66

men's footing, 10s. 6d. ; at marriage, 10s. 6d. ; birth of child, 4s.; at lighting-up candles in the fall, there is a way-goose, or a day's wages given to drink. Fines for a dirty shirt and beard on Monday, 7d. each. If any one but the foreman informs on the men, he is fined from 10s. 6d. to 11. About Christmas the men consider that they have a right to apply to dealers, who furnish raw material, tools, or other articles for the shop, and they receive drink money from them. A Samson is a large machine employed in punching; the first time it is used, there is the sum of 1s. 3d. charged to the user. Informant has seen a Samson wetted with two hundred pints of porter. All these sums are spent in drink, and greatly more always than the regulation sums. There is much coercion employed to enforce these usages. Men's clothes are put up the "spout;" slippers and tools are hid; boys are not taught; men are sent to "Coventry." One informant said of a recusant, "he may be as well out of the world as in it if he don't comply."

21.

Saddlers.-The apprentice footing ranges from 10s. 6d. to

The journeymen's footing depends, somewhat as the others, on the number of people in the shop: it averages 5s. or 6s. The meetings of the society are kept in a public-house, and a considerable quantity of spirits is drunk; because, although twopence only is to be drunk for the room, yet many of this trade make a practice of retiring to another room, and of sometimes sitting over liquor all night. Some men drink during the two or three first days of the week, and do not come to work till Thursday. Clever men are much caressed by employers, and thus obtaining indulgences, acquire habits of drinking. If one man tell of another to the master, it subjects him to a drink fine; this is called "sucking the master." The necessity of "mugging" the servants of customers is a great grievance in this trade. When a farmer buys a set of harness, if the farm servant be not "mugged," that is, an allowance of whisky given him, he will, in many cases, revenge the omission by complaining to his master of the articles purchased, or by injuring them. It is to be remarked that in a great variety of cases, in business and domestic life, servants have sometimes directly, and often indirectly, a great power of patronage in reference to the tradesmen or artificers their master shall employ. This patronage is often to be bribed and secured by presents and treats of liquor. One informant states, that in consequence of not "mugging," he has been threatened by the servant that

it would be the last time his master should buy from him. Another, that he has known links taken off the breeches of the harness on this account: and the saddle-cloth gathered up like a ball, in order to gall the skin, the blame of which was intended to be laid on the saddler. When customers complain to this informant, it is usual for him to reply, “If I had given your men whisky, all would have been right." Another saddler in a small town was forced to leave the place in consequence of a conspiracy of servants against him for declining to "mug." A fourth, in moderate business, calculated that this usage cost him 100l. a-year. Christmas boxes

are claimed by operative saddlers, from dealers who furnish to the shop. The "way-goose" is only now occasionally given in this trade informant has known it range according to the size of the shop, from 18s. to 61.

CHAPTER X.

IRISH USAGES-continued.

Coachmakers-Tailors-Hatters-Ministers-Catholic Priests-CoachmenTreating-Domestic Usages-Christenings-Weddings-Lyke-wakes-Funerals-Holidays-Kaig'd or Affidavit Men-New Series of Usages in the Trade-Clubs-Comparison of Irish and Scotch Modes of Inebriation-Estimate of the Political and Social Evils that affect Ireland; and how far a Temperance Reformation will cure or diminish them.

Coachmakers. In this business the apprentice footing has been stated at one guinea; journeymen's at 10s. 6d., sometimes 11s. 4d. The men first drink the apprentice money, then their own. An apprentice is forced to pay the footing by various expedients, although he should only be taken on trial for three months. If they are dilatory in fetching the money, they are jeered at-things are thrown at them—they are sometimes beaten, and put out of the pale of protection. Footing money is frequently given to one particular workman, in order to adjust the drink; and many quarrels arise on the subject of his duly accounting for all the cash. One informant has known three days of idleness occur after a foot-drink. An apprentice, on being taught the niceties of colouring and varnishing, in one department of this trade, must pay "smyrna." The first new job the apprentice has never done before, costs him 2s. 6d. for drink. At marriages and births "socket-money" is due;

but on these occasions the party concerned is not obliged to treat the whole establishment, but only that department in which he himself is employed, which may be in making the body of the carriage, inside cloth trimming, or harness; or in the smith, painting, spring, or wheel department. An individual who buys a coach, is subjected to a claim from the operatives of the yard: this is called a "kicking the gentleman;" a deputation is generally sent, who observe that the leather is very dry, and that it must be wetted; with other sallies of that kind. A gentleman whose coach is being mended, generally gives the helpers in the yard drink-money to take care of it. On the sale of a carriage of any kind, as the maker commonly warrants its standing for a certain time without needing repair, it is evident he is in this case very much in the hands of the coachman or groom of the gentleman who has purchased the vehicle. Accordingly, advantage has been taken of this circumstance to fasten a drinking-usage; and the coachman must be bribed with money or drink, sometimes both, otherwise the carriage may be seriously damaged by deliberate design, and brought back to be refitted. On one occasion an informant remembered of a coachmaker having words with the postilion of a gentleman to whom he had sold a coach; and he was so sure that the servant would endeavour to injure the carriage in driving out of the yard, that he declined to permit him to do so; and the purchaser having come personally, on explanation, drove home the carriage himself.

Another informant states, that on a particular occasion, when a coachman received 27, instead of 5l. 5s., he put the coach into salt water, and thus took off the varnish; whereby the maker not only suffered a loss in repairing, but his professional character was so far endangered. At another time, he has known a large pin or nail introduced between the leaves of the spring, which, by the continual motion, in due time caused it to break across :-the nail or pin fell out, and no one knew how the accident happened. It is obvious, however, that where so large a sum as 51. 5s. is given, it is not all to be considered as drink money; but the coachman is often treated with drink besides, during the time a carriage is building.

At Christmas the operatives in the coach-building manufactories, receive drink money from those who supply articles to the yard; such as furnishers of varnish, of timber, of iron, and other articles. The trade societies generally meet in publichouses, and drink for the benefit of the house.

Extra work is generally paid by the employers with drink;

this, I have been informed, is what draws them afterwards to the public-house like a magnet. One informant has seen them go on the ramble in consequence of this foolish and mistaken indulgence, and not return for two days. The same informant has known a boy who refused to pay the footing, very ill used, and remaining, in consequence, ignorant of the business, and obliged, at the expiration of his apprenticeship, to article himself out afresh to a new master.

The same evils we have formerly noticed as attending the payment of wages, have place in this trade also. One informant has often known men robbed in coming home from the paytables; he has known 20s. and a watch taken from a companion in that way. It is a common thing for pick-purses to come about on the pay-night, and in pretending to help the drunken operatives home, to use the opportunity of rifling them. The first thing men do on the pay-night, is to strike off their week's score at the public-house where the money is paid or divided, or change obtained; and then they drink for the good of the house.

The penalties for refusing or delaying the usage money, are much the same as in other trades; tools are hid, work is spoiled during absence; boys are cuffed about, or sent home; clothes are cut, put "up the spout," or sleeves taken off. One informant has seen men, for "pure greed" of having a footing, put themselves for days out of work. Another has seen men set to fight, and being stripped for that purpose, their clothes were pawned and the proceeds drunk.

Tailors.-These have the journeymen's and apprentice footings, which last varies with the circumstances of the parent, and the number of men in the shop. Something is expected at expiration of apprenticeship, at marriages, and births of children; in most cases something is added by the other men, to increase the drink money. Most large shops are paid at a public-house, or in such a manner as to cause men to repair thither on the pay-night. The first thing generally done, is to pay the week's score. There are drink fines for dirty linen or unshaven chins on Monday morning; smyrna pots" are charged for teaching difficult work; new clothes of an artificer's own require to be "wetted." In disputing regarding the payment of fines or footings, the men will sew up the sleeves of a coat, or take possession of the shoes and other apparel of the recusant, and hide them: the man is thus put into awkward and disagreeable circumstances; the points of his scissors will be snapped off; a triangular hole will be cut in the rim

66

of his hat; his handkerchief will be knotted, by two men using all their strength, so as to make it difficult to undo. There are a variety of other penalties; and the last resort would be a turn-out of all the men against the non-conformist. One informant expressed himself thus: "If money on these occasions is refused or deferred, there is much talk, taunting, and ridicule; a man's life is made a complete purgatory, more real than the one spoken of by the priest." A workman once came from London, poor and destitute, with scarcely a shoe on his foot; but the very first money that this unfortunate earned, was appropriated by the cruel usage for drink to the men, though he could not pay his night's lodging. Friendly societies in this trade being held in public-houses, is a great source of unmitigated evil. One grand difficulty of obtaining the assistance of masters, in this and some other trades, in order to procure the abrogation of drinking usage among the operatives, is, that the masters being accustomed to frequent drinking themselves, and entrammelled by their own usages, cannot, with much regard to consistency, demand conduct from their men, to which their own customs daily run counter. "Drinking customs flourish by means of influential members of society; and when, by means of such baleful usages, one after another goes to the drunkard's own place, and is lost for evermore, his blood is in their skirts who countenance such practices. A jug of punch sent down from the parlour to the kitchen, makes a long and eloquent speech, which all well understand. We seem to wish to connect all that is kind, hospitable, and engaging, with drinking spirits.”*

Hatters. The usages are much the same as those in Scotland of the same trade. "Is a hatter on the tramp,-in each hat-manufactory he visits, he demands, as his right, a sum for drink; and some, if not all of the workmen, retire with him, of course, to the house of call, to assist him in spending it. If hatters desire wages in advance, to supply their rage for spirituous liquors, their masters gratify them, but not in cash: they give them hats at 13s. or 14s. each-these they sacrifice for a few shillings. He may go on the pay-night to the whisky-shop to get payment of a pound note; he must pay for the change by drinking a little; and this is often the commencement of a debauch continued through Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. 'Go home,' said one of the nightly watch to a wretched, ragged woman, who was knocking at the door of a

* London Temperance Advocate.

K