Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-10-17
HAND LOOMS.

Not one hand-ioom is % be seen in our
town. 1t takes a small capital to set up
hand looms-to make pair of them $l5 or
less is sufficient. Let our wholesale dry
goods men start these looms at an expend-
itura of 81 500, and he althy activity viii
soon be apparent in their working. Thi re
is no question that the trade Of Nashville
alone would employ 5000 weavers. There
are thousands of varieties Of cloth
which are woven in hsnd.looms, land
which can not be manufactured
at ali by poWer-looms. For instance, there
are velveteens, cords, float works ard tWills
of all kinds, in each of which species may
be reckoned Thousand different patterns,
ard none of these can be wrought in power
looms. Here there can be no competition
between power operatives and hand opera
tives, because the latter can do what the
former cannot. do not mean to decry
machinery, but only to say that th're is
limit to its capabilities. Where it can pro-
duce one grade o; goods, there is aseemand
for many grades. Hand-looms are adapted
to the manufacture Of every species OF tex
tile fabrics. Their construction is easy and
cheap, while machinery for working any
textile fabric above four leaf twill, is cost
Is and difficult to change. A haDd-loom
can be alter from one pattern to another
in the space of ten minutes, without any
change of gearing. Il is this ease of atap-
tation, this facility Of production from the
simplest to the most complicated fabrics, that
render hand-iOoms q necessity to city
that would pretend to manufacture textile
goods. Machinery is in its nature confined
10 certain infexible kinds of operations,
and cannot be made to produce nearly all
the varieties of goods that are in common
use. A few hundred hand looms, put In
operation in Nashville, would draw in many
trades: carpenters, blscksmiths, picker,
shuttle, reed and pedal makers.
CIGARS.
The manufacture of cigars requires only
about 5000 to begin witt. Adex'rous hand,
by close application to his business, can
grow up step by step and secure his fortune
and position among men. Three hundred
cigar makers in Nashville could hardly
supply the demand of the State
of Tennessee. TO keep five cigar
makers working, one stripper is need
ed, and to keep ten busy, one swift
hand is necessary to pack the cigars Hastily
In boxes. In close connection with this
business, a box and ornsmented label estab-
lishment would spring up; one trade gives
rise to another. In the East many girls are
employed to make low priced cigars and
furnish boxes, and their honest earnings
amount TO eight and ten dollars week,
when they are expert hands, which they
soon become. Every cigar maker in work
ing off Havana and Connecticut tobacco,
earns from SIS to $40 and $50 per week
Good shippers (they are generally juven'
iIes) get from SIS to So per week, according
to forwardness. Apprentices earn accord.
ing to the time of their services from s. to
SIS per week. A good packer MAKES sl5
per week. All their work
men are paid off promptly
every Saturday, and the whole amount Of
their wages is immense. Nashville hal
onIy one or two small factories. In st
Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati and other stir
ring cities east and west-they make theiI
own cigars. But our wholesale and retail
cigar merchants, who are not practical CT
gar makers, lun to New York or Cincinnati
SO ne to Louisville, to perchase their cigars
and offer them here for sale. They benefit
those cities annually with nearly hal
million dollars. Nashville is robbed of thiI
amount of money. D. IL S1GMAN.