140 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



as to the health of the workmen in the factories 

 at Mitcham in Surrey. I have stated, however, 

 that the English process is much shorter than 

 that of the French. The cigar-makers complain 

 of the constant sitting being injurious to their 

 back and loins. I have seen some of them : they 

 did not appear to differ in look from the general 

 run of in-door workmen. In truth, there are 

 many worse avocations, on the score of health, 

 in the metropolis and elsewhere. Painful as is 

 the thought so constantly forced upon the mind that 

 thousands on all sides must suffer for the support, 

 comfort, convenience, and luxury of the few, yet 

 it is nevertheless incontestable that there is no 

 condition of man without its burthen — and, as a 

 general rule, those feel it most who have least 

 reason to complain. And some there are who 

 sing their bitter toils away. 



There is something peculiarly touching in the 

 following brief sketch by Bryant, in his * Letters 

 of a Traveller,' relating to his visit to a tobacco- 

 factory in America : — 



" As we entered the room we heard a miinnur of 

 psalmody running through the sable assembly, which 



