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Show 1 quality, the paper having originally been fabricated in England from line writing paper that was used for records fifty or seventy-five years ago Before the introduction of the practical papermaking machine int India some sixty years past, many of the Indian handmade papermaker were unfamiliar with any materials save those cut in the forests and zh harvested in the fields. Discarded cotton cloth has never found much usc a an Indian papermaking substance for the reason that every rag and tatte has always been in demand to conceal the nakedness of the poor; the mos fragmentary scrap of woven cotton material finds its humble use and whe it is finally discarded it is so filthy, worn, and threadbare that it would no yield even a few usable fibres to the destitute papermakers. While toda waste paper cuttings compose the bulk of material used by the handmad Paperworkers, it is not unusual to find, as in former years, the use of ol rope, mats, and gunny (fat), materials that finally arrive in the papermaking villages long after every other purpose has been served. It is not uncommon in India to see beggars whose emaciated bodies are covered only wit shredded pieces of filth-encrusted gunny tied about the middle with fraye ropes-sombre dirt brown figurcs, with matted heads and beards, movin noiselessly through the crowded bazaars holding out their scrawny hand for alms. In India there are no professional rag-pickers, for when an ol aggled rag s at last thrown out by its owner, it is at once seized by a les fortunate individual who stitches the rag to other tatters of woven cotto scraps to make the only garment of one of India's millions In many ways the problems of the papermaker are akin to those of th weaver and the rope and netmaker, for in all of these callings the fibres o plants form the raw materials. While the weaver of cloth and nets and th n the use of newly-harvested fibres of endurin strength and sufficient length, the papermaker must be satisfied with thes Digital Imag © 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah. All rights reserved |