Excerpt from Penman's Art Journal, Vol. 33: January August, 1909 During my short stay in England I endeavored to learn as much as I could about the condition of the working classes. While the salaries paid skilled workingmen do not compare very favorably with the salaries paid in America, yet I find that the British family is just as happy and contented - even more so than many in our own country. They live simple, honest, comfortable lives. A salary of from four to eight dollars a week is paid on the average - the best be ing possibly ten dollars, but the low price paid for rent makes this sum go much further. Prices for food and cloth ing seem to be about the same. Their children, while being simply dressed, do well in school. American youths could learn much from their British cousins in the way of thoroughness. On the whole, their chil dren of thirteen years of age are well advanced in their stud ies, especially in English literature and mathematics. A great Spirit of progress is pervading the country. Free education and the passage of many helpful laws are doing much to make the condition of the lower classes much more pleasant. In the happy family lives, the contentment of the working classes, the stability of its business institutions, we have much to learn from the mother country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.