A few days subsequent to his arrival in Providence, Mr. Brown took him to view the machinery in a mill which he had erected at Pawtucket. On examination, Mr. Slater felt dispirited; and shaking his head, observed, "these will not do-they are good for nothing in their present condition, nor can they be made to answer." After various disappointments, it was proposed that he should erect the series of machines called the Arkwright patents. This he promised to perform, provided he was furnished with a man to work on wood, who should be under bonds not to steal the patterns, or disclose the nature of the works. "Under my proposals," says he, " if I do not make as good yarn as they do in England, I will have nothing for my services, but will throw the whole of what I have attempted over the bridge."

On the 21st of December, 1790, Mr. Slater started three cards, drawing, roving, and seventy-two spindles, which were operated by an old fulling-mill water-wheel in a clothier's shop at the western end of Pawtucket bridge. In this place they continued the spinning until the subsequent erection of the "old mill," so called. The difficulties under which these first measures towards the establishment of the business were pursued, can hardly be conceived at the present day, even by a practical machinist or manufacturer. The basin of the Narragansett bay, and the small, but invaluable streams that fall into it on every side, did not, at that early day, form, as they now do, a continuous hive of mechanical industry, enterprise, and skill, where every sort of material, and even the most minute subdivision of handicraft ingenuity, can be procured at will. There were no magazines or workmen. With the exception of scythes, anchors, horse-shoes, ploughs, nails, cannon, shot, and a few other articles of iron, there was no staple manufacture for exportation. The mechanism then applied in their manufacture was almost as simple as the first impulse of water or steam. Even the side motion of the card machine had not been adopted; the first hint for its use having been obtained several years after. Although Mr. Slater had full confidence in his own remembrance of every part, and ability to perfect the work, he found it next to an impossibility to get those who could make any thing like his models. But there are few difficulties that can discourage an ingenious, enterprising, and determined mind. The various materials required for the first machines were collected at much expense from different parts of the country, and young Slater's own skill and perseverance supplied the place of other mechanics.

It was now, when he flattered himself with an entire success, that an unforeseen difficulty arose. After the frames were ready

tor operation, he prepared the cotton and started the cards, but it rolled up on the top cards instead of passing through the small cylinder. This was the cause of the greatest perplexity, and days were passed in the utmost anxiety as to the final result. On advising with his assistant and pointing out the defect, he perceived that the teeth of the cards were not crooked enough; as they had no good card leather, the punctures were made by hand, and consequently were too large, so that the teeth fell back from their proper place. Luckily it occurred to them to beat the teeth with a piece of grindstone; this gave them the proper crook, and, to their joy and relief, the machinery worked perfectly.

On Slater's arrival in Pawtucket, he was introduced into the worthy family of Mr. Oziel Wilkinson as a boarder. These people were Quakers, and became greatly interested in the young stranger; they have since described his conduct during the difficulty just alluded to. When leaning his head over the fire-place, they heard him utter deep sighs, and frequently observed the tears roll from his eyes. He said but little of his fears and apprehensions; but Mrs. Wilkinson, perceiving his distress, with a motherly kindness inquired, "Art thou sick, Samuel?" He then explained to them the nature of his trial, and showed the point on which he was most tender. "If," said he, "I am frustrated in my carding machine, they will think me an impostor." He was apprehensive that no suitable cards could be obtained, short of England; and from thence none were allowed to be exported.

While in this family, a tender attachment arose between himself and one of its female members, Miss Hannah Wilkinson. He was happy in fixing his affections so soon on one who loved him, and one so worthy; this was the loadstone that served to bind him to the place, when every thing else appeared dreary and discouraging. Her parents being Friends, could not consistently give consent to her marriage out of the society, and talked of sending her away some distance to school, which occasioned Mr. Slater to say, "You may send her where you please, but I will follow her to the ends of the earth." Though absorbed in perplexing business, his hours of relaxation were cheering; he spent them in telling Hannah and her sister the story of his early life, the tales of his home, of his family connections, and of his father land.

This introduction was one of the favorable circunstances that finally secured his success. Here was found a father and mother, who were kind to him as to their own son. He was not distrust. ful of his ability to support a family-did not wait to grow rich before marriage, but was willing to take his bride for better and

for worse; and she received the young stranger as the man of her choice, the object of her first love. This connection with Oziel Wilkinson was of great service to him, as a stranger, inexperienced in the world beyond his peculiar sphere. Besides, it is well known, that sixty years since, the contrast of character of New England men and manners, and other peculiarities, were very great between the two countries. No one knows the heart of a stranger but he who has been from home in a strange land, without an old acquaintance, without a tried friend to whom he could unbosom his anxieties--without confidence in those around him, and others without confidence towards him. Mr. Slater's own experience taught him ever to treat the numerous strangers who flocked to him for advice, assistance, or employment, with marked attention, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

Early in 1793, Almy, Brown, and Slater built a small factory in Pawtucket, which is now called the "Old Mill," where they slowly added to their machinery as the sales of yarn increased. The disposal of the yarn in market was at first found as difficult as the first construction of the machinery for its manufacture. Such are the prejudices of mankind, and their unwillingness to break over long-established habits and opinions, that, superior as was this yarn in material and durability to that imported, people would hardly be convinced, even by actual experiment, that it was possible to make good cotton yarn at home. That made by these pioneers in American manufacture would sometimes be on hand in large quantities, or could be got rid of only as "truck," whilst the English made yarn was eagerly sought for at a much higher price in money. In a note found among Mr. Slater's papers, we are informed that when the first seventy-two spindles and prepara. tion had been at work only twenty months," they had several thousand pounds of yarn on hand, notwithstanding every exertion was used to weave it up and sell it." The same difficulty was experienced in the sale of yarn at intervals, until the introduction of the power loom. Slow as was the advancement of spinning until twenty years after its first establishment, it never attained the advantage of a quick remunerating staple business until the loom was placed beside the spinning frame, and propelled by the same power. The power loom, twenty or thirty years ago, did for the spinning frame what has since been done for the loom by the printery, it furnished an immediate and ready consumption. and a market ready for its products.*

As an evidence of the vast improvements in the manufacture and culture of cotton, it is stated, that at the time of Slater's arrival in this country, good cotton cloth was fifty cents a yard, and never less than forty.