Soap making in the American colonies was largely a household art in the beginning. When the second ship sent out from England to the Jamestown colony arrived, there were landed a number of Germans and Poles, skilled craftsmen, among whom were several proficient in handling fat and soap- ashes. The candle and the tallow dip, then the ordinary means of illumination, have always constituted in their manufacture a branch of the soap maker's business, but in those days it was a far more important one than it is to-day. Newport , R. I., had a number of these establishments by the middle of the last century. Boston and all New England were likewise active in this trade, owing to the large whaling interests there, which furnished the sperm- oil. While there were small soap- boiling establishments in nearly all the large towns by 1795, it is safe to say that they did not produce a great deal over $300,000 annually. The bulk of the product consumed was, as has already been stated...