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PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION, 1867. 
 REPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS. 
 
 REP^OIIT 
 
 CLOTHING Am WOVEN FABRICS, 
 
 CLASSES TWENTY-SEVEN TO THIRTY-NINE 
 
 GROUP FOUR. 
 
 BY 
 
 PARAN STEVENS. 
 
 UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER. 
 
 ,^" 
 
 ^r 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTINCx OFFICE, 
 
 1870. 
 
S ??4 
 
 ^-^?^^r" 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 The United States Commissiouers to the Paris Exiiositioii of 1867 
 appointed a committee consisting of Professor J. Lawrence Smith, Doc- 
 tor W. E. Johnston, and myself, to report on the Products of Chemistry, 
 on the Preparation of Food, and upon Clothing. 
 
 It was not found convenient to pursue this labor jointly, and the report 
 on chemicals was undertaken by Commissioner Smith, the report on food 
 by Commissioner Johnston, and that upon clothing was left to the under- 
 signed. 
 
 Without any special qualifications for this work derived from my 
 habitual pursuits, or any opportunity for preparation, I occupied myself 
 with the collection of materials and memoranda for the report. Among 
 the more important of these materials I mention the valuable reports in 
 French upon some of the classes by members of the International Jury, 
 from which translations have been freely made. With these reports, 
 and with the excellent assistance I was able to procure, I have completed 
 the task which fell to me, and now submit the result to the Deiiartment 
 with the hoi)e that it may be found of some practical interest and value. 
 
 PAEAK STEVENS, 
 United States Commissioner. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CHANGES IN THE FASHION OF AYEAEING APPAREL— COSTUMES, 
 
 The A'ariety of objects, included under the head of clothing — History of the changes in 
 clothing — Laws enacted to prevent extraA^agance in dress — Progress of fashion in 
 various countries — Causes of changes in fashions — The motive of gain — Ea^iid spread 
 of ne\Y modes due to increased facilities of communication — Esthetic influences of 
 dress — Paris the great center of modern fashions — Science and industry stimulated 
 1)y changes in fashion — Exhibition of specimens of costumes of various races — His- 
 torical and fancy costumes — Influence of costumes upon the habits of the peoide — 
 The costumes of various countries. — pp. 7-25. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MATERIALS FOR CLOTHING. 
 
 Cotton fabrics from France, Great Britain, and other countries — Cotton manufacture 
 in the United States — Linen and linen fabrics ; enormous consumption of, in France — 
 Various styles of linen goods shown in the French section — Relative importance of 
 the linen manufacture in various countries — Flax and linen in Italy — Manufacture of 
 wool and worsted — The British artizaus on worsted and mixed textile fabrics — Silk 
 as a material for clothing — The silk trade of France — Sericulture in France — General 
 observations upon the silk industry of various countries — Ribbons. — pp. 27-44. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 THE INDUSTRY OF READY-MADE CLOTHING. 
 
 The artistic excellence of wearing apparel produced in Paris — Statistics of the manu- 
 facture in France — The tailoring trade in France — Ready-made clothing for women — 
 The seamstresses' art in Paris — The manufacture of hats for men and women — Cork 
 hats — Centers of the hat trade in France, and statistics of the manufacture — Boots 
 and shoes — Manufacture of clothing in the United States — Head-dresses for ladies — 
 Artificial flowers. — jip. 45-59. 
 
 CHAPTER ly. 
 
 LACES, FANS, GLOVES, ETC. 
 
 The manufacture of rare and costly lace by hand — Notices of specially interesting 
 exhibitions of lace — Machine-made laces— Wages, conditions, and divisions of 
 labor — Education of lace-makers — The British artisans iipon lace— Manufacture of 
 lace in various countries — Embroidery — Manufacture of fans — Manufacture of gloves 
 in France, England, and other countries — Elastic tissues, susiieuders, belts, garters, 
 and bracelets. — pp. 61-78. 
 
6 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF CLOTHING UPON HEALTH. 
 
 The infliieuce of woolen clotbiug — Effects of wooleus iqjon the skin — Shaggy wooleu 
 o-oods — Protection afforded by wooleus fi-orn the effects of sudden changes of temper- 
 ature — Woolens should be worn at night — Evil effects of clothing impervious to air. 
 —pp. 79-84. 
 
 STATISTICAL TABLES. 
 
CLOTHING. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 CHANGES IN THE FASHION OF CLOTHING— COS- 
 TUMES. 
 
 The variety of objects included under the head of clothing — History of the 
 changes in clothing — laws enacted to prevent extravagance in dress — pro- 
 GRESS OP FASHIONS IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES — CAUSES OF CHANGES IN FASHIONS — ThE 
 MOTIVE OF GAIN — EaPID SPREAD OP NEW MODES DUE TO INCREASED FACILITIES OF 
 
 communication — esthetic influences op dress— paris the great center op 
 modern fashions — science and industry stimulated by changes in fashion — 
 Exhibition of specimens op costumes op various races — Historical and p.\ncy 
 COSTUMES — Influence of costumes upon the habits of the people — The cos- 
 tumes of various countries. 
 
 Ill the classiflcation adopted by tlie Imperial Commission, "Clothing, 
 including fabrics and other objects worn on the person," were assigned 
 to Group IV, Classes 27 to 39. 
 
 It was obviously impossible to enter upon an exhaustive discussion 
 of the wide range of subjects which were here grouped together. It 
 was one of the most comprehensive groujis in the whole Exj)osition, 
 including not only made-up clothing for both sexes, but cotton, linen, 
 woolen and silken fabrics ; hats, bonnets, gloves, umbrellas, articles 
 used in traveling, laces, and ornaments of all kinds. Special reports 
 upon cotton, wool and silk, as raw materials, and ijartly upon the manu- 
 factures of each, having been made by others, the present report is 
 confined more exclusively to clothing, and those objects which are 
 accessory either for comfort or ornament, and the effort has been made 
 to i)resent some statistical data of general interest and application. 
 The number of exhibitors in these classes was considerably over one 
 thousand. France had two hundred and nineteen. Great Britain forty- 
 two, and the United States nine. 
 
 HISTOEY OF CLOTHmG. 
 
 The history of clothing, it may be said, is coeval and intimately asso- 
 ciated with the social and political history of man ; and when the task 
 of setting forth intelligibly the subject of clothing, as one of the great 
 prime necessities of the human family, and in its economic relations to 
 other industries represented at the Universal Exposition, is entered 
 upon, it will be proper that some historical outline of the changes which 
 
8 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 have occurred in the attire of both sexes should at the same time be 
 I)laced before the reader. In fact, as it was intended that the Exposi- 
 tion shouhl be universal, not only showing the present stage of advance- 
 ment in all useful productions of human industry or skill and the modes 
 of production throughout the world, but all of the various preceding 
 stages of progress, the articles, the manner of using, and the processes 
 of fabrication, to omit such a retrospect as that referred to w^ould be 
 ignoring the spirit in which this c(^mprehensive epitome of the pro- 
 ductive energies, inventive resources, and progress of the world was 
 conceived. 
 
 In the early ages of the world dress was simple as the manners of the 
 l^eople who inhabited it, being at first composed of leaves, feathers, and 
 the skins of animals. Gradually the inventions of tanning, spinning, 
 weaving and dyeing were adopted, and mankind yielded to the tempta- 
 tions of vanity. They abandoned the simple modes of their forefathers 
 and gave themselves up to the most luxurious and costly adornment 
 of their persons. 
 
 To such a height did this devotion to dress and finery attain, that 
 decrees and ordinances have from time to time been adopted by many 
 nations to lessen the growing evil. So great has been the passion for 
 dress in some periods, that revolutions have resulted from the attempted 
 enforcement of sumptuary laws and edicts intended for the prevention 
 of extravagance. 
 
 When the Tartar conquerors of China ordered that the luxuriant 
 tresses of the native inhabitants should be cut oif, the victims regarded 
 it as such an indignity that in many instances the native Chinese pre- 
 ferred loshig their heads to submitting to the decree. 
 
 In Spain, also, violent disturbances were caused in the last century 
 by an attemi)t to prohibit the use of the capa and sombrero. 
 
 In Engljyid many efforts have, at times, been made by the governing- 
 powers to check not only extravagance in dress, so far as richness and 
 splendor of materials were concerned, but also to change the cut and 
 style of various parts of the apparel of both sexes. Several of the 
 earlier monarchs attempted to restrict the length of pointed shoes, and 
 though fashion yielded to the sustained attacks, she revenged herself 
 by the introduction of shoes of such extravagant width that another 
 restraint was soon imposed by the royal authority. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth made many laws affecting the attire of her subjects, 
 though she was proverbial for her fondness of dress and the singularity 
 of the fashions she preferred. She comi^elled the peasantry to wear a 
 cap of a certain shape, and, probably to encourage home industry, as 
 well as to restrain the mania for foreign fashions which had long been 
 prevalent among her subjects, she ordered that this head-dress should 
 be of domestic wool and manufacture. She also limited the size of ruffs 
 and swords to be worn by her courtiers to the proportions she regarded 
 becoming in subjects to adopt, and appointed ofdcers to watch for vio- 
 
CLOTFIING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 9 
 
 lations of the law, and to break all swords and clip all ruffles exceeding 
 tlie prescribed limit. She also entered with much detail into the regula- 
 tion of the costume worn at the inns of court, specifying forms, colors, 
 and the quantity of embroidery to be used. 
 
 The Turks have also in times past set their faces against the use, on 
 the part of Grecian ladies, of long skirts peculiar to their traditional 
 and classic mode, and officers have been appointed to cut off any su- 
 perfluous length. The Turks have established many other regidations 
 concerning distinctive dress, such as a monopoly to themselves of yellow 
 slippers, rich silk or musliu turbans, and shawls of the gayest designs 
 and textures, while they required their Grecian vassals to wear dark 
 cotton caps, the Armenians to adopt grotesque pumi)kin-shaped capas, 
 while brimless caps, shaped like inverted flower-i>ots, were prescribed 
 for the tTews. 
 
 Of late years, however, the Turks themselves have yielded reluctant 
 obedience to a decree of Sultan Mahmoud, ordering that a red cloth fez 
 or military cap should be worn by Mussulmans in place of the calpac or 
 turban. This ordinance was violently opposed and protested against, and 
 those who favored it had their houses fired ; and though the will of the 
 Sultan prevailed, the Turks have never recovered from their disgnst at 
 the supplanting of the cherished turban so long worn by their ancestry. 
 
 Charles the Second, of England, prescribed a particular costume for 
 the nobility to wear, dispensing with extravagant display of gold, sil- 
 ver, lace, and jewels, which had distinguished the preceding j)eriod of 
 his reign. 
 
 Gustavus, one of the kings of Sweden, prescribed a court dress for 
 each sex, to be worn when they were admitted to his presence. 
 
 Napoleon the First, against much opposition and criticism, exercised 
 his imperial authority in the same direction ; and in times of great 
 political agitation, his proceedings on the subject were discyissed with 
 much vehemence and interest in the national convention of France. 
 
 It is difficult to realize that France, the dispenser of modes and of 
 the most elaborate and beautiful materials and articles of dress, was in 
 her infancy as primitive and rude as any of the other countries of Eu- 
 rope in matters of costume and toilet. Skins fashioned into a form 
 which might be described as a tunic, with the addition in winter of a 
 cloak which, fastened over one shoulder, descended nearly to the 
 ground, and a skin cap of very simple form, constituted the dress of the 
 men. The women wore almost the same attire, only the tunic was 
 longer, and the cap triangular in shape. But even in that primitive 
 period, tradition says, they exhibited a market! predilection for such 
 personal decorations as necklaces, bracelets, rings, and chains. Ancient 
 statuary has been exhumed in that countrj^, in which the figures were 
 dressed in tunics with long sleeves reaching to the hand, the over dress 
 being similar to the Eoman sagum, with the addition of sleeves. On 
 the heads of the figures were caps resembling the Phrygian bonnet. 
 
10 PARIS UXIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 Some variety is exhibited in the minor details of their dress. For a long 
 I)eriod the higher classes wore long robes trimmed with ermine or other 
 valuable furs. The early kings of France, beginning with Clovis, wore 
 a tunic and a mantle resembling the Grecian chlamy. 
 
 Changes are first to be noticed in the garments which are represented 
 in two statues of Charlemagne. The first gives a moustache, but is 
 without any indication of a beard, a tunic terminating above the knees, 
 and a chlamy with a wide border ; fillets bound crosswise cover the 
 legs. The costume of the other figure consists of a garment similar to 
 a modern surtout. It has large broad sleeves with deep cufts turned 
 back, and a square collar. It is quite remarkable that this dress is or- 
 namented with large round buttons, an article generally supposed to 
 have been unknown at so early a period. 
 
 In the manuscript illuminations of the reign of St. Louis, the princes 
 are portrayed in variously shaped habits. This leads to the belief that 
 fashion was then taking her place as an institution which was to exert 
 a powerful and lasting influeuce upon mankind. 
 
 ' Prince John wears hanging sleeves over the close ones of his tunic, 
 and he holds in his hand a glove. Another of the princes has upon his 
 head a cap, and wears a garment like a surtout, which shows the vest 
 underneath. Another sports a hat like some of modern form. 
 
 About the middle of the fourteenth century was a period of great 
 extravagance in regard to everything pertaining to the toilette. Gar- 
 ments were made brilliant with gold and silver, and such was the 
 demand for precious stones, that they became very scarce, andtheiH'ice 
 of them advanced materiallj\ Embroidery usually adorned the coU hardi, 
 the under-sleeves fitted very closely, while the upper ones were long and 
 narrow. Feathers were now first worn on the caps of gentlemen. The 
 ladies* bonnets assumed an almost endless variety of forms about this 
 time, and for tlie first time since the introduction of variable fashions, 
 the female head relied upon the hair, Avithout cap, bonnet, or hood. A 
 large curl or i^lait on either side of tbe face, and a small spray of flowers 
 or jewels, constituted its only ornament. The trains of the gowns be- 
 came very long, and they were held up by pages. 
 
 In England, during the reign of Edward the Third, many new devices 
 were introduced, most of which were from foreign lands. The Monk of 
 Glastonbury writes, that " the Englishmen haunted so much unto the 
 folly of strangers, that every year they changed them in diverse shapes 
 and disguisings of clothing, now long, now large, now wide, now strait, 
 and every day clothingges new and destitute and divest from all 
 honesty of old arraye or good usage ; and another time to short clothes, 
 and so strait-waisted with full sleeves, and tapetes of surcoats and 
 hodes over-long and large, all so nagged and nib on every side, and all 
 so shattered, and all so buttoned, that I with truth shall say, they seem 
 more like to tormentors or devils in their clothing and also in their 
 shoging [shoeing] and other array, than they seem to be like men.'' 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 11 
 
 In tlie reign of Eichard the Second, great extravagance in dress pre- 
 vailed, and most of the novelties of the toilette were drawn from France, 
 Italy, Bohemia, Poland, Spain, and Germany. 
 
 During the reign of Elizabeth, pins, ribbons, and knit silk and 
 worsted stockings were manufactured in London for the first time. At 
 the death of Elizabeth, it is stated that there were three thousand suits 
 in her wardrobe. The reigns of James and William and Mary were dis- 
 tinguished from that of their predecessor chiefly in the difference in 
 coiffures. Enormous hoop-skirts came into wear at this time and 
 remained a favorite article of dress until the nineteeuth century, when 
 George the Fourth condemned them as cumbersome and inelegant. 
 
 From the early i)art of the nineteenth century, the fashions originating 
 in France have generally been adopted with little or no change by the 
 English, as well as by nearly all other civilized nations, and this seems 
 likely to be the case so long as the French are able to command facilities 
 superior to other nations in rapidity and excellence of designs, and to 
 retain for a long time the lead in the manufacture of silks and many 
 other delicate fabrics. 
 
 CAUSES OF CHAXGES IN FASHIONS. 
 
 It is obvious that aside from love of ever- varying novelties on the part 
 of the consumers, there must be the great commercial motive of gain, 
 inspiring and impelling the producing classes to call for the acceptance 
 of new changes with as short intervals as can be tolerated; and though 
 among sensible people of moderate incomes the rule seems to have been 
 adopted and followed of restricting purchases to such quantities as will 
 last in good condition only until the usual season for the expected change, 
 or such material as can be made by alteration to conform to the mode, 
 there is a general tendency among the arbiters of fashion to make the 
 transition as radical as possible, in order to force a more general demand 
 for the new styles. One month we have coat skirts hanging near the 
 heels, when suddenly the decree of fashion abridges them to such a de- 
 gree that we seem like schoolboys in roundabouts. The same is true as 
 to length of waists, fullness or scantiness in the legs of pantaloons, the 
 forms of shoes or of hats ; and so, also, in female attire, equally extreme 
 and arbitrary changes occur. 
 
 It is natural that the very prosperous group of clothing industries 
 should be subject to occasional periods of overgrowth, especially where 
 they are centralized as in Paris, gathering into their service too large a 
 force of artists, artisans, and operatives. It is natural, also, that all of 
 these classes of producers should share in a desire to have as constant 
 and profitable occupation as they can obtain. It is noticeable that since 
 the general adoption of steam-power conveyance of travelers by land 
 and sea, the facilities of intercommunication have vastly increased the 
 currents of foreign travel; and thus has the spread of detailed intelligence 
 been quickened and made more frequent, and designs of new modes and 
 
12 PARIS UNIVEESAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 descriptions, samijles of lle^^' materials, emanating eveiy month or two 
 from the great centers of fashion, have been scattered likefaUing leaves 
 in every laud, and thns the danger of an overstocked labor market is 
 lessened, and the hands trained to industry are kept snpple and exjiert. 
 
 Matters of taste being among the highest worldly evidences of the 
 degree of civilization of a nation, France is naturally ambitious to main- 
 tain the vantage-ground ; and liaving got so far the advance in all the 
 preparatory systems of study and training, it is probable that all efforts 
 at competition with her in these specialties will prove fntile, until the 
 new yonng republic of the West, guided by the experience of the older 
 nations, and having established systems of industrial and art education 
 and training, combining the best features of all of their prototypes of 
 the eastern continent, and having collected in her museums and schools 
 reproductions of the art treasures of Europe, shall, in maturer age, de- 
 velop, in connection with the material resources of silk, linen, cotton, 
 and every useful fiber and fleece, the originality, invention, and enter- 
 prise which in other branches of endeavor have become national char- 
 acteristics. 
 
 It is doubtless an experience common even to i)ersons of taste and 
 refinement, that the impression which the mind receives, whether of ap- 
 proval or disaj)i)roval, of some peculiar fashion, depends upon its origin, 
 association, uniformity, and succession. A sudden transition, unheralded 
 by the journals which lend sanction and authority to every mode, 
 however inconsistent with all recpiiremeuts of taste, or opposed to ideas 
 of convenience or health, and if imitated by a lady unknown to what are 
 considered leading iashiouable circles, would only excite merriment on 
 account of its singularity; while if the same change had originated among 
 those upon whom the fashionable world had been accustomed to look as 
 the legitimate inventors and dispensers of modes, and had been simul- 
 taneously ushered in and adopted by those who, being on the alert, and 
 possessing wealth, are regarded as leaders of fashion, then, although 
 some faint protests and incredulity may be at first exjiressed, the new 
 style rapidly gains adherents, and suddenly the invasion is complete. 
 
 From this state of things arises the significance of the phrase in fash- 
 ionable parlance of the " air distingue.^'' All modes, however bizarre and 
 absurd they may seem at first observation, having once passed through 
 this ordeal, become, either suddenly or gradually, invested with the 
 quality which that phrase is intended to describe. The gravity with 
 which the fair wearers move about, involved in combinations and forms 
 which distort or caricature nature's graceful i)roportions, unconscious, 
 apparently, of any departure from her laws, leads us to the inquiry 
 whether the implicit obedience yielded to the decrees of fashion, without 
 appeal to reason and judgment, has not, even in modern times, been too 
 much like an abject submission to a despotism which is not devoid of 
 mischievous consequences; whether some code of principles cannot be 
 established by which the canons of pure taste and the requirements of 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABEICS. 13 
 
 symmetry in form and harmony of color shall be the first essentials of 
 the air distingue^ and that any behest of fashion which ignores these 
 shall fall as a dead letter from the moment of its utterance. 
 
 Some of the whims of fashion have been so inopportune as even to 
 afiect injuriously the health of myriads of her followers, of both sexes. 
 
 A love of dress, if indulged by a cultivated intelligence without over- 
 taxing the pecuniary resources of the individual, far from injuring or 
 obscuring any mental qualities, may, by the constant appeal to the 
 judgment and taste, especially in woman, tend to develope those quali- 
 ties of the mind in the wearer, as well as in that of the producer, which 
 exercise a. refining influence upon character. In familiarizing the mind 
 extensively with combinations the essentials of whicli are invention, 
 grace, harmony of color and design, and elegance of material, texture, 
 and workmanship, all of which are to enter into a harmonious combina- 
 tion with the most graceful and beautiful of objects, the female form, 
 thus presenting an ensemble which shall fulfill the highest demands of 
 taste, every kindred esthetic faculty is drawn into activity, and by the 
 quickened and refined perceptions, what is discordant, bizarre, and gro- 
 tesque in prevailing modes is eliminated and discarded. 
 
 PARIS THE GREAT CENTER OF MODERi^ FASHIONS. 
 
 The establishment of Paris as the central authority and oracle of 
 fashion for the civilized world has been by no means the result of acci- 
 dent, nor has it been devoid of profound political significance and subtle 
 design. 
 
 Owing to the superior means adopted for retaining the ascendency 
 early acqnired in matters of design and taste, France has thus far suc- 
 cessfully maintained that position, and her experience has proved that 
 even much abused fashion is not without its healthful influence on the 
 substantial utilitarian progress of mankind. This is easily realized 
 when we consider what are the studies essential for qualifying the arti- 
 san and laborer to originate and carry out designs fulfilling the require- 
 ments of critical taste in all the branches of production which supply 
 to the world articles for the adornment as well as the comfort aud health 
 of the person, articles for domestic use in dwellings, combining utility 
 with the beauty and grace which artistic genius or cultivation can 
 impart, articles of vertu and of decorative art, produced chiefly as lux- 
 uries for the wealthy, and, finally, works involving a mastery of the 
 highest principles of art, such as design, painting, and sculpture. These 
 studies, pursued in the best organized methods, with access to the gal- 
 leries of paintings and sculpture, and to the best examples of every art 
 which appeals to the esthetic sense, inevitably carry the intelligent 
 student into wider and wider fields of information, enlarging the opera- 
 tion of his mental organization, and expanding his view far beyond 
 the narrow limits of the special object of his pursuit. 
 
 The cumulative results of the application of a people to particular 
 departments of productive industry, with the powerful co-operation of 
 
14 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 science and art, is illustrated in the case of France, and slie is confes- 
 sedly the leading nation in the respects to which reference has just been 
 made. She has elevated the standard of quality in those branches to 
 which she has given her energies and her science, and has, by exempli- 
 fying the benefits of her system, excited a spirit of emulation among 
 the leading nations which will greatly i)romote the i)rogress of all. 
 
 But in another view the apparent frivolities and rapid mutations of 
 fashion contribute something real and substantial to the well-being of 
 society, if restrained within such reasonable limits that the benefits are 
 not counterbalanced by the extravagance or wastefulness which too fre- 
 quent changes involve : for they give constant emi)loyment to thous- 
 ands of industrious hands, stimulate the inventive faculties and inspire 
 the student and savant with new motives for penetratiog more deeply 
 into the mysteries of nature, and revealing latent properties and powers, 
 which, when called into action, may surpass all preceding discoveries. 
 A strildng instance of this character may be mentioned here : 
 
 In the year 185G one of the great chemical discoveries was made 
 which from time to time have so signally vindicated the claims of 
 science to the first rank as a guiding spirit to productive industry. It 
 was the discovery of the aniline colors derived from coal tar, and 
 generally classed under the heads of violets, reds, blues, greens, blacks, 
 yellows, &c., and giving a variety of beautiful secondary combinations. 
 Manufacturers of textile fabrics have thus been furnished with a series 
 of colors of the most brilliant and varied hues. 
 
 From the very interesting and instructive report of Mr. John L. 
 Hayes on wools, accompanying this series, I take the liberty of making 
 the following extract, which sums up the merits of these discoveries in 
 a most eloquent and appreciative manner : 
 
 " The use of these colors gives a marked character to the dyed tissues 
 of the present age. The great change effected by them was remark- 
 ably illustrated at the Exposition by a display of parallel series of 
 wools dyed by the ancient and the new aniline processes. The aniline 
 hues were predominant in the richly colored fabrics of the Exposition, 
 and, adopting the figure of Colbert, that ' color is the soul of tissues, 
 without which the body could hardly exist,' we might say that these 
 colors fix the psychological character of the fabrics of the present day. 
 Among the wonders of modern science, what is stranger than this, that 
 the gigantic plants buried in the coal measures of the ancient world are 
 made to bloom with all the tints of the primeval flowers upon the tissues 
 of modern industry P' 
 
 exhibitio:n^ of costumes. 
 
 SPECIMENS OF POPULAR COSTUIMES. 
 
 Class 92 was devoted to specimens of popular costumes of different 
 countries in methodical collections, showing the costumes of both sexes 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 15 
 
 of all ages and those most cliaracteristic of eacli country. This plan 
 was realized to a great extent, especially in the Russian, Swedish, and 
 Norwegian sections, where, in promenading, the visitor was often startled 
 by the life-like figures of peasants and of interior tribes. In the Chilian 
 exhibition the costume of the miners of that country was shown in accu- 
 rate detail, by the life-size figures standing by the side of the heaps of 
 copper and silver ores sent from the mines of the Andes. 
 
 But perhaps the most striking feature of the occasion, disconnected 
 with classifications of the Exposition, was the extensive display of cos- 
 tumes upon the persons of many of the visitors and some of the attend- 
 ants at the various sections. Of the male delegation there were Orientals 
 in bright colors and flowing draperies, and people from the Western 
 countries in garments of more somber material and more formal cut. 
 There were Greeks and barbarians of the European world, and natives 
 of the Celestial Empire, and their more flowery Japanese neighbors ; 
 and here and there, as strangely picturesque as any, peasants in ante- 
 revolutionary costume, still preserved, coming from remote side vil- 
 lages of Napoleon's home provinces. 
 
 Most noticeable on the female side were the waiting girls at the differ- 
 ent national shops, restaurants, and beer-houses, sharp-eyed for business, 
 and ornately decked in the highest style of their quaint local modes. 
 
 HISTORICAL AND FANCY COSTUMES. 
 
 A few choice specimens of historical and fancy costumes for both 
 sexes were exhibited by Madame Del phine Baron, one of the eminent 
 practitioners in the art of costuming, which is carried to so great per- 
 tection in Paris. Its successful practice in the higher grades requires 
 no inconsiderable historical study, and calls in play really artistic qual- 
 ities. Not unfrequently the dancer at a carnival ball carries on his back 
 the work of a distinguished master. 
 
 The costumes in Don Juan d'Autriche, when that play was revived at 
 the Theatre Francais a few years ago, were said at the time to be com- 
 posed or corrected by Meissonier ; those for Eistori's Medea, when she 
 first appeared in Paris, by Ary Scheffer ; those of Sardori's Don Qui- 
 xote, and of Oftenbach's buffo opera Ste. Genevieve de Brabant, by Gus- 
 tave Dore. The late excellent historian, Bouviere, himself a painter as 
 well, in his Faust and Hamlet, followed in pose and apparel the mas- 
 terly illustrations of Delacroix much more closely than the translators, 
 permitted him to follow the text of Gothe and Shakspeare. 
 
 POPULAR COSTUMES OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 ABSTRACT OF A REVIEW OF CLASS 92.^ 
 
 '^ Costume is sometimes, in its material and form, directly regulated by 
 climate, as in the hyperborean regions of Lapland, Siberia, and Finland,. 
 
 > Translated aud condensed from the report of M. Armand-Diiraaresq in the Eapport du Jury Inter- 
 national. 
 
16 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 Alaska and Greenland, wliicb are located far from tbe great commercial 
 centers. A glance at tbe Ostiaks, Yakouts, and Alentians will sbow 
 tbat tbese peoples, dressed in reindeer or otber skins, living among eter- 
 nal snows, in grand solitndes, subsisting by bunting, baviiig few wants, 
 are satisfied witb wbat we would bardly call tbe necessaries of life. 
 
 Tbougb tbe varieties are very distinct, tbose wbicb are peculiar to 
 metropolitan centers are difflcult to classify. Tbe date of tbe origin of 
 a costume is easy to ascertain from tbe form of a garment, but wby the 
 rustic of Batz bas retained in the nineteenth century tbe dress of the 
 time of Louis XIII, elsewhere regarded as a relic of antiquity, we can- 
 not tell. It may, ijerbaps, be attributed to his particular calling. When 
 tbe salt man entered a village bis arrival was announced by the bells 
 or rattles on his mules. Before his fanciful hat and elegant jacket were 
 seen, tbe housekeepers ran out to get their supply of salt ; thus tbat 
 costume was preserved as a sign. But let us consider those conse- 
 quences of these customs which are of most importance to us. 
 
 Manners, customs, and usages are still preserved, and they have a 
 mysterious connection with costumes. A girl cannot often make up her 
 mind to marry a man not of her village ; gradually a distinct race forms, 
 and tbe men remain at home, forming a self-governing colony. We find 
 patriotism and love of home most developed in tbose countries where 
 the rustic has preserved the costume of his ancestors, and this inces- 
 sant and reciprocal supervision insures honesty and unity among tbe 
 inhabitants. There is a touching harmony in the existence of those 
 people that is sure to strike the eye of an observer. 
 
 Now let us state the distinction between costume and dress. 
 
 Costume is the same for all, for the man or boy, the womau or girl, 
 and does not change. It is composed of solid an.d durable material, 
 without regard to fitness ; what was once a Sunday costume, soon be- 
 comes a working costume; hat, jacket, and pants are often repaired, 
 but never undergo a change of form. That is what we call costume. 
 
 Dress belongs to cities. It changes with the whim of the fashion. Every 
 part of it has a j)eculiar destination, that is, for show or for work. The 
 laborer is not dressed if be is obliged to wear his week-day clothes on 
 Sunday. He must have two suits at least. This exi^ense is to make 
 him look like his fellows, and to follow the fashion of the wealthy 
 classes. Yet, what is fashion ? Merely an invention for worldl}- people 
 to know each other by. Ought sensible people who have something to 
 do, to be compelled to follow the fashion? In France, as elsewhere, 
 fashion is a tj^ant tbat even city work-people consider themselves 
 obliged to obey. Though expensive, they wish to get fashionable clothes 
 as cheap as possible ; no matter about the material, so long as the style 
 is fashionable. In France the laboring man must have a new suit, no 
 matter how poor the material ; whereas in England he is satisfied with 
 the cast-off lashionable clothing of the better classes, Tlie gaudy gar- 
 ments of a fop in Hyde Park serve the dock laborer, and at last the 
 unfortunate Irish resident of Saint Martin's Lane. 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 17 
 
 • The rustic's choice of something strong, solid, and well made is the best. 
 He wants the garment to be of good material, without regard to form, 
 for it has to live on him for many years, till it becomes a i)art and parcel 
 of himself. The old dress gives the history of the man. 
 
 If a comparison is made between the expenses of the rustic who pays 
 dearly for his clothing, and the city laborer who seems to buy cheaper, 
 the former will have the advantage in the durability of his material. 
 
 The morals of a people are favorably aflfected by a peculiar costume, 
 and the artistic aspect of costume is evident to the least attentive ob- 
 server. Wherever we find originality .in men's or women's costumes, 
 we like to represent it in jHctures and albums, to be kept with care. 
 The inhabitant of the country is more attached to his costume than the 
 artist who studies it merely to find an attractive harmony of colors. 
 
 With six hundred costumes for exhibition, it is not surprising that 
 there were so many ways of showing them. The lay-figure was, how- 
 ever, generally adopted with great success, as by Sweden and I^orway. 
 It consisted of an iron frame, stuffed with straw, so as to show all the 
 curves of the figure, and vary the movements. The heads and hands, 
 giving the type of the country and race, were moulded from nature in 
 plaster; the heads were retouched and finished by an artist; the hands 
 were nicely made to exhibit every indenture of the cuticle. This method 
 was effective, but costly. If we look to the result alone, it was perfect. 
 The other lay-figures, such as are used in shops, were far inferior to 
 the kind we have just mentioned, and the heads and hands were very 
 imperfect. Pasteboard figures were used by the French commission, 
 because of their cheapness, and they were generally rudely made in the 
 department whence they came. 
 
 Ethnology, connected with the study of costume, is a science much 
 cultivated in Europe. Eussia has long had museums of costumes, 
 and statuettes of the different people in the empire. Turkey' has 
 collected at Constantinople all the ancient costumes of that coun- 
 try; so has Sweden, Norway, and Hungary, in their respective centers. 
 In many countries costumes are faithfully represented in statuettes 
 made of colored clay, baked and dressed, as in Italy, Spain, Portugal, 
 India, Malta, and America, Avhere there are excellent specimens. There 
 is no science more striking or easier learned ; it is not a labor, but a 
 diversion, a pleasure ; hence the success of that part of the Exhibition. 
 Crowds always filled the different halls of Class 92, and never failed to 
 stop where the use of the articles was understood. The public felt that 
 such an exhibition was a study where much could be learned, and the 
 visitors sought instruction. 
 
 When costumes are preserved without modification in a country, 
 classification is easy to make by cities or nationalities ; but if the cos- 
 tume is becoming obsolete, and clothes no longer worn are brought to 
 you, the classification becomes difficult; it is impossible to follow a sin- 
 gle method ; and this happened at the Exjjosition of 18C7. In France, 
 2 c WF 
 
18 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 particularly, it was necessary to collect costumes of the last century, 
 still worn by ver^^ old men ; rare, it is true, but still partially used. 
 The classification adopted by the international jury was independent of 
 these different systems ; it was dictated by the importance of each lot ; 
 and such is the system followed in the succeeding review of the cos- 
 tumes on exhibition. 
 
 SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 
 
 The royal commissioners of Sweden and Norway furnished seventeen 
 groups, of thirtj-two figures, varying by groups. This lot was in the 
 first class. All the principal Scandinavian costumes were there repre- 
 sented, and at the same time, the different ages, trades, and customs of 
 the country, executed under the direction of Mr. Dardel, a distinguished 
 artist and superintendent of the fine arts in Sweden, assisted by Mr. 
 Soederman, a Swedish sculptor. The lot is artistic and natural in its 
 composition 5 it forms a collection of genre pictures, representing "Har- 
 vest," " A girl dressing," " The rustic oracle," " The groom's visit," "Ask- 
 ing the mother," " The betrothed," " The Laplander in a sled drawn by a 
 deer," " Two Lapland women and children," &c. The heads and hands, 
 as has been already stated, are very true to nature. This lot may be 
 considered as a model of its kind. 
 
 TURKEY. 
 
 The Ottoman government sent a very curious collection of popular 
 costumes of different classes of society ; the number was eighty ; here 
 are some of the most important: the Zerbek, from the province of 
 Smyrna; the Arnaut, Bulgarian, Bosniak, Laz, province of Trebizond; 
 Circassian of both sexes ; a man and his wife of Mount Lebanon ; Alba- 
 nian, Kurd and his wife ; a Jew of Jerusalem and one of Bethlehem ; a 
 man of Damascus and one of Salonica ; a woman of Asia Minor 5 a 
 weaver and a cook of Constantinople 5 a Turk citizen, laborer, and shep- 
 herd ; a Bulgarian wife ; a man of Djedda, another of Bagdad, and one 
 from Mecca. 
 
 These costumes are very varied in form ; many are covered with gold 
 embroidery and gaudy braid of all colors. Cloth, velvet, muslin, gauze, 
 fur, and morocco, are strangely mingled in their composition. Draw- 
 ings would represent them better than any description. Their price is 
 low, considering their richness and elegance. It is the Oriental taste in 
 extreme sumptuousness. 
 
 GREECE. 
 
 Greece has furnished rich costumes, so covered with gold that the 
 cloth is not seen from the profusion of ornaments. The white fusta- 
 nelle, a small skirt of a thousand pleats, is the most original part, and 
 the leggings as richly embroidered as the jacket. Their elegance is 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABEICS. 19 
 
 renowued and tbeir form lias become popular — so much so, that we see 
 them in pictures everywhere, and they are much used for masquerades. 
 The most beautiful of the costumes were exhibited by Andreon and 
 Tzenos, both for men and women. The costume of an Athenian rustic 
 with his wife, of a new fashion, was sent by Magnissalis ; that of a man 
 of the Morea, sent by Zappas, and a costume of ancient Greece, that 
 might be taken for that of Phedra, is perfect — tunic, peplum, and sandals, 
 all of fine cashmere, embroidered with gold. It was said to be intended 
 for wear, though one would not think so from its elegance. The same 
 would not be said of the costume of the woman of Psara: the white 
 silk turban, the waist of velvet, and the skirt of purple silk, were of the 
 common form. 
 
 The Greek cases also contained parts of costumes of different prov- 
 inces, varying according to locality, though with a general resemblance. 
 They are dresses for daily use, their prices varying from twenty-five to 
 two thousand francs. 
 
 RUSSIA. 
 
 Eussia, with so many different peoi)le, might have sent more costumes 
 to the Paris Exposition, but for an ethnographical exhibition at ^loscow, 
 where there were more than six hundred costumes. In the Exposition 
 there were only twenty-seven from Russia, but they were choice, taste- 
 ful, and new to many. First among them was an Ostiak costume from 
 Northern Siberia, near the mouth of the Obi, covered with furs. The 
 man, woman, and children of the group are dressed alike. The fur of the 
 skins is on the outside of the garments, as in all cold countries, to make 
 them warmer. The bottom of the hood and the hem of the sleeves are 
 ornamented with colored pearls from the north of China, making them 
 really gorgeous. 
 
 The agricultural commission of Tiflis, Caucasia, sent a Touchine man 
 and woman, a Kefsaur man, one Cossack, and two Kurd uniforms. 
 They differ from those mentioned above, in ornaments, in brilliancy of 
 colors, and solidity of the material, which is manufactured in the coun- 
 try. The woman's hair is carefully i)laited ; she has a necklace of coins; 
 the men carry splendid arms and wear riding boots, thus indicating the 
 tendencies of the Eastern people. 
 
 The Crimea sent but one Tartar man and woman; their dress, very 
 tasteful, is loaded with gold embroidery ; the stuff is variegated, of cloth, 
 velvet, silk, and muslin. 
 
 It is only necessary to mention the fish-skin costumes of the'Takouts 
 and Aleutians, exhibited by Mr. Pavloft", and similar costumes of Lap- 
 landers from the grand-duchy of Finland. Russia might give us many 
 samples from its tributary lands. It is to be regretted that a Russian 
 countryman with his family was not seen, but, as each province has its 
 X)eculiar dress, arbitrarily embroidered, it would be hard to find what 
 could be called a Russian rustic. To have an idea of their taste we 
 
20 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 have but to glance at the towels in the Isba, or iu the woolen and linen 
 section. Why were not such costumes sent"? Perhaps because common 
 things are not appreciated. 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 Lay figures play a great part iu the presentation of costumes, partic- 
 ularly if the costumes are short and narrow, and for that reason those 
 sent from Murcia must be praised. They were of carved wood, with 
 jointed shoulders 5 real painted statuettes, with enameled eyes. They 
 show the dress of the males and females of Murcia to a great advantage; 
 and are so elegant that they are readily accejited abroad as the general 
 type of the whole country. 
 
 The provincial deputation of Coruua and the institute of San Isidro 
 also sent some interesting specimens; but much more was expected 
 from a country like Spain. 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 Egypt had an exhibition of popular costumes, organized by order of 
 his highness the Viceroy. The first portion, Class 91, was in cases; 
 the second was on lay figures. They represented the farmer, the 
 laborer, the negro of Upper Egypt, the Sais Berber, the Arab peddler, 
 the Copt woman, the Abyssinian woman and the negress. The manni- 
 kius used were made of hard pasteboard, modeled by the sculptor Cor- 
 dier. They were very well made, very graceful in their movements, 
 represented their types perfectly, and did honor to their author. But 
 that was not all that Egypt had to show. Quitting the palace and 
 going into the park, might be seen the workmen just as they are at Cairo: 
 the barber, the goldsmith, the embroiderer, the rush-mat maker, whose 
 bronzed faces and herculean forms made a deep and lasting imi^ression 
 on the spectator, and caused him to forget for a moment the costumes 
 before him. 
 
 ROUMANIA. 
 
 Moldavia and Wallachia had many costumes; fifteen of the principal 
 ones were on figures. They represented the surongio, the postilion of 
 Argech, the royal postilion dressed in white cloth covered with red em- 
 broidery. The herdsman, the pea-gatherer, the reaper of Arto, the 
 Danube fisherman, the mountain hunter, &c., were characteristic cos- 
 tumes of the country. Then there were graceful female costumes, em- 
 broidered by Madam Odobesco and Madam Zucasiewitz, filling two large 
 glazed cases. The bride of Turno was also observed, and portions of 
 costume of admirable workmanshij), and of such taste that an innate 
 thirst for elegance iu those people is lialpable. 
 
 PRUSSIA. 
 
 The government of Saxe-Altenburg and Mecklenburg-Schwerin had a 
 curious collection. The vestments of the bride of Altenheiui were pecu- 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 21 
 
 liar — quite black, the -wreatli and bouquet of variegated flowers, aud 
 tlie stocking's red. It seems they avoid white as carefully as it is sought 
 in Paris. The husband wears a small Louis XI hat. A protestant pop- 
 ulation was discovered in these austere fashions; but what particularly 
 attracted attention was the narrow skirt of a woman from the neighbor- 
 hood of Erfurth or Gotha; it only reached the knee, and was buttoned 
 tight in front; though it impedes walking, the wind can get no hold 
 under it. A large number of specimens might have been sent, for the 
 costumes of the married women are very different from the girls' dresses. 
 This distinction was first enforced by law, and afterward became a cus- 
 tom, which has lasted to the present time. 
 
 AUSTRIA. 
 
 Austria, justly celebrated for its elegant Croatian, Servian, Moravian, 
 Hungarian, Sclavouian, aud Tyrolian costumes, disappointed many at the 
 Exposition. Only partial representations, such as cloaks, pants, caps, 
 and belts, and a few specimens on dolls were given. However, the 
 costumes were well known, aud have long furnished patterns to dra- 
 matic artists and painters. 
 
 THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 The Argentine Kepublic had three gToups, and the gmiclio was the 
 hero in all of them; he was on horseback i^reparing to throw his lasso, 
 or had his woman behind him, or was sucking his mate through a silver 
 bombilla, held up to him by a girl. His costume aud the caparison of 
 his horse had many silver spangles on them, and the whip handle, 
 stirrups, bridle bit, and saddle pommel, were covered with silver, in justifi- 
 cation of the name of the countrj". 
 
 TUNIS. 
 
 The Bey of Tunis sent a rider and horse in festive caparison, like 
 those of the old tournaments ; three Moorish costumes, the more curious 
 as they showed the hoiue dress of the Arab woman ; and three male 
 dresses, all richly and elegantly embroidered. 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 Japan exhibited two lots ; one from the Tycoon, the other from Prince 
 Satsuma. Though separate, they were very much alike, both represent- 
 ing warriors, horsemen, and footmen, loaded down with arms, helmet on 
 the head aud shield on the arm. Their faces were hid by masks of hid- 
 eous appearance ; their arms were singular and odd in form, so as to 
 terrify the enemy. One would thiuk the entire costume was intended 
 to frighten, from the fierce aspect it gave to the w^earer. All the arti- 
 cles were carefully and elaborately fashioned, showing the skill of 
 Jai3anese Avorkmen. 
 
22 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 DENMARK. 
 
 Denmark bad four handsome country groups, men and women from 
 tlie islands of Zealand, Amak, and Iceland, very like tlieir neighbors the 
 Swedes. One must belong to that country to discover differences that 
 do not strike a stranger. There was, however, a singular detail of cos- 
 tume peculiar to them, which was initial letters of gold that the woman 
 wears on her belt, her familj'^ name and her husband's combined, a sym- 
 bol of fidelity placed near the heart. 
 
 ' PORTUGAL. 
 
 Portugal had a male costume from Honras de Miranda, in the province 
 of Tras-os-Moutes ; it was brown in color, and was covered with black 
 ornaments, with a blue vest. The cloak, with a scooped collar, is gener- 
 ally worn at festivals and weddings. The contrast between the jacket 
 and vest was odd, but attractive. 
 
 The province of Minho was well represented by a large collection of 
 vSmall figures sent from Porto : among them were the farm laborer, the 
 fisher, the water carrier, the Valongo and Avintes baker women, the 
 fish woman of Espinho, and the embroidress of Braya, the lace-maker of 
 the country. 
 
 The costumes of the province of Aluntejo — brown dress, short breeches, 
 broad brim hat — and -those of the fine looking i^eople of the Azores ; 
 those of Madeira, where we find the embroidress, the shirt-maker, the 
 laborer, and the vilon, in his ruffle shirt and i)ointed cap of such a queer 
 fashion — were wanting. But what can be said against this omission, 
 when the Netherlands, the Pontifical States and Italy, all rich in varied 
 costumes still worn, sent nothing ? India sent nothing but a few small 
 figures, very pretty indeed; Malta sent two life-size earthen statues, 
 that looked as if intended for a garden; England, rich in all other classes 
 at the Exposition, did not send her fine Scotch costumes. These ommis- 
 sions were much to be regretted. 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 France had forty-five exhibitors : sixteen had painted studies or designs 
 well calculated to illustrate the type, fashion, and manner of dress in 
 the provinces. 
 
 Eaphael Jacquemin sent a beautiful work, a colored iconography of 
 costumes from the fourth to the nineteenth century. Each plate was 
 etched by himself and gave all the details most conscientiously. It is 
 a work indispensable to libraries and very usefid to artists. 
 
 The costuDies on lay figures numbered seventy. It was hard work 
 to make this collection, yet provincial varieties were far from being- 
 complete. 
 
 FiNiSTERE. — Jacob, of Quimper, exhibited country costumes of Brit- 
 tany, as men and women of Scaer, a bridal pair from Plouare; the 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 23 
 
 woman dressed in red, like the Eoman Campesine^ and a groom of 
 Kerfuntun. These costumes, made on the spot, were richly garnished 
 with gold and silver embroidery on silk and woolen; and what was 
 most singular, the work was done by men. We can understand how 
 proud the Breton is of this costume, and why he wears it yet: it is well 
 made and showy, composed of various materials of excellent quality, 
 and calculated to last long, a consideration highly estimated by an 
 economical and industrious peoj)le.« 
 
 Beside this lot, Mr. Jacob has inaugurated a new industry by appro- 
 priating Breton embroidery and trimmings to coats, vests and <jther 
 garments used by men and women as traveling suits. It has been a 
 benefit to the tailors of Quimper; and its success is proved by the extent 
 of the business and the imitators of it that have suddenly sprung up. 
 
 The Loire Inferieure was well represented by a man and a bride from 
 Clisse, and by a man and woman of Sailly. These were all the costumes 
 exhibited from Brittany. 
 
 PuY DE Dome. — Mr. Foulhouse was commissioned by his department 
 to collect the costumes of Auvergne; this he did with the intelligence 
 and skill of an artist and archaeologist. There were ten types of the 
 principal localities. 
 
 The woman of the Tour d' Auvergne, with her dark woolen head-gear, 
 held on by a brass band, goes back to the Celtic period, if we may trust 
 tradition, and might have been worn in the time of the Gauls when 
 they conquered Alaric, near Latour. The brass fillet may have been 
 taken from the head-dress of the conquered as the emblem of triumph, 
 and the black stuff as the token of mourning, in commemoration of the 
 death of their countrymen who died on the field of battle. A widow in 
 that part of the country still wears the black veil, without the band, in 
 token of sorrow. 
 
 A man and woman of Chapdes, Beaufort, finished the highland series 
 of costumes. All these dresses are of blue woolen, and are made by the 
 women ot the country. They iirepare the wool, s^iin it, weave it, aud 
 dye it at home. The importation of foreign articles at a cheap rate has 
 tended to abolish this domestic manufacture. 
 
 The lower part of Puy-de-Dome, known as Limagne, sent a male and 
 female costume of St. Bonnet, near Eiom. The robe is of wool or cot- 
 ton, and always of gayer colors than those worn in the highlands. It 
 gives the elegant type of the women of Auvergne, whom all travelers in 
 that province see dancing the bourree on Sunday evenings. It is very 
 similar to the dress in the district of Issoire, where the Sauxillange 
 women still wear the tucked skirt, such as we see in Watteau's pictures- 
 We also see the common dress of the people of Eiom worn by the por- 
 ters at the feast of St. Amble, the patron of the city, with the high- 
 crown slouch hat,* as worn by the incroyahles in directory times. It 
 was worn in Limagne only forty years ago. 
 
 In the valley of the Dare the vine dressers* lived in common during 
 
24 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 the last century, and were called the Guitard Finon, from the chief who 
 wore a red velvet belt with a silver buckle containing the emblems of 
 agriculture, given to him by the king's intendant in the reign of 
 Louis XVI. 
 
 The women employed to tend flocks and herds still wear a broad-rim 
 straw hat worked with their own hands. This hat is tied over the head 
 with a ribbon, and is a j^erfect protection fi'om sun and rain. The 
 pleats of their coarse woolen gowns fire formed by the strokes of a mal- 
 let, which is one of the necessary instruments of the tailor. 
 
 The section of Puy-de-Dome was finished with a collection of archaeo- 
 logical objects connected with the history of costume. The first seen 
 was a bundle of distaft's of carved wood, painted by the mountain shep- 
 herds. They came from villages near Clermont, and were fashioned 
 like those used in the Pyrenees and in Algeria. The next object was a 
 Celtic belt, very curious, from the village of Corent, once a walled town 
 of Gaul. On the medals connecting the brass links were crosses carved 
 by hand to consecrate the articles. Thej" must go back to the time 
 when Christianity was introduced into Auvergne by St. Austremoine. 
 These chains were used up to the commencement of the present century 
 to carry house and trunk-keys on. There were also clasps, buckles, and 
 sleeve-buttons of Celtic origin, and these are now imitated in sleeve- 
 buttons Avith Vercingitorix's horse stamped on them. The old jewelry 
 of Auvergne, that will certainly come into fashion again, must also be 
 mentioned. 
 
 Vendee. — La Vendee was portioned into three sections, the woods, 
 plain, and sea-coast. The committee went to a great exiiense in the 
 exhibition: it sent three genuine costumes, but all tended towards the 
 same model except the winter cloak of the St. Gervais fish-women and 
 the Avomen's caps, much like those of Rochelle. The men's dress is 
 more original ; it is the true type of the old Vendean with his broad hat, 
 short coat, and tight breeches; no socks, but straw in his hard, heavy, 
 wooden shoes. The costume is not often seen now, but it is very char, 
 acteristic. 
 
 The Lower Pyrenees had three specimens from the valley of Ossau; 
 the women wore a flounced skirt, high gaiters, and a red hood; two 
 herdsmen had red caps; one was knitting as if watching his flocks; the 
 other had a lute and flageolet, and he played both at once. 
 
 Ariege. — Baron Bardis sent a male costume from the valley of Oust, 
 a man and woman from the valley of Massat, and a woman from the 
 valley of Bethmale. These costumes are still worn in the contiguous 
 valleys, and the cloth is made in the country. In the snow mountains the 
 leg-gaiters leave the knee-joint free, so as not to hinder progress through 
 the snow, while they protect the lower leg. Men wear the broad hat 
 common to the country, or the cap called the herette. In winter the 
 women add a hood to their cloaks to keep their heads warm. 
 
 Lower Ehine. — The «lepartment committee sent a man and woman 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 25 
 
 froin the neigbborliood of Strasbnrg, and two costumes from tlie vicinity 
 of Wissemburg; but Alsace might have sent many more. These came 
 from a Protestant region, as might have been seen from the woman's 
 deep green petticoat and the man's vest of the same color. Catholics 
 always wear red. 
 
 Cher. — Berry had also many souvenirs, chiefly from Asnieres-les- 
 Bourges, a small village three miles from the capital, where the people 
 are Protestants. The manners and customs of that i)art of the country 
 have not altered since the edict of Nantes. The old men still wear 
 the dress of the time of Louis XIY, and yet they all know how to read 
 and write. It is singular they are so attached to the dress of the olden 
 time. 
 
 Lower Charente. — Mr. Fournier sent a Eochelle and Marenne 
 female costume, with magnificent head-dresses, made of tulle and lace, 
 resembling those of La Manche, exhibited by Mr. LeMaillier. They had 
 a domestic look to the eye of a stranger, and were very different from 
 those of Normandy. The head-dress tells the i)rovince here and it 
 becomes a science, but it is unfortunate that we see the Norman bonnet 
 now only on the heads of old women, and on Sunday another obsolete 
 head-dress, found chiefly in the departments of the Anbe, was called the 
 tocca. It might be called a large crown of lace, very pretty and gTaceful 
 in form. 
 
 YoNNE. — The departmental committee sent a country costume of 
 Avallon, the general type in all the central departments of France, and 
 weU known in Paris through the Morvan nurses that have made it pop- 
 ular. This coquettish costume requires a good figure to show it. 
 
 The house of Babin furnished several well-made costumes for the 
 Exposition ; among the most notable were a girl of Guemene, one of 
 Bressanne, and a Corsican laborer. 
 
 We must give a few words to the cases containing the jewels. Most 
 of them, as the Norman crosses of General Hecquet and Mr. Singer, are 
 of Alengon silex ; they are collars, brooches, and ear-rings of Provence 
 and Dauphine. These adornments of the last centiuy have become rare, 
 and are only found ill the hands of amateurs. The articles of provincial 
 gold jewelry, still sold in remote districts, are qu:'te interesting as curi- 
 osities in Paris, and show the difference between what was formerly used, 
 and what is now made for fashionable peox)le. We would recommend 
 the adoption of these old fashions for the benefit of modern industry. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 MATERIALS FOR CLOTHING REPRESENTED AT 
 THE EXPOSITION. 
 
 Cotton fabrics from France, Great Britain, and other countries — Cotton 
 m.tnufacture in the united states — lusten and linen fabrics, enormous con- 
 SUMPTION OF, IN France — Various styles of linen goods shown in the French 
 
 SECTION — EeLATIVE IMPORTANCE OP THE LINEN MANUFACTURE IN VARIOUS COUN- 
 TRIES — Flax and linen in ItjVly — Manufacture of wool and worsted — The 
 British artisans on worsted and mixed textile fabrics — Silk as a material 
 
 FOR CLOTHING — ThE SILK TRADE OF FRANCE — SERICULTURE IN FRANCE — GENERAL 
 observations upon the silk INT)USTRY of VARIOUS COUNTRIES — RiBBONS. 
 
 COTTON FABEICS. 
 
 lu tlie present age, cotton fabrics being the cheapest and most univer- 
 sally used materials entering into the production of clothing, are natur- 
 ally the most important to the largest mass of consumers. 
 
 France, being very properly ambitious to have every department of 
 her wonderfid industrial interests well represented in an exposition pro- 
 jected and carried out in her great metropolis, surj)assed all other coun- 
 tries in completeness of exhibition in this department. For the same 
 grade of goods made by other nations, the French, as a general rule, use 
 a better quality of cotton, and twist their yarn more evenly and with a 
 harder twist than other manufacturers. 
 
 In all grades of shirtings, fine cottons, calicoes, lawns, and muslins, 
 the French maintain an acknowledged ascendency. Their exports of 
 these goods for the five years ending with 1865 were as follows : 18G0, 
 $13,920,000 ; 18G1, $11,280,000 ; 1862, $12,660,000 ; 1863, $17,610,000 ; 
 1861, $18,740,000; 1865,18,700,000; and 6,250,000 spindles furnish the 
 yarns from which these fabrics are woven. 
 
 It appears that, from some cause or other, many leading staple ^^ of the 
 cotton manufacture of Great Britain were not represented. But the 
 capacity of British manufacturers to meet the requirements of the world 
 at large is attested by the facts that she exports of yarns over $5 J,O0U,000 
 worth, of calicoes over $115,000,000, other printed goods, $80,000,000, 
 and of sewing cotton upward of $3,000,000— in all a value of $-;48,000,000 ; 
 yet none of these branches of the trade were represented to any extent 
 in the Exposition. 
 
 Our own manufacturers in this department of industry declined to 
 appear ; a case of sewing-cotton from the Clark Thread Company being 
 the only article exhibited in the class of manufactured cottons. 
 
 The Oriental nations, with the exception of Persia, were scarcely rep- 
 resented. Persia contributed, after the date at which they should have 
 
28 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 beeu received, some veiy rich fabrics, among which were some printed 
 goods in the traditional style of the country. 
 
 Italy, Russia, Sweden and Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Wiu"- 
 temberg, Baden, Prussia, and North Germany, Belgium, and the Nether- 
 lands, were all more or less extensively present in the examxjles of this 
 class, and generally with credit to themselves. 
 
 The manufacture of cotton goods is the most prominent feature of 
 the textile industry in Wurtemberg. This branch has been developed 
 mainly within the past fifteen years, and supports twenty-one establish- 
 ments engaged in cotton-spinning, employing about 245,000 spindles, 
 and 3,550 hands; consuming 5,60J,000 kilogrammes of raw material, val- 
 ued at 83,222,013 84. 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 The very comprehensive report of my colleague. Commissioner Nourse, 
 renders the presentation in this place of statistics of the cotton sujiply 
 and manufacture of the United States superfluous. It will be sufficient 
 to direct attention to the fact that the country did not make that display 
 of cotton manufactures which justice to this important industry required ; 
 and also to the fact that notwithstanding the great Increase of jDroduc- 
 tion of all kinds of cotton goods, the demand is not supplied. 
 
 The average annual value of foreign cotton manufactures imported, 
 from 1821 to 1839, inclusive, was $10,624,087; and from 1840 to 185G, in- 
 clusive, $10,795,418; the yearly exportation for the same period aver- 
 aging only $909,114. From 1854 to 1856, the average annual imports 
 amounted to $28,811,966. These values, during the later periods, con- 
 sisted largely of piece goods from Great Britain. Of plain white British 
 calicoes alone our importations increased from 10,000,000 of yards in 
 1846 to 85,000,000 in 1850, and of printed or dyed calicoes, from 13,500,000 
 yards in the former to 97,000,000 yards in the latter year; and in 1860 we 
 received from that country altogether 226,776,939 yards of cottons ; but 
 in the first two years of the late civil war, 1861 and 1862, this importa- 
 tion creased to 74,680,537 and 97,375,709 yards, respectively. 
 
 This industry, so vast and important to this country, and which de- 
 served so prom iient a place at the Exposition of 1867, was practically 
 unrepresented there. It is not, however, to be inferred from this omis- 
 sion to appear in the greatest of industrial competitions, that the Amer- 
 ican manufacturers lack confidence in their ability to compete in the 
 quality of those classes of cotton goods which form the great staple fab- 
 rics demanded by the masses of mankind ; but a vague impression that 
 the relative cost of i^roduction was to be taken into account in deciding 
 upon the question of comparative merit, seems to have influenced them 
 in withholding their fabrics. 
 
 The very general and earnest efforts which have been and are being 
 made by the government and manufacturers of the United States to 
 ameliorate the condition of the laboring classes by the payment of 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 
 
 29 
 
 liberal wages, the reductiou of the hours of labor, aucl the diffusion 
 among them of all "means tending to their elevation and moral, social, 
 and intellectual improvemeut, render it impossible, and it is considered 
 undesirable, for American manufacturers to comx^ete with those of foreign 
 countries in the cheapness of manual labor. 
 
 It is to be regretted, however, that they did not present a complete 
 exhibition of this class of goods, had it only been for the benefit of such 
 criticism as competent and faithful experts would have made, as well as 
 for the eclat which they might have shared with some of oiu' woolen 
 manufacturers in bearing off' golden rewards of success. 
 
 The number of gold medals awarded in this branch was twenty-six ; 
 of which, France received fifteen ; Great Britain, five ; Switzerland and 
 Belgium, two each ; Austria and Prussia, one each. 
 
 Of one hundred and thirty-seven silver medals, France took seventy- 
 five ; Switzerland, thirteen ; Austria and Prussia, twelve each ; Belgium, 
 seven ; Eussia, six ; Great Britain, five ; Saxony, Holland, and the 
 United States, two each; Spain, one. The bronze medals being distrib- 
 uted in about the same proportion. 
 
 The countries represented, and the number of exhibitors from each, 
 in Class 27, Grou^j VI, being cotton yarns and fabrics, are as follows : 
 
 Country. 
 
 France 
 
 Algeria 
 
 Holland 
 
 Belgium 
 
 Prussia 
 
 Hesse 
 
 Bavaria 
 
 Wurtemberg. 
 
 Austria 
 
 Switzerland.. 
 
 Spain 
 
 Portugal 
 
 Greece 
 
 2 ? 
 
 228 
 12 
 15 
 69 
 47 
 1 
 2 
 11 
 36 
 55 
 14 
 
 Country. 
 
 Denmark 
 
 Sweden 
 
 Norway 
 
 Italy 
 
 Turkey 
 
 Egypt 
 
 Tunis 
 
 China 
 
 Loo Clioo 
 
 Morocco 
 
 United States 
 
 Great Britain / 
 
 British colonies and depehdeucies . 
 
 ■/• 
 
 lehd 
 
 \^ a 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 2 
 
 47 
 198 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 4 
 
 31 
 4 
 
 LINEN AND LINEN FABRICS. 
 
 Naturally succeeding cotton comes linen, the production of which was 
 \asibly stimulated during the civil war in the United States by the sud- 
 den and protracted interruption of the supply of cotton. The results of 
 this stimulation were manifest in the linen exhibits of .the Exposition. 
 France devoted a larger space to this than to any other single industry, 
 in her section of the building, as did also Belgium and Prussia. It was 
 stated in a report to the Chamber of Commerce of Belfast, Ireland, by a 
 deputation sent to the Paris Exhibition of 1855, that the aunual con- 
 sumption of linens in France then amounted to two hundred and fifty 
 
30 
 
 PARIS UNrV'ERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 million yards — a larger quantity than is used in any other country — and 
 French statistics show that on the 1st of January, 1866, there were in 
 that country two hundred and twenty-six linen mills, containing 70.~),350 
 spindles.^and that in the Dei)artement du Xord there were 4,30.j power- 
 looms ; since which they have been increased, so that in all France there 
 cannot be less than 8,000 X)Ower-looms engaged in weaving linen. Added 
 to the supply from this source, an importation was reported for 1866 of 
 3,800,000 pounds of yarn, and 3,500,000 of linen. Among the prin- 
 cipal styles of linen fabrics for clothing purposes exhibited in the French 
 section are the various tyi)es used in the naval and military services, in 
 which, as well as in hospitals and prisons, the French adopt the use of 
 linen instead of cotton. Then come blouse linens, blue, drab, and slate- 
 colored, and of A'arious shades. These with French fancy drills, which 
 are largely exported, light linens, and linen handkerchiefs, from the 
 Cholet district, and damasks, were the most notable varieties exhibited. 
 Belgium. Prussia, Xorth Germany, and Austria were represented in a 
 manner sho-^ing tliat this industry is well maintained among them ; but 
 Great Britain established a claim to undisputed pre-eminence. Her ex- 
 ports of manufactured linen for six years preceding 1867 were, for 1861, 
 over 817.060,000; for 1862, 822,000,000; for 1863, 829,330.000, and up- 
 ward; 1861, over 837,525,000; 1865, 811,220,000, and upward; 1866, 
 814,125.000. 
 
 EXTENT OF THE LIXEN INTDUSTRY IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 
 
 The follovsing table, indicating the number of spindles in activity and 
 in construction at the commencement of the year 1865, gives an idea of 
 the relative importance of the linen manufacture of each of the principal 
 countries engaged in that industry : 
 
 Coon try. 
 
 In activity. 
 
 In construc- 
 tion. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Great Britain . 
 
 France 
 
 Belgiom 
 
 Knssia 
 
 Xorth America. 
 
 Austria 
 
 Prussia 
 
 Saxony 
 
 Bararia 
 
 "Wurtemberg . . . 
 
 Total 
 
 ,263,000 
 
 563,025 
 
 135,000 
 
 75,000 
 
 80,000 
 
 210,000 
 
 151,000 
 
 15,000 
 
 6,200 
 
 4.000 
 
 195,638 
 
 60,000 
 
 60,000 
 
 19,000 
 
 20,000 
 
 116, 500 
 
 24,500 
 
 6,000 
 
 1,000 
 
 1, 460, 63S 
 
 6-J3. 025 
 
 195,000 
 
 94,000 
 
 100, 000 
 
 327,300 
 
 175, 500 
 
 21,000 
 
 7,200 
 
 4.000 
 
 2. 505, 025 
 
 3. 007. 663 
 
 Ireland produces very good rpialities for the .spinning of medium num- 
 bers. Kussia exports considerable (piantities, principally from Eiga. 
 Her linens are pliant and easily worked, but they never bleach to a per- 
 fect white. Thev serve for the coarser numbers only. 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 
 
 31 
 
 Algeria lias entered successfully upou the culture of flax. The progress 
 in this culture which she has made under the benign guidance of science 
 as perpetuated in the mother country, is illustrated by the fact that the 
 specimens which she exhibited in 1855 were not adapted to the produc- 
 tion of finer yarns than English Xo. 25, (17 millimetres, French,) 
 while those in the Exposition of 18G7 were perfectly capable of pro- 
 ducing threads of No. 100. 
 
 In France, linen fabrics are manufactured principally in the Departe- 
 ment du Kord, Picardie, the environs of Bernay, and in the Pays de Caux. 
 The linens of this last district as those of Picardie are of inferior quality. 
 Those of Bernay and du Nord, although superior, do not equal in quality 
 the linen of the Lys, (Belgian,) that are gathered in the environs of 
 Courtray, and which are all of highest grade. The environs of Gaud, 
 Lockeren, and Maliues, furnish also linen fiber of a quality perfectly 
 adapted to yarns or threads of fine numbers. 
 
 The annexed tabular statement shows the magnitude of the linen 
 industry of Belgium from the years 1855 to 1864 : 
 
 Tear. 
 
 1855. 
 1856 
 
 1857, 
 1853, 
 1859 
 I860 
 1861 
 1862 
 1863 
 1864 
 
 Importation. 
 
 Exportation. 
 
 Quantities. Value. Quantities. Value. 
 
 Kilos. 
 
 12, 464 
 10, 000 
 13, 190 
 
 13, 858 
 16, 884 
 
 15, 593 
 
 10, 714 
 
 11, 879 
 
 16, 353 
 19, 285 
 
 Francs. 
 175, 000 
 167, 000 
 303, 000 
 364, 000 
 320, 000 
 329, 000 
 334, 000 
 548, 000 
 594, 000 
 819, 000 
 
 Kilos. 
 
 2, 762, 587 
 
 3, 485, 024 
 3, 549, 901 
 
 3, 418, 752 
 3,381,423 
 
 4, 230, 458 
 4, 495, 007 
 4, 412, 859 
 4, 228, 528 
 4, 243, 602 
 
 •ancs. 
 467, 000 
 832, 000 
 165, 000 
 704, 000 
 396, 000 
 741, 000 
 261, 000 
 132, 000 
 097, 000 
 061, 000 
 
 FLAX AND LINEN GOODS IN ITALY. 
 
 The production of flax in the kingdom of Italy is estimated to be about 
 135,000 metric quintals,^ that of hemp about 500,000 metric quintals, in 
 all 635,000 metric quintals. The i^rincipal varieties cultivated are the 
 ordinary hemp, the Chinese hemp, and giant hemp; the stalks of this 
 last variety sometimes attain a height of five metres, (sixteen feet.) 
 
 This product forms quite an important item in Italian commerce; the 
 imports and exports for the years 1862, 1863, 1861, and 1865, averaged 
 respectively 16,956 metric quintals, valued at 1,600,000 francs, and 
 157,033 metric quintals, valued at 15,321,000 francs. Three-quarters of 
 the exports go to Austria, principally in a raw state. During the three 
 years 1863, 1861, and 1865, the imports of hemp made into cordage 
 averaged 11,130 metric quintals, valued at 878,000 francs, while the 
 
 ' The quintal = 100 kilogrammes, or 220.46 pounds. 
 
32 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 exports for the same period averaged 15,356 metric quintals, valued at 
 1,058 francs. 
 
 The spinning of flax and hemp is still generally done by hand, there 
 being but few factories in which power is used. There are, however, three 
 in Lombardy, having in aU 14,120 spindles and giving employment to 
 > 980 persons, of whom 245 are men, and 735 women and children. 
 
 The wages for the women and children vary from twenty-five to forty- 
 five centimes per day ; that of the men from one franc thirty-two cen- 
 times to two francs per day. 
 
 The quantity of flax and hemp which is consumed in these establish- 
 ments is 12,500 metric quintals, from which is produced 9,000 metric 
 quintals of all qualities. To the work which is done in the factories 
 must be added the work done with hand looms by 300,000 peasants, who 
 are employed in spinning one hundred and fifty days during the year. 
 Their average earnings are fifteen centimes a day, and the whole 
 amount paid annually for this work is 6,330,000 francs. 
 
 The city of Bologna possesses two factories capable of producing 5,000 
 metric quintals of thread per annum. 
 
 The amount of hemp and flax spun in Italy is not sufficient to supply 
 the home consumption. The greater part of this material is exported in 
 a raw state, and returns in the form of thread, having been spun in the 
 great factories of England and France. The average exports and im- 
 ports of thread for the years 1862, 1803, 1804, and 1805 are as follows: Ex- 
 ports, 3,042 metric quintals, value<l at 789,000 francs: Imports, 29,575 me- 
 tric quintals, valued at 7,772,000 francs. Inweaving linen there are em- 
 ployed 120,000 looms and 171,000 workmen. The entire production may 
 be valued at 00,000,000 francs per annum. There are many factories es- 
 tablished in Piedmont, in Lombardy, and in the southern provinces, but 
 in the country there are local manufactures wliich supply the home 
 consumption. 
 
 The fine linen used in Italy is almost all imported. The importations 
 from France and England have increased of late years to a great extent, 
 while the exports have fallen ofl" proportionately; the average imports 
 for three years, from 1863 to 1865, inclusive, being 14,924 metric quintals, 
 valued at 8,287,000 francs, against 5,066 metric quintals, valued at 
 2,0*97,000 francs, exported during the same period. 
 
 MANUFACTUEES OF WOOL AXD WORSTED. 
 
 In an economic point of view, and as a branch in which the national taste, 
 skill, and thoroughness of workmanship were brought to the test, this 
 feature of the Exposition was not surpassed. France and Eugland vied 
 with each other in presenting to the admiration of the world series of 
 tissues of great beauty and utility for female wear, such as double meri- 
 noes, i)oi)lins, beaded stuffs, figured and fancy goods, material uiade 
 from the wool of the Angora goat, printed merinoes or cashmeres, and 
 de laiues, heavy Orleans cloth and alpaca, mixed goods made from fine 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 33 
 
 organzine with silk warp, and weft of mohair, the last named being 
 exhibited only by the French. It is a gratifying fact that although the 
 United States were not represented in these fabrics, her eDter])rising 
 manufacturers are gradually entering the same field and that her stock- 
 raisers are paying more and more attention to the growth and improve- 
 ment of wools, so that we are in a fair way, at no distant day, to com- 
 pete handsomely with Bradford and Rubaix, the respective centers of 
 these Industries in England and France. The latest and most valuable 
 information on the woolen industries may be found in the report of Mr. 
 John L. Hayes already referred to. 
 
 Austria, Prussia, and Saxony displayed a more limited range of simi- 
 lar fabrics, so also did Eussia and Belgium, all of which received high 
 commendation. 
 
 As in the spinning of flax, France shows in the production of the fine 
 yarns necessary for all-wool goods and wool and silk goods the qualities 
 which give to her fabrics woven therefrom their undisputed superiority. 
 England, however, excels in her mixed fabrics, from a similar superior 
 practice in preparing the yarns from long wool, which requires processes 
 of treatment differing radically from those for spinning carded wool. 
 
 Another quite distinct branch, namely, that of carded wool and woolen 
 fabrics, upon which wearing apparel of both sexes is largely dependent, 
 remains to be noticed, before we reach the more delicate and luxurious 
 materials. Here again we are filled with admiration of the beauty and 
 variety of the French representation. The complete system of indus- 
 trial education will, no doubt, account for the thorough skillfulness of 
 manipulation in spinning and weaving, as it does for the taste and 
 fertility of design displayed in French fabrics. In figured coatings, Mos- 
 cow beavers, sable furs, and Witneys, France verifies the importance of 
 this system of education and her velvet piles and naps of wool and 
 Astrakhans for ladies' mantles are unrivalled. France exhibits also the 
 novel combinations of velvet cloth adorned with glass, steel, and gold 
 beads, and brass shavings, and cloth made from felted yarns, which are 
 beautifully soft and elastic and not dear in price; and makes a very 
 excellent display of fine cloths and beautiful examj)les of fine fancy 
 trouserings, worthy of the soiuxe of their i^roduction. Prussia, Austria^ 
 Holland and Belgium, Eussia, Italy, and Turkey, all figure respectably in 
 the same line, and in some qualities attain preeminence: for instance, 
 Belgium for heavy overcoatings, such as ribbed cloths, reversible beav- 
 ers, Moscows, deer and doe skins, and other ribbed cloths ; Austria for 
 the brightness and clearness of dyes, and original and tasteful patterns. 
 
 The strong point in British woolens is the superior qualitj^ of superfine 
 broadcloths, cassimeres, doeskins, and beavers, which especially are 
 unsurpassed. 
 
 Huddersfield, one of the greatest centers of production, exhibits coat- 
 ings, trouserings, vestings, mohairs, imitation skin rugs, and velvet piles, 
 of moderate cost, yet excellent in quality. Scotland sent a varied col- 
 3 G w F 
 
34 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 lection of trouserings, shawls, and the soft, beautiful and durable fabrics 
 for wbicb she is celebrated ; and Ireland some good tweeds, freezes, and 
 trouserings. 
 
 WORSTED AND SnXED TEXTILE FABRICS. 
 
 The following is an extract from the report made by Daniel Illingworth, 
 of Bradford, England, one of the British artisans, and published by the 
 Society of Arts : 
 
 "After talcing a general survey of the exhibition, we began looking at 
 the Bradford goods. We found various makes, including lastings, cam- 
 lets, cords, a few Coburgs, Orleans, various stripes and mottled fabrics 5 
 nothing made for the special purpose of show, but goods taken from our 
 present stocks. Similar goods can be seen in our ma'rket at any time. 
 They are made from cotton, wool, and silk. 
 
 " In looking over the fabrics of continental manufacturers, the French, 
 I must say, are superior to any other, both in quality and dye. No com- 
 parison can, however, be fairly instituted between goods made of all 
 wool, wool and silk, and goods made of mixed wool and cotton. 
 
 " We were told in France that we could not dye meriuoes ; that when they 
 sent them in the gray to England, they had to be sent back to Paris to 
 dye and finish. Their merino weft and warps are carded and spun with- 
 out oil, to which is attributed the deficiency of our shades ; but if we 
 cannot dye the French goods, which are without oil, our dyers must find 
 some other excuse. 
 
 "In looking over the French goods in the all-wool, wool and silk, the 
 merinoes are particularly good. The reps made of all-wool, wool and 
 silk, are beautiful. They have also the plain poplin, all-wool, which is 
 also good ; of these they have an enormous and most varied display. No 
 prices were affixed to the French goods in this class, but from the fine- 
 ness of the quality they must be very costly. They are goods that will 
 not be extensively made in England. The competition is so pressing 
 that we are obliged to make a cheap article. 
 
 - "The collective show of Eoubaix was good. Upon inquiry we found 
 that they had been made expressly for show, regardless of expense. 
 This contains goods similar to the Bradford manufactures in mixtures of 
 cotton, wool, and silk fobrics, but nothing new in design. 
 
 "Messrs. Delattre, sr. & Co. had a first-class show of merinoes, poplins, 
 reps, and mottled fabrics, which had been made regardless of cost and 
 of superior material to any that I saw afterwards in the working i^rocess. 
 
 "The goods shown from Eoubaix are superior to ours in quality. 
 
 " On visiting Eoubaix we encountered much difficulty in gaining admit- 
 tance to the ijlaces of business ; and where we were allowed to see the comb- 
 ing, drawing and spinning, we were not allowed to see the weaving; and 
 only in oue instance did we succeed in doing so, but in that we found 
 nothing to learn. In Eoubaix we found some of the lowest classes of 
 wool in process, and spun into weft. 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 35 
 
 " We next went to the manufacturing town of Rbeims, wliere we were 
 well received. We visited several firms in the town and district. There 
 are made poplins, reps, and cashmeres and merinoes, the last named being 
 the principal manufacture. We visited the firm of Danphinot and 
 Brothers, who have a good show in the exhibition of reiis, cashmeres, 
 poplins, yarns, tops, wool, &c., but merinoes are their principal make at 
 present. The woolen warp is spun in single threads, on caps; then it is 
 taken and twisted two-fold on a roving bobbin, from which it is warped 
 onto a beam to form one sixth of the warp ; then it runs from the six 
 beams onto one, and as it runs from the six beams it passes through a size 
 of glue and water. When it comes out of the size every end is separated 
 and dried with two fans before it reaches the beam, and all this is man- 
 aged by one girl. There are no dressers, no warping mills, and very 
 little labor attending the process. This method of sizing and beaming 
 is nothing new; it is similar to the cotton process. 
 
 "There are both one and two-loom tenters; but as far as we could see 
 and learn, quality is more sought after than quantity. We noticed a first- 
 rate machine for finishing or cleaning knots from the face of merinoes 
 and other fabrics. By this machine the suj)erfluous ends, «&c., are 
 shaven off, and at the same time the ground is raised, by which process 
 a richer ai^pearance is given to the cloth. This machine is in the form 
 of two going parts of a loom, and works the same way. The ])ieces pass 
 over the surface of the going part, where a peculiar knife is fixed, which 
 takes off all the fibers. A great number of women are also employed to 
 clean the jjieces, and every care is taken to make them as perfect as pos- 
 sible. In one piece room were fifty, and in another twenty-five, of those 
 women employed. If an end was out it was sewn in, and all ends or 
 fibers cut from the edges and superfluities of every kind cleared off. 
 
 " We visited the firm of Messrs. Seydoux, Sieber & Co., Le Catiau. 
 This is the largest firm in France. We noticed their case in the exhi- 
 bition. It consisted of reps, poplins, cashmeres, and merinoes ; a really 
 first-class show. 
 
 "We noticed a very good case from Prussia, of goods similar to our 
 own. 
 
 " With regard to machinery, we found it very difficult to gain 
 admittance to the French department. At last, however, we succeeded, 
 and on examining the looms we did not find anything to learn. There 
 was the plain and drop box loom, but nothing new, and none equal to 
 the Yorkshire looms for the Yorkshire trade. We consider it unneces- 
 sary to dilate upon the excellence of our looms. 
 
 " In the Exhibition we were indebted to Messrs. Larsonnier Brothers 
 & Company for the opportunity of examining several cases of French 
 goods. They very kindly opened, not only their own case, but others 
 for our inspection, and also gave us samples. 
 
 "There are few goods exhibited by the continental manufacturers for 
 the use of the middle and working classes. The Bradford goods are 
 
36 PAEIS UNIA^ERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 most suitable and substantial; and the surprising- clieapuess of these 
 fabrics it is hoped will attract the attention of our foreign merchants 
 in this class, and obtain from them a due appreciation, and stimulate a 
 demand for our goods." 
 
 SILK AS A MATEEIAL FOE CLOTHmG. 
 
 The opportunity presented at this Exposition for the study of the 
 production and the products of silk, was probably the best ever offered 
 to the world 5 for the competing exhibitors in the French section, rely- 
 ing on their ability to keep in advance of all rivals in a manufacture so 
 entirely dependent upon individual skill, which may be regarded with 
 them as an accumulated heritage descending from one generation to 
 another, eagerly revealed, in compliance with the requirements of the 
 Imperial Commission, all the methods and processes of their industry. 
 
 To no country, in its bearing on national industry, wealth, and taste, is 
 the subject of more urgent moment than to the United States, and the 
 opportunity has been well improved by my able colleague Elliot C. 
 Cowdin, esq., of New York, who has so exhaustively discussed the 
 subject of the production and treatment of the raw material, as to leave 
 scarcely anything to be said on this branch of the svibject. 
 
 Tlje rich stores, in the French section, of silk materials are many of 
 them marvels of beauty in color and design. Though the newly dis- 
 covered colors now extracted from coal tar and oil, known as aniline 
 colors, have done much in this direction, the artistic taste and feeling 
 developed by the admirable system of technical or industrial art educa- 
 tion, which, as before intimated, lies at the basis of French pre-eminence 
 in the fabrication of articles of elegance or luxuiy admitting of the 
 application of design, has done still more. 
 
 In sillc, which has such a remarkable capacity for receiving colors, 
 and at the same time retaining its sparkling freshness and power of 
 reflecting light, the knowledge of design and of the proprieties of color 
 is even more important than texture and quality of material. 
 
 Artistic designing is itself an imj^ortant industry in Paris, and is 
 liberally consulted by the manufacturers, who thereby maintain novelty 
 and excellence in their tissues, shawls, brocades, ribbons, and embroid- 
 eries. 
 
 Lyons and St. fitienne were shown, by their specimens at the Exposi- 
 tion, to be the seats of highest development in the silk manufacture. 
 This was demonstrated by the collective exhibition of the Association 
 des Tisseurs de Lyons, and the superb tapestry or damask silk contrib- 
 uted by Messrs. Pillet-Meauze et Fils, (102,) as well as that of Messrs. 
 Methevon and Bouvard, (148,) of regal richness; by the specimen of 
 taffeta brocaded silk with lace patterns enriched by garlands of 
 flowers, and also a taffeta silk with velvet representing birds, flowers, 
 and feathers, imitating nature so cunningly as almost to deceive the eye. 
 
 Some impression of the beauty of design attained in the manufacture 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 37 
 
 of woven silk may be derived from illustrations, but they can give no 
 idea of the crisp fresh gloss and play of light aud shade, nor of any of 
 the delicate qualities which make silk what it is when the highest work- 
 manship, skill, aud taste have been bestowed on its production. 
 
 The relative position of Great Britain to the other silk manufacturing 
 nations, was not perhaps justly presented at the Exhibition, but the 
 most favorable exposition of her products in that line would leave her 
 far behind Prance. Moire antiques, Irish poplius, black crape, and plain 
 and glace silks of good quality each in their grade, illustrate the general 
 tendency of British manufacturers to supply the substantial fabrics of 
 established quality generally demanded by the great mass of consumers, 
 leaving" the French to supply the more ornate and elaborate varieties 
 called for by the classes who lavish wealth in keeping pace with the 
 fleeting fancies of fashion. One very rich material of the kind known 
 as tissue de cenx, for furniture aud curtains, reflected credit upon the 
 exhibitors, Messrs. Grant and Gask, of London. It was brilliant with 
 fine spun glass, which is getting to be much used in decorative tissues. 
 The great London Exhibition of 18G2, at which the English displayed 
 marked progress over her former exhibitions in silk manufacture, as well 
 in design as in other qualities, seems to have stimulated France to 
 renewed vigor and originality, while the subsidence of the English 
 would convey the idea that they had formerly made, by a si^asmodic 
 effort, exceptional specimens for the purpose of carrying off the prizes. 
 Professor Leoni Levi, L.L.D., in his able and instructive report upon 
 the silk manufactures at the Exposition to the British government, gives 
 the following statistical information upon this subject: 
 
 " Within the last twenty-five years there has been a great oscillation 
 in the imports of raw silk. In 1840 the imports amounted to 3,759,000 
 pounds; from that time they increased enormously, till in 18G0 they 
 reached 9,200,000 pounds. But afterwards there was a considerable 
 decrease, and in 18G7 they were not more than 5,800,000 pounds." He 
 then shows that the disease in silkworms caused a great competition in 
 the purchase of China and India unmanufactured silk, causing a rise of 
 from eighty to one hundred per cent., and that in an industry where the 
 raw material enters so largelj^ in the total value, such a rise left but 
 little surplus either for labor or cajjital." 
 
 He further observes : 
 
 " Following the unsatisfactory condition of the raw material, the 
 exports of British silk have suffered gTeatly. In 1810, when Sir Eobert 
 Peel reduced the duty on silk manufactures from thirty per cent., as it 
 was left by Mr. Huskisson, to fifteen per cent., the value of exports 
 amounted to no more than £608,000. From that time it increased regu- 
 larly, till in 1856 the value amounted to £1,758,000. Soon after, the 
 disease in silkworms appeared, prices rose, and the cheaper descriptions 
 of silk became dearer in proportion than similar articles in wool or 
 other materials. 
 
38 
 
 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 " Then, too, in 18G0 America, our chief market, became tlie prey of a 
 fearful civil war, aud the exports fell in 18G1 to £1,395,000, ami from 
 that time they farther fell to £1,028,000 iu 1867.' Even the six months 
 ending July, 1807, showed a considerable diminution as compared with 
 the similar x)eriod iu 1860. To a certain extent the check to the pros- 
 perity of the manufacturer has been as mnch felt in Lyons as in Spital- 
 fields and JMauchester; but wliile Enghind did not get the better of it, 
 France did. Of ribbons, for instance, in 1851 the export from France 
 amonnted to £1,200,000; in 1855 they rose to £-1,700,000; and in 1861 
 fell to £1,800,000; but they have since recovered to £3,500,000 in 1866. 
 
 ''•The silk trade of France, as a whole, exhibits a very dili'erent 
 progress from that of England as regards the exports of silk manufac- 
 ture. When the two are placed side by side the comparison is very 
 striking: 
 
 Year. 
 
 Exports from 
 Eiiglaml. 
 
 Increase per 
 ceut. 
 
 Exports from 
 Fi-ance. 
 
 Increase per 
 ceut. 
 
 1851 
 
 £1,130,000 
 1, 082, 000 
 1, 395, 000 
 
 1, 318, 000 
 
 
 £7, 350, 000 
 9, 650, 000 
 11.560,000 
 
 1, 850, 000 
 
 
 1855 
 
 4 
 23 
 Decrease.. 
 
 5 
 
 31 
 
 1861 
 
 20 
 
 1866 
 
 63 
 
 
 
 " The difference between France and England from 1851 to 1855, aud 
 from 1861 to 1866, is very notable. 
 
 " What, however, alarms the British manufacturer is the fact, that 
 while the exi>orts of British manufacture decreased, the imports of 
 French and other foreign manufactures have greatly increased. In 1855 
 the real value of foreign silk manufacture imported was only £1,800,000. 
 In 1860 it was £2,800,000 ; and in 1807, £8,000,000. There is nothing 
 surprising in the fact of such increase, the diminution or abolition of 
 import duty being always followed by a larger trade, by Avhicli the com- 
 munity at large is benefited. Only in this case the natural result was 
 more sudden, from the fact that just when we opened our i)orts, the 
 American markets being closed, a large j)ortion of French and German 
 silk, which would otherwise have been sent thither, found its way to 
 this country. 
 
 "From these accumulated evils the manufacturer in this country has 
 been jilaced under no ordinary straits and dififlculty, and there is no 
 doubt that thereby the ability of England to compete Avith France in 
 certain descriptions of silk manufacture has been greatl}' put to the 
 test." 
 
 SERICULTUllE IX FRAXCE.i 
 
 Sericulture is not so prosperous as it was in 1855, on account of the 
 silk-worm disease. Although it has long been known, its disasters 
 
 1 Extract (trauslation) from the report of Jules Raimbert, of the International Jury. 
 Rapxiorts dii Jury luteruational, tome qnatrieme, ]). 162. 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 39 
 
 ill France begau after the Exx)osition of 1855 and spread over all silk- 
 produciug countries. For eighteen years, every remedy has been tried 
 in vain to arrest its ravages. 
 
 The silk crop in France, previous to the epidemic of 1840-48, was 
 estimated at twenty millions of kilogrammes of cocoons, worth, at the 
 average of five francs, one hundred millions of francs. At that time 
 one ounce of eggs yielded thirty kilos of cocoons, and seven hundred 
 thousand ounces of eggs were required for France. 
 
 Now more than a million ounces of eggs are put to hatch, to allow for 
 losses, and they only yield an average of ten million kilos of cocoons, 
 bringing fifty-eight millions of francs. This is a loss of forty-two mil- 
 lions ; and it is more evident if Ave compare the quantity of raw silk 
 formerly produced, and that produced now. Then, the quantity 
 produced was nearly two million kilos, costing seventy-two francs the 
 kilo; the yield now is not over six hundred thousand kilos, but the 
 price has arisen to one hundred and twelve francs. Thus, silk is from 
 sixty to one hundred per cent, dearer than formerly, and its production 
 has diminished two-thirds. To su^jply this deficiency, silk is imported. 
 
 At the time of the Paris Exposition of 1855, domestic silk was used 
 to the quantity of eighty per cent. Lyons and St. !fitienne were the two 
 centers of the flourishing manufactures. 
 
 At the time of the London Fair of 1862, the silk crisis was at its 
 height, and silkworm eggs were brought from Caucasia and the lower 
 Danube to supply the business in western Europe. In 1865, such was 
 the scarcity in France, that seventy-five per cent, of silk was imported •, 
 and in 1867, when the Exposition opened, the silk industry was in a 
 desperate condition. 
 
 Subsequent to 1862 another important event had occurred : the early 
 cocoons of Europe had died out and fresh eggs had to be brought from 
 the East, chiefly from Japan. The cocoons of that country are of an 
 inferior quality, and are often double. They are yellow, white, green, 
 gray, and generally smaller than cmrs, thus making their manipulation 
 more difficult. A good spinner formerly made three hundred and forty 
 grammes a day 5 now she hardly makes two' hundred. 
 
 SPINNING AND MILLING. 
 
 The position of the silk spinners was becoming critical, from priva- 
 tions of sources of former jirosperity, and contention with unknown 
 rivals; and milling suffered from the same causes. The quality of the 
 raw silk became inferior, and its winding difticult; its manufacture 
 became more expensive, on account of the working classes of the coun- 
 try flocking into the towns. From 1862 to 1867, the cost of labor rose 
 as much as twenty per cent. 
 
 But in spite of the bad material and against all difficulties, we are 
 proud to say that France is still at the head of the silk-producing coun- 
 tries. The spinners and millers of Ardeche, Drome, and Yaucluse form 
 
40 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 a pbalaax unrivaled for the manufacture of organzines, plush, and satin. 
 The number of these factories is about the same as in 18G2 ; for we 
 found the same houses exhibiting at the late Exposition that exhibited 
 at the London Exhibition in 18G2. 
 
 The spinneries of the Cevennes keep up their reputation for their silks. 
 They have had to contend with Japan, that shows many elegant speci- 
 mens in cases, such as green silk, which is now taking the place of white 
 and yellow. What was injurious to the spinners of pure silk, j^roved 
 beneficial to those that worked the tow and refuse of silk. Owing 
 to the high price of silk, that industry has increased considerably in 
 France, Switzerland, Italy, and England, particularly for three-ply cord. 
 
 Considerable improvements have been made in the preparation of 
 this material, before combing and in the subsequent manipulation of it ; 
 and they have raised the price of tow, which is now used for many 
 articles that used to be made of pure silk. Paris and Mmes furnish the 
 best specimens of sewing silk, and silk used for embroidery and fringes. 
 In spite of the obstacles that scarcity of the raw material has thrown 
 in the way of this industry, it has prospered. 
 
 Winding has also improved by now furnishing skeins of regular size 
 and quantity. Specimens were first exhibited in 1855, but now skeins 
 are made very large for the use of sewing machines, that have come 
 into use since that time. 
 
 The scarcity, and, as a natural consequence, the dearness of all sorts 
 of silk, have given a real importance to that kind called (louppions, once 
 used in ordinary fabrics only, but now made up by many Paris houses, 
 some of which make it a specialty. 
 
 The little business of winding, spooling, and balling silk, has reached 
 an importance through machines that ha\'e cheapened the processes, 
 once so tediously performed by hand. 
 
 Though outside of our line, we cannot refrain from mentioning the 
 improvements made by the dyers of Paris and Lyons. Tbe chemists 
 and dyers of those cities have made discoveries of new coloring materi- 
 als, called aniline, fuchsine, &c., that have produced wonderful effects. 
 The exJiibitors of those cities had i)urple, violet, blue, and green silks at 
 the Paris Exposition, unequaled by any colors heretofore displayed at 
 fairs. Twenty years ago, the French blue and black silks were the most 
 admired as fixed colors. 
 
 The production of silk has not succeeded well in our African colony, 
 Algeria ; many cocoons and a few tissues were sent to the Exposition ; 
 there was but one specimen, however, that could compare with the silk 
 of Lyons. 
 
 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON THE SILK INDUSTRY OF VARIOUS 
 
 COUNTRIES. 
 
 In glancing at the silks sent by difierent countries to the Exposition, 
 we can study the character of the people that produce them without 
 going to their homes to see them. 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 41 
 
 At the first Expositions the rival efforts seemed to try to show that 
 all kinds of tissues could be produced, but such stufl's could not be 
 f^euerally looked on as articles of commerce. National pride was 
 satisfied, but the manufacturers were not remunerated for their ingenuity 
 and apparent disinterestedness, and they afterwards adopted more 
 utilitarian views, in more precise accordance with their interests. 
 
 Eecent commercial treaties between diftereut European nations have 
 established a sort of industrial equilibrium that regulates the nature 
 and importance of the productions of each country; and now, instead 
 of trying to carry on all industries in the same country, it is thought 
 better to leave neighbors unmolested in the business in which they 
 excel, and have no rivalry in trade. 
 
 In reference to silk, this new condition of affairs, not obstructing the 
 production of certain articles for home consumption, seems to concen- 
 trate the fabrication of fancy silks in France; of velvet, in Prussia; of 
 lighter stuffs, in Switzerland. 
 
 These results, which must have been foreseen by the commercial 
 treaties, will injure those industries of each country that owed their 
 prosperity to protection; but the surer consequence will be, to place the 
 productions of each country within reach of all the others, and thus to 
 create, by a sort of reciprocal dependence, a solidarity of interest, which 
 will be a certain pledge of cordial relations and a continuation of i^ros- 
 perity. 
 
 EIBBONS.i 
 
 According to recent statistics, the ribbon industry amounts to two 
 hundred and fifty millions of francs in all Europe. Out of this sum, 
 France manufactures one hundred and fifteen millions' worth of ribbons, 
 and then come England, Switzerland, Prussia and Austria. During 
 prosperous years, this amount has been exceeded ; but it has not been 
 the case in late years. 
 
 In France the manufacture of ribbons of pure silk, or mixed, began, 
 about the eleventh century, at Saint diamond, whence it extended to 
 Saint fitienne, where it is now carried on most extensively. When the 
 bar loom was imported, and later the Jacquard machine was adopted, 
 the business took a rapid start. 
 
 Saint iStienue was once famous for its manufactories of wooden ware, 
 fire-arms and hardware; and when workmen were wanted to make the 
 new looms and silk machinery, they were found ready on the spot. 
 
 Eibbon-weaving was found so profitable, that the capital amassed in 
 other business in that part of the country was soon invested in it, and 
 the ribbon manufacture increased tenfold. This beginning explains 
 why labor at Saint Etienne is distributed among families, instead of 
 being confined in factories, or monopolized by rich houses. This state 
 
 1 Extract, trausluted, from the report by M. Girodon, of the luteruatioual Jury, vol. IV. 
 
42 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 of tilings will certainly' cliange in time; bat it cannot cliauge so much 
 as other kinds of manufactures, because of the peculiarity of the ribbon 
 business. 
 
 Two Ivinds of ribbon are made here, the fancy ribbon and the common 
 ribbon. The latter employs three-fourths of the labor, and supports a 
 large ]iovtion of the population. Since large factories have been estab- 
 lished elsewhere, the manufacturers of Saint Iiltienne have been obliged 
 to exert themselves to keep up their merited reputation. 
 
 The fancy ribbon manufacture requires an infinity of designs that 
 must be made by hand; for, machinery, perfect as it may be, cannot 
 bend itself to all the variety of hand-weaving in ribbons. The variations 
 and changes in these looms are effected by the weavers themselves, who 
 must be workmen of skill and taste. 
 
 As the workmen are interested in the success of their machinery and 
 its luoduct, the work is alwaj^s of a superior kind. Stimulated by 
 personal interest, they are constantly improving their business, and 
 perfecting tlie mode of operation : they all want to become inventors. 
 
 It is singular that no invention or improvement has been discovered 
 by a professional mechanic or engineer; all the discoveries are due to 
 operatives or workingmen. Hence the success of emulation, which is 
 the prosperity of Saint fitienne. The most intelligent operatives see 
 the possibility of rising; they see that one-third of the manufactories 
 of Saint Etienne belong to men who were former overseers; and they 
 know that most of the rich men began iu the same waj'. In fact, it is 
 very easy to become a manufacturer at Saint fitienne ; it does not require 
 a big house nor much capital. The looms and tools belong to the 
 operatives ; it only requires two or three looms to entitle a person to a 
 license to begin business. The success of the beginner depends on his 
 invention of some fancy article that will take. Expectation is often 
 deceived ; but the places of those who are dissappointed and leave are 
 soon filled by neAvcomers, and the competition continues. This explains 
 the reason why we see so many new names at ever}' Exposition. 
 
 There are more than two hundred establishments at Saint ifitienne 
 engaged in the manufacture and sale of ribbons. For many years the 
 business has reached near one hundred thousand francs per annum. 
 
 The saying of Colbert, that taste is the essence of trade, is particularly 
 applicable to the ribbon business, and is especially exemplified at Saint 
 I^tienne. Division ollabor is nowhere so well arranged as there. 
 
 Paris is the chief market for fancy ribbons; but they are sent to 
 foreign countries from there, and get the name of French or Paris ribbons. 
 But England and the United States buy their ribbons directly from 
 Saint fitienne. 
 
 Previous to 18(30 the ribbon manufacture took an unhealthy flight; 
 but since that year it has subsided into reasonable limits. The Ameri- 
 can war and the silk- worm disease were the causes of depression in the 
 business since 18G0; and then the small hats for women and the substi- 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 43 
 
 tution of plain for fancy ribbons, and lace and fringes for both, did much 
 harm to the ribbon industry. 
 
 Since 18G2 the business has been stationary, and there seems to be a 
 tendency to condense labor into large factories. By the invention of 
 new machinery called compensators, Chinese silk is worked to advantage. 
 
 It is not only important for ribbons to be smooth, but the}" must be 
 brilliant, and that brings dj^ers into important use. This branch of the 
 business is reduced to a fine art at Saint fitienne. Besides furnishing 
 coloring for material used at home, these artists dye for the Lyons man- 
 ufacturers that used to send their silks to Saint Chamond. The twenty- 
 nine steam-dyeing establishments at Saint Etienne give work to more 
 than one thousand i)ersons. 
 
 In 1812 a school of design was founded at Saint ^fitienne, and it has 
 educated the skilled artists that have kept up the prosperity of the 
 idace. Independent of the different day-schools of design, decoration, and 
 painting, there is now a night-school, where more than one hundred 
 pupils assemble every night to learn arts that will be useful to them the 
 next day. 
 
 In the department of the Loire, there are twenty-four thousand persons 
 employed in the ribbon mauufacture, not counting the o^^eratives that 
 work in large factories. The twenty-four exhibitors at the Exposition 
 had every variety of ribbon ; fancy, plain, fringed, velvet, laced, net, meshed 
 for cravats, elastic, &c. Several houses make elastic tissues for drawers, 
 garters, and other uses. The gum is brought from England, where it is 
 prepared in large quantities, and its use is extending in France. 
 
 KIBBOX MANUFACTURE IN COUNTRIES OTHER THAN FRANCE. 
 
 At the London Fair of 1862, Coventry, England, was represented by 
 nine manufacturers of ribbons. Only three sent their samples from 
 England to the exhibition of 1867. The si)ecimens were ordinary, and 
 seemed to be intended for commerce alone. There was no velvet ribbon 
 among them. In 1862 there were elegant broad ribbons, with worked 
 flowers, gothic letters, and other ornaments, neatly executed; but at the 
 Exposition we have nothing of the kind. AVhat became of them % The 
 English seem to want initiative taste in artistic composition. They can 
 copy French designs, but invent nothing; yet, the solidity of their fabrics 
 commends them to certain buyers. 
 
 The factories at Coventry are increasing in importance, and the pro- 
 duce is all consumed at home. 
 
 The factories at Basle, Switzerland, are quite different from those of 
 Saint Etienne. At the latter i)lace, a small number of producers had 
 democratized the business; at Basle, it is in the hands of wealthy man- 
 ufacturers. There are only twenty-six manufacturers in that city, and 
 sixteen exhibited at Paris. The collection was arranged with admirable 
 taste, so as to catch the light in the most effective manner. The manu- 
 facturers there are more of merchants than artists, so they make i^lain 
 
44 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 ribbons that find a ready sale anywhere. We are certain they made 
 nothing expressly for the fair. There are between six and seven thon- 
 sand looms at Basle, and they are all confined to well-made, low-priced, 
 salable ribbons. 
 
 All varieties are collected in a single case. The principal style is the 
 taffeta ribbon, of various breadths, and of every qnality. There were 
 plain and glazed ribbons, black and bine belts, and many other articles 
 for which Basle is famed. The bnsiness at Basle is estimated at thirty 
 or thirty-five millions. The city deserves credit for having kept np the 
 business against such killing competition. 
 
 In 1834 Basle exported only ten millions in ribbons. The business 
 has sin(!e increased three-fold, though the number of looms has not 
 increased in the same proportion. The machinery has been greatly 
 improved, and the work shows the advantage of perfect machiiu^ry in 
 any business. With this increase of iiroduction, wages have remained 
 stationary. 
 
 Basle ribbons find their way all over the world. The plainest and 
 most substantial find a ready sale in England and America. 
 
 At former international fairs we were astonished at the sluggishness 
 of the manufacturers on the banks of the Ehine in taking i)art in the 
 industrial tournaments of the world; and we were still more astonished 
 in 18G7 to see only four Prussian exhibitors in the palace of the Champ 
 de Mars. This seems the more strange, inasmuch as the prosperity of 
 those ribbon factories is known to the whole world. 
 
 Besides five thousand looms for velvet ribbons, and many luuulreds 
 of hand looms for the same, there are more than ten thousand English 
 looms used in Prussia for making colored velvet ribbons. Their sale is 
 good at all times, and the business amounts to forty or forty-five millions. 
 
 In addition to these, there are about on€ thousand bar looms for plain 
 ribbons, black and colored taffetas, and pure or mixed silk. Prussia 
 also produces a large quantity of lacings, braids, and mixed gold cord. 
 Since the last treaty of commerce, most of these articles are exported 
 to the United States, England, and France. 
 
 Austria was represented at the Exposition by six ribbon manufacturers; 
 but we are not to judge of Vienna by what we see at the Exposition ; we 
 must look into the past. It is plain that the work of the articles on exhi- 
 bition is rude, and the designs are evidently from France. 
 
 The dress of Vienna ladies is remarkable for neatness and taste, and 
 the men dress with elegance and care; these elegant habits certainly 
 have an influence on the manufacture of ribbons in that country; but 
 the manufacturers need boldness in design and innovating enterprise. 
 
 Austria does not export much in the way of ribbons; fancy ribbons 
 are imported from France; taffetas and black velvet from Prussia; but 
 these importations are diminishing daily, on account of imijrovement in 
 the domestic manufacture. 
 
 There are supposed to be from one thousand eight hundred to two 
 thousand ribbon looms at work in Vienna and in the neighborhood. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 THE INDUSTRY OF READY-MADE CLOTHING. 
 
 The artistic exckllence of wearixg apparel produced in Paris— Statistics 
 
 OF THE MANUFACTURE IN FRANCE — ReADY-MADE CLOTHING FOR WOMEN — TlIE 
 
 seamstresses' art IN Paris — The manufacture of hats for men and women — 
 Cork hats — Centers of the hat trade in France, and statistics of the manu- 
 facture — Boots and srioES — Manufacture of clothing in the United States — 
 Head-dresses for ladies — Artificial flowers. 
 
 To no other general exhibition of industry could this feature of wear- 
 ing apparel be so peculiarly suitable as to one held in the French 
 metropolis, the fertile mother city of the world's fashions. The branches 
 of trade centering in the general production of wearing apparel are 
 among the most important specialties of Paris in an economical point of 
 view. The aggregate value of their yearly products is estimated by the 
 hundred of millions of francs ; they furnish a large item of exportation 
 for foreign commerce. As a general rule, her exhibitors easily surpassed 
 all competitors from abroad; and where these last successfully sustained 
 comparison, they oftenest only furnished a tribute to the taste and skill 
 of French men and women who have emigrated to the workshops of 
 foreign employers. This statement is especially applicable to all articles 
 of female attire, from under garments to the patent elegancies of skirt 
 and corsage; from the neatest of foot-gear and gloves of proverbial fit- 
 ness to the fanciful hat. 
 
 An attemi)t to explain the remote causes of this French superiority 
 would be most instructive. It is of no modern date. It was practically 
 admitted by our English ancestors, five centuries ago. King Edward, 
 returning from French conquests, brought home conquering French 
 fashions in his baggage train, which, subsequently, and more than once, 
 stirred Chaucer's satiric humor. The subject is not an altogether trivial 
 one, and justifies a passing indication of some of the more immediate 
 and apparent causes of the admitted excellence of Parisian taste in the 
 matter of dress; an excellence, it should be first observed, that is not 
 confined to any one social class, and that is common to wearers and 
 makers of apparel ; who act and re-act on each other with mutual 
 instruction, as do intelligent actors and audience. This taste seems 
 innate, and innate it doubtless is, at least to the extent that any sense 
 or faculty exercised from generation to generation becomes an hereditary 
 aptitude. The numerous public galleries, the yearly exhibition of French 
 painting and sculpture, the finer of the public monuments, and the shop 
 windows in the streets, are so many free schools for the constant, uncon- 
 scious education of the Parisian's sense of form and color. They are 
 born appreciative, and become critical unawares. Besides these, and 
 
46 PARIS UNIVEESAL EXPOSITION 
 
 more directly productive of practical results, there are special schools of 
 design, with reference to its ai)i)lication to the useful arts, supported or 
 encouraged by government aid and voluntary subscriptions, among 
 "which evening classes exert a conspicuous influence, gratuitous instruc- 
 tion being there given to artisans both in the theoretical principles of 
 beauty and their practical application. The result is that the worker 
 brings not onl^- exi)ert manipulation and a practiced eye, but some 
 capacity of original design and independent judgment to the work in 
 hand, and crowns its completion with that indescribable quality that 
 gives the masterpiece its cachet de distinction. The French style of 
 artiste apjilied to milliners and mantua-makers is hardly an abuse of 
 language; their profession, if not strictly within the domain of flue art, 
 borders close on its outskirts. Their chief and best enconrag-ement, as 
 must always be the case where art in any kind flourishes, is from an 
 appreciating public ; at the present epoch they have a high and gener- 
 ous patron in the person of the Empress. This gracious lady is not only 
 a flnished connoisseur and zealous amateur, ever readj^ to duly reward 
 the ingenious devices of otiiers, but on more than one occasion has con- 
 tributed felicitous inventions of her own, originating modes whose 
 imperial sway has ruled willing subjects in all the ball-rooms of the world. 
 Throughout the temperate zone the outbreak of new styles is a nearly 
 simultaneous phenomenon. They are deliberated over and their publi- 
 cation is resolved on, in solemn secret conclave held by the heads of 
 certain houses. To their correspondents in the principal foreign cities 
 they forward drawings, illustrative colored plates, and specimen models, 
 in advance of the season, so that they can be issued at the same open- 
 ing day for example in New York and San Francisco. Besides its flrst 
 value of rarity, which belongs to anything that requires so much power 
 of invention, a bold and seasonable novelty promises very considerable 
 pecuniary proflt to its originator and flrst introducers. 
 
 EEADY-MADE CLOTHING. 
 
 Of wearing apparel for men the variety was not very remarkable. 
 Each nation, for the most part, produces its own supply in this kind ; 
 and the competition is rather local than international. In the designs 
 of stuffs, Paris held well its own, but for other qualities the London 
 goods were preferable. 
 
 As the flrst of these cities maintains unquestioned the flrst rank for 
 women's attire, so the second for men's, conscious of its right, would 
 laugh at the falsity of a report denying its supremacy'. Each, however, 
 borrows something from the other — the French gaining rather the most 
 by the exchange. For heavy garments especially, they of late years 
 follow the English in shapes and names, omitting only a little of the 
 original amplitude, adding only a little native grace of farm. The two 
 capitals supply the models, which are adopted in other countries, subject 
 to the trifling modiflcations of local tastes and wants. 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 47 
 
 The principal exhibitors of ready-made clothiug were French, Belgian, 
 and Austrian. The contributions of the latter were noteworthy for 
 their meritorious combination of form and finish with cheapness. Among 
 the curiosities which, though not unknown in America, attracted much 
 observation here, was a seamless coat. It was first molded while the 
 material was in a pulpy state, and afterward pressed into a consistency 
 that is said to be favorable to long wear. For army purposes, and where 
 large quantities need to be furnished in the briefest time, the process 
 may have its uses; bat it is not sufficiently perfected as yet to be of any 
 general advantage. Army clothing was mostly of a very indifferent 
 quality. The defect was the more striking from contrast with snugly 
 fitting brilliant uniforms, of which plentiful specimens were constantly to 
 be seen at the Exhibition, worn by the military visitors of all nations 
 and grades. 
 
 Under the head of costuming should be placed a good part of the 
 childrens' dresses, multiform, many-colored, and "of most excellent 
 fancy." Their bright tints and pretty quaintness of cut, not inappro- 
 priate to the fresh cheeks and mobile vivacity of youth, offered happy 
 solutions of the grave problem how to distinguish the mother's attire 
 from her daughter's. 
 
 In made-up clothing for both sexes, France, as in most other classes 
 of the Exposition, was the principal exhibitor. The committee of 
 admission in this class, for France, collected some very important statistics, 
 a brief resume of which may be interesting. 
 
 The trade in ready-made clothing, finding its central market in Paris, 
 is quite extensive. The cheaper classes of articles are principally pro- 
 duced in the provinces. Several of the larger houses have their chief 
 workshops in the departments of the north, Pas-de-Calais, Gironde, Gard, 
 &c. Much of this work, which was formerly done by hand, is now done 
 by sewing machines, to an extent which is truly astonishing, the greater 
 part of the seams being sewed in this way. The cost of labor on clothing 
 for men amounts to about one-fifth of the value of the goods. The 
 workmen employed by the tailors are of two divisions, those who prepare 
 and cut out work, and those who put it together. Five-sixths of the 
 tailors work at home, the other sixth being employed in the tailors' 
 work-rooms. There are about one-half as many women engaged in this 
 trade in Paris as there are men. Working either by the day or the 
 piece, the men earn from three to six francs^ per day, though some 
 expert hands gain from eight to ten francs per day. The women earn 
 from two francs to three francs fifty centimes per day, and a few from 
 five to six francs. The tailors generally do their own cutting out, but 
 the dealers in ready-made goods employ cutters. 
 
 The exportation is generally done through the instrumentality of 
 agents. There is great difficulty in estimating accurately the production 
 of men's garments; but the tailors and clothiers of Paris do business to 
 
 ^ A fruuc is equal to uiueteeu tiud three-tenths cents in coin. 
 
48 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 tlie amoniit of more tban one linndred and fifty millions of francs per 
 annum, the exports amounting to about one- tenth of the whole. Great 
 progress has been made in the extent of the business since 1855. Many 
 foreign governments look to French clothiers for the equipment of their 
 trooi)S, a branch of the business which has been very active. 
 
 THE TAILOES IN PAEIS.^ 
 
 At the end of the seventeenth century the journeyman tailor, boarded 
 by his master, earned about fifty cents a mouth, equivalent to ten francs 
 of our present money. At the end of the eighteenth century the journey- 
 man working on his own account earned one franc seventy-five centimes 
 a day. In 1825, under the restoration, he earned from two to three francs 
 a day ; in 1850, under the empire, from three to three and a half francs a 
 day; and in 1807, from four to seven francs daily. 
 
 Such was the progress of wages for labor. 
 
 Next the sewing machine came to the assistance of the working 
 classes, and it was truly a Godsend to them. 
 
 Since the adoption of the sewing machine in 1854, wages have 
 increased at least thirty ])er cent. As it lessens manual labor, thus econo- 
 mizing physical force, and makes more in less time, it is undoubtedly a 
 benefit to the workman. A man who is able to buy a machine gains 
 from twenty to thirty per cent., and a woman, from thirty to forty i3er 
 cent, on their wages. 
 
 The tailor has marked advantages over the workmen of other trades: 
 if he is intelligent, active, and iudastrious, he can soon become master ; 
 if orderly and economical, he can get work by the piece; and then 
 gradually acquire a profitable custom. We have numberless examjjles 
 of this in the many tailors that have made a name and a fortune from 
 small beginnings. 
 
 We will now proceed to give the advancement in this indujstry during 
 the last twenty years. In 1827 there were but three hundred and twen- 
 ty-two tailors in Paris, and only one of them exported his manufactures; 
 and they were made to peddle, and gave no credit to French-made goods. 
 At that period exportation was restricted, and goods of this kind were 
 not generally sent abroad. We have nothing definite about their export- 
 ation till 1849. In that year, the export amounted to forty millions; 
 in 1866 it was sixty millions. We have already mentioned that the 
 cutters, or tailors i^roper, were injured by their indifference toward the 
 makers and wholesale manufacturers. The result of the latter business, 
 in 1849, was twenty-five millions ; in 1866 it was one hundred and nine 
 millions. 
 
 Two incidents have happened to aid tailors — commercial treaties have 
 opened foreign commerce to them, and railways have brought foreign 
 customers to them in Paris. These visitors have carried fashionable 
 
 ' Extracts translated from the report of M. Auguste Dusatoy, Vol. IV of the Rajiiiort 
 dii Jurv luternational. 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 49 
 
 clotlies away with them, giving a fixed reputation to Paris fashions and 
 a good and permanent custom to Paris tailors. 
 
 In the statistical reports of 18G0 we find six houses doing business 
 to the amount of one million of francs; in 1866 we find six doing a 
 business of twelve millions. In 1866 we find seventeen hundred 
 licensed tailors doing a business of two hundred and five millions of 
 francs. Their materials were wool, silk, linen, cotton, and fringe and 
 buttons, at a cost of one hundred and seven millions. The labor cost 
 98 millions, making a total of two hundred and five millions, as stated. 
 
 We find in 1866 thirty -four thousand men and eight thousand women 
 working at home or in shops. Dividing the earnings of their labor among 
 them, we have four francs sixty-five centimes as the average for men, 
 and two francs thirty centimes the average gains for women. 
 
 Thus we see a sensible increase of wages for working men and women 
 in the last six years. But we must observe that out of this two hun- 
 dred and five millions, nine millions were for military clothing. 
 
 The following is a substance of the observations made by Mr. E. Sin- 
 clair, tailor, published in the British Artisans' Eeports. 
 
 "After my arrival at the Paris Exposition I saw a great display of 
 cloths, with but little tailoring from any country exhibiting. * * * 
 with a total want of military work, which is much to be regretted, as it 
 is the most difficult part of our trade. ****** 
 
 "English tailoring was from two London houses, and consisted of a 
 few uniform tunics wretchedly made and no way fit to cross the Channel, 
 and a few garments, anything but well made for a West End firm, mostly 
 for sporting purposes. 
 
 "In the French department, the tailoring was larger than in the Eng- 
 lish, without style or workmanship to recommend it, and cloth to match, 
 supplied by slop and export houses. 
 
 "Both in France and England the slop- worker is in a wretched condi- 
 tion, who supplies this export work, and yet the profits accrning to these 
 houses are enormous. 
 
 "The Austrian tailoring sent to the Exhibition was by far the best, 
 and certainly was the best I ever saw (civilian work) for style, cut, and 
 workmanship, and taste displayed to give effect; it could not be sur- 
 passed by any firm in Europe. This work was sent by J. Rothberger, 
 Vienna. 
 
 "In the American department, there were a few garments badly made, 
 army and navy clothing, chiefly made by machine, and I expect they 
 were only sent to show the uniforms of the United States. 
 
 " The French tailors in Paris are more than outnumbered by foreign 
 workmen, including Germans, who are very numerous; Alsatians, whom 
 the French class as foreigners; Italians; a few Spanish; Belgians, called 
 Flamands in Paris; Dutch; Swiss; with a goodly sprinkling of Rus- 
 sians, Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians. But the French workman in 
 Paris is a better workman than the larger bulk of this stock of foreigaers, 
 4 c w F 
 
50 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 most of the latter being youug aud residiug iu France for two objects, 
 to learn the language and imijrove themselves in workmanshij)." * * 
 
 CLERICAL ROBES. 
 
 There was nothing in all this J^xhibition more complicated, and rich, 
 and gorgeous with embroidery aud colors and barbaric gold, tlian the 
 clerical raiment. The old Gaul of ten centuries ago had ,two principal 
 articles of clothing. One of them , as it grew longer under Italian culture, 
 took the longer and more mentionable name of i)antaloon; The other 
 was a species of shirt, and named casnla, the diminutive of casa, a house; 
 it was his cottage, cot, or coat. This same casula is, almost without 
 change, the modern French workman's blouse; and from it came also 
 the magnificent cliasnhles. The manufacture of official church garments 
 is a special and considerable business; but beside the offerings of pro- 
 fessional fabricants, some of the most elaborate, and, in their kind, 
 beautiful specimens of ecclesiastical apparel on exhibition, were the 
 painstaking works of love, wrought by the hands of devout women. 
 
 READY-MADE CLOTHING FOR WOMEN. 
 
 The trade in ready-made clothing in France is chieily confined to the 
 '■'magasins de nouveautes^'' or dry-goods shops, where ladies' ready- 
 made clothing is a staple portion of the stock. This is, of course, 
 generally somewhat cheaper than that made to order and less elaborate 
 in workmanship, but often rivals the latter for quality of material and 
 elegance of forms. The most striking display of ladies' goods in the 
 Exhibition was of this second class, aud formed an exception to the gen- 
 eral rule, being remarkable for thoroughness and finish of make. We 
 refer to the dresses exhibited by Euout & Co., who, iu their most 
 charming i)atterus, were honored with the co-operation of the Empress 
 Eugenie. An embroidered trimming in pansies deserves particular 
 mention for its beautiful effects of harmony or of brilliancy, according 
 as it was applied to a taffetas silk of a color corresponding or contrasting 
 with the leading tint of the flowers. The most noticeable characteristics 
 of the singularly rich and varied show of ball-tlresses were the beauty 
 of the patterns, which were mainly floral, lightness of tissues, and 
 fullness of drapery. Even iu their stillness they suggested floatingi;^ 
 mazy motion. The finest two in their kind, whose "loveliness" excited 
 the ejaculatory enthusiasm of female spectators, came from the work- 
 shop, one might almost term it studio, of Opiger Gagelin. It is one 
 of the most famous in Paris, and its graduates may be found in all 
 quarters of the city. Its importance may be guessed from the fact that 
 it turns out no fewer than four hundred model dresses annually that 
 serve as the studies from which nearly all the periodical fashion-plates 
 are prepared. 
 
 The Comi3agme Lyonnaise and the vast Magasin du Lou^^e both made 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 51 
 
 large displays; the first remarkable for extremely luxurious articles and 
 costly fabrics; the latter, for its complete assortment of ornamental 
 articles of female attire. Three magnificently embroidered mantles in 
 the cases of the last-named house drew great attention, rather, however, 
 as curiosities of ingenious and painstaking labor, than for originality 
 or beauty of design. Equally elaborate and more eccentric was a white- 
 satin dress, exposed by M. Bouillett, embroidered en chenille, with 
 immense peacock feathers, most exactly rendering the natural colors 
 and form and texture to the eye; a grand spreading imi^erial robe 
 worthy of a Juno for its wearer. An opera-cloak in the same case was 
 composed of swan's down covered with butterfly wings. 
 
 The probabilities are that these eccentricities of manufacture, if they 
 ever come to human wear, will be borne on foreign, or, at least, provin- 
 cial shoulders. With the Parisian the toilette is a composition in which 
 not only the material, shape, and tint of each item of apparel, but the 
 figure, features, and complexion of the individual are to be combined in 
 subordination to that admirable whole, a well-dressed woman. She 
 gives her mind to it. She devoutly holds to that dogma laid down by. 
 a serious preceptive writer on the subject: " Une toilette est toute une 
 science;'" and to that other maxim pleasantly amended and pieced out 
 from Buffon: "ie style, c^est Vliomme et surtout la femme." Her apparel 
 bespeaks herself; it is the "make-up'' of her person. She dresses in 
 character. 
 
 For the manufacture of ladies' clothing Paris is the greatest center, 
 and in it is consumed an immense quantity of material of every grade 
 of quality and price from the most ordinary i)rinted cottons to velvet o.f 
 the highest cost. For articles of summer wear the light fabrics of 
 Eoubaix, Elbeuf, Sedan, and Rheims, French merinoes and Scotch 
 cashmeres, are principally used. For the trimming of ladies' clothing 
 pUlow and machine-made lace, also that of Paris and St. I^tienne, and 
 guipures and gimps from Lyons, are employed. The stuffs, cut or uncut, 
 are given to dressmakers, or ladies' tailors, who employ from four to 
 forty workwomen, besides those who work at home. The articles are 
 generally sewn together by hand, the trimmings being added by the 
 use of sewing machines. Outer clothing for the use of females is made 
 almost entirely by women, and the sewing machines are generally 
 operated by women. The average earnings of men at this trade are 
 five francs a day; of women, about half that rate. A very considerable 
 portion of female wearing ai^parel is exported, principally to England, 
 Russia, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Turkey, North and South 
 America, and Australia. The articles chiefly exported are paletots, 
 talmas, pelisses, mantelets, embroidered shawls, scarfs, and jackets. 
 Dresses, hoods, and children's clothing also enter into the export trade. 
 These articles are furnished to the small jirovincial linen-drapers and 
 commission merchants, while the principal linen-drapers in Paris and 
 the provinces generally buy the i)atterns and have the articles made ux) 
 
62 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 for tliein selves. The value of these articles produced annually in all 
 France is estimated at one hundred millions of francs, or nearly twenty 
 millions of dollars in our coin. Five- sixths of the whole are used in 
 France, the exports being only one-sixth. 
 
 THE SEAMSTKESSES' AET IN PAEIS.^ 
 
 In estimating the progress of the seamstresses' art by their number at 
 different periods, it has not advanced like some other industries. Thus, 
 in 1780, the independent seamstresses numbered two thousand; in 1819, 
 they were two thousand five hundred ; and in 1SG7, only four thousand. 
 We do not think their number has sensibly increased since 1860, but the 
 business, then estimated at nineteen millions of francs, has more than 
 doubled. The fourteen thousand sewing girls employed by the four thou 
 sand mistresses, with a business of forty millions, earn from two and one- 
 half to three francs a day. 
 
 The trade in ready-made clothing for women did not actually begin 
 till 1815. Before that time a few houses made Crispins, spencers, and 
 mantelets ; but as they were sold at retail by a few fancy stores, or were 
 sent abroad or into the country as models, they did not constitute a 
 branch of commerce. Since our commercial treaties have opened the 
 world to us, the industry has continued to increase until it has become 
 an important branch of our commerce. 
 
 Articles of women's dress were once excluded from exhibition; but, 
 in 1807, the industry was elegantly represented at the Exposition. We 
 judge of this by the number of distinguished persons that crowded round 
 the show-cases, by the considerable business produced by the models 
 exposed, and by the approbation of knowing persons, that declared no 
 country would compete with France in the line of women's garments. 
 
 As no other nation exhibited samples of women's clothing ,we must con- 
 fine our judgment to the French articles, regretting, however, that we 
 have no foreign samples for sake of comparison. 
 
 After 1840, many establishments for the special manufacture of women's 
 clothing were instituted; one of them does business to the amount 
 of three millions of francs annually, and several others manufacture more 
 than one million's worth per annum. Besides these many fancy stores 
 have special departments for the sale of women's garments, and do a 
 very good business in that line. 
 
 Many ready-made dresses are sent abroad as samjjles to all parts of 
 the world to avoid the prohibitory tariff on ready-made clothing, which 
 exists in many countries; in Spain, for exami^le. In Portugal our ready- 
 made clothing has to pay a duty of eighty per cent.; and in many other 
 countries a duty of fifty or seventy-five per cent. 
 
 If the government would revise our commercial treaties and open 
 foreign countries to our fabrics, the business in Paris would take a new 
 
 1 Extract translated from the report of M. Dusatoy, of the luternatioual Jury, Vol. IV 
 of the Jury Reports. 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 53 
 
 fligiit upwards. The business of women's clothing amounted to fifty-five 
 millions of francs in 1867; the laay was twenty-five or thirty per cent., 
 and the number of seamstresses employed was about seventeen thousand. 
 
 In the general statistics of the Paris Chamber of Commerce for 1860 
 this business was estimated at twenty-seven millions seven hundred and 
 sixty-five thousand, and we may justly reckon it at double for the year 
 1867; this, added to the forty millions done by seamstresses, will make 
 the entire business amount to ninety-five millions of francs per year. • 
 
 We cannot estimate the quantity of material used by dressmakers, its 
 fineness and value; because the variety of stuffs is so great, and they 
 change the fashion so often, certainly the quantity used cannot be 
 reckoned with justness. 
 
 Every industry that is controlled by fashion is so changeable that the 
 material used in it escapes all analj'sis, and cannot be correctly esti- 
 mated. 
 
 We think we have shown that we were right in affirming that the 
 clothing industry is the most extensive industry in the world. In fact, 
 is there a single business that can compare with the figures we have given , 
 and which employs seventy-five thousand working men and women, one- 
 twentieth of the population of Paris, at salaries amounting to more than 
 eighty millions in the aggregate? If the question be studied in a fixmily 
 point of view, with humauitariau and moral considerations, the conse- 
 quences and benefits of the industry are incalculable. The married 
 woman finds a remunerative labor in making clothes, a labor she can 
 carry on at home, and which helps the housekeeping; the young girl can 
 work at home, in the business, or in a shop with other girls, at good wages, 
 and is not obliged to work in large manufactories, where crowds of men 
 and women, old aud young, often produce lamentable and immoral 
 consequences. 
 
 If the question be examined in an economical light, from an indus- 
 trial i^oint of view, we are instantly struck with the immense quantity 
 of material used in the business, which in Paris alone amounts to one 
 hundred and fifty millions, forty millions of which are sent abroad. 
 
 But for this business, which makes the fashions of Paris known all 
 over the world, our material, not better than that of other nations, 
 would not have such extensive consumption. The clothes-making busi- 
 ness, in fact, is the main support of our manufacture of tissues, aud is 
 certainly the principal cause of the prosperity of our grand industrial 
 establishments. 
 
 These consequences are due to the causes we have enumerated, as well 
 as to the men who have taken such a large part in the manufacture of 
 articles of clothing for both sexes. If we take as a basis the forty mill- 
 ions of tissues exported by clothing establishments, and the labor 
 required to work up the raw material, we must give credit to the cloth- 
 ing business for much of our prosperity. 
 
54 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 HATS FOE MEN AND WOMEN. 
 
 The word hat, accordiug to etymology and the standard dictionaries, 
 signifies "a covering for the head made of various materials and worn 
 hy men or women, for defending the head from rain or heat, or for orna- 
 ment. " We have italicised the only j)art — and in j)roportion to the sub- 
 ject it is a large one — of the definition applicable to the articles that were 
 exposed under the title of hats for women. There was a large collection 
 of them, marvellous for diversity of material and form and devices of 
 littleness — capricious snips of things "pricked in with the humor of 
 forty fancies.'- They had their fantastic charm withal, though nothing 
 about them was so astonishing to a mere man's mind, seeing their 
 diminutiveness and apparent frailty, as to learn what heavy prices they 
 bore. Some were made of ivory and pearl, others of leather. There 
 were some composed entirely of feathers, others of paper, yet other 
 fragilities of glass. 
 
 In the manufacture of hats for men Paris excels London for lightness, 
 but not durability. Cork enters largely into the composition of the finest 
 qualities, securing both lightness and imx)erviousuess to rain. Much 
 ingenious machinery is used for preparing the cork and cutting it into 
 the thinnest of leaves. In the Italian section was a cork hat made uj) 
 of two thousand one hundred pieces. Felt hats, 6f which there is a 
 large manufacture in France mainly for exportation, were exposed in 
 profusion. They are made by molding and pressure in the same man- 
 ner as the seamless coat spoken of above. The whole process was seen 
 in operation in the machinery department, where the raw material was 
 transformed in a few minutes to the finished hat. In the same dej)art- 
 ment, boot and shoe making machinery from Alexandria was working 
 rapidly and well. There were several varieties of straw hats from 
 South America; very cheap and serviceable articles in like kind, such 
 as are conimonly worn by sailors and fishermen from Malta; others 
 made of the fibre of a plant, very strong and impervious to sun, wind, 
 and rain, from the Cape of Good Hope. Besides felts, Italy sent some 
 exceedingly fine specimens of straw from Leghorn and other places; 
 and Enghind presented a handsome show of chip hats. 
 
 The most picturesque caps, embroidered with gold, were from the 
 Eastern countries. Austria excelled in red cloth tasselled caps. The 
 plainest came from England, the cheapest and most serviceable from 
 Hungary. 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF HATS FOR MEN. 
 
 The centers of the hat trade in France are Paris, Marseilles, Lyons, 
 Aix, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and some other southern towns. The mate- 
 rials most used in the manufacture are the skins of the beaver and 
 muskrat, imported from Canada, that of the Goudin rat, from South 
 America, hare and rabbit fur, and various kinds of wool. There are two 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. , 55 
 
 distinct divisions of tlie maniifactiire, namely: that of tlie soft and firm 
 felt hats, and that of silk bats. Workmen, whose special business it is to 
 cut the hair from the skins, furnish the makers with their raw materials. 
 Tbe manufacture of French hats consists of several distinct processes. 
 The fur is first beaten either by hand or machine. A felt bag twice the 
 size of the hat is thus produced, which is then filled by hand or by a ma- 
 chine constructed specially for this purpose. The hat is now scraped 
 with a knife, to take ofi" the long hairs, rubbed with i^umice stone, and 
 stifltened, or not, as the case may require. IS'ext come the processes of 
 dyeing-, blocking into form, binding, and the insertion of the head lining 
 and leather. 
 
 A different system prevails for silk hats. First the form is made of 
 the fiibric preferred, stiffened with gum sheljac. A kind of silk plush 
 is made to adhere to the exterior of this form, and within is inserted 
 material suited for a lining. Many silk hats are made with the adhesive 
 linings, in which case the interior SAirface becomes i)art of the solid shell. 
 
 The skilled workmen command high wages, comparatively getting as 
 high as ten francs per day. The average, however, is between forty and 
 fifty francs a week. The w^ork is done by the piece, under the sui)ervision 
 of foremen chosen from among the best workmen. The latter earn from 
 two thousand to three thousand francs per year. Women in this trade 
 are paid from eighteen to twenty francs per week. Most of the operatives 
 work in the factories. French hats are exported to nearly all parts of 
 the world, and sold from three or four francs to twenty-five or thirty. 
 Opera hats, made with compressible spring sides, are exported in con- 
 siderable quantities. The manufacture amounts to about five millions 
 of dollars estimating on the gold basis, the exports being about twelve 
 million francs. Great improvements in hat-making machinery are con- 
 stantly coming into use. Pretty much the same materials continue to be 
 used, but the wages of workmen have increased. The great manufac- 
 turers now make and finish completely their goods, and practically the 
 hatter whose name is in the crown is only an agent between the pro- 
 ducer and consumer. 
 
 Twenty millions of francs' worth of caps are also made per year in 
 France, the sewing and embroidery being in a great measure done by 
 machinery; not many of these are exported. The kejn, which has since 
 1848 been introduced into the army, the public schools, and administra- 
 tions, constitutes quite a proportion of the manufacture, and a considera- 
 ble number of Greek or Fez caps are made, either knit or felted ; the 
 principal places for the manufacture of these being Paris, Orleans, 
 Eueil, Condom, and Chalons, and many of them are exported. 
 
 BOOTS AND SHOES. 
 
 Boots and shoes were exhibited in great abundance by many nations. 
 Among them a case in the American section, from Burt & Co., of New 
 
56 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 York, bore favorable comparison with the best of foreign make. The 
 present style of French boots is, like Achilles, open to attack Id the 
 heel, which is too high and bronght so far forward as to change the nat- 
 ural point of support, throw the weight of the body too heavily on the 
 toes and unsteady the pose. It makes the foot look smaller from the 
 front, and pitches the body slightly forward. 
 
 THE BOOT AND SHOE MANUPACTIIRE IN FRANCE. 
 
 Many ingenious improvements in machinery for this manufacture have 
 been made. The business is divisible into three classes — sewed boots 
 and shoes, those pegged or nailed, and those fastened by screws. Most 
 of the French sewed boots and shoes are made in Paris, Nantes, Mar- 
 seilles, Bordeaux, and Fougeres; pegged ones in Paris, Liancourt, Ro- 
 mans, Blois, and Angers; those made with screws are only iirodaced in 
 Paris. Most of the findings and trimmings of boots and shoes of the 
 French manufacture are made in France. The workmen are divided 
 into three classes, the foremen, receivers, and cutters. Half of the opera- 
 tives are women, who receive about half the rate of wages paid to the men, 
 the men being ijaid about four francs per day. The ready-made trade 
 is carried on by commercial travelers who sell to the provincial dealers. 
 Commission merchants buy for exportation. The average price of good 
 boots and shoes is sixteen francs for those worn by men, eight francs 
 for women's, and six francs for children's. The more common sorts 
 for men are sold on an average at eight francs, those for women at five 
 francs, and those for children at three francs a i)air. These xjroduc- 
 tions of the French trade are exported principally to North and South 
 America, East and West Indies, England, Italy, &c. Paris alone pro- 
 duces boots and shoes to an amonnt of one hundred million francs; the 
 provinces also contribute largely to this trade, and about forty million 
 francs worth are exjiorted. Since 1855, the use of sewing machines for 
 sewing together the upper leathers has become very gcDeral. 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF CLOTHING IN THE UNITED ' STATES. 
 
 In the earlier days of this republic most of the clothing used, except 
 among persons of wealth, was of household or strictly domestic origin. 
 Great simplicity of dress was a requirement of the austere ideas of pro- 
 priety prevailing in those days, and the colonial codes, many of them, 
 contain statutory restrictions on the subject, the violations of which were 
 punished by penalties of various degrees of severity. 
 
 The first fulling mill in America was erected about the year 1613 
 at Rowley, in Massachusetts; yet, in the year 1713 it is recorded that 
 there was but one clothier in Connecticut, who could do little more than 
 full a portion of the homespun made, much of which was worn unshorn 
 and undressed. 
 
 The wealthier classes in the colonial i^eriod imported much of their 
 clothing material and aU of the finer cloths from England. In the larger 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 57 
 
 cities and towns, however, tailoriup;- establishments found ample patron- 
 age. 
 
 The tailors were sufficiently numerous and important in Philadelphia 
 in 1718 to apply to the city government for an act of incorporation. A 
 Master Tailors' Society was incorporated in that city in 1805. 
 
 The branch of ready-made clothing business commenced in 1825, and 
 was started chiefly to supply a demand for ready-made clothing in the 
 southern States and certain foreign countries. The production of cloth- 
 ing by the wholesale, with the aid of labor-saving i^rocesses, naturally 
 made a great reduction in the prices of this class of wearing apparel, and 
 its use has become very general among persons of moderate incomes. 
 Our import duty on ready-made clothing has ranged as follows: from 
 181G to 1828, (inclusive,) thirty per cent, ad valorem; from 1828 to 1816, 
 fifty per cent.; 181G to 1857, thirty per cent.; 1857 tol8G2, twenty-four 
 per cent. ; since that time, thirty-five per cent. 
 
 The average annual value of ready-made clothing imported into the 
 United States from Great Britain in 1827 and 1828 was about $803,000. 
 For the next six years it fell to an average of $198,000; for the ten years 
 ending 1844, the average was about $808,000; for the years 1851 and 
 1852, $97,032. Our exports of clothing for 1827 and 1828 averaged 
 $119,510; for the next five years $75,570; and for the ten years from 
 1833 to 1843, the annual average was $118,730. In 1851 and 1852 the 
 average annual exports reached the value of $250,102. 
 
 Four cities manufactured more than one-half of the whole quantity 
 produced in the United States, namely: New York, $17,011,370; Phila- 
 delphia, $9,984,497; Cincinnati, $0,381,190; and Boston, $4,507,749. 
 
 An extensive and important change has taken place of late years in 
 the dry-goods trade, through the extension of the ready-made clothing 
 business, which has thrown the importation and sale of foreign and 
 domestic cloths to a great degree into the hands of wholesale clothing 
 merchants, and thus tlie jobbing business is united with that of manu- 
 facturers and dealers in clothing on a large scale. These branches, in 
 consequence of the high cost of materials, the long credits given, and 
 other circumstances, require heavy investments of capital and a high 
 degree of discrimination and judgment in the selection of goods. Some 
 of the establishments are so extensive as to require several thousand 
 persons to perform the various duties pertaining to the manufacture and 
 sale of clothing. The male hands have been principally German and 
 Irish immigrants, the cutters being principally American, and they have 
 uniformly received higher wages than the same classes could earn in 
 Europe. The sewing machine has been extensively used in this business 
 for several years, and has given a vast impetus to the trade. It has 
 done this by cheapening the exi)ense of production, as well as by 
 enabling the manufacturer to turn out his work at the shortest notice, 
 and thus keep pace with the changes of fiishion in regard to the cut of 
 ' the clothing and the style of material. In fact, it was mainly the result 
 
58 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 of the introduction of tlie sewing machine that the many small shops 
 have been to a great extent superseded by the large wholesale establish- 
 ments. This change is most forcibly illustrated by the fact that, from 
 1850 to 18G0, the number of establishments was reduced eleven per cent, 
 and the number of hands increased two and four-tenths per cent, only, 
 yet the capital invested in the business increased nearly one hundred 
 per cent., and the aggregate value of the product five and one half per 
 cent. 
 
 HBAD-DEESSES FOR LADIES. 
 
 The head-dress is among the most conspicuous of the articles which 
 determine the style or fashionable character of a lady's appearance; and 
 it is in Paris, chiefly, that the novelties of this department are originated. 
 The materials used in the manufacture of bonnets aud caps, such as 
 buckram, whalebone, wire, various stuffs, flowers and lace, are obtained 
 from special manufacturers. There is no fixed method of preparing 
 articles of millinery. It is altogether a matter of taste and ingenuity. 
 Tlwe workmanship forms only a small item in the value. The average 
 of wages of working milliners is two aud a half francs per diem. Nearly 
 all the milliners sell direct to the purchaser. Some firms, however, make 
 up articles siiecially for exportation, and these alone employ uuder-milli- 
 ners, who receive the necessary materials for a certain number of bonnets 
 and head-dresses, and prepare the work by arranging and fastening the 
 various stuffs upon the ready-made shapes which they furnish. The 
 ribbons and flowers are always added by the milliner herself. It is 
 difficult to estimate the exact value of millinery annually produced in 
 France; but it must be considerable, as the Parisian milliners' returns 
 amount to nearly twenty millions of francs, or nearly four million dollars 
 in gold. About one-tenth of this is exported, chiefly to America, 
 England, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Prussia, and to the French 
 and English colonies. 
 
 ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS. 
 
 The annual French — chiefly Parisian — production of artificial flowers, 
 of which about three-fourths are exported, amounts in value to eighteen 
 million francs. The display of them, in what may be styled the ladies' 
 department of the Exhibition, was one of its most attractive features. 
 The fidelity to nature of these counterfeit presentments — in leaf, and 
 blossom, and i^istil, in exquisite fineness of line, and tenderest shade in 
 gradation of color, to the very dew glistening on the iietals — is so decep- 
 tive that it is only by an appeal from the eye to the sense of smell that 
 nature can sustain her prior claim. The counterfeit representatives of 
 every clime in this international floral dis])lay vied in hue and form with 
 their living originals in the park and horticultural annex. For certain 
 purjioses of ornamentation they are, indeed, superior to the growth of 
 the garden. They do not droop and fade as the gaiety of the ball room 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABEICS. 59 
 
 rises, uor by tlieir perfume weigli the lieated atmospliere "vritli an addi- 
 tional sickly element. 
 
 The production of artificial flowers may be named among the artistic 
 specialties of Paris, in which she stands without a rival. The materials 
 which it consumes are various and delicate ; for the leaves and blossoms, 
 jaconet, nausook, cambric, muslin, velvet, crape, satin, silk, French 
 cambric, feathers, paper, aud wax are made use of 5 and for the stems, 
 berries, and fruits, wire, silk, cotton, floss-silk, paper, starch, gum, gela- 
 tine, wax, paste, chenille, quills, whalebone, gauze, chopped wool, and 
 glass balls. For mounting the flowers, silk, paper, gauze, and iron and 
 brass are required. The workmen always use the same instruments, 
 goffering irons, stamps, &c. The galvanoplastic process is sometimes 
 employed. The cost of workmanshixD amounts to about four-tenths of 
 the value of the productions, and the materials employed to about three- 
 tenths. The remaining three-tenths represent the profit of the producer. 
 This manufacture is divided into a great many diiferent branches. 
 For the preparation of the colors there are special workshops. The work 
 is generally carried on at the homes of the* work-people. This trade 
 employs fifteen thousand persons, nine-tenths being women and girls. 
 The men earn about four francs a day, the women two francs twenty -five 
 centimes. The mounting and sale of flowers is carried on for the most 
 l^art in handsome shops and show-rooms, where all kiuds of flowers are 
 generally sold as well as the different sorts of ornamental feathers. Three- 
 fourths of the entire manufacture are exported through the medium of 
 commission agents. The value of the trade is about fifteen million 
 fi'ancs per annum. The flowers are exported to America, England, 
 Belgium, Eussia, and. Germany. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 LACES, FANS, GLOVES, ETC. 
 
 The manufacture op rare and costly lace by hand — Notices of specially 
 
 INTERESTING EXHIBITIONS OF LxVCE — MaCHINE-JIADE LACES — WaGES, CONDITIONS, 
 AND DIVISIONS OF LABOR — EDUCATION OF LACE-MAKERS — TlIE BRITISH ARTISj\JS^S 
 
 UPON LACE — Manufacture op lace in various countries — Embroidery — Man- 
 ufacture OF PANS — Manufacture of gloves est France, England, and other 
 countries — ^Elastic tissues, suspentjers, belts, garters, .\nd bracelets. 
 
 THE PEINCIPAL DISPLAYS OF LACE. 
 
 The manufacture of lace of the most rare and costly descriptions is 
 •performed by hand labor, the designs being furnished by artists who 
 possess a high degree of skill — the result of long-continued studies and 
 practice under circumstances most favorable to the attainment of i^rofi- 
 ciency in the specialty of producing designs adapted to this manufacture. 
 
 The point laces of Alen5on and that of Brussels are so intricate and 
 the manipulations so delicate and difficult that it is necessary to give a 
 life-long training to the operators to secure excellency in each distinct 
 characteristic of fabrication. 
 
 The art of lace-making has been carried to such perfection that a suf- 
 ficient indication of light and shade can be introduced to give an approx- 
 imation even in such transparent tissues as the Brussels and the Alen- 
 9on point to the relief effects attained in engraving. 
 
 The specimens of Alen§on point and other French lace at the ExiJosi- 
 tion were carefully selected and very beautiful in design and workman- 
 ship. The black lace of Baj^eux and Calvados is the most important 
 and extensively manufactured in France. 
 
 One of the leading firms in the production of this lace is Messrs. 
 Lefebure, who exhibited a dress of point d'Alengon, combining the high- 
 est qualities of the art, the price of which was 116,450 in gold. This 
 dress, consisting of two flounces and trimmings, took the labor of forty 
 women for two years to produce it. The same firm had also a superb 
 point or half-shawl of black lace 5 the design consisted of a large central 
 bouquet of roses perfectly shaded and standing out as it were from the 
 ground. This central cluster was surrounded by a border of roses, upon 
 which equal skill was displayed. The price was a trifle less than two 
 thousand dollars in gold. 
 
 Another example by the same exhibitors was a bridal veil, the ground 
 of which was needle point, the flowers application made at Ghent, and 
 the border in the style of Yenice point, while figures in point d'Alen^on 
 formed part of this rich and harmonious composite. The lace of Malines 
 or Mechlin lace, as well as the ancient rose or Venice point in high re- 
 lief, were shown by the same house. 
 
62 ^ARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 Among the many admirable specimens of black Bayeux laces were tlie 
 following', by Messrs. Verde-Delisle : a point ornamented with beanti- 
 fully shaded flower forms, a iKirasol of finest quality, and a flounce of 
 ferns and flowers, and a dress pattern. They also displayed a flounce of 
 lioint d'Alengon, style of Louis XV, the flowers in medallions ; a dress of 
 Brussels mixed points, and some specimens of Cluny guipure, and some 
 altar cloths. Messrs. Lefebure and Messrs. Yerde-Delisle enjoy an envi- 
 able distinction for sujieriority in the design and quality of their fabrics. 
 
 Among the other notable specimens in the French section were a 
 very elegant tunic of white lace made partly in Brussels and partly at 
 Mirecourt; a black lace flounce of exquisite fineness of texture, a black 
 lace parasol, a Bayeux flounce in roses, handkerchiefs bordered with 
 Venice point and filet from the Convent of Notre Dame du Puy, black 
 silk guipure shawls and laces printed in colors or embroidered with 
 pearls, from Auvergne. 
 
 The Belgian section, too, presented an exhibition of laces hardly infe- 
 rior to those of similar grades in the French; the Dromment varieties 
 being Brussels, point k I'aiguille, plat, application, Grammont and 
 Mechlin. A dress of "point gaze" exhibited by Hoorickx was valued at 
 $10,000. 
 
 The principal manufacture of lace in Belgium is that of the Valencien- 
 nes variety. It is made throughout East and West Flanders, the finest 
 qualities being Ypres, West Flanders. Grammont, West Flanders, is 
 the seat of an extensive manufacture of black lace in which considerable 
 improvements have been made. 
 
 There was a creditable display of shawls of this lace by the collective 
 exhibitors of Grammont. These are not so carefully worked, however, 
 as the Bayeux laces of the same class. 
 
 Prussia and the German states exhibited only some needle point 
 flounces of Berlin edgings from IsTurtingen. Austria, a point impe- 
 rial and the coarser laces of Boheuiia. Spain, the lace of Barcelona. 
 Sweden, the torchon lace of the peasantry. Eussia, that of Helsingfors. 
 Italy, the black and white pillow-made laces of Genoa and imitations of 
 French laces. Rome, a remarkable specimen of old Venetian point. 
 Turkey, white silk crochet lace from Smyrna and the Island of Rhodes. 
 Malta, her traditional black and white guipures. England, Devonshire 
 lace, Honiton, Cluny, and needle-made laces. Ireland, guipure. Central 
 and South iVmerica are represented to a very limited extent in laces 
 characteristic of Paraguay, Uruguay, Chili, Venezuela and Brazil. 
 
 NET AND MACHINE LACE. 
 
 Imitations of some of the standard laces have been successfully made 
 by machinery of ingenious construction, chiefly at Calais and Amiens 
 in France, and Nottingham in England. The French produce in this 
 way imitations of Valenciennes, Cluny, colored laces, white and black 
 blondes, especially excelling in white blondes, which are to a great degree 
 taking the place of the hand-made lace of the same type. 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 63 
 
 Amiens produces the finest llama and yak sliawls. Plain and embroid- 
 ered silk tulles are made chiefly at Lyons. 
 
 Brussels net made by machinery now used as a ground for laces has 
 superseded the pillow-made ground, at an immense saving of labor and 
 expense and giving equally satisfactory and artistic results. 
 
 WAGES, CONDITIONS, AND DIVISIONS OF LABOR. 
 
 There are in Calais and St. Pierre seven hundred and eighty machines, 
 the best of which were built in Nottingham and its vicinity. They are 
 all in factories worked by steam-power, running all hours, commencing 
 work from six to seven o'clock on Monday morning, continuing until ten 
 o'clock on Saturday evening; in some establishments working up to 
 ten and twelve o'clock on Sunday morning. 
 
 A great deal of liberty is allowed the workmen for social intercourse, 
 and a large amount of affability and familiarity exists between employers 
 and employed in the various workshops. 
 
 There are two men at each machine taking alternate shifts or tarns 
 in working, one commencing on Monday, from 6 to 7 a. m., continuing 
 until 9 a. m., and the other coming on at 9 a. m,, and working until 1 
 p. m., the first coming back at 1 p. m., remaining until G p. m. The one 
 leaving ofi" at 1 p. m. returns at ]). m. and works until 2 a. m., and so 
 on through the^week. 
 
 The law in France is that a week's notice shall be given and taken by 
 the employed ; the man, if these conditions have been fairly complied 
 with, receiving what is termed his Uvret, in which is described his per- 
 sonal appearance, answering the i^urpose of a passport to any part of 
 France. If the employer refuse to give the Uvret he is liable to a fine 
 of fifty francs. If the workman leaves in debt it is inserted in his 
 Uvret, and his next employer, according to law, can stop one-fourth of his 
 earnings for the purpose of refunding the debt to his former master. 
 
 In the lace trade terms are used to denote the width of machines, such 
 as "quarters ;" any number of inches a machine is in width upon being 
 divided by nine inches (a quarter of a yard,) gives the number of quar- 
 ters. " Gauges" are counted by the number of points or combs contained 
 in an inch. All gauges are calculated from the ten-point standard. 
 
 The workmen are paid by the "rack," consisting of one thousand nine 
 hundred and twenty motions of the machine. 
 
 EDUCATION OP LACE-MAKERS. 
 
 As a means of artistic education, the perfect freedom of access to the 
 picture galleries appears to be taken great advantage of, and fully appre- 
 ciated by the people ; as upon our visit to the Louvre, in one gallery 
 alone, we witnessed fifteen persons, old and young of both sexes, copying 
 the paintings of the great masters. The beautiful gardens are another 
 source of attraction and instruction to the i3eople. The intimate and 
 
64 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 social freedom we noticed existing between tlie employer and employed, 
 is another source of great improvement to the work-people. 
 
 THE BRITISH ARTISANS UPON LACE, 
 
 In tlie reports by the British artisans there is one upon lace by Edward 
 Smith, Joseph Bird, and George Dexter, delegates recommended by 
 the Kottiugham Chamber of Commerce, from which the following is 
 extracted : 
 
 "Believing in its im^iortance," (the lace manufacture,) "we have 
 endeavored to the best of our ability to ascertain the quality of work 
 turned out by different nations; influences affecting the character of the 
 Avork and trade generally, such as cost of material, wages, conditions 
 and divisions of labor, education, habits of life, amusement, and trade 
 associations. 
 
 "The first class of goods we inspected was the French department. 
 Group IV, Class 33. 
 
 "The hand-made laces are of surpassing beauty: the intricacy of and 
 perfect following out of the leaves and flowers of various plants introduced 
 into the designs are very delicate and truthful. We are of opinion that 
 the carrying out of the design in the hand -made lace must have an 
 abiding and elevating power upon the minds of the females engaged in 
 this branch of industry, imj)lanting a taste for the beautiful that no doubt 
 descends to their children, widening and spreading in its character and 
 influencing all who may come in contact with them. 
 
 " The total number of lace makers is estimated at two hundred thousand 
 women and girls. They gain on an average one franc twenty-five cen- 
 times per day; some who are particularly skillful and industrious earn as 
 much as three francs fifty centimes for ten hours' hard work. Lace-m akers 
 are for the most part peasant women, who all, without exception, work at 
 their own homes, often quitting their lace pillows and babes to attend to 
 household duties or to work in the fields ; lace-making has the advantage of 
 being carried on at home, and, therefore, of not depri^dng agriculture of 
 too mauy able hands. French lace is sold iu all markets — in the United 
 States, the Brazils, Russia, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, the East and 
 the West Indies. Paris is the principal center of consumption , the young 
 females wearing a very tasteful description of head-dress com^josed of 
 all kinds of lace. 
 
 "The macliine-made laces are of a very high character both as regards 
 quality of material and design. It is impossible to carry out the design 
 to perfection unless a sufiicient number of motions of the machine is 
 gone through so as to give an opportunity for the figuring threads to lay 
 in the work in that smooth and rounded form, successfully tracing the 
 design ujion the lace as upon paper. This is pre-eminently the feature of 
 the French machine-made laces. All the articles from the broadest to 
 the narrowest widths exhibit the same beauty of construction. The laces 
 exhibited consist i)riucii)ally of blondes, black laces, edgings, guipm^es, 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 65 
 
 and Climys. The blondes have a bright silvery appearance; the black 
 laces, in the form of shawls, 11 ounces, &c., disi)lay great beauty of design 
 and brightness in the thick-thread silks, not only in the goods exhibited, 
 but those we saw in the course of manufacture at Calais and St. Pierre 
 near Calais. 
 
 "A first-class article would appear to be the ruling feature in the minds 
 of the manufacturers, the design in no way being sacrificed for the sake 
 of cheapness." 
 
 MANUFACTUEE OF LACE IN VAEIOUS COUNTEIES.^ 
 
 The generic term lace comprises all those fine thread works made by 
 spindle or needle. 
 
 Spindle lace is made in a simple portable frame, in the operative's lap, 
 with spindles and thread, and i)ins to guide the thread or point out the 
 design. There has been no recent change in this frame or loom, nor in 
 the method of lace-making ; the same process has been followed for four 
 hundred years. Spindle lace is made of any textile fiber; flax, cotton, 
 silk, wool, hair, and even gold and silver wire are used in its fabrication, 
 producing the common jncot., at five centimes a yard, or the sumptuous 
 lace that sells like precious stones. Needle lace, generally termed i^oiut 
 lace, is made with a common needle, after a pattern held in the hand ; 
 and white thread is the usual material for it. 
 
 The manufacture of lace is very varied; so much so that we might say 
 there were as many varieties as factories. Lace is made in every part of 
 the world, and no two kinds are alike, though the mode of making be 
 similar ; and for that reason laces generally take their names from the 
 places where they are made. It is said the business of lace-making in 
 Europe gives employment to more than half a million women and girls; 
 they all work at home and earn ten or fifteen centimes an hour. 
 
 All the large lace manufixctories were represented at the Exposition. 
 Yv^e will only notice some of the principal ones in Europe. France and 
 Belgium are the great lace-making countries, and give work to four-fifths 
 of the females employed in that peculiarly feminine industry. 
 
 SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 
 
 Spain was once renowned for its blonde silk lace; the prosperity of 
 the business has been declining for many years, and now it is almost 
 extinct. The lace made there now is for robes, mantillas, veils, and 
 garments used at home or in the American colonies. Barcelona is the 
 central lace market of Spain. The operatives of Catalonia are not 
 wanting in skill; and they often excel in this delicate work. With 
 liroper encouragement they might supply the world, at a reasonable 
 price. 
 
 The production of Portugal and Madeira is less important than that of 
 
 1 Extracts translated from the rejiort of M. Felix Aubry, Class 33, Vol. IV, Jury Rej)orts. 
 5 C W F 
 
QQ PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 Spain ; and it is confined cliiefly to narrow lace for trimming. The work 
 of the Portuguese operatives is good, solid, and cheap ; but the designs 
 are old and are wanting in taste ; with proper direction they could make 
 as good lace as is found in Puy, and might rival that part of our country 
 in its i^roduction. 
 
 GERMANY. 
 
 Spindle lace, which is made all over Germany, even in Denmark and 
 Bohemia, is known in commerce as Saxon lace. The principal centers 
 of its production are Annaberg, Dresden, Eibenstock, Carlsbad, and 
 Tonderu. The ditterent kinds of German lace are generally common 
 looking and of inferior quality ; the designs are old and ugly, unless 
 copied from French designs; and the workmanship is far inferior to 
 any of ours, in fact, is not as good as that of Auvergne. But the Saxon 
 lace has one advantage over ours, that of price ; the cost of making it 
 in the Erzgebirge and Vogtland is much less than in France. In this 
 very important point of view, the Saxon lace beats us in the markets of 
 America and Eussia. 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Three varities of lace are made in the United Kingdom : Irish lace, 
 Buckingham lace, and Honiton lace. 
 
 Irish lace is like nothing in France or anywhere else ; it is cheap, and 
 the great number of women who work it do not get so much for it as 
 our operatives. The different kinds of Irish lace partake of the nature 
 of embroidery, fringe, crochet work, spindle and needle lace ; they are 
 sold only in England and America ; the use of them has decreased in 
 late years. 
 
 The Buckingham lace of England is chiefly made in the counties of 
 Northampton, Bedford, Oxford, and Buckingham. The English lace- 
 makers are skillful, they work with silk or thread and produce an article 
 of excellent quality. In 18G2 the business prospered, but it is now under- 
 going a crisis that may j)rove fatal to it. It sent nothing to the Expo- 
 sition this year ; the reason of this decline is the competition of Caen 
 in edging and insertion, and of Grammont for larger pieces. 
 
 Honiton lace has a i)eculiar and characteristic quality ; it is made in 
 Devonshire, resembles white spindle gimp, with fine embroidered 
 relief; some large i)ieces excel all other lace in elegance, perfection, and 
 value. The samples of Honiton, exhibited b^^ Hay ward of London, were 
 particularly admired; they united beauty of workmanship, grace of 
 design, fineness of material, and harmony of particulars. It is so much 
 in vogue that it has become the (^ourt etiquette of England to wear it, 
 being distinguished for finish, brilliancy, and freshness. The guipure 
 and application of Belgium are so dark they could not be used if not 
 bleached in a solution of powdered carbonate of lead. This process is 
 very injurious to the health of the bleachers, and for that reason the 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 67 
 
 English Lave abandoned it, and give premiums to the lace-makers that 
 will deliver their work in a clean and natural state. This Honiton lace 
 is the best in England; it is even superior to the best that is made in 
 France or Belgium. Lace is also made in some of the English colonies; 
 the best known is the thread and silk guipure of Malta ; it is well made, 
 of excellent quality, and is reasonable in j)rice. 
 
 BELGIUM. 
 
 Xest to France, Belgium gives employment to the largest number of 
 lace-makers ; the number is said to be over one hundred thousand, dis- 
 persed over the provinces of Hainaut, Flanders, and Brabant. They 
 produce five kinds of lace: Yalenciennes, Mechlin, Grammont, Brussels, 
 and Flanders guipure. 
 
 Valenciennes is the best; it is extensively known, much sought for, 
 and appreciated for its strength, lightness, and elegance. The business 
 done in this lace amounts to twenty millions of francs a year. It has been 
 vainly attempted to produce tiiis lace in other countries, but Belgium 
 enjoys the monopoly for its manufacture, and furnishes it to the world. 
 
 The four j)rincipal centers of mannfacture are Ypres, Ghent, Bruges, 
 and Courtray. The Valenciennes of Ypres, called square point, is the 
 most esteemed. The execution of this elegant tissue seemed to have 
 reached perfection long ago, and no improvement could be made in it ; 
 yet the rich collection of Valenciennes from the town of Yx)res, varied in 
 design, and clear in meshes, demonstrate an incontestable sui^eriority in 
 the skill of the operatives and the cleverness of their employers. 
 
 Mechlin lace was much in vogue a few years ago, it is a fine, light, 
 elegant lace, to be had for a reasonable price ; but it is out of fashion 
 now, and very little is made. 
 
 Gkammont lace has undergone a change ; twenty years ago it was 
 made entirely of white thread ; now black silk is used for it. Its manu- 
 facture has increased five-fold since 1855 ; this is due to its good quality 
 and low price. The meshes are not so close as in France; the difficulties 
 of making it are so utilized as to substitute choice designs and intelligent 
 combinations of execution, and thus furnish showy pieces at a lower 
 price than anywhere else. Much is sent to America, Germany, England, 
 and liussia. It certainly cannot compare with our elegant productions 
 of Bayeux, but it may offer a formidable competition. 
 
 Brussels lace. — The lace factories of Brussels rival all the others 
 in Belgium. Two kind of laces are chiefly made there : Single flowers, 
 made by pin or needle, and intended to be ax)plied on tulle, and gauze 
 point, called Venice point. Application on tulle imi^roves every day, yet 
 it is strange its production does not increase, and we can give no reason 
 for it. Gauze point, however, made a splendid show at the Exposition, 
 it was rich, regular, clear, and of tasteful design. We must mention the 
 establishment of Lef6bure & Son, of Paris, carried on at Destelberghe, 
 where application flowers are worked, as well as gauze point. This model 
 
68 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 establishment unites the excellencies of the spindle and needle lace work, 
 it sends new designs to the Paris market, that are artistically got up 
 and rendered with perfect taste. 
 
 Flanders guipure. — Other kinds of lace are made in Belgium, but 
 they belong to the preceding categories. However, we owe a special 
 mention to white guipure, made with a shuttle, called Flanders guipure. 
 This lace is made at Bruges and in the neighborhood; it is an excellent 
 imitation of the seventeenth centmy guipare; rich and loaded with 
 designs, it is very light and elegant. It is like Honiton; but it is not 
 so fine; the meshes are not so small, yet it is furnished at a reasonable 
 I)rice. It is one of the prettiest productions of the lace industry. 
 
 LACE-MAKING IN FRANCE. 
 
 There are six varieties of lace made in France: Alengon point; Lille 
 and Arras lace; Bailleul lace; Chautilly, Caen, and Bayeux lace; Mire- 
 court lace ; and Puy lace. 
 
 Alenqon. — The French i^oint lace, called j^oint cVAlengon, is made 
 at Alen9on and Bayeux; it is the only kind of French lace that is made 
 entirely with a needle; it has reached an incomparable perfection, and 
 certain pieces are real objects of art. This is the most sumptuous of 
 all laces, it has a strength that defies time and the washer- women, for that 
 reason it merits the surname of queen of laces. Ever since the time of 
 Colbert, Alen9on and Argentan have been the center of this manufac- 
 ture; but in 1855, Auguste Lefebure, one of our best manufacturers, 
 started a factory for it at Bayeux, where he modified and improved the 
 stjde so as to give it a desirable peculiarity. We have never seen any- 
 thing to equal the Aleneon lace from Bayeux, exhibited at the late 
 Exposition. 
 
 Lille and Arras. — The manufactories of Lille and Arras formerly 
 produced many blonde laces, on a clear ground, greatly esteemed for 
 their freshness, lightness and good quality. When fashion no longer, 
 favored that style of lace, the manufacture diminished sensibly. 
 
 Bailleul. — At Bailleul and in the neighborhood, they weave a kind 
 of Yalencieune less fine and clear than that of Ypres, but which is greatly 
 esteemed for its whiteness, its solidity and its cheapness. 
 
 Chantilly, Bayeux, and Caen.— The dark-colored laces of these 
 three places are identical; they are chiefly coniposed of large pieces, as 
 shawls, robes, flounces, and veils, made of strips and patches admirably 
 joined together by a peculiar stitch. The making of white silk blonde 
 having been abandoned, on account of machine rivalry, attention has 
 been turned to the manufacture of black laces, which has reached a 
 great degree of perfection. The lace of Calvados and Chantilly cannot 
 be surpassed. 
 
 Caen is celebrated for its varieties of black lace; it is in fiict the 
 commercial product of the place ; much of it is exported. In 1855 Bayeux 
 gained the first prize for lace, and it still retains its merited reputation 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 69 
 
 in that line. It produces the best large pieces of extra-flue meshes and 
 rich designs, such as are sought after by the opulent classes. 
 
 Some years ago Mr. Schneider, president of the legislative body, 
 wishing to give employment to the wives and daughters of his operatives, 
 put up lace factories at Creusot, where elegant point lace is made, re- 
 sembling that of Chantilly and Bayeux. 
 
 MiRECOUET. — The factory at Mirecourt has a reputation for the 
 novelty, variety, and good quality of its laces ; the operatives there are 
 very skillful in their work; under an intelligent direction, they follow 
 the freaks of fashion, aod invent new patterns that are instantly 
 accepted by customers and soon imitated by foreign manufacturers. It 
 is certainly the most active and inventive lace-making place we know; 
 being a liind of leader to all rivals. The articles exhibited were varied 
 and of new style, and of course much admired, particularly a bed spread, 
 a robe, and a chasuble in relief guipure. 
 
 Four or five years ago Madam Gandillot, a woman of taste, tried to 
 get the operatives of Mirecouut to revive old abandoned fashions; she 
 finally succeeded, and her art guiimres were immediately accepted, and 
 gave origin to a new and cheaper style, called Gliiny lace, which had 
 wonderful success greatly benefiting French manuf^xctures. 
 
 PUY. — If the Mirecourt factory is more ready at invention, that of 
 Puy is more important. Its work spreads over four departments of 
 Auvergne, and employs near one hundred thousand women and girls of 
 the mountains. The central market is Puy. 
 
 The Auvergne laces, very various in style, are celebrated for cheap- 
 ness; the operatives of this manufacturing cluster, stimulated by a few 
 energetic and enlightened persons, have progressed sensibly within the 
 last ten years. They can yield to the whim of the moment and use any 
 textile material, flax, silk, cotton, wool, and wire, and when the demand 
 for one style ceases, they modify their labor, invent a n^ew style and 
 spread it rapidly. 
 
 The manufacture here is very active and it improves every day. It 
 exhibited a specimen for the flrst time, and it was found to be of diffi- 
 cult imitation ; the piece was a bonrnous of Cashmere wool, having all the 
 gaudy colors of an India shawl; the combination of variegated flowers 
 on a lace foundation created much admiration. It cannot become an 
 article of commerce, but it denotes progress and exhibits the skill of the 
 Auvergne operatives, and the inventive talent of its manufacturers. 
 There is also made in a small quantity at Puy, needle point lace of 
 extreme fineness and of an artistic character, almost equaling the Ven- 
 ice point, now obsolete. Of all the lace-manufacturing districts of 
 France, Puy sends the most productions abroad. / 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 The number of lace-makers in France is estimated at 200,000 women 
 and girls; their average yAj is from one franc to one franc and a half 
 
70 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 -pev day of ten hours' work 5 yet some earn as mucli as three francs and 
 a half. This pay is influenced much by fashion with its imperious 
 and ephemeral exigencies. All these operatives, scattered over fourteen 
 departments, work at home, combining- the labor of the spindle and 
 needle with field labor and the more urgent duty of housekeeping. Thus 
 lace-making has the advantage of being done at home in the family, with- 
 out disturbing agricultural labor; it provokes no emigration and does 
 not crowd girls in factories, but keeps them from all contact that would 
 endanger their morals. For such reasons the business deserves encour- 
 agement as beneficial to health, to morals, and to comfort. 
 
 This industry also has the sympathy of all practical and elevated 
 minds. Her Majesty, the Emi)ress, has opened a concours for lace-makers, 
 and has spent much money for their benefit. Many mannfixcturers and 
 directors of benevolent institutions are trying to introduce this industry 
 into families. In almost all our northern dei)artments of France, as well 
 as in Belgium and Germany, persons fiivored by fortune are rivaling 
 each other in the establishment of schools for instruction in lace-making. 
 
 At Alencon, Dieppe, and Caen, the authorities join private individuals 
 in the establishment of such institutions: but it is chiefly in Auvergne 
 that the most has been done in this way. The prefect, the agricultural 
 society, and the board of commerce at Puy, and all enterprising men of 
 wealth there, have done what they could to improve tbe moral and 
 hygienic conditions of the lace industry. Schools for apprentices are 
 founded in all the communes; feasts are given to the best manufacturers, 
 and premiums are distributed to the most expert operatives as encour- 
 agement to their energy. 
 
 The relations between manufacturers and their operatives are very 
 cordial. In fact the lace-maker does not yield her liberty while she sells 
 her time and skill ; she can vary her occupation, and her labor is restricted 
 to no certain term. If she is not satisfied with her pay she is at liberty 
 to quit the work when she pleases and try some other; she can even 
 give up what she has begun, if she finds the task too hard, or the com- 
 pensation not sufficient. 
 
 Lace-making requires so many and varied designs, that the industry 
 has created the specialty of art-designers. 
 
 Machinery is fast taking the place of hand labor in the production of 
 garments; plain sewing and even embroidery can be done hj machines, 
 but they cannot make lace. Lace-making has nothing to fear from 
 machines, which are fast giving a democratic tendency and popular sim- 
 plicity to dress : dress now-a-days hardly distinguishes the diflerent 
 social classes. Clothes are now bought to wear for the season, not to 
 keep, for fashion militates against that. The useful is more looked to 
 now than the brilliant in costtime; dresses are no more handed down as 
 heir-looms like jewelry. Without deciding whether this is good or bad 
 in itself, we must say it benefits the working classes. In spite of this 
 change in the consumption of fine and costly articles of dress, lace-mak- 
 ing has flourished, though the more costly styles of lace are not so much 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 71 
 
 iu demand as formerly. The art must snifer a crisis; but every crisis 
 produces a contest, encourages work, and provokes a liealthy energy. 
 
 This, our national industry, is more fovored in France than in other 
 countries; in fact, there is little similarity between French and foreign 
 laces. Each of our manufacturing districts has a peculiarity in its lace 
 that defies imitation, and of course competition. Though the black lace 
 of Grammont and the white of Saxony may be sold cheaper than oars, 
 they cannot compete with us in novelty of execution. We are the crea- 
 tors, the inventors ; foreigners are the copiers, the imitators. Their lace 
 can sell only when om^s is out of fashion. In short, the superiority of 
 France in this industrial specialty is indisputable; it does not merely 
 belong to the initiative spirit, nor to the perfect taste found in all our 
 home inventions; it is the manifest consequence of the concentration of 
 two forces, found combined in no national industry so perfectly and so 
 harmoniously; that is, man's genius of discovery and the commercial 
 expansion of the product; the talent of woman in the execution of a 
 labor essentially of her domain, and in its appropriateness to- all the 
 caprices of a mode essentially French. 
 
 EMBEOIDERY. 
 
 France, Switzerland, Saxony, Scotland, and Ireland, monopolize the 
 industry of white embroidery, which is performed by machinery as well 
 as by hand, by the tambour frame, the crochet hook, and the needle. 
 
 Euibroidery iu colors is nu^re characteristic of the Orient, and from 
 the eastern nations we find the most gorgeous and varied examples of 
 that style; some of which may be mentioned, namely : From Turkey, 
 slippers, caps, purses, handles for hookahs, and housings for horses, all 
 rich with silk, gold and silver, embroidered over velvet and other mate- 
 rials ; Egypt, carpets for prayers, one of violet and one of lilac velvet 
 with gold scroll, and borders of silver; Russia, gold embroideries from 
 Tiflis, upon crimson velvet of excellent design and skiUful preparation. 
 
 The ecclesiastical vestments i^rodnced at Lyons and Paris are among 
 the most elaborate and costly specimens of the art. Prominent among 
 them was a chai)e of silver tissue by Barban, of Lyons, embroidered 
 with gold, and a chasuble of gold tissue uj)on which, in bold relief, were 
 figures partly composed of jewels; and from Paris, by Biais, a chasuble 
 of cloth of gold, embroidered in gold, with vine, leaves, and wheat. 
 
 MANUFACTUEE OF FAXS.^ 
 
 The making and sale of fans form one of the oldest branches of 
 French industry, under the term of Paris articles. As earl^^ as the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century, Italian perfumers introduced the use 
 of fans at the court of France; later, when fashion assumed a Spanish 
 tone, the fan was in great fiivor, and from that time to the end of the 
 
 1 Extract, translated from tlie report of M. Duvelleroy, of the Internatioual Jury, 
 Vol. IV, p. 3^2. 
 
72 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 last century it became an essential part of a French lady's toilet. Thus 
 we find that fan-makers were formerly among the guilds of art and trade 
 in the city and suburbs of Paris. In 1G73, an edict of Louis XIV con- 
 stituted them into a legal body and approved their by-laws. 
 
 Fan-making has always given employment to a number of workmen 
 of various trades, as joiners, gilders, glaziers, paperers, i:>lumbers, 
 painters, and embroiderers. All these had a. hand in the manufacture of 
 fans, which, however simple, require the aid of many trades. It was 
 not unusual to see goldsmiths, jewelers, carvers, and painters at work 
 in their various ways on this trifling object. 
 
 At that time fans were made at Paris of all values, from fifteen cents 
 to forty pistoles. The commerce in fans, for exportation as well as home 
 consumption, amounted to a considerable sura. Some manufacturers 
 were said to make twenty thousand livres annually, by exporting fans, not 
 counting profits from home sales of the same article. Spain, England, and 
 Holland were the great customers of France for fans at that period. 
 Spain was the only country that kept them; from the others they were 
 sent to South America and the Baltic coast. France imi)orted a few 
 fans from China and Japan; but they were brought out because of their 
 exquisite workmanship, and their value was exorbitant as objects 
 of curiosity from a distance. 
 
 The part of the fan which forms the segment of a circle is called the 
 leaf. This is sometimes plain, and of a single piece; but usually it is 
 formed.of two pieces of paper or other material, glued or jiasted together ; 
 and often thin kid-skin is pasted on the pajier. Satin, gauze, tulle, lace, 
 crape, and other thin stuffs are used for the body or lining of the fan. 
 
 The leaf is fixed on a mounting called the heft or handle, without 
 regard to other component parts; thus they say a heft or handle of pearl, 
 ivorj', steel, silver, &c. The strips that form the necli are of the same 
 number as the pleats of the leaf; this is from twelve to twenty-four. 
 Before the leaf is fixed on the handle, it is put into a stiff paper mold, 
 with the number of pleats desired. On closing this mold of two pieces, 
 and pressing it, the required pleats are made on the paper fan leaf. 
 Between each pleat a copper plate called a sound is introduced. This 
 process of pleating was once very complicated; the paper was first 
 minutely marked ; and in pleating, the lines had to be followed with 
 great precision; the' mold now does away Avith that tedious process. 
 The strips are from ten to twelve centimetres in length, and it is on this 
 surface that the earAing, gilding, and painting are done. The outside 
 stri^js are stouter than the others, to sustain the leaf. All the strips 
 are united at the lower end by a rivet, the ends of which are sometimes 
 ornamented with jewels or the precious metals. 
 
 The frames of fans are made in the villages of FOise, between Meru and 
 Beauvais. The communes of Audeville, Coudray, Noailles, Boissiere, and 
 Ste. Genevieve are devoted to this work, which emi)loys three hundred 
 persons, men, women, and children. The principal materials used are 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 73 
 
 mother-of-pearl, ivory, horn, boue, tortoise shell, citron and sandal wood, 
 ebony, cherry, locust, plum, pear, apple, and all sorts of exotic hard 
 wood. The workmen carve, cut, gild, and chisel these woods with great 
 skill; but unfortunately they are ignorant of the theoretical principles 
 of design, which the younger generation is now introducing. They ex- 
 ecute charming mosaics on the side ineces; they have long known the 
 process of enameling, and some of the simple country people can rival 
 the best artists of Paris in this kind of work. But it is in making 
 open-work in ivory, pearl, and shell, that they have no rivals; and this 
 solid lace is made by means of small saws, which they make themselves 
 out of watch springs. They carve flowers and other ornaments ex- 
 quisitely, and they are beginning to make figures in relief. If they will 
 only study drawing, a prosperous future will open to them. In short, 
 the fan frame goes through the hands of the woodman, the carver, the 
 I)olisher, the dyer, the varnisher, the sawyer, the gilder, the burnisher, 
 the sculptor, and the spangler. 
 
 The fan-leaf is all made in Paris. A painter furnishes the designs, 
 which are lithographed, xylographed, or engraved on copper or steel; 
 then the i)aper is printed, j)asted, colored, or painted; made up, 
 trimmed, spangled, riveted, and inspected. Thus a finished fan has to 
 l)ass through twenty different hands, at least, though it may not sell 
 for more than five centimes, or one cent. 
 
 The number of artists and workmen employed in this business in 
 Paris and the Oise is over four thousand. The annual profits are ten 
 millions of francs; three-fourths of the fans are sent abroad. Though 
 this business has been carried on in Sx)ain for thirty years, only common 
 articles are produced. Italy makes a great use of fans, but manufac- 
 tures none; we furnish fans to Italy. Portugal is the third European 
 fan market in rank. The Spaniards and Portuguese carried with them 
 to South America the habit of using the fan. Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, 
 St. Thomas, Chili, Peru, and the Argentine Eepublic are famous 
 markets for French fans. France also sends a few to the East Indies 
 and Manila; but there China is a rival in the trade of the common 
 article, but cannot compete with France in the production of fine fans. 
 France also does a good business with the United States of America, 
 where nothing but Paris fashions are acceptable. The late civil war 
 that desolated that fine country injured the French trade considerably, 
 but the business is again reviving. 
 
 There are no certain rules for the fan trade; it depends entirely on 
 fancy. Tastes are infinite. The dealer must watch caprice, for there is 
 no article of manufacture that requires less solidity; show is all that is 
 necessary in a fan. All South American countries want gaudy articles, 
 of brilliant colors, and odd designs; they require grace, beauty, and 
 brilliancy even in a fan. The people there like subjects that depict the 
 habits of their country, and have reference to their ideas of i)olitical 
 independence. Experience and tact in this trade is the only guide for 
 our manufacturers. 
 
74 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 Some writers have attempted to prove tliat the fan is of Chinese 
 origin, although it is found in every Indian country as well as in China. 
 In support of this assertion the testimony of legends is invoked; hence 
 the superiority that has long been attributed to China. Any one who 
 will take the trouble to examine into the matter will find that France 
 has nothing to fear from China, except in the production of ordinary 
 fans; and that is not because we do not know how to make them, but 
 because our workmen require and enjoy more material comfort than the 
 Chinese can command in his country. Except in common fans we 
 surpass the Chinese in the tastefulness and infinite variety of our 
 designs, which are constantly changing. Paris and China monopolize 
 the trade in fans, but all the fashionable people in Europe prefer French 
 fans. 
 
 The flourishing condition of this commerce in the reigns of Louis 
 XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI, was suddenly destroyed by the revo- 
 lution; but when the peace of 1815 reopened the world to us, orders for 
 fans came from all quarters, and they were manufactured hastily in 
 great quantities, but of indifferent quality. It could not have been 
 otherwise, for all the good old artists and workmen were dead, or had 
 adopted some other business. Things continued thus till 1830, when 
 the taste for antiquities having revived, objects of ancient art were 
 much sought after. A few years before that period the Duchesse de 
 Berry gave historical fancy festivals, and set everybody hunting over 
 Spain, Holland, and Germanj- for the flue old fans the French refugees 
 had carried with them into those countries. Many were found, but 
 they were very costly, and that suggested the idea of reviving the 
 industry as one of the flne arts. 
 
 With the assistance of eminent artists, like Gavarni, Diaz, Eugene, 
 Lami, Camille Eoqueplau, Glaize, Hamon, Ciceri, Eugene Isabey, Jac- 
 quemart, Feuchere, and the like, all painters and sculptors of the flrst 
 order, the author of this notice, guided by the models he had on hand, 
 attempted to imitate them and revive the manufacture of tasteful and 
 costly fans without giving up the making of common fans, that gave 
 constant work to country people, who tilled the ground in summer and 
 made fans in winter. 
 
 It remains for us now to mention that France took the flrst rank for 
 fans at the great French Exposition of 18G7. Japan, India, and China 
 sent to all our Expositions fans, screens ornamented with feathers, 
 beetles, spangles of a thousand colors, pearls, and embroideries of silk, 
 gold, and silver. All those articles are remarkable for the very brilliant 
 colors, a secret in the land, and for the cheapness of the workmanship; 
 but nothing was new, the same models had served them for centuries. 
 Spain has made no progress in common articles, and France still furn- 
 ishes fine fans to that country. Austria exhibited some fans of carved 
 wood; they are called broken fans in trade. The article is a passing 
 fa^cy, and can never form a special industry; moreover, France makes 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 75 
 
 the same articles at less price and in better taste tlian Austria. Mr. 
 Schwartz, a Danish trade-sculptor of Copenhagen, exhibited an ivory 
 fan with bas reliefs representing Thorwaldsen's seasons; it is a beauti- 
 ful piece of worli:, but is the labor of an amateur and not of a mechanic. 
 Belgium exhibited some splendid black and white lace fans in Class 33. 
 
 The collections of fans at the Exposition were of two kinds, fans for 
 the rich, and fans for export. Three houses, Duvelleroy, Alexandre, 
 and Aloys van de Voorde, furnished most of the costly fans; their arti- 
 cles were adorned by some of the first modern artists, as Gavarni, 
 Colin, Hamon, Philippe Eousseau, Karl Miiller, Diaz, Eugene Lanii, 
 Miss Melcy, and Madame Girardin. Of the trade-sculptors and designers 
 we must mention Jean Feucheres, Kagmann, Jacquemart, Fanniere 
 brothers, Lanoy, Vailland, and Norest. The most important house, in 
 a commercial view, manufacturing export fans, is that of M. F. Meyer. 
 Next to that comes the house of Fayet, Buissot, Brecheux, Toupiller & 
 Co., Yanier, Taveaux, and Caumont. All these houses do their best to 
 unite art and industry in the articles they manufacture for exportation, 
 catering to the taste of the countries where the products are sent. 
 
 Among the principal inventors we must mention Edward Petit, who 
 improved the closing fan, and Alphonse Baude's fan mold. The latter 
 invented the machine for punching fan-frames, the best known at 
 present. 
 
 We are convinced, from our attentive examination through the Exhi- 
 bition, that France has no foreign competition to fear, and that France 
 still holds thcvfirst rank among the tasteful industries combining art 
 and manufacture. 
 
 GLOVES Ais^D SUSPENDERS. ^ 
 
 Gloves were better represented this year in the Chamj) de Mars 
 palace, Class oi, than thej Avere at any former Exposition. France had 
 twenty-seven exhibitors; Belgium, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Den- 
 mark, and Poland took part in the exhibition. We will examine the 
 business in each one of those countries, beginning with France. 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 France produces, annually, nearly two millions of dozens of kid gloves, 
 of first, second, and third qualities, at the average price of forty francs a 
 dozen, making a business of eighty millions of francs. Three-fourths of 
 these gloves go abroad ; for in no other country of the world are gloves 
 made so elegantly, well fitting, and cheaply as in France. Seventy 
 thousand persons are emi)loyed in the glove business in France. 
 
 The principal glove factories are at Annonay, Paris, and Milhau, for 
 white leather; Paris, Grenoble, Chaumont, Saint Junien, Luueville, 
 Eennes, Nancy, and Blois, for gloves; Niort for buck, beaver, and chamois 
 military gloves ; Yendome, Niort, and Milhau, for chamois. 
 
 1 Translated from the rei)ort of jNI. Carceuac, of the Intornational Jury, Vol. IV, p. 330. 
 
76 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Next to France, England is the conntry tliat produces the most and 
 best articles; yet it is largely indebted to our industry, and imports 
 from us every year quantities of raw material for its factories. Till 
 recently England had the monopoly of dog-skin gloves, but after some 
 trials France has sncceded in making them as well as our neighbors. 
 
 Our knowledge is con^ned to a single English house, that of Dent, 
 Alcroft & Co., which does a business of thirty millions of francs a year, 
 buying, at the same time, twelve millions in gloves from France. 
 
 England had no exhibitors at the Exposition. 
 
 RUSSIA. 
 
 A few French manufacturers settled in Eussia and opened their 
 industry in that country ; they continue to buy their white skins from 
 France, and even have them dyed and cut here; and, as they make the 
 best quality, their business rivals ours, and has absolutely closed Kussia 
 to our manufacturers. 
 
 BELGIUM, GERMANY, AND AUSTRIA. 
 
 Glove-making has not remained stationary in those countries, and 
 the trade was well represented at the Exposition of 18G7. Cheap arti- 
 cles are in favor there. Lamb- skin gloves are extensively manufactured, 
 except in Belgium, where kid is preferred, and they are generally sold 
 at home, very few being sent abroad. Our manufacturers sliould 
 notice this competition and prepare to contend with it, as it is likely to 
 increase, and, perhaps, become formidable. 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 Gloves are cheax) in Italy, but the quality is not good. Most that 
 are made there are consumed in the country, so our manufacturers have 
 nothing to fear from that quarter. 
 
 SPAIN, PORTUGAL, SWEDEN, NORWAY, DENMARK, AND POLAND. 
 
 The gloves made in all these countries are consumed at home ; how- 
 ever, Sj)ain is making improvement in the manufacture of gloves, and 
 tbey are well made. We must mention that some handsome Swedish 
 gloves were exhibited by a Frenchman living in Copenhagen. 
 
 Up to this time France has kept the lead in the glove market of the 
 world; but our success excites emulation abroad, and many foreign 
 manufacturers in other countries are now making gloves of such ele- 
 gance as to attract the attention of distant customers and excite our 
 own envy. Our exports to Eussia, Germany, and Belgium have percep- 
 tibly diminished, and other markets of the world may soon be closed to us. 
 
 In consideration of future impediments to French glove-making, our 
 manufacturers should hunt out and adopt the best methods of produc- 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 77 
 
 tion; we allude to the division of labor, a system tliat was opposed at 
 first, but will filially succeed, as it will cause a better st^de of inauufac- 
 ture, and will become more profitable to the laborer. The prosperity of 
 tbe large establishments that have adopted the system of division of 
 labor shows its advantages. 
 
 It is impossible to see that machine-cutting is far preferable to hand- 
 cutting, just as the adoption of the ridelle has produced regularity in 
 cutting. The great advantage in the system of labor division consists 
 in correctness and mauagement of work, and customers have lately 
 found this out. The system of the division of labor has already been 
 adopted in Belgium and Austria. Since its adoption in France the pay 
 of glove-makers has advanced from twenty to fifty per cent., and it 
 furnislies constant work to women and girls, giving them an honest 
 livelihood. 
 
 The introduction of tawing in France helped the Annonay factory, facili- 
 tated the treatment of hides, and utilized much raw material that was 
 formerly useless; thus doe-skins that were only used for inferior gloves 
 up to 1862, now serve for a glove equal to the English dog skin glove. 
 
 The production and consumi^tion of skin gloves has greatly increased 
 in ten years, and, of course, the raw material has increased in cost; thus 
 hair-skins that sold for forty-five francs a dozen at Poitiers or Chalons, 
 ten years ago, now bring sixty-three francs a dozen; and though this 
 has raised the price of gloves to the consumer, the manufacture of gloves 
 has in no way decreased. 
 
 Skins intended for gloves undergo many manipulntions, according to 
 the quality of gloves to be made out of them ; thus they are tawed for 
 glossy gloves and Swedisli gloves, and furred or ^'•ramaillees^^ for buck or 
 beaver gloves. The tawing of skius is intended to deprive them of hair, 
 and take out the fatty matter of the skins, as well as to give them the 
 softness necessary for the factory. After maceration in a solution of 
 lime and orpiment for some time, the skins are curried and beat, and 
 subjected to various processes to take out the lime and grease, and give 
 them the requisite softness. They are then fermented to soften the fibers, 
 the fermentation being stopped by a mixture of flour, yolk of eggs, and 
 alum ; they are then dried and spread out. 
 
 Chamois skins undergo a similar process. To dress sheep and lamb 
 skius properly, they must lie longer in lime, to remove the wool. The 
 sheep-skins are then split by means of a fine saw. The hair side serves 
 for morocco; the flesh side is used for coarse army gloves. Lamb skins 
 are too thin to undergo this process, but they are shaved or rufl'ed, and 
 serve thus for castor gloves. After passing over the trestle, all skins are 
 pressed and fulled ; then they are put into a tub of greasy water, to 
 remain till used. After having been dried they are pumiced. 
 
 Beaver and deer skins are pumiced after they have been colored. 
 
 As we have already mentioned, sheep and lamb skins are chiefly used 
 for castor gloves; ordinary doe-skin may be used for the same purpose ; 
 doe-skins from Servia have been tried on a small scale. 
 
78 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 ELASTIC TISSUES.! 
 
 SUSpI:NDEES, belts, aAKTERS, AND BRACELETS. 
 
 France, Austria, aud England represented this industry at our fair ; 
 France took the lead. The progress in this has been great and rapid, 
 for it only dates from the time when India-rubber was first made into 
 fiber, not many years ago ; yet it has reached a great degTee of perfection. 
 
 Judging from the articles exhibited, Austria has not succeeded in 
 making suspenders. England is represented by one house, that sent 
 enough articles to show the style of her manufacture. If the houses in 
 Leicester and Birmingham, that manufacture this kind of goods exclu- 
 sively, had sent some of their productions, we could have judged better 
 of the importance of this business among our neighbors. 
 
 We make nine millions of francs' worth of suspenders, belts, and gar- 
 ters, per year, one-third of which sum is sold at home; the rest is sent 
 to America, Holland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium. 
 
 Before the use of gum tissues came into fashion, the bodies of sus- 
 penders were made of cotton or leather, and the springs were of brass 
 wire placed at each end, to give them elasticity. When Eatlier and 
 Guibal introduced gum cloth into France, the old-style suspenders and 
 garters disappeared. Eouen was the first city to take advantage of this 
 novelty, and the two large houses of Lucien Fromage & Co., and Riviere 
 & Co., make at least half the articles of this^kind produced in France. 
 Mr. Fromage has done most for the business. He was first a weaver, 
 then overseer, designer, machinist, and inventor. When we are told 
 that the house sells suspenders at ten centimes and six francs a pair, 
 and garters at four centimes and three francs, we can judge what the busi- 
 ness must be, knowing the amount done per year. 
 
 The gum-cloth business gives employment to fifteen hundred operatives 
 at Rouen. The pay of men is from three to five francs a day ; for women, 
 one to three francs; and for children, from ninety centimes to one and a 
 half franc. The other factories for such articles are at Paris and Saint 
 Etienne. 
 
 The war in the United States forced manufacturers to use flax and 
 jute instead of cotton, to keep their productions at a reasonable price; 
 and competition now affects them. The use of cotton has been resumed 
 in the tissues. 
 
 1 From the report of M. Carcenac of the luternational Jury, Vol. IV, p. 337. 
 
CHAPTEE y. 
 INFLUENCE OF CLOTHING UPON HEALTH. 
 
 Influence op woolen clothing upon health — Effects of woolens upon the 
 skin — sliagg\" woolen goods — protection afforded by woolens from the 
 effects of sudden changes of temperature — woolens should be worn at 
 NIGHT — Evil effects of clothing impervious to air. 
 
 Kegarding it as not iminterestiug and as of great iiractical value to 
 add to this report some remarks uj)on the hygienic influences of 
 woolen clothing, I have procured the following memorandum on the 
 subject from Dr. A. P. Merrill of 'New York, formerly a surgeon in the 
 United States Army, and latterly a medical practitioner aud writer of 
 distinction. 
 
 Notwithstanding the common use of woolen clothing in both ancient 
 and modern times, and the favorable impression made upon the minds 
 of men in regard to it in civilized and in barbarous communities every- 
 where, its virtues and excellences are as yet 'scarcely understood and 
 appreciated among the mass of mankind. Woolen clothing is very gen- 
 erally adopted and worn without inquiry as to its effects, or the manner 
 of producing them. The proper study of the subject imi^lies a knowl- 
 edge of physiology as connected with its hygienic influences, and more 
 or less of pathology in reference to its remedial power. Without ad- 
 verting to these in their details, which would occupy too much time and 
 space, I venture to present some; views briefly, upon the general subject. 
 
 The porosity of woolen goods is greater than that of silk, cotton, and 
 linen fabrics, by which both absorption aud evaporation of the perspir- 
 able fluids is facilitated, and thus are they dissipated from the body, 
 keeping the surface comparatively dry and warm in cold w^eather, aud 
 reducing tlie temperature of the skin in hot by the cooling process of 
 greater evaporation. By virtue of this porosity, also, nir is retained in 
 woolen textures, serving to increase their non- conduction of heat, and 
 thus affording protection from the deleterious effects of sudden changes 
 of temperature. This important feature of i^orosity in woolens is in- 
 creased by the nap upon the surface, and they therefore become less 
 efficient in shielding the body from cold when worn threadbare. Shaggy 
 woolen goods, in the making of wliich the manufacturer attempts an 
 imitation of the arrangements of nature in protecting animals from the 
 influence of cold, are valuable as outer coverings, on account of the in- 
 crease of this quality afforded by the nap. The sheep, of all animals, is 
 best protected in this way ; but the wild animals inhabiting hyperborean 
 regions, and especially such as seek their food in the icy waters of the 
 Arctic Ocean, are provided with a dense coating of fine fur next the skin, 
 with a longer, coarser, and less compact hairy covering, both which are 
 
80 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 imperfectly copied in woolen fabrics, with a shaggy surface. In the use 
 of flaunel next the skin, this non-conducting power is increased by wear- 
 ing two thicknesses of thin woolens, which afford better protection in 
 cold weather than can be derived from a single covering containing an 
 equal quantity of wool. More air is retained between the folds, and 
 non-conduction of heat is further facilitated by the threads of one of the 
 textures covering the interstices of the other. 
 
 To this valuable quality of porosity and non-conduction of caloric in 
 woolens is added the wholesome irritation of the skin produced by the 
 friction of the woolly fiber, which, except in persons of undue cutaneous 
 sensitiveness, is not a source of discomfort. The proportion of cases is 
 small in which this dif&culty may not be overcome by the habit of wear- 
 ing iiannel next the person, in both cold and warm weather. The fact 
 of its being felt iu some instauces to an uncomfortable degree is evidence 
 that the uniform excitation of the skin by woolens, even when unnoticed 
 by the wearer, is one of the qualities to which its hygienic and remedial 
 powers are due. This is not only useful to the skin itself, increasing 
 and sustaining its functions as an important emunctory organ, but by 
 reason of the sympathy existing between all the dermoid tissues, and 
 especiallj" the skin and the mucous tissues of the digestive organs, this 
 cutaneous excitation caused by woolen garments exercises beneficial influ- 
 ences over the internal organs of the body in both health and disease. 
 Hence the advantages derived from clothing debilitated persons, and 
 especially children of slender organization and impaired digestion, in 
 flannel. Children suffering from an abnormal irritability of the intesti- 
 nal canal, causing either habitual constipation, or, more commonly, 
 '^persistent diarrhea, derive great benefit from the use of woolen clothing. 
 Under the erroneous impression that the invalid may suffer discomfort 
 or injury from the supposed heating influence of woolen goods, the use 
 of them is sometimes restricted to the winter season; but besides the 
 exceptional cases to which 1 have referred, it is found by experience 
 that both comfort and health are subserved by the constant wearing of 
 flannel next the skin. Changes of season and climate require no other 
 modification than the substitution of thick flannels for thin in ^^inter, or, 
 what is generally better, the addition of another garment over the one 
 worn in summer. 
 
 Tlie agency of woolens in protecting the body from the evil effects of 
 sudden changes of temperature is well illustrated by the use of loose gar- 
 ments of thick woolen goods in furnaces and smelting works, Avhere the 
 bodies of the operatives are much of the time exposed to a high tempera- 
 ture, inducing them to seek, as often as they may have it in their power, the 
 comforting influences of cold air. All observation proves that the con- 
 stant use of woolens under such circumstances is conducive to both com- 
 fort and health ; and we have little need of other argument in favor of 
 the proper use of flannel garments in warm weather. 
 
 Were it not that people are constantly exposed to the action of causes 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. *81 
 
 of disease in tliese siuldeu transitions of temperature, in serious errors 
 habitually practiced as regards the choice of both food and drink ; in all 
 the irregularities of exercise, rest and sleep ; in malarial, epidemic, and 
 contagious influences, and in all the uncertain and little understood 
 agencies of bodily and mental disorder by which we are surrounded, it 
 would be of little consequence about the choice of clothing for healthy 
 subjects. But when w^e consider that some one or more of these dis- 
 turbances of health is always acting, and that individuals are liable to 
 the disorders produced pretty much in proportion to their i^redisposition 
 to disease, it becomes important that we should be able to avail our- 
 selves of every known preventive agency. In doing this it must be 
 borne in mind, that this predisposition is generally greatest in the night 
 and during sleep, at which time most attacks of disease are inaugurated. 
 ^,o common is this, indeed, that it has been and may well be doubted, 
 whether any of the lata! epidemics prevailing in modern times ever 
 m-ake their onset upon an individual in the day-time. Certainly it has 
 been sufficiently proved by long experience and observation, that 
 persons residing in the neighborhood of places infected with yellow fever, 
 cholera, or plague, may visit and administer to the sick during the day 
 with safety to themselves ; but if they venture to pass the night among 
 them, especially should they have the temerity to sleep at night where 
 the disease prevails, an attack is well-nigh inevitable. 
 
 The danger of night exposure to the causes of disease is illustrated 
 by the experience of sailors on the coast of Africa ; and also by the 
 imprudent exposure of white men in the rice fields of the southern States. 
 Such exposures during the night almost invariably invite a serious 
 attack of endemic disease, even when such disease is not i)revailing to 
 an unusual extent in the locality visited. In numerous instances, also, 
 children are attacked by disease in the night, in consequence of an expo- 
 sure of the body to the atmosphere without proper covering. These dele- 
 terious influences of night in creating predisposition are apt to impress 
 people with the idea of the constant unwholesomeness of night air, as 
 differing in some respects from that respired during the day; but in most 
 cases the effects are probably due to other causes. Were it not so, we 
 could place little reliance upon preventive measures, for we have no 
 means of dispensing with the use of night air. The principal if not 
 the only injury resulting from its respiration, is probably from its chill- 
 ing influence upon the lungs, which is instinctively guarded against by 
 animals and savages by covering the nose. The birds place their beaks 
 beneath their wings and feathers, other animals bury their noses in their 
 furs or under their legs, and the negro instinctively hides his head 
 beneath his bedding in the midst of his soundest sleep. Perhaps this 
 practice, so universal, affords evidence, also, that in night respiration 
 the animal system requires less oxygen. 
 
 We are thus admonished of the necessity of adopting precautionary 
 measures against both predispositions to and attacks of disease during 
 6 c w F 
 
82 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 the night; and of all the suggestions which have been made with these 
 views, none are believed to be of greater value than that of M'^oaring 
 flannel next the skin. All the arguments in favor of sucli use during 
 the day are of equal and even greater force at night, for the body requires 
 the superficial irritation, the absorption and transmission of the per- 
 spirable fluids, and the non-conduction of heat, even more during the 
 sleeping than during the waking hours; and then, there are said to be 
 certain physiologic necessities for air to be brought iuto contact with 
 the skin both in sleeping and waking. The garment worn next the 
 person while sleeping, therefore, should always be of wool, and those 
 worn during the day dispensed with. To make the arrangement com- 
 plete, and to give the sleeper the full benefit of woolen stuft's at the time 
 of his greatest need, the sheets should also be of wool, and all the cov- 
 ering above the sheets. 
 
 In cold weather complaint is sometimes made that woolen bedding- 
 does not afibrd suflicient warmth without an uncomfortable amount of 
 weight. Every additional thickness, however, aids in the retention of 
 air amid the textures, retarding evaporation and the radiation of heat 
 from the body, and affords a medium, also, for the absorption of the 
 fluids of perspiration, all which are facilitated by the selectiou of woolens 
 well covered with nap. Additional warmth may readily be secured by 
 placing over all the woolen coverings, or between the diflerent textures, 
 cotton or linen spreads, sheets, or even paper. But after a while, in 
 this case, the body of the sleeper, for Avant of evaporation, becomes 
 moistened with the fluids of perspiration, making him liable to cold, 
 besides removing the oxidating quality of the air, subjecting the sleeper 
 to more or less depression of nervous energy. It is not uncommon, 
 therefore, for persons trying this experiment to rise in the morning with 
 headache, and with a feeling of languor and exhauation, disqualifying 
 them for their performance of their daily duties. The use of quilts, 
 bed-spreads of various kinds, comforts filled with cotton or feathers, oil- 
 cloths, paper, and cotton and linen sheets, is to be deprecated as in some 
 degree detrimental to health. Kobust aiul vigorous subjects may not 
 readily feel the injurious effects, but feeble constitutions, women of great 
 nervous excitability, and children, cannot subject themselves to these 
 evils habitually without becoming aware of declining health and energy. 
 Next to flannel and woolen blankets the best covering is the comfort 
 filled with carded wool, but this shoidd be made of woolen textures of 
 some kind. When impenetrable coverings are used they should be 
 placed exterior to all the rest, that there may be a better chance for the 
 absorption of the perspiration by the intervening woolens, and for the 
 circulation of air in contact with the bod^'. Sometimes it is sufficient 
 to lay such coverings across the feet, leaving all the rest of the bodj' to 
 be covered by woolens alone. 
 
 In the selection of woolen clothing the same principles are applicable, 
 and the same precautions advisable as in the arrangement of bedding. 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 83 
 
 (jl-armeiits worn next the person are better made of flannel than of the 
 hosiery now in common nse. The better nap of the flannel gives it an 
 advantage, and what is of greater importance, the flannel garment is 
 not apt to embrace the person so closely. Tightly fltting garments 
 imi)ede the circulation of the blood in the skin, and retard the import- 
 ant functions of secretion and absorption, besides preventing in some 
 degree the contact of air. There are objections to every kind of 
 woolen hosiery, and also to the use of the corset, which probably does 
 more injury to health by its pressure upon the skin, conflned as it is 
 between the corset and the ribs, and its imperviousness to air, than by 
 the embarrassment given to the organs of respiration. Many women 
 wear their corsets too loosely laced for the latter efteet, without escaping 
 the former. As this article of dress is not likely to be dispensed with, 
 it would be improved hy being made porous, so as to favor the trans- 
 mission of vapor and air; and by being shaped and fitted to answer its 
 purposes of compression, with a broad opening at the places of lacing 
 upon the back and sides. 
 
 In the further application ot the views and piinciples herein advo- 
 cated, as applicable to personal clothing, it is desirable to avoid the 
 use of cotton or linen fabrics orev the woolens worn next the person. 
 To these there are the same objections as to the sheet over the woolen 
 night-gown. If such obstructions to evaporation and circulation of 
 air be used during the day, it is better that they be worn more remote 
 from the surface of the body, Avith a greater number of woolen tissues 
 intervening. Perhaps the water-proof overcoat may be less objection- 
 able in the day, than the counterpane and comfort at night, even, 
 although it may be less porous, and a better conductor of heat, because 
 it sets more looselj^ upon the person, and admits of a better circulation 
 of air beneath it. In the manner of using coverings of the body for 
 the preservation of health and comfort, as well as in the means of pre- 
 serving a healthy skin by frictions, and even in the matter of selecting 
 food in reference to quality and quantity and times of feeding, we may 
 sometimes derive useful instruction from the practice of men skilled in 
 the care and management of valuable horses. The skins of tliese ani- 
 mals are subjected to frictions, bathings, and protection from cold, 
 requiring an amount of labor and skill, one-half of which might often 
 secure the children of the family from attacks of painful and danger- 
 ous disease. 
 
 The feet are best protected bj' stockings made of common flannel, 
 while boots and shoes should be sufiliciently porous for the transmission 
 and evaporation of the perspiration, to prevent the accumulation of 
 moisture. Neither the stocking nor shoe should fit so closely as to 
 imi^ede the cutaneous circulation. Water-proof shoes secure warmth for 
 a certain time, but when worn too long and the feet become moist from 
 the accumulation of moisture this advantage is lost, and warmth and 
 dryness can hardly be restored without exposing the bare feet to the 
 
84 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 fire. Excessive aud morbid secretions are often caused by coutiniug the 
 feet iu close-fitting aud impervious coverings, giving rise to habitual 
 coldness, and operating iujuriously upon the general health. 
 
 Silken fabrics are next to be i^referred to woolen, and cotton stuffs 
 are better than linen. Something might be said of electric iniiuences in 
 connection with all these, the greatest non-conducting-power being 
 awarded to silk. But this is a branch of the subject less thoroughly 
 understood, and the reports which have been made in regard to electric 
 treatment of disease leave the question of these influences in much 
 doubt. Indeed the action of electric currents, and the use of conductors 
 and non-conductors of electricity in clothing, either as remedies for or 
 I)reventions of disease, afford little encouragement to hope for or expect 
 important results, until new discoveries are made iu regard to these 
 agencies. 
 
 Although the views given in this paper may be in the main correct, 
 •there are exceptions aud anomalies in connection Avith theni which 
 deserve consideration. Sometimes there exists in individuals and in 
 families a sensitiveness of the surface of the body which renders the 
 irritation of woolens painful and even productive of cutaneous eruptions, 
 and occasionally cases are met with in which colored flannels prove more 
 troublesome than white. Used as a remedial agent also, woolens, so 
 often useful, fail to iiroduce the good effects expected from them, and 
 rheumatic aud neuralgic pains are relieved by wearing linen, cotton, or 
 silk next the skin, Avoolens beiug continued as outer garments. It should 
 be stated, also, that although woolens should in general be loosely worn, 
 it is often the case that both adults and children, suffering with chronic 
 diseases of the stomach and bowels, derive great advantage from wearing 
 a broad woolen band drawn evenly and somewhat firmly round the body 
 below the chest. For want of the firm resistance prevented by the ribs 
 in the use of the corset, cutaneous circulation and secretion are not 
 seriously impeded, while the pressure thus given appears to afford 
 increased tone and vigor to the organs of digestion, aud to all the 
 abdominal viscera. 
 
CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 
 
 85 
 
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86 
 
 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 
 
 ^Statistics of manufactures of such textile fabrics and articles worn on the 
 person as icere taxed under the internal revenue laws as the 'production 
 of the United States, for the year ending June 30, 18G8.* 
 
 Amownt of 
 tax. 
 
 Percent- 
 age on 
 value. 
 
 Value of pi'o- 
 duct. 
 
 t'lotli ami otlicr fabiics of cotton 
 
 Eaw cotton t 
 
 Cloth and all textile knit or felted fabrics other than flax or 
 
 jute and not elsewhere enumerated 
 
 Woolens 
 
 Silk and manufactures of 
 
 (Nothing : 
 
 Articles of, not of wool, woven, felted, or knit, oi' fi-oni 
 fur or fiu' .skins 
 
 Articles of, from fiu- 
 
 Articles of, fi'oni India-rubber 
 
 Boots and shoes, including those of India-rubber, and shoe 
 
 strings 
 
 Leather 
 
 Hats, caps, bonnets, and hoods 
 
 rmbrellas and parasols 
 
 Watches and chains 
 
 Hair 
 
 !J6, ^22, 000 
 22, 501, 000 
 
 123, 200 
 
 2, 813, 000 
 
 133, 000 
 
 121,000 
 
 76, 000 
 
 7,600 
 
 2, 000, 000 
 
 1,600,000 
 
 425, 000 
 
 56, 000 
 
 $126, 000, 000 
 
 2, 464, 000 
 
 112,520,000 
 
 2, 066, 000 
 
 2, 420, 000 
 
 ;i, 800, 000 
 
 152,000 
 
 100,000,000 
 04, 000, 000 
 21,250,000 
 
 ■1,120,000 
 
 ( iloves, mittens, and ii\occasins made by sewing 
 
 Hoop skirts 
 
 Paper collars and all articles of di-ess made of paper . 
 
 Pins 
 
 I'lircad - 
 
 52, 400 
 94, 000 
 51, 100 
 29, 000 
 167, 000 
 
 Total 
 
 Diamonds, emeralds, precious stones and imitatious thereof. 
 
 337, COO 
 
 2, 620, 000 
 4, 700, 000 
 
 2, 555, 000 
 580, 000 
 
 3, 340, 000 
 
 450, 247, 000 
 
 Conden.sed Irom the Comraissioner'.s report. 
 
 t 3 and 2^} cents per pound. 
 
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