Page:A Study of Mexico.djvu/162

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152
A STUDY OF MEXICO.

a coarse, unbleached cotton fabric, adapted for the staple clothing of the masses, and known as manta. Both water- and steam-power were used. In the case of the former, a small stream, with a high fall, being utilized through an iron overshot-wheel, forty-six and a half feet in diameter—one of the largest ever constructed; for the latter a fine "Corliss" engine from Providence, Rhode Island. The spinning-frames and a part of the looms were from Paterson, New Jersey. The remainder of the looms, the steam-boilers, and the immense water-wheel, were of English workmanship. Wood, costing sixteen dollars per cord, was used for fuel; and the motive-power was in charge of a Yankee engineer, who had been induced to leave the Brooklyn (New York) water-works, by a salary about double what he had received there; but who declared that nothing would induce him to remain beyond the term (two years) of his contract, which had nearly expired. The motives prompting to this conclusion were suggested by observing, on visiting his quarters outside of the gates, that a revolver hung conveniently near the head of his iron bedstead, while another was suspended from the wall, in close proximity to the little table on which his meals were served; and also by the following remark, called out by a suggestion from one of the visitors, that a rug on the