Coming now, to take its place among the multitudes of investigations and faithful records of factory life, is this frank, absolutely real and dispassionate Autobiography—written by a mill-boy who has lived the experiences of this book. So far as can be found this is the first time that such an Autobiography has been printed in English.

Since its appearance in the Outlook, the Autobiography has been entirely rewritten and new chapters have been added, so that the book will be practically new to anyone who chanced to read the Outlook chapters.

Contents

Chapter IPage
A Mixture of Fish, Wrangles, and Beer[ 3]
Chapter II
Dripping Potatoes, Diplomatic Charity, and Christmas
Carols		[ 27]
Chapter III
My Schoolmates Teach Me American[ 47]
Chapter IV
I Pick Up a Handful of America, make an American Cap,
whip a Yankee, and march Home Whistling “Yankee
Doodle”		[ 59]
Chapter V
I cannot become a President, but I can go to the Dumping
Grounds		[ 67]
Chapter VI
The Luxurious Possibilities of the Dollar-Down-Dollar-a-Week-System
of Housekeeping		[ 81]
Chapter VII
I am given the Privilege of Choosing my own Birthday[ 93]
Chapter VIII
The Keepers of the Mill Gate, Snuff Rubbing, and the Play
of a Brute		[ 113]
Chapter IX
A Factory Fashion-plate, the Magic Shirt Bosom, and Wise
Counsel on How To Grow Straight		[ 129]
Chapter X
“Peter One-Leg-and-a-Half” and His Optimistic Whistlers[ 141]
Chapter XI
Esthetic Adventures made possible by a Fifteen-Dollar
Piano		[ 149]
Chapter XII
Machinery and Manhood[ 165]
Chapter XIII
How my Aunt and Uncle Entertained the Spinners[ 179]
Chapter XIV
Bad Deeds in a Union for Good Works[ 191]
Chapter XV
The College Graduate Scrubber Refreshes my Ambitions[ 205]
Chapter XVI
How the Superintendent Shut Us Out from Eden[ 223]
Chapter XVII
I Founded the Priddy Historical Club[ 233]
Chapter XVIII
A Venture into Art[ 243]
Chapter XIX
A Reduction in Wages, Cart-tail Oratory, a Big Strike, and
the Joys and Sufferings Thereof		[ 255]
Chapter XX
My Steam Cooker goes wrong, I go to Newport for Enlistment
on a Training-ship		[ 265]
Chapter XXI
The Ichabod of Mule-rooms, some Drastic Musing, College
at my Finger-tips, the Mill People wait to let me pass
and I Am Waved into the World by a BlindWoman		[ 273]

Illustrations

Then the Epileptic Octogenarian Let Me
Go and the Pauper Line Went in Before
the Parish Clerk for the Charity
Shilling		[ Frontispiece]
FACING
PAGE
When the Train Started for Liverpool, I
Counted my Pennies while my Aunt Wept
Bitterly		[ 52]
Pat and Tim Led Me to the Charles Street
Dumping Ground—Which Was the Neighborhood
Gehenna		[ 78]
I Was Given a Broom, and then I Found
Myself alone with Mary		[ 122]
“Peter-one-leg-and-a-half” Led Us at Night
over High Board Fences		[ 146]
The Spinners Would not Stop their Mules
while I Cleaned the Wheels		[ 170]
He Plucked the Venerable Beard of a
Somnolent Hebrew		[ 196]
The Gang Began to Hold “Surprise Parties”
for the Girls in the Mill		[ 246]

THROUGH THE MILL

Chapter I. A Mixture of Fish,
Wrangles, and Beer

THROUGH THE MILL