2l6 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



to-morrow, wearied the eye and the ear with their 

 ceaseless monotony. It was a city in which the 

 clashing of interests and the fluctuation of prices 

 made every one anxious for the morrow's sun to 

 rise that he might see what would happen next. 

 He spoke of the promising infant, the industry of 

 boot-making, which had always stood in the fore- 

 front of Issoire's development He touched lightly 

 on the late labor difficulties, as a mere incident in 

 the city's progress, " a spark struck out from the 

 clashing of great interests as from flint and steel." 

 " Different directions may produce such," said he, 

 unconsciously quoting from an earlier economist; 

 " nay, different velocities in the same direction." 

 Then he spoke of the value of the octroi to the 

 workingman and of the charmed life he leads at 

 Issoire. He repeated all the arguments drawn 

 from the prices of boots and the prices of labor 

 which the schoolmaster had written out for him, 

 and everything went on beautifully till near the 

 close, when the master-workman Jacques rose to 

 ask a question. 



" How is it," said he, " if the lot of the working- 

 man is so pleasant in Issoire, that there is not a 

 single workingman from Issoire in one of the fac- 

 tories in this city ? How is it that the mills are 

 full of paupers and ' rats ' from Clermont and 

 Jonas ? How is it that the census shows that 

 Issoire is actually poorer to-day than she was ten 

 years ago, that her pauper roll is ten times as 

 large, and the only citizens who have grown rich 

 are the city officers and the members of Issoire's 

 iniquitous Equitable Confidence Societies ? If the 



