The master-tailor called one of his "best boys" to show the
waistcoat he was making. A good-looking middle-aged man descended
with alacrity from the table--where, in the time-honoured custom
of his trade, he worked in an attitude calculated to cause persons
of other callings violent cramp in the legs--and shook hands all
round with great warmth and friendliness. Directly he had displayed
a piece of work, in which his instructor took pardonable pride,
he returned with renewed diligence to his needle and thread. This
man's interest in tailoring is so keen that when he, in his turn,
does duty in the kitchen, he returns to his cloth and his favourite
attitude for every available moment. Seated together with the
first-class workmen are others, smiling over their attempts to learn
stitching or to make button-holes. They may possibly never get
beyond samplers, but time will show.
In the shoemakers' shop similar degrees of skill and industry were
manifest. One man held in his hand a finished boot that he had made
from the beginning, whilst others could only be trusted to black
and polish. So it was with the rest of the twenty-five trades and
callings in which last year 198 men and boys were employed, each
according to his several ability. Perhaps the highest attainments
are seen in the printing department--the only one that undertakes
outside work. Besides the necessary printing for Earlswood and the
London office, 232 private orders were sent out last year, and
a profit was made of £150. On the occasion of my visit, a young
compositor was not quite ready to show his proof to the doctor, who
inquired what he was doing. He had just set up the programme for a
patients' party, and had made it conclude with "Musicle Chairs"; he
wanted to correct the spelling before it was inspected.
One elderly man, deaf, with an impediment in his speech and
afflicted in mind, had his own workshop. All around him were
evidences of his artistic skill. He looked tenderly at his own
drawings, but the objects of his special admiration were the various
magnifiers and reflectors he had designed and made to help him in
fine carving. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, who is interested in
Earlswood, has lately presented him with some elephant tusks. It
was a pleasure to this artist to display the lightness of an ivory
landscape brooch. A piece of tortoise-shell at the back, with a
judicious arrangement of the golden and dark blotches, made it a
transparency. When held up on one side to the light, it was a sunny
scene; whilst on the other it was dark, with a full moon.
[Illustration: A CORNER OF THE KITCHEN.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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