himself a university man through and through," all round." But in his enthusiasm he ventured to say, "Where would your manufacturing and commerce and politics be, were it not for Eli Whitney, the mechanic and inventor?" To whom I replied, "Yes, where? And what would Eli Whitney have been, had he not passed through Yale College?"

Well, Eli Whitney had spent all his money, and more, to go through college. And first of all he had his debts to pay. So he undertook to go to Georgia "to teach," and made an engagement with a Georgia planter, nowhere mentioned in the biographies, to be a tutor in his family. Whitney was detained by illness, and when he came to Georgia found that the Georgian had repudiated his engagement, as wicked Georgians will; for be it said, with Mr. Grady's permission, there are bad Georgians and good Georgians. Perhaps it was that Whitney was too late. All fell out well, as you shall see. On the passage out, Whitney had made the acquaintance of Mrs. General Greene, the widow of the great second to Washington. She was returning from her place in Greenwich Garden-not far from where I am writing this all for you, Miss Readerto Georgia, where the newborn state had given her husband a plantation. When Whitney found he had no home, she asked him to spend the winter with her; and he did so. On that visit the fortunes of empires turned

FOR one day, as she sat at work with her tambour frame, she said it was badly made, and often tore the delicate web. Whitney made her a better, which worked admirably. This gave her a high conception of his mechanical ability. He was reading law, as the winter passed, but he found time to make wonderful toys, and earned the reputation of a genius. Always that GEN.

One day in November, not yet six months from Commencement, a party of gentlemen at the house were discussing the depressed state of southern agriculture. They spoke of the difficulty of sending cotton to market. To separate a single pound of their cotton from the seed was considered a good day's work for a And some one said it was a pity there was no machine for such work. "If

woman.

make anything." And she told of his achievements. As for Whitney, he had never seen cotton or cotton-seed, and said so. And the conversation seems to have dropped here. But the subject rested on his mind.

It is interesting to know that he could not find any cotton in the seed on Mrs. Greene's plantation. He had to go to Savannah, and after a long search through boats and warehouses, he found a small parcel which he carried back to her house for experiment. She set aside a basement room for his use. And, by the month of March he had made, first a working model, then a machine of working size, which operated to his entire satisfaction, and to the admiration of Mrs. Greene and of his classmate, Phineas Miller, who were his only confidants.

By the aid of this machine one person could separate as much cotton from the seed in a day, as a grown man or woman could in a year by hand picking. The great invention was made. An industry was given to the Gulf states, which ended in their supplying the world with cotton.

When Whitney invented this machine, the annual produce of the entire world, so far as it was known to commerce, was a million and a quarter bales. Of this amount the southern states furnished but little over five thousand bales. The same states now furnish six or seven million bales, and the product of all other countries is almost insignificant in comparison.

So magnificent were their exports, that a few leaders thought that cotton was King of the World. Under this notion they defied the United States in April, 1861, to learn in four years that in America The People is sovereign. How many of these leaders there were I do not know. Mr. Edward Everett used to say there were "about nine." This seemed as if he had counted them, and could have named them. But he never did name them in my hearing. There are not many of them left now.

WITH the stimulus Eli Whitney gave to all cotton industries, the work of Hargreaves, of Arkwright, of Bolton, and their successors took new proportions in Great Britain. Aladdin's lamp could not have

done so much for them. I have an impression that Napoleon once said that the cotton manufacture gave England the wealth which conquered him. I cannot put my eye upon the passage, but the remark, all the same, is true. The spinning jennies conquered, though poor Hargreaves was driven from his old home by indignant spinners who did not mean to be turned out from their old industry. He was on the tide, and they were resisting it. Scotland became interested in cotton manufacture. And the cotton establishment at New Lanark seemed to many sensible people to be the coming in of the millennium.

I knew old Robert Owen somewhat intimately in his old age. He it was who developed New Lanark, and by a little art one could make him talk of its successes and marvels.

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He was born, fortunately, "to a moderate fortune." For I observe that a moderate fortune is an excellent thing for a reformer to have about him. He caught on," as our excellent slang says, to the new business of cotton spinning, at Manchester. He married Miss Dale, the daughter of David Dale, himself a distinguished man, who had as early as 1786 established some spinning mills at New Lanark on the Clyde. Mr. Owen became proprietor of these mills in 1800, and, best of all, went to live there himself with his wife. In the course of fifteen years he had made a model community there, which attracted the attention of humane people all the world over. There were evidences enough, here and there, that factory life, the great invention of the century, might not be the best thing for women and children, unless somebody took care of their health and education, and, in general, for their welfare. The success of New Lanark really was, that Robert Owen, a generous, disinterested man, did take such care of his people, and did it on wise and far-sighted plans. If women, who had young children, worked in the mills, he had day-nurseries for the little ones, with people we should call kindergartners for the very youngest. For all the boys and girls who worked he had evening schools; and there were classes in these for men and for women. He introduced, in a hall arranged for the purpose, popular lectures on subjects of familiar interest, being, I

think, the first person who did so, by half a generation. He had great enthusiasm for music and arranged for a great deal of it. His work hours were from six in the morning till seven in the evening, which we think fatally long. But the provisions for health and comfort for the work people, including a liberal allowance for dinner, were such that the people who visited New Lanark did not challenge, so far as I know, the oppressiveness of this part of the system. A like hardship existed in every cotton mill in England at that time.

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Now all this succeeded, as everything succeeds which rests on faith in man's co-operating with man, and on the wish to make people better and stronger and happier. New Lanark was a picture of ease, happiness, neatness, and content." Owen himself was not for a moment satisfied with making twenty-five hundred people happy, contented, at ease, training them to music and science while they earned their living. He soon conceived the idea that the whole world could be taken in hand in the same way, and should be.

When the peace of 1815 opened England to curious travellers from the rest of the world, New Lanark was in the prime of its success. Distinguished people used to be taken there to see the village as one of the lions of Britain. I think the Emperor Alexander was taken there about the time when his name was given to a little princess who is now queen. Her baptismal name, if anybody cares, is Alexandrina Victoria. But long before Robert Owen saw the Emperor Alexander, he had determined on the plans by which he would save the world. And having that confidence in Napoleon's star, which most of the English reformers of that day held, he took the occasion of Napoleon's leisure at the island of Elba, to call upon him there, and unfold his system. Napoleon was hospitable to intelligent strangers and to new proposals. And he showed so much intelligence in discussing socialism with Owen, that the philanthropist left Elba, sure that he had secured an important convert. He told me the whole story in some details, ending with the expression of his bitter regret that the allies could not have left Napoleon alone when he drove out Louis XVIII. "For it was his intention to use for peace the great powers

which up till now he had used for war." With Owen this meant that, had Napoleon been left to himself, he would have introduced the system of "family unions" all over France.

FAMILY Unions are now well-nigh forgotten in the successive plans of St. Simon and Fourier and the larger crowd of to-day. A Family Union was to be the people who lived on what a New Englander calls a township. These people, as a community, would establish a directory, which took the place of a benevolent parent, which Mr. Owen had taken at New Lanark. The Union would know better than the individual mother how to bring up her babies. So she would be permitted to work for the public and her baby would be cared for at the public nursery. This was the most absurd provision of the plan, and some of the details were sensible and attractive. From the Elba time down, Robert Owen gave but little of his time to the manufacture of cotton, or to the oversight of New Lanark. He came to America to found a Family Union at New Harmony, in Indiana. He left this, I think, under the charge of his son, Robert Dale Owen, who is still remembered as a fanciful, intelligent reformer and politician, who in the later years of his life was greatly interested in Spiritualism.

In 1844 Robert Owen, the father, then eighty-two years old, came to America for the last time. He wanted to press his plan for a fundamental reform of society on the American congress. The American congress was then being manipulated by John Tyler, and by people who owned Texan bonds, to give its consent to the annexation of Texas. It was not much interested in Family Unions. But, till the last week of the session, the dear old man was sure that light would break from the cloud and that a bill would be introduced and passed, appropriating $5,000,000 and a township of government land for the establishment of a model Family Union.

He was delighted with the telegraph, which showed its first large successes that winter in practical work between Baltimore and Washington. He saw at once that this was all that the Family Unions needed to bring them into accord and harmony.

"You could send in advance that you were coming and your room would be ready

for you, and clothes laid out when you came.'

I said one day, a little maliciously I am afraid, "Will it not be a little stupid, dear Mr. Owen, when it is all adjusted, and all the thousand million people in the world are divided off into unions of sixteen hundred and forty-four each?" His face blazed with delight, like Stephen's, as he heard another living person speak of this as possible. I doubt if he had ever had that ecstasy of joy before. I went on, "What in the world will they all do?"

For it was just dawning on the most advanced of us, that the highest aim of man is not gained by making all the thousand million work ten hours a day in cotton mills. I am sorry to say this light has not dawned on all the leaders to this day.

But it had dawned on dear old Owen. As if in beatific vision, looking into that future which the next month was to see begun by act of congress and John Tyler, he answered sweetly:

"Do? why, they'll travel. Think of the delight of travelling without expense, without fatigue, and without baggage."

"Without baggage!" A community of shirts and night-gowns, of pocket-knives, hair-brushes, and tooth-brushes. The answer gave one food for reflection.

The truth is, and that the Anglo-Saxon mind finds out, that you must quicken the individual to his utmost ability by giving him substantial independence; while for all those things which every individual needs

water, air, health, education, roads, and the rest- the community in full force must provide.

In the same way

BUT we must not venture on the philosophies. "I do not want to talk about butterflies, nurse; I want to talk about widows." This is the wise remark of a little girl in Venetia. we do not want to talk about socialism, but we want to talk about cotton. In those days of Texan annexation King Cotton had the innings, and the people who were doing the fielding had to look sharp. Among the other prophecies of that time, you may find this in the Encyclopædia Britannica:

"The southern states of America, in which the cotton-wool is raised, from their local defects and the character of the

I have sometimes wished that some sensible man might be appointed "Professor of America," at Oxford, and another at Cambridge. Such people could teach them a good deal which they do not seem likely to know. But I see no chances of such appointments. Indeed, I know no American college where there is such an appointment: the more's the pity. If I had the honor of lecturing on the Purchas or Hakluyt foundation on America, I would teach them first of all that they must unlearn the use of "never about the future of America. It is a very dangerous word, and "hardly ever is much more convenient after forty years.

In

Thus the establishment of cotton factories in the southern states is now a matter of history. The manufacture has increased rapidly in the last ten years past, and it may be said that the stage of experiment is already passed. Where they at first manufactured a coarse grade of yarns and cloths they are now making a much finer article, so coming into closer competition with the northern mills. former years the help in the mills were almost wholly from the north. But now the southern help have become competent, and are filling such positions as those of superintendent and other overseers in the mills. A great many of the corporations own most of the town where the mill is situated, they having their churches, libraries, general stores, and quite comfortable houses for their work people, so that everything appears prosperous and comfortable. I obtain these details from some of the gentlemen who have, with genuine forecast, worked for these results since the Civil War. They show how we must translate the "never" of the Encyclopædia.

MR. WEEDEN, at the end of his history of commerce, publishes some instructive and interesting reminiscences by Hon. H. N. Slater of Webster, regarding the early history of his father, Samuel Slater, whose apostleship we are about commemorating.

"The initial step towards cotton manufacturing in this country was taken when S. Slater, at the age of fourteen, in 1782, apprenticed himself to Strutt in England. Strutt was a partner of Arkwright, and had perhaps the best arranged mill, containing the new system of drawing, roving, and twisting cotton for warp and woof.

"He closed his apprenticeship in 1789, and was invited to come to the United States, as Pennsylvania wished to introduce cotton manufacture, a duty of ten per cent on the fabrics having been instituted under the new constitution. While in New York, however, Slater was induced to correspond with Moses Brown of Rhode Island, who replied, 'If thou canst do what thou sayest, I invite thee to come to Rhode Island, that I may have the credit and advantage of introducing cotton spinning.'

"The firm of Almy, Brown & Slater was formed, and started the manufacture of cotton yarns in Pawtucket in 1790, in all the perfection of the best mills in England. It was not imperfect, as has been supposed. Samuel Slater sent some yarns to his old master, who pronounced them as good as any. They were made from Surinam cotton, longer than our present Sea Island, and in fibre like silk.

"Cotton sewing thread was unknown in England, and we are indebted to the Wilkinson women in Pawtucket for the idea which initiated the invention. Using the yarn which had been spun in Pawtucket for a year and a half, these women conceived the idea of a thread which should take the place of linen. They twisted the yarns on their domestic spinning-wheel, and made the first cotton thread in 1792.

"In the sparse population, one of the chief difficulties of the early manufacturers was in procuring operatives, or 'help.' The mills succeeding Slater's were located farther in the interior on this account. Mr. Slater was obliged to seek operatives and induce them to emigrate to Pawtucket. The wages paid these operatives ranged from eighty cents to a hundred and forty cents per day.

"At first Salem was the chief market. Hartford was opened next, when the supply accumulated; then Philadelphia became the chief mart of all. New York or Boston hardly took any of the product."

WHETHER the annexation of Canada to the United States is a thing of the near future or not, the two countries are being drawn together to-day by multiplying business relations and common intellectual interests as never before. Whether one believes in the protective principle or in free trade, there is surely no good reason against such a policy of reciprocity between the United States and Canada as Mr. Blaine proposes in the case of the South American republics, or such a commercial union between the two countries as has been urged by Professor Goldwin Smith; for here the argument of "pauper labor," used with reference to the competition of the old and crowded European nations, is certainly without force. Whatever the political status or the tariff regulations may be or may become, our commercial relations with Canada are certainly destined to an immense development in the immediate future; and in this development New England, whose ports are the natural ports for the greater part of Canada, and whose cities must become the great termini for Canadian railroads, has a deeper and more particular interest than any other section of the country. Canada itself is clearly on the eve of a notable new era in industry, in trade, and in internal improvement, in the opening up of her almost limitless areas and resources to the world, which has been, and is for the most part, so remarkably ignorant of them. New England and the country cannot easily give too much time to learning more about Canada for some time to come. It is a pleasure to give the space which we do give in this number of the NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE to Canadian intellectual life and to Canadian writers. It is a pleasure to know that the intellectual life of Canada keeps pace with the material development in the degree here revealed. If the showing is not all that our ambitious literary brothers over the line wish it were, it is certainly most creditable and promising.

A CAUSE is seldom better helped than when it gets the laugh on its side. Good satire is an effective weapon. We doubt whether all the fervid eloquence of a dozen Anniversary Weeks did as much for anti-slavery as Hosea Biglow did when he lent his pen to the cause. A single line in The Heathen Chinee exposed to the apprehension and derision of the whole country the real animus of half the tirades against "Chinese cheap labor." We do not think that a keener piece of satire has appeared since the days of the Biglow Papers than the little poem entitled Similar Cases, by Miss Charlotte Perkins Stetson, published in a recent number of the Nationalist. It is surprising that the rare wit of these verses has not set them to jingling in the poet's column of every newspaper and in the gossip of every parlor. We are glad to let them ring upon our table. A very wholesome ring it is, as well as brilliant, and that is why we call attention to it. A man may be a socialist or an individualist, but all the same, if he have anything of the prophet and the believer in him, he will enjoy so trenchant

a thrust at the spirit that is content to argue against reforms by appeal to precedents:

I.

"There was once a little animal, no bigger than a fox,

And on five toes he scampered over Tertiary rocks. They called him Eohippus, and they called him very small,

And they thought him of no value when they thought of him at all.

For the lumpish Dinoceras and Coryphodont so slow

Were the heavy aristocracy in days of long ago. Said the little Eohippus: "I am going to be a Horse!

And on my middle-finger-nails to run my earthly course!

I'm going to have a flowing tail! I'm going to have a mane!

I'm going to stand fourteen hands high on the Psychozoic plain!"

The Coryphodont was horrified, the Dinoceras shocked;

And they chased young Eohippus, but he skipped away and mocked.

Then they laughed enormous laughter, and they groaned enormous groans,

And they bade young Eohippus "go and view his father's bones!

Said they: "You always were as low and small as

There was once an Anthropoidal Ape, far smarter than the rest,

And everything that they could do he always did the best;

So they naturally disliked him, and they gave him shoulders cool,

And, when they had to mention him, they said he was a fool.

Cried this pretentious ape one day: "I'm going to be a Man!

And stand upright, and hunt and fight, and conquer all I can!

I'm going to cut down forest trees to make my houses higher!

I'm going to kill the Mastodon! I'm going to make a Fire!"

Loud screamed the Anthropoidal Apes with laughter wild and gay;

Then tried to catch that boastful one, but he always got away.