e very small,
education was exceedingly hard to obtain, and the comforts of life were
few in comparison with the present time.

At the recent meeting of the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers,
in Boston, Stephen A. Knight, of Providence, a former president of the
association, gave his reminiscences of old-time mill work. Mr. Knight
began as a bobbin boy in a mill at Coventry, Rhode Island, in 1835. After
the lapse of seventy years he says:

My work was to put in the roving on a pair of mules
containing two hundred and fifty-six spindles. It required
three hands--a spinner, a fore side piecer, and a back
boy--to keep that pair of mules in operation. The spinner
who worked alongside of me died about two years ago at the
age of one hundred and three, an evidence that all do not
die young who spend their early life in a cotton-mill. I am
hoping to go one better.

The running time for that mill, on an average, was about
fourteen hours per day. In the summer months we went in as
early as we could see, worked about an hour and a half, and
then had a half-hour for breakfast. At twelve o'clock we had
another half-hour for dinner, and then we worked until the
stars were out.

From September 20 until March 20 we went to work at five
o'clock in the morning and came out at eight o'clock at
night, having the same hours for meals as in the
summer-time.

For my services I was allowed forty-two cents per week,
which, being analyzed, was seven cents per day, or one-half
cent per hour.

Old-Time Profit Makers.

The proprietor of that mill was accustomed to make a
contract with his help on the first day of April for the
coming year. That contract was supposed to be sacred, and it
was looked upon as a disgrace to ignore the contracts thus
made. On one of these anniversaries a mother with several
children suggested to the proprietor that the pay seemed
small.

The proprietor replied: "You get enough to eat, don't you?"

The mother said: "Just enough to keep the wolf from the
door."

He then remarked, "You get enough clothes to wear, don't
you?" to which she answered, "Barely enough to cover our
nakedness."

"Well," said the proprietor, "we want the rest." And that
proprietor, on the whole, was as kind and considerate to his
help as was any other manufacturer at