LINEN FABRICS. 



\V. E. WATT, A. M. 



WE HAD just taken that delight- 

 ful ride down the rapids of the 

 St. Lawrence, and experienced 

 the thrill of mingled pleas- 

 ure and fear which everyone has at the 

 moment when the vessel is dashing at 

 a furious rate directly towards a great 

 rock, and we were sure thatsomeone had 

 made a mistake for once, and no power 

 could save us from being dashed in 

 pieces, when a sudden whirling current 

 of the stream picked the ship out of 

 the way of the rock and carried her 

 safely through the boiling foam into a 

 place of comparative safet)'. 



As we stood among the seagoing 

 shipping of the port of Montreal we 

 could easih' understand why there 

 should be such a great city there. We 

 took but little stock in what had been 

 said of the great business enterprise of 

 the early settlers of that town and how 

 they built up the place till it became a 

 great seaport and an important com- 

 mercial center. No doubt they were 

 able and enterprising men, but Montreal 

 was made by nature the greatest and 

 most important seaport of Canada by 

 the peaceful deep river and its formid- 

 able rapids. Since no ships can sail up 

 those rapids the boats that came from 

 Europe and all over the earth were 

 obliged to tie up there and discharge 

 their cargoes. 



Wherever there is a ledge of rock to 

 stop the coming up of vessels from the 

 sea there is always an important town 

 to receive what those ships bring and 

 to distribute it over the countr}' round 

 about. 



We went aboard a ship that had just 

 come in from France loaded with cases 

 of wines. As the wines were being 

 carried ashore at some of the gangways 

 loads of something else were being 

 brought aboard at others. This stuff 

 was done up in sacks longer than a 

 man and very heavy. It took several 

 men to handle a sack. They were so 

 careless about it that we wondered that 

 they did not fear breaking the contents 

 of the sacks. Then we wondered more 

 what sort of stuff could be shipped to 



Europe in such sacks and in such 

 great quantities. We inquired; and it 

 took some little time to make the in- 

 quiry, for the men who did the work 

 spoke something that sounded like 

 French, but our school French did not 

 suit them. We could find no one at 

 hand who spoke English. We learned 

 that the sacks contained oilcake. 



Linen has been woven since records 

 of what man has done have been kept. 

 Some historians claim that cotton is 

 the oldest fabric, and give instances of 

 old records of its use in India and 

 China. Others claim woolen goods to 

 be the oldest, and yet others claim the 

 honor for linen. Whoever looks into 

 the matter extensively will be inclined 

 to give the credit to whichever fabric 

 he studies most, but it is likely that the 

 figleaf will be credited with the great- 

 est age as a fabric by most people. 



The seed of flax is ground fine, either 

 roasted or raw, and placed under heavy 

 hydraulic pressure. This brings out 

 the oil, which is a very important arti- 

 cle called linseed oil. The cake is val- 

 uable for feeding cattle and the oil is 

 used in all kinds of painting where the 

 painted surface has to stand against 

 the weather. Most of the flax raised 

 in America is cultivated for the seed 

 mainly. In Ohio three pecks of seed 

 are sown to the acre and from six to 

 twelve bushels are harvested. There 

 is also a ton or two of straw to the 

 acre, which is used at the rope-walks 

 and paper-mills. Linen paper is pecu- 

 liarly valuable. 



The mummies of Egypt were swathed 

 in linen, and much of this cloth is now 

 in an excellent state of preservation al- 

 though at least four thousand years 

 have sped since its manufacture. While 

 Joseph was in bondage cloth was woven 

 which is still in existence. 



There was once some question as to 

 whether certain mummy cloth was of 

 cotton or linen. But that has been 

 definitely settled by the use of power- 

 ful lenses. The microscope shows that 

 a fiber of cotton is flat and curly like a 

 ribbon somewhat crinkled, and, like a 



