tors, and increase the enthusiasm with a "Well-rowed, Balliol, or Christ Church!" as the winning crew makes its victorious "bump." It is at moments such as these, when the "grasshopper has become a burden" and the jaded brain refuses longer to be spurred, when even one's ethics threaten to become sadly mixed, that the Dramatic As we wend our way from the races back Society comes to the rescue with a play, or to "the quaint city with its dreaming the restful abandon of a fancy dress dance. spires," Magdalen's exquisite chimes peal Here one may study Mrs. 'Enry 'Awkins forth and suggest we are still in time for from the life, sympathize with the "Under- vespers. University women are eminently graduate," zealously pursued by the "Senior religious, and not even the gaities of "the Proctor," or watch "Lady Teazle" impar- eights" week will tempt them from this tially distributing her favors, and thereby creating mad jealousy in the heart of a gallant young "Surface." While "Autumn" is suitably accompanied by the "Sere and Yellow Leaf," others are not so fortunate in partners, and one smiles to see Jack Horner with Mary Stuart, Trilby with Boadicea, while Louis XIV. stoops to the "Cherwoman," and "Panting Time" toils after them in vain. Each of the yearly terms, Michaelmas, Hilary, Easter, and Trinity, has its own. particular attractions, ending in June with the long-remembered festivities of commemoration week. The great boat-races, "the eights," are the pivot, around which revolve the boat procession, the bumpsupper, banquet, ball, and bonfire. service. With them we pass through the cloisters, down Addison's Walk by the banks of the "Cher." Here gay Oxonians, paddling down stream in birch-bark Canadas, remind us of the days when Lewis Carroll, then a student at Christ Church, used to row little Alice Liddell, the daughter of his dean, under these same pink and white hawthorns, and tell her the delightful tales now famous as "Alice in Wonderland." But as we glance up at the stately tower, we too almost fancy ourselves in wonderland. From its graceful top we seem to hear the glorious old Latin hymn-the "Magdalen Grace"-which has greeted the ears of Oxford students every May morning for centuries past. At this gay season half Oxford or Cam- A peal of the chimes rings forth as we bridge spends its afternoons on the banks turn to enter the chapel, and leaves in our of the Isis, or along "the Backs," by the ears the memory of the long-ago in the Cam. The college barges-elegant club- bloom and verdure of the English summer houses-overflow with university men and twilight. "Surely," we exclaim, "a noble maidens, and their visitors, adorned in all heritage are these learned foundations for the glory of Paris and London styles. Let the sons and daughters of fair England's us, too, imagine ourselves among the visi- past!" T THE AMERICAN CARPET INDUSTRY. BY FRED. V. FLETCHER. HERE are but few industries in the United States which are of such interest to the public generally as is the manufacture of carpeting. The product of the carpet-loom appeals to every housewife, and in the rise and development of the industry there is much to arrest the attention alike of the mechanic, the man of business, and the student of economic problems. In colonial days the only woven coverings used to any material extent for floors were rag carpets and rugs. All other textures employed for this purpose were imported, their production here being prohibited by the British government on the theory that should be protected from competition in her colonies. the manufacturers of the mother country and then braided together. A piece of Brussels carpet was generally used as a center, around which the braids were sewed. Such rugs are still made in farmhouses, and in the census of 1890 the number of workshops producing rag carpets was given as 854, their aggregate product in that year being valued at $1,714,480. The bulk of the carpeting imported here in those times was the old-fashioned ingrain, known then as Scot's or Kidderminster carpet. A small quantity of Turkish carpets and rugs found a market among wealthy people, but such persons were far from numerous then, and in most houses a rag carpet was regarded as good enough for the parlor, while for the chambers, bedside strips or rugs of the same material were thought sufficient. In the kitchen the floor had generally no other covering than sand, which was strewn over it, as is still the custom in the public rooms of some country hotels or taverns. In New York it was not unusual for the Dutch vrouw to employ sand on the parlor floor, the covering being often made more ornamental by drawing designs upon it with a broom. These patterns would, of course, be marred by footprints, but they could be quickly restored, and in those days, as even now in farmhouses, the parlor was used by many housewives only on such occasions as weddings, funerals, and formal family gatherings. The manufacture of rag carpets and rugs was then a wide-spread industry. Every village had its weaver with his primitive hand-loom, and many farmers' wives had their own looms, which were brought into service whenever the family rag-bags had become sufficiently full. Rag carpets were made then, as now, with a warp of cotton thread or twine and a weft of rags. There were several other kinds of floor coverings, but in most of them rags formed the basis of the fabric. Hooked rugs, made by drawing bits of rags or waste woolen yarn through a foundation of burlap, got their name from the hook used in forcing the yarn through from one side of the burlap to the other. A pattern was drawn on the burlap and worked in with yarns. If home talent were not equal to the designing of the pattern, the burlap with designs stamped upon it could be bought in the country store. Another popular rug was made of strips of rags, dyed The first factory in this country in which carpets made of yarn, not rags, were manufactured was established at Philadelphia in 1791. This may be called the beginning of the American carpet industry, as floor coverings made of rags cannot be regarded as carpeting in the ordinary commercial sense of the term. During the twenty years following the opening of the Philadelphia factory several others were started. Most of them were situated in the Quaker City. Massachusetts had two or three, Connecticut and New York about the same number, and Maryland one. According to the census of 1810 only 9,984 yards of "carpeting and coverlid" were made in the United States in that year, and of this amount Philadelphia produced about 7,500 yards. The first important advance in the industry was made in 1829, when the pattern weaving apparatus invented by Jacquard was adapted for use on carpet-looms. A still greater advance, one which marked a new epoch in the industry, occurred about twelve years later, when Erastus B. Bigelow perfected his power ingrain loom, the first practicable power carpet-loom invented. The hand-loom could produce but seven or eight yards of carpet in a day. Bigelow's original power-loom wove only four or five yards more in the same time, but improvements soon made by him in the mechanism increased the product, until it amounted to twenty-seven yards a day. In 1840 there were about thirty carpet factories in the United States. Most of them made ingrain carpets only, Brussels carpet being produced to but a small extent, and solely on hand-looms. Ten years later Bigelow invented a power-loom for weaving Brussels carpets, and the production of this kind of carpeting was then greatly increased. Still, in 1866 the other results of the war. that year, the number of factories then in operation was 173, representing a capital of $38,208,420 and employing 29,121 persons. These statistics do not include rag carpet factories. American inventors have supplied our carpet industry with machinery superior to any made elsewhere and the carpets woven on American power-looms are fully equal, grade for grade, to the power-loom products of European mills. As but one illustration of the successful application of American inventive talent to carpet-making machinery, the tapestry Brussels loom may be taken. Fifty years ago the product of this loom was about five yards a day. Ten years later it had increased to sixteen yards a day, and now fifty or sixty yards a day is the usual product. The principal kinds of carpets now made in this country are Wilton, Brussels, tapestry Brussels, velvet, Axminster, moquette, and ingrain. Wilton and Brussels carpets are made on the same species of loom. They have a cotton or linen chain, a linen filling, and a warp of colored worsted yarn. The $50,000,000. According to the census of worsted warp is raised into loops on the face of the carpet and forms the pattern. The loops are made by wires which are successively inserted and withdrawn under the worsted warp as the weaving progresses. In making Wilton carpet each wire is provided with a sharp blade which cuts the loops open as it is withdrawn and thus forms a velvet-like pile on the face of the carpet. Wilton carpeting has usually about fifty per cent more wool than is used in Brussels. Tapestry Brussels, generally called tapestry carpet, has a cotton chain, a linen or jute filling, a jute yarn backing, and a worsted warp. The face of the carpet is composed of this worsted warp, which is printed in the yarn so as to produce a pattern when woven. The loops on the surface are formed by using wires, as in Brussels carpets, and when these wires have a cutting blade tapestry Brussels becomes velvet carpet. Wool is used much more largely in velvet carpets than in tapestry Brussels. Moquette is a pile carpet woven on a power-loom of American invention, which forms the pile face by cutting off little pieces of woolen yarn and fastening them to the warp-threads. American Axminster carpets are similar to moquettes, the loom used being but slightly different in principle. Ingrain is a carpet made in two plies, the warp being worsted or cotton and the filling wool. Until about twenty-five years ago there was a tendency among us to underrate our own carpets and regard the British goods, especially Wiltons and Brussels, as superior. This idea had some justification in the infancy of the industry here, but has none whatever now, and the general recognition of this fact is clearly shown in the immense decline in imports of European carpeting during recent years. In 1870 the imports of British carpeting into the United States were valued at $6,882,451. Nine years later the imports of such goods had dropped to a valuation of $367,105. In the eleven months ending November 30, 1898, the imports of carpeting and rugs from Great Britain were valued at $534,938, and a considerable proportion of these imports consisted of oriental rugs, The Quaker City took the lead in carpet manufacture in the infancy of the industry, and has retained it ever since. Philadelphia manufactures more carpeting than any other city in the world, and in the amount of carpeting made the United States excels London being a great market for such all other countries, Great Britain, which was first, being now second in the industry. Carpet manufacturing was greatly stimulated in this country by the Civil War, the higher duties on foreign goods, and some goods. The European carpeting now imported consists mainly of choice and costly specialties. Great Britain sends us a small quantity of Wilton and Brussels carpets, which are sold here at from $3.50 to $5 a yard. The Scotch chenille Axminster carpets bring here about the same prices, and the English or Scotch hand-made Axminsters cost in this country from $10 to $50 a yard. From France we get a few Savonnerie and Aubusson carpets. The Savon nerie goods cost us from $15 to $50 a yard, and for Aubusson carpets we pay from $20 to $35 a yard. The great decline in imports of European goods is of course to be attributed largely to the protective tariff, but quite as much to the remarkable improvements effected in carpet-making machinery by American inventors and the enterprise of our manufacturers in utilizing these and other means of improving the quality of their goods, increasing the product, and lessening the cost. The present tariff provides for duties on all foreign carpeting, but also imposes a high duty on the third-class foreign wool which is the principal raw material of carpet manufacture. It is now the oriental weavers, the rugmakers of Turkey, Persia, the Caucasus, and India, the straw-matting weavers of China and Japan, who are the principal competitors with our home manufacturers. Imports of oriental rugs and straw-matting have increased greatly in recent years. Eastern rugs are fashionable, and have solid merit as well. Straw-matting is low in price and makes an excellent floor covering during hot weather. But neither of these products of the Orient can ever interfere seriously with our carpet industry. Straw-matting, although lower in price, is not so durable as woolen carpeting, and our cold winters and springs call for something warmer under foot than a straw fabric can be. Good oriental rugs are ideal floor coverings, but they are costly and rapidly becoming more so. The growth of the demand for them has stimulated their manufacture, but the oriental weavers as a class are not adapted to the factory system, and the production of the goods is therefore not likely to increase sufficiently to make them an especially important factor in the American trade. The attempt to meet the demand for them has already resulted in a serious deterioration in the quality of many of these rugs, and indeed a large proportion of those now imported lack all the virtues which made the antique rugs so famous. The public here does not want these inferior goods and the better grades are too expensive for general use. Our export trade in carpets has never been large, and it is not capable of increase to any material extent. European manufacturers control this branch of the trade, because labor and all the raw materials required cost much less in Europe than they do in the United States. American manufacturers are obliged to import their wool and pay a heavy duty on it. Our tariff provides for rebates on woolen carpeting of American manufacture when such goods are exported, but the compensation thus offered is so hedged about by restrictions and complicated requirements as to be practically useless to exporters. Our exports of carpets consist principally of goods which are sold at cost or near it, to relieve the manufacturer of an inconvenient surplus. Canada takes the larger part of such carpeting. The countries south of us use but little, for the climate renders it unnecessary or undesirable. The small quantity sent to Central America, Mexico, and South America finds a market chiefly among the European settlers there, and is almost entirely of European manufacture. The only great market open to our carpet manufacturers is in their own country, but this is the best in the world. Our population is now more than 70,000,000 and we consume far more carpeting than does any other nation. But the carpet industry of this country labors under one serious disadvantage, one which has apparently no remedy. This is that the United States does not produce the kind of wool which is the principal raw material of the trade. All but an insignificant proportion of the wool used is imported, and this must always be so, for American woolgrowers have no inducement to produce the inferior low-priced wool which is indispensable in carpet manufacture. Such wool comes from sheep that wander over wild or but partially cultivated regions of Europe and Asia, the bleak, lonely steppes of Russia, and thinly settled, barbarous, or half-civilized countries of Asia. There is no similar territory in the United States excepting some parts of New Mexico and Colorado, and from there comes nearly all of the small quantity of domestic wool available for carpets. In this country the wool-grower will not keep the inferior breed of sheep producing carpet wool, when with the same land and but little more trouble and expense he can breed the merino sheep, whose finer and thicker fleece can be used for clothing and return a far greater profit. Notwithstanding these facts, which are familiar to most sheep-breeders, although not so well known to the public, a small clique of wool-growers is continually striving to raise the duties on foreign carpet wool, the object being apparently to make it as high in cost as the domestic clothing wool. This scheme is based upon the notion that if the foreign wool were not imported, the demand for our domestic clothing wool would be greatly increased. It will be observed that this plan ignores entirely the unquestionable fact that our clothing wool cannot be used for carpets. It is not simply the cost, it is the character of the wool which renders it unfit for such a purpose. It lacks the indispensable quality of durability. It is strong enough for garments, but cannot bear the rough usage which a woven floor covering must endure. Heavier duties on foreign carpet wool would not prevent its importation, but would so increase the cost of carpeting as to make it a luxury for the rich alone. The masses of the people would dispense altogether with carpets, as they now do in most European countries. Carpet manufacturers believe in the necessity for a protective tariff, and in consideration of the general principle of protection they are quite willing to pay a duty on the wool they import, although it does not enter into competition with any domestic product, but there is a point beyond which such taxation cannot be increased without dealing a staggering blow to their industry. Surely fair treatment, at least, is due to an industry so typically American, in which the national energy and enterprise have accomplished such great results, and American mechanical skill and inventive genius have found such brilliant expression. BENJAMIN DISRAELI. BY RICHARD GOTTHEIL, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. Success incarnate, self-inspired, self-raised F% whom he lived. An oriental to the backbone, he had gotten in trust the interests of the most occidental nation in Europe. A Jew still at heart, he had become the `OR nearly forty years one of the most stanch upholder and defender of a national potent forces in England had held Christian Church. He had turned ridicule him up to ridicule and laughter. But into admiration and scorn into respect; he when death closed in at last upon Sheikh had disarmed criticism and silenced cenBen Dizzy, Punch paid him a tribute, from sure. A plebeian at birth, he had become which the above verse is taken, which is a the trusted friend and adviser of his queen. good measure of the rôle he had played A man who can accomplish all this must and the place he had won in those momen- surely have possessed exceptional powers. tous years of English politics. A stranger Most potent among these powers was in blood, he had become the guardian of an all-embracing, all-controlling will. From the things most sacred to the people among the day of his first and abortive effort |