CHAP. VI.] LOWELL FACTORIES. 91 



men, were those of Whigs. In short, the mail, like the cabinet 

 at Washington, had to go out of its way to hunt up a respectable 

 democrat, and he, when found, has to learn, a new craft. By 

 leaving such places to the patronage of each state, this class of 

 abuses would be much lessened. 



Oct. 14. Next morning we received all our letters from 

 England, only a fortnight old, and had time to travel seventy- 

 five miles by railway to Boston before dark. When I took out 

 the tickets they told me we had no time to lose, saying, &quot;Be as 

 spry as you can,&quot; meaning &quot; quick,&quot; &quot; active.&quot; From the cars 

 we saw the Merrimack at the rapids, foaming over the granite 

 rocks ; and, when I reflected on the extent of barren country 

 all round us, and saw many spaces covered with loose, moving 

 sands, like the dunes on the coast, I could not help admiring the 

 enterprise and industry which has created so much wealth in 

 this wilderness. We were told of the sudden increase of the 

 new town of Manchester, and passed Lowell, only twenty-five 

 years old, with its population of 2 0,000 inhabitants, and its 

 twenty-four churches and religious societies. Some of the man 

 ufacturing companies here have given notice that they will em 

 ploy no one who does not attend divine worship, and whose char 

 acter is not strictly moral. Most of the 9000 factory girls of 

 this place, concerning whom so much has been written, ought 

 not to be compared to those of England, as they only remain five 

 or six years in this occupation, and are taken in general from a 

 higher class in society. Bishop Potter, in his work entitled 

 &quot; The School,&quot; tells us (p. 119) &quot; that in the Boott factory there 

 were about 950 young women employed for five and a half years, 

 and that only one case was known of an illegitimate birth, and 

 then the mother was an Irish emigrant.&quot; 



I was informed by a fellow-traveler that the joint-stock com 

 panies of Lowell have a capital of more than two millions ster 

 ling invested. &quot;Such corporations,&quot; he said, &quot;are too aristo 

 cratic for our ideas, and can combine to keep down the price of 

 wages.&quot; But one of the managers, in reply, assured me that 

 the competition of rival factories is great, and the work-people 

 pass freely from one company to another, being only required to 



