beer and
certain sweet beverages, rather than spirits.

At the main office I found M. de Forcade, a son of the celebrated
minister of Napoleon III., to whom when he retired, on the accession to
power of M. Emile Ollivier, the Emperor addressed a remarkable letter,
recognising, in the strongest terms that could be used, his abilities,
his integrity, and his patriotism. M. de Forcade had just received a
telegram from the father of M. Guary, at Paris, announcing his arrival
at Anzin for the next day, and asking me to prolong my visit, which I
was very glad to do.

There are many factories at work in and around Anzin, but there is
nothing Plutonian in the aspect of the place or of the neighbourhood,
and the grimy side of coal-mining nowhere obtrudes itself. On the
contrary the green fields, under a very high cultivation, everywhere
encroach agreeably upon the town. The residence of M. Guary, the
Director, stands in an exceedingly pretty park, and the mansion, a
handsome modern chateau, is surrounded with fine and well-grown trees.
You approach the mansion from the busy main streets of Anzin, traversed
by a tramway leading to Denain, but from its windows and balconies which
overlook the park, you gaze out upon the verdure and the spacious peace
of a wide rural landscape.

A certain proportion of the workmen employed in the mines prefer to live
in the town; but it is the policy of the company to encourage the
development of cottage life, and wherever I went throughout its
extensive domain I found families of the workmen installed in
comfortable homes, surrounded by gardens and by what are called in
England 'allotments.' Of these the company now owns no fewer than 2,628.
Originally these houses were built in the form of _cites ouvrieres_; but
it has been found by experience that these blocks of contiguous houses
are open to certain objections from the point of view of health, as well
as from the point of view of morals, and the more recent constructions
are detached cottages. A model of one of these cottages was exhibited in
the social economy section of the Exposition at Paris this year, But it
was more satisfactory to see them actually inhabited and on the spot.
Each cottage is built in a field of land of two acres in extent, and the
rent varies from three francs and a half to six francs a month. For the
lesser sum, or for forty-two francs a year, a workman at Anzin earning
an average wage of three francs a day, or in rou