Page:Guide to the Bohemian section and to the Kingdom of Bohemia - 1906.djvu/143

117 This has been accomplished through the agency of an industrial company having branches throughout the district. Sales are now arranged by the company of the articles made by the country people who are now reaping the advantages of properly organized commercial effort.

There is no doubt that weaving is the industry which most prevails throughout Bohemia. As an art, even in its simplest form, it demands a certain amount of manual dexterity combined with some mechanical skill; and therefore, although one of the most ancient fundamental of human industries, its practice implies some amount of knowledge and civilization.

The textile skill of any people, has in all ages been a measure of their culture and advancement. The recognition of those simple facts enable us to appreciate the proofs of the intelligence and skill of our home-workers as exhibited in products of their cottage-looms.

In this industry scattered amongst a great number of villages, places such as Broumov, Náchod, Chotěboř and others too numerous to mention, 30,000 men are employed, the majority being engaged in the production of a common quality of linen or cotton goods.

The same kind of work is also carried on in the south and southwest of the kingdom, there; as in the other parts mentioned, the winter is the busy time for the loom, as the men resume their agricultural labour in the latter part of spring and generally throughout the summer. Even the combined earnings of summer and winter cannot amount to much, that the remuneration is not altogether satisfactory is evidenced by the large number of young men who have left the districts and emigrated in the hope of bettering their condition in foreign lands.

As in other countries, Bohemia has her factories, large establishments with power looms, spinning machinery and all the usual modern contrivances for securing rapid production. But even these modern concerns furnish the home-workers with a considerable amount of profitable employment by giving out jobs suitable for the cottage