Page:The Laboring Classes of England.djvu/90

 When I last saw Smith in Manchester, he told me he had a short time before been burned out; but that he was then beginning to recover from his losses. He had a wife and three children, two girls and a boy; and while I took tea with him, he told me he would feel quite happy if God would enable him to keep his children from going into the factories.

It gives me great pleasure to say that he is looked upon in his neighborhood, as an honest, industrious man, a good husband and kind father.  THE LACE MAKERS OF NOTTINGHAM.

Lace making is a business in which men, women and children, are promiscuously engaged. This business requires in its various operations, the delicate little fingers of children, perhaps to a greater degree than any other. This is one reason why a large majority of the infant laboring population of Nottingham are employed in lace manufacture. Lace is chiefly fabricated in machines driven by steam. These machines are very complicated in their structure, but as my object is more particularly with the human beings who attend them, I will refer the curious reader to the various works upon this subject, in many of which a full description of those machines is given.

It will, however, be necessary to state, that the machine in which the lace is made, is supplied with the thread by means of small bobbins. The process of filling