that of
the corresponding quality in the bleached damask, and that it wears
better, recommends it to many. Occasionally the chemicals used in the
bleaching process are made overstrong to hasten whitening, with the
result that the fibers rot after a while and little cut-like cracks
appear in the fabric. This is not usual, but of course the unbleached
damask precludes all possibility of such an occurrence. One firm in
Belfast still conscientiously employs the old grass-and-sun system of
bleaching, and their damask is plainly marked "Old Bleach." The
half-bleach is sold both by the yard and in patterns.

DAMASK

Damask, by the way, takes its name from the city of Damascus where the
fabric was first made, and is simply "linen so woven that a pattern is
produced by the different directions of the thread," plain damask being
the same fabric, but unfigured. The expression "double damask" need
occasion no alarm; it does not imply double cost, a double cloth, or
double anything except a double, or duplicate, design, produced by the
introduction of an extra thread so woven in that the figure appears
exactly the same on both sides of the cloth, making it reversible.

QUALITY

The next thing will be to decide between buying by the yard and buying a
pattern cloth in which the border continues without a break all the way
around, adding about ten per cent to the price. The designs in both
cloths are the same in corresponding qualities. We are knights and
ladies of the round table these days, and cloths woven specially for use
thereon, with an all-round center design, come only in patterns. Cloths
of this description are used also on square tables, as the wreath effect
is very decorative. As to the quality of damask, it depends not so much
upon weight--for the finest cloths are by no means the heaviest--as upon
the size of the threads and the closeness and firmness with which they
are woven. Avoid the loosely woven fabric; it will neither wear nor look
so well as the one in which the threads are more compact. In the better
damasks the threads are smoother and finer in finish.

DESIGN

Styles in table linens change from time to time and render it difficult
to say what may or may not be used with propriety, except that the
general principle of coarse, heavy-looking designs being in poor taste
always holds good. One pattern alone has proven itself, and stood the
test of time so satisfactorily that it is as