nor Longfellow’s “The Building of the Ship,” where he speaks of the pine-trees as—
“Shorn of their streaming hair.”
Nor yet Wordsworth’s sonnet:—
“While trees, dim seen, in frenzied numbers tear
The lingering remnant of their yellow hair.”
This was my only appearance at the Circle, as I had hitherto been deterred from going by the knowledge that those who went were expected to bring a written contribution to be read there. Shortly after this, Miss Farley (one of the editors) invited me to send something to the magazine, and I complied; but I was not an early or a constant contributor.
In 1839, the Rev. Abel C. Thomas and the Rev. Thomas B. Thayer, pastors of the First and Second Universalist Churches in Lowell, established improvement circles composed of the young people belonging to their respective parishes. These meetings were largely made up of young men and women who worked in the mill. They were often asked to speak; but as they persistently declined, they were invited to write what they desired to say, and send it, to be read anonymously at the next meeting. Many of the young women complied with this request, and these written communications were so numerous that they very soon became the sole entertainment of what Mr. Thomas called “these intellectual banquets.”
A selection from the articles read at these meetings was published by Mr. Thomas in pamphlet form, under the title, “The Lowell Offering, a Repository of Original Articles written by Females employed in the Mills.” Mr. Thomas’s own account of his part in establishing the magazine will be found in chapter seven. The first series, of four numbers, was issued from October, 1840, to March, 1841; and there was such a demand for copies, that a new series began, The Lowell Offering proper, a monthly magazine of thirty-two pages, which was issued regularly by its projector from that time until October, 1842, when it passed into the hands of Miss Harriot F. Curtis and Miss Harriet Farley, both operatives in the Lowell mills.
Under their joint editorship it was published, the first year by William Schouler, but after that by these ladies themselves, who were editors, publishers, and proprietors, until December, 1845, when, with the end of Volume V. Miss Curtis retired from the magazine, and The Lowell Offering ceased to exist.
But in September, 1847, Miss Farley resumed the publication of the magazine and issued one copy under the title The New England Offering; and all those who were or had been factory operatives were invited to contribute to its pages.