THE production of little and insignificant things often employs an extensive machinery. When a lady adjusts a portion of her dress with a pin, she seldom reflects on its commercial history. Yet the little instrument proceeded from an establishment employing perhaps hundreds of hands, and demanded for its creation some of the most striking developments of science and art. Viewed apart from its associations, who would think of meditating on a straw bonnet, or writing an essay on the materials of its fabric? A rapid opinion on the manner in which it sets off its wearer, is we presume, the amount of contemplation it generally receives. But much may be said about everything; and if Dr. Johnson could become discursive on the qualities of a broom-stick, there surely can be no difficulty in writing something to the purpose on STRAW PLAT. We leave to those "in the trade" to dive into the recesses of history, for the purpose of finding the origin of straw bonnets. On their shoulders we also lay the more congenial and pleasing burden of watching the markets, and balancing the profit and loss. We shall merely look at the matter in its moral bearings, and endeavour to shew the good and evil connected with the manucfacture of plat. By the way, we may just state, that LUTON is the emporium of this branch of merchandise. We are given to understand that the amount of business carried on in that town, is far greater than in any other place. Leaving to others to ascertain the cause, we only make our readers acquainted with the fact, that DUNSTABLE has long since yielded to her more fortunate rival, and that from her well-frequented thoroughfare, the retailers of straw bonnets seem drawn as with magnetic influence to the more retired streets of LUTON. How pleasing is it to see a whole parish employed by some specific manufacture; especially when it does not require that those engaged in it, should be shut up in unwholesome apartments. When its operations can be carried on in the open air, such a branch of trade becomes quite picturesque. The lace-making for example, before the introduction of machinery, furnished the bard of Olney with some of his happy thoughts, as it was carried on in every street and cottage. "Yon cottager, who weaves at her own door, So it is with straw plat; in certain districts it is almost as conspicuous as the wall-flowers, daisies, and other humble beauties which garnish the cottage gardens. The children hold it in their fingers, which weave its material with incredible rapidity; their eyes and their minds are not required, and their feet are left at liberty, so that their work is compatible with health and pleasure. They laugh and play and chatter; in short they are free with all their faculties, the hands alone excepted. There is one portion however of the lives of these little mechanics which is not so dis-encumbered; we mean when they are learning to plat. Open a door at a venture in Luton or Dunstable, and the probability is that you will find the cottage crammed full of urchins from four years old and downwards, marshalled on forms under the generalship of a dame, who for a scanty remuneration teaches them to plat. Plat is every where. If you were to be afflicted with a disease which produced an antipathy to plat, your case would be lamentable indeed, unless you could transport yourself to a distant region. It hangs dangling in long sunny rows to dry after the operation of washing. Tops of bonnets twirl around in the wind, suspended after they have been stiffened. On market days bunches of plat hang on the women's arms like bracelets, as they press on to the rendezvous. Large bundles of picked straws stand in inviting rows to tempt the country people to embark the produce of their plat in a fresh speculation. In short, the proverb "it is not worth a straw" is here completely at fault, for straw is everything. ` A man of straw, which means in the language of logicians a mere non-entity, becomes in these provinces, a most substantial character. This aspect of the straw trade is exceedingly pleasing, presenting a whole population engaged in a lucrative and, in many respects, healthful employment, and using their energies, not in the production of an injurious or useless luxury, but of a serviceable and pretty article of dress. We hope we shall not be accused of selfishness when we venture to assure the female part of the community, that they never look so well as in a good straw bonnet: not an outlandish Leghorn or Tuscan, but one made of Luton or Dunstable plat. But every sunshine has its shade, and we must tell of the disadvantages of this species of manufacture. And first it keeps children from school. Sunday Schools are large in the platting districts, for in most cases they afford the only education which the boys and girls receive. The capacity of children to earn something considerable for their parents at an early age, is too tempting to be resisted by those who cannot be expected to have a relish for learning themselves. Instruction on one day of the week is not sufficient; it can never supply as much information as is demanded of every one who would keep pace with the march of all orders in society. these reasons an infant school is of the first importance in all straw platting districts. The excellence of the infant school system consists in its flexibility;— its power of adapting itself to the circumstances of its subjects; and there can be no doubt that platting might be combined with it in such a manner as would remedy the evil we complain of. The mind of an infant should not be limited to the narrow range of ideas which this handicraft requires. For We would point out as a second evil connected |