Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/561

Rh all Nottingham went mad. Mechanics flocked to the scene, dwellings could not be had, and building-ground sold for $20,000 an acre. "Thousands of pounds were paid in wages to men who had not seen a twist-machine, and tens of thousands for machinery that could never repay the outlay. Improvident men rode to their work, stopping for drinks of port and claret by the way, and were seen years afterward receiving parish pay. When the national frenzy of 1825 collapsed, the effect of this local inflation was fearful. Visions of wealth were at once dissipated; many in and out of the trade fell into poverty, or became exiles, and some destroyed themselves."

The extent of the manufacture of lace by machinery in England is immense. In 1866 there were 3,552 bobbin and 400 warp machines, yielding £5,130,000. There has been no actual census since then, but in 1872 the returns were certainly not less than £6,000,000.

In France, in 1851, there were 235,000 cushion-lace makers, producing annually £3,000,000, the whole European production in hand-made lace being £5,500,000. The bobbin-net machines and warp frames are extensively used in France, and twenty years ago there were 50 bobbin-net machines in Belgium, making very fine extra twist-net on which cushion sprigs are applied.

The invention of machinery for lace-making, however, has not diminished the consumption of costly hand-made laces. The rich seem more eager than ever to obtain the finer products of the needle and pillow, insisting that the touch, finish, and beauty, of such laces can never be attained by the products of the lace-frame. On the contrary, the writer was recently assured, by the foreman of a leading lace establishment in London, that no hand-made ground could compare in beauty and perfection of workmanship with some of the exquisite grounds now made by machinery.



BOUT five years ago we decided to found a new college. At that time our denomination had but seven in the State, not one of them first class, all beggarly, and the nearest fifty miles away. Brother A alone demurred to the project, but, as he was more noted for mere abstract scholarship than for practical attainments, his objections were easily set aside. He thought it would be very unwise to establish another institution of learning, on the ground that the prevalent division of forces tended to lower educational standards; and he held that we ought rather to concentrate our energies upon schools already in existence and struggling to get along. We, on the other hand, urged the desirability of multiplying means of education. If 