Saving Every Rag
(Cornelius Nicholson 1846)
SAVE EVERY RAG.
A WORD TO DOMESTIC SERVANTS.
“See that poor old man, with a wallet over his shoulder, who is hobbling up the back avenue towards the kitchen of Aynam Hall! Grief sits on his tattered clothes and trembling gait bespeak poverty and weakness. The squire’s mastiff leaps out of his den to the full length of his chain, and the old man falls back several paces trembling with nervous debility. Is he some better-man, who has brought indigence upon him by a life of idleness and dissipation, and who is still a worthless vagabond, doing no good to himself or anybody else? Oh, no; it is far otherwise with the poor old man, when you know his history, and think of the importance of his present occupation.”
“That old man has been a drudge – a ‘tiller of the earth’ – from his youth upwards. He has seen much hard service, but was never heard to complain so long as he could provide for the necessaries of life by the labour of his hands. When his physical strength, by long ago and the natural wear and tear of the body, failed him, a hard master dismissed the worn-out labourer, and the old man was puzzled for a time how to obtain his daily bread. To beg he was ashamed, for he had learnt that all labour is honourable and profitable to man, and he said, ‘Is any career of use fullness yet open to me, who am so poor and old?’ and he bethought himself of rag gathering! For ten years, or nigh thereabouts, that aged man has proceeded from house to house, in all seasons and in all weathers, accumulating ‘shreds and patches.’ Alas how few persons, as they see him in his daily walk, make any estimate of the importance of the ragman’s labours. Trace the history of the arts connected with the pursuit of knowledge, and you find the ragman to be the first link in the continuous chain of labour necessary for the advancement of the human intellect and human happiness. When any thing is of very small value, it is said to be ‘not worth a rag.’ Which is a thoughtless proverb, and perhaps induces domestic servants to despise and destroy many scraps of linen cloth. The Italian proverb is far more true, ‘that the mother of events is not bigger than a midge’s egg;’ for undoubtedly small beginnings lead to great results, either in weal of woe – and a sheet of paper cannot be made without a bit of rag. Let every person, then, be a conservative of rags – of every bit of rag; and let the ragman have honour and encouragement. How many persons are immediately dependent upon the ragman’s labours! In this country alone many hundreds of thousands of papermakers, printers, scribes, bookbinders, newsmen, &c., &c. Government receives by the labours of the ragman – as he sets the ball in motion – no less than 700,000L. in the duty upon paper, and 600,000L* in the revenues of the Post-office, annually. Through the ragman’s in-gatherings, the Press is enables to fix, to disseminate, and to perpetuate ‘the thoughts that breathe and words that burn,’ the poets imaginings, the philosopher’s discoveries, the historian’s examples – in fact, every branch of knowledge, and every emanation of mind. So I leave you, in imagination, to trace the connection between the ragman’s labours and the other branches of industry connected with the diffusion of knowledge, and then it will be seen by what small means the great work of civilisation is advanced, and how, in the relations of society, man is dependant upon man – even the greatest upon the very humblest.”
November, 1846. CORNELIUS NICHOLSON.
*English Currency, pre-decimal: -
LSD (£sd) = pounds, shillings and pence: an abbreviation of the Latin words libra, solidus and denarius: -
Libra is a pound weight in Latin,
s. is an abbreviation for shilling in English,
d. stands for denarius or denarii (a Roman coin).
For further reading:
John Roberts, Papermaker of Yorkshire - Cornelius Nicholson's connections with the `Papermaking' trade.