The Express.
London, England, 1858-09-15 00:00:00

a velocity too rapid for the eye to follow, whizzing and
roariog, se if in agony, and throwing off a cloud of light
woolly fibres that floated in the air, and a stream of flocks
that till in a heap at the end of the room. It took three
minutes to stop the monster; and when the motion cried,
I maw that the cylinder ins foil of blunt steel teeth, which,
Meng whatever was presented to them In the shape of raga,
tore it thoroughly to ptecee ; in fact, ground it up into flocks
at short, hinly-louking fibre, resembling negro-hair, let
Ica and five from knots. The cylinder Is led by a travelling
=which brings a layer of rags continually up to the
On this occasion, the quality of the grist, as one
might call it, was respectable—nothing bat fathoms of Set
wWoh had Dever been defiled. So rapidly did the greedy
devil devour it, that the two attendant imps were kept fell
r in feeding ; and List as the pack of rags
▪ the heap of flocks increased. And so, amid noise
and dust, the work goes on day after day; and the man who
soperlatiods, aided by his two boys, MIN four pounds •
walk, grinding the rags as they come, tar thirty shillings
a pack.
The !locks are carried away to the mixing-house. As we
turned aside, the devil began to whirl once mon; and before
we had entered the other door, I heard the ferocious howl in
tall vigour. The road between the buildings was incurs-
bend with oil-maks, pieces of cloth, lying in the dust, as if
al so value, and packs of rags. It will all come right by-
eod-by," said the chief, as I pointed to the littery heaps
and, peadng by one of the pack, which contained what he
and " ' that is, shreds oleo& cloth as clergymen's
nets Ise via of, he made me aware that there I, shoddy mad
shoddy. That which makes the longest abro is, of coarse,
the beet ; and some of the choice arts an worked up Into
lierketable cloth, without a fresh dyeing.
Orem maims of the flocks, with pe=tvrerays between,
lay heaped on the stem Boor of the -house. Hate,
according to the quality required, the long II is mixed in
certain proportions with the short; and to facilitate the sub-
sequent operations, the several heaps are lightly sprinkled
with oil. A dingy brown or black was the prevalmt colour ;
bat some of the heaps were gray, sad would be converted
into undyed cloth of the same colour. It seemed to me that
the principal ingredient therein wee old wonted stockings; j
mad yet, baize many days, those hasp would become gray
cloth It for the jackets and mantle of winsome maidens.
I asked my conductor if it were teas, ea I had beard, that
shoddy-maker purchased the waste, begrimed, cotton wads
with which stokers sad " engletrtenters" wipe the ma-
aWnr~ or the dirty ratan of wool sorters, or every kind of
nggd rubbish. He did not think such things were done In
DmYy for his pert, he need none but best rags, sod could
beep two factories always going. He bad heard of the man
who spread greasy cotton-yule over his field, sad who,
when the lead tied absorbed all the gee e. gathered up the
Genoa, sad meld it to the shoddy- • bat he doubted
the truth al the story. True or not, ft ImioUes gnat aire-
d= swag a certain clue of mimunoturess. Legs, not good
though kr shoddy, are used as manure for the hogs in Sent
en we gat daddy in our beer as well as fa our hmadenth.
In an nut penes, the flocks ere Mandy mixed by
=Ter sad wider a series of rollers, sad come forth
last looking something like wool. Then the wool
as .
wawhic may
ter all
il'aring itgoasemotangthe " aadroalbillg.cattirrited
dimensions, delivers it yard by ayard in the form of a loom
thick cable, with • run of the fibres in one direction. The
carding-machine takes the cairn lengths, subjects them to
mother coves of torture, confirms the direction of the fibres,
sad Muss the amble Into a chenille of about the tidoknen of
a loWe flow. This chenille is produced in length* al about
five bet. scram the machine, parallel with the rollers, and Is
haserthately Iniasilarred to the piecing-machine by a highly
j protean Ruh length, as it is finished, drops into
a=i7snarrow, tin tray ; the tray moves forward ; the ant
behind it receives a chenille ; then the thud ; then the fourth;
sad so on, up to tea. By this time, they have advanced over
a table on which lies what may be described as a wooden
gridiron ; there is a moormis= pause, and then the tea
trays, turning all at cam down, drop the chenille'
Dreamily between the bus the gridiron. At one side of
the lade is a row of large spindles, or rollers, on which the
elmillie—cerdlap, is the factory wad—are wound, and
the dropping is so contrived that the ends of those which
tall mai* the ends of the lengths on the spindles by about
No inch. Now the gridiron begins to vibrate, and by its
movement beats the ends together; joins each chenille, In
tact, to the me before it ;;then the spindles whirl, end draw
in the Yoga" having on enough for the overlap ; and so
mom is this moomplished than the ten trays drop soother
=rwhisk is treated in the rune expeditious moor,
ig. *Mae an filled. No time is lost, for the tall
ease ere fraesslkitely replaced by ans.
Now ems the ghtners' tura. Mks these tall
=iwhoa then to the action of their mottheary by
t • time, and spin the large, 101:46 cesailles cat,
yams of Mama degree@ of strength sad frames, or, per-
haps me elonld say, cosneoses. redly kr the weavers. And
V this woy these hove at short, umemplient aggro hair, in
white yea ma lewdly hell • Lbw three latches long,
ere tranithemed fate keg, teialberus tbresda, able to bear
the rapid hike of the loom. I weld set eraMekatly admire
its ingenuity. Who would have imeginel that among the
shoddy P Moreover, vases en good at Batley,
Vitremispiaaere can earn from linty to forty-fin shillings a
week.

The women who attend the ;MOMS aim aim or al less
&Map a week, according es they was one est twdaistasse.
Next opuses the Whig room: tie pien ere s and
thumped for a whole day by • doses poodereas ro toe; thew
the raising of the pile es one or bath Mee of the cloth, elthm
by rollers or by hand. Is the lager aste; two men ankh •
piece as high is they ma rash so • seeded heater rid
scratch the who, dolomite with mai becd-mhie. the
teeth of widish are fine steal wire. Nada, bookie cos
oily be droned by • teazel of Novae eara poorhg; but
shoddy, ter ises delicate, submits to the nth& Ile the =a
keep cm, hogtis shoe length, till the lime is fhtithed. Then
the dyers have their turn, and if you enters to walk
through their sloppy, mousy depertneenk you will nre err
ethring the places about in eats, sod NM pleas besibe to
rollers which keep them for • while timmiag through the
liquor. Fran the dye-hones the pieces re tarried to the
hater-ground end stretched in one booth so vortical poets;
sad after a saltiest coarse of sun and sir, they allege the
Iltdehiag proosee—clipping the mime end bob_ grossing.
From what I saw in the tenter-pound, I discovered that
pike cloth is shoddy ; that glory banes gad allky-lookiag
sneheire are shoddy ; that the Pets hexes so Wyly ex-
ported to the United States ere shoddy; that the soft, deli-
cate cloths in which lathes feel so comfortable, and look so
peso el, are shoddy ; that the 't fabric " of Telma, Raglans,
sod 'Woke', and of other garments in which dee gentlemen
go to the Derby, or to the Royal Academy Exhibition, or to
the wining services in Weeminster Abbey, ars shoddy.
And if Germany sends us abundance of rags, we send to
Gethmay enormous quantities of shoddy in return. The
best quality manufactured at Batley is worth tan shillings •
yard ; the commonest not more then as shilling.
Broadcloth at • shilling a yard almost staggers credibility.
After that we may truly say that shoddy I. • great leveller.

- : - -
Mr. White combines not ooly amusement with
instruction : he has an eye to see and a pen to record
the beauties of nature. The painter and the poet
may both find ample themes for their contemplation
anti study, in the very pleasant ramble of " A Month
in Yorkshire."