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diff --git a/10126.txt b/10126.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d37b1b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/10126.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6475 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk +during the Cotton Famine, by Edwin Waugh + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk during the Cotton Famine + +Author: Edwin Waugh + +Release Date: November 19, 2003 [eBook #10126] + +Language: English + +Chatacter set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOME-LIFE OF THE LANCASHIRE +FACTORY FOLK DURING THE COTTON FAMINE*** + + + +Many thanks to Peter Moulding who transcribed this eText. +email: p e t e r @ m o u l d i n g n a m e . i n f o +http://www.mouldingname.info/00.html + + + + +HOME-LIFE + +OF THE + +LANCASHIRE FACTORY FOLK + +DURING THE COTTON FAMINE + + + + +BY + +EDWIN WAUGH + +Author of "Lancashire Sketches", "Poems and Lancashire Songs", +"Tufts of Heather from the Northern Moors", etc, etc. + + +"Hopdance cries in poor Tom's belly for two white herrings. +Croak not, black angel: I have no food for thee." +--King Lear. + + + +CONTENTS + +Chap. Page +I 1 Among the Blackburn Operatives +II 13 " " +III 23 Among the Preston Operatives +IV 32 " " +V 40 " " +VI 48 " " +VII 59 " " +VIII 69 " " +IX 79 " " +X 87 " " +XI 97 " " +XII 107 " " +XIII 115 " " +XIV 123 " " +XV 132 Among the Wigan Operatives +XVI 139 " " +XVII 147 " " +XVIII 155 " " +XIX 163 " " +XX 171 " " +XXI 179 " " +XXII 189 An Incident by the Wayside +XXIII 197 Wandering Minstrels; or, Wails of the Workless Poor + +LETTERS AND SPEECHES UPON THE COTTON FAMINE + + 209 Letters of a Lancashire Lad + 217 Mr Cobden's Speech + 227 Speech of the Earl of Derby + + 253 Songs of Distress chiefly written during the Cotton +Famine + + + +PREFACE + + + +The following chapters are reprinted from the columns of the +Manchester Examiner and Times, to which Paper they were contributed +by the Author during the year 1862. + + + +HOME LIFE OF THE LANCASHIRE FACTORY FOLK DURING THE COTTON FAMINE. +(Reprinted from the Manchester Examiner and Times of 1862) + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + +AMONG THE BLACKBURN OPERATIVES +"Poor Tom's a-cold. Who gives anything to poor Tom?" +--King Lear. + +Blackburn is one of the towns which has suffered more than the rest +in the present crisis, and yet a stranger to the place would not see +anything in its outward appearance indicative of this adverse nip of +the times. But to any one familiar with the town in its prosperity, +the first glance shows that there is now something different on foot +there, as it did to me on Friday last. The morning was wet and raw, +a state of weather in which Blackburn does not wear an Arcadian +aspect, when trade is good. Looking round from the front of the +railway station, the first thing which struck me was the great +number of tall chimneys which were smokeless, and the unusual +clearness of the air. Compared with the appearance of the town when +in full activity, there is now a look of doleful holiday, an +unnatural fast-day quietness about everything. There were few carts +astir, and not so many people in the streets as usual, although so +many are out of work there. Several, in the garb of factory +operatives, were leaning upon the bridge, and others were trailing +along in twos and threes, looking listless and cold; but nobody +seemed in a hurry. Very little of the old briskness was visible. +When the mills are in full work, the streets are busy with heavy +loads of twist and cloth; and the workpeople hurry in blithe crowds +to and from the factories, full of life and glee, for factory labour +is not so hurtful to healthy life as it was thirty years ago, nor as +some people think it now, who don't know much about it. There were +few people at the shop windows, and fewer inside. I went into some +of the shops to buy trifling things of different kinds, making +inquiries about the state of trade meanwhile, and, wherever I went, +I met with the same gloomy answers. They were doing nothing, taking +nothing; and they didn't know how things would end. They had the +usual expenses going on, with increasing rates, and a fearfully +lessened income, still growing less. And yet they durst not +complain; but had to contribute towards the relief of their starving +neighbours, sometimes even when they themselves ought to be +receiving relief, if their true condition was known. I heard of +several shopkeepers who had not taken more across their counters for +weeks past than would pay their rents, and some were not doing even +so much as that. This is one painful bit of the kernel of life in +Blackburn just now, which is concealed by the quiet shell of outward +appearance. Beyond this unusual quietness, a stranger will not see +much of the pinch of the times, unless he goes deeper; for the +people of Lancashire never were remarkable for hawking their +troubles much about the world. In the present untoward pass, their +deportment, as a whole, has been worthy of themselves, and their +wants have been worthily met by their own neighbours. What it may +become necessary to do hereafter, does not yet appear. It is a +calamity arising, partly from a wise national forbearance, which +will repay itself richly in the long run. But, apart from that wide- +spread poverty which is already known and relieved, there is, in +times like the present, always a certain small proportion, even of +the poorest, who will "eat their cake to th' edge," and then starve +bitterly before they will complain. These are the flower of our +working population; they are of finer stuff than the common staple +of human nature. Amongst such there must be many touching cases of +distress which do not come to light, even by accident. If they did, +nobody can doubt the existence of a generous will to relieve them +generously. To meet such cases, it is pleasant to learn, however, as +I did, that there is a large amount of private benevolence at work +in Blackburn, industriously searching out the most deserving cases +of distress. Of course, this kind of benevolence never gets into the +statistics of relief, but it will not the less meet with its reward. +I heard also of one or two wealthy men whose names do not appear as +contributors to the public relief fund, who have preferred to spend +considerable sums of money in this private way. In my wanderings +about the town I heard also of several instances of poor people +holding relief tickets, who, upon meeting with some temporary +employment, have returned their tickets to the committee for the +benefit of those less fortunate than themselves. Waiving for the +present all mention of the opposite picture; these things are alike +honourable to both rich and poor. + +A little past noon, on Friday, I set out to visit the great stone +quarries on the southern edge of the town, where upwards of six +hundred of the more robust factory operatives are employed in the +lighter work of the quarries. This labour consists principally of +breaking up the small stone found in the facings of the solid rock, +for the purpose of road-mending and the like. Some, also, are +employed in agricultural work, on the ground belonging to the fine +new workhouse there. These factory operatives, at the workhouse +grounds, and in the quarries, are paid one shilling a day--not much, +but much better than the bread of idleness; and for the most part, +the men like it better, I am told. The first quarry I walked into +was the one known by the name of "Hacking's Shorrock Delph." There I +sauntered about, looking at the scene. It was not difficult to +distinguish the trained quarrymen from the rest. The latter did not +seem to be working very hard at their new employment, and it can +hardly be expected that they should, considering the great +difference between it and their usual labour. Leaning on their +spades and hammers, they watched me with a natural curiosity, as if +wondering whether I was a new ganger, or a contractor come to buy +stone. There were men of all ages amongst them, from about eighteen +years old to white-headed men past sixty. Most of them looked +healthy and a little embrowned by recent exposure to the weather; +and here and there was a pinched face which told its own tale. I got +into talk with a quiet, hardy-looking man, dressed in soil-stained +corduroy. He was a kind of overlooker. He told me that there were +from eighty to ninety factory hands employed in that quarry. "But," +said he, "it varies a bit, yo known. Some on 'em gets knocked up +neaw an' then, an' they han to stop a-whoam a day or two; an' some +on 'em connot ston gettin' weet through--it mays 'em ill; an' here +an' theer one turns up at doesn't like the job at o'--they'd rayther +clem. There is at's both willin' an' able; thoose are likely to get +a better job, somewheer. There's othersome at's willin' enough, but +connot ston th' racket. They dun middlin', tak 'em one wi' another, +an' considerin' that they're noan use't to th' wark. Th' hommer fo's +leet wi' 'em; but we dunnot like to push 'em so mich, yo known--for +what's a shillin' a day? Aw know some odd uns i' this delph at never +tastes fro mornin' till they'n done at neet,--an' says nought abeawt +it, noather. But they'n families. Beside, fro wake lads, sick as +yon, at's bin train't to nought but leet wark, an' a warm place to +wortch in, what con yo expect? We'n had a deeal o' bother wi 'em +abeawt bein' paid for weet days, when they couldn't wortch. They wur +not paid for weet days at th' furst; an' they geet it into their +yeds at Shorrock were to blame. Shorrock's th' paymaister, under th' +Guardians, But, then, he nobbut went accordin' to orders, yo known. +At last, th' Board sattle't that they mut be paid for weet and dry,- +-an' there's bin quietness sin'. They wortchen fro eight till five; +an', sometimes, when they'n done, they drilln o' together i'th road +yon--just like sodiurs--an' then they walken away i' procession. But +stop a bit;--just go in yon, an' aw'll come to yo in a two-thre +minutes." He returned, accompanied by the paymaster, who offered to +conduct me through the other delphs. Running over his pay-book, he +showed me, by figures opposite each man's name, that, with not more +than a dozen exceptions, they had all families of children, ranging +in number from two to nine. He then pointed out the way over a +knoll, to the next quarry, which is called "Hacking's Gillies' +Delph," saying that he would follow me thither. I walked on, +stopping for him on the nearest edge of the quarry, which commanded +a full view of the men below. They seemed to be waiting very hard +for something just then, and they stared at me, as the rest had +done; but in a few minutes, just as I began to hear the paymaster's +footsteps behind me, the man at the nearest end of the quarry called +"Shorrock!" and a sudden activity woke up along the line. Shorrock +then pointed to a corner of the delph where two of these poor +fellows had been killed the week before, by stones thrown out from a +fall of earth. We went down through the delph, and up the slope, by +the place where the older men were at work in the poorhouse grounds. +Crossing the Darwen road, we passed the other delphs, where the +scene was much the same as in the rest, except that more men were +employed there. As we went on, one poor fellow was trolling a snatch +of song, as he hammered away at the stones. "Thir't merry, owd mon," +said I, in passing. "Well," replied he, "cryin' 'll do nought, +wilt?" And then, as I walked away, he shouted after me, with a sort +of sad smile, "It's a poor heart at never rejoices, maister." +Leaving the quarries, we waited below, until the men had struck work +for the day, and the whole six hundred came trooping down the road, +looking hard at me as they went by, and stopping here and there, in +whispering groups. The paymaster told me that one-half of the men's +wages was paid to them in tickets for bread--in each case given to +the shopkeeper to whom the receiver of the ticket owed most money-- +the other half was paid to them in money every Saturday. Before +returning to town I learnt that twenty of the more robust men, who +had worked well for their shilling a day in the quarries, had been +picked out by order of the Board of Guardians, to be sent to the +scene of the late disaster, in Lincolnshire, where employment had +been obtained for them, at the rate of 3s. 4d. per day. They were to +muster at six o'clock next morning to breakfast at the soup kitchen, +after which they were to leave town by the seven o'clock train. I +resolved to be up and see them off. On retiring to bed at the "Old +Bull," a good-tempered fellow, known by the name of "Stockings," +from the fact of his being "under-boots," promised to waken me by +six o'clock; and so I ended the day, after watching "Stockings" +write "18" on the soles of my boots, with a lump of chalk. + +"Stockings" might as well have kept his bed on Saturday morning. My +room was close to the ancient tower, left standing in the parish +churchyard; and, at five o'clock, the beautiful bells of St Marie's +struck up, filling my little chamber with that heart-stirring music, +which, as somebody has well said, "sounds like a voice from the +middle ages." I could not make out what all this early melody meant; +for I had forgotten that it was the Queen's birthday. The old tower +was in full view from my bed, and I lay there a while looking at it, +and listening to the bells, and dreaming of Whalley Abbey, and of +old features of life in picturesque Blackburnshire, now passed away. +I felt no more inclination for sleep; and when the knock came to my +door, I was dressed and ready. There were more people in the streets +than I expected, and the bells were still ringing merrily. I found +the soup kitchen a lively scene. The twenty men were busy at +breakfast, and there was a crowd waiting outside to see them off. +There were several members of the committee in the kitchen, and +amongst them the Rev. Joseph V. Meaney, Catholic priest, went to and +fro in cheerful chat. After breakfast, each man received four pounds +of bread and one pound of cheese for the day's consumption. In +addition to this, each man received one shilling; to which a certain +active member of the committee added threepence in each case. +Another member of the committee then handed a letter to each of the +only three or four out of the twenty who were able to write, +desiring each man to write back to the committee,--not all at once, +but on different days, after their arrival. After this, he addressed +them in the following words:--"Now, I hope that every man will +conduct himself so as to be a credit to himself and an honour to +Blackburn. This work may not prove to be such as you will like, and +you must not expect it to be so. But, do your best; and, if you find +that there is any chance of employment for more men of the same +class as yourselves, you must write and let us know, so as to +relieve the distress of others who are left behind you. There will +be people waiting to meet you before you get to your journey's end; +and, I have no doubt, you will meet with every fair encouragement. +One-half of your wages will be paid over to each man there; the +other half will be forwarded here, for the benefit of your families, +as you all know. Now go, and do your duty to the best of your power, +and you will never regret it. I wish you all success." At half-past +six the men left the kitchen for the station. I lingered behind to +get a basin of the soup, which I relished mightily. At the station I +found a crowd of wives, children, and friends of those who were +going away. Amongst the rest, Dr Rushton, the vicar of Blackburn, +and his lady, had come to see them off. Here a sweet little young +wife stood on the edge of the platform, with a pretty bareheaded +child in her arms, crying as if her heart would break. Her husband +now and then spoke a consoling word to her from the carriage window. +They had been noticed sharing their breakfast together at the +kitchen. A little farther on, a poor old Irishwoman was weeping +bitterly. The Rev. Mr Meaney went up to her, and said, "Now, Mrs +Davis, I thought you had more sense than to cry." "Oh," said a young +Irishwoman, standing beside her, "sure, she's losin' her son from +her." "Well," said the clergyman, cheeringly, "it's not your +husband, woman." "Ah, thin," replied the young woman, "sure, it's +all she has left of him." On the door of one compartment of the +carriage there was the following written label:--"Fragile, with +care." " How's this, Dennis?" said the Catholic priest to a young +fellow nearest the door; "I suppose it's because you're all Irishmen +inside there." In another compartment the lads kept popping their +heads out, one after another, shouting farewells to their relatives +and friends, after which they struck up, "There's a good time +coming!" One wag of a fellow suddenly called out to his wife on the +platform, "Aw say, Molly, just run for thoose tother breeches o' +mine. They'n come in rarely for weet weather." One of his companions +replied, "Thae knows hoo cannot get 'em, Jack. Th' pop-shops are +noan oppen yet." One hearty cheer arose as the train started, after +which the crowd dribbled away from the platform. I returned to the +soup kitchen, where the wives, children, and mothers of the men who +had gone were at breakfast in the inner compartment of the kitchen. +On the outer side of the partition five or six pinched-looking men +had straggled in to get their morning meal. + +When they had all done but one, who was left reared against the +wooden partition finishing his soup, the last of those going away +turned round and said, "Sam, theaw'rt noan as tickle abeawt thi mate +as thae use't to be." "Naw," replied the other, "it'll not do to be +nice these times, owd mon. But, thae use't to think thisel' aboon +porritch, too, Jone. Aw'll shake honds wi' tho i' thae's a mind, owd +dog." "Get forrud wi' that stuff, an' say nought," answered Jone. I +left Sam at his soup, and went up into the town. In the course of +the day I sat some hours in the Boardroom, listening to the relief +cases; but of this, and other things, I will say more in my next. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + + +A little after ten o'clock on Saturday forenoon, I went into the +Boardroom, in the hope of catching there some glimpses of the real +state of the poor in Blackburn just now, and I was not disappointed; +for amongst the short, sad complainings of those who may always be +heard of in such a place, there was many a case presented itself +which gave affecting proof of the pressure of the times. Although it +is not here where one must look for the most enduring and +unobtrusive of those who suffer; nor for the poor traders, who +cannot afford to wear their distress upon their sleeves, so long as +things will hold together with them at all; nor for that rare class +which is now living upon the savings of past labour--yet, there were +many persons, belonging to one or other of these classes, who +applied for relief evidently because they had been driven +unwillingly to this last bitter haven by a stress of weather which +they could not bide any longer. There was a large attendance of the +guardians; and they certainly evinced a strong wish to inquire +carefully into each case, and to relieve every case of real need. +The rate of relief given is this (as you will have seen stated by Mr +Farnall elsewhere):--"To single able bodied men, 3s. for three days' +work. To the man who had a wife and two children, 6s. for six days' +work, and he would have 2s. 6d. added to the 6s., and perhaps a pair +of clogs for one of his children. To a man who had a wife and four +children, 10s. was paid for six days' labour, and in addition 4s., +and sometimes 4s. 6d., was given to him, and also bits of clothing +and other things which he absolutely wanted." Sitting at that Board +I saw some curious--some painful things. It was, as one of the Board +said to me, "Hard work being there." In one case, a poor, pale, +clean-looking, and almost speechless woman presented herself. Her +thin and sunken eyes, as well as her known circumstances, explained +her want sufficiently, and I heard one of the guardians whisper to +another, "That's a bad case. If it wasn't for private charity they'd +die of starvation." "Yes," replied another; "that woman's punished, +I can see." Now and then a case came on in which the guardians were +surprised to see a man ask for relief whom everybody had supposed to +be in good circumstances. The first applicant, after I entered the +room, was a man apparently under forty years of age, a beerhouse +keeper, who had been comparatively well off until lately. The tide +of trouble had whelmed him over. His children were all factory +operatives, and all out of work; and his wife was ill. "What; are +you here, John?" said the chairman to a decent-looking man who +stepped up in answer to his name. The poor fellow blushed with +evident pain, and faltered out his story in few and simple words, as +if ashamed that anything on earth should have driven him at last to +such an extremity as this. In another case, a clean old decrepid man +presented himself. "What's brought you here, Joseph?" said the +chairman. "Why; aw've nought to do,--nor nought to tak to." "What's +your daughter, Ellen, doing, Joseph?" "Hoo's eawt o' wark." "And +what's your wife doing?" "Hoo's bin bed-fast aboon five year." The +old man was relieved at once; but, as he walked away, he looked hard +at his ticket, as if it wasn't exactly the kind of thing; and, +turning round, he said, "Couldn't yo let me be a sweeper i'th +streets, istid, Mr Eccles?" A clean old woman came up, with a snow- +white nightcap on her head. "Well, Mary; what do you want?" "Aw +could like yo to gi mo a bit o' summat, Mr Eccles,--for aw need it" +"Well, but you've some lodgers, haven't you, Mary?" "Yigh; aw've +three." "Well; what do they pay you?" "They pay'n mo nought. They'n +no wark,--an' one connot turn 'em eawt." + +This was all quite true. "Well, but you live with your son; don't +you?" continued the chairman. "Nay," replied the old woman, "HE +lives wi' ME; an' he's eawt o' wark, too. Aw could like yo to do a +bit o' summat for us. We're hard put to 't." "Don't you think she +would be better in the workhouse?" said one of the guardians. "Oh, +no," replied another; "don't send th' owd woman there. Let her keep +her own little place together, if she can." Another old woman +presented herself, with a threadbare shawl drawn closely round her +gray head. "Well, Ann," said the chairman, "there's nobody but +yourself and your John, is there?" "Nawe." "What age are you?" "Aw'm +seventy." "Seventy!" "Aye, I am." "Well, and what age is your John?" +"He's gooin' i' seventy-four." "Where is he, Ann ?" "Well, aw laft +him deawn i' th' street yon; gettin' a load o' coals in." There was +a murmur of approbation around the Board; and the old woman was sent +away relieved and thankful. There were many other affecting cases of +genuine distress arising from the present temporary severity of the +times. Several applicants were refused relief on its being proved +that they were already in receipt of considerably more income than +the usual amount allowed by the Board to those who have nothing to +depend upon. Of course there are always some who, having lost that +fine edge of feeling to which this kind of relief is revolting, are +not unwilling to live idly upon the rates as much and as long as +possible at any time, and who will even descend to pitiful schemes +to wring from this source whatever miserable income they can get. +There are some, even, with whom this state of mind seems almost +hereditary; and these will not be slow to take advantage of the +present state of affairs. Such cases, however, are not numerous +among the people of Lancashire. It was a curious thing to see the +different demeanours and appearances of the applicants--curious to +hear the little stories of their different troubles. There were +three or four women whose husbands were away in the militia; others +whose husbands had wandered away in search of work weeks ago, and +had never been heard of, since. There were a few very fine, +intelligent countenances among them. There were many of all ages, +clean in person, and bashful in manner, with their poor clothing put +into the tidiest possible trim; others were dirty, and sluttish, and +noisy of speech, as in the case of one woman, who, after receiving +her ticket for relief, partly in money and partly in kind, whipped a +pair of worn clogs from under her shawl, and cried out, "Aw mun ha' +some clogs afore aw go, too; look at thoose! They're a shame to be +sin!" Clogs were freely given; and, in several cases, they were all +that were asked for. In three or four instances, the applicants +said, after receiving other relief, "Aw wish yo'd gi' me a pair o' +clogs, Mr Eccles. Aw've had to borrow these to come in." One woman +pleaded hard for two pair, saying, "Yon chylt's bar-fuut; an' HE'S +witchod (wet-shod), an' as ill as he con be." "Who's witchod?" asked +the chairman. "My husban' is," replied the woman; "an' he connot +ston it just neaw, yo mun let HIM have a pair iv yo con." "Give her +two pairs of clogs," said the chairman. Another woman took her clog +off, and held it up, saying, + +"Look at that. We're o' walkin' o'th floor; an' smoor't wi' cowds." +One decent-looking old body, with a starved face, applied. The +chairman said, "Why, what's your son doing now? Has he catched no +rabbits lately?" "Nay, aw dunnot know 'at he does. Aw get nought; +an' it's ME at wants summat, Mr Eccles," replied the old woman, in a +tremulous tone, with the water rising in her eyes. "Well, come; we +mustn't punish th' owd woman for her son," said one of the +guardians. Various forms of the feebleness of age appeared before +the Board that day. "What's your son John getting, Mary?" said the +chairman to one old woman. "Whor?" replied she. "What's your son +John getting?" The old woman put her hand up to her ear, and +answered, + +"Aw'm rayther deaf. What say'n yo?" It turned out that her son was +taken ill, and they were relieved. In the course of inquiries I +found that the working people of Blackburn, as elsewhere in +Lancashire, nickname their workshops as well as themselves. The +chairman asked a girl where she worked at last, and the girl +replied, "At th' 'Puff-an'-dart.'" "And what made you leave there?" +"Whau, they were woven up." One poor, pale fellow, a widower, said +he had "worched" a bit at "Bang-the-nation," till he was taken ill, +and then they had "shopped his place," that is, they had given his +work to somebody else. Another, when asked where he had been +working, replied, "At Se'nacre Bruck (Seven-acre Brook), wheer th' +wild monkey were catched." It seems that an ourang-outang which once +escaped from some travelling menagerie, was re-taken at this place. +I sat until the last application had been disposed of, which was +about half-past two in the afternoon. The business had taken up +nearly four hours and a half. + +I had a good deal of conversation with people who were intimately +acquainted with the town and its people; and I was informed that, in +spite of the struggle for existence which is now going on, and not +unlikely to continue for some time, there are things happening +amongst the working people there, which do not seem wise, under +existing circumstances. The people are much better informed now than +they were twenty years ago; but, still, something of the old +blindness lingers amongst them, here and there. For instance, at one +mill, in Blackburn, where the operatives were receiving 11s. a week +for two looms, the proprietor offered to give his workpeople three +looms each, with a guarantee for constant employment until the end +of next August, if they would accept one and a quarter pence less +for the weaving of each piece. This offer, if taken, would have +raised their wages to an average of 14s. 6d. a week. It was +declined, however, and they are now working, as before, only on two +looms each, with uncertainty of employment, at lls. a week. Perhaps +it is too much to expect that such things should die out all at +once. But I heard also that the bricklayers' labourers at Blackburn +struck work last week for an advance of wages from 3s. 6d. a day to +4s. a day. This seems very untimely, to say the least of it. Apart +from these things, there is, amongst all classes, a kind of cheery +faith in the return of good times, although nobody can see what they +may have to go through yet, before the clouds break. It is a fact +that there are more than forty new places ready, or nearly ready, +for starting, in and about Blackburn, when trade revives. + +After dinner, I walked down Darwen Street. Stopping to look at a +music-seller's window, a rough-looking fellow, bareheaded and +without coat, came sauntering across the road from a shop opposite. +As he came near he shouted out, "Nea then Heaw go!" I turned round; +and, seeing that I was a stranger, he said, "Oh; aw thought it had +bin another chap." "Well," said I, "heaw are yo gettin' on, these +times?" "Divulish ill," replied he. "Th' little maisters are runnin' +a bit, some three, some four days. T'other are stopt o' together, +welly. . . . It's thin pikein' for poor folk just neaw. But th' +shopkeepers an' th' ale-heawses are in for it as ill as ony mak. +There'll be crashin' amung some on 'em afore lung." After this, I +spent a few minutes in the market-place, which was "slacker" than +usual, as might be expected, for, as the Scotch proverb says, +"Sillerless folk gang fast through the market." Later on, I went up +to Bank Top, on the eastern edge of the town, where many factory +operatives reside. Of course, there is not any special quarter where +they are clustered in such a manner as to show their condition as a +whole. They are scattered all round the town, living as near as +possible to the mills in which they are employed. Here I talked with +some of the small shopkeepers, and found them all more or less +troubled with the same complaint. One owner of a provision shop said +to me, "Wi'n a deeal o' brass owin'; but it's mostly owin' by folk +at'll pay sometime. An' then, th' part on 'em are doin' a bit yo +known; an' they bring'n their trifle o' ready brass to us; an' so +we're trailin' on. But folk han to trust us a bit for their stuff, +dunnot yo see,--or else it would be 'Wo-up!' soon." I heard of one +beerhouse, the owner of which had only drawn ls. 6d. during a whole +week. His children were all factory operatives, and all out of work. +They were very badly off, and would have been very glad of a few +soup tickets; but, as the man said, "Who'd believe me if aw were to +go an' ax for relief?" I was told of two young fellows, unemployed +factory hands, meeting one day, when one said to the other, "Thae +favvurs hungry, Jone." "Nay, aw's do yet, for that," replied Jone. +"Well," continued the other; "keep thi heart eawt of thi clogs, iv +thi breeches dun eawt-thrive thi carcass a bit, owd lad." "Aye," +said Jone, "but what mun I do when my clogs gi'n way?" "Whaw, thae +mun go to th' Guardians; they'n gi tho a pair in a minute." "Nay, by +__," replied Jone, "aw'll dee furst!" + +In the evening, I ran down to the beautiful suburb called +Pleasington, in the hope of meeting a friend of mine there; not +finding him, I came away by the eight o'clock train. The evening was +splendid, and it was cheering to see the old bounty of nature +gushing forth again in such unusual profusion and beauty, as if in +pitiful charity for the troubles of mankind. I never saw the country +look so rich in its spring robes as it does now. + + + +CHAPTER III. + + + +AMONG THE PRESTON OPERATIVES. + + + +Proud Preston, or Priest-town, on the banks of the beautiful Ribble, +is a place of many quaint customs, and of great historic fame. Its +character for pride is said to come from the fact of its having +been, in the old time, a favourite residence of the local nobles and +gentry, and of many penniless folk with long pedigrees. It was here +that Richard Arkwright shaved chins at a halfpenny each, in the +meantime working out his bold and ingenious schemes, with patient +faith in their ultimate success. It was here, too, that the teetotal +movement first began, with Anderson for its rhyme-smith. Preston has +had its full share of the changeful fortunes of England, and, like +our motherland, it has risen strongly out of them all. War's mad +havoc has swept over it in many a troubled period of our history. +Plague, pestilence, and famine have afflicted it sorely; and it has +suffered from trade riots, "plug-drawings," panics, and strikes of +most disastrous kinds. Proud Preston--the town of the Stanleys and +the Hoghtons, and of "many a crest that is famous in story"--the +town where silly King Jamie disported himself a little, with his +knights and nobles, during the time of his ruinous visit to Hoghton +Tower,--Proud Preston has seen many a black day. But, from the time +when Roman sentinels kept watch and ward in their old camp at +Walton, down by the Ribble side, it has never seen so much wealth +and so much bitter poverty together as now. The streets do not show +this poverty; but it is there. Looking from Avenham Walks, that +glorious landscape smiles in all the splendour of a rich spring- +tide. In those walks the nursemaids and children, and dainty folk, +are wandering as usual airing their curls in the fresh breeze; and +only now and then a workless operative trails by with chastened +look. The wail of sorrow is not heard in Preston market-place; but +destitution may be found almost anywhere there just now, cowering in +squalid corners, within a few yards of plenty--as I have seen it +many a time this week. The courts and alleys behind even some of the +main streets swarm with people who have hardly a whole nail left to +scratch themselves with. + +Before attempting to tell something of what I saw whilst wandering +amongst the poor operatives of Preston, I will say at once, that I +do not intend to meddle with statistics. They have been carefully +gathered, and often given elsewhere, and there is no need for me to +repeat them. But, apart from these, the theme is endless, and full +of painful interest. I hear on all hands that there is hardly any +town in Lancashire suffering so much as Preston. The reason why the +stroke has fallen so heavily here, lies in the nature of the trade. +In the first place, Preston is almost purely a cotton town. There +are two or three flax mills, and two or three ironworks, of no great +extent; but, upon the whole, there is hardly any variety of +employment there to lighten the disaster which has befallen its one +absorbing occupation. There is comparatively little weaving in +Preston; it is a town mostly engaged in spinning. The cotton used +there is nearly all what is called "Middling American," the very +kind which is now most scarce and dear. The yarns of Preston are +known by the name of "Blackburn Counts." They range from 28's up to +60's, and they enter largely into the manufacture of goods for the +India market. These things partly explain why Preston is more deeply +overshadowed by the particular gloom of the times than many other +places in Lancashire. About half-past nine on Tuesday morning last, +I set out with an old acquaintance to call upon a certain member of +the Relief Committee, in George's Ward. He is the manager of a +cotton mill in that quarter, and he is well known and much respected +among the working people. When we entered the mill-yard, all was +quiet there, and the factory was still and silent. But through the +office window we could see the man we wanted. He was accompanied by +one of the proprietors of the mill, turning over the relief books of +the ward. I soon found that he had a strong sense of humour, as well +as a heart welling over with tenderness. He pointed to some of the +cases in his books. The first was that of an old man, an overlooker +of a cotton mill. His family was thirteen in number; three of the +children were under ten years of age; seven of the rest were factory +operatives; but the whole family had been out of work for several +months. When in full employment the joint earnings of the family +amounted to 80s. a week; but, after struggling on in the hope of +better times, and exhausting the savings of past labour, they had +been brought down to the receipt of charity at last, and for sixteen +weeks gone by the whole thirteen had been living upon 6s. a week +from the relief fund. They had no other resource. I went to see them +at their own house afterwards, and it certainly was a pattern of +cleanliness, with the little household gods there still. Seeing that +house, a stranger would never dream that the family was living on an +average income of less than sixpence a head per week. But I know how +hard some decent folk will struggle with the bitterest poverty +before they will give in to it. The old man came in whilst I was +there. He sat down in one corner, quietly tinkering away at +something he had in his hands. His old corduroy trousers were well +patched, and just new washed. He had very little to say to us, +except that "He could like to get summat to do; for he wur tired o' +walkin' abeawt." Another case was that of a poor widow woman, with +five young children. This family had been driven from house to +house, by increasing necessity, till they had sunk at last into a +dingy little hovel, up a dark court, in one of the poorest parts of +the town, where they huddled together about a fireless grate to keep +one another warm. They had nothing left of the wreck of their home +but two rickety chairs, and a little deal table reared against the +wall, because one of the legs was gone. In this miserable hole-- +which I saw afterwards--her husband died of sheer starvation, as was +declared by the jury on the inquest. The dark, damp hovel where they +had crept to was scarcely four yards square; and the poor woman +pointed to one corner of the floor, saying, "He dee'd i' that nook." +He died there, with nothing to lie upon but the ground, and nothing +to cover him, in that fireless hovel. His wife and children crept +about him, there, to watch him die; and to keep him as warm as they +could. When the relief committee first found this family out, the +entire clothing of the family of seven persons weighed eight pounds, +and sold for fivepence, as rags. I saw the family afterwards, at +their poor place; and will say more about them hereafter. He told me +of many other cases of a similar kind. But, after agreeing to a time +when we should visit them personally, we set out together to see the +"Stone Yard," where there are many factory hands at work under the +Board of Guardians. + +The "Stone Yard" is close by the Preston and Lancaster Canal. Here +there are from one hundred and seventy to one hundred and eighty, +principally young men, employed in breaking, weighing, and wheeling +stone, for road mending. The stones are of a hard kind of blue +boulder, gathered from the land between Kendal and Lancaster. The +"Labour Master" told me that there were thousands of tons of these +boulders upon the land between Kendal and Lancaster. A great deal of +them are brought from a place called "Tewhitt Field," about seven +mile on "t' other side o' Lancaster." At the "Stone Yard" it is all +piece-work, and the men can come and go when they like. As one of +the Guardians told me, "They can oather sit an' break 'em, or kneel +an' break 'em, or lie deawn to it, iv they'n a mind." The men can +choose whether they will fill three tons of the broken stone, and +wheel it to the central heap, for a shilling, or break one ton for a +shilling. The persons employed here are mostly "lads an' leet- +timber't chaps." The stronger men are sent to work upon Preston +Moor. There are great varieties of health and strength amongst them. +"Beside," as the Labour Master said, "yo'd hardly believe what a +difference there it i'th wark o' two men wortchin' at the same heap, +sometimes. There's a great deal i'th breaker, neaw; some on 'em's +more artful nor others. They finden out that they can break 'em as +fast again at after they'n getten to th' wick i'th inside. I have +known an' odd un or two, here, that could break four ton a day,--an' +many that couldn't break one,--but then, yo' know, th' men can only +do accordin' to their ability. There is these differences, and there +always will be." As we stood talking together, one of my friends +said that he wished "Radical Jack" had been there. The latter +gentleman is one of the guardians of the poor, and superintendent of +the "Stone Yard." The men are naturally jealous of +misrepresentation; and, the other day, as "Radical Jack" was +describing the working of the yard to a gentleman who had come to +look at the scene, some of the men overheard his words, and, +misconceiving their meaning, gathered around the superintendent, +clamorously protesting against what he had been saying. "He's +lying!" said one. "Look at these honds!" cried another; "Wi'n they +ever be fit to go to th' factory wi' again?" + +Others turned up the soles of their battered shoon, to show their +cut and stockingless feet. They were pacified at last; but, after +the superintendent had gone away, some of the men said much and +more, and "if ever he towd ony moor lies abeawt 'em, they'd fling +him into th' cut." The "Labour Master" told me there was a large +wood shed for the men to shelter in when rain came on. As we were +conversing, one of my friends exclaimed, "He's here now!" "Who's +here?" "Radical Jack." The superintendent was coming down the road. +He told me some interesting things, which I will return to on +another occasion. But our time was up. We had other places to see. +As we came away, three old Irishwomen leaned against the wall at the +corner of the yard, watching the men at work inside. One of them was +saying, "Thim guardians is the awfullest set o' min in the world! A +man had better be transpoorted than come under 'em. An' thin, +they'll try you, an' try you, as if you was goin' to be hanged." The +poor old soul had evidently only a narrow view of the necessities +and difficulties which beset the labours of the Board of Guardians +at a time like this. On our way back to town one of my friends told +me that he "had met a sexton the day before, and had asked him how +trade was with him. The sexton replied that it was "Varra bad--nowt +doin', hardly." "Well, how's that?" asked the other. "Well, thae +sees," answered the sexton, "Poverty seldom dees. There's far more +kilt wi' o'er-heytin' an' o'er-drinkin' nor there is wi' bein' +pinched." + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + + +Leaving the "Stone Yard," to fulfil an engagement in another part of +the town, we agreed to call upon three or four poor folk, who lived +by the way; and I don't know that I could do better than say +something about what I saw of them. As we walked along, one of my +companions told me of an incident which happened to one of the +visitors in another ward, a few days before. In the course of his +round, this visitor called upon a certain destitute family which was +under his care, and he found the husband sitting alone in the house, +pale and silent. His wife had been "brought to bed" two or three +days before; and the visitor inquired how she was getting on. "Hoo's +very ill," said the husband. "And the child," continued the visitor, +"how is it?" "It's deeod," replied the man; "it dee'd yesterday." He +then rose, and walked slowly into the next room, returning with a +basket in his hands, in which the dead child was decently laid out. + +"That's o' that's laft on it neaw," said the poor fellow. Then, +putting the basket upon the floor, he sat down in front of it, with +his head between his hands, looking silently at the corpse. Such +things as these were the theme of our conversation as we went along, +and I found afterwards that every visitor whom it was my privilege +to meet, had some special story of distress to relate, which came +within his own appointed range of action. In my first flying visit +to that great melancholy field, I could only glean such things as +lay nearest to my hand, just then; but wherever I went, I heard and +saw things which touchingly testify what noble stuff the working +population of Lancashire, as a whole, is made of. One of the first +cases we called upon, after leaving the "Stone Yard," was that of a +family of ten--man and wife, and eight children. Four of the +children were under ten years of age,--five were capable of working; +and, when the working part of the family was in full employment, +their joint earnings amounted to 61s. per week. But, in this case, +the mother's habitual ill-health had been a great expense in the +household for several years. This family belonged to a class of +operatives--a much larger class than people unacquainted with the +factory districts are likely to suppose--a class of operatives which +will struggle, in a dumb, enduring way, to the death, sometimes, +before they will sacrifice that "immediate jewel of their souls"-- +their old independence, and will keep up a decent appearance to the +very last. These suffer more than the rest; for, in addition to the +pains of bitter starvation, they feel a loss which is more +afflicting to them even than the loss of food and furniture ; and +their sufferings are less heard of than the rest, because they do +not like to complain. This family of ten persons had been living, +during the last nine weeks, upon relief amounting to 5s. a week. +When we called, the mother and one or two of her daughters were busy +in the next room, washing their poor bits of well-kept clothing. The +daughters kept out of sight, as if ashamed. It was a good kind of +cottage, in a clean street, called "Maudland Bank," and the whole +place had a tidy, sweet look, though it was washing-day. The mother +told me that she had been severely afflicted with seven successive +attacks of inflammation, and yet, in spite of her long-continued +ill-health, and in spite of the iron teeth of poverty which had been +gnawing at them so long, for the first time, I have rarely seen a +more frank and cheerful countenance than that thin matron's, as she +stood there, wringing her clothes, and telling her little story. The +house they lived in belonged to their late employer, whose mill +stopped some time ago. We asked her how they managed to pay the +rent, and she said, "Why, we dunnot pay it; we cannot pay it, an' he +doesn't push us for it. Aw guess he knows he'll get it sometime. But +we owe'd a deal o' brass beside that. Just look at this shop book. +Aw'm noan freetend ov onybody seein' my acceawnts. An' then, there's +a great lot o' doctor's-bills i' that pot, theer. Thoose are o' for +me. There'll ha' to be some wark done afore things can be fotched up +again. . . . Eh; aw'll tell yo what, William, (this was addressed to +the visitor,) it went ill again th' grain wi' my husband to goo +afore th' Board. An' when he did goo, he wouldn't say so mich. Yo +known, folk doesn't like brastin' off abeawt theirsel' o' at once, +at a shop like that. . . . Aw think sometimes it's very weel that +four ov eawrs are i' heaven,--we'n sich hard tewin' (toiling), to +poo through wi' tother, just neaw. But, aw guess it'll not last for +ever." As we came away, talking of the reluctance shown by the +better sort of working people to ask for relief, or even sometimes +to accept it when offered to them, until thoroughly starved to it, I +was told of a visitor calling upon a poor woman in another ward; no +application had been made for relief, but some kind neighbour had +told the committee that the woman and her husband were "ill off." +The visitor, finding that they were perishing for want, offered the +woman some relief tickets for food; but the poor soul began to cry, +and said; "Eh, aw dar not touch 'em; my husban' would sauce me so! +Aw dar not take 'em; aw should never yer the last on't!" When we got +to the lower end of Hope Street, my guide stopped suddenly, and +said, "Oh, this is close to where that woman lives whose husband +died of starvation. "Leading a few yards up the by-street, he turned +into a low, narrow entry, very dark and damp. Two turns more brought +us to a dirty, pent-up corner, where a low door stood open. We +entered there. It was a cold, gloomy-looking little hovel. In my +allusion to the place last week I said it was "scarcely four yards +square." It is not more than three yards square. There was no fire +in the little rusty grate. The day was sunny, but no sunshine could +ever reach that nook, nor any fresh breezes disturb the pestilent +vapours that harboured there, festering in the sluggish gloom. In +one corner of the place a little worn and broken stair led up to a +room of the same size above, where, I was told, there was now some +straw for the family to sleep upon. But the only furniture in the +house, of any kind, was two rickety chairs and a little broken deal +table, reared against the stairs, because one leg was gone. A quiet- +looking, thin woman, seemingly about fifty years of age, sat there, +when we went in. She told us that she had buried five of her +children, and that she had six yet alive, all living with her in +that poor place. They had no work, no income whatever, save what +came from the Relief Committee. Five of the children were playing in +and out, bare-footed, and, like the mother, miserably clad; but they +seemed quite unconscious that anything ailed them. I never saw finer +children anywhere. The eldest girl, about fourteen, came in whilst +we were there, and she leaned herself bashfully against the wall for +a minute or two, and then slunk slyly out again, as if ashamed of +our presence. The poor widow pointed to the cold corner where her +husband died lately. She said that "his name was Tim Pedder. His +fadder name was Timothy, an' his mudder name was Mary. He was a +driver (a driver of boat-horses on the canal); but he had bin oot o' +wark a lang time afore he dee'd." I found in this case, as in some +others, that the poor body had not much to say about her distress; +but she did not need to say much. My guide told me that when he +first called upon the family, in the depth of last winter, he found +the children all clinging round about their mother in the cold +hovel, trying in that way to keep one another warm. The time for my +next appointment was now hard on, and we hurried towards the shop in +Fishergate, kept by the gentleman I had promised to meet. He is an +active member of the Relief Committee, and a visitor in George's +ward. We found him in. He had just returned from the "Cheese Fair," +at Lancaster. My purpose was to find out what time on the morrow we +could go together to see some of the cases he was best acquainted +with. But, as the evening was not far spent, he proposed that we +should go at once to see a few of those which were nearest. We set +out together to Walker's Court, in Friargate. The first place we +entered was at the top of the little narrow court. There we found a +good-tempered Irish-woman sitting without fire, in her feverish +hovel. "Well, missis," said the visitor, "how is your husband +getting on?" "Ah, well, now, Mr. T----," replied she, "you know, +he's only a delicate little man, an' a tailor; an' he wint to work +on the moor, an' he couldn't stand it. Sure, it was draggin' the +bare life out of him. So, he says to me, one morning, "Catharine," +says he, "I'll lave off this a little while, till I see will I be +able to get a job o' work at my own trade; an' maybe God will rise +up some thin' to put a dud o' clothes on us all, an' help us to pull +through till the black time is over us." So, I told him to try his +luck, any way; for he was killin' himself entirely on the moor. An' +so he did try; for there's not an idle bone in that same boy's skin. +But, see this, now; there's nothin' in the world to be had to do +just now--an' a dale too many waitin' to do it--so all he got by the +change was losin' his work on the moor. There is himself, an' me, +an' the seven childer. Five o' the childer is under tin year old. We +are all naked; an' the house is bare; an' our health is gone wi' the +want o' mate. Sure it wasn't in the likes o' this we wor livin' when +times was good." Three of the youngest children were playing about +on the floor. "That's a very fine lad," said I, pointing to one of +them. The little fellow blushed, and smiled, and then became very +still and attentive. "Ah, thin," said his mother, "that villain's +the boy for tuckin' up soup! The Lord be about him, an' save him +alive to me,--the crayter ! . . . An' there's little curly there,-- +the rogue! Sure he'll take as much soup as any wan o' them. Maybe he +wouldn't laugh to see a big bowl forninst him this day." "It's very +well they have such good spirits," said the visitor. "So it is," +replies the woman, "so it is, for God knows it's little else they +have to keep them warm thim bad times." + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + +The next house we called at in Walker's Court was much like the +first in appearance--very little left but the walls, and that +little, such as none but the neediest would pick up, if it was +thrown out to the streets. The only person in the place was a pale, +crippled woman; her sick head, lapped in a poor white clout, swayed +languidly to and fro. Besides being a cripple, she had been ill six +years, and now her husband, also, was taken ill. He had just crept +off to fetch medicine for the two. We did not stop here long. The +hand of the Ancient Master was visible in that pallid face; those +sunken eyes, so full of deathly langour, seemed to be wandering +about in dim, flickering gazes, upon the confines of an unknown +world. I think that woman will soon be "where the weary are at +rest." As we came out, she said, slowly, and in broken, painful +utterances, that "she hoped the Lord would open the heavens for +those who had helped them." A little lower down the court, we peeped +in at two other doorways. The people were well known to my +companion, who has the charge of visiting this part of the ward. +Leaning against the door-cheek of one of these dim, unwholesome +hovels, he said, "Well, missis; how are you getting on?" There was a +tall, thin woman inside. She seemed to be far gone in some +exhausting illness. With slow difficulty she rose to her feet, and, +setting her hands to her sides, gasped out, "My coals are done." He +made a note, and said, I'll send you some more." Her other wants +were regularly seen to on a certain day every week. Ours was an +accidental visit. We now turned up to another nook of the court, +where my companion told me there was a very bad case. He found the +door fast. We looked through the window into that miserable man- +nest. It was cold, gloomy, and bare. As Corrigan says, in the +"Colleen Bawn," "There was nobody in--but the fire--and that was +gone out." As we came away, a stalwart Irishman met us at a turn of +the court, and said to my companion, "Sure, ye didn't visit this +house." " Not to-day;" replied the visitor. "I'll come and see you +at the usual time." The people in this house were not so badly off +as some others. We came down the steps of the court into the fresher +air of Friargate again. + +Our next walk was to Heatley Street. As we passed by a cluster of +starved loungers, we overheard one of them saying to another, +"Sitho, yon's th' soup-maister, gooin' a-seein' somebry." Our time +was getting short, so we only called at one house in Heatley Street, +where there was a family of eleven--a decent family, a well-kept and +orderly household, though now stript almost to the bare ground of +all worldly possession, sold, bitterly, piecemeal, to help to keep +the bare life together, as sweetly as possible, till better days. +The eldest son is twenty-seven years of age. The whole family has +been out of work for the last seventeen weeks, and before that, they +had been working only short time for seven months. For thirteen +weeks they had lived upon less than one shilling a head per week, +and I am not sure that they did not pay the rent out of that; and +now the income of the whole eleven is under 16s., with rent to pay. +In this house they hold weekly prayer-meetings. Thin picking--one +shilling a week, or less--for all expenses, for one person. It is +easier to write about it than to feel what it means, unless one has +tried it for three or four months. Just round the corner from +Heatley Street, we stopped at the open door of a very little +cottage. A good-looking young Irishwoman sat there, upon a three- +legged stool, suckling her child. She was clean; and had an +intelligent look. "Let's see, missis," said the visitor, "what do +you pay for this nook?" "We pay eighteenpence a week--and they WILL +have it--my word." "Well, an' what income have you now?" "We have +eighteenpence a head in the week, an' the rent to pay out o' that, +or else they'll turn us out." Of course, the visitor knew that this +was true; but he wanted me to hear the people speak for themselves. +"Let's see, Missis Burns, your husband's name is Patrick, isn't it?" +" Yes, sir; Patrick Burns." "What! Patrick Burns, the famous foot- +racer?" The little woman smiled bashfully, and replied, "Yes, sir; I +suppose it is." With respect to what the woman said about having to +pay her rent or turn out, I may remark, in passing, that I have not +hitherto met with an instance in which any millowner, or wealthy +man, having cottage property, has pressed the unemployed poor for +rent. But it is well to remember that there is a great amount of +cottage property in Preston, as in other manufacturing towns, which +belongs to the more provident class of working men. These working +men, now hard pressed by the general distress, have been compelled +to fall back upon their little rentals, clinging to them as their +last independent means of existence. They are compelled to this, +for, if they cannot get work, they cannot get anything else, having +property. These are becoming fewer, however, from day to day. The +poorest are hanging a good deal upon those a little less poor than +themselves; and every link in the lengthening chain of neediness is +helping to pull down the one immediately above it. There is, also, a +considerable amount of cottage property in Preston, belonging to +building societies, which have enough to do to hold their own just +now. And then there is always some cottage property in the hands of +agents. + +Leaving Heatley Street, we went to a place called "Seed's Yard." +Here we called upon a clean old stately widow, with a calm, sad +face. She had been long known, and highly respected, in a good +street, not far off, where she had lived for twenty-four years, in +fair circumstances, until lately. She had always owned a good +houseful of furniture; but, after making bitter meals upon the +gradual wreck of it, she had been compelled to break up that house, +and retire with her five children to lodge with a lone widow in this +little cot, not over three yards square, in "Seed's Yard," one of +those dark corners into which decent poverty is so often found now, +creeping unwillingly away from the public eye, in the hope of +weathering the storm of adversity, in penurious independence. The +old woman never would accept relief from the parish, although the +whole family had been out of work for many months. One of the +daughters, a clean, intelligent-looking young woman, about eighteen, +sat at the table, eating a little bread and treacle to a cup of +light-coloured tea, when we went in; but she blushed, and left off +until we had gone--which was not long after. It felt almost like +sacrilege to peer thus into the privacies of such people; but I hope +they did not feel as if it had been done offensively. We called next +at the cottage of a hand-loom weaver--a poor trade now in the best +of times--a very poor trade--since the days when tattered old "Jem +Ceawp" sung his pathetic song of "Jone o' Greenfeelt"-- + +"Aw'm a poor cotton weighver, as ony one knows; +We'n no meight i'th heawse, an' we'n worn eawt er clothes; +We'n live't upo nettles, while nettles were good; +An' Wayterloo porritch is th' most of er food; +This clemmin' and starvin', +Wi' never a farthin'-- +It's enough to drive ony mon mad." + +This family was four in number--man, wife, and two children. They +had always lived near to the ground, for the husband's earnings at +the loom were seldom more than 7s. for a full week. The wife told us +that they were not receiving any relief, for she said that when her +husband "had bin eawt o' wark a good while he turn't his hond to +shaving;" and in this way the ingenious struggling fellow had +scraped a thin living for them during many months. "But," said she, +" it brings varra little in, we hev to trust so much. He shaves four +on 'em for a haw-penny, an' there's a deal on 'em connot pay that. +Yo know, they're badly off--(the woman seemed to think her +circumstances rather above the common kind); an' then," continued +she, "when they'n run up a shot for three-hawpence or twopence or +so, they cannot pay it o' no shap, an' so they stoppen away fro th' +shop. They cannot for shame come, that's heaw it is; so we lose'n +their custom till sich times as summat turns up at they can raise a +trifle to pay up wi'. . . . He has nobbut one razzor, but it'll be +like to do." Hearken this, oh, ye spruce Figaros of the city, who +trim the clean, crisp whiskers of the well-to-do! Hearken this, ye +dainty perruquiers, "who look so brisk, and smell so sweet," and +have such an exquisite knack of chirruping, and lisping, and sliding +over the smooth edge of the under lip,--and, sometimes, agreeably +too,--"an infinite deal of nothing,"--ye who clip and anoint the +hair of Old England's curled darlings! Eight chins a penny; and +three months' credit! A bodle a piece for mowing chins overgrown +with hair like pin-wire, and thick with dust; how would you like +that? How would you get through it all, with a family of four, and +only one razor? The next place we called at was what my friend +described, in words that sounded to me, somehow, like melancholy +irony,--as "a poor provision shop." It was, indeed, a poor shop for +provender. In the window, it is true, there were four or five empty +glasses, where children's spice had once been. There was a little +deal shelf here and there; but there were neither sand, salt, +whitening, nor pipes. There was not the ghost of a farthing candle, +nor a herring, nor a marble, nor a match, nor of any other thing, +sour or sweet, eatable or saleable for other uses, except one small +mug full of buttermilk up in a corner--the last relic of a departed +trade, like the "one rose of the wilderness, left on its stalk to +mark where a garden has been." But I will say more about this in the +next chapter. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + +Returning to the little shop mentioned in my last--the "little +provision shop," where there was nothing left to eat--nothing, +indeed, of any kind, except one mug of buttermilk, and a miserable +remnant of little empty things, which nobody would buy; four or five +glass bottles in the window, two or three poor deal shelves, and a +doleful little counter, rudely put together, and looking as if it +felt, now, that there was nothing in the world left for it but to +become chips at no distant date. Everything in the place had a sad, +subdued look, and seemed conscious of having come down in the world, +without hope of ever rising again; even the stript walls appeared to +look at one another with a stony gaze of settled despair. But there +was a clean, matronly woman in the place, gliding about from side to +side with a cloth in her hands, and wiping first one, then another, +of these poor little relics of better days in a caressing way. The +shop had been her special care when times were good, and she clung +affectionately to its ruins still. Besides, going about cleaning and +arranging the little empty things in this way looked almost like +doing business. But, nevertheless, the woman had a cheerful, good- +humoured countenance. The sunshine of hope was still warm in her +heart; though there was a touch of pathos in the way she gave the +little rough counter another kindly wipe now and then, as if she +wished to keep its spirits up; and in the way she looked, now at the +buttermilk mug, then at the open door, and then at the four glass +bottles in the window, which had been gazed at so oft and so eagerly +by little children outside, in the days when spice was in them. . . +. The husband came in from the little back room. He was a hardy, +frank-looking man, and, like his wife, a trifle past middle age, I +thought; but he had nothing to say, as he stood there with his wife, +by the counter side. She answered our questions freely and simply, +and in an uncomplaining way, not making any attempt to awaken +sympathy by enlarging upon the facts of their condition. Theirs was +a family of seven--man, wife, and five children. The man was a +spinner; and his thrifty wife had managed the little shop, whilst he +worked at the mill. There are many striving people among the factory +operatives, who help up the family earnings by keeping a little shop +in this way. But this family was another of those instances in which +working people have been pulled down by misfortune before the +present crisis came on. Just previous to the mills beginning to work +short time, four of their five children had been lying ill, all at +once, for five months; and, before that trouble befell them, one of +the lads had two of his fingers taken off, whilst working at the +factory, and so was disabled a good while. It takes little +additional weight to sink those whose chins are only just above +water; and these untoward circumstances oiled the way of this +struggling family to the ground, before the mills stopped. A few +months' want of work, with their little stock of shop stuff oozing +away--partly on credit to their poor neighbours, and partly to live +upon themselves --and they become destitute of all, except a few +beggarly remnants of empty shop furniture. Looking round the place, +I said," Well, missis, how's trade?" "Oh, brisk," said she; and then +the man and his wife smiled at one another. "Well," said I, "yo'n +sowd up, I see, heawever." "Ay," answered she, "we'n sowd up, for +sure--a good while sin';" and then she smiled again, as if she +thought she had said a clever thing. They had been receiving relief +from the parish several weeks; but she told me that some ill-natured +neighbour had "set it eawt," that they had sold off their stock out +of the shop, and put the money into the bank. Through this report, +the Board of Guardians had "knocked off" their relief for a +fortnight, until the falsity of the report was made clear. After +that, the Board gave orders for the man and his wife and three of +the children to be admitted to the workhouse, leaving the other two +lads, who were working at the "Stone Yard," to "fend for theirsels," +and find new nests wherever they could. This, however, was overruled +afterwards; and the family is still holding together in the empty +shop,--receiving from all sources, work and relief, about 13s. a +week for the seven,--not bad, compared with the income of very many +others. It is sad to think how many poor families get sundered and +scattered about the world in a time like this, never to meet again. +And the false report respecting this family in the little shop, +reminds me that the poor are not always kind to the poor. I learnt, +from a gentleman who is Secretary to the Relief Committee of one of +the wards, that it is not uncommon for the committees to receive +anonymous letters, saying that so and so is unworthy of relief, on +some ground or other. These complaints were generally found to be +either wholly false, or founded upon some mistake. I have three such +letters now before me. The first, written on a torn scrap of ruled +paper, runs thus:--"May 19th, 1862.--If you please be so kind as to +look after __ Back Newton Street Formerly a Resident of __ as i +think he is not Deserving Relief.--A Ratepayer." In each case I give +the spelling, and everything else, exactly as in the originals +before me, except the names. The next of these epistles says:-- +"Preston, May 29th.--Sir, I beg to inform you that __, of Park Road, +in receipt from the Relief Fund, is a very unworthy person, having +worked two days since the 16 and drunk the remainder and his wife +also; for the most part, he has plenty of work for himself his wife +and a journeyman but that is their regular course of life. And the +S___s have all their family working full time. Yours respectfully." +These last two are anonymous. The next is written in a very good +hand, upon a square piece of very blue writing paper. It has a name +attached, but no address:--"Preston, June 2nd, 1862.--Mr. Dunn,-- +Dear Sir, Would you please to inquire into the case of __, of __. +the are a family of 3 the man work four or more days per week on the +moor the woman works 6 days per week at Messrs Simpsons North Road +the third is a daughter 13 or 14 should be a weaver but to lasey she +has good places such as Mr. Hollins and Horrocks and Millers as been +sent a way for being to lasey. the man and woman very fond of drink. +I as a Nabour and a subscriber do not think this a proper case for +your charity. Yours truly, __." The committee could not find out the +writer of this, although a name is given. Such things as these need +no comment. + +The next house we called at was inhabited by an old widow and her +only daughter. The daughter had been grievously afflicted with +disease of the heart, and quite incapable of helping herself during +the last eleven years. The poor worn girl sat upon an old tattered +kind of sofa, near the fire, panting for breath in the close +atmosphere. She sat there in feverish helplessness, sallow and +shrunken, and unable to bear up her head. It was a painful thing to +look at her. She had great difficulty in uttering a few words. I can +hardly guess what her age may be now; I should think about twenty- +five. Mr Toulmin, one of the visitors who accompanied me to the +place, reminded the young woman of his having called upon them there +more than four years ago, to leave some bedding which had been +bestowed upon an old woman by a certain charity in the town. He saw +no more of them after that, until the present hard times began, when +he was deputed by the Relief Committee to call at that distressed +corner amongst others in his own neighbourhood; and when he first +opened the door, after a lapse of four years, he was surprised to +find the same young woman, sitting in the same place, gasping +painfully for breath, as he had last seen her. The old widow had +just been able to earn what kept soul and body together in her sick +girl and herself, during the last eleven years, by washing and such +like work. But even this resource had fallen away a good deal during +these bad times; there are so many poor creatures like herself, +driven to extremity, and glad to grasp at any little bit of +employment which can be had. In addition to what the old woman could +get by a day's washing now and then, she received 1s. 6d. a week +from the parish. Think of the poor old soul trailing about the +world, trying to "scratch a living" for herself and her daughter by +washing; and having to hurry home from her labour to attend to that +sick girl through eleven long years. Such a life is a good deal like +a slow funeral. It is struggling for a few breaths more, with the +worms crawling over you. And yet I am told that the old woman was +not accustomed to "make a poor mouth," as the saying goes. How true +it is that "a great many people in this world have only one form of +rhetoric for their profoundest experiences, namely--to waste away +and die." + +Our next visit was to an Irish family. There was an old woman in, +and a flaxen-headed lad about ten years of age. She was sitting upon +a low chair,--the only seat in the place,--and the tattered lad was +kneeling on the ground before her, whilst she combed his hair out. +"Well, missis, how are you getting on amongst it?" "Oh, well, then, +just middlin', Mr T. Ye see, I am busy combin' this boy's hair a +bit, for 'tis gettin' like a wisp o' hay." There was not a vestige +of furniture in the cottage, except the chair the old woman sat on. +She said, "I did sell the childer's bedstead for 2s. 6d.; an' after +that I sold the bed from under them for 1s. 6d., just to keep them +from starvin' to death. The childer had been two days without mate +then, an' faith I couldn't bear it any longer. After that I did sell +the big pan, an' then the new rockin' chair, an' so on, one thing +after another, till all wint entirely, barrin' this I am sittin' on, +an' they wint for next to nothin' too. Sure, I paid 9s. 6d. for the +bed itself, which was sold for 1s. 6d. We all sleep on straw now." +This family was seven in number. The mill at which they used to work +had been stopped about ten months. One of the family had found +employment at another mill, three months out of the ten, and the old +man himself had got a few days' work in that time. The rest of the +family had been wholly unemployed, during the ten months. Except the +little money this work brought in, and a trifle raised now and then +by the sale of a bit of furniture when hunger and cold pressed them +hard, the whole family had been living upon 5s. a week for the last +ten months. The rent was running on. The eldest daughter was twenty- +eight years of age. As we came away Mr Toulmin said to me, "Well, I +have called at that house regularly for the last sixteen weeks, and +this is the first time I ever saw a fire in the place. But the old +man has got two days' work this week--that may account for the +fire." + +It was now close upon half-past seven in the evening, at which time +I had promised to call upon the Secretary of the Trinity Ward Relief +Committee, whose admirable letter in the London Times, attracted so +much attention about a month ago. I met several members of the +committee at his lodgings, and we had an hour's interesting +conversation. I learnt that, in cases of sickness arising from mere +weakness, from poorness of diet, or from unsuitableness of the food +commonly provided by the committee, orders were now issued for such +kind of "kitchen physic" as was recommended by the doctors. The +committee had many cases of this kind. One instance was mentioned, +in which, by the doctor's advice, four ounces of mutton chop daily +had been ordered to be given to a certain sick man, until further +notice. The thing went on and was forgotten, until one day, when the +distributor of food said to the committeeman who had issued the +order, "I suppose I must continue that daily mutton chop to so-and- +so?" "Eh, no; he's been quite well two months?" The chop had been +going on for ninety-five days. We had some talk with that class of +operatives who are both clean, provident, and "heawse-preawd," as +Lancashire folk call it. The Secretary told me that he was averse to +such people living upon the sale of their furniture; and the +committee had generally relieved the distress of such people, just +as if they had no furniture, at all. He mentioned the case of a +family of factory operatives, who were all fervent lovers of music, +as so many of the working people of Lancashire are. Whilst in full +work, they had scraped up money to buy a piano; and, long after the +ploughshare of ruin had begun to drive over the little household, +they clung to the darling instrument, which was such a source of +pure pleasure to them, and they were advised to keep it by the +committee which relieved them. "Yes," said another member of the +committee," but I called there lately, and the piano's gone at +last." Many interesting things came out in the course of our +conversation. One mentioned a house he had called at, where there +was neither chair, table, nor bed; and one of the little lads had to +hold up a piece of board for him to write upon. Another spoke of the +difficulties which "lone women" have to encounter in these hard +times. "I knocked so-and-so off my list," said one of the committee, +"till I had inquired into an ill report I heard of her. But she came +crying to me; and I found out that the woman had been grossly +belied." Another (Mr Nowell) told of a house on his list, where they +had no less than one hundred and fifty pawn tickets. He told, also, +of a moulder's family, who had been all out of work and starving so +long, that their poor neighbours came at last and recommended the +committee to relieve them, as they would not apply for relief +themselves. They accepted relief just one week, and then the man +came and said that he had a PROSPECT of work; and he shouldn't need +relief tickets any longer. It was here that I heard so much about +anonymous letters, of which I have given you three samples. Having +said that I should like to see the soup kitchen, one of the +committee offered to go with me thither at six o'clock the next +morning; and so I came away from the meeting in the cool twilight. + +Old Preston looked fine to me in the clear air of that declining +day. I stood a while at the end of the "Bull" gateway. There was a +comical-looking little knock-kneed fellow in the middle of the +street --a wandering minstrel, well known in Preston by the name of +"Whistling Jack." There he stood, warbling and waving his band, and +looking from side to side,--in vain. At last I got him to whistle +the "Flowers of Edinburgh." He did it, vigorously; and earned his +penny well. But even "Whistling Jack" complained of the times. He +said Preston folk had "no taste for music." But he assured me the +time would come when there would be a monument to him in that town. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + + +About half-past six I found my friend waiting at the end of the +"Bull" gateway. It was a lovely morning. The air was cool and clear, +and the sky was bright. It was easy to see which was the way to the +soup kitchen, by the stragglers going and coming. We passed the +famous "Orchard," now a kind of fairground, which has been the scene +of so many popular excitements in troubled times. All was quiet in +the "Orchard" that morning, except that, here, a starved-looking +woman, with a bit of old shawl tucked round her head, and a pitcher +in her hand, and there, a bare-footed lass, carrying a tin can, +hurried across the sunny space towards the soup kitchen. We passed a +new inn, called "The Port Admiral." On the top of the building there +were three life-sized statues--Wellington and Nelson, with the Greek +slave between them--a curious companionship. These statues reminded +me of a certain Englishman riding through Dublin, for the first +time, upon an Irish car. "What are the three figures yonder?" said +he to the car-boy, pointing to the top of some public building. +"Thim three is the twelve apostles, your honour," answered the +driver. "Nay, nay," said the traveller,"that'll not do. How do you +make twelve out of three?" "Bedad," replied the driver, "your honour +couldn't expect the whole twelve to be out at once such a murtherin' +wet day as this." But we had other things than these to think of +that day. As we drew near the baths and washhouses, where the soup +kitchen is, the stream of people increased. About the gate there was +a cluster of melancholy loungers, looking cold and hungry. They were +neither going in nor going away. I was told afterwards that many of +these were people who had neither money nor tickets for food--some +of them wanderers from town to town; anybody may meet them limping, +footsore and forlorn, upon the roads in Lancashire, just now-- +houseless wanderers, who had made their way to the soup kitchen to +beg a mouthful from those who were themselves at death's door. In +the best of times there are such wanderers; and, in spite of the +generous provision made for the relief of the poor, there must be, +in a time like the present, a great number who let go their hold of +home (if they have any), and drift away in search of better fortune, +and, sometimes, into irregular courses of life, never to settle +more. Entering the yard, we found the wooden sheds crowded with +people at breakfast--all ages, from white-haired men, bent with +years, to eager childhood, yammering over its morning meal, and +careless till the next nip of hunger came. Here and there a bonny +lass had crept into the shade with her basin; and there was many a +brown-faced man, who had been hardened by working upon the moor or +at the "stone-yard." "Theer, thae's shap't that at last, as how?" +said one of these to his friend, who had just finished and stood +wiping his mouth complacently. "Shap't that," replied the other, +"ay, lad, aw can do a ticket and a hafe (three pints of soup) every +morning." Five hundred people breakfast in the sheds alone, every +day. The soup kitchen opens at five in the morning, and there is +always a crowd waiting to get in. This looks like the eagerness of +hunger. I was told that they often deliver 3000 quarts of soup at +this kitchen in two hours. The superintendent of the bread +department informed me that, on that morning, he had served out two +thousand loaves, of 3lb. 11oz. each. There was a window at one end, +where soup was delivered to such as brought money for it instead of +tickets. Those who came with tickets--by far the greatest number-- +had to pass in single file through a strong wooden maze, which +restrained their eagerness, and compelled them to order. I noticed +that only a small proportion of men went through the maze; they were +mostly women and children. There was many a fine, intelligent young +face hurried blushing through that maze--many a bonny lad and lass +who will be heard of honourably hereafter. The variety of utensils +presented showed that some of the poor souls had been hard put to it +for things to fetch their soup in. One brought a pitcher; another a +bowl; and another a tin can, a world too big for what it had to +hold. "Yo mun mind th' jug," said one old woman; "it's cracked, an' +it's noan o' mine." "Will ye bring me some?" said a little, light- +haired lass, holding up her rosy neb to the soupmaster. "Aw want a +ha'poth," said a lad with a three-quart can in his hand. The +benevolent-looking old gentleman who had taken the superintendence +of the soup department as a labour of love, told me that there had +been a woman there by half-past five that morning, who had come four +miles for some coffee. There was a poor fellow breakfasting in the +shed at the same time; and he gave the woman a thick shive of his +bread as she went away. He mentioned other instances of the same +humane feeling; and he said, "After what I have seen of them here, I +say, 'Let me fall into the hands of the poor.'" + +"They who, half-fed, feed the breadless, in the travail of distress; +They who, taking from a little, give to those who still have less; +They who, needy, yet can pity when they look on greater need; +These are Charity's disciples,--these are Mercy's sons indeed." + +We returned to the middle of the town just as the shopkeepers in +Friargate were beginning to take their shutters down. I had another +engagement at half-past nine. A member of the Trinity Ward Relief +Committee, who is master of the Catholic school in that ward, had +offered to go with me to visit some distressed people who were under +his care in that part of the town. We left Friargate at the +appointed time. As we came along there was a crowd in front of +Messrs Wards', the fishmongers. A fine sturgeon had just been +brought in. It had been caught in the Ribble that morning. We went +in to look at the royal fish. It was six feet long, and weighed +above a hundred pounds. I don't know that I ever saw a sturgeon +before. But we had other fish to fry; and so we went on. The first +place we called at was a cellar in Nile Street. "Here," said my +companion, "let us have a look at old John." A gray-headed little +man, of seventy, lived down in this one room, sunken from the +street. He had been married forty years, and if I remember aright, +he lost his wife about four years ago. Since that time, he had lived +in this cellar, all alone, washing and cooking for himself. But I +think the last would not trouble him much, for "they have no need +for fine cooks who have only one potato to their dinner." When a +lad, he had been apprenticed to a bobbin turner. Afterwards he +picked up some knowledge of engineering; and he had been "well off +in his day." He now got a few coppers occasionally from the poor +folk about, by grinding knives, and doing little tinkering jobs. +Under the window he had a rude bench, with a few rusty tools upon +it, and in one corner there was a low, miserable bedstead, without +clothing upon it. There was one cratchinly chair in the place, too; +but hardly anything else. He had no fire; be generally went into +neighbours' houses to warm himself. He was not short of such food as +the Relief Committees bestow. There was a piece of bread upon the +bench, left from his morning meal; and the old fellow chirruped +about, and looked as blithe as if he was up to the middle in clover. +He showed us a little thing which he had done "for a bit ov a +prank." The number of his cellar was 8, and he had cut out a large +tin figure of 8, a foot long, and nailed it upon his door, for the +benefit of some of his friends that were getting bad in their +eyesight, and "couldn't read smo' print so low deawn as that." +"Well, John," said my companion, when we went in, "how are you +getting on?" "Oh, bravely," replied he, handing a piece of blue +paper to the inquirer, "bravely; look at that!" Why, this is a +summons," said my companion. "Ay, bigad is't, too," answered the old +man. "Never had sich a thing i' my life afore! Think o' me gettin' a +summons for breakin' windows at seventy year owd. A bonny warlock, +that, isn't it? Why, th' whole street went afore th' magistrates to +get mo off." "Then you did get off, John?" "Get off! Sure, aw did. +It wur noan o' me. It wur a keaw jobber, at did it. . . . Aw'll tell +yo what, for two pins aw'd frame that summons, an' hang it eawt o' +th' window; but it would look so impudent." Old John's wants were +inquired into, and we left him fiddling among his rusty tools. We +next went to a place called Hammond's Row--thirteen poor cottages, +side by side. Twelve of the thirteen were inhabited by people +living, almost entirely, upon relief, either from the parish or from +the Relief Committee. There was only one house where no relief was +needed. As we passed by, the doors were nearly all open, and the +interiors all presented the same monotonous phase of destitution. +They looked as if they had been sacked by bum-bailiffs. The topmost +house was the only place where I saw a fire. A family of eight lived +there. They were Irish people. The wife, a tall, cheerful woman, sat +suckling her child, and giving a helping hand now and then to her +husband's work. He was a little, pale fellow, with only one arm, and +he had an impediment in his speech. He had taken to making cheap +boxes of thin, rough deal, afterwards covered with paper. With the +help of his wife he could make one in a day, and he got ninepence +profit out of it--when the box was sold. He was working at one when +we went in, and he twirled it proudly about with his one arm, and +stammered out a long explanation about the way it had been made; and +then he got upon the lid, and sprang about a little, to let us see +how much it would bear. As the brave little tattered man stood there +upon the box-lid, springing, and sputtering, and waving his one arm, +his wife looked up at him with a smile, as if she thought him "the +greatest wight on ground." There was a little curly-headed child +standing by, quietly taking in all that was going on. I laid my hand +upon her head; and asked her what her name was. She popped her thumb +into her mouth, and looked shyly about from one to another, but +never a word could I get her to say. "That's Lizzy," said the woman; +"she is a little visitor belongin' to one o' the neighbours. They +are badly off, and she often comes in. Sure, our childer is very +fond of her, an' so she is of them. She is fine company wid +ourselves, but always very shy wid strangers. Come now, Lizzy, +darlin'; tell us your name, love, won't you, now?" But it was no +use; we couldn't get her to speak. In the next cottage where we +called, in this row, there was a woman washing. Her mug was standing +upon a stool in the middle of the floor; and there was not any other +thing in the place in the shape of furniture or household utensil. +The walls were bare of everything, except a printed paper, bearing +these words: + +"The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life, +through Jesus Christ our Lord." We now went to another street, and +visited the cottage of a blind chairmaker, called John Singleton. He +was a kind of oracle among the poor folk of the neighbourhood. The +old chairmaker was sitting by the fire when we went in; and opposite +to him sat "Old John," the hero of the broken windows in Nile +Street. He had come up to have a crack with his blind crony. The +chairmaker was seventy years of age, and he had benefited by the +advantage of good fundamental instruction in his youth. He was very +communicative. He said he should have been educated for the +priesthood, at Stonyhurst College. "My clothes were made, an' +everything was ready for me to start to Stonyhurst. There was a +stagecoach load of us going; but I failed th' heart, an' wouldn't +go--an' I've forethought ever sin'. Mr Newby said to my friends at +the same time, he said, 'You don't need to be frightened of him; +he'll make the brightest priest of all the lot--an' I should, too. . +. . I consider mysel' a young man yet, i' everything, except it be +somethin' at's uncuth to me." And now, old John, the grinder, began +to complain again of how badly he had been used about the broken +windows in Nile Street. But the old chairmaker stopped him; and, +turning up his blind eyes, he said, "John, don't you be foolish. +Bother no moor abeawt it. All things has but a time." + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + + +A man cannot go wrong in Trinity Ward just now, if he wants to see +poor folk. He may find them there at any time, but now he cannot +help but meet them; and nobody can imagine how badly off they are, +unless he goes amongst them. They are biding the hard time out +wonderfully well, and they will do so to the end. They certainly +have not more than a common share of human frailty. There are those +who seem to think that when people are suddenly reduced to poverty, +they should become suddenly endowed with the rarest virtues; but it +never was so, and, perhaps, never will be so long as the world +rolls. In my rambles about this ward, I was astonished at the dismal +succession of destitute homes, and the number of struggling owners +of little shops, who were watching their stocks sink gradually down +to nothing, and looking despondingly at the cold approach of +pauperism. I was astonished at the strings of dwellings, side by +side, stript, more or less, of the commonest household utensils--the +poor little bare houses, often crowded with lodgers, whose homes had +been broken up elsewhere; sometimes crowded, three or four families +of decent working people in a cottage of half-a-crown a-week rental; +sleeping anywhere, on benches or on straw, and afraid to doff their +clothes at night time because they had no other covering. Now and +then the weekly visitor comes to the door of a house where he has +regularly called. He lifts the latch, and finds the door locked. He +looks in at the window. The house is empty, and the people are gone- +-the Lord knows where. Who can tell what tales of sorrow will have +their rise in the pressure of a time like this--tales that will +never be written, and that no statistics will reveal. + +Trinity Ward swarms with factory operatives; and, after our chat +with blind John, the chairmaker, and his ancient crony the grinder +from Nile Street, we set off again to see something more of them. +Fitful showers came down through the day, and we had to shelter now +and then. In one cottage, where we stopped a few minutes, the old +woman told us that, in addition to their own family, they had three +young women living with them--the orphan daughters of her husband's +brother. They had been out of work thirty-four weeks, and their +uncle--a very poor man--had been obliged to take them into his +house, "till sich times as they could afford to pay for lodgin's +somewheer else." My companion asked whether they were all out of +work still. "Naw," replied the old woman, "one on 'em has getten on +to wortch a few days for t' sick (that is, in the place of some sick +person). Hoo's wortchin' i' th' cardreawn at 'Th' Big-un.'" (This is +the name they give to Messrs Swainson and Birley's mill.) + +The next place we called at was the house of an old joiner. He was +lying very ill upstairs. As we drew up to the door, my companion +said, "Now, this is a clean, respectable family. They have struggled +hard and suffered a great deal, before they would ask for relief." +When we went in, the wife was cleaning her well-nigh empty house. +"Eh," said she," I thought it wur th' clubman comin', an' I wur just +goin' to tell him that I had nothin' for him." The family was seven +in number--man, wife, and five children. The husband, as I have +said, was lying ill. The wife told me that they had only 6s. a-week +coming in for the seven to live upon. My companion was the weekly +visitor who relieved them. She told me that her husband was sixty- +eight years old; she was not forty. She said that her husband was +not strong, and he had been going nearly barefoot and "clemmed" all +through last winter, and she was afraid he had got his death of +cold. They had not a bed left to lie upon. "My husband," said +she,"was a master joiner once, an' was doin' very well. But you see +how we are now." There were two portraits--oil paintings--hanging +against the wall. "Whose portraits are these?" said I. "Well; that's +my master--an' this is me," replied she. "He would have 'em taken +some time since. I couldn't think o' sellin' 'em; or else, yo see, +we've sold nearly everything we had. I did try to pawn 'em, too, +thinkin' we could get 'em back again when things came round; but, I +can assure yo, I couldn't find a broker anywhere that would tak' 'em +in." "Well, Missis," said my companion, "yo have one comfort; you +are always clean." "Eh, bless yo!" replied she, "I couldn't live +among dirt! My husban' tells me that I clean all the luck away; but +aw'm sure there's no luck i' filth; if there is, anybody may tak' it +for me." + +The rain had stopt again; and after my friend had made a note +respecting some additional relief for the family, we bade the woman +good day. We had not gone far before a little ragged lass looked up +admiringly at two pinks I had stuck in my buttonhole, and holding up +her hand, said, "Eh, gi' me a posy!" My friend pointed to one of the +cottages we passed, and said that the last time he called there, he +found the family all seated round a large bowl of porridge, made of +Indian meal. This meal is sold at a penny a pound. He stopped at +another cottage and said, "Here's a house where I always find them +reading when I call. I know the people very well." He knocked and +tried the latch, but there was nobody in. As we passed an open door, +the pleasant smell of oatcake baking came suddenly upon me. It woke +up many memories of days gone by. I saw through the window a stout, +meal-dusted old woman, busy with her wooden ladle and baking-shovel +at a brisk oven. "Now, I should like to look in there for a minute +or two, if it can be done," said I. "Well," replied my friend, "this +woman is not on our books; she gets her own living in the way you +see. But come in; it will be all right; I know her very well." I was +glad of that, for I wanted to have a chat with her, and to peep at +the baking. "Good morning, Missis," said he; "how are you?" "Why, +just in a middlin' way." "How long is this wet weather going to +last, think you?" "Nay, there ye hev me fast;--but what brings ye +here this mornin'?" said the old woman, resting the end of her ladle +on the little counter; "I never trouble sic like chaps as ye." "No, +no," replied my friend; "we have not called about anything of that +kind." "What, then, pray ye?" "Well, my friend, here, is almost a +stranger in Preston; and as soon as ever he smelt the baking, he +said he should like to see it, so I took the liberty of bringing him +in." "Oh, ay; come in, an' welcome. Ye're just i' time, too; for +I've bin sat at t' back to sarra (serve) t' pigs." "You're not a +native of Lancashire, Missis," said I. "Why, wheer then? come, now; +let's be knowin', as ye're so sharp." "Cumberland," said I. "Well, +now; ye're reight, sewer enough. But how did ye find it out, now?" +"Why, you said that you had been out to sarra t' pigs. A native of +Lancashire would have said 'serve' instead of 'sarra.'" "Well, +that's varra queer; for I've bin a lang time away from my awn +country. But, whereivver do ye belang to, as ye're so bowd wi' me?" +said she, smiling, and turning over a cake which was baking upon the +oven. I told her that I was born a few miles from Manchester. +"Manchester! never, sewer;" said she, resting her ladle again; "why, +I lived ever so long i' Manchester when I was young. I was cook at +th' Swan i' Shudehill, aboon forty year sin." She said that, in +those days, the Swan, in Shudehill, was much frequented by the +commercial men of Manchester. It was a favourite dining house for +them. Many of them even brought their own beefsteak on a skewer; and +paid a penny for the cooking of it. She said she always liked +Manchester very well; but she had not been there for a good while. +"But," said she, "ye'll hev plenty o' oatcake theer--sartin." "Not +much, now," replied I; "it's getting out o' fashion." I told her +that we had to get it once a week from a man who came all the way +from Stretford into Manchester, with a large basketful upon his +head, crying "Woat cakes, two a penny!" "Two a penny!" said she; +"why, they'll not be near as big as these, belike." "Not quite," +replied I. "Not quite! naw; not hauf t' size, aw warnd! Why, th' +poor fellow desarves his brass iv he niver gev a farthin' for th' +stuff to mak 'eni on. What! I knaw what oatcake bakin' is." + +Leaving the canny old Cumberland woman at her baking, we called at a +cottage in Everton Gardens. It was as clean as a gentleman's +parlour; but there was no furniture in sight except a table, and, +upon the table, a fine bush of fresh hawthorn blossom, stuck in a +pint jug full of water. Here, I heard again the common story--they +had been several months out of work; their household goods had +dribbled away in ruinous sales, for something to live upon; and now, +they had very little left but the walls. The little woman said to +me, "Bless yo, there is at thinks we need'n nought, becose we keepen +a daycent eawtside. But, I know my own know abeawt that. Beside, one +doesn't like to fill folk's meawths, iv one is ill off." + +It was now a little past noon, and we spent a few minutes looking +through the Catholic schoolhouse, in Trinity Ward--a spacious brick +building. The scholars were away at dinner. My friend is master of +the school. His assistant offered to go with us to one or two Irish +families in a close wynd, hard by, called Wilkie's Court. In every +case I had the great advantage of being thus accompanied by +gentlemen who were friendly and familiar with the poor we visited. +This was a great facility to me. Wilkie's Court is a little cul de +sac, with about half-a-dozen wretched cottages in it, fronted by a +dead wall. The inhabitants of the place are all Irish. They were +nearly all kept alive by relief from one source or other; but their +poverty was not relieved by that cleanliness which I had witnessed +in so many equally poor houses, making the best use of those simple +means of comfort which are invaluable, although they cost little or +nothing. In the first house we called at, a middle-aged woman was +pacing slowly about the unwholesome house with a child in her arms. +My friend inquired where the children were. "They are in the houses +about; all but the one poor boy." "And where is he?" said I. "Well, +he comes home now an' agin; he comes an' goes; sure, we don't know +how. . . . Ah, thin, sir," continued she, beginning to cry, "I'll +tell ye the rale truth, now. He was drawn away by some bad lads, an' +he got three months in the New Bailey; that's God's truth. . . . Ah, +what'll I do wid him," said she, bursting into tears afresh; +"what'll I do wid him? sure, he is my own!" We did not stop long to +intrude upon such trouble as this. She called out as we came away to +tell us that the poor crayter next door was quite helpless. The next +house was, in some respects, more comfortable than the last, though +it was quite as poor in household goods. There was one flimsy deal +table, one little chair, and two half-penny pictures of Catholic +saints pinned against the wall. "Sure, I sold the other table since +you wor here before," said the woman to my friend; "I sold it for +two-an'-aightpence, an' bought this one for sixpence." At the house +of another Irish family, my friend inquired where all the chairs +were gone. "Oh," said a young woman," the baillies did fetch +uvverything away, barrin' the one sate, when we were livin' in +Lancaster Street." "Where do you all sit now, then?" "My mother sits +there," replied she, "an' we sit upon the flure." "I heard they were +goin' to sell these heawses," said one of the lads, "but, begorra," +continued he, with a laugh, "I wouldn't wonder did they sell the +ground from under us next." In the course of our visitation a +thunder storm came on, during which we took shelter with a poor +widow woman, who had a plateful of steeped peas for sale, in the +window. She also dealt in rags and bones in a small way, and so +managed to get a living, as she said, "beawt troublin' onybody for +charity." She said it was a thing that folk had to wait a good deal +out in the cold for. + +It was market-day, and there were many country people in Preston. On +my way back to the middle of the town, I called at an old inn, in +Friargate, where I listened with pleasure a few minutes to the old- +fashioned talk of three farmers from the Fylde country. Their +conversation was principally upon cow-drinks. One of them said there +was nothing in the world like "peppermint tay an' new butter" for +cows that had the belly-ache. "They'll be reet in a varra few +minutes at after yo gotten that into 'em," said he. As evening came +on the weather settled into one continuous shower, and I left +Preston in the heavy rain, weary, and thinking of what I had seen +during the day. Since then I have visited the town again, and I +shall say something about that visit hereafter. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + + +The rain had been falling heavily through the night. It was raw and +gusty, and thick clouds were sailing wildly overhead, as I went to +the first train for Preston. It was that time of morning when there +is a lull in the streets of Manchester, between six and eight. The +"knocker-up" had shouldered his long wand, and paddled home to bed +again; and the little stalls, at which the early workman stops for +his half-penny cup of coffee, were packing up. A cheerless morning, +and the few people that were about looked damp and low spirited. I +bought the day's paper, and tried to read it, as we flitted by the +glimpses of dirty garret-life, through the forest of chimneys, +gushing forth their thick morning fumes into the drizzly air, and +over the dingy web of Salford streets. We rolled on through +Pendleton, where the country is still trying to look green here and +there, under increasing difficulties; but it was not till we came to +where the green vale of Clifton open out, that I became quite +reconciled to the weather. Before we were well out of sight of the +ancient tower of Prestwich Church, the day brightened a little. The +shifting folds of gloomy cloud began to glide asunder, and through +the gauzy veils which lingered in the interspaces, there came a dim +radiance which lighted up the rain-drops "lingering on the pointed +thorns;" and the tall meadow grasses were swaying to and fro with +their loads of liquid pearls, in courtesies full of exquisite grace, +as we whirled along. I enjoyed the ride that raw morning, although +the sky was all gloom again long before we came in sight of the +Ribble. + +I met my friend, in Preston, at half-past nine; and we started at +once for another ramble amongst the poor, in a different part of +Trinity Ward. We went first to a little court, behind Bell Street. +There is only one house in the court, and it is known as "Th' Back +Heawse." In this cottage the little house-things had escaped the +ruin which I had witnessed in so many other places. There were two +small tables, and three chairs; and there were a few pots and a pan +or two. Upon the cornice there were two pot spaniels, and two +painted stone apples; and, between them, there was a sailor waving a +union jack, and a little pudgy pot man, for holding tobacco. On the +windowsill there was a musk-plant; and, upon the table by the +staircase, there was a rude cage, containing three young throstles. +The place was tidy; and there was a kind-looking old couple inside. +The old man stood at the table in the middle of the floor, washing +the pots, and the old woman was wiping them, and putting them away. +A little lad sat by the fire, thwittling at a piece of stick. The +old man spoke very few words the whole time we were there, but he +kept smiling and going on with his washing. The old woman was very +civil, and rather shy at first; but we soon got into free talk +together. She told me that she had borne thirteen children. Seven of +them were dead; and the other six were all married, and all poor. "I +have one son," said she; "he's a sailmaker. He's th' best off of any +of 'em. But, Lord bless yo; he's not able to help us. He gets very +little, and he has to pay a woman to nurse his sick wife. . . . This +lad that's here,--he's a little grandson o' mine; he's one of my +dowter's childer. He brings his meight with him every day, an' +sleeps with us. They han bod one bed, yo see. His father hasn't had +a stroke o' work sin Christmas. They're badly off. As for us--my +husband has four days a week on th' moor,--that's 4s., an' we've 2s. +a week to pay out o' that for rent. Yo may guess fro that, heaw we +are. He should ha' been workin' on the moor today, but they've bin +rain't off. We've no kind o' meight i' this house bod three-ha'poth +o' peas; an' we've no firin'. He's just brokken up an owd cheer to +heat th' watter wi'. (The old man smiled at this, as if he thought +it was a good joke.) He helps me to wesh, an' sick like; an' yo' +know, it's a good deal better than gooin' into bad company, isn't +it? (Here the old man gave her a quiet, approving look, like a good +little lad taking notice of his mother's advice.) Aw'm very glad of +a bit o' help," continued she,"for aw'm not so terrible mich use, +mysel'. Yo see; aw had a paralytic stroke seven year sin, an' we've +not getten ower it. For two year aw hadn't a smite o' use all deawn +this side. One arm an' one leg trail't quite helpless. Aw drunk for +ever o' stuff for it. At last aw gat somethin' ov a yarb doctor. He +said that he could cure me for a very trifle, an' he did me a deal +o' good, sure enough. He nobbut charged me hauve-a-creawn. . . . We +never knowed what it was to want a meal's meight till lately. We +never had a penny off th' parish, nor never trouble't anybody till +neaw. Aw wish times would mend, please God! . . . We once had a pig, +an' was in a nice way o' gettin' a livin'. . . . When things began +o' gooin' worse an' worse with us, we went to live in a cellar, at +sixpence a week rent; and we made it very comfortable, too. We +didn't go there because we liked th' place; but we thought nobody +would know; an, we didn't care, so as we could put on till times +mended, an' keep aat o' debt. But th' inspectors turned us out, an' +we had to come here, an' pay 2s. a week. . . . Aw do NOT like to ask +for charity, iv one could help it. They were givin' clothin' up at +th' church a while sin', an' some o' th' neighbours wanted me to go +an' ax for some singlets, ye see aw cannot do without flannels,--but +aw couldn't put th' face on." Now, the young throstles in the cage +by the staircase began to chirp one after another. "Yer yo at that! +"said the old man, turning round to the cage; "yer yo at that! +Nobbut three week owd!" "Yes," replied the old woman; "they belong +to my grandson theer. He brought 'em in one day --neest an' all; an' +poor nake't crayters they were. He's a great lad for birds." "He's +no worse nor me for that," answered the old man; "aw use't to be +terrible fond o' brids when aw wur yung." + +After a little more talk, we bade the old couple good day, and went +to peep at the cellar where they had crept stealthily away, for the +sake of keeping their expenses close to their lessening income. The +place was empty, and the door was open. It was a damp and cheerless +little hole, down in the corner of a dirty court. We went next into +Pole Street, and tried the door of a cottage where a widow woman +lived with her children less than a week before. They were gone, and +the house was cleared out. "They have had neither fire nor candle in +that house for weeks past," said my companion. We then turned up a +narrow entry, which was so dark and low overhead that my companion +only told me just in time to "mind my hat!" There are several such +entries leading out of Pole Street to little courts behind. Here we +turned into a cold and nearly empty cottage, where a middle-aged +woman sat nursing a sick child. She looked worn and ill herself, and +she had sore eyes. She told me that the child was her daughter's. +Her daughter's husband had died of asthma in the workhouse, about +six weeks before. He had not "addled" a penny for twelve months +before he died. She said, "We hed a varra good heawse i' Stanley +Street once; but we hed to sell up an' creep hitherto. This heawse +is 2s. 3d. a week; an' we mun pay it, or go into th' street. Aw +nobbut owed him for one week, an' he said, 'Iv yo connot pay yo mun +turn eawt for thoose 'at will do.' Aw did think o' gooin' to th' +Board," continued she, "for a pair o' clogs. My een are bad; an' awm +ill all o'er, an' it's wi' nought but gooin' weet o' my feet. My +daughter's wortchin'. Hoo gets 5s. 6d. a week. We han to live an' +pay th' rent, too, eawt o' that." I guessed, from the little paper +pictures on the wall, that they were Catholics. + +In another corner behind Pole Street, we called at a cottage of two +rooms, each about three yards square. A brother and sister lived +together here. They were each about fifty years of age. They had +three female lodgers, factory operatives, out of work. The sister +said that her brother had been round to the factories that morning, +"Thinking that as it wur a pastime, there would haply be somebody +off; but he couldn't yer o' nought." She said she got a trifle by +charing, but not much now; for folks were "beginnin' to do it for +theirsels." We now turned into Cunliffe Street, and called upon an +Irish family there. It was a family of seven--an old tailor, and his +wife and children. They had "dismissed the relief," as he expressed +it, "because they got a bit o' work." The family was making a little +living by ripping up old clothes, and turning the cloth to make it +up afresh into lads' caps and other cheap things. The old man had +had a great deal of trouble with his family. "I have one girl," said +he, "who has bothered my mind a dale. She is under the influence o' +bad advice. I had her on my hands for many months; an', after that, +the furst week's wages she got, she up, an' cut stick, an' left me. +I have another daughter, now nigh nineteen years of age. The trouble +I have with her I am content with; because it can't be helped. The +poor crayter hasn't the use of all her faculties. I have taken no +end o' pains with her, but I can't get her to count twenty on her +finger ends wid a whole life's tachein'. Fortune has turned her dark +side to me this long time, now; and, bedad, iv it wasn't for +contrivin', an' workin' hard to boot, I wouldn't be able to keep +above the flood. I assure ye it goes agin me to trouble the +gentlemen o' the Board; an' so long as I am able, I will not. I was +born in King's County; an' I was once well off in the city of +Waterford I once had 400 pounds in the bank. I seen the time I +didn't drame of a cloudy day; but things take quare turns in this +world. How-an-ever, since it's no better, thank God it's no worse. +Sure, it's a long lane that has never a turn in it." + + + +CHAPTER X. + + + +"There's nob'dy but the Lord an' me +That knows what I've to bide." +--NATTERIN NAN. + +The slipshod old tailor shuffled after us to the door, talking about +the signs of the times. His frame was bowed with age and labour, and +his shoulders drooped away. It was drawing near the time when the +grasshopper would be a burden to him. A hard life had silently +engraved its faithful records upon that furrowed face; but there was +a cheerful ring in his voice which told of a hopeful spirit within +him still. The old man's nostrils were dusty with snuff, and his +poor garments hung about his shrunken form in the careless ease +which is common to the tailor's shopboard. I could not help admiring +the brave old wrinkled workman as he stood in the doorway talking +about his secondhand trade, whilst the gusty wind fondled about in +his thin gray hair. I took a friendly pinch from his little wooden +box at parting, and left him to go on struggling with his +troublesome family to "keep above the flood," by translating old +clothes into new. We called at some other houses, where the features +of life were so much the same that it is not necessary to say more +than that the inhabitants were all workless, or nearly so, and all +living upon the charitable provision which is the only thin plank +between so many people and death, just now. In one house, where the +furniture had been sold, the poor souls had brought a great stone +into the place, and this was their only seat. In Cunliffe Street, we +passed the cottage of a boilermaker, whom I had heard of before. His +family was four in number. This was one of those cases of wholesome +pride in which the family had struggled with extreme penury, seeking +for work in vain, but never asking for charity, until their own poor +neighbours were at last so moved with pity for their condition, that +they drew the attention of the Relief Committee to it. The man +accepted relief for one week, but after that, he declined receiving +it any longer, because he had met with a promise of employment. But +the promise failed him when the time came. The employer, who had +promised, was himself disappointed of the expected work. After this; +the boilermaker's family was compelled to fall back upon the Relief +Committee's allowance. He who has never gone hungry about the world, +with a strong love of independence in his heart, seeking eagerly for +work from day to day, and coming home night after night to a +foodless, fireless house, and a starving family, disappointed and +desponding, with the gloom of destitution deepening around him, can +never fully realise what the feelings of such a man may be from +anything that mere words can tell. + +In Park Road, we called at the house of a hand-loom weaver. I +learnt, before we went in, that two families lived here, numbering +together eight persons; and, though it was well known to the +committee that they had suffered as severely as any on the relief +list, yet their sufferings had been increased by the anonymous +slanders of some ill-disposed neighbours. They were quiet, well- +conducted working people; and these slanders had grieved them very +much. I found the poor weaver's wife very sensitive on this subject. +Man's inhumanity to man may be found among the poor sometimes. It is +not every one who suffers that learns mercy from that suffering. As +I have said before, the husband was a calico weaver on the hand- +loom. He had to weave about seventy-three yards of a kind of check +for 3s., and a full week's work rarely brought him more than 5s. It +seems astonishing that a man should stick year after year to such +labour as this. But there is a strong adhesiveness, mingled with +timidity, in some men, which helps to keep them down. In the front +room of the cottage there was not a single article of furniture +left, so far as I can remember. The weaver's wife was in the little +kitchen, and, knowing the gentleman who was with me, she invited us +forward. She was a wan woman, with sunken eyes, and she was not much +under fifty years of age. Her scanty clothing was whole and clean. +She must have been a very good-looking woman sometime, though she +seemed to me as if long years of hard work and poor diet had sapped +the foundations of her constitution; and there was a curious +changeful blending of pallor and feverish flush upon that worn face. +But, even in the physical ruins of her countenance, a pleasing +expression lingered still. She was timid and quiet in her manner at +first, as if wondering what we had come for; but she asked me to sit +down. There was no seat for my friend, and he stood leaning against +the wall, trying to get her into easy conversation. The little +kitchen looked so cheerless and bare that dull morning that it +reminded me again of a passage in that rude, racy song of the +Lancashire weaver, "Jone o' Greenfeelt"-- + +"Owd Bill o' Dan's sent us th' baillies one day, +For a shop-score aw owed him, at aw couldn't pay; +But, he were too lat, for owd Billy at th' Bent +Had sent th' tit an' cart, an' taen th' goods off for rent,-- +They laft nought but th' owd stoo; +It were seats for us two, +An' on it keawr't Margit an' me. + +"Then, th' baillies looked reawnd 'em as sly as a meawse, +When they see'd at o'th goods had bin taen eawt o' th' heawse; +Says tone chap to tother, 'O's gone,--thae may see,'-- +Says aw, 'Lads, ne'er fret, for yo're welcome to me!' +Then they made no moor do, +But nipt up wi' owd stoo, +An' we both letten thwack upo' th' flags. + +"Then aw said to eawr Margit, while we're upo' the floor, +'We's never be lower i' this world, aw'm sure; +Iv ever things awtern they're likely to mend, +For aw think i' my heart that we're both at th' fur end; +For meight we ban noan, +Nor no looms to weighve on, +An' egad, they're as good lost as fund.'" + +We had something to do to get the weaver's wife to talk to us +freely, and I believe the reason was, that, after the slanders they +had been subject to, she harboured a sensitive fear lest anything +like doubt should be cast upon her story. "Well, Mrs," said my +friend, "let's see; how many are you altogether in this house?" +"We're two families, yo know," replied she; "there's eight on us all +altogether." "Well," continued he,"and how much have you coming in, +now?" He had asked this question so oft before, and had so often +received the same answer, that the poor soul began to wonder what +was the meaning of it all. She looked at us silently, her wan face +flushed, and then, with tears rising in her eyes, she said, +tremulously, "Well, iv yo' cannot believe folk--" My friend stopped +her at once, and said, "Nay, Mrs_, you must not think that I doubt +your story. I know all about it; but my friend wanted me to let you +tell it your own way. We have come here to do you good, if possible, +and no harm. You don't need to fear that." "Oh, well," said she, +slowly wiping her moist forehead, and looking relieved," but yo +know, aw was very much put about o'er th' ill-natur't talk as +somebody set eawt." "Take no notice of them," said my friend; "take +no notice. I meet with such things every day." "Well," continued +she," yo know heaw we're situated. We were nine months an' hesn't a +stroke o' wark. Eawr wenches are gettin' a day for t' sick, neaw and +then, but that's all. There's a brother o' mine lives with us,--he'd +a been clemmed into th' grave but for th' relief; an' aw've been +many a time an' hesn't put a bit i' my meawth fro mornin' to mornin' +again. We've bin married twenty-four year; an' aw don't think at him +an' me together has spent a shillin' i' drink all that time. Why, to +tell yo truth, we never had nought to stir on. My husband does bod +get varra little upo th' hand-loom i' th' best o' times--5s. a week +or so. He weighves a sort o' check--seventy-three yards for 3s." The +back door opened into a little damp yard, hemmed in by brick walls. +Over in the next yard we could see a man bustling about, and singing +in a loud voice, "Hard times come again no more." "Yon fellow +doesn't care much about th' hard times, I think," said I. "Eh, naw," +replied she. "He'll live where mony a one would dee, will yon. He +has that little shop, next dur; an' he keeps sellin' a bit o' toffy, +an' then singin' a bit, an' then sellin' a bit moor toffy,--an' he's +as happy as a pig amung slutch." + +Leaving the weaver's cottage, the rain came on, and we sat a few +minutes with a young shoemaker, who was busy at his bench, doing a +cobbling job. His wife was lying ill upstairs. He had been so short +of work for some time past that he had been compelled to apply for +relief. He complained that the cheap gutta percha shoes were hurting +his trade. He said a pair of men's gutta percha shoes could be +bought for 5s. 6d., whilst it would cost him 7s. 6d. for the +materials alone to make a pair of men's shoes of. When the rain was +over, we left his house, and as we went along I saw in a cottage +window a printed paper containing these words, "Bitter beer. This +beer is made of herbs and roots of the native country." I know that +there are many poor people yet in Lancashire who use decoctions of +herbs instead of tea--mint and balm are the favourite herbs for this +purpose; but I could not imagine what this herb beer could be, at a +halfpenny a bottle, unless it was made of nettles. At the cottage +door there was about four-pennyworth of mauled garden stuff upon an +old tray. There was nobody inside but a little ragged lass, who +could not tell us what the beer was made of. She had only one +drinking glass in the place, and that had a snip out of the rim. The +beer was exceedingly bitter. We drank as we could, and then went +into Pump Street, to the house of a "core-maker," a kind of labourer +for moulders. The core-maker's wife was in. They had four children. +The whole six had lived for thirteen weeks on 3s. 6d. a week. When +work first began to fall off, the husband told the visitors who came +to inquire into their condition, that he had a little money saved +up, and he could manage a while. The family lived upon their savings +as long as they lasted, and then were compelled to apply for relief, +or "clem." It was not quite noon when we left this house, and my +friend proposed that before we went farther we should call upon Mrs +G_, an interesting old woman, in Cunliffe Street. We turned back to +the place, and there we found + +"In lowly shed, and mean attire, +A matron old, whom we schoolmistress name, +Who boasts unruly brats with birch to tame." + +In a small room fronting the street, the mild old woman sat, with +her bed in one corner, and her simple vassals ranged upon the forms +around. Here, "with quaint arts," she swayed the giddy crowd of +little imprisoned elves, whilst they fretted away their irksome +schooltime, and unconsciously played their innocent prelude to the +serious drama of life. As we approach the open door-- + +"The noises intermix'd, which thence resound, +Do learning's little tenement betray; +Where sits the dame disguised in look profound, +And eyes her fairy throng, and turns her wheel around." + +The venerable little woman had lived in this house fourteen years. +She was seventy-three years of age, and a native of Limerick. She +was educated at St Ann's School, in Dublin, and she had lived +fourteen years in the service of a lady in that city. The old dame +made an effort to raise her feeble form when we entered, and she +received us as courteously as the finest lady in the land could have +done. She told us that she charged only a penny a-week for her +teaching; but, said she, "some of them can't pay it." "There's a +poor child," continued she, "his father has been out of work eleven +months, and they are starving but for the relief. Still, I do get a +little, and I like to have the children about me. Oh, my case is not +the worst, I know. I have people lodging in the house who are not so +well off as me. I have three families living here. One is a family +of four; they have only 3s. a-week to live upon. Another is a family +of three; they have 6s. a-week from a club, but they pay me 2s. a- +week. for rent out of that. . . . . I am very much troubled with my +eyes; my sight is failing fast. If I drop a stitch when I'm +knitting, I can't see to take it up again. If I could buy a pair of +spectacles, they would help me a good dale; but I cannot afford till +times are better." I could not help thinking how many kind souls +there are in the world who would be glad to give the old woman a +pair of spectacles, if they knew her. + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + + +We talked with the old schoolmistress in Cunliffe Street till it was +"high twelve" at noon, and then the kind jailer of learning's little +prison-house let all her fretful captives go. The clamorous elves +rushed through the doorway into the street, like a stream too big +for its vent, rejoicing in their new-found freedom and the open face +of day. The buzz of the little teaching mill was hushed once more, +and the old dame laid her knitting down, and quietly wiped her weak +and weary eyes. The daughters of music were brought low with her, +but, in the last thin treble of second childhood, she trembled forth +mild complaints of her neighbours' troubles, but very little of her +own. We left her to enjoy her frugal meal and her noontide reprieve +in peace, and came back to the middle of the town. On our way I +noticed again some features of street life which are more common in +manufacturing towns just now than when times are good. Now and then +one meets with a man in the dress of a factory worker selling +newspapers, or religious tracts, or back numbers of the penny +periodicals, which do not cost much. It is easy to see, from their +shy and awkward manner, that they are new to the trade, and do not +like it. They are far less dexterous, and much more easily "said," +than the brisk young salesmen who hawk newspapers in the streets of +Manchester. I know that many of these are unemployed operatives +trying to make an honest penny in this manner till better days +return. Now and then, too, a grown-up girl trails along the street, +"with wandering steps and slow," ragged, and soiled, and starved, +and looking as if she had travelled far in the rainy weather, +houseless and forlorn. I know that such sights may be seen at any +time, but not near so often as just now; and I cannot help thinking +that many of these are poor sheep which have strayed away from the +broken folds of labour. Sometimes it is an older woman that goes by, +with a child at the breast, and one or two holding by the skirt of +her tattered gown, and perhaps one or two more limping after, as she +crawls along the pavement, gazing languidly from side to side among +the heedless crowd, as if giving her last look round the world for +help, without knowing where to get it, and without heart to ask for +it. It is easy to give wholesale reasons why nobody needs to be in +such a condition as this; but it is not improbable that there are +some poor souls who, from no fault of their own, drop through the +great sieve of charity into utter destitution. "They are well kept +that God keeps." May the continual dew of Heaven's blessing gladden +the hearts of those who deal kindly with them! + +After dinner I fell into company with some gentlemen who were +talking about the coming guild--that ancient local festival, which +is so clear to the people of Preston, that they are not likely to +allow it to go by wholly unhonoured, however severe the times may +be. Amongst them was a gray-haired friend of mine, who is a genuine +humorist. He told us many quaint anecdotes. One of them was of a man +who went to inquire the price of graves in a certain cemetery. The +sexton told him that they were 1 pound on this side, and 2 pounds on +the other side of the knoll. "How is it that they are 2 pounds on +the other side?" inquired the man. "Well, becose there's a better +view there," replied the sexton. There were three or four millowners +in the company, and, when the conversation turned upon the state of +trade, one of them said, "I admit that there is a great deal of +distress, but we are not so badly off yet as to drive the operatives +to work for reasonable wages. For instance, I had a labourer working +for me at 10s. a-week; he threw up my employ, and went to work upon +the moor for 1s. a-day. How do you account for that? And then, +again, I had another man employed as a watchman and roller coverer, +at 18s. a-week. I found that I couldn't afford to keep him on at +18s., so I offered him 15s. a-week; but he left it, and went to work +on the moor at 1s. a-day; and, just now, I want a man to take his +place, and cannot get one." Another said, "I am only giving low +wages to my workpeople, but they get more with me than they can make +on the moor, and yet I cannot keep them." I heard some other things +of the same kind, for which there might be special reasons; but +these gentlemen admitted the general prevalence of severe distress, +and the likelihood of its becoming much worse. + +At two o'clock I sallied forth again, under convoy of another member +of the Relief Committee, into the neighbourhood of Messrs Horrocks, +Miller, and Co.'s works. Their mill is known as "Th' Yard Factory." +Hereabouts the people generally are not so much reduced as in some +parts of the town, because they have had more employment, until +lately, than has been common elsewhere. But our business lay with +those distressed families who were in receipt of relief, and, even +here, they were very easy to find. The first house we called at was +inhabited by a family of five--man and wife and three children. The +man was working on the moor at one shilling a-day. The wife was +unwell, but she was moving about the house. They had buried one girl +three weeks before; and one of the three remaining children lay ill +of the measles. They had suffered a great deal from sickness. The +wife said, "My husband is a peawer-loom weighver. He had to come +whoam ill fro' his wark; an' then they shopped his looms, (gave his +work to somebody else,) an' he couldn't get 'em back again. He'll +get 'em back as soon as he con, yo may depend; for we don't want to +bother folk for no mak o' relief no lunger than we can help." In +addition to the husband's pay upon the moor, they were receiving 2s. +a week from the Committee, making altogether 8s. a week for the +five, with 2s. 6d. to pay out of it for rent. She said, "We would +rayther ha' soup than coffee, becose there's moor heytin' in it." My +friend looked in at the door of a cottage in Barton Street. There +was a sickly-looking woman inside. "Well, missis," said my friend, +jocularly, "how are you? because, if you're ill, I've brought a +doctor here." "Eh," replied she, "aw could be ill in a minute, if aw +could afford, but these times winnot ston doctors' bills. Besides, +aw never were partial to doctors' physic; it's kitchen physic at aw +want. Han yo ony o' that mak' wi' yo?" She said," My husban' were +th' o'erlooker o' th'weighvers at "Owd Tom's.' They stopt to fettle +th' engine a while back, an' they'n never started sin'. But aw guess +they wi'n do some day." We had not many yards to go to the next +place, which was a poor cottage in Fletcher's Row, where a family of +eight persons resided. There was very little furniture in the place, +but I noticed a small shelf of books in a corner by the window. A +feeble woman, upwards of seventy years old, sat upon a stool tending +the cradle of a sleeping infant. This infant was the youngest of +five children, the oldest of the five was seven years of age. The +mother of the three-weeks-old infant had just gone out to the mill +to claim her work from the person who had been filling her place +during her confinement. The old woman said that the husband was "a +grinder in a card-room when they geet wed, an' he addled about 8s. a +week; but, after they geet wed, his wife larn't him to weighve upo' +th' peawer-looms." She said that she was no relation to them, but +she nursed, and looked after the house for them. "They connot afford +to pay mo nought," continued she, "but aw fare as they fare'n, an' +they dunnot want to part wi' me. Aw'm not good to mich, but aw can +manage what they wanten, yo see'n. Aw never trouble't noather teawn +nor country i' my life, an' aw hope aw never shall for the bit o' +time aw have to do on." She said that the Board of Guardians had +allowed the family 10s. a week for the two first weeks of the wife's +confinement, but now their income amounted to a little less than one +shilling a head per week. + +Leaving this house, we turned round the corner into St Mary's Street +North. Here we found a clean-looking young working man standing +shivering by a cottage door, with his hands in his pockets. He was +dressed in well-mended fustian, and he had a cloth cap on his head. +His face had a healthy hunger-nipt look. "Hollo," said my friend, "I +thought you was working on the moor." "Ay," replied the young man, +"Aw have bin, but we'n bin rain't off this afternoon." "Is there +nobody in?" said my friend. "Naw, my wife's gone eawt; hoo'll not be +mony minutes. Hoo's here neaw." A clean little pale woman came up, +with a child in her arms, and we went in. They had not much +furniture in the small kitchen, which was the only place we saw, but +everything was sweet and orderly. Their income was, as usual in +relief cases, about one shilling a head per week. "You had some +lodgers," said my friend. "Ay," said she,"but they're gone." "How's +that?" "We had a few words. Their little lad was makin' a great +noise i' the passage theer, an' aw were very ill o' my yed, an' aw +towd him to go an' play him at tother side o' th' street,--so, they +took it amiss, an' went to lodge wi' some folk i' Ribbleton Lone." + +We called at another house in this street. A family of six lived +there. The only furniture I saw in the place was two chairs, a +table, a large stool, a cheap clock, and a few pots. The man and his +wife were in. She was washing. The man was a stiff built, shock- +headed little fellow, with a squint in his eye that seemed to enrich +the good-humoured expression of his countenance. Sitting smiling by +the window, he looked as if he had lots of fun in him, if he only +had a fair chance of letting it off. He told us that he was a +"tackler" by trade. A tackler is one who fettles looms when they get +out of order. "Couldn't you get on at Horrocks's?" said my friend. +"Naw," replied he; "they'n not ha' men-weighvers theer." The wife +said," We're a deal better off than some. He has six days a week upo +th' moor, an' we'n 3s. a week fro th' Relief Committee. We'n 2s. 6d. +a week to pay eawt on it for rent; but then, we'n a lad that gets +4d. a day neaw an' then for puttin' bobbins on; an' every little +makes a mickle, yo known." "How is it that your clock's stopt?" said +I. "Nay," said the little fellow; "aw don't know. Want o' cotton, +happen,--same as everything else is stopt for." Leaving this house +we met with another member of the Relief Committee, who was +overlooker of a mill a little way off. I parted here with the +gentleman who had accompanied me hitherto, and the overlooker went +on with me. + +In Newton Street he stopped, and said, "Let's look in here." We went +up two steps, and met a young woman coming out at the cottage door. +"How's Ruth?" said my friend. "Well, hoo is here. Hoo's busy bakin' +for Betty." We went in. "You're not bakin' for yourselves, then?" +said he. "Eh, naw," replied the young woman," it's mony a year sin' +we had a bakin' o' fleawr, isn't it, Ruth?" The old woman who was +baking turned round and said, "Ay; an' it'll be mony another afore +we han one aw deawt." There were three dirty-looking hens picking +and croodling about the cottage floor. "How is it you don't sell +these, or else eat 'em?" said he. "Eh, dear," replied the old woman, +"dun yo want mo kilt? He's had thoose hens mony a year; an' they +rooten abeawt th' heawse just th' same as greadley Christians. He +did gi' consent for one on 'em to be kilt yesterday; but aw'll be +hanged iv th' owd cracky didn't cry like a chylt when he see'd it +beawt yed. He'd as soon part wi' one o'th childer as one o'th hens. +He says they're so mich like owd friends, neaw. He's as quare as +Dick's hat-bant 'at went nine times reawnd an' wouldn't tee. . . . +We thought we'd getten a shop for yon lad o' mine t'other day. We +yerd ov a chap at Lytham at wanted a lad to tak care o' six +jackasses an' a pony. Th' pony were to tak th' quality to Blackpool, +and such like. So we fettled th' lad's bits o' clooas up and made +him ever so daycent, and set him off to try to get on wi' th' chap +at Lytham. Well, th' lad were i' good heart abeawt it; an' when he +geet theer th' chap towd him at he thought he wur very likely for +th' job, so that made it better,--an' th' lad begun o' wearin' his +bit o' brass o' summat to eat, an' sich like, thinkin' he're sure o' +th' shop. Well, they kept him there, dallyin', aw tell yo, an' never +tellin' him a greadley tale, fro Sunday till Monday o' th' neet, an' +then,--lo an' behold,--th' mon towd him that he'd hire't another; +and th' lad had to come trailin' whoam again, quite deawn i'th' +meawth. Eh, aw wur some mad! Iv aw'd been at th' back o' that chap, +aw could ha' punce't him, see yo!" "Well," said my friend, "there's +no work yet, Ruth, is there?" "Wark! naw; nor never will be no moor, +aw believe." "Hello, Ruth!" said the young woman, pointing through +the window, "dun yo know who yon is?" "Know? ay," replied the old +woman; "He's getten aboon porritch neaw, has yon. He walks by me +i'th street, as peart as a pynot, an' never cheeps. But, he's no +'casion. Aw know'd him when his yure stickt out at top ov his hat; +and his shurt would ha' hanged eawt beheend, too,--like a Wigan +lantron,--iv he'd had a shurt." + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + + +"Oh, reason not the deed; our basest beggars +Are in the poorest things superfluous: +Allow not nature more than nature needs, +Man's life is cheap as beast's." +--King Lear. + +A short fit of rain came on whilst we were in the cottage in Newton +Street, so we sat a little while with Ruth, listening to her quaint +tattle about the old man and his feathered pets; about the children, +the hard times, and her own personal ailments;--for, though I could +not help thinking her a very good-hearted, humorous old woman, +bravely disposed to fight it out with the troubles of her humble +lot, yet it was clear that she was inclined to ease her harassed +mind now and then by a little wholesome grumbling; and I dare say +that sometimes she might lose her balance so far as to think, like +"Natterin' Nan," "No livin' soul atop o't earth's bin tried as I've +bin tried: there's nob'dy but the Lord an' me that knows what I've +to bide." + +Old age and infirmity, too, had found Ruth out, in her penurious +obscurity; and she was disposed to complain a little, like Nan, +sometimes, of "the ills that flesh is heir to:"- + +"Fro' t' wind i't stomach, rheumatism, +Tengin pains i't gooms, +An' coughs, an' cowds, an' t' spine o't back, +I suffer martyrdom. + +"Yet nob'dy pities mo, or thinks +I'm ailin' owt at all; +T' poor slave mun tug an' tew wi't wark, +Wolivver shoo can crawl." + +Old Ruth was far from being as nattle and querulous as the famous +ill-natured grumbler so racily pictured by Benjamin Preston, of +Bradford; but, like most of the dwellers upon earth, she was a +little bit touched with the same complaint. When the rain was over, +we came away. I cannot say that the weather ever "cleared up" that +day; for, at the end of every shower, the dark, slow-moving clouds +always seemed to be mustering for another downfall. We came away, +and left the "cant" old body "busy bakin' for Betty," and "shooing" +the hens away from her feet, and she shuffled about the house. A few +yards lower in Newton Street, we turned up a low, dark entry, which +led to a gloomy little court behind. This was one of those +unhealthy, pent-up cloisters, where misery stagnates and broods +among the "foul congregation of pestilential vapours" which haunt +the backdoor life of the poorest parts of great towns. Here, those +viewless ministers of health--the fresh winds of heaven--had no free +play; and poor human nature inhaled destruction from the poisonous +effluvia that festered there. And, in such nooks as this, there may +be found many decent working people, who have been accustomed to +live a cleanly life in their humble way in healthy quarters, now +reduced to extreme penury, pinching, and pining, and nursing the +flickering hope of better days, which may enable them to flee from +the foul harbour which strong necessity has driven them to. The dark +aspect of the day filled the court with a tomb-like gloom. If I +remember aright, there were only three or four cottages in it. We +called at two of them. Before we entered the first, my friend said, +"A young couple lives here. They are very decent people. They have +not been here long; and they have gone through a great deal before +they came here." There were two or three pot ornaments on the +cornice; but there was no furniture in the place, save one chair, +which was occupied by a pale young woman, nursing her child. Her +thin, intelligent face looked very sad. Her clothing, though poor, +was remarkably clean; and, as she sat there, in the gloomy, fireless +house, she said very little, and what she said she said very +quietly, as if she had hardly strength to complain, and was even +half-ashamed to do so. She told us, however, that her husband had +been out of work six months. "He didn't know what to turn to after +we sowd th' things," said she; "but he's takken to cheer-bottomin', +for he doesn't want to lie upo' folk for relief, if he can help it. +He doesn't get much above a cheer, or happen two in a week, one week +wi' another, an' even then he doesn't olez get paid, for folks ha' +not brass. It runs very hard with us, an' I'm nobbut sickly." The +poor soul did not need to say much; her own person, which evinced +such a touching struggle to keep up a decent appearance to the last, +and everything about her, as she sat there in the gloomy place, +trying to keep the child warm upon her cold breast, told eloquently +what her tongue faltered at and failed to express. + +The next place we called at in this court was a cottage kept by a +withered old woman, with one foot in the grave. We found her in the +house, sallow, and shrivelled, and panting for breath. She had three +young women, out of work, lodging with her; and, in addition to +these, a widow with her two children lived there. One of these +children, a girl, was earning 2s. 6d. a week for working short time +at a mill; the other, a lad, was earning 3s. a week. The rest were +all unemployed, and had been so for several months past. This 5s. +6d. a week was all the seven people had to live upon, with the +exception of a trifle the sickly old woman received from the Board +of Guardians. As we left the court, two young fellows were lounging +at the entry end, as if waiting for us. One of them stepped up to my +friend, and whispered something plaintively, pointing to his feet. I +did not catch the reply; but my friend made a note, and we went on. +Before we had gone many yards down the street a storm of rain and +thunder came on, and we hurried into the house of an old Irishwoman +close by. My friend knew the old woman. She was on his list of +relief cases. "Will you let us shelter a few minutes, Mrs _?" said +he. "I will, an' thank ye," replied she. "Come in an' sit down. +Sure, it's not fit to turn out a dog. Faith, that's a great storm. +Oh, see the rain! Thank God it's not him that made the house that +made the pot! Dear, dear; did ye see the awful flash that time? I +don't like to be by myself, I am so terrified wi' the thunder. There +has been a great dale o' wet this long time." "There, has," replied +my friend; "but how have ye been getting on since I called before?" +"Well," said the old woman, sitting down, "things is quare with us +as ever they can be, an' that you know very well." There was a young +woman reared against the table by the window. My friend turned +towards her, and said, "Well, and how does the Indian meal agree +with you?" The young woman blushed, and smiled, but said nothing; +but the old woman turned sharply round and replied, "Well, now, it +is better nor starvation; it is chape, an' it fills up--an' that's +all." "Is your son working?" inquired my friend. "Troth, he is," +replied she. "He does be gettin' a day now an' again at the breek- +croft in Ribbleton Lone. Faith, it is time he did somethin', too, +for he was nine months out o' work entirely. I am got greatly into +debt, an' I don't think I'll ever be able to get over it any more. I +don't know how does poor folk be able to spind money on drink such +times as thim; bedad, I cannot do it. It is bard enough to get mate +of any kind to keep the bare life in a body. Oh, see now; but for +the relief, the half o' the country would die out." "You're a native +of Ireland, missis," said I. "Troth, I am," replied she; "an' had a +good farm o' greawnd in it too, one time. Ah! many's the dark day I +went through between that an' this. Before thim bad times came on, +long ago, people were well off in ould Ireland. I seen them wid as +many as tin cows standin' at the door at one time. . . . Ah, then! +but the Irish people is greatly scattered now! . . . But, for the +matter of that, folk are as badly off here as anywhere in the world, +I think. I dunno know how does poor folk be able to spind money for +dhrink. I am a widow this seventeen year now, an' the divle a man or +woman uvver seen me goin' to a public-house. I seen women goin' a +drinkin' widout a shift to their backs. I dunno how the divvle they +done it. Begorra, I think, if I drunk a glass of ale just now, my +two legs would fail from under me immadiately--I am that wake." The +old woman was a little too censorious, I think. There is no doubt +that even people who are starving do drink a little sometimes. The +wonder would be if they did not, in some degree, share the follies +of the rest of the world. Besides, it is a well-known fact, that +those who are in employ, are apt, from a feeling of misdirected +kindness, to treat those who are out of work to a glass of ale or +two, now and then; and it is very natural, too, that those who have +been but ill-fed for a long time are not able to stand it well. + +After leaving the old Irishwoman's house, we called upon a man who +had got his living by the sale of newspapers. There was nothing +specially worthy of remark in this case, except that he complained +of his trade having fallen away a good deal. "I used to sell three +papers where I now sell one," said he. This may not arise from there +being fewer papers sold, but from there being more people selling +them than when times were good. I came back to Manchester in the +evening. I have visited Preston again since then, and have spent +some time upon Preston Moor, where there are nearly fifteen hundred +men, principally factory operatives, at work. Of this I shall have +something to say in my next paper. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + + +"The rose of Lancaster for lack of nurture pales." +--BLACKBURN BARD. + +It was early on a fine morning in July when I next set off to see +Preston again; the long-continued rains seemed to be ended, and the +unclouded sun flooded all the landscape with splendour. All nature +rejoiced in the change, and the heart of man was glad. In Clifton +Vale, the white-sleeved mowers were at work among the rich grass, +and the scent of new hay came sweetly through our carriage windows. +In the leafy cloughs and hedges, the small birds were wild with joy, +and every garden sent forth a goodly smell. Along its romantic vale +the glittering Irwell meandered, here, through nooks, "o'erhung wi' +wildwoods, thickening green;" and there, among lush unshaded +pastures; gathering on its way many a mild whispering brook, whose +sunlit waters laced the green land with freakish lines of trembling +gold. To me this ride is always interesting, so many points of +historic interest line the way; but it was doubly delightful on that +glorious July morning. And I never saw Fishergate, in Preston, look +better than it did then. On my arrival there I called upon the +Secretary of the Trinity Ward Relief Committee. In a quiet bye- +street, where there are four pleasant cottages, with little gardens +in front of them, I found him in his studious nook, among books, +relief tickets, and correspondence. We had a few minutes' talk about +the increasing distress of the town; and he gave me a short account +of the workroom which has been opened in Knowsley Street, for the +employment of female factory operatives out of work. This workroom +is managed by a committee of ladies, some of whom are in attendance +every day. The young women are employed upon plain sewing. They have +two days' work a week, at one shilling a day, and the Relief +Committee adds sixpence to this 2s. in each case. Most of them are +merely learning to sew. Many of them prove to be wholly untrained to +this simple domestic accomplishment. The work is not remunerative, +nor is it expected to be so; but the benefit which may grow out of +the teaching which these young women get here--and the evil their +employment here may prevent, cannot be calculated. I find that such +workrooms are established in some of the other towns now suffering +from the depression of trade. Some of these I intend to visit +hereafter. I spent an interesting half-hour with the secretary, +after which I went to see the factory operatives at work upon +Preston Moor. + +Preston Moor is a tract of waste land on the western edge of the +town. It belongs to the corporation. A little vale runs through a +great part of this moor, from south-east to north-west; and the +ground was, until lately, altogether uneven. On the town side of the +little dividing vale the land is a light, sandy soil; on the other +side, there is abundance of clay for brickmaking. Upon this moor +there are now fifteen hundred men, chiefly factory operatives, at +work, levelling the land for building purposes, and making a great +main sewer for the drainage of future streets. The men, being almost +all unused to this kind of labour, are paid only one shilling per +day; and the whole scheme has been devised for the employment of +those who are suffering from the present depression of trade. The +work had been going on several months before I saw it, and a great +part of the land was levelled. When I came in sight of the men, +working in scattered gangs that fine morning, there was, as might be +expected, a visible difference between their motions and those of +trained "navvies" engaged upon the same kind of labour. There were +also very great differences of age and physical condition amongst +them--old men and consumptive-looking lads, hardly out of their +teens. They looked hard at me as I walked down the central line, but +they were not anyway uncivil. "What time is 't, maister?" asked a +middle-aged man, with gray hair, as he wiped his forehead. "Hauve- +past ten," said I. "What time says he?" inquired a feeble young +fellow, who was resting upon his barrow. "Hauve-past ten, he says," +replied the other. "Eh; it's warm!" said the tired lad, lying down +upon his barrow again. One thing I noticed amongst these men, with +very rare exceptions, their apparel, however poor, evinced that +wholesome English love of order and cleanliness which generally +indicates something of self-respect in the wearer--especially among +poor folk. There is something touching in the whiteness of a well- +worn shirt, and the careful patches of a poor man's old fustian +coat. + +As I lounged about amongst the men, a mild-eyed policeman came up, +and offered to conduct me to Jackson, the labour-master, who had +gone down to the other end of the moor, to look after the men at +work at the great sewer--a wet clay cutting--the heaviest bit of +work on the ground. We passed some busy brickmakers, all plastered +and splashed with wet clay --of the earth, earthy. Unlike the +factory operatives around them, these men clashed, and kneaded, and +sliced among the clay, as if they were working for a wager. But they +were used to the job, and working piece-work. A little further on, +we came to an unbroken bit of the moor. Here, on a green slope we +saw a poor lad sitting chirruping upon the grass, with a little +cloutful of groundsel for bird meat in his hand, watching another, +who was on his knees, delving for earth-nuts with an old knife. +Lower down the slope there were three other lads plaguing a young +jackass colt; and further off, on the town edge of the moor, several +children from the streets hard by, were wandering about the green +hollow, picking daisies, and playing together in the sunshine. There +are several cotton factories close to the moor, but they were quiet +enough. Whilst I looked about me here, the policeman pointed to the +distance and said, "Jackson's comin' up, I see. Yon's him, wi' th' +white lin' jacket on." Jackson seems to have won the esteem of the +men upon the moor by his judicious management and calm +determination. I have heard that he had a little trouble at first, +through an injurious report spread amongst the men immediately +before he undertook the management. Some person previously employed +upon the ground had "set it eawt that there wur a chap comin' that +would make 'em addle a hauve-a-creawn a day for their shillin'." Of +course this increased the difficulty of his position; but he seems +to have fought handsomely through all that sort of thing. I had met +him for a few minutes once before, so there was no difficulty +between us. + +"Well, Jackson," said I, "heaw are yo gettin' on among it?" "Oh, +very well, very well," said he," We'n more men at work than we had, +an' we shall happen have more yet. But we'n getten things into +something like system, an' then tak 'em one with another th' chaps +are willin' enough. You see they're not men that have getten a +livin' by idling aforetime; they're workin' men, but they're strange +to this job, an' one cannot expect 'em to work like trained honds, +no moor than one could expect a lot o' navvies to work weel at +factory wark. Oh, they done middlin', tak 'em one with another." I +now asked him if he had not had some trouble with the men at first. +"Well," said he, "I had at first, an' that's the truth. I remember +th' first day that I came to th' job. As I walked on to th' ground +there was a great lump o' clay coom bang into my earhole th' first +thing; but I walked on, an' took no notice, no moor than if it had +bin a midge flyin' again my face. Well, that kind o' thing took +place, now an' then, for two or three days, but I kept agate o' +never mindin'; till I fund there were some things that I thought +could be managed a deal better in a different way; so I gav' th' men +notice that I would have 'em altered. For instance, now, when I coom +here at first, there was a great shed in yon hollow; an' every +mornin' th' men had to pass through that shed one after another, an' +have their names booked for th' day. The result wur, that after +they'd walked through th' shed, there was many on 'em walked out at +t'other end o' th' moor straight into teawn a-playin' 'em. Well, I +was determined to have that system done away with. An', when th' men +fund that I was gooin' to make these alterations, they growled a +good deal, you may depend, an' two or three on 'em coom up an' spoke +to me abeawt th' matter, while tother stood clustered a bit off. +Well; I was beginnin' to tell 'em plain an' straight-forrud what I +would have done, when one o' these three sheawted out to th' whole +lot, "Here, chaps, come an' gether reawnd th' devil. Let's yer what +he's for!" 'Well,' said I, 'come on, an' you shall yer,' for aw felt +cawmer just then, than I did when it were o'er. There they were, +gethered reawnd me in a minute,--th' whole lot,--I were fair hemmed +in. But I geet atop ov a bit ov a knowe, an' towd 'em a fair tale,-- +what I wanted, an' what I would have, an' I put it to 'em whether +they didn't consider it reet. An' I believe they see'd th' thing in +a reet leet, but they said nought about it, but went back to their +wark, lookin' sulky. But I've had very little bother with 'em sin'. +I never see'd a lot o' chaps so altered sin' th' last February, as +they are. At that time no mortal mon hardly could walk through 'em +'beawt havin' a bit o' slack-jaw, or a lump o' clay or summat flung +a-him. But it isn't so, neaw. I consider th' men are doin' very +weel. But, come; yo mun go deawn wi' me a-lookin' at yon main +sewer." + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + + +"Oh, let us bear the present as we may, +Nor let the golden past be all forgot; +Hope lifts the curtain of the future day, +Where peace and plenty smile without a spot +On their white garments; where the human lot +Looks lovelier and less removed from heaven; +Where want, and war, and discord enter not, +But that for which the wise have hoped and striven-- +The wealth of happiness, to humble worth is given. + +"The time will come, as come again it must, +When Lancashire shall lift her head once more; +Her suffering sons, now down amid the dust +Of Indigence, shall pass through Plenty's door; +Her commerce cover seas from shore to shore; +Her arts arise to highest eminence; +Her products prove unrivall'd, as of yore; +Her valour and her virtue--men of sense +And blue-eyed beauties--England's pride and her defence." +--BLACKBURN BARD. + +Jackson's office as labour-master kept him constantly tramping about +the sandy moor from one point to another. He was forced to be in +sight, and on the move, during working hours, amongst his fifteen +hundred scattered workmen. It was heavy walking, even in dry +weather; and as we kneaded through the loose soil that hot forenoon, +we wiped our foreheads now and then. "Ay," said he, halting, and +looking round upon the scene, "I can assure you, that when I first +took howd o' this job, I fund my honds full, as quiet as it looks +now. I was laid up for nearly a week, an' I had to have two doctors. +But, as I'd undertakken the thing, I was determined to go through +with it to th' best o' my ability; an' I have confidence now that we +shall be able to feight through th' bad time wi' summat like +satisfaction, so far as this job's consarned, though it's next to +impossible to please everybody, do what one will. But come wi' me +down this road. I've some men agate o' cuttin' a main sewer. It's +very little farther than where th' cattle pens are i' th' hollow +yonder; and it's different wark to what you see here. Th' main sewer +will have to be brought clean across i' this direction, an' it'll be +a stiffish job. Th' cattle market's goin' to be shifted out o' yon +hollow, an' in another year or two th' whole scene about here will +be changed." Jackson and I both remembered something of the troubles +of the cotton manufacture in past times. We had seen something of +the "shuttle gatherings," the "plug-drawings," the wild starvation +riots, and strikes of days gone by; and he agreed with me that one +reason for the difference of their demeanour during the present +trying circumstances lies in their increasing intelligence. The +great growth of free discussion through the cheap press has done no +little to work out this salutary change. There is more of human +sympathy, and of a perception of the union of interests between +employers and employed than ever existed before in the history of +the cotton trade. Employers know that their workpeople are human +beings, of like feelings and passions with themselves, and like +themselves, endowed with no mean degree of independent spirit and +natural intelligence; and working men know better than beforetime +that their employers are not all the heartless tyrants which it has +been too fashionable to encourage them to believe. The working men +have a better insight into the real causes of trade panics than they +used to have; and both masters and men feel more every day that +their fortunes are naturally bound together for good or evil; and if +the working men of Lancashire continue to struggle through the +present trying pass of their lives with the brave patience which +they have shown hitherto, they will have done more to defeat the +arguments of those who hold them to be unfit for political power +than the finest eloquence of their best friends could have done in +the same time. + +The labour master and I had a little talk about these things as we +went towards the lower end of the moor. A few minutes' slow walk +brought us to the spot, where some twenty of the hardier sort of +operatives were at work in a damp clay cutting. "This is heavy work +for sich chaps as these," said Jackson; "but I let 'em work bi'th +lump here. I give'em so much clay apiece to shift, and they can +begin when they like, an' drop it th' same. Th' men seem satisfied +wi' that arrangement, an' they done wonders, considerin' th' nature +o'th job. There's many o'th men that come on to this moor are badly +off for suitable things for their feet. I've had to give lots o' +clogs away among'em. You see men cannot work with ony comfort among +stuff o' this sort without summat substantial on. It rives poor +shoon to pieces i' no time. Beside, they're not men that can ston +bein' witchod (wetshod) like some. They haven't been used to it as a +rule. Now, this is one o'th' finest days we've had this year; an' +you haven't sin what th' ground is like in bad weather. But you'd be +astonished what a difference wet makes on this moor. When it's bin +rain for a day or two th' wark's as heavy again. Th' stuff's heavier +to lift, an' worse to wheel; an' th' ground is slutchy. That tries +'em up, an' poo's their shoon to pieces; an' men that are wakely get +knocked out o' time with it. But thoose that can stand it get +hardened by it. There's a great difference; what would do one man's +constitution good will kill another. Winter time 'll try 'em up +tightly. . . Wait there a bit," continued he, "I'll be with you +again directly." He then went down into the cutting to speak to some +of his men, whilst I walked about the edge of the bank. From a +distant part of the moor, the bray of a jackass came faint upon the +sleepy wind. "Yer tho', Jone," said one of the men, resting upon his +spade; "another cally-weighver gone!" " Ay," replied Jone, "th' owd +lad's deawn't his cut. He'll want no more tickets, yon mon!" The +country folk of Lancashire say that a weaver dies every time a +jackass brays. Jackson came up from the cutting, and we walked back +to where the greatest number of men were at work. "You should ha' +bin here last Saturday," said he; "we'd rather a curious scene. One +o' the men coom to me an' axed if I'd allow 'em hauve-an-hour to +howd a meetin' about havin' a procession i' th' guild week. I gav' +'em consent, on condition that they'd conduct their meetin' in an +orderly way. Well, they gethered together upo' that level theer; an' +th' speakers stood upo' th' edge o' that cuttin', close to Charnock +Fowd. Th' meetin' lasted abeawt a quarter ov an hour longer than I +bargained for; but they lost no time wi' what they had to do. O' +went off quietly; an' they finished with 'Rule Britannia,' i' full +chorus, an' then went back to their wark. You'll see th' report in +today's paper." + +This meeting was so curious, and so characteristic of the men, that +I think the report is worth repeating here:--"On Saturday afternoon, +a meeting of the parish labourers was held on the moor, to consider +the propriety of having a demonstration of their numbers on one day +in the guild week. There were upwards of a thousand present. An +operative, named John Houlker, was elected to conduct the +proceedings. After stating the object of the assembly, a series of +propositions were read to the meeting by William Gillow, to the +effect that a procession take place of the parish labourers in the +guild week; that no person be allowed to join in it except those +whose names were on the books of the timekeepers; that no one should +receive any of the benefits which might accrue who did not conduct +himself in an orderly manner; that all persons joining the +procession should be required to appear on the ground washed and +shaven, and their clogs, shoes, and other clothes cleaned; that they +were not expected to purchase or redeem any articles of clothing in +order to take part in the demonstration; and that any one absenting +himself from the procession should be expelled from any +participation in the advantages which might arise from the +subscriptions to be collected by their fellow-labourers. These were +all agreed to, and a committee of twelve was appointed to collect +subscriptions and donations. A president, secretary, and treasurer +were also elected, and a number of resolutions agreed to in +reference to the carrying out of the details of their scheme. The +managing committee consist of Messrs W. Gillow, Robert Upton, Thomas +Greenwood Riley, John Houlker, John Taylor, James Ray, James +Whalley, Wm. Banks, Joseph Redhead, James Clayton, and James +McDermot. The men agreed to subscribe a penny per week to form a +fund out of which a dinner should be provided, and they expressed +themselves confident that they could secure the gratuitous services +of a band of music. During the meeting there was great order. At the +conclusion, a vote of thanks was accorded to the chairman, to the +labour master for granting them three-quarters of an hour for the +purpose of holding the meeting, and to William Gillow for drawing up +the resolutions. Three times three then followed; after which, +George Dewhurst mounted a hillock, and, by desire, sang 'Rule +Britannia,' the chorus being taken up by the whole crowd, and the +whole being wound up with a hearty cheer." There are various schemes +devised in Preston for regaling the poor during the guild; and not +the worst of them is the proposal to give them a little extra money +for that week, so as to enable them to enjoy the holiday with their +families at home. + +It was now about half-past eleven. "It's getting on for dinner +time," said Jackson, looking at his watch. "Let's have a look at th' +opposite side yonder; an' then we'll come back, an' you'll see th' +men drop work when the five minutes' bell rings. There's many of 'em +live so far off that they couldn't well get whoam an' back in an +hour; so, we give'em an hour an' a half to their dinner, now, an' +they work half an' hour longer i'th afternoon." We crossed the +hollow which divides the moor, and went to the top of a sandy +cutting at the rear of the workhouse. This eminence commanded a full +view of the men at work on different parts of the ground, with the +time-keepers going to and fro amongst them, book in hand. Here were +men at work with picks and spades; there, a slow-moving train of +full barrows came along; and, yonder, a train of empty barrows +stood, with the men sitting upon them, waiting. Jackson pointed out +some of his most remarkable men to me; after which we went up to a +little plot of ground behind the workhouse, where we found a few +apparently older or weaker men, riddling pebbly stuff, brought from +the bed of the Ribble. The smaller pebbles were thrown into heaps, +to make a hard floor for the workhouse schoolyard. The master of the +workhouse said that the others were too big for this purpose--the +lads would break the windows with them. The largest pebbles were +cast aside to be broken up, for the making of garden walks. Whilst +the master of the workhouse was showing us round the building, +Jackson looked at his watch again, and said, "Come, we've just time +to get across again. Th' bell will ring in two or three minutes, an' +I should like yo to see 'em knock off." We hurried over to the other +side, and, before we had been a minute there, the bell rung. At the +first toll, down dropt the barrows, the half-flung shovelfuls fell +to the ground, and all labour stopt as suddenly as if the men had +been moved by the pull of one string. In two minutes Preston Moor +was nearly deserted, and, like the rest, we were on our way to +dinner. + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + + +AMONG THE WIGAN OPERATIVES + +"There'll be some on us missin', aw deawt, +Iv there isn't some help for us soon." +--SAMUEL LAYCOCK. + +The next scene of my observations is the town of Wigan. The +temporary troubles now affecting the working people of Lancashire +wear a different aspect there on account of such a large proportion +of the population being employed in the coal mines. The "way of +life" and the characteristics of the people are marked by strong +peculiarities. But, apart from these things, Wigan is an interesting +place. The towns of Lancashire have undergone so much change during +the last fifty years that their old features are mostly either swept +away entirely, or are drowned in a great overgrowth of modern +buildings. Yet coaly Wigan retains visible relics of its ancient +character still; and there is something striking in its situation. +It is associated with some of the most stirring events of our +history, and it is the scene of many an interesting old story, such +as the legend of Mabel of Haigh Hall, the crusader's dame. The +remnant of "Mab's Cross" still stands in Wigan Lane. Some of the +finest old halls of Lancashire are now, and have been, in its +neighbourhood, such as Ince Hall and Crooke Hall. It must have been +a picturesque town in the time of the Commonwealth, when Cavaliers +and Roundheads met there in deadly contention. Wigan saw a great +deal of the troubles of that time. The ancient monument, erected to +the memory of Colonel Tyldesley, upon the ground where he fell at +the battle of Wigan Lane, only tells a little of the story of +Longfellow's puritan hero, Miles Standish, who belonged to the +Chorley branch of the family of Standish of Standish, near this +town. The ingenious John Roby, author of the "Traditions of +Lancashire," was born here. Round about the old market-place, and +the fine parish church of St Wilfred, there are many quaint nooks +still left to tell the tale of centuries gone by. These remarks, +however, by the way. It is almost impossible to sunder any place +entirely from the interest which such things lend to it. + +Our present business is with the share which Wigan feels of the +troubles of our own time, and in this respect it is affected by some +conditions peculiar to the place. I am told that Wigan was one of +the first--if not the very first--of the towns of Lancashire to feel +the nip of our present distress. I am told, also, that it was the +first town in which a Relief Committee was organised. The cotton +consumed here is almost entirely of the kind from ordinary to +middling American, which is now the scarcest and dearest of any. +Preston is almost wholly a spinning town. In Wigan there is a +considerable amount of weaving as well as spinning. The counts spun +in Wigan are lower than those in Preston; they range from 10's up to +20's. There is also, as I have said before, another peculiar element +of labour, which tends to give a strong flavour to the conditions of +life in Wigan, that is, the great number of people employed in the +coal mines. This, however, does not much lighten the distress which +has fallen upon the spinners and weavers, for the colliers are also +working short time--an average of four days a week. I am told, also, +that the coal miners have been subject to so many disasters of +various kinds during past years, that there is now hardly a +collier's family which has not lost one or more of its most active +members by accidents in the pits. About six years ago, the river +Douglas broke into one of the Ince mines, and nearly two hundred +people were drowned thereby. These were almost all buried on one +day, and it was a very distressing scene. Everywhere in Wigan one +may meet with the widows and orphans of men who have been killed in +the mines; and there are no few men more or less disabled by +colliery accidents, and, therefore, dependent either upon the +kindness of their employers, or upon the labour of their families in +the cotton factories. This last failing them, the result may be +easily guessed. The widows and orphans of coal miners almost always +fall back upon factory labour for a living; and, in the present +state of things, this class of people forms a very helpless element +of the general distress. These things I learnt during my brief visit +to the town a few days ago. Hereafter, I shall try to acquaint +myself more deeply and widely with the relations of life amongst the +working people there. + +I had not seen Wigan during many years before that fine August +afternoon. In the Main Street and Market Place there is no striking +outward sign of distress, and yet here, as in other Lancashire +towns, any careful eye may see that there is a visible increase of +mendicant stragglers, whose awkward plaintiveness, whose helpless +restraint and hesitancy of manner, and whose general appearance, +tell at once that they belong to the operative classes now suffering +in Lancashire. Beyond this, the sights I first noticed upon the +streets, as peculiar to the place, were, here, two "Sisters of +Mercy," wending along, in their black cloaks and hoods, with their +foreheads and cheeks swathed in ghastly white bands, and with strong +rough shoes upon their feet; and, there, passed by a knot of the +women employed in the coal mines. The singular appearance of these +women has puzzled many a southern stranger. All grimed with +coaldust, they swing along the street with their dinner baskets and +cans in their hands, chattering merrily. To the waist they are +dressed like men, in strong trousers and wooden clogs. Their gowns, +tucked clean up, before, to the middle, hang down behind them in a +peaked tail. A limp bonnet, tied under the chin, makes up the head- +dress. Their curious garb, though soiled, is almost always sound; +and one can see that the wash-tub will reveal many a comely face +amongst them. The dusky damsels are "to the manner born," and as +they walk about the streets, thoughtless of singularity, the Wigan +people let them go unheeded by. Before I had been two hours in the +town, I was put into communication with one of the active members of +the Relief Committee, who offered to devote a few hours of the +following day to visitation with me, amongst the poor of a district +called "Scholes," on the eastern edge of the town. Scholes is the +"Little Ireland" of Wigan, the poorest quarter of the town. The +colliers and factory operatives chiefly live there. There is a +saying in Wigan --that, no man's education is finished until he has +been through Scholes. Having made my arrangements for the next day, +I went to stay for the night with a friend who lives in the green +country near Orrell, three miles west of Wigan. + +Early next morning, we rode over to see the quaint town of +Upholland, and its fine old church, with the little ivied monastic +ruin close by. We returned thence, by way of "Orrell Pow," to Wigan, +to meet my engagement at ten in the forenoon. On our way, we could +not help noticing the unusual number of foot-sore, travel-soiled +people, many of them evidently factory operatives, limping away from +the town upon their melancholy wanderings. We could see, also, by +the number of decrepid old women, creeping towards Wigan, and now +and then stopping to rest by the wayside, that it was relief day at +the Board of Guardians. At ten, I met the gentleman who had kindly +offered to guide me for the day; and we set off together. There are +three excellent rooms engaged by the good people of Wigan for the +employment and teaching of the young women thrown out of work at the +cotton mills. The most central of the three is the lecture theatre +of the Mechanics' Institution. This room was the first place we +visited. Ten o'clock is the time appointed for the young women to +assemble. It was a few minutes past ten when we got to the place; +and there were some twenty of the girls waiting about the door. They +were barred out, on account of being behind time. The lasses seemed +very anxious to get in; but they were kept there a few minutes till +the kind old superintendent, Mr Fisher, made his appearance. After +giving the foolish virgins a gentle lecture upon the value of +punctuality, he admitted them to the room. Inside, there were about +three hundred and fifty girls mustered that morning. They are +required to attend four hours a day on four days of the week, and +they are paid 9d. a day for their attendance. They are divided into +classes, each class being watched over by some lady of the +committee. Part of the time each day is set apart for reading and +writing; the rest of the day is devoted to knitting and plain +sewing. The business of each day begins with the reading of the +rules, after which, the names are called over. A girl in a white +pinafore, upon the platform, was calling over the names when we +entered. I never saw a more comely, clean, and orderly assembly +anywhere. I never saw more modest demeanour, nor a greater +proportion of healthy, intelligent faces in any company of equal +numbers. + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + + +"Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two white herrings. +Croak not, black angel; I have no food for thee." +--King Lear. + +I lingered a little while in the work-room, at the Mechanics' +Institution, interested in the scene. A stout young woman came in at +a side door, and hurried up to the centre of the room with a great +roll of coarse gray cloth, and lin check, to be cut up for the +stitchers. One or two of the classes were busy with books and +slates; the remainder of the girls were sewing and knitting; and the +ladies of the committee were moving about, each in quiet +superintendence of her own class. The room was comfortably full, +even on the platform; but there was very little noise, and no +disorder at all. I say again that I never saw a more comely, clean, +and well conducted assembly than this of three hundred and fifty +factory lasses. I was told, however, that even these girls show a +kind of pride of caste amongst one another. The human heart is much +the same in all conditions of life. I did not stay long enough to be +able to say more about this place; but one of the most active and +intelligent ladies connected with the management said to me +afterwards, "Your wealthy manufacturers and merchants must leave a +great deal of common stuff lying in their warehouses, and perhaps +not very saleable just now, which would be much more valuable to us +here than ever it will be to them. Do you think they would like to +give us a little of it if we were to ask them nicely?" I said I +thought there were many of them who would do so; and I think I said +right. + +After a little talk with the benevolent old superintendent, whose +heart, I am sure, is devoted to the business for the sake of the +good it will do, and the evil it will prevent, I set off with my +friend to see some of the poor folk who live in the quarter called +"Scholes." It is not more than five hundred yards from the +Mechanics' Institution to Scholes Bridge, which crosses the little +river Douglas, down in a valley in the eastern part of the town. As +soon as we were at the other end of the bridge, we turned off at the +right hand corner into a street of the poorest sort--a narrow old +street, called "Amy Lane." A few yards on the street we came to a +few steps, which led up, on the right hand side, to a little terrace +of poor cottages, overlooking the river Douglas. We called at one of +these cottages. Though rather disorderly just then, it was not an +uncomfortable place. It was evidently looked after by some homely +dame. A clean old cat dosed upon a chair by the fireside. The bits +of cottage furniture, though cheap, and well worn, were all there; +and the simple household gods, in the shape of pictures and +ornaments, were in their places still. A hardy-looking, brown-faced +man, with close-cropped black hair, and a mild countenance, sat on a +table by the window, making artificial flies, for fishing. In the +corner over his head a cheap, dingy picture of the trial of Queen +Catherine, hung against the wall. I could just make out the tall +figure of the indignant queen, in the well-known theatrical +attitude, with her right arm uplifted, and her sad, proud face +turned away from the judgment-seat, where Henry sits, evidently +uncomfortable in mind, as she gushes forth that bold address to her +priestly foes and accusers. The man sitting beneath the picture, +told us that he was a throstle-overlooker by trade; and that he had +been nine months out of work. He said, "There's five on us here when +we're i'th heawse. When th' wark fell off I had a bit o' brass +save't up, so we were forced to start o' usin' that. But month after +month went by, an' th' brass kept gettin' less, do what we would; +an' th' times geet wur, till at last we fund ersels fair stagged up. +At after that, my mother helped us as weel as hoo could,--why, hoo +does neaw, for th' matter o' that, an' then aw've three brothers, +colliers; they've done their best to poo us through. But they're +nobbut wortchin' four days a week, neaw; besides they'n enough to do +for their own. Aw make no acceawnt o' slotchin' up an' deawn o' this +shap, like a foo. It would sicken a dog, it would for sure. Aw go a +fishin' a bit neaw an' then; an' aw cotter abeawt wi' first one +thing an' then another; but it comes to no sense. Its noan like +gradely wark. It makes me maunder up an' deawn, like a gonnor wi' a +nail in it's yed. Aw wish to God yon chaps in Amerikey would play +th' upstroke, an' get done wi' their bother, so as folk could start +o' their wark again." This was evidently a provident man, who had +striven hard to get through his troubles decently. His position as +overlooker, too, made him dislike the thoughts of receiving relief +amongst the operatives whom he might some day be called upon to +superintend again. + +A little higher up in Amy Lane we came to a kind of square. On the +side where the lane continues there is a dead brick wall; on the +other side, bounding a little space of unpaved ground, rather higher +than the lane, there are a few old brick cottages, of very mean and +dirty appearance. At the doors of some of the cottages squalid, +untidy women were lounging; some of them sitting upon the doorstep, +with their elbows on their knees, smoking, and looking stolidly +miserable. We were now getting near where the cholera made such +havoc during its last visit,--a pestilent jungle, where disease is +always prowling about, "seeking whom it can devour." A few sallow, +dirty children were playing listlessly about the space, in a +melancholy way, looking as if their young minds were already +"sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," and unconsciously +oppressed with wonder why they should be born to such a miserable +share of human life as this. A tall, gaunt woman, with pale face, +and thinly clad in a worn and much-patched calico gown, and with a +pair of "trashes" upon her stockingless feet, sat on the step of the +cottage nearest the lane. The woman rose when she saw my friend. +"Come in," said she; and we followed her into the house. It was a +wretched place; and the smell inside was sickly. I should think a +broker would not give half-a-crown for all the furniture we saw. The +woman seemed simple-minded and very illiterate; and as she stood in +the middle of the floor, looking vaguely round she said, "Aw can +hardly ax yo to sit deawn, for we'n sowd o' th' things eawt o'th +heawse for a bit o' meight; but there is a cheer theer, sich as it +is; see yo; tak' that." When she found that I wished to know +something of her condition--although this was already well known to +the gentleman who accompanied me--she began to tell her story in a +simple, off-hand way. "Aw've had nine childer," said she; "we'n +buried six, an' we'n three alive, an' aw expect another every day." +In one corner there was a rickety little low bedstead. There was no +bedding upon it but a ragged kind of quilt, which covered the +ticking. Upon this quilt something lay, like a bundle of rags, +covered with a dirty cloth. "There's one o' th' childer, lies here, +ill," said she. "It's getten' th' worm fayver." When she uncovered +that little emaciated face, the sick child gazed at me with wild, +burning eyes, and began to whine pitifully. "Husht, my love," said +the poor woman; "he'll not hurt tho'! Husht, now; he's noan beawn to +touch tho'! He's noan o'th doctor, love. Come, neaw, husht; that's a +good lass!" I gave the little thing a penny, and one way and another +we soothed her fears, and she became silent; but the child still +gazed at me with wild eyes, and the forecast of death on its thin +face. The mother began again, "Eh, that little thing has suffered +summat," said she, wiping her eyes; "an', as aw towd yo before, aw +expect another every day. They're born nake't, an' th' next'll ha' +to remain so, for aught that aw con see. But, aw dar not begin o' +thinkin' abeawt it. It would drive me crazy. We han a little lad o' +mi sister's livin' wi' us. Aw had to tak' him when his mother deed. +Th' little thing's noather feyther nor mother, neaw. It's gwon eawt +a beggin' this morning wi' my two childer. My mother lives with us, +too," continued she; "hoo's gooin' i' eighty-four, an' hoo's +eighteen pence a week off th' teawn. There's seven on us, +o'together, an' we'n had eawr share o' trouble, one way an' another, +or else aw'm chetted. Well, aw'll tell yo' what happened to my +husban' o' i' two years' time. My husban's a collier. Well, first he +wur brought whoam wi' three ribs broken--aw wur lyin' in when they +brought him whoam. An' then, at after that, he geet his arm broken; +an' soon after he'd getten o'er that, he wur nearly brunt to deeath +i' one o'th pits at Ratcliffe; an' aw haven't quite done yet, for, +after that, he lee ill o'th rheumatic fayver sixteen week. That o' +happen't i' two years' time. It's God's truth, maister. Mr Lea knows +summat abeawt it--an' he stons theer. Yo may have a like aim what +we'n had to go through. An' that wur when times were'n good; but +then, everything o' that sort helps to poo folk deawn, yo known. +We'n had very hard deed, maister--aw consider we'n had as hard deed +as anybody livin', takkin' o' together." This case was an instance +of the peculiar troubles to which colliers and their families are +liable; a little representative bit of life among the poor of Wigan. +From this place we went further up into Scholes, to a dirty square, +called the "Coal Yard." Here we called at the house of Peter Y_, a +man of fifty-one, and a weaver of a kind of stuff called, "broad +cross-over," at which work he earned about six shillings a week, +when in full employ. His wife was a cripple, unable to help herself; +and, therefore, necessarily a burden. Their children were two girls, +and one boy. The old woman said, "Aw'm always forced to keep one +o'th lasses a-whoam, for aw connot do a hond's turn." The children +had been brought up to factory labour; but both they and their +father had been out of work nearly twelve months. During that time +the family had received relief tickets, amounting to the value of +four shillings a week. Speaking of the old man, the mother said, +"Peter has just getten a bit o' wark again, thank God. He's hardly +fit for it; but he'll do it as lung as he can keep ov his feet." + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + + +"Lord! how the people suffer day by day +A lingering death, through lack of honest bread; +And yet are gentle on their starving way, +By faith in future good and justice led." +--BLACKBURN BARD. + +It is a curious thing to note the various combinations of +circumstance which exist among the families of the poor. On the +surface they seem much the same; and they are reckoned up according +to number, income, and the like. But there are great differences of +feeling and cultivation amongst them; and then, every household has +a story of its own, which no statistics can tell. There is hardly a +family which has not had some sickness, some stroke of disaster, +some peculiar sorrow, or crippling hindrance, arising within itself, +which makes its condition unlike the rest. In this respect each +family is one string in the great harp of humanity--a string which, +touched by the finger of Heaven, contributes a special utterance to +that universal harmony which is too fine for mortal ears. + +From the old weaver's house in "Coal Yard" we went to a place close +by, called "Castle Yard," one of the most unwholesome nooks I have +seen in Wigan yet, though there are many such in that part of the +town. It was a close, pestilent, little cul de sac, shut in by a +dead brick wall at the far end. Here we called upon an Irish family, +seven in number. The mother and two of her daughters were in. The +mother had sore eyes. The place was dirty, and the air inside was +close and foul. The miserable bits of furniture left were fit for +nothing but a bonfire. "Good morning, Mrs K_," said my friend, as we +entered the stifling house; "how are you geting on?" The mother +stood in the middle of the floor, wiping her sore eyes, and then +folding her hands in a tattered apron; whilst her daughters gazed +upon us vacantly from the background. "Oh, then," replied the woman, +"things is worse wid us entirely, sir, than whenever ye wor here +before. I dunno what will we do whin the winter comes." In reply to +me, she said, "We are seven altogether, wid my husband an' myself. I +have one lad was ill o' the yallow jaundice this many months, an' +there is somethin' quare hangin' over that boy this day; I dunno +whatever shall we do wid him. I was thinkin' this long time could I +get a ricommind to see would the doctor give him anythin' to rise an +appetite in him at all. By the same token, I know it is not a +convanient time for makin' appetites in poor folk just now. But +perhaps the doctor might be able to do him some good, by the way he +would be ready when times mind. Faith, my hands is full wid one +thing an' another. Ah, thin; but God is good, after all. We dunno +what is He goin' to do through the dark stroke is an' us this day." +Here my friend interrupted her, saying, "Don't you think, Mrs K_, +that you would be more comfortable if you were to keep your house +cleaner? It costs nothing, you know, but a little labour; and you +have nothing else to do just now." "Ah, then," replied she; "see +here, now. I was just gettin' the mug ready for that same, whenever +ye wor comin' into the yard, I was. "Here she turned sharply round, +and said to one of the girls, who was standing in the background, +"Go on, wid ye, now; and clane the flure. Didn't I tell ye many a +time this day?" The girl smiled, and shuffled away into a dingy +little room at the rear of the cottage. "Faith, sir," continued the +woman, beating time with her hand in the air; "faith, sir, it is not +aisy for a poor woman to manage unbiddable childer." "What part of +Ireland do you come from, Mrs K_?" said I. She hesitated a second or +two, and played with her chin; then, blushing slightly, she replied +in a subdued tone, "County Galway, sir." "Well," said I, "you've no +need to be ashamed of that." The woman seemed reassured, and +answered at once, "Oh, indeed then, sir, I am not ashamed--why would +I? I am more nor seventeen year now in England, an' I never +disguised my speech, nor disowned my country--nor I never will, +aither, plase God." She had said before that her husband was forty- +five years of age; and now I inquired what age she was. "I am the +same age as my husband," replied she. "Forty-five," said I. "No, +indeed, I am not forty-five," answered she; "nor forty naither." +"Are you thirty-eight?" "May be I am; I dunno. I don't think I am +thirty-eight naither; I am the same age as my husband." It was no +use talking, so the subject was dropped. As we came away, the woman +followed my friend to the door, earnestly pleading the cause of some +family in the neighbourhood, who were in great distress. "See now," +said she, "they are a large family, and the poor crayters are +starvin'. He is a shoemaker, an' he doesn't be gettin' any work this +longtime. Oh, indeed, then, Mr Lea, God knows thim people is badly +off." My friend promised to visit the family she had spoken of, and +we came away. The smell of the house, and of the court altogether, +was so sickening that we were glad to get into the air of the open +street again. + +It was now about half-past eleven, and my friend said, "We have +another workroom for young women in the schoolroom of St Catherine's +Church. It is about five minutes' walk from here; we have just time +to see it before they break up for dinner." It was a large, square, +brick building, standing by the road side, upon high ground, at the +upper end of Scholes. The church is about fifty yards east of the +schoolhouse. This workroom was more airy, and better lighted than +the one at the Mechanics' Institution. The floor was flagged, which +will make it colder than the other in winter time. There were four +hundred girls in this room, some engaged in sewing and knitting, +others in reading and writing. They are employed four days in the +week, and they are paid ninepence a day, as at the other two rooms +in the town. It really was a pleasant thing to see their clear, +healthy, blond complexions; their clothing, so clean and whole, +however poor; and their orderly deportment. But they had been +accustomed to work, and their work had given them a discipline which +is not sufficiently valued. There are people who have written a +great deal, and know very little about the influence of factory +labour upon health,--it would be worth their while to see some of +these workrooms. I think it would sweep cobwebs away from the +corners of their minds. The clothing made up in these workrooms is +of a kind suitable for the wear of working people, and is intended +to be given away to the neediest among them, in the coming winter. I +noticed a feature here which escaped me in the room at the +Mechanics' Institution. On one side of the room there was a flight +of wooden stairs, about six yards wide. Upon these steps were seated +a number of children, with books in their hands. These youngsters +were evidently restless, though not noisy; and they were not very +attentive to their books. These children were the worst clad and +least clean part of the assembly; and it was natural that they +should be so, for they were habitual beggars, gathered from the +streets, and brought there to be taught and fed. When they were +pointed out to me, I could not help thinking that the money which +has been spent upon ragged schools is an excellent investment in the +sense of world-wide good. I remarked to one of the ladies teaching +there, how very clean and healthy the young women looked. She said +that the girls had lately been more in the open air than usual. +"And," said she, speaking of the class she was superintending, "I +find these poor girls as apt learners as any other class of young +people I ever knew." We left the room just before they were +dismissed to dinner. + +A few yards from the school, and by the same roadside, we came to a +little cottage at the end of a row. "We will call here," said my +friend; "I know the people very well. "A little, tidy, good-looking +woman sat by the fire, nursing an infant at the breast. The house +was clean, and all the humble furniture of the poor man's cottage +seemed to be still in its place. There were two shelves of books +hanging against the walls, and a pile of tracts and pamphlets, a +foot deep, on a small table at the back of the room. I soon found, +however, that these people were going through their share of the +prevalent suffering. The family was six in number. The comely little +woman said that her husband was a weaver of "Cross-over;" and I +suppose he would earn about six or seven shillings a week at that +kind of work; but he had been long out of work. His wife said, "I've +had to pop my husban's trousers an' waistcoat many a time to pay th' +rent o' this house." She then began to talk about her first-born, +and the theme was too much for her. "My owdest child was thirteen +when he died," said she. "Eh, he was a fine child. We lost him about +two years sin'. He was killed. He fell down that little pit o' +Wright's, Mr Lea, he did." Then the little woman began to cry, "Eh, +my poor lad! Eh, my fine little lad! Oh dear,--oh dear o' me!" What +better thing could we have done than to say nothing at such a +moment. We waited a few minutes until she became calm, and then she +began to talk about a benevolent young governess who used to live in +that quarter, and who had gone about doing good there, amongst "all +sorts and conditions of men," especially the poorest. + +"Eh," said she; "that was a good woman, if ever there was one. Hoo +teached a class o' fifty at church school here, though hoo wur a +Dissenter. An' hoo used to come to this house every Sunday neet, an' +read th' Scripturs; an' th' place wur olez crammed--th' stairs an +o'. Up-groon fellows used to come an' larn fro her, just same as +childer--they did for sure--great rough colliers, an' o' mak's. Hoo +used to warn 'em again drinkin', an' get 'em to promise that they +wouldn't taste for sich a time. An' if ever they broke their +promise, they olez towd her th' truth, and owned to it at once. They +like as iv they couldn't for shame tell her a lie. There's one of +her scholars, a blacksmith--he's above fifty year owd--iv yo were to +mention her name to him just now, he'd begin a-cryin', an' he'd ha' +to walk eawt o'th heause afore he could sattle hissel'. Eh, hoo wur +a fine woman; an' everything that hoo said wur so striking. Hoo +writes to her scholars here, once a week; an' hoo wants 'em to write +back to her, as mony on 'em as con do. See yo; that's one ov her +letters!" + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + + +"Come, child of misfortune, come hither! +I'll weep with thee, tear for tear." +--TOM MOORE. + +The weaver's wife spoke very feelingly of the young governess who +had been so good to the family. Her voice trembled with emotion as +she told of her kindnesses, which had so won the hearts of the poor +folk thereabouts, that whenever they hear her name now, their +tongues leap at once into heart-warm praise of her. It seems to have +been her daily pleasure to go about helping those who needed help +most, without any narrowness of distinction; in the spirit of that +"prime wisdom" which works with all its might among such elements as +lie nearest to the hand. Children and gray-haired working men +crowded into the poor cottages to hear her read, and to learn the +first elements of education at her free classes. She left the town, +some time ago, to live in the south of England; but the blessings of +many who were ready to perish in Wigan will follow her all her days, +and her memory will long remain a garden of good thoughts and +feelings to those she has left behind. The eyes of the weaver's wife +grew moist as she told of the old blacksmith, who could not bear to +hear her name mentioned without tears. On certain nights of the week +he used to come regularly with the rest to learn to read, like a +little child, from that young teacher. As I said in my last, she +still sends a weekly letter to her poor scholars in Wigan to +encourage them in their struggles, and to induce as many of them as +are able to write to her in return. "This is one of her letters," +said the poor woman, handing a paper to me. The manner of the +handwriting was itself characteristic of kind consideration for her +untrained readers. The words stood well apart. The letters were +clearly divided, and carefully and distinctly written, in Roman +characters, a quarter of an inch long; and there was about three- +quarters of an inch of space between each line, so as to make the +whole easier to read by those not used to manuscript. The letter ran +as follows:--"Dear friends,--I send you with this some little books, +which I hope you will like to try to read; soon, I hope, I shall be +able to help you with those texts you cannot make out by yourselves. +I often think of you, dear friends, and wish that I could sometimes +take a walk to Scholefield's Lane. This wish only makes me feel how +far I am from you, but then I remember with gladness that I may +mention you all by name to our one Father, and ask Him to bless you. +Very often I do ask Him, and one of my strongest wishes is that we, +who have so often read His message of love together, may all of us +love the Saviour, and, through Him, be saved from sin. Dear friends, +do pray to Him. With kind love and best wishes to each one of you, +believe me always, your sincere friend, __." I have dwelt a little +upon this instance of unassuming beneficence, to show that there is +a great deal of good being done in this world, which is not much +heard of, except by accident. One meets with it, here and there, as +a thirsty traveller meets with an unexpected spring in the +wilderness, refreshing its own plot of earth, without noise or +ostentation. + +My friend and I left the weaver's cottage, and came down again into +a part of Scholes where huddled squalor and filth is to be found on +all sides. On our way we passed an old tattered Irishwoman, who was +hurrying along, with two large cabbages clipt tight in her withered +arms. "You're doin' well, old lady," said I. "Faith," replied she, +"if I had a big lump ov a ham bone, now, wouldn't we get over this +day in glory, anyhow. But no matter. There's not wan lafe o' them +two fellows but will be clane out o' sight before the clock strikes +again." The first place we called at in this quarter was a poor +half-empty cottage, inhabited by an old widow and her sick daughter. +The girl sat there pale and panting, and wearing away to skin and +bone. She was far gone in consumption. Their only source of +maintenance was the usual grant of relief from the committee, but +this girl's condition needed further consideration. The old widow +said to my friend, "Aw wish yo could get me some sort o' nourishment +for this lass, Mr Lea; aw cannot get it mysel', an' yo see'n heaw +hoo is." My friend took a note of the case, and promised to see to +it at once. When great weltering populations, like that of +Lancashire, are thrown suddenly into such a helpless state as now, +it is almost impossible to lay hold at once of every nice +distinction of circumstances that gives a speciality of suffering to +the different households of the poor. But I believe, as this time of +trouble goes on, the relief committees are giving a more careful and +delicate consideration to the respective conditions of poor +families. + +After leaving the old widow's house, as we went farther down into +the sickly hive of penury and dirt, called "Scholes," my friend told +me of an intelligent young woman, a factory operative and a Sunday- +school teacher, who had struggled against starvation, till she could +bear it no longer; and, even after she had accepted the grant of +relief, she "couldn't for shame" fetch the tickets herself, but +waited outside whilst a friend of hers went in for them. The next +house we visited was a comfortable cottage. The simple furniture was +abundant, and good of its kind, and the whole was remarkably clean. +Amongst the wretched dwellings in its neighbourhood, it shone "like +a good deed in a naughty world." On the walls there were several +Catholic pictures, neatly framed; and a large old-fashioned wooden +wheel stood in the middle of the floor, with a quantity of linen +yarn upon it. Old Stephen I__ and his cosy goodwife lived there. The +old woman was "putting the place to rights" after their noontide +meal; and Stephen was "cottering" about the head of the cellar steps +when we went in. There were a few healthy plants in the windows, and +everything gave evidence of industry and care. The good-tempered old +couple were very communicative. Old Stephen was a weaver of diaper; +and, when he had anything to do, he could earn about eight shillings +a week. "Some can get more than that at the same work," said he; +"but I am gettin' an old man, ye see. I shall be seventy-three on +the 10th of next October, and, beside that, I have a very bad arm, +which is a great hindrance to me." "He has had very little work for +months, now," said his wife; "an' what makes us feel it more, just +now, is that my son is over here on a visit to us, from Oscott +College. He is studying for the priesthood. He went to St John's, +here, in Wigan, for five years, as a pupil teacher; an' he took good +ways, so the principals of the college proposed to educate him for +the Church of Rome. He was always a good boy, an' a bright one, too. +I wish we had been able to entertain him better. But he knows that +the times are again us. He is twenty-four years of age; an' I often +think it strange that his father's birthday and his own fall on the +same day of the month--the 10th of October. I hope we'll both live +to see him an ornament to his profession yet. There is only the +girl, an' Stephen, an' myself left at home now, an' we have hard +work to pull through, I can assure ye; though there are many people +a dale worse off than we are." + +From this place we went up to a street called "Vauxhall Road." In +the first cottage we called at here the inmates were all out of +work, as usual, and living upon relief. There happened to be a poor +old white-haired weaver sitting in the house,--an aged neighbour out +of work, who had come in to chat with my friend a bit. My friend +asked how he was getting on. "Yo mun speak up," said the woman of +the house, "he's very deaf." "What age are yo, maister?" said I. +"What?" "How old are yo?" "Aw'm a beamer," replied the old man, "a +twister-in,--when there's ought doin'. But it's nowt ov a trade +neaw. Aw'll tell yo what ruins me; it's these lung warps. They maken +'em seven an' eight cuts in, neaw an' then. There's so mony +'fancies' an' things i' these days; it makes my job good to nought +at o' for sich like chaps as me. When one gets sixty year owd, they +needen to go to schoo again neaw; they getten o'erta'en wi' so many +kerly-berlies o' one mak and another. Mon, owd folk at has to wortch +for a livin' cannot keep up wi' sich times as these,--nought o'th +sort." "Well, but how do you manage to live?" "Well, aw can hardly +tell,--aw'll be sunken iv aw can tell. It's very thin pikein'; but +very little does for me, an' aw've nought but mysel'. Yo see'n, aw +get a bit ov a job neaw an' then, an' a scrat amung th' rook, like +an owd hen. But aw'll tell yo one thing; aw'll not go up yon, iv aw +can help it,--aw'll not." ("Up yon" meant to the Board of +Guardians.) "Eh, now," said the woman of the house, "aw never see'd +sich a man as him i' my life. See yo, he'll sit an' clem fro mornin' +to neet afore he'll ax oather relief folk or onybody else for a +bite." + +In the same street we called at a house where there was a tall, pale +old man, sitting sadly in an old arm-chair, by the fireside. The +little cottage was very sweet and orderly. Every window was cleaned +to its utmost nook of glass, and every bit of metal was brightened +up to the height. The flagged floor was new washed; and everything +was in its own place. There were a few books on little shelves, and +a Bible lay on the window-sill; and there was a sad, chapel-like +stillness in the house. A clean, staid-looking girl stood at a +table, peeling potatoes for dinner. The old man said, "We are five, +altogether, in this house. This lass is a reeler. I am a weighver; +but we'n bin out o' wark nine months, now. We'n bin force't to tak +to relief at last; an' we'n getten five tickets. We could happen ha' +manage't better,--but aw'm sore wi' rheumatism, yo see'n. Aw've had +a bit o' weighvin' i'th heawse mony a day, but aw've th' rheumatic +so bad i' this hond--it's hond that aw pick wi'--that aw couldn't +bide to touch a fither with it, bless yo. Aw have th' rheumatic all +o'er mo, nearly; an' it leads one a feaw life. Yo happen never had a +touch on it, had yo?" "Never." "Well; yo're weel off. When is this +war to end, thinken yo?" "Nay; that's a very hard thing to tell." " +Well, we mun grin an' abide till it's o'er, aw guess. It's a mad mak +o' wark. But it'll happen turn up for best i'th end ov o'." + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + + +"Mother, heaw leets we han no brade,-- +Heawever con it be? +Iv aw don't get some brade to eat, +Aw think 'at aw mun dee." +--Hungry Child. + +It was about noon when we left the old weaver, nursing his rheumatic +limbs by the side of a dim fire, in his chapel-like little house. +His daughter, a tall, clean, shy girl, began to peel a few potatoes +just before we came away. It is a touching thing, just now, to see +so many decent cottages of thrifty working men brought low by the +strange events of these days; cottages in which everything betokens +the care of well-conducted lives, and where the sacred fire of +independent feeling is struggling through the long frost of +misfortune with patient dignity. It is a touching thing to see the +simple joys of life, in homes like these, crushed into a speechless +endurance of penury, and the native spirit of self-reliance writhing +in unavoidable prostration, and hoping on from day to day for better +times. I have seen many such places in my wanderings during these +hard days--cottages where all was so sweet and orderly, both in +person and habitation, that, but for the funereal stillness which +sat upon hunger-nipt faces, a stranger would hardly have dreamt that +the people dwelling there were undergoing any uncommon privation. I +have often met with such people in my rambles,--I have often found +them suffering pangs more keen than hunger alone could inflict, +because they arose from the loss of those sweet relations of +independence which are dear to many of them as life itself. With +such as these--the shy, the proud, the intelligent and uncomplaining +endurers--hunger is not the hardest thing that befalls:- + +"When the mind's free, +The body's delicate; the tempest in their minds +Doth from their senses take all else, +Save what beats there." + +People of this temper are more numerous amongst our working +population than the world believes, because they are exactly of the +kind least likely to be heard of. They will fight their share of the +battle of this time out as nobly as they have begun it; and it will +be an ill thing for the land that owns them if full justice is not +done to their worth, both now and hereafter. + +In the same street where the old weaver lived, we called upon a +collier's family--a family of ten in number. The colliers of Wigan +have been suffering a good deal lately, among the rest of the +community, from shortness of labour. It was dinner-time when we +entered the house, and the children were all swarming about the +little place clamouring for their noontide meal. With such a rough +young brood, I do not wonder that the house was not so tidy as some +that I had seen. The collier's wife was a decent, good-tempered- +looking woman, though her face was pale and worn, and bore evidence +of the truth of her words, when she said, "Bless your life, aw'm +poo'd to pieces wi' these childer!" She sat upon a stool, nursing a +child at the breast, and doing her best to still the tumult of the +others, who were fluttering about noisily. "Neaw, Sammul," said she, +"theaw'll ha' that pot upo th' floor in now,--thae little pousement +thae! Do keep eawt o' mischief,--an' make a less din, childer, win +yo: for my yed's fair maddle't wi' one thing an' another . . . +Mary, tak' th' pon off th' fire, an' reach me yon hippin' off th' +oondur; an' then sit tho deawn somewheer, do,--thae'll be less bi +th' legs." The children ranged seemingly from about two months up to +fourteen years of age. Two of the youngest were sitting upon the +bottom step of the stairs, eating off one plate. Four rough lads +were gathered round a brown dish, which stood upon a little deal +table in the middle of the floor. These four were round-headed +little fellows, all teeming with life. "Yon catched us eawt +o'flunters, (out of order,)" said the poor woman when we entered; +"but what con a body do?" We were begging that she would not disturb +herself, when one of the lads at the table called out, "Mother; look +at eawr John. He keeps pushin' me off th' cheer!" "Eh, John," +replied she; "I wish thy feyther were here! Thae'rt olez tormentin' +that lad. Do let him alone, wilto--or else aw'll poo that toppin' o' +thine, smartly--aw will! An' do see iv yo connot behave yorsels!" +"Well," said John; "he keeps takkin' my puddin'!" "Eh, what a +story," replied the other little fellow; "it wur thee, neaw!" " +Aw'll tell yo what it is," said the mother, "iv yo two connot agree, +an' get your dinner quietly, aw'll tak that dish away; an' yo'st not +have another bite this day. Heaw con yo for shame!" This quietened +the lads a little, and they went on with their dinner. At another +little table under the back window, two girls stood, dining off one +plate. The children were all eating a kind of light pudding, known +in Lancashire by the name of "Berm-bo," or, "Berm-dumplin'," made of +flour and yeast, mixed with a little suet. The poor woman said that +her children were all "hearty-etten," (all hearty eaters,) +especially the lads; and she hardly knew what to make for them, so +as to have enough for the whole. "Berm-dumplin'," was as satisfying +as anything that she could get, and it would "stick to their ribs" +better than "ony mak o' swill;" besides, the children liked it. +Speaking of her husband, she said, "He were eawt o' wark a good +while; but he geet a shop at last, at Blackrod, abeawt four mile off +Wigan. When he went a-wortchin' to Blackrod, at first, nought would +sarve but he would walk theer an' back every day, so as to save +lodgin' brass,--an sich like. Aw shouldn't ha' care't iv it had +nobbut bin a mile, or two even; for aw'd far rayther that he had his +meals comfortable awhoam, an' his bits o' clooas put reet; but Lord +bless yo,--eight mile a day, beside a hard day's wark,--it knocked +him up at last,--it were so like. He kept sayin', 'Oh, he could do +it,' an' sich like; but aw could see that he were fair killin' +hissel', just for the sake o' comin' to his own whoam ov a neet; an' +for th' sake o' savin' two or three shillin'; so at last aw turned +Turk, an' made him tak lodgin's theer. Aw'd summut to do to persuade +him at first, an' aw know that he's as whoam-sick as a chylt that's +lost its mother, just this minute; but then, what's th' matter o' +that,--it wouldn't do for mo to have him laid up, yo known. . . . +Oh, he's a very feelin' mon. Aw've sin him when he couldn't finish +his bit o' dinner for thinkin' o' somebody that were clemmin'." +Speaking of the hardships the family had experienced, she said, "Eh, +bless yo! There's some folk can sit i'th heawse an' send their +childer to prow eawt a-beggin' in a mornin', regilar,--but eawr +childer wouldn't do it,--an', iv they would, aw wouldn' let 'em,-- +naw, not iv we were clemmin' to deeoth,--to my thinkin'." + +The woman was quite right. Among the hard-tried operatives of +Lancashire I have seen several instances in which they have gone out +daily to beg; and some rare cases, even, in which they have stayed +moodily at home themselves and sent their children forth to beg; and +anybody living in this county will have noticed the increase of +mendicancy there, during the last few months. No doubt professional +beggars have taken large advantage of this unhappy time to work upon +the sympathies of those easy givers who cannot bear to hear the wail +of distress, however simulated--who prefer giving at once, because +it "does their own hearts good," to the trouble of inquiring or the +pain of refusing,--who would rather relieve twenty rogues than miss +the blessing of one honest soul who was ready to perish,--those +kind-hearted, free-handed scatterers of indiscriminate benevolence +who are the keen-eyed, whining cadger's chief support, his standing +joke, and favourite prey; and who are more than ever disposed to +give to whomsoever shall ask of them in such a season as this. All +the mendicancy which appears on our streets does not belong to the +suffering operatives of Lancashire. But, apart from those poor, +miserable crawlers in the gutters of life, who live by habitual and +unnecessary beggary, great and continued adversity is a strong test +of the moral tone of any people. Extreme poverty, and the painful +things which follow in its train--these are "bad to bide" with the +best of mankind. Besides, there are always some people who, from +causes within themselves, are continually at their wits' end to keep +the wolf from the door, even when employment is plentiful with them; +and there are some natures too weak to bear any long strain of +unusual poverty without falling back upon means of living which, in +easy circumstances, they would have avoided, if not despised. It is +one evil of the heavy pressure of the times; for there is fear that +among such as these, especially the young and plastic, some may +become so familiar with that beggarly element which was offensive to +their minds at first--may so lose the tone of independent pride, and +become "subdued to what they work in, like the dyer's hand,"--that +they may learn to look upon mendicancy as an easy source of support +hereafter, even in times of less difficulty than the present. + +Happily, such weakness as this is not characteristic of the English +people; but "they are well kept that God keeps," and perhaps it +would not be wise to cramp the hand of relief too much at a time +like this, to a people who have been, and will be yet, the hope and +glory of the land. + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + + +"Poor Tom's a-cold! Who gives anything to poor Tom?" +--King Lear. + +One sometimes meets with remarkable differences of condition in the +households of poor folk, which stand side by side in the same +street. I am not speaking of the uncertain shelters of those who +struggle upon the skirts of civilisation, in careless, uncared-for +wretchedness, without settled homes, or regular occupation,--the +miserable camp followers of life's warfare,--living habitually from +hand to mouth, in a reckless wrestle with the world, for mere +existence. I do not mean these, but the households of our common +working people. Amongst the latter one sometimes meets with striking +differences, in cleanliness, furniture, manners, intellectual +acquirements, and that delicate compound of mental elements called +taste. Even in families whose earnings have been equal in the past, +and who are just now subject alike to the same pinch of adversity, +these disparities are sometimes very great. And, although there are +cases in which the immediate causes of these differences are evident +enough in the habits of the people, yet, in others, the causes are +so obscure, that the wisest observer would be most careful in +judging respecting them. I saw an example of this in a little bye- +street, at the upper end of Scholes--a quarter of Wigan where the +poorest of the poor reside, and where many decent working people +have lately been driven for cheap shelter by the stress of the +times. Scholes is one of those ash-pits of human life which may be +found in almost any great town; where, among a good deal of despised +stuff, which by wise treatment might possibly be made useful to the +world, many a jewel gets accidentally thrown away, and lost. This +bye-street of mean brick cottages had an unwholesome, outcast look; +and the sallow, tattered women, lounging about the doorways, and +listlessly watching the sickly children in the street, evinced the +prevalence of squalor and want there. The very children seemed +joyless at their play; and everything that met the eye foretold that +there was little chance of finding anything in that street but +poverty in its most prostrate forms. But, even in this unpromising +spot, I met with an agreeable surprise. + +The first house we entered reminded me of those clean, lone +dwellings, up in the moorland nooks of Lancashire, where the sweet +influences of nature have free play; where the people have a +hereditary hatred of dirt and disorder; and where, even now, many of +the hardy mountain folk are half farmers, half woollen weavers, +doing their weaving in their own quiet houses, where the smell of +the heather and the song of the wild bird floats in at the workman's +window, blent with the sounds of rindling waters,--doing their +weaving in green sequestered nooks, where the low of kine, and the +cry of the moorfowl can be heard; and bearing the finished "cuts" +home upon their backs to the distant town. All was so bright in this +little cottage,--so tidy and serene,--that the very air seemed +clearer there than in the open street. The humble furniture, good of +its kind, was all shiny with "elbow grease," and some parts of it +looked quaint and well-preserved, like the heirlooms of a careful +cottage ancestry. The well polished fire-irons, and other metal +things, seemed to gather up the diffuse daylight and fling it back +in concentrated radiances that illuminated the shady cottage with +cheerful beauty. The little shelf of books, the gleaming window, +with its healthy pot flowers, the perfect order, and the trim +sweetness of everything, reminded me, as I have said, of the better +sort of houses where simple livers dwell, up among the free air of +the green hills--those green hills of Lancashire, the remembrance of +which will always stir my heart as long as it can stir to anything. +This cottage, in comparison with most of those which I had seen in +Scholes, looked like a glimpse of the star-lit blue peeping through +the clouds on a gloomy night. I found that it was the house of a +widower, a weaver of diaper, who was left with a family of eight +children to look after. Two little girls were in the house, and they +were humbly but cleanly clad. One of them called her father up from +the cellar, where he was working at his looms. He was a mild, +thoughtful-looking man, something past middle age. I could not help +admiring him as he stood in the middle of the floor with his +unsleeved arms folded, uttering quiet jets of simple speech to my +friend, who had known him before. He said that he hardly ever got +anything to do now, but when he was at work he could make about 7s. +2d. a week by weaving two cuts. He was receiving six tickets weekly +from the Relief Committee, which, except the proceeds of a little +employment now and then, was all that the family of nine had to +depend upon for food, firing, clothes, and rent. He said that he was +forced to make every little spin out as far as it would; but it kept +him bare and busy, and held his nose "everlastingly deawn to th' +grindlestone." But he didn't know that it was any use complaining +about a thing that neither master nor man could help. He durst say +that he could manage to grin and bide till things came round, th' +same as other folk had to do. Grumbling, in a case like this, was +like "fo'in eawt wi' th' elements," (quarrelling with a storm.) One +of his little girls was on her knees, cleaning the floor. She +stopped a minute, to look at my friend and me. "Come, my lass," said +her father, "get on wi' thi weshin'." "I made application for th' +watchman's place at Leyland Mill," continued he, "but I wur to lat. +. . . There's nought for it," continued he, as we came out of the +house, "there's nought for it but to keep one's een oppen, an' do as +weel as they con, till it blows o'er." + +A few yards from this house, we looked in at a slip of a cottage, at +the corner of the row. It was like a slice off some other cottage, +stuck on at the end of the rest, to make up the measure of the +street; for it was less than two yards wide, by about four yards +long. There was only one small window, close to the door, and it was +shrouded by a dingy cotton blind. When we first entered, I could +hardly see what there was in that gloomy cell; but when the eyes +became acquainted with the dimness within, we found that there was +neither fire nor furniture in the place, except at the far end, +where an old sick woman lay gasping upon three chairs, thinly +covered from the cold. She was dying of asthma. At her right hand +there was another rickety chair, by the help of which she raised +herself up from her hard bed. She said that she had never been up +stairs during the previous twelve months, but had lain there, at the +foot of the stairs, all that time. She had two daughters. They were +both out of the house; and they had been out of work a long time. +One of them had gone to Miss B_'s to learn to sew. "She gets her +breakfast before she starts," said the old woman, "an' she takes a +piece o' bread with her, to last for th' day." It was a trouble to +her to talk much, so we did not stop long; but I could not help +feeling sorry that the poor old soul had not a little more comfort +to smooth her painful passage to the grave. On our way from this +place, we went into a cottage near the "Coal Yard," where a tall, +thin Irishwoman was washing some tattered clothes, whilst her +children played about the gutter outside. This was a family of +seven, and they were all out of work, except the father, who was +away, trying to make a trifle by hawking writing-paper and +envelopes. This woman told us that she was in great trouble about +one of her children--the eldest daughter, now grown up to womanhood. +"She got married to a sailor about two year ago," said she, "an' he +wint away a fortnit after, an' never was heard of since. She never +got the scrape ov a pen from him to say was he alive or dead. She +never heard top nor tail of him since he wint from her; an' the girl +is just pinin' away." + +Poor folk have their full share of the common troubles of life, +apart from the present distress. The next place we visited was the +"Fleece Yard," another of those unhealthy courts, of which there are +so many in Scholes--where poverty and dirt unite to make life doubly +miserable. In this yard we went up three or four steps into a little +disorderly house, where a family of eleven was crowded. Not one of +the eleven was earning anything except the father, who was working +for ls. 3d. a day. In addition to this the family received four +tickets weekly from the Relief Committee. There were several of the +children in, and they looked brisk and healthy, in spite of the dirt +and discomfort of the place; but the mother was sadly "torn down" by +the cares of her large family. The house had a sickly smell. Close +to the window, a little, stiff built, bullet-headed lad stood, +stript to the waist, sputtering and splashing as he washed himself +in a large bowl of water, placed upon a stool. By his side there was +another lad three or four years older, and the two were having a bit +of famous fun together, quite heedless of all else. The elder kept +ducking the little fellow's head into the water, upon which the one +who was washing himself sobbed, and spat, and cried out in great +glee, "Do it again, Jack!" The mother, seeing us laugh at the lads, +said, "That big un's been powin' tother, an' th' little monkey's +gone an' cut every smite o' th' lad's toppin' off. "" Well," said +the elder lad, "Aw did it so as nobody can lug him. "And it +certainly was a close clip. We could see to the roots of the little +fellow's hair all over his round, hard head. "Come," said the +mother, "yo two are makin' a nice floor for mo. Thae'll do, mon; +arto beawn to lother o' th' bit o' swoap away that one has to wash +wi'; gi's howd on't this minute, an' go thi ways an' dry thisel', +thae little pouse, thae." We visited several other places in Scholes +that day, but of these I will say something hereafter. In the +evening I returned home, and the thing that I best remember hearing +on the way was an anecdote of two Lancashire men, who had been +disputing a long time about something that one of them knew little +of. At last the other turned to him, and said, "Jem; does thae know +what it is that makes me like thee so weel, owd brid?" "Naw; what is +it?" "Why; it's becose thae'rt sich a ___ foo!" "Well," replied the +other, "never thee mind that;" and then, alluding to the subject +they had been disputing about, he said, "Thae knows, Joe, aw know +thae'rt reet enough; but, by th' men, aw'll not give in till +mornin'." + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + + +"Here, take this purse, thou whom the Heaven's plagues +Have humbled to all strokes." +--King Lear. + +In the afternoon of the last day I spent in Wigan, as I wandered +with my friend from one cottage to another, in the long suburban +lane called "Hardy Butts," I bethought me how oft I had met with +this name of "Butts "connected with places in or close to the towns +of Lancashire. To me the original application of the name seems +plain, and not uninteresting. In the old days, when archery was +common in England, the bowmen of Lancashire were famous; and it is +more than likely that these yet so-called "Butts" are the places +where archery was then publicly practised. When Sir Edward Stanley +led the war-smiths of Lancashire and Cheshire to Flodden Field, the +men of Wigan are mentioned as going with the rest. And among those +"fellows fearce and freshe for feight," of whom the quaint old +alliterative ballad describes the array:- + +"A stock of striplings strong of heart, +Brought up from babes with beef and bread, +From Warton unto Warrington +From Wigan unto Wiresdale--" + +and, from a long list of the hills, and cloughs, and old towns of +the county--the bowmen of Lancashire did their share of work upon +that field. The use of the bow lingered longer in Lancashire than in +some parts of the kingdom--longer in England generally than many +people suppose. Sir Walter Scott says, in a note to his "Legend of +Montrose:" "Not only many of the Highlanders in Montrose's army used +these antique missiles, but even in England the bow and quiver, once +the glory of the bold yeomen of that land, were occasionally used +during the great civil wars." + +But I have said enough upon this subject in this place. My friend's +business, and mine, in Wigan, that day, was connected with other +things. He was specially wishful that I should call upon an +acquaintance of his, who lived in "Hardy Butts," an old man and very +poor; a man heavily stricken by fortune's blows, yet not much tamed +thereby; a man "steeped to the lips" in poverty, yet of a jocund +spirit; a humorist and a politician, among his humble companions. I +felt curious to see this "Old John," of whom I heard so much. We +went to the cottage where he lived. There was very little furniture +in the place, and, like the house itself, it was neither good nor +clean; but then the poverty-stricken pair were very old, and, so far +as household comfort went, they had to look after themselves. When +we entered, the little wrinkled woman sat with her back to us, +smoking, and gazing at the dirty grate, where a few hot cinders +glowed dimly in the lowmost bars. "Where's John?" said my friend. +"He hasn't bin gone eawt aboon five minutes," said she, turning +round to look at us, "Wur yo wantin' him?" "Yes, I should like to +see him." She looked hard at my friend again, and then cried out, +"Eh, is it yo? Come, an' sit yo deawn! aw'll go an' see iv aw can +root him up for yo!" But we thought it as well to visit some other +houses in the neighbourhood, calling at old John's again afterwards; +so we told the old woman, and came away. + +My friend was well known to the poor people of that neighbourhood as +a member of the Relief Committee, and we had not gone many yards +down "Hardy Butts" before we drew near where three Irishwomen were +sitting upon the doorsteps of a miserable cottage, chattering, and +looking vacantly up and down the slutchy street. As soon as they +caught sight of my friend, one of the women called out, "Eh, here's +Mr Lea! Come here, now, Mr Lea, till I spake to ye. Ah, now; +couldn't ye do somethin' for old Mary beyant there? Sure the colour +of hunger's in that woman's face. Faith, it's a pity to see the way +she is,--neither husband nor son, nor chick nor child, nor bit nor +sup, barrin' what folk that has nothin' can give to her,--the +crayter." " Oh, indeed, then, sir," said another, "I'll lave it to +God; but that woman is starvin'. She is little more nor skin an' +bone,--and that's goin' less. Faith, she's not long for this world, +any how. . . . Bridget, ye might run an' see can she come here a +minute. . . . But there she is, standin' at the corner. Mary! Come +here, now, woman, till ye see the gentleman." She was a miserable- +looking creature; old, and ill, and thinly-clothed in rags, with a +dirty cloth tied round her head. My friend asked her some questions, +which she answered slowly, in a low voice that trembled with more +than the weakness of old age. He promised to see to the relief of +her condition immediately-- and she thanked him, but so feebly, that +it seemed to me as if she had not strength enough left to care much +whether she was relieved or not. + +But, as we came away, the three Irishwomen, sitting upon the door- +steps, burst forth into characteristic expressions of gratitude. +"Ah! long life to ye, Mr Lea! The prayer o' the poor is wid ye for +evermore. If there was ony two people goin' to heaven alive, you'll +be wan o' them. . . That ye may never know want nor scant,--for the +good heart that's batein' in ye, Mr Lea." We now went through some +of the filthy alleys behind "Hardy Butts," till we came to the +cottage of a poor widow and her two daughters. The three were +entirely dependent upon the usual grant of relief from the +committee. My friend called here to inquire why the two girls had +not been to school during the previous few days; and whilst their +mother was explaining the reason, a neighbour woman who had seen us +enter, looked in at the door, and said, "Hey! aw say, Mr Lea!" +"Well, what's the matter?" " Whaw, there's a woman i'th next street +at's gettin' four tickets fro th' relief folk, reggilar, an' her +husban's addlin' thirty shillin' a week o' t' time, as a sinker--he +is for sure. Aw 'm noan tellin' yo a wort ov a lie. Aw consider sick +wark as that's noan reet--an' so mony folk clemmin' as there is i' +Wigan." He made a note of the matter; but he told me afterwards that +such reports were often found to be untrue, having their origin +sometimes in private spite or personal contention of some kind. + +In the next house we called at, a widow woman lived, with her +married daughter, who had a child at the breast. The old woman told +her story herself; the daughter never spoke a word, so far as I +remember, but sat there, nursing, silent and sad, with half-averted +face, and stealing a shy glance at us now and then, when she thought +we were not looking at her. It was a clean cottage, though it was +scantily furnished with poor things; and they were both neat and +clean in person, though their clothing was meagre and far worn. I +thought, also, that the old woman's language, and the countenances +of both of them, indicated more natural delicacy of feeling, and +more cultivation, than is common amongst people of their condition. +The old woman said, "My daughter has been eawt o' work a long time. +I can make about two shillings and sixpence a-week, an' we've a +lodger that pays us two shillings a week; but we've three shillings +a-week to pay for rent, an' we must pay it, too, or else turn out. +But I'm lookin' for a less heawse; for we cannot afford to stop here +any longer, wi' what we have comin' in, --that is, if we're to live +at o'." I thought the house they were in was small enough and mean +enough for the poorest creature, and, though it was kept clean, the +neighbourhood was very unwholesome. But this was another instance of +how the unemployed operatives of Lancashire are being driven down +from day to day deeper into the pestilent sinks of life in these +hard times. "This child of my daughter's," continued the old woman, +in a low tone, "this child was born just as they were puttin' my +husband into his coffin, an' wi' one thing an' another, we've had a +deal o' trouble. But one half o'th world doesn't know how tother +lives. My husban' lay ill i' bed three year; an' he suffered to that +degree that he was weary o' life long before it were o'er. At after +we lost him, these bad times coom on, an' neaw, aw think we're poo'd +deawn as nee to th' greawnd as ony body can be. My daughter's +husband went off a-seekin' work just afore that child was born,--an' +we haven't heard from him yet." My friend took care that his visit +should result in lightening the weight of the old woman's troubles a +little. + +As we passed the doors of a row of new cottages at the top end of +"Hardy Butts," a respectable old man looked out at one of the +doorways, and said to my friend, "Could aw spake to yo a minute?" We +went in, and found the house remarkably clean, with good cottage +furniture in it. Two neighbour children were peeping in at the open +door. The old man first sent them away, and then, after closing the +door, he pointed to a good-looking young woman who stood blushing at +the entrance of the inner room, with a wet cloth in her hands, and +he said, "Could yo do a bit o' summat to help this lass till sich +times as hoo can get wark again? Hoo's noather feyther nor mother, +nor nought i'th world to tak to, but what aw can spare for her, an' +this is a poor shop to come to for help. Aw'm uncle to her." "Well," +said my friend, "and cannot you manage to keep her?" "God bless yo!" +replied the old man, getting warm, "Aw cannot keep mysel'. Aw will +howd eawt as lung as aw can; but, yo know, what'll barely keep one +alive 'll clem two. Aw should be thankful iv yo could give her a bit +o' help whol things are as they are." Before the old man had done +talking, his niece had crept away into the back room, as if ashamed +of being the subject of such a conversation. This case was soon +disposed of to the satisfaction of the old man; after which we +visited three other houses in the same block, of which I have +nothing special to say, except that they were all inhabited by +people brought down to destitution by long want of work, and living +solely upon the relief fund, and upon the private charity of their +old employers. Upon this last source of relief too little has been +said, because it has not paraded itself before the public eye; but I +have had opportunities for seeing how wide and generous it is, and I +shall have abundant occasion for speaking of it hereafter. On our +way back, we looked in at "Old John's" again, to see if he had +returned home. He had been in, and he had gone out again, so we came +away, and saw nothing of him. Farther down towards the town, we +passed through Acton Square, which is a cleaner place than some of +the abominable nooks of Scholes, though I can well believe that +there is many a miserable dwelling in it, from what I saw of the +interiors and about the doorways, in passing. + +The last house we called at was in this square, and it was a +pleasing exception to the general dirt of the neighbourhood. It was +the cottage of a stout old collier, who lost his right leg in one of +Wright's pits some years ago. My friend knew the family, and we +called there more for the purpose of resting ourselves and having a +chat than anything else. The old man was gray-haired, but he looked +very hale and hearty--save the lack of his leg. His countenance was +expressive of intelligence and good humour; and there was a touch of +quiet majesty about his massive features. There was, to me, a kind +of rude hint of Christopher North in the old collier's appearance. +His wife, too, was a tall, strong-built woman, with a comely and a +gentle face --a fit mate for such a man as he. I thought, as she +moved about, her grand bulk seemed to outface the narrow limits of +the cottage. The tiny house was exceedingly clean, and comfortably +furnished. Everything seemed to be in its appointed place, even to +the sleek cat sleeping on the hearth. There were a few books on a +shelf, and a concertina upon a little table in the corner. When we +entered, the old collier was busy with the slate and pencil, and an +arithmetic before him; but he laid them aside, and, doffing his +spectacles, began to talk with us. He said that they were a family +of six, and all out of work; but he said that, ever since he lost +his leg, the proprietors of the pit in which the accident happened +(Wright's) had allowed him a pension of six shillings a week, which +he considered very handsome. This allowance just kept the wolf from +their little door in these hard times. In the course of our +conversation I found that the old man read the papers frequently, +and that he was a man of more than common information in his class. +I should have been glad to stay longer with him, but my time was up; +so I came away from the town, thus ending my last ramble amongst the +unemployed operatives of Wigan. Since then the condition of the poor +there has been steadily growing worse, which is sure to be heard of +in the papers. + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + + +AN INCIDENT BY THE WAYSIDE. + +"Take physic, pomp! +Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel; +That thou mayst shake the superflux to them, +And show the Heavens more just." +--King Lear. + +On the Saturday after my return from Wigan, a little incident fell +in my way, which I thought worth taking note of at the time; and +perhaps it may not be uninteresting to your readers. On that day I +went up to Levenshulme, to spend the afternoon with an old friend of +mine, a man of studious habits, living in a retired part of that +green suburb. The time went pleasantly by whilst I was with the calm +old student, conversing upon the state of Lancashire, and the +strange events which are upheaving the civilised world in great +billows of change,--and drinking in the peaceful charm which +pervaded everything about the man and his house and the scene which +it stood in. + +After tea, he came with me across the fields to the "Midway Inn," on +Stockport Road, where the omnibuses call on their way to Manchester. +It was a lovely evening, very clear and cool, and twilight was +sinking upon the scene. Waiting for the next omnibus, we leaned +against the long wooden watering-trough in front of the inn. The +irregular old building looked picturesque in the soft light of +declining day, and all around was so still that we could hear the +voices of bowlers who were lingering upon the green, off at the +north side of the house, and retired from the highway by an +intervening garden. The varied tones of animation, and the phrases +uttered by the players, on different parts of the green, came +through the quiet air with a cheery ring. The language of the +bowling-green sounds very quaint to people unused to the game. "Too +much land, James!" cries one. "Bravo, bully-bowl! That's th' first +wood! Come again for more!" cries another. "Th' wrong bias, John!" +"How's that?" "A good road; but it wants legs! Narrow; narrow, o' to +pieces!" These, and such like phrases of the game, came distinctly +from the green into the highway that quiet evening. And here I am +reminded, as I write, that the philosophic Doctor Dalton was a +regular bowler upon Tattersall's green, at Old Trafford. These +things, however, are all aside from the little matters which I wish +to tell. + +As we stood by the watering-trough, listening to the voices of the +bowlers, and to the occasional ringing of bells mingled with a low +buzz of merriment inside the house, there were many travellers went +by. They came, nearly all of them, from the Manchester side; +sometimes three or four in company, and sometimes a lonely +straggler. Some of them had poor-looking little bundles in their +hands; and, with a few exceptions, their dress, their weary gait, +and dispirited looks led me to think that many of them were +unemployed factory operatives, who had been wandering away to beg +where they would not be known. I have met so many shame-faced, +melancholy people in that condition during the last few months, +that, perhaps, I may have somewhat over judged the number of these +that belongs to that class. But, in two or three cases, little +snatches of conversation, uttered by them as they went by, plainly +told that, so far as the speakers went, it was so; and, at last, a +little thing befell, which, I am sure, represented the condition of +many a thousand more in Lancashire just now. Three young women +stopped on the footpath in front of the inn, close to the place +where we stood, and began to talk together in a very free, open way, +quite careless of being overheard. One of them was a stout, handsome +young woman, about twenty-three. Her dress was of light printed +stuff, clean and good. Her round, ruddy arms, her clear blond +complexion, and the bright expression of her full open countenance, +all indicated health and good-nature. I guessed from her +conversation, as well as from her general appearance, that she was a +factory operative in full employ--though that is such a rare thing +in these parts now. The other two looked very poor and downhearted. +One was a short, thick-set girl, seemingly not twenty years of age; +her face was sad, and she had very little to say. The other was a +thin, dark-haired, cadaverous woman, above thirty years of age, as I +supposed; her shrunk visage was the picture of want, and her frank, +child-like talk showed great simplicity of character. The weather +had been wet for some days previous; and the clothing of the two +looked thin, and shower-stained. It had evidently been worn a good +while; and the colours were faded. Each of them wore a shivery bit +of shawl, in which their hands were folded, as if to keep them warm. +The handsome lass, who seemed to be in good employ, knew them both; +but she showed an especial kindness towards the eldest of them. + +As these two stood talking to their friend, we did not take much +notice of what they were saying until two other young women came +slowly from townwards, looking poor, and tired, and ill, like the +first. These last comers instantly recognised two of those who stood +talking together in front of the inn, and one of them said to the +other, "Eh, sitho; there's Sarah an' Martha here! . . . Eh, lasses; +han yo bin a-beggin' too?" "Ay, lass; we han;" replied the thin, +dark complexioned woman; "Ay, lass; we han. Aw've just bin tellin' +Ann, here. Aw never did sich a thing i' my life afore--never! But +it's th' first time and th' last for me,--it is that! Aw'll go +whoam; an' aw'll dee theer, afore aw'll go a-beggin' ony moor, aw +will for sure! Mon, it's sich a nasty, dirty job; aw'd as soon clem! +. . . See yo, lasses; we set off this mornin'--Martha an' me, we set +eawt this mornin' to go to Gorton Tank, becose we yerd that it wur +sich a good place. But one doesn't know wheer to go these times; an' +one doesn't like to go a-beggin' among folk at they known. Well, +when we coom to Gorton we geet twopence-hawpenny theer; an' that wur +o'. Neaw, there's plenty moor beggin' besides us. Well, at after +that twopence-hawpenny, we geet twopence moor, an' that's o' at we'n +getten. But, eh, lasses, when aw coom to do it, aw hadn't th' heart +to as for nought; aw hadn't for sure. . . . Martha an' me's walked +aboon ten mile iv we'n walked a yard; an' we geet weet through th' +first thing; an' aw wur ill when we set off, an' so wur Martha, too; +aw know hoo wur, though hoo says nought. Well; we coom back through +t' teawn; an' we were both on us fair stagged up. Aw never were so +done o'er i' my life, wi' one thing an' another. So we co'de a- +seein' Ann here; an' hoo made us a rare good baggin'--th' lass did. +See yo; aw wur fit to drop o'th flags afore aw geet that saup o' +warm tay into mo--aw wur for sure! An' neaw, hoo's come'd a gate wi' +us hitherto, an' hoo would have us to have a glass o' warm ale a- +piece at yon heawse lower deawn a bit; an' aw dar say it'll do mo +good, aw getten sich a cowd; but, eh dear, it's made mo as mazy as a +tup; an' neaw, hoo wants us to have another afore we starten off +whoam. But it's no use; we mun' be gooin' on. Aw'm noan used to it, +an' aw connot ston it. Aw'm as wake as a kittlin' this minute." + +Ann, who had befriended them in this manner, was the handsome young +woman who seemed to be in work; and now, the poor woman who had been +telling the story, laid her hand upon her friend's shoulder and +said, "Ann, thae's behaved very weel to us o' roads; an' neaw, lass, +go thi ways whoam, an' dunnut fret abeawt us, mon. Aw feel better +neaw, aw do for sure. We's be reet enough to-morn, lass. Mon, +there's awlus some way shap't. That tay's done me a deeol o' good. . +. . Go thi ways whoam, Ann; neaw do; or else aw shan't be yezzy +abeawt tho!" But Ann, who was wiping her eyes with her apron, +replied, "Naw, naw; aw will not go yet, Sarah!" . . . And then she +began to cry, "Eh, lasses; aw dunnot like to see yo o' this shap--aw +dunnot for sure! Besides, yo'n bin far enough today. Come back wi' +me. Aw connot find reawm for both on yo; but thee come back wi' me, +Sarah. Aw'll find thee a good bed: an' thae'rt welcome to a share +o' what there is--as welcome as th' fleawers i May--thae knows that. +Thae'rt th' owdest o' th' two; an thae'rt noan fit to trawnce up an' +deawn o' this shap. Come back to eawr heawse; an' Martha'll go +forrud to Stopput, (Stockport,)--winnot tho, Martha! . . . Thae +knows, Martha," continued she, "thae knows, Martha, thae munnot +think nought at me axin' Sarah, an' noan o' thee. Yo should both on +yo go back iv aw'd reawm,--but aw haven't. Beside, thae'rt younger +an' strunger than hoo is." " Eh, God bless tho, lass," replied +Martha, "aw know o' abeawt it. Aw'd rayther Sarah would stop, for +hoo'll be ill. Aw can go forrud by mysel', weel enough. It's noan so +fur, neaw." But, here, Sarah, the eldest of the three, laid her hand +once more upon the shoulder of her friend, and said in an earnest +tone, "Ann! it will not do, my lass! Go aw MUN! I never wur away fro +whoam o' neet i my life,--never! Aw connot do it, mon! Beside, thae +knows, aw've laft yon lad, an' never a wick soul wi' him! He'd fret +hissel' to deoth this neet, mon, if aw didn't go whoam! Aw couldn't +sleep a wink for thinkin' abeawt him! Th' child would be fit to +start eawt o'th heawse i'th deead time o'th neet a-seechin' mo,--aw +know he would! . . . Aw mun go, mon: God bless tho, Ann; aw'm +obleeged to thee o' th' same. But, thae knows heaw it is. Aw mun +goo!" + +Here the omnibus came up, and I rode back to Manchester. The whole +conversation took up very little more time than it will take to read +it; but I thought it worth recording, as characteristic of the +people now suffering in Lancashire from no fault of their own. I +know the people well. The greatest number of them would starve +themselves to that degree that they would not be of much more +physical use in this world, before they would condescend to beg. But +starving to death is hard work. What will winter bring to them when +severe weather begins to tell upon constitutions lowered in tone by +a starvation diet--a diet so different to what they have been used +to when in work? What will the 1s. 6d. a-head weekly do for them in +that hard time? If something more than this is not done for them, +when more food, clothing, and fire are necessary to everybody, +calamities may arise which will cost England a hundred times more +than a sufficient relief--a relief worthy of those who are +suffering, and of the nation they belong to--would have cost. In the +meantime the cold wings of winter already begin to overshadow the +land; and every day lost involves the lives, or the future +usefulness, of thousands of our best population. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + + +WANDERING MINSTRELS; OR, WAILS OF THE WORKLESS POOR. + +"For whom the heart of man shuts out, +Straightway the heart of God takes in, +And fences them all round about +With silence, 'mid the world's loud din. +And one of his great charities +Is music; and it doth not scorn +To close the lids upon the eyes +Of the weary and forlorn." +--JAMES RUSSEL LOWELL. + +There is one feature of the distress in Lancashire which was seen +strikingly upon the streets of our large towns during some months of +1862. I allude to the wandering minstrelsy of the unemployed. Swarms +of strange, shy, sad-looking singers and instrumental performers, in +the work-worn clothing of factory operatives, went about the busy +city, pleading for help in touching wails of simple song--like so +many wild birds driven by hard weather to the haunts of man. There +is something instructive, as well as affecting, in this feature of +the troubled time. These wanderers are only a kind of representative +overflow of a vast number whom our streets will never see. Any one +well acquainted with Lancashire, will know how widespread the study +of music is among its working population. Even the inhabitants of +our large towns know something more about this now than they knew a +few months ago. I believe there is no part of England in which the +practice of sacred music is so widely and lovingly pursued amongst +the working people as in the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire. +There is no part of England where, until lately, there have been so +many poor men's pianos, which have been purchased by a long course +of careful savings from the workman's wages. These, of course, have +mostly been sold during the hard times to keep life in the owner and +his family. The great works of Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart +have solaced the toil of thousands of the poorest working people of +Lancashire. Anybody accustomed to wander among the moorlands of the +country will remember how common it is to hear the people practising +sacred music in their lonely cottages. It is not uncommon to meet +working men wandering over the wild hills, "where whip and heather +grow," with their musical instruments, to take part in some village +oratorio many miles away. "That reminds me," as tale-tellers say, of +an incident among the hills, which was interesting, though far from +singular in my experience. + +Up in the forest of Rosendale, between Derply Moor and the wild bill +called Swinshaw, there is a little lone valley, a green cup in the +mountains, called "Dean." The inhabitants of this valley are so +notable for their love of music, that they are known all through the +vales of Rosendale as "Th' Deighn Layrocks," or "The Larks of Dean." +In the twilight of a glorious Sunday evening, in the height of +summer, I was roaming over the heathery waste of Swinshaw, towards +Dean, in company with a musical friend of mine, who lived in the +neighbouring clough, when we saw a little crowd of people coming +down a moorland slope, far away in front of us. As they drew nearer, +we found that many of them had musical instruments, and when we met, +my friend recognised them as working people living in the district, +and mostly well known to him. He inquired where they had been; and +they told him that they had "bin to a bit ov a sing deawn i'th +Deighn." "Well," said he, "can't we have a tune here?" "Sure, yo +con, wi' o' th' plezzur i'th world," replied he who acted as +spokesman; and a low buzz of delighted consent ran through the rest +of the company. They then ranged themselves in a circle around their +conductor, and they played and sang several fine pieces of psalmody +upon the heather-scented mountain top. As those solemn strains +floated over the wild landscape, startling the moorfowl untimely in +his nest, I could not help thinking of the hunted Covenanters of +Scotland. The all-together of that scene upon the mountains, +"between the gloaming and the mirk," made an impression upon me +which I shall not easily forget. Long after we parted from them we +could hear their voices, softening in sound as the distance grew, +chanting on their way down the echoing glen, and the effect was +wonderfully fine. This little incident upon the top of Swinshaw is +representative of things which often occur in the country parts of +Lancashire, showing how widespread the love of music is among the +working classes there. Even in great manufacturing towns, it is very +common, when passing cotton mills at work, to hear some fine psalm +tune streaming in chorus from female voices, and mingling with the +spoom of thousands of spindles. The "Larks of Dean," like the rest +of Lancashire operatives, must have suffered in this melancholy +time; but I hope that the humble musicians of our county will never +have occasion to hang their harps upon the willows. + +Now, when fortune has laid such a load of sorrow upon the working +people of Lancashire, it is a sad thing to see so many workless +minstrels of humble life "chanting their artless notes in simple +guise" upon the streets of great towns, amongst a kind of life they +are little used to. There is something very touching, too, in their +manner and appearance. They may be ill-shod and footsore; they may +be hungry, and sick at heart, and forlorn in countenance, but they +are almost always clean and wholesome-looking in person. They come +singing in twos and threes, and sometimes in more numerous bands, as +if to keep one another in countenance. Sometimes they come in a +large family all together, the females with their hymn-books, and +the men with their different musical instruments,--bits of pet +salvage from the wrecks of cottage homes. The women have sometimes +children in their arms, or led by the hand; and they sometimes carry +music-books for the men. I have seen them, too, with little +handkerchiefs of rude provender for the day. As I said before, they +are almost invariably clean in person, and their clothing is almost +always sound and seemly in appearance, however poor and scanty. +Amongst these poor wanderers there is none of the reckless personal +negligence and filth of hopeless reprobacy; neither is there a +shadow of the professional ostentation of poverty amongst them. +Their faces are sad, and their manners very often singularly shame- +faced and awkward; and any careful observer would see at a glance +that these people were altogether unused to the craft of the trained +minstrel of the streets. Their clear, healthy complexion, though +often touched with pallor, their simple, unimportunate demeanour, +and the general rusticity of their appearance, shows them to be + +"Suppliants who would blush +To wear a tatter'd garb, however coarse; +Whom famine cannot reconcile to filth; +Who ask with painful shyness, and refused, +Because deserving, silently retire." + +The females, especially the younger ones, generally walk behind, +blushing and hiding themselves as much as possible. I have seen the +men sometimes walk backwards, with their faces towards those who +were advancing, as if ashamed of what they were doing. And thus they +went wailing through the busy streets, whilst the listening crowd +looks on them pityingly and wonderingly, as if they were so many +hungry shepherds from the mountains of Calabria. This flood of +strange minstrels partly drowned the slang melodies and the +monotonous strains of ordinary street musicians for a while. The +professional gleeman "paled his ineffectual fire" before these +mournful songsters. I think there never was so much sacred music +heard upon the streets of Manchester before. With the exception of a +favourite glee now and then, their music consisted chiefly of fine +psalm tunes--often plaintive old strains, known and welcome to all, +because they awaken tender and elevating remembrances of life. +"Burton," "French," "Kilmarnock," "Luther's Hymn," the grand "Old +Hundred," and many other fine tunes of similar character, have +floated daily in the air of our city, for months together. I am sure +that this choice does not arise from the minstrels themselves having +craft enough to select "a mournful muse, soft pity to infuse." It is +the kind of music which has been the practice and pleasure of their +lives, and it is a fortuitous thing that now, in addition to its +natural plaintiveness, the sad necessity of the times lends a tender +accompaniment to their simplest melody. I doubt very much whether +Leech's minor tunes were ever heard upon our streets till lately. +Leech was a working man, born near the hills, in Lancashire; and his +anthems and psalm tunes are great favourites among the musical +population, especially in the country districts. Leech's harp was +tuned by the genius of sorrow. Several times lately I have heard the +tender complaining notes of his psalmody upon the streets of the +city. About three months ago I heard one of his most pathetic tunes +sung in the market-place by an old man and two young women. The old +man's dress had the peculiar hue and fray of factory work upon it, +and he had a pair of clogs upon his stockingless feet. They were +singing one of Leech's finest minor tunes to Wesley's hymn:- + +"And am I born to die, +To lay this body down? +And must my trembling spirit fly +Into a world unknown? +A land of deepest shade, +Unpierced by human thought; +The dreary country of the dead +Where all things are forgot." + +It is a tune often sung by country people in Lancashire at funerals; +and, if I remember right, the same melody is cut upon Leech's +gravestone in the old Wesleyan Chapel-yard, at Rochdale. I saw a +company of minstrels of the same class going through Brown Street, +the other day, playing and singing, + +"In darkest shades, if Thou appear, +My dawning is begun." + +The company consisted of an old man, two young men, and three young +women. Two of the women had children in their arms. After I had +listened to them a little while, thinking the time and the words a +little appropriate to their condition, I beckoned to one of the +young men, who came "sidling" slowly up to me. I asked him where +they came from, and he said, "Ash'n." In answer to another question, +he said, "We're o' one family. Me an' yon tother's wed. That's his +wife wi' th' chylt in her arms, an' hur wi' th' plod shawl on's +mine." I asked if the old man was his father. "Ay," replied he, +"we're o' here, nobbut two. My mother's ill i' bed, an' one o' my +sisters is lookin' after her." " Well, an' heaw han yo getten on?" +said I. "Oh, we'n done weel; but we's come no moor," replied he. +Another day, there was an instrumental band of these operatives +playing sacred music close to the Exchange lamp. Amongst the crowd +around, I met with a friend of mine. He told me that the players +were from Staleybridge. They played some fine old tunes, by desire, +and, among the rest, they played one called "Warrington. "When they +had played it several times over, my friend turned to me and said, +"That tune was composed by a Rev. Mr Harrison, who was once minister +of Cross Street Unitarian Chapel, in Manchester; and, one day, an +old weaver, who had come down from the hills, many miles, staff in +hand, knocked at the minister's door, and asked if there was 'a +gentleman co'de' Harrison lived theer?' 'Yes.' 'Could aw see him?' +'Yes.' When the minister came to the door, the old weaver looked +hard at him, for a minute, and said, 'Are yo th' mon 'at composed +that tune co'de Worrington?' 'Yes,' replied the minister, 'I believe +I am.' 'Well,' said the old weaver, 'give me your hond! It's a good +un!' He then shook hands with him heartily again, and saying, 'Well, +good day to yo,' he went his way home again, before the old minister +could fairly collect his scattered thoughts." + +I do not know how it is that these workless minstrels are gradually +becoming rarer upon the streets than they were a few months ago. +Perhaps it is because the unemployed are more liberally relieved now +than they were at first. I know that now many who have concealed +their starving condition are ferreted out and relieved as far as +possible. Many of these street wanderers have gone home again +disgusted, to pinch out the hard time in proud obscurity; and there +are some, no doubt, who have wandered away to other parts of +England. Of these last, we may naturally expect that a few may +become so reconciled to a life of wandering minstrelsy that they may +probably never return to settled labour again. But "there's a +divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will." Let us +trust that the Great Creator may comfort and relieve them, +"according to their several necessities, giving them patience under +their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions." + + + + +LETTER AND SPEECHES UPON THE COTTON FAMINE + + + + +LETTERS OF A LANCASHIRE LAD ON THE COTTON FAMINE. + + + +The following extracts are from the letters of Mr. John Whittaker, +"A Lancashire Lad," one of the first writers whose appeals through +the press drew serious attention to the great distress in Lancashire +during the Cotton Famine. There is no doubt that his letters in The +Times, and to the Lord Mayor of London, led to the Mansion House +Fund. In The Times of April 14, 1862, appeared the first of a series +of letters, pleading the cause of the distressed operatives. He +said:- + +"I am living in the centre of a vast district where there are many +cotton mills, which in ordinary times afford employment to many +thousands of 'hands,' and food to many more thousands of mouths. +With rare exceptions, quietness reigns at all those mills. . . . It +may be that our material atmosphere is somewhat brighter than it +was, but our social atmosphere is much darker and denser. Hard times +have come; and we have had them sufficiently long to know what they +mean. We have fathers sitting in the house at mid-day, silent and +glum, while children look wistfully about, and sometimes whimper for +bread which they cannot have. We have the same fathers who, before +hard times came, were proud men, who would have thought 'beggar' the +most opprobrious epithet you could have hit them with; but who now +are made humble by the sight of wife and children almost starving, +and who go before 'relief committees,' and submit to be questioned +about their wants with a patience and humility which it is painful, +almost schocking, to witness, And some others of these fathers turn +out in the morning with long besoms as street-sweepers, while others +again go to breaking stones in the town's yard or open road-side, +where they are unprotected from the keen east winds, which add a +little more to the burden of misery which they have to bear just +now. But, harder even than this, our factory-women and girls have +had to turn out; and, plodding a weary way from door to door, beg a +bit of bread or a stray copper, that they may eke out the scanty +supply at home. Only the other day, while taking a long stroll in +the country lying about the town in which I live, I met a few of +these factory-girls, and was stopped by their not very beggar-like +question of 'Con yo help us a bit?' They were just such as my own +sisters; and as I saw and heard them, I was almost choked as I +fancied my sisters come to such a pass as that. 'Con yo help us a +bit?' asked these factory girls. + +. . . I have heard of ladies whose whole lives seem to be but a +changing from one kind of pleasure to another; who suffer chiefly +from what they call ennui, (a kind of disease from which my sisters +are not likely to suffer at all,) and to whom a new pleasure to +enjoy would be something like what a new world to conquer would be +to Alexander. Why should they not hear our Lancashire girls' cry of +'Con yo help us a bit?' Why should not they be reminded that these +girls in cotton gowns and wooden clogs are wending their way towards +the same heaven--or, alas, towards the same hell--whither wend all +the daughters of Eve, no matter what their outer condition and +dress? Why should not they be asked to think how these striving +girls have to pray daily, 'Lead us not into temptation,' while +temptations innumerable stand everywhere about them? + +Those of us who are men would rather do much than let our sisters go +begging. May not some of us take to doing more to prevent it? I +remember some poetry about the + +'Sister bloodhounds, Want and Sin,' + +and know that they hunt oftener together than singly. We have felt +the fangs of the first: upon how many of us will the second +pounce?" + +In a second letter, inserted in The Times of April 22, 1862, the +same writer says:--"Even during the short time which has elapsed +since I wrote last week, many things have combined to show that the +distress is rapidly increasing, and that there is a pressing need +that we should go beyond the borders of our own county for help. . . +. I remember what I have read of the Godlike in man, and I look with +a strange feeling upon the half-famished creatures I see hourly +about me. I cannot pass through a street but I see evidences of deep +distress. I cannot sit at home half-an-hour without having one or +more coming to ask for bread to eat. But what comes casually before +me is as nothing when compared with that deeper distress which can +only be seen by those who seek it. . . . There have been families +who have been so reduced that the only food they have had has been a +porridge made of Indian meal. They could not afford oatmeal, and +even of their Indian meal porridge they could only afford to have +two meals a day. They have been so ashamed of their coarser food +that they have done all that was possible to hide their desperate +state from those about them. It has only been by accident that it +has been found out, and then they have been caught hurriedly putting +away the dishes that contained their loathsome food. A woman, whose +name I could give, and whose dwelling I could point to, was said not +only to be in deep distress, but to be also ill of fever. She was +visited. On entering the lower room of the house, the visitors saw +that there was not a scrap of furniture; the woman, fever-stricken, +sat on an orange-box before a low fire; and to prevent the fire from +going quite out, she was pulling her seat to pieces for fuel bit by +bit. The visitors looked upstairs. There was no furniture there-- +only a bit of straw in a corner, which served as the bed of the +woman's four children. In another case a woman, who was said to be +too weak to apply for relief, was visited. Her husband had been out +of work a long time by reason of his illness; he was now of a +fashion recovered, and had gone off to seek for work. He left his +wife and three children in their cellar-home. The wife was very near +her confinement, and had not tasted food for two or three days. . . +. There are in this town some hundreds of young single women who +have been self-dependent, but who are now entirely without means. +Nearly all of these are good English girls, who have quietly fought +their own life-battle, but who now have hard work to withstand the +attacks this grim poverty is making. I am told of a case in which +one of these girls was forced to become one of that class of whom +poor Hood sang in his 'Bridge of Sighs.' She was an orphan, had no +relations here, and was tossed about from place to place till she +found her way to a brothel. Thank God, she has been rescued. Our +relief fund has been the means of relieving her from that +degradation; but cannot those who read my letter see how strong are +the temptations which their want places in the way of these poor +girls!" + +On 25th April a number of city merchants, most of whom were +interested in the cotton manufacture, waited upon the Lord Mayor of +London, with a view to interest him, and through him the public at +large, in the increasing distress among the operative population in +the manufacturing districts of Lancashire. Previous to this, the +"Lancashire Lad" had made a private appeal, by letter, to the Lord +Mayor, in which he said:- + +"Local means are nearly exhausted, and I am convinced that if we +have not help from without, our condition will soon be more +desperate than I or any one else who possesses human feelings can +wish it to become. To see the homes of those whom we know and +respect, though they are but working men, stripped of every bit of +furniture--to see long-cherished books and pictures sent one by one +to the pawn-shop, that food may be had--and to see that food almost +loathsome in kind, and insufficient in quantity,--are hard, very +hard things to bear. But those are not the worst things. In many of +our cottage homes there is now nothing left by the pawning of which +a few pence may be raised, and the mothers and sisters of we +'Lancashire lads' have turned out to beg, and ofttimes knock at the +doors of houses in which there is as much destitution as there is in +our own; while the fathers and the lads themselves think they are +very fortunate if they can earn a shilling or two by street-sweeping +or stone breaking. . . . Will you not do for us what you have done +for others--become the recipient of whatever moneys those who are +inclined to help us may send to you?" + +The Lord Mayor, having listened to the deputation, read them the +personal appeal, and, "before separating, the deputation engaged to +form themselves into a provisional committee, to correspond with any +local one which circumstances might render it desirable to set on +foot in some central part of the distressed districts." Immediately +afterwards, the Lord Mayor, on taking his seat in the justice-room, +stated that "he was ready, with the assistance of the gentlemen of +the deputation, to act in the way desired. . . . He could not +himself take any part in the distribution. All he could do was to be +the medium of transmission; and as soon as he knew that some +organisation had been formed, either in the great city of +Manchester, or in some other part of Lancashire, in which the public +might feel confidence, he should be ready to send the small sums he +had already received, and any others that might be intrusted to him +from time to time." And thus originated the first general +subscription for the cotton operatives, and which, before it closed, +reached the magnificent sum of 528 pounds,336, 9s. 9d. + + + +MR COBDEN'S SPEECH ON THE COTTON FAMINE. + + + +On the 29th of April 1862, a meeting of gentlemen residents, called +by Thomas Goadsby, Esq., Mayor of Manchester, was held in the Town +Hall of that city, to consider the propriety of forming a relief +committee. '"The late Mr Richard Cobden, M.P., attended, and +recommended a bold appeal to the whole country, declaring with +prophetic keenness of vision that not less than 1,000,000 pounds +would be required to carry the suffering operatives through the +crisis, whilst the subscriptions up to that date amounted only to +180,000 pounds." On the motion of a vote of thanks to the Mayor of +Manchester, who was retiring from the mayoralty, Mr Cobden said:- + +"Before that resolution is passed, I will take the opportunity of +making an observation. I have had the honour of having my name added +to this committee, and the first thing I asked of my neighbour here +was--'What are the functions of the general committee?' And I have +heard that they amount to nothing more than to attend here once a +month, and receive the report of the executive committee as to the +business done and the distribution of the funds. I was going to +suggest to you whether the duties of the general committee might not +be very much enlarged--whether it might not be employed very +usefully in increasing the amount of subscriptions. I think all our +experience must have taught us that, with the very best cause in the +world in hand, the success of a public subscription depends very +much upon the amount of activity in those who solicit it; and I +think, in order to induce us to make a general and national effort +to raise additional funds in this great emergency, it is only +necessary to refer to and repeat one or two facts that have been +stated in this report just read to us. I find it stated that it is +estimated that the loss of wages at present is at the rate of +136,094 pounds per week, and there is no doubt that the savings of +the working classes are almost exhausted. Now, 136,094 pounds per +week represents upwards of 7,000,000 pounds sterling per annum, and +that is the rate at which the deduction is now being made from the +wages of labour in this district. + +I see it stated in this report that the resources which this +committee can at present foresee that it will possess to relieve +this amount of distress are 25,000 pounds a month for the next five +months, which is at the rate of 300,000 pounds per annum; so that we +foresee at present the means of affording a relief of something less +than five per cent upon the actual amount of the loss of wages at +present incurred by the working classes of this country. But I need +not tell honourable gentlemen present, who are so practically +acquainted with this district, that that loss of seven millions in +wages per annum is a very imperfect measure of the amount of +suffering and loss which will be inflicted on this community three +or four months hence. It may be taken to be 10,000,000 pounds; and +that 10,000,000 pounds of loss of wages before the next spring is by +no means a measure of the loss this district will incur; for you +must take it that the capitalists will be incurring also a loss on +their fixed machinery and buildings; and though perhaps not so much +as that of the labourer, it will be a very large amount, and +possibly, in the opinion of some people, will very nearly approach +it. + +That is not all: Mr Farnall has told us that at present the +increase of the rates in this district is at the rate of 10,000 +pounds per week. That will be at the rate of half a million per +annum, and, of course, if this distress goes on, that rate must be +largely increased, perhaps doubled. This shows the amount of +pressure which is threatening this immediate district. I have always +been of opinion that this distress and suffering must be cumulative +to a degree which few people have ever foreseen, because your means +of meeting the difficulty will diminish just in proportion as the +difficulty will increase. Mr Farnall has told us that one-third of +the rateable property will fall out of existence, as it were, and +future rates must be levied upon two-thirds. But that will be by no +means the measure of the condition of things two or three months +hence, because every additional rate forces out of existence a large +amount of saleable property; and the more you increase your rates +the more you diminish the area over which those rates are to be +productive. This view of the case has a very important bearing, +also, upon the condition of the shop-keeping class as well as the +classes of mill-owners and manufacturers who have not a large amount +of floating capital. There is no doubt but a very large amount of +the shopkeeping class are rapidly falling into the condition of the +unemployed labourers. + +When I was at Rochdale the other day, I heard a very sorrowful +example of it. There was a poor woman who kept a shop, and she was +threatened with a distraint for her poor-rate. She sold the Sunday +clothes of her son to pay the poor-rate, and she received a relief- +ticket when she went to leave her rate. That is a sad and sorrowful +example, but I am afraid it will not be a solitary one for a long +time. Then you have the shopkeeping class descending to the rank of +the operatives. It must be so. Withdraw the custom of 7,000,000 +pounds per annum, which has ceased to be paid in wages, from the +shopkeepers, and the consequence must present itself to any rational +mind. We have then another class--the young men of superior +education employed in warehouses and counting-houses. A great number +of these will rapidly sink to the condition in which you find the +operative classes. All this will add to the distress and the +embarrassment of this part of the kingdom. Now, to meet this state +of things you have the poor-law relief, which is the only relief we +can rely upon, except that which comes from our own voluntary +exertions. Well, but any one who has read over this report of Mr +Farnall, just laid before us, must see how inadequate this relief +must be. It runs up from one shilling and a half-penny in the pound +to one shilling and fourpence or one shilling and fivepence; there +is hardly one case in which the allowance is as much as two +shillings per week for each individual--I won't call them paupers-- +each distressed individual. + +Now, there is one point to which I would wish to bring the attention +of the committee in reference to this subject--it is a most +important one, in my appreciation. In ordinary times, when you give +relief to the poor, that relief being given when the great mass of +workpeople are in full employment, the measure of your relief to an +isolated family or two that may be in distress is by no means the +measure of the amount of their subsistence, because we all know that +in prosperous times, when the bulk of the working people are +employed, they are always kind to each other. The poor, in fact, do +more to relieve the poor than any other class. A working man and his +family out of employment in prosperous times could get a meal at a +neighbour's house, just as we, in our class, could get a meal at a +neighbour's house if it was a convenience to us in making a journey. +But recollect, now the whole mass of the labouring and working +population is brought down to one sad level of destitution, and what +you allow them from the poor-rates, and what you allow them from +these voluntary subscriptions, are actually the measure of all that +they will obtain for their subsistence. And that being so general, +producing a great depression of spirits, as well as physical +prostration, you are in great danger of the health and strength of +this community suffering, unless something more be done to meet the +case than I fear is yet provided for it. All this brings me to this +conclusion--that something more must be done by this general +committee than has been done, to awaken the attention of the public +generally to the condition of this part of the country. It is +totally exceptional. The state of things has no parallel in all +history. It is impossible you could point out to me another case, in +which, in a limited sphere, such as we have in Lancashire, and in +the course of a few months, there has been a cessation of employment +at the rate of 7,000,000 pounds sterling per annum in wages. There +has been nothing like it in the history of the world for its +suddenness, for the impossibility of dealing with it, or managing it +in the way of an effective remedy. + +Well, the country at large must be made acquainted with these facts. +How is that to be done? It can only be by the diffusion of +information from this central committee. An appeal must be made to +the whole country, if this great destitution is to be met in any +part by voluntary aid. The nation at large must be made fully +acquainted with the exigency of the case, and we must be reminded +that a national responsibility rests upon us. I will, therefore, +suggest that this general committee should be made a national +committee, and we shall then get rid of this little difficulty with +the Lord Mayor. We shall want all the co-operation of the Lord Mayor +and the city of London; and I say that this committee, instead of +being a Manchester or Lancashire central committee, should be made a +national committee; that from this should go forth invitations to +all parts of the country, beginning with the lords-lieutenant, +inviting them to be vice-presidents of this committee. Let the noble +Lord continue to be at the head of the general committee--the +national committee--and invite every mayor to take part. We are +going to have new mayors in the course of the week, and, though I am +sorry to lose our present one, yet when new mayors come in, they may +be probably more ready to take up a new undertaking than if they had +just been exhausted with a years labour. Let every mayor in the +kingdom be invited to become a member of this committee. Let +subscription-circulars be despatched to them asking them to organise +a committee in every borough; and let there be a secretary and +honorary secretary employed. Through these bodies you might +communicate information, and counteract those misrepresentations +that have been made with regard to the condition of this district. + +You might, if necessary, send an ambassador to some of those more +important places; but better still, if you could induce them to send +some one here to look into the state of things for themselves; +because I am sure if they did, so far from finding the calumnies +that have been uttered against the propertied classes in this county +being well founded, they would find instances--and not a few--of +great liberality and generosity, such as I think would surprise any +one who visited this district from the southern part of the kingdom. + +This would only be done by an active effort from the centre here, +and I submit that we shall not be doing justice to this effort +unless we give to the whole country an opportunity of co-operating +in that way, and throw upon every part of the kingdom a share of the +responsibility of this great crisis and emergency. I submit that +there is every motive why this community, as well as the whole +kingdom, should wish to preserve this industrious population in +health and in the possession of their energies. There is every +motive why we should endeavour to keep this working population here +rather than drive them away from here, as you will do if they are +not sufficiently fed and clothed during the next winter. They will +be wanted again if this district is to revive, as we all hope and +believe it will revive. Your fixed capital here is of no use without +the population. It is of no use without your raw material. +Lancashire is the richest county in the kingdom when its machinery +is employed; it is the poorest county in the kingdom when its +machinery and fixed capital are paralysed, as at present. Therefore, +I say it is the interest, not only of this community, but of the +kingdom, that this population should be preserved for the time--I +hope not a distant time--when the raw material of their industry +will be supplied to this region. + +I submit; then, to the whole kingdom--this district as well as the +rest--that it will be advisable, until Parliament meets, that such +an effort should be made as will make a national subscription amount +probably to 1,000,000 pounds. Short of that, it would be utterly +insufficient for the case; and I believe that, with an energetic +appeal made to the whole country, and an effort organised such as I +have indicated, such an amount might be raised." + + + +SPEECH OF THE EARL OF DERBY + + + +AT THE COUNTY MEETING, ON THE 2D DECEMBER 1863. +THE EARL OF SEFTON IN THE CHAIR. + +The thirteen hundred circulars issued by the Earl of Sefton, Lord- +Lieutenant of Lancashire, "brought together such a gathering of +rank, and wealth, and influence, as is not often to be witnessed; +and the eloquent advocate of class distinctions and aristocratic +privileges (the Earl of Derby) became on that day the powerful and +successful representative of the poor and helpless." Called upon by +the chairman, the Earl of Derby said:- + +"My Lord Sefton, my Lords and Gentlemen,--We are met together upon +an occasion which must call forth the most painful, and at the same +time ought to excite, and I am sure will excite, the most kindly +feelings of our human nature. We are met to consider the best means +of palliating--would to God that I could say removing!--a great +national calamity, the like whereof in modern times has never been +witnessed in this favoured land--a calamity which it was impossible +for those who are the chief sufferers by it to foresee, or, if they +had foreseen, to have taken any steps to avoid--a calamity which, +though shared by the nation at large, falls more peculiarly and with +the heaviest weight upon this hitherto prosperous and wealthy +district--a calamity which has converted this teeming hive of +industry into a stagnant desert of compulsory inaction and idleness- +-a calamity which has converted that which was the source of our +greatest wealth into the deepest abyss of impoverishment--a calamity +which has impoverished the wealthy, which has reduced men of easy +fortunes to the greatest straits, which has brought distress upon +those who have hitherto been somewhat above the world by the +exercise of frugal industry, and which has reduced honest and +struggling poverty to a state of absolute and humiliating +destitution. Gentlemen, it is to meet this calamity that we are met +together this day, to add our means and our assistance to those +efforts which have been so nobly made throughout the country +generally, and, I am bound to say, in this county also, as I shall +prove to you before I conclude my remarks. Gentlemen, I know how +impossible it is by any figures to convey an idea of the extent of +the destitution which now prevails, and I know also how impatient +large assemblies are of any extensive use of figures, or even of +figures at all; but at the same time, it is impossible for me to lay +before you the whole state of the case, in opening this resolution, +and asking you to resolve with regard to the extent of the distress +which now prevails, without trespassing on your attention by a few, +and they shall be a very few, figures, which shall show the extent, +if not the pressure, throughout this district, of the present +distress. And, gentlemen, I think I shall best give you an idea of +the amount of distress and destitution which prevails, by very +shortly comparing the state of things which existed in the districts +to which I refer in the month of September 1861, as compared with +the month of September 1862, and with that again only about two +weeks ago, which is the latest information we have--up to the 22d of +last month. + +I find then, gentlemen, that in a district comprising, in round +numbers, two million inhabitants--for that is about the number in +that district--in the fourth week of September 1861, there were +forty-three thousand five hundred persons receiving parochial +relief; in the fourth week of September 1862, there were one hundred +and sixty-three thousand four hundred and ninety-eight persons +receiving parochial relief; and in the short space which elapsed +between the last week of September and the third week of November +the number of one hundred and sixty-three thousand four hundred and +ninety-eight had increased to two hundred and fifty-nine thousand +three hundred and eighty-five persons. Now, gentlemen, let us in the +same periods compare the amount which was applied from the parochial +funds to the relief of pauperism. In September 1861, the amount so +applied was 2259 pounds; in September 1862, it was 9674 pounds. That +is by the week. What is now the amount? In November 1862 it was +17,681 pounds for the week. The proportion of those receiving +parochial relief to the total population was two and three-tenths +per cent in September 1861, and eight and five-tenths per cent in +September 1862, and that had become thirteen and five-tenths percent +in the population in November 1862. Here, therefore, is thirteen per +cent of the whole population at the present moment depending for +their subsistence upon parochial relief alone. Of these two hundred +and fifty-nine thousand--I give only round numbers--there were +thirty-six thousand eight hundred old or infirm; there were nearly +ninety-eight thousand able-bodied adults receiving parochial relief, +and there were under sixteen years of age nearly twenty-four +thousand persons. But it would be very far from giving you an +estimate of the extent of the distress if we were to confine our +observations to those who are dependent upon parochial relief alone. + +We have evidence from the local committees, whom we have extensively +employed, and whose services have been invaluable to us, that of +persons not relieved from the poor-rates there are relieved also by +local committees no fewer in this district than one hundred and +seventy-two thousand persons--making a total of four hundred and +thirty-one thousand three hundred and ninety-five persons out of two +millions, or twenty-one and seven-tenths per cent on the whole +population--that is, more than one in every five persons depend for +their daily existence either upon parochial relief or public +charity. Gentlemen, I have said that figures will not show +sufficiently the amount of distress; nor, in the same manner, will +figures show, I am happy to say, the amount that has been +contributed for the relief of that distress. But let us take another +test; let us examine what has been the result, not upon the poor who +are dependent for their daily bread upon their daily labour, and +many of whom are upon the very verge of pauperism, from day to day, +but let us take a test of what has been the effect upon the well-to- +do artisan, upon the frugal, industrious, saving men, who have been +hitherto somewhat above the world, and I have here but an imperfect +test, because I am unable to obtain the whole amount of deposits +withdrawn from the savings banks, the best of all possible tests, if +we could carry the account up to the present day; but I have only +been able to obtain it to the middle of June last, when the distress +could hardly be said to have begun, and yet I find from seven +savings banks alone in this county in six months--and those months +in which the distress had not reached its present height, or +anything like it--there was an excess of withdrawals of deposits +over the ordinary average to the amount of 71,113 pounds. This was +up to June last, when, as I have said, the pressure had hardly +commenced, and from that time it as been found impossible to obtain +from the savings banks, who are themselves naturally unwilling to +disclose this state of affairs--it has been found impossible to +obtain such further returns as would enable us to present to you any +proper estimate of the excess of withdrawals at present; but that +they have been very large must necessarily be inferred from the +great increase of distress which has taken place since the large sum +I have mentioned was obtained from the banks, as representing the +excess of ordinary withdrawals in June last. + +Now, gentlemen, figure to yourselves, I beg of you, what a state of +things that sum of 71,113 pounds, as the excess of the average +withdrawals from the savings banks represents; what an amount of +suffering does it picture; what disappointed hopes; what a prospect +of future distress does it not bring before you for the working and +industrious classes? Why, gentlemen, it represents the blighted +hopes for life of many a family. It represents the small sum set +apart by honest, frugal, persevering industry, won by years of toil +and self-denial, in the hope of its being, as it has been in many +cases before, the foundation even of colossal fortunes which have +been made from smaller sums. It represents the gradual decay of the +hopes for his family of many an industrious artisan. The first step +in that downward progress which has led to destitution and pauperism +is the withdrawal of the savings of honest industry, and that is +represented in the return which I have quoted to you. Then comes the +sacrifice of some little cherished article of furniture--the cutting +off of some little indulgence--the sacrifice of that which gave his +home an appearance of additional comfort and happiness--the +sacrifice gradually, one by one, of the principal articles of +furniture, till at last the well-conducted, honest, frugal, saving +working man finds himself on a level with the idle, the dissipated, +and the improvident--obliged to pawn the very clothes of his family- +-nay, the very bedding on which he lies, to obtain the simple means +of subsistence from day to day, and encountering all that difficulty +and all that distress with the noble independence that would do +anything rather than depend upon public or even on private charity, +and in his own simple but emphatic language declaring, 'Nay, but +we'll CLEM first.' + +And, gentlemen, this leads me to observe upon a more gratifying +point of view, that is, the noble manner, a manner beyond all +praise, in which this destitution has been borne by the population +of this great county. It is not the case of ordinary labourers who +find themselves reduced a trifle below their former means of +subsistence, but it is a reduction in the pecuniary comfort, and +almost necessaries, of men who have been in the habit of living, if +not in luxury, at least in the extreme of comfort--a reduction to +two shillings and three shillings a week from sums which had usually +amounted to twenty-five shillings, or thirty shillings, or forty +shillings; a cutting off of all their comforts, cutting off all +their hopes of future additional comfort, or of rising in life-- +aggravated by a feeling, an honourable, an honest, but at the same +time a morbid feeling, of repugnance to the idea of being indebted +under these circumstances to relief of any kind or description. And +I may say that, among the difficulties which have been encountered +by the local relief committees--no doubt there have been many of +those not among the most deserving who have been clamorous for the +aid held out to them--but one of the great difficulties of local +relief committees has been to find out and relieve struggling and +really-distressed merit, and to overcome that feeling of +independence which, even under circumstances like these, leads them +to shrink from being relieved by private charity. I know that +instances of this kind have happened; I know that cases have +occurred where it has been necessary to press upon individuals, +themselves upon the point of starvation, the necessity of accepting +this relief; and from this place I take the opportunity of saying, +and I hope it will go far and wide, that in circumstances like the +present, discreditable as habitual dependence upon parochial relief +may be, it is no degradation, it is no censure, it is no possible +cause of blame, that any man, however great his industry, however +high his character, however noble his feeling of self-dependence, +should feel himself obliged to have recourse to that Christian +charity which I am sure we are all prepared to give. Gentlemen, I +might perhaps here, as far as my resolution goes, close the +observations I have to make to you. The resolution I have to move, +indeed, is one which calls for no extensive argument; and a plain +statement of facts, such as that I have laid before you, is +sufficient to obtain for it your unanimous assent. The resolution +is:- + +"'That the manufacturing districts of Lancashire and the adjoining +counties are suffering from an extent of destitution happily +hitherto unknown, which has been borne by the working classes with a +patient submission and resolution entitling them to the warmest +sympathy of their fellow-countrymen.' + +"But, gentlemen, I cannot, in the first place, lose the opportunity +of asking this great assembly with what feelings this state of +things should be contemplated by us who are in happier +circumstances. Let me say with all reverence that it is a subject +for deep national humiliation, and, above all, for deep humiliation +for this great county. We have been accustomed for years to look +with pride and complacency upon the enormous growth of that +manufacture which has conferred wealth upon so many thousands, and +which has so largely increased the manufacturing population and +industry of this country. We have seen within the last twelve or +fourteen years the consumption of cotton in Europe increase from +fifty thousand to ninety thousand bales a week; we have seen the +weight of cotton goods exported from this country in the shape of +yarn and manufactured goods amount to no less than nine hundred and +eighty-three million pounds in a single year. We have seen, in spite +of all opposing circumstances, this trade constantly and rapidly +extending; we have seen colossal fortunes made; and we have as a +county, perhaps, been accustomed to look down on those less +fortunate districts whose wealth and fortunes were built upon a less +secure foundation; we have reckoned upon this great manufacture as +the pride of our country, and as the best security against the +possibility of war, in consequence of the mutual interest between us +and the cotton-producing districts. + +We have held that in the cotton manufacture was the pride, the +strength, and the certainty of our future national prosperity and +peace. I am afraid we have looked upon this trade too much in the +spirit of the Assyrian monarch of old. We have said to ourselves:-- +'Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of my +kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?' +But in the hour in which the monarch used these words the word came +forth, 'Thy kingdom is departed from thee!' That which was his pride +became his humiliation; that which was our pride has become our +humiliation and our punishment. That which was the source of our +wealth--the sure foundation on which we built--has become itself the +instrument of our humiliating poverty, which compels us to appeal to +the charity of other counties. The reed upon which we leaned has +gone through the hand that reposed on it, and has pierced us to the +heart. + +But, gentlemen, we have happier and more gratifying subjects of +contemplation. I have pointed to the noble conduct which must make +us proud of our countrymen in the mmiufacturing districts; I have +pointed to the noble and heroic submission to difficulties they +could never foresee, and privations they never expected to +encounter; but again, we have another feeling which I am sure will +not be disappointed, which the country has nobly met--that this is +an opportunity providentially given to those who are blessed with +wealth and fortune to show their sympathy--their practical, active, +earnest sympathy--with the sufferings of their poorer brethren, and, +with God's blessing, used as I trust by God's blessing it will be, +it may be a link to bind together more closely than ever the various +classes in this great community, to satisfy the wealthy that the +poor have a claim, not only to their money, but to their sympathy-- +to satisfy the poor also that the rich are not overbearing, grinding +tyrants, but men like themselves, who have hearts to feel for +suffering, and are prompt to use the means God has given to them for +the relief of that suffering. + +Gentlemen, a few words more, and I will not further trespass on your +attention. But I feel myself called on, as chairman of that +executive committee to which my noble friend in the chair has paid +so just a compliment, to lay before you some answer to objections +which have been made, and which in other counties, if not in this, +may have a tendency to check the contributions which have hitherto +so freely flowed in. Before doing so, allow me to say (and I can do +it with more freedom, because in the, earlier stages of its +organisation I was not a member of that committee) it is bare +justice to them to say that there never was an occasion on which +greater or more earnest efforts were made to secure that the +distribution of those funds intrusted to them should be guarded +against all possibility of abuse, and be distributed without the +slightest reference to political or religious opinions; distributed +with the most perfect impartiality, and in every locality, through +the instrumentality of persons in whom the neighbourhood might +repose entire confidence. Such has been our endeavour, and I think +to a great extent we have been successful. I may say that, although +the central executive committee is composed of men of most +discordant opinions in politics and religion, nothing for a single +moment has interfered with the harmony--I had almost said with the +unanimity--of our proceedings. There has been nothing to produce any +painful feelings among us, nor any desire on the part of the +representatives of different districts to obtain an undue share for +the districts they represented from the common fund. + +But there are three points on which objection has being taken to the +course we have adopted. One has been, that the relief we have given +has not been given with a sufficiently liberal hand; the next--and I +think I shall show you that these two are inconsistent, the one +answering the other--is, that there has not been a sufficient +pressure on the local rates; and the third is, that Lancashire has +not hitherto done its duty with reference to the subscriptions from +other parts of the country. Allow me a few words on each of these +subjects. + +First, the amount to which we have endeavoured to raise our +subscriptions has been to the extent of from two shillings to two +shillings and sixpence weekly per head; in this late cold weather an +additional sixpence has been provided, mainly for coal and clothing. +Our endeavour has been to raise the total income of each individual +to at least two shillings or two shillings and sixpence a week. Now, +I am told that this is a very inadequate amount, and no doubt it is +an amount very far below that which many of the recipients were in +the habit of obtaining. But in the first place, I think there is +some misapprehension when we speak of the sum of two shillings a +week. If anybody supposes that two shillings a week is the maximum +to each individual, he will be greatly mistaken. Two shillings a +head per week is the sum we endeavoured to arrive at as the average +receipt of every man, woman, and child receiving assistance; +consequently, a man and his wife with a family of three or four +small children would receive, not two shillings, but ten or twelve +shillings from the fund--an amount not far short of that which in +prosperous times an honest and industrious labourer in other parts +of the country would obtain for the maintenance of his family. I am +not in the least afraid that, if we had fixed the amount at four +shillings or five shillings per head, such is the liberality of the +country, we should not have had sufficient means of doing so. But +were we justified in doing that? If we had raised their income +beyond that of the labouring man in ordinary times, we should have +gone far to destroy the most valuable feeling of the manufacturing +population--namely, that of honest self-reliance, and we should have +done our best, to a great extent, to demoralise a large portion of +the population, and induce them to prefer the wages of charitable +relief to the return of honest industry. But then we are told that +the rates are not sufficiently high in the distressed districts, and +that we ought to raise them before we come on the fund. In the first +place, we have no power to compel the guardians to raise the rates +beyond that which they think sufficient for the maintenance of those +to be relieved, and, naturally considering themselves the trustees +of the ratepayers, they are unwilling, and, indeed, ought not to +raise the amount beyond that which is called for by absolute +necessity. But suppose we had raised the relief from our committee +very far beyond the amount thought sufficient by the guardians, what +would have been the inevitable result? Why, that the rates which it +is desired to charge more heavily would have been relieved, because +persons would have taken themselves off the poor-rates, and placed +themselves on the charitable committee, and therefore the very +object theso objectors have in view in calling for an increase of +our donations would have been defeated by their own measure. I must +say, however, honestly speaking all I feel, that, with regard to the +amount of rates, there are some districts which have applied to us +for assistance which I think have not sufficient pressure on their +rates. Where I find, for example, that the total assessment on the +nett rateable value does not exceed ninepence or tenpence in the +pound, I really think such districts ought to be called upon to +increase their rates before applying for extraneous help. But we +have urged as far as we could urge--we have no power to command the +guardians to be more liberal in the rate of relief, and to that +extent to raise the rates in their districts. + +And now a word on the subject of raising rates, because I have +received many letters in which it has been said that the rates are +nothing--'they are only three shillings or four shillings in the +pound, while we in the agricultural districts are used to six +shillings in the pound. We consider that no extraordinary rate, and +it is monstrous,' they say, 'that the accumulated wealth of years in +the county of Lancashire should not more largely contribute to the +relief of its own distress.' I will not enter into an argument as to +how far the larger amount of wages in the manufacturing districts +may balance the smaller--amount of wages and the larger amount of +poor-rates in the agricultural districts. I don't wish to enter into +any comparison; I have seen many comparisons of this kind made, but +they were full of fallacies from one end to the other. I will not +waste your time by discussing them; but I ask you to consider the +effect of a sudden rise of rates as a charge upon the accumulated +wealth of a district. It is not the actual amount of the rates, but +it is the sudden and rapid increase of the usual rate of the rates +that presses most heavily on the ratepayers. In the long run, the +rates must fall on real property, because all bargains between owner +and occupier are made with reference to the amount of rates to be +paid, and in all calculations between them, that is an element which +enters into the first agreement. But when the rate is suddenly +increased from one shilling to four shillings, it does not fall on +the accumulated wealth or on the real property, but it falls on the +occupier, the ratepayer--men, the great bulk of whom are at the +present moment themselves struggling upon the verge of pauperism. +Therefore, if in those districts it should appear to persons +accustomed to agricultural districts that the amount of our rates +was very small, I would say to them that any attempt to increase +those rates would only increase the pauperism, diminish the number +of solvent ratepayers, and greatly aggravate the distress. In some +of the districts I think the amount of the rates quite sufficient to +satisfy the most ardent advocate of high rates. For example, in the +town of Ashton they have raised in the course of the year one rate +of one shilling and sixpence, another of one shilling and six-pence, +and a third of four shillings and sixpence, which it is hoped will +carry them over the year. They have also, in addition to these +rates, drawn largely on previous balances, and I am afraid have +largely added to their debt. The total of what has been or will be +expended, with a prospect of even a great increase, in that borough +exceeds eleven shillings and elevenpence in the pound for the relief +of the poor alone. And, gentlemen, this rate of four shillings and +sixpence about to be levied, which ought to yield about 32,000 +pounds, it is calculated will not yield 24,000 pounds. In Stockport +the rate is even higher, being twelve shillings or more per pound, +and there it is calculated that at the next levy the defalcations +will be at least forty per cent, according to the calculation of the +poor-law commissioner himself. To talk, then, of raising rates in +such districts as these would be absolute insanity; and even in +districts less heavily rated, any sudden attempt considerably to +increase the rate would have the effect of pauperising those who are +now solvent, and to augment rather than diminish the distress of the +district. + +The last point on which I would make an observation relates to the +objection which has been taken to our proceedings, on the ground +that Lancashire has not done its duty in this distress, and that +consequently other parts of the country have been unduly called on +to contribute to that which I don't deny properly and primarily +belongs to Lancashire. Gentlemen, it is very hard to ascertain with +any certainty what has been done by Lancashire, because, in the +first place, the amount of local subscriptions and the amount of +public contributions by themselves give no fair indication of that +which really has been done by public or private charity. I don't +mean to say that there are not individuals who have grossly +neglected their duty in Lancashire. On the other hand, we know there +are many, though I am not about to name them, who have acted with +the most princely munificence, liberality, and generous feeling, +involving an amount of sacrifice of which no persons out of this +county can possibly have the slightest conception. I am not saying +there are not instances of niggard feeling, though I am not about to +name them, which really it was hardly possible to believe could +exist. + +Will you forgive me if I trespass for a few moments by reading two +or three extracts from confidential reports made to us every week +from the different districts by a gentleman whose services were +placed at our disposal by the Government? These reports being, as I +have said, confidential, I will not mention the names of the +persons, firms, or localities alluded to, though in some instances +they may be guessed at. This report was made to us on the 25th of +November, and I will quote some of the remarks made in it. The +writer observes:--'It must not be inferred when such remarks are +absent from the reports that nothing is done. I have great +difficulty sometimes in overcoming the feeling that my questions on +these points are a meddlesome interference in private matters.' +Bearing that remark in mind, I say here are instances which I am +sure reflect as much credit on the individuals as on the interest +they represent and the county to which they belong. I am sure I +shall be excused for trespassing on your patience by reading a few +examples. He says, under No.1,--'Nearly three thousand operatives +out of the whole, most of them the hands of Messrs __ and Mr __, at +his own cost, employs five hundred and fifty-five girls in sewing +five days a week, paying them eightpence a day; sends seventy-six +youths from thirteen to fourteen years old, and three hundred and +thirty-two adults above fifteen, five days a week to school, paying +them from fourpence to eightpence per day, according to age. He also +pays the school pence of all the children. Mr __ has hitherto paid +his people two days' wages a week, but he is now preparing to adopt +a scheme like Mr __ to a great extent. I would add that, in addition +to wages, Mr __ gives bread, soup, socks, and clogs. 2. Mr __ has at +his own expense caused fifty to sixty dinners to be provided for +sick persons every day. These consist of roast beef or mutton, soup, +beef-tea, rice-puddings, wine, and porter, as ordered; and the forty +visitors distribute orders as they find it necessary. Ostensibly all +is done in the name of the committee; but Mr __ pays all the cost. +An admirable soup kitchen is being fitted up, where the poor man may +purchase a good hot meal for one penny, and either carry it away or +consume it on the premises. 3. Messrs __ are giving to their hands +three days' wages (about 500 pounds a week.) Messrs __ and __ are +giving their one hundred and twenty hands, and Messrs their two +hundred and thirty hands, two days' wages a week. I may mention that +Messrs __ are providing for all their one thousand seven hundred +hands. 4. A great deal of private charity exists, one firm having +spent 1400 pounds in money, exclusive of weekly doles of bread. 5. +Messrs __ are providing all their old hands with sufficient clothing +and bedding to supply every want, so that their subscription of 50 +pounds is merely nominal. 6. The ladies of the village visit and +relieve privately with money, food, or clothing, or all, if needed +urgently. In a few cases distraint has been threatened, but +generally the poor are living rent free. 7. Payment of rent is +almost unknown. The agent for several landlords assures me he could +not from his receipts pay the property-tax, but no distraints are +made. 8. The bulk of the rents are not collected, and distraints are +unknown. 9. The millowners are chiefly cottage-owners, and are +asking for no rents.' + +That leads me to call your attention to the fact that, in addition +to the sacrifices they are making, the millowners are themselves to +a large extent the owners of cottages, and I believe, without +exception, they are at the present moment receiving no rent, thereby +losing a large amount of income they had a right to count upon. I +know one case which is curious as showing how great is the +difficulty of ascertaining what is really done. It is required in +the executive committee that every committee should send in an +account of the local subscriptions. We received an application from +a small district where there was one mill, occupied by some young +men who had just entered into the business. We returned a refusal, +inasmuch as there was no local subscription; but when we came to +inquire, we found that from last February, when the mill closed, +these young men had maintained the whole of their hands, that they +paid one-third of the rates of the whole district, and that they +were at that moment suffering a yearly loss of 300 pounds in the +rent of cottages for which they were not drawing a single halfpenny. +That was a case in which we thought it right in the first instance +to withhold any assistance, because there appeared to be no local +subscription, and it shows how persons at a distance may be deceived +by the want apparently of any local subscription. But I will throw +out of consideration the whole of those amounts--the whole of this +unparalleled munificence on the part of many manufacturers which +never appears in any account whatever--I will throw out everything +done in private and unostentatious charity--the supplies of bedding, +clothing, food, necessaries of every description, which do not +appear as public subscriptions, and will appeal to public +subscriptions alone; and I will appeal to an authority which cannot, +I think, be disputed--the authority of the commissioner, Mr Farnall +himself, whose services the Government kindly placed at our +disposal, and of whose activity, industry, and readiness to assist +us, it is difficult to speak in too high terms of praise. A better +authority could not be quoted on the subject of the comparative +support given in aid of this distress in Lancashire and other +districts. I find that, excluding altogether the subscriptions in +the Lord Mayor's Mansion House list--of which we know the general +amount, but not the sources from which it is derived, or how it is +expended--but excluding it from consideration, and dealing only with +the funds which have been given or promised to be administered +through the central executive committee, I find that, including some +of the subscriptions which we know are coming in this day, the total +amount which has been contributed is about 540,000 pounds. Of that +amount we received--and it is a most gratifying fact--40,000 pounds +from the colonies; we received from the rest of the United Kingdom +100,000 pounds; and from the county of Lancaster itself, in round +numbers, 400,000 pounds out of 540,000 pounds. + +Now, I hope that these figures, upon the estimate and authority of +the Government poor-law commissioner, will be sufficient, at all +events, to do away with the imputation that Lancashire, at this +crisis, is not doing its duty. But if Lancashire has been doing its +duty--if it is doing its duty--that is no reason why Lancashire +should relax its efforts; and of that I trust the result of this +day's proceedings will afford a sufficient testimony. We are not yet +at the height of the distress. It is estimated that at the present +moment there are three hundred and fifty-five thousand persons +engaged in the different manufactories. Of these forty thousand only +are in full work; one hundred and thirty-five thousand are at short +work, and one hundred and eighty thousand are out of work +altogether. In the course of the next six weeks this number is +likely to be greatly increased; and the loss of wages is not less +than 137,000 pounds a week. This, I say then, is a state of things +that calls for the most active exertions of all classes of the +community, who, I am happy to say, have responded to the call which +has been made upon them most nobly, from the Queen down to the +lowest individual in the community. At the commencement of the +distress, the Queen, with her usual munificence, sent us a donation +of 2000 pounds. The first act of His Royal Highness the Prince of +Wales, upon attaining his majority, was to write from Rome, and to +request that his name should be put down for 1000 pounds. And to go +to the other end of the scale, I received two days ago, from Lord +Shaftesbury, a donation of 1200 pounds from some thousands of +working men, readers of a particular periodical which he mentioned, +the British Workman. To that sum Lord Shaftesbury stated many +thousands of persons had subscribed, and it embraced contributions +even from the brigade of shoe-black boys. + +On the part of all classes there has been the greatest liberality +displayed; and I should be unjust to the working men, I should be +unjust to the poor in every district, if I did not say that in +proportion to their means they have contributed more than their +share. In no case hardly which has come to my knowledge has there +been any grudging, and in many cases I know that poor persons have +contributed more than common prudence would have dictated. These +observations have run to a greater extent than I had intended; but I +thought it desirable that the whole case, as far as possible, should +be brought before you, and I have only now earnestly to request that +you will this day do your part towards the furtherance of the good +work. I have no apprehension, if the distress should not last over +five or six months more, that the spontaneous efforts of individuals +and public bodies, and contributions received in every part of the +country, will fall short of that which is needed for enabling the +population to tide over this deep distress; and I earnestly hope +that, if it be necessary to apply to Parliament, as a last resource, +the representatives of the country will not grudge their aid; yet I +do fervently hope and believe that, with the assistance of the +machinery of that bill passed in Parliament last session, (the Rate +in Aid Act,) which will come into operation shortly after Christmas, +but could not possibly be brought into operation sooner, I do +fervently hope and believe that this great manufacturing district +will be spared the further humiliation of coming before Parliament, +which ought to be the last resource, as a claimant, a suppliant for +the bounty of the nation at large. I don't apprehend that there will +be a single dissentient voice raised against the resolution which I +have now the honour to move." + + + +SONGS OF DISTRESS, +CHIEFLY WRITTEN DURING THE COTTON FAMINE. + + + +STANZAS TO MY STARVING KIN IN THE NORTH. +BY ELIZA COOK. + + + +Sad are the sounds that are breaking forth +From the women and men of the brave old North! +Sad are the sights for human eyes, +In fireless homes, 'neath wintry skies; +Where wrinkles gather on childhood's skin, +And youth's "clemm'd" cheek is pallid and thin; +Where the good, the honest--unclothed, unfed, +Child, mother, and father, are craving for bread! +But faint not, fear not--still have trust; +Your voices are heard, and your claims are just. +England to England's self is true, +And "God and the People" will help you through. + +Brothers and sisters! full well ye have stood, +While the gripe of gaunt Famine has curdled your blood! +No murmur, no threat on your lips have place, +Though ye look on the Hunger-fiend face to face; +But haggard and worn ye silently bear, +Dragging your death-chains with patience and prayer; +With your hearts as loyal, your deeds as right, +As when Plenty and Sleep blest your day and your night, +Brothers and sisters! oh! do not believe +It is Charity's GOLD ALONE ye receive. +Ah, no! It is Sympathy, Feeling, and Hope, +That pull out in the Life-boat to fling ye a rope. + +Fondly I've lauded your wealth-winning hands, +Planting Commerce and Fame throughout measureless lands; +And my patriot-love, and my patriot-song, +To the children of Labour will ever belong. +Women and men of this brave old soil! +I weep that starvation should guerdon your toil; +But I glory to see ye--proudly mute-- +Showing SOULS like the HERO, not FANGS like the brute. +Oh! keep courage within; be the Britons ye are; +HE, who driveth the storm hath His hand on the star! +England to England's sons shall be true, +And "God and the People" will carry ye through! + + + +THE SMOKELESS CHIMNEY +BY A LANCASHIRE LADY {1} (E.J.B.) + + + +STRANGER! who to buy art willing, +Seek not here for talent rare; +Mine's no song of love or beauty, +But a tale of want and care. + +Traveller on the Northern Railway! +Look and learn, as on you speed; +See the hundred smokeless chimneys, +Learn their tale of cheerless need. + +Ah! perchance the landscape fairer +Charms your taste, your artist-eye; +Little do you guess how dearly +Costs that now unclouded sky. + +"How much prettier is this county!" +Says the careless passer-by; +"Clouds of smoke we see no longer, +What's the reason?--Tell me why. + +"Better far it were, most surely, +Never more such clouds to see, +Bringing taint o'er nature's beauty, +With their foul obscurity." + +Thoughtless fair one! from yon chimney +Floats the golden breath of life; +Stop that current at your pleasure! +Stop! and starve the child--the wife. + +Ah! to them each smokeless chimney +Is a signal of despair; +They see hunger, sickness, ruin, +Written in that pure, bright air. + +"Mother! mother! see! 'twas truly +Said last week the mill would stop; +Mark yon chimney, nought is going, +There's no smoke from 'out o'th top!' + +"Father! father! what's the reason +That the chimneys smokeless stand? +Is it true that all through strangers, +We must starve in our own land?" + +Low upon her chair that mother +Droops, and sighs with tearful eye; +At the hearthstone lags the father, +Musing o'er the days gone by. + +Days which saw him glad and hearty, +Punctual at his work of love; +When the week's end brought him plenty, +And he thanked the Lord above. + +When his wages, earned so justly, +Gave him clothing, home, and food; +When his wife, with fond caresses, +Blessed his heart, so kind and good. + +Neat and clean each Sunday saw them, +In their place of prayer and praise, +Little dreaming that the morrow +Piteous cries for help would raise. + +Weeks roll on, and still yon chimney +Gives of better times no sign; +Men by thousands cry for labour, +Daily cry, and daily pine. + +Now the things, so long and dearly +Prized before, are pledged away; +Clock and Bible, marriage-presents, +Both must go--how sad to say! + +Charley trots to school no longer, +Nelly grows more pale each day; +Nay, the baby's shoes, so tiny, +Must be sold, for bread to pay. + +They who loathe to be dependent +Now for alms are forced to ask +Hard is mill-work, but, believe me, +Begging is the bitterest task. + +Soon will come the doom most dreaded, +With a horror that appals; +Lo! before their downcast faces +Grimly stare the workhouse walls. + +Stranger, if these sorrows touch you, +Widely bid your bounty flow; +And assist my poor endeavours +To relieve this load of woe. + +Let no more the smokeless chimneys +Draw from you one word of praise; +Think, oh, think upon the thousands +Who are moaning out their days. + +Rather pray that peace, soon bringing +Work and plenty in her train, +We may see these smokeless chimneys +Blackening all the land again. + +1862. + + + +THE MILL-HAND'S PETITION. + + + +The following verses are copied from "Lancashire Lyrics," edited by +John Harland, Esq., F.S.A. They are extracted from a song "by some +'W.C.,' printed as a street broadside, at Ashton-under-Lyne, and +sung in most towns of South Lancashire." + +We have come to ask for assistance; +At home we've been starving too long; +An' our children are wanting subsistence; +Kindly aid us to help them along. + +CHORUS. + +For humanity is calling; +Don't let the call be in vain; +But help us; we're needy and falling; +And God will return it again. + +War's clamour and civil commotion +Has stagnation brought in its train; +And stoppage bring with it starvation, +So help us some bread to obtain. + + For humanity is calling. +The American war is still lasting; +Like a terrible nightmare it leans +On the breast of a country, now fasting +For cotton, for work, and for means. + + And humanity is calling. + + + +CHEER UP A BIT LONGER. {2} +BY SAMUEL LAYCOCK. + + + +Cheer up a bit longer, mi brothers i' want, +There's breeter days for us i' store; +There'll be plenty o' tommy an' wark for us o' +When this 'Merica bother gets o'er. +Yo'n struggled reet nobly, an' battled reet hard, +While things han bin lookin' so feaw; +Yo'n borne wi' yo're troubles and trials so long, +It's no use o' givin' up neaw. + +Feight on, as yo' han done, an' victory's sure, +For th' battle seems very nee won, +Be firm i' yo're sufferin', an' dunno give way; +They're nowt nobbut ceawards'at run. +Yo' know heaw they'n praised us for stondin' so firm, +An' shall we neaw stagger an' fo? +Nowt o'th soart;--iv we nobbut brace up an' be hard, +We can stond a bit longer, aw know. + +It's hard to keep clemmin' an' starvin' so long; +An' one's hurt to see th' little things fret, +Becose there's no buttercakes for 'em to eat; +But we'n allus kept pooin' thro' yet. +As bad as toimes are, an' as feaw as things look, +We're certain they met ha' bin worse; +We'n had tommy to eat, an' clooas to put on; +They'n only bin roughish, aw know. + +Aw've begged on yo' to keep up yo're courage afore, +An' neaw let me ax yo' once moor; +Let's noan get disheartened, there's hope for us yet, +We needn't dispair tho' we're poor. +We cannot expect it'll allus be foine; +It's dark for a while, an' then clear; +We'n mirth mixed wi' sadness, an' pleasure wi' pain, +An' shall have as long as we're here. + +This world's full o' changes for better an' wur, +An' this is one change among th' ruck; +We'n a toime o' prosperity,--toime o' success, +An' then we'n a reawnd o' bad luck. +We're baskin' i' sunshine, at one toime o'th day, +At other toimes ceawerin' i'th dark; +We're sometoimes as hearty an' busy as owt, +At other toimes ill, an' beawt wark. + +Good bless yo'! mi brothers, we're nobbut on th' tramp, +We never stay long at one spot; +An' while we keep knockin' abeawt i' this world, +Disappointments will fall to eawer lot: +So th' best thing we can do, iv we meon to get thro', +Is to wrastle wi' cares as they come; +We shall feel rayther tired,--but let's never heed that,-- +We can rest us weel when we get whoam. + +Cheer up, then, aw say, an' keep hopin' for th' best, +An' things 'll soon awter, yo'll see; +There'll be oceans o' butties for Tommy an' Fred, +An' th' little un perched on yo're knee. +Bide on a bit longer, tak' heart once ogen, +An' do give o'er lookin' so feaw; +As we'n battled, an' struggled, an' suffered so long, +It's no use o' givin' up neaw. + + + +FRETTIN'. + + + +(From "Phases of Distress--Lancashire Rhymes.") + +BY JOSEPH RAMSBOTTOM. + +Fro' heawrs to days--a dhreary length-- +Fro' days to weeks one idle stons, +An' slowly sinks fro' pride an' strength +To weeny heart an' wakely honds; +An' still one hopes, an' ever tries +To think 'at better days mun come; +Bo' th' sun may set, an' th' sun may rise,-- +No sthreak o' leet one finds a-whoam. + +Aw want to see thoose days again, +When folk can win whate'er they need; +O God! to think 'at wortchin' men +Should be poor things to pet an' feed! +There's some to th' Bastile han to goo, +To live o'th rates they'n help'd to pay; +An' some get "dow" {3} to help 'em through; +An' some are taen or sent away. + +What is there here, 'at one should live, +Or wish to live, weigh'd deawn wi' grief, +Through weary weeks an' months, 'at give +Not one short heawr o' sweet relief? +A sudden plunge, a little blow, +Would end at once mi' care an' pain! +An' why noa do't?--for weel aw know +Aw's lose bo' ills, if nowt aw gain. + +An' why noa do't? It ill 'ud tell +O' thoose wur laft beheend, aw fear; +It's wring, at fust, to kill mysel', +It's wring to lyev mi childer here. +One's like to tak' some thowt for them-- +Some sort o' comfort one should give; +So one mun bide, an' starve, an' clem, +An' pine, an' mope, an' fret, an' live. + + + +TH' SHURAT WEAVER'S SONG. {4} + + + +BY SAMUEL LAYCOCK. + +TUNE--"Rory O'More." + +Confound it! aw ne'er wur so woven afore; +My back's welly brocken, mi fingers are sore; +Aw've been starin' an' rootin' amung this Shurat, +Till aw'm very near getten as bloint as a bat. + +Aw wish aw wur fur enough off, eawt o'th road, +For o' weavin' this rubbitch aw'm getten reet sto'd; +Aw've nowt i' this world to lie deawn on but straw, +For aw've nobbut eight shillin' this fortnit to draw. + +Neaw, aw haven't mi family under mi hat; +Aw've a woife and six childer to keep eawt o' that; +So aw'm rayther amung it just neaw, yo may see-- +Iv ever a fellow wur puzzle't, it's me! +Iv aw turn eawt to steal, folk'll co' me a thief; +An' aw conno' put th' cheek on to ax for relief; +As aw said i' eawr heawse t'other neet to mi wife, +Aw never did nowt o' this mak' i' my life. + +O dear! iv yon Yankees could nobbut just see, +Heaw they're clemmin' an' starvin' poor weavers loike me, +Aw think they'd soon sattle their bother, an' strive +To send us some cotton to keep us alive. + +There's theawsan's o' folk, just i'th best o' their days, +Wi' traces o' want plainly sin i' their faze; +An' a futur afore 'em as dreary an' dark; +For, when th' cotton gets done, we's be o' eawt o' wark. + +We'n bin patient an' quiet as lung as we con; +Th' bits o' things we had by us are welly o' gone; +Mi clogs an' mi shoon are both gettin' worn eawt, +An' my halliday clooas are o' gone "up th' speawt!" + +Mony a time i' my days aw've sin things lookin' feaw, +But never as awkard as what they are neaw; +Iv there isn't some help for us factory folk soon, +Aw'm sure 'at we's o' be knock'd reet eawt o' tune. + + + +GOD HELP THE POOR. {5} + + + +BY SAMUEL BAMFORD. + +God help the poor, who in this wintry morn, +Come forth of alleys dim and courts obscure; +God help yon poor, pale girl, who droops forlorn, +And meekly her affliction doth endure! + +God help the outcast lamb! she trembling stands, +All wan her lips, and frozen red her hands; +Her mournful eyes are modestly down cast, +Her night-black hair streams on the fitful blast; +Her bosom, passing fair, is half reveal'd, +And oh! so cold the snow lies there congeal'd; +Her feet benumb'd, her shoes all rent and worn;-- +God help thee, outcast lamb, who stand'st forlorn! + God help the poor! + +God help the poor! an infant's feeble wail +Comes from yon narrow gate-way! and behold +A female crouching there, so deathly pale, +Huddling her child, to screen it from the cold!-- +Her vesture scant, her bonnet crush'd and torn; +A thin shawl doth her baby dear enfold. +And there she bides the ruthless gale of morn, +Which almost to her heart hath sent its cold! +And now she sudden darts a ravening look, +As one with new hot bread comes past the nook; +And, as the tempting load is onward borne, +She weeps. God help thee, hapless one forlorn! + God help the poor! + +God help the poor! Behold yon famish'd lad +No shoes, no hose, his wounded feet protect; +With limping gait, and looks so dreamy-sad, +He wanders onward, stopping to inspect +Each window, stored with articles of food; +He yearns but to enjoy one cheering meal. +Oh! to his hungry palate, viands rude +Would yield a zest the famish'd only feel! +He now devours a crust of mouldy bread-- +With teeth and hands the precious boon is torn, +Unmindful of the storm which round his head +Impetuous sweeps. God help thee, child forlorn + God help the poor! +God help the poor! Another have I found +A bow'd and venerable man is he; +His slouched hat with faded crape is bound, +His coat is gray, and threadbare, too, I see; +"The rude winds" seem to "mock his hoary hair;" +His shirtless bosom to the blast is bare. +Anon he turns, and casts a wistful eye, +And with scant napkin wipes the blinding spray; +And looks again, as if he fain would spy +Friends he hath feasted in his better day +Ah! some are dead, and some have long forborne +To know the poor; and he is left forlorn! + God help the poor! + +God help the poor who in lone valleys dwell, +Or by far hills, where whin and heather grow +Theirs is a story sad indeed to tell! +Yet little cares the world, nor seeks to know +The toil and want poor weavers undergo. +The irksome loom must have them up at morn; +They work till worn-out nature will have sleep; +They taste, but are not fed. Cold snow drifts deep +Around the fireless cot, and blocks the door; +The night-storm howls a dirge o'er moss and moor! +And shall they perish thus, oppress'd and lorn? +Shall toil and famine hopeless still be borne!-- +No! GOD will yet arise, and HELP THE POOR! + + + +TICKLE TIMES. + + + +BY EDWIN WAUGH. + +Neaw times are so tickle, no wonder +One's heart should be deawn i' his shoon, +But, dang it, we munnot knock under +To th' freawn o' misfortin to soon; +Though Robin looks fearfully gloomy, +An' Jamie keeps starin' at th' greawnd, +An' thinkin' o'th table 'at's empty, +An' th' little things yammerin' reawnd. + +Iv a mon be both honest an' willin', +An' never a stroke to be had, +An' clemmin' for want ov a shillin',-- +It's likely to make him feel sad; +It troubles his heart to keep seein' +His little brids feedin' o'th air; +An' it feels very hard to be deein', +An' never a mortal to care. + +But life's sich a quare bit o' travel,-- +A warlock wi' sun an' wi' shade,-- +An' then, on a bowster o' gravel, +They lay'n us i' bed wi' a spade; +It's no use o' peawtin' an' fratchin'; +As th' whirligig's twirlin' areawn'd, +Have at it again; an' keep scratehin', +As lung as your yed's upo' greawnd. + +Iv one could but feel i'th inside on't, +There's trouble i' every heart; +An' thoose that'n th' biggest o'th pride on't, +Oft leeten o'th keenest o'th smart. +Whatever may chance to come to us, +Let's patiently hondle er share,-- +For there's mony a fine suit o' clooas +That covers a murderin' care. + +There's danger i' every station, +I'th palace, as weel as i'th cot; +There's hanker i' every condition, +An' canker i' every lot; +There's folk that are weary o' livin', +That never fear't hunger nor cowd; +An' there's mony a miserly crayter +'At's deed ov a surfeit o' gowd. + +One feels, neaw 'at times are so nippin', +A mon's at a troublesome schoo', +That slaves like a horse for a livin', +An, flings it away like a foo; +But, as pleasur's sometimes a misfortin, +An' trouble sometimes a good thing,-- +Though we liv'n o'th floor, same as layrocks, +We'n go up, like layrocks, to sing. + + + +THE END + +JOHN HEYWOOD, PRINTER, MANCHESTER. + + + +WAUGH'S POEMS AND LANCASHIRE SONGS. 5s. + + + +CONTENTS. + +POEMS. + +The Moorland Flower--To the Rose-Tree on my Window Sill--Keen Blows +the North Wind--Now Summer's Sunlight Glowing--The Moorland Witch-- +The Church Clock--God Bless Thee, Old England--All on a Rosy Morn of +June--Glad Welcome to Morn's Dewy Hours--Alas, how Hard it is to +Smile--Ye Gallant Men of England--Here's to my Native Land--What +Makes your Leaves Fall Down--Oh, had she been a Lowly Maid--The Old +Bard's Welcome Home--Oh, Come Across the Fields--Oh, Weave a Garland +for my Brow--The Wanderer's Hymn--Alone upon the Flowery Plain-- +Life's Twilight--Time is Flying--The Moorlands--The Captain's +Friends--The World--To a Married Lady--Cultivate your Men--Old Man's +Song--Bide on--Christmas Song--Love and Gold--When Drowsy Daylight-- +Mary--To the Spring Wind--Nightfall--To a Young Lady--Poor +Travellers all--The Dying Rose--Lines--The Man of the Time-- +Christmas Morning. + +SONGS IN THE DIALECT. + +Come Whoam to thi Childer an' Me--What ails Thee, my Son Robin--God +Bless these Poor Folk--Come, Mary, Link thi Arm i Mine--Chirrup -- +The Dule's i' this Bonnet o' Mine--Tickle Times--Jamie's Frolic--Owd +Pinder--Come, Jamie, let's Undo thi Shoon--The Goblin Parson--While +Takin' a Wift o' my Pipe--God Bless thi Silver Yure--Margit's +Coming. + +WAUGH'S LANCASHIRE SONGS. + +Cloth, neat, 1s. + +CONTENTS. + +Come Whoam to thi Childer an' Me--What ails Thee, my Son Robin--God +Bless these Poor Folk--Come, Mary, Link thi Arm i' Mine--The Dule's +i' this Bonnet o' Mine--Come, Jamie, let's Undo thi Shoon--Aw've +Worn my Bits o' Shoon Away--Chirrup--Bonny Nan--Tum Rindle--Tickle +Times--Jamie's Frolic--Owd Pinder--The Goblin Parson--While Takin' a +Wift o' my Pipe--Yesterneet--God Bless thi Silver Yure--Margit's +Coming--Eawr Folk--Th' Sweetheart Gate--Gentle Jone--Neet Fo'--A +Lift on th' Way. + +WAUGH'S LANCASHIRE SONGS. + +In sheets, 1d. each. + +CONTENTS. + +Come Whoam to thi Childer an' Me--What ails Thee, my Son Robin--God +Bless these Poor Folk--Come, Mary, Link thi Arm i' Mine--The Dule's +i' this Bonnet o' Mine--Come, Jamie, let's Undo Thi Shoon--While +Takin' a Wift o' my Pipe--God Bless thi Silver Yure--Aw've Worn my +Bits o' Shoon Away --Yesterneet--Owd Enoch--Chirrup --Tickle Times-- +Jamie's Frolic--Owd Pinder--Th' Goblin Parson--Margit's Coming--Eawr +Folk--Th' Sweetheart Gate--Gentle Jone--Neet Fo'--Bonnie Nan--A Lift +on th' Way--Tum Rindle--Buckle to. + +WAUGH'S. The Birtle Carter's Tale about Owd Bodle. 3d. +WAUGH'S. The Goblin's Grave. 3d. +WAUGH'S. Chapel Island: An Adventure on the Ulverstone Sands. 1d. +WAUGH'S. Norbreck: A Sketch on the Lancashire Coast. 1d. +WAUGH'S. Birth-Place of Tim Bobbin. 6d. +WAUGH'S. Rambles in the Lake Country and its Borders. Cloth, neat. +2s. 6d. +WAUGH'S. Sketches of Lancashire Life and Localities. 1s. +WAUGH'S. Fourteen Days in Scotland. 1s. +WAUGH'S. Wandering Minstrels; or, Wails of the Workless Poor. 1d. +WAUGH'S. The Barrel Organ. With Illustrations. 3d. +WAUGH'S. Tattlin Matty. 3d. +WAUGH'S. The Dead Man's Dinner. 3d. +WAUGH'S. Over Sands to the Lakes. 6d. +WAUGH'S. Sea-Side Lakes and Mountains of Cumberland. 6d. +WAUGH'S. Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk during the Cotton +Famine. 3s. 6d. +WAUGH'S. Tufts of Heather from the Northern Moors. 5s. + + + +Footnotes: + +{1} These stanzas are extracted, by permission, from the second +volume of "Lancashire Lyrics," edited by John Harland, Esq., F.S.A. +"They were written by a lady in aid of the Relief Fund. They were +printed on a card, and sold, principally at the railway stations. +Their sale there, and elsewhere, is known to have realised the sum +of 160 pounds. Their authoress is the wife of Mr Serjeant Bellasis, +and the only daughter of the late William Garnett, Esq. of Quernmore +Park and Bleasdale, Lancashire."--Notes in "Lancashire Lyrics." + +{2} From "Lancashire Lyrics," edited by John Harland, Esq., F.S.A. + +{3} Dole; relief from charity. + +{4} "During what has been well named 'The Cotton Famine,' amongst +the imports of cotton from India, perhaps the worst was that +denominated 'Surat,' from the city of that name in the province of +Guzerat, a great cotton district. Short in staple, and often rotten, +bad in quality, and dirty in condition, (the result too often of +dishonest packers,) it was found to be exceedingly difficult to work +up; and from its various defects, it involved considerable +deductions, or 'batings,' for bad work, from the spinners' and +weavers' wages. This naturally led to a general dislike of the Surat +cotton, and to the application of the word 'Surat' to designate any +inferior article. One action was tried at the assizes, the offence +being the applying to the beverage of a particular brewer the term +of 'Surat beer.' Besides the song given above, several others were +written on the subject. One called 'Surat Warps,' and said to be the +production of a Rossendale rhymester, (T. N., of Bacup,) appeared in +Notes and Queries of June 3, 1865, (third series, vol. vii., p. +432,) and is there stated to be a great favourite amongst the old +'Deyghn Layrocks,' (Anglice, the 'Larks of Dean,' in the forest of +Rossendale,) 'who sing it to one of the easy-going psalm-tunes with +much gusto.' One verse runs thus:- + +" 'I look at th' yealds, and there they stick; +I ne'er seen the like sin' I wur wick! +What pity could befall a heart, +To think about these hard-sized warps!' + +Another song, called 'The Surat Weyver,' was written by William +Billington of Blackburn. It is in the form of a lament by a body of +Lancashire weavers, who declare that they had + +" 'Borne what mortal man could bear, +Affoore they'd weave Surat.' + +But they had been compelled to weave it, though + +" 'Stransportashun's not as ill +As weyvin rotten Su'.' + +The song concludes with the emphatic execration, +" 'To hell wi' o' Surat!'" + +--Note in "Lancashire Lyrics," vol. ii., edited by John Harland, +Esq., F.S.A. + +{5} These beautiful lines, by the veteran Samuel Bamford, of +Harperhey, near Manchester, author of "Passages in the Life of a +Radical," &c., are copied from the new and complete edition of his +poems, entitled "Homely Rhymes, Poems, and Reminiscences," published +by Alexander Ireland & Co., Examiner and Times Office, Pall Mall, +Manchester. Price 3s. 6d., with a portrait of the author. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOME-LIFE OF THE LANCASHIRE FACTORY +FOLK DURING THE COTTON FAMINE*** + + +******* This file should be named 10126.txt or 10126.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/1/2/10126 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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