England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Sunday
heard, the women rock their bodies to and fro, and wring their hands; the
preacher’s fervour increases, the perspiration starts upon his brow, his
face is flushed, and he clenches his hands convulsively, as he draws a
hideous and appalling picture of the horrors preparing for the wicked in
a future state. A great excitement is visible among his hearers, a
scream is heard, and some young girl falls senseless on the floor. There
is a momentary rustle, but it is only for a moment—all eyes are turned
towards the preacher. He pauses, passes his handkerchief across his
face, and looks complacently round. His voice resumes its natural tone,
as with mock humility he offers up a thanksgiving for having been
successful in his efforts, and having been permitted to rescue one sinner
from the path of evil. He sinks back into his seat, exhausted with the
violence of his ravings; the girl is removed, a hymn is sung, a petition
for some measure for securing the better observance of the Sabbath, which
has been prepared by the good man, is read; and his worshipping admirers
struggle who shall be the first to sign it.
But the morning service has concluded, and the streets are again crowded
with people. Long rows of cleanly-dressed charity children, preceded by
a portly beadle and a withered schoolmaster, are returning to their
welcome dinner; and it is evident, from the number of men with beer-trays
who are running from house to house, that no inconsiderable portion of
the population are about to take theirs at this early hour. The bakers’
shops in the humbler suburbs especially, are filled with men, women, and
children, each anxiously waiting for the Sunday dinner. Look at the
group of children who surround that working man who has just emerged from
the baker’s shop at the corner of the street, with the reeking dish, in
which a diminutive joint of mutton simmers above a vast heap of
half-browned potatoes. How the young rogues clap their hands, and dance
round their father, for very joy at the prospect of the feast: and how
anxiously the youngest and chubbiest of the lot, lingers on tiptoe by his
side, trying to get a peep into the interior of the dish. They turn up
the street, and the chubby-faced boy trots on as fast as his little legs
will carry him, to herald the approach of the dinner to ‘Mother’ who is
standing with a baby in her arms on the doorstep, and who seems almost as
pleased with the whole scene as the children themselves; whereupon ‘baby’
not precisely understanding the importance of the business in hand, but
clearly perceiving that it is something unusually lively, kicks and crows
most lustily, to the unspeakable delight of all the children and both the
parents: and the dinner is borne into the house amidst a shouting of
small voices, and jumping of fat legs, which would fill Sir Andrew Agnew
with astonishment; as well it might, seeing that Baronets, generally
speaking, eat pretty comfortable dinners all the week through, and cannot
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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