Part 4
Paris is the capital of France, and it is the gayest city in the world; there are theatres, balls, processions, feast-days, fairs, and more amusements than I can remember. But there are also numbers of very poor people, who almost live in the streets, and get food and clothing as they best can. Some, who are called cheffoniers, go about with a fork and a basket, to pick up pieces of iron, rags, bones, or any stray valuables, if they can find them, from holes and corners in the streets, and from the dust heaps; others look for the ends of cigars, and sell them to be made into pieces of tobacco for the common people; and a number, I am very sorry to say, either beg or steal.
Among the peasantry there is a great deal of industry displayed. As they are all desirous of having a cottage and some land of their own, lads of fifteen or sixteen years of age, hire themselves as labourers to the farmers, and receive wages, out of which, and their mode of living, they save enough money in a few years, to buy a piece of land. If the land is fit for it, they plant it with vines; for the vineyards of France yield an abundant harvest, and well repay the labour bestowed on them. The French wines are among the finest and most expensive in the world.
The cottages of the peasantry are not remarkable for comfort, being very rude buildings, frequently having merely a hole in the roof for a chimney. They are mostly, however, extremely picturesque, completely covered with vines. The wines, called Bourdeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne come from France. From the fruit of the olive-trees, which grow in vast quantities, a fine clear oil is obtained, and this forms a large part of the commerce of the country. The rearing of poultry is carried on to a great extent; and most of the eggs sold in London, which are used by us at breakfast, for sauces, and for puddings, come from France. Most of the cottagers keep one or two small hardy cows, which their boys or girls, or old people, are usually leading about by a halter, to eat the rank grass in paths or road-ways between the fields. Their milk and butter form a good part of the people's food.
In Tours and Lyons, there are numerous manufactories for the most superb silks and damasks; some years ago, there were fifteen hundred pairs of silk stockings finished each day at Lyons.
The plate-glass of Paris is now much better than that of Venice, which was formerly the finest in the world, the plates being of an immense size and extraordinary clearness. Their tapestry is beautiful; the tapestry of the Gobelin in particular, for it is just like splendid painting. Indeed, some of the designs, copied from pictures, surpass the originals, in point of beauty and brilliancy. There are many specimens of this tapestry at the Exhibition, both in draperies, and fitted to pieces of furniture.
The porcelain made at Sevres is exquisitely beautiful, and is used for numerous ornamental purposes; vases, tea services, chimney ornaments, figures, and other articles. The painted papers, which represent various ornaments in painting, sculpture, and architecture, serve to employ a great number of people. Watches, cutlery, shoes, dresses, bonnets, and jewellery, are also a good source of employment among numerous families. All these beautiful things we shall see at the Exhibition.
The forests, in France, are very extensive; and as wood is the general fuel used, great attention is paid to the growth of the trees. Cattle and domestic animals are rather scarce, and the sheep are ill-managed; in winter, they are fed on straw and hay, instead of green food, so that the French meat is not so good as the English; but they have a nice way of dressing it. The country people are very simple in their habits and manners, and very frugal in their way of living; they live for the most part on black bread, garlic, fruit, and milk. The costumes of some of the peasants are exceedingly pretty.
What a many thousand contributions have come from foreign countries, yet even a greater number have been sent in from all parts of our own dear islands, England, Ireland, and Scotland. Here is a silver tea-kettle, manufactured from a fourpenny-piece, by a working man. I think that would grace the diminitive tea-table of the Emperor of the Lilliputians. And a pair of boat-sculls, made of white ash, and only the size of writing-pens, which I dare say, the oars of the King of Blefuscan's barge resembled; these, with a magnificent oar, thirty-six feet long, are intended as presents for His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
Here is a scarf, containing twelve miles and a-half of thread, three millions four hundred and seventy-five stitches, is nine feet ten inches long, three feet wide, and weighs only five ounces and a-quarter;--that came from Ireland. Look, too, at that beautifully embroidered dress; it came from Ireland, and is worth seventy-five guineas.
There are many little models of different buildings; and there is a colossal horse and dog; and two gigantic statues; and there is a nicely carved oak chair, made by an English ship-carpenter; and here are cotton stockings, manufactured so fine, that they look exactly like silk. There are also models of carriages, ships and machinery; a magnificient epergne of glass, with some large pearls, from Ireland. A beautiful piece of sculpture, representing the Scottish games, is the most remarkable contribution which has come from Scotland.
The English people are celebrated for their industry and perseverence; they manufacture numerous things, and carry on a alrge commerce with other countries. The industry of the peasants have made the soil produce wheat, barley, rye, oats, beans, potatoes, turnips, hops, hemp and flax. Nearly every variety, of vegetables, and a great number of fruits, are also grown. There is abundance of timber, which is used for many purposes; the oak tree is chiefly employed for building ships. The ships of war are called the "wooden walls of England."
The domestic animals are taken great care of; sheep and hogs, when killed, are made into mutton, pork, bacon, and ham. The English cheese and butter is superior to any other. There are abundance of mineral treasures found in various parts of the kingdom; indeed, the English people are greatly indebted to the well-worked mines for their wealth. At the Exhibition, are several specimens of ores.
In addition to the rich mines, and the vegetable productions, the English are celebrated for their superior manufactures, which fame they are enabled to enjoy by means of the most ingenious machinery, rail roads, and canals, by which they can easily and rapidly send their goods, and travel from one part of the country to another. Cottons, woollens, linens, silks, iron, jewellery, leather, glass, earthenware, paper, and hats, are manufactured in great quantities.
I dare say you would be much amused by a visit to Manchester, in Lancashire, where the art of spinning cotton is carried to a high perfection. There are more than a hundred and forty cotton factories in that city, where men, women, and children, are continually at work, minding the machines, which are about twenty thousand in number. When you first go into one of these factories, you hear a terrible noise of whirling and whizzing, and see an immense number of wheels flying round and round.
Halifax and Leeds, in Yorkshire, are the chief places for woollen cloth, the manufacture of which employs the greater part of the inhabitants. A weekly market is held in Halifax for the sale of woollens, in a spacious building called the Piece Hall; but in Leeds, the markets are held two days in the week, in the two Cloth Halls.
Staffordshire is famous for earthenware; the reason of this is, that there is such an enormous quantity of yellow clay suitable for that manufacture, found there. Indeed, there are several towns and villages formed into a district called "The Potteries;" and in consequence of the innumerable furnaces, which are always blazing, the place looks at night as if was on fire. Gloves, lace, and stockings, are mostly made in Nottingham, where there are several thousand machines for the manufacture of these things.
From Kidderminster, in Worcester, we have very fine carpets; from Gloucester, we have cheese and pins; Northampton is celebrated for leather; Shrewsbury, for flannel. The great mines are in Cumberland, Cornwall, Northumberland, Durham, and Derbyshire. However, if I were to tell you of all the places in England, that are famed for different manufactures, I am afraid I should both exceed our space, and wear out your patience, which I should be sorry to do. So I will now tell you something about London.
London, which you know is the capital of our own dear native land, is the greatest commercial city in the world; it has been reckoned that the value of the property shipped and unshipped on the river Thames, every year, is more than one hundred million pounds. An enormous quantity of property is laid in the London Docks, at Wapping; indeed, the warehouse for tobacco alone covers a space of nearly five acres, while the vaults underneath the ground are more than eighteen acres in extent.
More coaches, omnibusses, waggons, vans, and other conveyances, crowd the streets of London than any other city in the world. You will, perhaps, be a little surprised when I tell you that in one principal street, seven thousand vehicles pass to and fro every day. Almost every kind of manufacture is carried on in London; silk goods, jewellery, clocks, watches, ear-rings, hats, furniture, instruments of every kind, porter and ale, with many more that I cannot now remember. However, you must not think, from all this, there are no poor people in London; for, unfortunately, there are thousands. Some beg, others steal, and those who are honest and able to labour, work. But those who cannot obtain work are very badly off; and persons die from starvation.
The industrial manufactures of Scotland are like those of England; the exports are linens, muslins, woollen stuffs, cottons, iron, lead, glass, earthenware, leather, and other articles. The chief manufacture is linen: but manufactures of stoves, and grates, and many other things, from their immense iron works, particularly from those of Carron, are also a principal part of the industrial products.
The Scotch people are remarkable for their thrift and prudence; the lower orders are in general well-educated, and it is the height of ambition in a Scottish mechanic, to appear with his family in neat, clean dresses, on Sundays and other holidays.
The costume of the Highlanders is very picturesque; the plaid is made of woollen stuff, of various colours, with a jacket, and a short petticoat called a kilt, which leaves the knees bare; the stockings are also a plaid, generally red and white, and do not reach up to the knees, but are tied round the legs with scarlet garters. The head-dress is a flat blue bonnet, as it is called, ornamented round with scarlet and white plaid, and frequently adorned with eagle's feathers. The Highland women go without shoes or stockings, and wear short petticoats, a plaid jacket, and a plaid scarf.
Most of the Scotch people are intelligent, and so far advanced in education, that even the miners in the south have a library, where they read, and improve their minds; and yet these poor miners were little better than in a state of slavery two hundred years since. The favourite musical instrument, with the Scotch, is the bag-pipe; which does not, however, sound quite so well to our English ears, as it does to theirs. Their national dances are the Highland reel, and fling, which they perform with great agility and grace. The sheep and cattle are rather small, but give exceedingly good meat; and the sheep, in particular, are valued for their fleece, which is almost as fine as the best Spanish wool.
Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is, in the new parts of it, a fine clean city; the houses in the old town are excessively high, and the streets inconvenient; but the streets of the new town are very broad, and almost all in straight lines; some of them are a mile long. Most of the houses are built of white stone, which sparkles as if it was inlaid with diamonds when the sun shines on it.
The manufactures carried on in the city, are mostly cabinet-work, furniture, carriages, musical instruments, linens, shawls, silks, glass, marble, brass, and iron work. There are also many breweries, for Edinburgh has long been celebrated for its ale, large quantities of which are sent to London, and other parts of the kingdom, Glasgow, which is the principal manufacturing and trading town, contains extensive cotton factories.
In many parts of the Highlands, the natives are employed in feeding sheep and cattle, for the markets; and in the valleys, and other sheltered places, hemp, barley, flax, and potatoes, are cultivated, though unfortunately most of the barley is made into whiskey. In the more northernly parts the general employment is fishing.
Ireland is a much warmer and more fertile island; it is celebrated, in point of industry, for its wool, butter, beef, hides, tallow, cows, horses, pigs, sheep, potatoes, wheat, barley, oats, and linen. Linen is the chief manufacture. There are numerous mines, from which are obtained gold, silver, iron, copper, and lead; all very useful metals, I think.
There are also quarries of marble, slate, and freestone; and in various parts are found coal and turf. In Ireland, turf is the principal fuel used. The brewing of stout, and a strong bittered beer, for exportation; and the distilling of whiskey, another strong but spirituous drink, are other branches of Irish industry.
Fishing is an important occupation with those peasants who live on the sea-shore, and near the rivers or lakes. The making of roads, draining bogs, and improving the land, now employ thousands of poor labourers, who formerly used to be without any occupation.
The Irish dairies are well-managed and are generally extensive; many counties in the south part of the island are occupied almost entirely by dairy farms. As many as thirty or forty cows are kept on some of them, for butter is the chief produce, and this is sent into England, Portugal, and the East and West Indies. Some of the nice butter you eat on your bread and rolls comes from Ireland. Sheep and cattle are fed in great quantities on large pieces of land devoted to the purpose the sheep are large, and have fine wool.
The mud cabin of the Irish peasant is the most miserable cottage you can imagine; the walls are formed of clay, which hardens in the sunshine, the roof is made of sticks and straw, and the floor is the mere damp earth. It has frequently neither door, nor chimney, and consists of only one room; the furniture is rarely more than a stump bedstead, two or three stools, an iron pot, to boil the potatoes in, and a table to eat them from. Generally, there is a small piece of land attached to the dwelling, and in this potatoes are grown; the peasants of Ireland hardly ever eat anything besides potatoes. When they have enough of them to eat, and a little whiskey to drink, the poor people are exceedingly jovial and merry; they laugh, sing, and joke; and go to weddings, fairs, dances, and what are called in Ireland "wakes," which, among the poor, is a kind of laying in state before funerals;--but sometimes the crops of potatoes fail, and then the unfortunate peasants die by hundreds from hunger. The favourite dance of the common people is called a jig.
Dublin, which, I dare say, you know is the capital of Ireland, is an elegant city, with fine houses and good streets. The churches, the castle, the linen hall, exchange, bank, custom-house, and post-office, are all very noble buildings. There are also parks, gardens, theatres, canals, and other ornamental places throughout the city. From Dublin have been sent models of carriages, specimens of metals, slates, and linens, and a model of a house made in granite.
I have now told you, my dear little friends, a great many stories about the industry of all nations, and we have gone through the World's Show together. We have seen nearly all the useful and splendid things sent to the Great Exhibition from all parts of the world. I have told you about Europe, and Asia, Africa, and America; and I must soon leave you. But before I go, we must have another look at the Exhibition, and one more glance at those few things which we have not as yet seen.
We forgot to examine this magnificent chess-board, worth one thousand two hundred guineas. You will doubtless wonder why it is such a dear board, but your surprise will cease when you observe that the "checks," as they are called, are of mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell, while the rim is of beautifully burnished gold, and the chessmen are of gold and silver, elaborately wrought, and ornamented with the portraits of celebrated historical characters; one of them represents the Emperor, Charles the Fifth. I dare say you would like to play a game with me on this chess-board. As a companion to this beautiful chess-board, is a very elegant colour box, fit for the Queen, or the most noble young lady in the land, to use for painting with. And here is a model of the town of Liverpool, with several thousand little people in the streets; and these figures are so exceedingly small, that a thousand of them would fit into an ordinary sized pill box.
In contrast to this specimen of a great town in a minute space, we have in front of the transept a wonderful clock, which is kept in motion by a set of powerful electro magnets, eight in number, on which is wound a length of twenty-five thousand feet of copper wire. This gigantic time-keeper sets in motion the immense hands on the principal dial, which is twenty-four feet in diameter, besides two smaller ones which are fixed in front of the galleries, at the east and west ends of the building. I am afraid that it would tire you, were I to attempt to tell you exactly what electricity is, and must therefore satisfy your curiosity, for the present, by letting you know that it is caused by the coming in contact of different substances possessing peculiar properties, which cause them to vibrate, when they touch.
There is another very curious clock in the Exhibition, which will go for a hundred years before requiring to be wound up again; and there is one wheel in it which is said would take ten thousand years to go round once.
Next there is a case of stuffed birds, which came from Scotland, and which we cannot help admiring. There are in this case specimens of all the various kinds of birds which are peculiar to Scotland, neatly and carefully stuffed; and really they almost look as if they were alive. Ah, ah! Mister Eagle, you are not so much to be feared now, I think, as you were when you lived in your lofty home in the Highland mountains.
And here is another case in which are all the different sorts of mother-of-pearl buttons that can be imagined; there is every variety of ornament on the buttons, which look exceedingly brilliant.
This immense block of granite, from Scotland, is not quite so pretty, though it is, perhaps, more useful; it is twenty feet long, and is a piece of the finest kind and colour that could be found. Another very useful thing, also from Scotland, is a large lighthouse bell, managed so as to ring very loud, to warn any ship that is going too near a dangerous rock or shoal, near the lighthouse where the bell may be.
Among the more beautiful specimens of industry, there are several elegant vases made of silver, and of a delicate material called Parian, which is an imitation of Parian marble; some of them are ornamented with blue and gold, and others are ornamented with silver. There is also a splendid tea-service, adorned with charming pictures of the dear old fables we all know so well,--the "Lion and the Mouse," the "Wolf and the Lamb," the "Dog and the Shadow," and others.
Near the very middle of the building, close by the crystal fountain, there are the splendid iron gates from Coalbrookdale, which look very magnificent. I fancy Samson would find it rather a difficult matter trying to bear off _these_ gates on his back, strong as he was. Close by these gates there is a gigantic statue of our good Queen, on horseback, which towers high over our heads; and she sits smiling at us as if she could see us looking so delighted.
There are several gigantic things at the Exhibition. Here, for one, is a monster cake, covered with the most superb ornaments; it is four feet high, and weighs about two-hundred and twenty-five pounds. Yonder is another monster contribution, an immense map of the busy city of Manchester; and there is a huge railway carriage; and still further on, there is an iron wire, one mile long. At a little distance stands a magnificent bed and bedstead, fit for the Queen to sleep in. It came from Edinburgh, and is made mostly of materials which can be produced in Scotland. And in this direction, we can see a set of beautiful mantelpieces and fenders, from Sheffield, all decorated in the most elegant manner. The first mantelpiece we must look at is made of cast-iron; the mouldings of the cornice are richly ornamented, and supported by little pillars covered with graceful wreaths of oak-leaves, while the freize is adorned with a cluster of rich fruit. The next mantelpiece is painted white and gold, and has a burnished steel grate; while the third is painted blue and gold, and has a stove made on a new plan, for it is managed so that its own brightness shall help to throw out the heat of the fire in an equal and agreeable manner. The fourth and last mantelpiece is painted black, and ornamented with ormolu; it contains a polished steel stove. Three ormolu fenders, and five bright ones are placed together with the mantelpieces; and they certainly make a goodly show. But we must now leave them, and go on to see some other wonders.
Here are several most beautiful loo-tables inlaid, and they seem to attract a good deal of attention from more than us. You look a little puzzled at the word _inlaid_; I think I must explain it to you, by telling you that it means pieces of different material let into a piece of furniture to ornament it.
There are numerous models of various buildings in the Crystal Palace; those of York Cathedral, and Chance's Lighthouse, are particularly well made. There is also a model of the Britannia Tubular Bridge; and there are models of many of the fine public works of London.
Here is a pair of scissors made in Sheffield, and ornamented in the most beautiful way, with a crown for a handle; and yonder are a pair of cotton stockings from Ireland, spun so fine that they look exactly like silk, and indeed you would be likely to mistake them for silk, if you were not told they were merely cotton.
How brilliant this collection of gems looks; how the stones sparkle! they have been sent as specimens of the jewels which Ireland produces. But here are some pretty English agates; and a huge mass of Irish rock crystal, which is very bright and clear. In a compartment, at a little distance, we may see a book, bound according to a new method, by which the leaves are so firmly placed together, that they would not loosen in ten years' time, no matter how the book was tossed about, unless they were purposely taken out.