Roses are ornaments of the altar of hymen, while vases of lilies are placed upon the grave of youth and innocence.-Samuel L. Knapp. 6. HOUSES FOR NEGROES. One of the most prolific sources of disease among negroes, is the condition of their houses and the manner in which they live. Small, low, tight and filthy, their houses can be but laboratories of disease; whilst on every side grow rancorous weeds and grass, interspersed with fruit trees, little patches of vegetables and fowl-houses effectually shading the ground, and preventing that free circulation of air so essential to the enjoyment of health in a quarter. Your correspondent has frequently detected the presence of worms, and sometimes in large numbers in negroes inhabiting houses thus conditioned and situated; so often, indeed, that he almost regarded their existence "as a matter of course." Nothing can be so deteriorating to the blood, and consequently to the secretions, as bad air. To be convinced of the truth of this assertion, your readers need but to refer to the "Reports of the Board of Health," in the nearest close-built and ill-ventilated cities and towns, and to the "sick lists" of hospitals, jails and ships. That fatal form of febrile disease, denominated "ship fever," though, to some extent, modified, has occurred repeatedly in negro houses. Not to contend for, in all probability, an admitted point, then, it may be concluded that it is important that planters should adopt some system or rule under the operation of which their negro houses shall be properly constructed, their quarters adequately ventilated and dried, and the manner of living among their negroes regulated. It is a common custom with negroes to return in the evening from the field tired, and often in a perspiration, and lie down before their doors upon a board or bench and sleep till nine or ten o'clock, while the dew is falling and the atmosphere becomes cool and damp; instead of going into their houses and either lying down in bed or before a gentle fire, where the exhalation from the skin would be more gradual, and that chilliness consequent upon their sudden "cooling" would be avoided. Let planters go at this hour around their quarters, and feel the hands and feet of negroes thus conducting themselves, and they will no longer be in doubt as to the source of their "chills and fevers." Now, it is not the wish of your correspondent to interfere with the household and domestic arrangements and affairs of negroes, nor to destroy their gardens and patches-to allow them which is all very proper-but when they will not have "an eye to health," themselves, it is to the interest of their owners to have an eye for them.-Suthern Cultivator. 7. SOUTHERN NEGRO LIFE. In this age of canting abolitionism and pseudo philanthropy, we have thought the following sketch from the pen of W. Cullen Bryant, editor of the New York Evening Post, worthy of preservation. The pictures, as far as they go, are painted by him true to life, and are only what we have all witnessed a thousand times over. Apropos too, this subject of southern negro poetry and song is a curious one and deserving of study, constituting as it does the literature, and indeed, the very ingenious literature, of that people. Several years ago, Judge Meek, of Alabama, contributed to one of the southern magazines several interesting papers upon the subject, interspersed with not a few specimens. Some day, at our leisure, we shall hunt them up. TOBACCO FACTORY AT RICHMOND. "I went afterward to a tobacco factory, the sight of which amused me, though the narcotic fume made me cough. In one room a black man was taking apart the small bundles of leaves of which a hogshead of tobacco is composed, and carefully separating leaf from leaf; others were assorting the leaves according to the quality, and others again were arranging the leaves in layers and sprinkling each layer with the extract of liquorice. In another rooin about eighty negroes, boys they are called, from the age of twelve years up to man hood, who receive the leaves thus prepared, rolled them into long even rolls, and then cut them into plugs of about four inches in length, which were afterwards passed through a press, and thus became ready for market. As we entered the room we heard a murmur of psalmody running through the assembly, which now and then swelled into a strain of very tolerable music. Verse sweetens toil-' says the stanza which Dr. Johnson was so fond of quoting, and really it is so good that I will transcribe the whole of it: "Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound- "Verse, it seems, can sweeten the toil of slaves in a tobacco factory. 666 We encourage their singing as much as we can,' said the brother of the proprietor, himself a diligent masticator of the weed, who attended us, and politely explained to us the process of making plug tobacco; we encourage it as much as we can, for the boys work better while singing. Sometimes they will sing all day long with great spirit; at other times you will not hear a single note. They must sing wholly of their own accord, it is of no use to bid them to do it.' "What is remarkable,' he continued, their tunes are all psalm tunes, and the words are from hymn books; their taste is exclusively for sacred music;'. they will sing nothing else. Almost all these persons are church members; we have not a dozen about the factory who are not so. Most of them are of the Baptist persuasion; a few are Methodists.'" 66 A CORN SHUCKING. But you must hear of the corn shucking. The one at which I was present, was given on purpose that I might witness the humours of the Carolina negroes. A huge fire of light wood was made near the corn-house. Light wood is the wood of the long-leaved pine, and is so called, not because it is light, for it is almost the heaviest wood in the world, but because it gives more light than other fuel. In clearing land, the pines are girdled and suffered to stand; the outer portion of the wood decays and falls off, the inner part, which is saturated with turpentine, remains upright for years, and constitutes the planter's provision of fuel. When a supply is wanted, one of these dead trunks is felled by The abundance of light wood is one of the boasts of South Carolina. Wherever you are, if you happen to be chilly, you may have a fire extempore; a bit of light wood and a coal give you a bright blaze and a strong heat in an instant. The negroes make fires of it in the fields where they work; and, when the mornings are wet and chilly, in the pens where they are milking the cows. At a plantation where I passed a frosty night, I saw fires in a small inclosure, and was told by the lady of the house that she had ordered them to be made to warm the cattle. the ax. "The light wood fire was made, and the negroes dropped in from the neighboring plantations, singing as they came. The driver of the plantation, a colored man, brought out baskets of corn in the husk, and piled it in a heap; and the negroes began to strip the husks from the ears, singing with great glee as they worked, keeping time to the music, and now and then throwing in a joke and an extravagant burst of laughter. The songs were generally of a comic character; but one of them was set to a singularly wild and plaintive air, which some of our musicians would do well to reduce to notation. These are the words: "The song of Jenny gone Away,' was also given, and another, called the monkey-song, probably of African origin, in which the principal singer personated a monkey, with all sorts of odd gesticulations, and the other negroes bore part in the chorus, ‘Dan, dan, who is the dandy? One of the songs, commonly sung on these occasions, represents the various animals of the woods as belonging to some profession or trade for example 'De cooter is de boatman-' The cooter is the terrapin, and a very expert boatman he is. 'De cooter is de boatman. John, John Crow. De red-bird de soger. John, John Crow. De mocking bird de lawyer. John, John Crow. De alligator, sawyer. John, John Crow.' "The alligator's back is furnished with a toothed ridge, like the edge of a saw, which explains the last line. "When the work of the evening was over, the negroes adjourned to a spacious kitchen. One of them took his place as musician, whistling and beating time with two sticks upon the floor. Several of the men came forward and executed various dances, capering, prancing and drumming with heel and toe upon the floor with astonishing agility and perseverance, though all of them had performed their daily tasks and had worked all the evening, and some had walked from four to seven miles to attend the corn shucking. From the dances a transition was made to a mock military parade, a sort of burlesque of our militia trainings, in which the words of command and the evolutions were extremely ludicrous. It became necessary for the commander to make a speech, and confessing his incapacity for public speaking, he called upon a huge black man named Toby, to address the company in his stead Toby, a man of powerful frame, six feet high, his face ornamented with a beard of fashionable cut, had hitherto stood leaning against the wall, looking upon the frolic with an air of superiority. He consented, came forward, and demanded a bit of paper to hold in his hand, and harrangued the soldiery. It was evident that Toby had listened to stump speeches in his day. He spoke of 'de majority of Sous Carolina,' de interests of de State.''de honor of ole Barnwell district,' and these phrases he connected by various expletives and sounds, of which we could make nothing. At length he began to falter, when the captain, with admirable pre-, sence of mind, came to his relief, and interrupted and closed the harrangue with an hurrah from the company. Toby was allowed by all the spectators, black and white, to have made an excellent speech." DEPARTMENT OF MANUFACTURES. 1. CHARLESTON COTTON MILLS. At a late meeting of the stockholders the following officers were elected for 1850: James Chapman President. Directors: J. H. Taylor, J. Welsman, J. Provost, Henry Cobia. We passed an hour very pleasantly on Saturday afternoon in an examination of the flourishing establishment in the upper part of the city, known as the steam cotton mill. We have watched the progress of this enterprise with great interest, because we regard it somewhat in the light of an experiment. An experiment not merely to determine whether cotton could be profitably converted into cloth in our city, but an experiment upon the industrial habits of our people. It has often been asserted of southern industry, that it was not persistent or enduring; that our climate was enervating, and productive of lassitude, indolence and feebleness; and that if cotton mills were started they could not be carried on by southern operatives, and that therefore they would have to be imported from the North. Again, it was urged that the business was one unsuited to our tastes and pursuits, and could not successfully be introduced among us. For these and other reasons we have watched the progress of this enterprise with usual interest; and as those who have had the management of it have struggled on against every kind of difficulty, with undiminished ardor and confidence, we have given them our warmest sympathies; and now, when success has measurably crowned their efforts, we heartily congratulate them and the community, which has been, and will be, benefited by their enterprise and perseverance. We were conducted over the mill by the intelligent and active superintendent, Gilbert Reed, Esq, who we learn has been instrumental in getting the establishment into its present admirable working condition, and who has brought the whole interior of this busy hive into system and order. While the mills at the North are running short time, or stopping work altogether, we are pleased to learn that the Charleston mill is driving every loom to its utmost capacity, and that its product per loom is now equal to the best mills in the country. The goods manufactured at this mill are of very superior quality, having, during the last twelve months, been awarded three first class premiums; one from the Agricultural Society of South Carolina at the fair at Chester; one from the fair of the Franklin Institute at Philadelphia, and one from the fair of the South Carolina Institute held in Charleston. This mill is one among many others which that eminent engineer, Gen. Chas. T. James, has erected within the last few years in the South and West. We learn with much satisfaction that his highly liberal offer to subscribe for half the stock of a $300,000 cotton mill, will insure at an early day the erection of a factory in our city on an enlarged scale, and which will compare favorably in style, finish and product, with any ever built in this country or Great Britian. The remarkably practical genius of Gen. James, his wide experience in all that concerns the cotton manufacture, and his careful study of all the questions connected with its successful introduction into the Southern States, give great value and interest to the conviction he has expressed and so strongly backed, in favor of the adaptation of Charleston for the prosecution of this great department of industry on an extensive scale. The extent to which he desires to identify himself with our manufactures is most gratifying proof of his perfect faith in their success, and may be considered as settling the question whether their profitable establishment is within our power.-Charleston Mercury. 2. COTTON FACTORIES IN THE WEST. The following interesting statistics are on the authority of the Cincinnati Price Current: We shall now notice the several cotton factories in the West, as far as we have information; and we believe, that, in making our inquiries, which we did by writing to the several parties, few were omitted; and as the facts presented were furnished chiefly by the proprietors of the mills, they may be relied upon as being very nearly correct. In Cincinnati, Covington and Newport, there are five factories, viz.: Franklin mill, of Harkness, Fosdick & Strader; Pierce, Gould & Co.; J. C. Giesendorf; Covington cotton factory, and Newport cotton factory. The Franklin factory has 10,000 spindles, 220 looms, manufactures 42,000 yards of brown sheeting weekly, consumes 1,800 bales of cotton per year, and employs daily 250 hands; steam power. Gould, Pierce & Co., 2,500 spindles, and 32 looms, produces 300,000 yards of sheeting per annum, and 150,000 pounds cotton yarn; consumes 600 to 700 bales of cotton yearly, and employs daily 60 hands; steam and water power. O'Shaughnessy & Co., 3,000 spindles, manufactures 13,500 yards 4-4 brown sheetings and 200 lbs. cotton yarns per week; consumes 900 bales cotton per year; employs daily 75 hands; steam power. Covington cotton factory, R. Buchanan, agent, 2,600 spindles, makes yarn only; consumes 950 bales of cotton per annum; employs about 90 hands; steam power. J. C. Giesendorf, 100 spindles, produces 5,000 lbs. yarns, wick and batting, per we; consumes 500 bales of cotton yearly, and employs 30 hands; water and steam power. The above spindles are all in operation, and in addition to these, Messrs. O'Shaughnessy & Co. intend to increase their number from 3,000 to 6,000; and Mr. Giesendorf, who has just removed his machinery into a new building, purposes adding to the number of spindles, from time to time, until it is increased to 6 or 7,000. The Cooper cotton factory, Dayton, 2,300 spindles, produces yarns; consumes 900 bales of cotton annually, and employs about 80 hands; water power. Castalia manufacturing company, Castalia, Ohio, 1,700 spindles, 48 looms, 1,200 to 1,400 yards heavy brown sheetings made per day, consumes 312 bales of cotton annually; employs 35 to 40 hands. Springfield cotton mill Springfield, Ohio, 500 spindles, produces 90,000 lbs. yarns, carpet warp and batting, and consumes 200 bales of cotton annually; employs about 20 hands. Maysville, Ky, cotton mill, A. M. January & Co., runs 3,700 spindles, produces cotton yarns only, consumes 1,000 to 1,200 bales of cotton per annum, employs 85 to 1,00 hands; steam power. Brookville, Ind., J. Woods, runs 1,200 spindles, produces 600 lbs. yarns per week employs 30 hands; water power. Steubenville, Ohio, G. E. & J. W. Warner, runs 4,700 spindles, produces 9,000 yards of brown sheetings and 15,000lbs. yarn per week, employs 180 to 200 hands. Zanesville cotton mill, Zanesville, Ohio, 1,744 spindles; produces 232,500 lbs. yarns, warps and batting per annum, consumes 250,000 lbs. cotton; steam power. Miamisburg, Ohio, M. Cassady & Co., runs 500 spindles, produces 2,150 lbs. yarns, batting, &c., per week, and consumes 200 bales of cotton per year; employs 20 hands; water power. Wellsville, Ohio, runs 2,000 spindles, produces yarns; consumes 750 bales of cotton per year. Pittsburg Eagle factory, 6,000 spindles, produces yarns only; consumes 1,900 bales of cotton per annum. Alleghany factory, 1,500 spindles, produces yarns, and consumes 600 bales of cotton per annum. Penn mills 6,300 spindles, produces sheetings; consumes 1,500 bales of cotton per annum. Star mills, 4,000 spindles, produces sheetings; consumes 1,200 bales of cotton per annum. Wheeling manufacturing company, 2,000 spindles, produces sheetings; consumes 700 bales of cotton per annum. Brighton, Pa., 4,000 spindles, produces sheetings, and consumes 400 bales of cotton per year. Cannelton, Ind. (now receiving the machinery, and will be in operation about the 1st of May), capacity 10,800 spindles, estimated production 2,000,000 yards of No. 14 brown sheetings per annum. There are, in addition to the above, mills at Bon Harbor, Lexington and Paris, Ky., Columbus and Dayton, Ohio, from which we have no statement, but from what we have been able to learn, their combined capacity is about 12,000 spindles. It is seen by the above that we have in operation in this Western valley eighty-nine the wand spindles; and the additions to be made to factories in this city and vicinity, will, in another year, swell the number to near one hundred thousand !* The consumption of cotton is near 22,000 bales per annum, which, at present prices, would cost about $1,300,000.* There is, in addition, considerable cotton consumed in the manufacture of batting, which we have not included in our statement. The products of the mills noticed are all disposed of in the West. Those in and near this city find here a ready market for their cloth and yarns; and the demand, particularly for sheetings, is such that stocks do not accumulate. Considerable quantities of Pittsburg sheetings are also disposed of here; and still there is a market for Eastern sheetings, which are brought from Boston and sold as cheap as our own manufactures. This, however, does not pay, as Boston and Cincinnati prices are generally about the same. Since the advance in cotton, manufacturers have been turning out their pro Subsequent statements of factories, not included in our first report, further increase the number of spindles to 100,220, and the consumption of cotton to 27,300 bales. |