USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The Cincinnati miscellany, or, Antiquities of the West, and pioneer history and general and local statistics, Volume I > Part 20
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But your own act of resignation, together with your letter and certificate paving the way to it. copies of which are enclosed, have effec- tually foreclosed any further military investiga- tion on this subject.
Your resignation was also announced to me by the Secretary of war, in a letter of the 20th ultimo, in which is the following paragraph, viz :
Thus you see this business is done with, but as you express a wish to make another compaign Que : could you-or would you, undertake to raise a corps of mounted volunteers, for a given period-whose pay and emoluments will be as follows, viz:
The non-commissioned officers, one dollar per diem, and the privates 75 cents, each person finding his own horse, arms and accoutrements, and at his own risque-and 75 cents per diem in lieu of rations, and forage provided he furnish himself therewith. The President, was by law authorized to appoint the officers-that power he has vested in me, their pay and other emolu- ments, exclusively of fifty cents per diem for the use and risk of their horses,-will be the same as that of officers of corresponding rank in the Legion.
Let me hear from you upon this subject, and believe mc to be with much esteem and regard Your most ob't. and humble servant,
CAPT. JOHN ARMSTRONG .
The Fulton Bagging Factory.
single publication in the Cincinnati ATLAS of This is the title of a large manufacturing es- a year ago, comprises, however, all that the Cin- tablishment, which ought rather to have been cinnati press has ever published of the character called the Cincinnati Bagging Factory, as its and operations of this extensive and important whole operations are within the city limits. Its manufactory; I feel, therefore, disposed to gath- site has been for many years the theatre of man- er what has been thus published, enlarging and ufacturing business, originally as a woollen correcting the article, by bringing it down to the factory, then a machine shop, and in later days close of 1844, and leaving my intelligent read- occupied asa factory of rail-road cars. It was ers to draw their own inferences on the sub- originally a moderate sized building, and for ject. various reason suffered to become dilapidated; The FULTON BAGGING FACTORY is 137 by 40 feet on its floors, and three stories in height ;-- the third being occupied as a machine shop, in which the Company has built her entire ma- chinery. These consist of thirteen looms and one hundred and four spindles, with the neces- sary frames for preparing the hemp for spin- but was some three years ago rebuilt and en- larged, by Messrs. WM. M. WALKER & Co., and converted into a Bagging Factory, on the most extensive scale. Another chapter in the vicis- situdes to which it has been exposed is, that on the morning of Sabbath, the 6th October, it was again subjected to the ravages of fire; in the de- ning.
The process of manufacturing commences on the lower floor, where the hemp,in the condition in which it comes from the farm, passes through a Cylinder Heckle, which reduces and straitens the fibre, and returns it in a lap some eighteen feet long. It is then successively subjected to a
struction by that element of SCHULTZ's Brewery, and a factory or two to the west. This damage which pretty much destroyed the upper stories of the building, with their contents, was, how- ever, promptly and thoroughly repaired, and on a late visit of mine to the premises, thore ap- peared hardly any vestige of the injury left. A large and small drawing frame, from which last
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it passes out in a continuous stream, folding over | ty cents per cut, being six dollars for less than and over, like liquid iron at furnaces, into light as many days' employment. cans or boxes, in which it is carried to the spin- ning frames. It is then spun, warped, dressed, and woven on power looms, and lastly calender- ed, and formed into rolls, by a process which serves at the same time to measure it. The whole of these operations. including the measure- ment, being performed by steam. The spinning frames have machinery connected with them, which indicate, with perfect accuracy, each in- dividual's amount of work.
This establishment consuines 800 tons, equal to 6300 bales of Hemp per annum, and the raw material is supplied from Kentucky and Missou- ri, in perhaps, equal quantities. It produces an- nually, 800,000 yards Bagging and 100 tons of Bale Rope. These statistics proclaim the mag- nitude of the business -- what the character of the manufacture is, may be inferred from the fact that there is not a single piece of Bagging unsold at this time. It is at once more even in texture and uniform in weight, than that which is spun and woven by hand, being forty-five in- ches wide, and weighing twenty-six ounces to the yard, and, without any doubt, they turn off here more than in any factory in the world where Bagging is of equal substance.
The Factory gives employment to fifty-five girls, and forty- five men and boys. The prices I understand to be at Lowell, 1.75 eents per week as the nett rate of wages, exclusive of boarding, for the girls. and 70 cents per day as that of the men,
ROBERT C. WINTHROP, of Boston, gives the fol- lowing as the average of wages in the Merri- mack mills, in the month of June, in five succes- sive years, viz :
1840. Females $1,92 per week.
.. Males 80 cts. perday. $20 80 month. 1841. Females 2,27
' Males
78 20 02
1842 Females 2.30
Males 84 21 81
1843 Females 2.16 :6 Males 79 20 54
1844 Females 2.34
.. Mates 87 22 66 66
The Northampton Gazette states that the females in the Ware factories have $4 per weck -board $1,25 out ; males $1 per day, board [at $1,75 per week out.
As a friend to the cause of domestic manufac- turers, while I rejoice to learn that the proprie- tors are doing well, I feel a deeper sympathy in the welfare of the larger class-the operatives -- and find that while the expenses of living to a family are much less here than in Massachu- setts, the wages are fully as high. On this point I will add one fact. ! A little girl at this establish- ment, quit work on Saturday, at 2 o'clock, hav- ing woven thirty cuts, equal to 1530 yards from Monday morning.for which she was paid twen-
Under the foreign competition in Bagging, fol- lowing the peace of 1815, the article was brought down to fifty cents per yard, at which price our Manufacturers to a great extent gave up the contest. But the tariff of 1816 invigorated them for another struggle; and, under the protection offered by the tariffs of 1824,1828, and even the Compromise Act of 1832 and more lately by the tariff of 1841, with improvements made in mna- chinery, the home competition has reduced the price of Bagging from fifty cents to eleven cents -a rate which cuts off entirely the Dundee and India manufacture.
As the article of Bagging and Bale Rope forms an important elemeut of national industry and a covering to two and a half millions of bales of cotton, the great staple of the United States, it may be of interest to present its stat- istics :
YARDS.
350 Hand Looms in Kentucky, make · 6,880,000. Fulton Bagging Factory, Cincinnati, 800,000.
Power Looms at Maysville 700,000.
Do - - - - at Louisville 1,400,000.
Do - - - - at New Albany 200,000.
Do . . - in Missouri 220.000.
Yearly manufactured, 10,200,000.
This is within three million yards of what is annually required for the cotton crop; and the deficit is supplied with foreign Bagging, which still finds its way to the South Atlantic ports, where they have so long been accustomed to a lighter and closer fabric, that American Bagging has hitherto stood no chance, although, unques- tionably, a better, as well as a cheaper article.
The factory is warmed by steam, which se- cures an uniform temperature, throughout the rooms, much to the health and comfort of the ope- ratives. It is also lighted by Gas of its own man- ufacture, in which respect it stands alone among the various Bagging Factories of the United States. The value of these means of light and heat, as regards economy, safety from fire, and efficiency, is very great. Thé Gas works, which are on a novel principle, and constructed by Mr John Crutchett, lately settled in Cincinnati, arc remarkable for simplicity and ingenuity, occu- pying in the Engine room, a space not greater than four by eight feet. They are of 500 bnrn- er capacity, although 80 burners are actually in use, and the raw material employed is lard, of which an inferior quality answers every purpose -of this article, twenty-five pounds are con- sumed every night. The Gas works were put in operation in less than three weeks from their commencement.
A great saving is effected by the use of Gas. Twelve hours make a days work, but from the first of October to the first of April, after allow- ing for meals, the average of sufficient day-light
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to work by,is not over eight hours and a half , so that the Gas affords an actual saving during that period, of more than one fourth the entire cx- pense of carrying on the Factory.
Within the last year by the enlargement of the Gasometer the establishment has been enabled to use Gas cold, which has effected a saving of 50 per cent, in the expense of the article. In other words 80 burners cost them one fourth less than 55 did, a year since.
One respect in which I contemplate our manufacturing industry gives it a strong claim to my good wishes. The extent to which we have been able in the United States, to prosecute suc- cessfully so many branches of mechanical in- genuity, in the face of the lower wages, redun- dant capital, and governmental patronage of En- rope, especially Great Britain, so as in fact to ex- clude the foreign manufacture, has satisfied me, as it ought to satisfy others, that it is not neces- sary, even in order to make money out of them' to grind and degrade the working classes of so- ciety. In Cincinnati, at any rate, operatives can be found, who occupy their proper position in the community, respected for their industry, energy, and steadiness.
In connection with this article, I may state that in less than sixty days, a new Bagging Fac- tory of equal capacity and extent with the pres- ent will be put in operation, at the west end of Covington, opposite our city, by M. J. Blair, one of our own citizens.
Early Bank Dealings in the West.
The readers of American history will recol- lect the stamp act, the earliest in the long list of grievances which finally drove our fathers to arms and to the establishment of our American independenoc. Such is the force of names and the influence of associations in the mind of man, that a violent prejudice against the raising du- ties by stamps upon promissory and negotiable notes, has always existed in the bosoms of the American people, and although twice in our national history, the quasi war with France, un- der the administration of the elder Adams, and again during the last war with Great Britain, resort was had to this means of raising a reve- nue; it contributed greatly to break down the Administration in the first case, and required all the popularity and strength of the then dominant party to sustain themselves under the odium of the measure. As this species of taxation lasted but a short period in each case; there are thon- sands in the community ignorant of the fact that such stamp duties ever existed here. The follow- ing are evidences not only of that fact, but are curiosities in early dealings and carly banking in many of their features.
PHILADELPHIA, JULY 21 1801.
Six months after date I promise to pay Messrs Boggs and Davidson or order without defalca- tion, One hundred and twenty-nine dollars andsix- ty-nine cents value re- ceived.
Stamp with 13 stars in centre. "COM. REV. U. S. "XXV CENTS" National eagle with 25 cts. in a scroll.
JOHN M'CULAGH.
CINCINNATI, February 19th 1802.
I proms for to Pay or Cause for to Be payd un- to John M'Cullagh the Just and full Sum of thurtey six Dollars the tanth Eagle and Shield. "TEN CENTS." Stamp as above. "X CENTS." of october Naxte in Suing the Date heer of and I will Dalevr good flowar accord- ing to the Layes of our tar- tary at Market prize at the mouth of grate Mama the is to be recd in De- charge of the above Sum. ateste, TOM SMITH.
SAM'L M'CULLAGH.
CINCINNATI, March 19th 1816. Thirty Days after date we or Either of us promise 'o pay Ethan Stone for the use of the
- Bank of Cincinnati twelve Eagle and Shield. |Dollars without Defalcation "FIVE CENTS Negotiable and Payable at Said Bank, for value rec'd. CHARLES TUSTIN.
EDW'D HORROCKS.
There is one matter worthy of notice in this document. It is endorsed Charles Tustin 19 | 23 April, being four days of grace. Was his the bank custom in those days?
Steamboat Yorktown.
Itis not often I notice in print the steam boats, of which it suffices to say generally that they always attest the skill and ingenuity of our Cincinnati mechanics. But the YORKTOWN, a newly finish- ed boat, which leaves our wharf this day for N. Orleans, is such a paragon among the travelling palaces of the Ohio and Mississippi, that I can- not forbear sketching some of her distinctive points.
The YORKTOWN has been just built and finish- ed here, for plying regularly between Cincin- nati and New Orleans. Her hull was built by Litherbury & Lockwood; joiners, Kessler and Funk. Engine builders, Niles & Co. Her bell of 450 Ibs. weight and fine tone, from the foun- dery of G. W. Coffin. Her measurements and equipments are as follows. Length 182 feet, breadth of beam 31 feet, water wheels 28 feet in diameter, length of buckets 10 feet 3 inches, and 28 inches wide. Hold 8 feet. She has 4 boilers, 30 fect long, and 42 inches in diameter, double engines, and two 24 inch cylinders, with 9 feet stroke ; she draws 4 feet light, and hardly more than 8 feet with 550 tons freight, her full cargo. She has 40 state rooms and of course 80 berths, all appropriated to cabin-passengers; the boat officers being provided with state rooms
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in the pilot house. This arrangement affords the officers opportunity of attending to their ap- propriate duties without the annoyance and in- terference of others and dispensing with that regular nuisance the SOCIAL HALL protects the gentlemen and especially the ladies on board, from the effluvia of Cigars, which, in ordinary cases taints the whole range of the cabins.
The state rooms are spacious, capable of being well ventilated, with commodious stools which afford seats independent of those for the tables. Each berth has its upper and lower mattress .- To the ladies cabin there are permanent sky- lights, and a lower range of moveable lights by which the supply of warm or fresh air in the ladies rooms is regulated at pleasure. The cab- in seats are armed chairs, which being two feet in breadth afford ample space at the table, and proteet the feeble and infirm from being crow- ded or elbowed at meals. The chains and other iron fastening work usually projecting in every direction to the annoyance of passengers at all times -- at night especially -- are here disposed of out of the way and generally out of sight. Such are the arrangements for convenience and com- fort on board the YORKTOWN, that there are few persons who command at home the agremens which are provided here, and the only thing I objeet to in the boat, is the danger of its render- ing her passengers unsatisfied with the measure of their enjoyments at home. by the force of con- trast. Sound judgment and taste have dietated all tho details. Every thing about her is of the best quality and highest finish, and strength, convenience and elegance are every where ap- parent. The floors are carpeted in exquisite taste. Even the folding doors which admit to the ladies eahin, with their rich pannel work can hardly find a rival in the mansions of the aris- toeracy in our Atlantic eities.
The YORKTOWN is supplied with two of Ev- ans' Safety Guards, one to each outside boiler, and her tiller and bell ropes are all ot wire .- An hundred feet of hose is ready at a moment's notice to convey a torrent of water to the most extreme part of the boat. The hurricane roof is covered with sheet iron, and a half a dozen wa- ter casks, constantly filled, are at hand there, for immediate use in case of fire. The seventy- two table chairs are connected with life preservers beneath the seats, of such buoyancy that each chair has been tested to float two persons. All the doors and window shutters-nearly five hun- dred in number-are on litting hinges and can be detached at a moment's notice. Each of these can buoy up a passenger in case of necessity until assistance could arrive.
Her Engine is equal in all respects to the gen- eral superiority of this boat over her rivals in this trade. I cannot go into details on this and otli-
er points without exte ling this article beyond reasonable bounds, but must not, however, omit to notice as of great importance that her shafts and eranks are of wrought iron. This is the first introduction of wrought iron for such purposes on steamboats. Steam boat shafts should never have been made of any thing else.
I hazard nothing in the assertion that there has never yet floated a boat equal in all respects to the Yorktown upon the Ohio or Mississippi, and that the whole building, finishing and furnish- ing interest at Pittsburg, Wheeling, Louisville or St. Louis may be defied to exhibit her match. It will be time enough for her to be surpassed here when she can be rivaled elsewhere. If this statement appears extravagant to any man of intelligence, let him visit the boat, and if he does not find my details correct, and fifty things besides found equally remarkable and interes- ting which I have not space to describe, I will again de fer the conclusion to which I have come as to her superiority in every thing, almost, to any boat afloat or in port.
The YORKTOWN has not cost hier owners, Kel- logg & Kennett and T. J. Halderman, less than 33,000 dollars. She will be commanded by the last named gentleman, with Mr. George Gas- saway, clerk.
Captain Halderman has enjoyed the reputa- tion for years of being one of those favored indi- viduals, who are alwaysin luck. Whenever he is ready to start he always takes a rise of water along; has generally his share of passengers and if these happen to be few in port, he is sure to overtake vessels aground, or lying by with broken shafts, or in some difficulty which gets him their passengers. Let who may, miss, he always hits the right time, and the right port. I never understood how he enjoyed that reputa- tion, till I visited and examined the Yorktoun .- All his arrangements are such as to command preference and success, as far as man can con- trol events. This is the secret, probably, of his luck, as far as the luck exists.
French Literature.
I regret to see advertised, by book-sellers as respectable as Desilver and Burr, of our city, a French periodical " L'Echo des Feuilletons," of which I ask and will accept nothing further as evidence of its character than that the infamous Madame George Sand is announced as one of the contributors. This woman, in whom an im- moral life well illustrates immoral principles,has done more to corrupt the youth of Paris, at the present day, than any one of her cotemporaries. If the 40.000 subscribers in that city attest the general corruption of morals there, and 9000 more in our own country, expose their families to the same influence, it is sufficiently to be de-
plored. For mysch, as une conductor of a peri- odical. I lift the warning voice to caution my readers how they suffer the writings of Madame Sand, and her kindred spirits of evil, to enter their families under the seductive plea " that be- ing led on unconsciously by the charms of the subject, they will, unawares, make rapid progress in the language." Rather, I apprehend, to make rapid progress in losing that delicacy and purity which is the pride and glory of American wo- men.
Review.
URANOGRAPHY, or a Description of the Hea v- ens ! 12mo. pp. 366, and Atlas of the Heavens by E. Otis Kendall, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, in the Central High School of Phil- adelphia.
A popular treatise of astronomy, including, the modern discoveries, and embracing the ob- servations of the elder and younger Herschell,in England and Struve and Maedler,in Germany,has long been a desideratum for the advanced class- es in astronomy, in our Schools and Colleges. These with the "Atlas of the Starry Heaven," by the celebrated Littrow, serve to give a distinc. tive character to this treatise on astronomy, which, with the "Atlas," will be found, I doubt not, better adapted for a text book in schoolst than those to which we usually have access.
The publishers deserve credit for the charac- ter of the paper and typography of the publica- tion, and the plates or drawings, as the author terms them, which illustrate it, in my judgment, surpass in clearness aud beauty, anything of the kind in use.
The Widow's Mite.
"I want to give the widow's mite," said an old lady worth her thousands, as she handed ten cents to give the bread of life to millions perish- ing in ignorance and sin.
Said a gentleman of a large income, "I sup- pose I must give my mite," as he very reluctant- ly handed a dollar to one collecting funds to send the gospel to the destitute.
It is not uncommon for those who receive the offerings of the people for the Lord's treasury, to hear such allusions to the poor widow whose benevolence is recorded in Mark xii. 41-44 .-- The example is evidently quoted with self-com- placency, and as an apology for giving a very small sumn, far below the ability God has given. Is it intended as a cloak for their covetousness, or do they really think that the smaller the sum the more acceptable it is to God? It was not the smallness of what she gave that drew forth the commendation of the Savior, but the great- ness of her benevolence. The rich gave of their abundance, a part only of their surplus; she gave all she had, yea, all her living.
The measure of benevolence is not the amount given, but the amount left from which the offer- ing is taken. No person can exceed the poor widow in benevolence. How few come up to her! How many would call it an act of im- prudence to imitate her! None can properly clain to imitate her till they give all they have, yea, all their living. A. S.
Steam made Putty.
I find Steam becoming applied to a great var- icty of purposes as a working agent, of which the last generation never dreamed. One of these is to work up Putty, in which there is so much labor saving, that Mr. J. Glascoe, as appears by his advertisement in the Cincinnati Gazette, is able to sell the article at 4 cts. wholesale, and 4} and 5 cts in smaller quantities, less than one half what the article sold at a year or two since. At these prices Cincinnati must supply putty for the entire region north, west and south of us.
Some idea of the reduction in prices build- ing materials, are constantly undergoing here, may be formed from the fact that the putty used in the glazing of the Cincinnati College cost at wholesale twenty-five cents per lb., six times the price at which Mr. G. is selling an article of equal quality.
Chinese Gratitude.
An English merchant of the name of C-, resided in Canton and Macao, where a sudden reverse of fortune reduced him from a state of affluence to the greatest necessity. A Chinese merchant, named Chinqua, to whom he had tor- merly rendered service, gratefully offered him an immediate loan of ten thousand dollars, which the gentleman accepted, and gave his bond for the amount : this the Chinese immediately threw into the fire, saying, "When you, my friend, first came to China, I was a poor man, you took me by the hand, and assisting my honest en- deavors, made me rich. Our destiny is now re- versed; I see you poor, while I am blessed with affluence." The bystanders had snatched the bond from the flames; the gentleman sensibly affected by such generosity, pressed his friend to take the security, which he did, and then ef- fectually destroyed it. The disciple of Confu- cius, beholding the increased distress it occa- sioned, said he would accept of his watch, or any little valuable, as a memorial of their friend- ship. The gentleman immediately presented his watch, and Chinqua, in return, gave him an old iron seal, saying, "Take this seal, it is one I have long used, and possesses no intrinsic value, but, as you are going to India to look after your outstanding concerns, should fortune further persecute you, draw upon me for any sum of money you may need, sign it with your own hand, and seal it with this signet, and I will pay the money." -- Forbes' Oriental Manners.
MARRIED,
On Monday evening, the 8th inst., by the Rev. Abel C. Thomas. Mr. W M. FISHER to Miss JOANNA SAYER all of this city.
On the 10th inst, by the Rev. David Burnett, Mr. C. S. KENDRICK, of Ky., to Miss AMANDA LUDLOW. daughter of Jno. Ludlow, Esq , of Ludlow Farm, near this city.
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