EAKLY CLOSING. 
267 
induce young men to enrol themselres, and employers to give the necessary 
time, until at last we find meetings held in the most aristocratic of London 
mansions to aid the trading classes in the “ early closing ” movement. The 
causes we have mentioned may no longer be recognized ; mechanics’ insti¬ 
tutes may be neglected; volunteers, saving the “ crack shots ” who aspire to 
Wimbledon honours, may have cooled in their military ardour, or calmed in 
their dread of invasion, but the effect remains, and the cry for early closing 
has settled into a national voice. Can it be wondered at, then, that chemists 
whose hours of toil have, in obedience to tlie wants of suffering humanity, 
been extended far beyond the average of other trades, should ask, like their 
neighbours, for some improvement? We think not; and we think that if em- 
2 )loyers and emplayes will but work together in the spirit suggested by Mr. 
Ince, a great amelioration may be accomplished,—a benefit to both parties. 
It would be absurd to suppose that all houses of business, north, south, cast, 
and west, can be closed at the same time. The very liberation^of men from 
one district sends them home to another, to think on their own ailments and 
supply their own wants. 
There are other phases of the early closing question which have troubled, 
and always will be a source of anxiety to some of the best and kindest masters 
in the drug trade. As a rule, chemists’ assistants hold a better position in the 
families of their employers than do the assistants, or “ shopmen” as they are 
called, in other trades. They must be an educated class, and, in nine cases 
out of ten, their sojourn in an establishment is but a period of practical edu¬ 
cation. It follows then, that if their leisure time be increased, the question 
will naturally arise (and for their benefit be it remembered) in the minds of 
their employers, “ What %ise loill he made of that time 
They, of all others, require opportunities for scientific research. Will they 
avail themselves of the opportunities provided? Will the,Library take its 
turn with the popular amusements of the day; or will music and dancing 
engross all their time, and a good deal of their money ? 
These are important questions, and we have some reason for asking them. 
We admit at once that assistants are “men grown,” supposed to be capable 
of controlling their own actions ; but Ave have heard it said by persons, in the 
best possible position to judge, that in certain houses which were formerly 
kept open until eleven, there was then more scientific reading, more research, 
more thirst after knowledge, than are to be found now when a couple of hours 
have been cut awa}’’ from the period of business. We cannot forgef, too, 
that when the first effort was made by principals to give leisure to their as¬ 
sistants, the Library of the Pharmaceutical Society Avas lighted, warmed, and 
kept open until ten o’clock, but, alas, no visitors ever entered it. 
On the other hand, the success of the eA^ening classes instituted by the 
London colleges is a fact pregnant with encouragement to masters and ex¬ 
ample to assistants. They were established expressly to give opportunities 
to young men, liberated early from the office, the bank, or the warehouse, to 
obtain such an education as Avould improve them for their own, or fit them 
for any higher walk in life ; and marvellously have they succeeded,—not only 
in the number of the pupils drawn to them, but iu the sound character of 
the education imparted. The roll of Graduates in the University of London 
bears the names of many worthies who have to thank these classes for their 
position. . . 
We commend these matters alike to all parties concerned,—the masters, who 
may fear they are making a sacrifice of their customers, and the assistants, for 
Avhom that sacrifice would be made. Let them both feel that their interests 
are mutual; but, above all, let the latter remember that in taking every oc¬ 
casion to lAi’Osecute their studies, although the immediate benefit may accrue 
T 2 
