hands. It is the practice in most cigar
manufactories to search the workpeople as they leave
work. In the French factories the rule is
carried out with great severity. Let us hear
what the firm has to say on this subject: "We
have always regarded the practice of searching as
most degrading; and we have never been obliged
to resort to it. We have reason to believe that
our hands deserve our consideration in this
respect. The girls, as a rule, are very honourable,
and jealous of the reputation of their body,
and a black sheep is immediately reported to
us."

The girls are very fond of singing, and are
allowed to beguile their work with songs and
choruses. It was rather startling—but pleasantly
so—in a place of business to hear a
hundred voices joining in God bless the Prince of
Wales. I saw a little boy turning a crank, and
a man spinning twist tobacco, to the tune.
Singing under proper restrictions is not found
to hinder work; but rather to lighten and
promote it. Story-telling is also an art much
cultivated, and any girl who is a good vocal sensation
novelist is a prime favourite with the companions
in her immediate vicinity. There is a great
ambition among the girls for watches, and here
and there you may see a gold one. The girls
hang them on their tables and work by them,
striving to make so many cigars in the hour.

The most difficult problem which the firm, in
its truly hearty and kindly desire to benefit its
workpeople, has had to solve, has been how to
ensure the girls some education. Some years
ago, the proprietors started a night-school in
connexion with the works. The minister of an
adjoining church took a warm interest in the
scheme, and did his best to ensure its success.
It succeeded only for a very short time. Liverpool
is a very large city, and the girls live for
the most part with their parents, many of whom
reside on the outskirts, to be near the mills
where they are employed. It was consequently
found inconvenient, and in some cases
impracticable, for the girls to go home to tea and then
return to the night-school. So the school was
discontinued. Since then, the firm has refrained
as much as possible from taking any apprentices
until they can read and write.

The girls are mostly the daughters of
mechanics, and it is found that, as a rule, they are
very deficient in the rudiments of education.
This seemed to be a matter of deep concern and
trouble to the firm. Hear our guide again:
"On an average, out of ten applicants for work,
seven can neither read nor write. I attribute
this to girls being useful at home in assisting
their mothers at house-work, in nursing their
little brothers and sisters even when they are
mere children themselves. It is most distressing
to stand at our counter on a Monday morning,
and see the number of little things who have
been deformed in their persons by being
employed in nursing. I can pick them out in a
moment: one shoulder lower than the other,
the neck awry, the shuffling wabbling gait. I
am in the habit of seeing a great many young
girls of this age, and I am convinced that more
physical injury is caused to young girls in this
country—in this town at least—by their being
put too early to nursing, than from any system
of factory labour."

Could the philanthropists and the honourable
boards attend to these points? These kind-
hearted tobacconists find time and inclination in
the midst of their business to do much; but they
cannot do all.

You did not suppose that there was so much
human history in connexion with a cigar?
Like the British brand, the better for it. Take
another, while I carry on its progress from that
sorting table up-stairs among the girls, to the
neat branded ribbon-bound cedar-box in which
it is sent out to the trade. It is a very short
story now; though there are many processes
going on down here—almost as many as were
involved in the manufacture of Adam Smith's
pin. Here is a yard filled with logs of cedar. In
a shop adjoining, a circular saw, driven by steam,
is ripping these logs up into thin laths; in a
second, workmen are cutting them into the
required lengths and nailing them together; in a
third, workmen are marking them with red-hot
brands; and in a fourth they are being covered
with pictorial labels. All this work is done on
the premises, even to the lithographing and
printing of the labels. Well; when the cigars
come down in that railway from the manufacturing
hall, they are made up into bundles, placed in
boxes, and stowed away for a time in a drying-
room. Thence, when they are sufficiently dry,
they are taken out, separated into bundles of a
pound, and placed in the cedar-boxes for sale. I
could tell you something about Cavendish, and
Bristol bird's-eye, and twist, and snuff; but
perhaps you have had enough of tobacco for the
present. One word in your ear, however.
"Cabbage" is a fiction. So is "lettuce." The
very worst cigars are made of tobacco; I can
assure you, some of the tobacco at present
being imported into this country from Germany,
is quite cheap enough and bad enough for any
purpose. Wholesome cabbage or lettuce would
be a treat to it.

PATTY'S VOCATION.

IN THREE CHAPTERS. CHAPTER I.

"PATTY, you are a match-maker."

"Now, Robert!"

Notwithstanding the deprecatory tone with
which I pronounced those two words, Robert
repeated the calumny. Is it a calumny? Why
should it be a calumny? As far as regards
trouble, endless worry, waste of time,
disappointments and contrarieties, my experience of
the life of a match-maker is made up of them.
Therefore, a match-maker must be imbued with
the truest elements of unselfishness—should
therefore, be admired, loved, patronised.

What I endured for Sarah Jane, when she
fell in love with Dr. Leech's handsome young
partner, makes me shudder to recal. Not that
either of that young couple is so grateful now