oned, narrow-minded New England stock had disappeared--not
being cheap enough--and their places were fully supplied with a
delightful conglomeration of gentlemen and ladies who had fled from
poor Ireland, from the Azores, from Germany, from pastoral Acadie; and
here and there he would note the pigtail of the frugal Chinese, the
_avant courier of a better time coming_.

Thus he would find that Lowell, having rid herself of narrow-minded
notions, having followed reverently in the footsteps of his illustrious
Manchester, was _a success indeed_.

And _Lynn_ too. She discovered thirty years ago the surprising
swiftness of "teams," whereby six or eight men working in partnership,
each one doing only one thing, say one a welt, and another a bottom,
and another the eyelets, etc., could put a shoe through in one-eighth
the time of the old "one-man" way. Millions of shoes were made, and
shoes were cheap. Much money flowed in, and life was lovely at Lynn.
But Paradise pales if too long continued. The sewing-machines came, and
McKaye was a god--for the master. One man with his machine could do the
work of twenty or forty men in the teams. Shoes were now amazingly
cheap. The Crispins wept, the master laughed, and the making of shoes
went merrily on. And what became of the Crispins? They struck! and
then--they disappeared, vanished, went too "where the woodbine
twineth." They too were not wanted. Let them get themselves out of the
way! the Chinese are coming!

They got much consolation from a certain set of preachers, who assured
them it was all right--"Laws of trade, you know," "cheap shoes good for
the masses," "water will find its level," "the masses in Africa will
now be able to wear shoes," "the best government is _no_ government,"
"all one great brotherhood," "every man for himself and the devil take
the hindmost."

Paradise was just beyond their noses, and it lay just here: "When
things get very cheap every man will only work three hours a day. All
men can play the rest of the time, or they can cultivate their
_minds_!" "Beautiful! Beautiful! Hosannah to the highest!" was what
every disbanded Crispin ought to have said; but, foolish man as he was,
he kept saying, "My _body_ is hungry, and I have no work, and I will
steal some food--or become a broker! You had better look out."

But luckily the Southern war came, and it made places for a good many
men, and the "Government" (not us men and women)--the Government paid
_the