To begin this paper, dear King Leahy, let us mention that weve noticed many things while on our journey. These people are extremely different from us, and in many ways! They act different than us, and have many Social Developments. There are people called Reformers here. They have different social classes, and many, many people! They also have something called Methodism. Reformers here want to change all the problems with society. Theyd like Kids to stop working in factories, woman too. They want to change the people of society. We heard one man saying he wanted to change all the evil ways of society.
Also, we noticed the increasing population. This is nothing short of dramatic. England and Germany showed a growth rate of something more that one percent annuallyat this rate the population would double in about seventy years! In The Untied States the increase was more than about three percent, which will be disastrous except for the fact that as people come here there is practically an empty continent (or there was) and fabulous natural resources.
Methodism is the name given to a group of protestant churches that arose first in England by John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield. The origins of Methodism are inseparable from the careers of the Wesley brothers. First influenced the Moravians, they organized small “societies” within the church of England for religious sharing, bible study, prayer, preaching and more. The Wesleys and there associate Whitefield travel widely, preaching to large and enthusiastic crowds of working people. To preserve personal fellowship, “bands” and “class meetings” were formed. Its quite interesting. These people also have different themes. Their themes in the arts include things called Impressionism, Realism, and Romanticism. Impressionism was first developed in the arts and later on in music. Impressionist painting comprises the work by a group of artists who shared a set of related approaches and techniques. The most intriguing characteristic of Impressionism was the attempt to accurately and objectively record visual reality in art with the effects of light and color. Main Impressionist painters are people by the names of Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissaro, Alfred Sisley, Armand Guillaumin, and Frederic Bazille, who all work together and influence influenced each other as well as exhibit together independently.
Realism is due to the effects of many social and economic problems. Realism portrays subjects in a more straightforward manner. Some realist artists are Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Courbet, Daumier, Gustave Courbet and Francois Millet. Science plays a major role in realism. It effects people’s thoughts and how they view the world.Take note that we had Courbet paint the picture of you on the cover of this report! Beautiful isnt it? Romanticism characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography. Romanticism is seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified Classicism. Romanticism emphasizes the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental. In other words, this form of art is completely different than the others. It was more loving and peaceful. As for technology, they are very much advanced. The majority of English people here wear woolen garments, but some people dont enjoy the scratchy, often soggy and fungus-filled woolens so they are replaced by cotton. Cotton is easily available because of the invention of the cotton gin by a man named Eli Whitney, an American.
Improvements in weaving made by Samuel Crompton was helped with a new source of power called the steam engine, which was developed in England by men by the names of Thomas Newcomen, James Watt, Richard Trevithick, and by Oliver Evans. More than 100,000 power looms with 9,330,000 spindles were put into service in England and Scotland is what one townsmen had told us. In Britain, roads made of long lasting surfaces and canals connect everyone. A man named George Stephenson, developed a steam-powered locomotive, so people began to build railroads made of iron and such for the locomotives to travel on. Railroads and steam powered ships we hear, improve transportation greatly! King Leahy, we recommend that you also look into something called a telegraph made by this man, Samuel F.B. Morse, which really helps communications around the city and even further if needed! Also, we have noticed many big businesses. There are a bunch of companies like The Standard Oil Company founded by John D. Rockefeller and the U.S. Steel Company founded by Andrew Carnegie. There is the Bricklayer Society, and a cotton company. The Standard Oil Company and U.S. Steel Company were made successful in different ways due to the actions of their different owners. The companies differed in their labor relations, market control, and structural organization. Carnegie bought his own iron and coal mines because using independent companies cost too much. On the other hand, however, John D. Rockefeller integrated his oil business from top to bottom, his distinctive innovation in movement of American industry was horizontal. For instance, Rockefeller controlled the oil when it was drilled, through the refining stage, and he maintained control over the refining process turning it into gasoline.
Trade clubs for bricklayers exist in mostly large towns.. A London Bricklayer Society was formed a few weeks ago, we heard. The union has a membership of about 1,400 out of a total workforce of some 62,000 men.
The cotton industry is now developing mainly in North West England. The midlands, (on Nottingham) and the Clyde Valley in Scotland. Cotton is a white fibrous substance composed of the hairs surrounding the seeds of the cotton plant.. The cotton industry accounts for about 4 to 5 percent of the national income of Britain.
However, there are many problems with our observations. Urban conditions are bad. For example, as the new towns and cities rapidly develop, the need for cheap housing near the factories increased. While some men, such were willing to create good housing for their workers, many employers werent. These employers exploited their workers by erecting poor, and often unsanitary built houses. Workers paid high rents for at best, substandard housing. In the rush to build houses, many were constructed quickly in terraced rows. Some of the houses had just a small yard at the back and an outside toilet was placed there. Others were ‘back to back’ with community toilets. Almost as soon as they were occupied, many of theses houses become slums. The poorest people lived in overcrowded housing, and some of the people lived in cellars! It has been recorded that one time, 17 different people lived in an area of 5 meters by 4 meters. Sanitary arrangements were often non-existent, and many toilets were of the ‘earth closet’ variety. Usually they were emptied by the ‘soil men’ at night. These men took the solid human waste away. However, in the poorer districts, the solid waste was just heaped in a large pile close to the houses. We were very disgusted in these observations! The liquid from the toilets and the waste heaps seeped down into the earth and contaminated the water supplies. These liquids carried disease-causing germs into the water. The most frightening disease of all was cholera, which we will explain next.
Cholera first originated in India. It quickly spread into Asia and Russia and eventually reached Europe, and spread to London. It spread very quickly and was not confined to any certain social class. It could strike anyone, from the poorest to the wealthiest. A Cholera victim was first stricken with violent sickness and diarrhea. Over 50% of the people who contracted the disease died, often within 24 hours of showing signs of the first symptoms. Eventually it killed over 70,000 people and a doctor named John Snow discovered that the Cholera bacteria were contracted from polluted water.
Work was also tough for these people in this new world. Coal had to brought up from deep mines, often two kilometers beneath the earth. As the coal industry grows, more and more miners have to go underground to extract coal and they work very long hours in awful conditions. Whole families work at the mines. The father and the boys cut the coal from the seams with a pick. The mothers and girls carry the coal to the surface by climbing a spiral staircase with a basket, filled with coal, on their backs.
Right now, a Parliamentary Committee that reports on the mines are findings that many workers are working in the most appalling conditions. Not only do they work very long hours, but theyre also hired at very young ages. Children as young as five are used as ‘trappers’ to open and close underground doors in the mine to let the women, who pull the loaded wagons, get through. These children work in the dark because their families are too poor to be able to afford candles. They stay in the dark for up to 12 hours each day one boy we saw had rats scurrying all over him. If one of the children fall asleep, they get beaten by the miners.
The commission found last week that some children are employed as coal carriers, pulling carts or sledges filled with coal over long distances and through very small tunnels. Often, girls as young as thirteen were being used to work as carriers. The chain around their waist caused damage to their pelvic bones, distorting them and making them smaller. This proved fatal in later life when many of them died in childbirth. We both were happy to see that the commission took notice of this kind of behavior. We were disgusted and still are in many ways.
Dear King, these are our observations of this new world. We are glad you sent us to see it, because now we may be able to advance some in our own country. However, as you can see, there are many problems with this new world and we are frightened they may happen to us. This is why we wrote them down, so you can prevent the dangers before perhaps we make the same mistakes. Works cited: 1. Text book. Prentice Hall Work History: Connections to Today. Ellis/Esler 2. http://www.Ibiblio.org/wm/paint/gio/romanticism/ 3. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/plains/indusrevol2.htm 4. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/plains/3729/REALISM.htm