been seen to
ride home from his work on a "bone-shaker"! In place of the old bent
figures in smock-frocks, there are spruce young fellows in black coats;
in place of the old indoor farm service, its hearty living, but liberty
to thrash a boy, there is freedom of contract, and, I daresay,
sometimes an empty stomach; instead of an absolute indifference to the
moral character of the labourer, the farmer is waking up to the fact
that a steady sober man is worth more than the frequenter of the
ale-house.

But there is a _per contra_ in all this. Bad as the times were at the
beginning of the century, when the flint, steel, and tinder box, was
the only means of striking a light, there were not seen so many boys in
the street contracting a bad habit of smoking as may be seen to-day.
There was of necessity much less smoking than now, for the habitual
smoker was obliged to light up before leaving home, or go into a house,
or trust to meeting a fellow smoker with a pipe alight on the road.
But we have gained something in outward decency in the decrease of the
filthy habit of chewing tobacco, and in the now still greater rarity of
the habitual snuff-taker.

Perhaps the most remarkable, and certainly the most humiliating item,
in the _per contra_ account set off against extraordinary advancements
all round in the outward conditions of the life of the villager, is to
be found in the fact that the cottage home--the fountain head of
character--has in the great majority of cases absolutely stood still.
The old cottage homes of England with all their poetic associations,
have, in too many cases, not only not improved, but, with their low
mud, or brick floors, cold-beds, rather than hot-beds, of rheumatism,
have remained just as when they were occupied by the great-grandfathers
of the present generation, excepting that they have grown older and
more dilapidated. The evil of huddling families into such hovels is
aggravated by the altered condition of life for the labourers' boys,
who can no longer, as of yore, find a home in the more roomy
farm-house. It may be a hard thing to say perhaps, but the evidence
seems irresistible that though there may be notable instances to the
contrary, in too many cases where the old clay-bat and thatched
habitations have escaped the devouring element of fire, the housing of
the labouring man's family is much worse than it was sixty years ago.
Is it surprising that a spirited youth or girl, with all th