because his value is greater, and more freely
acknowledged. Such men as the Duke of Bedford having begun the reform of labourers’
dwellings, the improvement is likely to spread;
and when the profitableness of enabling peasants
to live near their work, in health and comfort, is
once discovered, the welfare and convenience of
the peasant are likely to meet with due consideration. In towns, it is only necessary for Model
Lodging-houses to be ascertained to be a good
investment for money. If they really are so, as
seems to be the case, they will take care of themselves, and their tenants will appreciate their
privileges. Meantime, if the real cost of providing
good dwellings for working-men’s families were
better understood, there would surely be a more
adequate supply of them. The estimates differ,
of course, in different parts; but it may be said
that there are few places in England where a
substantial cottage of four rooms may not be
built for £60. Built in pairs, each costs rather
less; and for £120 for the pair, further conveniences can be afforded. If well built, there
will be scarcely any repairs wanted, — at least in
the regions of stone buildings; and five per cent,
on the outlay might cover the ordinary interest of
money and the repairs. Or say, for such a
cottage, a rent of £3 10s. or £4, to include the
ground it stands on; — it would be willingly and
thankfully paid in any part of England where the
labourer was worth hiring; and it is, in fact, a
lower rent than is paid in most of our agricultural counties. Will not young gentlemen and
ladies who have plenty of time, and a few hundreds to spare, and not enough to do, give themselves the amusement and pleasure of building
some cottages, in the best known way, where they
are urgently wanted? After all is said of the
badness of cottage property as an investment, I
am as thoroughly convinced as ever that, when
well managed, it is an expenditure and trouble
which will never be repented of in later days
when the issues of life’s enterprises come to be
gravely reckoned up. It is something to have
lost no money; it is more to be aware that hard-working people have had a wholesome and agreeable resting-place in their home: but what is it
to know that some young creatures, who would
otherwise have made a row of hillocks in the
churchyard, are getting on at school, or taking
pride in “going forth to their work and to their
labour until the evening?“
On the question of Building Societies I cannot now enter. It is emphatically true of that question, that there is much to be said on both sides. I happen to have seen the favourable side: but I have heard a good deal of the other. As long as it is true that, in the long nm, men pay rent to twice or three times the amount that would build them a house of their own, it seems rational and desirable that they should combine their resources for the obtaining of dwellings as a family property: and many have prospered in the attempt. But the ordinary dangers of ill-considered assurance hang about such societies; and so do speculators, who make a profit of the simple members. At the moment, I can only say that the sickness and death rate of our great nation will be prodigiously lowered whenever any considerable portion of the working-classes shall be living in abodes which are their own property; and that the surest and speediest way to that issue is doubtless by means of the economy of association; but association for that particular object is at present particularly unsafe, except in some very favourable instances. The aim is an admirable one for the working-man; and in the case of well-regulated associations for erecting Metropolitan Lodging-houses, the danger is little or nothing: but in provincial towns and rural districts, a prudent man will inquire well, and make himself sure about the parties and the management (including the bases of calculation), before he puts his savings into the funds of a Building Society. Having found reason to make that investment, and got a house of his own over his head, free from debt, and with no more rent to pay, he may look round on his healthy children with all imaginable satisfaction.
THE HORNED SNAKE.
One morning whilst stationed at B——, I was taking my cup of tea and cheroot at the “coffee shop,” i. e., the verandah of Bachelor’s Hall, a bungalow in which dwelt four jolly young fellows, and where most of the young officers congregated after their morning ride, or parade, to take their “chota hazree,” or small breakfast, the larger meal being generally three or four hours later.
After gossiping for some time about the chances of promotion, or of active service, of the merits of our respective Arabs, and of the girls last from England, a young Scotch assistant-surgeon who had lately joined the regiment, turning to Sinclair, a lieutenant of some seven or eight years’ standing, said in a broad accent:
“Seenclair, you’re a bit dabbler in natural heestory, though ye ha’not my skeel in it, what d’ye think o’ my deescoovery of a new species of snake, wi’ horuns on its head?“
“Stuff,” returned Sinclair, “you are always making some boast or other, and you are conceited enough to take any credit to yourself.“
“Weel, that’s unco' unpoleete, and I dinna thank ye for it; but what I state’s a fack, for I deesteenckly saw the beast this morn’s mom with my ain eyes.”
“And why did you not try to kill it?“
“So I did; but the sleepery repteel got into a hole before ye could coont sax; but my sals saw it too, speer at him aboot it.“
The man was called accordingly, but was not forthcoming at that time, having gone to the bazaar for grain for his master’s horse, so the subject dropped for the present.
The doctor’s chum, a young ensign, afterwards informed us that he, the doctor, on returning home, prepared the scroll of a letter addressed to the secre- tary of some Naturalists’ Society in Scotland, in which he announced, in grandiloquent language, his discovery of a new species of snake with horns growing out of its head, leaving the technical details to be filled up after ho had caught and
examined a specimen. This letter he showed to