Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief | Page 8

entirely escaped from
all its parade. Innocence was our shield, and while we endured some of
the disgrace that attaches to mere forms, we had that consolation of
which no cruelty or device can deprive the unoffending. Our sorrows
were not heightened by the consciousness of undeserving.
{"rotting" was... = to prepare flax for weaving as linen it is softened
(technically, "retted") by soaking in water, separated from its woody
fibers by beating ("scutched"--this seems to be what Cooper means by
"crackling"), and finally combed ("hatcheled")}
There is a period, which occurred between the time of being
"hatcheled" and that of being "woven," that it exceeds my powers to
delineate. All around me seemed to be in a state of inextricable
confusion, out of which order finally appeared in the shape of a piece
of cambric, of a quality that brought the workmen far and near to visit
it. We were a single family of only twelve, in this rare fabric, among
which I remember that I occupied the seventh place in the order of
arrangement, and of course in the order of seniority also. When
properly folded, and bestowed in a comfortable covering, our time
passed pleasantly enough, being removed from all disagreeable sights
and smells, and lodged in a place of great security, and indeed of honor,
men seldom failing to bestow this attention on their valuables.
{cambric = a fine white linen, originally from Cambray in Flanders}

It is out of my power to say precisely how long we remained in this
passive state in the hands of the manufacturer. It was some weeks,
however, if not months; during which our chief communications were
on the chances of our future fortunes. Some of our number were
ambitious, and would hear to nothing but the probability, nay, the
certainty, of our being purchased, as soon as our arrival in Paris should
be made known, by the king, in person, and presented to the dauphine,
then the first lady in France. The virtues of the Duchesse d'Angouleme
were properly appreciated by some of us, while I discovered that others
entertained for her any feelings but those of veneration and respect.
This diversity of opinion, on a subject of which one would think none
of us very well qualified to be judges, was owing to a circumstance of
such every-day occurrence as almost to supersede the necessity of
telling it, though the narrative would be rendered more complete by an
explanation.
{Dauphine = Crown Princess; Duchesse d'Angouleme = Marie Therese
Charlotte (1778-1851), the Dauphine, daughter of King Louis XVI and
wife of Louis Antoine of Artois, Duke of Angouleme, eldest son of
King Charles X--she lost her chance to become queen when her
father-in- law abdicated the French throne in 1830--Napoleon said of
her that she was "the only man in her family"}
It happened, while we lay in the bleaching grounds, that one half of the
piece extended into a part of the field that came under the management
of a legitimist, while the other invaded the dominions of a liberal.
Neither of these persons had any concern with us, we being under the
special superintendence of the head workman, but it was impossible,
altogether impossible, to escape the consequences of our locales. While
the legitimist read nothing but the Moniteur, the liberal read nothing
but Le Temps, a journal then recently established, in the supposed
interests of human freedom. Each of these individuals got a paper at a
certain hour, which he read with as much manner as he could command,
and with singular perseverance as related to the difficulties to be
overcome, to a clientele of bleachers, who reasoned as he reasoned,
swore by his oaths, and finally arrived at all his conclusions. The
liberals had the best of it as to numbers, and possibly as to wit, the

Moniteur possessing all the dullness of official dignity under all the
dynasties and ministries that have governed France since its
establishment. My business, however, is with the effect produced on
the pocket-handkerchiefs, and not with that produced on the laborers.
The two extremes were regular cotes gauches and cotes droits. In other
words, all at the right end of the piece became devoted Bourbonists,
devoutly believing that princes, who were daily mentioned with so
much reverence and respect, could be nothing else but perfect; while
the opposite extreme were disposed to think that nothing good could
come of Nazareth. In this way, four of our number became decided
politicians, not only entertaining a sovereign contempt for the sides
they respectively opposed, but beginning to feel sensations approaching
to hatred for each other.
{bleaching grounds = open spaces where newly woven linen is spread
to whiten in the sun; legitimist.... = this paragraph refers to
controversies, before the French "July Revolution"