CHAPTER XV.
A time came when things were said to be as they ought not to be;discontent became very prevalent. It is always thus; but the people, itwas said--and with some show of reason--had quarrelled with theirprosperity. Labour had combined against capital, and the workers refusedto work except upon their own terms. They demanded shorter hours andmore pay, Nor would they, if they could help it, allow others to labour.The Buccaneer's system of education had perhaps something to do withthis state of things, for it taught his children almost everything,except how to gain a living, gave many of them exalted opinions, crammedtheir heads, but left their stomachs empty, until in time the servingclass bid fair to be educated out of his island. All wanted to bemasters and mistresses, and the kitchen was looked down upon. Thingscame to such a pass that it was far easier to obtain a governess whocould teach almost anything, for thirty pounds a year, than a cook forthe same amount, whose knowledge of her trade barely soared as high asboiling a potato, or grilling properly a mutton chop, and who even withthis small amount of professional skill was insolent if found faultwith.
Then the Buccaneer's tradesmen, being true chips of the ancient block,were frequently extortionists, if not actual robbers. They werecertainly well imbued with his first principle of trade, namely, theturning of their five talents into ten, and some at least were not aboveselling short weight and adulterating their merchandise; but these ofcourse were the dishonest ones, the black sheep that are said to existin every flock. Then before things reached the consumer they had to bedealt with by the middle men, a species of vampire who sucked a gooddeal of the profit out of the article; so the consumer was driven intothe hands of the foreign cheap-Jack, who soon began to sell more thanever. The Buccaneer's old coxswain, who, it must be owned, was a bit ofa preacher, and like all such a little prosy, spoke up as was his wont:"Mates," he said, addressing a lot of grumblers, who had assembledtogether to air their grievances, "don't you see you've got your ship'shead lying in the wrong direction? You are cutting your throats, myhearties, like a swimming pig, for while some of you are quarrellingwith your masters, and others of you are going in for keeping up theprices, these furrin cheap-Jacks are doing a thriving trade. Shiploadafter shipload of their merchandise is coming in. They are ousting you,my lads, out of your own markets, while you stand by, pipe in mouth andhands in pockets, demanding your shorter hours and higher wages." "Whatwould you have us do, mate?" cried a burly fellow from the crowd, as heheld his pipe in one hand and a quart pot in the other. "Are we to workour souls and bodies out, day after day, and year after year, while ourmasters are building up a pile, and palaces to put it in? We ain'tagoing to work like some of our neighbours for a mere nothing; neitherare we agoing to live on black bread and sour crout; so unless ourmasters are going to cave in and come down with the needful, we aregoing to hold out. As for the cheap-Jack fellows, let our master make'em pay toll. Let's have everything fair and above board. Put that inyour pipe, old man, and smoke it." "Lads!" cried old Jack, "you arekilling your goose that lays the golden eggs; or, you are frighteningher over the water, which amounts to the same thing." "Let her go, mate.If she stays here and stops laying eggs, we'll wring her neck, anddivide her carcass amongst us. We shall have a good feed then anyhow,and be equal all round." So there were strikes, and a great cry outagainst capital, and trade began to work down towards the sea-shore, andunfolding her wings, prepared to take flight to other and more congenialclimes.
Whenever the old coxswain got his master's ear upon the subject, hisfavourite, Liberty, was sure to be on the other side, telling him to letthings alone. This aggravated old Jack, who one day exclaimed; "Pray,madam! how far are you going to take our master along this road offreedom?" "Good, honest Jack, that is for you to say," cried madam, witha smile and a curtsey. "Aye, aye, that is all well enough, my fine lady.But there is not a place you don't go to with those doctrines of yours.You commenced upstairs in the parlour, and now you have gone down intothe kitchen, and heaven only knows where you intend to stop. What is theuse of my saying anything? Where you lead my master follows; no matterwhether the road you are on goes to the devil or not. It is no use myholding on to his coat tails, when you are coaxing him, cajoling him,and pulling him forward by both his hands." So saying the old coxswainwent his way, muttering something about women in general, that was notaltogether complimentary to the fair sex. But the honest coxswain, whenruffled, said, like many other people, very much more than what hemeant.
In the general running down of things the Buccaneer's women did notescape. At one time they had been famed both for their virtues, andtheir beauty. Of the latter it was said there was a falling off. Indeedthey were so pulled to pieces all round, by the sharp talons of illnature, that they were not left too many virtues to plume themselveswith.
Beauty it is well known is only skin deep, and in very many cases itdoes not penetrate even so far. It can be laid on in the morning anddusted off at night without much trouble, though no doubt many beautiesprefer to go to bed with the bloom on. This kind of beauty has itsmerits. It withstands to a certain extent the ravages of time; artfollowing close in the footsteps of nature with the paint brush fillingup the crevices, and washing out the marks of the years that havehurried by. But it was said that a good deal of the bloom on the youngcheeks was not a constant quantity, and that the cherry lips were not afast colour. That eyebrows and eyelashes were pencilled and hair dyed.If this was not a foul libel how much was it to be regretted? Youthrequires neither putty nor paint to deck it off. For the old it matterslittle; the only people deceived are the artists themselves. You maydisguise the age somewhat, put back the hand of time a year or so, butyou can never make an old face look young; paint it up and putty it asmuch as you like. In the Buccaneer's island there was indeed to be seenstrange contrasts, such as dark eyebrows and fair hair, but then naturedoes at times play sad tricks, giving to animals more heads than one,and occasionally more than the usual quantity of tails, and even legs.
Suppose the Buccaneer's daughter did call in the aid of art. They all doit, and in doing it, a woman only follows the instincts of her nature,though some are so strong minded as to pay little or no attention topersonal adornments. The instinct above alluded to is to be found in thedaughter of nature, as well as in her civilized sister, and is the onegreat link that binds female humanity together. Is there a part of thecivilized world yet discovered where the female mind does not turntowards the embellishment of the outward form? No doubt the first act ofEve after the sad catastrophe in the garden of Eden, when she recoveredfrom the temporary fit of despondency, was to seek some smooth sheet ofwater, on which her fair face and form might be mirrored, and with aslittle doubt her second act was to procure the most becoming fig leaf,that the whole garden of Eden could produce to deck herself in. In thegeneral effect perhaps she found some slight consolation, though shemight regret there were not more Adams than one. While in the West thefemale head is decorated with hair taken, perhaps, from some one, whohaving paid the debt due to nature has no further need for it, hersister of ruder climes utilizes the bushy end of a cow's tail. While theone uses cosmetics, pomades, and dainty perfumes, the other uses earth,or clay, or things that by no means, or under any circumstances, can becalled dainty. In passing, we may perhaps call the attention to thestrange perversion of the order of things that seems to run through thecivilized male mind of the West. Hairs pulled from a horse's taildecorate the wise heads of judges, while feathers plucked from thenether end of a cock, float over the heads of Western warriors. Is thereany subtle influence of nature at work here? But to return to theladies.
The female child of nature, instead of hanging round her neck preciousstones, wears thin strings of beads, or berries, or even shells, andthis in many climates is no inconsiderable part of her attire. Thenwhere she places a bunch of reeds, or dried grass, her civilized sisterplaces tastefully a bunch of ribbons. The same parts, present the samedifficulties, as to picturesque decoration. The progress of civilizationis also shown
in the use of nose, lip, and ear-rings. The two formerhave vanished from the fair faces of the West, but ear-rings stillremain as a link to bind us to the past, and though ankle rings havedisappeared except on the legs of French poodles, bangles are stillworn.
As to the modesty of the Buccaneer's women. This is a delicate matterand we pass over it with the remark that in this respect they would bearfavourable comparison with any of their neighbours, though theirlanguage perhaps at times, and even their manners, left somewhat to bedesired. The modesty of a woman must not be treated lightly, for it isto her, or should be, as a diadem studded with precious stones, and agarment as lovely to behold as the mantle of our Creator when dipped inAutumn's rich and ever varying colours.
What for the most part attracted the eye of censure was the manner inwhich the fashionable daughters of the Buccaneer dressed of an evening.Then, in many cases, there was very little clothing on above the waist;but ample amends were made by the length of the skirts, which trailedmany yards in the dirt behind.
This display of what are usually called the charms of a woman, could nothave been from any base motive; for had such been the case the middleaged and old, would not have indulged in the practice. There may besomething very attractive about the well-shaped neck and snow whitebosom of a young and pretty girl, when modesty is not altogetheroutraged, but there can be nothing pleasing about too fleshy middle age,or the skinny old. Besides had the desire been the base one of excitingthe worst of man's passions, the skirts of the fashionable dresses wouldhave been considerably shortened. A pretty foot and shapely ankle isevery bit as pleasing to the eye of man, as a naked bosom, though hereagain the beefy heels of maturity, and the fleshless pegs of age must beexcepted.
We rather see in the above fashion an innate modesty born in the femalebreast, and we detect in it a disposition ever present to go back to thefar off past. To that time, when the clothing of our first mother wasconspicuous by its almost entire absence. It was all the morecommendable on the part of the Buccaneer's daughters to endeavour tore-establish this early state of innocence, because his climate was deadagainst the movement, and it says no little for the hardiness of hiswomen, who could thus lay bare so much of their bodies in a temperaturenotoriously inclement, without suffering any ill effects.