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ELBOEUF CLOTH MILLS

ELBOEUF, about 10 miles from Rouen, has the reputation of being one of the most considerable manufacturing towns in France, for broadcloths. It is stated that the town contains a population of twelve or thirteen thousand permanently settled inhabitants, and many temporary residents, who are employed during the week in the manufactories, and are in the habit of returning on Saturday evening to their families in the adjacent villages.

In the absence of the manufacturer to whom we had a letter of introduction, we were with much civility conducted over the establishment by a superintendent. The machinery, operated by two steam engines, of fourteen horsepower each, is similar to that already described at Louviers. There are no looms for weaving broadcloth operated by water or steam power in France, according to the best information we could obtain. The webs are distributed among the weavers, who work in cottages at a distance from the mills. At nearly all the mills I have visited, the washing of the wool is performed by transferring it in a basket to the river, in the current of which it is immersed. The improved plan of using jets of water, to gush into a box placed conveniently to the boiler to wash the wool, does not appear to be adopted, this laborious mode being pursued from long habit. Most of the spinning machines, or jenneys, contain only 60 or 70 spindles. In one mill, the mule for woollen yarn has just been introduced. The weft yarn is reeled and wound by hand upon the bobbins, and of course the yarns are subjected to a more heavy expense in this process than in the United States, where the little shuttle-bobbin is slipped directly upon the spindle, and the process of subsequent hand winding is saved. Nearly 200 yards of cloth of a middling quality are manufactured per day at these works.

It was stated to us that there are only about ten steam engines in operation at present in Elboeuf, which are all

of small size. Several of the mills are operated by horses, in some cases, traversing circuitous paths, and in others mounted on inclined revolving platforms or wheels. The expense of fuel for the steam engines is a constant subject of complaint with all the manufacturers, who speak of the comparative advantages for manufacturing possessed by England in the cheap supply of coals, and of the United States in the abundant water power so generally available, and in the extent of navigable rivers for the conveyance of the necessary raw materials, and products. The price of coal appears to be about three or four times as dear as in Leeds and Manchester, the expense of fuel for a 20 horse power engine being there about $1100 per year, and here about $4000 per year. Cast iron is comparatively dear in France, and the frames of machinery are commonly made of wood instead of this metal, which is almost always used for this purpose in England and in the United States.

The prices paid for weaving broadcloth of middling qualities by hand are from 9 to 13 cents per English yard, and the weavers earn from 37 to 50 cents per day. A small boy to piece rolls for woollen roving earns from 85 to 95 cents per week, and women earn on an average $1,50 per week. Some of them, who spin, earn $2 per week. Men earn by spinning 40 or 50 cents a day. A common day laborer earns about 2 francs a day, or 38 cts. The prices of provisions are nearly the same here as on the seaboard of the United States. Beef, mutton and lamb are selling in the market at from 8 to 11 sous (equal to about as many cents) for the English pound.

A SUNDAY IN ROUEN.

This day having been fixed upon by the proclamation of the Mayor of Rouen for a public fete, at an early hour

of the morning the streets of the town were thronged by the people from the adjacent villages. The women here, as at Paris, constitute the greater proportion of the spectators, and walk in their peculiar costumes, without bonnets to protect their heads from the heat of the sun. The white cotton caps, which they wear as a substitute, afford no shade to their foreheads and faces; and judging from the prevalence of brown complexions, brightened to a ruddy glow of vermilion, they have little aversion to being considered brunettes. The old as well as the young women mingle together in the crowds, and the former seem to retain their elasticity of step and erect well-turned outlines of form, as well as their taste for show, prolonged to the evening of their days. Often, after the stranger has quickened his pace, in expectation of viewing a pretty face to complete the charms of some female, who may be tripping with a light step before him, he will be disappointed by beholding a sallow countenance furrowed by the ungallant fingers of time.

The first ceremony of the festival commenced with a wedding, in one of the cathedrals, of six pretty country girls, who are selected by the Mayor on the occasion to be publicly married, and to receive their marriage portiens from the city treasury. In most countries, it is common to commemorate great events by massy monuments, and inscriptions in durable characters on lasting tablets of brass and marble, which future generations may in their daily walks gaze at, and read as they pass by. To commemorate the coronation of Charles the Tenth, and to transmit the fame thereof to unborn ages, the good Mayor of Rouen has hit upon a better and more economical expedient than the vulgar plan. He states in his proclamation, that each of these six married couple is to be furnished with silver medals, labelled with superscriptions giving an account of the event to be commemorated, which

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PUBLIC WEDDINGS.

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medals the blushing bride and simpering bridegroom are to promise to deliver to their children (if they should in due season be blessed with any,) under an injunction to them, to hand these medals down to their posterity forever. Instead of statues of stone, and cold monuments of marble, one cannot forbear gazing at these warm living monuments of flesh and blood, presenting a pleasing spectacle of human happiness, upon whom the hopes of the philanthropic mayor rest to fulfil the high destiny which he has allotted to them.

Wine and provisions are distributed in the public square, attended with scenes similar to those already described at Paris. The greased mast was here surmounted by dangling prizes of roasted chickens, geese and strings of sausages. Here again was a repetition of gingerbread lotteries, sports with bows and arrows, riding on wooden horses, and the various other amusements of this nature, which "children of larger growth" forming a portion of the populace of all countries are found to indulge in on holyday occasions. A band of music, employed at the public expense, struck up some lively airs, when the turf of the great square was soon covered by cotillon parties, composed of old women as well as young ones. Their partners, the men, displayed the graces of the jig of a sai lor, or of the double shuffle of a Virginia negro. After dark, the majestic tower of the great cathedral was illuminated, and a blaze of fireworks burst forth from every battlement, as if brilliant with the light of an internal conflagration. The sparks, which began to fall in showers. upon the cotton caps of the countless throngs of women, produced surges, as if white waves were separating and closing in agitation, as the danger became local and imminent, over various parts of the square, affording to the distant spectators no small share of the amusement of the evening.

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SCENE IN A CHURCH.

VESPER SERVICE IN A CATHEDRAL.

On Sunday, we attended the vesper services in one of the magnificent old Gothic Cathedrals of Rouen. Here, on the broad area of the stone pavement forming the floor of this venerable cathedral, a great assemblage of persons were kneeling in the humble attitude of prayer. It is an interesting, and in truth a sublime spectacle, to witness the imposing ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion, as performed in one of these Cathedrals, the lofty and spacious dimensions of which are alone sufficient to produce sensations of awe. The setting sun poured a flood of rays nearly horizontally through the stained glass windows; and myriads of small window panes, variously colored, and illuminated with the ruddy light partially transmitted through them, seemed actually studded with particolored fragments of a broken rainbow having its prismatic tints blended in the leaded compartments. The rays, which pass through stained glass, partake of the color of the medium through which they are transmitted, and settle, like shades of a thousand mottled tints sprinkled upon the clustered pillars, and on the countless faces of the multitude, upturned in devotion, as if in contemplation of the gorgeous scene. One cannot but feel a glow of religious devotion kindled by such a scene in such a place.

There is, as Bonaparte once observed, but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous. In the midst of our feelings of awe and reverence excited by the scene before us, we could hardly refrain from smiling, on hearing one of the women, a lessor of the chairs, which are substituted for pews in all the cathedrals, disputing with a boy who had occupied one of her chairs, about an uncurrent piece of coin, tendered in payment for his seat. These women bustled about with a business-like air, whilst the priest was