eight thousand eight hundred and
sixty-eight spindles, and five thousand five hundred and eighty-eight
looms, employing two thousand one hundred and seventy-two males, and six
thousand nine hundred and twenty females, who made, in 1840, sixty-five
millions eight hundred and two thousand four hundred yards of cotton and
woollen cloths, in which were consumed twenty-one millions four hundred
and twenty-four thousand pounds of cotton alone.

The average amount earned by the male hands employed, exclusive of their
board, is four dollars and eighty cents, or about twenty shillings
sterling per week, and of the females two dollars, or about eight
shillings and sixpence per week.

But the most striking and gratifying feature of Lowell, is the high
moral and intellectual condition of its working population. In looking
over the books of the mills we visited, where the operatives entered
their names, I observed very few that were not written by themselves;
certainly not five per cent. of the whole number were signed with a
mark, and many of these were evidently Irish. It was impossible to go
through the mills, and notice the respectable appearance and becoming
and modest deportment of the "factory girls," without forming a very
favorable estimate of their character and position in society. But it
would be difficult indeed for a passing observer to rate them so high as
they are proved to be by the statistics of the place. The female
operatives are generally boarded in houses built and owned by the
"corporation" for whom they work, and which are placed under the
superintendence of matrons of exemplary character, and skilled in
housewifery, who pay a low rent for the houses, and provide all
necessaries for their inmates, over whom they exercise a general
oversight, receiving about one dollar and one-third from each per week.
Each of these houses accommodates from thirty to fifty young women, and
there is a wholesome rivalry among the mistresses which shall make their
inmates most comfortable. We visited one of the hoarding houses, and
were highly pleased with its arrangement. A considerable number of the
factory girls are farmers' daughters, and come hither from Vermont, New
Hampshire, and other distant States, to work for two, three, or four
years, when they return to their native hills, dowered with a little
capital of their own earnings. The factory operatives at Lowell form a
community that commands the respect of the neighborh