POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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tlements furnished supplies to the farming, 

 mining, and lumbering pioneers. Reports 

 brought back by the individual trader guided 

 the steps of the agricultural pioneer. The 

 trader was the farmer's path-finder into some 

 of the richest regions of the continent. In 

 Wisconsin, at least, the traders' posts, located 

 at the carrying-places around falls and rapids, 

 pointed out the water-powers of the State. 

 The trails became the early roads. " An old 

 Indian trader relates that the path between 

 Green Bay and Milwaukee was originally an 

 Indian trail and very crooked, but the whites 

 would straighten it by cutting across lots 

 each winter with their jumpers, wearing bare 

 streaks through the thin covering, to be fol- 

 lowed in the summer by foot and horseback 

 travel along the shortened path. The pro- 

 cess was typical of a greater one. Along the 

 lines that Nature had drawn, the Indians 

 traded and warred ; along their trails and in 

 their birch canoes the trader passed, bringing 

 a new and transforming life. These slender 

 lines of Eastern influence stretched through- 

 out all our vast and intricate water-system, 

 even to the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific, and 

 the Arctic Seas, and these lines were in turn 

 followed by agricultural and by manufactur- 

 ing civilization." 



French Silk-weaving Center?. Accord- 

 ing to the United States consular clerk at 

 Lyons, the geographical position of silk- 

 weaving in France has undergone consider- 

 able changes since the introduction of the 

 industry. Cities in which silk-weaving was 

 formerly of great importance, have turned 

 their attention toward other industries, while 

 new centers have sprung up and attained 

 more or less prosperity. Tours was the first 

 great silk-weaving center of France, but its 

 industry in this line has been declining for 

 the last sixty years. Nimes was likewise one 

 of the early centers, and reached great pros- 

 perity in the eighteenth century ; but it has 

 now less than one sixth as many looms as it 

 had then. About twenty-five thousand looms 

 are employed in Paris and the adjoining dis- 

 tricts in weaving silk and silk-mixed goods, 

 galloons, fringes, cords, and other varieties 

 of passementerie and trimmings. Nets, tulles, 

 and laces constitute the specialties of Ca- 

 lais. Whenever the demand for silk nets 

 is low, the manufacturers substitute cotton or 



wool on their looms. During the latter half 

 of the present century Roubaix has become 

 the center of an extensive industry, manu- 

 facturing silk and wool and silk and cotton- 

 mixed goods. These articles, though often 

 wanting in originality, find ready sale on ac- 

 count of their low price. At Saint-Chamond, 

 silk-weaving has been established in a mod- 

 est way ever since the thirteenth century ; and 

 by confining their attention to braids and 

 similar articles, the manufacturers have ad- 

 vanced their specialties to a degree of ex- 

 cellence that has established for them a 

 world-wide reputation. At Saint-Etienne the 

 weaving of ribbons is carried on, with great 

 variations in the value of the yearly manu- 

 facture. Lyons is considered the most im- 

 portant silk center of France, and of Eu- 

 rope as well. Its total production averages 

 about $80,000,000 a year. The quantity of 

 goods produced is now greater than ever be- 

 fore, and constitutes two thirds of the pro- 

 duction of France, and one quarter of the 

 total production of the world. 



Swiss Watch-making. The Swiss watch 

 industry is chiefly situated in the west of 

 Switzerland, where the French language is 

 spoken, and particularly in Geneva, Vaud, the 

 canton of Neutchatel, and the Bernese Jura. 

 An ingenious labor organization has sprung 

 up there, which combines at once the advan- 

 tages of principal and minor industry. Com- 

 posed of small workshops, grouped in a given 

 region, it is under the control of a manufact- 

 urer who gives orders to the workman, and 

 supplies him with the necessary materials, 

 and, when the watch is finished, effects a sale. 

 Under this system the master has not the gen- 

 eral expenses of a factory, and the diminu- 

 tion in production and holidays affect him 

 but little. In his turn, the operative working 

 at home has a particular part of the watch to 

 construct. He is both journeyman and fore- 

 man, who combines his dwelling with his 

 shop. Paid by the piece, he works at his 

 leisure from early in the morning till late at 

 night. Such a system, which allows the wife 

 to assist in the labors of the husband, and 

 the children to be initiated by an easy ap- 

 prenticeship into the manufacture of a spe- 

 cial part of the watch, must suit the mount- 

 aineers. They preserve their intelligence, 

 realize often large profits, and by the intel- 



