ifferent individuals. To one it implies that the color will not fade
when exposed to light and atmospheric conditions; to another that it
is not impoverished by washing with soap and water; to a third it may
indicate that the color will withstand the action of certain
manufacturing operations, such as scouring, milling, stoving, etc.;
while a fourth person might be so exacting as to demand that a fast
color should resist all the varied influences I have named.

It is well to state at once that no dyed color is absolutely fast,
even to a single influence, and it certainly cannot pass unscathed
through all the operations to which it may be necessary to submit
individual colors applied to this or that material. Many colors are
fast to washing or milling, and yet very fugitive to light; others are
fast to light, but fugitive toward milling; while others again are
fast to both influences. In short, each color has its own special,
characteristic properties, so that colors may be classified with
respect to each particular influence, and may occupy a very different
rank in the different arrangements.

It is, however, by no means necessary to demand absolute fastness from
any color. A color may "bleed" in milling, and therefore be very
unsuitable for tweeds, and yet be most excellent for curtains and
hangings, because of its fastness to light. So, too, a dye capable of
yielding rich or delicate tints, but only moderately fast to light,
may still be perfectly well adapted for the silks and satins of the
ball room, or even the rapidly changing fashion, although it would be
quite inadmissible for the pennon at the masthead.

The colors of carpets, curtains, and tapestry should certainly be fast
to light, but no one expects them to undergo the fatigue of the weekly
washtub; and just as little as we look for the exposure of flannels
and hosiery, day by day and week by week, to the glare of sunlight,
much as we desire that the colors shall not run in washing.

For all practical purposes, then, it seems reasonable to define a
"fast color" as one which will not be materially affected by those
influences to which, in the natural course of things, it will be
submitted. Hence, in speaking of a fast color, it becomes necessary to
refer specially to the particular influences which it resists before
the term acquires a definite meaning. To be precise, one should say
that a color is "fast to light," or "fast to washing," or "fast to
light