Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-06-06

passes between master and man
Consequently the next Sscene of tht
hiring-fair is q sort Of rude carnival
in which the public houses and less in
nOeent places manage to secure mos
of the superhuous cash. The young
women 60 to the drapers for fnery
the young men to the drinl1ing-bars
and both meet afterwards at the dan
cling rooms They get home-some 0.
then-On the same night; the Others
reach their abodes when their money
and credit are gone; none of them
knowing anything about the persons
by whom they have been hired, or
| the houses in which they are. to live.
| If, on coming from the lair they are
sober enough to remember the adj
dress of their purchaser, they present
themselves on, the appointed day, at
Ter the fashion of bought and branded
animals, and get theirstable--cailed a
bed room'---and their provender---
called meals for a specified time /;
the law not allowing them to be ex-
actly tethered by the head or hObbled
I'by the legs.
A more questionable mode of es-
tablishing social relations it would be
difficult to conceive; but, before visit
ing il with wholesale condemnation,
we must remember the peculiar cir
cumstances under which il arose.
Hiring-fairs-or as they are called iii
Scotland, feeling markets '-are the
remnants of a kalfbarb rbarous time,
during which the country was sparse
ly peopled, and the communication
between separate districts so fitftll and
rare, that the inhabitants met only
at the quarterly OF half-yearly fairs.
At that time it was only by means OF
such markets that farmers could get
servants; and, in primitive days, be-
fore the feudal bond between the enl-
ployers and their dependents had
been loosened, there was TlntfIing de-
grading or demOTalizing in such
spectacle as that which has just been
witnessed at Kendall. But those brim-
tive times have forever passed aWay.
In Scotland the hirin g-iairs are nov
acknowledged by the farmers to befn-
centive to vice; and for years these in
teligent agrieulturistS have been
making Il strenuous effort to obtain
competent servants by means Of reg
istraJiun offices. Strangely enough
the endeaYor has been regarded by
many magnates With apathy, If not
with positive disiaVCr,
Some rural Lords seem to admire
the spectacle at which we have
glanced to think il natural, convent /
ent and even picturesque. Persons Of
otherwise asOnabIefudgments aCtu- |
ally regard hiring-fairs and statute !
fairs, and all the other scenes where !
English men and women stand for
sale in drOves, as idyIc and pretty !
the subject for a charming picture rath- |
er than for any dissatisfied comments. |
In reality, old as it may be, this GUS
tom of British rural life is open to
grave practical objections; and when
the Legislature has 2 little spare time |
to contemplate the condition Of the I
agricultural population, such places Us /
Kendall Fair cannot be omitted from /
the survey. How much mOdesty or /
wOmanly feeling, we wonder, can q |
country damsel take away from the !
market-stOne, where she has stood all |
the morning to have her appearance
and her physical advantages |
Ehe hendal farmers |
would probably say that aile carried |
away as much a Size brGught-which I
IS probably little enough But these /
heTd-lilke gatherings Of men and Wo- !
men on the same spot, and after the /
same manner, like beasts for the |
plough and the shambles, rank among
the very causes which keep the agri-
cultural race down to so l0y- q grade"