SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16TH, 1881. Notes. STOCKPORT PEOPLE AND THE MANCHESTER MARKETS [652.] The following essay on this subject, which appeared in the December number of the Stockport Monthly Magazine in 1840, being as applicable in the present as then, will be of interest to our Stockport readers" It is an invariable practice with mankind, when in pursuit of an object of gratification, to render it as worthy and as plausible as possible in the eyes of others. Thus, when we are speculating in an enterprise of mere pleasure, or in obedience to the dictates of passion alone, we are desirous to couple with it some end of utility, laying stress upon that as the design, which is, in truth, but its apology; and having satisfied the world of its sincerity and wisdom, we at first content ourselves with the skilfulness of the imposition, and ultimately triumph in its success. By repetitions of the same artifice its palpability becomes blunted, we forget the reality of the deception, and, joining in the applause we have created, we become the voluntary dupes of our own folly and cupidity. On some such a principle as this do the majority of those of our townsmen and townswomen act, who, with an assiduity and perseverance scarcely before witnessed, are weekly, and, in some cases, almost daily being conveyed to the town of Manchester, as the market of commodities "unequalled in cheapness and unrivalled in excellence" down from the splendid brocades of the haberdasher, or the prime fitting surtout of the tailor, to the click of the barber, a penny loaf or a potatoe. It is not with respect to the justice or injustice of it, that we have been induced to offer a few brief observations on the prevalency of this custom. We are too well aware of the nature and principles of trade, and of the fact that self-interest is the main spring of all business, to offer any argument on such grounds. Indeed, if we could be persuaded that the Manchester shops offered articles of purchase really so far superior, in cheapness and quality, to those of our own town, as to render them deserving of our preference-and that our own shopkeepers could not by any means compete with them-we should say at once, let the tradesmen of Stockport close their houses and establish themselves in some locality where there is a greater likelihood of dealing to the satisfaction of their customers; and let the population of this impor tant borough and its neighbourhood-the gentleman, the artisan, and the peasant-transfer their patronage to the barbers, drapers, milliners and chapmen, at the north end of the Manchester and Birmingham railway; while the unfortunate tradesmen who have been squandered by the crush of competition, console themselves for the wreck of their capital by the benevolent reflection-that their loss has been the benefit and advantage of the public. But is that the case? Can the retail dealers at Manchester, with rents and taxes from double to six times the amount-and many other incumbrances incident only to themselves-under-sell those in Stockport? We think it is easy to show to the contrary; many instances have come to our knowledge of persons subjecting themselves to a considerable loss from having acted under this delusion; that it is a delusion of a gross and complete nature will appear from a slight investigation, except in a few cases, compared to the whole number, in which goods of scarce and unpopular descriptions have been de manded; one or two instances have come beneath our own immediate cognisance.-Not many weeks since we fell in with a company of ladies on our way to Manchester, whose object was to obtain a quantity of drapery, millinery, &c., and for this purpose they had formed themselves into a sort of club. Since then we have been told by one of the party that in an article, the cost of which was not quite thirty shillings, a saving of five might have been effected, had the same been bought at one of the shops in this town; the same person assured us that she had suffered considerable loss in several other articles which she had been taught to look upon as remarkably cheap. The fact is, that within the last two or three years, almost every article of sale has suffered a reduction in value, and what was previously thought cheap, will now be considered dear, either in one place or the other. A few days after the above another instance occurred of a rather more ludicrous character:-We had then alighted at this end of the station, and were briskly making our way homeward. November showers began to descend copiously, and we were about to claim the indulgence of shelter, when our compassion was suddenly excited by a decently attired female who appeared struggling with the weight of two huge bundles, and at the same time suffering the merciless pelting of an increasing storm. As soon as we had assisted her to make a partial escape, we were made aware, by our fellow-passenger, of the contents of the parcels" for," said she, "my husband always goes by the railway on a Saturday evening, to make his markets, and when the stuff is done, which is often the case towards the middle of the week, then I go;" at the conclusion of this-unfolding to our astonished view a cargo of varieties, sure enough! There was or ought to be a sufficient stock to fit out a moderate sized family for a voyage to the rocks of Fingal. A couple of tolerably good sized cabbages she had obtained for the "low price of sevenpence-halfpenny;" but in reply to our enquiries respecting some potatoes, just discoverable beneath a host of innumerables, she answered-" Well! I don't say that we can get them altogether cheaper, Mr - in our street sells these sort exactly at the same price, but my husband likes Manchester potatoes better, somehow!" A pretty sample this of the tastes and feelings by which those people are actuated who ramble from town to town in search of cheap markets. Thus had this poor creature exposed herself to the spouting elements at this inclement season of the year, expended a portion of her strength, her carriage fare, some hours of her time in the most precious part of the day, and incurred a thousand risks by a temporary desertion of her domestic hearth, and all for the only ostensible reason, that her husband had taken a fancy to things bought at a distance from home. We would address a few words to this class of per sons. First assuming your principles are just-let us suppose, for a moment, that the general inhabitants of this town were to follow your example; that the manufacturers, manual labourers, and the independent portion of the community henceforward conferred their favours in trade solely and restrictedly on the Manchester houses. In such a case your own trades men, who take the lead in every project for your benefit-who are the safeguard of public security and peace the framers and supporters of your public schools, and places of worship-who are the very prop of the best and loveliest of your institutions, either foreseeing the approaching catastrophe, or waiting till they became actual sufferers in the wide spread ruin, would be driven to seek shelter for the fragments of their property and the exercise of their skill in some more genial locality. Would they carry away with them the public burdens which they were assisting you to support? Would the great body of paupers, with all its wearisome attendancies, depending alike on them and you for subsistence, go with them? And the arduous duties which these men have frequently to sustain on your account and that of the public, cease in their absence? Would they carry off with them the dregs of society likewise, the base and evildisposed of both sexes, against whose fearful propensities the machinery of law and justice is reared and kept in action at a vast expense? Most certainly not; their own absence alone would be felt, while the accumulating weight of these burdens would fall with redoubled force upon the shoulders of those they had left behind. Deserted Sunday schools, neglected churches and chapels, delapidated and desolated houses, warehouses, and streets, would be sufficient tokens of your error-but, an embarrassed state of public affairs, increasing crime and ignorance, sabbaths desecrated and the peace broken with impunity, with tumults of riotous and discontented people would add to the gloom and wretchedness of the scene. We hope, however, that without carrying the scrutiny of this subject any further, this brief but earnest appeal will not be lost; but that we may, with some degree of success, advise the good people of Stockport to preserve the use of their money in their own vicinity a little longer, and give the merits of their own townsmen a fair and impartial trial; not doubting that in so doing they will secure to themselves a much greater reward for their prudence, than they would otherwise reap for their trouble.— ED. POETICAL PARAPHASE OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. [653.] The following composition is extracted from Hunter's "History of Hallamshire." It was written by the Rev. Thomas Toller, who was instituted to the vicarage of Sheffield in 1597. This gentleman was held in high esteem : 1. If any in distress desire to gather True comfort, let him ask it of-Our Father, 2. For we of hope and help are all bereaven, Except Thou aid us, Lord-which art in Heaven, 3. For Thou dost aid us, therefore for the same, We praise Thee, singing-hallowed be Thy na...e. 4. Of all our miseries cast up the sum; Shew us the joys, and let-Thy kingdom come. 5. Thou dost dispose of us e'en from our birth, What can we wish?-Thy will be done on earth, 6. Thine is the earth, and more than planets seven, Thy Name be blessed here-as it is in Heaven. 7. Nothing is ours, either to use or pay, But what thou giv'st, Lord-Give us this ay 8. Wherewith to clothe us, wherewith to feed; For without Thee, we want-our daily bread; 9. But want no faults, no day without sin passes; Pardon us, good Lord-and forgive us our trespasses, 10. No man from sinning free did ever live; Forgive us, Lord, our sins-as we forgive 13. As Thine own people, and Thy chosen nation 15. From the dangers of the world, the flesh, the devil, ON THE NATURAL EXPEDIENTS RESORTED TO BY MARK YARWOOD, A CHESHIRE BOY, TO SUPPLY THE WANT, WHICH HE HAD SUSTAINED FROM BIRTH OF HIS FORE-ARMS AND HANDS. [654.] The following strange account appeared in the Manchester Guardian, about 1824; it will be most interesting to our Altrincham and Knutsford readers particularly: "We were some time ago favoured by Dr. Hibbert, of Edinburgh, with a copy of a paper bearing the above title, which was communicated by him to the Wernerian Natural History Society; and we have since been waiting for a favourable opportunity of making some extracts from it, which we flatter ourselves will be interesting to our readers. Mark Yarwood, the subject of the memoir, is the son of poor but respectable parents, residing at Ashley, in the parish of Bowdɔn, about nine or ten miles from this town. He was born without fore-arms and hands, has arrived at the age of twelve years, and is a fine, stout, healthy-looking boy. On each of the ossa humeri, there are prominences bearing a slight resemblance to those of the external condyles, whence there are two prolongations, in neither limb much more than an inch in length, and slightly bent inwards. These processes, though projecting so little, enable the stumps to come into close junction, convert them into no mean organs of prehension, and supersede the necessity of exclusively using the toes, as substitute for the hands. Further, whilst the extremity of the right limb is well protected with muscles and cellular substance, that of the left is thinly covered with an integument of skin. Thus any solid subst ince, which the boy purposes to carry, is, by the bony and unyielding extremity of the left stump, so pressed against the fleshy cushion at the termination of the right limb, as to form for its reception a hollow or bed, where, whether its shape be angular or spherical, it is equally well retained. The extremities of the stumps, too, are gifted with a sensibility and accuracy of touch, which has been conceived to be peculiar to the hands. When Dr. Hibbert first saw Mark Yarwood, he was playing at marbles, and with a conjunct motion of the arms, seldom failed to hit his mark, having the reputation of the best marble player in the school. As the united effort of the two stumps can only exercise the function of one hand, the lad's ingenuity is continually on the alert in devising means for the execution of projects, which in others require the aid of all the fingers. Thus, when it was proposed to him to thread a needle, he infinitely facilitated the performance of his task by a very simple yet striking expedient. He lifted the needle between his stumps and stuck the point of it into the felt of a hat, so as to fix it steadily. He then took up the thread, rubbed it between his stumps, as the good housewife does between her finger and thumb, to make it taper to a point, and on the first trial insinuated it through the small eye of the needle. Other organs, particularly those connected with the mouth, are often pressed into the boy's service. For instance, on being requested to receive and put into his pocket a sixpence, which a gentleman held in his open hand, he first placed the extremity of his right arm on one side of the gentleman's palm, removing the piece of silver with his left limb, to the position necessary for taking it up between his stumps. It was then transferred to his mouth, until having inserted one of his stumps in his waistcoat pocket, he held the latter wide open and dropped the coin from his mouth into it. In the operation of tying a knot or bow, both the torgue and teeth are brought in aid of the stumps. The description of the case is complicated; but Dr. Hibbert remarks that all the motions incidental to the operation are performel with such celerity and adroitness that it requires the utmost attention to trace the work in its progress. In stirring the fire the chin was brought into use. The lad grasped the poker between his stumps at about middle distance from its extremities, then, having obtained a fulerum by pressing the head of the lever under his chin, insinuated the point of the poker be tween the bars, and the defective limbs acting as the moving power, stirred the fire with as much agility as it could have been done by any individual possess ing the use of both hands. In eating, the handle of his spoon being passed a little way between the coatsleeve and his arm, is pressed downwards by the application of the left stump; the implement is steadied in its position by the resistance it meets with in the hollow caused by the short bending process that terminates the ossa humeri; it is then plunged into the rencher, fille 1, and elevated to the lips. Occasionally the boy varies his mode of using the spoon; the stumps seuring it by the middle of the handle, whilst the extremity of the haft is steadied by being pressed gainst the lower ends of the cheek bone. To close ipon such substances as are of larger bulk, or lower Quation, thin the teeth can secure, the knees are iten employed. The feet and toes too are often used do their quota of duty towards supplying the want of fingers. Thus, before he can put his foot into a tocking, he has to open the orifice by means of the other foot, after which with his toes and teeth he trags the stocking up to its proper height. It is pleaant to find that this poor boy labours under no nental depression, arising from a sense of his defideney. "I do not wish to have arms," said he, "for have never known the use nor felt the want of hem." Yet he is not quite so independent as he coneives of the manual offices of his friends. Buttoning is clothes, for instance, is an art which has entirely lude 1 his skill. Many of the operations which have affled him, however, might be easily surmounted by tificial means. But as the circumstances of his arents are not adequate to these, it is to be hoped at opulent individuals in his neighbourhood who ave witnessed his ingenious expedients, will assist m in increasing these resources, to which nature has Erself so largely, and so happily prompted him. With get to his education, he was some time ago placed the National School belonging to the parish of Bowon, with the view of being taught merely to read. aving been since removed to the neighbouring town ool of Hale, he has there made such progress as to able with very little assistance, to read a chapter the Bible. But the most interesting incident benging to his education is his learning to write; the ghly laudable attempt of his present master to teach n having been attended with complete success. The per he is about to use is retained steadily on the de by me is of a small weight. The boy then zes the pen with his teeth, from which he lodges it a proper position on the soft integuments of the ht stump, retaining it by the pressure of the left; en by a conjoined motion of both arms, particularly the guid mee of the left, the pen is drawn along the er with surprising facility. The fac simile which . Hibbert ins furnished of the boy's writing after = months instruction, displays a degree of profiney morethin equal to that of the average of boys twelve years old, who have their arms in perfec tion. The importance of which the ability to write may be to this poor lad in after life is too evident to need mentioning. We may observe, however, that when some of his friends suggested his being qualified to undertake the superintendence of a village school, his inability to make a pen was mentioned as a great obstacle to such a design. This impediment the boy has since surmounted, and Dr. Hibbert has detailed from an account furnished to him from Dr. Jordan, surgeon, of this town, the manner in which the process of pen-making is accomplished. The lad places the quill between his knees with the barrel upwards, then with a knife held between his stumps cuts off the end, and forcing the blade within the barrel makes the slit. He next cuts away due portions from each side of the quill, the direction of the parings being from below upwards, until a point is formed. Lastly, by placing the pen on a flat surface of some hard substance, he is enabled to perform the finishing act of snipping off the point. Of the acquirement of the capacity to make a pen the boy is represented to have been very proud. We have now completed an abstract of Dr. Hibbert's memoir, so far as it relates individually to Mark Yarwood. If our readers peruse with as much interest as we have done, an account of the as tonishing devices (for so we may fairly call them) which the severe privation he labours under has driven the poor boy to have resource, they will not grudge the space we have devoted to the subject; and if this notice should have the effect of procuring for a child whose ingenuity, quickness of apprehension, and good conduct are so favourably spoken of, the attention of a single judicious, benevolent and constant friend, the chief object which we have had in view will be fully answered." ED SALE OF A WOMAN AT FULSHAW IN 1811. [655] The following curious paragraph is taken from the Stockport Advertiser of August 20th, 1824 :COPY OF AN AGREEMENT FOR THE SALE OR PURCHASE OF A WOMAN—(verbatim et literatim)—The person who purchased her afterwards died, and the latter part is his (the husband's) case which he brought to this town to have advice upon : Mr Samuel Browton December 21 1811. Sir-Thiss is to In Form you that i Betty Browton your wife and Daniel Burges of Fulshaw Whe are Both willing and do agree If you are Willing to meet you where and When you Plase to make agreement with you For The Sade Bettey Browton to Quit you for Ever And The sooner the Better for Whe are all unset For Things are Broat to such a State and so far that the sooner it Is Settled The Better and if you Will fix your Plase of meeting Whe will atend Both of us And Send Word By The Bearer When you In Tend to meet And as Whe Have Sade Before the Sooner the Better and then all the Nise of the Countrey Will Be over And Whe shall All Be Happy And Whe Will make A Firm Agreement Not to In Trude One Anoder No More For Whe Hav Agreed And All Is Setled Whe Will Go And you Shall Deliver her And Whe Will Go With You to Aney Plase Where you Will Fix at The Plase When Met But Whe Was Thinking of Meeting at The Grove In and Delivering at Macclesfield But those Things Whe Can fix When Whe Meet But Whe Will acquint as fue Piple as Possobile Whe Can Till all Is over So No More But When Ever you Plase to fix When and Where Whe Will atend for Whe Are Both sincare About the matter Whe Do not Need to Say Aney Thing about The Monney Or The Prise Not Here Whe Can fix Those Things When Whe Meet-So No more at Present from your Wife Bettey Browton Her Mark As Witness Thomas Simpson His Mark the Beaver of Woman to or Husband Not Pot Way Butleft him and Whent to leave with another man and had three Children By him and Confest Before Men that the Ware is Children And the Man is Ded that She Lived With and New She is Com apon the town Wether the Town Can forse Me to Soport or and Whether if I cannot Pay the Can impreson Me or not And Wether any Man Con old With Paying to Such a woman or not I think that it is Verry Hard Replies. CHESHIRE ARCHERS. (Query No. 595-October 21.) [656.] Stow, in his "Survey of London, 1603," tells us that Richard II. kept "a most royal Christmas" in Westminster, in 1398, and that "he was guarded by Cheshire men." He further says that in 1397, the great hall of Westminster being out of repair, and having occasion to hold a Parliament, the King "caused for that purpose a large house to be built in the midst of the palace court, betwixt the clock tower and the gate of the old great hall. This house was very large and long, made of timber, covered with tile, open on both the sides, and at both the ends, that all men. might see and hear, what was both said and done The King's archers (in number four thousand Cheshire men) compassed the house about, with their b bent, and arrows knocked (notched) in their ready to shoot: they had bouch of court (to ▼ meat and drink), and great wages of sixpence ty day." That the Cheshire archers were highly v... and well paid, therefore, is seen when it is remembe that masons and carpenters only received a pers day, and common labourers little more than food and clothing. ALFRED BUI DIFFICULTY IN GETTING MARRIED IN FRAN The matter is one for very serious reflection. French formalities preceding marr.age are so merous and vexatious that French people L abroad are often glad to dispense with them, until now this has frequently been done under mistaken impression that a inarriage solemiany country according to the laws of that was valid anywhere. But from this time the sion will have to be discarded. Thus: Supp a Frenchman has emigrated to America, and le wants to marry an American; before he can do a manner that will remain binding upon hira own country, he must send to France to ask 14 consent of his parents, or, if they are dead, at grandparents. Should this consent be refused, cannot marry at all if under twenty-five; it } that age he must petition them three times thr a public notary, a fortnight elapsing between petition; and after these formalities have beri complished, he must get a notarial document ting forth that the parents have been asked for 20 consent and have refused it. This done, be have barns published for a fortnight at the Mai of the commune where he was born; and then will he get the license which will enable L be married before a French consul abroad. It be seen that in the case of a Frenchman residi some inland American State these formalities s be very expensive as well as tedious; and yet if:» Į be not fulfilled, the Frenchman who has an abroad may, on returning to his own country, his marriage as null and marry again. It LES added that even when a Frenchman's parents grandparents are dead, he is bound to produce tificates of their decense before he can have b published; and if he be a deserter from the army navy, or a criminal flying from justice, (even the he be a political offender.) he cannot, so long is absent from France, have banus put up st The disability affects men who have been Catholic priests. If they should change their ligion, French law still debars them from maraš at home or abroad. Cheerfulness or joyfulness is the heaven which everything not poisonous thrives. |