OUR GREAT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. 



543 



all Nottingham went mad. Mechanics flocked to the scene, dwell- 

 ings could not be had, and building-ground sold for |20,000 an acre. 

 " Thousands of pounds were paid in wages to men who had not seen 

 a twist-machine, and tens of thousands for machinery that could never 

 repay the outlay. Improvident men rode to their work, stopping for 

 drinks of port and claret by the way, and were seen years afterward 

 receiving parish pay. When the national frenzy of 1825 collapsed, 

 the effect of this local inflation was fearful. Visions of wealth were 

 at once dissipated ; many in and out of the trade fell into jaoverty, or 

 became exiles, and some destroyed themselves." 



The extent of the manufacture of lace by machinery in England is 

 immense. In 1866 there were 3,552 bobbin and 400 Avarp machines, 

 yielding 5,130,000. There has been no actual census since then, but 

 in 1872 the returns were certainly not less than 6,000,000. 



In France, in 1851, there were 235,000 cushion-iace makers, produc- 

 ing annually 3,000,000, the whole European production in hand- 

 made lace being 5,500,000. The bobbin-net machines and warp 

 frames are extensively used in France, and twenty years ago there 

 were 50 bobbin-net machines in Belgium, making very fine extra 

 twist-net on which cushion sprigs are applied. 



The invention of machinery for lace-making, however, has not di- 

 minished the consumption of costly hand-made laces. The rich seem 

 more eager than ever to obtain the finer products of the needle and 

 pillow, insisting that the touch, finish, and beauty, of such laces can 

 never be attained by the products of the lace-frame. On the con- 

 trary, the writer was recently assured, by the foreman of a leading 

 lace establishment in London, that no hand-made ground could com- 

 pare in beauty and perfection of workmanship with some of the ex- 

 quisite grounds now made by machinery. 



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OUR GREAT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. 



ABOUT five years ago we decided to found a new college. At 

 that time our denomination had but seven in the State, not one of 

 them first class, all beggarly, and the nearest fifty miles away. Broth- 

 er A alone demurred to the project, but, as he was more noted 



for mere absti*act scholarship than for practical attainments, his objec- 

 tions were easily set aside. He thought it would be very unwise to 

 establish another institution of learning, on the ground that the prev- 

 alent division of forces tended to lower educational standards ; and he 

 held that we ought rather to concentrate our energies upon schools 

 already in existence and struggling to get along. We, on the other 

 hand, urged the desirability of multiplying means of education. If 



