Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-15

mill girls going to work discover a dead woman
and baby lying in entry in the snow. The
child is taken charge of by one of them, Polly
Pemberton, who is about to be married. Dan
Ashton, one of the mill hands, who comes up at
the time searches The pockets of the dead woman
and discovers some papers. In interview he
has that night lLh MS employer. Mr.. Richard
HARDWOOD, the mill owner, ne informs him that
the dead woman was the widow OF his brother,
Mr.. George Bentham HarwOOd, who had died in
America, and the baby IS Mr. Richard HARDWOOD
niece. Dan, who had been in America, was
present at the wedding, and the papers he had
secured were the certificates of the wedding, ana
the baptism OF the child Mr.. haTwood, who Is
afraid of being dispOssessed of his wealth, buys
Dams silence with a cheque of GIOO down and 81
per week for life.
CHAPTER I.-BEsIDE TIE FACTORIES.
1t is fine day in autumn, and Mill
gate, one of the principal streets in the
ancient and loyal borough Of Warning
ham, was wearing its most interesting
and business-hke aspect.
A couple of minutes ago the steam
whistles belonging to the neighboring
factories, pits and foundries, had rent
the warm sunlit air with their harsh
screeching, announcing that the MONDAY
hour had arrived, and warning all
workers that the time for dinner had
come.
And ere the sonOrous vibrations Of the
last iron mouthed buzzeT' had died
away, the great open space at the bot
tom of Mitigate was crowded with hurry
ing forms of every kind OF cotton opera
tive, who came pouring out of the sur
rounding factories, each and all eager to
enjoy both their work-won midday meal
and breath of the cool ar.
This wide space at the bottom of Mill
gate was formed by the junction of two
streets at that point. For 100 yards or
more these two roads ran parallel to each
other, being divided only by an elbow of
the Leeds and Liverpool canal, which
formed a basin or harbor, for the loading
and unloading of water craft.
Within a good stone s throw of this
spot one could count a dozen factory
chimneys. BY the side of the canal were
the handsome new mills belonging to the
member for Warringham; on the oppo-
site side of the water were those of Mr..
Tom NayIOr, who had a year or two ago
built and presented a fine library to his
native town, the scene of our story; then
theta was the old Coffee House mill,
which had been on fire more times than
any one IN Warringham could Temem-
ber; and lastly, came the three mills be-
longing TO Mr.. Richard HARDWOOD.
Altogether these cotton factories en-
ployed nearly 10 900 hands, and it is
easy to imagine the scene of hustle that
was presented each work day when the
tall, many-storied buildings dIsgorged
their living contents.
out they swarmed; lads and lassies
just entering their teens; youths and
maidens bordering on manhood and wO-
manhood; men and women in life g
prime; old danes and sires whose locks
were white, almost, as the tufts of cot
ton that chung to their garments.
Out they swarmed and on they hur-
ried, filing the wide square with a NOV
ing mass of workers of all ages, each
going his or her own way, and all redo
lent Of the mills in which so many of
them were to spend or had spent the bet
ter portion of their lives.
Many of the younger lads and lassies,
especially those who worked in the hot
test parts of the mills such as the mule
rooms and thTostle rooms, came forth
bareheaded ,-barefooted and bare-armed,
their necks and breasts exposed to the
cool air, and their shining skins still
beaded with the perspiration their heat
ing labor had produced.
And here and there amid the crowd
might be seen madens of a larger |
growth, who displayed their naked,
finely moulded arms and ankles with |
carelessness that reminded one OF the |
ways of fashionable beauties.
Rut a COOdlv norton of the mill UiT1S |
we're most becomingly attired in colored |
petticoats, white aprons, or brats, - !
as they are termed, bright and many !
hued shoulder shawls, aud polished clogs |
with shining clasps of brass; while around |
their waists, slender or otherwise, was |
thrown a broad belt of leather with a |
fancy metal buckle in front, and into /
this girdle was thrust what would have /
appeared TO a stranger as slender dag !
ger, but which was really only an in
strument called "picker, - which the |
weavers use while plying their trade. !
From the waist Of many OF the girls there |
dangIed tiny pair of bright scissors.
The canal which divided the two thor
oughfares was fenced in by light chains |
thrown across low iron pillars, and about
this fence there stood or lounged every
workday quite large number of persons
who did not work in any of the neighbour
ing mills.
These were mainly relatives or friends
of the operatives, and the baskets and
cans they carried showed that they had
brought the dinners OF the workers.
They waited there because only those
who worked in the mills were permitted
TO 20 to and fro about them.
But to-day the low wall which fronted
Harwood's mills, and the pillars and
chains referred TO, were more crowded
than usual, and by persons who neither
worked in the mills nor had brought the
midday meals 10 those who worked |
therein. These were pit-Iads, pit youths
and pit-men who had come to see their
sweethearts.
Our story opens on a Monday, and as
most OF the miners at Warringhsm had
''reckoned, - that is, had received their
wages on the Saturday previous, to-day |
was "reckoning Monday and there
fore a "play day.
At this time the Lancashire miners did
not receive their wages weekly, as at
present; they were paid fortuightly, and
custom had deoreed IL that the Monday
following the pay day should always be