=Dyeing Batiked Goods.=—In Holland and, to some extent, elsewhere on the Continent, where this process has been introduced, great stress has been laid upon the importance of using the old vegetable colors of the Javanese, along with their tjantings. It is hardly necessary to tell my readers that this practice is both unscientific and, in a true sense, uncraftsmanlike. The object of any intelligent craftsworker should be to produce beautiful and interesting and characteristic results in the most durable and effective manner possible, with the minimum expenditure of energy upon the mechanical, as opposed to the artistic, details. Why, after carefully batiking a good design on a piece of silk or calico, must the craftsman spend hour after hour of valuable time in some tedious, complicated, and expensive dyeing process, simply because “That is the way they do things in Java,” especially when, by using modern dyestuffs, he can get results quite as beautiful and far more permanent, in a few minutes’ time, and with far less danger of spoiling his work. Even the clever and skilful little Javanese could learn something from modern dyeing chemists. The class of dyestuffs to use depends, of course, on the kind of materials that are being worked on. One of the great charms of this process is that it can be applied to all sorts and kinds of textiles and, indeed, of a host of things never included under that name. Batik can be applied to cotton, linen, wool, silk, and other woven goods. It can also, if desired, be used upon basketry. And charming effects can be produced, by its aid, upon leather, pasteboard, parchment, vellum, and other bookbinding materials, as well as upon wood, bone, or indeed anything that possesses a smooth surface, and will hold a dyestuff. On copper, brass, and other metals it can also be used, not, indeed, for dyeing, but for etching, with acids and other chemicals, with great success. (a) _Calico and Linen._—There is no doubt that for vegetable fabrics in general Batik is very well fitted, especially since the introduction of modern dyes, which are applied in a cold bath and are set by oxidation. The Sulphur dyes work extremely well, in cold or lukewarm baths, especially if used in a strong dye-bath. But they, it will be remembered, are not very bright colors, and are very short on the red side. For soft, quiet colorings, however, extremely fast to washing, and quite fast to light, which can be applied easily and readily, they will be found very useful. But the fastest colors known, both for light and for washing, are the modern Vat colors, many of which, once reduced, will dye in a lukewarm or even a cold dye-bath. While indigo, the type of these colors, and still most useful, gives a soft rather greyish shade of blue, more effective by itself than when mixed, there can be found among the Helindones, Thio indigoes, and the rest, a full palette of dyes which, properly mixed, will furnish any shade that may be desired.