2. What is said of political animosities and the general prosperity of the State? Of towns and factories? 3. What charitable institution had been opened by the Masons? Who was put in charge? 4. What is said of the Orphan Asylum? 5. In what condition was the University? What is said of other colleges? 6. What female school is now mentioned? 7. What political changes were seen in the Presidential campaign of 1872? 8. What was said to have dictated this course? What was the general position of the people since the close of the war? 9. What was the cause of sectional prejudices continuing to exist? 10. In what characteristics do the American people stand high? Why should all sectional animosities be speedily removed? CHAPTER LXX. THE COTTON TRADE AND FACTORIES. A. D. 1878. 1873. Previous to the introduction of Whitney's cotton gins there had been much attention bestowed by the people of the State upon the cultivation of flax. This crop was never reared for exportation, but for family use at home. Few of the ancient spinning-wheels can now be found, but they were once abundant and the manufacture of home made linen was common in North Carolina. This was even more the case than is now the preparation of woolen fabrics upon the handlooms of the families. 2. So soon as the lint cotton was cheaply separated from its seed, the great question of its universal use was solved. It could be so easily produced that no woolen or linen fabrics could hope to compete with it in the markets of the world. The good women of the State soon learned the economy of buying the cotton warp of the cloth wove at the farmhouses, but it was long before even this common domestic necessity was prepared for use in the South. 3. The cotton yarns were, until about 1840, almost all spun in New England and bought by the merchants in the large cities when laying in their semi-annual supplies of goods for the retail trade. The purchase of slaves and the cultivation of cotton so completely absorbed the energies of our people that no one invested capital in anything else, except, perhaps, some who preferred real estate for such a purpose.