Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1846-11-05
sYAUNYON, (YA.l YAURsDAY NOyEMBER s. 1s4s.


sight of strangers in that place, reluctant to let
them into the scene and secret of his poverty.
sat down upon end of his nail bench, and told
him was an American blacksmith by trade, and
that had come to how he got on in the world !;
whether he was earning pretty good wages at his
business, so that he could live comfortably and send
his children to school. AS said this glanced in
quiringly toward the boy who was looking steadily
at me from his stone stool by the anvil. Two or
three little crook-aced girls, from two to five years
OF age, had stolen in ,imidly, and couple of young
frightened eyes were peerng over the door-sill at
me. They all looked as if some task were daily
allotted them In the SCOT and cindcrs of their fathers
forge, even to the sharp-cyed baby at the door.
The poor Englishman--he as much an Eng
lishman as the Duke of yelling on-looked at his
bushy headed barefooted children, and said SOFTLY
with melancholy shake of the head, that the times
were rather hard with him.
|. Troubled his heart, and many hours Of the night
k3e lao been kept awake by the thought of it, that
he could not send his children to school, nor teach
them himself to read. They Were good children,
ne said, with moist yearning in his eyes; they
were all the wealth he had, and he loved them the
more the harder he had to work for them. The
poorest part of the poverty that was on him, was
that he could not give his children the letters
They were good children, for all the crock of the
shop was their faces, and their fingers were bent
like the eagles claws with handling nails. He
had been poor man all his days, and he knew his
children would be poor all their days, and poorer
than he If the nail business should continue to grow
worse. If he could only give them the letters, or
the alphabet they call it, it would make them the
like of rich, for theh they could read the Tesla
ment. He could read the Testament little, for
he had learned the letters by freight. 1t was a
good book, was the Testament never saw any
other book; heard tell of some in rich peoples
houses, but it matterod but little with him.
The Testament, he was sure it was made for mai
lers and such like. 1t helped him wonderfully
when the loaf was small on the table. He had but
little time to read it when the sun up, and it
took him long TO read little, for he learned the
letters when he was old But he laid it beside his
dish at dinner time and fed his heart with it, while
his children eating the bread that fell to his
share. And when he had spclt out line Of the
shortest words, he read them aloud, and his eldest
boy, the one on the block there, could say several
whole verses he had learned i'm this way
1t was great comfort to him to think that Jeemes
could take into his heart so many verses Of the
Testament, which he could not read. He intended
to teach all his children in this way. 1t was all
he could do for them; and this he had to do at
meal times; at all the other hours he had to be at
the anvil. The mailing business was growing hard
er, he was growing old, and his family large He
hdd 10 acOr6 from fOur o'clock in the 7aOrning till
ten o'clock at night to earn eighteen pence.
His wages averaged only about Secen shiuings a
tceck! and there five of them to live OH what
they could earn. 1t was hard to make up the loss
of an hour. Not one of their hands, however little
could be spared. Jenny was going on nine years
of age, and helpful lad he was: and the poor man
looked at him doatingly. Jenny could work off
thousand nails day, Of the smallest size. The
rent of their little shop, tenement, and garden was
five pounds year, and few pennies earned by the
youngest Of them was Of great account.
But, continued the father, speaking cheerily, |
am not the one to complain. Many is the man that
has harder lot of it than among the nailers along
these hills and in the valley. My neighbor in the |
next door could tell you something about labor you
may have heard the like Of in your country He
is older man than |, and there are seven of them
in his family and for all that, he has no boy like !
Jenny here TO help him. Some of his little girls |
are sickly, and their mother is not over strong,
and it all comes on him.
He is an oldish man, as was SAYING vet he |
not only works eighteen hours every day at his |
forge, but every Friday in the year he works all
night long, and never lays off his clothes till late of
Saturday night A good neighbor is John Stubbons,
and the only man just in our neghborhood who can
read the newspaper. 1t is not often he gets news
paper; for it is not the like of us that can have
newspapers and bread too in our houses at the same
time. But now and then he begs an old one partly
torn, the bakers, and reads ii to us of Sunday
night. So once IN two or three weeks we hear
something of what is going on in the world-some-
thing about corn laws and the Duke of Wellington
and Oregon and India, and Ireland and other places
in England. E.B.