CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL.
The two places of most general interest in the vicinity of Boston
are Cambridge and Lowell. Cambridge is to Massachusetts, and, I may
almost say, is to all the northern States, what Cambridge and Oxford
are to England. It is the seat of the University which gives the
highest education to be attained by the highest classes in that
country. Lowell also is in little to Massachusetts and to New England
what Manchester is to us in so great a degree. It is the largest and
most prosperous cotton-manufacturing town in the States.
Cambridge is not above three or four miles from Boston. Indeed, the
town of Cambridge properly so called begins where Boston ceases. The
Harvard College--that is its name, taken from one of its original
founders--is reached by horse-cars in twenty minutes from the city.
An Englishman feels inclined to regard the place as a suburb of
Boston; but if he so expresses himself, he will not find favour in
the eyes of the men of Cambridge.
The University is not so large as I had expected to find it. It
consists of Harvard College, as the undergraduates' department, and
of professional schools of law, medicine, divinity, and science.
In the few words that I will say about it I will confine myself to
Harvard College proper, conceiving that the professional schools
connected with it have not in themselves any special interest. The
average number of undergraduates does not exceed 450, and these
are divided into four classes. The average number of degrees taken
annually by bachelors of art is something under 100. Four years'
residence is required for a degree, and at the end of that period
a degree is given as a matter of course if the candidate's conduct
has been satisfactory. When a young man has pursued his studies for
that period, going through the required examinations and lectures,
he is not subjected to any final examination as is the case with a
candidate for a degree at Oxford and Cambridge. It is, perhaps, in
this respect that the greatest difference exists between the English
Universities and Harvard College. With us a young man may, I take
it, still go through his three or four years with a small amount of
study. But his doing so does not insure him his degree. If he have
utterly wasted his time he is plucked, and late but heavy punishment
comes upon him. At Cambridge in Massachusetts the daily work of
the men is made more obligatory; but if this be gone through with
such diligence as to enable the student to hold his own during the
four years, he has his degree as a matter of course. There are no
degrees conferring special honour. A man cannot go out "in honours"
as he does with us. There are no "firsts" or "double firsts;" no
"wranglers;" no "senior opts" or "junior opts." Nor are there prizes
of fellowships and livings to be obtained. It is, I think, evident
from this that the greatest incentives to high excellence are wanting
at Harvard College. There is neither the reward of honour nor of
money. There is none of that great competition which exists at our
Cambridge for the high place of Senior Wrangler; and, consequently,
the degree of excellence attained is no doubt lower than with us.
But I conceive that the general level of the University education is
higher there than with us; that a young man is more sure of getting
his education, and that a smaller percentage of men leaves Harvard
College utterly uneducated than goes in that condition out of Oxford
or Cambridge. The education at Harvard College is more diversified in
its nature, and study is more absolutely the business of the place
than it is at our Universities.
The expense of education at Harvard College is not much lower than
at our colleges; with us there are, no doubt, more men who are
absolutely extravagant than at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The actual
authorized expenditure in accordance with the rules is only £50 per
annum, _i.e._ 249 dollars; but this does not, by any means, include
everything. Some of the richer young men may spend as much as £300
per annum, but the largest number vary their expenditure from £100
to £180 per annum; and I take it the same thing may be said of our
Universities. There are many young men at Harvard College of very
small means. They will live on £70 per annum, and will earn a great
portion of that by teaching in the vacations. There are thirty-six
scholarships attached to the University varying in value from £20 to
£60 per annum; and there is also a beneficiary fund for supplying
poor scholars with assistance during their collegiate education. Many
are thus brought up at Cambridge who have no means of their own, and
I think I may say that the consideration in which they are held among
their brother students is in no degree affected by their position.
I doubt whether we can say so much of the sizars and bible clerks at
our Universities.
At Harvard College there is, of course, none of that old-fashioned,
time-honoured, delicious, mediæval life which lends so much grace and
beauty to our colleges. There are no gates, no porter's lodges, no
butteries, no halls, no battels, and no common rooms. There are no
proctors, no bulldogs, no bursers, no deans, no morning and evening
chapel, no quads, no surplices, no caps and gowns. I have already
said that there are no examinations for degrees and no honours; and I
can easily conceive that in the absence of all these essentials many
an Englishman will ask what right Harvard College has to call itself
a University.
I have said that there are no honours,--and in our sense there are
none. But I should give offence to my American friends if I did not
explain that there are prizes given--I think all in money, and that
they vary from 50 to 10 dollars. These are called _deturs_. The
degrees are given on Commencement Day, at which occasion certain
of the expectant graduates are selected to take parts in a public
literary exhibition. To be so selected seems to be tantamount to
taking a degree in honours. There is also a dinner on Commencement
Day,--at which, however, "no wine or other intoxicating drink shall
be served."
It is required that every student shall attend some place of
Christian worship on Sundays; but he, or his parents for him, may
elect what denomination of church he shall attend. There is a
University chapel on the University grounds which belongs, if I
remember right, to the Episcopalian Church. The young men for the
most part live in College, having rooms in the College buildings;
but they do not board in those rooms. There are establishments in
the town under the patronage of the University, at which dinner,
breakfast, and supper are provided; and the young men frequent one
of these houses or another as they, or their friends for them, may
arrange. Every young man not belonging to a family resident within a
hundred miles of Cambridge, and whose parents are desirous to obtain
the protection thus provided, is placed, as regards his pecuniary
management, under the care of a patron, and this patron acts by him
as a father does in England by a boy at school. He pays out his money
for him and keeps him out of debt. The arrangement will not recommend
itself to young men at Oxford quite so powerfully as it may do to
the fathers of some young men who have been there. The rules with
regard to the lodging and boarding-houses are very stringent. Any
festive entertainment is to be reported to the President. No wine or
spirituous liquors may be used, &c. It is not a picturesque system,
this; but it has its advantages.
There is a handsome library attached to the College, which the young
men can use; but it is not as extensive as I had expected. The
University is not well off for funds by which to increase it. The
new museum in the College is also a handsome building. The edifices
used for the undergraduates' chambers and for the lecture-rooms are
by no means handsome. They are very ugly red-brick houses standing
here and there without order. There are seven such, and they are
called Brattle House, College House, Divinity Hall, Hollis Hall,
Holsworthy Hall, Massachusetts Hall, and Stoughton Hall. It is almost
astonishing that buildings so ugly should have been erected for such
a purpose. These, together with the library, the museum, and the
chapel, stand on a large green, which might be made pretty enough if
it were kept well mown like the gardens of our Cambridge colleges;
but it is much neglected. Here, again, the want of funds--the res
angusta domi--must be pleaded as an excuse. On the same green, but at
some little distance from any other building, stands the President's
pleasant house.
The immediate direction of the College is of course mainly in
the hands of the President, who is supreme. But for the general
management of the Institution there is a Corporation, of which he is
one. It is stated in the laws of the University that the Corporation
of the University and its Overseers constitute the Government of the
University. The Corporation consists of the President, five Fellows,
so called, and a Treasurer. These Fellows are chosen, as vacancies
occur, by themselves, subject to the concurrence of the Overseers.
But these Fellows are in nowise like to the Fellows of our colleges,
having no salaries attached to their offices. The Board of Overseers
consists of the State Governor, other State officers, the President
and Treasurer of Harvard College, and thirty other persons,--men of
note, chosen by vote. The Faculty of the College, in which is vested
the immediate care and government of the undergraduates, is composed
of the President and the Professors. The Professors answer to
the tutors of our colleges, and upon them the education of the
place depends. I cannot complete this short notice of Harvard
College without saying that it is happy in the possession of that
distinguished natural philosopher, Professor Agassiz. M. Agassiz
has collected at Cambridge a museum of such things as natural
philosophers delight to show, which I am told is all but invaluable.
As my ignorance on all such matters is of a depth which the Professor
can hardly imagine, and which it would have shocked him to behold, I
did not visit the museum. Taking the University of Harvard College as
a whole, I should say that it is most remarkable in this,--that it
does really give to its pupils that education which it professes to
give. Of our own Universities other good things may be said, but that
one special good thing cannot always be said.
Cambridge boasts itself as the residence of four or five men well
known to fame on the American and also on the European side of the
ocean. President Felton's* name is very familiar to us, and wherever
Greek scholarship is held in repute, that is known. So also is the
name of Professor Agassiz, of whom I have spoken. Russell Lowell is
one of the Professors of the College,--that Russell Lowell who sang
of Birdo'fredum Sawin, and whose Biglow Papers were edited with such
an ardour of love by our Tom Brown. Birdo'fredum is worthy of all
the ardour. Mr. Dana is also a Cambridge man,--he who was "two years
before the mast," and who since that has written to us of Cuba.
But Mr. Dana, though residing at Cambridge, is not of Cambridge,
and, though a literary man, he does not belong to literature. He
is,--could he help it?--a special attorney. I must not, however,
degrade him, for in the States barristers and attorneys are all one.
I cannot but think that he could help it, and that he should not
give up to law what was meant for mankind. I fear, however, that
successful law has caught him in her intolerant clutches, and that
literature, who surely would be the nobler mistress, must wear the
willow. Last and greatest is the poet-laureat of the West; for Mr.
Longfellow also lives at Cambridge.
*Since these words were written President Felton has died. I,
as I returned on my way homewards, had the melancholy privilege
of being present at his funeral. I feel bound to record here
the great kindness with which Mr. Felton assisted me in obtaining
such information as I needed respecting the Institution over
which he presided.
I am not at all aware whether the nature of the manufacturing
corporation of Lowell is generally understood by Englishmen. I
confess that until I made personal acquaintance with the plan, I
was absolutely ignorant on the subject. I knew that Lowell was a
manufacturing town at which cotton is made into calico, and at which
calico is printed,--as is the case at Manchester; but I conceived
this was done at Lowell, as it is done at Manchester, by individual
enterprise,--that I or any one else could open a mill at Lowell, and
that the manufacturers there were ordinary traders, as they are at
other manufacturing towns. But this is by no means the case.
That which most surprises an English visitor on going through the
mills at Lowell is the personal appearance of the men and women who
work at them. As there are twice as many women as there are men, it
is to them that the attention is chiefly called. They are not only
better dressed, cleaner, and better mounted in every respect than
the girls employed at manufactories in England, but they are so
infinitely superior as to make a stranger immediately perceive that
some very strong cause must have created the difference. We all
know the class of young women whom we generally see serving behind
counters in the shops of our larger cities. They are neat, well
dressed, careful, especially about their hair, composed in their
manner, and sometimes a little supercilious in the propriety of their
demeanour. It is exactly the same class of young women that one sees
in the factories at Lowell. They are not sallow, nor dirty, nor
ragged, nor rough. They have about them no signs of want, or of low
culture. Many of us also know the appearance of those girls who work
in the factories in England; and I think it will be allowed that a
second glance at them is not wanting to show that they are in every
respect inferior to the young women who attend our shops. The matter,
indeed, requires no argument. Any young woman at a shop would be
insulted by being asked whether she had worked at a factory. The
difference with regard to the men at Lowell is quite as strong,
though not so striking. Working men do not show their status in the
world by their outward appearance as readily as women; and, as I have
said before, the number of the women greatly exceeded that of the
men.
One would of course be disposed to say that the superior condition of
the workers must have been occasioned by superior wages; and this, to
a certain extent, has been the cause. But the higher payment is not
the chief cause. Women's wages, including all that they receive at
the Lowell factories, average about 14_s._ a week, which is, I take
it, fully a third more than women can earn in Manchester, or did
earn before the loss of the American cotton began to tell upon them.
But if wages at Manchester were raised to the Lowell standard, the
Manchester women would not be clothed, fed, cared for, and educated
like the Lowell women. The fact is, that the workmen and the
workwomen at Lowell are not exposed to the chances of an open
labour market. They are taken in, as it were, to a philanthropical
manufacturing college, and then looked after and regulated more as
girls and lads at a great seminary, than as hands by whose industry
profit is to be made out of capital. This is all very nice and pretty
at Lowell, but I am afraid it could not be done at Manchester.
There are at present twelve different manufactories at Lowell, each
of which has what is called a separate corporation. The Merrimack
manufacturing company was incorporated in 1822, and thus Lowell was
commenced. The Lowell machine-shop was incorporated in 1845, and
since that no new establishment has been added. In 1821 a certain
Boston manufacturing company, which had mills at Waltham, near
Boston, was attracted by the water-power of the river Merrimack,
on which the present town of Lowell is situated. A canal, called
the Pawtucket Canal, had been made for purposes of navigation from
one reach of the river to another, with the object of avoiding the
Pawtucket Falls; and this canal, with the adjacent water-power of
the river, was purchased for the Boston Company. The place was then
called Lowell, after one of the partners in that company.
It must be understood that water-power alone is used for preparing
the cotton and working the spindles and looms of the cotton mills.
Steam is applied in the two establishments in which the cottons are
printed, for the purposes of printing, but I think nowhere else.
When the mills are at full work, about two-and-a-half million yards
of cotton goods are made every week, and nearly a million pounds
of cotton are consumed per week (_i.e._ 842,000 lbs.), but the
consumption of coal is only 30,000 tons in the year. This will give
some idea of the value of the water-power. The Pawtucket Canal was,
as I say, bought, and Lowell was commenced. The town was incorporated
in 1826, and the railway between it and Boston was opened in 1835,
under the superintendence of Mr. Jackson, the gentleman by whom the
purchase of the canal had in the first instance been made. Lowell now
contains about 40,000 inhabitants.
The following extract is taken from the hand-book to Lowell:--"Mr.
F. C. Lowell had in his travels abroad observed the effect of large
manufacturing establishments on the character of the people, and in
the establishment at Waltham the founders looked for a remedy for
these defects. They thought that education and good morals would even
enhance the profit, and that they could compete with Great Britain by
introducing a more cultivated class of operatives. For this purpose
they built boarding-houses, which, under the direct supervision of
the agent, were kept by discreet matrons"--I can answer for the
discreet matrons at Lowell--"mostly widows, no boarders being allowed
except operatives. Agents and overseers of high moral character were
selected; regulations were adopted at the mills and boarding-houses,
by which only respectable girls were employed. The mills were nicely
painted and swept,"--I can also answer for the painting and sweeping
at Lowell,--"trees set out in the yards and along the streets, habits
of neatness and cleanliness encouraged; and the result justified
the expenditure. At Lowell the same policy has been adopted and
extended; more spacious mills and elegant boarding-houses have been
erected;"--as to the elegance, it may be a matter of taste, but
as to the comfort there is no question,--"the same care as to the
classes employed; more capital has been expended for cleanliness and
decoration; a hospital has been established for the sick, where,
for a small price, they have an experienced physician and skilful
nurses. An institute, with an extensive library, for the use of
the mechanics, has been endowed. The agents have stood forward in
the support of schools, churches, lectures, and lyceums, and their
influence contributed highly to the elevation of the moral and
intellectual character of the operatives. Talent has been encouraged,
brought forward, and recommended."--For some considerable time
the young women wrote, edited, and published a newspaper among
themselves, called the Lowell Offering.--"And Lowell has supplied
agents and mechanics for the later manufacturing places who have
given tone to society, and extended the beneficial influence of
Lowell through the United States. Girls from the country, with a
true Yankee spirit of independence, and confident in their own
powers, pass a few years here, and then return to get married with
a dower secured by their exertions, with more enlarged ideas and
extended means of information, and their places are supplied by
younger relatives. A larger proportion of the female population
of New England has been employed at some time in manufacturing
establishments, and they are not on this account less good wives,
mothers, or educators of families." Then the account goes on to tell
how the health of the girls has been improved by their attendance at
the mills, how they put money into the savings-banks, and buy railway
shares and farms; how there are thirty churches in Lowell, a library,
banks, and insurance offices; how there is a cemetery, and a park,
and how everything is beautiful, philanthropic, profitable, and
magnificent.
Thus Lowell is the realization of a commercial Utopia. Of all the
statements made in the little book which I have quoted I cannot point
out one which is exaggerated, much less false. I should not call the
place elegant; in other respects I am disposed to stand by the book.
Before I had made any inquiry into the cause of the apparent comfort,
it struck me at once that some great effort at excellence was being
made. I went into one of the discreet matrons' residences; and
perhaps may give but an indifferent idea of her discretion when I say
that she allowed me to go into the bedrooms. If you want to ascertain
the inner ways or habits of life of any man, woman, or child, see,
if it be practicable to do so, his or her bedroom. You will learn
more by a minute's glance round that holy of holies, than by any
conversation. Looking-glasses and such like, suspended dresses,
and toilet-belongings, if taken without notice, cannot lie or even
exaggerate. The discreet matron at first showed me rooms only
prepared for use, for at the period of my visit Lowell was by no
means full; but she soon became more intimate with me, and I went
through the upper part of the house. My report must be altogether
in her favour and in that of Lowell. Everything was cleanly,
well-ordered, and feminine. There was not a bed on which any woman
need have hesitated to lay herself if occasion required it. I fear
that this cannot be said of the lodgings of the manufacturing classes
at Manchester. The boarders all take their meals together. As a rule,
they have meat twice a-day. Hot meat for dinner is with them as
much a matter of course, or probably more so, than with any English
man or woman who may read this book. For in the States of America
regulations on this matter are much more rigid than with us. Cold
meat is rarely seen, and to live a day without meat would be as great
a privation as to pass a night without bed.
The rules for the guidance of these boarding-houses are very rigid.
The houses themselves belong to the corporations or different
manufacturing establishments, and the tenants are altogether in the
power of the managers. None but operatives are to be taken in. The
tenants are answerable for improper conduct. The doors are to be
closed at ten o'clock. Any boarders who do not attend divine worship
are to be reported to the managers. The yards and walks are to
be kept clean, and snow removed at once; and the inmates must be
vaccinated, &c., &c., &c. It is expressly stated by the Hamilton
Company,--and I believe by all the companies,--that no one shall
be employed who is habitually absent from public worship on Sunday,
or who is known to be guilty of immorality. It is stated that the
average wages of the women are two dollars, or eight shillings, a
week, besides their board. I found when I was there that from three
dollars to three-and-a-half a week were paid to the women, of which
they paid one dollar and twenty-five cents for their board. As this
would not fully cover the expense of their keep, twenty-five cents a
week for each was also paid to the boarding-house keepers by the mill
agents. This substantially came to the same thing, as it left the two
dollars a week, or eight shillings, with the girls over and above
their cost of living. The board included washing, lights, food, bed,
and attendance,--leaving a surplus of eight shillings a week for
clothes and saving. Now let me ask any one acquainted with Manchester
and its operatives, whether that is not Utopia realized. Factory
girls, for whom every comfort of life is secured, with £21 a year
over for saving and dress! One sees the failing, however, at a
moment. It is Utopia. Any Lady Bountiful can tutor three or four
peasants and make them luxuriously comfortable. But no Lady Bountiful
can give luxurious comfort to half-a-dozen parishes. Lowell is now
nearly forty years old, and contains but 40,000 inhabitants. From
the very nature of its corporations it cannot spread itself. Chicago,
which has grown out of nothing in a much shorter period, and which
has no factories, has now 120,000 inhabitants. Lowell is a very
wonderful place and shows what philanthropy can do; but I fear it
also shows what philanthropy cannot do.
There are, however, other establishments, conducted on the same
principle as those at Lowell, which have had the same amount,
or rather the same sort, of success. Lawrence is now a town of
about 15,000 inhabitants, and Manchester of about 24,000,--if I
remember rightly;--and at those places the mills are also owned by
corporations and conducted as are those at Lowell. But it seems
to me that as New England takes her place in the world as a great
manufacturing country--which place she undoubtedly will take sooner
or later--she must abandon the hot-house method of providing for her
operatives with which she has commenced her work. In the first place,
Lowell is not open as a manufacturing town to the capitalists even
of New England at large. Stock may, I presume, be bought in the
corporations, but no interloper can establish a mill there. It is a
close manufacturing community, bolstered up on all sides, and has
none of that capacity for providing employment for a thickly-growing
population which belongs to such places as Manchester and Leeds.
That it should under its present system have been made in any degree
profitable reflects great credit on the managers; but the profit
does not reach an amount which in America can be considered as
remunerative. The total capital invested by the twelve corporations
is thirteen million and a half of dollars, or about two million seven
hundred thousand pounds. In only one of the corporations, that of
the Merrimack Company, does the profit amount to 12 per cent. In one,
that of the Boott Company, it falls below 7 per cent. The average
profit of the various establishments is something below 9 per cent.
I am of course speaking of Lowell as it was previous to the war.
American capitalists are not, as a rule, contented with so low a rate
of interest as this.
The States in these matters have had a great advantage over England.
They have been able to begin at the beginning. Manufactories have
grown up among us as our cities grew;--from the necessities and
chances of the times. When labour was wanted it was obtained in the
ordinary way; and so when houses were built they were built in the
ordinary way. We had not the experience, and the results either for
good or bad, of other nations to guide us. The Americans, in seeing
and resolving to adopt our commercial successes, have resolved also,
if possible, to avoid the evils which have attended those successes.
It would be very desirable that all our factory girls should read and
write, wear clean clothes, have decent beds, and eat hot meat every
day. But that is now impossible. Gradually, with very up-hill work,
but still I trust with sure work, much will be done to improve their
position and render their life respectable; but in England we can
have no Lowells. In our thickly populated island any commercial
Utopia is out of the question. Nor can, as I think, Lowell be taken
as a type of the future manufacturing towns of New England. When New
England employs millions in her factories, instead of thousands,--the
hands employed at Lowell, when the mills are at full work, are about
11,000,--she must cease to provide for them their beds and meals,
their church-going proprieties and orderly modes of life. In such
an attempt she has all the experience of the world against her. But
nevertheless I think she will have done much good. The tone which she
will have given will not altogether lose its influence. Employment
in a factory is now considered reputable by a farmer and his
children, and this idea will remain. Factory work is regarded as more
respectable than domestic service, and this prestige will not wear
itself altogether out. Those now employed have a strong conception of
the dignity of their own social position, and their successors will
inherit much of this, even though they may find themselves excluded
from the advantages of the present Utopia. The thing has begun
well, but it can only be regarded as a beginning. Steam, it may be
presumed, will become the motive power of cotton mills in New England
as it is with us; and when it is so, the amount of work to be done
at any one place will not be checked by any such limit as that which
now prevails at Lowell. Water-power is very cheap, but it cannot
be extended; and it would seem that no place can become large as a
manufacturing town which has to depend chiefly upon water. It is not
improbable that steam may be brought into general use at Lowell, and
that Lowell may spread itself. If it should spread itself widely, it
will lose its Utopian characteristics.
One cannot but be greatly struck by the spirit of philanthropy
in which the system of Lowell was at first instituted. It may be
presumed that men who put their money into such an undertaking did so
with the object of commercial profit to themselves; but in this case
that was not their first object. I think it may be taken for granted
that when Messrs. Jackson and Lowell went about their task, their
grand idea was to place factory work upon a respectable footing,--to
give employment in mills which should not be unhealthy, degrading,
demoralizing, or hard in its circumstances. Throughout the northern
States of America the same feeling is to be seen. Good and thoughtful
men have been active to spread education, to maintain health, to make
work compatible with comfort and personal dignity, and to divest the
ordinary lot of man of the sting of that curse which was supposed to
be uttered when our first father was ordered to eat his bread in the
sweat of his brow. One is driven to contrast this feeling, of which
on all sides one sees such ample testimony, with that sharp desire
for profit, that anxiety to do a stroke of trade at every turn, that
acknowledged necessity of being smart, which we must own is quite
as general as the nobler propensity. I believe that both phases of
commercial activity may be attributed to the same characteristic. Men
in trade in America are not more covetous than tradesmen in England,
nor probably are they more generous or philanthropical. But that
which they do, they are more anxious to do thoroughly and quickly.
They desire that every turn taken shall be a great turn,--or at any
rate that it shall be as great as possible. They go ahead either for
bad or good with all the energy they have. In the institutions at
Lowell I think we may allow that the good has very much prevailed.
I went over two of the mills, those of the Merrimack corporation, and
of the Massachusetts. At the former the printing establishment only
was at work; the cotton mills were closed. I hardly know whether it
will interest any one to learn that something under half-a-million
yards of calico are here printed annually. At the Lowell bleachery
fifteen million yards are dyed annually. The Merrimack cotton-mills
were stopped, and so had the other mills at Lowell been stopped, till
some short time before my visit. Trade had been bad, and there had of
course been a lack of cotton. I was assured that no severe suffering
had been created by this stoppage. The greater number of hands had
returned into the country,--to the farms from whence they had come;
and though a discontinuance of work and wages had of course produced
hardship, there had been no actual privation,--no hunger and want.
Those of the workpeople who had no homes out of Lowell to which to
betake themselves, and no means at Lowell of living, had received
relief before real suffering had begun. I was assured, with something
of a smile of contempt at the question, that there had been nothing
like hunger. But, as I said before, visitors always see a great deal
of rose colour, and should endeavour to allay the brilliancy of the
tint with the proper amount of human shading. But do not let any
visitor mix in the browns with too heavy a hand!
At the Massachusetts cotton-mills they were working with about
two-thirds of their full number of hands, and this, I was told, was
about the average of the number now employed throughout Lowell.
Working at this rate they had now on hand a supply of cotton to last
them for six months. Their stocks had been increased lately, and on
asking from whence, I was informed that that last received had come
to them from Liverpool. There is, I believe, no doubt but that a
considerable quantity of cotton has been shipped back from England to
the States since the civil war began. I asked the gentleman, to whose
care at Lowell I was consigned, whether he expected to get cotton
from the South,--for at that time Beaufort in South Carolina had just
been taken by the naval expedition. He had, he said, a political
expectation of a supply of cotton, but not a commercial expectation.
That at least was the gist of his reply, and I found it to be both
intelligent and intelligible. The Massachusetts mills, when at full
work, employ 1300 females and 400 males, and turn out 540,000 yards
of calico per week.
On my return from Lowell in the smoking car, an old man came and
squeezed in next to me. The place was terribly crowded, and as the
old man was thin and clean and quiet I willingly made room for him,
so as to avoid the contiguity of a neighbour who might be neither
thin, nor clean, nor quiet. He began talking to me in whispers
about the war, and I was suspicious that he was a Southerner and
a Secessionist. Under such circumstances his company might not be
agreeable, unless he could be induced to hold his tongue. At last he
said, "I come from Canada, you know, and you,--you're an Englishman,
and therefore I can speak to you openly;" and he gave me an
affectionate grip on the knee with his old skinny hand. I suppose I
do look more like an Englishman than an American, but I was surprised
at his knowing me with such certainty. "There is no mistaking you,"
he said, "with your round face and your red cheeks. They don't look
like that here," and he gave me another grip. I felt quite fond of
the old man, and offered him a cigar.