University of Virginia Library

3. CHAPTER III.
RICHARD FINDS EMPLOYMENT.

The next day Munk went with Richard to the Saw-mills.
There were many of these stretched along the canals leading
from the River. They were large buildings; long,
broad and low, and one story high. Busy, busy; so busy,
as Richard looked into one and another, his first thought
was, they must want assistance; but he soon found they
all wanted work. In a great city, everybody seems to be
doing something, and it seems as if there was something
for everybody to do; but try it, just try it! They came
to one known from its color as the Green Mill.

“Here is Captain Creamer,” said Munk, “a great friend
and patron of young operatives; I will introduce you. He
rents two or three saws.”

Captain Creamer was a man whom time dealt gently with,
while advancing years served to ripen his person and
graces; and with a few additions of art, — and art, we are
told, is the interpreter of nature, as in this instance she
labored to give most certainly the spirit of nature, and nature
is kind, — additions of art, we say, as lunar caustic
for his gray hair, and porcelain for his empty gums, he
would pass for quite youthful.

“I hope,” said the Captain, speaking politely, “you are
very well, Mr. Munk, and that Mrs. Munk is well. Belle
Fanny I need not inquire after; a bargain, that, Mr. Munk;
she is the neatest trotter the city can boast. That is my
judgment. Brother-in-law, you say; I am glad to see Mr.

Edney. I think I have heard of you. A new one seeking
employment. They come fast. I think I have condemned
ten applications within a week.”

“Then you have no chance for him,” concluded Mr.
Munk.

“No, no; I did not say so. But it takes extraordinary, I
might say, mountaineous talents, to succeed. He has friends
who are interested for him, and his own heart is interested
for itself. As the poet has said, he has on the whole armor.
Let me see you measure and figure on that stock of
boards.”

Richard took the rule and chalk, and in a few minutes
reported an accurate and very neat account.

“Proficiency,” replied the Captain, “proficiency. Considerable
tact. Mr. Kilmarnok,” — he addressed the
head-stock man, — “let this young man take your place
a moment.”

The head-stock was the controlling and responsible end
of a stick of timber on the works, and the head-stock man
superintended the whole operation of sawing; so that Richard
was put to a critical task.

“He sights well,” said the Captain. “He handles the
bar as if he had seen one before. He must have practised.
Merit, merit, certainly. Talent in his bail-dog; his
drop-down-feed, Mr. Munk, shines. It shines, as has been
justly observed, like a hole in a blanket.”

Richard stood in perspiration and trepidation. The
severity of the eye that followed his movements was frightful.

Trembling and confused, when the log was run through,
in attempting to stop the saw, he seized the “start,” or
handle of the lever that belonged to a “cutting-off' saw,
near by, and set that going. The Captain was in an

uproar; Mr. Kilmarnok stepped forward, and corrected the
mistake.

“Lame,” ejaculated the Captain, “and most unfortunate.
What a pity! A most shuperior piece of work spoilt by
these blotches! I am sorry for him. Let him attempt the
tail-stock. No, no; he will only disgrace himself. I have
no interest in this matter, Mr. Munk. I am only anxious
that our young men should honor themselves and the cause.
But they should confine themselves to what they can do
well. Head-stock is nice business; and if he perseveres, we
shall have the happiness of meeting him there, some time or
another. Let him show his butting. I have no doubt he
is a master there.”

Richard took an axe, and very neatly proceeded to “butt”
a log; that is, cut the end of it square off.

“A well-directed blow. A handsome calf. The swing
of his axe is pleasing, — it is positively luxuriating; as Dr.
Broadwell observed, the little hills of feeling within us clap
their hands.” So the Captain echoed the strokes.

Richard took breath and courage. The men in the mill
were looking at him, and he did not know but he should be
degraded before them; but these encouraging words of the
Captain revived him. The Captain's teeth glistened with
delight, and his arms shook applause.

“Do you think you shall be able to give me work?”
asked Richard, quite hopefully.

“Give you work?” responded the captain, very archly.
“We pay for our work. But it is necessary to begin small;
you see that it is. In the little and common matter of
chopping, you do well. But, alas! how many choppers
there are! Why, everybody can chop.”

“Then you do not want me,” added Richard.

“I did not say that. I only wish you to know your own

powers. I wish you not to adventure too much. This is
a great field. You see Mr. Kilmarnok; you think you can
do as well as he does. It seems only a few steps there.
It is a great ways from the butt to the head-stock. How
would he do in the slip, Mr. Munk?”

“You can try him,” replied the latter.

Richard, armed with a picaroon, descended the slip, some
thirty feet, to the basin, where the logs lay in the water
ready to be drawn in, and by aid of the tooth of the mill-chain
dog, to be hauled to the bed of the mill. Richard,
standing on one log, and aiming a blow at another, lost his
balance and slipped into the water. Recovering himself, he
pushed still more energetically the experiment on which he
was sent.

“Tut, tut!” so the Captain expressed his disappointment
to Munk. “That it should have happened! I feel for the
young man. You recollect, Mr. Munk, at the lecture before
the Mechanics' Association we had explained to us the
difference between genius and doing. Now, your brother-in-law
can do many things; I acknowledge that, — no man
can deny that; but has he genius? I ask you. He can do,
and do well, if he will only keep to his sphere. He has
some axe-genius, perhaps; but he fails on the picaroon, —
utterly fails. He fails on the head-stock. He may have
some slight picaroon doing. He lacks self-oblivimy, and
is too tiercy; not enough of the barrel and the tub, Mr.
Munk. Ambition! oh, what a foe! I am sorry you spoke
to me.”

“We applied at several saws,” answered Munk, “and
they were full.”

Meanwhile Richard was doing up his job very handsomely;
and his brother called the Captain's attention to the
fact.

Captain Creamer smiled, — he loved to smile; but with an
air of melancholy.

“He can improve; I never questioned his capacity.” The
Captain shook his head, as if, while affirming so much, there
were still many things he must deny.

Richard reäppeared on the mill-bed, with a look of suspense.

The conversation that ensued will be better understood by
a tabular word or two. The Saw-mills were the property
of companies, or corporations; and the saws were let, and
sometimes under-let. To each saw belonged, ordinarily, a
“gang” of three men, both for the day and the night; six
in all. These were the head-stock man, the tail-stock man,
and a sort of servant of the whole, who tended the slip, and
did the butting, and helped wherever he was called. Five
men could manage two saws. Captain Creamer rented two;
and, of course, in his double gang, employed ten men. This
for the main work of the mill. There was a collateral business,
as making shingles, laths, clapboards, which used up
the slabs and refuse timber; and which also required a cutting-off
saw. These operations employed several hands.
If we reckon six principal saws to each mill, we shall have
an aggregate of one or two hundred men in each; one half
of whom were in constant activity, day and night. The
subordinate branches were carried on below, under the
“bed,” or main floor of the mill, near the wheel-pit.

“Has your brother worked at shingles?” asked Captain
Creamer.

“He has,” replied Munk; “but I think he would not care
to go down there.”

“Natural, natural,” answered the Captain. “As has
justly been observed, we cannot die but once; and, Mr.
Munk, allow me to say it, we do not like to. But, Mr.

Munk, how can one succeed without humility? without
beginning low,—as Dr. Broadwell observes, taking one's
place in the dust? Not be a shingle-sticker! Why, the
Kilmarnoks, the Gouches, were all shingle-stickers.”

“I had better return home,” said Richard.

“Do not deem me unkind,” responded the Captain.
“Young men do not appreciate the necessity of industry,
and acquaintance with detail. I fear me, I really fear, you
are ambitious. Odious sin that, as the poet observes, winds
like a hejus snake about the extremities! You see we are
tolerably full on the bed; there is hardly room for a flea.
But, Mr. Edney, it is not our interest, but the interest of our
young men, which moves me to speak.”

“You have no opening here,” said Richard, decisively.

“I would do anything for you; I would, for your respected
brother's sake. I know how friends feel. Nights — let me
see. Mr. Kilmarnok, how is Clover?”

“No better, sir,” answered the man.

“Clover is sick. Yes, there is Clover's night. He has
tended the slip; he is a man of rare qualities, and can turn
his hand to most anything. What would you say to his
chance for a few days?”

“I can do anything,” replied Richard.

“Bless me — that is it. What a spirit!”

“What wages can you afford?”

“We make no account of such things. We are only
happy to bring the boys forward — to be the instrument of
leading them to greatness. It is worth a world to us to see
a head-stock man, and say, we carried that man forwards.
Howd, the inventor of the patent wheel, was a shingle-sticker.
I suppose Howd is really the greatest man in the
world. Pierson, the improver of the shingle machine, has
claims, and many fine points, and is sometimes named; but,

to use the expression, he cannot hold a candle to Howd. To
be associated with Howd in any way, even in the meanest
capacity, might well fire the heart of a young man. He
mounted from the wheel-pit to the bed, and went through
the slip to glory!”

“Would you name a sum?” inquired Richard.

“I will be frank with you,” replied the Captain, “and
even lay bare our whole affairs. Laths feed themselves, but
we find them; and so do shingles; but, in times like these,
they are glad to pay us a premium for being — for the mere
chance of being. What would you say to that?”

Richard shook his head.

“Ah!” sighed the Captain, “'t is Labor against Capital.
Labor is ravenous; it scratches Capital, as the poets say, like
a fowl on a dunghill. But we are generous; Green Mill is
generous; it finds, and repairs, and makes its own insurance;
it does everything, and gives all the profits to labor.
We will offer you eighteen dollars a month, board yourself;
Green Mill does not board. Or, you may form a gang, and
take the saw. We allow two dollars a thousand, piled and
stuck; oil and light yourself, of course; you understand
that.”

“I will go by the month,” said Richard.

So he found employment for a few weeks, at least; he
would work nine hours every night; and have fifteen out
of the twenty-four, wherein to sleep, and do what else he
liked.