Passing by one of the presses at which a small man, meagre and hollow-eyed, was labouring with unequal force, as appeared by his paleness and big-dropping sweat, Ben touched with pity, offered to give him "_a spell_." As the pressman and compositor, like the parson and the clerk, or the coffin-maker and the grave-digger are of entirely distinct trades in London, the little pressman was surprised that Ben, who was a compositor, should talk of giving him "_a spell_." However, Ben insisting, the little pressman gave way, when Ben seized the press, and possessing both a skill and spirit extraordinary, he handled it in such a workman-like style, that the men all declared they should have concluded he had done nothing but _press-work_ all his life. Palmer also, coming by at the time, mingled his applauses with the rest, saying that he had never seen a fairer impression; and, on Ben's requesting it, for _exercise_ and _health sake_, he permitted him to work some hours every day at press. On his entrance into Palmer's printing-office, Ben paid the customary _garnish_ or treat-money, for the journeymen to drink. This was on the first floor, among the pressmen. Presently Palmer wanted him up stairs, among the compositors. There also the journeymen called on him for _garnish_. Ben refused, looking upon it as altogether an unfair demand, and so Palmer himself, to whom it was referred, decided; insisting that Ben should _not pay_ it. But neither justice nor patronage could bear Ben out against the spite of the journeymen. For the moment his back was turned they would play him an endless variety of mischievous tricks, such as mixing his letters, transposing his pages, breaking down his matter, &c. &c. It was in vain he remonstrated against such injustice. They all with one accord excused themselves, laying all the blame on RALPH, for so they called a certain evil spirit who, they pretended, haunted the office and always tormented such as were not _regularly admitted_. Upon this Ben paid his garnish--_being fully convinced of the folly of not keeping up a good understanding with those among whom we are destined to live_. Ben had been at Palmer's office but a short time before he discovered that all his workmen, to the number of fifty, were terrible drinkers of porter, insomuch that they kept a stout boy all day long on the trot to serve them alone. Every man among them must have, viz. 1 A pint of porter before breakfast,--cost _d._1-1/2 1 A pint, with his bread and cheese, for breakfast, 1-1/2 1 A pint betwixt his breakfast and dinner, 1-1/2 1 A pint at his dinner, 1-1/2 1 A pint betwixt his dinner and night, 1-1/2 1 A pint after his day's work was done, 1-1/2 -- ----- 6 Total, three quarts!--equal to _nine pence sterling per day_! 9