CHAPTER FOUR 

 THE LOOM AND THE SEWING-MACHINE 



WHEN I first became interested in the possibilities of 

 home weaving, my father told me a story which I 

 have told over and over again because it illustrates 

 most vividly the economic advantages of what I call 

 domestic production. 



When he left his home in Hungary to come to this 

 country he was twenty-five years of age. That was 

 not quite fifty years ago. At the time he left Hungary 

 the sheets which were in use in the family's ancestral 

 home were the same sheets which had been included 

 in the hand-spun and hand-woven linens given to his 

 mother as a wedding gift thirty years before. What 

 is more, at the time he left home they were still in 

 perfect condition and apparently good for a lifetime 

 of further service. After thirty years of continuous 

 service those home-spun, home-woven, home- 

 bleached, and home-laundered sheets were still snowy 

 white, heavy linen of a quality it is impossible to 

 duplicate today. 



Now let us contrast the sheets which were in my 

 grandmother's home with the sheets in our home to- 

 day and in that of practically all of the homes of in- 

 dustrialized America. Compared with the luxurious 



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