, 1842-10-15

d SITl ITOtn Ten u ulti tCCu, anu Wy
often the latter is not only forced Ia
endure his brutal anger, but likewise
to crafty his brutal lust. Lastly,
during working hours, these children
hear nothing but the disgusting con.
versation of their demoralized seniors.
Such is their education, tuch their
schools, such their religious instruc.
tion. Oh! what would not give tina,
it were possible to prove me a liar, q
slanderer of my kind!
You need but look at these boys
and girls to see the horrible truth
written in their faces. in characters
not to be mistaken. Unmitigated stu
pidity, malice and sneaking vice are
impressed upon their features.
Neither does the body attain IFS
due development in this preparatory
school. The Mayor Of Maroon took
me to see a factory Of this kind at
that place, a league distant from
Rouen. His son. six years old, ac-
companied US. Health and childlike
gayety lighted up the features Of this
boy, and seemed to me TO be a sort
of scoff at misfortune, an evidence of
their deplorable condition. He was
both taller and stouter than the spin
ners at ten or twelve, and most OF
these were besides afflicted with
scrofula, sore eyes, or some bodily
deformity.
One boon, a cruel one, it is true,
but yet boon awaits these unior-
tunate creatures-an early DEATH
Few attain the age offorty; most of
them die before they arrive at thirty;
and pulmonary consumption is very
often the bridge which leads them
out of this vale o~fmisery. The work
itself is extremely wearing; the hours
for children as well as adults, being
from six in the morning till eleven at
night, with an interruption Of an hour
and a half for breakfast and dinner;
and in these factories there is in gene.
raj a dust which settles upon the lungs
and destroys them.
The females employed in them be,
tray in every glance the most shame
less immortality. have seen there
girls whom, at their birth, nature
seemed TO have destined to be hand
some, and some of them still exhibit
traces Of this her intention. But the
moment q smile playedupon the beau
tiful lips, it looked like a blasphemy
against that very beauty, and pro-
claimed the most impudent l%ascivious-
ness; when the eye was raised, there
burned in it fires that told Of vice
which could not reach a lower point
of degradation.E How could it be
olherwise2 The like cause has the
like effect in this case. The associa-
ton of so many idle females-men-
tally idle, for indeed their bodies new
er rest--produce such a familiarity a.
mong them that they have no secrets
from one another. Each details her
adventures of the preceding night,
and thinks only Of those of the next.
The brutalized mind seeks pleasure
after labor, and this pleasure is only
that of the brute. Work is not over
summer and winter, till late at night,
and when the hour CT release strikes,
men and women assemble in the
court, and 60 off together, TO spend
the few sous they may have left. A
child scarcely ever knows more than
its mother; nay, the mother herself
very often does not know the farmer.
One of my acquaintance once saw
a spinner ill-using his daughter, who
turned complainingly to the by-stan-
ders: "Le monsire," she exclaimed,
..he can treat me in this manner! and
since ] was thirteen he has forced me
to supply the place Of a wife!"-
Enough! indeed too much! If | have
exposed the wound. i, is in the hope
OF directing TO II the attention OF
those who have the power to heal
it.
Where there happens to be a man
among these human machines, he is
exception, almost greater mis-
fortune than the rule. These excep-
tons are gradually becoming less
rare in France. And the cause of
this is the education derived from life
and enthusiastically not from the
school. The revolution Of July, the
Instructions in Lyons, the combine
tons Of workmen, have shaken socie-
ty in France to its profoundes recess
es. The philnnlhropist cannot think
without apprehension of the future
destinies of manufacturing districts
and towns; for their unnatural state
will some day or other produce fear
full consequences, unless the whole