really to save money. There was no royal road to wealth on that side the
Atlantic any more than on this.

Yet, among the facts which I liked, there was a set-off for this: it was
the absence of those stupid trade-regulations which in England, and on
the continent of Europe, hamper so annoyingly the movement of commerce,
and complicate so vexatiously the relations between employers and
employed. Few of these relics of feudal-age policy exist in the United
States: a master takes as many apprentices as he pleases, perfectly
regardless of anything his journeymen may think or say to the contrary.
He believes, and not without reason, that while he pays them fair wages
for their labour, they have no right to interfere with his mode of
conducting his business. It was a relief to get clear of the
traditionary customs and usages of European workshops, and to feel that
the way was clearer for rising out of the ranks. But there was one
exception, in a large foundry and engine-factory into which I sometimes
went to see an acquaintance: there the 'old-country' customs, as to
drinking when new hands were taken on, prescribing coercive limitations,
and so forth, were in full vigour. My shopmates were greatly amused one
day by my account of what I had seen and heard in the factory and our
foreman exclaimed in language that would have done credit to Sam Slick:
'Well! if them machinists aint the pigheadedest fellers I ever heerd
tell of!--they must be Johnny Bulls!'

Such were some of my experiences of American life, and I was working on
in my usual plodding way, when I found that there was still something to
be learned. The journeymen cabinet-makers throughout the city took it
into their heads that too great a share of the profits of trade went
into the masters' pockets, and they determined, by demanding higher
wages, to secure if possible an increased proportion for themselves. The