself so aggressively u nthe attention as do the forms of animals (zoomorp iE ).This explanation would account for the nature of objectsimitated by sava es in their ornament, which consistslargely of animal orms easily traceable to their source, ifthe conventions used by the designer be once apprehended.According to the same authority, plant-forms in ornamentare never adopted by those incapable of high civilization,and they are generally the sign of peoples already well



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THE LIFE HISTORY OF A DESIGN a5_advanced ; since to the inhabitants of cities, they are rem-iniscent, representing something lost and regretted: acherished part of the free life of nature. Finally, thoseplants into which a spiritual meaning can be read are bestable to establish themselves in decorative art. Thelotus was introduced by religion, established by sym-bolism and propagated by the habit and frequency of sight.In ancient Egypt, this flower was a sun-symbol andwas associated with the eagle and the hawk, which,among zoom0 hs (animal forms), typified the same nat-ural force. T% first relationship gradually led to othersin which the primitive symbol was absorbed and lost.So that the lotus became a well recolife, resurrection, reproductive force anP ized emblem ofimmortality. Itwas painted and carved for several thousand years in Egyptalone, and appeared as a decorative theme composed ofisolated flowers, rising straight and high upon their stems,as if these latter were issuin from their native element:the slimy ooze of the bed of t e Nile. This separation ofthe component elements of the design was a decorativefault, as a marked lack of unity resulted therefrom, mar-ring the otherwise beautiful and raceful pattern. It re-mained for another people, ski.lle in the making of tex-tiles, to remedy the defect by joining the stems of theflowers ; so giving to the design suggestions of a fringe.In connection with the lotus derivative, the Assyriansused another floral pattern, also borrowed from the Egyptians. This was the rosette so frequently employed eventoday in ceiling decorations in stucco, It was originallydrawn from the cross-section of the seed vessels of thelotus, and its union with the first design was a naturaland happy one. There are indeed authorities-amongwhom Layard, the archaeol ist and excavator-who claimoriginality for the Assyriangfi wer pattern ; asserting it tohave been conventionalized from the scarlet tulip which,at the be inning ofa sprin t blooms luxuriantly over theplains of esopotamia. B ut even allowing the truth of



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36 THE LIFE HISTORY OF A DESIGNt&s statement, it remains that the lotus motive overranAssyrian art ; whether it was accepted from the Nilecountry, or whether it found a pre-existing design uponwhich it could be engrafted. In comparing the flower de-sign as employed by the two peoples, a critic has thus ex-pressed himself : T h e Assyrians borrowedtheir motive from Egypt, but they gave it more thanEgyptian perfection. They gave it the definite shapesthat even Greece did not disdain to copy, In the Efrieze the cones (buds) and flowers are disjointeY

ptian; theirisolation is unsatisfactory both to the eye and the reason.In the Assyrian pattern, they are attached to a continuousundulating stem, whose sinuous lines add greatly to theelegance of the composition.The textile skill of the Assyriansalready mentioned as a cause of their success in the flowermotive, is plainly reflected in the examples discovered bySir Henry Layard in the Ninevite palaces, In one ofthese there is a repeated and ndantvariation from the flower; a iY disc or sphere, as anected by a single cord, which a the pendants being con-into loops by their weight. pears as if it were drawne, he flower-motive thus,among the two earliest artistic peoples, took, with each, adistinct form resulting from natural causes. In the Egyp-tian temple-which represented the world-the lower por-tions of the walls were adorned with long stems of lotus,or papyrus-bouquets of water-plants emerging from thegreat river, The Assyrian desi

fluenced by the textile idea, an dpn, on the contrary, in-suggesting a tasseledfringe, is never without a looped base line and is pendantrather than upright. It no lonwith its water-plants, but rata er recalls the river countryerOrient, the wide plains of thea ainst whose fierce heat the tent, canopy andcurtain o fered a grateful protection. To illustrate therich, decorative effect of these early systems of ornament,no better example can be found than the picture of Sir



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THE LIFE HISTORY OF A DESIGN 37

Edward Poynter, representing The ueen of Sheba atthe court of King Solomon, in which % e lotus derivativeand the rosette cover wall and ceiling and balustrade toform a bewildering maze of graceful form and brilliantcolor. From Assyrian ornament, theflower-pattern xa ssed into Greece through the medium ofthe islands of e Archipelago, especially Cyprus, whosepeople were both artistic and commercial, The Greekdecorators appropriated the design, as modified in MiddleAsia ; that is, with the flowers represented as partly fadedand with curling sepals. Architects, painters and potterswere content to returies, with but reduce this one design for many cen-s ght variations ; thus showing, as acritic has remarked, a decorative conservatism in markedcontrast to the mental unrest of the Greeks, which wasalways seeking new things. Under the false name of thehoneysuckle pattern, the Greek form is familiar to everygrammar-school pupil: and no eye, however artisticallyuntrained, can fail to recognize the parent of the acroteria(roof-ornaments) of the Parthenon in the lotus pattern astreated under the Theban kings. No less than theGreek honeysuckle, is the French flew de Us a descend-ant of the lotus-pattern, although it was complicatedthrou h Assyrian influence, with the date-tree head sup-Borte and flanked by horns-a familiar sight in Easterncountries, where this combination was used to avert thepower of demons and of the Evil Eye. The decorativequality of these objects was observed by the Crusaders,who possibly, also, came to believe in their magic influ-ence, and the flew de Zis was adopted into French her-aldry by King Louis VII. on his return from the HolyLand, midway in the twelfth century.has been acknowled ed for the Ionic A lotus originalca ital, whosevolutes, if studied in a e earliest and throug K the transi-tionaI examples, are plainly seen to be the withering sepalsof the sacred water-plant, Finally, the egg and dart



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38 THE LIFE HISTORY OF A DESIGNmoulding, which passed from the Greek into the Renas-cence ornament, is probably a lotus derivative, as manyof the first critics would have us to believe. Owen Jonesand de Vesley, among the foreign archaeologists, and Professor Goodyear, the American, independently arrived atthe conclusion that the moulding in question is nothinbeside a simplified lotus desid n ; that is, a form in whit aone member is developed an accentuated to the partialobliteration of the remaining elements. So considered,the egg and dart pattern becomes simply a semi-oval leftbetween two lotus trefoils, the dart beinThe design first used upon flat P the central sepal.sur aces, was furtherslightly modified, when the flat oval areas were carved asrounded projections. It would therefore appear thatthe plant-forms used still today in the decoration whichmeets our glance from wall and rugs and hangings maylargely be traced to a common parent: the lotus. Andhowever ill-founded and fantastic this statement may atfirst seem, it has been deduced from patient investigations,like those pursued by Darwin in his work upon the Ori-gin of Species, which revolutionized the world of science.The study of design lY rsuedby the biological method, even gains ininterest w en it isapplied to animal forms.tery which compose so The tapestries, rugs and pot-large a part of our material en-vironment teem with these concealed zoomorphs. Awavy line, a scroll, a geometric pattern, which apparentlyhas no relationship with any created thing, is most oftenthe long-developed, simplified form of some bird,beast, or fish which, ages ago, seized the ready imagina-tion of a semi-barbarous designer. To illustrate thispoint, we have but to avail ourselves of a series of draw-ings which are found in Holmes Ancient Art of theProvince of Chiriqui, Colombia : an admirable studycontained in the sixth annual report of the Bureau ofEthnology, published at Washington, in 1888.



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THE LIFE HISTORY OF A DESIGN 89The series, copied from Mr.

Holmes study, and printed at the end of the presentarticle, begins with a hi hI conventionalized representa-tion of an alligator, w%Lc animal, it may be said inpassing, invariably finds its way into the decorative art ofits native districts. In the illustration, the salient featuresof the animal alone receive attention : the serpentine lineof the back; the scales, here indicated by spotted triangles;the gaping mouth, with a row of dashes for the teeth ;altogether, a strong suggestion of the feelings which thealligator is capable of excitin in the semi-barbarous mind.These suggestive decorationshaving been scattered among the people, produce a newclass of works, whose rulin feature is simplification:that is, types in which the eading features are retained,while the minor characteristics are always obscured, and,in some cases, almost wholly obliterated. So, in thesecond drawing of the series, the body of the alligatoris without scales, the head devoid of eyes, the mouthbarren of teeth, and the upward curve of the tip of theupper jaw greatly exa gerated-whichH to a highl last peculiaritywould correspond in bio oY specialized organ.allowing t e designers whosimplify, come others in whose hands the types becomedegenerate. In the third term of our series, we find thealligator reduced to a curved line and a spot; to a curvedline without spots; or to a continuous chevron, withspots filling the trian Ies made by the indented line. Amere suggestion is aii that remains of the conventionalizedalligator of the first term of the series; the strength of thesimplified form is a thing of the past; decay has invadedthe design, and its indentity can not be determined saveby the touchstone of science.These illustrations mi ht beprolonanima Hed indefinitely to show the curious ming g ofwith vegetable, or of animal with textile forms,But it is hoped that enough has been said to suggest



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40 THE LIFE HISTORY OF A DESIGN

agreeable and useful employment for an idle hour, throughthe study of any given design which shall meet the eye intapestries, fIoor-coverings, wall-hangings or cabinet work.Evolution is the pass-word of the hour, and studies inofigin, development and degeneration, in whatever depart-ment found, are in chord with the spirit of the age,



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BRAIN AND HAND61

THROUGH the eye and brain to the hand is the

germ sentence of a recent inspiring study byPrince Kropotkin, an economist who has taken a foremostplace among writers upon the labor problem. In thisstudy, the author discusses a question which may be en-titled : the economy of energy required for the satisfac-tion of human needs. He makes a strong, convincingplea for the union in one person of the scientist and crafts-man; citin as examples of such union: GaIiIeo andNewton, wa o made their telescopes with their own hands ;Liebnitz, whose mind was preoccupied with windmillsand horseless carriages, as deeply as with philosophicaIspeculations; and Linnaeus, who became a botanist whileaiding a practical gardener-his father-in the minutiae ofdaiIy labor. Prince Kropotkin continues thatthe learned men of to-da have raised the contempt ofmanual labor to the gt of a theory. He representsthem as saying: heig

The man of science must dis-cover the laws of nature, the civil engineer must applythem, and the worker must execute in steel or wood, iniron or stone, the patterns devised by the engineer. Hemust work with machines invented for him, not by him.No matter if he does not understand them and can notimprove them: the scientific man and the scientific engi-neer wiII take care of the pro?g ress of science and industry.hat such is indeed the attitudeof the educated class toward the workman, in America aswelI as in Europe, no one can deny, But yet it is a state-ment which must be made calmly and in no spirit ofresentment toward those favored by birth and position.The existing situation has grown out of the division oflabor, which has speciaIized the task of the workman to



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42 BRAIN AND HAND

such a de ee that he has lost all mental pleasure in hiswork. +l? is result was inevitable, but it must be regardedas a definite stage in the evolution of industry, and, as astage, necessarily temporary. For even now, a reactionis upon us, and there is a revival of the mediaeval handi-crafts which can not but result in a renewed sense of thedignity of the craftsman. In relation to the minute subdi-vision of labor now in force throughout the industrialworld, Prince Kropotkin asks the question :

What can a weaver inventwho merely supervises four looms without knowing any-thing either about their complicated movements or howthe machines grew to be what they are? Further accentuating the sameidea, he relates with pictorial power a scene witnessed byhim in a lace-factory in Nottingham, where full grownmen with shiverin T hands and heads feverishly bindtogether the ends o two threads from the remnants ofcotton yarn in the bobbins. Their celerity is so greatthat one hardly can follow their movements. But thevery fact of requiring such kind of ra d work is the con-demnation of the factory system, W&t has remained ofthe human being in those shiverin bodies ? Throug i these impassionedwords it is plain to perceive the Russian thinker whomore deeply andtionality, knows t ractically than a man of other nation-Ke meaning of injustice, oppression anddespotism, and whose heart throbs with what the Ger-mans call the world-pain.is here necessary. Yet, once again, tolerationAs Mr. Carroll Wright, the Americaneconomist, has logically shown, the factory system hasbeen productive of certain good results, chief among whichis the extensive employment of the unskilled and theignorant, who otherwise would go to swell the dangerousclasses. And this is es ecially true in the industrialcentres of England, notab y in Manchester, where the so-



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BRAIN AND HAND 43

called cellarage population disappeared as a conse-quence of the establishment of the great industries.Passion and sentiment do notaid the understanding of economics, and it is well to re-member that the mills of GodEn lish cottage industries of the nd slowly. TheYiar y eighteenth century,as ! escribed by Mr. Wright, were pursued in huts ratherthan dwellings, in a germ-laden atmosphere, and amidconditions of low morality. When the system declined,owing to its failure to meet the demands of the a e, thefactory was censured for inherited evils. Certain o H hesehostile to health, morals and the personal liberty of theworkmen were abolished by a series of legislative actsbegun in the first years of the nineteenth century, andending in its last quarter. The greatest remaining evil-the subdivision of labor-now prevailing universally, isrevealing its unhappiest results, and will, as all other im-perfect systems before it, fallhthrough its own weakness.e remedy suggested byPrince Kropotkin is what has been named in France:Peducation integrale, in other words, a knowledge ofscientific principles joined to a practical use of a handicraft :this training to be given by the State. The value of theworkshop, as a school, is illustrated by the clever writerin an allusion to the steam engine, which he says can notbe known in drawings and models only, but must bestudied in its breathindo who dail stands s and throbbings, as he alone canY 6 it. And as i s usual, the state-ment is fort ied by the anecdote : this time concerning theearly theoretical mechanics, in whose engines a boy hadto open the steam valve at each stroke of the piston. Thedevice necessary for the automatic opening of the valvefailing to occur to the men of science, was at length foundby one of the boy tenders, who contrived to connect thevalve with the remainder of the machine, in order that hemight run away to play with other children.The student, continues Prince



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44 BRAIN AND HANDKropotkin, must not be sent to a workshop to learn somespecial handicraft, that he may earn his existence as soonas possible; but science must be taught hand in hand withits application. Drawing the writer recommends as thefirst step in technical education, and following this, car-pentry, the making of patterns in wood, practice in cast-ing, and finally work in the smiths and the engineeringworkshops : a system first attempted in Moscow, andafterward, in part applied in the Boston School of Tech-nology and the Chicago Manual Training School.

Specialization, even in manualtraining, Prince Kropotkin would have avoided ; since inhis opinion, no one can be a good manual worker, with-out having been accustomed to good methods of handi-craft in the broadest sense. He indicates that each ma-chine, however complicated, can be reduced to a few ele-ments, and decomposed into a few modifications of motion.Consequently, each handicraft is capable of a similar re-duction, and the student who has learned to handle thetype-tools which number less than twelve, and to trans-form one kind of motion into another, has already acquiredthe half of all possible trades.The plea of Prince Kropotkinfor reform in public education can therefore be brieflysummed up as a demand that science shall not be sepa-rated from handicraft; that general knowledge shall pre-cede special acquirements ; and that all members of societyshall produce as well as consume.



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THE FIRESIDE INDUSTRIES OFKENTUCIXY

I N tth; Ftezember number of The Craftsman, under : A New Irish Industry, an account wasgiven of the successful establishment of an interestin tex-tile handicraft among the peasants of the West HighEior Donegal district of Ireland. nds,In the current issue, it ispossible to offer a few words regarding a no less worthyenterprise, which is already yielding fine artistic and eco-nomic results in the Appalachian region of our ownSouthern States.To visit this region is to lose acentury of the inventions which are regarded as the neces-sities of life in the larger American cities and towns.Ships, steam-engines and even row-boats are there un-known, and the only means of travel is upon horse-back.Civilization has left these poor mountaineers far behind inall that makes for outward refinement and knowledge ofthe world, But they have, in their isolation, retained en-viable qualities, both physical and mental. They are

strong and lithe in body. They are generous and hos-pitable, without expectation of reward. Their householdoods and their clothing are in striking contrast with the1elongings which commercialism and the love of displayhave thrust upon the open market.But these mountain folk are, atlast, threatened with change. Already, saw-mills aresupplyint%boards for frame school-buildings and dwell-ings, wi which to replace the old log-houses; agents ofsewin -machines are finding their way to the most obscure L mlets ; and new conditions and customs are aboutto be established among them. It becomes a questionwhether the baser elements of modern life shall be passedon to them without protest, and whether honest handi-crafts shall be allowed to decline and disappear amongthem, as they have everywhere failed, when brought



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46 FlRESIDE INDUSTRIES

into competition with the factory-system of production.To preserve these homely artslittle effort is needed. Difficulties do not exist such asoffered themselves to Morris and Ruskin, when theysought to establish home industries in the Lake district ofEngland. In their case, it was necessary to obtain fromSweden looms, as well as weavers, to teach the nativewomen the practice of the craft. But in our SouthernStates, there are hundreds of spinners and weavers whoare skilled in producing the most intricate patterns. Indeed,

the industry is so widespread and so important, as ameans of livelihood, that young mountaineers seekintrance to Berea College, have brought

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The Craftsman - 1902 - 01 - January