'At any rate, Mr. Thornton,' said Mrs. Hale, 'you will allow that

Milton is a much more smoky, dirty town than you will ever meet

with in the South.' 'I'm afraid I must give up its cleanliness,' said Mr. Thornton,

with the quick gleaming smile. 'But we are bidden by parliament

to burn our own smoke; so I suppose, like good little children,

we shall do as we are bid--some time.' 'But I think you told me you had altered your chimneys so as to

consume the smoke, did you not?' asked Mr. Hale.

'Mine were altered by my own will, before parliament meddled with

the affair. It was an immediate outlay, but it repays me in the

saving of coal. I'm not sure whether I should have done it, if I

had waited until the act was passed. At any rate, I should have

waited to be informed against and fined, and given all the

trouble in yielding that I legally could. But all laws which

depend for their enforcement upon informers and fines, become

inert from the odiousness of the machinery. I doubt if there has

been a chimney in Milton informed against for five years past,

although some are constantly sending out one-third of their coal

in what is called here unparliamentary smoke.' 'I only know it is impossible to keep the muslin blinds clean

here above a week together; and at Helstone we have had them up

for a month or more, and they have not looked dirty at the end of

that time. And as for hands--Margaret, how many times did you say

you had washed your hands this morning before twelve o'clock?

Three times, was it not?' 'Yes, mamma.' 'You seem to have a strong objection to acts of parliament and

all legislation affecting your mode of management down here at

Milton,' said Mr. Hale.

'Yes, I have; and many others have as well. And with justice, I

think. The whole machinery--I don't mean the wood and iron

machinery now--of the cotton trade is so new that it is no wonder

if it does not work well in every part all at once. Seventy years

ago what was it? And now what is it not? Raw, crude materials

came together; men of the same level, as regarded education and

station, took suddenly the different positions of masters and

men, owing to the motherwit, as regarded opportunities and

probabilities, which distinguished some, and made them far-seeing

as to what great future lay concealed in that rude model of Sir

Richard Arkwright's. The rapid development of what might be

called a new trade, gave those early masters enormous power of

wealth and command. I don't mean merely over the workmen; I mean

over purchasers--over the whole world's market. Why, I may give

you, as an instance, an advertisement, inserted not fifty years

ago in a Milton paper, that so-and-so (one of the half-dozen

calico-printers of the time) would close his warehouse at noon

each day; therefore, that all purchasers must come before that

hour. Fancy a man dictating in this manner the time when he would

sell and when he would not sell. Now, I believe, if a good

customer chose to come at midnight, I should get up, and stand

hat in hand to receive his orders.' Margaret's lip curled, but somehow she was compelled to listen;

she could no longer abstract herself in her own thoughts.




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