THE FACTORY VISITED.
The next day they went to see the factory, or cotton mills, at Milford. As there was no railroad from Derby to Milford, they were driven with horses, and Willy was very glad to see his old friends, the horses, once more. It is true, that they did not go so fast as the train, and that he was impatient to arrive, and was continually popping his head out of the window in hopes of seeing the factory. His father told him that he must look out for the smoke from the chimney of the great steam engine which put all the machinery in motion; but Willy answered, "It is a water-wheel, Papa, not a steam-engine, that makes every thing turn at these mills. Johnny told me so." Willy felt a sort of pride that he knew something his papa did not; but when he thought about it, he said to himself, it would be very foolish to be proud of that, 'for it was only by chance I heard it.' At last they reached Milford, and the carriage drove into a large court-yard surrounded by buildings in which the work was carried on. Willy was at first a good deal bewildered at the sight of the machinery, and the noise it made in working. In one room he saw large bales of cotton wool which had been brought from foreign countries, and which men were unpacking. Willy observed that it looked untidy and dirty, not like the nice cotton wool mamma had at home.
"You will see the difference after it is carded," said one of the men. "We begin by carding or pulling it to pieces, and then we squeeze it between two great rollers, and you shall see how clean it comes out." And he took them into another room, where the wool came out from between two rollers, and it looked so white and soft that Willy said, it put him in mind of wreaths of snow. He asked this man if he knew a little boy called Johnny, whose mother was blind.
"Yes," replied he, "I am his uncle. Have you seen him lately? I have not heard of him for a long time."
Willy was much pleased to have found out Johnny's uncle, and to be able to tell him that Johnny was well, and to give him news of all the family.
They then went into another work-room, where they saw the cotton twisting into threads, and the children busy joining these threads when they broke. This pleased him much, for after all he had heard from Johnny, they seemed like old acquaintances; but he asked what those children were doing who went about wiping every thing.
"All this twisting and twirling of the cotton wool," said his father, "makes a great deal of dust, which would injure the machinery, and prevent it from working, if it collected on it; so these children are employed to wipe it away, and keep every thing clean."
They then went into another room where the cotton-thread, which had been wound off from the spindles after it had been sufficiently spun, was being made up into skeins, and this was done by women and children. At last they were taken to see the great water-wheel which put all the machinery into motion, and Willy declared that it was as big again as the wheel at the corn-mill, and he thought it must be as strong as a hundred horses to be able to make so many things move.
"Everything seems alive in the factory," said he; "nothing stands still except the people, who are really alive, and they move only when they have threads to tie, or other work to do, whilst the machinery is at work all day long; it works a great deal harder, and does a great deal more, than all the live people."
"Very true," observed his papa, "but the machinery would work to no purpose if these living people did not set things to rights when they went wrong."
"Yes," said Willy, "if there was nobody to join the threads when they broke, the wheel might go round and round for ever; there would be no thread to twist."
He then asked if all the people who worked in the factory were paid for it.
"Certainly," replied his papa, "they are paid by the person to whom the factory belongs."
"He must have a great deal of money to pay so many people; where does he get it all?"
"By selling the thread after it is spun," said his mamma.
"There must be a great deal of cotton-thread to sell, indeed," said Willy; "but do you think he will get money enough for it, to pay all these people?"
"Yes, and a great deal more; for he must get money enough to pay for the cotton, which comes from countries a great way off, and for all the machinery. And then he must get something over, for he would not take so much trouble, if he did not make some profits to put into his pocket."
"What are profits?" inquired Willy.
"I will tell you what profits are," said his mother; "it is the little over which the landlady makes at the inn."
"But a manufacture is not at all like an inn," observed Willy.
"Not much," replied she; "but the manufacturer buys the cotton, and when he has spun it into thread he sells it again, and he sells it for more than it cost him, and what he gets over is profit."
"Oh yes, now I understand it," said Willy, "and with what he gets over he buys clothes and dinners for his children, and sends them to school, as the landlady did."
"Yes," said his father, "he may spend his profits in whatever manner he chooses. And it has pleased the good Mr. Joseph Strutt, to whom this factory belongs, to spend a great deal of his profits in making that fine garden for the people."
"Oh how good he is!" cried Willy. "But, Papa, does every body who sells things sell them for a little more than the things cost him?"
"Yes," said his father. "But we have had enough of buying and selling now, and I should think more than enough to puzzle your little head."
"I was puzzled," said Willy, "till I thought of the landlady at the inn and her pockets full of money, made by people paying a little over, and then I understood it."
The next day they continued their journey by railway, and arrived safely at grandmamma's country-house, where they were to spend a month.