Friday, January 18, 2008

01Nov1862, The Cotton Famine

HAWARDEN, All Saints', Saturday, November 1st, 1862.
—Much talk about the cotton famine ; in Preston what they call the " famine fever " has broken out, and everywhere thousands of fresh paupers come upon the parish weekly. Some of the mill-owners do a good deal, but others, they say, make money by secretly selling the cotton they have in stock while their hands are starving for want of work. Next year cotton things will be frightfully dear. Nobody knows what dreadful misery the winter will bring, as there doesn't seem a hope of improvement for months.

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