THE HOME-COMING
"There are about a dozen different processes which taken together are
known as throwing," explained Henri. "First the silk reeled from the
cocoons must be wound; then cleaned of all gum; picked--which means that
the uneven lumps must be removed; doubled, to make the thread stronger;
twisted, to make it still firmer; rewound; and finally reeled all over
again into silken yarn. Then it is ready to be put into any form
desired, in accordance with orders received from the weaving companies.
Sometimes it is made into what we call _singles_, one thread being given
a twist to make it stronger. Sometimes, as I told you, it is made into
_tram_, two or three threads being twisted lightly together just enough
to hold them; tram, as I said, is used for the filling or woof of woven
materials. Or perhaps _organzine_, which forms the warp threads of woven
goods and is composed of two or as many more singles as desired, is
ordered. Organzine can, of course, be made in any size specified, its
coarseness or fineness varying with the strength necessary; and it can
also be twisted any number of times to make it loose or tight. It must,
however, be twisted in the opposite direction from the twist given it
when the thread is made into singles or else that twist would come out
and do no good. And just here is an amusing point and one that nettles
the American buyers not a little. The moment raw silk is twisted even
once, transforming it into singles, the custom-house officials on the
other side of the water cease to regard it as a raw product although
nothing in the way of actual manufacture has taken place in its
preparation. The difference in its rating makes a difference in the duty
levied on it. Odd, isn't it?"
"How do you come to know all these things, Henri?" demanded Pierre. "You
seem to have studied everything there is to learn about silk."
"Indeed I haven't! But when you hear silk-making talked on every hand
you can't help picking up more or less information about it. Let me be
set down in a weaving mill, though, and I should be ignorant as a baby.
The problems of weaving are not in my line. Here in Pont-de-Saint-Michel
almost every one is employed in the Gaspard filature, or in the throwing
mills; and if not, the people raise silkworms. Since the men have been
called to the colors practically all the work of this big manufacturing
plant is being done by women, boys, and children. The few men we have
who are operating the heavier machines have either been sent home from
the front because they were wounded or else they are not strong enough
to fight. So you see, silk is the language of the whole village."
Henri gave a little shrug to his shoulders.
"It seems as if France must turn out enough silk for herself and all
the world," observed Pierre, motioning to the great bales heaped in a
near-by shipping-room.
"The output is, of course, very small now in comparison with what it
usually is," answered the elder boy. "The war has made a great
difference. Normally France does provide a good share of the world's
silk. But other countries do as much, if not more. For a long time Asia
sent most of the silk to the United States. Labor was very cheap in
China, as well as Canton and Shanghai. The natives, however, employed
very primitive methods in preparing their material and did it very
poorly, often winding the raw silk on bamboo sticks that roughened or
broke it. Frequently the thread would be a mass of dirt and slugs.
Merchants would not stand for this, and now American manufacturers have
gone to China and set up their own filatures equipped with American
machinery."
"How stupid of China to lose a chance like that for trade!"
"The Chinese are the slowest of all the big nations to adopt new ideas,
my father says; but they are waking up. They have been so clever in the
past, and the foremost to discover so many things that it is a pity
others should take from them the fruits of their learning. It is to
China, people say, that we owe the entire silk industry. And careless
preparation of their raw silk has not been their only or greatest
crime."
For a moment Henri paused.
"No. About 1870 the Chinese silk dealers got it through their heads that
what the American manufacturers demanded was a heavy silk thread. Now
instead of selecting more carefully the cocoons from which they wound
their raw silk and reeling it more perfectly, they set their ingenuity
to work to increase the weight of the fibre itself by loading it with
acetate of lead."
"I should think the Americans would have been pretty angry at that!"
"They were. They told the Chamber of Commerce at Shanghai that the
United States would refuse to buy silk of China unless this practice was
stopped. That scared the people, and for a while the adulteration of
the material ceased. But the reform was not for long. From time to time
the natives went back to their old tricks until by and by not only
America, but even the greater part of Europe, got all out of patience
with them. When they finally remedied the evil it was too late. Other
countries had learned the art of silk-raising and had stepped in and
snapped up most of the trade. My father says that now America, which is
the largest silk consumer of the world, buys only about a quarter of her
raw silk from China."
"So the evil-doer does not always prosper," laughed Pierre.
"Evidently not. In contrast to China's actions see what Japan did. That
nation was enterprising enough to cultivate silk and foster its reeling;
and when America sent the Japs machinery they set it up and soon had
tremendous filatures run by their own people. There were thousands of
factories where whole Japanese families were employed in reeling silk
from the cocoons. The Japanese raw silk, however, was not always free
from gum, and in time there was so much complaint about this from
America that conditioning houses were established at Yokohama where the
goods of each Jap merchant were examined and his personal trade-mark
attached to his wares so if they did not come up to the standard they
could be traced back to the owner who shipped them. Now more and more
Japanese silk is sold, and in the main it is good, although America
sometimes complains that it drops below the standard. Certainly no one
can begrudge Japan her prosperity, since she had the wit to grasp her
opportunity for commerce."
"Surely not."
"I think the trading of different nations one with another is all very
interesting, anyway," went on Henri. "Why, we are like one big
family--or ought to be! My father has no patience with war. He thinks we
should try and overlook the other's faults as we do at home, and live
together in peace. We all need each other, and the products peculiar to
each land. No one of us can get on without the rest, for as yet no one
country has been able to turn out everything its people require. It
takes every climate and every national characteristic to bring together
the produce of the globe. Besides, trade brings the different races
closer together. One of the greatest pities of this war is its
interference with commerce through which avenue we were all building up
bonds of universal friendship and sympathy. It stands to reason that we
understand the people of China or America better if we have dealings
with them and meet them sometimes, than if we always stay here in France
and read about them, doesn't it? And surely trade brings about greater
prosperity everywhere."
"It was to bring back to France that prosperity and peace that your
family and mine went to the war," murmured Pierre gently.
"Yes. And if this can be accomplished, and this frightful war be the
last war of the world it will be worth all that we have sacrificed,"
returned the older boy fervently. "But peace is a long time in coming."
He sighed.
"And prosperity will be still longer, I fear," added Pierre soberly.
There was an instant of tense silence.
Both boys were thinking.
"Speaking of commerce," resumed Henri, breaking in upon the serious
tenor of the moment and speaking in his former tone, "you doubtless know
that before the opening of the Suez Canal London was the great raw silk
centre of the world; now our own Marseilles leads, or did before this
fighting began. And we must not leave out Italy when talking of
silk-growing nations, for our neighbors, the Italians, have done as much
if not more silk exporting as has France. You see their climate is ideal
for raising silkworms; and when they are not beset by a plague that
destroys their crops, as it did between 1864 and 1878, the industry
prospers wonderfully with them. The thread from the Italian cocoons
seems to be naturally stronger than ours, and some of the best quality
raw silk in the world comes from small Italian villages. Then, too, of
course Italian labor is cheap. While in France we pay unskilled reeling
operatives from twenty to twenty-five cents a day Italian workmen doing
the same thing get only fifteen or twenty cents. There is not so much
American machinery used in Italy as here, however, and therefore some
merchants in the United States prefer French to Italian thread. But
generally speaking the very finest and highest priced silks made in
America are manufactured from French or Italian material. For many
purposes where less perfect thread is required the Americans use silk
from the East. It is cheaper, and manufacturers cannot afford the more
costly Italian and French thread for everything they make. Importing the
material in bulk, even compactly as it is shipped, is enormously
expensive. For you see there is always the chance of loss in the silk
business."
"Why?"
"Because although silk is necessary in the manufacture of certain
indispensable articles it is for the most part a luxury, and the demand
for it fluctuates. When times are hard people go without silk gowns and
silk stockings; nor do they expend their money in silk, satin, brocade,
or velvet hangings. The fashion, too, has much to do with the demand.
Some seasons women wear only satins and that throws back on the
manufacturers the silks they have on hand; or velvets are worn and the
satins have to be shelved. The vogue of certain colors also often causes
loss. It is a great lottery to be a silk merchant, my father says."
"Certainly the silkworm creates lots of business for people," declared
Pierre smiling.
"And the thread for weaving sarsnet--or sateen, taffeta, satin, and
velvet, as well as providing the fibres for sewing-silk is not all the
little caterpillar gives, either. Had you thought of the oiled silk,
used for a thousand and one purposes? Or of the silk-gut we use near the
hooks of our fish-lines?"
"I fish with just a string," replied Pierre.
Henri chuckled.
"You are not an expert fisherman then, Pierre," he answered. "Still, one
can land a very good fish with a pole and string; I have done it scores
of times. But professional fishermen have a bit of silk-gut to connect
the hook with the line. Not only is it very strong, but it is invisible
when under water. Most of the silk-gut is made in Italy or Spain, the
Spaniards surpassing all others at manufacturing it. Valencia is the
chief centre for the industry."
"And how is it made? Spun from silk fibres?"
"Not at all. You remember how, before the silkworm begins to spin, the
viscid secretion is stored in the two long ducts at each side of the
little creature's body. It is that material which it unites into a
single thread in the spinaret, you know. Well, before the worm has a
chance to spin, it is put into vinegar and this jellied silk is
extracted. It is first soaked in cold water and afterward in a caustic
solution so that its outer covering can be loosened and taken off. Then
the yellowish gum is dried in a shady place and bleached white by means
of sulphur fumes. You can see that it is expensive because so many
silkworms must be sacrificed, and because the thread produced is so
small. Why, I have read that it takes as many as twenty or thirty
thousand strings to make a pound."
Pierre gasped.
"No wonder I don't use silk-gut on my fish-line!" he exclaimed.
In the meantime the boys were passing on amid the stifling atmosphere
and whirling machines.
Suddenly the noon whistle blew and the busy wheels of the mill became
still.
Pierre and Henri were only too glad to emerge with the others from the
close, steamy air of the factory into the coolness of the outdoor world.
Down by the river's bank they unpacked their luncheon, a royal feast,
for Madame Bretton had sent enough food for both hungry boys. They were
in jubilant spirits.
"If I had a line with some silk-gut on it I might perhaps land a trout,"
said Pierre mischievously.
Henri shook his head.
"There are no fish in this stream, because the waste from the mill flows
into it. But some day in the spring, when I have a holiday, I can show
you a brook up in the hills where you can catch as many trout as you
like--silk-gut or no silk-gut," he said.
[Illustration: A ROYAL FEAST]
"There are fishing-holes at Bellerivre, too," retorted Pierre proudly.
"Why should you not make the next visit? You could then see my mother
and my sister Marie; and I could show you our silk-house."
The sounding of the whistle cut short further conversation and warned
the boys that their day together was at an end. Henri had to go back to
the mill and resume work at his machine from which the kindly foreman
had released him in the morning; and Pierre must take his train home.
But what a perfect day it had been!
As the engine hurried him toward Bellerivre Pierre busied himself
thinking how much he would have to tell his mother and Marie. The
village was reached almost before he realized it, and as he descended
from the train he was surprised to find Monsieur le Cure standing on the
platform to greet him.
The face of the priest was pale, and with apprehension Pierre made his
way toward him.
"My son!" was all the old man could say.
Instantly Pierre knew.
"You have bad news, Father," he cried quickly. "It is from the war. Tell
me! Do not fear. I am no longer a child."
Trembling, the kindly friend put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"It came this morning--the message," he said. "I did not tell your
mother, but waited for you. There has been another great battle and----"
"My father?"
"He is missing, Pierre."
"And Uncle Jacques?"
"He will come no more, my son. He has given his life for France."
[Illustration]