We entered upon the subject of indigo, which we have treated at some length in our last issue, as much in the interest of the people as of manufacturers, for we were deeply impressed with the conviction that no improvement in our manufacturing processes would confer more benefit upon the masses than imparting stability of color to the clothing of the people. When one has a deep conviction upon a subject, upon which others have equal opportunities for judging, he may be sure that he is not alone in his impressions. He is moved by one of those waves of thought which, operating simultaneously upon many minds, gives that uniformity to public opinion at which we so often wonder. We are gratified to find, from responses to our last article, that we are not alone in our conviction of the importance of reviving “true blue” dyes. The head of a mercantile house, the extent of whose _clientèle_ in mills both of wool and cotton is hardly surpassed, has assured us that we have not overstated the reform in dyeing which we have advocated. He had long shared in our convictions. Pointing to the throng of men in the crowded street, where we were conversing, he remarked that there was hardly a man in the crowd whose clothing would not have been improved by indigo dye. “The failure to use indigo dyes,” he emphatically said, “costs the laboring people of this country millions of dollars every year. The fault is not to be charged to our own manufacturers alone; for the blue coat which I wear, and which I bought in Paris, annoys me by the crocking caused by its aniline dye.” In one very large mill of which he is director as well as selling agent, he is putting his principles in practice. All the heavy blue cloths intended for popular consumption are faithfully dyed, and each bears a stamp, “Warranted indigo dyed.” The ready-made clothing establishments which largely consume these goods have already found their advantage in purchasing them, and a similar stamp is attached to each article made from this cloth. Some of our most celebrated cotton fabrics have won and still retain their reputation by the use of indigo dyes. The ginghams are a signal illustration. The blue check is formed by weaving cotton yarns dyed blue in the cold indigo vat with undyed yarns. These goods can be washed indefinitely without change. Another illustration is the famous A.B.A. Amoskeag tickings, an article of such excellence that the question of the right to use trade-mark A.B.A. gave rise to the leading American case in this branch of law.[3] A prominent feature in these goods was and still is the permanence of the dye in the blue stripe, produced by the cold indigo vat. Still another illustration is the blue and white “shirting stripe” first made by Mr. Samuel Batchelder, at the Hamilton Mills, now so generally adopted for sailors’ shirts. The indigo dye enables the color to resist the roughest possible usage.