He reviewed his position as a Milton manufacturer. The strike a yearand a half ago,--or more, for it was now untimely wintry weather, in alate spring,--that strike, when he was young, and he now was old--hadprevented his completing some of the large orders he had then on hand.
He had locked up a good deal of his capital in new and expensivemachinery, and he had also bought cotton largely, for the fulfilment ofthese orders, taken under contract. That he had not been able tocomplete them, was owing in some degree to the utter want of skill onthe part of the Irish hands whom he had imported; much of their workwas damaged and unfit to be sent forth by a house which prided itselfon turning out nothing but first-rate articles. For many months, theembarrassment caused by the strike had been an obstacle in Mr.