OCR Text |
Show WEAVINO HAO CAP.PCTS. IIimp Ho., ,,. .,. A,m rllfi Out ThU I,.,!., II"1 rag carpet btulnei. . WUIi It used to lie Any ono will, nn eye for carpet, might Inter so much from the abundance aad the low prices of serviceable serv-iceable isrpi-ii not made of rata to be een In the horn furnlihlng .tore. Many of fair experience In life today I hardly know whit n rag carpet Is I lor the Information ot such It may bo I as well lo my that n rag carpel Is a woven fabric In which the place ot ' yarn It taken by narrow strips of ro,i sewn together Any old tags will do for the purpoee though to bo sure, the material ought to be strong enough to stand some strain In tht process of , wearing and some hard wear after It has been woven A veteran wearer ot , rses sits at his loom In an east aid ' basement and reialla the time when thirty-three eats ngo, he came to New Wk from llaarla and found more tlinn 1 noo hand wearers of rng car-lts car-lts here omi dead some gone to different places or taken up other trades he su.wers If jou ask lilm whsl has become of all these skilled artisans There wss no work for them sny mure If it waa not for tho hospital, and the old women's homes I would not hare ciiouih work to make a llrlng There are not more than fifteen fif-teen of us left In New ork now 1 , only know of three on tho east side" Ills allusion to tho hoolptils snd homes ' Is explalnrd by the custom of employing employ-ing old and feeble women who are put almost all oilier klnda of work, to cut and sew together tho strips ot rags for making these carpets These strips are brought lo tho wearer rn largo balls and are wound on the shuttles by means of an ancient spinning wheol Tho csrrets nneo worcn make warm, no'seleas, economical floor corvrlngs In hospitals nnd such plicea (Hren the balls of rags all nronerlr sewn, the wearer charges only about 30 centt a yard for making the carpet, nnd It Is n yard wide The work la harder, perhaps, per-haps, than the wearing of threads, hownooi -tlileU, but tn. liidge of the craftsmen bj Ifcls one SprrTmeTi-Xwn aro a sturdy brotherhood This one li about CO yeirs old and though under ri-'dlo height he looks as If he could easily put down the nterago wrestler ot 25 In his own particular craft of wrestling with n sub.tantlal loom, hit stint of work for an hour Is not much under a yard, and he can weave from i o'clock In the morning to R In the evening or longer, at a push New York Trlbuno |