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Show -'..v if ; . - - , THE PROTO FACTORY. mining Experts Get . Stalled on Blankets dud Make a Purchase. Provo, Oct. 26th. Aside from his knowledge of Europe, the ordinary Eastern reader knows but little of his own country. The average New England boy places the Ohio river ; on the verge of civilization, while the Missouri is the: boundary line between baked beans and savages. And the great trouble is that we are the savages ! " With what scorn do We look down from our Rocky mountain homes upon those brown-bread eating, east-wind-cut mor-tals, mor-tals, and ask" them to climb up if they can ; but they cannot. Had the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the Pacific coast, the New England States would now be a howling wilderness. I thought this the other day while I was going through the provo woolen mill. Under the guidance of Mr. Twelves, I wended my way to the tower on top of this four-story building, and was overtaken over-taken by the superintendent, Reed Smoot, who, accompanied by Judge Dusenberry, I was piloting Prof. Blake, of the New York ! School of Mines, and -Oscar Vandercook, of the United States Marshal's office. The Professor remarked that if there was only one more raise to climb, he could stand it, and he did. But what a view and what scenery there . is below .as one steps out at the foot of the tower ! Slap up against yoa like a wall stand the Wasatch Mountains so plain and apparently ap-parently so near that you feel like reaching reach-ing out to pluck one of those brown autumn leaves growing and falling almost within reach ; the valley south and north, with the. well-kept fields and trimmed hedges, and away west, where Utah Lake trembles in the evening breeze, is a picture pic-ture worthy of. a brush if not another pencil. Standing there in the presence of god's mighty monument, Overlooking 'the richest valley in the Rocky Mountains, I felt that when Satan took Jesus away up to the summit in order to tempt him . by the display beneath, be-neath, that he, Satan, slandered this section sec-tion by placing his hat upon Utah ! That old hat still remains, but once in a while the sunlight steals in through the cracks in that weather-beaten beaver, which gives us an inkling of the broad light of freedom, joy and happiness to be found on the outside. "But the factory," said the Professor, and we want back to business, wool and grease. , : s- - . On the upper or fourth floor of the factory fac-tory I found about 25,000 pounds of scoured wool... This, after being carded by twenty-four machines, a couple of pickers and two renovators, is' sent to the spinning-room below. Now let us stop. There are many, of us yet living who are not yet too young to remember the dear old face, framed in gray hair and white cap, sitting patiently by the open fireplace, fire-place, her left hand turning the wheels, while with the right the bobbin was fed and filled. Alas, for the good old long ago and its never-to-be-forgotten spinning-wheel ; the machinery of to-day has done away with grandmother. Just think of four self-acting mules, each-; working 720 spindles, requiring - the attendance of only one operator. -The man who invented this automatic mule was a horse, a workhorse work-horse at that. Why, to go through this Provo factory and see the manner in which wool is manipulated bv machinery, when you get down to the cloth department depart-ment you feel that by disturbing a bolt a flock of shorn sheep will run out from under the pile. They should keep a couple of sheppard dogs around the works here in order to help out this illusion. illu-sion. Seventy power looms turn out the goods-of this mill. Blankets, shawls, dress goods, jeans and suitings of all kinds are turned out here at the rate of 2,000 yards per day, and in the manufacture manufac-ture of which employment is given to 130 persons. Girls are employed chiefly, and, I need not add, they are good looking and intelligent. . After inspecting the whole institution closely, Prof. Blake, purchased two pairs of Provo-made blankets .inrl mm-fcrnri bolt of cloth. Deputy Marshal Vandercook, Vander-cook, fearing the cold current of air on the U. G. road, abo purchased a pair of mottled gray blankets, which for texture and makeup will put to shame any California Cali-fornia blanket ever shipped into this Territory. Ter-ritory. Monotony. |