EXPLAINED.
Willie. "I think I know why Ponto wags that stump of a tail so very hard."
Aunt Jane. "Why does he do it, Willie?"
Willie. "Because it is only half a tail, and he wants to enjoy a sense of wagging a whole one."
A RAPIDLY MADE COAT.
Manufacturers are always pleased to turn out the product of their establishments in less than the average time, and many have made records to which they point with pride. In the issue of the Round Table for December 10, a short article was published on making a coat in thirteen and a half hours, from shearing the sheep to putting the finished garment on a man's back. This was done at Greenham Mills, in England, in 1811. Mrs. James Lyon, of Bath, New York, writes that a similar feat took place in that town in 1816, and was accomplished in less than nine hours by one George McClure, who asserted that it could be done in ten hours. The record of each step of the work still exists, with the exception of the shearing. The wool was colored in thirty-five minutes; carded, spun, and woven in two hours and twenty-five minutes; fulled, warped, and dyed in one hour and fifty-one minutes; carried to the tailor in four minutes, and was turned into the finished coat by him and his journeyman in three hours and forty-nine minutes. The shears used in the work are still preserved, and can be seen at the Steuben Agricultural Society's Fair Grounds, at Bath.
This feat, at the time, doubtless attracted as much attention as a record-breaking railroad train or steamship does to-day. It is probable that many of our present manufacturers make such trials for their own edification, which, if described, would prove interesting.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Begun in Harper's Round Table No. 857.