Specialty

If you look closely, that stereotypical New England mill building, photographed yesterday in Pawtucket, has a sign reading “H. A. Briggs & Co. Cotton Waste.”

I’ve heard of a lot of things you can do with cotton, but “cotton waste” was a new one for me. It apparently means scraps (left over from making various cotton products) that are being reused, with cleaning being a common use. In other words, rags, maybe fancy rags. An illustrated history of Pawtucket, Central Falls, and vicinity: a narrative of the growth and evolution of the community, published in 1897, has a portrait of Hiram A. Briggs, for some reason with one eyebrow raised, looking unremarkable other than his resplendent beard, and the portrait’s caption has him listed as a “manufacturer of cotton specialties.” While I am fine with calling rags a specialty, this may simply have been a euphemism: in his capsule biography later in the book, the business is called “dealers in cotton waste” and is also described in terms that make it sound quite successful. Mr. Brigss, in addition to dealing in cotton waste, was “a member of the Business Men’s Association, a director of the Pacific Bank, and [was] a director and member of the executive committee of the American Yarn Manufacturing Co.” as well as being a trustee of the First Universalist church of Pawtucket for fifteen years. It’s somewhat reassuring to know that selling rags raised him to those heights.

In any case, I like his mill. I hope it’s there for another 130 years.