Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Women and Men

[208] the mill running day and night for a year. But for this there would be absolutely required certain expenditures in the way of machinery, buildings, etc., and her object was to ask advice as to the best way of raising the necessary money for this purpose. She had been advised to form a joint-stock company, and yet felt a natural dislike to having the enterprise pass into other hands, after carrying it thus far herself. She ended by showing me a sample of the blankets, which I could only regard with inexperienced amazement, having never seen anything of the kind so thick, soft, and luxurious. I could hardly wonder that they were worth, as she claimed, fifty dollars a pair.

Leaving neither money to invest nor practical knowledge of the woollen manufacture, I could only give her letters of introduction to three men of high standing in different branches of that business. From two of these I have since heard; and they were apparently even more surprised than I was, because they were better acquainted with the subject. One of them writes thus:

Mrs.--called on me to-day, and I am very glad you introduced her. She is not only a bright woman but an exceptional manufacturer, and I shall try to help her. She brought a specimen of her blankets, and I showed then to the wool-buyer of the-- Mills, who happened to be in my office at