r, all of which has been lost through his remissness. Besides,
he is paid so liberally for his work, that he can well afford to stand
the loss. This system of accountability runs through the entire work,
and tends greatly to the promotion of care and fidelity in the various
departments of labor.

There are forty-nine pieces used in making up a musket, which have to be
formed and finished separately; only two of these, the sight and
cone-seat, are permanently attached to any other part, so that the
musket can, at any time, be separated into forty-seven parts, by simply
turning screws and opening springs. Most of these parts are struck in
dies, and then finished by milling and filing. The process of this
manufacture is called swaging,--the forming of irregular shapes in iron
by means of dies, one of which is inserted in an anvil in a cavity made
for the purpose, and the other placed above it, in a trip-hammer, or in
a machine operated in a manner analogous to that of a pile-driver,
called a drop. Cavities are cut in the faces of the dies, so that, when
they are brought together, with the end of a flat bar of iron, out of
which the article is to be formed, inserted between them, the iron is
made to assume the form of the cavities, by means of blows of the
trip-hammer, or of the drop, upon the upper die. About one hundred and
fifty operations upon the various pieces used in the construction of the
musket are performed by these dies. Some of the pieces are struck out by
one operation of the drop, while others, as the butt-plate, require as
many as three, and others a still larger number. The hammer is first
forged, and then put twice through the drop. Four men are kept
constantly at work forging hammers in the rough, while but two are
required to put them through the two operations under the
swaging-machine. Sometimes, however, the work presses upon the droppers,
and they have the alternative either to work double time--that is, night
and day--or to allow other hands to work with them; and as they work by
the piece, and are anxious to earn as much as possible each month, they
will frequently work night and day for several consecutive days. I have
known instances where workmen have worked from Monday until Thursday,
night and day, without any intermission, excepting the hour and a half
at the morning change of hands, one hour at noon, one at tea-time, and
half an hour at midnight,--four hours out of the twenty-four. By this
m