The term a “fast color,” then, may convey a different meaning to different individuals.  To one it implies that the color will not fade when exposed to light and atmospheric conditions; to another that it is not impoverished by washing with soap and water; to a third it may indicate that the color will withstand the action of certain manufacturing operations, such as scouring, milling, stoving, etc.; while a fourth person might be so exacting as to demand that a fast color should resist all the varied influences I have named.

It is well to state at once that no dyed color is absolutely fast, even to a single influence, and it certainly cannot pass unscathed through all the operations to which it may be necessary to submit individual colors applied to this or that material.  Many colors are fast to washing or milling, and yet very fugitive to light; others are fast to light, but fugitive toward milling; while others again are fast to both influences.  In short, each color has its own special, characteristic properties, so that colors may be classified with respect to each particular influence, and may occupy a very different rank in the different arrangements.

It is, however, by no means necessary to demand absolute fastness from any color.  A color may “bleed” in milling, and therefore be very unsuitable for tweeds, and yet be most excellent for curtains and hangings, because of its fastness to light.  So, too, a dye capable of yielding rich or delicate tints, but only moderately fast to light, may still be perfectly well adapted for the silks and satins of the ball room, or even the rapidly changing fashion, although it would be quite inadmissible for the pennon at the masthead.

The colors of carpets, curtains, and tapestry should certainly be fast to light, but no one expects them to undergo the fatigue of the weekly washtub; and just as little as we look for the exposure of flannels and hosiery, day by day and week by week, to the glare of sunlight, much as we desire that the colors shall not run in washing.

For all practical purposes, then, it seems reasonable to define a “fast color” as one which will not be materially affected by those influences to which, in the natural course of things, it will be submitted.  Hence, in speaking of a fast color, it becomes necessary to refer specially to the particular influences which it resists before the term acquires a definite meaning.  To be precise, one should say that a color is “fast to light,” or “fast to washing,” or “fast to light and washing,” and so on.  Further, it is necessary, as we shall see afterward, to give always the name of the fiber to which the color is applied.

All that I have said with respect to the term “fast” may be applied with equal propriety to the term “fugitive.”  This, too, has no very definite meaning until a qualifying statement, such as I have referred to, gives it precision.

The most important question to be considered is