Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1846-12-02

! ~, T. <, .-
heating and hammering ragged nailrods
for the sustenance her breast can no long
er supply! Lord John! look at those nail.
as they lie kissing on the block. Know
you their meaning, use and languagea-
Please your lordship let me tell you'll
have made nails before now--they are iron
erciamotion points, which this unlettered,
ldwarfish boy, Is uncon sciously arraying d,
ffgafist yea asainsf ne British EoyerHmen'
and the misery OF the British literature, fol
cutting him off without letter of the En-
glish alphabet, when printing is done by
steam! for incarcerating him, for no sin on
his or his parents side but poverty, into a
dark, six-by-eight prison of hard labor, a
youihless being-think of it! an infant
hardened, almost in its mot theirs arms, into
man; by toll that bows the sturdiest of
the worlds laborers who came to manhood
through intervening years of childhood!
The boys father was to work with his
back towards me when | entered At my
first word of salutation to the lad, he turn
ed round and accosted me O. little bashfully,
as if unaccustomed to the sight of strangers
in that place, or reluctant to let them into
the scene and secret of his poverty. sat
down upon the end ofhis nail-bench, and
told him was an American blacksmith by
trade, and that | had come to see how he
got along 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 inquiringly towards the boy, who
was looking steadily at me from his stone
stool by the anvil. Two or three little
croc k-faced girls, from three to five years
of age, had stolen in timidly, and couple
of young, frightened eyes were peering
over the door sill at me. They all looked
as if some task were daily allotted them in
the SCOT and cinders Of their fathers forge.
even to the sharp.eyed baby at the door.
The poor Englishman-he was as much an
Englishman as the duke Of Wellington
looked at his bushy headed, bare-footed chill
dren, and said softly, with melancholy
shake of the head, that the times were rath.
er hard with him.
: 1t trouble bis heart, and many hours o.
the night he had 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, he
said, with moist yearnng in his eyes;
they were all the wealth ho 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 on their faces, and their fingers
were bent like 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. Ifhe could only give them the let
ters, or the alphabet as they called it, it
would make them like of rich; for then
they could read the Testament. He could
read the Testament little, for he had
learned the letters by 6re-light 1t was
good book, was the Testament; never saw
any other book-heard tell ofsome in rich
peoples houses, but it mattered little with
him.
The Testament, he thought was made
for nailers 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 was up, and it took him
long to read little, for-he learned the let
ters when he was old. But he laid it be.
side his dish at dinner time and fed his heart
with ii, while his children were eating the
bread that fell to his share. And when he
had spelt out line of the shortest words, he
read them aloud, and his eldest boy then on
the block there, could say several whole
verses he had learned in this way
1t was a great comfort to him to think
that Jeemes could take into his heart so ma
ny 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 meals;
all the other hours he had to be at the an
viii. The mailing business was growing
old, and his family large. He had TO
work from o'clock in the morning nil 10
o'clock at night to earn eighteen pence.
His wages averaged only about sevem
shilHngs a ,ceek! and there were five OF
them to live on 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 ofage, and helpful lad he was; and
the poor man looked at him doatingly.
Jenny could work off q thousand nails a
day, ofthe smallest size. The rent ofthelr
little shop, tenement and garden, was five
pounds year, and a few pennies earned
by the youngest Of them was Of great ac- !
count. =.
But, continued the father, speaking
cheeringly, | am not one to complain. .
Many Is the man that has harder lot OF
q Al Ill nt