The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-07 00:00:00

" CHALK YOUR BOBBINS."

Every one knows that old Sir R. Peel, father of
the late Prime Minister of England, and grandfather
of the present baronet, made his money by the cotton
spinning. In the early part of his career his business
was not remarkably extensive, but suddenly he made
a tremendous start, and soon distanced all his rivals.
He grew immensely rich, as we all know, but we do
not all know the lucky accident to which he was in-
debted for his enormous wealth. In the early days
of the cotton spinning machinery a great deal of
trouble used to be caused by filaments of cotton ad-
hering to the bobbins or tapes which then formed
portions of looms. These filaments accumulating
soon clogged the wheels and other parts of the ma-
chinery, and rendered it necessary that they should
be cleaned, which involved frequent stoppages and
much loss of time. The great desideratum was to
find out some plan of preventing this clogging by
the cotton, and Sir Robert, or Mr. Peel, as he was
then, spent vast sums in experiments. He em-
ployed some of the ablest machinists in the king-
dom—among them James Watt—who suggested
various corrections; but spite of all they could do,
the inconvenience remained—the cotton would
adhere to the bobbins, and the evil appeared to be
insurmountable. Of course these delays seriously
affected the wages of the operatives, who on Satur-
day generally came short in proportion to the
stoppages during the previous days. It was noticed,
however, that one man always drew his full pay,
his work was always accomplished ; in fact, his
loom never had to stop, while every other in the
factory was idle. Mr. Peel was informed of this,
and knew there must be a secret somewhere. It
was important that it should be discovered if pos-
sible. The man was watched, but all to no pur-
pose ; his fellow-workmen tried to "pump" him,
but they couldn't ; at last Mr. Peel sent for the man
into his private office. He was a rough Lancashire
man, unable to read or write—little better, indeed,
than a mere animal. He entered the presence
pulling his forelock and shuffling on the ground
with his great clumsy wooden shoes. " Dick," said
Mr. Peel, " Ferguson, the overlooker, tells me your
bobbins are always clean ; is that so P'' " Ee's,
master, 't be." "Well, Dick, how do you manage
it ? have you any objection to let me know ?"
" Why, Master Pill, 't be a saort of secret loike,
ye see, and if oi told, t' others know 's moch
as oi," replied Dick, with a cunning grin. "Of
course, Dick, I'll give you something if you'll tell
me—and if you can make all the looms in the fac-
tory work as smooth as yours." " Every one 'n
them, Master Bill." " Well, what shall I give you ?
Name your price, Dick, and let me have your secret."
Dick grinned, scratched and shook his great head,
and shuffled for a few minutes, while Mr. Peel anxi-
ously awaited his reply. The cotton lord thought
his scrvant would probably ask £lOO or so, which
he would most willingly have given him. Presently
Dick said, " Well, Master Pill, I'll tell 'ee all about
it, if you'll give me a quart o' beer a day, as long
as I'm in the mills, you'll save that ten." Mr. Peel
rather thought he should, and quickly agreed to the
terms. " You shall have it, Dick, and a half gal-
lon every Sunday into the bargain." " Well, then,"
said Dick, first looking cautiously around to see that
no one was near—" this it be," and putting his lips
close to Mr. Peel's ear he whispered, " Chalk your
bobbins !" That indeed was the great secret. Dick
had been in the habit of furtively chalking his
bobbins, which simple contrivance had effectually
prevented the adhesion of the cotton. As the bob-
bins were white, the chalking escaped detection.
111 r. Peel was a sagacious man, and saw through
the affair at a glance. He at once patented the in-
vention, had " chalking" machinery contrived, and
soon took the lead in the cotton spinning depart-
ment. This was the foundation of his princely for-
tune. It is but right to add that he pensioned off
Dick handsomely.—Scientifie American.

MATRIMONY IN MADRAS.

(From the Lahore Chronicle, Nov. 26.)
The Madras limes ex plains the manner in which
soldiers in the army of that Presidency select their
brides :—" Our readers are aware that in two most
excellent institutions, orphan girls of European
and mixed descent are tended and trained up
to become helpmates for our brave soldiers.
Besides the indispensable ' three R's,' they are
taught to sew, and to wash, and to bake, and cook,
and that most rare of feminine accomplishments—
how to nurse. There is always, we believe, a select
stock of girls on hand qualified and willing to take
on them vows of matrimony at the shortest notice.
Suddenly the hour of proposal comes, and also the
man. John Smith, a stalwart gunner, or Corporal
Brown of the dragoons, obtains permission from his
commanding officer to marry, and with testimonials
of good conduct in his hand, he presents himself
before the superintendent of the asylum, and inti-
mates his connubial purpose. The arrangements
now adopted to pair off the gunner or dragoon are
not quite the same as in days of yore. The mar-
riageable maidens are no longer trotted round the
compound, or drawn up in line before the perplexed
eyes of the husband elect. The process of inspection
and selection is conducted with a little more of the
privacy conventionally due to ante-nuptial negoti-
I ations. Smith or Brown is seated in a room wit h
the superintendent,who sends a summons for Martha.
With a wise commercial reserve the superintendent
keeps back the most tempting articles until an en-
deavour has first been made to get off the oldest and
least saleable part of the stock. Martha very likely
is a lank damsel, something like Kelly's monument
of consumption, and unless the customer be not at
all particular,' an objection is made—the reverse of
the objection urged by Mantilini to the two coun-
tesses, ' who had no outlines at all :" Martha' has
too much outline, is all outline in fact. The dra-
goon would like the outline better filled in, so Jane'
obeys the next call, who is plump but squab. The
military sense of correct dressing is offended by the
idea of a wife who only reaches to the hips of her
husband, so a desire is faintly murmured to see an-
other. A third appears who hits the juste milieu of
proportions, and Smith smiles a gratified assent,
communicating his t►pproval to the superintendent
in the unromantic phrase, that one will do." That
one' is next consulted, who seldom, if ever, has any
objection to offer. The approved maiden whispers
consent, and the bargain is ratified on the spot, not
in the customary pleasant manner—for amorous
blandishments the superintendent could on no ac-
count permit—but possibly by Smith offering his
extemporary fiancee a rupee' to get summit to please
herself.' The only other form necessary is to obtain
the sanction of the directors and to publish the
banns." We understand that the same system pre-
vailed at Kidderpore lower asylum, with this dif-
ference that the candidate for matrimony being
seated by the side of the matron, the young ladies
came into the room singly at one door, and unless
then and there chosen by the wife-hunter, they
immediately retired by the opposite door, and once
out of the room, it was contrary to rule to call any
lady back on the plea that she was preferred to
those who followed. The old story of picking up a
crooked stick in the forest will occur to the intelli
gent reader as coi.veying the same moral.

MILDNESS OF THE WEATHER.—A correspondent
writes that a red admiral butterfly (vanessa atalanta) was
seen sporting about in the neighbourhood of Staines on
Christmas-day last. The fact of a butterfly basking in a
Christmas sun is unprecedented.

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