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HOB-NAILED BOOTS IN THE LOWLANDS
high
wages—if not immediately, at least soon. They were told that they were
being employed to be trained as melee cutters and melee cutters could
expect no more than three dollars a week for the first three months, a
dollar a week raise every month after that, and at the end of two years
the possibility of earning $25 a week. At the end of three years they
could expect about $36 a week. By that time, they were told, if they
really wanted to learn the trade they should be able to qualify as
journeyman members of the guild. At the end of five years there was the
likelihood of their receiving $75 a week.
Many
veterans in the guild have bemoaned this break with tradition. The idea
of admitting strangers to the guild is something they can't understand.
These were the same veterans who shuddered when diamond cleavers in the
United States ignored tradition by coming to work without top hat,
striped trousers, morning coat, and stick. The youngsters, however, are
winning them over because of their pride in the guild membership cards.
They are taking on some of the habits of the men in the bigger shops,
such as singing and shouting as they work.
When
they arrive at the school for the first time, the boys are allowed to
wander about and watch over the shoulÂders of instructors, so that they
will lose any awe of the diamond they may have had. Then they are shown
how to "four-square" a diamond, which means holding the face of the
stone against the revolving disk. The next step is eight-squaring,
which is polishing the angles of the original four facets, so that the
diamond becomes octagon shaped. The boys who show most promise are then
taught to brilliandeer, a delicate job requiring extreme skill when
applied to melee. The lower half of each of the eight facets is
polished again, so that the result is sixteen facets. When you realize
that
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