The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 1, 1869.

THE LATE EDITION of "ME SUN " at
J. SMITH'S, SO, Bow-street, Covent-garden.

TIHE LATE EDITION of "THE SIIN" at
W. SMITH'S " Camden Stores," 78, Park-street, Camden

town.

THEATRE-ROYAL DRURY-LANE.
dole Lessee and Manager, Mr. F. B. Chatterton.
Tins EVENING, at 7, BELLES OF THE KITCHEN. At 8,
FORMOSA : Messrs. Barrett, H Irving, David Fisher, Brittain,
Wright, John Rouse; Mrs Billington, Misses M. Brennan, Mac-
donald. and Katharine Rodgers. Conclude with BORROWED
PLUMES

retail every description of woven goods—silks, satins,
woollens, calicos, lace, and an endless variety of other
articles. The shopmen in these immense stores num-
ber not fewer than 12,000 in all, and are of various
grades ; but it appears that only a few of the oldest
servants, occupying the best posts, enjoy a good
remuneration or are well-treated. The great
majority suffer from various grievances. Their hours
of labour are excessive—averaging some fifteen
hours a day. Their food is indifferent ; one master
recently boasted that the keep of his assistants cost
him ninepence a day each ! Lastly, their salaries are
seldom more than £7O or £BO a year, when without
board or lodging. With the view of amending their
condition in all three respects, but more especially
for the purpose of reducing their hours of labour—
which is clearly the most substantial ground of
complaint—these assistants presented a: series of
demands to the employers, and on the refusal of the
latter a general strike took place. The movement
was characterised by remarkable unanimity. Both
masters and assistants in France are enrolled
in a species of union called a syndicate,
and a very powerful organisation that of
the linendrapers is. The masters agreed that
the first who yielded to the demands of the men
should pay a forfeit of £2,000. The assistants
offered to work at any period, but insisted that if
the shops were kept open for fifteen hours a day
there ought to be relays of salesmen ; and on the
rejection of this moderate request they involved the
entire trade in confusion. At first only the lower ranks
left work, but soon the higher officials—those who
wore comfortably situated—went to the support of
their fellows. And at length twenty-two large
houses lost not only their subordinate assistants, but
the first-class salesmen and buyers, who are not easily
replaced. Altogether 8,000 men quitted their
counters. The remaining 4,000 are those employed
in houses which yielded to the demands, and those
in which the treatment of the assjistants was origi-
nally good.
The greater number of employers were brought to
sad straits by this well-organised strike. Some, in-
deed, yielded without concert with their fellows,
whilst others asked assistance from the Government
and from the provincial towns. But though a Govern-
ment officer, it is said, sent one hundred girls from an
orphan school, their assistance was found of very
little avail; whilst the provincial linendrapers seemed
rather disposed to support the strike than to
fill the vacant places. Some proprietors tried women
in their inaga4ins, but a good authority states that
this experiment did not answer. " Those who go
shopping to these houses are mostly women,
and women have little confidence in their
An adroit salesman will pass off
upon: women the worst merchandise in stock, where
a saleswoman would entirely fail." Still, however, the
masters mostly held out, and at length the assistants,
abandoning all hope of coming to terms, resolved to
give the strike a new and bold turn. They decided
upon entering into rivalry with their employers, and
selling on their own account the goods which
they formerly retailed as assistants. Three
co-operative rnagasins were opened in Paris this week
under very favourable auspices. One landlord pro-
mised to charge no rent until the business so far
prospered that the ex-assistants were able to pay.
Several large manufacturers of nouveautes
have offered goods on credit. A financial
company has, it is said, volunteered a loan
of £20,000. The assistants' syndicate proposes to
establish a co-operative company, with a capital of
£20,000, the assistants to hold shares and the public
debentures. It appears that an Englishman, whose
name is not quite clear, has subscribed largely to the
scheme, and has placed a shop free of charge at the
service of the men on strike. Thus powerfully
upheld, the co-operative principle is to be fairly tried
on a large scale. The system which has hitherto
been confined to isolated firms, mostly in a small way,
is now to be extended to an entire business. How
far the experiment will succeed the result alone can
shew. But that such an attempt should be made, and
command such sympathy and assistance, are-surely
signs of an altered state of things

own sex.

Mn. BAILEY DENTON has furnished an important
contribution to the literature of the sewage and
drainage questions. After twenty-one years' con-
stant effort to discover the best mode of protecting
the public health in this respect, it is rather
startling to be informed that the ordinary
system of drainage is altogether wrong. But such
is Mr. DENTON'S conclusion. The common method
of carrying off the sewage and drainage of a town is,
he affirms, excellent in some respects, but it is like-
wise open to very grave objections. The radical
mistake of the plan usually adopted consists
in combining the functions of the sewer
and the drain. They are quite separate
" institutions." A drain is for the purpose of
carrying off the natural moisture of the earth ;
whilst the proper office of a sewer is to remove the
refuse of houses. " A drain should be calculated for
slow, gradual, and constant action on the soil; a
sewer for the rapid discharge of its work." Unfortu-
nately, in practice, one convenience does the work of
both. The sewers operate as drains, and the effect of
the combination is perceptible in two ways. The subsoil
water in the neighbourhood of a town with a
proper sewage system invariably diminishes ; in
other words, a well which would at one
time contain standing water at a depth of
twenty feet. Such examples,
e system is constructed,
befio vf
e wfsunkehe:thhn lfil
tfahtte:
erwneheoanrre a
many, prove clearly that
water permeates through the brickwork of sewers;
and, on the converse principle, it is not
less certain that the liquid in sewers penetrates
through to the earth, and is brought by evaporation
to the surface in the shape of malaria. The earth,
air, and water may become tainted and pregnant with
infection through the very means that have been
adopted to guard against disease. The defect of the
present sewerage system, then, is that by com-
bining the drainage liquid s ith th 3 more
solid sewage matterP, it facilitates this penetration
through the brickwork, and the subsequent rise to
the surface of noxious gases. Thus, while the sewers
in one way prevent disease, in another they actually
cause it. Otherwise, how is the fact tobe accounted for
that in some towns lung diseases, fever, and other
maladies have actually increased in spite of both
systematic sewerage and a copious water supply ? The
sewage ought to be carried off with as little admixture
of water as possible. In order to secure the
maximum of benefit from sanitary
improvements, the
systems of drainage and sewerage ought to be quite
distinct. In one city, Salisbury, they are distinct,
and there the best results are attained. Mr. DErrrox
concludes that the labour of a quarter of a century is
in part useless ; we must commence and construct
afresh.

SURELY it would be a graceful thing if the Liberal
wire-pullers would allow one working man to have a
seat in Parliament. The presence of one "honour
able " builder or carpenter would not be so very
portentous. We have long past the shoe-buckle
stage. The appearance of any number of ROLANDS
without the courtly appendage does not dismay
us. There are already in the House men
who began life as labourers, and they
in some instances occupy important county mitts,
which used to be considered the appanage of the great
families. We do not see why Mr. ODGER should not
be quite as useful a member as Mr. ELLIOT ; nor
why, as North Durham returns the one, Southwark
should not return the other. And yet there are signs
that the managers in Downing-street will not suffer
it. they have of course a considerable number of
old supporters who were unfortunate at the general
election, and they wish to find room for them.
There is Mr. MILNER GIBSON, for instance,
who, it is said, will be put up for the seat which Mr.
LA.YARD is about to leave. Mr. MILNER GIBSON iS
a very respectable gentleman, and journalists espe-
cially are bound to speak well of one who led the
crusade against the taxes upon knowledge. Yet for

all that we do not think that his presence is indis-
pensable to the well-being of the House of Com-
mons. We remember that he was the most
faineant of Ministers, and that he preferred to
display his handsome and well-dressed person in
Pall-Mall to sitting in an office in Downing-street.
Mr. GLADSTONE was congratulated, eleven months
ago, because Mr. GIBSON had been defeated, and it
was, therefore, not incumbent upon the new PREMIER
to find a place for him. If he re-enters Parliament,
we suppose that he will have to be provided for, and
that an additional Lord of the Treasury will be found
necessary to assist Captain VIVIAN in the discharge of
his overwhelmingly arduous' duties. On the whole,
we think Parliament, the party, and the Ministry can
very well spare him. We are sure that it would be
only doing a graceful thing to let Mr. ODGER walk
over the course, as an acknowledgment of the self-
denial which he displayed in retiring from Chelsea
rather than • divide the Liberal interest. South-
wark, moreover, is essentially a working
man's constituency, and the concession would,
therefore, be all the more valued. If it is
not made we foresee trouble in store for the Liberal
party. They will find working-class politicians
assume the same relation towards them that the
Radicals assume towards the Whigs. Mr. BRIGHT
and his friends, by temporary alliance with Conser-
vatives, compelled Lord PALMERSTON to give
will
to the Radicals. Mr. ODGER and his friends will bear
that fact in mind if they do not receive better treat-
ment than the Government at present seems inclined
to shew them.