Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. 2 (of 4).—1857-1874Graves, Charles L. (Charles Larcom)
History
Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. 2 (of 4).—1857-1874
Graves, Charles L. (Charles Larcom)
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901 -- Humor
A Delegate is generally a lazy, idle lout, who likes to sit and
talk much better than to work; and who, considering himself as
being "gifted with the gab," tries to foster small dissensions and
causes of dispute, that he may have the pleasure of hearing himself
prate about them. In other words, he is a drone that goes buzzing
about the beer-shops, and living upon the honey that the working
bees have toiled for. His business is to set a man against his
master, and to keep afloat the Unions that tend to nurture Strikes,
by giving men a false idea of their own strength, and underrating
the resources and resistance of employers. Having duped the
shallow-pated to elect him as their mouthpiece and being paid by
them to lead a lazy life in looking to what he is pleased to call
their interests, the Delegate grows fat on their starvation and
their Strikes, and what is death to them becomes to him the means
of life. Fancied grievances and most unreasonable demands the
Delegate endeavours to encourage and support, for squabbling brings
him into notice and his tongue into full play, and raises his
importance in the pothouse-haunting world. A claim for ten hours'
pay for only nine hours' work is just the sort of trade demand that
a Delegate delights in; for he knows that its injustice must
prevent its being listened to, and he will have the chance of
swigging nightly, gratis, pots of beer while denouncing the
iniquity of rapacious masters, in all the frothy eloquence of a
public-house harangue.
As nobody but a fool would submit to have his earnings eaten into by
a sloth, it is the business of the Delegate to clap a stop on
cleverness, and keep the brains of working men down to the
muddle-pated level of those who are his tools. He, of course, fears
the quick sight of any workman of intelligence, lest it may see
through his iniquitous designs. He, therefore, gets the best hands
marked on the Black List, and does the utmost in his power to reduce
the active, skilful and industrious working man to the standard of
the stupid, slothful, sluggish sot.
[Illustration: MRS. NORTH AND HER ATTORNEY
MRS. NORTH: "You see, Mr. Lincoln, we have failed utterly in our course
of action; I want peace, and so, if you cannot effect an amicable
arrangement, I must put the case into other hands."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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