This was in session also a few hours on Sunday. It was taught by Mr.
Anthony himself or his own family teacher without expense to the
pupils. Everything about the factory was conducted with perfect system
and order. Each man had a little garden around his house. Mr. Anthony
looked upon his employes as his family and their mental and moral
culture as a duty. Even thus early he was so strong an opponent of
slavery that he made every effort to get cotton for his mills which was
not produced by slave labor.
The only persons ever allowed to smoke or drink intoxicants in the
Anthony home were Quaker preachers. The house was half-way between
Danby, Vt., and Easton, N.Y., where the Quarterly Meetings were held
and the preachers and elders stopped there on their way. In a closet
under the stairs were a case of clay pipes, a paper of tobacco and
demijohns of excellent gin and brandy, from which the "high seat"
brothers were permitted to help themselves. It is not surprising to
find in the annals that a dozen or more would drop in to get one of
Mrs. Anthony's good dinners and the refreshments above mentioned.
In the spring of 1832 a brick-kiln was burned in preparation for the
new house. Mrs. Anthony boarded ten or twelve brick-makers and some of
the factory hands, with no help but that of her daughters Guelma, Susan
and Hannah, aged fourteen, twelve and ten. When the new baby came,
these three little girls did all the work, cooking the food and
carrying it four or five steps up from the kitchen to the mother's room
to let her see if it were nicely prepared and if the dinner-pails for
the men were properly packed.
Soon after this, Mr. Anthony remarked that one of the "spoolers" was
ill and there was no one to do her work. Susan and Hannah had spent
many hours watching the factory girls, and at once raised a clamor to
take the place of the sick "spooler." The mother objected, but the
father, who always encouraged his children in their independent ideas,
interceded and finally they were allowed to draw straws to decide which
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