Blue-stocking

“ If only a few pairs of cotton stockings should be required, it would be an absurd waste of time, and of capital, to construct a stocking-frame to weave them, when, for a few pence, four steel wires can be procured by which they may be knit. If, on the other hand, many thousand pairs were wanted, the time employed, and the expense incurred in constructing a stocking frame, would be more than repaid by the saving of time in making that large number of stockings. ”

“ Nearly all—though it is very strange that I should know it—wear white stockings, white as snow, and neat slippers, laced crosswise with black ribbon, pretty high above the ankles. A white stocking is infinitely more effective than a black one. ”

“ As age goes on, male students shift their liking towards the violet end of the spectrum which is the favourite one with men, while women keep to the red. Blue is associated in this country with the boat race held between representatives of the two old Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and blue is usually taken to represent the Liberal side in political elections. The blue blouse of the butcher is characteristic, [308] and, as we have found, is a still better instance of the survival of a trade costume than that seen in the case of servants. ”

“ There can hardly be any difference of opinion about that, as the others will be the consumers of our surplus products. We are the producers, who produce for ourselves first, and then for the limited market of those within the Ring. As we undertake to guard our own frontiers—sea and land—and are able to do so, the goods are to be warehoused in the Blue Mountains until required—if at all—for participation in the markets of the world, and especially in the European market. ”

“ The trade in stocking legs is considerable. In these legs the feet have been cut off, further darning being impossible, and the fragment of the stocking which is worth preserving is sold to the careful housewives who attach to it a new foot. ”

“ She said that in winter she footed stockings, that is, knit feet to country-people's stockings, which bears about the same relation to stocking-knitting that cobbling does to shoe-making, and is of course both less profitable and less dignified ”

“ It was this pressure which we shall see acting as chief stimulus to the application of new inventions in the spinning [46] trade. In the interim, however, the habit grew of receiving not only linen warp but cotton weft from the merchant or middleman. Thus the ownership of the raw material entirely passed out of the weaver's hands, though he continued to ply his domestic craft as formerly. [47] This had grown into the normal condition of the trade by 1750. The stocking-trade illustrates one further encroachment of the capitalist system upon domestic industry. ”

“ However, the seam is of small proportions, and when the goods are scoured, pressed, and finished the presence of the seam is a minor item, as it neither incommodes the wearer nor mars the appearance of the stocking. Seamless goods are made in a great variety of qualities, ranging from cotton half-hose at fifty cents per dozen to the fine worsted stockings at $6.00 per dozen. ”

“ If you haven't, you haven't. I'll try blue; they won't look any bluer however hard you hit 'em." The assistant, staring at him like an amazed ox, handed him a box. "Yes," he went on, "now I look at them, I couldn't wish for better. They're a most admirable shade of blue, and exactly match my Sunday socks. I don't suppose there's much demand for 'em; my hosier assured me my socks were a very special line, so, of course, there couldn't be many people wanting tacks of that colour. I dare say you haven't sold a box of these since last season." ”

“ If the designs and lettering of the cover are to be gilded, the gold-leaf is laid on by hand according to the stamped-out pattern, which is then restamped, and any gold-leaf not firmly adhering is rubbed off with an old stocking. The stocking is burned in a crucible, and the precious remainder of the gold collected again. "Gold laying-on" is done by women; and the workers engaged in this task do nothing else. ”

“ Another remarkable instance of combination prior to the introduction of mechanical power and the factory system is that of the " stockingers," the hosiery workers, or framework knitters, described by Dr. Brentano. From the very beginning of the use of the stocking-frame, in the early part of the seventeenth century, servants appear to have been set to- work upon frames owned by capitalists, though the bulk of the trade was in the hands of men who worked upon their own frames as independent producers. ”

“ Use white for base, tint with ultramarine until a fairly strong blue is obtained, and then tinge with a little lemon chrome green.
Royal Blue. This is made by adding a little white to Prussian blue with a touch of crimson lake. Some manufacturers make a very rich blue, which they sell under the name of Royal blue.
Sapphire Blue. One part of Chinese blue mixed with double the quantity of oxide of zinc. This should not be used for outside work.
Sea Blue. Two parts of Prussian blue, three parts of raw sienna, thirty parts white. ”

“ Two hundred and fifty thousand dozen pairs of cotton stockings go abroad annually to deck foreign legs, and about half that amount of worsted,—the latter being generally sold by weight. Finally, I conclude with the remarkably interesting statistical fact, that a lady always takes off her left stocking last!
The possibility that this bit of statistical darning may excite a blush on susceptible cheeks, reminds me of another fashion to which I will now advert, under the title at the head of the following chapter. ”

“ In blue and white, Champion produced dinner, tea, and coffee services, toilet pieces, jugs, mugs, and all the varieties of goods usually made at that period. The blue is usually of good colour, and the painting quite equal to that of other manufactories. Some of these pieces are embossed, and of really excellent workmanship. A good deal of the blue and white ware was marked with the usual cross, but it appears more than probable that the greatest part of this kind of goods passed out of the works unmarked. ”

“ I have read somewhere of stockings made out of the human hair, and how the pretty conceit was adopted by lovers who were willing to entangle their legs, as well as heart, in their mistresses’ tresses. To be once more statistical and useful, I have to add for your information, that although we no longer export anything but cotton yarns, instead of the manufactured article, to Saxony, our general export is still large; saving of silk stockings, of which we send abroad annually only some 60,000 pairs. ”

“ In buying stockings, whether silk or cotton, you will find it cheapest in the end, to get those of the best English manufacture, particularly those of fine quality. For winter, and to wear with boots, English stockings of unbleached cotton are very comfortable, feeling warmer than those that are perfectly white. It is to be lamented that all black stockings (even of silk) are painful and injurious to the feet, the copperas dye being poisonous. ”

“ If so, don’t scruple to buy.”
“Well, we shall have more grass than we know what to do with, Hubert says,” commenced Mr. Stamford, rather aghast at this magnificent manner of buying all before him; “but I don’t know whether there is not a risk of over-stocking.”
“None whatever, I should say; take advantage of a good season when it comes, that’s the modern stock policy. Some very successful men, whose names I could tell you, always practise it. ”

“ In the process of making the tops, short ends of wool are produced, which are called and sold in the trade as 'Botany laps' or 'Botany waste,' the two terms being synonymous in the English market. After the top is produced, it sometimes happens that it is shorter in staple than was anticipated, or not of the proper color, or that it has to be recarded, to get out the burrs, or for some other reason it becomes unmerchantable. ”

“ It is always a saving of time and energy to take care of the small holes; small ones grow to be larger ones if one is not careful. It pays to mend at once. We will learn how to mend stockings.
Courtesy of H. Brinton Co.
Fig. 99.—The knitting machine. Caps, stockings, and underwear are made on similar machines.
Stocking darning differs from darning the straight or the square tear, because, as a rule, there is a hole in the stocking. The stocking material is worn away, and it is necessary to replace it with a small piece of weaving over and under of warp and filling. ”

“ Various finishing processes, and particularly the mercerizing of yarn and cloth, have increased the possibilities in cotton materials, and while staples still form the bulk of our foreign trade, it seems that as the stress of competition in these grows acute, more and more of our energy may be transferred to the production of goods which appeal to a growing taste or fancy. ”

“ There, by night the cotton whitens beneath the stars, and by day the wheat locks the sunshine in its bearded sheaf. In the same field the clover steals the fragrance of the wind, and tobacco catches the quick aroma of the rains. There are mountains stored with exhaustless treasures; forests—vast and primeval; and rivers that, tumbling or loitering, run wanton to the sea. Of the three essential items of all industries—cotton, iron and wood—that region has easy control. In cotton, a fixed monopoly—in iron, proven supremacy—in timber, the reserve supply of the Republic. ”

“ We have five articles in this number to recommend to the attention of the C. Y. P. R. U. Every little pair of hands that opens Young People, the Postmistress hopes and fancies, has two corresponding little feet nicely incased in woven stockings without the suspicion of a hole in them. How did the world ever come to have woven stockings? Look at the article on our fourth page and see. Three centuries ago William Lee's observation of the labor performed by four knitting-needles in the hands of his patient, hard-working wife resulted in the invention of the stocking-loom. ”

“ Prussian blue is made by mixing prussiate of potash with a salt of iron. The prussiate of potash is obtained by calcining and digesting old leather, blood, hoofs or other animal matter with carbonate of potash and iron filings. This color is much used, especially for dark blues, making purples and intensifying black. It dries well with oil. Slight differences in the manufacture cause considerable variation in tint and color, which leads to the material being known by different names, such as Antwerp blue, Berlin blue, Harlem blue and Chinese blue. ”

“ Before the invention of the first stocking-machine, in the year 1589, by William Lee, a clergyman, none but the very rich wore stockings, and many of the most wealthy went without stockings at all, that part of dress being sewn together by the tailor, or their legs being covered with bandages of cloth. ”

“ Their ability to enter into competition with England in the production of either yarn or linen cloth, arises solely from the fortunate circumstance to which I have just alluded, that not only do they themselves produce the raw material for their own manufactures, but it is they, who, likewise, supply it to their competitors, almost at their own price. ”

“ In the first place, cotton becomes, when handled in any other way than the regular commercial way, a two-edged sword, as apt to wound producer as consumer. Every obstacle which we place between it and the channels of commerce here, operates as a bounty for its production elsewhere. ”

“ It was when we hung on the aeroplane over the Blue Mouth. It seemed to me in an instant that I saw that beautiful spot as it will some time be—typical, as Sir Colin said, of the wealth as well as the strength of this nation; a mart for the world whence will come for barter some of the great wealth of the Blue Mountains. That wealth is as yet undeveloped. But the day is at hand when we may begin to use it, and through that very port. Our mountains and their valleys are clad with trees of splendid growth, virgin forests of priceless worth ”

“ Such specialists have appeared in the cotton brokers and dealers who make their living out of bearing the risks connected with anticipating demand and supply in relation to cotton. To-day a spinner who is asked to quote for deliveries of yarn for, say, the next six months, may obtain from a broker quotations for deliveries of the cotton that he needs, in quantities as he needs it, for the next six months, and upon these quotations he may base his own for yarn. ”

“ An active cotton-stocking manufactory finds employment for a great portion of the lower order of females here, who are animated to industry by the considerable profits which reward their exertions. Those who weave the plain stocking, make from 9s. ”

“ The public square is still the scene of lively traffic in the fall, when the streets are crowded with wagons heavily loaded with cotton, the farmers, white and black, standing around, clothed in jeans and homespun, while the buyers go about thrusting sampling-hooks into the great bales to test the quality of the cotton and to determine its market value. ”

“ The very arbitrary law for economic production, makes it a duty for every spinner to select just that quality of cotton, which is most suitable for his purpose, and it is the task of commerce to adapt the offers and deliveries to the requirements of the consumer. ”

“ The sale of stockings is now principally in the hands of the men who vend braces, &c. The kind sold is most frequently unbleached cotton. The price to a street-buyer is generally from 6d. to 9d.; but the trade is of small extent. “It’s one of the trades,” a street-seller said to me, “that we can’t compete with shop-keepers in. You shall go to a haberdashery swag-shop, and though they have ‘wholesale haberdashers,’ and ‘hawkers supplied’ on the door-post, you’ll see a pair of stockings in the window marked with a very big and very black 6, and a very little and not half black 3⁄4 ”