m)t iTa rmcr'g iHo ntl ilij btflitor. 



151 



(\j=' \n tlio lollovviiis notice of Dr. Howe of 

 Boston, the New llatni)sliire leiuler would linnlly 

 i-eco"nize tlie iimn who has repeatedly nppeiired 

 at the seiit of oiir Legislature as the Imtnble m- 

 striietor and alicndiint of the unfortiniate anil 

 poor blind. A hnnian licin;,' without that e.xpre.s- 

 sive organ, the eye, as the more prouiiuent point 

 of the TntelliL'ence which distinjinislies our race, 

 to the rnere'heholder is the least interestinsf : 

 deformity of bndv.thc loss of henriufiaud speech, 

 lessens liot the v'ivaciiy or mars the i]uo^ propor- 

 tions of the most irtellectual aixl lioautiful lai'e — 

 the si'jhlless eyeballs even of the innocent and 

 s;ay spoil all our notions of beauty, ami le.-ive a 

 permanent disauiveable imin-ession. Dj'. Howe, 

 to us, has appeared as the humble instructor ol 

 the humblest human beings, hepmiiiiL' with the 

 very ABC of l<nowlcd};e. Travelling' abroad his 

 phi'lanlhropy leads him to appear in a hijiher 

 charaeter, in an attitude which ereat men might 

 envy, because kinirs and luiiperors are made to 

 show that thev ffcl his power. 



Mr. N. P. Willis of the New York Minor, 

 thus writes to the editors of the National Inlelli- 

 „g„c(;,.. Hilt's Patriot. 



Jottings. 



Dr. Howf..— It will he a curious piece of news 

 to yon that our countryman Dr. Howe (lately 

 married and gone abroad) has been slop|ied on_ 

 the borders of Prussia by a Ciihinet ordrr, and of 

 course is shut out from so much of the Rluue as 

 lies (if my geoL'raphv serves me) l;etween Cuh- 

 lenlz and" Cologne. 'This special edict on the 

 part of a Uiiifl wilh a standing army of two hun- 

 dred thousand men is no small compliment to 

 Dr. Howe's coiise(^uenee; but perhaps it would 

 interest your readers to be made acquainted with 

 the cetera intus. 



About ten vears ago I had the honor (and as 

 such I shall al wavs treasure the memory) of shar- 

 ing Dr. Howe's loilgings at Paris for some months. 

 He was then employed in learning that system 

 of iustrnction for the blind upon which he has 

 since grafted improvements that have made him 

 a sepal-ate fame among philanthropists. Philan- 

 tluophy seems to be his engrossing and only 

 mission in life, however; for, though giving '.he 

 most of his day to the objects of his special er- 

 rand, he found" time to maUe himself the most 

 serviceable man in France to the cause of Po- 

 lanil. The disasters of Warsaw had tilled Paris 

 with destiinle refugees, and distinguished men 

 who had shared in that desperate battle were lit- 

 erally houseless in the streets. Our common 

 breaUfast-room was thronged with these unfortu- 

 nate patriots, and, with noble liberality, Dr. Howe 

 kept open table for all who came to him— many 

 of them to mv knowledge getting no fond else- 

 w here, and among olhers, Lelewel, the disliii- 

 gnishcd poet and patriot, coming in one moriimg 

 JoasUa breaklast.as 1 well reccdiecl, after having 

 slept out a winter's night in the street. Lafayette 

 was at that time at the head of the Polish com- 

 mittee, and Fenimore Cooper (whose generosity 

 to the Poles shonhl he chronicled, as well as the 

 devotion of his time aiul talents to the cause) 

 shared with Dr. Howe the counsel and most ef- 

 ficient agency of the benevolent old man. At 

 this lime a siim of money was raised to be sent, 

 with some imnoriant and secrect des|iatclies, to 

 the Poles wl'io had fled into Prussia, and Dr. 

 Howe oflered to be the hearer. J went with him 

 to the Messagerie and saw him off in the dili- 

 geiw, very little suspecting the daug(U-oiis char- 

 aeter of liis errand. He arrived at Berlin, and, 

 after jiassing the evening abroad, returned to his 

 hotel and found a couple of ofoij (/'rjrmcs in his 

 room. They informed him thai he must accom- 

 pany them to the police. The <loctor understood 

 his position in a inomciil. By a sudden efiort he 

 succeeded in pitching both the soldiers out of the 

 room and closing the door, for it was all-impor- 

 tant that he should gain time lo destroy papers 

 that he had about him. The gens-d'urmts com- 

 menced a parley wilh him through the bolted 

 door, whicli resulted in a compact that he should 

 be let alone till morninL', on condition of his 

 agreeing to go with them piwcenbly at daylight — 

 they keeping senlry outside, lie had no light, 

 hut he passeil the night in tearing into the small- 

 est possible t>agnienls the important papers ami 

 soaking them in water. Among his pajiers, 

 however, were two or three letters from Laliiy- 

 ette to himself which he wished to preserve, and 



after examining the room he secnMed these in 

 //,e hoUnw of a 'piaster cast of the king which chan- 

 ce.l to be there, and so saved them ; lor though 

 the minute fragments were picked out and put 

 together aiiain, (as he snbsequeiilly di.scovered,) 

 he'^wrole to a friend at Berlin six mouths alter, 

 who went to the hotel and found the secreted 

 letters safe in tin! plaster king's keeping! 



At dawn Dr. Howe opened his door, and was 

 marched innnedialely to prison. By chance, on 

 the evening of his arrival he had met an Auieri- 

 can in tlie"entrv of the hotel who had recognized 

 him. and the liexl day came to call. Frum_ the 

 mysterious manner in which the people ot the 

 house denied all knowledge of what had become 

 of him, this gentlemoii suspected an arrest, and 

 wrote to i\lr. Kives, our then minister to Fiance, 

 stating his suspicion. iMr. Rives immediately 

 ilemaiided him of the Prussian government, and 

 was assured in replv that they knew nothing of 

 the person in question. Mr. P.ives applied a 

 second lime. Dr. Howe had now been six weeks 

 in solitary confinement, and at the end of this 

 perioil he was taken out in silence and put into 

 a carriage wilh closed windows. They drove 

 off, and it was his own terrible belief for the first 

 day, that he was on his way to Siberia. By the 

 light through the covering of the carriage, how- 

 ever, he discovered that he was going westward. 

 The sudden transition from close confinemeiit 

 to the raw air, threw him into a fever, and on the 



shire, became, during his visit there, highly in- 

 terested in the progress of those ingenious maii- 

 ufiiclures, which, not many years before, had 

 been eslablished in thai inimedinte nelghhor- 

 liuod. The application nl' ui:;i'hlnriy lo the art 

 of spinning was at that lime a novelly ; and the 

 splendid fortums that some ingenious mechan- 

 ics, who had been snccessfid in introducing it, 

 were supposed to be realizing, seemed to hold 

 out extraordinary enconrageinenl to the exercise 

 of any inventive" faciiiiy that should contribute 

 to the improvemeiitof our national manufactures. 

 Mr. Cartwright was not aware in how high 

 degree a faculty of this iiiiturc existed in his 

 own mind, until it was brought into action by 

 the accidental occurrence of a conversation at 

 the publii- table, on the subject of new and in- 

 genious iiuentions, especially thai of Sir IVich- 

 anl Arkwrighl's recently invented method of 

 spiuuing cotton by machinery. It was observed 

 by some of ihe "company present, that, if this 

 new mode of spinning by machinery should be 

 generally adopted, so much more yarn would he 

 mauutiic'inreil than our own weavers could work . 

 up; thai the consequence woiihl be a consideia- 

 hle export to the Continent, where it might be 

 woven into clolli so cheapiv, as to injure the 

 trade in England. Mr. Cartwright replied to 

 this observation, that the only remedy for such 

 an evil would be to apply the power of iiiachine- 

 ry to the art of weaving as well as|to that ol 



.bird day of his silent journey f^^^f^^'i^j^ I :?;:;:Si>'7an't;r^.rod;;:^d"br:;;:spi;,dl: 



rlS'o::;h;r;;Ur:::::Uigr while' cha^ind^ine^ ^o, Manchester, who were 



. . I I . . .1.- : ^ i^i-oef^nr t\nf\ w no. u 11 



horses, a physician was brouglu to the carnage- 

 door, who, after seeing the prisoner, wrote a cer- 

 tificate that he was able lo proceed, and they 

 again drove on. That day they crossed a corner 

 of the Hanoverian dominions, and, while stop- 

 ping (or a moment in a village. Dr. Howe saw 

 the^red coats of some officers, and by a bold 

 attempt escaped from his guards and threw 

 himself on their protection. They quietly re- 

 stored him to the Prussians, and the carriage 

 drove on once more— his guard tinally setting 

 him down at Melz, on the borders of Prussia, 

 with orders never to enter again the Prussian 

 dominions. At present he is at Bulen-Ba- 

 deu, and Mr. Everett is engaged in a negotia- 

 tion, throjgh the Prussian minister al Loudon, 

 (Chevalier Bunsen,) for the revocation of the 

 Cabinet order and permission for a simple citi- 

 zen of the United States to show his bride ihe 

 Rhine! Mr. Greene, our counsel at Rome, who 

 is now ill New York, informs me that Dr. Howe 

 is also on the black list of the king of Naples— 

 of course as a general champion of liberly. 



Dr. Howe's first reputation, as is well known, 

 was made as a Philhellene in the Greek revolii- 

 timi. Ue left tliis country entirely without means, 

 having just completed "his studies in surgery, 

 and worked his jiassage to Greece. He entered 

 the service as a surgeon, and soon gained the 

 highest promotion— serving part of the time on 

 board the armed steamer commanded by Ha' j. 

 liiiirs — the only fault found with him being (.-is a 

 Hanoverian comrade of his told me at Paris) that 

 he would be in the fight, and was only a surgeon 

 when the battle was over. His wiinlo career in 

 Greece was one of gallant acts of liravei.-y, gen- 

 erosity, and .seU-sacrifice, as represented by his 

 companions there — and if he could evei-lie made 

 to overcome the unwillingness with which he 

 speaks of himself, his history of per.sonal adven- 

 ture would, wilhout doubt, be one of the most 

 curiously interesting narratives in the 'ftorld. Dr. 

 Howe's slight person, delicate and beantifiil fea- 

 tures and soft voice, would give one. thi: impres- 

 sion that he, was more at home in his patient 

 labor of winding light through the hibyrinth of 

 the sense-iinpri.soued Laura Bridginan ; but a 

 more fiery spirit, and one more reluctant to sub- 

 mit to the details of ipiiet life does Dot exist, and 

 the most trying service he has ever done in the 

 cause of philanthropy, I sincerely believe, is this 

 discipline of bis tumultiious energies to the 

 patient leaching of the blind. He is still a young 

 inaii — not yet forty, I believe. I could not Irust 

 my admiration and afteetion 10 say more of his 

 character than the giving of this sitnple statement 

 of facts. 



present, and who, it may be presumed, vvere 

 better acquainted with the subject of discussion, 

 would not admit of the possibility of .such a 

 contrivance, on account of the variety of inove- 

 mcnt< required in the operation ot weaving. 

 Mr. Cartwright, uho, if he ever had seen weav- 

 ing- bv hand, had certainly paid no particular at- 

 ieiith"ui to the process by which it was perlorni- 

 ed, maintaineil that there was no real impos.si- 

 bilitv in applving power to any part oi the most 

 conmlicated Iiiachine (pro.lucing, as an instance, 

 the automaton chess-player); and that, whatever 

 variety of movements the art ot weaving irnght 

 require, he did not doubt b'.l that the skiltii ap- 

 plication of mechanism might produce theiii. 

 The discussion having proceeded to some length, 

 it maile so strong an impression on Mr. Cart- 

 wright's mind, that, immediately oa Ins return 

 home, he set e.'ooul endeavoring to construct a 

 macliine the.i slionld justify the proposition tie 

 had advanced, of the pracilcability ot weaving 

 bv mac'.iinevv. It may be renuirked, that tne 

 iucred.ulif, expressed by those !-'S"tle'n<'"'.,3 

 were of .,n ,» rsons most likely to be acqnamte.l 

 with f.e e,ha.l .-my attempt been Pr^^^'^^y 

 mad, o wP«^-« hy machinery, is a Pr- .V ^f";^ " 

 sivemoof'thal no^W"!; ol ^'"^ ^""^ ha.t -Jh rf iv 

 b een'effected. Ife «-' attempts, as .mgh . b^ 



Dr. Cartwrioht's Invention of the Pow- 

 er Loom.— Ill the summer of 1784, Mr. Cart- 

 wright, hap|)ening to be at Matlock, in Derby- 



- een ettecten. - ' , ,,„„,; hol,.ar, v ,-,ther 

 supposed, were •■«";• ^j',, ^j...^. -^ ^.e. 

 draw nigs nor "loc.^ls " -m 





■Vas 

 iia- 



huve no means id' li'SCinj. ~,rt 



mechanical expen'iienf, norot-'fl'^cr j,,,^^ og .■ - 

 mode in which he prol'fsed X6 ove ,.^0,,,^ .lith- 

 cnlties that had appeared i .«"'•»' niirr.abio t '■'■" 

 to experienced m.c lianicijUs. J^', ihocoiii'^ ' 

 a few months, ho Aever, "^fi' iHu; 'Lnoiight Ji' 

 loom lo such a start ' of pji-igies;,, as led hiiiv ,'i, 

 imagine that it migin ev eiitnally' ltecoui!i prsftf . 

 hie; ,-ind, to the surp. I'ise of every ons \v\hi' " ~ 

 at itti conversant witl i undertakings of tiris 

 ture, as well as to that ol liis personal li'ienti,., /,.i 

 took out a patent in Ajiril, 1785,' in otderto se- 

 cure to himself the lx\ et led advantage.s -.if rlji; 

 invention. Tlie pstciit, o r, as it' is now called 

 the power loom, lias cloul )tless been iniceivin'r 

 continual additions fiVnii various luuiiis diuiiii» 

 the last fifty years; and th e lieantifnl machine 

 (adapted as it is to eviry variety of lifhrii-, and 

 now in use loan immense extent) rtifli-rs con- 

 siderahly in detail, even liiuu llie mosl impruved 

 form of Mr. Cartwiight's iincDiiou. l>u< to hinj 

 the merit is due of having been the (iist to ap- 

 ply power successfully to tlie hi^-,',ness of weia- 

 ing, and the principles liy «',ii,:h he achieved 

 that first great step may h.; iiiiced through everv 

 progressive improvemeijt. ami imqiieslionablv 

 opened the way to in.iiiy nf those ingenious ail" 

 ditioiis by means of which laier machiiji>ls 

 have brought the power lo.mi to its present state 

 of excellence.— .l/cmo;V of Dr. Cartwright. 



