AND ON THE CONTINENT.

19!)

dustry, " the remainder mostly machine workers.” His practisedeye soon recognised in the crowds the representatives of the chiefhranches of trade in Lancashire . “ That slender, caring-i'or-him-self man, wlio with liis better-half came on the trip, is a mule-spinner who can earn £2 and more weekly. That stronger-look-ing man next to him is probably a representative of the machinemaking everywhere planted alongside of the cotton industry, andthen certainly a member of the well-known Amalgamated Society.That full-grown girl, who evidently' places great value on herselfand her outward appearance, may be one of those four-loomweavers so numerous in our town, with weekly wages of 24s. ormore, and fair savings. The younger people, more cheaply andgaily attired, come out of the carding and preparation rooms.There may also be, among the younger ones, ring-spinners repre-sented, whom our friend Mullin is now organising.” “ If you willnotice,” continued my companion, “ the outward appearance willalready teach you that the women here marry later than amongthe miserable proletarians of our capital. It was formerly other-wise. As long as they could not economically worsen their posi-tion by- marriage, the female cotton operatives also married early,and frequently had children before marriage. To-day they thinkmostly, instead of this, of entering into marriage with certainsavings, which enable them to give up factory labour after thebirth of their first child. Thus it happens that families hereremain longer together than is the case in other places in operativecircles. Fifty per cent, of these people, but certainly a large per-centage, may, however, have taken the temperance pledge—amovement which is also specially supported by the younger tradessocieties.”

While we thus wandered chattering on the beach, the life of thepeople’s holiday developed itself about us. Besides fortune-tellers and nigger minstrels, and, oil the pier-heads, dancingcouples, there wore hobby-horses, which, also a sign of the timesand place, were driven by steam engines. My companion assuredme that the increasing whistling of the engines ministered to thepleasure of the crowd, who also in their holidays would not missthe voice of the once-so-hated King Steam. Alongside of allthese wo saw r preachers surrounded by crowds of listeners, next towhich children played unconcernedly in the sand. While the in-coming tide washed away the gardens built by them, with theirborders, it led my companion into a tirado against private pro-perty in land.