The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 577, July 7, 1827Various
General
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 577, July 7, 1827
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
Moreover, if the master-tradesmen are willing to sell themselves into
this slavery, the consequence, to the much more numerous classes of
apprentices and journeymen, remains to be taken into the account. The
apprentices, at least, are not paid for the hardships which ensue to
them. There is an occurrence mentioned by George Alexander Steevens, of
a fashionable frequenter of taverns in his time, who threw the waiter
out of the window, and told the landlord to put him into the bill. Had
the landlord himself been the party ejected, this might or might not
have been a satisfactory proceeding, according to the light in which he
might be disposed to regard a contusion or a fracture. But it will
hardly be contended that such a proceeding could be satisfactory to the
waiter. Yet, we may seriously say, that the fate of the waiter was not
more to be deprecated, than that of some descriptions of the apprentices
of the trades-people who contend for the custom of the fashionable
world.
Many is the milliner's apprentice whom every London season sends to
her grave, because the dresses of fine ladies must be completed with a
degree of celerity which nothing but night-labour can accomplish. To the
question, "When must it be done?" "Immediately;" is the readiest answer;
though it is an answer which would perhaps be less inconsiderately and
indiscriminately given, if it were known how many young creatures have
come to a premature death in consequence of it, and how many hearts have
been hardened by the oppression which it necessitates. Nor does the evil
stop there. The dressmakers' apprentices in a great city have another
alternative; and it is quite as much to escape from the intolerable
labours which are imposed upon them in the London season, as from any
sexual frailty, that such multitudes of them adopt a vocation which
affords some immediate relief, whilst it ensures a doubly fatal
termination of their career. The temptations by which these girls are
beset might be deemed all-sufficient, without the compulsion by which
they are thus as it were, driven out into the streets. Upon them, "the
fatal gift of beauty" has been more lavishly bestowed than upon any
other class--perhaps not excepting even the aristocracy. They are many
of them, probably, the spurious offspring of aristocratical fathers,
and inherit beauty for the same reason as the legitimate daughters of
aristocrats, because the wealth of these persons enables them to select
the most beautiful women either for wives or for concubines. Nor are
they wanting in the grace and simplicity of manner which distinguish the
aristocracy; whilst constant manual occupation produces in them more
vacuity of mind than even that which dissipation causes in their sisters
of the superior class. They are thus possessed of exterior attractions,
which will at any moment place them in a condition of comparative
affluence, and keep them in it so long as those attractions last,--a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account