AT THE HIRING FAIR.

Otago Witness, Issue 586, 21 February 1863, Page 7

AT THE HIRING FAIR.

(From the ScoWs'i Farmer.) The scene is a village twelve miles from Edinburgh, — an old weather-worn, time-stained place, t iat has seen, like many another rural hamlet, better days. | Its prosperous bustle departed with the last echo of the mail coach guaid's bugle-horsi, the railway that superseded the horse-drawn vehicle having contemptuously passed it by two miles away. It still retains, however, its fine old trees of oak and beech and elm, just now being burnished over with those grand melbw tints which the hand of autumn alone can mix ; and its streams to right and left still murmur mu^icilly over their stony bfdsin the dells, and silently through the green Inuyh lands beyond, as they did when fust yon half-ruined and ivy-mantled church was planned. To-lay, black rain-charged clouds aro drivmg fast across tho sky ; and evidence of a heavy fall la^t night is found in surcharged drains, swollen rivulets, plashy loads, anil, mo<t "melancholy of all, in the wet and battered corn stooks, of which an unusual number yet remain txp-iscu". The old mail coach has not been resuscitated; jet, in spite of its absence and the disagreeable character of tlra weather, the streets or street is crowded with people, ehi< fly young men and womeu, to minister to whose appetite aud amusement we nave dozens of "sweet stands," aud itineiant theatres aud peep shows; while the speculative are invited to pitch coppers into a bowl, prick the garter, play at skittles, and invest in gold chains aud one-pound notes. This is the autumn feeing market for the district, when men and women come into the streets to sell themselves to the highest bidders.

It is a curious and rather sad sight this feeing fair, suggestive of the slave marts of South American States, though there are no tears or groans, no partings of friends and families terrible in their .speechless agony, no hard-hearted master and cringing chattel, but, on the contrary, smiling faces, merry words and je«fc, and a general air of independence about all who are seeking to engage. But withal, one cannot get over the notion of degradation in hundreds of young women standing crowded together on the pavement, and young men ranged opposite on the middle of the street for inspection, like so many cattle or pigs, and purchased by the year or half jvtu 1 for much the same qualities. The best parts of a in .n or woman's nature escape notice in these feeing markets— nay, are a positive disadvantage to the female sex. The modest woman is sure to suffer loss in virtue of her modesty. She must speak boldly, even impudently, about her.self and her merits, and not only to submit to but return coarie chaff— " stick up for herseP, and gie as gudeas she gets," as hemeishbours express it— if she would hope to obtain the full wage to which she is entitled. Bone and muscle alone can be judged of in such a market -character is far tjo impatpable an attribute for recognition. It is the entire disregaid of all but merely physical elements in the parties who hire which points the resemblance of the feeing fair to the slave market. And, indeed, in its origin, the feeing fair differed very slightly from a slave market, inasmuch as servants were compelled by statute to go there and hire themselves out for a year or half year 3 as the case may be, at the price those engaging them chose to give. This injustice upon agricultural servants was first perpetrated upwards of five centuries ago, and arose in consequence of this class very properly demanding higher wages when the thinnin? of their ranks by that terrible pestilence known as the Black Death increased greatly the demand for the labour of those whom tne plague had spared. The public men of Edward lll.'s time, however, could not understand <=o abject a body having a right to take advantage of the circumstances in which they found themselves, and could ies3 brook the thought of " ths grievous iucommodities which the lnck, especially of ploughmen and such labourers " might bring nbout ; nnd so at various times they enacted that all ablebodied persmiß under sixty, not having wherewithal to live on, should be bound to serve any who required them, on pain of committal to prison, and that ploughmen and such other servants should "carry openly iv their hands, in market towns, their instruments ot labour, and be there hired in a public place, and not privately." Probably, if these facts were generally known tr> farm servants, instead of making it a stipulation to go to the feeing fair, their sense of independence would not permit them to continue a custom which depri ed their ancestors of the right of self-action, and which, in their own case, gives prominence only to those qualities which they have in common with the brutes they are hired to attend. Meantime, however, the feeing fair is an agricultural institution ; let us look at it as it presents itself in the village we have de s cribed. The women, as we ha\ c said, stand together on the pavement — their ages varying from fourteen to two-and-twenty, the majority of them perhaps about eighteen. 'Fine, fresh-colored, strong-limbed, good-looking lasses the great bulk ot them are ; and though there are many whom frequent visits fo such place's have divested of shamefacedness in talking to men anywhere, there are not a few whose modesty wouLl take alarm at the bold speech of the market, were it not that they are sustained by the presence of others more accustomed to it. Amidst this group of women, huddled together almost. -is thick as nerrings in a barrel, the farmers who are keeking servants, and many who are not, push and jostle, making rude remarks about the extent and shape of crinolines, staring into their faces, scanning their dimensions, and calculating their strength and endurance. ''Ye're a stout-looking hizzie ; what wage are ye wanting ?" one hears every now and then between the clang of the showmen s bells and gon<>s ; and the ready reuly, " Four, or Five Pounds," as the case may be ; " Are ye game for that?" Then there is somutitne^ a. bailing over a few shillings, as fishwives haggle with servantmaids over nfew halfpence in the price of a fish, ending in the offer being accepted, or contemptuously rejected.

With the men on the middle of the road much the same soit of thing goes on, bu' the beholder unaccustomed to such sights is not nearly so much shocked with this exposure of men to be examined by other men, as with the sight of women publicly subjected to the business scrutiny of the opposite sex. Surely the engagement of female servants, even if these fairs are to be continued, might be left to the wives or daughters of farmers. But we daresay the secret of farmers hiring leinale workers themselves is to be found in the fact that few would care to let their wipes or daughters mix amoag the crowd of a feuing fair. And if this is really the ease it behoves them to consider whether the bringing into their households those who are familiar with the fair and its accompaniments is calculated to have a good or evil effect upon their children.

But the worst of the feeing markel is not seen on tiie street. Now that the hiring is well nigh over, let us glance through the public-houses. There are three or four in the village. Down stairs and upstairs, every room (bed-rooms included) is full to overflowing, and in one inn we tind a large low garret improvised into a drinking saloon, the seats being rough plonks laid across overturned tub 3, pails, or other available and substantial household necessaries. And, indeed, in many other rooms, either on account ot the paucity of chairs to supply such an increased number of customers, or owing to a fear that breakable articles are liable to sustain damage f-om such uncouth customers, we find planks serving the purpo«ps of the more easy and elegant manufacture of the upholsterer. Tbe persons who occupy these seats are for the most part ladfi and lasses, the former suffocating themselves and neighbors with tobacco smoke, and drowning their senses in ale or whisky ; the latter "preeing" with them, and apparently enjoying their vulgar songs and coarse jes^s. i The evils of these facts, ye believe, are almost universaliy admitted, but .they are. tolerated on the

ground that they cannot be got rid of. Register offices give facilities for procuring a good servant, not oecured by attendance at feeing faiis, which embrace only workers within a very limited district, whereas by the other means the whole country is laid open to choosefi-om. Ir may he said that farm servants cannot afford to pay for registration, but we dare be bound to say that most of them spend very foolishly at every hiring fair a great deal more than that would co&t.

We have no great faith in the efficacy of teetotal lecture*, and sermons on the occasion of feeing fairs. In most places where these have been introduced, it is notorious that the majority of the people attending were not of the cla*s whose benefit was intended The true remedy is to do away altogether with the necessity of feeing markets, by substituting registration, the practicability of which has already been placed beyond dispute by_tts operation in Lincolnshire. Ihere, m 18oS), 935 feina'e servants were engaged through the agricultural register offices, and the benefit of this mode ot lining was so apparent that in the following year the numbers making use of it amounted to 159 J. We hive no reason to suppose that such offices would not be equally successful in any or nil counties of Scotland,