DYE I N G materials found in an old almanack. Most of these works were burnt long ago. In 1873 he made his first bid for popularity by his patriotic hymn Die Erben des weissen Berges (published many years later as Op. 30). Its reception was enthusiastic, and Dvorak’s subsequent works were eagerly awaited and warmly received on production. In 1874 his opera Kbnig und Kohler resulted in a fiasco at Prague, owing to its mixture of styles. Nothing daunted, Dvorak recomposed the whole work in three months. In 1875 he obtained a stipend from the Kultus-Ministerium at Vienna on the recommendation of Brahms and Hanslick, which freed him from care and enabled him to indulge in composition to his heart’s content. Following on this success came a commission in 1877 from Simrock in Berlin for a series of Slavic dances, which took the public by storm. Immediately compositions, old and new, began to pour from the publisher. English sympathy was entirely won by the Stabat Mater in 1883, and increased by the symphonies in D, D mi., and F, G, and E mi. {The American), and the cantata The Spectre's Bride, but somewhat chilled by the oratorio St Ludmila, a comparatively feeble work written “to suit English taste” for the Leeds Festival of 1886. The three overtures Opp. 91, 92, 93, failed to hold their place, but the pseudo-American symphony has become one of Dvorak’s most popular works, and much of his chamber-music, of which there is abundance, seems quite permanent in its place in concert programmes. In 1892, after having frequently visited England, Dvorak took up the duties of head of the principal American school of music in New York. There he remained till 1895, when he returned to Prague. Dvorak’s music is characteristically national, though less purely so than that of Smetana. His industry is monumental; but in spite of his dramatic talent, none of his operas has been really successful. A past master of the orchestra and a composer of real individuality, he has earned and deserved his place among the elect, not only by his great gifts, but by his abnormal energy in their development. Dyeing1.—Dyeing is the art of colouring textile and other materials in such a manner that the colours will not be readily removed by those influences to which they are likely to be submitted—e.g., washing, rubbing, light, &c. The materials usually dyed are those made from sketch ^ tb-e textile fibres, silk, wool, cotton, Ac., and intended for clothing or decoration; but in addition to these may be mentioned straw, fur, leather, paper, &c. The art of dyeing dates from prehistoric times, and its practice probably began with the first dawn of civilization. Although we cannot trace the successive stages of its development from the beginning, we may suppose they were somewhat similar to those witnessed among certain uncivilized tribes to-day—e.g., the Maoris of New Zealand. At first the dyes were probably mere fugitive stains obtained by means of the juices of fruits, and the decoctions of flowers, leaves, barks, and roots; but in course of time methods were discovered, with the aid of certain kinds of earth and mud containing alumina or iron, whereby the stains could be rendered permanent, and then it was that the true art of dyeing began. There is no doubt that dyeing was, in the early period of its history, a home industry practised by the women of the household, along with the sister arts of spinning and weaving, for the purpose of embellishing the materials manufactured for clothing. Historical evidence shows that already at a remote period a high state of civilization existed in Persia, India, and China, and the belief is well founded that the arts of
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dyeing and printing have been practised in these countries during a long succession of ages. In early times the products and manufactures of India were highly prized throughout Southern Asia, and in due course they were introduced by Arabian merchants to Phoenicia and Egypt, with which countries commercial intercourse, by way of the Persian and Arabian Gulfs, seems to have existed from time immemorial. Eventually the Egyptians themselves began to practise the arts of dyeing and printing, utilizing no doubt both the knowledge and the materials derived from India. Pliny the historian has left us a brief record of the methods employed in Egypt during the first century, as well as of the Tyrian purple dye celebrated already 1000 b.c., while the chemical examination of mummy cloths by Thomson and Schunck testifies to the use by the Egyptian dyers of indigo and madder. The Phoenician and Alexandrian merchants imported drugs and dyestuffs into Greece, but we know little or nothing of the methods of dyeing pursued by the Greeks and Romans, and such knowledge as they possessed seems to have been almost entirely lost during the stormy period of barbarism reigning in Europe during the 5th and succeeding centuries. In Italy, however, some remnants of the art fortunately survived these troublous times, and the importation of Oriental products by the Venetian merchants about the beginning of the 13th century helped to revive the industry. From this time rapid progress was made, and the dyers formed important guilds in Florence, Venice, and other cities. It was about this time, too, that a Florentine named Rucellai rediscovered the method of making the purple dye orchil from certain lichens of Asia Minor. In 1429 there was published at Venice, under the title of Mariegola dell' Arte de Tentori, the first European book on dyeing, which contained a collection of the various processes in use at the time. From Italy a knowledge of dyeing gradually extended to Germany, France, and Flanders, and it was from the latter country that the English king Edward III. procured dyers for England, a Dyers’ Company being incorporated in 1472 in the City of London. A new impetus was given to the industry of dyeing by the discovery of America in 1492, as well as by the opening up of the way to the East Indies round the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 by Vasco de Gama. A number of new dyestuffs were now introduced, and the dyewood trade was transferred from Italy to Spain and Portugal, for the East Indian products now came direct to Europe round the Cape instead of by the old trade routes through Persia and Asia Minor. Eastern artfabrics were introduced in increasing quantity, and with them came also information as to the methods of their production. In Europe itself the cultivation of dye-plants gradually received more and more attention, and both woad and madder began to be cultivated, about 1507, in France, Germany, and Holland. Under the influence of Spain the Dutch largely developed their industries and made considerable progress in dyeing. The Spaniards, on their first arrival in Mexico (1518), noticed the employment of the red dyestuff cochineal by the natives, and at once imported it to Europe, where an increasing demand for the new colouring matter gradually developed in the course of the century. A further impetus was given to the trade by the Dutch chemist Drebbel’s accidental discovery, in 1630, of the method of dyeing a brilliant scarlet on wool by means of cochineal and tin solutions. The secret was soon communicated to other dyers, and the new scarlet was dyed as a speciality at the Gobelin dyeworks in Paris, and some time later (1643) at a dyeworks in Bow, near London. In 1662 the Royal Society of London gave some attention to the art of dyeing, and in order to inform and assist practical dyers, caused the
