132 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 
the lioiiseliold, including the dairy. The men were en- 
grossed in the outside cares of the farm and home, yet 
maintained high intelligence and character. The lecturer 
said the Quakers of Adams maintained the iirst successful 
cotton factory in America. The Arkwriglit invention, now 
about 100 years old, was brought to America in Samuel 
Slater's brain in 1789. Hearing that a firm in Rhode 
Island had made some attempts at cotton spinning, he 
wrote from New York, and received the following as part 
of his answer : " If thou canst do this thing, I invite thee 
to come to Rhode Island and have the honor and the profit 
of introducing cotton manufacturing in America." Slater 
did enter the firm of Wm. Almy and Smith Brown and 
with them began the successful era. The Quakers of Ad- 
ams were the first to set up successful cotton manufacture 
outside of Rhode Island. Their social life was simple and 
pure. 
Monday, March 24, 1890. — Sidney Perley, Esq., of 
this city, delivered a lecture on " Old-time winters in Es- 
sex County," a subject to which he had given special 
attention, and had gathered a large fund of information 
from old diaries, records and newspapers. The lecturer 
spoke of the watch, church services, dress, food and schools 
of the early winter seasons ; how the people spent their 
evenings, the winter employment of the people in cutting 
ofl[' the forests, sledding timber and wood, making pipe 
staves and barrel hoops, and most interesting of all, the in- 
stitution of the old-fashioned shoemakers' shops, of which 
nearly every farm had one a century ago. AVomen in 
those days engaged in spinning and weaving. The holi- 
days were referred to — Thanksgiving, Christmas and New 
Year's, and the winter pleasures, such as slcighridcs, danc- 
ing, spinning and quilting parties, and games, shuflle- 
