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Show FROM EMILY FAI1HFULL She Write About the Revived English Silk Industry. ISjiecial Correspondence.) London, June 10. During my last visit to America I was greatly impressed with the efforts of the National Silk Culture association in Philadelphia and j the various experiments brought to my I notice in California in relation to this J industry, so I venture to think that a i few words about a most successful move-j move-j ment to revive the trade in England will : be read with interest on your side of the Atlantio, especially by those who recognize that ladies are in the present day the real patronesses of this industry, for our gallants no longer wear, as in the Tudor days, the silken garments, velvets and brocades for which the lords of creation were then famous. The success achieved already by a little band of ladies of high degree is not only satisfactory as regards the special work itself, but is significant of what can be accomplished by a few women for the good of their country and their sex. The indifference of women to misery "outside "out-side their own rose covered wiills"'is certainly cer-tainly giving way to a genuine interest in all that concerns their temporal as well as spiritual welfare; and what better bet-ter proof of this could be found than in the fact that one of the finest ballrooms in one of our most aristocratic squares was given up by its owners, Lord and Lady Egerton, of Tatton, in the first blush of the London season, to a display of the artistio products of British silk looms, in the hope of encouraging this Important native industry and raising the standard of Engliuh taste? The exhibition was the result of the untiring efforts made under the leadership leader-ship of the popular Princess Mary Adelaide, Ade-laide, Ducheas of Teck. A ladies' committee com-mittee was formed of which her royal highness was the president, and the Duchess of Abercorn, the Marchioness of Lothian, the Marchioness of Londonderry, London-derry, the Countess of Zetland, the Countess Spencer ,the Countess of Wharn-cliffe, Wharn-cliffe, the Countess of Eoseberry, the Countess of Latham, Lady Arthur Hill, Baroness Burdett-Coutts, Lady Knuts-ford, Knuts-ford, Lady Rothschild, Lady Wantage, Lady Egerton of Tatton (honorary secretary) sec-retary) and the Hon. Mrs. Percy Mit-ford Mit-ford have really been unremitting in their labors. The opening day was a notable one; the Princess Mary and her beautiful daughter, Princess Victoria, were there to do the honors to the Princess of Wales and her daughters, the Duchess of Edin- EMILY FATHFULL. burgh, Duchess of Fife and the flower of the English aristocracy. Nor did it end there. Every day the exhibition remained open one or more of the ladies who have done such good service on the committee have been present in a similar capacity. In the preface to the catalogue which the committee published the Countess of Latham dwelt on "the inexorable will of fashion," and deplored that "it had set ita seal on French fabrics." The critics who examined the silk fabrics displayed at Lady Egerton's felt bound to acknowledge that the English made goods, for beauty of design and excellence of material, held their own, not only for furniture, but in the more dainty kinds of silks. The question is not one without interest to the American public, for I am able to state, on the authority au-thority of one of the leading manufacturers, manufac-turers, that avast quantity of British silk is now bought there. With regard to England it is, indeed, a most important question. In 1828 the silk weaving center of Spitalfields possessed pos-sessed 35,000 looms and found employment employ-ment for 63,000 workpeople; now there are not more than 600 looms working and 1,100 workpeople employed, and great distress and poverty exist in this district in consequence, and if care is not taken the weavers' art will die for mere want of encouragement. Among the most interesting of the exhibits ex-hibits at St. James's square is a loom making brocaded dress silk under the charge of George Clarke, the head wearer, wear-er, who won the first prize in 1888 given by the, Worshipful Weavers' company. Some of the brocade which he was making mak-ing had no less than twelve colors in it. The warp of the loom contained 190,690 threads, through which the shuttle passed 8,280 times in one yard of work. This exquisite brocade has a groundwork ground-work of softest dove pink, which, by the way, is not counted in the twelve colors of the brocade. There is also a lovely fabric with a fawn ground, and a design of birds and flowers which is often used for paneling. Another fabric is a beautiful beau-tiful white material, with a scroll of moss green and flowers of several hues. It is sixty-three inches wide, and the very best workmen can only weave half yard a day. Among the lady exhibitors may be mentioned Mrs. Ernest Eart, of the Donegal Industrial fund, who sent some embroidered covorleU and panels; Mrs. Heitland, a fan made of English materials; mate-rials; Mrs. Danvers Taylor, a peach figured fig-ured satin, striped with green, 100 years old. There were several specimens of the excellent work done at the Eoyal School of Art Needlework on view, and Miss Charlotte Eobinson (home art decorator dec-orator to her majesty) displayed an exquisite ex-quisite dinner table decoration, a screen with brocaded panels and blotters. , Ejclt Faithtcu. |