In Darkest England and The Way Out [170]
than they made spoons. Employed first in the coarser and ruder manufactures, they were advanced as they improved, and were for some time paid more than they earned--paid to encourage good will, effort, and perseverance. These were worth any sum. The poor people saw that they were treated with more than justice--with kindness. It was very evident that it was all for their good. At first there was confusion, but no insubordination. They were awkward, but not insensible to kindness. The aged, the weak, and the children were put to the easiest tasks. The younger children were paid simply to look on until they begged to join in the work, which seemed to them like play. Everything around them was made clean, quiet, orderly, and pleasant. Living at their own homes, they came at a fixed hour in the morning. They had at noon a hot, nourishing dinner of soup and bread. Provisions were either contributed or bought wholesale, and the economies of cookery were carried to the last point of perfection. Count Rumford had so planned the cooking apparatus that three women cooked a dinner for one thousand persons at a cost though wood was used, of 4 1/2d. for fuel; and the entire cost of the dinner for 1,200 was only #1 7s 6 1/2d., or about one-third of a penny for each person! Perfect order was kept --at work, at meals, and everywhere. As soon as a company took its place at table, the food having been previously served, all repeated a short prayer. 'Perhaps,' says Count Rumford, 'I ought to ask pardon for mentioning so old-fashioned a custom, but I own I am old-fashioned enough myself to like such things.'
"These poor people were generously paid for their labour, but something more than cash payment was necessary. There was needed the feeling of emulation, the desire to excel, the sense of honour, the love of glory. Not only pay, but rewards, prizes, distinctions, were given to the more deserving. Peculiar care was taken with the children. They were first paid simply for being present, idle lookers-on, until they begged with tears to be allowed to work. 'How sweet those tears were to me,' says Count Rumford, 'can easily be imagined.' Certain hours were spent by them in a school, for which teachers were provided.
"The effect of these measures was very remarkable. Awkward as the people were, they were not stupid, and learned to work with unexpected rapidity. More wonderful was the change in their manners, appearances and the very expression of their countenances. Cheerfulness and gratitude replaced the gloom of misery and the sullenness of despair. Their hearts were softened; they were most grateful to their benefactor for themselves, still more for their children. These worked with their parents, forming little industrial groups, whose affection excited the interest of every visitor. Parents were happy in the industry and growing intelligence of their children, and the children were proud of their own achievements.
"The great experiment was a complete and triumphant success. When Count Rumford wrote his account of it, it had been five years in operation; it was, financially, a paying speculation, and had not only banished beggary, but had wrought an entire change in the manners, habits, and very appearance of the most abandoned and degraded people in the kingdom."--("Count Rumford," pages 18-24.)
"Are the poor ungrateful? Count Rumford did not find them so. When, from the exhaustion of his great labours, he fell dangerously ill, these poor people whom he had rescued from lives of shame and misery, spontaneously assembled, formed a procession, and went in a body to the Cathedral to offer their united prayers for his recovery. When he was absent in Italy, and supposed to be dangerously ill in Naples, they set apart a certain time every day, after work hours, to pray for their benefactor. After an absence of fifteen months, Count Rumford returned with renewed health to Munich--a city where there was work for everyone, and not one person whose wants were not provided for. When he visited the military workhouse,
"These poor people were generously paid for their labour, but something more than cash payment was necessary. There was needed the feeling of emulation, the desire to excel, the sense of honour, the love of glory. Not only pay, but rewards, prizes, distinctions, were given to the more deserving. Peculiar care was taken with the children. They were first paid simply for being present, idle lookers-on, until they begged with tears to be allowed to work. 'How sweet those tears were to me,' says Count Rumford, 'can easily be imagined.' Certain hours were spent by them in a school, for which teachers were provided.
"The effect of these measures was very remarkable. Awkward as the people were, they were not stupid, and learned to work with unexpected rapidity. More wonderful was the change in their manners, appearances and the very expression of their countenances. Cheerfulness and gratitude replaced the gloom of misery and the sullenness of despair. Their hearts were softened; they were most grateful to their benefactor for themselves, still more for their children. These worked with their parents, forming little industrial groups, whose affection excited the interest of every visitor. Parents were happy in the industry and growing intelligence of their children, and the children were proud of their own achievements.
"The great experiment was a complete and triumphant success. When Count Rumford wrote his account of it, it had been five years in operation; it was, financially, a paying speculation, and had not only banished beggary, but had wrought an entire change in the manners, habits, and very appearance of the most abandoned and degraded people in the kingdom."--("Count Rumford," pages 18-24.)
"Are the poor ungrateful? Count Rumford did not find them so. When, from the exhaustion of his great labours, he fell dangerously ill, these poor people whom he had rescued from lives of shame and misery, spontaneously assembled, formed a procession, and went in a body to the Cathedral to offer their united prayers for his recovery. When he was absent in Italy, and supposed to be dangerously ill in Naples, they set apart a certain time every day, after work hours, to pray for their benefactor. After an absence of fifteen months, Count Rumford returned with renewed health to Munich--a city where there was work for everyone, and not one person whose wants were not provided for. When he visited the military workhouse,