Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-10-30
Severe toll of English Operatives.

We extract the following affecting account,
from a recent communication of ELIHu BUR-
RIFT, now in England, to the +" Christian Cit
izen."
| was suddenly diverted from my contem-
plaiion Of the magnificent scenery by the fall
of heavy rain drops, as the prelude TO an i'm
pending shower. Seeing a gate open, and
hearing a familiar clicking behind the hedge,
| stepped through into a little blacksmith's
shop, about as large as an American smoke
house for curing bacon. The first object my
eyes rested upon, was a full-grown man, nine
years of age, and nearly three feet high. perch
ed upon-a stone of half that height, to raise
his breast TO the level of his fathers anvil,
at which he was at work, with all the vigor
of his little short arms, making nails. | say
a tuH-grOrn man, for fear he cIn never grOw
any larger, physically or mentally. As put
my hand on his shoulder in a familiar wav,
to make myself at home with him, and to re-
move the tilnidity with which my sudden APP
pearance seemed TO inspire him, by a plea
SAINT word or two of greeting, his flesh felt
case-hardened into all the induration of toll
ing manhood. and as unsusceptible of growth
as his anvil block. Fixed manhood had set
in upon him in the greenness of his youth;
and there he was by his fathers side, a stint
ed, premature man with his childhood cut
OFF with no space to grow in between the
cradle and the anvil block chased. as soon
as he could stand on his little legs, from the
hearth-stone. by the iron necessity, that would
not let him stop long enough to pick up a let
ter of the English alphabet on the way. O.,
Lord John Russell think = Of it! OF this Eng
lishman's son, placed by his mother, scarcely
weaned, on a high cold stone, barelooted. be-
. Goo ln null q. H.. = I,-l-- -. - IL
ter its young hands by heating and hammer
ing ragged nailrods, for the sustenance her
breast can no longer supply! Lord John !
look at those nails, as they lie Kissing on the
block. Know you their meaning, use or Ian.
guage! Please your lordship, let me tell you
i have made nails before now-they are
iron exclamation points, which this unlettered
dwarlish boy is unconsciously arraying against
you, against the British Government, and the
ministry of British literature, for cutting him
oil without a letter of the English alphabet,
when printing is done by steam for incarce.
rating him, for no sin on his parents side. bui
poverty, in a dark, six-by-eight prison of hard
labor, a youthleSS being-think of it! an in.
FAINT hardened, almost in its mothers arms,
into a man, by toll, that blows the sturdies
of the worlds laborers who come to manhood
through intervening years of childhood /!
The boys father was at work with his back
towards me when ] entered. At my frs
word of salutation to the lad he turned rount
/, and accosted me a little bashlully. as il unac
customed to the sight of strangers in tina
. place, or reluctant to let them into the secre
4 of his poverty. | sat down upon one end o
= his naiI-bench, and told him | was an Ameri
f can blacksmith by trade, and that ! had CONT
In to see how he got on in the world, whelh,
er he was earning pretty good wages at hi,
2 business, so that he could live comfortably
and send his children to school. As | SAID
3 this, | glanced inquiringIy toward the boy
r.. who was looking steadily at me from hi,
stone stool by the anvil. Two or three little
crock-iaced girls, from two TO five years o.
e age, had stolen in timidly, and a couple O
young frightened eyes were peering over thu
G sill at me. They all looked as if some tasl
S were daily allotted TO them in the SCOT anC
S cinders Of their fathers forge, even 10 lht
!, sl.arp-eyed baby at the door. The poor Eng
lishraan-he was as much an Englishman al
the Duke of Wellington-looked at his bush,
IT headed, bare-footed children. and said sofl,
IT. with a melancholy shake of the head, that m,
times were rather hard with him. 1t trouble,
his heart, and many hours of the night he ba,
5 been kept awake by the thought of it, that h
could not send his children to school, no
teach them himself to read, They were ZOO
a cinldfcn, he said with a moist yearning il
n. .."- H" .." H.HHh Il 49, 70 U