The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-03-15


ent time with horror. 1 went through
the largest cotton mill in the world last
week. It is marvel of ingenuity and
power. The river turns these millions
of spindles, and machinery makes it pos
sible for one man to do the work former
the result at last of this machinery ad-
vancement and perfection? Isn't that
throwing the laboring classes out Of
work more than the tariff tinkering?
All cotton goods are made here, from
the coarse grain bag up to the beautiful
white and crinkled seersucker which
adorns the glorious form of the summer
girl.
Below you can start in with the big,
silent water wheel and go on up to where
a hundred thousand delicate threads are
put into one, and above that the giant
bell which tells the noon hour and the
labor day off into sections. I went up
into the belfry to see this big Ben of the
Androscoggin mills. l had to climb a
long ladder through dark skylight, and
for comfort had worn high hat. Up
in the belfry I Strengthened out my hat
and stood on the icy comb of the roof
while the wind blew through the whis-
kers of a man who had been secured for
that purpose.
never saw finer sight than the view
of Nova Scotia from this belfry on a
keen, cold winters day, while off to the
northward and eastward Labrador could
be seen, and back of it the aurora bore
ais reflected from the redhot journal
on which the earth revolves at the north
pole.
This mill takes the raw cotton as it
comes from the iron jaws of the big COM
press and turns it into million beau
tiful fabrics. The man who falls into
the carder at the ground floor will find
himself in a counterpart on the top floor
''if he don't watch out"
Mr.. Bean, who operates this giant
mill, showed us over it and explained
all the complicated machinery, so that
could build mill just exactly like it
now if 1 did not have so many other
things to do. But he advised me not to
do so, for with the dull times and appre-
hension everywhere funny paper in
London would pay better than cotton
mill does now.
Maine, too, looks with great grief up
on the prospect of having free lumber
admitted across the Canadian border,
where wages are very low and pine I'M
limited.
The pulp mills of Maine are a great
branch Of industry and utilize many
kinds of wood which otherwise would
not be of use at all. Inside of "a hours
q spruce tree now may return to Port
and in the form of the Boston Sunday
Globe-that is, I mean if the tree should
be large enough. Of course you couldn't
make a Sunday paper out of scrub tree.
Aside from all these other industries,
it is estimated that from 81, 500, 900 to
SIC, 0OO, 900 come in each year from the
summer boarder and sportsman. I met
the proprietor of hotel on Marble
head lake the other day, and he told
me that he kept 80 guides all summer
and as many canoes, and the ideal
trip now consists of padding from the
head of Moosehead lake for over 800
miles to St. Johns through the virgin
forest. There is really no game preserve
that has the flavor of the Maine pre-
serves. The log jam and game preserve
in Maine are such well known delicacies
that need not pause here to dilate upon
them.
The Maine liquor law is always very
interesting cadaver to me. In fact, I
have roamed around the charnel house
of dead prohibitory measures for several
years in various states. They simply
make drinking inconvenient and breed
more ruinous breed of rum.
In Lewiston the gin palaces are under
the streets, and labyrinth of passages
known only to members in good stand
ing" leads to the interior. with ever and
anon a door marked ''pull'' when it
means "push, and "push" when it means
to the initiated "pull." This confuses
the officer, so that by the time he gets
in fairly the decanters have been emptied
down the sink, followed by an acid
which removes all traces, even Of the
odor. A guard is above both day and
night, whose duty it is to press the but
ton when the sheriff enters, and whenrhe
gets at last through this devious way he
finds the bartender engaged in lathering