Mexico weekly ledger., 1877-02-15
The Romance OF Commerce.

With the death Of Sir Titus Salt,
Baronet, ends a career which may not
inaptly be said to belong to the ro-
nance of commerce; for the story of
how the owner of Saltaire made his
fortune is indeed singular. Many years
ago there were consigned to q firm OF
merchants in Liverpool several bales of
some strange hairy wool from Austria
liza. Nobody had ever seen the like of
it before; nobody thought much Of it;
and thus it lay slowed away in a shed
at the docks as though it were so much
lumber. 1t happened one day that Mr..
Titus Salt, a small manufacturer of
Yorkshire. was in Liverpool, and. wan
dering about the docks, he CHANGED t
come across this neglected consign-
ment of seeming rubbish. He exam
ined it, however, anu asked il he might
be allowed to take some of it away with
him. OF curse he obtained permits
sion to carry off as much as he pleased.
What he did with the sample he thus
procured need not be told. Suffice it
to say that he came back again, offered
to purchase the whole OF the stub
bish," and became its pOssessor for
a merely nominal sum. This hairy
wool, this trash which no one would
even look at as a marketable commod-
ity, and of which MIR. Titus Salt Sc
cured the monopoly, was alpaca.
Such was the way in which the for
tunes of the great manufacturer and
millionaire, who died AZ his seat, Crows
nest, nea Halifax, recently, were
founded. For years, Mr.. Salt and his
family were the sole makers of that
useful material which has grown to be
something like a rival to cotton; and
on the strength of the valuable patent
they thus acquired they built 3 factory
which, with extensions, has become
of the largest in England.
The huge hive of industry, conspicu-
GUS as it is to the eye OF the passing
traveller, is not, however, the most re-
markable feature of Saltaire. Sur
rounding the vast factory is a large vii
lage, or small town, containing many
thousand inhabitants, every one of
whom, of working age, is somehow en-
ployed at the big alpaca mill. Sir Titus
Salt was the sole landlord of this busy
community, and the manner in which
he discharged his responsibilities as
such is one of the most notable facts of
his times. At his own expense, and I'M
der his personal supervision, he pro-
vided every thing that seemed necessary
for the moral and material well being
of his little kingdom. He built for his
people baths and wash-houses, schools
and places of recreation; he erected a
mechanics institute, the appointments
of which will compare with those of a
fashionable club, and he also caused to
be constructed a chapel, attached to the
Congregationalist body, of which all
that can be said in the way of objection
is thai it is only toos splendid. Saltaire,
in short, has been established on what
may be called a basis Of practical phi
lanthropy, while a laudable attempt to
guard the morals of it's inhabitants has
been made in the rigid exclusion from
the place of all public traffic in intoxi-
eating liquors. Inthese things Sir Titus
Salt both meant we'll and did we'll.
Personally, he was an intelligent, kind
hearted man, a progressive politician,
a muniticent contributor to public chart
ties, and a Jealous promoter of popular
education. His life has been useful in
many ways. He made his fortune by
the introduction of q beautiful and
valuable commodity, and he spent a
large portion of it In doing substantial
good to those he at once employed and
served. In the history of the manufac-
turing industry of England, few names
will have SO high a place of honor as
that of Titus Salt.-LGmd0n Telegraph.