92 MY LIFE 



about all that he read, and at one time, having read many re- 

 ligious books, he wrote three sermons, which he afterwards 

 destroyed. He also learnt dancing, of which he was very fond, 

 and this led him to observe the characters of boys and girls, 

 and also had an important influence on his views and practice 

 of education. 



At the age of ten, at his own request, he went to London, 

 where an elder brother was engaged in a saddler's shop. 

 Through his father's introductions and the recommendation 

 of the draper in Newtown, he soon obtained an engagement 

 with a haberdasher at Stamford, who had a large business 

 in the finest qualities of goods, which he supplied to all the 

 nobility and gentry in the country round. The boy Owen 

 was to have his board, lodging, and washing, no salary the 

 first year, £8 the second, and £10 the third, and he tells us that 

 from the time of entering this house he supported himself, 

 never applied for or received any pecuniary aid from his 

 parents. Here he remained three years, and the hours of 

 business being comparatively short, by getting up early he was 

 able to read five hours a day. He also learnt here to dis- 

 tinguish the different qualities of all the finest fabrics, which 

 was of great use to him in after-life. 



He then returned to London, and after a visit to his family 

 in Wales, entered a large ready-money shop on Old London 

 Bridge, where he had £25 a year, but was at work for fifteen or 

 sixteen hours a day ; so after a year he obtained another situa- 

 tion in a large shop in Manchester at a salary of £40 a year. 

 Here he remained till he was eighteen, and a circumstance oc- 

 curred which changed the whole course of his life. 



A mechanic named Jones supplied the firm with wire frames 

 for ladies' bonnets, of which large numbers were sold. He 

 brought a supply weekly, and it was Owen's duty to receive 

 them from him, and being an intelligent man, they had some 

 conversation together. Jones was full of the wonderful im- 

 provements then being made in machinery for cotton-spinning. 

 He had seen some of these machines at work, and was sure 

 he could make them and work them if he had a little capital. 

 At last he persuaded Owen to lend him £100 (borrowed from 



