Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1846-11-05
Letter from EIihu Burritt.

.
: We canno, say whether the following, from
The " Learned Blacksmith" now in England
will he read in this country with The more sur
prise or piiy. 1t is full of food for thought:
Am Hour with Nature and the NaiIers
was suddenly diverted from my con,empIa
lion of this magnificent scenery by fall o
heavy rain drops, as prelude of an impending
shower. Seeing gate open, and hearing q
familiar clicking behind hedge, | stepped
through into litle blacksmith shop, about as
large as an American smoke house for curing
bacon. The first objec, that my eyes rested
upon was full grown man, nine wears of AGE,
and nearly three feet high, perched upon a
stone Of half that heighh to raise his breast 10
Ihe level of his fathers anvil, at which he was
a work with all the vigor of his IuIe short
al ms, making nails. say fill grorn man.
for fear he can never grow any larger, phys
icaliy or mentally. AS | put my hand on his
sholllder, in familiar way, to make myself al
home with him, and TO remove the timidity with
which my sudden appearance seemed TO in.
spre Inn. by pleasant word or two of greet
ing, his flesh felt case hardened into all the in
duration OF oIing manhood, and as unsuscepli-
bic OF growth as his anvil block Fixed man
hood had set in upon him in the greenness of
his youth, and there he was by his fathers side,
snred, 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 10 The forge stone, by iron necessity, that
would not let him stop long enough 10 pick up
a letter of the English alphabet on the way
o. Lord John Russe think of il! OF this
Englishman'S son, placed by his mother, scarce
weaned, on high, cold stone, barefoored, be-
fore the anvil there 10 harden, scar, and bis
ter Its young hands by heating and hammering
ragged nailrods, for the sustenance her breast
can no longer supply! Lord John look al
those nails, as they lie kissing on the block
Know you their meaning, use, and language
Please your lordshp lei me tell you; have
made nails before now; Mey are iron erclQma-
taon points, which this unleilered, dwarfish boy
is unconsciously arraying against you, against
The British government and The misery of Brit /
ish literature, for cutting him of without Ie,-
ter of the English 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-eighr prison of hard labor, a
ycuthIeSS being; think of ii; an infant hardened,
almost in it's moher's arm, into man; by toll |
that bows the slUrdiesl Of the worlds laborers
who come TO manhood through intervening
years of childhood
The boys father was a, work with his back
towards me when | entered. Al my first word
OF salutalion 10 the lad, he turned around and
accosied me a little bashfully, as if nnaccus,om-
ed TO the sight of stranger In that place, or
reluctant 10 let them into the scene and secret
of poverty. | sal down on one end of his nail |
bench, ard told him was an American black.
smith by trade, and that had come in to see
how he got on in the world, whether he was
earning pretty good wages al his business, so
that be could live comfortably, and send his
children TO school As said this | glanced
10 the boy, who was looking stead
lily at me from his stone stool al the anvil
Two or three little crooked-faced girls, from
Two to five years of age, had stolen in timidIy,
and a couple Of young frightened eyes were
peeping over the door-siIl at me- They all
ooked if some task was allotted them in the
'oot and cinders Of their fathers forge. even TO
he sharp eyed baby at the door. The poor
Engiishman-he was as much an Engishman
as The Duke of Wellington-looked at bis
bushy- y-headed, bare-footed children, and said
soi'ly with melancholy shake of the head,
hat iae times were rather hard with him. 1t
roubed his heart, and many hours of The night
ne had been kept awake by the thought of ii,
hat he could not send his children 10 school.
ior leach them himself TO read They were (
,ood children, he said, with moist vearnins
n his eyes they were all the wealth he had.
tGd loved them the more, The harder he had 10 ,
work for Them. The poorest part Of the power