The Saint Paul globe., 1899-01-30
is KING OF COTTON
ROBERT KNIGHT, WHO ONCE
EARNED $1.25 PER WEEK
IN MILL
OWNS Fifteen VILLAGES

of Mills Among His Possessions
More Than Twenty-Five Thou
sand People Depend Upon Him
Directly or Indirectly fora LfvIi-
hoOd-Talkes No Vacations.
| From the New York World.
II all Rhode Island were one cotton field.
| us climate and soil most favorable to the
| crop and its cultivation the best that man
can devise. 1t could not begin to furnish
raw raw cotton for the mills Of Robert Knight, the
| cotton king of the world
Mr.. Knight is the type Of man who has
| no interest In life except the enlargement
| OF MS business and the accumulation Of
very existence; 5000 employees, of both sexes
ana OF all ages. housed in nearly 1000 cot
ttages that he owns, look to him not only
Ior their employment, but for their
merchandise. their schools the sup
| poi OF their churches and for every need
! of their daily lives
IN each of these villages the.e is but ore
Industry. All the processes of life are timed
TO the factory whistle; the priest, the doc-
Ior, the merchant exist but to. serve the
! iitical opinions are weighed out to them with
1 their sugar and tea at the company store.
10, t4 sen the product of these peoples daily
tou tneTe are agencies in New York Phil
4 adelphia and Boston, as well as the chief
| office in Providence.
| KINGDOM OF COTTON.
| picturesque exceedingly is the cotton king
! dom OF Knight. 1t does not run north from
Providence except in a single instance, the
Clinton mill of Woonsocket There lies the
domain of the 'Goddards. whose holdings are
only second to those Of Knight, and who.
with him. fix the price of cotton goods in
| these United States.
| West OF Providence. the Cranston Dyeing,
| Bleaching and Printing works are Mr.
4 kn1Rht'S nrnnartvs In @bo
Grant mill, In Massachusetts the villages and
| mills of Manchaug, Hebronville, Dodgeville
| and ReadviIe
But the heart of the kingdom is the Paw
tuxet valley, southwest of Providence, Pom
| tlac ls the hrst village and the lowest, then
come Natick. River Point. where the two
branches OF the Pawtuxet unite, and Arctic.
The next village, Centerville, Is a Lapham
stronghold; Lippitt. Fiskville, Jackson and
Coventry and the Whiterock mills and village
complete the realm of King Robert.
Each of these villages is like the other
the same great mill, with its whirring ma
chinery and sleep-murdering whistle the
two by two, all just alike; the same soft pat
ter of French-C Canadian patois on the street,
varied occasionally by italian or Swedish; the
same company stOre;" the same absorption
In one common task
Yet there is a variety, well expressed in
superlatives.
The Natick mill, for instance is the largest
in the world Walk around 1t once and you
will have travelled more than half mile 1t
Is seven stories high, contains 10000 spindles
and 3,2O0 looms, and gives employment to
1,300 operatives under one roof.
At River Point are the Royal and River
Queen mills, both gigantic. The former is
famed for Its unique tower, erected in 1890 to
commemorate the hundredth anniversary of
the introduction of power spinning and weay-
ing by Samuel Slater.
The spire. $50 feet high, is embellished with
golden century plants and a gilded globe,
eleven feet in diameter, with four golden
mirror-tipped stars. The globe and stars can
be made to revolve by concealed mechan-
ism.
This tower and its freak embellishments
were not Mr.. Knights idea. but that of a
mill architect who was somewhat taken
aback when asked how he proposed to put
looms into his pet hobby. 80
/ In all the mills use $4,000 bales of cotton.
The So,0O00O0 yards Of cloth they weave in a
single year would make white bicycle track
more than two-thirds of the way about the
earth
PERSON OF THE KING.
Robert Knight is seventythree years DID,
short stout ruddy-faced, crowned and whis-
kered by hair of the purest white.
AS child of eight he worked his cruel
fourteen hours daily in one of the Sprague
mills for SIPS per week. At twenty, as a
clerk in mill store and office, he had
chance to buy half the factory for SAC, 900 on
credit. The second year the partners cleared
$1,000 profit.
81 felt richer then than I have ever felt
since" Mr. Knight has said of this time
Other fat years followed. In two years Mr..
Knight became sole owner of the factory, and
formed partnership with an elder brother
the late B. B. knight.
When the great house of Sprague went down
the Knights succeeded to their manufacturing
supremacy, but not to the errors of extraya-
giant display which had led to the Sprague
downfall.
On Jan. 1 of the present year Robert Knight
became sole owner-his brother having died
last year-of twenty-one mills, containing up
ward OF 600 spindles, 900 looms, employ
| N hafHooD md fixyoo 4
rectly or indirectly furnishing the means Of
livelihood for 25 900 persons.
Until three years ago, when he accompanied
lis invalid wife to the mountains for a few
weeks, Mr. Knight had never taken vaca-
ton. No man among the thousands he en-
ployed worked longer or more energetically.
from his Providence Office, yet they were Wis
tied as regularly and inspected as minutey
as those within half-hours ride.
LOVER OF FINE TREES
If new cow were to be added to the herd
at one Of his village farms, or a new horse
bought for milk wagon. he must see 1t be-
fore the purchase was made. When the re-
modelling of mills was in progress. or
gang OF men were employed on one of his
villages he would oversee the work as care
fully as though he were the foreman of the
gang.
Mr.. Knight has one very lovable hobby. He
is fond Of trees.
His White Rock factory. veritable "New
niacent shade trees. The cost of it's lighting
could be reduced by their removal and SUI
perintendents have often advised that it be
done. The trees remain, however and the
mill folks have a tradition that they will SO
remain while their owner continues In control
In one of his villages. where a change in
the street grade became necessary row of
noble elms was saved at a cost Of hundreds
of dollars.
Unlike the Goddards Gammells. Spragues
Dyers and other reigning families Of Rhode
Island. the knights have never been in So
clety. Mrs. Knight is an invalid The
Oldest son is immersed in mill business and
also manages the town politics of Warwick
within which more than half of the property
of the firm Is placed.
Both sons are married. both live In pleas
ant but not aristocratic part of Providence
One daughter, unmarried. devotes herself to
her invalid mother; the other Is the wife OF
the Rev. E. S. Rousmaniere of New Bed
ford, who recently refused call to the So
called "Milionaires' church, In Newport
The boys are both in the firm now pulling
away statdly enough at their work This
was not always the case
TRAINING OF A PRINCE
The younger son. after graduating from
Brown university, like all good Rhode Island
ers. was sent to Pontias to become an an
prentice in the factory repair shop. The heir
to millions put on his overalls and Jumper
when the bell rang at $50 a. M, and he put
them off when tile day was done, as grimed
and Soiled any other subject of the realm
Young Knight. who may have preferred a
golf stick to a hammer or ride behind a
fast tretter to trip on the factory elevator
was in a rebellious mood one day when his
father visited the factory
1t was pay day. Young Knight indulpinr
in his weekly reflection on the discrepancy
between his worth and his wage asked for
an increase in his pay. probably then some