Mechanics', operatives', and laborers' advocate., 1837-02-13

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 filled with infantine mirth- whilst its mother views
 It with fondness joins in its vociferations, losses
 Tn her arms and kisses like mother. She passes
 on cheenly, her whole gait is altered, her cheeks
 are flushed, and she thinks herself happy-for her
 maternal feelings are aroused, and her inebrlated
 child seems to her own disordered senses the very
 paragon of beauty and delight.
 The pair have now reached home-night is far
 advanced and the fumes of their intoxications are
 worn off, or become converted into sullenness. The
 child IS ma stupor, and the husband and wife meet
 without single kindly greeting. There is no food,
 no iirei bickerngs arise, mutual recrjminaton,
 blows, ctses-till both at last sink into the stupif-
 ed sleepfof drunkenness worn out by toll, excessive stimulus, and evil passions.
 Here come several girls and young women, tole-
 raby dressed; with harsh, husky voices, shew-
 ing the premature development of puberty, others full grown and perfectly foned women. All, save
 one, have the same pallid hue of countenance, the
 same codrseness of expression, the contour of tigme-hut all seem equally toll worn and exhaust ed. One amongst them is, however, beautiful, and
 beautiful as an innocent girl alone can bethe very
 purity of her heart and soul gleaming in her face. Her figure IS plump and round, and her cheeks,
 though somewhat pale, are yet firm in their outline
 It Is evident that she is scarcely at home in the presenceiot her companions nor one of them ill feeling, though it would seem that she is condemn ed to theisame labor Yes it is so. She is not many weeks returned from distant town in which she has been apprenticed to a respectable trade. Adverse circumstances have, however, driven her home, and she has no resource but to become weaver, and this she has been for upwards of a week. She hesitates to enter the beer-shop-she wlthdraws timdy, but at length is lost within its door, amidst the laughter and jeers of her compan- ions. They remain long and now approach num- Der of young men with soiled dress, open necks, ,and of obscure speech. Laughter long and loud re- sounds from 1t; tune wears on; but the drunken revel continues unabated-now showing itself by bursts of obstreperous merrment--now by vollies of imprecations-no by the rude dance-and now by the ribald song But where is that delicate and beautiful girl? Can she be one sharing such scenes? Can she whose eyes and ears evidently revoted from the bold gestures and speeches of her con- panions, be remaining to share such coarse orgies Eleven o'ql dock, and the party re-appear. Cursng, swearing, hiccuping, indecent displays, mark their exit; and here IS the fair girl, whose "unsmlrched bow'so lately gave tokens ot her parity. But now she is metamorphosed into bacchanal, with distented and-glowng cheeks staggering step, dis ordered apparel--ost, utterly lost to herself: and when the morning bell rings her to her appointed labor, she will be one of the herd, and will speedily lose all trace of her purity and feminine beauty.
 If there is ono period of the day when these dis plays excite more unminged disgust than another, it is during the hours of labor, when those wives and mothers of the absent artizans, who are either unable to york; or cannot procure it, are left at home. Eo domestic cares occupy them, except in a few rare cases. Their hearths are unswept, their persons and houses uncleaned, and their rooms un- tidy. On the contrary they are seen in groups of two or three ounging about the gin or beer-shops, wasting away the trife of money they may have re- ceved, or procuring supply by pawning some DOT ton ot their wretched apparel, or equally wretched furniture.
 Pawn-brokers' shops have an affinity in their de- agency to the gin and beer houses, and are almost as numerous, occupying the same locali- ties, and giving unhappy facilities to the poor man to proract his Saturday nights or Sundays debauch throughout the early part of tho week. Article af ter artlcle IS pledged for small sums, to be redeem ed the next pay day, and homeseads which, on the Saturday mornings are destitute of every domestic utensil, are found in the evening, possessing somef of these They have been fetched from pledge, a loss has been sustained upon them, and in ninety nine cases ont of one hundred, they arc again mss ing before the middle of the ensuing week. The same with regard to dress-coat or trowsers cloak, dress or under dress, shoes, stockings, &c. &c., all have constant round. Sacrifice after sacrifice takes place, till at length the articles are either left or are become s) far worn and tatter- ed as to be no longer valid security to the pawn broker, even for the very small sum he advances upon bem be it two pence, four pence or six pence or oneshlng.
 This utter disregard for personal comfort and household decency, strongly demonstrates the mis- erably low ebb to which the domestic relations are reduced, and prcclaims in voice which it is im possible to misunderstood, how deporable, how pit fable is the condition, which thus derriyes itself like the untutored and uncultivated savage, of eve ry thing humonizing, for the sake of momentary excitepent-- t--which leaves matters in an infinitely