Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-23
HOOPS SONG OF THE SHIRT.
a Sewing Machine Agent Whose Death
Even an Emperor Mourned.

a Sewing Machine Agent Whose Death
Even an Emperor Mourned.
1 was greatly amused the other day,
says a writer in the american Register,
at seeing in one of our French contem-
poraries an elaborate account of the
origin of Hoods "Song of the Shirt" fol-
lowed by a prose translation Of the same.
All that is very well, but what amused
me is the statement that Hood wrote that
song in 1913, because of the misery and
penury to which the sewing girls were
reduced in London by the previous intro
ductiOn of the sewing machine. Well, tits
a very curious fact that the Introduction
Of the sewing machine into England and
Europe generally is a thing that was not
attempted until five years after Hood was
in his grave, and the attempt was a
failure. In 1S49 and 1850 l was a student
at Geneva, Switzerland, and one day in
1850 there appeared a nice young
American couple, a Mr.. MOrey and
his New Hampshire wife, at my board
ing house in Champel, about ten
minutes walk from the edge Of the city.
Mr.. MOr6y had been sent over as the agent
of the first and then imperfect sewing
machine I believe it was HOwe's), to see
if he could not introduce it into Europe.
He told me that up to that time (1S50) no
one WOllu LOuCu IL III LHS4duU4 budI nO
one had vet taken it in Paris, and that the
only place where he had succeeded to a very
small extent in France was Havre, where
one or two firms had purchased it for the
purpose Of making coarse sacks for grain,
as the sewing machines Up to that date
could not do much at fine work, Indeed;
poor Morey had a hard time of it, and had
to borrow money right and left IN order to
live. In 1851 he was at the first worlds
fair in London, but it did him little good.
He returned to Paris and began to make
some Roadway, although his financial diff
cultIes increased, and finally ended in his
being thrown into prison the old Clichy)
for debt. YOumay recall his sad end.
One day, looking from a window in the
Chchy, he was ordered several times by
the sentry beneath to put in his head.
MOrey, not cOmprehendlng-as he did not
understand French-passed unheeded sew
eral orders of this kind from the soldier,
who had more than once warned him in
French that he would shoot him if he
did not obey. The soldier fired, and MOrey
fell back dead in his prison room. 1t
shocked the whole community, and it was
made a question Of diplomatic cores
pondence. No one regretted the sad end
of the sewing machine agent more than
did Napoleon III. He could not restore
the lost life, but he gave a sum of money
W bALC JOuhS NllOM anu hCA y BudAl Cnlills
which was equal to a considerable pension
for all their days. 1t was not until
years after M0rey's first attempt
in England and France that
the sewing machine ''took'' in either
country; therefore the sewing machine
had nothing to do with inspiring HOODS
''SOng Of the Shirt" In 1914 Hood, then
in declining health, stirred up by the
great labor, the little pay and the almost
starving condition o. the sewing girls
of London, wrote his "SOng of the Shirt"
1t was his last production of any impor-
lance, and it originally appeared in Punch
in 1874. l have said that he wrote it in
1874, but this is only conjecture on my
part. However, l think it is correct, for
Hood needed the money that his literary
articles would bring him; and thus he
would naturally send an article as soon
as he had finished it to PaRcb, for which
he had been a regular contributor from
ifs hpUinniuU.