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Show ,v 1 SILKUXD SATIX. 'nuw tiiky wfcm: uiscxivniiai xso atVEN TO,,THEORIJl. Rich and beautiful as these fabrics are, and widely as they are used, yet few people know that the discovery of silk is attributed to one of the fwlves of the Emperor of China, Hoangti, who reigned about 3A) years before the Christian era; and since that time n special spot has been allotted In gardens of the Chinese royal place to the cultivation cultiva-tion of the mulberry tree and to the keeping of silk: worms. Persian monks who came to Constantinople revealed to the Emperor Justinian tho secret of the production of silk and gave him sjme silkworms. From Greece the art parted into Italy at the end of the thirteenth century. When the pojics left Rome lo settle set-tle at Avignon, France, they introduced intro-duced into that country the secret which had been kept by the Italians, Ital-ians, and Louis XI. established at Tours a manufactory of silk fabrics. Francis I. fjunJeJ the Lyons BUk Works, which to this day have kept the first rankv Henry II. of France wore at the wedding of his sister the fir-1 pair of silk hose ever made. The wcrd ''satin," which. In the original, was applied to all tllk stuffs In geceral, lias since been ued to designate only tissues hlch present a lustered surfate. The discovery cf this particular brilliant stuff w as accidental. Octave Oc-tave Mai, a silk weaver, finding bUsIness dull and net knowing what to Invent to give a newim-pulse newim-pulse to tun trade, was one day jac-Ing jac-Ing to and fro before his loom. Every time he pasted thu machine, with no definite objei-t In view, he pulled little threads from the warp and put them to his mouth, which soon alter he spat out. Later on he fouud the little hall of silk on the floor of his wotkthop, aud, attracted at-tracted by the brilliant appearance of the thread, lie repeated the experiment, ex-periment, and by using certain mucilaginous preanitlons succeeded suc-ceeded In giving atln to the woill. Ar. |