Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

23 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

---VARIETIES-GRAYE AND GAY.

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AFFAIRS IN ASHANTEE.

DR. KENEALY, M.P., IN CHANCERY.

MR. BRIGHT AND HIS CONSTITUENTS.

MR. HOLMS ON THE ARMY.

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SAD CASE OF ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.

EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE.

WHAT THE "WORLD" SAYS.

Advertising

THE JEFFERSON BORDEN.

CHURCH AND DISSENT.

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TURKEY AND HER CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS.

THE BRITISH WORKMAN.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

THE BRITISH WORKMAN. The dishonest idleness of the ordinary workman who Is paid by the day becomes increasingly a matter of com- plaint. An architectural contemporary has lately opened its columns to a correspondence on the subject, in which both sides of the question are discussed. We have all suffered more or less at some time or other from the dilatoriness of the people whoundertake to do "johs." The London householder quails at the idea of a gasfit- teror plumberenteringhis house almost as much as he would at the idea of going to bed and leaving his hall door open. The workman is not a burglar by profes- sion, and may not carry anything out of the house but his tools and the housemaid's affections, yet he pro- bably manages to rob his employer as effectually as if he had stolen a purse off the study table. He does not do his own work so that it will last, and he makes needless work for others !il<e himself. Working men will, no doubt, be indignant at any one who accuses them of being thieves and robbers; nevertheless—if we may assume that their proceedings are correctly described by various correspondents of the Building News-they, by their systematic deter- mination to do as little work as possible, take money out of the pockets of their employers very much as the pickpockets do. Most people who live in a large town oan scarcely fail to have witnessed scenes similar to that described by Mr. Martin in the Building News of December 10, 1875, as daily visible from a wim/ow in Mr. beddons "observatory" at Queen Anne's gate, winch. overlooks the tops of a great many houses in the neighbourhood. Mr. Martin has, it seems, amused himself with watching the workmen, who, though ostensibly engaged in repairing the roofs and the chimneys, sit calmly conversing together orst clched at lull length, for greater ease, in the leaden gutters, smoking a pipe. They apparently take no int 11 st in anything beyond the movements of the labourer who combines outpost duty with that of "commissariat," and brings them the two ever-needful B's, bacca and beer, especially necessary to their complete enjoyaaen t f. view before them. Iu oue of his observa- tions J\Ir. Mar tin saw a man asleep, "dreaming the J»appy hours away" on a narrow scaffolding oOfr. Irom the ground. Forgetting the habits of the race, he rusnedm his simplicity to rescue the man from this dangerous position. At the bottom of the scaffolding was the bricklayer's mate, who calmed his anxiety at once by coolly informing him, "Lor'bless you, he's sare enough he's accustomed to it." To this anecdote Mr. Martin adds an amusing account of the way things go on ill country parts, where the foreman can always find some excuse for an excursion to the railway station to inquire for something wanting only in his imagination. He does not leave without having tested the quality of the refreshment roomtapin no imaginary manner. A foreman naturally always requires a abourer with him, even to make inquiries. When I? 18 ,c°11stant wilful waste of time we add the fact that a bricklayer can, by working with only one hand (no uncommon practice),make a yard-cube of biickwork cost 321., it will not seem so surprising that those who build houses can seldom afford to live in them. A friend of Mr. Martin's one day during working hours tound all the men, whom he supposed to be hard at work with hammer nnd trowel, exertii.g them- selves with much more than their usual energy in the capacity of negro melodists. The unsophisticated country lolk looked on, delighted with the blackened faces, the mad capers, and shouts of their Cockney cousins. The *Jad quite forgotten the very unimportant fact that they were paid by the hour to build a house, not to improvise an enteitainment for their employers' tenants on the village green. Mr. Martin's experience leads him to affirm that the working man at day- W°i l a liberate idler when he has the chance," and that the percentage of men anxious to give a fair j y 8 W0Ik for a fair day's wages is so small as to be l^i i W01"l.Rk*nK into account, except to acknow- ledge the few instances as those exceptions which prove a rule. Mr. Seddon complains that he cannot now, except at an enormous increase in cost, have the de- signs executed which he made use of some years ago. Contractors tell him that they have now to leave so large a margin to provide for the dishonesty of their workmen that they are obliged to give apparently extravagant estimates. They are forced to pay higher wages, and also to accept much less work in return. It is the public who suffer in the long run. A t Sheffield the other day two bricklayers, assisted by two labourers, were timed when at work, and in twenty minutes the lour men succeeded in accomplishing the wonderful teat of laying just five bricks. These, of course, were onion men. On the other hand, on a railway work in wates, where the men were out of sight of union officials, a gang of bricklayers agreed to do as mudl 4i> 47 cou, • RU<1discard the rule of never allowing ,,ie •:r0W1eu1 1° • leftve tLe rig'14 'land. Two men kept x bVcks with both ha"ds, and the third used the trowel. In this way they earned 12s. 6d. a day each, and sometimes 15s.— Saturday Review.

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THE MERTHYR POST OFFICE

LOCAL RAILWAY TIME TABLES

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