410 THE FEENCH BLOOD IN AMEETCA 



trying for many years to those who had been gently born 

 and nurtured in France, but the best was made of exist- 

 ing circumstances, and the people of New Eochelle soon 

 were distinguished by the amount of comforts and even 

 luxuries they gathered about them. Their homes, to 

 judge by the specimens which remain in New Eochelle, 

 were neither large nor fine, but they were substantial and 

 as comfortable as was then possible. Tradition says that 

 the first to utilize the remnants of worn-out garments by 

 cutting them into strips and weaving them into carpets 

 were the French. The rag carpet was in its day an ad- 

 vance agent of comfort and culture ; and one may recall 

 the Connecticut deacon who asked Mrs. Lyman Beecher, 

 who was the first to introduce a carpet into Litchfield, if 

 she thought she could " have all thet an' heaven too ? " 

 Among the earliest importations of the French settlers 

 were the spinning wheels and looms of better quality 

 than were previously known here. Immigrants from 

 fruit-growing and wine-making districts of France brought 

 grafts and roots, and naturalized most of the hardier va- 

 Taste in rictics. A fcw wcrc able to import hangings, mirrors, 



Decorations ^ e> & 7 J 



china and furniture of rare beauty ; but in general they 

 possessed only those articles of furniture which could be 

 made here. However humble these might be in them- 

 selves, they would surely be made decorative by little 

 touches which only the French hand could give, just as 

 the same delicate touches would be seen in the toilets of 

 the women. 



Where the English and Dutch dyed linen yarn of 

 heavy quality and wove it into ugly stripes and checks 

 for bed and window curtains, the French used either 

 white linen or that with but one colour, dainty shades of 

 light blue or dusky green or a subdued gold colour made 

 by dyes of which they had brought the secret with them 

 being preferred. These linens, made into hangings 

 bordered by an embroidered vine or arabesque design in 

 white upon the gold, or of varied colours upon the all 



