{"id":145,"date":"2020-03-26T16:10:15","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T16:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/?page_id=145"},"modified":"2021-07-12T19:31:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T19:31:08","slug":"charles-dickens-boys-to-mend-601","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/household-words-2\/charles-dickens-boys-to-mend-601\/","title":{"rendered":"Pg. 601"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Household<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Charles Dickens.] BOYS TO MEND. 601<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is a favorite employment. There is\nsomething to show, there, for one\u2019s labour. A boy who has run away several\ntimes, is planting a gate-post in the ground (assisted by a smaller boy), and\nworking with great energy. It is remarkable of most of the boys that they work,\ndecidedly with a will, and \u201cgo at it\u201d in a manner cheering to behold. In\nanother field, passing the pond at which the boys have fixed hours for bathing,\nwe come to a field of grass, in which some elder boys are mowing. To become a\nmower, is to graduate with honours in the Farm School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is now full noon, and at\nhalf-past twelve the boys will dine; so, we cross fields, and stiles, and\nbrooks, again, to find the dining- room. Meanwhile, the boys who are leaving\nwork, run on before us, and gambol about, and roll over one another on the\ngrass, with a confidence in meeting with no check while they do no wrong, which\nstrongly inclines us then and there to embrace the chaplain. In a conversation\nrelating to \u201cIrish boys,\u201d and the more errant of the sons and daughters of Erin\nin general, we learn, \u201cO yes, by the by, we certainly have one steady careful\nIrish boy here.\u201d On our expressing a desire to be introduced to this\nphenomenon, he is called up, but scarcely justifies his reputation; having,\nthat morning, \u201clost\u201d his boots, and provided himself with such an astonishing\npair of dilapidated canoes from some dung\u00adhill, that he drags a train of rotten\nleather, a foot or so in length, at each of his heels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boys all dress like rustic\nlabourers, in thick field shoes and corduroy trousers, which they learn to mend\nfor themselves, in shoemaking and tailoring shops erected on the farm. They\nrise at the same time as the labourers in the surrounding country, and live on\nlabourer\u2019s fare; eating meat only twice a week. They are vigorous and healthy,\nthanks to sufficient, though coarse, food, exercise, and country air. About\nthree cases of slight sick\u00adness in a twelvemonth are all the ills of flesh they\nknow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though moral discipline and\nkindness\u2014a true spirit of religion\u2014are relied upon for the main work of\nreformation, corporal punishment is not entirely taken from the code. It is\nadministered only as a last resource; sometimes not once during six months, and\nonly by the chaplain himself a week after the commission of the offence. The\nordinary punishments consist in the sub\u00adtraction of reward. For all the labour\ndone by them, the boys are paid a trifling price, at a fixed scale, according\nto the nature of the work; so that each earns from a penny to eight-pence every\nweek. Out of his earnings he pays fines proportioned to the week\u2019s offences.\nThe balance in his favour is put down as cash to his account; but, if the\nbalance be against him, he is put, according to the amount of deficit, in a\nfourth or a fifth class, and pays by eating bread instead of pudding, and by\nother changes in the character of his<\/p>\n\n\n\n

provisions. One week\u2019s losses are\nnot carried on against the next week\u2019s gains. Each week is independent of all\nothers. The money earned in this way is not, of course, given to the boy, but\nis spent in accordance with his wishes. He will buy with it, perhaps, treacle\nto improve his pudding, or the prerogative of setting up his knife, which is\nthe schoolboy\u2019s substitute for setting up a carriage. Sometimes he will ask\nleave to spend it on a visit to some rela\u00adtive, or will save it up for months\nto pay his mother\u2019s cost in coming down to see him at Bed Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When offences pass beyond the\nfine and the fifth class, there is an alternative of solitary confinement for a\nshort time, accom\u00adpanied with gentle admonition. Except in cases that demand\nimmediate care, the record of the week\u2019s misdeeds is kept, and the mis\u00addeeds\nremain to be accounted for, till Saturday in every week; when, after dinner,\nthe awards are made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While waiting for the\ndinner-time, we visit the boys who are locked up in light separate cells, for a\nfew hours of reflection. One of them is an Irish lad of sixteen or older, who,\nafter a quarrel on the previous night, decamped from the establishment, and was\nrecovered with a coat in his possession that did not belong to him. The coat he\ndeclared obstinately that he had picked up, and no kind of reasoning would make\nhim tell another tale. We shared, for some minutes, his confinement; and though\nhe was one of the most hopeless boys on the es\u00adtablishment, he spoke kindly\u2014in\nhis absence \u2014of the chaplain, and recognised the good feeling at Bed Hill. He\nwould like it, he said, if there were not about three dozen boys, who teazed\nhim because he was Irish. That was his view of the case. He was an orphan, who\nhad been thirteen or fourteen years away from Ireland. His relatives were an\nuncle and aunt in Liverpool, about whose occupations he seemed unwilling to be\ncommunicative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another boy, confined for\ngeneral idleness, and lying all along (and very like an idle boy indeed) asleep\non the cool floor, with his head at the door, like a mat. He is young \u2014about\nten\u2014and small for his age. We have seen that head, in prisons, many a time. A\nsullen, lowering, overhanging, beetle-browed, heavy head, with confused eyes in\nit that will look anywhere rather than at other eyes. As the chaplain turns it\nup towards him by the chin, and says a word or two of gentle re\u00admonstrance,\nthere is no hope in it\u2014very little accountability\u2014no more power of straight\nthinking than there is of straight-walking in a twisted foot. Touching the\ndifficulty into which this head has got itself and society, we would rather\nadvise with our good friend Dr. Conolly, than with the quarter sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another boy, for a\ngraver offence. Being at work in the carpenter\u2019s shop, he pocketed a knife, and\nso from good repute is brought to cellular disgrace. The carpenter to whom we\nspoke about it just now, as
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles Dickens.] BOYS TO MEND. 601 is a favorite employment. There is something to show, there, for one\u2019s labour. A boy who has run away several times, is planting a gate-post in the ground (assisted by a smaller boy), and working with great energy. It is remarkable of most of the boys that they work, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":664,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-145","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":727,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145\/revisions\/727"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}