the deaths were so frequent as to require constant supplies of parish children to fill up the vacancies. It has been known that forty boys were sick at one time, being about one fifth of the whole number. Smith was one of the sick, and well remembers tar, pitch and tobacco being burned in the room, and vinegar being sprinkled on the bed and floor. He also remembers the doctor saying, "It is not drugs, but kitchen physic they want." So great was the mortality at one time that the mill owner deemed it necessary to divide the burials, sending a part of them to a distant village, although the fees were greater, in order to conceal the sad reality from his neighbors.
Not a spark of pity was shown to the sick of either sex; they were worked to the very last moment it was possible for them to work, and when they were no longer able to stand, they were put into a wheelbarrow, and wheeled to the apprentice house. The doctor was seldom called, till the patient was in the agonies of death.
I would not willingly overcharge the picture I am drawing, or act so unwisely as to exaggerate these atrocities; and it is with some degree of diffidence I state, in consequence of combined and positive testimony, that no nurse, or nursing, was allowed to the sick, further than what one invalid could do for another!—that neither candle nor lamp-light was allowed, or the least sign of sympathy manifested.
I will not harrow up the feelings of my readers, by entering into a minute detail of all the hardships and sufferings that befel poor Smith during his fourteen years servitude in these places; they are such as would scarcely be credited in this land. It will be sufficient to say, that in addition to his attempt to escape, he twice run off to make complaints to the magistrates, and show them his bruised and crippled frame, but without obtaining the
