"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 large 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 office,;
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.
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