Autobiography / by Alexander Bain, LL. D., professor of logic and English, University of Aberdeen (with supplementary chapter).

  • Alexander Bain
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Autobiography / by Alexander Bain, LL. D., professor of logic and English, University of Aberdeen (with supplementary chapter). Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    infancy, the remaining five attained maturity, but I, the second, was the only one that saw forty. Of the other four, I may say that they were all failures in life : every one of them had, at some time or other, to be assisted by me. Only one, my elder brother, was married ; and of his family of four, but one daughter remains.1 Such a melancholy history made a lasting impression on my mind, as indicating something entirely wrong. When my father married, the trade of hand- loom weaving was prosperous, and expert workers could make good wages. I have a dim recollection of its being said that a man like my father, who was both expert and industrious, could earn con¬ siderably over a pound a week. But it was the sad experience of our family, that the remuneration of piece work steadily fell from year to year; and my earliest feelings of bitter distress were due to my fathers announcing, time after time, the re¬ duction of the rate per piece of the fabrics that he wove. As the increase of his family was steady at the same time, the result was that he increased his amount of production until, I may say, for a number of years, his working day ranged from thirteen to fifteen hours. No other man that I knew could compare with him in this determina¬ tion to cope with the needs of his growing family. 1 Since deceased.—[Ed.] 1*
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