mselves
why, in all the length and breadth of America, there are no
well-established and prosperous domestic manufactures.

We have no articles of use or luxury made in _homes_ which are objects
of commercial interchange or sources of family profit. To this general
statement there are but few exceptions, and curiously enough these
are, for the most part, in the work of our native Indians.

A stranger in America, wishing--after the manner of travelers--to
carry back something characteristic of the country, generally buys
what we call "Indian curiosities"--moccasins, baskets, feather-work,
and the one admirable and well-established product of Indian
manufacture, the Navajo blanket. But these hardly represent the mass
of our people.

We may add to the list of Indian industries, lace making, which is
being successfully taught at some of the reservations, but as it is
not as yet even a self-supporting industry, the above-named
"curiosities" and the Navajo blanket stand alone as characteristic
hand-work produced by native races; while from our own, or that of the
co-existent Afro-American, we have nothing to show in the way of true
domestic manufactures.

When we contrast this want of production with the immense home product
of Europe, Asia, parts of Africa, and South America--and even certain
islands of the Southern Seas--we cannot help feeling a sort of dismay
at the contrast; and it is only by a careful study of the conditions
which have made the difference that we become reassured. It is, in
fact, our very prosperity, the exceptionally favourable circumstances
which are a part of farming life in this country, which has hitherto
diverted efforts into other channels.

These conditions did not exist during the early days of America, and
we know that while there was little commercial exchange of home
commodities, many of the arts which are used to such profitable
purpose abroad existed in this country and served greatly to modify
home expenses and increase home comforts. To account for the cessation
of these household industries, it is only necessary to notice the
drift of certain periods in the short history of America's settlement
and development.

We shall see that the decline of domestic manufactures in New England
and the Middle States was coincident with two rapidly increasing
movements, one of which was the opening and settlement of the great
West, and the other the establishment of cotton and woolen mills
thr