Towards democracy

418 Towards Democracy |

The old stone trows half full of water, in which thes wheels run; the puddles, the mud, the wheelswarf spatteredE and crusting the walls and even the clothes of the grinderse with yellow dirt ;

_ The rude wooden bearings for the axles, soused wither water when they get too hot; the drawing-up stones, emeryy wheels, polishers, glazers ;

The little wheels, made out of fragments of larger ones,, for hollow grinding, and (more modern) the fan for drawings and expelling the dust.

There astraddle, in their rough clothes, with clogs one their feet, and faces yellow-splashed, hour by hour bending: over, the men sit—

With careful grasp of one hand and pressure of the other, holding the blades to the stone—the pads of their finger-tipsz worn through to the very quick where they now and then andi unavoidably touch it in its swift career.

Very careful and responsible is the work—the least slipe may cause an accident.

A man comes in from the hardening shop, puts down a bundle of rough-shaped blades, and goes out again.

And still the heads sway rhythmically from side to side as eye and hand follow their work across the wheel.

Very careful is the testing and examining of a new stones and the fitting it on its axle: a single flaw and in the greats speed it will fly, bringing danger to all around it.

Now and then one pauses and takes a swipe out of acan -