October 22, 1859.] OUR TAME HEDGEHOG. 349
OUR TAME HEDGEHOG.
to obtain work by moderate price while paying
good wages and lessening your drudgery. But it
is not just that you should put into your pockets
the earning of machines that you have neither
devised nor paid for. If you think you will be
better off in this factory with machines than in
other factories without machines, I trust we shall
go on together for many years.”
Away they went to work, and competition soon settled the matter — the piecemen bringing down the prices to the fair level by competition with each other. They knew that workmen of many classes were competent to their work when aided by machinery, and that by the machinery their condition had been made one of greater comfort: there was never afterwards any talk of turning out. In fact, they got spoiled for mere laborious handicraft, and were unfitted for other factories where the ordinary hand-labour was used.
Once, some trade delegates came to interfere with the hours of labour, and they were simply told to take away with them all the men who were dissatisfied, and who could be replaced from outsiders. They did not gain a single recruit. Every man and boy in the factory knew that their advancement depended only on their skill. A gardener or a farm labourer entering at the gate might become a cinder-sifter, or an engineer, fitter, or viceman, according to his capacity. He who preferred wood to iron, or vice verad, accord- ing to his aptitude, could take to the one or the other.
The usual results took place. Other factories imitated the machinery by degrees, and John Smith had ever after the satisfaction of hearing that men duly trained in his factory were mostly at a premium in other factories. The type had been set which still exists and multiplies. The earliest wood machinery in England was that of Sir Samuel Bentham, known as Brunell’s block machinery at Portsmouth, Mr. Brunell having been the active agent in the erection, but it did not get beyond the sphere of marine work.
How little was done in wood machinery is proved by the fact, that so short a time has elapsed since the introduction of gun-stock machinery from the United States, where the value of skilled labour long ago forced machines into use. Some of the earliest wood machines in Woolwich Arsenal, now one of our Government wonders, were devised and constructed in the factory of John Smith, when artillery wheels first ceased to be a handicraft and became a process of machinery.
The facility of obtaining hand labour in England has much impeded the progress of machinery, which is destined finally to remove from us all painful drudgery. The workmen’s strikes will force on machinery, and the time will come when drudgery will be no more. The inanimate powers of nature will furnish all the labour, and human beings will only be needed for the supervision. It will be & glorious time for our nation when the minds and bodies of our people shall be equally developed by mental and physical gymnastics, and there shall be no brawny arms upon thin legs, and other monstrous and unequal developments.
W. Bridges Adams.
It is surprising, even amongst persons pretend-
ing to some fair amount of educated intelligence,
how gross is the general ignorance of natural
history, extending even to the animals of our
households and our domesticated pets.
For some years the subject of this article has become important among the first, whether it becomes the last depends mostly on the knowledge to be obtained of the animal’s instincts, and its capability of being tamed, for which few give it credit.
From some cause, which is not in the province of this paper to explain, London houses are in- fested with beetles and cockroaches, generally mice and rats, and not unfrequently spiders in abundance. Now, all your beetle-traps, rat-traps, mouse ditto, poisons, or infallible insect powders, are as nothing compared to the services of a hedge- hog, who will clear the kitchens and cellars in a very short space of time.
Londoners have become aware of the serviceable nature of this creature, but when, in answer to some complaint of a neighbour or acquaintance about being tormented with black beetles, we have advised the keeping of a hedgehog, we have generally met with the reply, “But we never can get one to live; they always die in a month.”
At first this used to perplex us greatly, and when in our turn we also began to suffer under this beetle grievance, the experience of our neigh- bours deterred us from trying our own remedy. At length the enemy grew so bold, and increased so greatly in force, that one day in pure despera- tion we determined to provide a hedgehog, and bought one accordingly in Leadenhall Market.
When we got him home we christened him Peter, and gave him a mansion beneath a disused kitchen copper, with plenty of hay, a large supply of water, and a good supper of bread and milk, which we had always been told was amply suffi- cient to satisfy the creature’s appetite.
We soon discovered why our acquaintance could not keep their hedgehogs alive. Belonging to the order carnivora , these animals when in a domestic state rarely have any meat given them. Many persons, indeed, have a fixed idea that the vermin they destroy is enough to sustain life, or they vaguely attribute to the hedgehog the fabled chameleon ability of living on air.
One of our family, L— — , who has a passion for every creature belonging to animal nature, undertook to tame Peter, and ascertain his habits, tastes, and likings. Of course she fed him, that is the first key to animal affection. He soon came to recognise the hand on which he depended for daily food. He makes but one meal per diem, and that about nine o’clock, p.m.; and if the hour goes by without his food being placed, he utters a peculiar noise resembling a groan, sneezes fre- quently, with the force and fervency of a cat, and testifies much uneasiness. He requires meat pretty frequently, and is very partial to a bone with a good deal on it. He unrolls himself at the
touch of L , and places his bristles down, so
that she can stroke him; he will even play occa-
sionally, stretching out his paws — so like a