Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-09-28
ENGLISH FACTORIE ES.
THE GREAT MANUFACTURING ESTAB-
lISHAENTS or MANCHESTER.
A Babel Of 8ricks--Huge Penitentiaries-'
Homes Of the Working People-Ths
Weather Quarter-The Princes Of
Trade-Some Figures About
Pro6ts-Man an Insect.
VISITS TO TWO GREAT FACTORIES.

LONDON, September l2.-For the first
hundred miles from London to Man
chester the landscape is Hat and tame.
After this the hills begin, and the coun-
try acquires an expression. The undu-
lating hiltops are bathed in mists; some.
times when the sun shines forth, q fee
bic light rests like a smile on the pale
green; this fleeting smile, amid the gen.
eral mourning Of sodden fields, is most
affecting. We now enter the coal and
iron country; everywhere are marks
of manufacturing life; the cinder
heaps form mountains; the earth is
scanned with excavations; tall furnaces
belch forth flames. We are nearing
Manchester. In the bronzed sky at
sunset strangely shaded cloud hangs
over the plain; under this motionless
covering are hundreds of bristling Chin
neys, ss tall as obelisks; a huge and
black mass is next distinguishable, then
eudless rows Of buildings, and We enter
the Babel of bricks. Walking through
the city, the scene close at hand is still
more dismal. The air and soil appear
charged with bog and SCOT, manufactures
with their blaekened bricks, their naked
fronts, their windows destitute OF shut
terss resembling unique and cheap peni-
tentiaries, .rs %, sHEt
Succeed Each Other in Rows.
A large bazaar for the sale OF w-priced
goods, q work house to accommodate
four hundred thousand persons, pris-
on for convicts condemned to penal SER
vitude-such are the ideas created by
the spectacle. One Of these buildings is
a rectangle of six stories, in each Of
which are forty windows: it is here that
lit up by gas, amid the deafening noise
of looms, thousands OF work people,
cabineted, classified, immovable, me-
chanically drive their machines every
day from morning to night; can any
form OF existence be more opposed to,
aud at variance, with, the natural in
slincts of man? About six o'clock q
noisy, busting crowd pours from the
mills into the streets; men, women and
children flock along in the open air;
their clothes are filthy; many Of the
children are bare footed, the faces
of all are pinched and gloomy;
manv halt at gin palaces;
the others scatter and hasten towards
their homls We follow them. What
wretched streets! Through the half open
window may be seen
Miserable Room on the Ground Floor.
sometimes below the level Of the damp
pavement. At the threshold group OF
white, fat and untidy children breathe
the foul air of the streets, less foul, how
ever, than that OF the room. We con-
tinue our walk in the direction OF the
suburbs; there, in more open
space, rows OF small, cheap houses
haye been erected as q speculation.
The black street is paved with iron Stag;
and the rows OF red tiled roofs stand
forth in lines against the peculiarly gray
sky; vet each family dwells apart, and
the fog il breathes is not too impure.
These are the select, the happy ones,
and the time is summer, the pnrest sea.
son OF the year One asks what sort o.
life do they lead in winter, when the
Jog breathel, chokes, engulfs all nature,
and NJ feels how hesvi y man is op
pressed by this pitiless climate and this
industrial system.
Drives and visits in the
wealthy quarter are more agreeable.
Here and at Liverpool, as at Londoa,
the English character is manifested in
the buildings. The city man does his
utmost to east his city skin; he strives
to have country seat aud country sur.
roundings at the outskirts. He feels the
necessity OF being by himself, OF feeling
that he is alone, monarch OF his family
and his servants, OF having around him
a piece of garden or park as relaxs
ton from the artificial life OF town and
of business. Hence have been con-
structed vast silent streets in which
there are no shops, and in which each
house,
Surrounded By Q Patch OF Green,
il detached and is occupied by a single
family. Ia addition, beyond Manchea-
ter stretches Bowden-a nest OF public
villas, with the splendid park which
Lord Stamford throws open for ths en-
ioyment OF the multitude and IN which
there are mayniti ent trees, fine turf,
and herds OF tame deer lying amid the
ferns. How one must enjoy the charm
and the repose OF these natural beau
ties after leaving the mill and
the coun ing hous'! For there are no
other beauties. E'en walk through
the Quarter of the rich is depressing.
Ten, fifteen, twenty houses in success
sion have been built in the same style,
and they succeed each other with the
mechanical regularity OF draughtS one
,lrauyht. board. The trim lawns, the
small gates. the painted fronts, the uni
formity of the compartments, make one
think of painted menageries, OF neat
playthings. The ornamentation shows
bad taste, capitals, Greeian pill
lara. ratings, Gothic roofs,
and other forms have been copied from
divers ages and places, the whole being
fresh and inharmonious- The display
is ginger bread and trumpery like that
of a man who, having suddenly become
rich, bedizens in the belief that he ID
adornlng himself. 1t is a good thing to
work, and it is a good thing to be
wealthy; but to work and be rich are
not sufficient. kExs
They are powerful; that is their com
rensation. The life Of one OF the heads
of these manufacturing or commercial
houses may be ,-.f-.g
z nIskened TO that OF n nor Prince.
They have the funds, the vast designs,
the responsibility, the risks, the import
ance, and, sis said. the pride Of po
tentate. Like him, they have their EN-
issaries and representatives IN the tour
quarters. oi, the. globe; they are bound
10 keep themselves vefsed daily in the
condition and resources OF ueighboring
and distant countries; they have to con-
trel and satisfy host OF work People;
they have shep 'wer 10 become the BEN
efactors OF thousands OF men; they are
the Generals and Governor Of human
industry. A quarter 4 Oh
million sterling, half q million pouuis.
These are the phrases one ,hegs used
with regard TO their enterprises, their
sales or purchases. thefreish,s in their
ships, the goods in their warehouses.
They dispa'ch agents to examine par
ticuisr districts OF the globe; they dis
corer outlets for commerce, and markets