nd for special domestic
weavings. Any neighbourhood or combination of women known to be able
to furnish such articles to the public would find the want far in
excess of the supply, simply because undirected or commercial
manufactures cannot fit personal wants as perfectly as special things
can do. It must be remembered, also, that the interchange of news
between bodies of women interested in industrial art will be a very
potent factor in the creation of a market for any domestic specialty.
In fact, it is in response to a demand that these articles upon
home-weavings have been prepared, and a demand for technical
instruction presupposes an interest in the result.

CHAPTER VIII.

LINSEY WOOLSEY.

It has often been given as a reason for the discontinuance of home
weaving, that no product of the hand loom can be as exact or as cheap
as that of the power loom. The statement as to cost and quality is
true, but so far from being a discouraging one, it gives actual
reasons for the continuance of domestic weavings. The very fact that
homespun textiles are not exact--in the sense of absolute
sameness--and not cheap, in the sense of first cost, is apt to be a
reason for buying them. Hand-weaving, like handwriting, is individual,
and this is a virtue instead of a defect, since it gives the variety
which satisfies some mystery of human liking, a preference for
inequality rather than monotonous excellence.

Every hand-woven web differs from every other one in certain
characteristics which are stamped upon it by the weaver, and we value
these differences. In fact, this very trace of human individuality is
the initial charm belonging to all art industries, and even if we
discount this advantage, and reckon only money cost and money value,
durability must certainly count for something. A thing which costs
more and lasts longer is as cheap as one which costs less and goes to
pieces before its proper time.

In a long and intimate acquaintance with what are called "art
textiles"--that is, textiles which satisfy the eye and the imagination
and fulfill more or less competently the function of use, I have
learned that certain very desirable qualities are more often found in
home-woven than in machine-woven goods. Something is wanting in each
of the excellent and wonderful variety of commercial manufactures
which would fit it for the various decorative and art processes which
modern life demands. To perfectly satisfy this demand