about two o'clock
Many had extraordinarily large heads which seemed to be swollen with water , their ears and noses ran , their hands were frost-bitten . The various professional diseases of town-labourers seemed to have been inherited ; one saw in miniature the gas-worker 's lungs and blood spoilt by sulphur-fumes , the smith 's shoulders and feet bent out-wards , the painter 's brain atrophied by varnishes and poisonous colours , the scrofulous eruption of the chimney sweeper , the contracted chest of the book-binder ; here one heard the cough of the workers in metal and asphalt , smelt the poisons of the paper-stainer , observed the watch-maker 's short-sightedness , in second editions , so to speak . In truth this was no race to which the future belonged , or on which the future could build ; nor was it a race which could permanently increase , for the ranks of the workers are continually recruited from the country . It was not till about two o'clock that the great school-room was emptied , for it took them about an hour with blows and raps to get out of it into the street . The most unpractical part of it was that the children had to march into the hall in troops to get their overcoats and cloaks , and then march into the school-room again , instead of going straight home . When John got into the street , he asked himself `` Is that the celebrated education which they have given to the lower classes with so much sacrifice ? '' He could ask , and he was answered , `` Can it be done in any other way ? ''