Apprentice contracts are still required between employer and employee, but the language in which they are composed is quite mild compared to that used during the last century, if we can accept as normal a contract made this day in Canada. It is probably period.

“This indenture, made the Twenty-fifth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, between John Fessant Eby, of the age of twelve years, the son of Jonas Eby, of Elora, in the County of Wellington, cabinet maker, of the first part; the said Jonas Eby, of the second part, and the Elora Newspaper, Job Printing and Bookbinding Company, of the third part, witnesseth, that the said John Fessant Eby, by and with the consent of his father, the said Jonas Eby (testified by his being a party to and executing these presents), doth put himself apprentice to the Elora Newspaper, Job Printing and Bookbinding Company, to learn the art and mystery of a printer, in the printing office of the said company, and with the said company, after the manner of an apprentice, to serve from the day of the date of these presents, unto the full end and term of three years, from thence next following (determinable, nevertheless, upon the dissolution of determination of the said company) during which term the said apprentice shall faithfully serve the said company and obey the lawful demands of the officers thereof.

“He shall not waste the goods of the said company nor lend them unlawfully to any; he shall not contract matrimony during the said term; he shall not buy or sell himself from the service of the said company unlawfully; but in all things during the said term as a faithful apprentice he shall demean himself toward the said company and the officers thereof. And the said Elora Newspaper, Job Printing and Bookbinding Company, in consideration of the faithful services of the said apprentice, shall and will instruct or cause to be instructed, the said apprentice in the art and mystery of a printer, and shall and will pay to the said apprentice or to his father on his behalf the sums or wages hereinafter mentioned (that is to say) during the first year of the said term five shillings ($1.25) weekly; during the second year of the said term seven shillings and six pence ($1.87) weekly; and during the third year of the said term ten shillings ($2.50) weekly.

“And the said Jonas Eby for himself, his executors and administrators doth hereby covenant with the said Elora Newspaper, Job Printing and Bookbinding Company, that the said apprentice during the said term shall faithfully serve the said company in the manner aforesaid; and that he, the said Jonas Eby, during the said term, shall and will find and provide for the said apprentice good and sufficient board, lodging, clothing, washing and other necessaries. In witness whereof, the said John Fessant Eby and Jonas Eby, and the said company by Charles Allen, Esquire, the president thereof, have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year first aforesaid. Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of John F. Eby, Jonas Eby, Charles Alien, President!”