The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists [230]
to say nothing about it. The pinnacle is stilt on the apex of the steeple waiting for a sufficiently strong wind to blow it down on somebody's head.
When the other men heard of Easton's `narrow shave', most of them said that it would have served him bloody well right if he had fallen and broken his neck: he should have refused to go up at all without a proper scaffold. That was what THEY would have done. If Misery or the coddy had ordered any of THEM to go up and paint the pinnacle off that ladder, they would have chucked their tools down and demanded their ha'pence!
That was what they said, but somehow or other it never happened that any of them ever `chucked their tools down' at all, although such dangerous jobs were of very frequent occurrence.
The scamping business was not confined to houses or properties of an inferior class: it was the general rule. Large good-class houses, villas and mansions, the residences of wealthy people, were done in exactly the same way. Generally in such places costly and beautiful materials were spoilt in the using.
There was a large mansion where the interior woodwork - the doors, windows and staircase - had to be finished in white enamel. It was rather an old house and the woodwork needed rubbing down and filling up before being repainted, but of course there was not time for that, so they painted it without properly preparing it and when it was enamelled the rough, uneven surface of the wood looked horrible: but the owner appeared quite satisfied because it was nice and shiny. The dining-room of the same house was papered with a beautiful and expensive plush paper. The ground of this wall-hanging was made to imitate crimson watered silk, and it was covered with a raised pattern in plush of the same colour. The price marked on the back of this paper in the pattern book was eighteen shillings a roll. Slyme was paid sixpence a roll for hanging it: the room took ten rolls, so it cost nine pounds for the paper and five shillings to hang it! To fix such a paper as this properly the walls should first be done with a plain lining paper of the same colour as the ground of the wallpaper itself, because unless the paperhanger `lapps' the joints - which should not be done - they are apt to open a little as the paper dries and to show the white wall underneath - Slyme suggested this lining to Misery, who would not entertain the idea for a moment - they had gone to quite enough expense as it was, stripping the old paper off!
So Slyme went ahead, and as he had to make his wages, he could not spend a great deal of time over it. Some of the joints were `lapped' and some were butted, and two or three weeks after the owner of the house moved in, as the paper became more dry, the joints began to open and to show the white plaster of the wall, and then Owen had to go there with a small pot of crimson paint and a little brush, and touch out the white line.
While he was doing this he noticed and touched up a number of other faults; places where Slyme - in his haste to get the work done - had slobbered and smeared the face of the paper with fingermarks and paste.
The same ghastly mess was made of several other `jobs' besides this one, and presently they adopted the plan of painting strips of colour on the wall in the places where the joints would come, so that if they opened the white wall would not show: but it was found that the paste on the back of the paper dragged the paint off the wall, and when the joints opened the white streaks showed all the same, so Misery abandoned all attempts to prevent joints showing, and if a customer complained, he sent someone to `touch it up': but the lining paper was never used, unless the customer or the architect knew enough about the work to insist upon it.
In other parts of the same house the ceilings, the friezes, and the dados, were covered with `embossed' or `relief' papers. These hangings require very careful handling, for the raised parts are easily damaged; but the men who fixed them were not allowed to take the pains and time
When the other men heard of Easton's `narrow shave', most of them said that it would have served him bloody well right if he had fallen and broken his neck: he should have refused to go up at all without a proper scaffold. That was what THEY would have done. If Misery or the coddy had ordered any of THEM to go up and paint the pinnacle off that ladder, they would have chucked their tools down and demanded their ha'pence!
That was what they said, but somehow or other it never happened that any of them ever `chucked their tools down' at all, although such dangerous jobs were of very frequent occurrence.
The scamping business was not confined to houses or properties of an inferior class: it was the general rule. Large good-class houses, villas and mansions, the residences of wealthy people, were done in exactly the same way. Generally in such places costly and beautiful materials were spoilt in the using.
There was a large mansion where the interior woodwork - the doors, windows and staircase - had to be finished in white enamel. It was rather an old house and the woodwork needed rubbing down and filling up before being repainted, but of course there was not time for that, so they painted it without properly preparing it and when it was enamelled the rough, uneven surface of the wood looked horrible: but the owner appeared quite satisfied because it was nice and shiny. The dining-room of the same house was papered with a beautiful and expensive plush paper. The ground of this wall-hanging was made to imitate crimson watered silk, and it was covered with a raised pattern in plush of the same colour. The price marked on the back of this paper in the pattern book was eighteen shillings a roll. Slyme was paid sixpence a roll for hanging it: the room took ten rolls, so it cost nine pounds for the paper and five shillings to hang it! To fix such a paper as this properly the walls should first be done with a plain lining paper of the same colour as the ground of the wallpaper itself, because unless the paperhanger `lapps' the joints - which should not be done - they are apt to open a little as the paper dries and to show the white wall underneath - Slyme suggested this lining to Misery, who would not entertain the idea for a moment - they had gone to quite enough expense as it was, stripping the old paper off!
So Slyme went ahead, and as he had to make his wages, he could not spend a great deal of time over it. Some of the joints were `lapped' and some were butted, and two or three weeks after the owner of the house moved in, as the paper became more dry, the joints began to open and to show the white plaster of the wall, and then Owen had to go there with a small pot of crimson paint and a little brush, and touch out the white line.
While he was doing this he noticed and touched up a number of other faults; places where Slyme - in his haste to get the work done - had slobbered and smeared the face of the paper with fingermarks and paste.
The same ghastly mess was made of several other `jobs' besides this one, and presently they adopted the plan of painting strips of colour on the wall in the places where the joints would come, so that if they opened the white wall would not show: but it was found that the paste on the back of the paper dragged the paint off the wall, and when the joints opened the white streaks showed all the same, so Misery abandoned all attempts to prevent joints showing, and if a customer complained, he sent someone to `touch it up': but the lining paper was never used, unless the customer or the architect knew enough about the work to insist upon it.
In other parts of the same house the ceilings, the friezes, and the dados, were covered with `embossed' or `relief' papers. These hangings require very careful handling, for the raised parts are easily damaged; but the men who fixed them were not allowed to take the pains and time