This Tabriz reproduction has all the characteristics of the genuine rug in both design and color. The ground is of a soft rose with figures olives, ivory and deep blue.] [Illustration: This is a copy of an old piece of a rug in the Kensington Museum, London, which is 500 to 600 years old. The design is very interesting on account of the symbolical figures which cover the ground.] [Illustration: WOOL-PICKING MACHINE.] The Making of Carpets How Are Modern Rugs and Carpets Made? The best way to learn of this is for us to take a brief visit to one of the largest carpet factories, where we will assume we have already arrived. There is a sharp whistle, then an outlet of steam, the clang of a bell and a locomotive rolls around the curve of the spur-track into the factory yard. Attached to it are several freight cars that only the day before received their cargoes at the New York docks fresh from steamships coming from foreign lands. Inside the yard, the engine comes to a stop alongside a warehouse. Sturdy men unlock the doors of the cars and begin pulling out bales of the imported wool. This is the first step in the evolution of a rug. Between the arrival of the rough wool at the warehouse and the placing in the stock room of the finished rug, splendidly woven after an artistic design shown in attractive colors, many interesting processes are followed. It is sufficient to state that few people looking at rugs of the Saxony, or Axminster or Tapestry type realize the high degree of mechanical science and artistic perception that have been brought to bear in the manufacture of these rugs. After the arrival of the wool there are many steps to be taken until the skeins of yarn receive their coloring treatment in the dye-house and, at the bidding of the great machine, assemble themselves in the beautiful designs that the artists have created. Though there are many details of work in the development of a rug, they have been so well mastered that the employes in charge of every stage of the rug’s evolution give to their work a nicety of attention in little time that careful training and scientific understanding alone can supply. The travel-stained covers of the bales are removed. The heavy bulk is broken and the tightly-compressed bales loosened. Then the wool is fed into the washing-machine, and after that goes into the picking-machine. The process of cleansing the wool is an elaborate one, for it is so full of dirt and grease that several waters and several operations are necessary to its final appearance in a white and fleecy condition. After the last washing the wool is lifted to a drying-room, where the heat from steam-coils is forced through it by means of blowers.