soon begin to appear. A wise "dry
cleaner" will have nothing to do with such silks, lest he should be
held responsible for these holes. It is this weighting which produces
the peculiar rustle of taffeta; and if women would be satisfied with
a taffeta that was soft and thin, the manufacturers would gladly leave
out the salts of iron, and the silks would wear much better. Cotton
is seldom mixed with the silk warp thread; but it is used as "filling"
in a large class of goods with silk warp. The custom has arisen of
advertising such goods as "silk," which of course is not a fair
description of them. Advertisements sometimes give notice of amazing
sales of "Shantung pongee," which has been made in American looms and
is a very different article from the imported "wild silk" pongee.

With so many shams in the market, how is a woman to know what she is
buying and whether it will wear? There are a few simple tests that are
helpful. Ravel a piece of silk and examine the warp and woof. If they
are of nearly the same size, the silk is not so likely to split. See
how strong the thread is. Burn a thread. If it burns with a little
flame, it is cotton. If it curls up and smells like burning wool, it
is probably silk. Another test by fire is to burn a piece of the
goods. If it is silk, it will curl up; if it is heavily weighted, it
will keep its shape. If you boil a sample in caustic potash, all the
silk in it will dissolve, but the cotton will remain. If the whole
sample disappears, you may be sure that it was all silk. Soft, finely
woven silks are safest because they will not hold so much weighting.
Crepe de chine is made of a hard twisted thread and therefore wears
well. Taffeta can carry a large amount of weighting, and is always
doubtful; it may wear well, and it may not. There is always a reason
for a bargain sale of silks. The store may wish to clear out a
collection of remnants or to get rid of a line of goods which are no
longer to be carried; but aside from this, there is usually some
defect in the goods themselves or else they have failed to please the
fashionable whim of the moment. Silk is always silk, and if you want
it, you must pay for it.

Transcriber's Note

Some illustrations have been moved from their original locations
to paragraph breaks, so as to be nearer to their corresponding text,
or for ease of document navigation.

End of Project Gutenberg's Makers of Many Things, by Eva March Tappan

**