Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1893 — An Oriental Accessory. [ARTICLE]

An Oriental Accessory.

The prayer carpets or rugs sold in the stores are the product of the leisure moments of Syrian and Indian women. In every house there is a loom and when the. woman is not otherwise busy she sits down at it and does a few moment’s work. Of course, she works by snatches, which explains the story that some of these rugs were on the loom for twelve or eighteen months, but they would not have been had she been able to work continuously. When a rug is done she sells it at once to the traveling merchant, who hands it over to the city merchant, and in time it finds its way, at a constantly increasing price, to Europe or America.