Watertown City (part 4 of 5)

"The School Committee of this town, convinced of the importance of establishing here a Free Public Library (these last three words were printed in large letters, which extended across the whole page), and wishing to have some plan devised by the citizens, invite you to attend a preliminary meeting, at the vestry of the Unitarian Church, on Thursday evening, June 6, at 8 o'clock, to assist in the dissussion of the subject. Per order of the committee. D. T. Huckins, Secretary.''

The meeting was held, the subject discussed by Rev. John Weiss, Mr. Miles Pratt, Capt. Joseph Crafts, Mr. Joseph Bird, Mr. Jesse A. Locke, Bev. J. M. Bell, ail in favor ; a plan was adopted, and a committee was chosen to raise funds. Mr. Locke offered to give the $600 which he had received for his salary as representative of the town to the Legislature of the former year.

The committee chosen were. Dr. Alfred Hosmer, the chairman of the meeting, Eev. John Weiss, Joseph Bird, Miles Pratt, Jesse A. Locke, Leonard Whitney, Jr., Joseph Crafts, Rev. J. M. Bell, Rev. W. F. Stubbert, Dr. D. T. Huckins, Mr. James Sharp and Solon F. Whitney.

This committee met with a generous response, both from citizens and from former residents of the town. It was able to offer, at a meeting called to consider and act upon the subject, on the 28th of January, thousand dollars ; which it did on the following conditions : " That the town accept the gift of six thousand dollars.' to establish a Free Public Library, provide a convenient place to receive it, and make it useful to the citizens. The said Library shall belong to the town, and .be cared for, and enlarged, as circumstances will permit, by annual votes of the town in meeting assembled."

The town, at this meeting, appointed as committee to report a plan of organization, Messrs. Jesse A. Locke, Edward Bangs, Henry Chase, Alvin Adams, David B. Flint, and the chairman, Rev. John Weiss, and the secretary, Solon F. Whitney, of the former committee.

At a town-meeting held July 22, 1868, this committee reported and the town adopted as a plan of organization the rules and regulations, which, with some amendment, remain in force to this day.

At the same meeting the town voted that the trustees be authorized to take the room under the townhall, then occupied as a store, " or any other portion of the Public Buildings which they may select for the use of the Library."

They proceeded at once to prepare lists of books, appropriated a vacant room under the High School room for their reception and preparation for use. After occupying this room about seven months, they moved the books to the town-hall, and, as was stated in the first lines of this sketch, were able to open the library to the public on the 31st of March, 1869.

The eagerness with which the people accepted the proffered privileges is witnessed by the fact that the circulation rose at once to ten thousand volumes the first year, and has gone on increasing till the number of nearly forty thousand volumes has been attained during the past year.

Opening of the Public Library. - The first evening the trustees were all present; the people came in great numbers and business at once began.

There was then no time wasted in speech-making, no band of music, no display of flags, neitherorator or poet who, in grand and stirring periods or glowing rhymes, sounded the praises of the authors whose works were displayed on the shelves, or of the persons who had been instrumental in collecting the library ; no speech-making except the cheery conversation of the trustees as they took the signatures of those desiring to become takers of books, the few words of librarian and assistants as they helped each to a new book ; no sounds of music except the busy tones of all as they passed through the alcoves and praised the collection or criticised the absence of some loved author; no flags except the long written lists that served at first as catalogues of books. The blooming periods of orators and the musical and flowing rhymes were indeed there, but bound between pasteboard covers, asleep till some touch of the hand of the prince should come to wake them from sleep; the solid principles of philosophy and of conduct were, indeed, offered, and no taste too delicate and no moral condition too enfeebled to drink else but health and inspiration from some of the pages written by the master spirits of this and all past ages there offered free to all.

The opening of this library to the people of Watertown we m.ay acknowledge, at this distance of time, when most of the principal actors have passed on to other fields and are beyond reach of praise or blame of our poor words, was an occasion the wisdom, the magnitude of which far transcends in character and importance most of those occasions that are marshaled in with so much display and circumstance, when all are moved to contribute *heir presence and their aid in magnifying the event.

Our children in some future time shall gather to lay the corner-stone of some grand temple of learning and rational enjoyment, when they will recall the simple and business-like proceedings at this opening, and calling to their aid the muses of music and of painting, of architecture and of sculpture, will rouse the kindled souls of a more sensitive and appreciative people to the full significance of the opening event, when the few, by the sacrifice of books from their own stores, by the gift of funds from their own small incomes, aided by larger gifts from those who had o|)portunity to test the benefits of stores of books, from some who, perhaps, saw this a cheaper way to police the town and protect their own abundant wealth, had been brought to unite in such an undertaking in those early days when not more than oneeighth of the towns and cities of the Commonwealth had taken the first step to establish that long list of libraries now almost equal in number to the number of the separate municipalities in the State.

These lame words can only make this attempt to record the beginning of the march of this company in the grand army now covering the whole land, whose onward and majestic tread shall, in its own time, exalt the lowly and break down the proud, shall offer to every appreciative soul the help of the choicest spirits of earth, and breaking down every barrier of power or wealth or social distinction, bring together in the kingdom of intelligence and moral worth those who begin to catch some glimpse of those shores of the blessed lands where all shall find full scope for the best of which he is capjible, and all circumscribing hindrances to full development be removed. Emerson says when you find some fine piece of statuary that you greatly enjoy or some picture that stirs your soul, place them where the public may enjoy them and your pleasure shall be all the greater.

In this spirit many were led to begin this library. Continued in this spirit, it will ever grow in magnitude, in richness of adornment, as well as in the resources it will accumulate to give pleasure to the latest generation of a happy posterity.

The wealth of our language is too poor to give full credit to the clear intuitions, the noble motives of some of those engaged in laying the foundations of this Watertown Free Public I/ibrary. John Weiss made the larger part of the first .selection of books. That selection challenges the scrutiny of all opponents of public libraries. Some of the books in the collection, it is true, were such as our people felt moved to give from their own stores. Some of these were not what more intelligent people, with ample means, would have selected from the shelves of publishers when choice was free. The trustees wished to encourage all to give according to their means and according to their knowledge. All good books are useful, - some to "ome people, others to others. They desired to avoid giving olfence to any by rejection of gifts of any books which any person felt moved to offer to the common good, while exercising the greatest care and discrimination in spending the money whicli was the free oflering of the best of the entire people.

the name of religion bars out all who can not pronounce a certain shibboleth, was moved to say that the time will sometime come when the work of the public library will be sustained with hope and with honor when all such narrowness shall be despised and forgotten. With the keen eye that looks through shams and the clouds that beset ignorance and selfishness, he saw with that piercing vision the weakness in the harness of other men, while feeling with humility the mortal weakness of his own.

John Weiss was aided on the board of trustees, by men, who, being yet above the sod and liable to still greater efforts, to show still greater works, had better not be praised too openly. But one large, noble fellow, whose faults as well as virtues are still vividly before his companions, " Jo Bird," as he was familiarly known and called, " who read every book th.at came under his hand and remembered every book he read;" who made the man who h.ad no music in his soul feel like a child to begin the humble steps to musical appreciation if not musical performance, who roused the wealthy to the first gifts for the teachers' library and gained the aid of the ablest folloivers of Horace Maun in a wise selection of books for the same : who had in his younger days co-operated with Horace Mann himself in his noble work at Lexington and West Newton, came to some of the others one day with his big soul, too big for his big body, all aglow with the enthusiasm which success had begun to kindle in him, to express his joy and thankfulness that his appeals had been heard and that this larger prospect of a town library seemed possible. Joseph Bird, the music teacher, the man whose voice never failed to be heard when he thought the truth or the justice or even the fitness of things required his help, was at the first one of the most outspoken friends of the libr.ary. Too quick to see the advantages to be gained by a forward movement, too rash to protect his flanks by outlying or his rear by reserve forces, he (ailed to accomplish alone what a more careful and better disciplined man would have accomplished. But take the ten first trustees as a body of men who were selected to lead the weak hope, to pioneer a new undertaking in a new field, for what they were, with their peculiar surroundings, and success was well assured from the beginning.

There were John Weiss, the keen eye, the facile tongue, the wise leader ; Josiah Stickney, full of years and good taste ; Jesse A. Locke, whose generous and grateful heart made the first pledge of his winter's services in the legislature to the project; Joseph Bird, big with hope and fertile in expedients ; Abiel Abbott, the conscientious lawyer, and Charles J. Barry, prompt in every duty, all gone to their reward. Then among those still living there were Alfred Hosmer, the general who had the courage of his convictions ; Joshua Coolidge, who knew when to hold back and when the crucial hour required his utmost efibrt ; David T. Huckins, who held not too long on the funds needed

It may not be unwise to reflect that they were well sustained by the people. Miles Pratt, who would not hold office himself, gave freely of his counsel, and helped to gather the sinews of war ; Joseph Crafts, the daring captain whose raids brought in the last subscriptions to complete the required $6000, Henry Chace, who said the few must always take the lead ; and others whom time fails to allow us to enumerate - these served on committees during those preliminary months when the enterprise wavered aud further progress was in doubt, and when one of the committee, Eev. Mr. Stubbert, thought " there was a radical unpreparedness in the public mind for the library ;" and another and a wealthy member of the committee withheld for a time the aid he never could quite give to the project. These were the times of doubt and delay. The time is yet too soon for most to see what the effect in the end shall be. But your historian must, as in duty bound, record the advance already made.

The New Public Library Buildikg. - The room on the first floor of the Town-House answered very well the purposes of the library for several years. Beginning by taking the room long occupied first by William Sherman, then William H. Ingraham, and last by Joel Barnard as a dry-goods store, it was soon found necessary to take the other side, occupied for many years by Samuel Noyes for medicines aud groceries. Then, by changing the position of partitions, taking in an engine-room, certain rooms were obtained for town oflices. The location was admirable for the uses of the library, but the growing collection could with difliculty be managed, and the room seemed to grow closer and closer. The question of a new building was discussed in the annual reports and in the local press, until in 1882 the way seemed clear to obtain a new building. In the librarian's report for that year he said, " We have looked forward with longing eyes for several years to the possession of a proper building for this library." In the report for 1881 he said, "Fortunate is the town, too, it seems to us, that others feel this need so pressing that they are willing to offer to the town, dollar for dollar, the means needed to put the library in a sufficiently large, well-ventillated, well-lighted, fire-proof building."

The attempt was made to raise $20,000 by subscription, and then ask the town to raise as much more for a suitable building. The trustees themselves subscribed, showing their good i'aith, and Hon. HoUis H. Hunnewell, son of Dr. Walter Hunnewell who once lived on Main Street aud practiced the healing art in our village, generously offered to give $10,000, onehalf of this. Mr. Samuel Walker offered over $4000 if the library were located on Main Street,' and other out thought of their own lives, rushed to Washington, and what dangers and difficulties they encountered, we have often heard. While no diminution of honor can be permitted in speaking of their labors, it might be asked what could they have done without being supported and supplied by those at home. Miles Pratt was especially active in every way ; a zealous and fervent man, fertile in devices, and of great executive ability, he could be active in serving his country at home. Colonel Rodman, then in command of the Arsenal herein Watertown, and Miles Pratt together talked over the needs of the Nation in arms and missiles of war. Colonel Rodman asked of Mr. Pratt if iron balls could be made by his men engaged in moulding stoves and furnaces. Mr. Perkins, the superintendent in the foundry, entered into the needs of the hour. All the men were ready to try what they could do. Long before any orders could come, or any expenditures could be authorized by Government, without waiting to see if or how they were to be paid, the men were at work moulding shot for canister, for 12-pound guns, for 24-pound guns, even for 13-inch and 15-inch guns - yes, both solid shot and shells. Colonel Rodman, as an effective ordnance officer who knew just what was needed, seconded by the spirit and ingenuity of a large body of men, organized and spurred on by Miles Pratt and his assistants did much to supply the men at the front with the effective implements of war. Those from Watertown had the confidence of men inaction. Of course all that could be done here was but a mite compared to the demands of an army which increased to over a million men. But these works were rapidly increased through 1 861 and 1862. Two hundred and seventy-five (275) tons of iron per month were used under contract for the manufacture of war materials ; 2500 to 3000 tons of iron per year were moulded into shot and shell for the preservation of the Union.

The large store on Galen Street was begun in 1874, and was gradually extended across the race-way to the island where the pattern store-house stood, and this was replaced with a secure and almost fire-proof brick building in 1880.

This building extends 264 feet along Galen Street, is sixty feet wide and practically three stories high, for it has a high basement story. It occupies the site of what have been known for many years as the Blackman house, the Barrett house, and the Major Peirce house. The Blackman house was where FJenjamin Edes printed the Boston Oazetle, when Boston was occupied by the British, The pattern storeroom on the island, with a solid wall towards Galen Street, - that is, a wall built without windows, although ornamented with piers and arches, - shows on the south side by its tiers of windows, four stories above a solid stone foundation wall. Here are kept the many thousands of dollars worth of patterns required by the great variety and constant progress of their work. Next to this are the store-rooms for furnaces, stoves and ranges. Here may be seen at certain seasons of the year, hundreds of ranges packed ready for shipment - in fact, very large quantities of all the variety of goods manufactured by the company, which here accumulate when the demand falls off and which are drawn upon when the season for increased demand approac.hes.

Next to these store-rooms, and before we reach the large sample and sales-room of the company, comes the large arch- way through which the teams pass to the inner works, the machine-shops, the foundries, the blacksmith-shop and the other parts of this large interior area. Here in the drive-way are ample facilities for loading and unloading from the storerooms, above and on either side ; from which can be lowered into the wagons the heavy freight either for the railroad or for Boston. This is furnished not only with hoisting apparatus, but also with platform scales, for weighing each load or any part of a load.

The entire process of manufacture is and has been for thirty years conducted under the constant supervision of Mr. Oliver Shaw, who watches particularly that all the various departments work harmoniously, and so that the minimum amount of material may do the maximum amount of work - that is, that strength and endurance are secured where required, with the smallest consumption of iron, but with enough to answer the purpose, who, with knowledge of men and with kindly and considerate attention to their peculiar abilities and fitness for their several duties, has, in all these years of growing prosperity of the company, won their confidence and respect. His position, which he seems to hold so easily, has been reached by no favor or chance. The young man may take note that the ability to do every kind of work, to fill any man's place and do any man's work in a superior manner, may naturally constitute one, with modesty in his bearing, a recognized leader among leaders, a master among masters.

The cupola, or furnace, capable of melting fifteen tons of iron at a blast, where skill and knowledge are required to liquefy the iron with no unnecessary loss of fuel, or iron, or time, is under the charge of W. A. Pratt, with his two men to help him.

The moulding department, connected with the furnace-room and situated on either side of it, has an area of about 14,000 square feet. Hero one may see fifty or sixty men, at work preparing in the soft and yielding moulding-clay and sand the forms which ornament in iron the homes of the poor and wealthy over the land - men whom no amount of dust and dirt will prevent you from recognizing as the same who in clean linen and neat dress, preside in the chairs of the town fathers, or as orators in town, or parish, or society meetings, who prove that brains are equally effective in the utilities, as in the elegancies of life. It is not necessary in this place to describe the mode of work, the improved appliances for securing the ends desired. This foundry does not differ from the many foundries in the country, except as one man difTers from another. Some of the men earn quite large wages by tlieir skill and celerity. This room is under the charge of Wm. F. Atwood.

The cleaning and mounting-shop, where the rough castings are taken to be dressed, cleaned, and put together, is in charge of Geo. B. Moore, who has seen thirty years' service in this place. Twenty-five or forty stoves or ranges are finished daily, requiring the services of sixteen experienced mounters and six helpers.

Perhaps the most important department, if one department may be said to be more important than another, where each one is essential to the whole, as well as to each other, is the pattern-making room. Here twelve men are employed, with a great variety of tools and machinery, in making patterns, both in wood and in iron. This calls for skill and ingenuity, and in making new designs, some degree of artistic sense. Not only this, but some degree of judgment is required to adapt the pattern, in view of the varied rates of cooling and shrinking of iron, in the lighter and heavier parts of the casting, to produce the desired effects without danger of breaking or change of form. Allowance must be made in the size of the patterns for this shrinkage. Here seven men are employed on wood, and five men on iron, all under the charge of F. H. Edgecomb.

Mr. John Applin has eight men under his direction in the machine-shop, where drills, lathes, planers, and all the usual kinds of tools required in such places, are kept busy in the varied calls for work of such kind.

One of the contrivances patented, by Geo. H. Tainter, a man in their employ, is known as the Tainter Damper. The name Tainter is somewhat famous also, in connection with the mechanical devices, made by a son of Mr. Tainter for Prof. Bell, of Bell's Telephone.

Nickel-plating, required in the present demand for neatness and elegance, even in cook and parlor stoves, is done on the premises under the charge of David Flanders.

All this machinery would be dead and useless without sufficient motive-power. This is supplied by a Campbell & Whittier forty horse-power engine. There is a powerful steam-pump, ready for fire purposes, which is used in testing the strength and condition of boilers and radiators, before taey are put into buildings. The steam is produced in two fortyfive horse-power sOctional boilers, with thirty sections each, manufactured by the company.

The tin-shop, where all the varieties of tin, zinc and galvanized iron, piping for furnaces and ventilation, where ware for cooking purposes is made, is in the main building on Galen Street, next to the sales- I room, and is in charge of H. A. Philbrook. '

The directors and officers of this company manage for their own interests - this goes without saying, - but also with a liberal policy to their men and to the town. George W. Walker, the president, and his son, Arthur W. Walker, one of the directors, live in the city of Maiden. George W. Walker has held many offices of trust and honor in his town and has represented Maiden in the Legislature.

George E. Priest, the treasurer, and Oliver Shaw, the general superintendent, and nearly all the employees live here in town. Mr. Shaw is also president of the only national bank in town, the Union Market National Bank, and has acted during many years as one of the selectmen, for a good part of the time their chairman. Mr. Priest is one of the board of trustees of the Free Public Library, is treasurer of the Watenown Savings Bank, served the town and his country in the army during the late war, and both are identified with most public movements. The respect with which they are treated by their townsmen mark the high character of work of this company in all it undertakes.

The business of this establishment was at first almost exclusively in supplying New England households with the essential stove lor kitchen and siitingroum use. Now contracts are taken for the most extensive and complicated heating apparatus, which they are ready to manufacture and put up, although they do not despise the smaller and humbler class of manufactures. Among the larger contracts which they have executed one might mention the heating apparatus for the Hotel Vendome, Boston, that for ihe Danvers Hospital for the Insane built by the State, and that in the Madison Square Theatre in New York City. Some of their contracts have amounted to upwards of $80,000 each.

This company are now manufacturing the celebrated Crawford Range, now known in its improved form as the Crawford Grand, which is selling all over New England. While no great contracts, of course, can be made for so simple and universally employed device for meeting our common needs, probably the success of their business depends as much upon the call for this as for the larger and more extensive, and, therefore, the apparently more important heaters used in the larger institutions. They have recently been getting out a stove or range in which wood will be exclusively used for fuel, known as the Palace Eureka, designed to meet the wants of the Pacific Coast, yet, as they think, adapted to a considerable portion of New England, where wood is still in abundance.

This company manufacture hot-water heaters also, one which they have recently patented, and are prepared to introduce into buildings where they are preferred. Much is said about the economy of hot-water heaters at the present time. The company allege that the most economical heaters used, as all will allow, are stoves in each separate room, if fuel alone and not the labor of taking care of them or the incidental dirt and discomfort are to be thought of. If i^ood ventilatiou is also required, with the smallest amount of care, then the question is between hot air furnaces so called, and steam or hot-water heaters. Either steam or hot- water heaters placed in each room may, by direct radiation, supply the required amount of heat without ventilation. If hot-water or .steam-pipes are placed in boxes to which a constantly fresh supply of air is admitted and this allowed to pass into and heat the rooms of a house, giving the same results as the hot-air furnace, then a liitle experimenting will determine which is the more economical and which will give the best distribution of heat, considering all things - the means of egress for vitiated air and the local direction and force of varying winds, for instance.

The requirements of a perfect heater for dwellinghouses and for larger buildings have been the study of this company for years, and as fast as any new ideas are gained, they are, as the company claims, put into substantial and durable form for their own advantage and for the advantage of our large intelligent New England community, to whose wants they chiefly cater in all their manufactures. I ^Etna Mills. - The JEtna ]\Iills are situated nearly a mile above the first dam, above tide-water, on the Charles River, and have for the last few years obtained a reputation for producing various woolen and worsted goods for ladies' dresses of the very finest quality. Goods are made with fine broad-cloth and other styles of finish of every variety of shade and in all colors used for dress-goods by the ladies, as well as in stripes, plaids and figured designs.

The JEtna Mills Company was organized in 1862, and in 1867 the present agent, Albert O. Davidson, came from the Tremout Mills, Lowell, to take charge, and "the present extraordinary success of the institution is largely due to his eminent business tact and to the adoption of those systematic methods which are so essential to the welfare of a large corporation."

The capital stock of the company, organized under the general laws of Massachusetts, is $2-50,000, the annual product about !|i500,000. The directors of the company are: Joseph C. Stephens, of Boston ; Arthur Hobart, of Boston ; Edmund W. Converse, of Newton ; Morrill A.Smith, of Boston; Edwin F. Atkins, of Boston ; Edwin A. Hildreth, of Harvard, Mass., and Albert O. Davidson, of Watertown.

Joseph C. Stevens has been president of the corporation for several years, since the death of Nathan Faye. Samuel Smith was treasurer until 1887, and Arthur Hobart, accountant for twenty years, has been treasurer since that time.

The number of persons employed by the corporation is from 27-5 to :iOO, two-fifths of whom are women, and the weekly pay-rolls amount to over $!1600.

which were made partly of stone, 30 inches thick, partly of brick, 16 inches thick, with heavy hardpine beam's ; built thus firm and strong to support the new and improved machinery then introduced, chiefly looms for the weaving of fine cloths, of which over 20,000 yards are produced each week.

These mills occupy buildings on both sides of the river, where water-wheels supply a part of the power required by the mills. The power generated by the wheels ou the south side of the river is transmitted 12-5 feet, across the river to the north mill, by an endless wire rope, passing over wheels in the two buildings. Between these mills is a rolling damclaimed by some to be the only one in America, the only other dam of the kind being in England, at Warwick Castle.

AVhile the water-power was at first suflicient to do all the work required - and at times there is a large amount of water p;issiug over the dam, apparently to great waste - it is found that steam is desirable for various purposes in the manufacture of woolens, and, in order to have at all times suflicient power for all purposes, a steam-engine is required.

The engine-room is on the ground-floor, is -30 feet wide, by 60 feet long, and contains a fine Corliss engine of 12-5 horse-power. The steam for tins and for heating, drying and other purposes, is furnished by four large boilers, of which three are constantly in u.se, the fourth being held in reserve in case of accident to either of the others. Two of these are made of steel. About three tons of coal are required each day.

The sorting department, under the charge of J. E. Butler, occupies a brick building on the south side of the river, and, with the store-house adjoining, contains at times over 100,000 pounds of wool of the various kinds. Here may be seen the finest Australian wools, with their long, silky fibres; the brilliant Cash, mere; the]Alpacca; the finest and softest camels' hair, so delicate, for the finest fabrics. Here are bales of " Ohio clip," some in the natural state, some cleaned to pure white, in contrast with the black Egyptian near by. The more common kinds of wool are used for some purposes.

The scouring-room and the dyeing-room are in charge of Mr. Alfred Pepler, who has in his storeroom all the different kinds of dyes required in producing the greatest variety of shades of all the leading colors. Only by long practice and great skill can all the delicate efiects be produced which, either in the sunlight or under artificial light, are so much admired by ladies of taste. One unskilled can only look with wonder on the unmeaning compounds which he sees in the dye-rooms ; his admiration must be reserved for the finished fabrics.

picker-room, the gauze-room, to the carding-room, which is under the supervision of Mr. Loveland. Here the wool is carded, a work our grandmothers used freciuently to send their wool for miles to liave done at carding-mills. Tlierc are few old people who do not remember the soft rolls of wool brought home from the carding-raill, which their grandmothers used to spill into thread and yarns for knitting and weaving. Tliis work is done now in a suiierior manner by marvelous mechanism, by which the fibres of the wool are gathered together in fine rolls and wound loosely on large spools, ready for the spinning department. The automatic, self-feeding cards, with their thousands of steel fingers to arrange the fibres in line ready for spooling, and the nice mechanical adjustments, wonderful to us, would liave greatly surprised our ancestors, yet it is by the gradual improvements in such mechanism that enabled first Seth Bemis to do the work at all, and now these mills to do work of the quality for which they are noted. The capacity ot this room is fifteen sets of cards.

The next department in regular order is the spooling department, under Mr. J. H. CHHbrd, where the wool is spun and wound on bobbins ready for weaving. Tiie immense spinning jennies, capable of doing the work of sevei'al hundred women, do it with almost the same motion, - now advancing, now receding, now twisting, now rolling up on the spool, - but with far greater accuracy and evenness of thread.

In the new building is the weaving department, in charge of Henry G. Chapman. Here looms of different degrees of complexity, some capable of utilizing twenty-four frames, - from different manufactories, - each in care of an attendant, push the shuttles with deafening sound through the warp in varying figures according to the fancy of the designer. While here we are inclined to think this the principal process, the most important step of all in the manufacture of cloths, but in the finishing department, in charge of .Mr. Watslong, where the inspection of the fulling, which has reduced the width one quarter, and increased the thickness and the closeness of thread since it came from the looms, one may see the " teazeling," the " trimming," pressing, measuring, folding done, and the cloths packed, after being sampled, ready for market.

All rooms in the factory are furnished with gas fixtures for lighting, and automatic fire sprinklers for extinguishment of accidental fires, while there are hydrants with coils of hose in various parts of the mill and the yard, connected with large pumps readily operated by the steam engine or the water-wheels.

This d:im it is claimed was first built by David IJoniia and Knos Sumner in 1778. David Beinis had bought 39 acres of land on the Watertown side in 1708, and a few years after, 25 acres more, nearly all the land on which the village now stands. This homestead, where his sons were born, afterwards known as the Eitchie estate, was the old house so beautifully located on the knoll near the mills, which was removed to make room for Mr. Davidson's house in 1880. Dr. Enos Sumner owned the land on the Newton side, but sold out in 1779 to three men who built a paper mill. David Bemis became two-thirds owner of this the nexc year, and with his son Capt. Luke Bemis carried on the paper mill until 1790, when he died. After his death his sons, Capt. Luke and Isaac Bemis, became sole owners and continued to carry on the business of paper making until the death of Isaac in 1794. The process of manfacturing paper at that time was necessarily very slow and tedious. The sheets were made in moulds imported from England. Each sheet required separate dipping of the moulds in the pulp, which when sufficiently consolidated, was turned on to a sheet of felt where it was allowed to dry. David Bemis had built in 1778 on the Watertown side a grist-mill and snuff-mill, the first mill on this side at this place. At his death, his two sons, Seth and Luke, became full owners. About 1796, Seth bought out the interest of his brother Luke, and began to manufacture chocolate, and to prepare dye-woods and medicinal woods and roots for use. In 1803 he made additions to the old mill; he commenced the spinning of cotton by machinery, making cotton warp, which though prepared by quite imperfect machinery, proved to be so much better than that spun by hand, and therefore, in such great repute, that Mr. Bemis could not supply the demand. The business proved thus very profitable.

To understand the cause of this great demand for cotton warp, we need only to reflect that by many a family through Massachusetts, it was the custom to weave at home cotton cloth, cotton and wool for blankets, and with dyed wool a coarse kind of satinett for home wear, as well as rugs and carpets for the floor. The writer remembers full well the old hand-loom which stood in the capacious attic of his grandmother's house, which was built at this time only a little over twenty miles away on one of the turnpike roads leading otf into the country. This house, built of brick, stood near the centre of a large farm which had always been owned, and still is owned in the family, a Watertown family, since it was first purchased of the Indians. Here were the flax and the wool spinning-wheels also. But it must have been a great relief to the over-worked women of the family to find, by Mr. Bemis' introduction of power-machine-spun threads for warps, " Bemis' warp," as it was known, so great a help in their labors.

One is tempted, in speaking of the great improvements introduced by Mr. Bemis in the manufacture of cotton goods, to reflect upon the great change that has finally resulted in the present domestic economy of our New England households. Then the women, both young and old, were taught a multiplicity of occupations that trained both the hands, the eye, and the mind as well.

" The preparation of the cotton for carding was at that time a slow and expensive operation. It was carried out in small parcels, to be picked by hand in families living in the vicinity, at about four cents per pound, exclusive of carrying out and bringing back, which required most of the time of one man and horse. To facilitate the process of picking, such tkmilies as were engaged in the occupation were mostly provided with a ' whipping frame,' the bottom of which was woven, or made of strong cords so loosely that the seeds and dirt could pass through; the cotton, being placed thereon, the two sticks, one in each hand, being laid on smartly for two or three minutes, became very much loosened. For several years the business of cotton picking aflbrded employment to a multitude of persons, enabling them to obtain a comfortable livelihood."

" Mr. Bemis constantly improved and increased his machinery for spinning, etc., discarding the old and adopting that which was new and better. After a few years he caused a machine to be made for preparing cotton for carding, which did not difler materially from the 'cotton pickers' of the present day. This machine bore the grim title of 'the devil'; and though not very attractive in appearance, particularly when in notion, performed in a very expeditious and satisfactory manner the service intended, much to the regret of the numerous laborers, who were obliged, in consequence of the invention, to seek their daily bread by other methods." '

This Mr. Seth Bemis, the senior of that name, engaged in manufactures at this place, was a graduate of Harvard College, graduating in 1795, and, although his knowledge of Greek roots and Latin poetry was not essential to success in the profitable management of a cotton factory, doubtless the knowledge was no great burden to carry, and as it did not from the pride of possession incapacitate him from entering heartily into the solution of the various practical problems that presented themselves, it might have sharpened his wits so that he was able to improve upon all who had gone before and even to almost unconsciously anticipate one of the greatest inventions of the age, namely Whitney's cotton gin."

The town of Watertown enjoys the distinction, through Mr. Bemis' inventive and active disposition, of having made the first cotton duck ever manufactured. It was at a time after the embargo of 1807 had been laid by our general government upon all foreign commerce, and great difficulty had been ex perienced in getting duck for sails, that Mr. Winslow Lewis, of Boston, extensively engaged in commerce.

2 Eli Whitney, a descendant of the Watertown family of that name, had in 1794 obtained his first patents on the celebrated saw gin, that raised a man's effectiveness in cleaning the cotton from the seed, from about six pounds each day to one thousand pounds a day. This was apparently not introduced in the North for several years.

in conversation with Mr. Seth Bemis, spoke of the difBculty of getting duck, the coarse linen cloth used for sails, asked if he could not make something of cotton that would answer the purpose. Mr. Bemis had been engaged in the manufiicture of sheeting, shirting, bagging for the southern market, bed ticking, etc., and had had the aid of some English weavers on hand-looms. He said he would see about it. Mr. Lewis was unwilling to be at the risk alone of providing machinery on the uncertainty of success, but promised to help to find a market for the cotton duck if it could be made, a large quantity of which he himself would require for his own vessels. Mr. Bemis succeeded in having the work done and for some years received a large return for his venture, as much as $1 per yard being received during the war for duck.

"In October of 1809, he employed six English weavers, paying them fourteen cents per yard for weaving, and in November following made sales of duck in Boston, No. 1 at 65 cents, and No. 2 at 58 cents per yard." "The sheetings and shirtings sold for 42 cents per yard." " This was probably the first cotton sail duck ever made and sold in this country." In consequence of the impo.ssibllity of finding a market nearer for ail his products, during the war of 1812-15, Mr. Bemis sent his duck and other manufactures, by his own teams to Baltimore, and even further south, bringing back cotton, tobacco, and other southern products, taking several months to make the journey and return.

In 1812-13 with the aid of an Englishman, Mr. Bemis made from coal and used to light his fiictory, the first illuminating gas used in America. This had, however, to be discontinued after a few years, because of its leaking from the tin tubes through which it was conducted.

During some of the years following, while this was the leading factory for the grinding and preparation of dye woods and dye stuff's by machinery, for the manufacture of cotton goods and woolen yarn, the grinding of glass, - and with which continued to be carried on a grist mill, as also a shop for making and repairing machinery, - the operatives were called to their meals at the house of Captain Luke Bemis, where they found board, by the blowing of a tin horn, from which circumstance the village received and continued to have, even till our day, the rather suggestive title of " Tin Horn."

Mr. Bemis purchased of his brother Luke and his partner, Caleb Eddy, a brother-in-law, in 1811, the mills and water-power on the south side of the river and thus became sole owner of the entire water-power.

He soon after sold to the Boston Manufacturing Company his right to raise the height of the water by flashboards for $1000 per inch for twelve inches. Although gaining :j;l2,000 by the sale, he afterwards regretted this loss of power, or others have who have followed him. In 1822 he built the present stone rolling-dam. In 1827, the Beinis Manufacturing Company was incorporated, in which his brother Luke was interested, for the manufacture chiefly of satinets and duck. However in 1830 this corporation wasdi.ssolved. Mr. Seth Berais and Thomas Cordis, members of the company, bought the entire property and continued the same business until 1839, when Thomas Cordis sold out to Seth Bemis and Seth Bemis, jr., who continued the busine.ss on both sides of the river of manufacturing cotton and woolen goods in part, and at last on the Newton side of the manufacture of drugs and dye woods. In 1847 they sold the dye wood business to William F. Freea\an, and Seth Bemis continued to manage the Watertown mills until his death in 1849, when on the settlement of the estate in 1851, Seth Bemis, jr., became the sole owner. From 1848 to 18(J0 the Watertown property was leased to Hiram Cooper, who manufactured hosiery and domet flaunels. The product for a part of this time was about $100,000 a year, and a hundred men were employed. In 1860, he sold the entire property to William F. Freeman it Company, who having developed the business largely, in turn transferred the property to the ^Ftiia Mill Ciinipany, who greatly enlarged the works on this side, and although for many years, certainly until after 1807, continued to grind and prepare dye woods, gradually enlarged and improved their manufacture of woolen goods until at present their products are well known among the finest and best woolen goods for ladies' use to be found in the market.

It was ill 1810 that the " Waltham Cotton and Wool Factory Company " was established, although not until 1813 that the " Boston Manufacturing Company," under the lead of Francis C. Lowell, Patrick T. Jackson, and Nathan Appleton began to apply the knowledge of the improved cotton machinery which they had seen in operation in ICngland, and which they greatly improved and put into the new factory two miles above, which turned Waltham from a smaller and an agriculturill town to a rapidly growing centre of manufactures. Thesuccessof this led in 1822 to the incorporation of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company and the founding of the city of Lowell.

With the advance of improvements it became necessary to specialize, and thus gradually the great variety of kinds of busine-s carried on successfully by Seth Bemis, sr., has come to one of narrower range, but of a magnitude and the product of a quality of which he had never dreamed. We have followed with great brevity, hardly touching here and there the fortunes of these mills, through their possession by the Heiiiis family fro,,, 1703, the date of the first purchase, for over a Imiuhed years.

The character of Mr. Seth Beinis, sr., is treated by another hand elsewhere. His son, Seth Bemis, jr., was always a friend to educational and religious institutions, as he was one of the original contributors, with his brother George, to the fund for the establishment of the Watertown Free Public Library, giving $500. In 1882 he gave $1000 towards the building. The family numbers ten students and graduates of Harvard College; one of them, George, gave largely to this college and to the Boston Athenneum, thus showing their own appreciation of the best educational institutions and their willingness to contribute to them for the welfare of others ; and proving, in this family at least, the enobling and liberalizing tendency of successful activity in manufactures. In closing, one might add his testimony of fitness in the change of the old name of " Tin Horn," and even of the later more euphonious and descriptive '' ^Etna Mills " to the brief, well deserved and suggestive name, Bemis, which the Fitcliburg Railroad Company, and the United States Post-otlice Department, and all by common consent, apply to this village. Long may it honor its name, but may it never foiget by its contributions and its commingling in all social and municipal relations, that it is a jjart of the old town of Watertown.

The Watertown Indurated Fibre Company. - This company, one of the latest formed, incorporated in the year 1888 under the laws of Maine, with a capital of $100,000, of which Mr. J. H. Conant is at present the principal, if not the sole owner, is engaged in the manufacture of various utensils from wood pulp, ornamental or useful, which are impervious to water.

The buildings are located on a large lot of land near the West Grammar School-house, on Howard Street, and very near the Fitchburg Railroad, which gives with its side tracks, facilities for receiving materials, and for sending away their manufactured products to all parts of the country.

The material used is the ground pulp of spruce wood, which is reduced to a semi-liquid state, and pumped into moulds where, under hydraulic pressure, of some 120 pounds to the square inch, the water is forced out, and the masses of fine wood fibres are consolidated into any desired form.

These forms, when dried, may be sawn, turned, sanded into any more desirable forms like any masses of wood. They are then given a bath of hot linseed oil or of chemicals largely' composed of pure linseed oil, then baked in an oven for about eight hours at a temperature of 270° Fahrenheit. Then the process is repeated several times until the compound is entirely impervious to any liquids. The ware is then finished, polished, ornamented, and made attractive for the various purposes for which it may be used.

The number of men at present employed is seventyfive, their wages about $750 jier week, the value of the products of the factory about $100,000 per year.

have been increased in extent several times, in the same location, until they are now double their former size. They occupy three principal buildings and five smaller buildings. The largest building is 120 feet long and fifty feet wide, and is three stories high. The engine and boiler-house is fifty feet by forty feet, and is two stories high, the upper stories being occujiied as a drying-room. The treating building is eighty feet by fifty feet, two stories high. The upper story is used for indurating and water-proofing the product, and consists of a work-room and four ovens. These ovens are thirty feet deep, one seventeen feet wide and nine feet high ; the three others have the same depth and height, but are only nine feet wide. They are heated by steam, which is furnished by two boilers of 100-horse power each, which also furnish steam for driving the engine. The engine is one of the Fitchburg Engine Company's manufacture, and has a capacity of seventy-five-horse power.

The buildings are lighted by electricity from a <lynamo in the building, are thoroughly protected as far as such buildings can be protected, by a system of pipes and sprinklers throughout the large buildings, the water for this purpose being supplied by the \Vatertown Water Supply Company. The water for use in the process of manufacture, of which large quantities must be used, is obtained from three or four wells, which give an abundant supply.

Some of the articles now manufactured are watercoolers for ice-water, umbrella-holders, fire-casks, store barrels, pails for ordinary use and for fires, the latter having a peculiar form to fit them for their use and to prevent them from being used for any other purpose, pans, slop-jars, and churns.

In time, "utensils required to hold liquids of every kind may be made. The material is much lighter and less brittle than porcelain or other earthen ware, or glass, much less costly, less likely to leak or fall to pieces than wood held together by hoops. The use of this manufacture is increasing each year and its appearance is being constantly improved.

Educated decorative artists are employed to ornament the ware with fitting designs, some of which make one think of the lacquer of the Japanese.

Mr. F. E. Keyes was the first superintendent, and leaving because of ill health, Mr. L. S. Frost took his place in July, 488'^, and has had charge of the works ever since. Mr. B. S. Bott has charge of the decorative department. U. S. Dixon is the engineer. Mr. F. C. Goss has charge of the machine-shop and repairs.

The Porter Needle Company. - The Porter Needle Company occupied buildings on the south side of the river on Watertown Street, not far from Galen Street. Their business was established October 1, 1879, but manufacturing was not begun until January 1,1880. The company was composed of Mr. Edward F. Porter, of this town, president ; Mr. Hugh Robinson, of Jersey City, vice-president; Mr. Lewis B. Porter, treasurer ; and Mr. W. D. Porter, secretary.

Their business consisted in the manufacture of sewing-machine needles, sewing-machine shuttles, bobbins, tools, and machinery. They employed as many as seventy-five (75) men, and turned out 20,000 needles per day, with a monthly pay-roll of .$2000. They also furnished other manufacturers with blanks. They invented some fine machinery for the manufacture of shuttles and bobbins.

The Porter Shuttle and Bobbin Company, managed by Lewis B. Porter, succeeded to a part of the business, the manufacture of needles having been discontinued. This company continue the manufacture of shuttles and bobbins for sewing-machines, also manufacture various kinds of attachments for several kinds of sewing-machines.

The stock in this company is owned entirely by Lewis B. Porter, who carries on the entire business. He employs twenty or twenty-five hands, men and boys, and distributes about $800 monthly. The sales are wholly from the factory to sewing-machine manufacturers and to large jobbers of sewing-machine supplies. This is at present the only factory devoted wholly to the manufacture of shuttles and bobbins in the country, and the outlook indicates a large industry, as the sewing-machine manufacturers are looking more and more to special factories for their shuttles and bobbins.

The Empire Laundry Machinery Company. - This company now occupy a part of the buildings formerly occupied by the Porter Needle Company. It was formed in 1883, with headquarters in Boston, to manufacture a combination of inventions developed by the Cambridge Laundry, of Cambridge, and by Porter & Co., of Watertown, and gradually grew to larger proportions as new appliances were manufactured, partly by Porter & Company and tested by the Cambridge Laundry, until since 1888 it has succeeded to the use of all the buildings but one occupied formerly by the Needle Company.

The company is at present composed of George L. Shorey,of Lynn ; H. S. Porter, of Roxbury ; and L. B. Porter, of Watertown. It was incorporated under the general laws of the State, with a capital of $10,- 000, with individual loans of $40,000 more, from the members, which with the surplus earnings gives a working capital of about $75,000.

As they are now doing a business of a ipiarter of a million dollars a year, and require larger buildings they have bought a tract of land containing about 60,000 feet, and are making plans for extensive buildings and enlargements ; and they propose to include all the capital used, with an enlargement of the same, into its incorporated stock, making it $100,000 or more.

The company's special and p.atented machinery may be found in nearly every country upon the globe, and there are few hotels or large institutions that do not uee some of their machinea. About fifty different machines and appliances are now made, of every kind, from boilers and engines that supply the power, to the supplies used either in domestic laundries for family work or the laundries of hotels and larger institutions.

Among the machines and appliances manufactured may be mentioned : wa-liing-machincs, both of wood and of metal ; e.Ktractors for removing water from goods, wringers, centrifugal wringers; starching machines ; ironing machines of many kinds, including the mangle, parallel ironer, bosom, neck and wristband ironer, shirt body ironer, bosom ironer, universal ironer, collar and cuff darapener, ternary mangles ; with a great variety of hand machines, from washers to sad irons; stoves for heating hand-irons, blowers, presses. As Watertown is quite a centre for all kinds of laundry work, these and more may be seen in operation in some of the laundries near the factory. There are at least three such laundries, a visit to which would at almost any time repay any one to see wh.at can be done in this direction by machinery.

These machines are being sold very widely in this and other countries. The new building planned for this tactory is to be 250 by 150 feet, one story high, with solid, well-protected floors for heavy machinery, with good light partly from above, well heated by steam and lighted by electricity, and well protected from danger of tire. Its approaches on three sides will be convenient for receiving materials and sending off machines.

Lewandn's French Dyeing and Cleansing Establishment. - This establishment cleanses and dyes all kinds of fabrics and materials used as clothing, or as draperies, upholstery, carpets or rugs for floors.

The property is at present owned by George S. Harwood, of Newton, who has abont^l50,000 invested in it. Wm. Lincoln Crosby, 17 Temple Place, Boston, is at present manager.

The superintendent of the works at Watertown for the last two years is Peter Rurbank, who has bad nearly thirty years' experience in the business. There are employed here during the dillercnt seasons of the year from one hundred to two hundred persons, over onetbird of them men, the other two-thirds women. There is distri!iulnl in weekly wages from $1000 to *l!000.

The principal ollire for the transaction of business is 17 Temple Place, lioston ; there are branch otlices in other parts of Boston, in New York, Philadelphia, and other cities, with a system of advertising and sending by mail and express that reaches the whole of the United States and the Provinces.

The laundry has been recently refitted and furnished with the improved machinery manufactured by till- Ijnpire Laundry Machinery Company of this place, and turns out about 4500 collars and culls, 500 sliirtM, and a large vivriety of other articles each day, or about *500 wortli each week. Starch made in

They have a most systematic method of receiving, marking, accounting for and treating each article in each bundle taken into the works, so that each owner is sure to receive his own property when finished. Mistakes seldom occur. Flannels are washed by hand so as to prevent shrinking, but most goods in the huge washers ; they are dryed in the excelsior dryer, turning 1400 revolutions per minute, and starched and ironed when required, by special machinery for the different kinds of fabrics or garments. Those requiring polishing are, if collars or cuffs, for instance, passed through a parallel ironer ; all are dried by steam. A large part of the water required here, as well as in the dye-house, is furnished from six artesian wells, although a Isrge quantity of water is taken by measure from the Watertown Water Supply Company.

In the dye-house experienced chemists and expert dyers are employed. Experienced pressmen and presswomen are required in a part of their works. The requisite knowledge and skill necessary to sustain the reputation which the establishment has acquired, is the result of long experience.

A boiler of 120 and two of forty-five horse-power are used to supply the motive- power and to furnish steam for heating and drying purposes. Three steamengines of about eight, six, and ten horse-power operate the laundry and other machinery, including a large pump for raising the water from the artesian wells. If we had space to describe the processes in the different departments, and give the names of those who have charge, or have acquired greatest skill, we certainly should begin with the dye-rooms. It is understood, of cour.se, that when an old garment is to receive a new color, it is as far as possible discharged of its former color in order that the dye-stuffs may have their proper effect. Otherwise it must be determined by experiment upon a small part, or by former experience, what peculiar combinations are required to be made in order to produce the exact shade desired. Patrons send with their fabrics or garments, bits of color of the kind ordered, little thinking of the patience or skill acquired by long experience, needed to msike it possible to make even an approach, in some cases, to the effects desired. The art is so peculiar, the knowledge .so technical, and so beyond the comprehension of the uninitiated, that for most, admission to this room would be only bewildering, and to those prepared to understand the secrets of the workmen, manilesMy unpermissible.

There are drying-frames to prevent shrinking, frames and cushions for laces and for drapery curtains, naphtha cleaning rooms for certain kinds of work, a separate department for cleaning and dyeing gloves, of which 10,000 pairs are sometimes done in a month. One might be greatly suri)rised to see a soiled pair of light-colored gloves come out fresh in

In the cleansing house, men's clothing, ladies' dresses and robes, blankets, carpets, curtains, draperies can be thoroughly cleansed by what is known as the dry process. Elaborate ball and stage dresses are thoroughly cleansed without taking them to pieces. Velvets, laces, shawls, are handled with great care, and so skillfully and delicately treated, that they seldom receive injury. One of the new and secret processes on which they pride themselves, and of which they make great use, enables them to remove the disagreeable shiny appearance which smooth woolen cloths take on after a little wear ; 5000 garments have been thus treated within a year and a half

The manager says this business was begun by Mr. Lewando, in Boston, in 1829. Still we find in the Waterlown Enterprise of 1880 the following statement :

"77ie Waterlown Dye-House was founded by Mr. James McGarvey, in a small way, on Pleasant Street, about forty years ago. After a few years Mr. Adolphus Lewando succeeded him. Shortly after, the building was destroyed by fire, and Mr. Lewando decided to remove the business to Saccarappa, Me. The move, however, proved to be an unfortunate one, as the distance to Boston was a serious obstacle in the w.ay of securing orders, and Mr. Lewando decided to remove to Dedham, Mass. There the enterprise was attended with fair success, but for some reason the proprietor deemed another change necessary, and, in 1865, the business came back to its birth-place - Watertown - since which time it has continued to grow in prosperity until it has reached its present magnitude. At the time of Mr. Lewando's death, which occurred, we believe, about 1871, a Mr. Farmer, of Boston, succeeded him and carried on the business for about three years. At the expiration of that time a son of Mr. Lewando's associated with him in business a gentleman by the name of Gate, and this firm remained in occupation for one year. The business then passed into the hiinds of Messrs. H.irwood and Quincy, who erected at different times the large brick block now almost entirely occupied by them for their business, the block of houses on the river-bank above their works, and the buildings on piles in the river above the island, below and on the opposite side of the Galen Street or 'Great Bridge,' and who remodeled the remaining buildings as the enlarged and improved condition of their business dem.anded.

" This business is now claimed to be larger than that now carried on by any similar establishment in the United States, and is r.ipidly increasing."

of Mr. Charles J. Hathaway, who began to manufacture shirts in large quantities and to sell them in Boston at wholesale as early as 1848. At first a necessity in the manufacture of white shirts, it was managed as a part of the shirt factory. During its history it has passed through many diflerent hands until at present it has grown into an independent establishment by itself and is now owned and managed by Mr. H. H. Sawyer, who runs it under the above title. It is true that some of its work comes from the adjoiaing Metropolitan Shirt Factorj% but it has with it no necessary connection, except to supply the latter company with steam and power from their large boiler.

The present capacity of the works is 40,000 or 50,000 pieces each week, and employs about forty persons. The building is large enough for a larger business, and will be fully utilized soon, if the present rate of increase of business continues. The goods laundered are partly new from manufacturers, or are from families residing in difiierent places, from whom the work is obtained by a regular system of collections, mostly within New England.

This laundry is newly and very fully furnished with new machinery of every variety from the Empire Laundry Machine Company of this place. It is the aim of the present proprietor to do first-class work ; so he spares no effort in trying to provide, with firstclass appliances of every kind, the best help this place aflbrds, where work-people have been trained by long experience to do excellent work, and also seeks in other places their most skillful workmen.

Goods can be laundered now in a very short time. While following for convenience the old system of weekly collections and deliveries, work is on occasion done very quickly. As in the large hotels of Europe, here one can have his linen thoroughly laundered while he is taking a nap, or a bath, - a Turkish bath.

As the huge baskets are brought in, filled with parcels from the families, by the collecting wagons, each piece is marked, recorded, sorted, and put into the rotary washers for their first washing. These are, some of them, of wood ; some since copper has fallen from its high price, are wholly of metal, a composite metal, which has strength and endurance and does not ordinarily discolor delicate clothing. About an hour spent in turning and reversing in strong solutions of soap and the following baths of clear water, without wearing by rubbing, is generally suflicient to remove all dirt and leave the clothing white and clean. The clotlies, carefully packed in the centrifugal wringer, soon have every drop of water whirled out of them. This machine hums like a top, and by its rising key indicates a very great velocity, it is said 1400 or 2000 revolutions each minute. The clothes are then passed through the starchers, to the dry room, where the hist trace of dampness is removed, then to the ironers and the polishers. We have not space to describe all the processes upon the

Of course where there are many collars, or cufl's, or shirts, or articles of any one kind to be done, machines, as here, just fitted to a bosom, a cud", or a collar may be provided for that particular use which will operate almost automatically. By specialization of work, a greater degree of skill is reached.

A woman in any kitchen or laundry, however, might have a self-heating iron, or, in other words, a 8mootl)ing or polishing iron with a supply of gas and air to burn inside of it, so an to maintain the uniform temperature required for such purposes.

A forty horse-power boiler supplies the steam for heating and drying purposes, also to the small steam engine of twelve horse power which drives all the machinery with precision and order. The visitor comes .away with the feeling that at the present time there is a great advance u[)on the days of our fathers, and that woman has indeed been relieved of much of the mere drudgery of labor.

" It was in the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, in 1832, when people were talking of nullification, about disposing of the .suri)his in tlie national treasury, about the Abolitionists of Bost^m, about the right of petition which .John Quincy Adams was making a brave fight for, when Boston was a week's journey away from New York, when there was as yet no West, and Cincinnati was a frontier village, St. Louis a trading-post, Chicago a wilderness, no railroads, no telegraphs, no newspapers that [)rinted news.no great factories, no sewing-macliines, no machinery for making shoes, hats, clothing, furniture ; only rude ironworking tools, rude printing-presses, imperfect steamengines. There were great planters then, great merchants, but no great manufacturers. What men made, they macle with their hands." What a change within sixty years in manufactures ! What a change in the conilition of the common people, especially of women I

It must have been in the thirties that the first shirt factory was started in Watertown, and that by a woman, not long after the one in New York City, and probably without knowledge of that. Jlrs. Silas M. Bates (lier name wius Mrs. Potter then) began, in a house, on Main .Street, that was removed to make l>lace for llie present Public Library building, with the iielp of girls whom she hired for the purpose, the manufacture of shirts for sale by the dozen. She afterward occupied a house on the opposite side of Main Street, farther from the square, and finally, between I SKI and LSI.-,, put up the building now occupied by .1. (i. Barker as a shirt factory, on Spring Street, nearly opposite Fayette Street. It is said that she had a place for the sale of these shirts in Boston. Possibly this was so, although it has been said that Mr. Hathaway's store on Milk Street was the first wholesale shirt house in Boston.

Mr. Barker, who followed him in this building, has been in the business about thirty years, and at the present time employs one man and about fifteen women at his works, and as many more outside who do their work at home and bring it to him when finished.

" Boston was early the seat of shirt manufacturing for the trade, C. F. Hathaway having established himself in that city, with a factory at Watertown, Mass., in 1848. He built up a considerable business, manufacturing mainly for jobbers, and the ' Hathaway shirt' became widely known throughout New England, with a well-deserved reputation for careful, honest workmanship, good material, and full size." This is from a leading journal which treats of the history of this manufacture.

The Metropolitan Shirt Factory is the principal shirt-factory in town. It was bought of Mr. Hathaway some twenty-five years ago and is situated on Spring Street, near the corner of Palfrey Street. With some change of name and in the style of the firm, it is essentially the same, except that it is increased in extent. It is run by Simons, Hatch & Whitten, manufacturers and wholesale dealers in men's furnishing goods, whose place of business is on Winthrop Square and Otis Street, Boston.

This firm have several factories for different kinds of work in different places ; at thisthey manufacture all their " fine grades of white, dress, fancy, and night shirts."

The capacity of these works is about one hundred dozens per week, with an immediate prospect of enlargement. Two men and about fifty women are employed, (i. F. Faxon, the superintendent, has been engaged in this work and in this place about thirty years. The power is sujiplied by an engine in the adjoining laundry, which drives the fifty sewing-machines at a high rate of speed, and the two buttonhole machines, one of which is capable of making 1(500 button-holes each day.

The cutting-room is ICO feet long. This room has the longest cutting-board in use. It is 120 feet long, is capable of accommodating a full 40-yard web of cloth. Indeed, forty-eight to sixty webs of cloth laid one over the other exactly are stretched out on this cutting-table. The patterns for all the different pieces which go to make up the finished garment are laid upon the outstretched webs, according to the judgment and skill of the cutter, so arranged as to waste no possible portion of the goods, and yet give each part its exact and proper form. These patterns are made of light wood, or of thick paste-board bound with brass, along the edges of which a sharp knife in tlie deft hands of the cutter strikes down through all the thicknesses at once.

The goods when received are piled on counters or shelves by the side of the table, from the huge cases which we may see at the end. They are of different materials, each with its great variety of designs and i;ich of different combinations of colors. Some are fur negligee shirts, for seaside or country-lawns, and Ueautiful enough for the most fastidious in taste.

In the sewing-room the thirty or more nimble and skillful pairs of hands pass the pieces which have lieen put together, as they alone know how to do it, under the sewing-machines, where the seams are finished faster than could have been imagined possible a few years ago. The button-holes even are made and finished by improved machines ready for use. See this woman place the band under the machine; the stitching proceeds down one side, turns automatically, returns down the other side, is barred, the hole cut, and is ready for use in much less time than it takes to say it. These shirts have their handkerchief pockets and their watch-pockets, the latter with a barred opening for the watch-chain.

These soft, zephyr-like fabrics surely require no starch. In this nest room they are smoothed out, examined, folded ready for the neat boxes in which they are packed, and marked according to style and size, ready for the trade, or are put up with exact reference to orders from various parties all over the country, each with its appropriate numbers and marks. Each dealer has his own name and address woven in colored letters, with a neat design, placed upon each garment which he orders. Thus it would seem from the garments themselves, when finished in this one factory, that they had been made in a hundred different factories, all the way from Maine to California, from Minnesota to Florida, while the dealers know for all the glory they get for this superior manufacture they are indebted to the one firm, Simons, Hatch & Whitten.

One naturally inquires what is the condition of these shirt-makers? Are they like the poor women for whom Hood has enlisted the sympathy of the tender-hearted ? Are they

Not a bit of it. The steam-engine drives the needles. The introduction of steam-driven sewing-machines into Massachusetts in the manufacture of shirts, we are informed by the superintendent, was first made by this factory. Seams are sewed up almost quicker than you can wink. The animation of the sewers' faces, and the beauty of the materials with their graceful figures and harmonious blending of shades, the cheerful hum of the sewing-machines, combine to make a sight which it is pleasant to remember. And long before dark the scene changes ; the women are released with full freedom

Formerly three dollars a week was considered good wages for a smart girl. Now few, even with their ninehours a day, earn less than six to ten dollars a week.

" The growth of the factory system, with its accompanying economies, has vastly improved the condition of women employed in shirt-making, shortening their hours, lightening their work and increasing their wages. Before the introduction of the sewing-machine, but few women were employed in factories. The industry was almost exclu.sively a domestic one, aud, like all domestic industries, the wages paid were not sufficient for subsistence."

Where by hand a woman would do but one shirt in a day, the usual product cow is about a dozen shirts to each machine, and the average earnings of machine operatives, good, bad and indifferent, in large country factories, are six to ten dollars per week.'' '"Steady, industrious girls, working full time, will earn more than this." " So the cost of shirts has been reduced somewhat more than onehalf, while the average earnings of the workers have been increa.sed about three-fold." This applies to the work done in the factory. Finishing done in the homes still brings the smaller returns. Women will work cheaper in their homes, in the leisure they can get from necessary duties, and with the help of children.

We wish we had the space to inquire, in this connection, a little more fully into the condition of the women employed in factories. " It is said that in large cotton manufacturing towns, where female help is much employed, the condition of the latter is noticeably deteriorating, in social status, morals and wages.''

This is said not to be the case in shirt factories. We know it is not the case in our shirt factories. It certainly is not necessarily so. It was not so in the days of the Lowell Offering, when factory girls edited and published that paper. It need not be so now, with the store of good books which our Public Library offers free to all who ask for them, with our free evening schools, with the hours of leisure after and before regular work, when the fields can be seen in pleasant weather, when good reading can fill the hours of storms, and good society in our churches is always open. A hasty run through our sliirt factories shows tiiat a still better condition of intelligence, morals and society is possible among wage-earning women, if they themselves will strive more in that direction.

Warren Soap Manufaclory. - We. have spoken of the shirt factories and the laundries and the machineshops where the new laundry machinery is made. But these would make poor work of it without soap and starch.

"Soap is a chemical compound of vegetable or animal fatly substances with soda or potash, employed, on account of its properties of loosening and dissolving greiisy and other matters, as a detergent or cleansing article for the toilet, for washing clothes, and similar purposes."

"Soap is mentioned in the Old Testament, in Jer. ii : 22 and Mai. iii: 2; but the Hebrew words thus translated mean the lye salt potash, commonly made from the aslies of plants, and the salt soda, better known as a mineral product." - Appleton's Cyclopedia. "Soap, both as a medicinal and as a cleansing agent was known to Pliny, who speaks of two kinds - hard and soft - .ns used by the Germans. There is reason to believe that snap came to the Romans from Gexm&ny. " - I'Jncyrlopwdia BrUannica.

Natural alkaline waters are found and used, clays are sometimes used as absorbents of grease, by fullers, in cleansing cloths. Ammoniacal waters are sometimes used for the same purpose. Now these three alkalies, - potsish, soda, and ammonia - softened by the introduction of various fatty substances, are the active factors in all soaps.

At present the Warren Soap Manufacturing Company is an incorporated company, incorporated this present year of 1890. The stock is not quoted on the market; it is, in fact, owned entirely by three men : Mr. Albert C. Warren, of Auburndalc, a son of the former owner of the works; Mr. George L. Stevens, of Boston; and Mr. Alfred H. A. Groeschner, of this town. Twelve men are employed at the works, four salesmen are employed, who travel through the country, and Crichetl 'steams visit the works almost every day, according to their needs.

Soap may be made in the laboratory in great variety, from hundreds, yea thousandsof animal and vegetable oils, combined with eitlierof the three alkalies. Some of thesic products are fragrant and delightful to every sense. In the manufacture of textile fabrics in large (luanlities, where oil is used freely to assist in the procc.'W of maimfacturc, as well as to reduce the friction of machinery, large quantities of soap must be used to cleanse the fabrics before they are fit for the dyer or for the market. The Warren soaps are known over the country in large cotton and woolen manufactories of hosiery and other fabrics, as well as in public and family laundries.

As we approach the works we are struck by the appearance of long lines of barrels and casks and hogsheads running across a large yard, and piled under a row of sheds. These are marked Warren Standard Soaps. They are scouring soaps, fulling soaps, finishing soaps, etc., put into casks for ease of handling, and are ready to be shipped to the factories from Maine to Texas as they are ordered. The last half year over two million pounds have been manufactured and shipped, nearly as much as the entire previous year.

The next room is the laboratory, where samples of every barrel of alkali, of tallow, and of oils are accurately tested, as every cask of soap is tested before it leaves the factory. All substances used in making soap are tried by delicate chemical tests, so that just what goes into a batch of fifty tons of soap is thoroughly known, and is recorded for future reference

We can look, in the next room which is the boiling-room, at the huge kettles that hold one hundred and fifty barrels of seething, foaming, steaming liquid. Two of these largest kettles have been put in during the past year. " You can call spirits from the vasty deep, but will they come when you call them." The three witches may, with uncanny gesture, walk about these pots, and may cast in their horrid contributions from the four quarters of the globe, and produce a compound that would defy the evil one himself to know or to baffle, but the resident member of this company will prove eveiy inch of this mass when cold, and tell you just what are its powers and how far it can go to the service of man. If unsatisfactory, he will order it back again to stew and stew, and boii and boil, with the addition of many a compound, till it is more ready for the service of man. Y^ou and I do not expect to learn the secrets of his art, which it would be worth a fortune to know ; we must be satisfied to see and use the results of the knowledge and skill acquired by a score or more of years spent iu closest application to secure the results.

The building belongs to the Gas Company. The alkalies are imported. The carbonates and caustic potash come from Germany, caustic soda and its carbonates from England. The freight from Liverpool to Eiist Boston is less than from East Boston to the Watertown works. This building was once used as a hat factory, afterwards as a soap factory by Mr. Robbins, then for wool pulling, then for the manufacture of Johnson pumps, then for making wire fencing. It was first used by Mr. H. M. Warren, who employed Mr. Groeschner, in the manufacture of magnesium for artificial light in stereopticon exhibitions. This agent is available now, is more easily managed than the calcium light, more convenient than electricity on account of its portability. There is, however, a disagreeable product of smoke of magnesia in fine powder, - which can be taken care of. But the quantity of the article required is not sufficient to make its manufacture remunerative.

In 1868, Mr. Warren began to make family soaps. After three or five years the bulk of the business came to be the production, in constantly increasing (|uantities, of textile soaps. We said that more than forty different kinds of soaps are made here. These vary, as one would suppose, with the materials used. Just what these are we do not expect to learn.

While these soaps are known to the trade as uniform in character, scientific accuracy requires us to say that each batch of soap requires constant watchfulness : for different materials, or m.aterials supposed to be the same, but really of different qualities, vary and require nice balancing, one with another, to give uniform and constant results. No cask is allowed to leave the fjictory without being first tried by careful tests. Resins are not used to increase the weight of their soaps.

The sale of soaps to large manufactories requires skilled experts, who, on occasion, can go into the works themselves and prove the quality of the soap offered by showing what work it is capable of doing. This may be vitiated by unskillful treatment. Thus an industry is gradually built up as confidence grows in the constant and uniform character of its products.

It was in 1880, at the death of Herbert M. Warren, the first proprietor, that the present company was really formed. Of this firm, incorporated not till 1890, as we have said, Mr. Groeschner - long a resident of Watertown - -has been the superintendent and chemist at the works from the inception of the business. Mr. Warren acts as treasurer for the company, and Mr. Stevens acts as business manager, taking charge of the sales, each doing his part with harmony, energy, success.

Starch Factories.- - On the same street. Water Street, along the south bank of the river, is what has been known for many years as the Starch Factory. Indeed, this roadway was long since known as Starch Factory Lane. There was formerly a distillery here. When the present proprietors began, only one building was occupied. This, some fifteen or twenty years ago, was burned. Now Messrs. H. Barker & Co. occupy five buildings, which they have successfully erected as the demands of the business have increased. They now employ sixteen men here and ten at a building about a half-mile up the river. This starch is made from wheat flour, is shipped to New York and other places by the ton, packed both in barrels and in boxes. It is used wherever the best starch is required.

large quanties of wheat starch. These works, carried on by the Crystal Springs Manufacturing Co., employing ten or twelve men, under the immediate charge of Charles R. Fletcher, are trying a new process, nowhere else employed, by which the gluten, separated from the starch, is saved and made a valuable health food product, called Poluboskos, much nourishing. This is characterized by its easy digestibility, and is therefore suitable for weak stomachs. Dyspepsia, the curse of our driving, nervous civilization, it is hoped, will find here a foe.

The principal building is fifty feet wide and one hundred and fifty feet long. The capacity of the works is about five hundred barrels of flour each week. The Boston office is at 86 State Street, under the management of F. H. Odiorne, president, and Wm. B. Buckminster, general manager. The new process employed in the works is patented by Herman Barker, who is one of the board of directors of the company.

The Mill and the Dam. - Governor Cradock, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, who was a wealthy London merchant, who never came to New England, yet owned two of the vessels of Governor Winthrop's fleet, the "Ambrose" and the " Jewel," had sent out in 1628, two years before Sir Richard Saltonstall came to the Charles River, a certain Thomas Graves, who, judging from the words of the contract made with him, was a skillful engineer. "This 10th of March, I, Thomas Graves, of Gravesend, in the county of Kent, gent., and by my profession skilful and experienced in the discovery and finding out of mines, as also of lead, copper, mineral salt and alum, in fortifications of all sorts, according to the nature of the place, in surveying of buildings and of lands and in measuring of lands, in describing country by map, in leading of water [courses] to proper uses for mills and other uses in manufacturing, etc., have agreed," etc, etc. This Graves was to serve the company and Governor Cradock and to be at the expense of both - each one-half; he was to be retained three years if they wished. There is mention of a Thomas Graves admitted freeman twelve years after. It is to be presumed that he remained and made himself useful both to the Massachusetts Company and to Governor Cradock. For this Thomas Graves, admitted freeman, was probably either the engineer himself or his son, then of age.

This shows that before starting the colonists for the new country, that some one of the company, presumably the Governor, the wealthy merchant in London, bought in London (it seems of a merchant tailor) some of the materials necessary for first-class mill-stones.

There is no record of the building of a dam in Watertown or of the building of the mill. The fact is stated that Edward How and Matthew Cradock, the former Governor, the wealthy London merchant, sold, the latter by his agent, each one-half of the mill at Watcrtown to Thomas Mayliew, in August, 1635.

I'erhaps Matthew Cradock's agent, Thomas Graves, the skillful civil engineer by his own profession and by the company's allowance, built the mill and the dam for the Mamc, in the rai>ids at the head of tidewater, at the expense of his employer, Cradock, and of Mr. Edward How who probably took care of and run it until they sold it to Mayhew.

It is true there might have been a dam built there before by the Norsemen. Even if there had been, it must have been washed away during the chances of heavy floods weighted with fallen trees overthrown by cyclones or with masses of ice piled up by the spring melting, as has frequently been done since.

This (iraves built the large house in which the Governor and assistants first met in Charlestown. He built fortifications for the early company.

Hollingsii'orth it' Whltiinj Company. - The llollingswortli & Whitney Company occupy a site in Watertown which, for fifty years, has been devoted to papermaking purpoyes. About 1839 William May had a mill there, and for him worked Leonard Whitney, Sr., who subsequently bought the property, and associated with him bis son, under the firm-name of L. Whitney & Son. Mr. Whitney, sr., retiring, sold out to Thurston Priest, and the firm became Whitney &. Priest, who, besides making paper, added to their business the manufacture of paper bags by machinery. In April, 1862, the firm changed. Mr. Priest, retiring, sold out to E. A. Holliiigsworth, and the firm became Hollingsworth & Whitney. At this time the plant was small, the water-power very meagre, and business rapidly growing.

This led the firm to consider the making of improvements, and in 1807-08 the present building, 60x200, with boiler-house and steam-engine room, was built, to aceommodato both branches of the business, and where the production of paper had before been thirty tons per month, it was increased to 120 tons, while the bag department had it« facilities doubled. Since the new mill was built, improvements have been made, so that now there is uirned out daily eight tons, or 208 tons monthly, and the capacity of the bag department is 2,000,(100 daily. Mr. Whitney died July 5, 1881, and Mr. Hollitigsworth on January 0, 1882. On the 1st of April, 1882, a corporation was formed under the laws of the Commonwealth, bearing the designation of HollingHWorth & Whitney Company, which now carries on the business.

The works of this company occupy the site of the "ancient grist-mill," the water-mill" of the earliest record, and of many another mill of later date, as, for instance, a chocolate mill which was afterwards moved to Dorchester, and became the Baker Chocolate & Cocoa Mill, now known by its product over the world, an early saw-mill, and others of which there is no distinct record.

The Watertown MiU. - Tlie Orist Mill. - This was originally a grist-mill, the business being at first the grinding of grists for the farmers who came from near and from afar. It is at present conducted by Perkins & Co., has two runs of stone, with a capacity of grinding 600 bushels of corn a day of ten hours. The corn ground comes from the western prairies, the flour sold comes mostly from Minneapolis, the hay and oats from Maine and the Canadas.

The grist-mill was moved down the " mill creek " to the site it now occupies was afterward moved nearer the river to accommodate a cotton-factory which began in 1805, by occupying the stories above the grist-mill, then the whole of it, which finally gave way to the return of the corn-mill, when that property was absorbed by the foundry and stove works now belonging to the Walker Pratt Company.

The building of the original mill and dam we have already ascribed with some degree of certainty to Cradock and How. The time was as early as, or earlier than January, 1634, for on this date a grant of land was made to it by the General Court. This was purchased and for some years owned by Thomas Mayhew. The ownership is traced by I)r. Bond to 1710. We can take up the train again in 1789, when John Remington sold to David Jackson. On some future occasion we hope to present in a satisfactory manner this entire history, which is very complicated because of change of owners of fractional portions, and change of work done at dirterent periods. The grist-mill holds the first right to the use of water for power. In case of failure of water supply, its wheels must be satisfied first. With change of location on the ancient Jlill Oeek, probably the oldest mill creek in the country, this right has now been suspended or alien.ated. The first duty of the Charles River in Watertown is to grind corn, and no man now knows how or when it was first imposed. The Mill Creek is thought by some to be a natural watercourse. No one can disprove it. Prof". Horsford thinks it was built by the Norsemen.

JVeivspapers. - The Enterprise. - This paper was established by Samuel S. Gleason, Nov. 5, 1879, under whose management it steadily increased its circulation, its size and its influence. The paper is devoted to local interests, is bright, enterprising, and open to all who try to advance the interests of the town. After seven years given to the interests of this paper, Mr. Gleason withdrew from the paper, giving it wholly into the charge of Fred. G. Barker, who had been its printer for nearly its whole existence. Mr.