It saved our
lives, it obtained employment, and for a few weeks appeared to overcome
my curse.
"I am afraid I grow tedious with particulars, sir; it is an old man's
fault--though I am not old either; I am scarce fifty-five. After being
three years in London, I was appointed foreman of an extensive
establishment in the Strand. I remained in this situation about four
years. It was one of respectability and trust, demanding, hourly, a
vigilant and undivided attention. To another, it might have been
attended with honour and profit; but to me it terminated in disgrace.
Amongst other duties, I had the payment of the journeymen, and the
giving out of the work. They being numerous, and their demands frequent,
it would have required a clerk for the proper discharge of that duty
alone. I delayed entering at the moment in my books the materials and
cash given to each, until they, multiplying upon my hands, and begetting
a consequent confusion, it became impossible for me to make their entry
with certainty or correctness. The workmen were not slow in discovering
this, and not a few of the more profligate improved upon it to their
advantage. Thus I frequently found it impossible to make both ends of my
account meet; and in repeated instances, where the week's expenditure
exceeded the general average, though satisfied in my own mind of its
accuracy, from my inability to state the particulars, in order to
conceal my infirmity, I have accounted for the overplus from my own
pocket.
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