Page:The Laboring Classes of England.djvu/103

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
A FACTORY CONDUCTED ON CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES.
97

tended by any young person has stools attached to it by means of a joint, which allows of their being placed under the frame when not wanted. The seats at the sides of the rooms are for the use of the spare hands; those attached to the frames, for the children at work. Occasionally it happens in these mills, that a child can have half a minute to spare, then by a motion of the foot, the stool can be brought from under the frame, and it can be thus relieved from its standing posture. None but those who have experienced it, can know the value of a seat in these spare half minutes, to a child thus circumstanced, The children have here no harsh treatment to endure from their overlookers, who seem to be an intelligent set of men, and endowed with a large share of the christian spirit of their masters. Should one of these overlookers dare to strike a child, he would be immediately dismissed.

The school-room is a large new building, erected near the mills. The firm provide, at considerable expense, a schoolmaster and schoolmistress, who are brother and. sister; also books, slates, maps, pens, ink, &c. The children under thirteen years of age, to the number of between 300 and 400, are divided into sections, each attending school at least two hours per day. The boys learn reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and singing; and the girls learn knitting and sewing, in addition to the above. Adjoining the school-room is the washing-room, which is provided with a number of large basins and clean towels, and water is laid on and can be had by turning a tap. A quarter of an hour suffices to enable a division to clean for school. With a more cleanly, healthy-looking set of factory children I have nowhere met.

It is but justice to state, that this school and its arrangements were originally planned and superintended