New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-02-12
INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND.
BY ROBERT P. PORTER, MEMBER OF THE LATE
TARIFF COMMISSION.

T..
TARIFF COMMISSION.
IN
THE WOOLLEN REGION OF YORKSHIRE.
TFRoM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.I
DFwsBURY, Yorkshire, England, JAN III.
GEOGRAPHICALLY speaking, this is the centre OF the
woolen district of England. Dewsbury centuries
before it embarked in the shoddy business was
place of importance in the infancy OF the onIS'i",
religion 1t was the largest parish In Enelahu alu
had an area of 400 miles, including huuueiSuo'u'
Halifax, Bradford, and many towns OF lesS li'Poi
tance 1t is even claimed that Psullnus, the nis'
Archbishop of York, preached at Dewsouiy sumo
time in the seventh century, and as PROOF OF 'is o
ingenious inhabitants point to cross on the churc
of the now sub-divid.d parish, and say it is after
the model Of one erected at an earlier date In COM
memoration of the event. This is the ancient
| history of Dewsbury Its modern history combined
with that of the adjoining town of Bailey, IL the
history of shoddy manufacture In these towns are
| made shoddy blankets, shOddy beaver-faced goods,
shoddy presidents," shOddy army cloths, shoddy
Musings shoddv druggets, and lately, l am told,
| shoddy sealskns The shoddy trade, IN fact, has
taken about as deep root In DeTsbury as the story
of Paulnus preaching there has in the minds OF Its
people. Under the benign influence of Its sister
town. Bailey thirty years ago but small MARKET
yilage) went into the business and to-day mas
9O 600 nopulation and over fifty mills and factories
United. these towns defy all Christendom IN
| heavy and cheap cloths What they contemptu-
ously term that iniquitous pound clause IN the
United States tariff, has "throttled our trade WIN
tie States" but in spite of " hostile tarlis De"s-
bnrv and Bailey send their goods to all the CONT
mental countries.
A visit 10 Dewsbury on o bleak, wet winter day
oln tod 10 raise
tion was dark and badly managed. The man at the
ticket-windov (caed here bOOkng-clerK , was
flirting with his sweetheart the staion-master was
having little family settlement with shrlIl-
voiced hard-ieatured woman, undoubtedly MS
wife: an ancient beldame with sharp, saucy
tongue sat crouchng over the fire of the only walt
,pg-room and now and then broke out INTO Wild
invective against few antquated old Yorkshire
men who. with short black clay pipes mixed with
the fetd atmosphere of the room the West tobacco
smoke A red-uosed, shabbily dressed, skulkinV-
looking Irishman offered to escort me to the
"Royal," and carry my luggage. Accepting the
proiered service began the exploration OF ancient
Dewebury. The hotels are such only IN name. The
Royal" the Scarboro," the WELLINGTON on
q visit faded into second-class public houses. MOI
a respectable hotel is III the town, and yet it has
80 600 inhabitants. The streets were narrow and
crooked beer-shops and gin-shOps on every corner
no less than $50 being reqaircd to quench the
diurnal thirst Of the inhabitants of the town-one
TO every 200 souls, including babies.
The windows of the clothing shops
displayed only cordurw and duck suits, and
blue check shirts. Dewsbury booksellers retail
books very much the eostrrmongor of the Seven
Dals sells vegetables Saturday night. uy the and
of flaring lights, the books beng piled on empty
packlng-boxes. In ana around the public houses
of The numerous little courts, alleys and passages
insuffclently clad women shIvcred and gossipped.
The factories are large gray stone buildings walled
IN like prisons with vIglant porters stationed at
all the entrances lest sEngers should accidentally
get into the factories and appropriate the new de-
signs or otherwise find out something OF their IN
terna economy. The manufacturers seem about as
hard and sharp the machines which weave their
mungo and shoddy into cloth. The hands are
ground down to the lowest penny, and recent
strike among the operatives brought out the fact
that the average earnings Of all hands, Including
the hlgh-priced overseers and foIemen, only 10
shillIngs or 81 a week, at Dewsbury and Bailey.
The rent of one or two rooms in the poorest locality
of the town, is CT year. These immense factories
straggle along on the outskirts of Dewsbury for
many miles, and without exaggeratiOn might be
said to extend in all directions for a distance of
twenty two and one-half miles, with Dewsbury for
q centre.
have made the following pen-and-nk sketch Of
the Yorkshire cloth and woollen districts, on scale
that will come within a single column of The
TRIBUNE, so that the reader can see at one glance
that circle of less than fortyve miles an diameter
contains the great woocn and wOrsted regions OF
England, might say of the world and that the
town l am writing from (Dewsbury) is gcograph-
cally the hub.
THE CLOTH CENTRE OF THE WORLD.