The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-02-16
MY BOSOM FRIEND
Yankee Fairies at Work.

as the opcn-mouthed young folks them
selves.
When the children had gone to bed,
lamented that the belief In fairies had died
out.
vAIns r said I, 'they have vanishcd!"
'NNeel no ken that. replied my Scottish
friend McIIaggis; I'm thinkin there are
as mony giants aud firies In the world rs
ever there war! Gang yer gate to Waltham.
rs We we're q talkn' o., and IL We dlnna see
a lot o. fairies there, aud II Il Is ma a giant
that carries ye there, ye ken say I'm
wrang"
"A giant carry me?n
"Aye, mon - said the Scot; "what auld
giants that yc e'er read o. can be mated WI
an engineer
And so one day placed myself behind
the great giant OF the nineteenth century
"A locomotive eugine--and went to the
pretty rural town Of Walthnm, Mass--a
town famous mot for q day. but for all
time" for here a pair of great steam giants
turn the wheels that again turn the wheels
that mark the time for continent. lt
takes a tour-acrc lot to hold these giants
each with hundred iron arms and a thou
sand steel fingers and this four-acre lot Is
built within and without and overhead with
brick aRd iron and glass, and Is called The
American Watch Factory of Waltham
and II was thereabout that Mcllaggis said
| I should fud the fairies.
But the fairies OF our day-that is, the
| Waltham fairies-are not like those we read
OF. They don't play etin pranks, for their
Ievery step Is measured by the sun and they
have nothing 10 do with wings but to mark
the steady motion of those of old Father
Time himself
But TO drop metaphor and come down to
| the practical, as well as the poetical part OF
| this fairy hive of industry and order, let MS
| ,f hts nt
this fairy palace and for guide and mentor
we viii take one of the managers.
But first" said we to our guide, will
you please inform us how this great estab-
| lishment originated :"
| He informed me that the manufacture Of
watches by machinery is a distinctively
American undertaking. For several gen
erations q vast number OF watches have
| been made in England, Switzerland, and
| Frances; but the component pieces have
/ been made and finished by hand in different
| factories. and even in different provinces,
| with no direct relation to each other. Here
lin Waltham. on the contrary, Il watch is
created In all Its wonderful harmony and
Iexquisite beauty from the original and
crude materials--the brass, the steel, the
enamel, the gold, the unwrought jewels
under one roof and one supervision, by a
mechanism that never tires and never va
rieS.
The task of competing with Europe in
| the manufacture Of watches seemed at first
ISight to be hopeless. Europe had the mar
ket, the reputation, two centuries of cx-
perience, and the cheapest of human labor,
To make matters worse, there was free
trade in watches. A petty tariff of only
seven and half per cent, was all the "pro-
ltection"-nominal or real-that existed
Fifteen years ago to foster native enterprise
land genius. Ingenious men conceived the
idea of manufacturing every part of the
watch. and of performing every process o
manipulation, by a succession of machines
each of which should execute one function
only, and then pass its work over to an
other piece of mechanism. The only duty
left to man in his daring conception wa,
to superintend the work of the iron slave,
I whom he had created, to carry their pro-
lducts from one to another, and to put the
{ watch together after all its parts had beer
, completed. The scheme was an ideal one
there were no such machines in existence
but the plan was seconded by capital, and
{ in 1853, the experiment was tried. At tina
/ time although the chief parts of watcl
I were made by machines, there were still
large number of the pieces turned out b!
hand, and various important processes en-
z trusted to manual skill, which are now don
I wholly by mechanism. The company O
machines was quickly increased to a regi
ment. the regiment to u brigade, and nov
I the brigade has become an army.
q ! asked how many watches were import
ed annually.
Formerly about four million dollars
worth yearly the manager said, and
T. took about four millions more to max
them go. At che present time, the Eng
: lish watch trade has nearly ceased, and tn
S Swiss has greatly fallen OFF,"
/. How many Watches asked, are man
;. lufactured mt Waltham now ~
) I'VE turn ont" said he, lat the rate o
= $50 day, or 10000 year, of all varieties
4 from good to best.n
4 asked as to the number of hands EN-
e ployed.
v 1--WE average" he replied. 200 men an
IS women; about one-third females
@ IAN Americans ?"
!: NEARLY all,n he answered; "we have
a few foreign worlmen in the different de
d partments, but nearly all the employees al
N NATIVE born, and mostly New England mel
,e Waltham and its neighborhood supply mo-
l. of the females, and many of these III
I, among the most skillful and valuable hant
N we have. We pay good wages, aud requi
\ intelligent operatives. The situations al
pr soon filed, You viii see how we keep Il
l. factory we intend that every room sha
> be as clean, comfortable, and pleasant rs
n parlor, and that Is one reason why we
ways secure tirst-class help
There is hardly any lgOrk in the factor
nj Iron muscles do everything of that sol
y, All that the operatives are needed for. aft
u. the machines are made, is to watch az
al guide them.
E. THE FAIRIES HOME.
s. We now requested that he would show
nd something of the factory.
lis with pleasure" he replied. "To beg
" ut the beginning, here is the engineered
Oh where four boilers of thirty horse pow
i'd drive the two huge genii that in turn dri
We a little army of iron fairies all day long
I'd their several tasks. No cunning wee bo
of n screw maker or pivot-polisher so ma
that it can stop and waste Its time i'm pla
ing while these surly old genii in their dc
'e- are busy
AS Dens! Why, is this neat room, which,
its wall adorned with portrait of LincC
ed decorated with Union flags,) and ma
is pretty devices, and which, under its vi
dow that looks out on a green lawn,
lco several dozens ofthrifty conservatory pla
lp- growing in potS-is this tie Engine Hous
hi Sure enough, this is the place. There, $
len and silent, but beautiful, lies the gr
power which drives half the factory fair
-ad at work! Let us 90 up stairs. This lo
,0H clean room, filed with lathes aud mach
Ia cry, but neither odorOus nor noisy, althou