Each successive water is let out at the bottom,
while fresh is let on from the top. When the clothes are ready to be
boiled, a wooden cover is placed over them, and a stream of scalding
steam is directed into the tub, by turning a stop cock; this boils the
water in a few moments, effectually cleansing the clothes; they are
then whirled in a hollow cylinder till nearly dry, after which they
are drawn through two rollers covered with flannel, which presses
every remaining particle of water out of them. The clothes are then
hung upon frames, which shut into large closets, and are dried by
steam in a very short space of time.
Lord Shaftesbury, pointing out the partitions, said, "This is an
arrangement of delicacy to save their feelings: their clothes are
sometimes so old and shabby they do not want to show them, poor
things." I thought this feature worthy of special notice.
In addition to all these improvements for the laboring classes, very
large bathing establishments have been set up expressly for the use of
the working classes. To show the popularity and effectiveness of this
movement, five hundred and fifty thousand baths were given in three
houses during the year 1850. These bathing establishments for the
working classes are rapidly increasing in every part of the kingdom.
When we returned to our carriage after this survey, I remarked to Lord
Shaftesbury that the combined influence of these causes must have
wrought a considerable change in the city. He answered, with energy,
"You can have no idea. Whole streets and districts have been
revolutionized by it. The people who were formerly savage and
ferocious, because they supposed themselves despised and abandoned,
are now perfectly quiet and docile. I can assure you that Lady
Shaftesbury has walked alone, with no attendant but a little child,
through streets in London where, years ago, a well-dressed man could
not have passed safely without an escort of the police."
I said to him that I saw nothing now, with all the improvements they
were making throughout the kingdom, to prevent their working classes
from becoming quite as prosperous as ours, except the want of a
temperance reformation.
He assented with earnestness. He believed, he said, that the amount
spent in liquors of various kinds, which do no good, but much injury,
was enough to furnish every laborer's dwelling, not only with
comforts, but with elegances. "But then," he said, "one thing is to be
considered: a reform of the dwellings will do a great deal towards
promoting a temperance reformation. A man who lives in a close,
unwholesome dwelling, deprived of the natural stimulus of fresh air
and pure water, comes into a morbid and unhealthy state; he craves
stimulants to support the sinking of his vital powers, caused by these
unhealthy influences." There is certainly a great deal of truth in
this; and I think that, in America, we should add to the force of our
Maine law by adopting some of the restrictions of the Lodging House
act.
I have addressed this letter to you, my dear cousin, on account of the
deep interest you have taken in the condition of the poor and
perishing in the city of New York. While making these examinations,
these questions occurred to my mind: Could our rich Christian men
employ their capital in a more evangelical manner, or more adorn the
city of New York, than by raiding a large and beautiful lodging house,
which should give the means of health, comfort, and vigor to thousands
of poor needlewomen? The same query may be repeated concerning all the
other lodging houses I have mentioned. Furthermore, should not a
movement for the registration and inspection of common lodging houses
keep pace with efforts to suppress the sale of spirits? The poison of
these dismal haunts creates a craving for stimulants, which constantly
tends to break over and evade law.
LETTER XXIX.
DEAR FATHER: -
I wish in this letter to give you a brief view of the movements in
this country for the religious instruction and general education of
the masses. If we compare the tone of feeling now prevalent with that
existing but a few years back, we notice a striking change. No longer
ago than in the time of Lady Huntington we find a lady of quality
ingenuously confessing that her chief source of scepticism in regard
to Christianity was, that it actually seemed to imply that the
educated, the refined, the noble, must needs be saved by the same
Savior and the same gospel with the ignorant and debased working
classes. Traces of a similar style of feeling are discernible in the
letters of the polished correspondents of Hannah More. Robert Walpole
gayly intimates himself somewhat shocked at the idea that the nobility
and the vulgar should be equally subject to the restraints of the
Sabbath and the law of God - equally exposed to the sanctions of
endless retribution. And Young makes his high-born dame inquire,
"Shall pleasures of a short duration chain
A _lady's_ soul in everlasting pain?"
In broad contrast to this, all the modern popular movements in England
are based upon the recognition of the equal value of every human soul.
The Times, the most aristocratic paper in England, publishes letters
from needlewomen and dressmakers' apprentices, and reads grave
lectures to duchesses and countesses on their duties to their poor
sisters. One may fancy what a stir this would have made in the courtly
circles of the reign of George II. Fashionable literature now arrays
itself on the side of the working classes. The current of novel
writing is reversed. Instead of milliners and chambermaids being
bewitched with the adventures of countesses and dukes, we now have
fine lords and ladies hanging enchanted over the history of John the
Carrier, with his little Dot, dropping sympathetic tears into little
Charlie's wash tub, and pursuing the fortunes of a dressmaker's
apprentice, in company with poor Smike, and honest John Brodie and his
little Yorkshire wife.
