NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE.
☞ The first number of ‘Fors Clavigera’ for the year 1873 will be published (I hope) on 1st January next, and in the course of that month the Index to the two first volumes, for the years 1871, 1872, as an extra number, which will be sent gratis to subscribers to the complete work.
Subscriptions to the St. George’s Fund have been sent to me to the amount of 104l. 1s. I have therefore sent a cheque for 100l. to be added to the fund accumulating in the hands of the trustees.
I think it inexpedient at present to give the names of my—not numerous—subscribers. Each of them knows his or her number in the subjoined list:—
| £ | s. | d. | ||
| 1. | Annual, 4l. (1871, 1872) | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 2. | Annual, 20l. (1871, 1872) | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 3. | Gift (1871) | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 4. | Gift (1872) | 30 | 0 | 0 |
| 5. | Gift (1872) | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 6. | Annual (1872) | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| £104 | 1 | 0 |
It is a beginning. We shall get on in time—better than some companies that have started with large capital.
The following cry of distress, from a bookseller of the most extended experience, has lain all this year by me, till I could find opportunity, which has not come, for commending its sound common sense in relation to several matters besides what it immediately touches on. It must stand on its own worth now, and is well able to do so.
“February 28th, 1872.
“It is often a question of considerable embarrassment for parents to know what to do with their children, and to place them in such a manner in a trade or profession as would best fit their talents and aptitudes.
“Notions of ‘gentility’ induce too many parents to bring up their sons for professions or the Civil Service, and their daughters for a status which they are unlikely to attain.
“I will say here only a few words to parents of the humbler classes:—Do not be allured by advertisements into seeking for your sons appointments as clerks in offices where a boy starts at once with a salary and short hours of business. Rely upon it, these tempting offers lead to poor prospects; hence has arisen the superabundant supply of ‘genteel clerks,’ and the deficient supply of good mechanics. It is much to be regretted that the former practice of apprenticeship has fallen so much out of use. Better mechanics were certainly thus formed.
“There is one mechanical trade with which I am especially connected, viz., that of bookbinding. I regret to say, that an extreme difficulty exists to obtain intelligent and willing men to do the work which is ready to be given out. I ascribe this largely to a defective education of our youth. There is too much conceit amongst parents and their children as to their future in life, too much uniformity of thought, and by far too little exertion and preparation for the struggles of existence. Walking-sticks, meerschaum-pipes, and cheap sensational journals are found in the hands of strutting youngsters, who ought to be modestly attired, and who ought earnestly to prepare themselves for their future career.
“In mentioning such a trade as bookbinding, I wish to convey that it is not the heavy and idle who are wanted, but the hardy and intelligent boys; and the better they are educated, the better are their future chances of success in life.
“Being very much hampered in my pursuit as a bookseller by the want of proper execution in the binding and furbishing of books, I can speak decidedly to the fact that there is ample room for many more labourers in that interesting trade. Intelligence, honesty, and physical strength are required in starting a youth in every business; and when parents have prepared their children with these qualifications, a successful career in the bookbinding trade may be safely guaranteed.
“It is painful to me, and must be equally unpleasant to all owners of libraries, to suffer constantly from the protracted delays caused by the deficiency of good workmen in the binding business.
“Those curses of modern society,8 ‘Trades’ Unions,’ on one side, and absurd notions of gentility on the other, are doing each their share of harm in keeping down the supply of new hands.
“I repeat—more hands, ‘with heads,’ are wanted in the bookbinding trade. This is a cry of distress from a bookseller whose business is injured owing to the delays and the inefficiency of the existing binders and their workmen.”
1 Went then in measure of a carol dance. ↑
5 There were foreign trees besides. I insert bits here and there, without putting stars to interrupt the pieces given. ↑
8 Let me, however, beg you to observe, my dear Sir, that the cursing is the fault of modern society, not of Trades’ Unions, which were an extreme blessing to ancient society, and will be so to all wholesome societies, for ever. ↑
FORS CLAVIGERA.
