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 work-people 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 color, and should
endeavor 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.
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