I know something you could do, said the farmer. Set to work to make
brooms; there are plenty of twigs on my willows. I only get them
stolen as it is; so they shall not cost you much. You shall make me
two brooms a year of them. [22]
Yes, that would be very fine and good, said Hansli; but where shall
I learn to make brooms?
Pardieu, [23] there's no such sorcery in the matter, said the
farmer. I'll take on me the teaching of you; many a year now I've
made all the brooms we use on the farm myself, and I'll back myself
to make as good as are made; [24] you'll want few tools, and may use
mine at first.
All which was accordingly done; and God's blessing came on the doing
of it. Hansli took a fancy to the work; and the farmer was enchanted
with Hansli.
Don't look so close; [25] put all in that is needful, do the thing
well, so as to show people they may put confidence in you. Once
get their trust, and your business is done, said always the farmer,
[26] and Hansli obeyed him.
In the beginning, naturally, things did not go very fast, nevertheless
he placed [27] what he could make; and as he became quicker in the
making, the sale increased in proportion. Soon, everybody said that
no one had such pretty brooms as the little merchant of Rychiswyl;
and the better he succeeded, the harder he worked. His mother visibly
recovered liking for life. Now the battle's won, said she; as soon
as one can gain one's bread honourably, one has the right to enjoy
oneself, and what can one want more! Always, from that time, she had,
every day, as much as she liked to eat; nay, even every day there
remained something over for the next: and she could have as much
bread as she liked. Indeed, Hansli very often brought her even a
little white bread back from the town, whereupon [28] how happy did
she not feel herself! and how she thanked God for having kept so many
good things for her old days.
On the contrary, now for a little while, Hansli was looking cross and
provoked. Soon he began actually to grumble. 'Things could not go on
much longer that way; he could not put up with it.' When the farmer
at last set himself to find out what that meant, Hansli declared to
him that he had too many brooms to carry, and could not carry them;
and that even when the miller took them on his cart, it was very
inconvenient, and that he absolutely wanted a cart of his own, but he
hadn't any money to buy one, and didn't know anybody who was likely
to lend him any. You are a gaby, [29] said the peasant. Look you,
I won't have you become one of those people who think a thing's done
as soon as they've dreamt it. That's the way one spends one's money
to make the fish go into other people's nets. You want to buy a cart,
do you? why don't you make one yourself.
Hansli put himself, [30] to stare at the farmer with his mouth open,
and great eyes.
Yes, make it yourself: you will manage it, if you make up your mind,
went on the farmer. You can chip wood well enough, and the wood won't
cost you much--what I haven't, another peasant will have; and there
must be old iron about, plenty, in the lumber-room. I believe there's
even an old cart somewhere, which you can have to look at--or to use,
if you like. Winter will be here soon; set yourself to work, and by the
spring all will be done, and you won't have spent a threepenny piece,
[31] for you may pay the smith too, with brooms, or find a way of
doing without him--who knows?
Hansli began to open his eyes again. I make a cart,--but how ever
shall I,--I never made one. Gaby, answered the farmer, one must make
everything once the first time. Take courage, and it's half done. If
people took courage solidly, there are many now carrying the beggar's
wallet, who would have money up to their ears, and good metal,
too. Hansli was on the point of asking if the peasant had lost his
head. Nevertheless, he finished by biting at the notion; and entering
into it little by little, as a child into cold water. The peasant
came now and then to help him; and in spring the new cart was ready,
in such sort that on Easter Tuesday Hansli conducted it, [32] for
the first time, to Berne, and the following Saturday to Thun, also
for the first time. The joy and pride that this new cart gave him,
it is difficult to form anything like a notion of. If anybody had
proposed to give him the Easter ox for it, that they had promenaded
at Berne the evening before, and which weighed well its twenty-five
quintals, he wouldn't have heard of such a thing. It seemed to him
that everybody stopped as they passed, to look at his cart; and,
whenever he got a chance, he put himself to explain at length what
advantages that cart had over every other cart that had yet been seen
in the world. He asserted very gravely that it went of itself, except
only at the hills; where it was necessary to give it a touch of the
hand. [33] A cookmaid said to him that she would not have thought him
so clever; and that if ever she wanted a cart, she would give him her
custom. That cookmaid, always, afterwards, when she bought a fresh
supply of brooms, had a present of two little ones into the bargain,
to sweep into the corners of the hearth with; things which are very
convenient for maids who like to have everything clean even into the
corners; and who always wash their cheeks to behind their ears. It
is true that maids of this sort are thin-sprinkled enough. [34]
From this moment, Hansli began to take good heart to his work: his
cart was for him his farm; [35] he worked with real joy; and joy
in getting anything done is, compared to ill-humour, what a sharp
hatchet is to a rusty one, in cutting wood. The farmers of Rychiswyl
were delighted with the boy. There wasn't one of them who didn't say,
'When you want twigs, you've only to take them in my field; but don't
damage the trees, and think of the wife sometimes; women use so many
brooms in a year that the devil couldn't serve them.' Hansli did not
fail; also was he in great favour with all the farm-mistresses. They
never had been in the way of setting any money aside for buying brooms;
they ordered their husbands to provide them, [36] but one knows how
things go, that way. Men are often too lazy to make shavings, [37]
how much less brooms!--aussi the women were often in a perfect famine
of brooms, and the peace of the household had greatly to suffer for
it. But now, Hansli was there before one had time to think; and it was
very seldom a paysanne [38] was obliged to say to him, 'Hansli, don't
forget us, we're at our last broom.' Besides the convenience of this,
Hansli's brooms were superb--very different from the wretched things
which one's grumbling husband tied up loose, or as rough and ragged as
if they had been made of oat straw. Of course, in these houses, Hansli
gave his brooms for nothing; yet they were not the worst placed pieces
of his stock; for, not to speak of the twigs given him gratis, all the
year round he was continually getting little presents, in bread and
milk, and such kinds of things, which a paysanne has always under her
hand, and which she gives without looking too close. Also, rarely one
churned butter without saying to him, Hansli, we beat butter to-morrow;
if you like to bring a pot, you shall have some of the beaten. [39]
And as for fruit, he had more than he could eat of it; so that it could
not fail, things going on in this way, that Hans should prosper; being
besides thoroughly economical. If he spent as much as a batz on the day
he went to the town, it was the end of the world. [40] In the morning,
his mother took care he had a good breakfast, after which he took
also something in his pocket, without counting that sometimes here,
and sometimes there, one gave him a morsel in the kitchens where he
was well known; and finally he didn't imagine that he ought always
to have something to eat, the moment he had a mind to it.
I am very sorry, but find there's no chance of my getting the romantic
part of my story rightly into this letter; so I must even leave it
till August, for my sketch of Scott's early life is promised for July,
and I must keep my word to time more accurately than hitherto, else,
as the letters increase in number, it is too probable I may forget
what I promised in them; not that I lose sight even for a moment of my
main purpose; but the contents of the letters being absolutely as the
Third Fors may order, she orders me here and there so fast sometimes
that I can't hold the pace. This unlucky index, for example! It is
easy enough to make an index, as it is to make a broom of odds and
ends, as rough as oat straw; but to make an index tied up tight,
and that will sweep well into corners, isn't so easy. Ill-tied or
well, it shall positively be sent with the July number (if I keep my
health), and will be only six months late then; so that it will have
been finished in about a fourth of the time a lawyer would have taken
to provide any document for which there was a pressing necessity.
In the meantime, compare the picture of country life in Switzerland,
already beginning to show itself in outline in our story of the
broom-maker, with this following account of the changes produced by
recent trade in the country life of the island of Jersey. It is given
me by the correspondent who directed me to Professor Kirk's book;
(see the notes in last letter,) and is in every point of view of the
highest value. Compare especially the operations of the great universal
law of supply and demand in the article of fruit, as they affect the
broom-boy, and my correspondent; and consider for yourselves, how far
that beautiful law may affect, in time to come, not your pippins only,
but also your cheese; and even at last your bread.
I give this letter large print; it is quite as important as anything
I have myself to say. The italics are mine.
Mont à l'Abbe, Jersey, April 17, 1873.
Dear Master,--The lesson I have gathered here in Jersey as to the
practical working of bodies of small land-owners, is that they
have three arch-enemies to their life and well-being. First,
the covetousness that, for the sake of money-increase, permits
and seeks that great cities should drain the island of its
life-blood--their best men and their best food or means of food;
secondly, love of strong drink and tobacco; and thirdly, (for
these two last are closely connected,) want of true recreation.
The island is cut up into small properties or holdings, a very
much larger proportion of these being occupied and cultivated by
the owners themselves than is the case in England. Consequently,
as I think, the poor do not suffer as much as in England. Still
the times have altered greatly for the worse within the memory of
every middle-aged resident, and the change has been wrought chiefly
by the regular and frequent communication with London and Paris,
but more especially the first, which in the matter of luxuries
of the table, has a maw insatiable. [41] Thus the Jersey farmer
finds that, by devoting his best labour and land to the raising of
potatoes sufficiently early to obtain a fancy price for them, very
large money-gains are sometimes obtained,--subject also to large
risks; for spring frosts on the one hand, and being outstripped
by more venturous farmers on the other, are the Jersey farmers'
Scylla and Charybdis.
Now for the results. Land, especially that with southern aspect,
has increased marvellously in price. Wages have also risen. In many
employments nearly doubled. Twenty years ago a carpenter obtained
1s. 8d. per day. Now he gets 3s.; and field labourers' wages have
risen nearly as much in proportion. But food and lodging have much
more than doubled. Potatoes for ordinary consumption are now from
2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. per cabot (40 lb.); here I put out of court
the early potatoes, which bring, to those who are fortunate in the
race, three times that price. Fifteen years ago the regular price
for the same quantity was from 5d. to 8d. Butter is now 1s. 4d. per
lb. Then it was 6d.; and milk of course has altered in the same
proportion. Fruit, which formerly could be had in lavish, nay,
almost fabulous abundance, is now dearer than in London. In fact I,
who am essentially a frugivorous animal, have found myself unable
to indulge in it, and it is only at very rare intervals to be found
in any shape at my table. All work harder, and all fare worse;
but the poor specially so. The well-to-do possess a secret solace
denied to them. It is found in the 'share market.' I am told by
one employed in a banking-house and 'finance' business here, that
it is quite wonderful how fond the Jersey farmers are of Turkish
bonds, Grecian and Spanish coupons. Shares in mines seem also to
find favour here. My friend in the banking-house tells me that he
was once induced to try his fortune in that way. To be cautious,
he invested in four different mines. It was perhaps fortunate
for him that he never received a penny of his money back from
any one of the four.
Another mode by which the earnings of the saving and industrious
Jerseyman find their way back to London or Paris is the
uncalculated, but not unfrequent, advent of a spendthrift among
the heirs of the family. I am told that the landlord of the house
I live in is of this stamp, and that two years more of the same
rate of expenditure at Paris that he now uses, will bring him to
the end of his patrimony.
But what of the stimulants, and the want of recreation? I have
coupled these together because I think that drinking is an
attempt to find, by a short and easy way, the reward of a true
recreation; to supply a coarse goad to the wits, so that there
may be forced or fancied increase of play to the imagination,
and to experience, with this, an agreeable physical sensation. I
think men will usually drink to get the fascinating combination of
the two. True recreation is the cure, and this is not adequately
supplied here, either in kind or degree, by tea-meetings and the
various religious 'services,' which are almost the only social
recreations (no irreverence intended by thus classing them)
in use among the country folk of Jersey.
But I had better keep to my facts. The deductions I can well
leave to my master.
Here is a fact as to the working of the modern finance system
here. There is exceedingly little gold coin in the island; in
place thereof we use one-pound notes issued by the banks of the
island. The principal bank issuing these, and also possessing by
far the largest list of depositors, has just failed. Liabilities,
as estimated by the accountants, not less than £332,000; assets
calculated by the same authorities not exceeding £34,000. The whole
island is thrown into the same sort of catastrophe as English
merchants by the Overend-Gurney failure. Business in the town
nearly at a stand-still, and failures of tradesmen taking place one
after another, with a large reserve of the same in prospect. But
as the country people are as hard at work as ever, and the panic
among the islanders has hindered in nowise the shooting of the
blades through the earth, and general bursting forth of buds on
the trees, I begin to think the island may survive to find some
other chasm for their accumulations. Unless indeed the champion
slays the dragon first. [As far as one of the unlearned may have an
opinion, I strongly object both to 'Rough skin,' and 'Red skin,'
as name derivations. There have been useful words derived from
two sources, and I shall hold that the Latin prefix to the Saxon
kin establishes a sort of relationship with St. George.]
I am greatly flattered by my correspondent's philological studies;
but alas, his pretty result is untenable: no derivation can stand
astride on two languages; also, neither he, nor any of my readers,
must think of me as setting myself up either for a champion or a
leader. If they will look back to the first letter of this book,
they will find it is expressly written to quit myself of public
responsibility in pursuing my private work. Its purpose is to state
clearly what must be done by all of us, as we can, in our place;
and to fulfil what duty I personally acknowledge to the State; also
I have promised, if I live, to show some example of what I know to
be necessary, if no more able person will show it first. That is
a very different thing from pretending to leadership in a movement
which must one day be as wide as the world. Nay, even my marching
days may perhaps soon be over, and the best that I can make of
myself be a faithful signpost. But what I am, or what I fail to be,
is of no moment to the cause. The two facts which I have to teach,
or sign, though alone, as it seems, at present, in the signature,
that food can only be got out of the ground, and happiness only out
of honesty, are not altogether dependent on any one's championship,
for recognition among mankind.
For the present, nevertheless, these two important pieces of
information are never, so far as I am aware, presented in any scheme
of education either to the infantine or adult mind. And, unluckily,
no other information whatever, without acquaintance with these facts,
can produce either bread and butter, or felicity. I take the following
four questions, for instance, as sufficiently characteristic, out
of the seventy-eight, proposed, on their Fifth subject of study, to
the children of St. Matthias' National School, Granby Street, Bethnal
Green, (school fees, twopence or threepence a week,) by way of enabling
them to pass their First of May pleasantly, in this blessed year 1873.
1. Explain the distinction between an identity and an equation,
and give an easy example of each. Show that if a simple equation
in x is satisfied by two different values of x, it is an identity.
2. In what time will a sum of money double itself if invested at
10 per cent. per annum, compound interest?
3. How many different permutations can be made of the letters
in the word Chillianwallah? How many if arranged in a circle,
instead of a straight line? And how many different combinations
of them, two and two, can be made?
4. Show that if alpha and beta be constant, and phi and lambda
variable, and if
cos^2 alpha cos^2 beta (tan^2 alpha cos^2 lambda + tan^2 beta sin^2 lambda)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- =
tan^2 alpha cos^2 beta cos^2 lambda + tan^2 beta cos^2 alpha sin^2 lambda
sin^2 alpha cos^2 phi + sin beta sin^8 phi
-------------------------------------------- ,
tan^2 alpha cos^2 phi + tan^2 beta sin^2 phi
then cos^2 beta tan phi = cos^2 alpha tan^2 lambda, unless
alpha = beta ± n pi.
I am bound to state that I could not answer any one of these
interrogations myself, and that my readers must therefore allow for
the bias of envy in the expression of my belief that to have been
able to answer the sort of questions which the First of May once used
to propose to English children,--whether they knew a cowslip from an
oxslip, and a blackthorn from a white,--would have been incomparably
more to the purpose, both of getting their living, and liking it.