."HO CARPET MANUFACTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



lage there are a number of families who make carpets. Hand-looms 

 only are used. Most of the work is done by women and young girls. 

 There is no system of rate of wages or hours of labor. The manner of 

 living is the same as with all others of the laboring classes. Their food 

 consists largely of rice and crushed wheat with meat (mutton) at rarest 

 intervals. Three to four piasters (14 to 19 cents) is considered a good 

 day's wages. Cost of living probably does not exceed 12 cents per 

 day. 



The dyeing, spinning, weaving, etc., are all conducted unitedly, the 

 women of each family engaged in the business doing all the work from 

 the spinning of the yarn by hand, dyeing it with vegetable dyes, to the 

 weaving and completion of the carpet. The carpets seldom exceed 8 

 by 4 feet in size. 



The product is sold usually at home, being placed on the market by 

 the makers going from house to house, or by sending the carpets to 

 Constantinople to be sold in the bazaars. 



There has recently been started in this city by two or three families 

 the manufacture of a new style of carpet which is quite remarkable for 

 the beauty and novelty of the patterns and the excellence of the finish. 

 The prices asked for these are higher than has been usual, and average 

 about 32 cents per square foot. 



It may be observed here that the common people invest their savings 

 in carpets as the people of other countries do in savings-banks, hand- 

 ing them down from father to son, and selling one when hard pressed 

 for money, so that one is often surprised to find in the poorest of houses 

 a collection of very valuable rugs. 



H. M. JEWETT, 



Consul. 



UNITED STATES CONSULATE, 



Siva*, July 22, 1889. 



SYRIA. 



REPORT BY CONSUL BISSINGER, OF BEIRUT. 



The carpet industry in Syria is still in a most primitive stat$ , as will 

 be observed from the following responses to the several interrogatories : 



I. NUMBER OF MILLS, ETC. 



There are no manufactories or establishments in the sense that these 

 words are understood in industrial centers. Carpets are exclusively 

 made by peasant women and girls, residing in villages located within 

 the political subdivisions known as u Hakkar," " Hossu," " Safita," and 

 " Hazzoor," in the Mutessarrifiate of Tripoli, Syria. 



The most important of these villages about a dozen in number is 

 doubtless that of Haidamoor, about 30 miles east of Tripoli, which 



