UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 MAY TREAT MORRISON 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 ALEXANDER F MORRISON

 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS.
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL CURIOSITIES: 
 
 GLANCES HERE AND THERE IX THE WORLD OF 
 LABOUR. 
 
 Fifth Edition. 
 
 " Boys are nowadays so fed upon romances and story-books 
 that it is pleasant to welcome a volume which tells them some- 
 thing about the facts of the world they live in." Graphic. 
 
 " Dr. Japp travels over a wide area, passing in review many 
 different subjects, but always pleasant and instructive." 
 Spectator. 
 
 " An admirable book for the young of either sex pack-full 
 of curious information on many points, and always brightly 
 written and readable." Court Journal.
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS: 
 
 ADVENTURES AND EXPERIENCES AMONG 
 CURIOUS INDUSTRIES. 
 
 ALEXANDER H. JAPP, LL.D., F.R.S.E. 
 
 \UTHOR OF 
 
 Witt) Jftunmouo 3iHu0tration0, 
 
 LONDON: 
 TRUBNER cSr CO., LUDGATE HILL. 
 
 1889. 
 
 [Ah rights reserved,]
 
 'Ballantgne
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 c\ SOME of these chapters, in a condensed form, have 
 
 ec 
 
 s appeared in " All the Year Round," " Good Words, 1 ' 
 
 " Gentleman's Magazine," and other periodicals. Favour- 
 
 z 
 
 able opinions were expressed of them in various news- 
 papers and reviews ; and the author trusts that his 
 friendly critics may have no reason to change their 
 
 < opinion of them now that they are brought together. 
 
 All that remains for the author to do is to thank the 
 
 2 
 
 "- Editors of the various magazines for making it possible 
 
 jj for h-im to reprint them in this form. 
 3 
 
 131678
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE I 
 
 I. THE SEARCH FOR PLANTS AND ATTEMPTS TO 
 
 NATURALISE THEM ..... 5 
 
 II. NATURE AND HABITS OF CHINCHONA TREES. 17 
 
 III. CULTIVATION IN INDIA 23 
 
 IV. METHODS OF BARKING AND PREPARATION IN 
 
 INDIA 26 
 
 V. PREPARATION OF ALKALOIDS, ETC. . . 34 
 
 VI. AMORPHOUS QUININE, ETC 35 
 
 II. CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE .... 42 
 
 I. ORIGIN OF CANARIES 42 
 
 II. CULTURE AND TRAINING . . .46 
 
 III. ENGLISH VARIETIES 57 
 
 IV. TREATMENT 62 
 
 III. ALL ABOUT RICE . . . . . . .65 
 
 IV. PEARLS .86 
 
 V. AMBER ,. . . . 102 
 
 VI. COMMON SALT 112 
 
 VII. BURTON ALE AND DUBLIN STOUT . . . . 137 
 
 VIII. PETROLEUM 156
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 IX. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS 170 
 
 X. A RAILWAY WHISTLE 200 
 
 . XI. SOME HISTORICAL BEDSTEADS .... 214 
 
 XII. KNIVES AND FORKS 222 
 
 XIII. ARSENIC IN INDUSTRY 228 
 
 XIV. SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS 240 
 
 XV. ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS 274 
 
 XVI. POSTAGE- STAMPS .... .282 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. THE INTRODUCTION OF CHINCHONAS INTO JAVA, 
 
 AND THEIR CULTIVATION ..... 289 
 
 II. SYNDICATES OF DIAMONDS AND SALT . . .300 
 III. ARSENIC . . . 303
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 i. 
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 
 
 MANY a romance could be written of botanists in their 
 self-denying devotion to plants and flowers. Linnaeus's 
 life is one ceaseless heroism, in which his love of certain 
 plants amounted almost to worship. His falling down on 
 his knees on Putney Heath, when he first saw the gorse 
 in bloom, and thanking God for having created so beau- 
 tiful a flower, is widely known, and poets have vied with 
 each other in setting the incident to fitting verse. Of an 
 earlier botanist the same or nearly the same story is told, 
 so that we can only suppose that in this department of 
 science sentiment of a certain kind asserts itself more 
 readily than in some others. At all events, the records 
 are alive with instances of perseverance and devotion, 
 such as cannot be surpassed, if they can be equalled, in 
 other walks. When Jussieu, the famous French botanist, 
 for example, was bringing a seedling of the Lebanon 
 cedar from Syria to Marseilles, the ship ran so short of 
 water that the passengers were limited to half a glass 
 
 A
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 a-day. Jussieu shared his half with his plant ; and, 
 thanks to his self-denial and his generous enthusiasm, 
 it reached Paris in safety, and lived to be a hundred years 
 old and eighty feet high. 
 
 But it is in the case of plants directly associated with 
 the art of healing that we can find the most exciting 
 records ; for here the chivalry and heroism are fed, so to 
 speak, from a double source : the desire for the extension 
 of scientific knowledge, and the passion for the welfare of 
 mankind. The thirst for knowledge and the impulse of 
 beneficence support each other and the man of science 
 becomes a minister, a missionary of love and healing, 
 claiming our admiration in the one aspect, our love and 
 our gratitude in the other. 
 
 There is no tree whose story is more interesting than 
 the chinchona or quinine-yielding tree. Jussieu, too, 
 figures prominently in its history. Unfortunately, his de- 
 votion and self-denial did not avail him in this case as 
 they did in that of the cedar, else the chapter we are now 
 to write would not have been so deeply interesting, so 
 stirring, because so full of adventure. " The many fail, 
 the one succeeds," sings the Laureate, and the record of 
 failure, as in so many other instances, is more fascinating 
 than that of easily achieved success could possibly have 
 been. It has been said, indeed, that the story of the 
 efforts to achieve the naturalisation of the chinchona tree 
 in different countries, so as to insure a plentiful and con- 
 tinuous supply of the invaluable bark, is perhaps the 
 most striking in the records of scientific travel. 
 
 All know the virtues of quinine, and many have good 
 cause to think of it gratefully. The medical practitioners
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 
 
 of temperate climates have found in the various prepara- 
 tions from the chinchona tree valuable remedies for many 
 severe and trying diseases ; but in the tropics they have 
 been simply indispensable in the treatment of malarial 
 fever and other affections common there. No one would 
 have thought of going on a long journey in India without 
 a bottle of quinine in his valise, and it is not too much to 
 say that if deprived of chinchona bark we could not keep 
 a European force in India, and even native troops and 
 police would have to be withdrawn from various unhealthy 
 stations at which they are now placed. Livingstone and 
 other travellers in Central Africa have celebrated the 
 manifold virtues of quinine ; and one of the most excit- 
 ing incidents in the records of more recent travel is that 
 of Schweinfurth, the great German explorer, in Africa 
 among the Monbuttos and Pigmies, when he lost almost 
 the whole of his property by fire scientific instruments 
 among the rest But the most important of all to him was 
 his quinine, as he tells us ; and how often he thought of 
 it with regretful sorrow, and with fear in the remarkable 
 journey which, stripped of everything, he nevertheless per- 
 severed in, preserving his measurements and a knowledge 
 of latitude by carefully pacing and counting his paces as 
 he walked. Thomas de Quincey, in his " Confessions," 
 magnifying the merits of his favourite drug, opium, while 
 as yet he had not felt its woes, speaks of ecstasies "having 
 become portable, and might be corked in a pint bottle ; 
 happiness bought for a penny and carried in the waistcoat- 
 pocket, and peace of mind sent down by the mail." So 
 quinine enables us to say that health and joy in malarious 
 eastern latitudes may be carried about corked up in a
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 little phial, and what proves a more powerful agency than 
 an army of doctors in the corner of a knapsack. 
 
 Strange it is that the chinchona trees natives of the 
 mountainous forests of South America, should be of such 
 importance in the maintenance of our Eastern Empire, 
 in the opening up of interior Africa, and indirectly in the 
 extension in these parts of civilisation and Christianity ! 
 Stranger still, however, that a plant whose rare virtues 
 had been practically known for centuries (for doubtless 
 the medicine men of ancient Indian tribes had found out 
 that virtue was to be extracted from the chinchona bark) 
 should have been left so long neglected, or but very par- 
 tially applied to mitigate sufferings that had smitten down 
 annually thousands on thousands of men and women. 
 Mr. Markham, it is true, infers from the fact that no 
 reference is made to it by Inca Garcilasso nor by Acosta 
 in the lists of Indian medicines, that it was unknown in 
 the time of the Incas, but the fact of its absence then 
 might be accounted for in another way. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great and permanent importance 
 and interest of the subject, we believe that few compara- 
 tively have followed the steps and stages by which this 
 invaluable specific has been made more and more avail- 
 able ; and we shall therefore try to retell clearly and con- 
 cisely the leading facts in its history ; since, so far as we 
 are aware, they have till now lain practically buried in 
 reports, in blue-books, and in big tomes, from which we 
 shall carefully extract it.
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 
 
 I. THE SEARCH FOR PLANTS AND ATTEMPTS TO 
 NATURALISE THEM. 
 
 In the year 1639 the wife of a Spanish Viceroy of Peru 
 returned to Europe from that country ; and having been 
 cured of fever by the use of a tree-bark, she was wise 
 enough to bring some of it home, with the intention of 
 distributing it among the sick on her husband's estate, 
 and making it generally known throughout Europe. The 
 bark powder was not unfitly called Countess' powder 
 (Pu/vis Comtfessa), and by this name it was long known 
 to druggists in Europe. Mr. Markham tells us, in his 
 Memoir of her, 1 that the good deeds of the Countess are 
 even now remembered (and no wonder) by the people 
 of Chinchon and Colemar in local tradition. A goodly 
 number of species of the tree have been named after this 
 beneficent lady, and their growth in an extending zone 
 in the East will surely for ages keep her memory green. 
 
 Jesuit missionaries who afterwards returned from South 
 America also brought with them some supplies. The 
 lady was the Countess of Chinchon ; hence the scientific 
 name, Chinchona. The Jesuit missionaries gave to it 
 the more popular name of " Jesuits' Bark." Quina was 
 the native name of the bark, which, of course, is the 
 original of quinine, which has been retained for perhaps 
 one half of the medical preparations from the bark. 
 Little or nothing was, however, scientifically known of 
 the tree which produced the bark till 1739 a whole 
 century after its first introduction into Europe. La 
 
 1 A Memoir of the Countess of Chinchon. By Clements R. Mark- 
 ham. London : 1874.
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 Condamine and Jussieu, who were then on an exploring 
 expedition in South America, after not a little trial, 
 obtained plants with a view to having them sent to the 
 Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Unfortunately, the whole 
 collection perished in a storm at sea near the mouth of 
 the river Amazon. Unfortunate it surely was, for fully 
 another century passed before anything effective and 
 practical was done to introduce or naturalise the tree in 
 Europe, or in suitable climates in the Eastern depen- 
 dencies of England, from which supplies might be as- 
 sured ; and this notwithstanding the fact that the French 
 chemists, Pelletier and Caventon, had in 1820 developed 
 true quinine from the bark. The first living chinchona 
 trees ever seen in Europe were some Calisaya plants 
 raised at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris from seeds 
 collected by the well-known Frenchman, Dr. Weddell, 
 in his first journey to Bolivia in 1846; though in 1835 
 Dr. Forbes Royle, then Superintendent of the Botanical 
 Garden at Seharunpore, had become thoroughly con- 
 vinced of the possibility of the profitable culture of the 
 chinchona tree in India, and had earnestly urged the 
 Government to make efforts to introduce the plants on 
 the Khasia and Neilgherry Hills, at that date and after- 
 wards in 1847, an d again in 1853 and 1856. Nothing 
 came of it, though Dr. Grant, the Apothecary-General in 
 Calcutta, had earnestly supported the proposal in 1850. 
 
 While all this was going on, however, some gentlemen 
 interested had not been idle, and, though they went 
 a warfare on their own charges, and had no definite 
 connection with any government, they were anxious all 
 that in them lay to aid governments, as will be seen.
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 
 
 Mr. George Ledger, whose name will ever be honoured 
 in this relation, as indeed it is inseparably linked with 
 one of the finer kinds of bark which has been named 
 after him, made an expedition in the Valley of Santa 
 Ana, Department of Cuzco. Mr. Backhouse was his 
 companion. The expedition wholly failed, and indeed 
 had a fatal termination. Mr. Backhouse was murdered 
 by the Indians, all the supplies were stolen, all the bark 
 that had been collected with great labour was destroyed, 
 as well as seeds and plants ; some sixty pounds of gold 
 dust was missing. Mr. Ledger escaped ; but he estimates 
 his losses at some ^1500, and that of his brother Arthur 
 at TOO. In 1 86 1 Mr. Ledger sent an expedition into 
 the Bolivian wilds, with the double object of obtaining 
 seeds and plants of the chinchona and alpacas of various 
 kinds. This expedition was more successful ; and in 
 1865 Mr. Ledger was enabled to present a portion of 
 the seeds and plants of some valuable species to the 
 Government of India and the Government of the Nether- 
 lands. In the letter to Mr. J. E. Howard, from which 
 we have already quoted, Air. Ledger says : " Surely, after 
 the success attending the seeds sent in 1865, the Govern- 
 ment of India and the Government of the Netherlands 
 should award me some compensation for the losses I 
 sustained in the search." Mr. Howard, remarking on 
 this letter and other points, says, " The superiority of 
 Ledger's Calisaya is beyond doubt." 
 
 In 1852 Dr. Falconer, then Superintendent of the 
 Botanical Gardens at Calcutta, urgently repeated the 
 recommendation that had been so often made, and with 
 more success. The Court of Directors of the East
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 India Company were induced to procure and send out 
 six plants of Chinchona calisaya. Five of these precious 
 trees reached Calcutta alive, and were at once placed 
 in the Botanical Gardens. Here they received all 
 possible care and attention, but they did not thrive. 
 After a short time they were sent to the hill station of 
 Darjeeling, where they all died in the ensuing winter. 
 The first experiment in chinchona culture in India was, 
 therefore, a disappointment, how deep a disappointment 
 was only known to those medical men and others 
 who realised fully what was at stake in the future. 
 
 Meantime the Dutch, always alive to interests of this 
 kind, awoke to the great importance of the chinchona 
 culture, and happily having a very suitable field for it 
 in Java, they sent out the botanist Hasskarl to Peru in 
 1852 to collect plants and seeds. He also encountered 
 many difficulties and dangers in his wanderings, not a 
 few of which arose from the jealousy of the native 
 bark -gatherers cascarilleros, as they are called, who 
 managed to infect the whole people with the idea that 
 their trade would be ruined, if chinchona trees were 
 allowed to leave the country. 
 
 Some difference of opinion seems to exist regarding 
 the results of M. Hasskarl's efforts and explorations. 
 On one side we are told that he had not any local 
 knowledge of the wild regions where he travelled, neither 
 had he any acquaintance with the language of the 
 natives; that his avowed intention was chiefly to find 
 seeds of Calisaya; but that, unfortunately, he entered 
 the chinchona zone at a point where neither that nor 
 indeed any valuable species grow; that he collected
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 
 
 the seeds of the species he found believing them to be 
 true Calisaya ; that he did ultimately penetrate into a 
 Calisaya region, and remained in it a short time, but 
 that he trusted too implicitly a native collector who led 
 him to believe that he was collecting the true Calisaya^ 
 when he was in fact gathering a worthless species; and 
 that the twenty cases landed in Java did not contain 
 one plant of any valuable variety of Calisaya. 
 
 On the other hand, the Dutch authorities have a very 
 different account to give. They say that M. Hasskarl, 
 though he did not know the Quichua language, had tho- 
 roughly learned Spanish, and that his knowledge of botany 
 and science was so great as to have rendered next to 
 impossible some of the errors with which he is credited ; 
 that he had lived for years in Java, and was accustomed 
 to a tropical climate, and in dealing with natives ; that 
 he did land in Java seventy- eight Calisayas alive, with 
 other valuable varieties ; and that, if he was deceived, the 
 climate of Java, which is undoubtedly very favourable 
 to the chinchonas, transformed them ! But the same 
 could hardly apply to Holland. In 1855, Weddell, the 
 famous French traveller and botantist, we are told, paid 
 a visit to the Botanical Gardens at Leyden, and saw 
 there the Calisaya plants, which M. Hasskarl had sent 
 from Sardia. As soon as he saw the young plants he 
 exclaimed, " La vraie Calisaya^ rien que cela, il n'y a pas 
 le moindre doute." "In 1874," Mr. Moens of Java 
 says, " I sent a case of dried specimens of our chinchonas 
 to that great quinologist, Mr. Howard. Amongst the 
 specimens were some of the Calisaya varieties reared 
 from seeds obtained from M. Hasskarl's original plants."
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 Mr. Howard writes me about them : " No. i may and 
 indeed must be, a rather fine kind. No. 2 is a form 
 of Calisaya, which I do not at present recognise. No. 4 
 resembles more my specimen of C. calisaya vera!" It 
 is thus certainly incorrect to say that M. Hasskarl's 
 mission was a failure as regards securing any specimen 
 whatever of Calisaya. But it is undoubtedly the fact 
 that the cultivators both in Java and Holland had many 
 difficulties at the outset : and that their assiduity and 
 perseverance alone secured the good result in the end ; 
 and owing to the strenuous efforts of the cultivators 
 there the undertaking has in Java become a success 
 commercially and otherwise. 
 
 No further action worth noting was taken by the 
 Government of India till the year 1858, when, owing to 
 influential representations, it was decided, with the sanc- 
 tion of the Secretary of State for India, that a competent 
 collector should be sent for a couple of years to South 
 America to explore the forests, and to procure young 
 plants and seeds of the best kinds. The necessity for 
 such a measure has, as we have hinted, long been fully 
 recognised by scientific and medical men, as it was well 
 known that the collection of the bark in South America 
 was carried on in the most reckless and extravagant 
 manner. Systematic regulations for the working of the 
 forests did not exist each collector did what was right 
 in his own eyes. Grave fears were, therefore, felt more 
 and more lest the supplies of bark should become 
 limited or even cease for long periods. There was also 
 the risk of the price of the bark being at any moment 
 raised to such a point as to restrict its use, and in
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 
 
 fact, put it altogether beyond the reach of the poor. 
 Chemistry, unfortunately, not having yet discovered any 
 efficient substitute. 
 
 The choice of the Indian Government fell on one 
 who fully justified it. Mr. Clements Markham, who 
 volunteered to direct the mission, was appointed. He 
 knew Spanish well, and had some acquaintance with 
 the Quichua tongue, and also possessed a fair know- 
 ledge of the country. If not a professed botanist, he 
 was a quick observer, and certainly gifted with discri- 
 mination of character, as the work done by those he had 
 associated with him afterwards fully proved. With no 
 little skill and forecast he organised a threefold expe- 
 dition, the sections of which began their operations 
 simultaneously in 1860, fully five years after the begin- 
 ning of the Dutch experiment. Mr. Markham himself 
 undertook to collect seeds of the Calisaya or Yellow Bark 
 tree (the most valuable of the chinchonas) in the 
 forests of Bolivia and Southern Peru, where alone it is 
 to be found. He arranged that Mr. Pritchett should 
 explore the Grey Bark forests of Huanaco and Humalies 
 in Central Peru ; and 'that Messrs. Spruce and Cross 
 should collect the seeds of the Red Bark tree on 
 the Eastern slopes of Chimboraza in the territory of 
 Ecuador. 
 
 Mr. Markham applied himself to his perilous task with 
 characteristic caution, tact, determination, and ardour. 
 In addition to difficulties from the nature of the country 
 and the lack of transport, he had to contend against the 
 jealousies of the native collectors, whose spirit had already 
 been aroused by the efforts of M. Hasskarl, and who
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 regarded all inquiry and examination as an interference 
 with their rights and vested interests. They regarded 
 the trade in bark as their monopoly, and were not 
 inclined to be intruded upon under any pretence. And 
 then plants are bulky and need considerable space in 
 packing, if they are not to be injured or destroyed. When 
 all this is borne in mind, some sense of the arduous 
 nature of the task Mr. Markham had taken in hand will 
 be realised. 
 
 The cascarilleros, or bark-collectors, spend their whole 
 lives in the woods, and have been known to lose them- 
 selves and have never again been heard of. This gives 
 some idea of the wildness and extent of the quinine- 
 producing forests of South America, which may be 
 roughly said to lie in a belt stretching from 19 S. latitude 
 to 10 N., following the line of the Andes over an area 
 of more than a thousand miles. They grow on the sides 
 of the mountains, or in the ravines between the moun- 
 tains. The scenery is described by travellers in that 
 region as magnificent. The deep indigo of the sky, with 
 the icy peaks of the Andes clearly denned against it, fill 
 the higher portion of the picture, while below are narrow 
 gorges down which rush glittering cataracts, and across 
 which are hung slender bridges made of rope and twisted 
 branches of trees. 
 
 The paths down the sides of these gorges are very 
 narrow and precipitous. Sometimes a traveller riding 
 on a mule down one of these ridges has one leg touching 
 the side of the mountain, while the other hangs over a 
 precipice. 
 
 The sides of the hills, even at very high altitudes, are
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 13 
 
 covered with wild flowers, many of which have long been 
 naturalised in England. A profusion of ferns form a 
 graceful background, and serve to show out the brilliant 
 colouring of the lupins, verbenas, calceolarias, fuchsias, 
 and begonias with which these hanging gardens abound. 
 A large portion of the Andean region is capable of culti- 
 vation, and in ancient days there is no doubt that it was 
 cultivated by the Incas to a great extent. 
 
 The general calmness in the air of Peru contrasts 
 strangely with the frequent disturbances of the earth. 
 The Peruvians often say that in their country thunder 
 comes from below. At Lima the slight shocks of earth- 
 quake which are felt daily are thought nothing of by the 
 inhabitants. The whole ridge of the Cordilleras facing 
 the Pacific is studded with volcanic peaks, and there are 
 no less than twenty-four distinct volcanos in the range. 
 
 In Humboldt's " Travels" we read interesting accounts 
 of this curious Trans- Andean country. In his excursions 
 through the mountains he frequently had to cross vast 
 chasms by native bridges. One of these he mentions 
 particularly, which was formed of ropes manufactured 
 from the fibrous roots of the Aguava Americana, only 
 three or four inches in diameter. The weirdness and 
 solitude of these regions are intensified by the song of a 
 bird, which is ceaselessly heard but seldom seen, and 
 which possesses a low, melancholy, wailing note of such 
 an oppressive character that it has been called Alma 
 perdida, or the Lost Soul. It is said that there have been 
 cases of lonely bark collectors who have been driven mad 
 by its continual melancholy wailing. 
 
 In this wild and trackless region Mr. Markham laboured
 
 14 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 for many months, exposed to peril from wild beasts, and 
 also to the enmities of the native bark-gatherers, and 
 groaning under the manifold difficulties of land transport. 
 The collections he made at such risk and labour were 
 exposed to so many trials that unfortunately much of the 
 fruits of his courage and industry was lost ; but enough 
 came safely to hand to form the beginning of the great 
 chinchona plantations of India, of which we shall speak 
 particularly under another head. Towards the end of 
 1860, cases with samples from Mr. Markham and his 
 party began to arrive at Calcutta. 
 
 On his return journey, Mr Markham, as was almost to 
 be expected, found the jealousy of the people aroused by 
 rumours which had got abroad as to the nature of his 
 mission. To return along the road he came by would 
 have simply insured the destruction of his plants, and 
 possibly involved injury to himself, so he had to resort to 
 a stratagem. And surely never was such stratagem more 
 fully justified by the nobility of the cause for which it was 
 brought into play. Mr. Weir was sent back by the old 
 route, and Mr. Markham himself proceeded with the 
 plants in a straight line towards the coast, through an 
 unknown country, and without a guide. 
 
 Let the reader for a moment pause and try to realise 
 what this implied in a wild, mountainous, and in great 
 measure roadless region. Let him then think how hard 
 it must have proved with only personal accompaniments. 
 But Mr. Markham had his precious seeds and plants 
 bulky impedimenta to carry with him. After much hard- 
 ship he arrived at the town of Vilque, with his plants in 
 good order. A few more marches brought him to the port
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 15 
 
 of Islay. But where his difficulties ought to have been 
 ended, the worst and most trying were only begun. The 
 custom-house authorities having discovered what the 
 plant-case contained, would not allow them to be shipped 
 without an order from the Minister of Finance. This Mr. 
 Markham had himself to go to Lima to procure, leaving 
 his plants behind him to the tender mercies of those not 
 likely to lose a chance of injuring them, and fancying 
 they were doing their country, if not God, good service. 
 We can well imagine what Mr. Markham's feelings must 
 have been on that needless and wearisome journey, and 
 amid the formalities and polite excuses of officials. All 
 this caused a delay of three weeks, but Mr. Markham 
 had succeeded by his tact and careful explanations. On 
 the 24th of June the cases were at last embarked on 
 board a steamer bound for Panama, but not before a 
 scheme had been set on foot by some patriotic Bolivians 
 to kill the plants by pouring hot water on them through 
 holes to be bored in the cases. None of the more 
 valuable chinchona trees, and certainly none of the 
 Calisayas, can stand frost, but they can as little stand 
 boiling water. Her Majesty's steamer Vixen was at this 
 moment lying idle at Callao, and could have taken the 
 plants straight to Madras, with every chance of saving 
 them alive. But it is hardly the style of the various 
 departments of our public service to work hand in 
 hand and eye to eye ; and probably it would have been 
 regarded as an infringement of all the " traditions " of 
 the service that a ship of war should have been used not 
 only to forward the arts of peace, but the arts of healing, 
 by which men, both of the navy and the army, were to
 
 1 6 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 be so directly benefited. Truly, even in these days of 
 advanced culture, organisation, and perfection of ma- 
 chinery, it may still be said, "With how little wisdom 
 the world is governed." Instead of this being found 
 possible, Mr. Markham was compelled by his orders to 
 take his plants to India, via Panama, England, the Medi- 
 terranean, and the Red Sea, and thus expose them to 
 transhipments and alterations of temperature, which ulti- 
 mately killed them all. Whether they died from hot 
 water or from exposure to frost, the result was the same, 
 but most likely from the latter ; for against malice, up to 
 a certain point, watchfulness will suffice to guard you, but 
 against stupidity in high places as in low scarce any amount 
 of care or caution, of heroism, devotion, self-sacrifice, will 
 suffice; as Schiller so well put it so well, indeed, that 
 Heine plagiarised the idea without acknowledgment 
 
 " Mil der Dummheit Cotter kampfen selbst vergebens." 
 (" Against stupidity the gods themselves straggle in vain.") 
 
 While Mr. Markham had been thus fighting hopelessly 
 against awful odds, Mr. Pritchett was collecting seeds 
 and plants of the chinchona species producing grey bark, 
 in the forests near Huanco, in the northern part of the 
 same territory, and was successful in bringing to Lima 
 in the month of August a collection of seeds and half a 
 mule load of young plants of three species Micrantha, 
 Peruviana, and Nitidia. 
 
 Mr. Spruce, six months before Mr. Markham had 
 sailed from England, had left his home in the Quintenian 
 Andes, and had fixed on Limon as the most suitable 
 headquarters. He had made a good collection, and had
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 17 
 
 arranged to go to Loxa, south of the Ecuador Territory, 
 to procure seeds of the pale or crown bark. This ar- 
 rangement, unfortunately, was frustrated through Mr. 
 Spruce's serious illness. But in July 1860 Mr. Spruce 
 was joined at Limon by Mr. Cross, who had been sent 
 out from England with Wardian cases to receive such 
 plants as might be secured. Here the work was carried 
 on vigorously and successfully. Mr. Cross established a 
 nursery at Limon, and there put in a number of cuttings 
 of the red bark tree. Mr. Spruce now searched for 
 seeds. Mr. Cross ultimately succeeded in taking his 
 cuttings safely to India, while Mr. Spruce's seeds were 
 sent to India by post. It is from the results of those 
 journeys mainly, if not entirely, that our plantations in 
 certain parts of India and Ceylon have been made, and 
 if the immediate fruits of these perilous journeyings and 
 labours did not appear adequate, we must all surely feel 
 grateful that by care and scientific treatment the tree has 
 now been brought to such health and productiveness at 
 various points in our dominions. 
 
 II. NATURE AND HABITS OF CHINCHONA TREES. 
 
 The genus Chinchona includes as many as thirty-six 
 species, but only about a dozen of these are found avail- 
 able for yield for medical purposes. 
 
 The following are the more prominent : their scientific 
 and popular names are set side by side : 
 
 Crown bark = Chinchona officinalis and varieties. 
 
 Red bark = Sucdrubra. 
 
 Yellow bark = Calisaya and varieties. 
 
 Grey bark = Nitida, micrantha, &c.
 
 i g DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 The Loxa Crown Bark, the Cortex chinchona /#///</ of 
 pharmacy, which was the first bark brought to Europe in 
 the seventeenth century, is now fallen into disrepute, 
 most probably owing to its having been collected from a 
 very young wood. Study of the habits of the tree, and 
 methods of improved treatment gradually attained, have 
 done much to bring into view species which at first were 
 not held in great favour. And the efforts and experi- 
 ments of the Dutch in this direction both in Java and at 
 home must be gratefully recognised in regarding the 
 broad result. 
 
 The tree itself is a beautiful object, as any one may see 
 by a glance at the photographs of sections of plantations 
 given in Mr. Howard's elaborate and valuable " Quino- 
 logy of the East Indian Plantations." It has a delicate 
 small flower in close clusters, and at certain seasons its 
 fragrance fills the air for a considerable distance. The 
 leaf-forms vary considerably in the different species, from 
 a form approaching to heart-shaped to a purely lance- 
 headed figure, as the name lancifolia applied to one 
 variety may be taken to indicate. This is perhaps the 
 most elegant of the whole its lines are so delicate, 
 tapering softly at once towards the point and towards 
 the stalk ; while the leaf of C. offidnalis and C. grandi- 
 flora more incline to something of a trowel-shape. 
 
 The succirubta or red-bark tree is more of an umbrella- 
 shape than the others, and the aspect of the leaf more 
 that of our plane-tree. Some of the trees are more 
 marked as the yielders of pure quinine, others of all the 
 alkaloids in a mixed state. 
 
 Science, too, while it has made us more and more
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 19 
 
 acquainted with the peculiar habits and needs of the 
 tree, has done not a little to render its own classification 
 inexact, since hybridisation has been found of the greatest 
 value. Mr. Howard presents, in his " Quinology," most 
 careful analysis of the different barks ; but he admits that, 
 owing to hybridisation and other causes, the attempts to 
 classify barks according to a too precise system, " would 
 certainly end in confusion." 
 
 The medicinal virtues of the bark depend on the pre- 
 sence of one or more of four alkaloids quinine, quin- 
 inedine, chinchonine, and chinchonidine. All of these 
 have been subjected to rigorous trial, and found nearly 
 equal as regards their value in the treatment of malarial 
 fever and allied diseases. The alkaloids do not exist in 
 a free state in the bark, but in combination with tannin, 
 such as is found in oak bark and other barks, and exten- 
 sively used in the process of tanning leather. All the 
 four alkaloids are found present in most species of the 
 bark ; but some varieties of the tree contain a much 
 greater proportion of alkaloids than others, and some 
 are more remarkable than others for producing a much 
 greater proportion of one particular form of alkaloid. 
 C. succirubra, we learn, yields far the largest amount 
 of alkaloids as a whole ; but C. officinalis and C. calisaya 
 the largest per centage of quinine. The young trees 
 that is, trees prior to their sixth or seventh year 
 contain but a small proportion of the alkaloids, which 
 moreover is present in them in almost uncrystallisable 
 form. They are, therefore, of little commercial value. 
 Experience in India year by year has gone to show that 
 this holds true of all the species, and most true of the
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 most valuable species, in a quinine-producing light. Even 
 up to the eighth or ninth year the active principles con- 
 tinue to increase in quantity and to improve in quality. 
 No doubt much has been lost in former years through 
 lack of knowledge of this fact ; for much young bark was 
 cut down too early, with the result of weakening the 
 producing power of whole plantations permanently later. 
 This the quinological gardeners will avoid in the future, of 
 course, with no end of gain, though with much deferred 
 return of outlay. It will thus be seen that the chinchona 
 planter cannot expect any return of money invested for the 
 long period of eight years. This fact must always place 
 the chinchona industry at a great disadvantage. The 
 culture of tea and coffee begin to be remunerative at 
 much earlier stages, and are, therefore, more likely to 
 find favour with capitalists. But we should not omit 
 to say that some of the elements of success in treatment 
 are even yet not wholly known, and further acquaintance 
 with the subject may remove some of these difficulties. 
 Facts are grasped and made familiar, somewhat to the 
 disadvantage of chinchona with planters, while it is 
 not always as distinctly grasped that we are still in the 
 dark on some vital points. For example, barks of one 
 district are sometimes devoid of quinine, while those of 
 the same species from a neighbouring locality may yield 
 3| to 4| per cent, of sulphate of quinine. This seems 
 at first sight a small proportion; but even the flat 
 calisaya bark, which is the favourite, and is most often 
 offered in the drug trade for pharmaceutical purposes, 
 contains generally only from 5 to 6 per cent, of quinine. 
 The thick, flat red bark contains 3 to 4 per cent, of
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 
 
 alkaloids, and with a large proportion of colouring 
 matter. The quill red bark of the Indian plantations 
 is a fair drug, some of it yielding 5 to 10 per cent, 
 of alkaloids, more than a third of which is quinine, a 
 fourth chinchonidine, and the remainder chinchonine 
 and quininedine. The Pitayo bark is very valuable : it 
 is the chief source of quininedine. 
 
 In their native habitat the chinchona trees all grow 
 at a height of from 2500 to 9000 feet above the level 
 of the sea, and in an equable but comparatively cool 
 climate. High temperature, we learn, favours the forma- 
 tion of chinchonidine, and diminishes that of quinine. 
 Deprivation of light favours the increase of the total 
 amount of alkaloids in a bark. Mr. Broughton, the 
 moment he guessed at this law, made a very beautiful 
 experiment. He covered the stem of a chinchona tree 
 with a shield of tinned plate, and the stem of another 
 with black cloth ; his object being to keep the bark in 
 darkness without impeding the free access of air, or 
 protecting it from the heating influence of the sun's 
 rays. The results were that, after ten months' protec- 
 tion in this way, the amount of the total alkaloids was 
 increased about 2.8 per cent, in each case; and Mr. 
 Maclvor's experiments in the same direction have con- 
 clusively proved that bark renewed under moss contains 
 a larger amount of total and crystallisable alkaloids than 
 ordinary bark. This has given rise to the now widely 
 accepted " mossing " system, of which we shall speak in 
 detail under the next head. 
 
 Luckily for the multiplication of the plants, the most 
 valuable species of chinchona are with strict care and
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 attention easily developed from cuttings. This- is espe- 
 cially true of C. calisaya and C. suairubra, both fruitful 
 in quinine ; and under due adjustment of heat, light, and 
 moisture, can in this respect be depended on. Stock 
 plants are therefore established from which cuttings can 
 be taken. The quality of which Dr. Lindley speaks in 
 the following passage is thus found powerfully present 
 in the chinchonas : 
 
 "It is known," he says, "that plants possess some 
 quality analogous to animal irritability, to which, for 
 want of a better, the name of excitability has been given. 
 In proportion to the amount of excitability in a given 
 plant is the power which its cuttings possess of striking. 
 The great promoter of vegetable excitability is heat. 
 Therefore the more heat a given plant has been exposed 
 to, within certain limits, the more readily its cuttings strike 
 root." " The young wood," he says, " of trees growing 
 in the open air will not do for cuttings ; and yet if these 
 same trees are forced in a hothouse, their cuttings are 
 almost sure to succeed." 
 
 In all other parts of the tree the amount of alkaloids 
 is insignificant compared with the bark, as that is really 
 the only place of deposit of the alkaloids from the sap ; 
 and the fact of this deposit is mainly due, according to 
 the great German chemist, Herr Fliickiger, to a pecu- 
 liarity in the formation of the liber. Some species of the 
 trees differ from others in respect of their habitat in rela- 
 tion to genuine producing capability: crown barks are 
 adapted to a higher elevation and red to a lower, as in 
 their native habitat. For some members of the Calisaya 
 family a great elevation is essential. Some of these
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 23 
 
 planted at an elevation of 7300 feet above the sea seem 
 to have adopted a more luxurious habit than some at 
 lower elevations. Mr. Howard, indeed, declares it a 
 useless attempt to cultivate these trees below 4000 feet 
 above the sea-level. The Offidnalis species, which stands 
 high for its yield, is also one of the most hardy, and a 
 peculiar observation has been made on this species. In 
 the third generation a sort of atavism is to be noticed, 
 the produce having returned almost exactly to the first, 
 and having on the Neilgherries of India rather surpassed 
 the quantity of alkaloid yielded by the first generation 
 on the mountains of Uritusinga, its native habitat. Mr. 
 Frecul, a French chemist, discovered that when isolated 
 each of the two fundamental parts of the branch may 
 give rise to the production of either wood or bark ; and 
 certainly one of the most instructive and interesting of 
 the very beautiful and carefully executed coloured illus- 
 trations in Mr. Howard's book of the various barks is 
 that of the third crop of renewed bark and its junction 
 with the old bark. 
 
 III. CULTIVATION IN INDIA. 
 
 We have already done something to recount the diffi- 
 culties and perils which were encountered in exploring 
 the remote mountain forests of Ecuador, Huanco, and 
 Caravaya ; we now come to speak specially of the 
 methods resorted to, and the various measures for the 
 successful naturalisation and culture of the tree in India. 
 The Neilgherry Hills, in the Madras Presidency, was 
 selected as the most suitable locality for the first experi-
 
 24 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 ments. These hills, most readers will remember, lie 
 between the eleventh and twelfth parallels of north lati- 
 tude, and run out in an eastern direction from the plains 
 of Coimbatore from the chain of the Western Ghauts, 
 and may be regarded as a gigantic spur of that vast 
 range. The crest of the Neilgherries is not by any 
 means a flat plateau. It consists rather of a series of 
 green undulating hills, with ravines here and there, 
 usually very well wooded and well watered. The eleva- 
 tion of this upper region ranges from 6000 to 7000 feet 
 above the sea-level, and enjoys a climate cool and exhi- 
 larating. The thermometer ranges from about 42 to a 
 little under 70. In the central portion of the plateau 
 the rainfall, as we learn, averages about 60 inches, but 
 on the western side it is heavier, and the air during a 
 great portion of the year is constantly moist. The soil 
 is very fertile, and abundantly produces European fruits, 
 cereals, and vegetables, as well as tea and coffee. 
 
 In selecting sites for chinchona plantations, due atten- 
 tion was paid to the requirements of the plants in the 
 matter of elevation the facts as to different needs in 
 this respect in different species being as we have already 
 noted. Two localities were accordingly chosen : one a 
 little under 8000 feet on Dodabetta, near Ootacamund, 
 and another at an elevation under 6000 feet at a place 
 called Neddiwattum, on the north-western side of the 
 range. The Dodabetta site was set apart for the growth 
 of the crown barks, while that at Neddiwattum was 
 devoted to the red, yellow, and grey barks. The chin- 
 chona plants and seeds, as they arrived from South 
 America, were placed in the hands of Mr. M'lvor, the
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 
 
 Superintendent of the Neilgherry Botanical Gardens. 
 As it was felt advisable to multiply the chinchonas 
 quickly, both practical plans of propagation were had 
 recourse to by seed and by cuttings. By great care and 
 skill not only were the plantations at Dodabetta and 
 Neddiwattum rapidly stocked, but others were before 
 long opened at Pykarah and Mailkhoondah. Private 
 individuals also entered the field about the same time, 
 and chinchona-planting was for some years regarded as 
 a most promising investment. 
 
 But the special risks and the slowness of return, which 
 we have already referred to, led to most of the planters 
 abandoning it. Meanwhile the Government, slow to 
 move, but fortunately also slow to retreat from a scheme 
 once set in progress, determined to carry the work to 
 a successful issue. The results have been satisfactory 
 beyond the most sanguine expectations. At the close of 
 the official year 1872-73 there were 1,170,029 chinchona 
 trees of various ages on the Government estates, cover- 
 ing an area of 1222 acres, on which the expenditure up 
 to that date had been a little under ^6 5,000. This gives 
 a mean cost of about ^53 per acre, and against this, of 
 course, has to be set the value of bark utilised in India 
 for the manufacture of alkaloids, and of consignments 
 sold in London. During the period which has elapsed 
 since that stock-taking, progress has been equally steady, 
 and there are now several million trees in culture. 
 
 In spite of the ascertained drawback in chinchona 
 culture as regards speedy commercial result, it needs to 
 be stated, with all emphasis, that some gentlemen, whose 
 names deserve to be held in honour, did not fail bravely
 
 2 6 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 to face loss of time and fortune in their efforts to natu- 
 ralise the plants in various parts of India. Among these 
 Colonel Nassau Lees stands prominent. In his planta- 
 tions in the Kangra Valley chinchona had an extended 
 and patient trial. Colonel Lees threw much spirit into 
 his efforts to introduce the plant. From Java, Ceylon, 
 and the Neilgherries he provided himself with seeds or 
 seedlings of all the leading species, and he imported 
 from Scotland a trained gardener to superintend the 
 cultivation. He was also supplied by Mr. Markham 
 with seeds of C. pitayensis, a species which thrives well 
 at high altitudes on the Andes, and which it was hoped 
 would thrive in the comparatively severe climate of the 
 Kangra Valley. For some time the prospects of success 
 seemed moderately hopeful, but ultimately the majority 
 of the plants succumbed to frost. The results were 
 almost identical in the North- West Provinces. 
 
 IV. METHODS OF BARKING AND PREPARATION 
 IN INDIA. 
 
 By scientific men, and those who had at an early stage 
 interested themselves in chinchona culture, it had for 
 years been strongly felt that the extraordinary reckless- 
 ness of the Peruvian bark- collectors must eventually 
 greatly lessen the supply to be obtained. Indeed it was 
 seen, as we have already said, that there was a great risk 
 that at any moment the price might suddenly be raised 
 to such a point as would render quinine beyond the 
 reach of the great mass of the poor, more particularly in 
 certain parts of India, where it is almost essential to life.
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 27 
 
 The Peruvian bark-hunters thought only of present gain, 
 and cared nothing for the future. They therefore stripped 
 the trees standing ; and the consequence was that as soon 
 as they were deprived of their bark they were attacked 
 by myriads of insects, which penetrated the stems and 
 soon killed the trees. Their practice, therefore, involved 
 the destruction of each tree felled for its bark, and no 
 measures were ever taken by the owners of either public or 
 private forests to secure supplies by any conservancy or re- 
 planting. When the cascarilleros came upon a tree which 
 had accidentally been thrown down, so great was their 
 carelessness that they would actually strip the upper side 
 of its bark, and then, rather than take the trouble to turn 
 over the trunk, they would leave it to rot in the ground, 
 and pass on to supplies which they could procure with 
 even less exertion. Under this method it was inevitable 
 that the area of supply would in course of time, at the 
 best, become narrowed. The consumption of bark in 
 Europe and the East went on steadily increasing, and as 
 a natural result prices rose, and fears even began to be 
 entertained that the supply would ultimately fail alto- 
 gether. This was the fear involving so much to the 
 whole world, which formed the spur that impelled the 
 noble men, whose doings and sufferings we have very 
 faintly outlined, to secure at all hazards seeds and plants 
 from which, in favourable soil and climate, a supply might 
 be insured independently of the native region of the tree. 
 The same consideration weighed with the cultivators in 
 India, who soon, by thought and experiment, discovered 
 more economical and scientific methods of barking and 
 after-manufacture.
 
 28 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 In this they had ceased to follow the good example set 
 them by the Jesuits, and it should be said in fairness that 
 so long as the Jesuits had influence and power, wise con- 
 sideration was paid to conserving the trees. The Jesuits 
 even enlisted superstition on their behalf in this matter. 
 Mr. Ledger, whose acquaintance with the Peruvian chin- 
 chona forests is very intimate, and who, on various visits, 
 dwelt for long periods in the country, closely studying 
 the people as well as its botany, natural history, and 
 trade, in a letter to Mr. J. E. Howard, writes : 
 
 " Whenever bark trees were cut down or ' stripped,' 
 not a particle of the smallest branch was lost. Moreover, 
 they imposed the moral obligation, appealing to the 
 superstition of the Indians, thereby compelling the cas- 
 carilleros or ' cutters ' to plant five cuttings in the shape 
 of a cross for every tree destroyed. I have repeatedly 
 seen these plantations : always, when passing them, my 
 Indians would go down on their knees, hat in hand, cross 
 themselves, and say a prayer for the souls of the ' Buenos 
 Padres.' " 
 
 At first the method employed in India for barking was 
 to cut down the tree very near the ground, precisely as is 
 done in ash or withy coppices in England. If this was 
 carefully done, a rapid growth of young wood imme- 
 diately sprang up, and in the course of five or six years 
 the saplings were ready to be felled again. This was 
 called coppicing, and in some circumstances may still be 
 found advisable, and practised in circumstances where, 
 as Dr. Bidie, a good authority, has said, firewood is a 
 desideratum, but Mr. Howard very decidedly declares 
 against coppicing in ordinary circumstances.
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 29 
 
 Another method, more economical and more efficient 
 in every respect, is now in use. This method permits the 
 bark to be removed periodically without cutting down the 
 tree ; and, indeed, by a very simple device, draws pre- 
 cisely the chemical elements that are wanted more libe- 
 rally into the bark. This is the " mossing process," and 
 we are sure that our readers will be interested in the 
 account of a method so simple, and so admirably calcu- 
 lated to secure the end sought by very slight means. 
 Though we have not ourselves seen it, our account is 
 drawn from varied reliable sources. Mr. M'lvor, with 
 whom the idea originated, tells us that in this, as in so 
 many other beautiful processes of culture, man only fol- 
 lows a hint of nature. His idea of artificially applying 
 moss to the bark of chinchona plants originated in the 
 fact that the best chinchona bark of commerce is inva- 
 riably overgrown with moss (or lichen). 
 
 About a year or eighteen months before the bark is 
 ready for removal, the trunk of the tree is covered with 
 a thick layer of common tree moss, collected in the 
 neighbouring forests. It is fixed in position with twisted 
 bark till it grows and becomes attached by natural 
 adhesion to the tree. When the eighteen months have 
 expired the bark is thus removed. The workers are 
 divided into gangs of five men each two barkers, two 
 mossers, and a man to split and roll up bast into balls. 
 The first operation is the removal of the covering of 
 moss, which is very carefully treated with the view of 
 being used again. The barkers then, with their pruning 
 knives, remove the bark in longitudinal strips, from 2 
 to 2 1 inches wide, and from a point as high up as they
 
 3 o DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 can conveniently reach. Between every two cf these 
 strips a portion of bark of the same width is left to carry 
 on the circulation, &c., as the tree would die if com- 
 pletely denuded of so large a portion of its protective 
 covering. When the bark has been removed it is found 
 that the surface of the wood is covered with a gelatinous- 
 like substance, the cambium of botanists. This consists 
 of young cells from which future additions to the bark 
 and wood are derived. 
 
 The greatest care is taken to avoid inflicting any 
 injury on this, as it is found that a denuded surface is 
 very slowly and imperfectly renewed. When carefully 
 preserved, however, the gaps in the bark are perfectly 
 filled up. 
 
 As soon as the barkers have finished their task the 
 mossers begin their work. This consists in re-applying 
 a thick covering of moist moss to the trunk, which 
 afterwards is carefully and continually kept moist. A 
 good authority has given this account of the process : 
 
 "At certain seasons of the year the bark can be 
 separated from the tree with great ease. It is accom- 
 plished in this way. A labourer proceeds to a tree, 
 and, reaching up as far as he can, makes a horizontal 
 incision of the required width. From either end of 
 this incision he runs a vertical incision to the ground. 
 Then, carefully raising with the knife the bark at the 
 horizontal incision until he can seize it with his fingers, 
 he strips off the bark to the ground and cuts it off. The 
 strip of bark then presents the appearance of a ribbon 
 more or less long. Supposing the tree to be of 28 
 inches in circumference, the labourer will take nine of
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 31 
 
 the above ribbons, each ij inches wide. He will thus 
 leave, after the tree has been stripped, other nine rib- 
 bons still adhering to the tree, each somewhat broader 
 than the stripped ribbon and at intervals apart, occupied 
 by the spaces to which the stripped ribbons have adhered. 
 As soon as he has removed his strips, the labourer will 
 proceed to moss the trunk all round, tying on the moss 
 with some fibre. The decorticated intervals will thus 
 be excluded from light and air ; and this is one of the 
 capital points in the system. The mere exclusion of 
 light and air from a stem partially bared acts in two 
 ways : it enables the healing process to be rapidly set 
 up in the same way as plaster does in the case of a 
 wound in an animal organism ; and it has the further 
 curious effect it increases the secretion of quinine in 
 the bark renewed under its protection. At the end of 
 six months or more, the bands of bark left untouched 
 at the first stripping are removed, and the intervals 
 they occupied on the trunk are mossed. At the end of 
 twenty months, on an average, the spaces occupied by 
 the ribbons originally taken off are found to be covered 
 with renewed bark much thicker than the natural bark 
 of the same age, and this renewed bark can be removed, 
 and a fresh renewal again be fostered by the moss." 
 
 On being taken from the trees the bark is laid to dry 
 in rough sheds fitted up with open shelves made of split 
 bamboo. These sheds are erected in any convenient 
 place near the spot where the trees are being cut. When 
 the bark has dried as far as is possible without artificial 
 heat it is carried off to the drying-house, a masonry build- 
 ing (near the factory) fitted up with shelving and supplied
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 with arrangements for keeping charcoal fires lit. If the 
 drying-house be kept well closed the bark is speedily 
 and thoroughly dried, and without being exposed to a 
 temperature high enough to affect its chemical constitu- 
 tion. When well dried, it can be stored without danger 
 of deterioration. 
 
 In his report to the Government of Madras, Mr. 
 Markham had directed the special attention of Govern- 
 ment to the importance of finding out as soon as possible 
 the best way of dealing with the anticipated produce of 
 the Government plantations, so as to secure the avowed 
 object of Government in undertaking the cultivation at 
 all. Had pecuniary profit been that object, it would 
 probably have been best secured by arranging to send 
 the bark to England for sale, and by continuing to pur- 
 chase quinine in the usual way, trusting to reduce its 
 price by increasing the supply of bark. But it is ex- 
 tremely doubtful whether, under such an arrangement, a 
 cheap febrifuge would ever have been brought within the 
 reach of fever patients so poor as the agricultural popu- 
 lation of India, a population who, for ages accustomed 
 to look on oft-recurring fever as part of their fate, have 
 become too apathetic to be prepared to pay much for 
 relief from it. The object of Government is that an 
 efficient febrifuge shall be available by purchase in every 
 corner of India, that it shall become part of the stock- 
 in-trade of every village shopkeeper, and that it shall be 
 purchasable at not more than a rupee an ounce. At the 
 period in question quinine was available by purchase only 
 in a few of the larger towns where there is a European 
 population, and even in such places it costs from six to
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 33 
 
 ten rupees an ounce. It was, of course, supplied to all 
 Government dispensaries, but only to a limited extent, 
 the supply for a year being, as a rule, really equal to the 
 actual demands for a few days. The dispensing of so 
 costly and scarce a drug gave rise, it was believed, to much 
 sharp practice among the lower officials at dispensaries 
 and hospitals, and a doze of the coveted febrifuge was 
 probably, as a rule, unattainable to the very poorest of 
 the patients. Mr. Markham suggested that, instead of 
 sending the bark to England to be sold, a febrifuge 
 should be prepared from it at the Government planta- 
 tions which should contain the alkaloids in a rough form, 
 and should be saleable at a cheap rate. He recom- 
 mended the preparation called quinium, a product which 
 (while an effectual febrifuge) would not be bought up by 
 speculators as a source of quinine, it being unsaleable for 
 manufacturing purposes. Quinium is made by treating 
 pounded bark with slaked lime, and the resulting lime pro- 
 duct with alcohol. Mr. Markham considered that a com- 
 petent chemist should be got from England and located 
 in the Neilgherries, whose functions should be to work 
 out the whole subject of Indian quinology. His recom- 
 mendation coincided with others which had been made 
 to the same effect, and was subsequently strengthened by 
 the verdict of the Alkaloid Commissions. In October 
 1866, Mr. John Broughton, then Dr. Franklin's assistant 
 at the Royal Institution, London, was appointed. The 
 results of his researches and efforts were valuable.
 
 34 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 V. PREPARATION OF ALKALOIDS, &c. 
 
 One of the most improved and widely accepted methods 
 of manufacturing the chinchona alkaloids consists in 
 precipitating the alkaloids in an insoluble state, and sub- 
 sequently separating them from the mass of impurities 
 with which they are mixed by solution in alcohol. Mr. 
 Broughton thus describes the process adopted by him, 
 and followed with the greatest success : 
 
 "The bark, in long strips, exactly as taken from the 
 tree, is placed in a copper pan with i ^ per cent, of sul- 
 phuric acid for trunk bark, and about i per cent, or less 
 for pruning*, and a quantity of water that has already 
 been used for the fourth extraction of nearly spent bark, 
 and is boiled for an hour. The liquid and bark are then 
 separated by strong pressure in a screw-press, the former 
 falling in a wooden vat placed underneath. The squeezed 
 and nearly dry bark is again boiled with liquid that has 
 been used for a third boiling of other bark, and another 
 half per cent, of acid is added. After an hour's boiling, 
 it is again squeezed. It is then boiled with a liquid that 
 has come off nearly-spent bark, again squeezed, and 
 finally boiled with water. During these four boilings, 
 the bark after each squeezing diminishes greatly in bulk, 
 and becomes almost pulp, so that it occupies far less 
 room in a pan at the third boiling than it did at first. 
 The order in which the several liquids used in extraction 
 are employed depend on the qualities of bark under 
 manufacture ; but it is so arranged as to obtain finally 
 a liquid containing as much alkaloid as possible in solu- 
 tion ; and also, that as far as possible the bark should be
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 35 
 
 exhausted of alkaloid. The liquid is now evaporated to 
 about one-sixth of its bulk and allowed to cool. It is 
 then decomposed by neutralisation with lime, which pre- 
 cipitates the alkaloids, decomposing the quino-tannates 
 and sulphates with formation of insoluble lime-salts. The 
 powdered lime precipitate is then packed in an ingenious 
 inverted cone-like vessel, with a receiving vessel below it. 
 Alcohol is poured on till, by passing through the precipi- 
 tate, the lower vessel is about third full. A fire is kept 
 up to certain heat under the lower vessels. By the skilful 
 use of copper condensers, &c., the vapour rises and be- 
 comes liquid; and this process is kept up till a small 
 amount of alcohol, by constant circulation, has dissolved 
 the whole of the chinchona basis without any waste of 
 spirit or alkaloid." 
 
 VI. AMORPHOUS QUININE, &c. 
 
 The chinchona industry in India was instituted with 
 the avowed object of providing at a cheap rate an abun- 
 dant supply of a remedy for fever, the great scourge of 
 the people of India. So far this object has been at- 
 tained. So long ago as 1859, the Quinologist sent to 
 the Medical Department of Madras, for trial in hospitals, 
 a preparation of the plantation barks, which has since 
 been known locally as Amorphous Quinine. This name 
 is not very appropriate, as the substance so designated 
 does not consist of quinine only, but contains the several 
 alkaloids, in the exact proportions in which they occur 
 naturally in the bark. The term mixed or amorphous 
 alkaloids would therefore have more properly indicated
 
 36 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 the chemical character of the preparation, but the other 
 was adopted in deference to the prejudices of the native 
 population, as they were to some extent already familiar 
 with the properties of quinine. 
 
 The substance known as amorphous quinine is pre- 
 pared by a very simple process, is supplied at a moderate 
 cost, and furnishes the active principles of the bark in a 
 state of sufficient purity for all ordinary medical purposes. 
 As furnished to the hospitals, the preparation is a greyish 
 powder with a bitter taste, really insoluble in water, but 
 rendered quite soluble by the addition of a little acid. 
 With the view of thoroughly testing, its power as a febri- 
 fuge, supplies of it have from time to time been sent to 
 civil hospitals in the most feverish districts of the country, 
 and the results have invariably been highly gratifying. 
 It is not for a moment asserted that it is quite equal to 
 the European-made crystallised preparations of the alka- 
 loids, but then the cost of the latter has hitherto been 
 such as to place them quite beyond the reach of the 
 lower classes of the population of India. 
 
 And quite recently a great step has been made, as we 
 believe, in the extraction from the bark by the heads of 
 the plantations at Sikkim. At first the Succiritbra^ or 
 red- bark tree, was planted there almost exclusively, but 
 of recent years these have given place to Calisaya, to the 
 extent of about a million trees, as it was found that, 
 though the red bark contained a comparatively small 
 portion of quinine, with large proportions of chinchoni- 
 dine and chinchonine, it was more difficult to extract the 
 alkaloids from it, and that the yellow bark, or Catisaya, 
 could be more economically dealt with in this respect,
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 37 
 
 and dealt with on the spot, instead of being sent away. 
 Experiment in the hands of Dr. King and Mr. Gammie, 
 the superintendent there, has led to the discovery of a pro- 
 cess of extraction by means of stirring the powdered bark 
 in a fluid which contains fusel oil and kerosine oil, with 
 a small proportion of caustic soda or lime, when either 
 sulphate of quinine or chinchona febrifuge can be ob- 
 tained by varying the after-process. This promises to 
 be one of the greatest steps in the development of a 
 cheap and steady supply of the chinchona alkaloids 
 which has yet been made, and we can only wish it suc- 
 cess and general application. 
 
 So important to us does this discovery seem in view 
 of a cheap and steady supply of quinine that we must 
 find space for Mr. Gammie's clear and beautiful descrip- 
 tion of the process included in a report made last year 
 to the Government on the condition of the quinine 
 production : 
 
 " i. In order that the oil may speedily and effectually 
 act on the chinchona bark, the latter is reduced to a very 
 fine powder by means of Carter's Disintegrator ; and to 
 get the powder of a uniform fineness, it is passed through 
 a scalper, which is a machine commonly used for sifting 
 flour. The scalper is in the form of a box enclosing a 
 sloping, six-sided, revolving chamber, covered with silk 
 of 120 threads to the lineal inch. It is driven at the 
 speed of about thirty revolutions to the minute. Any 
 particles of the powder which may be too coarse to pass 
 through the silk meshes drop out at the lower end of 
 the revolving chamber and are again passed through the 
 Disintegrator. 
 
 431678
 
 38 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 " 2. A hundred parts of the finely-powdered bark are 
 then set aside to be mixed with 8 parts of commercial 
 caustic soda, 500 parts of water, and 600 parts of mix- 
 ture composed of one part of fusel oil to four parts kero- 
 sine oil. If the caustic soda be of inferior quality, a 
 little slaked lime (about 5 parts) may be used in addi- 
 tion to the eight parts of caustic soda ; or caustic soda 
 may be altogether omitted, and 15 parts of slaked lime 
 may be used instead of it. The caustic soda is dissolved 
 in the water and mixed with the bark. Then the oil is 
 added, and the whole is kept thoroughly intermixed in 
 an agitating vessel. Should lime be used, it is mixed in 
 fine powder with the dry bark before adding the water 
 and oil. 
 
 "3. The agitating vessels in use at Mungpoo are 
 barrels with winged stirrers revolving in them vertically, 
 and with taps on the sides for drawing off the fluids. 
 The first stirring is carried on for four hours, and then 
 the whole is allowed to rest quietly in order that the oil 
 may separate out to the top of the watery fluid. When 
 the oil, which has now taken up the greater part of the 
 alkaloids, has cleared out, it is drawn off by a tap placed 
 just above the junction of the two fluids. The oil is 
 then transferred to another agitator, and is there tho- 
 roughly intermixed with acidulated water for five or ten 
 minutes, the mixture being again allowed to rest for the 
 separation of the oil. It will now be found (if sufficient 
 acid has been used and the stirring has been thorough) 
 that the alkaloids have been removed from the oil to 
 the acidulated liquor. The oil is again transferred to 
 the bark mixture, and is kept intermixed with it for two
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 39 
 
 or three hours ; the oil is again drawn off in the same 
 way, washed as before in the same acidulated liquor; 
 and this process is repeated a third or a fourth time, or 
 until it is found, by testing a small quantity of the oil, 
 that the bark has been thoroughly exhausted of its 
 alkaloids. Each stirring subsequent to the second, need 
 not be continued for more than an hour. The quantity 
 of acid required to take up the alkaloids from the oil 
 will entirely depend on the quality of the bark operated 
 on. If the bark contains 4 per cent, of alkaloids, about 
 2 Ibs. of either sulphuric or muriatic acid mixed in 
 twenty gallons of water should be sufficient, and so on 
 in proportion. 
 
 " 4. The after-treatment of the acidulated water con- 
 taining the alkaloids depends on the product desired, 
 and on the kind of acid that has been used. Should 
 sulphate of quinine be desired and sulphuric acid have 
 been used, the liquor is filtered (if necessary), heated 
 and made neutral by adding a very weak solution of 
 either caustic soda or liquor ammonia. It is then 
 allowed to cool, and as it cools the crystals form out. 
 These crystals are afterwards separated from the mother 
 liquor by draining through a cloth filter. After they 
 have been thus obtained, the crystals are dried. They 
 are next dissolved in about fifty times their weight of 
 boiling water. The resulting liquor is filtered hot through 
 a little animal charcoal. On cooling after filtration the 
 crystals again form out, and they are separated as before 
 from the mother liquor by filtration through a cloth. 
 The crystalline mass obtained by filtration is then placed 
 in small lumps on sheets of white blotting paper stretched
 
 40 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 on slabs of plaster of Paris. By this means they are 
 practically dried. They are afterwards thoroughly dried 
 by being laid on blotting paper in a room heated to 
 about 10 degrees above the temperature of the open air. 
 
 " 5. If chinchona febrifuge is wanted, the alkaloids are 
 exhausted from the oil by muriatic acid, the solution 
 being neutralised and filtered in the same way. On an 
 excess of caustic soda solution being added, the alkaloids 
 are precipitated. After standing some hours the whole 
 bulk of liquor and precipitate is passed through cloth 
 filters ; and when the alkaline liquor has drained off, 
 the precipitate is washed with a little plain water, dried, 
 and powdered. The powder is chinchona febrifuge 
 ready for use." 
 
 So far, then, the benevolent object for which the chin- 
 chonas were introduced has been attained a benevolent 
 object, for the Government of India has always repu- 
 diated the idea of wishing to make quinine a source of 
 profit, but only a means of obtaining for its subjects a 
 full and cheap supply of a valued specific. There are 
 several million trees growing luxuriantly on the govern- 
 ment estates, and a process in operation by which a cheap 
 and efficient preparation of the bark may be supplied to 
 the fever-stricken masses. It may safely be said that at 
 least 60 per cent, of the deaths once resulting from fever 
 in India are now prevented by the extensive use of this 
 valuable febrifuge. 
 
 The extension of chinchona plantations is confined 
 almost entirely to the Government enterprise. Private 
 efforts have not been successful to any great extent. In 
 Ceylon, over large spaces, the quinine-bearing trees have
 
 QUININE AND ITS ROMANCE. 41 
 
 of late years been rooted up to make room for tea and 
 coffee, because of the quicker and far greater return 
 derived from these wherever the soil and climate are 
 found suitable. 
 
 And chemistry promises at length to supply a substi- 
 tute at least so far as the heat-reducing powers in fever 
 are concerned in some of the anti-febrine elements 
 derived from the wonderful coal-tar substances. How 
 far the medical profession will find these in every respect 
 potent to replace quinine as a febrifuge, time will tell. 
 Some say that the coal-tar anti-febrines have all the spe- 
 cific action on the constitution which quinine has, without 
 inducing the headaches and swimmingness certainly in 
 some constitutions induced by its large or continuous 
 prescription. But the interest of quinine and its story 
 remains ; and for India and the East, at all events for a 
 long time, quinine is likely to hold an important place.
 
 42 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 II. 
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 
 I. ORIGIN OF CANARIES. 
 
 IT is a great thing with those who pique themselves on 
 race and breeding to say that they "came over with 
 the Conqueror." The canary-birds can claim a con- 
 siderable antiquity, and also came over with the Con- 
 queror, though not Norman William. The first hint 
 that can be found in Europe of the forbears of our 
 yellow favourites, who "discourse sweet music" to us 
 winter and summer alike, is in Spain, where we are told 
 that in 1478 some specimens were brought by Henry 
 the Navigator, on his return from one of his voyages, 
 during which he had landed at the Canary Islands. 
 Though very unlike most of the canaries we now see in 
 cages (for in colour they rather resembled the linnet, a 
 grey shading into green on the breast), they soon were 
 sought after for their song, and high prices were paid for 
 them by the Spanish donas. The Spanish bird-fanciers 
 soon began to breed from them ; and as only the cocks, 
 or singing- birds, were for some time brought to Europe, 
 they now and then conveyed some of the cocks to the 
 Canary Islands, to act as decoys for the female birds. 
 It is said that these travelled birds were very healthy.
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 43 
 
 The Spaniards were carefully reticent about their Canary 
 song-bird, and for a long period canaries were to be had 
 only from Spain at high prices. 
 
 The birds were found pretty widely distributed in the 
 Canary Islands; but they were met with in greatest 
 numbers in the western mountainous parts, the thickly- 
 wooded localities that abound on that side being espe- 
 cially suited to their mode of life. They were never 
 found on the mainland, but were met with scattered 
 over the Azores, and in still more limited numbers in 
 the Madeiras. 
 
 The first writer of any note who made mention of the 
 canary-birds was Gessner, in 1555- He called them 
 Canariam Avtculam, also translated sugar-birds, and 
 praised highly their very lovely song. Later on (in 1599- 
 1609) Aldrovandi wrote upon them, and in 1622 Olina 
 likewise wrote a work about them, which was published 
 at Rome. Olina recounts that a Spanish ship, with 
 thousands of canary-birds on board, bound for Leghorn, 
 was wrecked on the Italian coast, and that many of the 
 birds that gained freedom fled to the island of Elba. 
 The climate agreed with them there, and they increased 
 rapidly, but soon began to be so eagerly sought for that 
 they were exterminated there. Up till this time the 
 Spaniards had kept secret their methods of breeding and 
 training the bird; and though a considerable trade in 
 canaries had sprung up, the prices, especially for good 
 specimens, were still very high. But now the Italians 
 obtained numerous specimens of the bird from Elba, 
 and applied themselves to breeding and training him, 
 and, not being so exclusive as the Spaniards, the canary-
 
 44 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 birds of Italy quickly spread to the north first to the 
 Tyrol and then to Germany. 
 
 It was in the Tyrol that the canary found the most 
 eager and appreciative welcome; and in the market- 
 town, Imst, in Oberimthal, where there was a consider- 
 able community of miners, there was developed such 
 skill in breeding and training that it soon became the 
 centre of the traffic. Spindler says that many circum- 
 stances united to produce this result. First of all, the 
 Oberimthalers had the rarest tact and patience, as well 
 as a love for the little feathered folk; and next, they 
 were very fond of wandering abroad and turning an 
 honest penny, which they could do in the sale of the 
 yellow favourite. 
 
 Trade-clubs, or companies, as we would say nowadays, 
 were formed to develop the canary culture, and com- 
 pletely to organise the traffic. Every member contri- 
 buted from 70 to 100 ducats, and the sum-total was 
 spent in procuring from all parts from Germany and 
 Switzerland as well as from Italy the very finest speci- 
 mens of young birds for instruction and training. When 
 these had been trained, at a certain date, somewhere 
 between the second and the tenth of August, the bird- 
 dealers took their departure to different parts, with their 
 precious burdens on their shoulders. The event was 
 celebrated by a festival, after which the procession set 
 forth with the chaplain's blessing, and with musical 
 accompaniment, till at a certain station the roads sepa- 
 rated, when each group went on its own way, to divide 
 still more farther on. 
 
 A very picturesque sight the procession must have
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 45 
 
 been. The guild, in their own costume, which consisted 
 of blue and richly braided jackets, the breast ornamented 
 with silver buttons; short leather hose, with sewn de- 
 vices ; red scarf round the body, and green hat on the 
 head. On his shoulders each man bore the feathered 
 burden in a basket of peculiar form, suited to the pur- 
 pose ; and at their head marched the far-travelled leader, 
 begirt with a sash adorned with peacocks' feathers, and 
 his travelling stick decorated with ivy and flowers, as a 
 sign of his special dignity. 
 
 The fearless wanderers not only traversed the whole of 
 the German kingdom, but also Holland, Belgium, France, 
 and Russia ; indeed Turkey, Armenia, and Syria were in 
 great part visited by these enterprising bird-rearers. 
 
 For nearly a century this went on ; and if in Imst the 
 highest possible song-powers of the bird were not de- 
 veloped, much was done to increase his beauty of form, 
 of plumage, of colour, though as yet, it must be con- 
 fessed, our familiar yellow bird was not in existence. 
 That was a work of time and care, and illustrates well 
 Mr. Darwin's doctrine of selection, as we shall soon see. 
 
 Often the adventurous and enterprising bird-sellers 
 came back with a good return, but the results were not 
 uniform. There were bad years as well as good years. 
 The year 1740, we learn, was a particularly good canary 
 year. But owing to causes which we cannot enter into 
 here, the mining at Imst altogether failed, and bad years 
 almost ruined the bird trade. The consequence was 
 that the centre of the canary trade was transferred by the 
 removal of the bird trainers to St. Andreasberg in the 
 Harz, which still holds its pre-eminence in this respect,
 
 46 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 though the title of the Tyrolese bird, still often given to 
 the canary, tells that the earlier efforts at Imst have pro- 
 duced their own effect. But the Oberimthalers, while 
 they remained at Imst, gave precedence to development 
 of colour and form over singing in their training. The 
 most gifted birds were, of course, taught to pipe and 
 whistle, and sing songs, and play tricks ; but the bird's 
 proper song remained more or less a secondary thing. 
 The excellence of the canary, in their view, lay in his 
 being a chamber ornament or toy. Portraits exist to 
 bear this out. On the Sunday reception of women of 
 position the bird was perched on the right hand when 
 visitors were received, and women who wished to be of 
 importance had their portraits taken in this manner ; and 
 it belonged to good manners to make inquiry after the 
 health of the yellow darling, and to bring him a little bit 
 of sugar. 
 
 II. CULTURE AND TRAINING. 
 
 The original colour of the birds, as we have said, was 
 grey, merging into green beneath, somewhat resembling 
 the colours of the linnet ; but by various devices, inter- 
 mixture with other birds among them, canaries are now 
 to be met with of various colours, and in almost every 
 degree of shade and combination, and thus presenting 
 innumerable differences. With regard to the yellow 
 colour and its testimony to Mr. Darwin's theory of selec- 
 tion, it is said that after domestication in Belgium, Ger- 
 many, and England, the birds threw upon the feathers 
 small patches of yellow or lighter colour, and by carefully
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 47 
 
 matching those birds that bore the largest number of 
 these spots, they at length obtained bright and uniform 
 colour, more closely resembling those of pure yellow, 
 called " clear " birds in the present day. But the appli- 
 cation of the phrase " canary colour," to indicate a special 
 shade of yellow, though general, is not justified by the 
 facts. Canaries of pure breed are to be found of many 
 colours ; whole breeds are green ; and, by feeding on 
 pepper and other seeds, canaries have been produced of 
 cinnamon and coffee colour, and even of red ; and, in the 
 very beautiful Lizard variety, the bird, though yellow in 
 the crown, is elsewhere shaded and spangled in the most 
 lovely manner. 
 
 From the Tyrolese bird, the Teutonic people the 
 Dutch, the English, and the Germans have created 
 three quite distinct breeds. The Dutch altered princi- 
 pally the figure ; the English principally the colour ; and 
 the Germans especially developed the capacity for song. 
 
 (i.) The Dutch Canary. The Dutch canary, as we 
 now see him, is a yellow bird, with a little head, and a 
 dull expression of face. He remains very slender in the 
 bones, and is from six to seven inches high, thus cer- 
 tainly a third higher than the German canary. He is 
 plentifully provided with tuft of feathers, and possesses a 
 specially grotesque plumage, the breast and back feathers 
 being very long and peculiarly curled. In like manner 
 open feathers grow in a straight line from throat to breast, 
 and this is called jabot. The feathers on the shoulders 
 are strongly erect and curled, and are called epaulettes. 
 If the epaulettes are very strongly developed the bird is 
 called Prompeter. If the feathers of the breast are also
 
 48 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 very strongly developed, and form a neck ruff, then the 
 birds are advanced to the title of Lord Mayor. The 
 French appear to have especially liked these Dutch 
 canaries, for they have further bred and developed them. 
 From this circumstance they were extensively named 
 Parisian canaries. 
 
 (2.) The Belgian Canary. The so-called Belgian or 
 Brussels canaries are a small variety of the Dutch, with 
 close plumage and peculiarly arched back, which is 
 named cat's-back. They have thereby a pronounced 
 comic air, and the popular voice significantly calls them 
 " undertakers." By breeding together those of the 
 greatest length and with certain conformation of neck 
 and shoulder, something almost approaching to defor- 
 mity has been reached, which with the fanciers is ac- 
 counted beauty. 
 
 (3.) English Canary. 'The English adopted the Bel- 
 gians, and have bred them up still further and charac- 
 teristically, but without the cat's-back. The colour is 
 bright gold-yellow ; the head is like a snake's, flat, broad, 
 and angular. The shoulders are quite erect the chief 
 point consists in the silk-like texture of the feathers. 
 They are considered to be the most elegant of all birds. 
 The most incredible alterations on the original bird have 
 now taken place in England. Here they have bred birds 
 which no novice would any longer take for a canary. 
 The Dutch breeders devoted their attention to the alte- 
 ration of the form and special points of plumage, but still 
 retained the yellow colour, while the English, together 
 with alterations in the form, have dealt with the feather 
 peculiarity. Birds double as large as a German canary
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 49 
 
 have been produced in England, the honours as to size 
 having been carried off by a famous Manchester breed ; 
 and by means of feeding on pepper and other seeds, &c., 
 birds of different hues copper, gold-yellow, brown, green, 
 and even of red colour having been produced. There 
 are some birds with such strong tufts of feathers that the 
 eyes are covered over. The Norwich crested variety looks 
 almost as though it wore a cowl or cap. Other families 
 are formed like the swallow, with almost regular black 
 spots on the olive-green back, and these are named lizards. 
 We shall refer to the more famous English breeds under 
 another heading. There are such varieties of pretty 
 cross-breeds that it is beyond our space even to name 
 them here. It indicates the extent of the business that 
 there exist societies of breeders in London and Man- 
 chester which issue periodical journals. 
 
 (4.) The German Canary. But, while honour must 
 be done to the Dutch, Belgians, and English for their 
 remarkable achievements in modifying and perfecting 
 form and feathers in the canary, to the Germans, par- 
 ticularly to the people at St. Andreasberg in the Harz, 
 belongs the credit of studying the song-qualities of the 
 bird as well as its imitative powers, and of developing 
 them to the highest pitch. The musical endowment of 
 the canary and his wonderfully melodious note-organ 
 mostly attracted and captivated them. It is true that 
 the Dutch and English coloured birds sing also; but 
 their twitterings can hardly be compared to the songs 
 of the Hartzers. Bull-finches and gold-finches had for 
 long been kept by the St. Andreasbergers. In the 
 spring those who had leisure would wander for days in
 
 5 o DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 the woods listening to the songs of the finches, and 
 after much thought and concern, would spend further 
 days in catching those with the best and fullest notes. 
 The liking for thrushes, too, was great among them. 
 Almost before the door of every house there hung a 
 thrush in wicker cage. But the finches had become 
 the great favourites. He who did not have his finch 
 was thought to be worth nothing, and the poorest people 
 would often strain and save till they were able to give 
 four or five dollars for a good specimen. It was difficult 
 to subdue this liking for finches and thrushes, and the 
 canary-breeders at first had certainly a difficult task in 
 hand from this propensity of their neighbours. For 
 every singing-bird, and more especially the canary-bird, 
 is attentive to strange song. But it was not well that 
 the nobler singer should run the risk of hearing the 
 loud-sounding shaff, shaff of the finch ; and therefore 
 canary-birds could not well be trained near finches. 
 The German canaries have, therefore, not reached their 
 perfection of song without great effort and pains. Nearly 
 every hour of the day was devoted to the birds by the 
 trainers. From September onward, indeed, the trainer 
 did not leave the chamber where the birds were night 
 nor day. 
 
 Out of every disadvantage profit is born to persever- 
 ance and skill. The canary-trainers learned, from the 
 presence of other song-birds, to isolate their birds more 
 and more ; and in this isolation they were led to a 
 closer and more thorough study of individual character 
 and temperament, and thus learned some of the secrets 
 of the craft which for so long a period has made them
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 51 
 
 pre-eminent in their strange industry. They found out, 
 not only how to guard their birds from coarser notes, 
 but how to inspire them to higher efforts by emulation 
 and the force of trained example, and by the use of 
 darkened bowers or boxes during a special period of 
 confinement, in which the trainer is seldom, as we have 
 seen, for an hour absent from them, night or day. 
 
 The method of training thus developed deserves a 
 somewhat more detailed explanation. First, as soon as 
 the young birds are independent and can be taken out 
 of the nest, they are brought into a flying-room in order 
 that they may have free-play and exercise, to strengthen 
 the body and to widen the chest. After the moulting, 
 which the bird easily overcomes, as he only changes the 
 down feathers and not the quill feathers, the song-passion 
 becomes stronger. The music-leader several times a 
 day exercises the young birds. They sit quiet, close 
 beside each other in a row on the poles, and listen 
 intently. Then they break forth and exercise their throats 
 each intent only on himself and his own study. At 
 first, of course, the voice is awkward and harsh, but a 
 little of this exercise makes the single tone clear and 
 well heard. They soon become bolder, and try to 
 increase their repertoire. The quieter the birds remain 
 when sitting, the more profitably they exercise, and so 
 much more promising, of course, is the after-training. 
 
 But the disposition of individuals is very various, and 
 needs close study. Any birds with bad voices or bad 
 inclinations must now be removed, as there is danger of 
 their infecting others with the same fault. Now the bird 
 inclines to wax strong and violent in voice ; but the aim
 
 52 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 of the Harz trainers is to get a low, soft note. At this 
 point the little students are separated, and put each into 
 a cage by itself. At first the narrow space appears to 
 surprise and be painful to the bird, hitherto accustomed 
 to a free flight ; but their pliant nature soon adapts itself 
 to the new circumstances, and they exhibit increased zeal 
 for learning. Their perseverance is remarkable. There 
 is even something touching to see how they will set 
 themselves again and again to master a difficult song, 
 until they finally succeed with it, and then with pride 
 they repeat and repeat it. A certain amount of darkness 
 is felt to be desirable for them. The birds are now 
 placed so that they hear but do not see one another, as 
 this is found to enable the learner more fully to concen- 
 trate his powers on the one song. This darkening has 
 been for fifty years recognised by the St. Andreasberg 
 trainers as an indispensable means of attaining the best 
 result a quiet, soft, continuous song. Without this help 
 we would not to-day possess such perfect performances 
 from the canary. The nightingale, as every one knows, 
 sings her sorrowful lays "more musical, more melan- 
 choly," in the darkness of the night, or in the mild 
 twilight of the moonshine, while her song by day ap- 
 pears unrestful, shorter, and more broken up and dis- 
 connected. 
 
 And it is not necessary to commiserate the birds in 
 their twilight homes or darkened bowers ; they keep very 
 well, and recompense the care spent upon them by their 
 song, which is also an expression of bodily satisfaction. 
 The song informs us that the little dweller in the dark 
 bower feels cozy. Only exceptionally quiet specimens
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 53 
 
 can bear the full daylight without drawback, and these 
 are proportionately few. If even the best birds are 
 suddenly or in an imprudent manner placed in the sun, 
 they immediately become louder, the melodiousness is 
 lost, and they begin to shriek or scream. After the birds 
 have passed through certain stages of training, they are 
 placed in lesser or greater proximity to those of similar 
 endowment, according to the judgment and practice of 
 the trainer. After Christmas a final decision is formed 
 on the whole ; but, in spite of all the pains, a consider- 
 able number remain immature, and of these a certain 
 proportion are sure to fall off at the next moulting. 
 The most excellent of the after-breed the trainer, of 
 course, keeps for himself, in order always to improve 
 his stock, and hence the difficulty of procuring a bird of 
 the very highest class. The German trainers have thus 
 reached their high perfection by careful attention to these 
 points: (i) Only the singing -birds of purest tone are 
 used in breeding ; (2) the young are most exactingly 
 trained, and (3) by careful feeding with pure oil-seed 
 and judicious introduction of egg-diet ; and (4) the wise 
 use of the dim-light boxes or bowers, by means of which 
 the birds are at the right time effectively guarded against 
 anything foreign or extraneous to the desired song. The 
 essential elements of this song may be thus described : 
 (i.) In soft, delicate trilling and warblings, which have 
 a more chirping, more flute-like, or more hollow-sounding 
 character, and are connected in more or less rapid suc- 
 cession to each other with so-called rolls. These rolls 
 often resemble deep sounds bursting wave-like from the 
 breast. (2.) In hollow pipes and flutes ; and (3.) in
 
 54 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 lively tones. The hollower, the deeper, and more melo- 
 dious the tones the more sung with the deep throat and 
 closed bill the more connected, the longer, and more 
 various the song, the more valuable the bird. The deep, 
 soft flute-tones are a very valuable element, and are con- 
 sidered to be especially beautiful when they fall in the 
 height of tone at the end of the song. But the flute- 
 notes, as they fall on the ear, do not belong to the song 
 proper, but represent rather fitting interbreaks and char- 
 acteristic ornaments. Such birds as are distinguished by 
 these deep, soft flute-tones are called by the Germans 
 " gliicken," and also " nachtigallen-schlagen," that is, 
 sweet or nightingale toned. The purity of breed is of 
 the greatest consequence ; for one of the most trying 
 obstacles to the trainer are what are called bad Lock 
 tones, so-called "adjectives," which are partly original 
 sounds, and represent partly back-strokes in earlier im- 
 pure breeds. 
 
 The throat of the canary is thus a most wonderful 
 organ perhaps the most wonderful in nature and not 
 for compass alone, though its compass is great in some 
 cases three octaves. A great error trainers have often 
 committed is the tendency to make the canary merely 
 imitative. They use for instruction and stimulus bird- 
 organs and roll-pipes. A clumsy, unintelligent exposition 
 is the only result of this. The St. Andreasberg people 
 knew better ; and their one great merit is, that they have 
 developed the wonderful performances we marvel at out 
 of the natural song of the bird. The song of wild canaries 
 is still to be heard, so that comparison is possible, and 
 has been made by experts, with this result. Only by their
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 55 
 
 methods could the song, in spite of its high development, 
 have preserved at basis its natural freshness and richness. 
 The young bird has introduced to him nothing that is 
 strange or really artificial, but he sings in the speech of 
 his people of course selected, and of a high degree in 
 culture. His song thus shows soul and intelligence ; it 
 abounds in homely tones ; he makes the tone swell up, 
 fall, and swell again and change independently of art. 
 In gloomy weather he sings quietly, low, and plaintive ; 
 in sunny weather the song becomes less tranquil, more 
 joyous, penetrating, resonant. Song is the speech of the 
 bird, and they must learn to speak well just as man must 
 learn it. 
 
 It is seldom, as we have said, that the trainers will part 
 with the very finest specimens, and only at extraordinary 
 prices. It is the smaller wares alone, as the dealers say, 
 that are offered in the open market ; therefore it is that 
 so many persons keep canaries, and yet so few know how 
 a canary ought to and can sing. The very demand for 
 the birds, now extending to America and Australia, has 
 had bad effects upon the training. They are now too 
 much taught in mass, without seclusion or individualisa- 
 tion. The money profit has risen more and more into 
 importance, and the work of training is more and more 
 descending into a trade. St. Andreasberg could not, of 
 course, remain altogether outside this influence, and its 
 effects are already seen there. The superior breeds are 
 getting fewer in numbers, and the ordinary ill-taught ones 
 increase. A good authority says that the only chance for 
 the St. Andreasbergers is to return to their old customs 
 and traditions, or else the St Andreasberg birds will
 
 56 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 speedily be worth no more than other birds. St. Andreas- 
 berg has been described as the canary Mecca, which 
 every lover of the canary must visit once in his lifetime; 
 but if it is to maintain its pre-eminence it must in some 
 measure return to the old ways. It has some 3000 
 inhabitants, with 476 houses. There are about 250 
 breeders, who produce from 17,000 to 20,000 singing 
 cocks per annum, which may represent an income of 
 200,000 marks, or about 10,000, and to this must be 
 added the incomes of the women for the little baskets 
 or cages that are made for sale to contain the birds, and 
 the visits of strangers on account of the canaries. The 
 society of canary-breeders there has also established a 
 journal for breeding and trade. 
 
 That the bird sings well does not, of course, arise from 
 the fact that he is bred in the Harz, but that he is bred 
 from the old Harz race. Where the brood-bower has stood 
 is a matter of indifference ; the method of breeding is 
 everything. Good canaries of the Harz race are now bred 
 throughout Germany, especially in Berlin, Hanover, and 
 the Rhine, and something has also been done to improve 
 the breed in some points. There are breeders in Berlin 
 who come close up to the celebrated breeder Tute, in 
 St. Andreasberg ; and a breeder like Peter Erntges, of 
 Elberfeld, St. Andreasberg does not any longer possess. 
 That the trade grows is evident enough. In 1882 sing- 
 ing canary cocks were exported from Germany to New 
 York, 120,000; to South America, 10,500; to Australia, 
 5600; to South Africa, 3000; to France, 30,000; to 
 Belgium, 30,000 ; to England, 30,000 ; to Russia, 30,000 ; 
 to Austria, 30,000. But only the song-birds are exported.
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 57 
 
 The taste of the English and Dutch for breeding most 
 other nations do not share. Nevertheless, it should be 
 mentioned that the Japanese and Chinese have made a 
 beginning, and that the Chinese production may by-and- 
 by effect competition in the song-birds. Herr Reiche, a 
 great authority, says respecting America : 
 
 "From New York to California, from Canada to the 
 Mississippi everywhere, within the past few years, the 
 canary-bird has made good his footing. Fresh, voiceful, 
 warbling, rich in tone, he has made lovers and friends in 
 all parts. He fills with delicious sounds the drawing- 
 rooms of the foremost ladies, and, again, the solitary wood 
 is penetrated by his notes as he sings, hanging in his 
 cage at the door of the log- hut. Everywhere he enters 
 he knows how to conquer the affection and companion- 
 ship of all classes in royal chambers of state, in the 
 mansion, in the lowly cottage ; and he is pre-eminently 
 the darling of the little ones. He sings nearly the whole 
 year, and if the storm rages and the snow falls, and we 
 must want the songs of other birds, he sings for us in his 
 loveliest strains. His maintenance is therefore cheap." 
 
 But America, which thus shows its love for and its 
 appreciation of the canary, has as yet shown little eager- 
 ness or tact in training him; and the large export to 
 America is thus accounted for. 
 
 III. ENGLISH VARIETIES. 
 
 We have given this somewhat extended sketch of the 
 German training because of later years the expert trainers 
 in our country have borrowed more and more from
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 the Germans. And though it can still be said that 
 no variety of the English canary can quite match the 
 German for song-power, great improvements have been 
 
 ENGLISH BREED (LIZARD). 
 
 made in this respect, without sacrificing the beauty of 
 the plumage, in which, again, the German birds are, 
 compared with the English, admittedly deficient. And, 
 again, the German birds are more sickly ; at all events,
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 
 
 59 
 
 they do not thrive well in England either the air or 
 the feeding does not suit them, and in moulting-time 
 they sicken and lose singing power or die off. For 
 those who are not experts probably a Norwich or a 
 
 
 LONDON FANCY. 
 
 Yorkshire bird, well trained, will be found the best, as 
 they are hardiest. The Yorkshire and Scottish birds, 
 too, have secured a high place of late years, and are 
 good singers. 
 
 To most people it will be a surprise to learn that a
 
 6o 
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 trade so extensive in these birds has existed for cen- 
 turies ; and it may also surprise them as much to know 
 that in England some of our favourite breeds such as 
 the London Fancy, the Lizard, and Cinnamon, and 
 
 ENGLISH BREED (CRESTED NORWICH). 
 
 others have been known for so long a period that no 
 details of their introduction or first appearance can be 
 found. In a work dated 1709 as many as twenty-eight 
 varieties are named, comprising nearly all those known
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 61 
 
 at the present time. The following are the leading marks 
 of the more celebrated varieties : 
 
 (i) The clear Norwich, all yellow; (2) the Norwich 
 uneven-marked or ticked ; (3) the Norwich even-marked, 
 which has a dark mark round each eye, called " spectacle 
 eye-marks," the smaller wing-feathers and lower portion 
 of the legs dark ; and (4) the crested Norwich, which 
 has a dark crest or cap and the small wing-feathers dark. 
 Then there is (5) the London Fancy, all clear or yellow, 
 save the whole of the wing and tail-feathers, which are 
 black. The Lizard (6) is clear yellow on the crown, 
 the breast streaked from the neck downwards, and the 
 back beautifully spangled, the spangles increasing in size 
 as they descend ; wings and tail black, but fringed with 
 light ; legs and beak black. The Manchester Coppy (7) is 
 entirely yellow and large; it has a golden crest, tufted 
 over the beak a magnificent bird. The Scotch Fancy 
 (8) is very long, the wings and tail so falling from the 
 shoulder as to form a curve or half-moon, and is entirely 
 yellow. The Yorkshires (9) are hardly so deep in 
 colouring as the Norwich, more of a lemon colour, but 
 are longer than Norwich birds, straight in the back and 
 longer in the neck. The phrase " mealy " merely in- 
 dicates a certain lightness of colour. 
 
 Bird-exhibitions during the past twenty years in Eng- 
 land have done much to stimulate progress in canary 
 culture and training ; and in connection with these the 
 name of Mr. Barnesby should be mentioned.
 
 62 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 IV. TREATMENT. 
 
 All farinaceous seeds are dangerous for the voice of the 
 canary, and some are bad for his health. They invariably 
 make the voice light, harsh, and shrieky. Only olea- 
 ginous seeds should be given, and the best is ripe, scalded 
 summer rape-seed that is, the seed which is sown in 
 spring, not the winter rape-seed which is sown in autumn. 
 The milder and sweeter his tastes, the more esteemed 
 the bird becomes. Winter rape should on no account 
 be given. So, at all events, says Herr Richard Metzdorf, 
 a good authority, from whose instructive and entertain- 
 ing German we have culled some facts and suggestions. 
 There are certain firms which cultivate the summer 
 rape- seed expressly for the canaries, and who thoroughly 
 weed and ripen it. The bird does not naturally care so 
 much for this seed as for some others, and will, save 
 in exceptional circumstances, eat no more of it than it 
 requires for sustenance. Small mixtures of poppy and 
 lettuce seed are admissible. The canary-seed, so called, 
 acts very injuriously on the bird, if given in any quantity, 
 and so does hemp-seed. The finer-bred birds should get 
 neither of these, for it makes them violent and screechy. 
 The German trainers will have nothing to do with hemp- 
 seed ; some of the English allow a little of it. 
 
 But a clever singer cannot do on rape-seed alone, 
 and, as a strengthening food, a knife-pointful of hard- 
 boiled egg, with some biscuit, daily, or every other day, 
 suits him. A steady singing bird, indeed, is not to be 
 kept in good condition without egg-food. It is the only 
 food which gives the bird steadiness, and is at the
 
 CURIOSITIES OF CANARY CULTURE. 63 
 
 same time as favourable for the voice. Birds thus par- 
 tially fed on egg have a meltingness in the organ and a 
 very melodious strain in song. Only if given in excess it 
 makes them violent, like so many other things : and there- 
 fore it must be given very judiciously, and with due 
 regard to the individual requirement. One bird can 
 
 bear more, being more passive and requiring stimulus ; 
 another, more active, susceptible, will require less to 
 effect what is wanted. Egg, with a little maize-meal, or 
 sugar, baked after the receipt of Mr. Peter Erntges of 
 Elberfeld, known in the trade as maizena biscuit, is very
 
 64 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 good, and may be easily obtained. In moulting-time 
 the heads of marigolds, but not the leaves, are much 
 recommended. It is needless to say that all the points 
 respecting cleanliness, watering, &c., which are important 
 as regards other cage-birds, are also to be very jealously 
 attended to in the case of the canary, if you wish your 
 bird to be well in health and to sing at once with vigour 
 and with softness of tone. 
 
 The love of the canary-bird and delight in its sweet 
 singing are thus very old, and there is no doubt that it 
 is growing one good fashion, at least, in which we follow 
 our forefathers. In this conviction we may be permitted 
 to leave this interesting subject by quoting the following 
 beautiful stanzas from the pen of Robert Leighton, a fine 
 poet, who died too young : 
 
 1 ' Overhead in the lattice high 
 
 Our little golden songster hung, 
 Singing, piping merrily, 
 
 With dulcet throat and clipping tongue ; 
 Singing from the peep of morning 
 
 To the evening's closing eye. 
 When the sun in blue was burning, 
 
 Or when clouds shut out the sky : 
 Foul or fair, morn, eve, or noon, 
 Its little pipe was still in tune. 
 
 ' ' Its breast was filled with fairy shells 
 
 That gave sweet echo to its note, 
 And strings of tiny silver bells 
 
 Rang with the pulsings of its throat ; 
 Song all through its restless frame, 
 
 Its very limbs were warbling strings : 
 I well believe that music came 
 
 E'en from the tippings of its wings ; 
 Piping early, late and long, 
 Mad with joy and drunk with song, 
 Oh, welcome to thy little store, 
 Thy song repays it o'er and o'er."
 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 65 
 
 III. 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 
 
 "ONE half the world," it is said, "knows not how the 
 other half lives." One half the human race have rice for 
 their food- staple, and yet we in this part of the world 
 know on the whole very little about rice, its history, its 
 mode of culture, its many varieties, and the processes 
 through which it passes before it is placed upon the 
 table. We see it in the shop or in the store at home, 
 and it is one of the "familiar good creatures" of our 
 life; but if we knew more of it we should esteem it 
 more highly, and probably extend our use of it largely. 
 At the present time, when, owing to various influences, 
 the supply of native grain is so limited, it may be 
 more than usually interesting to be made somewhat 
 better acquainted with the merits of a staple which for 
 the last twenty years has been rapidly making way on 
 the Continent, but which has not yet by any means got 
 the position it so well deserves amongst us. Our in- 
 terests and its claims are luckily identical ; and therefore 
 we have the more faith in our right to request our reader's 
 close attention, particularly if he is a social reformer, con- 
 cerned for economy and the comfort of the masses. We 
 shall therefore try to begin at the beginning, and follow 
 the rice from the first to the last. 
 
 E
 
 66 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 Rice is a cultivated variety of aquatic grass, bearing 
 when in the ear a nearer resemblance to barley than any 
 other of the English corn plants, and it reaches about 
 the same height. The seed grows upon separate pedicles 
 like the oat, each springing gracefully upwards on a hair- 
 like stalk from the main stem. The seed is enclosed in 
 a rough yellow husk, which in some varieties terminates 
 with an awn, or beard, like barley; other varieties are 
 awnless. 
 
 There is little reason to doubt that the rice-plant is of 
 Indian origin, for in India it is now found growing in a 
 wild state. Tradition says it was introduced thence into 
 China about 3000 B.C., but its use and introduction into 
 Europe are far more modern. It was first introduced 
 into Spain by the Moors as recently as the twelfth cen- 
 tury. The derivation of the word from the Sanscrit, 
 vrihi ; Tamil, arisi ; Arabic, aruz ; Latin, oryza ; Italian, 
 riso ; English, rice, very probably suggests the route in 
 which the cultivation of the plant has extended from its 
 Indian home. It is certain that rice was not known in 
 Italy in Pliny's time, 60 A.D. In describing the foods of 
 India he says : " But the most favourite food of all 
 these is rice, from which they prepare ' ptisan ' (pearled 
 or clean rice), similar to that made from barley in other 
 parts of the world. The leaves of rice are fleshy, very 
 like those of the leek, but broader ; the stem is a cubit 
 (18 in. high), the blossom purple, and the root globular, 
 like a pearl in shape." (Book xviii. chap. 13.) 
 
 This description clearly proves that Pliny had never 
 seen the plant itself. He goes on to say, " Hippocrates, 
 one of the famous writers of medical science, has devoted
 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 67 
 
 a whole volume to the praises of ' ptisan,' the method of 
 preparing which is universally known." Pliny does not 
 give rice among his list of plants cultivated in Egypt, but 
 Wilkinson considers it was cultivated in the Delta ; and 
 the pictures in the Theban tombs of the cultivation and 
 manufacture of a grain where the processes are the same 
 as to-day practised in India in rice cultivation confirm 
 Wilkinson's opinion. 
 
 The Karens (an aboriginal race in British Burma) have 
 an account of the Creation, which is of undoubted anti- 
 quity, and to this effect : " The Father, God, said, ' I 
 love these, my son and daughter ; I will bestow my life 
 upon them.' He took a particle of his life and breathed 
 into their nostrils, and they came to life and were man. 
 Thus God created man. God made food and drink, rice, 
 fire and water, rattle-elephants and birds." (Forbes's 
 "Burma," 1878.) 
 
 Rice has perhaps more cultivated varieties which differ 
 more from each other than any of the cerealia. The 
 Karens have names for forty varieties. Dr. Moon men- 
 tions one hundred varieties growing in Ceylon. Besides 
 these, there are the different kinds growing in China and 
 Japan and other parts of the world. They are of every 
 colour, from ivory white to coal black. The grain varies 
 in shape from cylindrical to globular. Some varieties 
 are sweet, some oily, some soft and chalky, others hard 
 and translucent. 
 
 With reference to the mode and time of growth, there 
 are four main varieties in cultivation common rice, early 
 rice, clammy rice, and mountain rice. Common rice, 
 the variety cultivated in British Burma, is the strongest
 
 68 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 plant and gives the largest yield, for one crop about 
 twenty-five-fold, and takes six months from ploughing to 
 harvest. Early rice grows mostly in China and India, 
 and takes three or four months to mature. Mountain 
 rice grows on the Himalayas, sometimes pushing its way 
 through the snow, and without irrigation reaching matu- 
 rity in ninety days. Clammy rice (Oriza glutinosa) has 
 the advantage of being able to grow on wet or dry land, 
 and ripens in about five months. 
 
 The rice-plant is distributed over the earth as high as 
 the 45th parallel N. and the 38th S. 
 
 It is the main crop of China, Japan, Burma, Cochin 
 China, India, Madagascar, Java, and Italy, and is exten- 
 sively cultivated in North and South America.. 
 
 Wild rice is still eaten as a luxury on the Madras 
 coast ; it has a small white grain, very sweet ; it grows 
 on waste marshy lands. The only reason it is not culti- 
 vated is because it returns so small an increase as com- 
 pared with the cultivated varieties of the same plant. 
 
 Although rice was introduced into Italy so lately as the 
 thirteenth century, its cultivation on the rich meadows 
 of Lombardy, watered by the Po, and other similar flat 
 lands, has so increased that the Italian rice-crop of 1879 
 amounted to no less than 500,000 tons. It is the most 
 profitable crop to the cultivator of any that is raised in 
 Italy ; but the same unwholesome effect of malaria from 
 irrigated lands is experienced there as has proved so 
 fatal in Carolina, and the Government has found it ex- 
 pedient to place its cultivation under great restrictions. 
 This circumstance, together with the extra taxation on 
 rice, would have destroyed any other culture save one
 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 69 
 
 that offers the only means of profitably cropping swampy 
 and marshy lands. 
 
 Rice-culture in Carolina and Georgia and the ad- 
 joining States, which attained to such a high degree of 
 excellence, dates only from about the year A.D. 1700. 
 White rice was introduced from India by Mr. Dubois, 
 Treasurer to the East India Association, and the red 
 rice was brought from Madagascar. It is said that it 
 was taken by accident by a sea-captain, who gave some 
 of the " paddy " to a Mr. Woodward. After its value 
 was discovered the captain was handsomely rewarded 
 for the service he had done the country. 
 
 The rice, by careful selection and cultivation in 
 trenches instead of being sown broadcast has made 
 the Carolina plant so famous that the seed has been 
 exported to Java, Madras, Spain, and Italy, and some 
 of the finest modern varieties of Indian rice are grown 
 from Carolina seed. 
 
 Since the American war and the abolition of slavery 
 the rice export trade from America has practically ceased. 
 The crop in 1870 was only 73,000,000 Ibs., against 
 250,000,000 Ibs. in 1850. This is because the free 
 negroes object to work in the swampy rice-fields, asso- 
 ciated as they are with fever, malaria, and sickness. 
 
 The cultivation of the varieties of common and early 
 rice throughout India and China are very much alike. 
 
 The fields are carefully levelled and divided into 
 squares, surrounded by low embankments about eighteen 
 inches wide, and the same height, which fall gradually 
 from the level of the source of supply to that of the 
 drainage-cut, which carries off the surplus water. In
 
 70 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 some instances, as in Southern India and China, crops 
 are raised which depend in the main on artificial irriga- 
 tion the water being raised by manual or animal labour 
 from a tank or river, but generally the natural fall of the 
 country is taken advantage of to save this extra expense. 
 
 The fields are cleared of weeds ; then, when the rains 
 have begun, they are ploughed or scratched with a simple 
 wooden plough while they are a foot or more under 
 water, the ploughman and his buffaloes being sometimes 
 knee-deep in slush. 
 
 The " paddy " intended for seed is placed in large 
 baskets under water for a few days to let it germinate. 
 When it has sprouted and is known to be good, it is 
 sown broadcast on the surface of the water by men who 
 stand upon the embankments on those fields that are to 
 be used as a sort of nursery for the rest of the land. 
 Probably this process is referred to in Ecclesiastes : 
 " Cast thy bread upon the waters : for thou shalt find it 
 after many days." 
 
 When the young rice has pushed its way through 
 the water, and is about eight inches high, the labour of 
 transplanting from the nurseries to the rest of the farm 
 lands must begin. 
 
 The plants are pulled up, roots and all, and piled in 
 large baskets and taken to the fields where they are to 
 be finally transplanted. The operation is generally car- 
 ried on in the midst of heavy rain, the labourers standing 
 up nearly to their ankles in water and slush, and the 
 stooping posture all day long makes the work very 
 arduous. They protect their heads and bodies with a 
 sort of umbrella or thatch made of palm-leaves. Thus
 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 71 
 
 attired, the worker presents rather a comic appearance 
 when seen for the first time, looking from behind not 
 unlike a crab or tortoise walking on its hind-legs. The 
 women and children are engaged in planting out, and 
 half the village will turn out to plant for Tuhi Das one 
 day, and HurriPandoo\.\\o. next, and so on, each helping 
 the other in proportion till the whole of the fields are 
 planted. 
 
 The transplanting process is thus described : 
 
 " A bundle of seedlings being laid across the arm of 
 each person, all standing in a row, a couple of the young 
 plants are disengaged from the bundle with the right 
 hand and stuck in the ground, or rather mud, in rows 
 about a foot apart, with the same distance between the 
 plants. Sometimes a forked stick is used, with which 
 the plants are deftly drawn from the bundle and planted 
 with a slight thrust in the soft soil; this obviates the 
 fatigue of the stooping posture when the hand only is 
 employed. The operation proceeds at a rapid pace, the 
 seedlings being put down almost as fast as one can 
 count. After the transplanting no further care is given 
 to the crop until it begins to ripen ; no weeding is ever 
 thought of, nor is any manure ever applied to the ground 
 before planting ; all is left to nature." * 
 
 Archdeacon Grey, in his book on China, has given the 
 following very picturesque description of a rice-field at 
 the various stages : 
 
 " So quickly does the rice-plant grow, that in the course 
 of a few days the whole country presents a rich green 
 appearance. Perhaps one of the most charming scenes 
 * Forbes's " British Burma, 1878," page 104.
 
 72 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 on which I ever gazed was the vale of Manta, in the 
 island of Formosa, seen from the slopes of one of the 
 neighbouring mountains when the rice-plants were put- 
 ting on the fresh green of their early growth. . . . 
 
 " After the rice has been planted the farmer must see 
 that his lands are well supplied with water, for a scarcity 
 of that element would prove fatal. In general the rains, 
 which fall at such seasons in heavy showers, are enough 
 for this purpose. The labourer must watch the plants 
 carefully lest they should be destroyed by noxious weeds. 
 A labourer who observes a weed growing in close proxi- 
 mity to a plant immediately removes the latter, so as to 
 destroy the weed, after which he replaces the plant. It 
 is the duty of other labourers to gather a kind of worm, 
 like our common earth-worm in form and size, and said 
 to be very destructive to the rice-plant. These worms 
 are not thrown away, but conveyed to the various mar- 
 kets, and sold to ready purchasers as a delicate article 
 of diet. There is also an insect resembling a grass- 
 hopper by which the rice-crops in China are often in 
 danger of being blighted or destroyed, and which flies 
 about in large numbers. 
 
 " When the rice is ripe unto harvest generally in the 
 month of June, i.e., one hundred days after it was first 
 sown the reapers come upon the field. Each reaper is 
 provided with a sickle, which bears a strong resemblance 
 to the reaping-hooks in use in Great Britain. In some 
 of the agricultural districts reapers gather only the tops 
 of the ears of rice. To this mode of reaping grain a 
 reference is made in the Book of Job (xxiv. 24), where it 
 is written, ' They are taken out of the way as all other,
 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 73 
 
 and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.' And again 
 in Isaiah (xvii. 5), ' And it shall be as when the harvest- 
 man gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his 
 arm ; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the 
 valley of Rephaim.' According to this mode the ears 
 are cut off near the top, the straw being left standing. 
 As it is cut the grain is bound into small sheaves, each 
 of which is placed on the ground in an upright position. 
 In this position, however, the sheaves are not allowed to 
 remain for any length of time ; they are threshed then 
 and there by labourers, who take them in their hands 
 and strike them with force against inner sides of tubs, 
 into which, of course, the grains fall. Certain kinds of 
 rice, however, cannot be threshed in this way ; and it is 
 customary for the labourer to carry the sheaves of this 
 rice to the homestead on bamboo rods, so that they 
 may be threshed there by flails. The threshing does 
 not take place in a barn, but on a threshing-floor, with 
 one of which every farm is provided. Before the sheaves 
 are laid on this floor it is very carefully swept. To this 
 careful cleansing of the threshing-floor an allusion is 
 surely made in the Gospel of St. Matthew (iil 1 2), where 
 St. John the Baptist describes our Lord as one ' whose 
 fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, 
 and gather his wheat into the garner.' 
 
 " According to the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (xxviii. 
 27) and the Book of Ruth (ii. 17) this mode of threshing 
 grain is very ancient. It would appear, however, that 
 the Hebrews principally used the flail in threshing small 
 quantities of grain, or for lighter kinds, such as vetches, 
 dill, or cummin."
 
 74 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 We must, however, introduce one or two details 
 omitted by Dr. Grey. The rice-fields are weeded once 
 or twice before harvest ; all the villagers help each other, 
 as they do at transplanting, so as to complete the whole 
 of each field at the same time. The fields are kept 
 covered with water until about fourteen days before har- 
 vest, when the supply is cut off and the grain ripens and 
 turns yellow. 
 
 Perhaps one of the finest sights earth can show is often 
 to be witnessed when the rice ripens, though it is a great 
 grievance to the husbandman : flocks of birds, green 
 parroquets, and crowds of other varieties come in such 
 immense numbers, that were the crops not closely 
 watched from early morn till night there would be little 
 left to repay the cultivator for his labour. Boys are 
 perched up in small pigeon-house-looking structures on 
 the top of bamboo poles some sixteen or eighteen feet 
 high, for protection from wild beasts. Here they scream 
 and yell all day long, besides having loose bamboo rattles 
 attached to cords, at different parts of the field, tied to 
 one rope, which they pull occasionally. Even this is not 
 always effective ; for instance, Carolina rice cannot be 
 grown in Burma because it ripens some six weeks sooner 
 than the general crop, and the birds manage to carry 
 off so much of the isolated patch, when they can get 
 no other, that its cultivation has in consequence been 
 abandoned in the few cases in which it has been tried. 
 
 In British Burma rice can be so cheaply cultivated, 
 and the land is so well adapted for its growth, that this 
 has in the last thirty years become the centre of the rice- 
 supply of the whole world.
 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 75 
 
 The rainfall is so heavy that the whole country is 
 inundated completely from one range of hills to the 
 other. The only traffic that can be then carried on is 
 in boats. The villages are built either on piles or on 
 elevated clumps of land, and cattle are stabled and grain 
 stored, and the people live, during the rains, in a con- 
 dition not unlike that which existed in the time of the 
 lake-dwellings. 
 
 The heavy rainfall flooding the whole country enables 
 the cultivator to dispense with those expensive husbandry 
 operations such as levelling the fields, making embank- 
 ments, &c. which are so necessary in other countries. 
 The Burmese do not even observe the rotation of crops 
 or manure the land. On the other hand, they crop the 
 land only once a year; while in China and parts of 
 India three crops are gathered two of rice and one of 
 other grain. It is common, indeed, in many parts to 
 take two crops of rice off the same land in one year. 
 Mr. Crauford, a good authority, says that he has seen 
 fields which have produced two crops a year from time 
 beyond the memory of any living person, and that in 
 some particularly favourable spots they manage to get 
 six crops in two and a half years. 
 
 The Burmese main crop consists of varieties of the 
 " common rice " that ripens in six months. It is sown 
 about June, and gathered in December following. The 
 nursery grounds are sown on the higher land at the 
 beginning of the rains, before the ground is ready for 
 the main crop. When the plants are about eight inches 
 high they are pulled up, roots and all, and tied in 
 bundles, and carried by the boatload to supply those
 
 76 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 cultivators who are ready to plant out their land. The 
 " paddy " lands are prepared for being planted by being 
 lightly ploughed with a wooden plough, while they are 
 under water, after the rains have set in. The crop is 
 reaped with sickles, but only the top of the stalk with 
 the ear is cut off; the straw and stubble are left standing 
 till spring-time, when they are burnt, which gives the 
 land in Burma the only manure it ever gets. 
 
 After harvest the grain is carted to the dry earthen 
 threshing-floor, and either stacked or threshed out then 
 and there, sometimes, in China and Japan, with flails ; 
 but generally, as in Burma, it is trodden out by oxen. 
 The "paddy" is laid in a circle in the centre of the 
 threshing-floor, and the oxen, tied together in line, are 
 driven round the heap, the herdsman following with a 
 stick, still singing on his way, as in the old harvest scenes 
 depicted on the Theban tombs some three thousand 
 years B.C. And, still carrying out ancient command, 
 they do not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. 
 
 The "paddy" is then stored in granaries, which in 
 Burma are raised on piles some feet above the surface 
 of the ground, built of bamboo wattle and daub. In 
 China, where grain is very extensively stored throughout 
 the empire as a provision against famine, the granaries 
 are larger and of solid masonry. From them seed is 
 lent to indigent farmers in the spring-time, to be 
 recovered with interest after harvest. The Chinese 
 mix the ash of the burnt husk with the stored "paddy" 
 to preserve it from weevil, for which it is said to be 
 effective. 
 
 The " paddy " is next shelled by being passed through
 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 77 
 
 a small pair of millstones or cylinders of the same shape 
 made of hard wood, set on end, grooved in the working 
 surface. These work at such a distance apart as serves 
 to remove the husk by friction without breaking the 
 grain. And they are generally made large enough to 
 require three or four men, who work them by means of 
 a long handle or connecting-rod attached to the upper 
 cylinder. 
 
 The grain and chaff are separated by being dropped 
 together from a height in a light breeze, recalling the 
 description in the" ist Psalm, of the ungodly who "are 
 like the chaff which the wind driveth away." Or the 
 grain is tossed up on bamboo trays with wooden shovels 
 against the wind. In China, Japan, and Burma, how- 
 ever, the winnowing-machine, made on the English 
 system by Chinese carpenters, is rapidly replacing the 
 older method ; just as in the Burmese and Cochin 
 China rice-ports the European steam machinery for 
 shelling and winnowing is daily diminishing the quantity 
 of the hand-cleaned article. 
 
 After the rice is shelled, the inner skin adhering to 
 the grain must be removed, which is done by pounding 
 it in a wooden or stone mortar with hard wood beaters, 
 until the friction has entirely removed the outer skin. 
 
 This process must not be confused with that of 
 pounding or pulverising in a mortar. The pestle or 
 beater is of another shape, and the mortar holds a larger 
 quantity of grain at a time, so that the impact of the 
 beater will not break it. It is referred to in Proverbs 
 xxvii. 22: "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a 
 mortar among 'grain' with a pestle, yet will not his
 
 78 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 foolishness depart from him." Had our translators 
 known the mysteries of rice and barley milling, they 
 would not have translated the word as " wheat," which 
 means literally " decorticated grain," or, as Herodotus 
 and Pliny call it, " ptisan " a process never applied 
 to wheat. 
 
 There were in 1877 forty-five steam rice-mills in 
 British Burma, which are mainly worked for the pre- 
 paration of cargo rice, i.e., four parts by measurement of 
 husked rice to one of paddy, in which condition most 
 of the Burmese crop is shipped to Europe. These mills 
 have lately been introducing machinery for making 
 "cleaned rice." This enables them to supply the 
 Burmese with cheaper rice than they can clean by hand, 
 besides supplying direct a large foreign trade which, 
 until lately, was in the hands of the English millers. 
 
 There are few busier scenes than the port of Rangoon 
 in the height of the shipping season. What with the 
 cargo boats coming down the rivers bringing " paddy " 
 to the mills, the coasting dhows and steamers taking 
 away the cleaned rice to the Straits, China, and India, 
 and the large sailing ships and steamers loading for 
 Europe and Australia and America, the people have a 
 busy time of it. The mills work night and day, and no 
 one who has seen the Burmese labourer running along 
 with a two-hundredweight bag of rice on his shoulders, 
 working in a hot sun and for long hours, will preach the 
 usually accepted rubbish that mankind cannot labour and 
 thrive on a diet mainly composed of rice. 
 
 The rice-milling process of the English rice-mills in 
 London and Liverpool is but a modification and repeti-
 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 79 
 
 tion of the processes already described, carried out with 
 greater detail and with self-acting machinery. The five- 
 part cargo rice is brought from Burma in two-hundred- 
 weight bags ; these are unloaded at the docks and carted 
 to the mills. 
 
 They are emptied into a bin, whence the rice is 
 elevated by an endless band called an elevator, with 
 small cans attached, to the top-storey of the mill, and 
 passed through a sieve to free it from sticks, stones, 
 straw, and sometimes a rupee or a broken bangle. 
 
 Then it passes through the shelling-stones. They are 
 large millstones, six feet in diameter, revolving 120 
 revolutions per minute, dressed hollow in the centre 
 and flat for twelve inches at the rim, where they are set 
 the length of the grain apart, so that as the rice passes 
 through this narrow space the husks may be cracked off 
 with the least possible breakage to the grain itself. The 
 chaff, meal, and rice from this process pass through a 
 screen to remove the meal ; then a fan or winnowing- 
 machine is used to take out the chaff, and the rice is 
 ready for being "barley milled." 
 
 The barley-mill, as its name implies, is a modification 
 of the well-known machine used throughout Europe 
 for making " pearled " barley. It consists of a circular 
 cheese-shaped stone, four feet in diameter and two feet 
 wide, which revolves very quickly inside a slowly revolv- 
 ing wooden casing covered with fine wire-netting. 
 About five-inch space is left on all sides between the 
 stone and the casing, which is partly filled with rice, and 
 the machine is started. 
 
 After barley-milling, the rice is again elevated to the
 
 So DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 top of the building, and passes down through two or 
 three polishers. They are inverted conical wooden 
 drums about four or five feet in diameter and six feet 
 deep, covered with sheepskin with the long wool out- 
 side. They revolve about two hundred revolutions per 
 minute inside a fine wire-covered casing of the same 
 shape, which is firmly secured in its place, leaving small 
 space between the woolly surface of the drum and the 
 casing. As the rice passes through this space the meal 
 adhering to it is driven through the wire and the rice is 
 polished. 
 
 It is then winnowed once or twice to remove any 
 remaining husks, and it finally passes over a sieve which 
 is kept moving with a quick kind of shake, and which is 
 set at a slant from top to bottom and with holes graduated 
 in size. Thus a separation is effected into whole rice, 
 and middling broken, and small broken rice, known as 
 " smalls." 
 
 During the twenty-five years from 1854 to 1879 the 
 increase of consumption is something altogether mar- 
 vellous, and (taking into consideration the liability to 
 fluctuate) it has been marked and steady, as any one 
 who notes the following figures will at once perceive : 
 
 In 1854 the total quantity of rice exported from Burma 
 was 69,820 tons, all of which was Akyab rice; in 1862 
 it was nearly trebled, being 191,861 tons, of which 64,785 
 were Rangoon, 98,751 were Akyab, and 28,325 Bassein. 
 In 1870 the increase, though not so great as that of the 
 former eight years, was still considerable, the total being 
 294,673, of which 170,306 tons were Rangoon, 80,295 
 Akyab, 34,206 Bassein, and 9866 Moulmain; showing
 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 81 
 
 that while the Akyab had decreased by 18,456, the 
 Rangoon had considerably more than doubled its total 
 number of tons. During the next nine years (1879) the 
 totals are 594,500, showing an increase of 524,680 tons 
 for twenty-five years. 
 
 In all probability the time is not very distant when 
 the bulk of Burmese rice will be conveyed to European 
 ports by the rapid and safe agency of steam vessels. It 
 seems that about five-sixths of the rice imported into 
 England is shipped from Burma, the quantity of rice 
 shipped from the ports of India being comparatively 
 small. 
 
 During the year 1880 the exports from Burma into 
 Europe reached 617,000 tons, viz. : 
 
 To Great Britain 315,000 
 
 To the Continent 302,000 
 
 617,000 
 
 It would thus appear that the people on the Continent 
 are more of a rice-eating race than we are in Great Bri- 
 tain, as the former consume nearly all that they import, 
 whereas a large proportion of the imports into Great 
 Britain are again exported in its cleaned state to different 
 countries. It is calculated, indeed, that nine-sixteenths 
 of the crop sent to Europe is disposed of on the Con- 
 tinent. 
 
 We shall now glance very shortly at some peculiarities 
 of the different kinds of rice. Patna rice takes longest 
 to boil ; it is hard and brittle. Java is similar, very 
 highly finished and pretty to look at. Carolina is like 
 Java in appearance, but hardly any is now imported to 
 England. That sold as such is either Java or "Paris
 
 82 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 dressed" rice, i.e., some other rice polished with bees- 
 wax to make it look like Carolina. Waxed rice seems a 
 curious thing, yet it is now in the market. It appears 
 that one or two per cent, of beeswax adds a peculiar 
 lustre to rice, and makes it look so pretty that the Dutch 
 are profiting much by preparing it for English use. So 
 much favour, indeed, does this waxed rice receive over 
 the plain and genuine article that Carolina rice is actually 
 sent over from England to Holland to be waxed, and 
 is returned to England in its " transformed deformed " 
 condition to be sold at a high price as the finest Java. 
 So much do appearances avail in such matters, and so 
 gullible is the English public even in the all-important 
 matter of food. Much that has been written against the 
 food value of rice (which in reality shows only the neces- 
 sity of a mixed diet) may be disposed of by showing the 
 estimation in which it is held as a food by the people 
 who eat it. In Southern India a working man indicates 
 his prosperity by telling how often he can afford to 
 eat rice, "once or twice daily, or weekly." Or to take 
 larger statistics, the Burma export during the last 
 thirty years has increased by ^9,000,000, and the 
 Italian crop last year was valued at ^5, 000,000. If 
 the proof of the (rice) pudding is in the eating, these 
 figures showing the increasing popularity prove a great 
 deal. 
 
 The consumption in England, as we have seen, is 
 small as compared with that on the Continent. Here 
 it competes with potatoes ; people do not like to pay 
 twopence per pound for rice when potatoes are a penny, 
 but some shrewd housewives have found out that pota-
 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 83 
 
 toes at the same price as rice are four times as dear, 
 and here is the scientific proof of it : 
 
 Water. Flesh-formers. Starch, &c. Total Food. 
 Rice . . 13 6.5 80 86.5 
 
 Potatoes .75 1.4 22.6 24.0 
 
 This shows that i Ib. of rice contains 3^ times as 
 much food as i Ib. of potatoes. Taking into account 
 the loss in peeling potatoes, i Ib. of rice is worth 4 Ibs. 
 of potatoes ; and, as rice absorbs three times its weight 
 of water in boiling, the i Ib. of rice, costing 2d., when 
 boiled equals 4 Ibs. of potatoes, costing 4d., in bulk and 
 weight, and exceeds them in food value. 
 
 Hassall states that rice is the most easily digested food 
 known ; it will disappear in the stomach in one hour. 
 The smallness and regularity of its starch-grains pro- 
 bably give rice this valuable property of being so easily 
 digested. It is, therefore, very remarkable that rice 
 flour, the most valuable of all the farinas in food value, 
 cheapness, and digestibility, which is so much used in 
 America and in France as food for invalids and infants, 
 where it is known as Creme de Riz, is almost unknown 
 in England for the same purposes. Its value may be 
 seen by the following table : 
 
 Flesh-formers. Starch. Price per Ib. 
 
 Corn flour . . o 100 5$d. 
 
 Arrowroot i 99 6d. to gd. 
 
 Tapioca ... 2 98 sd. 
 
 Rice flour . . 6.5 93.5 2d. 
 
 If it were only patented as a food for children and 
 invalids, and called by some Greek name, it might pos- 
 sibly command a ready sale. 
 
 Sufficient attention has not been called to the danger
 
 84 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 of feeding children exclusively on those " starch foods " 
 that contain little or no nitrogenous matter. Dr. Bart- 
 lett, in his evidence before the Adulteration Committee 
 of the House of Commons, in 1874, stated that numer- 
 ous instances of children reduced to skin and bone 
 from being fed with corn flour had come under his 
 notice. 
 
 Rice flour, which might well be used for food, has a 
 prejudice against it, and in England is used principally 
 for " sizing " Manchester goods. It is sought after, 
 however, for mixing with wheaten flour for bread-making, 
 both to bring up the colour and in times of a damp 
 harvest as an "absorbent," to improve the rising pro- 
 perties of the bread flour. Granulated or " ground 
 rice" is made by crushing rice small between smooth 
 iron rollers. It is used only for making light puddings 
 and confectionery. 
 
 Rice meal is used for cattle, poultry, and pig feeding, 
 never for human food, because the taste is bitter and 
 Unpalatable. It is so little known, as compared with 
 Indian meal, that although its food value, as shown 
 below, is better, it can be generally bought at two-thirds 
 the price i.e., when Indian meal is quoted at 6s., rice 
 meal can be bought at 43. 
 
 Rice Meal. Indian Meal. 
 
 Moisture . . . . . 8.80 12.00 
 
 Oil and fatty matter ... 9.50 7.00 
 
 Albuminous compounds . . 12.75 11.00 
 
 Starch, cellulose, &c. . . . 64.85 68.50 
 
 Ash 4.00 1.50 
 
 In some markets Derbyshire, for instance rice meal 
 has all its own way ; in Yorkshire it is almost unknown.
 
 ALL ABOUT RICE. 85 
 
 The British farmer has a prejudice against feeding his 
 stock on food that his ancestors have not used before 
 him. Indian meal has had a long fight for it. Rice 
 meal is competing, and in good time its cheapness and 
 food value will be recognised. 
 
 Lastly, the husk. Such husk as is quite clean and 
 free from rice meal and rice is sold partly for Holland, 
 where it is used for packing gin and hams. It is more 
 elastic than sawdust, and does not so readily shift in the 
 packing-cases with the motion of travelling. Part is 
 ground into fine meal for the provender dealers, who 
 use it for mixing with linseed cake, Indian meal, rice 
 meal, and other feeding stuffs, and a large quantity is 
 exported to the Continent yearly for the same purpose. 
 The coarser ground strude, called the strude bran, is 
 sold for polishing tin plates, the large amount of silica it 
 contains making it valuable for this purpose. As ground 
 strude contains only fifty per cent, of feeding matter, a 
 small proportion added to rice meal soon brings down 
 the food value. If farmers were to consult their in- 
 terests, they would buy rice meal either direct from the 
 maker, or, if from a dealer, on a given analysis guaran- 
 teed, then a pure article and money value could be 
 depended upon.
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 IV. 
 
 PEARLS. 
 
 IN one of the finest passages in the " Paradise Lost," 
 Milton painted the throne on which Satan sat, "by 
 merit raised to that bad eminence," as outshining the 
 "wealth of Ormuz and of Ind," and described the 
 gorgeous East as with richest hand showering on her 
 kings " barbaric pearl and gold." 
 
 What might seem at the first glance somewhat out of 
 keeping, on a more close examination only attests the 
 exactitude of Milton's knowledge. For it might be 
 asked why pearls are here alone associated with gold ? 
 Are there not rubies and emeralds, opals and diamonds, 
 and sapphires, and the topaz, the beryl and the chalce- 
 dony, and the turquoise, and the onyx, and the jasper, 
 and the carbuncle ? These are all more gorgeous than 
 the pearl ; and if the marks of barbaric taste are, as is 
 usually assumed, flash of colour and variety and radi- 
 ance, then surely is the pearl the very last of gems to 
 be so chosen out and celebrated. 
 
 Barbaric pearl and gold ! 
 
 At first sight the words seem to be contradictory ; in 
 the subdued colour and modest purity of the pearl there 
 is nothing of " barbaric gorgeousness." In most regions
 
 PEARLS. 87 
 
 of the East, however, and particularly in Persia, in an- 
 cient times the pearl was ranked the first of all gems ; 
 and no end of legend and myth was associated with it. 
 Even in India, which furnishes a partial exception, as 
 putting first the diamond, the Hindoos endowed Vishnu 
 with the special honour of having created pearls ; and 
 all their gods are so richly decorated with pearls as to 
 have awakened in the minds of many travellers no little 
 surprise and admiration. 
 
 Egyptians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, as well as 
 Persians, held them in the highest esteem, and the 
 ancient Mexicans were in no whit behind in their 
 appreciation and reverence. The palace of Montezuma, 
 we read, was studded with pearls and emeralds, and 
 the Aztec kings possessed specimens of pearls of the 
 utmost value, got, as is believed, from the pearl-fisheries 
 of Panama. 
 
 In the barbaric East, therefore (for India was even 
 in those days hardly barbaric), the pearl took precedence 
 of all other precious stones ; and Milton was quite right 
 when he spoke of the gorgeous East, with richest hand 
 showering on her kings " barbaric pearl and gold." 
 
 The ancients do not seem to have had any clear 
 conception of the natural process by which pearls are 
 produced, and it is possible enough they would have 
 rejected it even had it been made known to them. 
 Greeks and Romans, so far as we can ascertain, were 
 in this no whit in advance of Egyptians, Persians, and 
 Babylonians. Even in the days of Pliny men's ideas 
 were vague enough on this subject, as on many others 
 which science has made plain. One can hardly restrain
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 a smile as one reads these words of Pliny, whom, more- 
 over, one could hardly wish to have been deceived, such 
 a pretty poem has he made of it. 
 
 " Pearls," says he, " are great or small, better or worse, 
 according to the quantity and quality of the dew they 
 received. For if the dew were pure and clear that went 
 into them, then were the pearls fair and orient ; if thick 
 and troubled, then the pearls likewise were demure, 
 foul, and dullish ; whereby, no doubt, it is apparent and 
 plain that they participate more of the air and dew than 
 of the water and sea, for according as the morning is 
 fair so are they clear ; otherwise, if it be misty and 
 cloudy they will be misty and thick in colour. Cloudy 
 weather spoiled their colour, lightning stopped their 
 growth, and thunder made the shell-fish miscarry alto- 
 gether, and eject hollow husks called Physemata or 
 bubbles." 
 
 To turn from the fancy and romance of the ancients 
 to the sober facts of nature is only to find a truer 
 romance. 
 
 The pearl is simply a secretion of the common sub- 
 stance carbonate of lime, which is drawn in by the 
 oyster from the water, and employed, mixed with some 
 fluid proper to itself, and along with some extremely 
 thin, almost transparent membrane, in forming the lining 
 of its shell. 
 
 What is called the mantle of the bivalve is the medium 
 of this secretion. The peculiar nacreous lustre, the 
 soft, shimmering, subdued gleam, is caused by these 
 being laid on alternately in exceedingly thin layers in 
 slow succession; these layers not being absolutely
 
 PEARLS. 89 
 
 smooth, but having a gentle, almost unnoticeable series 
 of waves or undulations, which are easily detected by 
 scientific instruments, and are invariably present. This 
 is so certain, says a good authority, Mr. Hugh Owen, 
 that "a similar nacreous lustre has been produced on 
 buttons by engraving a steel die with a diamond point 
 in a regular series of undulating lines, and then striking 
 the button as a coin would be struck." 
 
 The gem. is due either to some wound, which throws 
 off osseous particles, or to some irritating substance, 
 such as a grain of sand finding its way within the shell, 
 against which the oyster fortifies itself by wrapping it 
 round in layer after layer of the same substance as that 
 with which it lines its shell. In the centre of every 
 pearl, it is said by scientific men, there will be found 
 in cutting it some such particle as this. 
 
 The creature thus translates the cause of its pain or 
 discomfort into a beautiful object, which has given rise 
 to many fine thoughts and images ; and none, perhaps, 
 is finer than that of Jean Paul Richter, the great German 
 romance writer, when he says : " Afflictions and dis- 
 appointments to the true character are only means to 
 its beautifying and perfecting, as the oyster, when it is 
 injured, closes the wound with a pearl." 
 
 The knowledge of this fact has led to no end of in- 
 genuity in introducing particles of various kinds within 
 the shell of the bivalve. The Chinese, perhaps, have out- 
 stripped all others in this clever device. They introduce 
 minute images of their gods and grotesque figures of 
 animals into the open shell of the Chinese mussel, which, 
 after a certain time, are found coated over with the secre-
 
 9 o DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 tion we call mother-of-pearl. They are then withdrawn, 
 and find ready sale, some of them being of considerable 
 value. But though much has been made clear regarding 
 the circumstances of production, there are points still 
 unsettled. The bivalves abound ; but they do not 
 equally produce pearls in all localities. The most pro- 
 bable explanation is, that the chemical constituents of the 
 water have much to do with it, and, of course, they vary 
 indefinitely not only in different waters, but in the same 
 waters at different times. 
 
 There are several species of bivalves which produce 
 pearls. From that named Unio margaritiferus we derive 
 our supply in Britain; while the pearl mussel Meha- 
 grina margaritifera is the source of the Oriental supply. 
 Those derived from others are of little or no value, and 
 vary in colour from pinky-purple to rose-colour, some 
 being almost black. The British pearl-producing bivalve 
 is found in some of the mountain streams of England and 
 Wales, and more abundantly in some of the mountain 
 streams of Scotland ; but, seeing that out of every hun- 
 dred bivalves opened there may be found only one pearl, 
 and even that of little value, it may be guessed that pearl- 
 fishing in our country can hardly be a very profitable 
 calling; though it must be said that, owing to a passion 
 for rose-coloured pearls which set in among the ladies of 
 Paris a few years ago, some good has been done to the 
 Scotch pearl-fisheries; for pearls of a rose-colour are 
 more frequently found there than elsewhere. 
 
 The presence of a foot and mantle is one of the 
 marked characteristics of pearl-producing Mollusca. 
 The first is familiar to us all in the common garden
 
 PEARLS. 91 
 
 snail, and to those who have seen and opened the fresh- 
 water mussel (Anadon cygned) the covering of flesh 
 called the mantle is equally well known. 
 
 The function of the foot in the acephalous mollusc 
 is not that of locomotion, but rather to enable the animal 
 to retain a fixed position upon the rocks. This it effects 
 by projecting and spinning long silky threads with the 
 foot, and attaching them so firmly that the wind and 
 waves have no power over them. 
 
 "The threads," says Dr. Johnstone, "are of perfect 
 equality throughout, and are well cleaned by washing in 
 soap and water, are then dried by being rubbed with the 
 hands. It is then mixed with about one-third real silk, 
 and is spun on the distaff and knit into gloves, caps, 
 stockings, vests, &c., forming a stuff of a beautiful 
 brownish colour." 
 
 This strong cord the animal has the power to discard 
 at will and can refix itself without difficulty. This fact, 
 which is well authenticated concerning the Pinnadce, has 
 thrown some light upon the occasional falling off of the 
 pearl-fisheries. Some say that the genus Margaritiferus, 
 or pearl-oyster, cannot move, but it has been demon- 
 strated, not only that it possesses locomotive powers, 
 but that these powers are absolutely essential to its 
 digestive economy ; for water too salt or too fresh is fatal 
 to the delicate system of the species, and its power of 
 shifting from place to place is essential to its preserva- 
 tion not to speak of its health and reproduction. 
 
 It is only necessary to add that when withdrawn into 
 the shell the foot lies between the folds of the mantle 
 and appears a hard firm pad of flesh.
 
 92 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 In the Unionidce or Mussel family the intestine is so 
 involved with this mass that there is much difficulty in 
 tracing it. The common oyster is the only specimen of 
 Mollusca that is dissected daily and without disgust ; but 
 it is of no use for illustration here, being a true oyster, 
 and has really no connection with the Pecten and Mussel, 
 which is proved by the absence of foot and by the open 
 mantle. 
 
 This latter, as we have seen, is the important point in 
 any consideration concerning pearl-growth. The body 
 is enveloped by this elastic fleshy membrane, which is 
 furnished by a skin covered with moving hairs or cilia, 
 and is also provided with tentacles. A close examina- 
 tion of the lip of a mussel-shell will explain the manner 
 of its growth, as it is clear that the function of the mantle 
 is to secrete calcareous matter for the hard protective 
 covering, as has already been pointed put. The inner 
 surface of all shells presents the glistening appearance 
 with which we are all familiar as the rnother-of-pearl. 
 At its margin the mantle is attached to the shell, and 
 secretes this prismatic layer in the manner already indi- 
 cated; and, as may be expected, the shell is thickest 
 where the growth is the most rapid. The glistening 
 brightness is caused by the refraction of the rays of light 
 from the apparently smooth surface, but which, as we 
 have seen, is really both rough and uneven, the delicate 
 plates or lamellae overlapping each other. Sometimes, 
 in a dry specimen, the structureless membrane can be 
 separated from the true shell, a fact of significant im- 
 portance to those who maintain shell-growth to be 
 from within outwards. The power of the Unionidce and
 
 PEARLS. 93 
 
 Pectenidce to ensure a soft lining to their home is a key 
 to the formation of the pearl. 
 
 Marly and varied are the methods which have been 
 adopted for the securing of these precious gems. 
 
 One of the earliest Arab geographers in the ninth cen- 
 tury describes the habits of the pearl-divers with which 
 he was acquainted. They filled their ears with cotton 
 and oil and compressed their nostrils with tortoise-shell 
 before they dived : this practice, we believe, continues 
 among the pearl-divers of the Persian Gulf even to the 
 present day. 
 
 Sir J. Emerson Tennant, in his interesting description 
 of the pearl-fisheries of Ceylon, gives some very instruc- 
 tive details. The diver inserts his foot in a sinking stone 
 and inhales a full breath. He presses his nostrils with 
 his left hand, raises his body as high as he can above the 
 water to gain impetus in the descent, and the stone being 
 at that moment liberated, he sinks rapidly to the bottom. 
 As soon as this is reached, the stone is drawn up ; and 
 the diver, having thrown himself on his face, with all 
 alacrity fills his basket. At a given signal this is drawn 
 up by the cord which is attached to it, and held above by 
 the men in the boat ; and the diver assists his ascent by 
 springing on the rope as the basket rises. 
 
 The divers remain about fifty-five seconds under 
 water ; and accidents are rare. The noise and constant 
 excitement of the water, during the fishing season, is 
 found to be quite sufficient to protect the men from 
 the sharks ; and it may be that additional confidence is 
 given to the men by the fact of a shark-charmer being 
 present in each boat !
 
 94 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 The shells are taken out and thrown upon the shore, 
 and as soon as the animals are dead the pearls are 
 easily extracted. The thickest and finest shells are 
 carefully selected from the mass, and are destined to 
 be worked out for mother-of-pearl. The more worthless 
 are left, and groups of the poorer people may be seen 
 turning and turning them over in the hope of finding 
 some stray pearl that may have been overlooked. 
 
 Pearls have had their own share in determining the 
 history of the world. 
 
 There is no doubt that Julius Caesar found his main 
 inducement to visit Britain in the reports of great pearls 
 to be found there. He is mentioned to have been seen 
 weighing British pearls in his hand, and comparing 
 them with others from the East, a short time before his 
 expedition to our islands was undertaken. We know 
 that he shared to the full the Roman love of pearls. 
 On his return to Rome from these islands the breast- 
 plate which he dedicated to the Venus Genetrix was 
 formed from pearls taken from British waters. 
 
 We have thus conclusive proof of two things : (i) 
 that Caesar's main aim was not forgotten in the midst 
 of the warlike and imperial ambitions which in the 
 Romans always mixed with and modified any personal 
 or narrower preference ; and (2), that the ancient Britons 
 knew the value of pearls and worked their waters for 
 them, that they traded in them, and that they found 
 their way to distant regions of the earth even at that 
 early period. But pearl-fishing was for a long course of 
 centuries in abeyance in our country. 
 
 The revival of the pearl-fishing in Scotland is of
 
 PEARLS. 95 
 
 comparatively recent date. In 1761 pearls were sent 
 from Scotland to London to the value of ^10,000, and 
 these were mainly taken from the Tay and Isla. And 
 year by year the trade languished until an Edinburgh 
 jeweller of enterprise made the generous offer to pur- 
 chase all that were brought to him. The highest price 
 given for a single pearl has not, so far as we know, 
 exceeded ;6o. 
 
 Endeavours have been made to imitate pearls, just as 
 endeavours have been made to manufacture diamonds, 
 but not with much success. Nor is this anything new. 
 The Romans and other early nations of Europe endea- 
 voured to unite and file pieces of shell into the form of 
 spherical pearls ; but no one of the least skill or judg- 
 ment was likely to be deceived by them, though as 
 ornaments they no doubt had their claims. 
 
 In 1680 Jacquin, a rosary-maker of Paris, filled hollow 
 glass beads with the scales of a small river-fish (the bleak), 
 putting them through some process of condensation, and 
 since then the world has been at no loss to procure what 
 superficially passes for beads and pearl-necklaces. 
 
 No city in the world, we read, was ever richer in pre- 
 cious pearls than Rome in the time of the Caesars. 
 Special mention is made of Lollia Pollena, wife of Caius 
 Caligula. " I have seen her," says Pliny, " so bedecked 
 with emeralds and pearls disposed in rows, ranks, and 
 courses, one by another, round about the attire of her 
 head, her cowl, her peruke of hair, her band grace and 
 chaplet, hanging at her ears, round her neck as an orna- 
 ment in a carcanet, upon her wrists as bracelets, and on 
 her fingers in rings, that she glittered and shone like the
 
 96 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 sun as she went." The habit was so common of using 
 pearls as a base to throw up the brilliance of other gems, 
 that we may, perhaps, believe even in Caligula's slippers 
 of pearls, with rubies and emeralds set upon them like 
 flowers. 
 
 The Roman ladies had a special favour for pearls as 
 ear-rings, and it was one of their consuming ambitions 
 to possess exceptionally fine specimens for this purpose. 
 They preferred the pear-shaped pearls, and often wore 
 two or three of them strung together. They jingled 
 gently as they moved about, fitting accompaniment, it 
 may be said, to their graceful movements, and from this 
 jingling they got their name, which was crotalia, or 
 " rattles." 
 
 And the taste of the Roman ladies for pearls has per- 
 petuated itself, though other of the ancient luxurious 
 habits, which in their case accompanied it, have long died 
 out. The women of Florence even now are not con- 
 tented if they do not possess a necklet of pearls, and this 
 generally forms the marriage portion of the middle-class 
 women. It is thought, just as it was in ancient Rome, 
 that this gives an air of respectability, and forms a sure 
 protection from insult in the streets or elsewhere. 
 
 Pearls are only twice mentioned in the authorised ver- 
 sion of the Old Testament, and both times the pearl is 
 used as a symbol of wisdom. 
 
 Some critics have held that the Hebrew word did not 
 exactly mean pearl, but since there can be no doubt that 
 our Saviour referred to the true pearl when He spoke of 
 the " pearl of great price," we may the more implicitly 
 accept it, and gather from the use of the pearl as a figure
 
 PEARLS. 97 
 
 by the Jewish writers that a perfect pearl has been rare in 
 all ages, and considered of the greatest value. 
 
 As may be presumed, from what we have just said, the 
 Romans classed first among pearls those which were 
 pear-shaped, and gave to them the name of unio, or 
 unique, a name now in our scientific terminology attached 
 with fitness, as we have seen, to the species of mollusc 
 from which some of the most perfect pearls are ob- 
 tained. 
 
 " To be perfect," says Mr. Emmanuel in his valuable 
 work on gems, "a pearl must be of perfectly pure white 
 colour; it must be perfectly round or drop-shaped; it 
 must be slightly transparent ; it must be free from spots 
 or blemish ; and it must possess the lustre characteristic 
 of the gem." 
 
 At the breaking up of the crown-treasury of France 
 in 1791, a magnificent large spherical pearl, unbored, 
 was sold for ^8000 ; and two pear-shaped ones, which 
 each weighed 214 grains, were valued at ,12,000. 
 Another famous pearl of history was that sold to Philip 
 the Fourth of Spain in 1625. It is said that the Shah 
 of Persia is the happy possessor of a pearl valued at 
 ;6o,ooo a goodly estate in small compass, light and 
 portable and the Imam of Muscat one for which he 
 has been offered ^"30,000. 
 
 The second division in the Roman classification of 
 pearls was " Margarites," which included pearls of any 
 shape or colour, large and misshapen often, but often, 
 too, of exceptional purity and beauty. The jewellers of 
 the Cinque-Cento period, with the fertile ingenuity that 
 distinguished them, gave a new value to these eccentric
 
 98 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 specimens by mounting them in styles as eccentric. 
 Mermaids and sea-monsters were favourite designs ; and 
 some illustrations of this treatment are to be seen in 
 collections in this country, notably in the Devonshire 
 Cabinet. 
 
 Unlike most gems, the pearl comes to us fresh, pure, 
 lustrous, direct from the hand of nature. Other precious 
 stones undergo much careful labour at the hands of the 
 lapidary, and sometimes owe much to his art. Diamond- 
 cutting is indeed a branch of art, and cameo-carving is a 
 yet higher one. But the pearl owes nothing to man. 
 
 This perhaps has a good deal to do with the senti- 
 ments we cherish toward it. It touches us with the 
 same sense of simplicity and truth as the mountain 
 daisy or the wild rose. It is absolutely a gift of nature's 
 own. When we turn from the brilliant, dazzling coronet 
 of diamonds or emeralds to a necklace of pearls, there 
 is a sense of relief, of soft refreshment. The eye rests 
 on it with quiet, satisfied repose. It seems so truly to 
 typify steady and abiding affection, which needs no ac- 
 cessory or adornment to make it more attractive. 
 
 But pearls, despite all this, are not free from the 
 fluctuations of fashion and caprice which assail all such 
 commodities. 
 
 We have seen how for some years the Scottish fisheries 
 have been affected by the craving for rose-coloured 
 pearls among the ladies of Paris. And different people 
 in this, as in so many other things, display varying tastes 
 and tendencies. The Chinese prefer those of a yellow 
 tint a dark gold-colour, as one describes it. This tint 
 is peculiar to certain classes of Oriental pearls. Those
 
 PEARLS. 99 
 
 found in Panama, California, and the South Pacific are 
 more or less dark-looking. 
 
 Pearls are pre-eminently children of the light. Not 
 only do they reflect it, but, like flowers, they lose their 
 purity and delicacy of colour if light is for any lengthened 
 period withdrawn from them. So say they who have 
 had most experience of pearls ; and the fact adds a new 
 association and poetic suggestiveness, as it were, afford- 
 ing another very beautiful hint of distinction between 
 them and other gems of purely mineral origin. Those 
 who possess fine pearls had better not forget this, and 
 keep them too long immured in dark and secret corners, 
 however safe. Pearls, we may say, were created to dif- 
 fuse gentle pleasure, to delight the eye, as they shine 
 simple and translucent. 
 
 We have all heard of that draught in which it was said 
 that Cleopatra dissolved her famous pearl, and which she 
 drank at that memorable supper. But science gives the 
 lie to the possibility. No acid the human stomach could 
 receive would be sufficient to dissolve a pearl, and even 
 with the acids of the greatest strength the outer coatings 
 are alone discoloured or destroyed, and this only after a 
 considerable lapse of time. As has been suggested by a 
 very good authority on gems Mr. King it is likely that 
 Cleopatra swallowed the solid gem, or found some other 
 means of eluding the vigilance of Antony and those who 
 were with him. Some cynics would say that woman's 
 wiles were quite equal to that enterprise or deception. 
 
 References to pearls by great writers, ancient and 
 modern, are very plentiful, as the beauty and purity of 
 the gem would lead one to expect.
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 We have referred to some of the expressions of Scrip- 
 ture ; and we have seen how Pliny viewed the matter, 
 giving in compact version the very unfounded theory of 
 the Romans as to the origin and growth of the pearl. 
 Now that science has taught us better, literature has only 
 found in it, as is invariably the case, a wider field of 
 illustration and imagery. The very associations insepar- 
 ably linked with the name Margaret, which is only an 
 adaptation of the Greek for pearl, might themselves be 
 cited here. We think of one named Margaret as pure, 
 guileless, untouched with the finesse of society, as un- 
 spotted with its vices. Something of this Goethe may 
 have had in his mind when he named the heroine of 
 " Faust" Gretchen or Margaret. 
 
 Wordsworth, too, makes one of the most touching 
 episodes in the " Excursion " to circle round an ill-fated 
 but noble Margaret. Tennyson, in what is, perhaps, the 
 very finest of his elaborate cabinet of female portraits, 
 painted when he was still a young man, has given us 
 " rare, pale Margaret," and this is, perhaps, the finest of 
 them all. Othello, in his last touching speech, speaks of 
 himself as 
 
 " One, whose hand, 
 
 Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away, 
 Richer than all his tribe." 
 
 To him Desdemona was Margaret a pearl. He could 
 riot otherwise have so truly and concisely expressed 
 himself. 
 
 Herrick is not to be outdone by any in his own line. 
 In the midst of his quaint conceits about Julia he has 
 this verse :
 
 PEARLS. 
 
 " Some asked how Pearls did grow and where? 
 
 Then spoke I to my Girl 
 To part her lips, and showed them there 
 The quarelets of Pearl" 
 
 The old fable of pearls being generated by contact 
 with rice, and actually revived not long ago, is only a 
 monstrous imposture. Mr. Hugh Owen has thus dis- 
 posed of it : 
 
 " The so-called rice is a marine shell of the genus 
 Cyprtza, the end or apex of each example carefully filed 
 or ground off to represent the effect of having been fed 
 upon by the pearls. The whole is a deliberate and bare- 
 faced imposture, and it is to be hoped that when, some 
 generations hence, this miserable myth again crops up in 
 the repetitive operations of history, some more powerful 
 pen than mine may find employment in denouncing the 
 shameless attempt to impose upon the credulity of the 
 scientific world." 
 
 Hypocrisy was said by the witty Frenchman to be the 
 tribute vice pays to virtue. Such imitations and impos- 
 tures are the respect which Fraud pays to Nature's unsul- 
 lied Beauty.
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 V. 
 
 AMBER. 
 
 THE chastest, and perhaps also most permanently at- 
 tractive, of gems and ornaments are those that come 
 most direct from the lap of nature and need least from 
 the hands of lapidary or artisan. We have seen how 
 this affects us in the case of pearls ; it is almost equally 
 so in the cases of coral and amber. The diamond needs 
 much cutting and polishing ere it sparkles and glitters 
 before us like a second sunlight ; and when we look on 
 a first-rate brilliant we perforce acknowledge the fine art 
 of man as well as the wonder and the wealth of nature. 
 The gem that has passed through many processes, and 
 has thus lost much in size and weight, may be very 
 valuable, but it is the emblem of artificial life and its 
 resources, as much as of the amazing fertility of natural 
 laws. We contemplate it with the feelings we would 
 experience in looking on a fine picture rather than on a 
 beautiful landscape ; on a portrait rather than on the 
 person it represents. And it is perhaps worthy of 
 remark that the superstitions and dreams of men have 
 been apt to choose out as subjects the purely natural 
 gem rather than the semi-artificial one. This may be 
 due to the fact that the love of charms and spells sustains
 
 AMBER. 103 
 
 its force only in a primitive and savage period, and has 
 already faded and become faint when men have risen 
 to some degree of scientific knowledge and artistic skill. 
 
 Be this as it may, we are now to deal with a substance 
 which has, in this respect, been particularly favoured. 
 Even the common use of amber as a mouthpiece to 
 tobacco-pipes, &c., is due originally to its having been 
 accepted as a charm ; it was believed that the amber 
 would act as a charm or protection against any evil influ- 
 ence that might be present in the tobacco ; and among 
 Turks and Arabs, even at this day, the belief is acknow- 
 ledged. Utility and beauty here once more, though with 
 somewhat of grotesque association, go hand in hand. 
 There is a good deal, therefore, to interest us in amber ; 
 and perhaps our time will not be wholly wasted in al- 
 luding to it for a little while. 
 
 It is not an article of very great consideration, com- 
 mercially speaking it does not figure largely in exports 
 and imports but it is very beautiful ; and it has a strange 
 history, due partly to the mystery that long surrounded 
 its origin, and partly to the religious superstitions that 
 were connected with it. Known at an early stage to 
 many peoples, it has not failed to impress their imagina- 
 tions ; and it would claim attention were it only for 
 the recognition accorded to it by poets and romancers. 
 " The fly in amber " has become a proverb. A common 
 object, which in itself would not claim more than com- 
 mon regard, is transmuted into a gem by imprisonment in 
 its shining substance, and becomes of the greatest value. 
 
 As to the early ideas of its origin, it may be said that 
 the primitive naturalists all became poets in its study.
 
 104 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 The prevailing idea among them was, that amber was a 
 concretion of the tears of sea-birds ; and though later 
 researches have harshly dissipated this fond fancy, the 
 poets, pertinacious as they are on the side of the beauti- 
 ful and fine sentiment, refuse to let it go. The Baron de 
 la Motte Fouque, in his exquisite romance of " Undine " 
 one of the classical productions of modern days takes 
 this view of it ; and Thomas Moore, in one of his finest 
 efforts, anew consecrates, by his genius, the error. He 
 sings : 
 
 " Farewell ! be it ours to embellish thy pillow 
 
 With everything beauteous that grows in the deep ; 
 Each flower of the rock and each gem of the billow 
 Shall sweeten thy bed and illumine thy sleep. 
 
 Around thee shall glitter the loveliest amber 
 
 That ever the sorrowing sea-bird wept ; 
 With many a shell in whose hollow-wreathed chamber 
 
 The Peris of ocean by moonlight have slept." 
 
 Mrs. Barrett Browning also, in her fine sonnet titled 
 " Comfort," seems to have had some reminiscence of 
 this legendary belief about amber : 
 
 " Speak to me as to Mary at Thy feet ! 
 And if no precious gums my hands bestow, 
 Let my tears drop like amber as I go 
 In reach of Thy divinest voice complete 
 In humanest affection thus, in sooth, 
 To lose the sense of losing. As a child 
 Whose song-bird seeks the wood for evermore 
 Is sung to in its stead by mother's mouth ; 
 Till, sinking on her breast, love-reconciled, 
 He sleeps the sounder that he wept before." 
 
 The Greeks, with their usual tendency to set every belief 
 into anthropomorphic or parabolic form, have thus deli- 
 cately rung the changes on the tear-idea. The daughters 
 of the sun, they said, were changed into poplars on the
 
 A MBER. 
 
 banks of the'Eridanus, and their tears shed for the death 
 of their brother Phasthon were converted into amber. 
 The first mention of amber is found in Homer's "Odyssey" 
 (xv. 480). There the poet makes Eumseus say, in the 
 course of his recital of his story 
 
 " An artist to my father's palace came 
 With gold and amber chains, elaborate frame. 
 Each female eye the glittering links employ ; 
 They turn, review, and cheapen every toy." 
 
 This is Pope's translation hardly so strong and grand 
 as the original, of course, but the lines give the general 
 idea, and show that in early Greece, as to-day, the 
 women were curious and eager for new and beautiful 
 ornaments ; and the gold and amber chains must have 
 combined beauty and novelty, and delightfully called 
 forth, and so far satisfied, both senses in the Greek dames. 
 
 By the ancients amber was used at once as a medicine 
 and as a charm. It was feigned to mitigate, if not to 
 destroy, the power of evil spirits. And, with many 
 nations, it was customary to bury amber with the dead, 
 probably with the idea of its powers as a charm sustain- 
 ing themselves into the next world. At all events, small 
 articles and ornaments made of amber have been found 
 in the tumuli of the Celtic and Saxon periods. 
 
 At an early date the electric properties of amber were 
 discovered by the Greeks ; and in the sixth century 
 before Christ, Thales the philosopher turned the dis- 
 covery to some practical account. Lengthened discus- 
 sions have taken place about the origin of the Greek 
 name, Electron some deriving it from the verb Eleo, to 
 draw, accorded to it because of its attractive properties,
 
 io6 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 which Thales turned to account ; but it would appear to 
 have been called Electron long before this discovery of 
 its attractive property, which suggests that it received the 
 name on account of its shining aspect, from the great 
 shiner and source of light, Elector, or the sun. This 
 same term reappears, indeed, in the name of the star 
 Electra, one of the Pleiades. However this may be, 
 whenever we use the term electricity we pay a compli- 
 ment to amber ; for it is through the electrical qualities 
 which amber was found to possess that we call that most 
 subtle and serviceable of modern agents swifter than 
 Mercury and more reliable by the name we do. 
 
 And now for the prose. It is undoubted that amber 
 is the fossil resin of the Pinus succinifer a species of 
 pine now extinct, but large forests of which covered ex- 
 tensive tracts in certain districts during the Eocene 
 period. A great portion of the sea-bottom of the Baltic 
 is a submerged amber-pine forest; and on the shores the 
 amber is washed up by the tide or hidden in the sand. 
 The trees seem to have exuded this viscous fluid so liber- 
 ally at certain seasons, that fossils of whole trees have 
 been found so completely covered with it that the amber 
 sheath literally formed a more gigantic model of the tree. 
 This fact accounts in so far for the numbers of insects 
 found imbedded in amber. The condition of many of 
 these proves that they had alighted upon the tree when 
 the amber was still liquid and got entangled in it, and 
 sank and sank till entirely covered, just as we see insects 
 now caught in honey or gum or treacle in fact, what 
 naturalists name "treacling" (spreading treacle or sweet 
 gum on a tree to attract and to ensnare desired speci-
 
 AMBER. 107 
 
 mens) is only doing in a small way what nature with 
 amber appears to have done in a wholesale way in days 
 long gone by days prehistoric it may be. Often the 
 insects struggled so hard to escape that they mutilated 
 themselves, leaving only a wing or a limb, as many speci- 
 mens exist to prove. 
 
 We learn that as many as 800 different species of 
 insects have been traced in Prussian amber alone ; and a 
 good deal of light has been thrown on the flora of the 
 amber-pine forests by examination of minute leaves and 
 particles preserved in the amber. Many delicate mosses, 
 ferns, liverworts, and fungi have been found buried in it ; 
 and submitted to microscopical examination, scientific 
 botanists have been able to determine their species. 
 
 Amber has also been found in England on the coasts 
 of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex on the north-east, and on 
 the coast of Sussex on the south, and in the London 
 clay at Kensington, but mostly in quantities quite in- 
 considerable. A mass weighing more than ten pounds 
 is very rare, and a piece which turns the scale at two and 
 a quarter pounds is worth about ^9. Its composition 
 chemically may be set down thus : Carbon, 78.94 ; 
 hydrogen, 10.53; oxygen, 10.53. 
 
 It would be strange in these days of hard competition 
 when paste so often does duty for precious stones, 
 and manufactured diamonds are difficult to distinguish 
 by ordinary eyes from the real ones if sometimes sub- 
 stitutes for amber were not imposed on those unskilled 
 in the matter. And we find that it is so. Copal and 
 Anime resins, obtained from certain trees in India and 
 America, are often sold for amber, especially when insects
 
 io8 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 have been imbedded in them. One important test there 
 is, however, and we believe an infallible one, to those 
 whose knowledge enables them to apply it. The insects 
 found in amber are invariably of extinct species, or of 
 species peculiar to warmer climates ; those in copal are 
 all referable to existing and to indigenous kinds. The 
 differences in the colours of different ambers, it may be 
 well to add, are due to accidental chemical combinations. 
 
 A considerable number of people on the coasts of the 
 Baltic are employed in the search for amber ; and though 
 the find varies just as it does with our own jet-seekers 
 on the Yorkshire coasts they succeed in making, on the 
 whole, a comfortable subsistence. The chief uses of 
 amber are well known, and its presence in the more 
 ornamental tobacco-pipes along with meerschaum is al- 
 most invariable. We have already hinted at the super- 
 stitious notion to which this custom no doubt was due. 
 
 Samland, which lies between the Frische Haff and 
 the Kurische Haff, about midway between Danzig and 
 Memel, is the headquarters of the fishers of the Baltic, 
 and the bulk of the amber-supply of the world has been 
 obtained from the district of which this may be regarded 
 as the centre. The sand-dunes extend for miles around, 
 and run in under the ocean-floor, and are composed of 
 the veins of blue earth, in which the amber is found 
 imbedded. A little way out beyond the lighthouse, on 
 what is called the Fox-point, is one of the great amber- 
 reefs of Bernstein-Kiisti, which is a great ridge of amber 
 cropping up in the sea-bed, and washed and heaped up 
 with sand and sea-weed by the ceaseless movement of 
 the water. This reef runs a good way inland, but under-
 
 AMBER, log 
 
 ground. Amber can thus be mined as well as fished, 
 but the valuable yellow deposit being nearer to the 
 surface under the sea than it is on land, fishing is found 
 to be more profitable than mining. In contrast with most 
 other fishers, who delight in calms, and, as far as they 
 can, eschew the storms, the Baltic amber-fishers are always 
 active in time of tempest. Wave and wind do then more 
 than half the work. The sea in fury loosens and throws 
 aside the sand and boulders which have gathered over 
 the reef, and sets them rolling in great masses towards 
 the shore. Then the fishermen, armed with long hooked 
 forks and hand-nets, wade almost up to the shoulders 
 into the sea. While some poke at the masses of sea- 
 weed and tangle, driven towards them by the waves, and 
 strain to pull as much of it as they can to the land, 
 others try to gather into their nets the stray pieces of 
 amber tossed about by the waves. As the masses of 
 weed, &c., are landed they are passed on to women, who 
 quickly loosen from them the fragments of amber that 
 may have adhered to them. Only, however, the smaller 
 pieces are thus cast up by the sea. The larger and more 
 beautiful are almost invariably rolled about on the sea- 
 bottom, and to recover them the amber-fishers must 
 wait for the first clear day. Then they row out into the 
 shallows, and when they see a fine bit of amber they 
 raise it by means of their long-pronged forks and nets. 
 
 Sometimes, too, diving is employed. One reef in espe- 
 cial, a little to the north-east of Samland, is worked in 
 this way. It is said to be the most valuable in existence, 
 producing by far the finest amber. It is over 600 feet 
 long and more than 400 feet broad, and consists of solid
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 pieces of amber deposited by the currents that meet just 
 there, and imbedded in the sand and sea-weed that 
 accumulate about it. A little flotilla of boats are to be 
 seen there on almost any day of the ten months when 
 it is worked. Their process of work has thus been 
 described by an eye-witness : 
 
 " Each of the half-score boats at anchor here has six 
 hands on board, besides the divers who are at work 
 below. Two pair take charge alternately at the air- 
 pumps, which must be kept going without an instant's 
 stoppage ; one holds the life-lines in his fingers, watching 
 for the least pull, which is a signal to haul up, and the 
 last is the overseer, who keeps his eye on everything. 
 With stout crowbar and pronged iron the diver fishes 
 about among the masses of weed and sand and stone 
 that form the sea-bottom until he detects the presence 
 of an amber-mass; or crawling about on hands and 
 knees, he loosens from the sea-floor any blocks recent 
 storms may have partially dislodged. Often these pieces 
 require two or even three divers to move them ; and 
 gigantic slabs have now and again been found that 
 resisted even the united strength of three pair of hands 
 to disengage them from the masses of stone and weed 
 encumbering them. The fishers remain down five hours 
 a day; and though in autumn the sea is icy cold, so 
 severe is the strain of working under water that they rise 
 to the surface bathed in perspiration." 
 
 It will thus be easily believed that the amber-fishers 
 are a strong, brave, resolute set of men. When the 
 temperature is very low down they go into the depths 
 with their heavy diving armour, and remain down for
 
 A MBER. 
 
 long periods. They are not Germans, we are told, but 
 Samiates of the Kurish race, who have often dealt sturdy 
 blows to Cossacks and Russians in frontier wars. 
 
 Water amber is by far the best, being clearer, brighter 
 in colour, and more transparent than land amber. The 
 best of the amber, we learn, goes to Constantinople and 
 the East, where much store is laid by it for mouth- 
 pieces ; Italy receives most of the lighter-tinted speci- 
 mens, and some of both sorts find their way to Germany 
 and England; while the more dense and less well- 
 coloured is mosdy made up into beads and ornaments 
 to barter to the natives of the South-sea Islands and 
 Central Africa for other things the product of their 
 lands.
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 VI. 
 
 COMMON SALT. 
 
 ONE of the most remarkable errors of a great writer 
 was that of Dean Swift about salt. In his " Voyage to 
 the Houyhnhrims," after describing his efforts to find 
 food for himself, and his dependence upon herbs, milk, 
 and butter, he proceeds : 
 
 " I was at first at a great loss for salt, but custom soon 
 reconciled me to the want of it ; and / am confident 
 that the frequent use of salt among us is a luxury, and 
 was introduced only as a provocative to drink, except 
 where it is necessary for preserving of flesh in long 
 voyages, or in places remote from great markets. For 
 we observe no animal to be fond of it but man, and as 
 to myself, when I left this country, it was a great while 
 before I could endure the taste of it in anything that 
 I ate." 
 
 Swift is sometimes guilty of gigantic jokes, even when 
 he is most sardonically in earnest ; but here he cannot 
 be regarded as humorous and playful, nor would he have 
 knowingly laid himself open to the risk of being charged 
 with ignorance of nature or of science. Here he cer- 
 tainly is in error. Salt is as needful to animals as to 
 man, and some of the most remarkable phenomena of
 
 COMMON SALT. 113 
 
 the animal creation are due to the need for it, and the 
 powerful, if not irresistible, impulse to gratify the craving. 
 Some diseases in animals, indeed, can only be cured by 
 salt. The peculiar effect of feeding on salt-marshes in 
 restoring sheep to good condition is well known, and the 
 remarkable impulse which directs herds of animals from 
 great distances at certain seasons to the " salt-licks," or 
 earths impregnated with salt, is well known. The migra- 
 tion of the lemmings which has astonished so many 
 travellers in the colder regions is probably due to this 
 cause. Those who know about the proper treatment of 
 horses and cows are well aware of the simple method by 
 which the risk of deficiency of salt in the food is pro- 
 vided for. Lumps of rock-salt are put into the mangers 
 or scattered over the pastures. It is often mixed with 
 hay. Even bees and other insects will, with avidity, sip 
 a solution of salt. Men will barter gold lor it in countries 
 where it is scarce, and for it husbands have been known 
 to sell their wives and parents their children. In hot 
 countries it is even more a necessity, as we shall see, 
 than in colder ones. In India that is, British India 
 the State takes advantage of this with a view to the 
 exchequer, and heavily taxes salt, in some places not 
 even allowing the poor peasants to drive their oxen to 
 the " salt-licks," that they may not escape from the full 
 payment of this severe tax. Salt-water lakes abound in 
 Southern Africa, but Mungo Park relates that in the 
 interior districts, where salt is exceedingly scarce, it was 
 regarded as the greatest luxury. He tells us that he 
 frequently met little naked children sucking lumps of 
 rock-salt like sugar-candy. To say of a man in that
 
 ii4 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 region that he eats salt with his dinner was to signify 
 that he was a person of wealth and station. In Abyssinia 
 and no wonder salt ranks as a precious metal, which 
 it is, and there, as in other parts of Interior Africa, is used 
 as money is used in other countries it is a medium 
 of exchange. Professor Max Miiller, indeed, on this 
 ground, traces the verb "sell" itself to the root salt.* The 
 Abyssinian carries small pieces of salt about with him, 
 and the highest honour he can show to a friend or guest, 
 is to present him with a piece, or to let him taste it. 
 The necessity for salt is universal with all living creatures, 
 and a good argument for design in nature might be 
 based on the fact that what is so universally required to 
 sustain healthy animal life is also universal, though very 
 unequal in its distribution. Salt is found everywhere. 
 Indeed, except air and water, nothing on this globe 
 exists in such a quantity or is so universally distributed. 
 Nature has stored it up in veins in the earth, has spread 
 it, like hoar-frost, over vast plains, has dissolved it in 
 swamps, in seas, and inland lakes ; it is in solution in all 
 springs. It is an important constituent in the blood of 
 all creatures, a component of their bones, and of the 
 flesh which covers them. It is hidden in trees, and the 
 sap which stirs and trembles through every fibre in 
 vegetation would become slower, at length sluggish, and 
 cease altogether were it not for the salt that also seasons 
 their life. 
 
 Chemically it is known as chloride of sodium a name 
 given to it because of its chemical constituents. It is a 
 combination of two very simple bodies in certain propor- 
 
 * "Biographies of Words," p. 76.
 
 COMMON SALT. 115 
 
 tions. In 100 parts of salt there are 60.4 of chlorine 
 and 39.6 parts of sodium. 
 
 It furnishes one out of many instances of the wonder- 
 ful changes which come over substances when chemically 
 combined, and which form the unceasing wonder and 
 charm of chemistry, as the doorway to mysteries and to 
 endless possibilities of discovery and invention. Here 
 we have indeed a transformation as surprising as any 
 fairy scene. 
 
 Chlorine is a yellow gas, and sodium is a metal of 
 silvery lustre, which will burn in the open air, and 
 burns spontaneously in water. Combined in the pro- 
 portions given above they produce the white substance 
 with which we are all so familiar that it ceases to be 
 regarded with any special interest. It is only common 
 salt. It is twice as heavy as water, in which it is soluble, 
 100 parts of water dissolving 37 of the salt. It dissolves 
 much more quickly in sea-water than in fresh, owing to 
 its affinity to the salts already there. 
 
 As regards solubility, it is but little affected by tem- 
 perature ; if you warm a piece of salt and throw it into 
 sufficient water to dissolve it, it disappears almost 
 instantly. The air has little or no effect on dissolving 
 or moistening it ; that the salt we use gets moist and 
 melts in some circumstances is due to the fact that the 
 salt of commerce is seldom quite pure, as a chemist 
 would judge it. Minute quantities of magnesium 
 chloride are, we are told, present in it, and this is 
 one of the most easily damped or melted of all sub- 
 stances by the moisture of the air. 
 
 But this detracts nothing from the health-giving effect,
 
 ii6 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 nay, is rather said to add to it, alike in the physical 
 economy of man and in the animals and in nature. 
 By absorbing moisture from the atmosphere it keeps 
 the earth damp, and thus increases the nourishment of 
 vegetation, besides destroying many kinds of insects, 
 caterpillars, grubs, &c. The earth, the air, and the sea 
 are thus one vast laboratory for the preparation of salt, 
 in which incalculable stores of life and health and strength 
 are being continually produced and preserved. 
 
 That remarkable genius and clever chemist, Dr. 
 Angus Smith, whose mind delighted to dwell on the 
 common things of life and nature, and to reveal their 
 wonders, has some very fine passages about salt. 
 
 In his work on "Air and Rain" he finds himself 
 under the necessity of directly connecting tempests and 
 storms with the distribution of salt. He inquires, " How 
 comes this salt to be present in soils far inland, hundreds 
 of miles, it may be, from the sea?" And he supplies 
 this answer : " One of the uses of storms is to supply 
 the world with 'salt. The salt is brought by the travelling 
 clouds, each vesicle charged with a precious burden, 
 sent up by evaporation from the surface of the ocean." 
 And he winds up by asking, " Are there not traces of 
 a superintending Mind in this vast system of ' demand 
 and supply ' ? " 
 
 He further suggests that these same travelling rain- 
 drops, swiftly borne on the wings of the tempest, not 
 only serve the purpose of great salt-carriers, but at the 
 same time act, in some degree no doubt through the 
 very presence of that precious antiseptic, salt, as power- 
 ful scavengers in clearing the air of noxious gases, and
 
 COMMON SALT. 117 
 
 also as subtle fertilisers, bringing down ammonia and 
 nitric acid to the earth. 
 
 Small as they are individually, in their combination 
 they form also a great earth-plough, by corrosion of the 
 rocks, loosening the particles by processes most gradual, 
 and thus by aggregation of fine loose particles forming 
 fresh soils. 
 
 And not only this, they are great burrowers, and 
 penetrate by the tiniest veins and fissures down to the 
 dark underworld, there to continue their most salutary 
 work. They dissolve the mineral constituents prisoned 
 down below, and set certain of their elements loose for 
 their needful and beneficent purposes above, and thus 
 all our plant-food is presented to us and to the animals 
 in the proper state for assimilation. "Pursuing their 
 journey to the nearest river, they finally return to the 
 ocean. No single drop, however, goes back empty. 
 Each is laden with an invisible burden of salts, held in 
 suspension and drawn from the rocks and surface-soil 
 through which it has passed." In this way, in return for 
 the salts supplied to the rising vapour, the ocean receives 
 back those necessary for marine vegetation, and the all- 
 essential lime for the shells of the mollusca, for the work 
 of the coral-builders, the pearl-producing bivalves, and 
 all the rest of this class. 
 
 So it may be said that the air circulates, the rain- 
 clouds form and float, the storms sweep from sea to land, 
 the tempest roars, and in a sense the sun itself kindly 
 shines to carry on the salt-supply, to equalise distribu- 
 tion, and to purify the world, and make it habitable, 
 healthy, and beautiful. We do not need to go far for
 
 n8 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 wonders equal to those of any fairy-tale. When we see 
 a rain-drop, or hear the wind blow, or see a cloud sail- 
 ing the sky before the wind, or listen to the whisper of 
 the leaves in summer, we may think of that mysterious 
 system of circulation which ministers to the necessity 
 and well-being of everything that breathes and lives. 
 
 And in the seas themselves, though we are wont to 
 speak of the "salt sea," as if it were all uniform, there is 
 constant variability. Currents and streams are there 
 too, and there is continual flow and change and varia- 
 tion. All parts of the sea are not equally salt ; the waters 
 at one spot are not always uniform ; nor are all seas 
 of the same saltness, as the Dead Sea or Salt Sea of 
 Scripture is enough to tell us. Temperature and evapora- 
 tion, which is constantly modified by temperature, are 
 the two great agents in this modification. Rains, too, and 
 streams constantly falling into it have their own influences. 
 
 Salt water and fresh mingle slowly. The fresh water 
 passes away from the shore, and in many cases proceeds 
 a considerable distance, directed as it were by the 
 ocean currents, before it wholly assimilates with and is 
 lost in the salt water that encompassed it. We know 
 this, for one thing, from the difference of colour between 
 the salt water and the currents of fresh water. Heavy 
 rains, too, will sometimes rest for a definite period, 
 floating oil-like on the top of the salt water, so that those 
 at sea have been able actually to secure fresh water from 
 the surface of the ocean by hollow vessels or by absorb- 
 ing it in woollen cloths or sponges, and then drawing 
 it up. 
 
 The reason why some inland seas are more salt than
 
 COMMON SALT. 119 
 
 the great ocean is, that there evaporation proceeds more 
 quickly than the supply of fresh water ; this is the case 
 with the Dead Sea, Others, again, receive supplies of 
 fresh water more quickly than evaporation proceeds, and 
 are more or less fresh. The Mediterranean Sea is much 
 more salt than the Baltic, and for the same reason. The 
 Black Sea is almost fresh, from the enormous quantities 
 of fresh water poured into it continually and the slow- 
 ness of evaporation there. It contains only 0.17 solid 
 parts per 1000, while the English Channel, on the 
 average, contains 35.23, and the Dead Sea so much 
 as 245.80. 
 
 Salt, as may already have been inferred, is got in three 
 forms, the processes through which it is put varying 
 according to the source, and these we shall try very 
 shortly to describe. There is (i) rock-salt, which is ob- 
 tained from mines; it is found among stratified rocks, 
 and has been formed from water mainly by evaporation. 
 Then (2) there is the salt from the sea; and (3) there is 
 the salt found scattered over the surface of the earth at 
 certain parts in such a quantity as to render collection of 
 it profitable. 
 
 i. The accepted theory about the formation of rock- 
 salt is, that it is the result of evaporation on the beds of 
 estuaries or rivers, when these have either dried up or 
 have changed their course, other deposits of silt and 
 earth forming over the bed of salt, and the rock being 
 formed by natural pressure through gradual processes. 
 
 This is proved by the fact that fossils of zoophytes, 
 univalves, and crustaceans, and other specimens of crea- 
 tures still found living are to be discovered in it, which
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 proves also that rock-salt beds, though gradually formed, 
 do not require a very lengthened or indefinite period of 
 geological time. Indeed, it is a comfort to know that 
 salt is thus being formed day by day throughout the 
 world in at least an equal ratio with the consumption of 
 it, and, unlike our coal-seams, has no prospect of being 
 exhausted even at the most distant period. 
 
 Scientific men tell us that the ocean itself has been 
 the source of all rock-salt, and this fact only adds 
 another to the many wonders of the subject, since eva- 
 poration is always so busy, and the salt, after all, does 
 not settle on the sea-bottoms, so far as we know. 
 
 The salinity of sea-water has been ascertained to de- 
 crease with its depth ; and from the forms of life found 
 at great depths, and other circumstances, we know that 
 the bed of the ocean is not salt. Salt is found in every 
 aqueous formation. The most extensive deposits in the 
 world are in Europe, extending for over 500 miles along 
 the Carpathians, in some places with a width of about 
 a hundred miles and a thickness of about 12,000 feet. 
 The mines of Upper Austria, Hungary, the Tyrol, Salz- 
 burg, Transylvania, Wallachia, and others belong to this 
 range. 
 
 The Vieliczska mines in Poland are the largest in the 
 world. Although they have been worked since 1251, 
 the resources of the mines have been hardly touched. 
 Already there are from thirty to forty miles of gallery, 
 and the extent of this, of course, is being increased 
 every year. In our own country there is a vast bed of 
 salt under the valley of Cheshire, stretching all the way 
 from Malpas to Congleton. At Northwich there is a mine
 
 COMMON SALT. 
 
 which has been worked since 1670. And one of the 
 phenomena observed by travellers in that region who do 
 not take any particular interest in salt or its chemistry 
 is the irregular subsidence of the houses owing to 
 the mining and brine-pumping. They nod and bend 
 towards each other at some points in the most remark- 
 able manner. 
 
 In Spain there are some extensive salt-mines ; and 
 at Cordonna there is a mountain of salt upwards of 
 500 feet high. In Nevada there are still more won- 
 derful salt mountains, transparent almost as glass and 
 almost as white as snow. 
 
 Rock-salt is worked at various depths and various 
 heights. 
 
 The Vieliczska mines are some 860 feet below the 
 level of the soil and 300 feet below the level of the 
 sea, while in Arbonne, in Savoy, the salt is 7300 feet 
 above the sea-level, actually among snow-peaks. 
 
 Rock-salt, too, is mined in various ways. Sometimes 
 it is quarried by water, but this is in most cases found to 
 be an expensive process, and the most common method 
 is simply with pick, crowbar, and gunpowder. 
 
 Wherever water touches the rock-bed there are likely 
 to be brine-springs, and sometimes brine-springs are 
 artificially made by boring and introducing water. The 
 brine is then pumped up or drawn off, and the salt in 
 solution crystallised in the ordinary way. 
 
 Even after mines have been opened it has often been 
 deemed advantageous to dig pits within the mine and 
 flood them with water to dissolve the salt, so as to pro- 
 cure the brine without the labour of mining.
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 In England salt was derived from brine-springs long 
 before the beds of rock-salt were disclosed and worked. 
 William the Conqueror instituted an inquiry into the 
 "salt-houses" in operation in the time of Edward the 
 Confessor ; and Henry the Third, when at war with the 
 Welsh, caused their brine-springs to be destroyed, that 
 they might be deprived of salt. The beds of rock-salt 
 from which the springs originated were not discovered 
 till 1670. 
 
 2. The next great source of salt-supply is the sea itself. 
 The usual method of obtaining it is by estuaries or back- 
 waters, or by artificially constructed places called " salt- 
 gardens." At certain seasons the sea rushes with great 
 force into these spaces, and then, when the tide falls or 
 the storm is over, the mouth of the estuary, or "garden," 
 is closed with sand or otherwise, leaving the backwater, 
 which evaporates and leaves a saline deposit, in some 
 cases really a bed of salt, or very strongly impregnated 
 brine, which is either conveyed away or pumped into the 
 receptacles necessary for its further purification. 
 
 3. Swamps. In some cases these are formed by sea- 
 floods in low-lying places, where the sea-water is retained 
 and evaporation leaves a deposit of salt ; in other cases 
 walls of mud are built, to keep a greater quantity of the 
 water. In these cases the product is called " spontaneous 
 salt." 
 
 Sometimes, in exceptional situations, the rain causes 
 the salt which exists in too abundant measure to ooze 
 out of the soil and to crystallise. This is called " efflor- 
 esced salt." Sometimes, too, when the shore of a sea 
 is formed of a particular loose kind of sand, which has a
 
 COMMON SALT. 123 
 
 retaining hold over the salt, the water percolates inland 
 for some distance, depositing salt as it goes. Wells are 
 sunk, and then these seaside districts yield a brine more 
 saline than the ocean, and this is then dealt with in the 
 ordinary way, and made to yield its quota of salt. 
 
 Generally speaking, the salt as procured from nature 
 is in too crude and impure a condition for use without 
 undergoing further elaboration. It is first dissolved, 
 evaporated, and then crystallised by ordinary processes, 
 of which we shall now proceed to give the simplest outline. 
 
 This after-process of purification may briefly be said 
 to have these results in view. Crude salt is sure to 
 contain a certain proportion of magnesium chloride, 
 which, as we have seen, is the element which causes 
 salt to melt in exposure to moisture of the air ; and also 
 a proportion of magnesium sulphate, which in common 
 language is Epsom salts. The presence of this would, 
 in addition to other disadvantages, vitiate the taste ; and 
 in smaller quantities calcium sodium is also found, which 
 must be withdrawn. But, owing to the chemical law 
 that as the bulk of water needful to dissolve them is 
 evaporated away the salts separate, the less soluble first 
 and so on, the salt manufacturer, with attention to grades 
 of temperature, finds this easy, and with his knowledge 
 and engines reduces it almost to a mechanical process. 
 
 The following is a very simple and general description 
 of the process followed at the Cheshire mines. 
 
 First, the blasting of the mine. A shot-hole is drilled 
 with an arrow-headed rod of iron some eight feet in 
 length. The hole is cleared of every particle of dust, 
 and then charged with several ounces of coarse powder,
 
 124 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 some salt being laid on the top. A straw filled with 
 fine powder is then placed in the shot-hole, and the 
 charge is fired with a piece of cotton-wick. 
 
 In a second or two the charge explodes, and many tons 
 of solid rock-salt are blown outwards to a short distance. 
 
 These fragments are then collected, placed in baskets, 
 and pushed on rails to the mouth of the pit. They are 
 then raised by steam-power. 
 
 Two qualities of salt result. One called Prussian rock, 
 from its being largely exported to the shores of the Baltic; 
 the other coarser, used chiefly for agricultural purposes. 
 Much of it is sent to Australia, where the land in large 
 areas in some quarters demands its application. 
 
 In Cheshire there are constant brine-springs in work- 
 ing, as well as rock-salt mining. To raise the brine 
 various methods are adopted. Not very many years 
 ago it was raised by human labour, men half-naked 
 descending to the pit by stairs and drawing up the water 
 in leathern buckets. Water-wheels, wind-mills, and horse- 
 power took their place ; and these, in their turn, have 
 given place completely to steam. 
 
 The brine is pumped up through a series of iron tubes 
 screwed together and called trees. It is then carried 
 across the yard in a wooden trough fixed to the tops of 
 the trees, and emptied into a vast cistern or reservoir. 
 Here, while it remains unagitated, an iron-grey scum 
 forms on the top, which is filled with bubbles. A quan- 
 tity of rock-salt is kept in the reservoirs, to ensure the 
 complete saturation of the brine. 
 
 This salt water is now ready for the process of manu- 
 facture into table-salt by means of artificial evaporation.
 
 COMMON SALT. 125 
 
 The brine is made to flow through pipes into the 
 evaporating pans. These are large square or circular 
 vessels made of wrought iron, and supported on brick 
 furnaces, which extend far beneath the pans. Some of 
 these pans are sixty feet long and forty feet wide, while 
 others are considerably larger even than that. Over 
 furnace and pan is a wooden shed to keep out all cold 
 air. 
 
 The pans being filled with brine, the fires are lighted, 
 and the work of evaporation begins. After a short lapse 
 of time a man takes his place on a platform at the edge 
 of the pan. His business is that of " raking." He 
 throws out constantly into the midst of the boiling fluid 
 a long iron rake, with which he draws to the surface of 
 the fluid masses of a fine white substance which had 
 settled at the bottom. 
 
 As soon as the brine begins to boil the salt rises to 
 the surface in a kind of scum, and then, after a short 
 time, it sinks slowly to the bottom, when it is drawn to- 
 gether and lifted out, with a large perforated " skimmer ; " 
 all the brine escaping through the holes as it is being 
 lifted. 
 
 The salt is then placed in little wooden tubs, also 
 bored with holes, set round in spaces by the side of 
 the pan. 
 
 Having filled a certain number of these tubs, the man 
 haps or smoothes the salt carefully over, and sets the 
 batch on a kind of hurdle to be conveyed to the drying- 
 room, a long low chamber highly heated by flues extend- 
 ing from the furnace. The spaces between the flues are 
 called " ditches," really drains to carry off the water from
 
 126 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 the tubs. After a certain exposure here the salt becomes 
 thoroughly solid. Then it is removed in the oblong 
 blocks in which it is sold. 
 
 The production of the different kinds of salt is de- 
 termined by the degree of heat to which the brine is 
 exposed, and the time thus allowed for the process of 
 detachment from other salts and for crystallisation. The 
 process we have more particularly described above is 
 that of "Lump Salt." What is called "Patent Butter 
 Salt " the finest of all is made in circular pans, com- 
 pletely covered over ; the salt, as it settles at the bottom, 
 being " raked " by a mechanical process of leverage into 
 what is called a " hopper," a kind of square tub, placed 
 at the side of the pan. 
 
 "Common Salt" is made in pans which are never 
 heated to the boiling point. This kind of salt is largely 
 used for chemical and preserving purposes, being coarser 
 and more open, from the length of time it has been 
 allowed to settle or "feed" at the bottom of the 
 pan. 
 
 " Rough Salt " is made from brine just warmed through 
 and no more. The pans, in this case, are only cleared 
 about once a week, and the salt, being very coarse in the 
 grain, is much in demand for salting herrings and such 
 things. 
 
 "Fishery Salt" is coarser still: it is only drawn once 
 a fortnight or so, with grains sometimes as much as half- 
 an-inch long. This is entirely used for salting fish. To 
 aid in purifying the salt a pinch of soft soap or glue is 
 generally thrown into the brine, and the pans are kept 
 always full.
 
 COMMON SALT. 127 
 
 Thus the description of crystals of the salt obtained 
 from the brine varies precisely according to the degree 
 of heat used in the evaporating process. A temperature 
 of 120 degrees will produce bay salt, whereas a tempera- 
 ture of 225 degrees is necessary for producing the finest 
 table-salt, which, as we have seen, cannot be obtained 
 in open pans. Within this range of temperature all the 
 different forms of salt-crystals are deposited. 
 
 The workers have heavy, heating labour and long 
 hours, and many must perform night-work, as the fur- 
 naces must be kept up and the pans never allowed to 
 become exhausted. Most of the workers at the pans 
 are Poles or Germans. 
 
 Each evaporating pan in some of the works at Droit- 
 wich was recently attended by four women, two on each 
 side, who lifted the salts from the boiling brine, as it 
 crystallised, and placed it in moulds. When the mois- 
 ture was sufficiently drained away through the perforations 
 in the moulds at the smaller end they were removed, and 
 carried into the drying stores, which were always kept at 
 a temperature of from 120 to 160 degrees. 
 
 The work of the women began at six in the morning. 
 At that operation each woman was expected to fill 
 seventy moulds, which are formed of stout boards, and 
 to carry the solidified crystal blocks into the drying- store. 
 At one o'clock they had to fill and remove sixty, and at 
 half-past four an additional thirty. As these moulds 
 with their contents weigh from forty to sixty pounds, 
 and sometimes even more, the reader will understand 
 something of the weights these poor women had to 
 carry, and will join with us in the hope that more and
 
 128 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 more this kind of female labour will give place to lighter 
 and more suitable. 
 
 That salt in its pure state does not melt under any 
 circumstances of exposure to air is proved by many 
 facts. 
 
 Salt in its rock form is one of the hardest minerals. 
 It can be cut and carved into the most beautiful shapes. 
 Indeed, in some parts of India there is a considerable 
 industry in making ornamental articles from it jars, 
 platters, cups, and even knives have been made of it. 
 In Poland it is carved into crucifixes, beads, inkstands, 
 and many other articles, even billiard-balls. In the 
 mines of Vieliczska, which, as we have seen, are very 
 extensive and very celebrated, there is a statue of King 
 John Sigismund in salt. For a considerable period this 
 statue was at Warsaw, and showed no injury from the 
 changes of climate. We read that in 1698 a chapel to 
 St. Anthony was excavated in these mines ; and all the 
 furniture the pulpit, the pews, the altars, doors, statues 
 and ornamental work was formed of the beautiful crystal 
 rock-salt. The mangers, troughs, and stalls for the 
 horses which work in the mine were also formed of it, 
 so that in this case the animals could not possibly suffer 
 from a neglect from which other domestic animals often 
 suffer elsewhere. 
 
 Very often people make a great mistake when they 
 use salt to melt snow at their doorways and fail to 
 remove the liquid mixture, increasing thus the cold 
 temperature of their houses in winter. When salt is 
 mixed with snow the heat of the crystals becomes latent 
 in passing from the solid to the melted state. The
 
 COMMON SALT. 129 
 
 mixture is thus much colder than melted snow would 
 be of itself. This, indeed, was the mixture, called 
 "frigorific mixture," which Fahrenheit used in 1714 
 when he made his thermometer, as it was then the 
 lowest temperature known the zero, indeed, of the 
 scale of the thermometer which is so well known by his 
 name. Since then, however, a greater degree of cold- 
 ness has been produced by the evaporation of ether and 
 of ammonia, and by the liberation of compressed air. 
 
 The statute-books of the world, too, bear good witness 
 to the necessity of salt as food. 
 
 Several countries in old days adopted as a punish- 
 ment deprivation of salt. One of the old laws of Holland 
 ordained as the severest punishment that can be con- 
 ceived that certain malefactors should be fed on bread 
 in which there was no salt. The 'effect, we learn, was 
 horrible and painful in the extreme ; and, of course, it 
 was aggravated by the moist climate of the country. 
 The wretched creatures sentenced to this penalty are 
 said to have been literally devoured by worms engendered 
 in their own stomachs; and medical men know that 
 there is a tendency to a disease which issues in some- 
 thing of the same result in those who have an aversion, 
 individual or inherited, to salt. 
 
 Not only is salt a great and necessary element in the 
 blood, but it is a wonderful aid in exciting the gustatory 
 nerves and stimulating the flow of saliva, and is a 
 great assistance to digestion. In the stomach the salt is 
 decomposed into what is called hydrochloric acid and a 
 soluble sodium salt. The acid is essential to digestion, 
 
 and the sodium salt is absorbed to sustain the alkali- 
 
 i
 
 I 3 o DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 nity of the blood and to preserve the density of the 
 fluids of the body. 
 
 Its antiseptic action, also, should be remembered 
 its power in preserving flesh from decomposition. Salt- 
 miners and sailors are among the most healthy and 
 robust classes of workers. The amount of salt needed 
 by individuals varies, and it will vary by a slight degree 
 with certain kinds of food, because some foods contain 
 less salt, some more ; but half- an- ounce a day may be 
 set down as a safe allowance, always remembering that 
 here there is more safety in excess than in defect, and 
 that moderation may hardly, in this case, be the golden 
 mean. Any excess the system easily carries off, whereas 
 too little can only have injurious results. Rice and other 
 farinaceous foods demand more salt than any other kinds 
 of food, to prevent the appearance of certain diseases 
 gastrodynia amongst them, from which the poor Hin- 
 doos are wont to suffer, through an enforced economy 
 in salt. 
 
 Salt, too, is an admirable aperient. Many persons in 
 India take a glass of sea- water every morning. It has 
 also been successfully used in this way in Jamaica and 
 other West Indian islands. Dr. Priestley found that 
 sprigs of plants and vegetables lived longer and flourished 
 better in water containing two grains of salt to the ounce, 
 but that they speedily died in water containing twelve 
 grains to the ounce. This is quite in keeping with the 
 experience of farmers. If there is a deficiency of salt 
 in the land on which, more especially, serials are grown, 
 then it must be sown in the field. 
 
 The place of salt in industry would, however, need a
 
 COMMON SALT. 131 
 
 long essay to itself. It is essential in the production of 
 certain glazes for pottery; for improving the whiteness 
 and clearness of glass ; for giving hardness to soap ; for 
 preventing calcination on the surface of certain metals 
 by protecting them from the air; for improving cer- 
 tain colours ; for assays, and for certain processes in 
 photography. 
 
 Salt is often referred to in Scripture, and there at 
 first it is used as a type of barrenness and desolation 
 due to the bare and utterly sterile aspect of the salt- 
 plains, on which the early writers would look with no 
 clear scientific knowledge to modify their views. It is 
 very odd indeed, and instructive too, to read in Judges 
 ix. 45, that, when Abimelech destroyed the city of 
 Shechem and completely razed the place, he "fought 
 against the city all that day ; and he took the city, and 
 slew the people that was therein, and beat down the city, 
 and sowed it with salt." 
 
 But more knowledge and attention to the properties 
 of salt in course of time modified (as was most natural it 
 should) the whole conception of it among the Jews, and 
 made it the emblem of health and purity, instead of that 
 of desolation and barrenness and death. 
 
 Great stress was laid upon salt in the offerings under 
 the Levitical Law : " Every oblation of thy meat-offering 
 shalt thou season with salt ; neither shalt thou suffer the 
 salt of the Covenant of thy God to be wanting from thy 
 meat-offering; with all thine offerings shalt thou offer 
 salt." 
 
 The meaning of our word salt, which is Gothic, has 
 been defined as that which " occasions all tastes ; ; ' and
 
 1 32 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 this was the view which the later Old Testament writers 
 took of it. With them it stood for the symbol of wisdom, 
 giving savour to a man's character. St. Paul, writing to 
 the Colossians, urges that their speech should always be 
 " seasoned with salt ; " and our Saviour Himself called 
 His apostles "the salt of the earth." 
 
 Livy paid a fine compliment to Greece when he 
 called it " Sal gentium," from whence scholars say that 
 the common phrase " Attic salt," or the wisdom and wit 
 that seasons speech, was derived. Shakespeare mentions 
 salt some thirty-nine times; sometimes in the ordinary 
 sense, sometimes figuratively. It is very peculiar to 
 notice that he regarded salt as essential to tears, and 
 seems to have had an idea that the deeper the grief the 
 salter the tear-drops. He also knew that salt formed an 
 important part in the economy of the human body, for 
 more than once he speaks of a "salt rheum which 
 offends me." 
 
 Very probably it was this idea of the saltness of tears 
 which gave rise to some of the superstitions connected 
 with salt, which are very numerous. 
 
 It is thought unlucky to help any one to salt at table, 
 and the superstition has given rise to the proverb, 
 " Helped to salt, helped to sorrow." To spill salt also 
 is held to be unfortunate, and when threatened with ill- 
 luck it was a custom in old times to throw salt over the 
 left shoulder. Houses were salted for luck, and salt 
 was invariably put beside a corpse as well as the lighted 
 candles. No wake in Ireland at this day would be con- 
 sidered right without the salt in the plates beside the 
 dead ; and in Scotland long after the era of the Reforma-
 
 COMMON SALT. 133 
 
 tion the Church found it very difficult to cast out these 
 practices. 
 
 Salt in early times was symbolical of favour and good- 
 will, and covenants of friendship were ratified by this 
 gift. In the Old Testament, even, we have the Covenant 
 of Salt. Among Jews and Greeks and Romans, as well 
 as among less civilised tribes, salt was used in their 
 sacrifices as emblematic of fidelity, and for some reason 
 or other it also came to be regarded as a charm against 
 witchcraft and evil influence or fascination. It was all- 
 potent as a protection for children among Roman Catho- 
 lics before the administration of the rite of baptism. 
 This practice is referred to in many of the old ballads 
 and romances. In a ballad called "The King's Daughter" 
 a child is born, but in circumstances which do not admit 
 of baptism being administered. The mother privately 
 puts the baby into a casket, and, like the mother of 
 Moses, sends it afloat, and as a protection places beside 
 it a quantity of salt and candles. One verse of the 
 ballad is : 
 
 " The bairnie she swyled (swathed) in line sae fine, 
 In a gilded casket she laid it syne (then) ; 
 Mickle saut (salt) and licht (light) she laid therein, 
 Cause yet in God's house it hadna been." 
 
 The reason that lies at the root of these strange cus- 
 toms is, that the evil spirits were held to be kept away by 
 the salt, not being able to come near what Christ had 
 chosen as the symbol of the savour of the earth. 
 
 Another instance of the use of salt as a superstitious 
 aid to the undoing of evil influences may be cited from 
 Mr. C. G. Leland's " Toad Lore : "
 
 134 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 " I have been informed by gypsies that toads do really 
 form unaccountable predilections for persons and places. 
 The following is accurately related as it was told me in 
 Rommany fourteen years ago, in Epping Forest, by a girl : 
 'You know, sir, that people who live out of doors all 
 the time, as we do, see and know a great deal about such 
 creatures. One day we went to a farm-house, and found 
 the wife almost dying because she thought she was be- 
 witched by a woman who came every day in the form 
 of a great toad to her door and looked in. And, sure 
 enough, while she was talking the toad came, and 
 the woman was taken in such a way with fright that I 
 thought she'd have died. But I had a laugh to myself, 
 for I knew that toads have such ways, and can not only 
 be tamed, but will almost tame themselves. So we gypsies 
 talked together in Rommany, and then said we could 
 remove the spell if she would get us a pair of shears and 
 a cup of salt. Then we caught the toad, and tied the 
 shears so as to make a cross you see ! and with it 
 threw the toad into the fire and poured the salt on it. 
 So the witchcraft was ended, and the lady gave us a good 
 meal and ten shillings.' A Rommany poem has been 
 written on this subject, which is so good that we must 
 give it here : * 
 
 "THE WITCH. 
 
 1 ' We went one day to a farmer's house, 
 His wife was so weak she could scare arouse ; 
 But when she saw we were Rommany, 
 She spoke to us very civilly, 
 And said with many a gasp and twitch : 
 ' I'm dying and all of a wicked witch. 
 
 * " English Gypsey Songs." Triibner & Co., 1875.
 
 COMMON SALT. 135 
 
 Look there ! look there ! It is coming now ; 
 
 The evil thing is dancing, I vow ! 
 
 My God ! oh, help me ! 'and peeping in 
 
 At the open door, with a wicked grin, 
 
 Came a great grey toad, with a hop and a hitch : 
 
 ' See there ! ' cried the woman ' see, there's ray witch ! 
 
 Every day and hour it is coming here 
 The devilish creature is always near ; 
 If I throw it away, the first thing I see, 
 It is jumping again, and staring at me ; 
 All night I hear it hiss by the ditch, 
 And all night long I dream of the witch.' 
 
 Then we spoke together in Rommany, 
 And told her at last how the thing must be : 
 ' If you have shears, just bring them here, 
 And with them a cup of salt, my dear, 
 And as sure as we're poor and you are rich, 
 The gypsies will soon take care of the witch.' 
 
 Then the lady gave us all a treat, 
 
 Ale and bacon and plenty to eat, 
 
 And a ten-shilling-piece as we went away 
 
 Since people who work must get their pay ; 
 
 And it's good for all, be they poor or rich, 
 
 If gypsies come when they're plagued with a witch." 
 
 Salt is a symbol of hospitality all over the East. To 
 have eaten of a man's salt means that he is your friend, 
 and to be false to your salt is to descend to the level of 
 a betrayer and a traitor. Among the Arabs, perhaps, this 
 sentiment is carried to the highest pitch. 
 
 We have spoken of the taxes on salt. The more 
 fully we come to realise the absolute necessity of salt to 
 life, the more grievous does this taxation appear. But 
 this is no new grievance. History has its own tale to 
 tell on this score, by no means creditable to kings and 
 governments in the past any more than in the present. 
 Salt was taxed in ancient Rome. In France the taxes
 
 1 36 DA YS WITH IND U STRIA LS. ' 
 
 on salt had a good deal to do with the discontent that 
 finally issued in the Revolution. A code of salt-laws 
 called Gabelle were so severe that nearly five thousand 
 people were every year sent to prison for offences against 
 it. At present the duty on salt in France is 100 francs a 
 ton. In England a salt-tax was imposed in the reign of 
 William the Third, and there were continual affrays with 
 smugglers on account of it. The tax became very ob- 
 noxious, and loud agitations were raised against it. It 
 was finally abolished in 1825. Other nations have 
 hardly yet been so lucky. In Prussia its sale is still a 
 Government monopoly. In Hungary it is still heavily 
 taxed. But India is perhaps the saddest case of all as 
 regards the taxes on salt. It is a Government monopoly 
 in the Madras Presidency, and it is subject to a heavy 
 excise in the Bengal and Bombay Presidencies. In 
 Madras, it is said, there is a good deal of salt smuggling, 
 and no wonder ! Hundreds of natives are annually 
 convicted for taking salt that has paid no duty, and 
 where it is impracticable to watch and protect a natural 
 salt-supply, it is destroyed because it is a "menace to 
 the revenue." 
 
 In some parts of India salt is thus almost as high as 
 is the price of oatmeal in Scotland. The total cost of a 
 ton of salt as delivered at the depot is only 173. 6d. 
 The price which the traders pay, including the duty, 
 is ;8, 55. in silver. The figures are eloquent of the 
 sufferings which must be imposed on the poor people by 
 this import, and surely true motives of statesmanship as 
 well as motives of philanthropy should lead to some 
 reform in this respect very soon.
 
 BURTON ALE AND DUBLIN STOUT. 137 
 
 VII. 
 BURTON ALE AND DUBLIN STOUT. 
 
 BURTON-ON-TRENT is a town by itself. It seems to exist 
 for ale as well as to live by ale, and has actually the look 
 of one great brewery, which, like some mighty monster, 
 has put forth arms and settled new centres at remote 
 points. Barrels full, barrels empty, meet the eye at every 
 turn ; barrels piled up in pyramids or ranged in gigantic 
 rows, barrels being rolled from point to point and laden 
 on carts or waggons or railway-trucks. Wonder over- 
 takes one, as one walks about, as to where boundaries 
 begin and end ; for none seem to be definitively marked 
 by the ordinary means. The railways traverse the streets 
 on the same level. Gates fly open at crossings, and there is 
 no " Open sesame " for the foot-passengers till the barrel- 
 laden trains have passed, and sometimes they take a good 
 long time. Foot-passengers more especially strangers 
 in the town are apparently not of much account; 
 and if they do not know the ways of the place it is all the 
 worse for them. Here, pace Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Beer 
 truly is king. It is only after the exercise of a consider- 
 able amount of thought and oft-repeated inquiries that 
 one gets to realise the Bass's works end here, and All- 
 sopp's begin there, and that Ind, Coope, & Co.'s are
 
 138 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 yonder; and that all this activity, directed to one object, 
 is the result of rival establishments, which thus far, at all 
 events, act harmoniously. You cannot escape from the 
 flavour of malt; the scent of hops pursues you. As the 
 result of some general questions, we learn that each 
 brewery at all events each of the larger breweries has 
 its own private railway (with several engines to work their 
 traffic), the longest being five or six miles long a circum- 
 stance which accounts for the interruptions to pedestrian 
 progress we have noted, and for the somewhat confusing 
 network aspect of the town. 
 
 The recent transformation of several immense brewing 
 firms from private enterprises to Limited Liability Com- 
 panies, in which lesser affairs have not been slow to 
 follow all over the country, has interested a much larger 
 public than before in both the process of brewing and 
 its results ; and, in spite of depressed trade in so many 
 branches of industry, it would seem, from reliable sources, 
 as if the malt and hops could hold their own ; though true 
 it is, and pity 'tis 'tis true, say the farmers, the brewing 
 will succeed so long as barley and hops, for one reason or 
 another, keep at prices so low as they have recently done; 
 for they seriously urge that though they provide the raw 
 material at a loss, the brewers do not lower the price of 
 beer in any appreciable degree, or, at all events, you do 
 not get any benefit of it, but otherwise, when you buy and 
 pay for your glass of beer at the public-house counter, 
 but most often the very reverse. Thus the brewers, and 
 possibly the publicans also, go on coining money. 
 
 However that may be, we believe that a large number 
 of readers will be glad to have a popular description of
 
 BURTON ALE AND DUBLIN STOUT. 139 
 
 processes, and even teetotalers may read it without self- 
 accusation or remorse; for to follow processes of this 
 kind, and understand them, is merely a slight lesson in 
 chemistry as applied to the industrial arts. It is in this 
 light, at all events, that we would have them to glance 
 over these pages, which in no sense seek to encourage 
 the drink traffic in any form, but only to diffuse useful 
 information. In a previous volume * we wrote of hops in 
 some detail, and told all about their culture, though, 
 unfortunately, we could not, any more than Miss Ormerod, 
 disclose the whole secret of the destructive hop aphis, 
 which we fear has some secrets of its own as to genera- 
 tion, and of change of abode not yet fully traced out, and 
 the present chapter must in all good faith be accepted as 
 only a natural sequence or a legitimate continuation of 
 that essay. 
 
 The reader, then, must accompany us first of all to 
 Burton, to which we have just introduced him in a 
 general way, and make his observations. It has been 
 said by Emerson that an institution is only the shadow 
 of a great man. Burton-on-Trent is but the shadow of 
 the early Basses and Allsopps. There are, in all, about 
 twenty breweries in Burton. Messrs. Bass have three, 
 and Messrs. Allsopp have an equal number the latter 
 being, as I learned, the largest. 
 
 The centenary of Bass's firm was celebrated in 1877, 
 but Allsopp's goes back for more than 150 years. In an 
 old map of Burton-on-Trent, engraved in 1720, there is 
 a small brewery which then belonged to Mr. Benjamin 
 Wilson, who was really the founder of what has since 
 
 * " Industrial Curiosities." T. Fisher Unwin.
 
 140 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 become the well-known firm of Samuel Allsopp and 
 Sons. Benjamin Wilson had a daughter, who became 
 the wife of Mr. James Allsopp, and her son Samuel was 
 the father of Mr. Henry Allsopp, who was shortly since 
 raised to the peerage under the title of Lord Hindlip. 
 One of the sons of Benjamin Wilson, having no children, 
 took his nephew Samuel into the business, a movement 
 which was looked upon with great disfavour by his 
 father, who was anxious that he should take orders. 
 When Benjamin Wilson the younger died, the business 
 passed into the hands exclusively of Samuel Allsopp, 
 who carried it on under the name of Wilson & Allsopp 
 until 1822, when the name was changed to its present 
 style. 
 
 It is to Mr. Henry Allsopp, or Lord Hindlip, that the 
 credit is due for building up a concern which to-day is 
 considered good value at ^3, 300,000. Mr. R. Parker, 
 of the London office, who is a Burton man, can recollect 
 the time, some five-and-forty years ago, when the barrels 
 were carried away by hand-trucks, so limited was the 
 scale of operations. Now the output taxes the capacity 
 of railway- trucks, locomotives, and sidings, all arranged 
 to secure facility and rapidity of transport. We have 
 noted the peculiarity of the private railway lines running 
 along the streets, connecting the breweries with the main 
 lines, and there was a stiff battle about these ; and beer 
 and pedestrian comfort fought it out, and beer won. 
 This system of private railways is quite unique in Eng- 
 land ; but had it not been for these connections, the 
 Burton trade would never have attained its present 
 dimensions.
 
 BURTON ALE AND DUBLIN STOUT. 141 
 
 As far as we are concerned, all the breweries are 
 very much alike, so we do not propose to note nice 
 differences or distinctions in process. On applying at 
 Messrs. Bass's office we are furnished with an " order to 
 view," and betake ourselves to the large brewery early 
 in the morning. 
 
 The brewer, of course, is the great man in a brewery, 
 and his work is the staple commodity of the whole. All 
 that precedes him tends to him and his work, and all 
 that follows him must of necessity tend backward to 
 the same point. For him the malt is ground, and the 
 hops stored, and the casks manufactured, and horses 
 and canal boats, and telegraphs and pens set agoing. 
 Immense stores of malt and hops the latter in fire- 
 proof buildings are at his command, and are sent from 
 the storehouses to the brewery by long wooden pipes 
 with a sufficient incline to keep the material for the 
 conduction of which they are constructed in constant 
 motion. Casks trundle down to the vaults beneath his 
 feet, and trundle back again charged with pale ale. 
 Verily, therefore, the brewer of such a brewery must be 
 a mighty man ! Merely to come into contact with him 
 must be informing and suggestive. 
 
 As I entered the brewery proper my conductor re- 
 minded me that only two articles besides water are 
 used in the manufacture of ale in this brewery. But it 
 may be said parenthetically that readers must not fancy 
 this applies to all brewing. By no manner of means. 
 One of the great complaints the barley-growing com- 
 munity have to urge is that nowadays there is no pro- 
 duction which is more hopelessly given over to adultera-
 
 142 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 tion in the very manufacture than beer. It is only a 
 degree better than butterine palmed off as butter, if, 
 indeed, it is at all better. They say that brewers now, 
 all brewers except the very highest class, use sugar and 
 other things instead of malt and hops, or to supplement 
 them ; that no end of acids and other chemicals are in 
 use as substitutes for the genuine article, and that most 
 often when a man buys his glass at a public-house bar 
 he pays for what in a very large proportion is in no 
 sense beer at all, but a miserable concoction of chemical 
 devices and makeshifts, too often of a most deleterious 
 character. And not only this. The publicans have a 
 bit of "duty," what they call "cellar-work," which is 
 simply making up the beer, to which they add not only 
 water, but various other compounds for purposes of 
 clarifying, &c., to suit the taste of their customers or 
 their own profit, and this in spite of all adulteration 
 Acts ; so that poor folks and it is no wonder come to 
 form queer tastes in the matter of their drink in a vast 
 number of cases. 
 
 Good, sound home-brewed beer will feed a man, but 
 it will take a very large quantity to make him mad 
 drunk. They say your adulterated public-house beer 
 has little or no feeding or nutritious elements; it flies 
 to the head and makes a man for the time being a 
 maniac, likely to do mischief. They would, if they 
 had the power, make the use of all such substitutes for 
 malt and hops illegal ; and if they had chanced to see 
 in a comic paper of some years ago the following funny 
 definition of Liberalism they would have said that Parlia- 
 mentary toleration, in spite of adulteration Acts, had
 
 BURTON ALE AND DUBLIN STOUT. 143 
 
 come near to realising it : " Liberalsh, Liberalsh ! " 
 replied a tipsy man ; " you say Liberalsh : now what I 
 call Liberalsh is. to make things sho ash a man could 
 get jolly drunk for, shay, twopence." 
 
 They would have a heavy tax put upon all materials 
 used in the brewing of beer, except malt and hops ; or 
 else a very strict Act of Parliament to stop it. Of course, 
 they are interested parties ; but certainly there is reason 
 in what is urged by them ; and it may be added that it 
 were well for the country generally, and the cause of 
 morality and social progress, if all brewers, either by free 
 choice or legal compulsion, followed the good example 
 of Messrs. Bass and Messrs. Allsopp in this respect. 
 But even they have not escaped inconvenience and 
 trouble from the too common practice of brewers. Some 
 thirty years ago Mr. Henry Allsopp had to meet great 
 difficulties, when it was reported that several noxious 
 materials were used in the manufacture of Allsopp's pale 
 ale. This lying report had to be crushed, and Mr. 
 Henry Allsopp announced through the public press, 
 and in every way possible, that the brewery was open to 
 the inspection of any one who wished to satisfy himself 
 as to the way in which the beer was manufactured. 
 Even to-day this custom is maintained. 
 
 And then there is the consideration how, in this matter 
 of beer and a hundred others, the evil works downward, 
 intensifying itself as it descends. The poor man who 
 most needs what is nutritious and strengthening is the 
 least likely to get it ; he cannot order a cask, because he 
 lives from hand to mouth, nor a dozen of Bass, for the 
 same reason ; he must take his half-pint where he can
 
 144 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 get it, and when he chances to have the money; and 
 corrupt tastes, as we have said, are thus formed, and 
 beer with acid and salt very powerful in it comes to be 
 relished till the desire grows with what it feeds on, and 
 thirst is generated by what should quench" it. The first 
 duty of a government is to take care of the property 
 and the lives of its citizens health is surely a valuable 
 property of a people, and cannot be disconnected from 
 life; and while parties wrangle and every question is 
 transformed into a party-question, vital interests are 
 neglected, and what might be done to ensure at least 
 decently unadulterated food and drink is left undone 
 that second-rate brewers and publicans may enrich them- 
 selves. 
 
 Malt and hops are the principals with Bass and 
 Allsopp; all the rest is resolved into work and water. 
 The first process is to grind the malt ; the second to 
 mix it with water, and extract from it the saccharine 
 and other juices to " mash " it, that is, in the " mash 
 kieves." The washing-room, where the saccharine matter 
 is extracted from the malt, and where processes of great 
 delicacy are brought into play to secure the desired 
 clearness, is an immense place, suggesting some odd 
 reflections. 
 
 During the process of malting the barley is first made 
 to germinate, and then to check the germination the 
 grain is dried on kilns. It is next placed in sacks and 
 conveyed in trucks, drawn by specially designed loco- 
 motives. Hydraulic hoists take the sacks at almost 
 lightning speed to the top floors, where they are 
 emptied into hoppers clean and bright as tea urns with a
 
 BURTON ALE AND DUBLIN STOUT. 145 
 
 capacity of a hundred quarters. From the hoppers the 
 grain passes over screens, which eliminate all foreign 
 substances, to the mills where it is crushed. It is then 
 conveyed by Archimedean screws to another hopper 
 from which the mash-tuns are fed. 
 
 Great skill is essential to the successful treatment of 
 the material at this stage. Water of a certain tempera- 
 ture is mixed with the prepared grain, the resulting 
 compound being termed wort, which is run into great 
 copper caldrons, where the hops are added, and the 
 whole boiled together for some considerable time. The 
 liquid then passes through a perforated vessel which 
 retains the hops, and it is next pumped into the coolers, 
 which are large wooden pans erected at the top of the 
 brewery. Atmospheric influences act upon the wort, 
 and after it has attained a certain degree of coolness it 
 is passed through refrigerators. Yeast is then added for 
 the purpose of starting and perfecting the fermentation, 
 which is indispensable for the after soundness and keep- 
 ing quality of the beer. From the fermenting vessels 
 the beer is passed into casks in which the fermentation 
 of the beer is completed. Having been kept until it is 
 bright, the beer is allowed to flow into large square 
 wooden vessels termed "racking squares," in order that 
 the clarification process may be continued. 
 
 When the fermentation and cleansing are finished the 
 manufacture is complete, and the liquor is pumped into 
 vats, where it remains for some time to "acquire age 
 and tone," and then all that remains is to pump it to 
 the vaults below and direct into the casks for use. 
 There are close upon 100 vats in all in the brewery,
 
 146 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 and the larger ones hold as much as 1782 hogsheads, 
 of 52 imperial gallons each. Passing along the tops 
 of them is like going along the roof of a house, and, 
 of" course, falling into one of them would be like falling 
 into the sea, so far as unassisted chance of escape was 
 concerned. The heads, however, are made very secure, 
 and are covered with fine sand I suppose to keep the 
 liquid from the possibility of exposure to the air. The 
 vats are all connected with pipes, and those pipes, 
 carried on to the cellar, and direct into the casks, pre- 
 vent the necessity of any hand-filling, or indeed of any 
 meddling in any way dependent on the cleanliness of 
 workmen. All is done by pipes and pumps. The 
 liquor goes into the vats by pumps, and out of them 
 by the same process. 
 
 This, in general terms, is the process of manufacture 
 of Bass's or Allsopp's ale. It would be easy to extend 
 the description to a much greater length ; to tell of 
 engines, coal-stores, " lifts," of the size of the vaults, 
 and a host of other things. These, however, are pretty 
 much the same, go where we may among large manu- 
 factories, for brewing or anything. They have all good 
 engines (it would not pay to have bad ones), all hydrau- 
 lic power, and (in the case of breweries) all large vaults, 
 dismal to look at, but exceedingly useful, as many other 
 dismal things are. 
 
 I need scarcely say that brewing is chiefly done in 
 winter ; the brewing of stock alas at Burton is from 
 October to March, only light ordinary ales being brewed 
 at other times of the year ; but still the temperature is 
 regulated by means of cold water in pipes, as before
 
 BURTON ALE AND DUBLIN STOUT. 147 
 
 described. The ale can then be run off direct to the 
 casks, 30,000 of them being there in the vaults ready 
 for filling when required. 
 
 This, then, is the process of brewing ; but the scale on 
 which it is done here is marvellous, and the stores main- 
 tained for the firms in London and elsewhere are little 
 less so. The storage accommodation at Burton, how- 
 ever, is comparatively insignificant (amounting only to 
 about 65,000 barrels), as compared with the immense 
 stores of the firm at Camden Town, where in one build- 
 ing as many as 60,000 barrels can be placed. The agen- 
 cies throughout the country number over fifty, and the 
 firm employs more than fifteen hundred workmen, in 
 addition to clerks and the usual office staff. Some fifty 
 dray-horses are employed in London in daily supply- 
 ing the wants of the customers, and even that number 
 is not sufficient for the work in busy seasons. 
 
 The cask-washing alone in any one of the three 
 breweries before the reader is in itself like a large 
 branch of industry ; the cooperage is much more im- 
 portant; the storage of casks, in the form of immense 
 pyramids, cover in each case, with the storage of staves 
 belonging to the department, an amount of ground that 
 would make a respectable street. The offices of both 
 the Burton firms are on the same scale as the breweries, 
 and are fitted up with taste, and on a system suited to the 
 purpose required. Whatever can be done by machinery 
 is so done throughout the works of both firms. The 
 engines are there to lift or carry. In 1865 I find the 
 gross returns of the firm of Messrs. Bass for the year stated 
 at a million and a half a million and a half returned
 
 148 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 for ale to this one of the twenty breweries of Burton- 
 on-Trent ! Since then, as everybody knows, the business 
 has vastly increased. The quantity of coal used in the 
 brewing season is stated at upwards of 160 tons per day ; 
 the quantity of malt made on the premises during the 
 season is stated at 6750 quarters per week. I shall not 
 trouble the reader with any more figures ; for, after all, 
 they only convey a poor impression to most minds of 
 the facts they are intended to represent. But a town 
 devoted to bitter beer not to the drinking but the 
 making of it is a feature of English life worth looking 
 at, if not for its novelty for brewing is an old feature of 
 Burton-on-Trent at least for its exceptional character 
 among staple manufacture. A town devoted to cotton, 
 or iron-smelting, or mining, or pottery, or fashion, or 
 fishing, or shipbuilding may find its like elsewhere, but 
 where could be found the like of Burton-on-Trent ? 
 Whether it owes its distinction to its spring water, which 
 is said to be good, or, as is more likely, to the fact that 
 some skilful brewer chanced to select it for his residence 
 in the old times and gave it a name, there is no ques- 
 tion of its distinction at present as a town of brewers ; 
 and apart from brewing there would be little left of the 
 town. 
 
 -Even in old times, however, Burton had advantages 
 that were by no means shared by the country at large. 
 By its river and canal it had connection even then with 
 the Mersey on the one coast, and the Humber on the 
 other; and though its real rise to its present position 
 as a great brewery dates from the railway period, it 
 was a brewery by no means insignificant formerly, and
 
 BURTON ALB AND DUBLIN STOUT. 149 
 
 it was of note as such in times far away, it is said 
 even into the dim ages of English history. If, there- 
 fore, as some say, it is the great thing for a man to 
 turn his attention to some one object, and bring all his 
 powers to bear on it ; and if, as is also said, a town is 
 merely an individual multiplied, then Burton is wise in 
 its generation, as it was wise also in the generations 
 gone by. It has certainly turned its attention primarily to 
 one trade, and that is a trade whose handiwork is in 
 demand. How many travellers it has constantly em- 
 ployed seeking orders for Burton ale it would be hard to 
 guess, but the little account handed to me states that, in 
 the year previous to its publication, Messrs. Bass shipped 
 for India and other foreign markets 65,052 casks; and 
 these, of course, represented but one branch of the busi- 
 ness done. One may take it, therefore, for certain that 
 Burton, as a whole, is great in commercial rooms through- 
 out the United Kingdom, and far beyond it; that its 
 name is respected by waiters and chamber-maids, as well 
 as by railway managers and shipping agents ; and, in 
 short, that in high places and low ones it has won for 
 itself an immortal memory, of a kind, by means of its 
 beer. 
 
 If any persons are securely adding acre to acre and 
 building to building, the Burton brewers are doing so. 
 The business they did last year they try to increase, and 
 probably do increase, this. Depression, which is ruining 
 agriculture, wrecking the iron industry, and paralysing 
 dependent branches of trade, like the angel that smote 
 the Assyrian host, passes by the brewers and brewing. 
 Burton itself is growing rapidly. The description of it in
 
 150 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 even recent gazeteers is " a town of 12,000 inhabitants, 
 with one principal street in a line with the river, and one 
 at right angles with that." A stranger would have some 
 difficulty in recognising in this description the same town 
 as it is to-day, with its new breweries of bright-red brick, 
 and its houses extending in all directions in that pretty 
 and picturesque valley on the north bank of the Trent. 
 The railways have, to a great extent, made the change, 
 as they have made many other changes. They have 
 done a good deal towards putting up the tall chimneys, 
 and the large buildings, and costly machinery ; for, with 
 all the excellency of the canal system, and the Trent 
 communication with the Ouse and the Humber, neither 
 the one nor the other had the advantage of throwing out 
 arms in all directions as they can now be thrown by the 
 railways. 
 
 Into such a brewery it cannot have been altogether 
 useless to look, be our views of brewing what they may ; 
 and if any one should deem the subject so thoroughly 
 unfashionable as to reflect fashionable discredit on even 
 the reading of it, why, let the plan laid down at the begin- 
 ning of the paper be rigidly adhered to, and all will be 
 well. But apart from brewing and brewers apart alto- 
 gether from the subject of the paper young men starting 
 in life may learn herefrom one lesson, which cannot be 
 too pointedly applied. They may learn that strong efforts 
 brought to bear on one point are sure to succeed, grant- 
 ing even moderately favourable conditions under which 
 to do the work. Some families have thrown their efforts 
 into brewing, and some into money-lending and then 
 banking, bending great faculties for work to one end.
 
 BURTON ALE AND DUBLIN STOUT. 151 
 
 Tliis is worth remembering and pondering over; only do 
 not let us conclude that any end unconnected with bene- 
 fit to those around us can ever be noble or great can 
 ever hallow a man's life or keep his memory green. It is 
 necessary to say this much lest the story of great mercan- 
 tile success should be misapplied. 
 
 Now, if our readers are pleased with our company, we 
 shall venture, by the magic of the pen, if in no more 
 realistic sense, to transport them across the Irish Sea 
 and set them down in Dublin city, that together we may 
 study another phenomenon of brewing enterprise. From 
 Pale Ale we pass to Dublin Stout ; and to have a tem- 
 porary initiation into its mysteries, we make our way to 
 the brewery the famous brewery of the Messrs. Guin- 
 ness, whose out-turn is, perhaps, the largest in the three 
 kingdoms in their particular commodity. Why Dublin 
 should have become so intimately associated with stout 
 is one of those things which, as Lord Dundreary was 
 wont to say, " no fellah can understand," since certainly 
 the Irish character does not suggest that stout the 
 comfortable and fattening and content-making beverage 
 par excellence is one of its delights and soothing enjoy- 
 ments. The key to the mystery of Dublin's connection 
 with stout is just as hard to get at as to understand why 
 London porters have always had the pre-eminence, or 
 why Burton has surpassed all other places for the pro- 
 duction of pale ale. Doubtless the water has something 
 to do with it. At all events, though the Liffey flows on 
 with the same mellifluous murmur as met the ears of 
 Dan O'Connell or of the poet Thomas Moore, Messrs. 
 Guinness do not get their supply from that source, but
 
 152 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 by sinking wells. For such an enterprise as theirs pure 
 spring water must be had from an independent source, 
 with which the caprices of persons or corporations could 
 not interfere. 
 
 This supply was here secured by means of a well 120 
 feet deep, sheeted with metal from top to bottom, and 
 altogether made very valuable at much cost. Malt, hops, 
 coals, wood for staves, &c., are stored within the brewery 
 walls, where six hundred men in all are at work about 
 a hundred of them as coopers, millwrights, and car- 
 penters, and the others in brewing, washing, carting, 
 &c. Seventy horses also are regularly employed on the 
 premises or in connection with them, and a number of 
 canal-boats, the property of Sir B. Guinness, are in daily 
 use carrying away the stout for exportation. Immediately 
 inside the first gate there are large and elegant offices, 
 divided into departments for "correspondence," "cash," 
 and " booking," which altogether keep a respectable little 
 regiment of clerks attending to the duties of the pen. 
 Attached to the business offices are a telegraph office 
 and a printing office, of course for the sole use of the 
 brewery, and affording indications in themselves of the 
 magnitude of the work to which they belong. These are 
 a few of the facts that we see at the threshold of the big 
 brewery. 
 
 It may be useful to say here that in all fundamental 
 particulars the manufacture of ale and porter is the 
 same, the difference being in mere matters of detail, 
 such as the darkening of the porter by means of black 
 (or " patent ") malt, while the great object in the making 
 of Burton ale is to secure clearness. Of course cleanli-
 
 BURTON ALE AND DUBLIN STOUT. 153 
 
 ness is as much needed in the one case as the other, and 
 is secured in a thoroughly satisfactory way by a host of 
 little contrivances, which one sees but can hardly take 
 any note of. Here, as in the case of the pale ale brew- 
 ing, the saccharine matter is extracted from the malt in 
 a monster washing-room. The coppers into which the 
 liquid then passes hold over 100 barrels each, and here 
 again the same process is gone through as in the case of 
 pale ale. The hops then pass into a strainer, and the 
 liquor into coolers ; the former are also put under 
 hydraulic pressure, and when all is taken from them 
 that is wanted they are sold for manure. The liquor 
 passes from the coolers into " fermenting rounds," or 
 tubs, holding no barrels each. There are ninety of these, 
 and 140 smaller ones, in this brewery. When the fer- 
 mentation has reached a- certain stage the liquor is run 
 off into an immense number of what are called " minor 
 casks," that is, casks that are joined together, and here 
 the process is completed. 
 
 A little farther on are the stave and cask stores, with 
 their casks and staves piled up as high as the brewery, 
 and covering an immense space of ground. Near to 
 these is the cooperage, a large yard where a hundred 
 men can conveniently work together, with cask-making 
 machinery and all else that they require for turning out 
 good work expeditiously. The casks are washed also 
 by machinery, in the open air, the water being pumped 
 into them by a self-acting pump, after which a machine 
 with a double motion does the cleansing. Then they 
 are dried with hot air, which is pumped into them almost 
 red hot. This process finished, they are ready for use,
 
 154 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 and are put on a railway with a gentile incline, and left 
 to trundle their way a very long way down to the 
 vaults, where they can be filled, at a proper temperature, 
 in the hottest weather. When they are filled they again 
 trundle them away to, and upon, a large wheel, the bot- 
 tom of which is in the vault and the top above the 
 ground ; and there they are lifted, with a revolution of 
 the wheel, to the height of a cart or railway-truck (a 
 private railway runs into the brewery), and packed for 
 transmission to their destination, that the process of 
 emptying may begin on the ordinary principles. 
 
 The big brewery of Dublin has reaped great benefits 
 from the development of steam-ships and the railway 
 system, though in a way less direct than Burton. The 
 Liffey was always there, and the canals grew up to aid it, 
 as a grand artery of commerce ; but there was also at the 
 end of these the beautiful bay of Dublin, with a claim, in 
 the very aspect of it, to world-wide commerce, where the 
 capital of Ireland could produce an article in demand, 
 as it produced one in Guinness's stout. Communication 
 by sea was in favour with mercantile people when com- 
 munication by land was, in some cases, all but impos- 
 sible, and in most cases very inconvenient ; so that, from 
 one cause and another, the family of Guinness, even in the 
 old times, had at least as good access to English towns as 
 many English brewers had, and was in all respects ready 
 for the coming of steam and the revolutions it effected 
 in every branch and kind of trade. Dublin was soon 
 brought to a distance of a six hours' run (for heavy car- 
 riage) to Holyhead, and Holyhead to a distance of twelve 
 hours' run (for heavy carriage) to London. Steam-pumps,
 
 BURTON ALE AND DUBLIN STOUT. 155 
 
 cranes, and all else followed. The old buildings would 
 no longer answer the purpose, as in old times. There 
 must be new wells, storehouses, vats, tubs, coppers, and all 
 other articles connected with brewing. And so the trade 
 went on till the brewery became like a little city in itself, 
 apparently formed for an isolated existence, but really 
 sending out its influence to all parts of the United King- 
 dom, to the Continent of Europe, to the other side of the 
 Atlantic, and one knows not where besides.
 
 156 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 VIII. 
 PETROLEUM. 
 
 PHILOSOPHERS tell us that the shock of an earthquake 
 in the remotest regions is felt in faint vibrations along 
 our own shores. This is but another illustration of 
 the Laureate's fine lines with which he ends that exqui- 
 site apostrophe in the " Morte d' Arthur " 
 
 " The whole round earth is every way 
 Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." 
 
 Perhaps the philosophers, at all events many of them, 
 would rather say "about the feet of Law." Any way the 
 quotation is suggestive, and serves to bring vividly before 
 the imagination the fact that changes or discoveries in 
 the most remote regions of the world come sooner or 
 later to make themselves felt at their antipodes. 
 
 Recently we have had an instance of this in the 
 revolution effected by the discovery of great oil-wells in 
 different parts of the globe. Old industries have been 
 ruined, new industries have risen, and the whole system 
 of lighting and heating throughout the civilised world is 
 likely to be changed. The old-fashioned candle, which 
 through centuries held its place, is now likely to be less 
 and less in demand ; gas can be dispensed with, as well 
 as the poisons which it conveys into the air, the more
 
 PETROLEUM. 157 
 
 quickly the less pure it is, as is unfortunately most the 
 case in the larger towns, where fresh air in houses is, at 
 any rate, most rare. At all events, cheap and, on the 
 whole, safe lighting is a great boon to the masses of the 
 people ; and considering the interests at stake, it cannot 
 but be interesting and serve a good purpose to give 
 some information about the sources of the supply of 
 what promises more and more to become the illuminant 
 of the common people, at all events, till the day when 
 electricity can be supplied more cheaply and turned off 
 and on at single jets as easily as coal-gas or an oil 
 lamp. 
 
 We shall first take a glance at the various points from 
 which the supply of oil is drawn, and then inquire into 
 its origin, and present some facts and figures with regard 
 to the methods of boring and conveyance by which the 
 supply is regulated and the demand duly met. The 
 most fertile of the oil-fields yet discovered and in 
 working lie around the Caspian Sea, or in districts 
 more or less contiguous to it, so that to Russia and 
 Russian men of enterprise has fallen these great sources 
 of wealth and well-being. We shall take our start from 
 what may really be considered, at present, the head- 
 quarters of the Petroleum traffic. 
 
 Imagine a vast bay surrounded by yellowish hills, 
 stony, and bare of all vegetation. To your left, towards 
 the west, the grey houses of Baku form an amphitheatre ; 
 in face of you a vast fire seems to rise almost to the 
 length of a mile this is the Black Town, where the 
 petroleum-works throw up towards the blue heaven 
 vast torrents of smoke ; finally, to your right, extend the
 
 158 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 flat coasts, uncultivated, desolate, of this peninsula of 
 Apcheron, where the subterranean fires spout forth in 
 great numbers of volcanoes of inflammable gas and mud. 
 Baku is, indeed, a town of petroleum, a happy resort, it 
 may be, for the industrials, but certainly not for the 
 lover of nature. When we arrived, says a recent traveller, 
 we held our noses with both our hands ; when we left, it 
 was not without a certain horror. All the coasts that 
 you see from Baku rise and fall alternately under the 
 action of subterranean forces. The whole Caspian Sea, 
 indeed, shares in these movements of vertical oscillation, 
 which have overturned the Asiatic continent, destroying 
 the traces of old civilisations, drying up enormous 
 stretches of sea, and promoting the formation of inacces- 
 sible deserts, of steppes eternally sterile. Sea becomes 
 land, land is transformed into sea, in this region with 
 a suddenness which brings vividly to mind Lord Tenny- 
 son's fine lines in " In Memoriam " : 
 
 " There rolls the deep where grew the tree ; 
 O eartb, what changes hast them seen ! 
 There, where the long street roars, hath been 
 The stillness of the Central Sea ! " 
 
 One traveller says : " We visited one of these steppes, 
 and the line followed by our packet in the voyage from 
 Baku to Krasnovodsk was, at an epoch comparatively 
 recent, used by foot-passengers ; and, after having served 
 as route for many migrations from Asia to Europe, it is 
 now buried under the water, forming to-day a shoal be- 
 tween the two capes which occupy at the north and 
 south the basin of the Caspian." 
 
 As a necessary consequence on the Caspian harbours
 
 PETROLEUM. 159 
 
 springing up suddenly, the traffic shifts from place to 
 place. Krasnovodsk and Mikhailovsk, on the opposite 
 side from Baku, were, at dates not very remote, two 
 stirring harbours ; now they have yielded to a competitor 
 better situated, alike in an economical and maritime 
 point of view. This is named Ouzoun-Ada, the con- 
 struction of which took only three months. The double 
 word Ouzoun-Ada signifies literally Long-Isle. It is 
 really in one of the numerous islets which stud the 
 coast of Asia to the south of the Bay of Krasnovodsk. 
 
 But Baku is not without its amenities. It has some 
 fine streets and squares houses solid, substantial, with 
 the flat roofs of the East, and here and there beautiful 
 fountains, statues, and monuments. One of the finest 
 bits is that which includes the Garden Michael and the 
 House of the Governor, with a glimpse in the distance 
 of the Tower of the Young Daughter. 
 
 The quays of Baku are very lively. Varied races are 
 to be seen there, sometimes imposing figures in their 
 diverse costumes. Crowds of Tartar women at certain 
 times may be seen sitting by the sea in front of the 
 great promenade a striking spectacle to the European 
 eye. 
 
 The cause of all the shiftings we have noted in this 
 region is really the presence of that valuable oil, petro- 
 leum, which all round the shores of the Caspian, and 
 even in mid-sea, rises up in great fountains, uncontrol- 
 lable. Paraffin is manufactured at some cost and with 
 considerable skill from bituminous shales in several of 
 the Carboniferous districts of England, Wales, and Scot- 
 land, giving employment to many thousands of men.
 
 160 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 On an average, we are told that about 1,250,000 tons of 
 shale-coal are thus annually disposed of in Scotland, 
 yielding about 70,000,000 gallons of crude oil. But 
 on the Caspian petroleum flows up ready-made, a pure 
 oil, needing but little further labour. All that is needed 
 here is to bore at almost any point, to a depth of a 
 few hundred feet (500 feet at the outside), and the 
 valuable lighting-liquid will pour forth in such quantities 
 that millions of gallons are annually wasted for want 
 of any means of restraining the enormous outflow. In 
 America, at the most successful points, borings of some 
 2000 feet or more are required. These Russian oil- 
 fountains are so literally inexhaustible that competition 
 on the part of home manufacturers is not likely to be 
 found profitable, as now barrels are dispensed with, and 
 it is transported in great iron tanks, first by rail across 
 Europe to the Baltic, and then by German tank-steamers 
 to London, where it can be sold at almost a nominal 
 price a vast benefit to the masses of poor people in 
 our towns, but a severe blow to all such oil-industries at 
 home. 
 
 Other vast districts in Russian territory are equally 
 rich. "In some places," we are told, "there are great 
 terraces resembling asphalt, and smelling strongly of 
 petroleum. Natural gas bubbles up through pools and 
 lakes, which are covered with rainbow-coloured scum, 
 and thick oil oozes from rock crevices." The only 
 likely future competitor with Russia in this petroleum is 
 Burmah, where vast resources in this regard are unde- 
 veloped, if not untouched; but it is said to produce a 
 heavier oil, with less of waste ; and thus it may be that,
 
 PETROLEUM. 161 
 
 in the years to come, Burmah may become a great source 
 of light and heat, and the long-deferred reward of our 
 struggles there come to us in this unexpected if welcome 
 form. 
 
 One product of petroleum which up till now has been 
 almost entirely wasted is benzine, because there were no 
 means of burning it with any degree of comfort. Now, 
 however, an ingenious lamp for this purpose has been 
 invented by a firm of engineers in Moscow. It is so 
 constructed as to look like a candlestick; the candles 
 being really hollow tubes of white porcelain, a wick pass- 
 ing through the oil and drawing the spirit towards the 
 top of the tube, where two holes are so contrived as to 
 ensure the escape of the gas. This style of candle, we 
 learn, is becoming popular in Russia. 
 
 Other products of the petroleum refuse are certain 
 kinds of fuel and a variety of aniline dyes. Baku is all 
 astir with activity, and keen to secure means of utilis- 
 ing its treasures. With the best machinery and scientific 
 appliances at command, the waste of oil at present is 
 enormous and almost incredible. The engineer, as we 
 have said, needs to bore only a few hundred feet, and 
 up comes such a fountain that, geyser-like, it bursts all 
 bounds, and in some cases has been known to bury 
 factories and houses, the adventurous borer being then 
 sued for doing damage to his neighbours' property. 
 "In 1883 the great Droojba well was sunk at a cost 
 of ^1500, and for the first forty-three days it yielded 
 an average of 3400 tons a day : 115 days elapsed before 
 its owner contrived to check the flow and bring it under 
 control. In that time, according to the correct estimate,
 
 1 62 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 55,000,000 gallons were wasted." What is now clearly 
 wasted, or flows into the sea at least, trebles the amount 
 of the whole product of the Scotch industry. The 
 whole amount of crude shale-oil produced in Scotland 
 is about 70,000,000 gallons per annum ; and these figures 
 suffice to show how unequal is the contest. 
 
 Baku is so absolutely the Caspian town of petroleum 
 that it would have been a sad defect if, in passing, we 
 had failed to gather and to give our readers some facts 
 relating to this product and industry, which may yet 
 so affect the whole light and heat giving supply of the 
 world. Our coal-measures may be looked at with less 
 anxiety when this product and its waste can come in to 
 stave off exhaustion. 
 
 Nor, as we have said, is there much fear of the supply 
 failing. Of all the vast oil-yielding area of the Apcheron 
 Peninsula, extending at least to some sixteen hundred 
 square miles (not including the oil-springs in some of the 
 islands of the Caspian Sea, which at present discharge 
 vast quantities of oil into the waters), only some six square 
 miles have yet been worked. Other oil-bearing districts 
 farther distant have as yet only been tapped if even so 
 much as this. One near Krasnovodsk is especially prolific ; 
 there is another at Neft (Naphtha Hill), and still another 
 of vast magnitude, of about two hundred and fifty-six 
 square miles, all along the valley of the Koubau River. 
 Nor does this exhaust the springs which exist within the 
 Russian Empire. There is one near Tiflis ; another on 
 the Sea of Azoff, between Archangel and Khokhand ; 
 all along the Volga and the Toka Rivers, we learn, there 
 are vast supplies that only need to be worked, as well as
 
 PETROLEUM. 163 
 
 various springs scattered over the vast regions of Tur- 
 kestan. There are also springs in the Vosges, at or near 
 Hochwald. When bored to a certain depth a substance 
 like black tar comes up so spontaneously, so powerfully, 
 that in some cases the borings have been burst, and the 
 black tar-like substance, overflowing beyond all control, 
 transformed a large meadow into a black-tar lake. There 
 are now some eight borings, and the supply of oil here 
 too promises to be inexhaustible. This, however, needs 
 considerable working and purification, for which purpose 
 several factories have been erected with new and power- 
 ful machinery, and it is found after purification and 
 distillation that fully thirty per cent, of the black-tar is 
 pure oil. 
 
 Dr. Lyon Playfair, one of the first chemists of our day, 
 has paid special attention to petroleum, and, indeed, the 
 suggestion that it might be distilled from bituminous 
 shales was due to him, as well as the idea that from cer- 
 tain particles in crude petroleum pure solid paraffin could 
 be procured. He wrote, a few years ago, a valuable 
 article on the subject in Good Words, from which we 
 shall quote a passage here : 
 
 " Petroleum has been known in some parts of the 
 earth, where it occurs native, from the earliest periods of 
 human history. The sacred fires of the sun-worshippers 
 were fed by the gases which issue from it. The asphalt 
 left by its evaporation was the basis of the mortar with 
 which Nineveh and Babylon were built. It seems to 
 be frequently referred to in the Bible, though biblical 
 chemistry is much obscured by bad translation. As an 
 instance of this, carbonate of soda, when referred to, is
 
 1 64 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 translated nitre, and is made to do things impossible to 
 that substance Thus Solomon tells us that as vinegar 
 upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart. 
 This has no meaning, for vinegar does nothing to nitre ; 
 but it causes a lively and unpleasant commotion when 
 poured upon soda (var^cc). So, also, when Jeremiah speaks 
 of washing with nitre and soap there is no meaning ; 
 though soda and soap are used constantly in this rela- 
 tion. It is thus that petroleum in the Bible is concealed 
 under the general word ' salt.' That word is both generic 
 and specific in all countries. In the later limited sense 
 it is sea or kitchen salt. In the more general sense it 
 includes a vast number of substances, of which Epsom salt 
 and Glauber salt are familiar examples. The connection 
 of salt with petroleum, in biblical language, begins early 
 in Genesis, when the Dead Sea, or Lake of Sodom, is 
 called the Salt Sea. That sea abounds in petroleum 
 springs, and has asphalt on its ancient shores. Accord- 
 ingly it has also been called the Lake Asphaltites. Many 
 things become comprehensible if we take the generic 
 term salt, and apply it to petroleum and its residue, 
 asphalt. Lot's wife, if converted into a pillar of com- 
 mon salt, would have been washed away by the first 
 shower of rain ; but a pillar of asphalt, even as a memo- 
 rial of her, would have been an enduring monument, and 
 might have been seen by Josephus and his contemporary, 
 Clement of Rome, both of whom declare that they saw 
 it. So also when we are told by Mark that ' every one 
 shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted 
 with salt,' I see a meaning only when I recollect that, in 
 regions containing petroleum, sacrificial fires were fed
 
 PETROLEUM. 165 
 
 with this fuel to aid the burning. In like manner, when 
 Matthew likens the blessed, first to salt, and immediately 
 afterwards to a lighted torch (for candles, as translated, 
 were then unknown), I see the connection in his mind. 
 He had just said that salt which had lost its savour was 
 only fit to be trodden under foot of men. Now salt 
 never does lose its savour, and is never fit to be trodden 
 under foot But petroleum does lose its essence by 
 exposure, and out of the residue the ancients used to 
 make asphalt pavements, as they do at the present 
 day. I only give some reasons for my belief that the 
 salt of the Bible, in its generic sense, was often applied 
 to petroleum ; but I admit, at the same time, that readers 
 ought not to attach much importance to my opinions on 
 any subject of biblical criticism. 
 
 " Petroleum occurs as a greenish or dark-coloured fluid 
 in many countries. In small quantities it occasionally 
 occurs in England. I found a well of it in Derbyshire 
 many years ago, and induced the late Mr. Young to 
 establish a manufactory of burning oil, and ultimately of 
 paraffin candles. This suggestion led gradually, in his 
 energetic hands, to the great petroleum industry which 
 has carried cheap light into the houses of the poor. The 
 small supply of native petroleum of Derbyshire soon 
 became exhausted, but the discovery that it could be 
 distilled out in Boghead coal and bituminous shales gave 
 a great impulse to its manufacture. In 1859 America 
 began to introduce native petroleum from Pennsylvanian 
 wells. During that year eighty thousand barrels were 
 supplied to commerce, and that quantity was thought to 
 be immense, though it was insignificant with the present
 
 1 66 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 supply, which reached thirty-seven million barrels in 
 1882. Other copious supplies of native petroleum have 
 been found in India, Burmah, and the Caucasian lands 
 about the Caspian Sea. The last source of supply is of 
 extraordinary magnitude. I may mention, however, that 
 at Surakhani, on the western shore of the Caspian, sacred 
 fires have been burning probably longer than recorded 
 history. The priests allege that the fires in their temple, 
 fed by gas issuing from the petroleum below, have 
 burned without cessation since four hundred years 
 before Christ." 
 
 Dr. Lyon Playfair holds that as no trace of organic 
 remains can be found in petroleum as it is found in 
 coal, and as petroleum is present in strata which know 
 little or nothing of such structures, it cannot be of 
 organic origin, notwithstanding that petroleum is artifi- 
 cially distilled from coal and bituminous shales at a red 
 heat. He inclines to the belief that petroleum is a mix- 
 ture of hydrocarbons, continually being manufactured in 
 the deeper parts of the earth, which oozes up through 
 cracks and fissures, and being lighter than water, makes 
 that body a means, a kind of lever, in lifting itself up 
 to the surface of the earth. " Neptunists," * he says, 
 " could not explain the formation of petroleum by 
 aqueous action ; for it is so light that it would float on the 
 top of water, and would not be buried by deposit. Vul- 
 canists of the old school would be equally perplexed, 
 because petroleum is so volatile that heat would convert 
 
 * Neptunists were an old school of scientific theorists who held that 
 the origin of all things could be traced to water ; Vulcanists, those who 
 asserted that all things owed their origin to fire. These schools for long 
 fought a keen and fiery battle.
 
 PETROLEUM. 167 
 
 it into vapour, and it would be dissipated. Indeed, I 
 recollect an instance of this kind in a quarry near Dysart, 
 in Fifeshire, where every fragment of stone freshly broken 
 smelt of petroleum." 
 
 The degree in which the petroleum oils undergo re- 
 finement determines their class and gives them their 
 distinctive name. Kerosine is the name given to the 
 best, as it is clearer, burns brighter, and has less smell 
 than that called, somewhat incorrectly, " paraffin." 
 Paraffin, strictly, is a resultant from the refuse of petro- 
 leum obtained by distillation. It was got at first, after 
 the oil had been procured, from shale, and is now in 
 much the same way procured from petroleum. Crude 
 petroleum is distilled, and the gasoline, benzoline, &c., 
 are carefully treated and refrigerated, being extremely 
 volatile ; the distillate, which is known so well as kero- 
 sine, or burning oil, then comes off, and after that the 
 heavier, darker oils, used chiefly for lubricating purposes. 
 " Paraffin," which is really a solid, wax-like substance, is 
 obtained from the remainder or refuse, which is then 
 cooled, and the paraffin, so to speak, crystallises out in 
 a white wax-like substance. It is much used nowadays 
 for candles, and for other purposes in the arts. "Paraffin" 
 tells something of its character in its name ; it means " no 
 affinity," and the substance has no affinity to anything. 
 
 Necessity stimulates invention. No sooner were the 
 petroleum-works on the Caspian set in motion than 
 great difficulty was experienced in finding vessels in 
 which to convey it. Wood is very scarce in that region, 
 so that the American plan of wooden casks involved 
 great trouble and expense, even if it had not been very
 
 168 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 cumbrous and much exposed to the risk of bursting 
 and oozing out. 
 
 The processes of refining, which are comparatively 
 light and merely mechanical compared with the process 
 of crushing and extracting the oil from shale, as was 
 done for years in Scotland on a large scale by the Messrs. 
 Young, is carried on by the Messrs. Noebel at Baku. Of 
 the external aspect of their factories our illustration will 
 give some slight idea, though only a vague suggestion 
 of their extent. 
 
 Ludwig Noebel, the Baku oil-king, who died the other 
 day, found himself equal to the task of devising a means 
 of meeting the difficulty. He hit on the plan of pump- 
 ing the oil through pipes to steamers fitted up with oil- 
 tanks. The Americans, quick-witted, forecasting and 
 ingenious though they are, refused to believe in the 
 practicability of this scheme, and as they had plenty 
 of wood, remained content with barrels. They have 
 thus, we fear, lost their chance of commanding the 
 markets of the world with their oil. 
 
 Experience has endorsed Noebel's plan. It is found 
 safer to convey oil in tanks than in barrels. The strong 
 construction which the introduction of tanks and bulk- 
 heads into steamers so directly favours renders them 
 far more seaworthy than other vessels ; and, besides, the 
 risks of explosion are greatly reduced, the one that oc- 
 curred in the Petrina having taken place, oddly enough, 
 through a piece of carelessness, when she was empty. 
 There are now over thirty tank-steamers conveying oil 
 from Russia; and though some of them were built by 
 English firms, they all belong to Russian merchants or
 
 PETROLEUM. 169 
 
 Russian companies, so that the carrying trade as well 
 as the production of the oil is entirely in Russian hands. 
 As we write, we learn that some six more tank- steamers 
 are being built on the Clyde for the Russian traders. 
 Several of these tank-steamers are now running to 
 London, each carrying about a million gallons of oil 
 on board. 
 
 Another possibility is, that from the petroleum refuse 
 at all events from the refuse of the black-tar fountains 
 may be derived those more recent substances, which, 
 like the fairy of fable, have come forth at the touch of 
 the magician's wand of chemistry. The waste products 
 of petroleum have been found to be the most valuable 
 of all. Volatile benzole and solids known as naphthaline 
 and anthracene are the chief. From the benzole can 
 be made, says Sir Lyon Playfair, those beautiful aniline 
 colours known as mauve and magenta, while out of 
 the solid naphthaline and anthracene can be prepared 
 alizarin, the red colour of madder, and also indigo, the 
 staple blue dye. As we have seen in dealing with 
 Quinine, one of the latest triumphs of chemistry is the 
 discovery of specific antifebrines in these wastes. The 
 coal-tar antifebrines are indeed likely, as we have seen, 
 in some measure to displace quinine and the alkaloids 
 of the chinchona-trees from their undisputed place as 
 specifics in certain forms of fever. The possibilities 
 of science in revealing remedial agents seem literally 
 unlimited.
 
 i;o DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 
 
 SOME time ago, when it was reported that a proposal was 
 on foot to transform the Falls of Niagara into a great 
 force for producing electricity, there were incredulous 
 persons who laughed outright at the idea and chuckled 
 over it as a fine joke. That was an illustration of the 
 way in which mere magnitude often overwhelms men's 
 minds. Niagara differs not from other waterfalls, save 
 that it is bigger ; and the same form of force has been 
 turned to practical account in view of the same end. 
 Some time since we read that two enterprising gentlemen 
 had produced light in their houses by converting into 
 that form the energy of a neighbouring waterfall, the 
 one was Sir William [now Lord] Armstrong, at his place 
 near Newcastle, and the other was an intelligent and 
 pushing hotel-proprietor in Switzerland. Water may 
 thus practically be converted into light or heat, and the 
 force which thus mysteriously transforms itself, in a more 
 wonderful manner than the genii of any fairy-tale, may 
 annihilate distance. The electric current will travel by 
 many paths to many ends ; and after all, we but imitate 
 nature in the effort we make to gain perfection in our 
 mastery of each of them. It has been well said by one
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 171 
 
 of the greatest authorities on every point respecting 
 electricity, that " the utilisation of the illimitable wasted 
 energy on the earth's surface offers a fine field for the 
 ingenuity of the electrician. The tides of the ocean, the 
 motion of the atmosphere, the rapids of a river, the 
 innumerable waterfalls that are found in every moun- 
 tainous or hilly country, could be compelled to give up, 
 in the form of electric currents, that energy which gives 
 them existence, and which could thus be employed for 
 providing power, generating heat, or supplying light, 
 away altogether from their source of conversion. 
 
 " Wherever, in truth, wires can be stretched," says Dr. 
 George Wilson, " whether suspended in the air, or buried 
 in the earth, or sunk in the sea, there our wonder- 
 working apparatus may be erected. A few square inches 
 of zinc and copper will produce for us a force which, on 
 the other side of a continent or an ocean, will speak for 
 us, write for us, print for us, keep time for us, watch 
 stars for us, and move all kinds of machinery. No dis- 
 tance will stop its march, for where the force of one 
 battery is spent it can be made to call into action 
 another, or relay battery, which will carry on the message, 
 so that if the wires were laid it might sweep round the 
 globe. Such a network of wires, we may hope, will one 
 day connect the ends of the earth, and, like the great 
 nerves of the human body, unite in living sympathy all 
 the far-scattered children of men." 
 
 We think of Emerson's words : " Nature is a great 
 storehouse of forces, and he is the benefactor of his 
 species who shows how the seeming worthless tatters in 
 her rag-shop are not waste, but, properly used up, are
 
 172 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 of unspeakable value and power." Think of the cen- 
 turies, the long millenniums, that have swept over man- 
 kind while all this world of serviceable force was prac- 
 tically unknown. The patriarchs, with their nomadic 
 faculties of observation and of meditation, no doubt 
 looked with pious awe, as Mr. Carlyle would have said, 
 at the lightnings that played in lurid zig-zags above them 
 in that Eastern sky, and wondered whence they came ; 
 but the writer of the Book of Job regarded it as the last 
 possibility of man to tame and to use them for his own 
 purposes; for he asked, "Canst thou send lightnings, 
 that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are ? " 
 
 Yet modern science has tamed the lightnings, and the 
 whole rationale of electrical science may be described 
 as a binding or insulating of a mysterious element which 
 no man can describe, and for which no one can fully 
 account The greatest scientific man is as baffled about 
 it as is the simplest peasant We know the fact of its 
 existence; and we know certain effects produced by it 
 under certain conditions ; but that is all. We live sur- 
 rounded on every hand by its tokens ; we are the slaves 
 of its capricious or sudden outbursts ; we are its masters, 
 to use and to apply it ; and yet in itself it is a mysterious 
 veiled presence which may not be spoken with face to 
 face. 
 
 The practical problem with Mrs. Dods was " to find 
 your hare." The practical problem in electricity is, if 
 not to find your force, to keep your current. It cease- 
 lessly aims at flying from you, losing itself in the air, in 
 the earth, becoming diffused, dissipated. The ancient 
 Greeks, by rubbing amber or electron (which has left its
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 173 
 
 record very clear to all time in the word electricity), got 
 a kind of current ; but they could not catch it properly 
 and tie it to a wire as we now do; and the aim of 
 scientific men has been, and still is, the search for the 
 most effectual means of tying the current to the wire 
 or finding the most efficient insulators. And as it is 
 throughout the whole of nature, so it is here. As the 
 old divine eloquently said, " All things are set over against 
 each other, and there is nothing single or separate." 
 When you have once chained your current well enough, 
 by an inevitable law it generates another. One of the 
 greatest discoveries of Faraday that most patient, im- 
 aginative, and self-denying of investigators was that, 
 if a current of electricity passes from a battery along one 
 wire, it develops a current along another and passive 
 wire stretched near it. When Faraday's wonderful dis- 
 covery of the generation of a current of electricity in a 
 passive wire stretched near a charged one had led to 
 the discovery of relays, new possibilities for telegraphy 
 seemed to be opened on all sides; and these do not 
 yet appear to have been practically laid hold of even 
 remotely. But to enable the reader to realise even faintly 
 the high point at which telegraphy has now reached, 
 we must take a hurried glance at the development of 
 the system from the beginning. The assertion is cer- 
 tainly fully justified, that the first great step in practical 
 telegraphy was made when the true function of a wire 
 in maintaining a current and producing a signal at the 
 end was clearly grasped. Oddly enough, the first realisa- 
 tion of this seems to have fallen to a Scotchman. In 
 the Scots Magazine for 1753 we find record of an
 
 174 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 "expeditious method of conveying intelligence" de- 
 scribed under the initials, C. M. There is some doubt 
 now as to who this C. M. was. Sir David Brewster says 
 that he was a Greenock man named Charles Morrison ; 
 others give his name as Charles Marshall. Be that as 
 it may, C. M. had caught a vision of the great goal. 
 He aimed at the complete insulation of the conducting 
 wire and producing a signal at the end of the wire 
 which should be visible and intelligible. He did not 
 attain to the next step of producing many signals by one 
 wire; he used a separate wire for each letter of the 
 alphabet. But the principle in his case was clear he 
 telegraphed. 
 
 The little that is known of him may be given in the 
 words of an elderly Scotch lady, who remembered a 
 " very clever man of obscure position who could make 
 lichtnin' write and speak, and who could licht a room 
 wi' coal-reek." It was a considerable time before the 
 idea clearly dawned on electricians that one wire and 
 needle could be made to represent several letters of the 
 alphabet. When, by slow degrees, the wires and needles 
 had been reduced to the lucky number five, we may say 
 that a great step in the needle-form of telegraphy had 
 been inaugurated. It was by means of one of these 
 five-needle instruments that the capture of the notorious 
 Tawell, the Quaker murderer, was effected, and a quaint 
 incident is told in connection with it which fixes it the 
 more firmly in the memory. In spite of its five needles 
 the instrument could not make the letter " q," and but 
 for the ingenuity of the telegraphist, who spelt the word 
 " Quaker," " Kwaker," the murderer would in all proba-
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 175 
 
 bility have escaped. But five-needle instruments, useful 
 as they proved in those days, are now looked upon by 
 practical telegraphists as odd specimens of antiquity. 
 
 It took nearly a whole century from the date of 
 C. M.'s somewhat rude invention to make the next 
 fruitful and definite step. Then it was that Messrs. 
 Cooke and Wheatstone introduced what is known as 
 the " double-needle " telegraph. On the night of June 
 25, 1837, it was subjected to trial by wires stretched 
 from Euston Square to Camden Town. At the one end 
 stood Mr. Cooke, at the other Professor Wheatstone. 
 " Never," says one of the inventors, " never did I feel 
 such a tumultuous sensation before as when, all alone 
 in the still room, I heard the needles click; and as I 
 spelled the words I felt all the magnitude of the inven- 
 tion, now proved to be practical beyond all cavil or 
 dispute." The double-needle telegraph held its own 
 with considerable distinction for many years, and even 
 now at many of the smaller post-offices, and on most 
 railways, its "lineal descendant" is to be found in the 
 handy " single-needle " instrument, which is, electrically 
 and mechanically, just a double-needle cut in two. 
 
 The next great step in telegraphy was due to America, 
 which, in these later years, has almost practically mono- 
 polised the inventive faculty in this department of science. 
 The name of Morse has become so associated with his 
 form of instrument, that the one is lost in the other. 
 The principle was electro-magnetic. What may be called 
 the " keeper " of the magnet is an armature or horizontal 
 lever carrying a piece of pointed metal or " style," which 
 embosses a mark upon a band of paper carried forward
 
 i;6 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 by wheel-work. The system of dots and dashes identi- 
 fied with the name of Morse, or a mere modification 
 of its working, is that now generally in use throughout 
 the world. If Morse, who had abandoned a promising 
 career as an artist for the love of electrical experiment, 
 did not realise the last possibility of his own ingenious 
 invention, he may be said to have laid down the principles 
 of all further development. It has been well said : 
 
 " The great defect in the original ' Morse ' instrument, 
 or, as it is commonly called, the ' embosser,' is the diffi- 
 culty of reading, unless under certain conditions of light 
 and shade, the embossed marks on the strip of paper, 
 as well as the unpermanent character of the record. 
 This may, however, be said to have been a mere diffi- 
 culty of detail, overcome by the introduction of the ink- 
 writer in connection with which it is proper to men- 
 tion the name of Messrs. Siemens, of London and Berlin. 
 The manipulation and electrical action of this instrument 
 are in all respects the same as those of the 'Morse;' in 
 fact, it is, to all intents and purposes, a 'Morse,' with 
 the important addition of the ink-writing principle. The 
 lever attached to the armature, which in the ' embosser ' 
 holds a style for the indentation of the strip of paper, 
 has in the case of the ink-writer a small disc attached 
 to it. This disc rests in a well or trough filled with 
 specially prepared telegraphic ink, and each time the 
 armature is drawn towards the electro-magnet the disc 
 is raised by means of the lever arrangement, and being 
 thus brought into contact with the paper as it is unwound 
 from the instrument, resembling the manner in which 
 the paper is unwound in the new 'Walter' printing-
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 177 
 
 machine, beautifully distinct marks or signs are made, 
 in place of the somewhat faint indentations produced by 
 the original instrument. These ink-writing instruments 
 are of two kinds, telegraphically described as double 
 and single current ink-writers ; the former being used 
 for long distances, where the signalling is more laboured 
 and difficult, and the latter for short distances, and 
 generally throughout the metropolis." 
 
 The name of Wheatstone soon recurs in the annals of 
 telegraphic invention in connection with his automatic 
 system, of which the distinguishing feature is, that the 
 messages are prepared beforehand by being punched 
 out on a strip of paper, somewhat after the manner of 
 the pattern of a Jacquard loom. This done, the slip 
 is simply passed through a machine called the " trans- 
 mitter " or " sender," by means of turning a handle for 
 the purpose, when, owing to the electric current being 
 broken or maintained, according to the different perfora- 
 tions in the paper, the message is recorded at the distant 
 station in exactly the same form as by the ordinary 
 Morse instrument. The transmitting process (that is, 
 after the preliminary punching has been accomplished) 
 is of so entirely mechanical a nature, that steam or other 
 power might be applied to the working of the machine, 
 and messages may be sent ad infinitum at a speed some- 
 thing like four times as great as that attained under the 
 "hand" system. 
 
 Of all the modern inventions in telegraphy, this is at 
 once the most wonderful, the most interesting, and the 
 most useful. By its means the capacity or carrying- 
 power of a wire can be increased fourfold, with, of
 
 178 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 course, a corresponding increase of staff at both ends ; 
 it is tolerably certain that the Post-Office could not 
 have coped with the immense increase of traffic which 
 has taken place since its acquisition of the telegraphs 
 but for the largely extended use which is now made of 
 this description of apparatus, pending the erection of 
 new wires, This invention was only in what might be 
 termed its experimental stage when the Post-Office took 
 over the telegraphs not more than two or three sets of 
 apparatus of this kind being in use by all the companies 
 put together. Now, however, there are some scores at 
 work in the great Central Telegraph Office, and every 
 provincial town of any importance has one or more of 
 these fast-speed appliances. 
 
 And Morse, although the principle of his original 
 instrument has been improved upon and adapted, still 
 contrives to maintain his prestige and to perpetuate his 
 fame, by what is called the " Morse sounder," which has 
 been designated the "telephone of symbolic telegraphy ;" 
 being at once cheaper to make, to work, and to main- 
 tain than the printing-machine of the early days of Post- 
 Office telegraphy. And speaking of sound-telegraphs 
 recalls the "Bell" instrument of Sir Charles Bright, 
 which may be said to have accompanied the double- 
 needle instrument into honourable retirement. In this 
 interesting form of telegraph two bells of different pitch 
 were fixed on a frame sufficiently apart to admit the 
 head of the operator, who, with a bell close up to each 
 ear, interpreted the sounds as they were given out with 
 almost lightning rapidity. 
 
 " The Morse sounder is practically the Morse instru-
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 179 
 
 ment. But inasmuch as the principal part of a recording 
 instrument is that connected with the unwinding and 
 marking the paper, the sounder may be said to be the 
 mere skeleton of the printer. The clockwork is alto- 
 gether dispensed with, and the apparatus may be said to 
 resolve itself into a pair of coils and an armature, the 
 stroke of which, as it is attracted by the electric current, 
 creates the sound from which the signals are interpreted. 
 In fact, it is little more than an electro-magnet, which 
 may almost be carried in the waistcoat-pocket, while the 
 Morse recorder, or printer, can hardly be accommodated 
 in a smaller space than eighteen inches square. Differ- 
 ence of sound in the bell instrument has been substituted 
 by duration of sound in the Morse sounder; and just as 
 a stroke on the left-hand bell indicated the ' dot ' of the 
 Morse alphabet, or the letter ' E,' so a momentary click 
 of the armature is similarly interpreted on the sounder, 
 while a more decided click would represent the ' dash ' 
 of the Morse alphabet, or the letter 'T.'" 
 
 The Post-Office erred on the side of caution in regard 
 to duplicate, adopting the view so strongly held by the 
 leading telegraph companies, that some kind of record 
 or other was necessary to the accurate transmission and 
 decipherment of the messages. But lately experience 
 has told in favour of "sound-reading." 
 
 Another interesting and ingenious form of telegraphy 
 is to be seen in the "Hughes" type-printing instrument, 
 which delivers its message in bold Roman characters, 
 and which, although discarded by the Post- Office, is 
 extensively used by the Submarine Telegraph Company 
 and on the Continent,
 
 i8o DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 It would be entirely beyond our scope to enter into 
 any elaborate account of the telegraph galleries at the 
 central office in London. Here we see most of the 
 more recent instruments in active work "Direct 
 writers," which can deliver with ease forty messages an 
 hour, duplex and quadruplex instruments, and single 
 needles for shorter distances. The rapidity with which 
 the ribbon-like bands of printed messages which faith- 
 fully preserve record are thrown out is truly astonishing. 
 While we listen to the hurried click-click, which would 
 to a stranger soon become altogether confusing, our 
 attention is directed to some " Sound " instruments which 
 demand the greatest nicety and tact in their treatment. 
 
 Here, too, we see all round the sides of the great 
 gallery the receiving and despatching boxes of the pneu- 
 matic tube system, through which, as we have seen, 
 messages are blown with the speed of lightning. What 
 would perhaps prove as interesting to the general visitor, 
 who cannot profess to grasp all the details about electrical 
 systems, currents, needles, and insulators, is the com- 
 posite character of the staff here, and the air of energy, 
 industry, and enthusiasm which everywhere prevails. 
 Great prominence is given to female labour. There are 
 over 900 female clerks in this department of the public 
 service, and, judging from appearances, they could hardly 
 be more happily employed. "The whole world," said 
 Mr. Scudamore, "is the country of the telegraphist. 
 Sitting at one end of a wire, no matter what its length, 
 he converses as easily with the clerk at the other end 
 as if he were in the same room with him. Strange as 
 it may seem, he knows by the way in which the clerk
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 181 
 
 at the other end of the wire does his work whether 
 he is passionate or sulky, cheerful or dull, sanguine or 
 phlegmatic, ill-natured or good-natured. He soon forms 
 an acquaintance with him, chats with him in the intervals 
 of work, and becomes as much his companion as if he 
 were working face to face with him." 
 
 And there is a story told by Mr. Scudamore of a 
 clerk in London who formed an attachment for, and 
 finally married, a clerk in Berlin with whom he worked ; 
 a relation which, we understand, has since then been 
 repeated with varying attendant circumstances. 
 
 It is, indeed, not a little surprising to find that elec- 
 tricity, under some circumstances, may be superseded 
 by air. To create a vacuum in a pipe or tube is merely 
 a mechanical process, accomplished in an instant by a 
 powerful steam-engine ; and for short distances, espe- 
 cially within great cities, it has been found a greater 
 saving of time to use such tubes for the despatch of the 
 actual written message than to re-telegraph them from a 
 general centre. The pneumatic tubes in London extend 
 to some twenty-one miles; and the following very 
 admirable description of the system has been written 
 by one who has given much study to the subject : 
 
 " Twenty miles of pneumatic tubes are terminated in 
 graceful curves at what is called the ' tube-board,' which 
 runs along the entire length of the central gallery, and 
 at each of the thirty tubes thus represented is stationed 
 a smart boy-attendant. Each tube is fitted with an 
 elaborate and costly brass apparatus for regulating the 
 pressure and vacuum to be applied to it, and with an 
 electric bell for signalling purposes. The 'carrier,' in
 
 1 82 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 which the messages are enclosed for transmission, is a 
 round tube-like box made of gutta-percha, and covered 
 with several coatings of felt, so as to make it nicely fit 
 the pipe through which it has to travel. The messages 
 are rolled up tightly and placed inside the carrier, either 
 singly or in half-dozens, as the pressure of business re- 
 quires. The carrier is inserted in the mouth of the 
 tube, pressure is turned on by the attendant, and away 
 it goes, round the curve which takes it up nearly to the 
 roof of the gallery, down through the flooring to the 
 level of Newgate Street, until, speeding its way along 
 busy thoroughfare and quiet court or alley, it reaches its 
 point of destination, where it will probably ascend to the 
 top of the building in which the office is situated, ap- 
 parently for no other purpose than to descend again into 
 the basement and project itself under the very nose of 
 the messenger-boy whose duty it is to 'uncork' the 
 messages and run with them to their final destination. 
 The operation takes longer to describe than most carriers 
 occupy in travelling from St. Martin's-le-Grand to their 
 destination ; and we need scarcely point out that by 
 simply reversing the process i.e., by exhausting instead 
 of charging the tubes carriers are drawn or sucked 
 inwards as easily and quickly as they are blown or 
 puffed outwards." 
 
 It was rather surprising to learn that practical tele- 
 graphists then thought that the increase of cheap tele- 
 graphy between various parts of London is more likely 
 to lie in the extension of the tubes than otherwise. 
 "Pneumatic telegrams" which could be sent closed 
 as a letter and delivered as they are received would
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 183 
 
 certainly be found of great value, lending themselves 
 to a large class of correspondents who do not care 
 to commit their secrets to telegraph clerks, however 
 skilfully contracted and disguised, or transferred to 
 imperfect cipher. So long ago as the sitting of the 
 Commission on Telegraphs in 1876 we find that this 
 topic was made prominent. Mr. R. W. Johnston, on 
 being asked the question : " Have you at all considered 
 any form by which telegrams might be sent to the public 
 without any loss of facilities, and in a cheaper mode to 
 the Post-Office ? " answered : 
 
 "I have been considering that in London, at all 
 events, for the purpose of a cheap local telegraph rate, 
 the pneumatic system might be largely extended; my 
 impression is now, and has been for some time, that 
 London will never be properly served, telegraphically, 
 until the pneumatic system is very considerably extended. 
 I think that at Charing Cross, for example, to which 
 point we have two large tubes of considerable capacity 
 now going, we ought to have a sub-central pneumatic 
 station, with tubes laid to the House of Commons, 
 which would also include ah important office in Parlia- 
 ment Street, and likewise that in Westminster Hall, and 
 also to Piccadilly, which would include an important 
 office in Piccadilly Circus, and probably also an office 
 in Regent Street; and by these means I think that 
 cheap local telegraphy might be secured. The cost, no 
 doubt, would be considerable at first, but the advantage 
 as regards a system of communication of this -kind is, 
 that the cost of laying down, at all events, is final, be- 
 cause there is practically no limit to the 'life' of a
 
 1 84 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 pneumatic tube, and we know that underground wires 
 deteriorate almost as much as over-house wires." 
 
 " Is it not likely that a large expenditure may have 
 to be incurred in the Metropolis in putting down under- 
 ground wires instead of over-house wires ? " " I do not 
 know that the expenditure in the area which I contem- 
 plate for the pneumatic tube system would be as great 
 as the expense in other parts of London, but no doubt 
 it would be considerable." 
 
 And again, in answer to the following question : " Do 
 you mean this pneumatic tube to be applied simply for 
 sending telegraphic forms, or for sending pneumatic 
 letters also ? " he said : 
 
 " I can readily conceive of a system whereby a tele- 
 gram can be written say in an office in the City and 
 put in an envelope instead of writing the name of the 
 addressee inside the message, and the envelope would 
 be stamped with the proper payment of the telegram, 
 and sent through the tube and delivered, without any 
 clerical expense whatever." 
 
 Further questions : 
 
 " By that system of pneumatic letters, would you not 
 save a great amount of clerical labour and clerical 
 charges ? Yes ; a very great deal. 
 
 "And might not the expenditure upon those tubes, 
 although the capital might be considerable, be repaid by 
 saving the cost of clerks and other persons ? I should 
 say so. 
 
 " Have you been considering, also, the question of 
 sending a less amount of words in ordinary telegrams 
 throughout the country? I have been considering, as
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 185 
 
 a corollary of the proposal made by me in a report 
 which, I think, has been printed and laid before the 
 Committee, that we should abandon the system of 
 getting the sender's address in the form as an address, 
 and adopt the practice which prevails upon the Con- 
 tinent, and also, as it would appear from Colonel Robin- 
 son's evidence, in India, and simply require the signa- 
 ture. If we have the address, let it be put upon the 
 form as a mere record, and not for any purpose of 
 signalling. 
 
 " But, supposing the sender desires his address to be 
 sent, do you not think that a little extra payment might 
 be made, so that the address might be sent? Yes; I 
 think so. 
 
 " Will you hand in that form you suggest ? I will. 
 
 " According to this form, the signature of the sender 
 is at the end, and the space between is divided into two 
 parts ; the address upon the left, if it is not to be tele- 
 graphed, is not paid for ; whereas, if the sender wishes 
 his address to be telegraphed, it is placed upon the 
 right-hand side ? Yes ; it is placed upon the right-hand 
 side, and if the sender wishes it to be sent, it must be 
 paid for. 
 
 " Do you think that form would practically give to 
 the public all the facilities which they now possess, and 
 be a great gain to the Post-Office ? Yes ; I do. I am 
 quite satisfied that our present system encourages the 
 senders of many telegrams to run to waste with regard 
 to their addresses. 
 
 "When you speak of the direct advantage likely to 
 arise from the adoption of that plan, are you referring
 
 1 86 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 to a direct increase of revenue or in the way of liberating 
 the wires ? Not so much in direct revenue as in liberat- 
 ing the wires ; there would be some direct revenue, of 
 course." 
 
 The pneumatic system has now been for years in use 
 in Manchester and Birmingham, and was recently ex- 
 tended to other four of the principal English towns, and 
 has now a length of tube at its command more than ten 
 times greater than what existed ten years ago. London 
 alone, as we have seen, has upwards of 37,000 yards, 
 or more than twenty-one miles, of leaden pipes buried 
 beneath its streets, through which open telegrams are 
 being sucked at all hours of the day and night, which 
 seems astonishing ; and yet practical men say that the 
 system should in London be very largely extended. 
 
 Other countries have availed themselves of the golden 
 opportunities which the evidence given before our 
 Commission suggested; and we regret that, as regards 
 "pneumatic letters" (telegramme fermee\ we in England 
 are precisely in the same position as before. We read 
 as follows in a recent article on the subject, and we may 
 well be sorry at the losses and failures on our own part 
 which it points out : 
 
 " Whether the German Post-Office officials have been 
 studying a report intended for our own postal authorities 
 we do not know, but it would appear that the pneumatic 
 letter system, or ' blow-post,' as it is characteristically 
 termed, is in operation in Berlin at this moment, and is 
 in course of being considerably extended. The system, 
 when complete, will comprise twenty-six kilometres of 
 tubing and fifteen stations. The tubes will be of wrought-
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 187 
 
 iron, having a bore of sixty-five millimetres, and they 
 will lie about one metre below the surface of the ground. 
 Wrought-iron tubes are the exception in our pneumatic 
 system, the method generally adopted being a leaden 
 tube enclosed in a cast-iron pipe. We are, of course, 
 unable to pronounce upon the merits of the two systems, 
 although it would appear, on the face of the matter, that 
 the freedom from corrosion, and the smoother surface 
 afforded by such a workable metal as lead, are all in 
 favour of an easier and more rapid working. The ex- 
 hausting machines and apparatus required for working 
 the Berlin system are situated at four of the fifteen 
 stations. Both compressed and rarefied air, or a com- 
 bination of the two, are employed in propelling the 
 ' carriers,' or boxes, into which the telegrams, or letters, 
 are placed, and steam-engines of about twelve horse- 
 power are used in condensing and rarefying the air. 
 Each of the four main stations has two engines, which 
 drive a compressing and an exhausting apparatus, and 
 large containers, or reservoirs, are used for the condensed 
 and rarefied air. The tension of the condensed air is 
 about three atmospheres, and that of the rarefied about 
 thirty-five millimetres of mercury ; and the former, heated 
 to 45 degrees C. by the act of compression, is cooled 
 in the reservoirs, which are surrounded with water. 
 The letters and cards which have to be forwarded are 
 of a prescribed size, twenty being the complement as- 
 signed to each ' carrier.' From ten to fifteen carriers are 
 packed and forwarded at a time a sort of pneumatic 
 'train,' in fact; and behind the last 'vehicle' is placed 
 a box with a leather ruffle, in order to secure the best
 
 1 88 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 closure of the tube. The velocity of the carriers averages 
 1000 metres per minute, and a train is despatched every 
 quarter of an hour, each of the two circuits or routes 
 into which the system is divided being traversed in 
 twenty minutes, including stoppages. The entire cost 
 of this novel and apparently complete system is estimated 
 at 1,250,000 marks; and it is always well to remember, 
 in speaking of the cost of a pneumatic system, as com- 
 pared with that of an ordinary telegraph, that the outlay 
 is as nearly final as possible, there being practically no 
 limit to the ' life ' of a pneumatic tube, especially if it be 
 constructed of lead and protected from external injury 
 by an outer coating of iron. A ' blow-post ' letter appears 
 to cost threepence in Berlin, or about one-fourth of the 
 cost of a telegram, and the average time of delivery in 
 any quarter of the city is stated to be one hour. Ad- 
 mitting our own Metropolitan telegraphic system to be 
 perfect as far as it goes, it is perfectly clear, from the 
 report of the Select Committee already referred to, that 
 a cheaper rate than one shilling for local telegrams is 
 not to be hoped for so long as the costly machinery of 
 wires, instruments, and clerks is maintained for tele- 
 graphing over distances readily compassable by the 
 pneumatic system. What strikes us, on reading an 
 account of the Berlin system, is, that these pneumatic 
 tubes afford an opportunity of combining the postal and 
 telegraph services, in such a way as to confer a maximum 
 benefit on the public at a minimum of cost. At all 
 events, it will hardly be doubted that what is necessary 
 and possible in Berlin is more necessary, and should be 
 equally possible, in London ; and it would seem to be
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 189 
 
 positive economy to replace the wires, which are now 
 happily being removed from housetops in all directions, 
 by leaden tubes to be filled with air, which costs next to 
 nothing, rather than by iron pipes full of a costly and 
 perishable combination of copper and gutta-percha." 
 
 This is a subject that well deserves the further serious 
 consideration of the authorities, the more surely that a 
 very influential organ can write in this style : 
 
 "So little has the Post-Office administration of this 
 country entered into that spirit of progress which the 
 example of Paris and Berlin present, that except in 
 London the pneumatic system is practically unknown, 
 and in the Metropolis it is used exclusively as the hand- 
 maid of the electric telegraph, never as its substitute. 
 The tubes laid down there are, if we mistake not, greater 
 in length than those described as existing in Berlin, but 
 they have no pretensions to the character of a circular 
 service, and are simply viewed as a relief from the vast 
 network of wires and service of telegraphists, which the 
 large number of messages, sent up from a few offices to 
 the central bureau, would entail. So long as the blow- 
 post is thus treated as the auxiliary of the electric tele- 
 graph, no progress will be made ; and it seems a matter 
 which our commercial men should take up, in order 
 that a different view of the subject should be attained." 
 
 With regard to the general question of reduction of 
 telegraphic rates, the Commission said in their report : 
 
 "In declining at present to make any recommenda- 
 tion for a general reduction to a sixpenny rate for short 
 messages or for local traffic, the Committee are guided 
 by the present condition of the telegraph service of the
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 State. When the clerks in the office have become ac- 
 customed to the management of their own instruments, 
 and when, by a more enlightened system of training, 
 they have an intelligent, instead of an empirical, know- 
 ledge of the work they have to perform, the Committee 
 do not doubt that there will be a large increase in the 
 capacity of wires and instruments to transmit more 
 messages than at present. Constant improvements in 
 instruments are being made, and it is difficult to place 
 a limit to the future capabilities of telegraphic opera- 
 tions. Automatic telegraphy, if the work be continuous, 
 gives a greatly increased capacity to a wire, and by a 
 proper combination of this system with hand-worked 
 instruments, the capacity for work of the various offices 
 will be considerably augmented, but at present they 
 might break down under any enlarged strain of work, 
 produced by a sudden development of the system. It 
 is due, however, to the Post-Office authorities, to say 
 that they are constantly improving their telegraphic 
 capacities for work, and that even now messages are 
 transmitted with an efficiency and regularity which, a 
 few years ago, would have been deemed impossible. 
 
 "One great point should always be borne in mind, 
 that the postal telegraph system differs from a purely 
 commercial undertaking in this, that as it was taken over 
 by the State primarily for the convenience of the public, 
 all increase of traffic which can be brought about with- 
 out loss to the revenue adds to the national value of 
 the system. Moreover, as the existing wires and staff 
 are capable of undertaking a considerably increased 
 traffic, and as it is impossible either to maintain or get
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 191 
 
 rid of superfluous wires and operatives without heavy 
 expense and loss, the desirability of developing the 
 telegraph traffic of the country up to the full capacity 
 of the system seems to your Committee to admit of 
 no dispute." 
 
 Mr. Fawcett, when waited on by a deputation whose 
 object was to urge a reduction of telegraph rates, prac- 
 tically retreated under shadow of the Treasury. With 
 his views of political economy and progress, he must 
 have felt certain forms of official restriction somewhat 
 painful ; for there can be no doubt that there is a great 
 deal of truth in the passage which we shall now venture 
 to quote : 
 
 "Those who oppose the introduction of sixpenny 
 telegrams on Mr. Fawcett's plan are reduced to this 
 argument. They object to the reform because they 
 insist on the Telegraph Department earning more than 
 three and a half per cent, on its capital. Such a con- 
 tention, however, is untenable, even on Mr. Fawcett's 
 own showing. At the beginning of his speech we find 
 him arguing that it would be unjust to tax the people 
 en masse so that some of them might get cheaper 
 telegrams in other words, unjust that the Telegraph 
 Department should work at a loss for the benefit of 
 those rich enough to use it. Surely by parity of reason- 
 ing it is also unjust to compel it to earn a higher profit 
 than that necessary to make it pay expenses, for that 
 must mean the imposition of a tax on the senders of 
 telegrams for the benefit of those who send none." 
 
 And again, with quite as effective argument : 
 
 " Mr. Fa\vcett seemed to think that his hearers might
 
 192 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 be disappointed at the effects of the contemplated ex- 
 periment upon the national revenue. But, whatever 
 might be the immediate result of the reduction, it is 
 perfectly certain that the loss involved by the sixpenny 
 rate would be very soon made good. Moreover, admit- 
 ting that the item of expense cannot be lost sight of, 
 it is not, in such a matter as this, of paramount import- 
 ance. The requirements of the country are the first 
 thing which the Government have to consider. If 
 the argument of the purse had triumphed, we should, 
 as Mr. Fawcett's analogy hinted, never have had the 
 penny postage system. That reform entailed for thirty- 
 three years a loss of revenue. The two cases are not, 
 of course, completely parallel. The necessity of six- 
 penny telegrams can hardly be compared with the neces- 
 sity which existed half-a-century ago for the institution 
 devised by the philanthropic genius of Sir Rowland Hill. 
 Yet if it can be shown that the demand is as pressing 
 and as general as the memorial of the Society of Arts 
 stated, a tolerably conclusive case will have been made 
 out for the concession." 
 
 To the great satisfaction of all interested in social 
 progress and the development of our trade, the move- 
 ment for the introduction of sixpenny telegrams was at 
 last carried, with the allowance of so many words, the 
 address of the receiver being included. There is no 
 doubt that under the old system much needless work 
 was caused through the unnecessary amplification of ad- 
 dresses, full Christian names, titles, &c., &c. If the 
 change has increased the traffic immensely, it has not, 
 save in exceptional circumstances, burdened the wires to
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 193 
 
 the extent that some were inclined to prophesy, and the 
 organisation has been so efficient that no break-down due 
 to this cause has occurred, and no delay or confusion 
 worth noting. The increase of revenue, if not so marked 
 as might have been expected, is certain, as time goes on, 
 amply to justify expectations, as the habit of using the 
 wires for many purposes, instead of writing letters, ex- 
 tends, and the great benefits in the saving of time are more 
 and more felt by the great body of the community. The 
 administration will be alive to provide means as traffic 
 increases. Telegraphing will assuredly have the effect 
 of superseding correspondence more and more, and will 
 inevitably form another in the train of causes which have 
 gone, as some folks say, to cause a marked degeneracy 
 in the epistolary art. We do not write letters nowadays, 
 they urge ; we only indite messages ; and it will form a 
 very interesting inquiry for some future Macaulay, how 
 far this assertion is based in fact. The leisurely mood 
 of mind favourable to the elaborate studied epistle, such 
 as our forefathers were fond of writing, under the idea 
 that it was bad economy to pay a shilling to send a few 
 perfunctory lines to a friend at a distance, is certainly 
 not directly developed by the use of post-cards and six- 
 penny telegrams ; and a vast social revolution such as 
 has hardly a parallel is being quietly effected by postal 
 and telegraphic reforms such as could hardly have been 
 dreamt of by those who were at the head of affairs only 
 five-and-twenty years ago. 
 
 One incubus the postal and telegraph system still 
 suffers under, and that is, the position in which it is 
 placed in relation to general revenue. The Exchequer,
 
 194 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 and the necessities of the Exchequer, still dominate ; and 
 if it must be confessed that this does exercise healthy 
 restraint in the direction of putting a check on too hasty 
 changes and speculative enterprises, it is also open to 
 the charge of retarding some of the most pressing 
 and necessary improvements, because of the immediate 
 demands that would be made for capital. Two things 
 are still waiting further development the extension of 
 the Pneumatic Tube system to form a complete circle 
 round the Metropolis, and the introduction of a system 
 of closed messages or pneumatic letters, such as we have 
 spoken of as being in use in some foreign capitals. 
 Paternal government may have its faults, but given a 
 tolerably honest and efficient administration, it is more 
 apt to carry out a system thoroughly; whereas we, in 
 this country, are, from many causes, too apt to do 
 things by halves, and hardly reap the full benefit of the 
 ideas which we have been the first to originate and to 
 introduce. 
 
 With regard to underground wires, a good deal still 
 remains to be done to put us quite on an equal footing 
 with other countries. Both in France and Germany the 
 main lines, at least, have been put underground, and in 
 France more than 12,000 miles are in daily use, and 
 such little difficulties as are incidental to their position 
 have been overcome by invention. The wires are, of 
 course, perfectly free from damage by wind-storms ; and 
 experience has proved that in the case of electric storms, 
 powerful earth-currents, &c., there is less disturbance 
 than with aerial lines. The main lines in France are, as 
 a rule, laid in trenches four feet deep, with inspection
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 195 
 
 stations at intervals of about a third of a mile, and it is 
 found that for lengths of 250 miles the speed of trans- 
 mission is quite equal to that of aerial lines. By the 
 use of " relays " at suitable intervals, it is found that the 
 length of line is practically unlimited, and the Telegraph 
 Department can afford to laugh at storms which upset 
 the posts of systems dependent on the aerial method 
 of carrying wires. Both France and Germany have a 
 special reason for putting their telegraph wires under- 
 ground, but the Americans arrived at the same deter- 
 mination from very different reasons, and passed a Bill 
 which provided that in all cities of half-a-million in- 
 habitants telegraph and other wires should be put 
 underground before the end of 1885. 
 
 After the last great storm which cut off our telegraphic 
 communications for days with some most important 
 centres a great agitation was got up ; and though some 
 little was then accomplished, the reform was not gone 
 into with the thoroughness required to make us abso- 
 lutely secure. The gaps in our armour are still all too 
 patent and too prominent to justify us in hugging our- 
 selves on our complete exemption from such another 
 "accident" as we then suffered from. Perhaps of all 
 our public departments the Post-Office has, from the 
 days of Rowland Hill, been the most ably and con- 
 scientiously administered. Whether Conservative or 
 Liberal Postmasters-General have been at the head of 
 affairs whether Lord John Manners or Mr. Fawcett or 
 Mr. Raikes they have all alike devoted themselves with 
 their whole mind and heart to developing and strengthen- 
 ing the service, with the public interests always before
 
 196 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 them ; it is the Exchequer, with its persistent demands, 
 like the daughter of the horse-leech, with its incessant 
 cry of " Give, give ! " which has mainly stood in the way. 
 The profits of such a public department should surely 
 be at the command of those who have been most influen- 
 tial in making the profits, to improve and to extend it. 
 
 Having proceeded thus far, we shall now glance briefly 
 at some of the statistical and monetary aspects of the 
 subject. The extent of telegraph lines in Great Britain 
 is, proportionately to its size, greater than that of any 
 other European State. The length of the electric wires 
 of France is 35,000 miles, of Russia 31,000, of Austria 
 29,000, and of Germany 28,000, while that of the United 
 Kingdom is 27,000. The average number of tele- 
 graphic messages sent in Great Britain is more than 
 double that of any of the nations just named. In 
 France the annual rate is one message to every five 
 persons ; in Austria, one to every seven ; in Italy, one to 
 every six ; in Russia, one to every twenty-two ; in Ger- 
 many, not quite one for every two inhabitants. In Great 
 Britain and Ireland the number of telegrams sent every 
 year exceeds that of the entire population. 
 
 Twenty-two years ago the number of miles of telegraph 
 in Great Britain was 3000 ; at the time of the transfer 
 of the system to the Post-Office there were in existence 
 15,203 miles of telegraphic line, and 59,250 miles of 
 wire. There are at the present moment more than 
 26,000 miles of line, and nearly 120,000 miles of wire; 
 while the number of instruments, which stood at the 
 time of the transfer below 2000, has been increased to 
 upwards of 8500. The combined companies forwarded
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 197 
 
 amongst them some six millions of telegrams, and their 
 revenue would be somewhere about half-a-million ster- 
 ling. In the first year after the transfer of the system 
 to the Post-Office the number of messages had risen 
 to very nearly ten millions; in 1871 more than twelve 
 and a half millions of messages had been forwarded ; in 
 1872 the number had risen to close upon fifteen millions ; 
 while for the financial year ending March 31, 1874, 
 the number was over eighteen millions. Thus, the 
 number of messages was tripled in four years, and the 
 revenue considerably more than doubled the difference 
 of proportion between the increase in the number of 
 messages and the increase in the revenue representing 
 the gain to the British public by the transaction. Since 
 the introduction of the sixpenny rate the number of 
 messages has increased by almost one-half, showing the 
 most remarkable progress and development. 
 
 And the following figures will suffice to show how 
 well the telegraphs pay, and how unfair it is that the 
 public should be the losers because of the involvements 
 of past and present, and of multifarious departments. 
 The gross receipts from the telegraphs in 1876 were 
 ,1,287,000, while the outlay for working expenses, 
 renewals, &c., was 1,090,000, which shows a profit 
 realised of 197,000. We refer to the year 1876, be- 
 cause it was the year in which that important Select 
 Committee of the House of Commons, presided over by 
 Dr. Lyon Playfair, inquired into the telegraph system 
 of the country. Passing on to the year which closed 
 on March 31, 1880, we find that the gross receipts 
 had increased to no less a sum than 1,471,000, but
 
 198 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 that the working and other expenses have not increased 
 in anything like the same ratio, owing to great economy 
 having been introduced into the service and in conse- 
 quence of improvements in the means of telegraphing. 
 This largely increased revenue was obtained at a com- 
 paratively slight addition of cost. The working ex- 
 penses had only increased from 1,090,000 in 1876 to 
 .1,117,000 in the year 1879-1880, so that the profit 
 for the last financial year was ,356,000. The profit 
 during the four following years has increased from 
 "197,000 to 354,000. Later figures exhibit an equal 
 result, which becomes all the more satisfactory when we 
 turn to the capital account. 
 
 Another way of gauging the increase may be found. 
 The total number of telegraphists employed by the 
 companies was about 2500, of whom less than 500 were 
 women ; and to this number fall to be added nearly 
 1500 message - boys, making a total of some 4000 
 persons. The Post - Office employs nearly 8000 tele- 
 graphists, of whom more than 1500 are women, while 
 the number of message-boys exceeds 4600 outnum- 
 bering the whole staff under the companies. It thus 
 appears that, in all, considerably more than 12,000 per- 
 sons are employed in the telegraph work of the United 
 Kingdom, not reckoning the " irregulars " and super- 
 numeraries. 
 
 The great point, as we would earnestly urge, is, that 
 the question of profit is not ihejirst question that ought 
 to be considered in dealing with the development of the 
 telegraph system. The public service should be pri- 
 marily studied. This thoroughly accomplished, the rest
 
 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 199 
 
 is but a matter of time. In no instance has the liberal 
 and enterprising spirit been in the long-run disappointed 
 in dealing with such affairs ; and the most politic as well 
 as the most profitable method of dealing with the whole 
 difficulty may lie in the boldest and most generous 
 spirit.
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 X. 
 
 A RAILWAY WHISTLE. 
 
 IT is sometimes said that the world knows nothing of 
 its greatest men ; it is very certain that the world does 
 not know much, if anything, of some of its most faithful 
 servants, or in the least realise what it owes to them. 
 How few when they hear a railway whistle regard it as 
 anything but a noisy and unnecessary interruption. Very 
 few, indeed, are they who know that to the ears of some 
 it speaks in very definite language, on which they must 
 act with the utmost decision and despatch. In certain 
 parts of the Metropolis, where there are railway-lines, 
 there are recurrent outbreaks of complaint about the 
 railway whistles, and the tone of most of the angry 
 letters sent to the newspapers, when the fit is on, has 
 invariably been such as to encourage the idea that the 
 railway drivers were a kind of incarnate fiends, who 
 delighted to make night as well as day hideous by the 
 use of their shrill whistles, and to torture the ears of the 
 wakeful. Unfortunate the light sleepers may have been, 
 placed in such perilous and trying proximity to a railway ; 
 but certainly the railway drivers could not do other than 
 they did, for they are bound by the very strictest rules, 
 and must not touch the whistle save when duty calls.
 
 A RAILWAY WHISTLE. 
 
 A railway whistle is a definite signal which, amongst 
 other things, brings the driver of the train directly en 
 rapport with the signalman in his box. There he stands ; 
 you may often catch a glimpse of him when travelling as 
 the train slows into the terminus or junction. He is 
 surrounded by rows of bristling steel handles, all of an 
 exact height. These are the shafts that work the points. 
 They are all carefully numbered. Besides these there 
 are in the box clocks of peculiar construction, right in 
 front of the row of shafts ; telegraphic dials and bells, as 
 well as telegraphic despatching desks ; books of record, 
 which are most jealously kept and studied. If you had 
 ever spent a few hours with signalmen in their boxes, 
 as I have done frequently, both by day and night, 
 you would find often in their hands a book somewhat re- 
 sembling a Time-table, but double the size of page, and 
 pretty thick too. This is the " Working Time-table " or 
 " Appendix to the Working Time-table," of the Com- 
 pany which they may serve, so far as it concerns them. 
 This is a document which it would surprise not a few to 
 read puzzle not a few perfectly to master and remember. 
 It tells all about the stations on the main lines and 
 branches ; gives the law of regulation of clocks in signal- 
 boxes ; a list of all the stations and signal-boxes con- 
 nected with the Message Telegraph Circuits ; classifies 
 all these stations and signal-boxes which perform train 
 signalling ; carefully sets down in tabulated form all 
 train telegraph arrangements, and follows this up with 
 a special list of leading stations in regard to which there 
 are any special points to be attended to ; then comes a 
 long catalogue of "Whistles for Engines/ 3 then a careful
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 drawing of route-indicators, with the arms in positions 
 for the various signals, and after this a list of all route- 
 indicators. Then follows a list of " Points of Inclines " 
 for intercepting railway vehicles, a list of stations where 
 "ramps" are kept and places where signalmen are re- 
 sponsible for their safety, rules relating to signal lamps, 
 &c., &c. 
 
 All this information the signalman in his box must 
 read, and he must master all of it that bears in the most 
 remote manner on his own station and its relation to 
 others by telegraphs and signals. And as details are 
 constantly being modified to meet the demands of ex- 
 tending traffic, or from other causes, he must keep him- 
 self very carefully up to time so to speak ; he certainly 
 must not be like the Bourbons, "Learn nothing, and 
 forget nothing." And I confess that, when I look at a 
 " Working Time-table," or see a signal-box now, I never 
 fail to have strengthened in me my sense of the respon- 
 sibility, importance, and ability of the men who labour 
 there. 
 
 If we take our start from the railway whistles, we can 
 work round the main circle of a signalman's duty. Strictly 
 speaking, however, we should say that the word "whistle " 
 is a misnomer in the sense we have used it in the head- 
 ing, but there is no other word that could be popularly 
 used for our purpose. There are whistles and whistles 
 the long and the short whistle, for example, carefully 
 distinguished, and there is the cock-crow. By the com- 
 bination of these, or the repetition of them, you have a 
 complete code of signals for all stations for up and down 
 trains, each having its own proper distinctive whistle,
 
 A RAILWAY WHISTLE. 203 
 
 unmistakable to the signalman, were it possible that he 
 could for the moment be absent or oblivious. Here, for 
 example, to make matters more plain, are the whistles 
 for Buchanan Street Station, Glasgow : 
 
 From Main Down-Line to No. i Arrival Platform . i Whistle. 
 From Main Down-Linp to No. 2 Arrival Platform . 2 Whistles. 
 From Main Down-Line to the Back Road . . 3 Whistles. 
 From No. i Arrival Platform to Main Up-Line, by > i Whistle and 
 
 the Crossover Road south of Signal-box . . ) i Cock-crow. 
 From No. 2 Arrival Platform to Main Up-Line, by ) 2 Whistles and 
 
 the Crossover Road south of Signal-box . . ) i Cock-crow. 
 From the Back Road to the Main Up-Line, by the ) i Long and i 
 
 Crossover Road south of Signal-box . . ) Short Whistle. 
 From No. i Arrival Platform to Main Up-Line, 
 
 by Crossover Road north of Signal-box . . 
 From No. 2 Arrival Platform to Main Up-Line . 2 Whistles. 
 From No. 3 Carriage Siding to Main Up-Line . 3 Whistles. 
 From No. 4 Departure Platform to Main Up-Line . 4 Whistles. 
 From No. 5 Departure Platform to Main Up-Line . 5 Whistles. 
 From No. 6. Carriage Siding to Main Up-Line . 6 Whistles. 
 From Main Up-Line to No. i Arrival Platform, by ) ^ Cock crQw 
 
 Crossover Road north of Signal-box . . ) 
 From Main Up-Line to No. 2 Arrival Platform . 2 Cock-crows. 
 From Main Up-Line to No. 3 Carriage Siding . 3 Whistles. 
 From Main Up-Line to No. 4 Departure Platform . 4 Whistles. 
 From Main Up-Line to No. 5 Departure Platform . 5 Whistles. 
 From Main Up-Line to No. 6 Carriage Siding . 6 Whistles. 
 From No. 5 Departure Platform to Siding at back ) p, , 
 
 of Signal-box > 
 
 From No. 6 Carriage Siding to Siding at back of ) 
 
 signal-box ! . . . . . .}' Cock-crows. 
 
 There are, of course, emergencies when engine-drivers 
 may be forced to use the whistle, such as a person on 
 the line, or other risk of " danger," and then a margin 
 must be allowed to the discretion of the driver ; but 
 the rules are imperative that the driver is not to whistle 
 more than is absolutely necessary, and for a very good 
 reason, the more he whistles the more he may confuse.
 
 204 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 This is a common form of direction in Working Time- 
 tables : 
 
 "The signalmen at So-and-so, guided by the Time- 
 table, by indicators on engines, and verbally by the station 
 officials, being in possession of information as to the trains 
 for which points are to be put in position and signals 
 cleared, drivers are not to sound the engine-whistle more 
 than absolutely necessary such as a short whistle before 
 putting on steam when the starting-signal is given, a 
 whistle to warn any one who may be on the line, or when 
 instructed by any of the station officials to give any par- 
 ticular whistle as a signal to the signalman or otherwise ; 
 and it must be distinctly understood that no such thing 
 as long and repeated whistling for signals to be taken off, 
 or from any other motive, except in some extreme emer- 
 gency, can be allowed at So-and-so." 
 
 In the daylight, therefore, the railway whistle has its 
 own special significance wherever heard, and is never 
 a sound at random ; but in the darkness of night or in 
 fog, when other signals cannot be seen, it soon becomes 
 evident of what use and importance it is. It is, then, one 
 of the most available links between drivers and signal- 
 men. In fact, railway traffic, as now conducted, would 
 not be at all possible without it, and the codes on 
 which it rests. A signalman, then, is a man on whom 
 a vast deal of responsibility lies ; he must have a clear 
 head and a good memory, a cool nerve and a steady- 
 hand. This is his ordinary duty : he must look to open 
 signals the moment any train is telegraphed to him, and 
 enter the same with exact time in the proper column of 
 a book. Then .he must set his points, where this is
 
 A RAILWAY WHISTLE.- 205 
 
 necessary, and when the train has passed he must tele- 
 graph on to next station, enter the time and fact in 
 another column of his book, and then relieve his points 
 again to be ready for the next train. Every one knows 
 the semaphore formula, " Up arm for danger ; down arm 
 for clear line." And it should be borne in mind that this 
 is not only the procedure for passenger trains, but for all 
 trains whatever ; nay, even for light engines, or for pilot 
 engines and ballast engines, and engines passing for pur- 
 poses of relief, or for a hundred other reasons ; all are 
 telegraphed, signalled, and entered without " respect of 
 persons," because to the signalman the returning coal or 
 ballast engine is just of as much importance as an express 
 train it may wreck an express train if by any oversight 
 it were getting wrong or run on the wrong metals. The 
 signalman's book is therefore a complete record of every- 
 thing that goes on by the metals past his box, and his 
 primary duty is to keep his section clear, or, if blocked, 
 to let all concerned clearly know it. 
 
 In some cases, as in that of big towns and extensive 
 junctions, the work goes on as ceaselessly by night as by 
 day. Then the goods trains roll along, then the empty 
 trucks come back, then the extra engines come in. All 
 have to be dealt with in the way we have described and 
 entered in our signalman's book, which is an extended 
 index of all the traffic of the company at the point with 
 which it deals. There is no end of extra or special 
 things to which the signalman must attend and have always 
 in readiness one of them is the fog-signal, which is most 
 important. In the depth of winter or in thick fogs the 
 signalman then has to trust almost wholly to his ears.
 
 2 o6 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 Immediately that he has cleared one train and got his 
 points straight, out he goes a little distance up or down 
 the line, as the case may be, for the next up or down 
 train, and there he attaches by a sort of wire fixture to 
 the metals a kind of slightly raised band containing an 
 explosive material. This is the fog-signal, which stands 
 to him in the place of an engine-indicator in the day- 
 light. When the first wheels of the engine pass over it, it 
 explodes and gives the signal. 
 
 Every signalman must be a fair telegraphist ; for though 
 in many cases telegraph-boys are kept, he must supervise 
 and watch them. " It is imperative that every signalman 
 be able to work the needle instrument expeditiously," 
 and " signalmen are held responsible for the telegraph- 
 boy's attention to duty." In cases where there is no 
 telegraph-boy, which, of course, happens at what are 
 deemed the less important stations, the signalman is also 
 the telegraphist, and he is thus directed : " Messages to 
 signal-boxes where there are no boys must be telegraphed 
 very slowly and distinctly, to enable the signalman to read 
 them." 
 
 But the signalman's judgment has of necessity a good 
 deal left to it, and that in circumstances that may be 
 most trying. Now and then we come on directions 
 "not to use the wire save when necessary." And to 
 give some idea of the work that in special cases and 
 cases of danger may arise the following may be 
 cited : 
 
 " In the event of a line being blocked near a telegraph 
 box, information must be sent along the circuit at once, 
 stating the time the line is likely to be blocked, and the
 
 A RAILWAY WHISTLE. 
 
 stations on the circuit must be advised when the line is 
 again clear." 
 
 The signalman's vigilance is constantly called for, 
 whether the line be worked by "train tablet," as is usual 
 now on single lines, or by what is now known as the 
 Absolute Block System. He must be always on the alert. 
 But so important now is the Absolute Block, that it may be 
 well to describe it a little more fully for clearness' sake. 
 
 Its object is to prevent more than one train or engine 
 moving in the same direction between two signal-boxes 
 at the same time. This is done by bell and gong the 
 bell for up-trains, and the gong for down-trains; and 
 there is, of course, in this a complete code of signals by 
 arrangement of beats applied to indicate exact advice. 
 Thus, for a passenger train, three beats on bell or gong ; 
 for goods train, four ditto ; for mineral train, five ditto ; 
 for light engine or engine and van, six ditto. The sema- 
 phore arm which has been raised in advance is to stand 
 at " Danger," and is to be lowered only by the signalman 
 in the signal-box in advance in acknowledgment of the 
 advice of the " Preparatory Signal " of an approaching 
 train or light engine. All outdoor fixed signals are so 
 worked as to show to drivers of approaching trains the 
 same signals as those shown at the same time on the 
 Block Telegraph instrument. No signal is cancelled 
 until after it has been acknowledged. In the copy of 
 "Working Rules" in our hand, which was in use by a 
 man of long experience on one of the Scotch lines, the 
 following has been carefully underlined by him, and will 
 exhibit the systematic observation and despatch required 
 of the signalman :
 
 208 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 11 When a train having an engine assisting behind 
 passes a signal-box, the signalman, after having trans- 
 mitted the Block Signal, and after having received the 
 acknowledgment thereof, must give one beat on the bell 
 or gong to the signalman in advance, to let him know 
 that the train has an engine behind it, which must be 
 acknowledged by one beat, and registered in Train-Book 
 accordingly, under the heading of Remarks. If the train 
 passes the next signal-box without the assisting engine, 
 the signalman there must conclude that it has broken 
 down on the section, and must not lower the semaphore 
 arm in the signal-box in the rear until the engine has 
 been removed from the section. 
 
 "When a train or light engine passes a signal-box 
 without having a tail lamp on the last vehicle as a 'last 
 vehicle ' indicator, the signalman must not lower the 
 semaphore arm in the signal-box in the rear until he 
 has given nine beats on the bell or gong (the signal to 
 stop train and examine it) to the signalman in advance, 
 and ascertained from him by means of the needle instru- 
 ment that no part of the train has broken away, although 
 it has no 'last vehicle' indicator upon it" 
 
 In addition to the duties we have named, the signal- 
 men on most lines are charged with the duty of taking 
 at the signal-boxes the numbers of the engines under 
 their direction : 
 
 " Signalmen must, as far as possible, ascertain the 
 numbers of all engines which stop at their boxes, and 
 enter the same in their train-books. This is necessary 
 to enable the working of the engines to be correctly 
 traced."
 
 A RAILWAY WHISTLE. 209 
 
 When trains are late signalmen on duty must be late 
 too : 
 
 " When trains are late, signalmen must remain on 
 duty, if necessary, until they are past, and at all signal- 
 boxes and goods and mineral yards, stations and junc- 
 tions where shunting engines are employed, and goods 
 or mineral trains late in arriving, signalmen must not go 
 off duty till the work is finished." 
 
 The following paragraph about arranging transfer from 
 day to night duty, and vice versa, will indicate that the, 
 signalman does not enjoy the luxury of short hours, 
 whatever else he may enjoy : 
 
 " In double-shifted signal-boxes, where there are no 
 relief signalmen, the change from night to day duty 
 must take place on the Sunday preceding the pay. For 
 example, the man who has been on duty for the fort- 
 night will be relieved at 6 P.M. on the Saturday by the 
 man who has been on night-duty, and who will remain 
 on duty until the traffic permits the box to be closed 
 at midnight on Sunday morning, as the case may be. 
 The man who has been on day-duty for the previous 
 fortnight will open the box on Sunday night or Monday 
 morning as the traffic demands, and will be relieved at 
 7 P.M. on Monday by the man who has been on night- 
 duty. The shift from night to day duty for the fortnight 
 will then take place at 7 A.M. and 6 P.M." 
 
 There may be some differences in detail in the work- 
 ing of different lines, but in the broad the same prin- 
 ciples hold for all. The signalman in all cases has not 
 only to receive the signal, clear, and telegraph, but to 
 
 keep exact and faithful record. The least slip on his 
 
 o
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 part might at any moment be fatal. In some cases 
 there are in a single box as many as forty or fifty shafts, 
 which have to be constantly in use. The putting of the 
 hand on one instead of on another, separated only by a 
 few inches, might be the cause of a collision, with death 
 and injury and miserable torture to hundreds of men, 
 women, and children. 
 
 Talking to a man who has been pretty nearly all 
 his life employed on a railway the other day, he said, 
 "Well, so far as I know railway work, I can't under- 
 stand why the signalman should be so poorly paid. All 
 the signalman gets is about one-half the pay of a driver. 
 Now, I do not say as the driver don't deserve all he 
 gets, but I do say as the signalman ought to get more. 
 A good driver has some 73. or 73. 6d. a day, often 
 working on Sundays, thus making something like from 
 2, 53. to 2, i os. per week regular. Your signalman, 
 even though a first-rate hand, has only from 233. to 253. 
 per week, and less experienced men acting as assistants 
 only from i8s. to 2 is. Now, it can't be said as I'm 
 an interested party, becos I never worked in a signal- 
 box, nor any of my folks, and my own father is a driver, 
 and 'ave been so nearly all his life, leastways all my life, 
 and long 'fore I was born. I speak what I feel about 
 a set of men as deserve much better nor they get, but 
 that ain't sayin' much now'days, though, after all, 'tis 
 a'most sayin' everything. They have long hours, hard 
 work, and little pay, and they work with the head just 
 as much as the manager of the line does. The slightest 
 slip on their part might lead to no end of disaster loss 
 of life and loss of limb, and pain and sorrow all round.
 
 A RAILWAY WHISTLE. 
 
 And yet how often do we hear of efforts made by the 
 poor signalmen to get is. or is. 6d. a week advance 
 of wages ! Why, we should hear something else than 
 complaints about whistles if the public only knew what 
 rests continually on the signalman's care and correct- 
 ness; that is, the safety and lives of themselves, their 
 wives and children, their friends and relatives, for every- 
 body travels nowadays, at least goes down once a year 
 to get a whiff o' country air or a waft o' sea-breeze ; and 
 certainly they could not get to their destinations with 
 despatch, and in safety and peace, if it were not for the 
 care and attention of the signalman in his box, with his 
 clocks and telegraphs, his shafts and record-book, and 
 all the rest of it." 
 
 I quite agree with my friend in this plea for the rail- 
 way signalmen of the United Kingdom. There is not 
 a class of men on whom more depends, nor a class 
 who get less recognition for their labours. The life of 
 the Queen herself is constantly committed to their care ; 
 for on a railroad, as elsewhere, all things work together ; 
 and though, no doubt, special care is taken for Her 
 Majesty's train, yet even Her Majesty's train must be 
 prepared for the way kept clear for it; and, however 
 much your manager, and secretary, and guards, and 
 station-masters, and drivers may do, a lapse on the 
 signalman's part might ruin all. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the care that can be taken, un- 
 expected things will occur, which, even in the case of 
 the Queen's train, throw the whole onus on the driver 
 and signalman. On one of the Queen's journeys from 
 Balmoral to Windsor in the summer of the year before
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 last, for instance, a strange and perhaps unexampled thing 
 happened. We take the account of it from the West- 
 moreland Gazette : 
 
 "The signalman at Hincaster Junction, about five 
 miles south of Kendal, had his lamps lit, and all appeared 
 right until a few minutes before the approach of the 
 royal train. As the train got near the junction the 
 down distant signal, which was to guide the driver of 
 the royal train, was in darkness, and for the purpose of 
 ensuring safety the train was brought to a standstill. On 
 making an inspection of the signal-lamp it was found to 
 contain a grand swarm of bees, the great number having 
 had the effect of putting out the lamp, which the signal- 
 man was unable to light again. The bees had evidently 
 been attracted by the light. Dewhurst (the signalman) 
 regrets that time would not allow of the swarm being 
 secured in a box and sent forward with the royal train." 
 
 About Christmas-time last we read in the newspapers 
 that some people declined to give the railway porters 
 Christmas-boxes, on the ground that they could not get 
 at the signalmen to make their presents to them, though 
 they held that these workers quite as much deserved 
 them, or even more. We would not counsel any nig- 
 gardliness towards the porters a most deserving, ener- 
 getic, and obliging body of men but we do wish some 
 concerted method could be adopted by which the signal- 
 men might share more practically in the good-will agoing 
 at that festive season, for here again they are at a dis- 
 advantage with those who are brought more directly in 
 contact with passengers. 
 
 Let us, then, when we hear a railway whistle hereafter,
 
 A RAILWAY WHISTLE. 
 
 think of the signalman in his box, for whom it has a 
 special meaning and message; and let us do what in 
 us lies to get further encouragement and recognition 
 shorter hours and better pay for a worthy, intelligent, 
 and highly responsible class of men who are at present 
 hardly better paid than a warehouse porter, and cer- 
 tainly very inferiorly paid to a good junior London 
 clerk. Not a few of the railway accidents that have 
 happened have been due to the weariness, and it may 
 have been private troubles, of the signalman; and to 
 keep a wife and family of perhaps six children on 235. 
 to 255. a week, as in some cases that I know of, "is 
 no easy matter, gentlemen," as Sarah Gamp was wont 
 to put it; and if you have a man preoccupied and 
 troubled in a signal-box, you certainly increase by fifty 
 per cent, or more, the risk of accidents. The public 
 are more powerful than the railway companies, strong 
 as they are ; and it is the public, after all, who are most 
 directly concerned in the perfect comfort and peace of 
 mind of the railway signalmen.
 
 214 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 XL 
 SOME HISTORICAL BEDSTEADS. 
 
 IT is a very remarkable fact that more than five thousand 
 years elapsed before mankind reached the idea of a 
 " proper bed." Previous to that men and women, even 
 those of highly civilised nations, were fain to content 
 themselves with something in the nature of a couch 
 merely raised above the ground, with a head-rest of 
 wood or other material. This was the case in Greece 
 and Rome ; and though we have testimony through 
 Mark Antony that the " Beds o' the East were soft," 
 we have no reason to conclude that they were anything 
 more than very improved versions of those of Greece 
 and Rome, and certainly not in any way approaching 
 the bed of modern days. Sir Gardner Wilkinson thinks 
 that the ancient Egyptians usually slept on their day- 
 couches, which were long and straight, sometimes with 
 a back, sometimes with carving of the heads and feet 
 of animals at the ends, made of bronze, of alabaster, of 
 gold and ivory, of inlaid wood, and richly cushioned. 
 When these were not in use mats replaced them, or 
 low pallets made of palm-boughs, with a wooden pillow 
 hollowed out for the head. In our own country some- 
 thing more like a sofa than anything else was the only
 
 SOME HISTORICAL BEDSTEADS. 215 
 
 sleeping-place of our forefathers for centuries. When 
 they went to bed, it could hardly be said that they 
 " lay down." The sofa-head prevented that. Then, even 
 after bedsteads were invented, and no end of skill in 
 decoration had been lavished upon them, the sleepers 
 lay in bed without night-dress, that article of luxury 
 (however necessary and common now) not having then 
 
 BED OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 been thought of. The sleepers took off their clothes, 
 and the poorer ones used them as bed-clothes, and 
 even with the richest much that the poorest now con- 
 siders necessary was not then to be had. There were 
 no sheets, properly speaking, nor was there any bolster, 
 these being refinements that came very late not, indeed, 
 being known at all till the end of the thirteenth century,
 
 216 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 and not in general use till the end of the fourteenth. 
 How odd it is to think of all the generations that passed 
 without having known the comfort of well - arranged 
 sheets and bolsters ! Truly we have much to be thank- 
 ful for; and yet perhaps not so much. There are no 
 such things on this earth as unmixed advantages. If 
 the earlier sleepers did not enjoy some of the luxuries 
 that are commonplace and general with us, their want 
 of constructive art in this department stood them in 
 good stead. If they did not have sheets and bolsters, 
 each at least had a " bed " to himself. The later 
 developments soon ran into defiance of all laws of 
 sanitation. No sooner did people get the idea of a 
 four-poster than they tried to excel each other, not in 
 beauty so much as in bigness, till it is clear that whole 
 families could have slept in one bed, if they did not 
 actually do so. One of our historical beds is a valuable 
 witness on this point. This is the Bed of Ware. It 
 was said to be capable of containing twelve persons, 
 and tradition assigns it to Warwick, the kingmaker. It is 
 still preserved, we learn, in an inn at Ware, in Hertford- 
 shire. It is more than twelve feet square, and has a 
 remarkably curious and richly-carved back, which by 
 means of two massive pillars at the foot supports a 
 heavy canopy, enriched with elaborate carved work. 
 Before the time of Shakespeare it was proverbial ; for 
 we find Sir Toby Belch, in " Twelfth Night," saying to 
 Sir Andrew Aguecheek about the writing of a certain 
 letter, "It is no matter how witty, so it be eloquent 
 and full of invention ; taunt him with the license of ink ; 
 if thou thoust him some thrice it will not be amiss;
 
 SOME HISTORICAL BEDSTEADS. 217 
 
 and as many lies as will lie in thy sheet of paper, 
 although the sheet were big enough for the Bed of 
 Ware in England, set them down." 
 
 From this it is quite clear that, contrary to the idea 
 that some would-be historical fictionists have of the 
 use of the thou in the English common speech of that 
 time, the " thou," whether used systematically in other 
 ways or not, was used as in the German " Du bist ein 
 Knarr ! " as a term of insult or offence. For this we 
 have Shakespeare's clear authority here. And we have 
 Shakespeare's clear authority in another matter bearing 
 more directly on our proper subject ; for by his will he 
 made a bed historical, and no end of difficulty and 
 dispute have arisen regarding it and his motives in re- 
 ference to it. To his wife, Anne Hathaway, he devised 
 his "second-best bed" with all due formality. At first 
 one has some vague fear that by this, in spite of 
 apologies, Shakespeare did her no great honour. But 
 a slight glance at antiquities may help to dissipate 
 that idea. Beds had become the chief domestic glories 
 of the time, and immense sums were spent to adorn 
 them. They were even thus specifically named in the 
 wills of sovereigns and of the chief nobility. Anne, 
 Countess of Pembroke, in 1387, bequeathed to her 
 daughter a Bed, "with the furniture of her father's 
 arms." In 1368 Lord Ferrers left to his son his "green 
 Bed with the arms thereon," and to his daughter his 
 "white Bed and all the furniture, with the arms of 
 Ferrers and Ufford thereon." Edward the Black Prince 
 bequeathed to his Confessor, Sir Robert de Walsham, 
 a large Bed of red camera, with his arms embroidered
 
 218 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 at each corner, while to another friend he left another 
 Bed of camera, flowered with blue eagles; and in 1385 
 his widow gave "to my dear son the King, my new Bed 
 of red velvet, embroidered with ostrich feathers of silver, 
 and heads of leopards of gold, with bows and leaves 
 issuing out of their mouths." So that even the Second 
 Best Bed of our great dramatist may have been a very 
 fine affair, and that he did not wish in any way to reflect 
 on Anne Hathaway by thus leaving it to her. Let us 
 hope so. 
 
 There was up till a few years ago in the town of 
 Leicester a very old-fashioned, picturesque house, with 
 old oak beams showing here and there through the 
 brickwork. It was one of the inns of the town, and 
 before the era of railways enjoyed the presence of many 
 a guest-traveller. The best bedroom contained an old 
 oak bedstead, very curiously carved. It was said that 
 on this bedstead King Richard the Third lay (whether 
 he slept or not) the night before the battle of Bos- 
 worth Field. The bedstead is in existence still, and is 
 called King Richard's bedstead. It was his own pro- 
 perty, and he was in the habit of having it carried 
 about with him from place to place. But after the 
 fatal battle of Bosworth Field the bedstead remained in 
 the possession of the landlord of the " Blue Boar," who 
 claimed it as his perquisite. Something over a hundred 
 years afterwards the bedstead came into the possession 
 of a woman, who was fortunate enough, or unfortunate 
 enough, to make a great discovery. As she was making 
 the bed one morning she heard a chinking sound, and 
 saw, to her great delight and surprise, a piece of gold
 
 SOME HISTORICAL BEDSTEADS. 219 
 
 drop on the floor. Of course, she then began carefully 
 to examine the bedstead, and found that the lower part 
 of it was hollow, and had been the King's repository of 
 funds for immediate wants. Three hundred pounds a 
 fortune in these days when money went so much further 
 than it does now was brought to light, having remained 
 hidden there all these long years. 
 
 As King Richard was not there to claim the gold, nor 
 any legitimate representative for him, the woman quickly 
 possessed herself of it. But she had much better have 
 remained in ignorance. With that strange irony which 
 often follows lucky finds and discoveries, as soon as the 
 matter became known one of her servants, in order to 
 rob her of the gold, murdered her. Thus it was said 
 in the neighbourhood of King Richard's gold, that it 
 did nobody any good. 
 
 Visitors to Versailles will remember the elaborate, 
 beautiful canopied bed of Louis XIV., on which, as he 
 lay, no doubt he revolved in his mind the schemes which 
 did so much to affect the history of France, and even 
 of the world. At Versailles, too that is, at Trianon 
 is to be seen the bed prepared for our own Queen 
 Victoria when she paid her memorable visit to the then 
 Emperor of France, when the Prince Consort, as con- 
 fessed in his Memoir, had his own doubts and some little 
 uneasiness about the " Man of Destiny," and could not 
 quite bring himself fully to share the Queen's faith in 
 him. 
 
 Beds associated with Peter the Great of Russia are 
 many ; and some doubts may arise about the genuine- 
 ness of some of them. There is one at Amsterdam,
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 and another at St. Petersburg, which may, however, be 
 accepted as genuine. 
 
 Then there is the bed of Mary Queen of Scots at 
 Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, in which we can more 
 readily believe than in that spot of blood which is 
 pointed out to us in the floor near by as being the 
 literal witness of the rough death which befell her friend 
 Rizzio. 
 
 And what could be more affecting than to look on 
 that plain little camp-bed of the Emperor William of 
 Germany at Potsdam ? As we gaze on it, we feel how 
 much of the man's character was expressed in that bit 
 of furniture, to which he was so greatly attached. 
 
 Turning from royal beds, we think of that solid 
 carved four-poster on which the great Rubens lay, and 
 which is to be seen in the Muse"e at Antwerp, as well 
 as many of the articles associated with his daily life. 
 How the sight of such things sends the imagination 
 careering over the by-ways of biography ! How the fancy 
 dances and rejoices in the sense of an affectionate inti- 
 macy with the great and good ! 
 
 Of course, if we chose to take our readers through the 
 state bedrooms of Buckingham Palace and Hampton 
 Court Palace, not to speak of Windsor Palace and St. 
 James's and Marlborough House, we should find plenty 
 of beds made historical by the fact that royalty has lain 
 in them. But that process would be endless, or almost 
 so. For it would look very insular indeed if we did 
 not somewhat extend our view, even if we did not carry 
 it quite so far as China and Peru, and glance in the 
 same way at the historical Beds of France and Germany
 
 SOME HISTORICAL BEDSTEADS. 221 
 
 and Belgium and Italy. That must wait a more auspi- 
 cious occasion; what we meant to do at present was 
 merely to draw attention to some of the Beds that had 
 become famous in literary record ; and our readers, we 
 trust, will admit that we have done so. Only a few of 
 royal Beds, as of other Beds, have been raised to this 
 happy pre-eminence.
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 XII. 
 
 KNIVES AND FORKS. 
 
 " KNOWLEDGE comes, but wisdom lingers," says the 
 Laureate. Truth to tell, on a broad view of human 
 nature and history, even knowledge seems to come 
 slowly. In saying this, we refer rather to the small 
 than to the great things of life, to matters of domestic 
 convenience and comfort rather than to great discoveries. 
 Even a good bed, as we would judge it, was a very late 
 affair, and followed long after the discovery of gun- 
 powder and the timepiece. And then it is certain that 
 up to a comparatively recent date the luxury of knives 
 and forks was unknown, and the manner in which a 
 person ate out of the dish with the fingers was a mark 
 of position or of culture. How do we know this? 
 From the records of literature most pleasantly; from 
 dry-as-dust historians less pleasantly. Chaucer affords us 
 a nai've proof that in his time this was so ; for he gives us 
 this passage in his portrait of " The Noune Prioress : " 
 
 1 ' At mete well i-taught was sche withalle ; 
 Sche leet no morsel from her lippes falle, 
 Ne wette hire fyngres in hire sauce deepe. 
 Wei cowde sche carie a morsel, and wel keepe, 
 That no drope fil uppon hire brest 
 In curtesie was sett al hire hest.
 
 KNIVES AND FORKS. 
 
 223 
 
 Hire overlippe wypud sche so clene, 
 
 That in hire cuppe was no ferthing sene 
 
 Of grees, when sche dronken had hire draught." 
 
 Forks were not introduced into England till the 
 fifteenth century ; and for a long time the use of them 
 was looked upon as a piece of affectation, if not super- 
 fine foppery. Even Queen Bess, of glorious memory, 
 hesitated for a long while to use a fork; and when she 
 did begin she was very chary of its use, and was not 
 guiltless of falling back now and then on the fingers as 
 the most effective aid to the spoon and knife. In truth, 
 the Fork had a severe fight for existence during the next 
 half-century, and was once more dropping out of use, 
 when it was reintroduced by an adventurous and obser- 
 vant gentleman named Thomas Coryale, who had been 
 in Italy, and came away enamoured with the neatness 
 with which the Italians used the fork. He had a fork 
 made for himself, without which he never travelled, 
 and had to bear a good deal of chaff, if not offensive 
 ribaldry, from the bucks of the time. They dubbed 
 him Furcifer, or the fork-bearer, and made much mirth 
 at his expense. But Thomas persevered. He was not 
 content with practice, but brought the pen to his aid 
 to commend the novelty to others. In an account of 
 his travels in Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, quaint and 
 amusing enough, if not very vigorous or original, he 
 says : 
 
 "The Italian cannot by any means endure to have 
 his dish touched with fingers, seeing all men's fingers 
 are not alike clean. . . . They do always at their meales 
 use a little fork when they cut their meate. For, while
 
 224 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 with the knife, which they hold in the one hand, they 
 cut the meate out of the dish, they fasten their forke, 
 which they hold in the other hand, upon the same 
 dishe." 
 
 But the Italians are not to be credited with the first 
 discovery of the fork. It really belongs to the Chinese, 
 and travelled northward from China, through Italy and 
 France, to England. The fear of being accused of 
 effeminacy deterred not a few at first from trying the 
 new device for neatness and cleanliness at table. The 
 satirists were down upon it. Broadsheets of the rudest 
 kind caricatured it. The dramatists did not scorn to ridi- 
 cule it, if they did not make a dead-set against it. John 
 Fletcher, in his " Queen of Corinth," speaks of the " fork- 
 carving traveller;" and Jonson says in his "Volpine" 
 
 " Then must you learn 
 The use and handling of your silver fork," 
 
 which shows that even thus early the silver fork was 
 in use in the higher circles, and that the two or three 
 pronged iron fork was the refuge of the lower classes 
 only. In village inns and rural districts the patience 
 of the traveller is sometimes still severely tried by the 
 two or three pronged iron fork, which has at several 
 periods vainly endeavoured to hold up its head and to 
 contest place with the silver four-pronged one. The 
 truth is, that a large trade was interested in the produc- 
 tion and sale of steel forks; and notwithstanding that 
 the fork-grinders were the most short-lived class in 
 England, they fought for their freedom slowly to kill 
 themselves off at their trade with a unanimity and 
 determination alike noticeable and remarkable. Steel
 
 KNIVES AND FORKS. 225 
 
 forks are doomed, however ; their day is past, and very 
 soon the few employed in making them will find them- 
 selves, like Othello, "their occupation gone." 
 
 Trifles have often determined great questions often 
 occasioned momentous events. The length of Cleo- 
 patra's nose produced a great war. So it is in the oppo- 
 site direction sometimes. Great crises affect trifles, and 
 fashions come into existence often because, like straws, 
 they are caught in some backwater or side-eddy of some 
 great movement and are finally sucked down. Steel 
 forks were more in use in America than elsewhere prior 
 to the great American Civil War, and especially did the 
 steel fork hold its place in the South. The negroes had 
 no objection to cold steel, at all events before the war, 
 and cleaned and scoured assiduously at the steel forks. 
 But the " helps " who took the place of the black ser- 
 vant in the North, and of the slave in the South, had 
 great objections to cleaning them so great that their 
 will and the little ruses resorted to by them to show 
 the disadvantages of the steel fork soon told. Nowa- 
 days steel forks are as seldom met with in the United 
 States as elsewhere. 
 
 The fork is the direct descendant of the Chinese 
 chopsticks. The knife was already an article of com- 
 mon use in England, and, just as in other things, wise 
 compromise at last won the day. The awkward move- 
 ments necessitated by the chopsticks very difficult in- 
 deed to learn the mastery of were got rid of by the 
 improved chopstick alongside of the fork. One did not 
 then need cunningly to shove or bundle the meat into the 
 mouth, so to speak, but could cut it up into the smallest
 
 226 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 portions, and convey them to the mouth in the most 
 leisurely way separately. That this was not possible with 
 the chopsticks is evident when we think of the position 
 of those using them. A number of little saucers are 
 placed in front of the diner, with vegetables and little 
 bits of meat of different kinds already neatly cut up in 
 them. The Chinaman, holding his basin in one hand, 
 picks up a piece of meat and vegetables with his chop- 
 sticks, and dropping it in amongst the rice, holds the 
 basin close to his chin, and pushes rice, meat, and vege- 
 tables all together into his mouth with a sidelong move- 
 ment of the chopsticks. 
 
 Eastern hospitality, and, indeed, some of our own 
 early social life, would be shorn of much of their poetry 
 and romance if we did not clearly realise that knives 
 and forks were not in fashion then. Our Saviour Him- 
 self spoke of one that ate out of the same dish with Him 
 betraying Him ; and thus we are made to feel that eat- 
 ing together in the East implies a much closer and more 
 intimate relation than it can possibly do with us now- 
 adays, when each individual has his own proper dish 
 and his knife and fork. A traveller in the East, mixing 
 among the people of the upper class, describes his sensa- 
 tions when those who were at meat with him (we cannot 
 say table, for there really was none), when they observed 
 what they deemed any cessation of eating or failure of 
 enjoyment, as they fancied, on his part, would with 
 their fingers pick some tit-bit out of their dish and 
 put it in his mouth. Very kindly meant, but rather 
 trying, as you can conceive, to one used from child- 
 hood to a knife and fork. But the whole spirit of
 
 KNIVES AND FORKS. 227 
 
 Eastern hospitality is in it, and the eating together of 
 the New Testament cannot be fully realised unless we 
 get thoroughly rid of the accompaniment of knives and 
 forks and their associations. 
 
 It goes without saying, therefore, that if we got the 
 original idea of the table-fork from China, we have 
 greatly improved upon the original, as it is our wont 
 to do. Our four-pronged silver forks are really all that 
 could be desired for their purpose, and there is little 
 likelihood that much improvement in that direction will 
 be possible even to advanced science. But we also see 
 from the history of forks how long humanity has had to 
 wait for the most ordinary discovery in small affairs of 
 personal comfort ; how loth it was to adopt the improve- 
 ment; and how, suddenly adopting the new method, it 
 contentedly settles down to enjoy it, too often forgetting 
 even the names of the first innovators who had to fight 
 for freedom in doing it a service. So we need not be 
 too proud of our forefathers (or of ourselves?) when we 
 wield our knife and neat silver four-pronged fork.
 
 228 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 XIII. 
 ARSENIC IN INDUSTRY. 
 
 ARSENIC has a bad repute. It is better known as a 
 poison than as a useful article in many industrial arts. 
 And even in these arts, at all events in some of them, 
 a bad odour goes with it. It is apt to reveal itself in 
 many unpleasant phases, and to make the medium to 
 which it is conveyed a mere minister of poisonous in- 
 fluences. Wall-papers especially have been its agents 
 for evil, giving off dust that poisoned people. It has 
 infected others through the skin when used as an ele- 
 ment in the dyes of gloves and underclothing; and, 
 on the whole, save in the hands of the chemists and 
 doctors, it is a thing to keep clear of by any means one 
 can. Nevertheless it has its own uses ; and some of 
 these we shall proceed to illustrate, as well as some 
 of its delinquencies when foisted upon us by none too 
 scrupulous traders in the amiable and attractive disguises 
 which evil of whatever sort is only too apt to assume. 
 
 To understand better what we have to say, we may, 
 in the outset, as well try in a simple way to answer the 
 question, What is arsenic ? and How is it produced ? 
 
 Arsenic is a powder derived from the slow combus- 
 tion of certain metallic substances. These are called
 
 ARSENIC IN INDUSTRY. 229 
 
 arsenical pyrites or leuco-pyrites, and all alike carry in 
 them colouring elements which are almost essential to 
 the production of certain shades alike in paints, dyes, 
 and coloured papers. It may be that now, through the 
 wonderful developments of the coal-tar dyes, we may 
 feel a little more independent of arsenic, yet in some 
 colours and in some mediums, if we will have certain 
 shades and tints, we must run the risk of the presence 
 of arsenic in greater or lesser proportion, though it must 
 be added in justice that all the coal-tar dyes are not 
 innocent of poisonous effects. 
 
 Arsenic is a whitish crystalline powder which feels 
 decidedly gritty, like fine sand, when placed between the 
 teeth, and it has a well-marked taste. It is exceedingly 
 heavy ; if you were to try to lift up a bottle of it, you 
 would be surprised, and fancy it was solid lead instead 
 of a white powder till you looked again and assured 
 yourself. Nevertheless, though so heavy, it does not 
 wholly sink in water, but conducts itself under these 
 new circumstances very much as ordinary wheat-flour 
 would do. A large proportion of it would float on the 
 top, and what of it did sink would roll itself into little 
 round pellets, wetted only on the outside, and with a 
 little compact mass of flour still within. 
 
 The substances from which it is obtained, termed 
 arsenical nicheloses, surrender it by a process of roasting 
 in great iron cylinders; rising as vapour into a some- 
 what cool flue, it is there deposited. The raw material 
 is found extensively in Cornwall and Devonshire, and is 
 also distributed over sections of the Continent, espe- 
 cially in parts of Germany, where it is extensively pro-
 
 230 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 duced. One of the largest places of production in our 
 country is the Great Devon Consols Mine, of which Dr. 
 Oxall is or was the able superintendent. The first thing 
 that is introduced to your notice in going over the works 
 are gigantic revolving or cylindrical furnaces or calciners. 
 Within these may be seen great masses of incandescent 
 metal, glowing with hues that might well be deemed 
 unearthly. In the interior of the cylinder great iron 
 spikes at regular intervals toss the glowing mass about, 
 the friction serving to maintain the combustion. Duly 
 regulated by a proper proportionate mixture of the 
 arsenical pyrites with sulphur, the combustion can be 
 kept for days without using a single pound of coal. 
 
 These gigantic cylinders, we were told, were formed 
 of disused boilers. Their use is to extract and refine 
 the arsenic, which, after fusion in the calciner, passes in 
 vapour, as already said, into flues, only kept at a cooler 
 temperature, from which it is collected and reduced to 
 that fine powder, so dangerous, yet, from its resemblance 
 to flour, might so easily be mistaken, or mixed with 
 murderous intent. Of this deadly stuff no less than 
 200 tons per month were turned out here at the time 
 of which we speak (some years ago), reaching the grand 
 total then of 67,000 tons since the mine was opened, 
 sufficient or more than sufficient, probably, to poison 
 the whole human race. What marvellous powers are 
 indeed lodged in the hands of man ! Any incipient 
 Williams, or Brinvilliers, or Mrs. Manning would be a 
 dangerous person to have free access to these stores ! 
 
 Piles of barrels lay in the yard, ready for shipment to 
 various parts of the world; a small army of men em-
 
 ARSENIC IN INDUSTRY. 231 
 
 ployed in filling, closing the casks, and rolling them 
 about men who did not, on the whole, look as though 
 the work had such a very deleterious effect upon them, 
 though it must be admitted here and there one looked 
 pale, emaciated, and without energy. Inquiry, how- 
 ever, brought the information that, on the whole, things 
 were in this respect far better than might have been 
 expected. Like everything else, arsenic has some re- 
 deeming qualities, at least looked at as a material to 
 work among. The employe's were reported remarkably 
 free from everything in the shape of asthma, and could 
 walk long distances without fatigue. One man, who 
 had formerly worked in a lead-mine, declared that he 
 regarded the lead as more unhealthy than the arsenic, 
 but he may have been a person with some peculiarities of 
 constitution. 
 
 The ore in this mine consists of three parts copper, 
 fifteen of arsenic, fifteen of sulphur, and sixty-seven of 
 iron and silica. Of these the copper and arsenic are the 
 most valuable. Of course, before the ore is exposed to 
 heat it has to be broken down. Great masses of ore 
 are delivered to the balmaidens or cobbers, who sit with a 
 large iron hammer in one hand, whilst the other is 
 strongly cased in leather or carpet, to prevent any acci- 
 dent, and with the hammer they chip small pieces from 
 the vast blocks, which give out a sharp metallic ring 
 when struck. These small chips are immersed in water, 
 and thrown in heaps upon long wooden tables. On each 
 side of these recline a row of young girls, who, with 
 three small wooden trays and a bent piece of hoop-iron 
 before them, deftly sort out the chips, and dexterously
 
 232 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 place them in the proper trays according to the several 
 kinds of ore, throwing down beneath the table the less 
 valuable material, which, however, undergoes its own 
 proper treatment, that the merest atom of wealth may 
 be extracted from it. These pieces, put into the trays, 
 then go to the calciners, or are made to undergo some 
 other process that has the same practical results. 
 
 Even the waste from the washings is utilised. It is 
 conveyed by wooden gutters or spouts into shallow pits 
 where pieces of old iron are deposited to attract and 
 absorb the latent copper, &c., that may be there. This 
 is scraped from them frequently, and we were informed 
 that the quantity obtained was estimated at from four to 
 seven grains per gallon, amounting to many tons in the 
 course of the year. The whole process carried on here 
 contrasts very forcibly with the old smelting, by which 
 no end of valuable chemical constituents were lost, 
 which now, at the beck of science, come forth to be of 
 the utmost service in manufacture, the arts, and in 
 medicine. 
 
 There can be no doubt that arsenic as a pigment in 
 many forms is deleterious to health. Mr. Henry Carr, 
 a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, but retired 
 from the active practice of his profession, some years 
 ago became convinced, from circumstances within his 
 own experience, that the evil was much more common 
 than was generally supposed, and set on foot systematic 
 inquiries on the subject. The result was such as to 
 confirm him in his agitation against the use of arsenic in 
 wall-papers, gauze, tulle, curtains, and even gloves and 
 under-garments ; and he collected quite a volume of
 
 ARSENIC IN INDUSTRY. 233 
 
 attested information on the subject, which he has printed 
 in the form of circulars and pamphlets, and as a lecture 
 which he delivered before the Society of Arts. He says 
 that " arsenic is, in fact, present in such a variety of 
 dyes and colours as to render any judgment from colour 
 on the part of the general public entirely out of the 
 question ; " and he adds : " It should be observed that 
 it is not arsenic merely that renders aniline colours 
 poisonous, some being found highly injurious, where, 
 after careful analysis, there was clearly no arsenic pre- 
 sent in the fabric." 
 
 " In the case of wall-papers," he goes on, " the green, 
 as a rule, contain more arsenic than others ; but colour, 
 whether in papers or other fabrics, is no guarantee of 
 freedom from arsenic. ... In all probability arsenic, as 
 a pigment, was first used in greens, and this may have 
 given rise to the erroneous impression that it is green 
 alone that is injurious, whereas colour is no guide what- 
 ever to the purchaser. The danger is simply in propor- 
 tion to the quantity of arsenic, and in proportion to the 
 facility with which it may be removed from the fabric, 
 either as dust or as gas. . . . The question whether one 
 is poisoned by dust or gas is a matter of interest to the 
 medical profession, but it is of little consequence to the 
 public, the practical fact for their consideration being 
 this, that great numbers do suffer more or less, many 
 most severely, from poisoning by arsenical fabrics ; and 
 that, when the mischief has gone too far, they do recover 
 on removal of the arsenical paper or other fabric, thus 
 demonstrating the origin of the malady." 
 
 The following, in the shortest possible compass, are
 
 234 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 set down as the ordinary symptoms of arsenical poison- 
 ing: 
 
 "The symptoms of chronic poisoning by arsenic 
 begin with what appears to be an ordinary cold and 
 cough ; dryness and irritation of the throat and frequent 
 headache ; extreme restlessness ; great debility, accom- 
 panied by cold clammy sweats ; cramps of the legs ; 
 convulsive twitchings ; and a group of nervous symp- 
 toms, varying in each case. Inflammation or irritation 
 and smarting of the eyes and nostrils is often the most 
 marked symptom, lasting for days, weeks, or months, 
 sometimes accompanied by irritation of the whole 
 mucous tract, short dry cough, sore throat, running on 
 to diphtheritic throat; ulceration and soreness of the 
 mouth and tongue ; irritative fever, which if persistent' 
 exhausts the patients, and death takes place by collapse, 
 coma, or convulsions. Among the symptoms there has 
 been occasionally irritation of the skin, accompanied 
 with eruptions." 
 
 Mr. Carr collected the most valuable testimony from 
 medical men on the subject ; perhaps as curious and 
 interesting a case as any was that of Dr. J. Lauder 
 Brunton, Lecturer on Materia Medica to St. Bartholo- 
 mew's Hospital, and editor of the well-known medical 
 journal, " The Practitioner." Dr. Brunton wrote : 
 
 " The paper which caused such an injury to my own 
 health was a dull green, such as one would hardly 
 suspect to contain arsenic arsenical greens being gene- 
 rally thought to be bright greens only, I have heard 
 that many other colours contain arsenic, but have no 
 personal experience on this subject. It is not a com-
 
 ARSENIC IN INDUSTRY. 235 
 
 bination of arsenic and copper only which is injurious, 
 but arsenic when present in wall-papers as a pigment of 
 any kind will do mischief, the injurious action being 
 due to a combination of arsenic with the paste by which 
 they are fixed to the wall. An organic compound of 
 arsenic is thus formed which is exceedingly poisonous, 
 much more so apparently than arsenic itself. For a 
 long time I did not believe in the injurious effects of 
 arsenical wall-papers, because I knew that patients could 
 take, as a medicine, without any bad result, more arsenic 
 than they were likely to get from the paper of their 
 room ; and it was only after I had learned to my cost,- 
 how very powerful for evil arsenical wall-papers are, that 
 I became acquainted with the explanation. The most 
 marked symptoms in my own case were severe griping 
 followed by dysentery, although running from the nose 
 and dry cough were not absent." 
 
 " Death in the pot " was an old phrase ; death in the 
 wails and in dress, it would seem, should become a new 
 one. Wall-papers which contain arsenic have been fre- 
 quently offered to customers and sold as non-arsenical ; 
 and it certainly seems that something should be done 
 of a more strict and thorough kind than has yet been 
 done to deal with the sale of these domestic poisons. 
 Mr. John Bright was strong in his dictum that " adultera- 
 tion was only another form of competition ; " but surely 
 he would have desired to make such things as these 
 impossible. 
 
 Besides the uses to which arsenic is applied in in- 
 dustry already noted, we may mention that, in combina- 
 tion with potash, it forms an efficient sheep-wash, A
 
 236 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 combination of arsenious acid and the oxide of copper 
 is a pigment largely used as a cheap new paint. A great 
 deal of arsenic is used for poisoning wild animals and 
 birds. The rooks in some localities at certain times have 
 suffered much from grain steeped in a solution of arsenic 
 being thrown down to them ; and cows and horses have 
 also been injured through partaking of it. 
 
 Arsenic is also used, more extensively in some coun- 
 tries than would be believed, to improve the complexion, 
 and its devotees in this respect (who, like opium-eaters, 
 by persistence in their dose, come not only to bear it, 
 but to like it) attribute to it other good effects on health, 
 and say that it increases the capabilities of endurance 
 in many ways, enabling them, by adding to the powers 
 of respiration, to carry loads and to climb hills with 
 greater ease and springiness. Though the practice of 
 arsenic-eating is not unknown in England, we learn that 
 others abroad outstrip us in this taste, and that in some 
 parts of Austria, more especially in Syria, Carinthia, 
 Salzburg, the Tyrol, Lower Austria, and the Erz-Ge- 
 birge, arsenic-eating is not only extensively used by the 
 peasant-girls, with the view of increasing their personal 
 attractions, but is largely eaten by the men also, with the 
 ends we have named above chiefly in view, though male 
 vanity as to clear complexion may also have a share in 
 leading to the beginning of the habit. It is said the 
 arsenic-eaters do not shorten their lives by the indul- 
 gence. Truly, what is one man's poison is another 
 man's meat; for those whom we have met with who 
 were compelled to take arsenic for various forms of 
 eczema did not speak of it as very attractive, but as
 
 ARSENIC IN INDUSTRY. 237 
 
 producing sensations the reverse of pleasant or likely 
 to lead to indulgence in the drug. At first a dose is 
 taken once a week or so, afterwards more frequently, 
 till, as the constitution accommodates itself to the action 
 of the drug, it may be taken daily. Authorities tell us, 
 indeed, that there are authenticated cases of men who 
 take six grains enough to poison three men at one 
 dose without inconvenience, and with the best effects 
 on the digestive organs and the breathing. The penalty 
 has to be paid, however, as in all such cases of indul- 
 gence. The arsenic-eater, like the opium-eater, cannot 
 relinquish the dose when he has once begun and has 
 made it a habit He is the slave of his own indulgences, 
 and the tendency is always to increase. "Terrible 
 heart-gnawings invariably follow any attempt gradually 
 to stop the practice ; and sudden cessation causes death. 
 That arsenic can be taken habitually for any length of 
 time with impunity was formerly regarded as a physio- 
 logical impossibility ; and yet the fact is established on 
 unquestionable evidence." 
 
 "The production of arsenic in this country," says 
 Mr. Carr in his lecture before the Society of Arts some 
 years ago, "is on a scale that will surprise most people; 
 when it is borne in mind that two or three grains will 
 destroy the life of a healthy man, an output of 4809 
 tons, value ^30,420, in one year, does indeed seem a 
 large quantity to be dealt with. This quantity of arsenic 
 is produced from twenty mines in Cornwall and Devon- 
 shire; it is an ingredient of copper and tin ores, and 
 has to be separated from the metals in the process of 
 smelting. The arsenic sublimed in the furnaces is de-
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 posited in a crystalline form in long galleries, through 
 which the fumes are made to pass. The crude arsenic 
 thus deposited is collected at long intervals and passed 
 on to the refiners. There are but six firms of refiners ; 
 from these information has been sought as to the quan- 
 tity of arsenic used for colour manufacture and for 
 dyeing, but no replies have been received. A reply to 
 the inquiry as to how much of a virulent poison is sent 
 out annually for use in our domestic fabrics was, per- 
 haps, hardly to be looked for. The withholding such 
 information is certainly no ground for complaint ; at the 
 same time, it may be gathered that the less the public 
 know about this matter the better for the trade. 
 
 " As the arsenic must be separated from the metal, the 
 expense of collection probably is small, and the bulk of 
 the ^30,420 per annum may be looked upon as profit. 
 
 "Large quantities of arsenic are used for sheep-wash, 
 for poisoning seed grain, in the manufacture of glass, 
 for killing vermin, for preserving anatomical specimens, 
 &c., as well as in pigments and dyes ; but what the 
 proportions used for the different purposes are, or how 
 the 4809 tons are distributed, there is no information 
 to show." 
 
 This subject, "Our Domestic Poisons," arsenic in 
 particular, has been considered of such importance that 
 the Medical Society of London thought well to appoint 
 a special committee to investigate the subject, with a 
 view to bringing the matter under the consideration of 
 the Local Government Board. A paper was also read 
 before that Society, on the medical view of the question, 
 by Mr. Jabez Hogg, M.R.C.S.
 
 ARSENIC IN INDUSTRY. 239 
 
 With a view to the investigation of the action of 
 arsenical fabrics, experiments have been made to test the 
 presence of arsenic in air exposed to arsenical papers. 
 Mr. Phillips, in the second report of the Commissioners 
 of Inland Revenue, 1858, gives the result of his attempts. 
 He failed to detect arsenic in gaseous combination, and 
 goes on to say : " It is probable that persons have been 
 affected by inhabiting rooms papered with arsenical 
 hangings, not because the arsenious acid has been vola- 
 tilised, but from minute particles of arsenite of copper 
 dispersed in the air ; " thus upholding the dust as against 
 the gaseous theory. Dr. Alfred Taylor also considers 
 the arsenical dust as the principal cause of mischief, 
 though in some cases, arseniuretted hydrogen might be 
 evolved. 
 
 As no effectual chemical antidote to arsenic has yet 
 been found, it is the more needful for the public to 
 be cautious.
 
 240 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 
 
 MANY readers doubtless felt that Mr. Wilkie Collins's 
 " Moonstone " was exceedingly sensational and overdone, 
 with its many episodes, narratives of different persons, 
 its sleep-walking scenes, its mysteries, and all the rest of 
 it. But, indeed, the stories of some famous diamonds 
 are almost equally sensational, full of incidents, plots, 
 surprises. As in Mr. Wilkie Collins's story, they have 
 flashed in the eyes of idols ; been stolen, hidden, buried 
 in the earth or thrown into the sea ; have travelled from 
 country to country, been lost for ages, and most unex- 
 pectedly and wonderfully recovered, to figure over again 
 on idols or to adorn the crowns of kings, inwoven with 
 the histories of famous dynasties. They have under- 
 gone transformations manifold, been even cut in two, 
 and, long after, the parts recovered and brought together 
 from distant points, anew in company to flash and dazzle 
 and excite the admiration, wonder, and cupidity of men 
 and women, as in the former times. They have even 
 been swallowed under murderous attack, and found after- 
 wards in the body of the victim. 
 
 It is no wonder, then, that the most extraordinary 
 romances have been woven round these precious stones,
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 241 
 
 nor that the ancients, knowing little or nothing of the 
 chemistry of the subject, should cherish the most extra- 
 ordinary beliefs as to their properties. It was believed 
 that they were incombustible, and that no force could 
 brea"k them. The hardness of the diamond is prover- 
 bial, embodied in the common phrase, " Diamond cut 
 diamond," which simply asserts one remarkable property 
 the stones possess ; but incombustibility and unbreak- 
 ability are not among them, though, as we shall see, these 
 beliefs have sometimes resulted in great loss and dis- 
 appointment. " All diamonds," writes Pliny, " are tested 
 upon an anvil by blows from a hammer, which they 
 resist to the extent of causing sparks to fly from all 
 sides, and the anvil is oftentimes destroyed." Pliny died 
 in the year 69 A.D., but for centuries the belief remained 
 in full strength. We read that, even in 1476, during 
 the battle of Morat, the French burst into the tent of 
 Charles the Bold and discovered a treasure of dia- 
 monds, which they proceeded to test by beating them 
 with heavy hammers, with the result of utterly destroying 
 them all. 
 
 The theory of the incombustibility of the diamond 
 has been completely exploded by the experiments of 
 chemists. Lavoissier, Morren, and Dumas have estab- 
 lished the fact that diamonds, upon exposure to great 
 heat, do not melt, but burn away in layers. The expe- 
 rience of glaziers, too, suffices to prove that the diamond 
 wears away under continued friction. A diamond in 
 continual use for glass-cutting is exhausted in about six 
 weeks. Experts, however, have by calculation come to 
 the conclusion that a diamond will travel over some 
 
 Q
 
 242 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 thirty miles of glass before it becomes useless for this 
 purpose. Not every diamond, however, will cut glass, 
 but only that of naturally acute angles. Science tells us 
 that the diamond cannot be acted on by any acid, how- 
 ever strong. 
 
 One other use to which the diamond is put we must 
 notice in a word or two. This is its employment in an 
 
 DIAMOND STONE-SHARPENING MACHINE 
 
 apparatus for the sharpening or putting an edge upon 
 millstones. The diamond is fixed in a well or socket, 
 and the edge of the stone in some degree exposed to it 
 as it revolves quickly some 6000 times per minute. 
 Our illustration will give some idea of this useful and 
 ingenious contrivance. 
 
 Diamonds are found of all colours white, yellow, 
 orange, red, pink, brown, green, blue, black, and opales-
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 243 
 
 cent. The most valuable are those of pure white. Sir 
 David Brewster made many experiments on diamonds, 
 particularly as relative to their refracting power. He 
 found that they did not polarise light, but sometimes it 
 underwent a slight change in passing through ; and to 
 this the diamond owes its great brilliancy and play. 
 
 India, which once produced the great supply of dia- 
 monds, has now become almost, if not altogether, ex- 
 hausted. Many thousands of persons were at one time 
 employed in the Golconda mines, and in cutting, split- 
 ting, and polishing diamonds two special classes, dis- 
 tinct and separate, having indeed monopolised the latter 
 industries ; a people with a mixture, it is said, of Arab 
 and negro blood. The Indian diamond is different in 
 specific gravity from the diamond of Brazil (which coun- 
 try came in with the supply on the failure of the Indian 
 source), and even when only of equal whiteness, seems to 
 possess more lustre and brilliancy, and they are worth 
 more, than the Brazilian. 
 
 Two elements decide the value of diamonds their 
 purity and brilliancy, and their size. Given the former 
 qualities in the first water, the size decides, in a general 
 way, the price, and this increases in proportion to the 
 square of their weight. A stone of two carats is worth 
 four times as much as a stone of one carat, and one of 
 three carats nine times as much, and so on by precise 
 arithmetical calculation. A diamond of one carat is 
 about the size of an ordinary pea, and it may be worth 
 about 20. 
 
 Of late there has been great increase in the supply of 
 diamonds through the opening of the diamond-fields
 
 244 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 at the Cape and elsewhere (Mr. Anthony Trollope, in 
 one of his travel-volumes, gives a vivid description of 
 the manner of mining at Kimberley, and of the mode 
 in which the diamonds are transported and guarded 
 on the way down from the diamond-fields there) ; and 
 they have caused a kind of glutting of the market in dia- 
 monds within a certain range of size, so that it is said 
 the price will hardly cover the cost of production ; and 
 it has even been recommended that some limit should 
 be set upon the output. " Were the four great mines of 
 the diamond-fields worked as one concern," says a cor- 
 respondent at Johannisburg, writing to a morning paper, 
 " the directors could do something effective in control. 
 It is even possible that the costly gem may be found in 
 many fresh places, and become so common that it will 
 not pay to mine unless some fresh use should be found 
 for it similar to that for boring purposes some practical 
 use, in fact, that will consume a great many stones and 
 keep up the price." So that it is evident diamonds, like 
 other things, in the last result, obey the ordinary law of 
 supply and demand. 
 
 Notwithstanding the antiquity of the diamond and the 
 immense value set upon it, the art of diamond cutting 
 and polishing, as we know it now, is of comparatively 
 late date. From India we have nothing to learn. The 
 diamond-workers there were inclined to sacrifice almost 
 everything to secure weight, and never thoroughly 
 mastered the principle of increasing the brilliancy by 
 multiplying the facets. Many of the finest old Indian 
 diamonds have been recut by modern hands. In 1456 
 the good fortune of developing the modern system of
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 24; 
 
 cutting diamonds into regular facets was discovered by 
 Louis van Berghem. The famous " Sancy " was one of 
 the jewels he recut, committed to him by the French 
 King for this purpose from his treasury. Berghem's 
 pupils established themselves at Antwerp and Amster- 
 dam (he belonged to the latter place), which thus became 
 centres of the diamond industry; Amsterdam even at 
 this day maintaining its pre-eminence in this respect. 
 
 The system may well demand a word. The diamonds 
 are fixed into the prepared end of sticks like hammer- 
 handles with a powerful cement. " The workman, who 
 has leathern gloves on his hands, as well as a leathern 
 stall on the right thumb, takes a stick in each hand, and 
 leaning them against two upright pieces of iron fastened 
 on the edge of the cutting-bench, rubs the two diamonds 
 together until he has produced a flat, even surface (which 
 is a facet), instead of the concave or convex form of 
 the natural stone. By this means two facets are cut on 
 two different stones at the same time. The dust or 
 diamond powder which falls is received in a small box 
 containing oil, and the powder is burnt before being 
 used, to free it from the particles of cement that become 
 mixed with it." 
 
 The process of cutting only gives eighteen facets ; the 
 after-work which secures the rest is called polishing, 
 and this is done by means of diamond powder on a 
 steel dish called " skaif," which is made to revolve very 
 quickly, by means of steam or horse-power. 
 
 Diamonds, when the natural form is bad, are split; 
 the workman, being very skilled, knows well the lines 
 of natural cleavage, and works on them. " In order to
 
 246 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 split a diamond, it is fastened into a stick, the top of 
 which contains cement, and the part to be split off is 
 left unsevered ; to avoid missing the proper plane of 
 cleavage, a line is scratched on the surface with another 
 diamond, to mark the exact place. To make this line 
 three diamonds are used successively ; the first a com- 
 plete crystal, which marks out the direction ; then a 
 sharp splinter, to deepen the impression ; and lastly, a 
 very fine splinter, to make a very deep mark. The 
 cement-stick is placed upright in a piece of lead fastened 
 to the workman's bench, a very fine knife is then inserted 
 in the mark made, and the stone is split by a smart 
 blow from a hammer." * 
 
 The fact of the purely geometrical forms of the 
 diamond due to crystallisation determines the principles 
 of cutting. Every part of a diamond, into however great 
 a number of facets it has been cut, has a definite name, 
 and every form into which a diamond can be cut has 
 also a definite name. There are single-cut diamonds and 
 double-cut diamonds, table diamonds and star diamonds, 
 rose diamonds and shell-cut diamonds, briolets, and 
 others, as our illustration will show. 
 
 Small diamonds are common enough, but Nature here 
 seems to exult in her prudent illustration of the maxim 
 that " fine things are rare," and " good gear is tied up 
 in little bundles," as the Scotch have it. Not one in 
 ten thousand exceeds ten carats or is more than half 
 an inch in diameter. Those that exceed this could 
 almost be counted upon the fingers ; and they are each 
 historical spoken of, with an assumption of knowledge 
 
 * H. Emanuel on Precious Stones.
 
 VARIOUS FORMS OF CUT DIAMONDS. 
 
 Threefold-cut. 
 
 Upper. 
 Oval-cut. 
 
 Under. Side. 
 
 Pear-shaped-cut. 
 
 Upper. Under. Upper. Under. 
 
 Star-cut. Rose-cut. 
 
 Upper. Side. Upper. 
 
 Stair-cut (square]. Stair-cut (octagonal]. 
 
 Side. Upper. Side. Upper. 
 
 Table-cut. Table cut (with double facets}. 
 
 /\ yN 
 
 v / 1 1 1 1 \ 
 
 Side. Upper. Side. Upper. 
 
 Shell-cut. Shell-cut (with facets]. 
 
 o 
 
 Side. Under. 
 
 [To face p. 246.] 
 
 Side.
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 247 
 
 on the hearer's or reader's part, precisely as world- 
 famous men in their own epoch are "familiar in their 
 mouths as household words." Who has not heard of 
 the "Koh-i-noor" or "Mountain of Light," of "The 
 Great Mogul," of the celebrated "Regent" or "Pitt 
 Diamond," of the romantic " Sancy," of the " Pigott," of 
 the " Orlow " and the " Nassac " ? 
 
 " The Great Mogul " is now in Persia. It is of the 
 shape and size of half a hen's egg, and weighs 280 
 carats. It is estimated to be worth some ^480,000 
 the largest and most valuable gem in the world. 
 
 The celebrated " Regent " or " Pitt " diamond perhaps 
 comes next in rank, though much smaller in size. It is per- 
 haps the most brilliant diamond in existence. It is said 
 to have originally weighed 426 carats, but after two years' 
 continuous labour was reduced to 136! carats, at a cost 
 of ;6ooo for cutting. It was purchased for the sum of 
 3,375,000 francs by the Duke of Orleans, Regent of 
 France during the minority of Louis XV. This gem 
 was stolen with the other crown jewels in 1792, but with 
 others it was recovered. We shall speak of it more 
 fully further on. 
 
 The most romantic history of the " Sancy " diamond 
 would almost give it a place apart. It was among the 
 treasure seized by the Swiss in the disastrous fight of 
 Granson, when Charles the Rash was so ingloriousiy 
 defeated. 
 
 The gleam of diamonds occasionally moves along the 
 forefront of history like the glittering lines that on sandy 
 sea-coasts foretell the advance of the tide. This has cer- 
 tainly been the case with the " Sancy." Here is a passage
 
 248 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 from Professor Thorold Rogers's recent valuable addi- 
 tion to the " Story of the Nations " Series, on Holland, 
 which will, we think, illustrate this : 
 
 " At last Charles the Rash quarrelled with the Swiss. 
 He had appointed one Hagenbach as his deputy in a dis- 
 trict of Alsace which was frequented by Swiss merchants. 
 The deputy plundered them, and Charles paid no atten- 
 tion to the complaints of the Swiss envoys. In 1474 
 the inhabitants of Brisach captured Hagenbach, tried 
 him, and executed him. On November i3th they first 
 came into collision with the Burgundians, near Hericourt, 
 and routed them decisively. 
 
 " Charles did not attack them in person till the begin- 
 ning of the year 1476. On March 3rd he met them at 
 Granson, near the Lake of Neufchatel. When the battle 
 had raged nearly six hours, when no impression had 
 been made on the mountaineers, and some of the best 
 of the Burgundian captains had fallen, the mist which 
 hung over the battle rose, and the astonished army of 
 Charles saw the second division of the Swiss peasants 
 descending upon them, fresh and eager for the fight. 
 A panic seized the Burgundian army. Charles himself 
 was hurried away in the rout, and all his treasure fell 
 into the hands of the Swiss. His diamonds [of which the 
 " Sancy " was one], we are told, were sold by the captors 
 for trifling sums. They imagined that his vessels of gold 
 and silver were copper and tin. Of these diamonds the 
 three largest came ultimately into the possession of the 
 Pope, the Emperor of Germany, and the King of France, 
 and are still in the tiara and crowns of these poten- 
 tates.
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 249 
 
 " The soldiers of Charles, whom he summoned to 
 his standard by the threat of punishing them as de- 
 serters, reassembled at Lausanne and marched to Morat, 
 near Berne. Thither the Swiss confederates also marched. 
 On June 22nd the battle was joined, and the Swiss 
 again defeated Charles with immense slaughter. Charles 
 again had to fly, and did not draw bridle till he reached 
 the Lake of Geneva. 
 
 " He was beside himself with rage, and henceforth his 
 actions were those of a madman. He had been twice 
 beaten by peasants whom he despised, and had lost his 
 treasures and his artillery. The rich cities of the Nether- 
 lands could make good his losses, and he resolved on a 
 third attempt. On October 22nd he undertook the 
 siege of Nancy. On Christmas Day the Swiss marched 
 to relieve it. On January 5th he met his enemies and 
 perished. Two days afterwards his body was discovered, 
 or was thought to be discovered, among a heap of slain, 
 and frozen into a muddy stream. The end of no person 
 in that age was more tragic. He seemed at one time to 
 be the foremost man in Europe."* 
 
 In 1479 tne "Sancy" was bought by the King of Por- 
 tugal. In 1489 he sold it to Nicolas de Harly, Baron de 
 Sancy. This Sancy was Colonel-General of the Swiss and 
 Superintendent of Finances, and raised an army of Swiss 
 for the service of Henri III. in 1589. Colonel Yule says 
 it is not known where he got it. In 1604 he sold it to our 
 James I. ; and during the Civil War Queen Henrietta 
 Maria carried it to France and pledged it, with another 
 famous diamond, called the "Mirror of Portugal," to 
 * Thorold Rogers's " Holland," pp. 38, 39.
 
 250 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 the Duke of Epernon for 460,000 livres* In 1657 
 Mazarin paid off the Duke, and with the Queen's con- 
 sent took possession of the diamonds. He bequeathed 
 them, with other five stones, to Louis XIV. There is a 
 story told to this effect, that Sancy sent the diamond 
 known by his name to the King as a present by the hand 
 of a servant ; that the servant was attacked by robbers, 
 swallowed the stone, and after his death the stone was 
 found in his body. Something of the same story is told 
 of some Indian diamonds, and doubtless with foundation 
 in fact in at least one of the cases ; but if this were so, it 
 would seem that Sancy after that himself kept possession 
 of the diamond, else he could hardly have, in 1604, sold 
 it, as it is clear that he did, to our James I. 
 
 In 1792, as has been said, along with other stones, it 
 disappeared, but apparently was, with some of the others, 
 recovered. 
 
 " The history of the Sancy since the robbery of 1792," 
 says a good authority,t " seems to be somewhat obscure. 
 After its recovery by the national depository, it was (as 
 M. Bapst states) apparently disposed of, with other por- 
 tions of the rescued spoil, to meet expenses of the 
 great campaign of 1796, and since then has not been 
 among the national jewels. It made its appearance in 
 Spain in 1809, and passed into the possession of the 
 Demidoff family, with whose representatives it is believed 
 still to remain." 
 
 The " Mattam " diamond, pure and brilliant, weighs 367 
 carats, is pear-shaped, indented at the thick end. It was 
 
 * The livre was then worth about is. 4d. sterling, 
 f Colonel Henry Yule, C.B.
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 251 
 
 found in 1760 at Landak, in Borneo, and has been the 
 cause of a sanguinary war. It still remains in the pos- 
 session of the Rajah of Mattam. The Dutch governor 
 of Batavia offered two gunboats, with stores and ammu- 
 nition complete, and ^50,000 for it, but the offer was 
 refused, the Rajah replying that the fortunes of his 
 family depended on it. 
 
 The " Orlow " is supposed to have formed one of the 
 eyes of an idol in a Brahmin temple. It was said to 
 have been torn by a soldier from the eyes of a Brahmin 
 idol in a temple at Seringapatam. It is also said to 
 have been set in the famous peacock throne of Nadir 
 Shah. It is certain that a Frenchman sold it in Malabar 
 for 2800. It was purchased by an Armenian, Schaffras, 
 who sold it to the Empress Catherine II. in 1774 for 
 450,000 roubles, a pension of 20,000 roubles, and a 
 patent of nobility. It is now in the Russian Imperial 
 sceptre. 
 
 The "Nassac" is a triangular stone, and was in the 
 possession of the Maharajah of Malabar, and it was 
 valued at ^36,000. 
 
 The story of the " Koh-i-noor," which is now among 
 the crown-jewels of England, is well known, and the 
 same may be said of the famous " Star of the South." 
 
 A wonderful white diamond, weighing 457 carats in 
 the rough state, was found in South Africa in 1884. It 
 was subsequently purchased by a syndicate of London 
 and Paris merchants. The gem was entrusted to the 
 care of one of the most skilful cutters, and turned out 
 very brilliant and beautiful. The stone in its first 
 finished state weighed 230 carats, but it was resolved,
 
 2 5 2 
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 in order to bring out its fullest lustre, to reduce it still 
 further, and in its last stage it weighed about 200 carats. 
 It is next to the largest diamond in the world ; only the 
 " Great Mogul " beats it for size ; but it is said that this 
 giant gem needs further cutting, which would certainly 
 
 THE KOH-I-NOOR. 
 
 THE FLORENTINE. 
 
 THE POLE-STAR. 
 
 reduce it by as much as its excess over the South African 
 diamond, if not much more. The "Koh-i-noor" now 
 only weighs 106 carats ; the "Regent," as we have seen, 
 136! carats; the "Star of the South," 125; and the 
 " Pigott," 8 2 A
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 253 
 
 Instead of a more detailed and bald recital of circum- 
 stances connected with each of these diamonds (for the 
 story of each of them could be expanded into a much 
 longer chapter than we can write here), we prefer, for 
 a good reason, to devote our remaining pages to a fuller 
 account of the " Regent " or Pitt Diamond. That inde- 
 fatigable Oriental scholar and antiquary, Colonel Henry 
 Yule, C.B., whose knowledge of out-of-the-way facts is 
 as remarkable as his patience and polished style, has 
 recently devoted himself to tracing out and printing 
 the history of this stone, with a very large amount of 
 correspondence of the most curious kind respecting it, 
 and has been so good as to present to us one of the 
 fifty copies of his first pamphlet respecting it, prepared 
 for issue by the Hakluyt Society.* 
 
 The diamond takes its first name of Pitt from the 
 gentleman who bought it and sent it to Europe. Thomas 
 Pitt was governor of Fort George, and seems to have 
 had a commission from one Sir Stephen Evance to find 
 such gems for him, as is shown by a letter from Pitt, in 
 Madras, to this gentleman dated October 18, 1701 : 
 
 " I have alsoe heard that there are two or three large 
 stones up in the Countrey, which I beleive had been 
 here, but that the troubles of the Countrey have pre- 
 vented it, besides they ask soe excessive Dear for such 
 Stones that 'tis Dangerous medling with 'em, but if that 
 Stone comes hither shall as near as I can follow your 
 
 * The History of the Pitt Diamond. Being an Excerpt from " Docu- 
 mentary Contributions to a Biography of Thomas Pitt." Prepared for 
 issue by the Hakluyt Society. Edited by Colonel H. Yule, R.E., C.B., 
 LL.D. , President of the Society. Fifty Copies printed for Private Dis- 
 tribution. London, 1888.
 
 254 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 advice and orders therein, and should I meet with it 
 here is little money to be taken up, besides you have 
 given your orders to soe many in this matter that we 
 shall interfere one with another." 
 
 Colonel Yule remarks that " diamonds at this time 
 seem to have constituted one of the most usual means 
 of remittance to Europe, and by far the largest part of 
 Pitt's shipments on account of other parties consisted of 
 diamonds." 
 
 In the next letter we have the historic stone ap- 
 pearing : 
 
 " To Sir STEPHEN EVANCE, Knt. 
 
 " FORT ST. GEORGE, Nmr. 6th, 1701. 
 
 " SR : This accompanyes the Modell of a Stone I 
 have lately scene ; itt weighs Mang. 303 and cartts. 426. 
 It is of an excellent christaline water without any 
 fowles, onely att one end in the flat part there is one or 
 two little flaws which will come out in cutting, they 
 lying on the surface of the Stone, the price they ask 
 for it is prodigious, being two hundred thousand pags: 
 tho' I believe less then one (hundred thousand) would 
 buy it. If it was designed for a Single Stone, I believe 
 it would not loose above \ part in cutting, and bee a 
 larger Stone then any the MOGULL has, I take it. Pro 
 rata as Stones goe I thinke 'tis inestimable. Since I 
 saw itt I have been perusing of TAVERN IER, where there 
 is noe Stone soe large as this will bee when cutt. I 
 write this singly to you, and noe one else, and desire it 
 may bee Kept private, and that you'l by the first of land 
 and sea conveighance give mee your opinion thereon,
 
 1. THE PITT OR REGENT. 
 
 2. THE SANCY. 
 
 3. THE SOUTH STAR. 
 
 4. THE ORLOW. 
 
 5. THE GREAT MOGUL. 
 
 6. THE SHAH. 
 
 [To face p. 254.]
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 255 
 
 for itt being of soe great a vallue I believe here are few 
 or none can buy it. I have put it (i.e. the model) up, 
 Inclos'd in a little box and mark'd it S: F: which the 
 Capt. will deliver you, my hearty service to you, I am 
 Sr: Your most oblidged humble Servant, 
 
 " T. PITT." 
 
 From Sir STEPHEN EVANCE to T. PITT. 
 
 " LONDON, August isf, 1702. 
 
 " I have received yours with a modell of a great 
 diamond weighing 426 Car, therein you give an 
 account of itts Water and goodness, certainly there 
 was never such a Stone heard of before, and as for 
 Price, they asked for 200,000 Pas., though you beleive 
 less than 100,000 would buy. Wee are now gott in a 
 Warr, the French King has his hands and heart full, 
 soe he cant buy such a Stone. There is noe Prince 
 in EUROPE can buy itt, soe would advise You not to 
 meddle in itt, for the Interest Yearly would come to a 
 great sum of Money to be dead. As for the Diamonds 
 received per Dutchess, cant Sell them for 8s. a Pagoda. 
 Mr. ALVARES tells me he received some diamonds from 
 Mr. MEVERELL that he sold for 6s. a pagoda, soe there is 
 noe encouragement to send for diamonds." 
 
 Notwithstanding this discouraging report from Sir S. 
 Evance, Pitt, on his own account, purchased the stone, 
 and afterwards gave the following narrative of the trans- 
 action : 
 
 " I have been often thinking of the most unparalleled
 
 256 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 villainy of WILLIAM FRASER,* THOMAS FREDERICK, and 
 SURAPA,! a black merchant, who brought a paper before 
 Governor ADDISON in Council, insinuating that I had 
 unfairly got possession of a large Diamond, which tended 
 so much to the prejudice of my reputation and ruin of 
 my estate, that I thought it necessary to keep by me the 
 true relation how I purchased it in all respects, that so, 
 in case of sudden mortality, my children and friends 
 may be apprised of the whole matter, and so enabled 
 thereby to put to silence, and confound those, and all 
 other villains in their base attempts against either. Not 
 having got my books by me at present, I cannot be 
 positive as to the time, but for the manner of purchasing 
 it I do here declare and assert, under my hand, in the 
 presence of GOD ALMIGHTY, as I hope for salvation 
 through the merits and intercession of our Saviour JESUS 
 CHRIST, that this is the truth, and if it be not, let GOD 
 deny it to me and to my children for ever, which I would 
 be so far from saying, much less leave it under my hand, 
 that I would not be guilty of the least untruth in the 
 relation of it for the riches and honour of the whole 
 world. 
 
 " About two or three years after my arrival at MADRAS, 
 which was in July 1698, I heard there were large 
 Diamonds in the country to be sold, which I encouraged 
 to be brought down, promising to be their chapman, if 
 they would be reasonable therein; upon which JAUR- 
 
 * WILLIAM FRASER, one of Pitt's colleagues in| the Council of Fort 
 St. George. 
 
 t In all the repetitions printed Smapa, which I have ventured to 
 correct as above. SURAPA was a well-known merchant, and an ally of 
 Fraser's. [Col. Yule.]
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 
 
 CHUND, one of the most eminent diamond merchants in 
 those parts, came down about December 1701, and 
 brought with him a large rough stone, about 305 man- 
 gelins,* and some small ones, which myself and others 
 bought ; but he asking a very extravagant price for the 
 great one, I did not think of meddling with it when he 
 left me for some days, and then came and took it away 
 again ; and did so several times, not insisting upon less 
 than 200,000 pagodas; and, as I best remember, I did 
 not bid him above 30,000, and had little thoughts of 
 buying it for that. I considered there were many and 
 great risques to be run, not only in cutting it, but also 
 whether it would prove pale or clear, or the water good ; 
 besides I thought it too great an amount to be adventured 
 home in one bottom. But JAURCHUND resolved to return 
 speedily to his own country ; so that (as) I best remem- 
 ber it was in February following he came again to me 
 (with VINCATEE CHITTEE, who was always with him) when 
 I discoursed with him about it, and he pressed me to 
 know, whether I resolved to buy it, when he came down to 
 100,000 pagodas and something under before we parted, 
 when wee agreed upon a day to meet and make a final 
 end thereof one way or other, which I believe was the 
 latter end of the foresaid month, or the beginning of 
 March; when we accordingly met in the Consultation 
 Room, where after a great deal of talk I brought him 
 down to 55,000 pagodas, and advanced to 45,000, re- 
 solving to give no more, and he likewise resolving not 
 to abate, I delivered him up the stone, and wee took a 
 friendly leave of one another. Mr. BEN YON was then 
 * Always in the copies mangelius.
 
 25 8 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 writing in my closet, with whom I discoursed on what 
 had passed, and told him now I was clear of it ; when 
 about an hour after, my servant brought me word that 
 JAURCHUND and VINCATEE CHITTEE were at the door, 
 who being called in, they used a great many expressions 
 in praise of the stone, and told me he had rather I should 
 buy it than anybody, and to give an instance thereof, 
 offered it for 50,000 ; so believing it must be a penny- 
 worth, if it proved good, I offer'd to part the 5000 
 pagodas that was then between us, which he would not 
 hearken to, and was going out of the room again, when 
 he turned back and told me that I should have it for 
 49,000, but I still adhered to what I had before offered 
 him, when presently he came to 48,000, and made a 
 solemn vow he would not part with it a pagoda under, 
 when I went again into the closet to Mr. BENYON, and 
 told him what had passed, saying that if it was worth 
 47,500, it was worth 48,000 ; so I closed with him for 
 that sum, when he deliver'd me the stone, for which I 
 paid very honourably, as by my books appear." 
 
 Though Sir S. Evance did not enter into any respon- 
 sibility about the purchase, Pitt evidently looked to him 
 for aid in its disposal ; for we find Pitt writing this 
 letter : 
 
 " To Sir ST. EVANCE. 
 
 "/eby. the ^d, ijof. 
 
 " I hope my Concerne on the Loyall Cooke, will come 
 Safe to your hand and doubt not but you'le doe all you 
 can to Contribute to the well disposall thereof, 'tis a very 
 good Water, ffree from all foules and noe flaws but what
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 259 
 
 will be worked out, and the Shape is not bad, and upon 
 the best enquiry I can make 'tis Certainly the finest 
 Jewell in the World, and worth an immense Sum, and I 
 hope you'le never part with it but for its reall value, 
 which it may be you'le not be able to get dureing the 
 Warr, to which God send a happy and Speedy conclu- 
 sion, when I doubt not but you'le have Chapmen enough 
 for it, for Princes generally covet Such Jewells as cannot 
 be parallePd, and I am sure that cannot, for its excel- 
 lency and magnitude, and 'tis my opinion 'tis best to 
 keep it in one Stone, which I leave wholly to you and 
 the rest consign'd to." 
 
 Again we find him writing six months afterwards : 
 
 " To Sir STEPHEN EVANCE and Mr. ROBERT PITT. 
 " FORT ST. GEORGE, Sept. izth, 1704. 
 
 " 'Twas Well come news to hear of the Safe arrivall 
 of that concerne of mine, and observe the progress you 
 have made in Cutting it, of which you should have wrote 
 me fully in your joynt Letter, of which there is a Smat- 
 tering thereof in both your particular, 'tis very fortunate 
 that it proves soe good, and 'tis my desire that it be 
 made one Brillion which I would not have sold (unless 
 it be for a trifle) less then fifteen hundred pound a carrat, 
 tho by all Computation that I can make from Presidents 
 that nature, 'tis worth much more. Tis my whole 
 dependance, and therefore it must be Sold to the best 
 advantage, for which reason I have trusted it in the 
 hands of a ffriend and a Sone, whose care I doubt not, 
 but will likewise preserve it from Any accident of frire
 
 260 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 or any other event, and I approve of your locking it up, 
 and defer the Sale till after the Warn" 
 
 " To JOHN DOLBEN, Esq., London. 
 
 " Feby. the $th, 170?. 
 
 " I observe what you wrote to my Sone, who I per- 
 ceive minds very little of my busyness, in which I wish 
 he do's not neglect his own. He has wrote me about 
 the grand affair, as alsoe Mr. ALVEREZ, Mr. COPE, and 
 Sr : STE : in which I am fully Satisfy'd. 
 
 " With concern I read what you write of the Lieut : 
 Generall. My Sone had noe Commission to impart my 
 affairs to him ; and for God sake prevent any misfortune 
 that may attend me from any thing that shall befall Sr : 
 STE : of which I gave you a hint in my last ; and I am 
 not a little Jealous too of my Sone, who has allready 
 made too bold with me on severall occasions, therefore 
 pray take care now that he do's not strip me. I am of 
 your opinion of these two gentlemens charecters, and 
 wish that My Sone may deserve a better. I wish it was 
 bought for that small sum the Generall mentions, and 
 for that use. I heard from Lisbon, that upon the Union 
 with SCOTLAND passing our Parliament, 'twas intended 
 to present the Queen with the Royall title of Empress. 
 I am sure no thing is soe proper to accompany it, being 
 the best and the biggest in the world. In this matter I 
 rely wholely on your kindness and management, and I 
 hope on your arrivall you tooke effectual care to Secure 
 it from either of the Sharpers."
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 261 
 
 Evidently, there was not a little excitement in London 
 about the diamond, for we find Lady Wentworth thus 
 writing to her children under date December 15, 1700 : 
 " My dearest and best children, for all the great Scair- 
 sety of mony, yett hear will be a gloryous show one the 
 Queens birth day, wonderful rich cloaths ar preparing for 
 it ; thear was one that see Mr. PITS great dyomont that 
 I writ you word of, and they say its as big as a great eg ; 
 I would have the Sety of LONDON bye it and mak a 
 presant of it to put in the Queens Crown " ( Wentworth 
 Papers, pp. 164-5). 
 
 Pitt had invested so much of his private means in the 
 purchase of the diamond that, as he regarded it, the 
 whole future of himself and his family depended upon 
 its profitable sale ; and his anxiety may be imagined 
 when he found that he must wait for an indefinite period 
 (till the war was ended) before he could realise, and 
 that his son, who ought to have been his trustworthy 
 representative, was not to be depended on. Even the 
 pathway of rich men able to speculate in unique gems 
 is not strewn wholly with roses ; some thorns mingle with 
 them. 
 
 " The Diamond," writes Colonel Yule, " remained in 
 Pitt's possession till 1717, when it was sold to the 
 Regent Duke of Orleans as a jewel of the French crown." 
 The following particulars regarding this transaction are 
 noted in a memo, in the handwriting of Philip, second 
 Earl Stanhope, Pitt's grandson, and "for this memo," 
 says Colonel Yule, " I am indebted to the favour of the 
 present Countess Stanhope, communicated through my 
 kind friend, Mr. Robert Scharf, C.B."
 
 262 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 " Diamond sold in 1717 for 2,000,000 livres.* Before 
 it was sent over to FRANCE ^40,000 (sterling) was 
 deposited in ENGLAND, to be taken in part payment of 
 the diamond. When carried to FRANCE, should be 
 agreed to be bought, but otherwise ^"5000 of the deposit 
 money was to be allowed to my Grandfather for his ex- 
 pense and risk. 
 
 " It was cut by HARRIS, and not by VAN HUFLIN. 
 The expense of cutting was ^6000. The chips were 
 valued at ^10,000, though not all sold. It was carried 
 over to Calais by my Grandfather himself, accompanied 
 by his two sons, Lord LONDONDERRY and Mr. JOHN 
 PITT, and by his son-in-law Mr. CHOLMONDELEY, who 
 were there met by a Jeweller of the FRENCH Kings 
 appointed to inspect and receive the Diamond, and to 
 deliver in return some (I think three) boxes of Jewels 
 belonging to the Crown of FRANCE, as a security for the 
 payment of the overplus of the purchase money above 
 ^40,000 before deposited, which payment was agreed 
 to be made at three several times fixed upon by the 
 Parties concerned. 
 
 "The Diamond after it was cut weighed 128 Carats. 
 
 " My Grandfather's letter, dated at BERGEN, July 291)1, 
 1710, about his purchasing the diamond in the EAST 
 INDIES, was copied from the Original after his death at 
 SWALLOWFIELD by Mr. CHOLMONDELEY'S Chaplain, and 
 the Original was sent to Mr. ROBERT PITT my Grand- 
 father's eldest Son." 
 
 "The 'overplus of the purchase money' was never 
 
 paid," adds Lady Stanhope, "and when it was claimed 
 
 * The value of the livre at that date may be taken at is. 4d. sterling.
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 263 
 
 from the French Government by the children of Governor 
 PITT, the debt was fully admitted, but it was pronounced 
 impossible to enter into the past transactions of the 
 Regent." 
 
 This being so, the price really received by Pitt must 
 have depended on the value of the three boxes of jewels 
 pledged as security, respecting which there seems to be 
 no evidence forthcoming. 
 
 Colonel Yule then follows on with these details : 
 
 " The first prominent place occupied by the Regent, as 
 the diamond was now called, was in the circlet of the 
 crown made by Ronde* for the coronation of Louis 
 XV. in 1722. Beside the Regent were others of the 
 diamonds known as the Mazarins, including the Mirror 
 of Portugal ; whilst the middle point of the fleur-de- 
 lis, which formed the apex of the crown, was the famous 
 Sancy. 
 
 "In 1791, by votes of the 26th and 27th May and the 
 22nd June, the National Assembly decreed that a com- 
 plete inventory of all the jewels of the Crown then exist- 
 ing should be drawn up for publication, in presence of 
 commissioners and experts named for the duty. This 
 report consists of not less than 300 pages, of which 100 
 are devoted to the diamonds. At the head of these 
 figures the Pitt, with this description : 
 
 " < Un superbe diamant brillant, blanc, appele le regent, 
 forme carre"e, les coins arrondis, ayant une petite glace 
 dans les filets et une autre a un coin dans le dessous, 
 
 * Laurent Ronde, from 1689 jeweller to the King, was succeeded by 
 his son Claude Dominique, who made a famous crown for the corona- 
 tion of Louis XV.
 
 264 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 pesant 136 carats if (environ 29 gr. .617), estime' 12 
 millions de livres.' 
 
 "The inventory was drawn up in August 1792, whilst 
 the treasure was deposited at the Garde-Meuble, where 
 the jewels were shown on Mondays to the public. 
 
 "The Legislative Assembly ordered the sale of the 
 diamonds, but meantime the bulk of them, to an esti- 
 mated value of a million sterling, including the Regent 
 and the Sancy, disappeared. 
 
 " The history, which follows, of this audacious burglary, 
 is condensed from the communications of M. Bapst : 
 
 " Paris was in the utter demoralisation and anarchy 
 which followed the September massacres ; and lay open 
 to any violent enterprise. The Municipality had set an 
 example of pillage ; and though many real criminals had 
 been murdered in the prisons, many roamed the city 
 without restraint, and the police was reduced to nullity. 
 Meanwhile practised thieves had made good use of the 
 Monday exhibitions to reconnoitre the interior of the 
 Garde- Meuble. 
 
 "Under these circumstances, during six days in suc- 
 cession, beginning from the nth September, a band 
 composed (at least on the last of those days) of some 
 30 or 40 individuals, made their way every evening into 
 the halls of the first floor of the Garde- Meuble, by help 
 of the rusticated joints of the masonry and the ropes of 
 the lantern at the corner of the Rue ST. FLORENTIN. 
 After breaking open a window whilst leaving intact and 
 securing from inside the sealed doors of the halls they 
 forced the presses one after another, and gradually made 
 off with nearly the whole of the treasure. The police
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 265 
 
 were quite unconscious of the robbery until it was 
 accomplished. 
 
 " During the night of idth-iyth September * certain 
 men of the National Guard thought they saw a move- 
 ment of the street-lantern attached to the colonnade, and 
 on coming near saw a man clinging to the rope, and 
 called out that unless he came down at once they would 
 shoot. He made haste to come down, and they took 
 him to their post. 
 
 " Another man sliding down in a fright fell on the 
 pavement, and came likewise into the hands of the 
 National Guard. These two thieves had diamonds in 
 their pockets, besides carrying other portable valuables, 
 such as a child's coral set with diamonds, which had 
 been a gift of the Empress Catherine, and pieces of 
 jewellery sent to Louis XVI. by Tippoo Sultan in 1790. 
 Thus the captors became aware of the robbery, which 
 had, in fact, been going on without disturbance since 
 the i ith. Next day ROLAND, the then Minister of the 
 Interior, related from the Tribune of the Assembly what 
 had occurred, and declared that out of 25 (30) millions' 
 worth of valuables scarcely half-a-million remained. 
 
 " Whilst the operation was going on, no regular patrol 
 had been made ; the police in their rounds had dis- 
 covered nothing ; and yet the thieves had lights in the 
 rooms of the Garde-Meuble ; they must have taken sup- 
 plies of food, and passed successive nights there. For 
 
 * " Les tapissaries qui tendaient les murs, et les armures de nos rois 
 de France, eclairfe par des chandelles, devaient former un cadre saisis- 
 sant a cette orgie de brigands qui fStaient ainsi la russite du plus beau 
 coup que les temps modernes devaient, enre'gistrer." Narrative by M. 
 Bapst.
 
 266 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 when an entrance was eventually made after them, 
 fragments of victuals, empty bottles, and candle-ends 
 were found lying about, as well as burglars' tools, and 
 diamonds. 
 
 " Nothing could illustrate the demoralisation of Paris 
 at that time more thoroughly than the manner in which 
 the news of this burglary was received by the various 
 parties in antagonism, unless it was the way in which the 
 trial of the captured criminals concerned was conducted. 
 
 " Madame ROLAND roundly ascribes the robbery to 
 DANTON and his secretary FABRE D'EGLANTINE. Her 
 husband took, or professed, the same view, and declared 
 that his repeated demand for a proper guard over the 
 valuables had always been treated with neglect. 
 
 " FABRE D'EGLANTINE, on the other hand, accused 
 ROLAND of the crime ; and MARAT, in the Amidu Peuple, 
 ascribed it to ' the aristocrats,' who had hired a gang of 
 brigands to pillage the Garde-Meuble, in order to dis- 
 credit the Municipality and the Committee of Public 
 Security. LULLIER, the Public Prosecutor, in a violent 
 and atrocious harangue, such as was the fashion of the 
 day, denounced unefemme orgueilleuse, lascive et cruetle, to 
 wit, poor MARIE ANTOINETTE, as the author of the whole 
 affair. One popular story ran that it was an act of the 
 existing Government in order to obtain means for pur- 
 chasing the retreat of the DUKE OF BRUNSWICK. And 
 this has found an echo in the Memorial of St. Helena* 
 
 " The two thieves taken on the night of i6th-i7th Sep- 
 tember were condemned and executed. But the crime 
 with which all were charged, and for which the last were 
 
 * M. Bapst.
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 267 
 
 executed, was un complot a main armee ay ant pour but de 
 renverser le gouvernement nouvellement constitu'e ! And 
 the President (PEPIN) tried hard to make the accused 
 admit that they had entertained relations with princes 
 and other great personages attached to the late Court, 
 who had set them upon this robbery. One of the 
 executed was an unhappy Jew, against whom nothing 
 was proved but his having sold to another Jew un certain 
 nombre de bijoux dont la provenance n'a pu tire justifiee ! 
 He also was put to death under the article of the penal 
 code directed against conspirations ou complots tendant d 
 troubler F Etat par une guerre civile / 
 
 "Others, and leaders of the enterprise, who had 
 succeeded in obtaining an appeal to the Court of 
 Beauvais on the inapplicability of the article to their 
 crime, whilst they admitted the burglary, obtained either 
 release or commutation to imprisonment. 
 
 " A certain number of diamonds also were presently 
 recovered, but the most important the Regent and the 
 Sancy escaped the earlier endeavours to trace them. 
 A man of the name of COTTET had stolen the Sancy ; 
 he passed it on to a comrade, who made off. As for the 
 Regent, it was not found till twelve months later, and 
 then in a cabaret of the FAUBOURG ST. GERMAIN. Other 
 diamonds were recovered in the following years, and 
 \vere carried to .the credit of the Caisse de F Extraor- 
 dinaire. 
 
 "On the 2oth Frimaire, An. II. (i.e., loth December 
 1793) Voulland, in the name of the Committee of Public 
 Security, appeared before the Convention and reported 
 the recovery of the Regent in these words :
 
 268 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 " ' Your Committee of Public Security continues its 
 search for the authors and accomplices of the robbers of 
 the Garde-Meuble, and yesterday discovered the most 
 valuable of the stolen property, viz., the diamond known 
 as the Pitt or Regent, which in the last inventory of 1791 
 was valued at 12 millions. To hide it they had made a 
 hole of an inch and a half diameter in the timber-work 
 of a garret. Both the thief and the receiver have been 
 taken, and the diamond, which has been brought to the 
 Committee of Public Security, will serve as a piece de 
 conviction in bringing them to justice. I move, in the 
 name of the Committee, to decree that the diamond be 
 carried to the General Treasury, and that the Com- 
 missioners of that establishment be directed to come 
 and receive it during our sitting.' 
 
 " The Prods- Verbal proceeds : 
 
 " ' The National Convention, after having heard the 
 Report of its Committee of Public Security, decrees 
 that two Commissioners of the National Treasury shall 
 come during the present sitting to the presence of the 
 Convention, to receive and deposit in the National 
 Treasury the diamond known as the Regent, discovered 
 through the inquiries of the Committee of Public 
 Security, and which shall be available at need as a 
 piece de conviction during the proceedings against the 
 persons charged with the theft or the receipt of the 
 property of the Garde-Meuble? 
 
 " Another decree of the same date directed that 
 two members of the Committee of Public Security 
 should proceed to the National Treasury and deposit 
 there, in a box with three locks, the diamond called the
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 269 
 
 Regent. A Proces- Verbal should be recorded, and one 
 of the three keys should be placed among the National 
 Archives. 
 
 "Three months later (ist Germinal, i.e., 2ist March 
 1 794), among a number of stones seized in the possession 
 of one TAVENEL and his wife, were recovered the Sancy 
 and another important diamond known as de la maison 
 de GUISE. 
 
 " In 1796 the Regent was pledged to German bankers, 
 through the mediation of a cavalry officer, Adjutant- 
 General DE PARSEVAL, as security for the cost of horse- 
 furniture which had been advanced by TRESKOW. In 
 1797, TRESKOW having been paid off, DE PARSEVAL 
 recovered the Regent and brought it back to Paris. But 
 in 1798 the diamond was again pawned, through the 
 same officer, for another supply of horse-furniture needed 
 for the army of Italy, this time in the hands of VAN- 
 DENBERG, a banker of AMSTERDAM. The first Consul 
 BONAPARTE released it in 1802. 
 
 " These details, including the Proces- Verbal of VOUL- 
 LAND, have been hitherto entirely unpublished. 
 
 " M. FAYE, ex-Minister of Public Instruction and 
 Member of the Institute, has told M. BAPST that he 
 often heard his father relate how VANDENBERG, the 
 banker, when he had the Regent in his possession, put 
 it in a glass case that all the world might admire it ; 
 and a considerable crowd came to his office to do so. 
 His friends remonstrated with him on the danger of 
 exposing before people, some of whom might be capable 
 of evil designs, an article at once so valuable and so 
 easily carried off. But the banker answered with a
 
 270 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 twinkle in his eye : ' The Regent that is in the glass 
 case is a worthless sham ; the real Regent is in my wife's 
 stays.' 
 
 "At the coronation of Napoleon in 1804 the Crown 
 jewels once more appeared in public ; the Regent being 
 set in the pommel of the Emperor's sword.* 
 
 " In 1814 the jewels were carried off to Blois by Marie 
 Louise ; but her father the Emperor Francis claimed 
 them from her and sent them to Louis XVIIL, who, on 
 the night of March 20, 1815, took them on his flight to 
 Ghent, and brought them back at the second Restoration. 
 
 " On the accession of Charles X. all the stones were 
 reset for his coronation, and thenceforward remained 
 unused till 1854, never having been worn by Louis 
 Philippe or his Queen Marie Ame'lie. Between 1854 
 and 1870 they were several times remounted; and in 
 August 1870 they were put up in a sealed box and 
 deposited with M. Rouland, Governor of the Bank of 
 France. In 1875 they were verified by an extra-parlia- 
 mentary commission, which declared the record to have 
 been kept with perfect regularity. 
 
 " In October 1886 the Chamber resolved that such of 
 the Crown jewels as had no artistic value should be sold. 
 They were then valued at twenty millions of francs, but 
 
 * " Napoleon had it placed between the teeth of a crocodile, forming 
 the handle of his sword, unaware perhaps how much this gem had 
 contributed towards raising up the most formidable opponent to his 
 ambition and ultimate aggrandisement." DAVIES GILBERT, Parochial 
 History of Cornwall, under BOCONNSE, vol. i. p. 69. 
 
 [The reference here is to the fact that William Pitt was of the family 
 of Thomas Pitt, and the diamond had had some share in making the 
 position of the family, and done something to place William in his 
 position.]
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 271 
 
 out of this the Regent was still reckoned at twelve millions. 
 The diamonds which have been sold in consequence of 
 the resolution of the Chamber are stated to have realised 
 ^289,000. There seems to be no present intention of 
 selling the Regent, which, in spite of two small flaws or 
 internal cracks, remains the finest diamond in the world.* 
 The Crown diamonds which have not been sold have 
 been distributed between the Louvre Museum, the School 
 of Mines, and the Natural History Institution. It is 
 intended that eventually a quadrangular receptacle of 
 thick glass shall be placed in the Louvre, in which the 
 diamond which has occupied so many of our pages, the 
 Watch of the Dey of Algiers, the Dragon Ruby, and 
 other similar precious objects shall be exhibited to the 
 public. The Regent awaits this eventual destination in 
 the cellars of the Treasury." 
 
 Among minor trials that beset Governor Pitt was the 
 publication of many falsehoods regarding the means by 
 which he had obtained the diamond. He was accused 
 of having taken it from a slave who had stolen it from 
 the eye of an idol, and had hidden it in a gash in 
 his leg; another version was that he had given the 
 murderer of this man ,1000 for it, and similar extra- 
 ordinary statements. Even Pope, the poet, seems to 
 have had these rumours in his mind when he wrote 
 certain lines in the " Moral Essays." A writer in the 
 European Magazine says : 
 
 "It was reckoned the largest jewel in Europe, and 
 weighed 127 carats. The cuttings amounted to 8 or 
 
 * " The Koh-i-Noor, equal in quality, would have excelled the Regent 
 in magnitude, but for its disastrous treatment. "
 
 272 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 ^10,000. ... It appears that the acquisition of this 
 diamond occasioned many reflections injurious to the 
 honour of Governor PITT, and Air. POPE has been thought 
 to have had the insinuation then floating in the world 
 in his mind when he wrote the following lines " (in his 
 episode of the history of " Sir Balaam," " Moral Essays," 
 Ep. iii.) :- 
 
 'Asleep and naked as an INDIAN lay 
 An honest factor stole a gem away ; 
 He pledged it to the Knight, the Knight had wit, 
 So kept the diamond, and the rogue was bit.' " 
 
 And on this Colonel Yule comments : 
 " There could have been little doubt indeed that the 
 stories floating about the world as to Pitt's having 
 fraudulently acquired the diamond were in Pope's mind, 
 however vaguely, when he penned these lines. And 
 we now learn from Mr. Courthope's notes that in the 
 Chauncy MS., which is (as we gather) in the poet's own 
 handwriting, the last line runs 
 
 ' So robbed the robber and was rich as P .' 
 
 " This allusion has been developed, in accordance 
 with the fashion of a certain class of readers, into the 
 suggestion that the whole story of Sir Balaam is founded 
 upon the character and history of Pitt, the absurdity of 
 which idea is manifest on the most cursory perusal of 
 Pope's lines." 
 
 It was to meet these aspersions that Pitt drew up and 
 published his narrative account of the whole transaction, 
 which he has accompanied with his most solemn assevera- 
 tions, given on a former page. 
 
 The world certainly owes Colonel Yule sincere thanks
 
 SOME FAMOUS DIAMONDS. 273 
 
 for the manner in which he has presented the story of the 
 "Pitt" or "Regent" diamond nothing could be more 
 satisfactory as to documents, nothing clearer and more 
 complete. Many erroneous statements are here set at 
 rest, and Thomas Pitt's character completely vindicated. 
 We wish the same could be as undoubtingly said of 
 others who have speculated in diamonds.
 
 274 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 XV. 
 
 ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS. 
 
 " THE one succeeds, the many fail," has seldom had a 
 more striking illustration than in that of the manufacture 
 of diamonds. It has been for long so well known that 
 nearly every substance which exists in the solid state 
 will, under certain conditions, crystallise, or present 
 itself under definite geometrical forms, that it is no 
 wonder attempts should have been simultaneously made 
 in many laboratories to crystallise carbon and produce 
 the diamond. Carbon, as every one knows, is what is 
 called a simple element ; that is, it resists all the efforts 
 of the chemist to reduce it to yet simpler forms. It is 
 found widely distributed throughout the world, entering 
 largely into all animal or vegetable structures; so that 
 when these are submitted to slow processes of decay 
 after the favourite modes of old Mother Nature, time 
 and rare combinations of circumstances give to us the 
 " gems of purest ray serene " which shine in the crowns 
 of kings and queens. The more common forms into 
 which, for the good of the great world (since men could 
 do without diamonds, but could not do without some 
 other things), the carbon develops itself are coals and 
 mineral oils. In an impure condition we find it in coke
 
 ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS. 275 
 
 or charcoal. The common plumbago or blacklead with 
 which the housemaid cleans the grate is very brother to 
 the diamond ; for there also we have pure carbon crys- 
 tallised. Both the one for use and the other for adorn- 
 ment represent to us the carbonaceous matter of some 
 dead fish or strange plant which was buried thousands of 
 years ago in the slimy mud of some pre-Adamite shore. 
 
 Chemical analysis, however, here, as in many other 
 things, fails to explain all ; and there are some peculiar 
 facts which nothing can explain. Diamonds almost 
 perfect on being taken from the mine have, on being 
 laid aside for some time before cutting, developed cracks 
 and flaws which certainly were not present at first ; and 
 no cause can be given for the change. The chagrin of 
 the possessors of such stones may be imagined. The 
 skill which is acquired by experts in judging diamonds 
 is very great, but they cannot quite foresee such con- 
 tingencies. At Kimberley, at certain periods, the dia- 
 monds are sold in bulk large and small, good and bad 
 together, and are over-head valued at so much a carat 
 the value varying from 143. or 153. to 263. or 303. A 
 great deal depends on colour the pure white being moie 
 precious than those with a yellow tint, and it is said that by 
 submitting the yellow-tinted stones to a high degree of 
 heat a white colour is obtained temporarily, but long 
 enough sometimes to effect a sale at a wholly deceptive 
 price; and in this case the chagrin of the buyer may 
 be imagined when he finds his white stone in a few days 
 or weeks develop the yellow tint. There are tricks in 
 all trades, and this is one in the diamond trade unless 
 we have been misinformed.
 
 2-6 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 One great peculiarity of the diamond is, that it is 
 octahedral, and that it crystallises with a curved face ; 
 and to this is attributed its great brilliancy, as well as 
 the difficulty of imitating it. Many marks indicate pres- 
 sure as one of the great processes used by Nature in the 
 formation of the diamond, an idea which seems to have 
 occurred to Faraday when he suggested magnesium 
 minerals as associated with the diamond. 
 
 Seeing that products so very common as coal and 
 blacklead are so near of kin to the most rare and the 
 most beautiful and most precious, it is not to be 
 wondered at that chemists in all periods should have 
 endeavoured to forestall Nature, and to supersede her 
 niggardliness by the bounties of human ingenuity. And 
 such indeed has been the case. 
 
 Attempts at imitating real diamonds date from the 
 Middle Ages ; but no considerable trade was created 
 until between the years 1762 and 1766, when three 
 jewellers named Stras, Che'ron, and Martin Langon 
 improved and purified the composition hitherto used in 
 the manufacture, and produced the imitation stones or 
 paste which are familiar to every one. 
 
 A century elapsed without any practical improvement. 
 Modern appliances indeed had enabled the fusion of 
 the alumina, potash, and other ingredients forming the 
 masse to be carried to a degree of purity unattainable 
 previously ; but the finished stones, notwithstanding all 
 the ingenuity and art lavished upon them, lacked bril- 
 liancy, durability, and reflective power, and could in no 
 way compare with real diamonds. 
 
 The great stir that has been caused in this country
 
 ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS. 277 
 
 in recent years was due to the efforts of two Scottish 
 chemists, both settled in the West. The first was Mr. 
 Mactear of Glasgow, who, in a paper read before the 
 Philosophical Society of that city, claimed to have pro- 
 duced diamonds. He went into an elaborate account 
 of his labours, and specimens were sent up to London. 
 They were examined and tested by Mr. Story Maskelyne 
 and Dr. Flight, but were found to be wanting in some 
 of the characters of the diamond, and to possess others 
 of a very different kind. In fact, they were clever crys- 
 tallisations, but not diamonds. Mr. Mactear, not con- 
 tent with this verdict, came up to London himself, and, 
 provided with all requisites, conducted many experiments, 
 with the idea of justifying himself; but he had finally to 
 admit failure. After all his efforts, his " diamonds " no 
 more stood the tests than before. 
 
 " Great minds jump." About the same time, or 
 shortly after it, another Scottish chemist, Mr. J. B. 
 Hannay of Helensburgh, read a paper to the Royal 
 Society also claiming to have produced diamonds. 
 Specimens were sent to London to be tested, and Mr. 
 Maskelyne thus reported on them : 
 
 " In lustre, in a certain lamellar structure on the sur- 
 face cleavage, or refractive power, they accord so closely 
 with that mineral that it seemed hardly rash to proclaim 
 them, even at first sight, to be diamond. And they 
 satisfy the characteristic tests of that substance. Like 
 the diamond, they are nearly inert in polarised light, and 
 their hardness is such that they easily scored deep grooves 
 in a polished surface of sapphire, which the diamond 
 alone can do. I was able to measure the angle between
 
 278 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 the cleavage faces of one of them, notwithstanding that 
 the image from one face was too incomplete for a very 
 accurate result. But the mean of the angles so measured 
 on the goniometer was 70 29', the correct angle on the 
 crystal of a diamond being 70 31.7'. Finally, one 
 of the particles, ignited on a foil of platinum, glowed, 
 and gradually disappeared, exactly as mineral diamond 
 would do." 
 
 A writer in the Academy of March 13, 1880, thus 
 gives his account of Mr. Hannay's experiments : 
 
 " Having noticed that many bodies like silica, alu- 
 mina, and oxide of zinc, which are insoluble in water at 
 ordinary temperature, dissolve to a very considerable 
 extent when heated with water got at a very high pres- 
 sure, it occurred to Mr. Hannay that a solvent might be 
 found for carbon ; and as gaseous solution nearly always 
 yields crystalline solid on withdrawing the solvent or 
 lowering its solvent power, it seemed probable that the 
 carbon might be deposited in the crystalline state. After 
 a number of experiments, it was found that carbon would 
 not dissolve, and that chemical action took the place of 
 solution. A curious reaction was observed which ap- 
 peared likely to yield carbon in the nascent state, and 
 so allow of its being easily dissolved. When a gas con- 
 taining carbon and hydrogen is heated under pressure 
 in presence of certain metals, its hydrogen is attracted 
 by the metal and its carbon left free. Hydrogen, it has 
 been found, has at a very high temperature a very strong 
 affinity for certain metals, notably magnesium, forming 
 extensively stable compounds with it. When the carbon 
 is set free from the hydrocarbon in presence of a stable
 
 ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS. 279 
 
 compound containing nitrogen, the whole being near a 
 red heat and under a very high pressure, the carbon is so 
 acted upon by the nitrogen compound that it is obtained 
 in the clear transparent form of the diamond. Mr. 
 Hannay states that a great difficulty lies in the con- 
 struction of an enclosing vessel strong enough to with- 
 stand the enormous pressure and high temperature; 
 tubes constructed on the gun-barrel principle, with a 
 wrought-iron coil, of only half-an-inch bore and four 
 inches external diameter, being torn open in nine cases 
 out of ten. He then proceeds to describe the properties 
 of the crystals obtained by this method, crystals which 
 satisfy all the tests that are peculiar to the diamond. 
 They are as hard as natural diamond, they scratch all 
 other crystals, and do not affect polarised light. They 
 burn easily in platina foil over a blowpipe flame, leaving 
 no residue ; after two days' immersion in hydrofluoric 
 acid they showed no signs of dissolving. A splinter 
 heated in the electric arc turned black a very charac- 
 teristic reaction of the diamond. Last, fourteen mille- 
 grammes were burnt in a current of oxygen, and 97.85 
 per cent, of carbon obtained. The specific gravity was 
 found to be 3.5." 
 
 Mr. Hannay's process was, however, so dangerous and 
 costly that there was no likelihood of commercial result 
 from it. 
 
 The reports in the newspapers of these enterprises, 
 more particularly a letter in the Times from one of the 
 descendants of the Jura manufacturers of precious stones, 
 and signed " Fabricant," shortly after this led to the more 
 general knowledge of the fact that some years previously
 
 280 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 artificial diamonds had been produced in France, and 
 had been exhibited at the Great Exhibition in Paris in 
 1878, and there can be no doubt that in appearance 
 these "diamante brilliances" are well calculated to be 
 used as substitutes for diamonds, and evidently, judging 
 from the prices at which they are quoted, are produced 
 in a much less expensive and dangerous manner than 
 were those of Mr. Hannay. They were introduced into 
 England shortly after the letter of " Fabricant " appeared 
 in the Times, and would appear to find many purchasers ; 
 they are sold at about one three-hundredth of the cost 
 of real diamonds. 
 
 Ordinary imitation diamonds are either produced from 
 " Strass," a superior kind of glass, or from natural trans- 
 parent crystals. The latter are harder, but lack even the 
 moderate brilliancy of the former. Both have been dis- 
 carded as unreal, and in no way calculated to deceive 
 even the most inattentive observer. These new "dia- 
 mante brilliantes" are said to be manufactured from a 
 combination of the purest silica and other chemical 
 ingredients intermixed with certain ascertained propor- 
 tions of the precious metals, the whole being kept in a 
 state of fusion at a high temperature for many days 
 continuously. 
 
 The result is, at all events, a composition of great 
 purity and transparency, and possessing high refractive 
 power. This composition or masse cools in large blocks, 
 and the various sizes of " diamante brilliantes " are cut 
 from them and polished preparatory to undergoing the 
 process by which the refractive power is concentrated 
 and permanently retained.
 
 ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS. 281 
 
 The perfection which artificial diamonds have reached 
 in appearance, hardness, and brilliancy makes it more 
 important to find a ready test of discriminating them. 
 Nothing that can be said on this point would be abso- 
 lutely reliable in the hands of an amateur; but that 
 which is most likely is the temperature as tested by the 
 tongue. To tell a real diamond from an imitation, says 
 one, place the diamond on the tip of the tongue, the real 
 diamond having a warmer feeling, which is missing in an 
 imitation. And he goes on to say: "Although a fair 
 test, I would not advise an intending purchaser strictly to 
 follow that rule. Real diamonds, when properly cut and 
 finished, will have fifty-eight facets, thirty-three at the top 
 and twenty-five at the bottom, and on looking through 
 the top of the diamond there will be seen a small round 
 spot, which is missing in an imitation ; also, the facets 
 of a real diamond will have a very smooth surface, which 
 causes the brilliancy, for if the said facets are not pro- 
 perly polished the stone will have a dull appearance.' 1
 
 282 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 POSTAGE-STAMPS. 
 
 FAMILIARITY, they say, breeds contempt ; but that is not 
 invariably true. We are all familiar enough with postage- 
 stamps, but contempt for them is not likely to arise 
 from handling, however frequent. They are potent as 
 evidences of money paid to the State for services to be 
 rendered in exchange; and since the days of "franking" 
 have long ended (a blessing for which we should be thank- 
 ful, since even that relic of privilege, most pertinaciously 
 adhered to, did not a little to defer the era of cheap 
 postage) everybody is on a pretty equal footing in the 
 eyes of that modern Mercury, the penny post. When 
 postage was very dear there was always a reason for 
 claiming exemption ; now that it is so cheap, exemption 
 is hardly worth struggling for and privilege has died a 
 natural death. But the higher classes in old days did 
 struggle for their wrongful " rights " oh, how they did 
 struggle ! and the meaning of it simply was, that the 
 poor and the less rich the busy and the struggling, the 
 industrious and the hard-working should pay for the 
 more rich, the idle, and the luxurious. And not only 
 for letters carried free, but for all manner of commodi- 
 ties, articles of personal attire, bandboxes, and, it may
 
 POSTAGE-STAMPS. 283 
 
 be, guns and gun-cases ! Such is always the case 
 with the classes when they can get an advantage; 
 they have sometimes stuck to small advantages, as 
 they were pleased to name them, till they raised a 
 spirit that brought down the fabric of constitution and 
 State altogether. Well, when we look at a postage- 
 stamp, value one penny, we may read a record there 
 of the greatest social triumph, of equality, liberty, and 
 fraternity, in the true sense; of equality, for rich and 
 poor now fare alike at the hands of the Post-Office ; of 
 liberty, for there is nowadays no inspection of letters ; 
 of fraternity, for there is no agency more calculated to 
 unite and bring together in sympathy and call forth and 
 keep alive the feelings of kindred by force of circum- 
 stances or necessity separated and scattered in different 
 parts than the penny post. 
 
 Postage-stamps, then, may tell some stories, if we care 
 to listen ; but on only one of these stories shall we dwell 
 at present, and that is the story of their manufacture. 
 When we think of the immense number of stamps that 
 must nowadays be used, seeing that just as telegraphing 
 increases and parcels post extends so more and more 
 must stamps be in demand, we can realise that a great 
 and growing industry must be active in the constant 
 production of stamps. Probably the number of stamps 
 now used has increased twofold during the last fifteen 
 years. 
 
 The very idea of a postage-stamp marked a great 
 advance in postal matters ; for, simple as it seems, a long 
 time went on before any one thought of attaching a 
 thin ticket by gum to the outside of a letter, and in those
 
 284 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 early days you had simply to pay hard cash over the 
 counter to the post-office clerk, who received the letters 
 and the money and passed and marked them for transit. 
 When stamps were first resolved on, the firm engaged 
 in making them employed for this purpose only some 
 ten or a dozen men, who managed to turn out quite as 
 many as were then wanted. Even that small staff was only 
 employed intermittently. Fifteen years ago some eighty 
 men were constantly employed ; now there are more than 
 double that number ; and they turn out something over 
 thirty thousand sheets per day of penny stamps, and some 
 ^3000 worth of halfpenny stamps : in round numbers, 
 altogether about 3,000,000 stamps per year. 
 
 If we are to begin at the beginning in our description of 
 postage-stamps we must start with the paper, for the water- 
 mark was once of the greatest importance. It may not be 
 generally known that the paper for the penny stamp had 
 a water-mark of a crown in the centre of the head, while 
 the halfpenny sheets had the word "halfpenny" marked 
 across them in what was called water, though it was really 
 done by wires. All the paper comes to Somerset House, 
 and from thence it is issued to the printers. How often 
 the packages of 500 sheets each are counted before they 
 reach the firm we cannot say, but in their various stages 
 they are counted seven times during their process of 
 manufacture. We may say, however, that from the time 
 the parcels leave the mills until the sheets are issued to 
 the public they cannot be counted and receipted for 
 much less than twenty-five times. 
 
 Arrived at the printing-office, and, of course, after the 
 usual counting, the workmen have the paper given to
 
 POSTAGE-STAMPS. 2 8; 
 
 them in batches of four hundred, five hundred, or six 
 hundred sheets, according to their skill and known 
 rapidity of workmanship. The sheets are then put to 
 soak between two thick layers of felt. When thoroughly 
 saturated the water is squeezed out of them under a 
 powerful screw-press. They are thus reduced to the 
 requisite condition of dampness. 
 
 From this room they are taken to the plates in the 
 printing-room. They are printed from plates which are 
 made in this way, though we pretend to no more than a 
 slight and popular account of the process. A roller of 
 soft steel is placed over the die, and this roller being 
 forced upon the die by the pressure of a compound 
 lever, takes a complete fac-simile. The impression thus 
 got is then hardened by chilling the steel roller ; this in 
 turn is rolled over the surface of the large soft steel 
 plates, which again in turn are hardened, and from these 
 the stamps are printed in sheets. 
 
 Before the plate went to press an initial letter was 
 punched on each of the four corners of the stamp, and 
 these so varied in their combinations that no two were 
 quite alike. Some five-and-twenty years ago this mark led 
 to the detection of a cruel murder in Ireland. A porter 
 secreted himself in a little country bank till all were gone 
 except the old cashier, whom he stunned so effectually 
 that he never spoke again. As the safe was effectually 
 closed and he could not find the key, he got but a few 
 pounds. But the deed was done, and he had to make 
 the best of a bad situation. He sat down and wrote a 
 letter to himself in a feigned hand, making an appoint- 
 ment at that same time at a place some miles distant
 
 286 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 from the bank. Then he cut a postage-stamp from a 
 small sheet in the dead cashier's desk, and leaving the 
 bank, posted his letter. Suspicion, however, fell upon 
 him, and he showed the letter to prove an alibi, but on 
 comparing the number on the stamp with the number 
 and letters on the sheet from which it had been cut it 
 was traced like a bank-note till it was proved that the 
 sheet had been sold to the cashier. At that time we 
 believe there were only two stars in the uppermost 
 corners of the stamp, and two letters at the bottom. 
 
 The life of a plate for printing is only about two years. 
 Of course there is the usual variation in their time of 
 durability, for that greatly depends on the quality of the 
 metal. When any change of stamps takes place these 
 plates have all to be renewed, and when the plates are 
 worn out, the impressions on them are at once care- 
 fully obliterated by scoring them in all directions with 
 a graver, so that by no possibility could they be used. 
 With proper preparation the metal is susceptible of a 
 fresh impression when it is wanted. Though the plates 
 are not very thick, and therefore not very heavy, the 
 metal is expensive. None of the workmen, under any 
 excuse or pretence whatever, are allowed to bring or 
 to connive at any white paper being brought into the. 
 building. 
 
 The white paper used for the stamps is in size and 
 texture very like what is called " demy " in the trade. 
 This can be got anywhere for 5d. a quire, though the 
 stamp-paper is much more costly. It would, however, 
 be a very risky business for any printer to try the manu- 
 facture of stamps.
 
 POSTAGE-STAMPS. 287 
 
 Our readers must have observed that some years ago 
 several changes took place both in the penny and half- 
 penny stamps, the basis colour of the penny stamp 
 having hitherto been a kind of reddish-brown, which 
 had a peculiarly solid look, and was printed on thickish 
 paper a most useful-looking, characteristic, unmistak- 
 able stamp. But it was found that the basis colour of 
 this stamp was too like ordinary white writing-paper, in 
 so far as it resisted the action of certain acids that would 
 remove the ink from the face of the paper, so that there 
 was a chance that the stamps might be manipulated, 
 and after having been defaced, might be used again and 
 again. To render this impossible it was necessary to 
 find a paper and a colour which would not resist any 
 acid of the ink-removing kind, and the later recourse to 
 colours of a very different kind has to some extent been 
 determined by this consideration. Postage is certainly 
 cheap enough, but if one stamp can be thus manipulated 
 thousands may be, and in modern conditions of civilisa- 
 tion there are always, especially in an over-populated 
 country like ours, a large class who will rather devote 
 themselves to getting a living in this kind of way, in 
 spite of all risks, than work hard and regularly day by 
 day for their bread. 
 
 The recent changes in the stamps have led to some 
 marked changes in the process of manufacture. The 
 water-marks have gone, and instead of the alphabetical 
 letters stamped in the corners, other devices have been 
 adopted, as any one may see by scrutiny of the stamps. 
 
 Foreign stamps are well worth keeping and preserving 
 and putting into albums, for not only do they present
 
 288 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 wide contrasts, but they are sometimes very suggestive 
 of great events in history, or carry the mind back to a 
 time when the whole aspect of political geography was 
 different from what it now is. In Germany the different 
 states issue their own stamps to those who desire them, 
 with the head of their own sovereigns engraved on them, 
 just as ours are ; but there is an imperial stamp that is 
 available in every state. France has once more reverted 
 to its classical figure-head, the image of an ideal Repub- 
 lic personified in a beautiful Greek female head. The 
 United States of America has a whole collection of its 
 most famous presidents at different periods, by which 
 the values of different stamps may be reckoned, as well 
 as by other signs in colour, and so on. Any one who 
 has a complete or even a good collection of United 
 States postage-stamps has a little pictorial history of a 
 great empire before him ; and if it be true, as Berkeley 
 said 
 
 " Westward the course of Empire takes its way," 
 
 then to America must be assigned a great place in the 
 future history of the world ; and if the deeds that they 
 have done is but earnest of what they yet shall do, much 
 is surely to be expected of them. 
 
 Looked at from this point of view, a postage-stamp 
 album well filled may be one of the most interesting, 
 instructive, and valuable books.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 i. 
 
 THE following article from the Ceylon Observer puts 
 the facts about H. Hasskarl and the Calisayas very 
 
 effectively : 
 
 THE INTRODUCTION OF CHINCHONAS INTO JAVA, 
 AND THEIR CULTIVATION. 
 
 Amongst the contributions to the history of the great 
 and beneficial enterprise of introducing the medicinal 
 Chinchonas from South America into the Eastern world, 
 an enterprise in which our Dutch neighbours had the 
 honour of leading the way, not the least valuable is the 
 long and interesting letter which last mail from Java 
 brought us from Mr. Moens, the Director of the Chin- 
 chona plantations in that island. The perfect command 
 which this gentleman possesses of the English language, 
 although he has been eighteen years resident in Java, 
 is explained by the fact of his having been thoroughly 
 trained in the language of our country, a branch of his 
 family being, indeed, settled in England. Our readers 
 will recollect the case of the Mr. Moens who, about 
 fifteen years ago, was seized by brigands near Naples 
 and kept in durance for a long period, pending negotia- 
 
 T
 
 2QO DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 tions for the payment of a ransom which the robbers 
 demanded, and on the payment of which they indicated 
 his life depended. Mr. Moens' extraordinary experiences 
 while being carried from place to place by his captors 
 were embodied in a book which is more interesting 
 than many a romance. The father of this gentleman 
 was brother to our correspondent. Mr. Moens of Java 
 writes : 
 
 " Enclosed I send you a packet of seeds of one of our 
 best kinds of Ledgeriana. I write the analysis of the 
 bark of the mother-tree on the paper, so you may see it 
 is one of the best kinds." 
 
 The analysis to which Mr. Moens refers is as 
 follows : 
 
 C. calisaya, LEDGERIANA, No. 46, contains : 
 
 Quinine 9.81 per cent. 
 
 Chinchonidine .... 0.40 ,, 
 Amorphous alkaloids . . . 1.04 
 
 The courtesy which Mr. Moens has shown to us we 
 cannot doubt he will be ready to extend, by the per- 
 mission of his Government, to others, and as seeds of 
 the best kinds of Ledgeriana are also being carefully 
 collected from isolated trees in the Sikkhim gardens, 
 we fear we could not hope for success in appealing to 
 the Governments of India and Ceylon and to planters 
 to raise 500 for a new seed-collecting expedition by 
 Mr. Ledger, as suggested in a letter we recently received 
 from his brother, as follows : 
 
 "Some time since Mr. John Eliot Howard informed 
 me you were making inquiries respecting obtaining some 
 seed of the Chinchona tree for Ceylon, and that he had
 
 APPENDIX. 291 
 
 referred you to me as representing my brother, Mr. 
 Charles Ledger, who had obtained the seed sent in 1865 
 to India and Java, which latter has proved to be the 
 best and most productive sort, earning for itself, from 
 the manager of the plantations in Java, the title of 
 the ' Ledgeriana,' and the former, Mr. Howard (June 
 2oth), now informs me he has bought the first importa- 
 tion of the product of this seed from the Neilgherries, 
 and that ' it is good quality, reproducing one of the 
 better South American kinds, but not " Ledgeriana." ' 
 
 " I hear the Dutch Government are as jealous of their 
 seed as the Bolivians are.* 
 
 " If it be your intention to procure Chinchona seed, I 
 shall be glad of some communication from you, as I am 
 contemplating an absence from London which I should 
 desire to regulate, so as in due season to write to my 
 brother, allowing ample time for him to make the 
 necessary preliminary arrangements for procuring the 
 seed. 
 
 " I think Mr. Howard informed you of my brother's 
 terms, and advised their acceptance ; but if not, it may 
 save time if I inform you they are prompt payment to 
 me on his account of ^250 on account of labour and 
 money expended, or to be expended, and ^250 more 
 on delivery of seed in London, my brother to do his best 
 (and he has succeeded before) to get the best seed he can, 
 and to get as much of it as its safe transit will permit." 
 
 If there are gentlemen who think Mr. Ledger should 
 be subsidised, we should be glad to hear from them. 
 
 * Mr. Moens' courtesy to us disposes of this supposition. ED. 
 Ceylon Observer.
 
 292 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 Meantime we quote the very important information with 
 which Mr. Moens has favoured us : 
 
 " I have to thank you very much for your kindness in 
 sending me the very interesting numbers of the Ceylon 
 Overland Observer of May last, which came duly to 
 hand. 
 
 " But I think there are some corrections to make in 
 the accounts of the introduction of Chinchona plants in 
 Java. 
 
 " On page 449 (issue of May i3th) I read 'But Mr. 
 Hasskarl, ignorant of the country and the languages, did 
 not obtain any plant or seeds of the Calisaya, of which 
 he was in quest. All the kinds he collected were unfor- 
 tunately either worthless or inferior.' 
 
 " Mr. Hasskarl was sent to Peru in December 1852. 
 He stayed in Lima from February of that year till May 
 1853, chiefly to learn the Spanish language, and then 
 proceeded inland, found the Chinchona Pahudiana and 
 C. officinalis at Uchubamba, collected seeds and plants, 
 and went to the southern provinces of Peru to obtain 
 the Calisaya. At Sandia, in the province of Caravaya, 
 Hasskarl obtained the C. calisaya, C. Pelkteriana, C. 
 purpurea, C. magnifolia, C. erythroderma, and C. rufine- 
 rius ; but he could not find a good supply of seeds, aad 
 therefore resolved to go back to Lima and to wait the 
 favourable season of 1854. The 8th of May (1854) he 
 again travelled to Sandia, penetrated to Asalaya, where 
 he found C. calisaya, with fruits and ripe seeds, but was 
 compelled to go back, because the judge of Crucero, a 
 friend of Hasskarl, warned him that an order to take 
 him in custody had been issued, because he was taking
 
 APPENDIX. 293 
 
 away chinchona plants out of the country, which the 
 natives would not allow. Hasskarl had made a contract 
 with some Bolivian cascarilleros (bark-cutters) to bring 
 him a supply of Calisaya plants, and he was fortunate 
 enough to get five hundred plants of C. calisaya. Hass- 
 karl then returned to the coast, where a Dutch man-of- 
 war vessel was waiting for him, and landed his guardian 
 cases at Batavia on the i3th of December 1854. Only 
 seventy-eight of his plants were alive and could find a 
 new home at Tji Budus on Gedeh mountain. 
 
 " This is the true account of the matter. It is true 
 Mr. Hasskarl had not been in South America before, 
 and was ignorant of the Quichua language ; but he had 
 been a long time in Java, was accustomed to a tropical 
 climate, was a botanist of some eminence, and, moreover, 
 a practical gardener, had collected plants and seeds in 
 the forests of Java, and knew how to help himself in a 
 wild region. 
 
 " Mr. Clements R. Markham had a knowledge of the 
 Quichua language, but was ignorant of botany and prac- 
 tical gardening. And whilst Hasskarl brought seventy- 
 eight Calisayas to Java alive, all the plants of Mr. Mark- 
 ham were dead before they reached the Neilgherries. 
 
 " I think the great merit of Mr. Markham has been that 
 he secured the services of men like Spruce and Cross, 
 who succeeded in procuring the stock of plants and 
 seeds from which all the C. sucdrubras and C. officinalis 
 were obtained which are now grown in British India and 
 Java. That the Calisaya collected by Hasskarl was the 
 true Calisaya is beyond doubt. In 1855 Mr. Weddell 
 paid a visit to the Botanical Gardens of Leiden, and saw
 
 294 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 there the Calisaya plants reared from seeds Mr. Hasskarl 
 had sent from Sandia. As soon as he saw the young 
 plants he exclaimed, ' La vraie calisaya, rien que cela, 
 il riy a pas le moindre doute? In 1874 I sent a case of 
 dried specimens of our Chinchonas to that great quino- 
 logist, Mr. Howard. Amongst the specimens were some 
 of the Calisaya varieties reared from seeds obtained from 
 Hasskarl's original plants. Mr. Howard writes me about 
 them : ' No. i may, and indeed must, be a rather fine 
 kind. No. 2 is a form of Calisaya which I do not at 
 present recognise. No. 4 resembles more my specimen 
 of C. calisaya vera.' 
 
 " And the bark of these trees is also very good. I 
 found in it 2 to 3 per cent, of quinine ( = 2\ to 4 per 
 cent, of sulphate of quinine), a yield as great as that of 
 the common Calisaya bark of the Bolivia, and which 
 was considered the ne plus ultra of quinine-yielding 
 Calisaya barks until 1872, when I found that the Calisaya 
 variety we obtained (bought) of Mr. Ledger holds at 
 least two times as much.* 
 
 "In 1875 we have sold 25,552 Ibs. of the Calisaya 
 bark, which resulted from Mr. Hasskarl's mission, for 
 35,36of., and in 1876, of the same bark, 37,335 Ibs. for 
 54,828 f. Before this time we had sold about 34,000 Ibs". 
 for 40,000 f. The highest prices were, in 1875, i.gif. 
 per half-kilogram; in 1876, 2.1 if. per half-kilogram; 
 whilst Ledgeriana fetched at the same time 
 
 Highest price in 1875 ..... 4.55 
 Do. 1876 4.40 
 
 * I remember also the discovery of C. condeminea, var. Angustifolia, 
 by Broughton (in 1868), with 7 to 9 per cent, of quinine, but this was no 
 calisaya.
 
 APPENDIX. 295 
 
 "You know that i guilder (if.) = is. 8d, and that 
 your Ib. is a little lighter than our half-kilogram. 
 
 i lb. equals ..... 0.4536 kilogram 
 
 kilogram ,, . . . . . . 0.5000 ,, 
 
 " I hope the above will convince you that Mr. Hass- 
 karl undoubtedly succeeded in bringing a good (not the 
 best) kind of Calisaya to Java. 
 
 " In the Amsterdam market we have sold, in all, a 
 quantity of alkaloids and almost no quinine. But it is 
 as true that this poor bark has been sold till now for a 
 price as high and sometimes higher than that of sucd- 
 rubra. 
 
 Before and in 1874 ... n,oooj kilograms . . f. 4700.00 
 ,, 1875 ... 3,704^ ,, . . S 53-7i 
 
 ,, ,, 1876 ... 1,654^ ,, . . 2352.62 
 
 Or 1.36 f. and 1.42 f. per kilogram in the last years. 
 
 " This ' worthless ' kind, you see, has been worth 
 22,100 f. And there are many thousands of trees left, 
 planted out in the dense forest shade before 1864, the 
 bark of which is still very thin, but may perhaps, after 
 ten or twenty years, repay the cost of planting, as they 
 require no care at present and are left to themselves. 
 
 " I wonder how Mr. M'lvor, in his half-yearly reports, 
 continues, since 1864, to put down the C. Pahudiana 
 bark as ' worth unknown.' He might know the worth, 
 however, as we have sold Pahudiana bark since 1872. 
 
 "As to the question of the Calisaya being so very 
 much given to sporting, I think you ought not to fear 
 this so much as you appear to do. In the Neilgherries 
 and in Java different species of Chinchona have been 
 planted near to each other, and as the genus Chinchona
 
 296 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 is particularly apt to form hybrids, the occasion being 
 given, it was no wonder that the offspring of your and 
 of our Calisayas consisted for the greater part of hybrids. 
 With us the hybrids have the type of C. calisaya mixed 
 up with C. Pahudiana; with you of C. calisaya mixed 
 with C. micrantha and succirubra. So Calisaya could 
 not help sporting ; but it was not her own fault, but the 
 fault of the growers, who at that time were not suffi- 
 ciently aware of the danger of the better sort being 
 hybridised by the worse. Our seed-bearers of Ledgeriana 
 are kept strictly isolated ; and till now the young plants 
 have a strong resemblance with young shoots of the 
 mother-trees, and there is almost no difference between 
 the individuals of the same origin. 
 
 "Then it is not at all certain that those which do not 
 resemble the mother-tree will be found degenerated. 
 Amongst our oldest trees of Ledgeriana you may find 
 perhaps five or six varieties. And they are all very good. 
 Only one variety has no more than 3 per cent, quinine 
 in the bark; but then it holds 1.5 to 2 per cent, of 
 quinidine, an alkaloid which is coming into large demand 
 and is much sought after, the price approximating more 
 and more to that of quinine. It is not correct when 
 you say (issue of 2nd May, page 4), that the narrow- 
 leaved C. Ledgeriana is the best. I have found broad- 
 leaved varieties with n per cent, of quinine = 14.82 per 
 cent, of sulphate of quinine. 
 
 " I have just received a report about the sale of our 
 bark-crop of 1875, which took place on the ist of June 
 1876. The prices were :
 
 APPENDIX. 297 
 
 Per i Kilogram. 
 
 
 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 j. 
 
 ?. 
 
 C. 
 
 succirubra . . . f. 
 
 .10 . 
 
 . 1.61 
 
 = I 
 
 10 
 
 ... 2 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 pahudiana .... 
 tnicrantha 
 
 .10 . 
 
 . 1.68 
 
 = I 
 
 IO 
 
 ... 2 
 
 IO 
 
 M 
 
 afficinalis .... 
 
 55 
 
 .2.65 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 ... 4 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 ,, 
 
 calisaya Anglica (*) . 
 
 .36. 
 
 . 1.52 
 
 = 9 
 
 3 
 
 ... 2 
 
 6 
 
 ,, 
 
 ,, .Sc^ra/?(t) 
 
 .21 . 
 
 i-53 
 
 = 9 
 
 o 
 
 ... 9 
 
 6 
 
 ,, 
 
 ,, Ledgeriana , . 3.00 . 
 
 . 4.40 
 
 = 5 
 
 o 
 
 ...7 
 
 4 
 
 ,, 
 
 Javanica^) . . 0.71 . 
 
 . 2. II 
 
 = X 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 ,, 
 
 Hasskarliana . . . 1.21 . 
 
 . 1.61 
 
 = 2 
 
 o 
 
 ... 9 
 
 8 
 
 ,, 
 
 Ledgeriana, powdered . . 2.30 . 
 
 .2.51 
 
 = 3 
 
 zo 
 
 ...4 
 
 2 
 
 ,, 
 
 calisaya Jav. . . . 0.30 . 
 
 . 0.80 
 
 = o 
 
 6 
 
 ... I 
 
 4 
 
 " I hope the above will be of some interest to you." 
 We are glad, on this, the very best authority, to do 
 justice to Mr. Hasskarl, whose arrival with the first 
 Chinchonas which had ever reached the Eastern world 
 well remember being chronicled in the Straits papers 
 (quoting those of Java), and our own puzzlement, in 
 copying the intelligence, by the Dutch form " Kina " 
 used as descriptive of the plants. The enterprise initiated 
 by Mr. Hasskarl, and carried forward by Junghuhu and 
 his successors, has been persevered in, much to the credit, 
 and, we are glad to learn, ultimately to the considerable 
 profit, of the Dutch Colonial Government. It would 
 really seem as if soil and climate in Java were so favour- 
 able that no description grown there can be regarded 
 as worthless. Even C, Pahudtcwa, it appears, has 
 
 * Calisaya Anglica : a hybrid reared from seeds we obtained from 
 Madras. 
 
 t Calisaya Schuhkraft: reared from seeds obtained of Mr. Schuh- 
 kraft, the Dutch Consul at La Par (Bolivia), appears to be C. calisaya 
 Josephiana. 
 
 % Calisaya Javanica : the offspring of Mr. Hasskarl's trees. The 
 whole amount of the sale was 118,080 f. the cost in 1875 of Chinchona 
 culture, 49,857 f.
 
 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 yielded bark which fetched prices in the Amsterdam 
 market equal to those got for the produce of C. suc- 
 cirubra. C. calisaya, var. JOSEPHIANA, which, if we 
 recollect aright, Mr. Howard pronounced "worthless," 
 sold in the latest Amsterdam auction at no less than 
 2S. to as. 6d. per Ib. In Java, with Calisayas, as with 
 all the other Chinchonas, the question seems to be one 
 merely of degree of value ; of the half-dozen varieties 
 cultivated, all are good. That climate and soil must 
 exercise great influence seems obvious from the fact 
 that in British Sikkhim Calisayas grown from a portion 
 of the seed collected by Mr. Ledger, and which has 
 given such wonderful results in Java, turned out a few 
 exceedingly good, and others (the bark in every case 
 carefully analysed by Mr. Wood, the Government 
 chemist) absolutely "worthless." The good trees are 
 distinguished there, we feel pretty certain, by narrow 
 leaves, as well as a pure white blossom, to which latter 
 characteristic supreme importance is attached. But as 
 most of the Calisayas we have yet seen in Ceylon are 
 broad-leaved, it is reassuring to learn from Mr. Moens 
 that largeness of size in leaf is quite compatible with 
 richness of quality in bark. The results in Java, too, 
 rebut Mr. Broughton's statement that Chinchona hybrids 
 partake only of the bad qualities of both parents. In- 
 deed it seems quite probable that hybridising in India 
 and Java may produce varieties of unsurpassed richness. 
 C. Angustifolia, the variety of offidnalis grown on the 
 Neilgherries, which equals C. calisaya itself in amount of 
 quinine, seems referable to a process of hybridisation, 
 and the kind obtained from Ceylon, and to which so
 
 APPENDIX. 299 
 
 much attention is now devoted in Sikkhim (ignota], may, 
 we believe, be placed in the same category. The fate 
 of the seed obtained by Mr. Ledger and the varying 
 results it gave form a curious chapter in the history of 
 the Chinchona enterprise. Mr. Howard sowed a small 
 quantity in his conservatory, and he got about a dozen 
 varieties of plants, which he referred not to hybridisa- 
 tion but to " sporting." If hybridisation there was, the 
 process must have taken place in the forests of South 
 America, for, as we understand it, the seed obtained 
 by Mr. Ledger was divided between Mr. Money and 
 the Java Government ; while Mr. Money (Mr. M 'Ivor's 
 partner in a Chinchona plantation) gave a portion of his 
 to the Madras Government in exchange for succirubra 
 seed. On the Neilgherries, according to the emphatic 
 and oft-recorded opinion of the late Mr. M'lvor, 
 Calisaya was not a success, the trees growing with a 
 spindly habit. Mr. Broughton, however, differed from 
 Mr. M'lvor, and urged special attention to the cultiva- 
 tion of the Calisayas ; while, according to Mr. Ledger's 
 letter to us quoted above, Mr. Howard reports favourably 
 on the first specimens of bark of this kind he has obtained 
 from the Neilgherries. The great quinologist, however, 
 pronounces the bark not to be that of true Ledgeriana. 
 So that climate and soil on the Neilgherries would seem 
 not to be very favourable. In Sikkhim, on the other 
 hand, where C. officinalis proved an entire failure, the 
 Calisayas grew well enough ; but, as we have already 
 indicated, a large proportion turned out worthless, and 
 propagation there, by means of cuttings from the good 
 trees, has to be carried on under glass, as the cuttings
 
 300 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 will not strike and grow in the open air. Seed from 
 carefully isolated trees (white-blossomed, and the bark of 
 which has given good results) is also being tried on an 
 extensive scale. In Java all the seed obtained seems to 
 have resulted in trees all good, and some supremely 
 excellent. Our conditions of climate, at least in Ceylon, 
 so closely resemble those of Java, that we have reason 
 to hope every kind of Chinchona will succeed in our 
 island, from C. sucdrubra, which at the late Dutch sale 
 sold for is. lod. to 25. 8d. per lb., up to Calisaya 
 Ledgeriana, which realised from 53. to 73. 4d. 
 
 II. 
 
 SYNDICATES OF DIAMONDS AND SALT. 
 
 It appears that, as we write, there is a movement to form 
 a Diamond Syndicate. This would seem to imply that 
 there ts something in the fact of over-supply being likely 
 to reduce the value of, at all events, the smaller diamonds, 
 though, talking the other day to a gentleman who has" 
 been for many years in South Africa, and interested in 
 the diamond-trade, he assured us that the area of sale 
 and the demand were so wide, that this was all " moon- 
 shine," and got up merely in the interest of a limited few. 
 But this gentleman also admitted that much might have 
 been done to control the market, and to keep out certain 
 classes of middle-men, if it had only been done in time
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 301 
 
 at the South African diamond-fields. Syndicates, as we 
 all know, can do much to maintain prices, though whether 
 even Syndicates ultimately will realise all the good ex- 
 pected from them by those who combine to form them 
 may be questioned, and that not merely in the line of 
 the meaning of the maxim that " Competition is the life 
 of trade." Prices artificially kept up by such combina- 
 tions will react in two ways: (i) on those concerned 
 in the industries connected with the product, particularly 
 in the finer departments ; and (2), on the area of pur- 
 chasers, more especially if scientific invention realises 
 what may not unreasonably be expected of it, in the pro- 
 duction of still more perfect imitations. 
 
 The elements bound up in the question of Syndicates 
 touches us still more closely as regards salt. Salt is a 
 necessity of life, which the diamond certainly is not. It 
 is true that in past times, as even now, a few have ques- 
 tioned whether salt was essential to the well-being of the 
 human system, and some of the most curious literature 
 existent is to be found in connection with this point 
 one ingenious author even endeavouring to prove that 
 salt was the forbidden fruit ! but the imperious necessity 
 that impels both animals and men to indulge in it seems 
 conclusive on that point for practical purposes. The 
 Salt Syndicate has already made itself felt in the advance 
 of prices ; and it may be that this will by-and-by lead to 
 greater care and economy in the use of the article. It 
 certainly will do so if the Syndicate's work should be 
 effective, and raise prices further still as far as they 
 would, of course, wish to raise them; and, perhaps, in 
 this respect also may do good ; for, from its cheapness,
 
 302 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 salt had come to be regarded as a very " common crea- 
 ture " indeed. 
 
 But already one of the effects we have hinted at has 
 made itself felt, if we may trust to the following paragraph 
 which we notice in a London evening newspaper as we 
 write. It tells us that 
 
 " The irritation in the salt trade is increasing, and is 
 all the more general because the workmen thought that 
 they were to share in the benefits which the Salt Syndi- 
 cate promised. Since the Syndicate started it has not 
 increased wages, but it has increased the quantity of 
 work demanded from the men, and has augmented their 
 hours of Sunday labour. The Trades Union recently 
 formed has now 2250 members; their chief difficulty 
 appears to be that a surplus labour population is in 
 existence in the salt district. In Northwich and Winsford 
 alone some 600 men are out of employment. That being 
 the case, the success of the salt unionists is doubtful, 
 though their cause is a good one." 
 
 Syndicates and Conventions have their own uses, of 
 course ; and any legitimate action in the way of protect- 
 ing interests and industries is quite allowable, and may 
 be very praiseworthy ; but one thing is clear, that legis- 
 lative sanction in such matters wants to be very jealously 
 safe-guarded, and not overdone. The agricultural interest 
 is now deeply paying the penalty for its persistence in 
 the case of the Corn- Laws. The Sugar Convention has 
 already had its own effect, and as we write we cut this 
 from the same paper as the foregoing : 
 
 " ' Sugar, Mr. Speaker (laughter) Sugar, Mr. Speaker 
 Sugar, Mr. Speaker, who will laugh at sugar now?'
 
 APPENDIX. 303 
 
 So spoke an English statesman nearly a hundred years 
 ago, and I am inclined to borrow his words. This Sugar 
 Convention is no laughing matter. We have treated the 
 Sugar Bounty agitators with contempt too long, and at 
 last they have succeeded in persuading Conservative 
 statesmen that they have a great following at their back. 
 I am confident that they have not sufficient following to 
 turn the scale at half-a-dozen elections. There are signs 
 that the country is waking up to the danger of this insane 
 Convention at last, and that the Government is not dis- 
 posed to run any serious risks on account of the Con- 
 vention. Ere long the utter hollowness of the agitation 
 will be apparent to Lord Salisbury himself." 
 
 III. 
 
 ARSENIC. 
 
 We cut the following, which appears in Answers to 
 Correspondents, from the Echo, more especially for the 
 simple hint about the detection of the presence of arsenic 
 in wall-paper or muslin fabric : 
 
 "A great deal of nonsense is often written about 
 'poisonous' this, that, and the other. Poison is a 
 relative term, and its death-dealing power depends on 
 quantity. Arsenic is present in many dyes in small 
 quantities, and some pigments are made up almost 
 entirely of a compound of arsenic. A dress of muslin
 
 3 o4 DAYS WITH INDUSTRIALS. 
 
 of a pale green-blue colour might be dangerous if the 
 colour was in powder, and so could be shaken off, but if 
 ' fixed ' there is no harm in it. A simple test for arsenic 
 is to burn a portion of the fabric, and if a smell of garlic 
 is perceived arsenic is no doubt present. S. R." 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 
 UNIVERSITY et CALIFORNIA 
 
 AT 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 LIBRARY
 
 T
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L9-25m-9,'47(A5618)444
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILIT 
 
 000 673 739 9 
 
 T47 
 J27d