There is a valid reason for everything in this world, whether we are able to find it or not, and for all this wonderful growth and Aladdin-like success there is a reason too. In 1872, when the great Chicago fire had impoverished thousands of the residents of that city, the Relief Committee undertook to furnish sewing machines to all the needy sewing-girls who might apply. Each girl was permitted to choose her machine from among the sixteen different kinds kept by the Committee. The total number of women who took machines was 2,944, and of this number 2,427 chose Singer machines, and the other 517 women distributed their choice among the fifteen other kinds of machines. These poor women expected to earn their living on these machines, and there must have been some reason why such an overwhelming majority of them took “Singers” instead of machines of other make, each of which was loudly proclaimed by its manufacturers to be the “best in the world.” The Singer Machines have been awarded the first premium over all others more than two hundred times, at great World’s Fairs, at State Fairs, and at County Fairs in every part of the United States. As we have before stated, three-quarters of all the sewing machines sold throughout the world in 1879 were “Singers,” and there must be a reason for that. When any one style of machine, used in millions of homes, leads all the other kinds to such an extent as that, there must be some way of accounting for it all, and if our readers choose to read on they will shortly discover why. An interesting fact in this connection was related to the writer recently by Mr. Galland, a large manufacturer of ladies’ garments, whose factories are located at Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Gallands use several hundred sewing machines in their factories, operating them by steam. They had machines of many different makers originally, but gradually, as these machines wore out, had been replacing them with “Singers.” The reason assigned was that they had noticed, from time to time, that when a Singer machine became vacant, the girls who worked on machines of other kinds were clamorous to obtain the Singer and leave their own; and, when machines of other make were vacant, the girls were full of excuses for not taking them, but seemed desirous of waiting for the next vacancy, in hope of getting a “Singer.” These observations led to inquiry from their master mechanic, who explained that the girls working on “Singers” lost less time in repairing, and in those peculiar sewing machine “fits,” than the girls who operated other machines. At this point the pay rolls were consulted by the inquiring proprietors, and there the whole secret lay exposed to view; for the work was paid for by the piece, and the rolls showed that the girls operating Singer machines were earning from one dollar to two-and-a-half dollars a week more than the other operators! [Illustration: TESTING THE MACHINES. ]