diameter, and of 125 horse-power each, two of which are placed in each principal mill, and one in the river mill. Eight mill-powers were purchased by this company.

The boarding-houses are on the opposite side of the canal, and consist of four blocks, substantially built of brick, and covered with slate, each 250 feet in length, 36 feet in breadth, 3 stories high, of 10, 9, and 8 feet respectively, with 4 L's in the rear, 1 story high, to each block. Each block contains 8 tenements, and each tenement, except the end one, 333 feet in width and 36 in depth, exclusive of the L, and contains 20 rooms, including the attic, and is designed to accommodate 36 boarders. The location and size of the rooms will appear from the accompanying plan and illustration. The end houses are 25 feet in width, a little smaller than the others. The houses in each block, except the end ones, are like that on the right of the plan here presented. As you enter this tenement on the left there is a small room appropriated exclusively to the mistress of the house. At the right are two dining-rooms, connected by folding doors, each forming pleasant sitting-rooms at other than meal times. Passing through the entry you enter the kitchen, which is furnished with all necessary conveninces. Beyond this is the back kitchen, containing a large boiler and conveniences for other household purposes. In the rear of this is the wash-room, from which you pass into a large yard, inclosed by a high tight fence, having at the end the wood shed, 14 feet wide, and the privies, the whole bordering on a common passage-way 14 feet wide. Under each alternate fence is a double cesspool, serving for two houses, and having an underground passage leading to the common sewer under the sheds. A well of pure water is connected with every four tenements, and all are supplied with soft water, for washing and other purposes, by cast-iron pipes leading from cisterns in the mills to the sinks in the several houses. On the second floor is the parlour and also the sick-room, a small chamber with a fireplace, designed for an invalid who may need seclusion and extra warmth. Besides these, are sleeping apartments for the boarders in the second and third stories and in the attic, designed to accommodate two, four, or six persons each, according to the size of the room. Each tenement cost about $4,000, exclusive of the land, and will compare to advantage with respectable dwelling-houses in Boston, and are much better than the average in country villages.

To protect the health of the inmates, underground sewers are constructed under the sheds in the rear of each block, through which a current of water, supplied by iron pipes connected with the canal on the left or above the block, is constantly running, carrying off all the contents of the privies, cesspools, and other filth, and passing at right angles under the canal, discharging them into the river, preserving the houses perfectly free from offensive smells. A plan of these sewers may be seen in the accompanying illustration. Thirty thousand dollars was expended by this company in their construction alone, for the benefit of the health of the operatives!

Labour begins, or the gate closes, at five o'clock a.m. from May 1 to September 1, and at ten minutes before sunrise the remainder of the year. A firs bell is rung about forty minutes before, to allow time to prepare for work. Labour ends at half-past seven p.m. from September 20 to March 20; at seven from May 1 to September 1; and at fifteen minutes after sunset for the remainder of the year. Dinner during the whole year is at half-past twelve p.m. Forty-five minutes are allowed for each meal.

The number of operatives at present employed in these mills is 1,867, of whom 956 are males, and 911 are females. When entirely completed and in full operation, they will employ about 2,500, and require a town population of 7,500. The principal part of the operatives work by the job, the males earning on the average about $5 80 cents per week, and the females about $2 75 cents per week, besides board, which is $1 50 cents to $2 per week for males, and $1 25 cents for females. The females are principally inmates of the boarding houses. Most of the males, however, have houses of their own, or board elsewhere.

The boarding houses for the accommodation of the operatives in these mills, as in other manufacturing establishments, are owned by the corporation. They have been erected, not for an investment of capital on which a profitable income is to be anticipated, but as a means of preserving a proper supervision

over the operatives employed and for their benefit. Boarding houses of this kind generally afford less than 4 per cent. interest on the capital invested. Some afford no income at all, and even become an annual expense to the owners. They are kept in repair and rented to the tenants, subject to such regulations and restrictions as the company see fit to establish. The rent and price of board are fixed by the company, but both are subject to such alteration as the circumstances of the times, and of all the parties interested, shall render just and proper.

The tenants of the Bay State boarding houses now pay $150 each annually, which is about three per cent. on the cost. The furniture of the houses is obtained and owned by the tenants themselves, and they furnish provisions and other articles of consumption for the inmates. They now receive $1 25 cents per week for the board of females, and $1 75 cents to $2 for males. The fare provided is of a plain, substantial, and wholesome kind, well prepared, neatly served, and in sufficient quantities. Operatives are under no compulsion to board in one tenement rather than in another; it is for the interest of the boarding-house keepers, therefore, that the bill of fare should be attractive and satisfactory. The keepers are sometimes men with wives and families, but they are generally widows, or females who have been accustomed to perform the principal part of the business of providing for their families, and who desire a remunerating means of subsistence. Applications for these situations are generally numerous, but they can be obtained by none but persons of known capacity and respectability; and whenever indications of a different character are manifested, the obnoxious keeper is immediately ejected. Males and females are not allowed to occupy the same house, not even a man with his wife, as boarders.

Several classes of regulations to be observed by the inmates of these houses are printed and placed conspicuously in each house. One code is as

follows:

“1.—The tenants must not underlet any part of their tenement, nor board any persons not employed by the company, unless by special permission; and in no case are males and females to board in the same house.

"2.-The tenants must, when required by the agent, give a correct account in writing of the number, names, character, habits, and employment of their boarders, and whether they are habitual attendants on public worship. They must also, on the first Monday of every month, send to the countingroom a list of all the boarders they have taken, and of all who have left their houses during the preceding month. They must also, at the same time, render a list of the names of all such boarders as have required the services of a physician, on account of sickness, during the same period.

"3.-The doors must be closed at 10 o'clock in the evening, and no one admitted after that time, unless some reasonable excuse can be given.

"4. The boarders must not be permitted to have company at unseasonable hours.

"5.-All improper conduct among the boarders, and all rude and disorderly deportment, must be prevented by the tenants, if possible, and if persisted in must be reported to the agent.

"6.-It is confidently expected that all children over 12, and under 14 years of age, living in the houses, be kept constantly at school.

"7.-It is indispensable that all who live in the houses should be vaccinated, and this will be done at the expense of the company, by a physician, at the counting-room, for all those employed by the company and for the families of

the tenants.

"8.--The health of the inhabitants requires that particular attention should be paid to the cleanliness and daily ventilation of the rooms.

"9.-No water, nor filth of any kind, must be thrown out in front of the houses, nor be allowed to remain in the cellars, backyards, or sheds.

"10.-Ashes must not be kept in wooden vessels, nor will any carelessness be allowed in the use of fire or lights. Neither camphine nor any other explosive compound used for lights will be allowed on the premises.

"11.-The rooms must not be mutilated nor defaced, and in all cases where the plaster of the walls is broken, either by driving in nails, screws or pins, or by rubbing with furniture, or by any carelessness, or by any other means beyond ordinary use and wear, the injury will be repaired, and the cost thereof charged to the person leasing the house.

"12.-A suitable chamber for the sick must be reserved in each house, so that they may not be annoyed by others occupying the same room.

"13.-Window glass must not be allowed to remain broken longer than

one day.

"14.-Wood and coal will not be permitted to be taken into the cellars, nor from them, through the front windows.

"15.-The closest supervision will be exercised to enforce these rules, and the tenants themselves are particularly required to pay close attention to them, and to insist upon their observance on the part of their boarders.

"16.-No tenement will be leased to persons of immoral or intemperate habits, and any tenant who, after occupancy, shall be found to be of such habits, or to receive boarders of such habits, will be notified to vacate the premises.

The tenants are particularly desired to lend their aid in the preservation of the trees in front of the houses, and to give immediate information to the agent if any injury be done them."

Similar regulations are issued by the Atlantic Cotton Mills, besides an additional code, one section of which is the following:

"A proper observance of the Sabbath being necessary for the maintenance of good order, all persons in the employ of this Company are expected to be constant in attendance at pnblic worship, and those who habitually neglect this regulation, or who are known to attend improper places of amusement, will be discharged."

The execution of these and other police regulations of the whole establishment is entrusted to the general agent, who, by his known capacity, his experience, and his character, is fitted for the station. Under his wise and systematic supervision, the boarding-houses and all the departments of these extensive mills are managed with the same care as a small well-regulated family.

The influence of the system by which the boarding-houses are regulated is immensely beneficial, whether we consider it in a social, moral, or sanatary point of view. It is an influence which is felt by all the operatives, at all times, while they are out of the mills as well as in them. In the boardinghouses too, a care, attention, and oversight is frequently exerted by the landlady over her boarders, which is nearly allied to that which a kind parent exerts over her children, and which produces almost as strong a mutual attachment in the one case as in the other.

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