SHIRAZ RUG
BY COURTESY OF NAHIGIAN BROS., CHICAGO, ILL.
This piece is typical of its class with the small tassels of wool on the side edging; with the ornamental web and the braided warp threads at each end, also the pole medallion and the numerous bird forms throughout the field.
(See page [204])
THE HYGIENE OF THE RUG
In all the literature on Oriental Rugs no mention has been made of their sanitary condition when laid on the floors of our homes. In response to a letter of inquiry, one of our American missionaries, a young lady stationed at Sivas, Turkey in Asia, who very modestly objects to the use of her name, so well explained the condition of affairs that portions of her letter given verbatim will prove most interesting. She says:
"In Sivas there are a number of rug factories in which are employed many thousand little girls, ages ranging from four years upward. They work from twelve to fourteen hours a day and I believe the largest amount received by them is five piasters (less than twenty cents) and the small girls receive ten to twenty paras (a cent or two). These factories are hotbeds of tuberculosis and we have many of these cases in our Mission Hospital. Of course this amount of money scarcely keeps them in bread and in this underfed condition, working so long in ill ventilated rooms, they quickly succumb to this disease. These girls are all Armenians in that region. The Turks do not allow their women and children to work in public places. The Armenians are going to reap a sad harvest in the future in thus allowing the future wives and mothers of their race to undermine their health working in these factories. These rugs are all exported to Europe and America.
"No matter what part of the city you pass through this time of the year you will see looms up in the different homes and most of the family, especially the women and children, working on these rugs, and it is very interesting to watch them and to see how skilful even the small children grow in weaving these intricate patterns. Making rugs in the homes is quite different from making them in the factories, for in the summer at least they have plenty of fresh air.