WAGES, EDUCATION, AND THE JINGO 179 



enjoyable excursions, can form an idea either 

 of their variety or of the numbers who take 

 advantage of them. It has always, since 

 that summer, been difficult for me to expend 

 an extravagant amount of emotion over the 

 sufferings of the artisan class ' left to stew in 

 the city.' That it should be possible to place 

 such measures of relief within the reach of 

 the working man and his family is a boon 

 indeed ; nevertheless, seeing him and his 

 so prominently and constantly ' on pleasure 

 bent,' whilst one's ears are assailed with tales 

 of the hard times, low or no wages, one is 

 tempted to meditate concerning men and 

 things. Does the working man ev^er antici- 

 pate that possible ' rainy day ' w r hich men of 

 our own class the professional class are 

 apt to prepare for ? Why should the working 

 man who, in truth, only shares the hard 

 times with others of his fellow-citizens deem 

 himself superior to the duty of thrift, and 

 angrily demand the same luxuries in bad 

 times as in good ? For this is, in truth, what 

 his attitude amounts to. I should, indeed, 

 have to disbelieve the evidence of my own 

 senses were I to declare that it is the majority, 



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