To run this immense establishment, six stationary steam engines are required, which have a combined strength of one thousand horse power. It takes twenty-two boilers, averaging seventy-five horse power each, to furnish the steam for running these engines and heating the buildings. The floors of the buildings have a combined area equal to _thirteen acres_ of ground; and every square foot of the entire area is in constant use. The whole premises, including the fine dockage, covers no less than thirty-two acres of ground. Such, in brief, is the factory where your Singer machine was made, dear reader. It is believed to be the most complete, systematic, and best-equipped in the world. It is believed to be the largest establishment in the world devoted to the manufacture of a single article. It gives employment to over 2,300 men and women, and when it “shuts down” to take the annual account of stock, it takes 200 men to do it; and this they call “shutting up the factory!” The men are paid off every _Monday_, instead of every Saturday, and thus in more than one family the wife and children have had cause to bless the kind forethought which removed temptation from the path of some easily persuaded man, and saved him and his week’s earnings to themselves. [Illustration: [Pouring Molds]] The Singer operatives are among the most thrifty of mechanics. In every case of injury to any of its employés, the Company has dealt with great generosity, and many are the households from which much of the black shadow caused by sickness has been chased by the substantial aid it has afforded. Nor do the hands leave this work alone to their employers. Hardly a man is stricken by disease among their ranks but his comrades interest themselves in his case; and if pecuniary aid is required, the subscription list goes around till every want is supplied at the sick man’s home. These kindly offices are not confined even to these ample limits. When the ghastly Yellow Fever Spectre was carrying dismay and death throughout the Southern States, the employés of this great factory made up, in less than four days, the splendid sum of $4,100, and sent it out on its errand of mercy to men whom they had never seen nor known. The factory hands have organized among themselves several very creditable associations. One is a fine Rifle Team, to which the Company contributed a handsome badge for an annual prize; another is a Brass Band of excellent reputation, besides several Ball Clubs having very good records. CHAPTER VI. THE REASON WHY.