Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-08-15
MANUFACTURES
4 Day in a Southern Cotton Mill.

S~TONEwALL, MISS, AQg. ~, 1863.
Especial Correspondence of the Appeal
In the pine barrens one hundred
miles above Mobile and twenty belDW'
Meridian, on the Mobile and Ohio
road. is the cotton manufacturers viii
lage of StOnewail. The structures are
of brick, the main building $50 feet
long, 81 wide, with two wings each
80 feet square. Two costly engines,
each of 30 horse power, drive the ma
! chinery of this model establishment.
There Is power enough for five times
the number Of looms ahdspi1dies nov.
in operation; and since the number 81
superintendent and of costly em-
| plOyeeS and managers would require
no augmentation, the proprietors will
at once double the length of the main
building, and fill it with machinery.
With this view the capital stock Qfthe
company, when incorporated, will he
increased, and the quantity of goods
manufactured will be doubled when
the additional capital invested wilinpt
be more than one fourth the original
outlay.
At present there are only ffty-tWO
looms and 20l6 spindles in operation,
consuming daily about three bales Of
cotton. Seventy-three women and
girls are employed about the establish
ment, whose white cottages, furnished
free of rent charge, dot the neighbOr-
ing hill sides. There is not a negro,
save the prOprietOrs' house servants,
at Stonewall; nearly every operatives
the widow or daughter of families inn
poverished by the war. Here it may
be stated parenthetically, that in con-
versatiOn between the two chief pro-
prietOTs, it was said that If some chris
tian organization would send a preach
er to the place, there would be given
every facility for the establishment of
churches and of Sunday and night
schools.
For many miles in every direction,
the country, sp8rsely Inhabited BIZ the
poorest classes Gfwhite people, IS cav
cred with lofty pines; sparkling
streams glitter in the valleys, and sick
ness from local causes is unknown.
OF the inhabitants of the country there /
is a class ignorant and wretehedly !
poor; another class of farmers have
found narrow valleys in which q bare
subsistence is gained by steady toll
and more numerous are those impey-
erished by the misfOFtunes of war.
The native born "sand-hilIers" are
clay cOlored, Sall0w, thin and ignorant
to the last degree. How they drag out
wretched lives of i~nt0l6rabIe poverty.
is n of those mysteries which the
more fortunate Of mankind never
comprehend. Singularly enough, the
poorest and MOST meanly clad of the
women go tFudging about their
little log hQts with mOps in their teeth,
and CARROTS snuff triekles down their
mouth corners. To eivilize and chris
these people, there was never
such an agency rs a cotton mill. Now
and then one of this class of women
entieed into the factory becomes an
excellent operative. Her cheeks |;
lose their sallow hues, her dull
eyes grow brighter, a share of mental
activity is generated by the wonderful !
ooms and whirring spinning jennies
md good food and comfortable abodes [.
new modes of thought and ae- ;
ion. The daughter of the sand-hills
hen becomes a fit subject for the min
STATIONS of the preacher and peda- J
,ogue. Vicious practices are speedily ,
tCNCOeChf anu TIC NulpIIIo arr \
expelled the place. /
Multitudes of Southern women. !
widowed by war and suddenly impov-
rished, are forced to toll for bread.
When intelligent girls Of such parent
ge appear, they are eagerly employed.
heir native worth and unfaltering Z
render them Invaluable. One '
{ these, a little orphan girl ten years
IS the favored child of the Stone
all Mills. She is very pale, slender
quick and nervous in her move
lents. She attends as many spindles
; any woman. When threads break :
nd little Mary is greatly annoyed, Y
err eyes are filed with tears and her '
tile, thin, nimble fingers are tWirled
bout among the broken filaments .
it'll marvellous rapidity. To her toll d
widowed mother is indebted for p
read. We went to the cottage in
hich she dwells. She had planted oil
vo rose vines by the doorway, and @
'uch-me-nots bloomed along the path
lat led to the widows home. There N