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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11356 ***
+
+A TALE OF ONE CITY:
+
+THE NEW BIRMINGHAM.
+
+_Papers Reprinted from the "Midland Counties Herald"_,
+
+BY
+
+THOMAS ANDERTON.
+
+Birmingham: "MIDLAND COUNTIES HERALD" OFFICE.
+
+TO BE HAD FROM CORNISH BROTHERS, NEW STREET; MIDLAND EDUCATIONAL CO.,
+CORPORATION STREET.
+
+1900
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+PROLOGUE.
+
+
+The present century has seen the rise and development of many towns in
+various parts of the country, and among them Birmingham is entitled to
+take a front place. If Thomas Attwood or George Frederick Muntz could
+now revisit the town they once represented in Parliament they would
+probably stare with amazement at the changes that have taken place in
+Birmingham, and would require a guide to show them their way about the
+town--now a city--they once knew so well. The material history of
+Birmingham was for a series of years a story of steady progress and
+prosperity, but of late years the city has in a political, social, and
+municipal sense advanced by leaps and bounds. It is no longer
+"Brummagem" or the "Hardware Village," it is now recognised as the
+centre of activity and influence in Mid-England; it is the Mecca of
+surrounding populous districts, that attracts an increasing number of
+pilgrims who love life, pleasure, and shopping.
+
+Birmingham, indeed, has recently been styled "the best governed city in
+the world"--a title that is, perhaps, a trifle too full and panegyrical
+to find ready and general acceptance. If, however, by this very lofty
+and eulogistic description is meant a city that has been exceptionally
+prosperous, is well looked after, that has among its inhabitants many
+energetic, public-spirited men, that has a good solid debt on its books,
+also that has municipal officials of high capabilities with fairly high
+salaries to match--then Birmingham is not altogether undeserving of the
+high-sounding appellation. Many of those who only know Birmingham from
+an outside point of view, and who have only lately begun to notice its
+external developments, doubtless attribute all the improvements to Mr.
+Chamberlain's great scheme, and the adoption of the Artisans' Dwellings
+Act in 1878. The utilisation of this Act has certainly resulted in the
+making of one fine street, a fine large debt, and the erection of a
+handful of artisans' dwellings. The changes, however, that culminated in
+Mr. Chamberlain's great project began years before the Artisans'
+Dwellings Act became law.
+
+The construction of the London and North Western Railway station--which,
+with the Midland Railway adjunct, now covers some thirteen acres of
+land--cleared away a large area of slums that were scarcely fit for
+those who lived in them--which is saying very much. A region sacred to
+squalor and low drinking shops, a paradise of marine store dealers, a
+hotbed of filthy courts tenanted by a low and degraded class, was swept
+away to make room for the large station now used by the London and
+North Western and Midland Railway Companies.
+
+The Great Western Railway station, too, in its making also disposed of
+some shabby, narrow streets and dirty, pestiferous houses inhabited by
+people who were not creditable to the locality or the community, and by
+so doing contributed to the improvement of the town. Further, the
+erection of two large railway stations in a central district naturally
+tended to increase the number of visitors to the growing Midland
+capital, and this, of course, brought into existence a better class of
+shops and more extended trading. Then the suburbs of Birmingham, which
+for some years had been stretching out north, south, east, and west,
+have lately become to a considerable extent gathered into the arms of
+the city, and the residents in some of the outskirts, at least, may now
+pride themselves, if so inclined, upon being a part of the so-called
+"best governed city in the world," sharing its honours, importance, and
+debts, and contributing to its not altogether inconsiderable rates.
+
+I do not purpose in these pages to go into the ancient history of
+Birmingham. Other pens have told us how one Leland, in the sixteenth
+century, visited the place, and what he said about the "toyshop of the
+world." Also how he saw a "brooke," which was doubtless in his time a
+pretty little river, but which is now a sewery looking stream that tries
+to atone for its shallowness and narrowness by its thickness. They have
+likewise told us about the old lords of Bermingham--whose monuments
+still adorn the parish church--who have died out leaving no successors
+to bear for their proud title the name of the "best governed city in the
+world."
+
+These other pens have also mentioned the little attentions Birmingham
+received from Cromwell's troops; how the Roundheads fired at Aston Hall
+(which had given hospitality to Charles I.) making a breakage--still
+unrepaired!--in the great staircase of that grand old Elizabethan
+mansion. My purpose, however, is not to deal with past records of
+Birmingham, but rather with its modern growth and appearance.
+
+MUNICIPAL STAGNATION.
+
+After the sweeping alterations effected by the construction of the new
+railway stations in Birmingham, further improvements were for a time of
+a slow, jog-trot order, although the town, in a commercial sense, was
+moving ahead, and its wealth and population were rapidly increasing.
+Small improvements were made, but anything like big schemes, even if
+desirable, were postponed or rejected. Birmingham, indeed, some thirty
+years ago, was considerably under the influence of men of the
+unprogressive tradesmen class--many of them worthy men in their way but
+of limited ideas. In their private businesses they were not accustomed
+to deal with big transactions and high figures, so that spending large
+sums of money, if proposed, filled the brewer, the baker, and
+candlestick maker with alarm. They were careful and economical, but
+their care in finance was apt at times to be impolitic, and their
+economy has in several cases proved to have been somewhat costly.
+
+Indeed, until recent years, the leading authorities of the town were
+anything but enterprising, and their view of future possibilities very
+limited. Could they have seen a little farther ahead they might have
+laid out money to the great profit and future advantage of the
+community. They could have erected new corporation offices and municipal
+buildings before land in the centre of the town became so very costly;
+the gas and water interests might have been purchased, probably at a
+price that would have saved the town thousands of pounds. It is also
+understood that they might have purchased Aston Hall, with its 170 acres
+close to the town, on terms which would have made the land (now nearly
+all built upon) a veritable Tom Tidler's ground for the town and
+corporation. But our shopkeeper senators would have nothing to do with
+such bold and far-reaching schemes, and were given to opposing them
+when suggested by men more courageous and far-seeing than themselves.
+
+Between twenty-five and thirty years ago it was felt by the more
+advanced and intelligent portion of the community that the time had come
+for the town to arouse itself, and that certain reforms should no longer
+be delayed. It was beginning to be felt that the Town Council did not
+fairly represent the advancing aspirations and the growing needs,
+importance, and wealth of the town. Sanitary reforms were required, the
+growing traffic in the principal streets called for better and more
+durable roadways, and Macadamised and granite paved streets no longer
+answered the purposes required. The latter were heavy, noisy, and
+lumbering; the former were not sufficiently durable. Moreover, "Macadam"
+consisted of sharply-cut pieces of metal put upon the streets, which
+were left for cart and carriage wheels to break up and press down into
+something like a level surface. When this was done it made objectionable
+dust in dry weather, and in wet weather it converted the streets into
+avenues of mud and puddle to be scraped up, or to be swept off, by some
+curiously-devised machine carts constructed for the purpose. Carriage
+people, I fear, often cursed the stone stuff they had to grind into the
+roads, and pedestrians anathematized the mud and the dust.
+
+As many people will remember, in some of the less important streets the
+footways were paved with what were called "petrified kidneys"--stones
+about as big as a good-sized potato, very durable but extremely
+unpleasant to walk upon. Little or nothing was done to improve the
+slummy and dirty parts of the town, or to remove some of those foul
+courts and alleys which were not only disgraceful in appearance but were
+a menace to the health of the inhabitants.
+
+In fact, for one reason or another, the authorities left undone the
+things they ought to have done, and possibly they did some things they
+ought not to have done, and if allowed to go on it is probable there
+would soon have been no health in us. It may, however, be admitted that
+Birmingham was no worse governed than many other large towns in the
+comparatively unprogressive days of which I speak, but a new race of
+more advanced and energetic men were dissatisfied with the sluggish,
+stagnant state of local government, and they felt that the hour had
+struck for the inauguration of some large and important improvements.
+Such was the state of affairs about the year 1868.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+ENTER MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
+
+
+The present position of Birmingham and its improved appearance in these
+later years are largely attributed to the work and influence of Mr.
+Chamberlain. To him, certainly, the credit is largely due. At the same
+time it is only fair to say that he was not the first man who had
+discovered that Birmingham, some thirty years ago, was, compared with
+what it should be, in many respects lagging behind. Other persons had
+been impressed with the idea that the town, in a municipal, sanitary,
+and social sense, was not advancing at a pace commensurate with its
+commercial and material progress.
+
+To go just a little farther back for a moment, it must be recorded that
+Birmingham, in a political sense, made a great step forward when it
+elected Mr. Bright as one of its members of Parliament in the year 1857.
+This served to focus the eyes of the country on the midland capital, and
+from this date the town became a new centre of political activity. The
+great meetings addressed by Mr. Bright were not regarded as mere
+provincial gatherings, but they attracted the attention of the whole
+nation. The proceedings were no longer chronicled merely by the local
+press, but the London daily newspapers sent representatives to furnish
+special reports of our new member's speeches. Indeed, the interest and
+excitement at these political gatherings was often feverish in its
+intensity, and for many years Mr. Bright's visits to Birmingham were
+red-letter days in the history of the town.
+
+Mr. Bright, however, not being a resident in Birmingham, took no part
+in its local and municipal affairs, and the man was wanting who would
+come forward and energetically take town matters in hand. Mr. Joseph
+Chamberlain was the man, and the time was ripe for him. He was known to
+be smart, able, and energetic, and also to be imbued with decidedly
+progressive ideas. Further, he was justly credited with having a lofty
+conception of the real importance and dignity of municipal life and the
+value of municipal institutions.
+
+In the year 1869 Mr. Chamberlain was elected a member of the Birmingham
+Town Council, and he began to make things spin and hum at a pace which
+literally soon reached a pretty high rate. His example, and possibly his
+persuasion, induced several of his friends and associates to become
+candidates for Town Council membership, and in a very short time he had
+a strong and influential following, made up of men of energy, substance,
+and good social position, who soon began to overpower and make things
+more lively perhaps than pleasant for the anti-progressives in the
+Corporation. In Israelitish story we are told that a new king arose who
+knew not Joseph, but in Birmingham a new municipal kingdom arose that
+knew Joseph and trusted him.
+
+The changes that soon began to take place were enough to take away the
+breath of some of the nice, complacent, arm-chair, "Woodman" members of
+the Town Council. If the preceding rulers of the Corporation had been a
+trifle too parsimonious in the matter of expenditure, Mr. Chamberlain
+and his party soon began to make amends for any trifling mistakes or
+past errors in the way of economy. In a very few years the town had a
+debt, I don't say of which it might be proud, but of which it very soon
+felt the weight.
+
+When Mr. Chamberlain entered the Town Council the municipal debt stood
+at some £588,000. When he left it, after about ten years' service, the
+debt had mounted up to the neat and imposing sum of £6,212,000. Of
+course, there were very valuable assets to place against this heavy
+indebtedness, assets which are likely to improve considerably in value
+as time goes on--that is, if the city continues to progress and prosper.
+Still, a good many people were not a little alarmed at the big figures
+that grew on the debtor side of the Corporation accounts, but more
+persons applauded the spirit, courage, and enterprise of those who had
+taken the reins of the town into their hands.
+
+When Mr. Chamberlain and his friends had fairly got hold of the Town
+Council ropes, they set to work in strong earnest. Sanitary improvements
+were promoted. The principal streets and their lighting and paving were
+improved, and the general appearance of the town quickly presented a
+change for the better. Trees were planted in some of the chief
+thoroughfares. They did not it is true show much disposition to grow and
+thrive, but they were planted and replanted, though we may still have to
+lament that our Birmingham boulevards will not compare favourably with
+those in some other cities. Mr. Chamberlain, however, was not the man
+to be content with such trifling reforms as these. He had large and
+spacious ideas in his mind, and he quickly brought them out to air and
+grow.
+
+In the year 1873 Mr. Chamberlain was elected Mayor, and in the following
+year he brought forward his schemes for the purchase by the municipality
+of the gas and water supplies. His proposals encountered very formidable
+opposition, principally from those interested in the gas and water
+companies, whose undertakings he proposed compulsorily to purchase. Some
+of the shareholders in these prosperous companies were fierce in their
+denunciations of his schemes. They regarded Mr. Chamberlain's proposals
+as nothing short of confiscation. For years they had supplied the town
+with gas and water. They had found the necessary money in the "sure and
+certain hope" of having a good and secure investment for their capital,
+and lo! when they had fairly established their undertakings, it was
+proposed to blow out their profitable light and dash the refreshingly
+remunerative water from their lips. It was hard--I don't mean the
+water, but the situation! Of course the shareholders were to receive a
+fair price for their properties, the gas companies practically
+£1,900.000, the waterworks company £1,350,000. But still they were not
+happy. They resisted the proposed purchases.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, was not the man to be daunted by the
+opposition of the gas and water company proprietors. He had made up his
+mind that it would be for the good of the town for these undertakings to
+be in the hands of the municipality, and in spite of the Town Council
+"old gang" and outraged gas and water shareholders, who felt they were
+being fraudulently despoiled of certain prospective advantages, he
+carried his point.
+
+There are still those among us who, for various reasons, murmur at these
+extensive purchases. They maintain, for one thing, that the possession
+of the gas influenced the Corporation to turn a discouraging eye upon
+the electric light. Certainly Birmingham has been rather lax in taking
+up electric illumination, and possibly more enterprise would have been
+evinced in this direction if the Corporation had not become dealers in
+gas and water on their own terms, viz., no competition allowed. Some
+self-constituted prophets shook their heads and said that before the gas
+debt was paid off gas would literally have "gone out" as a general
+illuminant. Before the eighty-five years allowed for the redemption of
+the capital invested in the gas have elapsed a good many things may
+certainly happen. So far, however, gas is not extinguished, but is in
+increased demand, and even water is believed to have a future.
+
+With regard to the water purchase, however, a good deal of opposition
+was offered on special grounds. Having purchased the waterworks
+undertaking the Corporation were, of course, desirous to make it pay. To
+buy the thing was a blunder in the eyes of some, to let it be a source
+of loss would have been a crime. Consequently, it became necessary to
+force the water supply business, and the municipal authorities went
+about it in a way that pressed hardly sometimes and provoked not a
+little hostility and resentment.
+
+"Waterologists" and analysts are somewhat divided in opinion as to what
+is pure water, or at least good wholesome water. Some authorities take
+one standard, some another. The Corporation, with an eye to business,
+selected a very high standard, for this brought grist to the mill, or, I
+should say, trade to the tap. It meant the closing of a large number of
+wells yielding water which, under a less rigorous standard than that
+adopted, would have been considered wholesome. But in this matter again,
+Mr. Chamberlain and the "new gang" paid no heed to the growls of the
+disaffected, and pumps were disestablished in all directions, chiefly,
+it was maintained, to swell the returns of the water department. "O ye
+wells, bless ye the Lord"--but few were suffered to remain.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, was not long content with having municipalized
+the gas and water. In accordance with the strong impetus of his nature
+he sighed for more worlds to conquer. Consequently he was soon ready
+with a gigantic Improvement Scheme, to be carried out under the adoption
+of the somewhat misused and delusive Artisans' Dwellings Act. His
+proposal was to make a grand street and a more direct way to Aston, and
+in doing so to demolish some dirty back thoroughfares and a large number
+of foul and filthy unsanitary dwellings.
+
+The scheme was a big one. It affected many interests, and before it was
+carried out it caused a fierce amount of strife, ill-feeling, and
+hostility. The discontent and disaffection which Mr. Chamberlain's
+previous schemes aroused were but as morning breezes compared with the
+storm and tempest his new proposals raised. His daring and dash almost
+dazed his fellow townsfolk, for, like Napoleon, he rushed on from one
+exploit to another with a rapidity that astounded his friends and
+confused and overwhelmed his foes.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+THE ACT AND THE DWELLINGS.
+
+
+Considering how many interests were affected by the Birmingham
+Improvement Scheme and the adoption of the Artisans' Dwellings Act, it
+may be doubted if the scheme would have passed as it did had its full
+purport and meaning been fully considered and understood. Some persons
+saw that they would be grievously injured, and they offered strenuous
+opposition, but there were many others who only found out when it was
+too late what extreme and arbitrary power was conferred upon the
+authorities who put the Act into operation.
+
+Of course the scheme was laid before the rate-payers in the usual
+manner, but few realised the importance of studying it well, or grasped
+the far-reaching character of its operations till too late.
+
+Let me explain more especially what is meant by this. When it was
+decided to adopt Mr. Chamberlain's scheme and make the new fine street,
+land was cleared and was let on leases by the Corporation. In letting
+this land, agreements were made that the new buildings, when consisting
+of shops, offices, &c., should be so many storeys high, the object, of
+course, being to make the properties, which would in due course revert
+to the city, the more valuable. When, however, these tall buildings were
+erected, adjacent premises were robbed of light and air, and when the
+owners or tenants of these injured premises asked for compensation they
+found out, at least in some cases, that the authorities were not liable.
+I believe I am right in saying that the powers conferred by the Act
+absolved them from indictments on the part of those whose property was
+damaged by diminished air or light. The result was that certain
+sufferers found to their mortification that they had no redress, but
+must raise their chimneys at their own cost, if necessary, and in other
+cases endure the inconvenience of a decreased supply of light. This was
+an unpleasant revelation that caused much gnashing of teeth among the
+owners of, and the dwellers in, the properties surrounding the tall
+buildings erected by the leaseholders of the Corporation.
+
+As for those whose property was required and taken under the Act, it was
+all very well for owners and for those who had leases: they could not be
+molested without fair and proper payment. Shopkeepers and others,
+however, who were only annual tenants, had, I fear in many cases, to go
+empty away. Some of these had good, old-established businesses that had
+for years become identified with certain premises. It was nothing short
+of ruin to them to move, but they had to take up their goods and walk.
+This is the way that authorities often have to deal with the more or
+less helpless in view of what they consider to be the greatest good of
+the greatest number.
+
+It will, of course, be said that some of these traders were extremely
+short-sighted not to have had leases of premises that were so
+all-important to them. In many cases, however, they were unable to
+obtain such agreements, the landlords being unwilling or unable to grant
+them. The result was that many a prosperous tradesman had his successful
+career cut short and passed into a retirement he did not desire,
+probably with a few warm curses upon the Town Council, the Improvement
+Scheme, and the schemers.
+
+It is not very easy to understand the just laws that should govern
+compensation. When there is talk of disestablishing public-houses,
+certain statesmen approve of compensation. The argument is that as
+public-houses are licensed by law, their owners have been given a sort
+of status and sanction, which should be properly and considerately dealt
+with in case their businesses are taken away from them. But other
+people also take out licences, such as tobacconists, pawnbrokers,
+grocers, and wine sellers, yet when these traders are disturbed or
+disestablished, compensation is never suggested.
+
+Let us see what has happened in Birmingham. When the grand new street
+was made the traffic to the northern part of the town was largely
+diverted from other thoroughfares, and the consequence was that streets
+and passages that were once busy highways and byways were soon
+comparatively deserted. Shops became tenantless, or had to be let at
+greatly reduced rents. Indeed, the depreciation of property in the
+localities referred to is said to have been at least thirty per cent.
+Yet the owners had no redress.
+
+Of course it usually happens that when large reforms are effected the
+noble work is done at somebody's inconvenience or cost. It is the
+inevitable result, and people who are not sufferers shrug their
+shoulders and complacently remark that the few must be sacrificed for
+the benefit of the many. It is delightfully easy to be philosophical
+and even philanthropic when our own pockets, feelings, and interests are
+not concerned. The last new great Improvement Scheme would, of course,
+be a great thing for Birmingham; it would also shed a considerable
+amount of glory on its authors; it would likewise put a good deal of
+power into the hands of its administrators, and not a little money into
+the pockets of professional men. If some few persons had to suffer in
+order to bring about such splendid results they must try to be
+patriotic, noble citizens, or else grin and bear their discomfiture!
+Those, however, who were despoiled of their businesses, or who found
+their property seriously depreciated, were not likely to be consoled by
+such buttered comfort. They raised their voices in impotent protest, and
+denounced Mr. Chamberlain and all his works.
+
+We do not hear very much of the Artisans' Dwellings Act now, but any
+towns that contemplate adopting it should profit by the experience of
+Birmingham, consider its full scope and meaning, and count the cost.
+The city of Birmingham has applied the Act in connection with its last
+great Improvement Scheme, and it now remains to be seen what the
+results, in a commercial sense, will be. The present and succeeding
+generation, at least, will have to pay off some heavy obligations in the
+next sixty or seventy years, and then the city should he immensely the
+richer for its enterprising policy. I say it should be, and probably it
+will be, but there is a fair-sized "if" to be considered.
+
+It seems to be taken as a matter of course that Birmingham will go on
+developing and prospering in the future as it has in the past. And it
+may be fairly presumed that it will do so. This, however, must not be
+taken exactly as a matter of positive certainty. There are some
+indications that there may be a pause in the material prosperity of the
+city by and by--a limit to its progressiveness. If so, the enterprises
+of our authorities may not prove so advantageous as has been reckoned
+upon. Partly owing to high rates and the cost of carriage,
+manufacturers are removing factories outside the city, and in some
+cases, where they have a large foreign trade, nearer to the seaboard. If
+this exodus continues and increases it is easy to see that the effect
+will be to diminish the population, and this in time will affect the
+value of property. The manufactures of Birmingham are, however, so
+numerous and so varied there is reason for hope that any circumstances
+that may apparently show a standstill condition will only be temporary,
+and that in all general revivals of trade the city will participate.
+
+Whatever may happen, we know the city in the middle of the next century
+will come in for a fine heritage of reversions, and it is fair to
+presume that posterity will greatly benefit by the Improvement Scheme
+fathered by Mr. Chamberlain. In the meantime the citizens--at least,
+those who bestow much thought upon such matters--shake their heads at
+the load of debt Birmingham bears upon its shoulders, and chafe at the
+high rates. It is, however, pointed out to the malcontents that they
+live in a healthier place than Birmingham used to be, and, further, that
+the city, owing to its improved character and appearance, attracts more
+visitors, and this increases local trade.
+
+Of this latter fact there can be little dispute. The new order of things
+has led to a new and, in some cases, better class of shops being
+established, and these attract a better class of customers. At one time
+residents in the adjoining counties looked down upon Birmingham
+shopkeepers, and would say rather contemptuously that they never
+"shopped" in this city, but went to Leamington, Cheltenham, or London to
+make their purchases. But we do not hear so much of this now. On the
+contrary, I have heard of people--even aristocratic people--who actually
+say that they now, for many reasons, prefer to "shop" in Birmingham
+rather than go to London. Of course this is not an ordinary
+circumstance--for Birmingham has not yet a Bond Street or Regent Street;
+still, exceptional though it may be, it indicates a change of feeling
+and shows that, in one sense at all events, Birmingham is on the rise.
+
+The increased number of large and important shops in central Birmingham
+has led to the formation of trading establishments and Stores of the
+latest order of development. There are now large shops of the "universal
+provider" type, where they sell everything from blacking to port wine,
+and where you see silk mantles in one window and sausages in another.
+
+Some of us rather preferred the old order of things. We liked and still
+like to go to shops kept by tradesmen who have been brought up to
+certain lines of business, and who know from actual knowledge and
+experience what they are buying and selling. But in these large new
+shops and Stores people sell you almost everything without having any
+special knowledge of anything. They recommend this, that, and the other,
+but you have often good reason to know that it is not from any
+experience of the commodities they offer, but only the tradesman's
+instinct and desire to dispose of what he wants most to sell rather than
+what his customers may most wish to buy.
+
+Such is the new style of large shopkeeping, and it is not, of course,
+peculiar to Birmingham. It must be owned, however, that it means
+cheapness, and also that it has been largely developed by the new order
+of things brought about by the recent street improvements in the city.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+ECCE MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
+
+
+Having said so much of what Mr. Chamberlain has done in, and for,
+Birmingham, perhaps I may be permitted to say a few words, "mostly all"
+my own, respecting a much biographed man. Although Mr. Chamberlain is so
+prominently identified with Birmingham and Birmingham with him, it is
+well known that he is not a native of the place. He was born in London
+in 1836, and came to Birmingham in 1854. We took him in and he did for
+us. His father joined the well-known firm of Nettlefold, the wood screw
+makers, and in the course of time his eldest son, Joseph, succeeded
+him. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain soon found his feet in trade, and by his
+business acumen, his foresight, capacity, and shrewdness he advanced the
+business, which had already been highly successful, to a rare pitch of
+prosperity.
+
+At one time I saw and heard much of Mr. Chamberlain, especially in the
+earlier part of his Birmingham public career. He was always what he is
+now--a sharp, smart, and ready man. A man to inspire admiration and
+confidence. There was always a promptness and "all thereness" in his
+nature, with a decided touch of self-reliance, and I may even say
+audacity. In fact, without intending any reflection upon him, I might
+perhaps suggest that he could appropriately take as his motto "De
+l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace." In proof of this
+I may cite one or two incidents that came under my notice.
+
+Some thirty years or more ago Mr. Chamberlain was a prominent member of
+a local debating society. Now, this society used to have every year two
+social gatherings, and it was observed that many members who rarely or
+never came to the debates were not conspicuous by their absence when the
+summer "outings" and other little feasts took place. The committee
+thought it would be rather good sport to give these knife and fork
+debaters a little mild and gentle rub. Consequently they made them the
+subject of a toast at one of their social meetings, held at the
+Lyttelton Arms, Hagley. A word was coined for the occasion, and they
+were toasted as the "Artopsareocoluthic Members" (signifying the lovers
+of the loaves and fishes), and to Mr. Chamberlain was entrusted the task
+of proposing the toast.
+
+In a smart and brilliant speech he poked rare fun at the dinner-debating
+members who were so ready to participate in the festivities of the
+society and so lax in attending the discussions. He not only did this
+with delicious banter and pointed sarcasm; but, with an audacious touch
+all his own, he coupled the toast with the name of one member present.
+This brought the ruffled gentleman up on to his legs, and, smarting
+under Mr. Chamberlain's ironical philippics, he tried to pay back "our
+young friend" for what he considered his unwarrantable impertinence.
+
+But Mr. Chamberlain was not in the least disconcerted by the hotly
+expressed resentment of the offended member. With his cigar in his mouth
+and his eye-glass in his eye he smiled with amused complacency, while
+his irate friend tried to pay him back, though hardly in his own sharp,
+ringing coin.
+
+The other incident to which I have referred took place when the
+Birmingham Corporation Gas Bill was under consideration. A town's
+meeting was held to discuss and decide whether the gas undertakings
+should be purchased by the municipal authorities. As there was
+considerable difference of opinion upon the question there was a large
+gathering in the Town Hall, and the opponents of the scheme were in
+strong force.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, in the course of his speech advocating the purchase,
+pointed out with characteristic force all the advantages of the proposed
+scheme, and when he mentioned the satisfactory sum for which the gas
+undertaking could be bought a prominent opponent called out, "Will you
+give that for it?" "Yes, I will," was the prompt reply, which rather
+surprised and silenced his antagonist.
+
+And no doubt he meant what he said. He regarded the amount named as an
+advantageous price for the purchase--as it has proved to be--and he
+would have been willing, and would doubtless, with the aid of his
+friends, have been able, to find the money to secure such a valuable
+monopoly. It was, however, the decisive and ready manner in which he
+answered his interrogator that was so characteristic of the man, and
+which so appealed to the meeting as to elicit a hearty volley of cheers.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain was never easily disconcerted, nor was he ever a touchy,
+over-sensitive man. In fact, he has been heard to say, I believe, that a
+man who takes to public life must not be thin-skinned. If he is to give
+blows, he must be prepared to take blows in return, and whether he takes
+his punishment fighting or lying down, he must take it smiling, or at
+least with complacency. This he does himself, as a rule, and whatever he
+may feel under the blows of his adversaries, he does not wince nor
+whine, but always appears more or less imperturbable, good-humoured, and
+unscathed. We see him demonstrative, combative, even saucy sometimes on
+the platform, but rarely or never ruffled, sour, or out of temper.
+
+As I have hinted, I heard a good deal of Mr. Chamberlain's public
+speaking when he first came to the front as a public man, and it was
+impossible not to be interested, edified, and oftentimes amused by the
+intelligence, point, and smartness of his speech. At the same time there
+was--especially in the earlier days of his public career--a certain
+setness and formality of style that suggested the idea that his speeches
+were anything but the inspiration of the moment, but had been made
+beforehand, and were being reeled off. Indeed, many of those who knew
+him well maintained that his speeches were at this time the result of
+painstaking study, care, and elaboration, and that those who had a nose
+for oratory might detect in them a strong smell of the lamp.
+
+One incident that came under my notice certainly went far to corroborate
+this view. I refer to the occasion of a little semi-public dinner at
+which Mr. Chamberlain was put down to propose a certain toast. He
+proceeded for a time in his usually happy, characteristic manner, when
+all at once in the middle of a sentence he came to a full stop! We all
+looked up, and he looked down embarrassed and confused. He apparently
+had lost the thread of the discourse he had so carefully woven; he could
+not pick up the dropped stiches; and, if I remember rightly, he sat
+down, his speech not safely delivered.
+
+It seems difficult now to fancy Mr. Chamberlain making such a fiasco. He
+is at the present time probably one of the most ready and fluent
+speakers we have, and although many strange things might happen in the
+House of Commons, one of the most astonishing would be to see Mr.
+Chamberlain break down in a speech. It would create a sensation in that
+unserene assembly which would almost be enough to make a seasoned
+pressman swoon, and before the incident had been completely realised the
+unexpected and startling fact would probably be known at the Antipodes.
+Mr. Chamberlain can now make his speeches as he goes on--although the
+material may be prepared beforehand--and, as we know, he can turn from
+the course of his argument to answer quickly and effectively some
+pertinent or impertinent question or interruption.
+
+Since Mr. Chamberlain has become such a leading light in Parliament, his
+speeches have taken a much more solid, sedate, and serious tone than
+they had in his early Birmingham days. They have become considerably
+more weighty--perhaps some of his unfriendly critics would say more
+heavy--than they were in bygone times. Without being open to the charge
+of levity or flippancy, Mr. Chamberlain's speeches used to be remarkable
+for a certain amount of humour, banter, touch-and-go smartness, as well
+as terse argumentative force.
+
+At one time he was an appreciative student of the American humorists,
+and he was very fond of spicing his remarks with apt and amusing
+quotations from Hosea Biglow, Mark Twain, Artemus Ward, and other comic
+classics. Indeed, at one time, no speech of his would have been complete
+without some little sallies of this kind. Now, however, he rarely
+indulges in such pleasantries. Mr. Chamberlain's speeches in the House
+of Commons though never dull are never funny. He soon learned his
+lesson. He very quickly discovered that members of the House may not
+object to be amused, and are often, it must be admitted, easily moved to
+mirth. At the same time the members of that assembly do not place a high
+value upon the words of funny or would-be funny speakers.
+
+Unless he has changed very much, Mr. Chamberlain has a very keen sense
+and appreciation of humour. Probably he would like sometimes to indulge
+himself and amuse the House by firing off some humorous hits and
+quotations, but he knows the importance of suppressing such instincts
+and tendencies if he is to be taken seriously and regarded as a
+statesman. Blue books and Biglow, Bills and Sam Slick, do not make the
+sort of political punch that an influential leader can afford to ladle
+out at St. Stephen's. At the same time, if he cared to indulge his own
+ready wit, or to make use of the amusing extracts he has stored away in
+his memory, he could doubtless make some lively and diverting speeches.
+
+I remember when Mr. Chamberlain was Mayor of Birmingham, the late Mr.
+George Dawson at a little dinner proposed his health, and in doing so
+indulged in some characteristic banter and chaff. Mr. Chamberlain, then
+as now, was not a man of Aldermanic girth, and Mr. Dawson in the course
+of his humorous remarks took occasion to allude to his slight and
+slender proportions, and said he wished there was more of the Mayor to
+look at, and that he should like to see him "go to scale better."
+
+When he rose to reply Mr. Chamberlain, in a quiet, dry manner, and
+without a smile on his face, remarked, "Mr. Dawson has been good enough
+to refer to me as a Mayor without a Corporation." This was so neat and
+smart that I need hardly say the company laughed most amusedly.
+Probably, if I had kept a notebook, or were now to search well my
+memory, I might give other instances of Mr. Chamberlain's smart, ready
+wit.
+
+Now, however, as most people know, his speeches are remarkable for their
+point, force, logical reasoning, incisive language, and straight, hard
+hitting, but, as I have observed, he rarely if ever essays to be funny.
+By his sharp remarks and his adept turns of speech he often, however,
+creates much laughter--as, for instance, when he once spoke of an
+ex-Premier's opportunism and readiness to make promises which, when
+they ought to be fulfilled, "snap went the Gladstone bag"--but he never
+degenerates into anything approaching buffoonery.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain is always prompt and straightforward in action, and is
+pleasant and agreeable in manner and speech. Moreover, he is a man of
+consummate tact. I remember in 1874, when he was Mayor, and the Prince
+and Princess of Wales paid a visit to Birmingham, there was much
+wondering and questioning as to how he would comport himself on the
+occasion. At that time he was credited with cherishing rather strong
+Republican sentiments. It was even said that he had been known to go so
+far as to remain seated when the loyal toasts were drunk. I certainly
+cannot say that I was ever witness of such a proceeding, nor have I been
+able to trace the statement to any authentic source. Still, there was a
+widespread idea that he was not overburdened with feelings of loyalty,
+and many people naturally wondered how he would manage decorously to
+entertain his Royal guests.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain was quite equal to the occasion. In speech and manner
+his conduct was irreproachable, and he won golden opinions from all
+sorts of people. I remember that very curious stories were in
+circulation at the time as to the etiquette which, it had been laid
+down, should be observed on the occasion. It was, indeed, said that, in
+consequence of Mr. Chamberlain's supposed Republican sentiments, special
+regulations were enjoined, and that the formalities to be observed in
+receiving and entertaining the Prince were to be of an extra rigid
+character. I, for one, never believed there was any foundation for these
+silly reports, but, if any special formalities were prescribed, Mr.
+Chamberlain brushed them aside, and simply conducted himself with quiet,
+easy grace, always calm and self-possessed, and never fussy or
+needlessly obsequious.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain entertained the Royal visitors and others at luncheon at
+the Society of Artists' rooms, and it struck me that if he had been a
+born courtier, and had been bred in the atmosphere of palaces, he could
+hardly have been more "at home" in the position in which he found
+himself. His speech, in which he proposed the health of the Prince and
+Princess of Wales, was a model of adroitness and good taste. Without
+giving himself away by indulging in effusiveness, or being carried away
+by the glamour of the occasion, he managed to make a very circumspect,
+clever, and appropriate speech, which, though closely scrutinised,
+brought no reproaches or even adverse criticisms from Republicans or
+Royalists. No doubt it was a somewhat scorching ordeal for Mr.
+Chamberlain to pass through, but he came out of it unsinged and
+triumphant, and was afterwards more popular than ever.
+
+I have some hesitation in speaking of Mr. Chamberlain in his private and
+"at home" character, though in these days I hardly know that I need be
+very timid or scrupulous. The public has a ready, I might almost say a
+greedy, ear for personal details concerning the lives and habits of
+public men, and there are plenty of writers willing to gratify its
+desires in this respect, and that, too, with the knowledge and consent
+of the eminent personages themselves. Many people like to hear all about
+the characteristics of prominent men, and have a keen appetite for all
+particulars concerning their personal habits and peculiarities. They
+love to hear what a celebrated man eats, drinks, and avoids, what time
+he rises and at what hour he usually goes to bed; and even a little
+thimbleful of scandal touching his shortcomings, delinquencies, and,
+possibly, his small vices, is as nectar to the gossip-loving taste. To
+tell some people what they have no right to know is often to delight
+them.
+
+Without at all professing to be in any sense an intimate friend of Mr.
+Chamberlain's, I may, perhaps, say that I have many times had the
+pleasure of sitting at his table, and a more genial and interesting host
+it would be difficult to describe. He is bland and gentle to a degree
+that might surprise those who only know him as a vigorous, fighting
+politician.
+
+I remember that once when Sir William Harcourt was a guest of Mr.
+Chamberlain's at Highbury, he said that he went to stay with his
+honourable friend with feelings almost amounting to trepidation, but he
+soon found that Mr. Chamberlain was by no means the ogre he had been
+represented. Mr. Chamberlain eat his meals with an ordinary knife and
+fork; and he rose up in the morning and went to bed regularly like any
+other sane and well-conducted person. Indeed, he found him quite a tame
+and inoffensive creature compared with the rampant, rampageous
+autocratic being he had so often heard him described.
+
+I do not pretend to quote Sir William Harcourt's words literally. I am
+repeating entirely from memory, but I give the gist of some of his
+amusing, characteristic remarks when speaking in the Birmingham Town
+Hall at the time he was Mr. Chamberlain's friend and guest. Certainly, I
+have always found Mr. Chamberlain a delightfully pleasant host. He is
+not given to monopolizing the talk. He does not dogmatize or lay down
+the law; in fact, when acting as host he is so mild, docile, and
+pleasant that a fossilized Tory, or even a fiery Nationalist, might play
+with him.
+
+Sometimes I have been among a favoured few who have been asked to stay
+after most of his guests have left, and have a cigar with Mr.
+Chamberlain in his library. On such occasions there has been some rare
+good talk. I remember on one occasion the conversation did become warmly
+political, and there was quite a smart little tussle between our host
+and Mr. Jesse Collings. At that time Mr. Collings had a trifle more
+sympathy with Irish patriots than I fancy he has now, and with his
+naturally warm sympathetic feeling he was for liberating Mr. Parnell,
+who was then a prisoner at Kilmainham. But Mr. Chamberlain would have
+none of it. He maintained that Mr. Parnell and his friends had broken
+the law and must pay the penalty. He was quite willing to consider their
+demands, and what they considered to be their wrongs, but they must not
+defy the law. Yes, there was some pretty sparring between these two
+friends on that occasion, very earnest but, of course, perfectly
+good-tempered on both sides.
+
+I have before remarked upon Mr. Chamberlain's self-command and
+imperturbability. Some persons are, perhaps, inclined to think that
+because he keeps himself so well in hand and so rarely indulges in
+sentiment that he is devoid of feeling and emotion. Not so. I recollect
+that on the death of Mr. John Henry Chamberlain--no relation of his, but
+a gentleman whose personal character, artistic skill, and intellectual
+gifts he, and many others, held in high esteem--a meeting was held to
+consider the desirability of having some memorial of one whose loss was
+so deeply deplored. Mr. Chamberlain took a prominent part in the
+proceedings, and I well remember how deeply affected he was when, in the
+course of his touching references to his deceased friend, he said, "I
+feel that his death, then, is the crowning of a noble life. He has been
+called from us in the moment of victory, and we who remain behind are to
+be pitied, for we have lost a great leader, and there are none to take
+his place."
+
+"The task which is imposed upon us is certainly a very melancholy one.
+One by one our leaders are removed from us. The gaps in our ranks are
+becoming painfully apparent. Still, there is much work to be done, and
+we shall best honour those who are gone by endeavouring, as best we may,
+to continue and complete the work which they have so well commenced. In
+this spirit we may be content to bide our turn, hoping that when we,
+too, are called away our record may not shame the bright example of
+those who have gone before us."
+
+When making these touching remarks Mr. Chamberlain's voice became
+tremulous with emotion. He evidently experienced the greatest difficulty
+in commanding his feelings, and when he sat down I saw tear-drops in his
+eyes. Never have I seen him so overcome, and it is only justice to him
+to cite this incident as showing that sentiment and feeling, though
+rarely manifested, are not foreign to his real nature.
+
+With respect to Mr. Chamberlain's personal appearance his form and
+features are now well known, but for a time he was a somewhat
+troublesome subject to caricaturists. When he was first budding out into
+national importance the clever artist of _Vanity Fair_ at that time came
+down to Birmingham to draw him. He succeeded in making a good
+caricature, but it was said that he found his task by no means an easy
+one. It was the nose, I believe, that puzzled the artist. Mr.
+Chamberlain has a pointed, slightly upturned nose, and some cynical
+people may be disposed to say that it has become more pointed and sharp
+the more he has poked it into political business. Anyway, it is a
+characteristic, perhaps _the_ characteristic, of Mr. Chamberlain's face,
+and the skilful _Vanity Fair_ artist caught it after a time, and just
+sufficiently exaggerated it to make a genuine caricature. Seeing,
+however, that Mr. Chamberlain was born to be a much-pictured man, one
+thing has stood him in fine stead--his eye-glass. When "Mr. Punch" first
+took him in hand he could make little or nothing of him, but the
+eye-glass saved the Fleet Street artists from failure. They found
+nothing they could lay hold of at first, not even his nose. They saw a
+man with a pleasant, good-looking, closely-shaven face, some dark hair
+brushed back from his forehead, but there was nothing they could hit off
+with success, and the only way they could secure identity was by the
+eye-glass. "Mr. Punch" used at one time to represent Mr. Bright as
+wearing an eye-glass, but I don't think he ever used one. Certainly I
+never saw Mr. Bright with an eye-glass, and never saw Mr. Chamberlain
+without one. Great and prominent men should have some characteristic
+peculiarity that should be their own special personal brand, and if they
+have it not, it must be made for them--as in the case of Lord Palmerston
+and the wisp of straw that "Mr. Punch" always put in his mouth. Mr.
+Chamberlain, however, has kindly obliged, and given caricaturists and
+others something by which he can be unmistakably "featured."
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+EXIT MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
+
+
+In 1876 Mr. Chamberlain was elected a member of Parliament for
+Birmingham, and his municipal career shortly came to an end. It may be
+remembered that he made an unsuccessful attempt to represent Sheffield
+some little time before he aspired to become a candidate for Birmingham.
+He made a very plucky fight in the cutler constituency, and the
+Sheffield blades were hardly so sharp as they might have been in
+rejecting such an able and rising politician. Probably, if they could
+have peered a little into the future, Mr. Chamberlain's first seat in
+Parliament would not have been as a representative of Birmingham.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, was elected as one of the members of his
+adopted town in the year mentioned, and, as I have said, he retired more
+or less from municipal life. It may further be said that he relinquished
+his local position at the right moment. He was lucky as to the time in
+which he took up public life in Birmingham, and he was equally fortunate
+in regard to the period at which he quitted it. He had set afloat great
+local schemes, he had laboured assiduously for the good of the town, he
+had attained the acme of his local popularity, he was admired even by
+his opponents, and an imposing memorial was erected in his honour. After
+this, anything that might have happened would have been in the nature of
+an anti-climax so far as his local career was concerned.
+
+When at some future day Mr. Chamberlain's life comes to be fully
+written, it will probably be noted as something remarkable that he
+should have done so much, and achieved such a position, while yet only a
+young man. For be it remembered, that after he had been for three
+successive years Mayor of Birmingham, had carried out the large and
+important schemes associated with his name, and had become one of the
+representatives of the town in Parliament, he was only forty years of
+age. It will also be noted that very soon after making his appearance in
+the House of Commons he quickly got his foot on the ladder and rapidly
+mounted the rungs that lead to pre-eminence, and in a very few years
+attained the position of Cabinet Minister.
+
+What more he might have done for Birmingham it is impossible to
+conjecture had he remained longer our local leader. But he was called up
+higher. Perhaps this was lucky for him. The great enterprises, or at
+least some of them, were only fairly started when he relinquished his
+grasp of them, and it remained to be seen whether they were to prove all
+they had been painted. If they succeeded, nothing could deprive him of
+the honour and glory of having inaugurated them. If they failed, it was
+in his power to say that had he remained to carry them out the results
+would have been altogether different.
+
+The working-out of some of his larger schemes and undertakings created,
+as I have already intimated, considerable soreness and friction in
+various quarters. They brought hardship on many persons and produced, at
+any rate for a time, considerable ill-feeling and discontent. The piper
+had to be paid for the great enterprises he had set afloat. With regard
+to the gas and water purchases, the former has returned a profit to the
+tune of £35,000 to £40,000 a year, and is now (in 1899) realising about
+£50,000 per annum. The profits of the water scheme are still more or
+less prospective, whilst the gains to be realised by his great
+Improvement Scheme are in the dim and distant future.
+
+Any adverse criticisms on these undertakings do not now directly affect
+their author. He has taken up national in place of local work, and he
+has left others in Birmingham to carry out more or less ably what he so
+successfully began. Some of us are occasionally inclined to think that
+his brilliant example and career have inflamed some of our remaining
+public men with a desire to do heroics, and to follow his lofty lead in
+the way of promoting large schemes.
+
+For instance, the city is now committed to a huge expenditure for the
+purpose of bringing a supply of water from Mid-Wales. There was
+considerable opposition to this very costly project, but it was at last
+carried, though only the future can decide whether it will prove to be
+an altogether wise and prudent, not to say profitable, undertaking.
+Experts and some far-seeing men are confident as to its future benefits.
+We are to have a good supply of excellent water, and we are to save a
+great many thousands a year in soap. Further, we shall be independent of
+merely local supplies, which, we are told, will be quite inadequate for
+our needs in future days. I am not in a position to controvert what has
+been said in favour of the project, nor have I reason to doubt that the
+scheme--especially under certain conditions--will be of great benefit
+and value to the community in the coming by and by.
+
+At the same time it may, perhaps, be doubted whether the undertaking,
+like the Improvement Scheme, was fully comprehended in all its bearings
+when it was decided to apply for an Act of Parliament to carry out the
+Welsh water project. But its promoters having made up their minds upon
+the question bustled, I won't say rushed, the proposal along, and before
+many of the inhabitants were fairly awakened to what was being done, the
+initial part of the business was accomplished.
+
+When, however, the matter was brought out more into the open in the
+Parliamentary Committee Rooms many of our townsmen opened their eyes and
+their mouths and pressed for a little time for the further consideration
+of this gigantic scheme. But the opposition was not strong enough to
+procure any delay; the advocates of the proposal had our most
+influential public men on their side, so the bill passed through
+Parliament.
+
+Occasionally now mutterings of doubt and dissatisfaction are heard, and
+there are still those who prophesy evil in the future in consequence of
+the enormous outlay to which the city is committed. If, however,
+Birmingham grows and prospers all will be well. If otherwise--and the
+last census did seem to indicate that our progress, as measured by
+increasing population, was inclined to steady down--Birmingham will have
+a huge debt in the future which even a large supply of good wholesome
+water will not altogether liquidate.
+
+Returning, however, to make a few further observations respecting Mr.
+Chamberlain, it may be said now that the voices of those who had any
+grudge against him for the daring innovations he made, and the bold
+undertakings he promoted, have become nearly mute. There are, however,
+some who speak disparagingly of him, partly, perhaps, because they are
+envious of him, and cannot complacently realise his rapid rise to the
+position of eminence he has attained.
+
+Some of his former Radical friends and associates especially denounce in
+no measured terms his unpardonable heresy in departing from what they
+consider was his old political path. Vituperation is almost too mild a
+term to describe their expressed disgust when they see one who was, they
+believed, a man of the people consorting with royal dukes, belted earls,
+and even with the Sovereign herself. This is too much for some of the
+old full-blooded Radicals who are still found in our midst.
+
+Very possibly some of these would do the same if they had the chance,
+for your thorough-going Radical is often a curious creature. I remember
+once being at a London theatre with a friend of mine who was a desperate
+and despotic democrat, and who has been a leading light for years among
+our advanced Radicals. Now it so happened that on the evening of our
+visit the Prince of Wales was at the theatre we attended, and I was
+greatly amused to notice how interested my democratic friend was in
+watching the royal box. When the performance was nearing the end he
+amused me still more by suggesting that we should hurry out and watch
+the Prince drive off. "I do so like to see that sort of thing," he
+added.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, is not the man to care what his foes or his
+old political friends think or say about him. Water on a duck's back is,
+I fancy, an oppressive agony compared with the right honourable
+gentleman's feelings when he hears or reads the condemnatory and abusive
+remarks of some of his former allies. If at any time he does perchance
+feel at all stung by any of the adverse criticisms he hears or reads, he
+takes care not to show that he is hurt.
+
+Sparks will fly upwards, and Mr. Chamberlain has had his troubles, but
+he does not wear his heart on his sleeve, or carry his woes into the
+market place. I remember many years ago, under the stress of severe
+domestic affliction, he retired into private life for a considerable
+period, and it was said that during his self-imposed obscurity he sought
+occupation and solace in the study of Blue Books. Anyway, when he
+emerged into public life again he appeared as the author of a magazine
+article of an advanced political character, which seemed to shew that he
+had spent his solitude in studying and trying to solve some of the large
+political problems of the day.
+
+In contemplating Mr. Chamberlain's remarkable career and his high rise
+in the political world, I am tempted to wonder whether he would have
+built his large mansion near Birmingham if he could have foreseen the
+immediate future. When he made up his mind to erect his house at a great
+cost he perhaps scarcely dreamed he would so soon become a Cabinet
+Minister. Possibly he looked forward to being little more than a local
+member of Parliament--for he is not, I fancy, a dreamer of dreams--and
+felt he should like to pitch his tent near to his constituency.
+
+Anyway he built his house at Moor Green, which he called "Highbury"
+after the name of the district in London where he was born. The house is
+well situated, though in some respects hardly built upon a site worthy
+of such a costly residence. It stands on a piece of rising ground, and
+commands a good prospect. In the front of it are the Lickey and Clent
+Hills some eight or ten miles away, but in the mid-distance is a
+manufacturing suburb with several tall chimneys which are obtrusively
+conspicuous, and which behave as factory chimneys generally do, scarcely
+improving the prospect or the atmosphere. These disadvantages were, I
+believe, pointed out to him before a brick was laid, but he had made up
+his mind, and when it is made up I fancy it is made up very much.
+
+The day may come when he may be able to spend but little of his time at
+his Highbury home, but he has children who will keep the house inhabited
+and well aired if he himself does not. His eldest son, Mr. Austen
+Chamberlain, M.P. for one of the Worcestershire divisions, is in
+training to walk in his father's footsteps, and to see eye to eye--or I
+might say eye-glass to eye-glass--with him in matters political. What
+the future of this eldest son may be it is not for me to forecast. He
+has made an exceptionally good start, but he will have his work cut out
+to follow successfully in the tread of such an able and distinguished
+father.
+
+When people see Mr. Chamberlain _père_ in such prosperity, flourishing
+like a green bay tree, with a country house that has cost a fortune, a
+town house to maintain, and plenty of money to do a fair amount of
+globe-trotting, they wonder and ask how did he get such a lot of money?
+Well, I cannot say, because I do not know, and if I did know I should
+not tell. Doubtless he had something considerable from his father, who
+must have been well off, but as there were some seven children to share
+what was left by the late Mr. Chamberlain it may be assumed it was not
+simply what he inherited that made him rich.
+
+Doubtless his wealth was chiefly acquired by his shrewdness, business
+capacity, and enterprise when he was a member of the firm of Nettlefold
+and Chamberlain, and probably when he retired from that prosperous
+business it was with a sum of money which would, perhaps, make some of
+us blink with envious surprise if we knew the figure.
+
+It is no secret that when he was engaged in business Mr. Chamberlain
+adopted a policy which created much comment at one time, and was,
+indeed, rather severely criticised. It was understood that he had set
+his heart upon making the trade of his firm as much of a monopoly as
+possible, and to this end he made it known to his local competitors that
+they must sell their businesses to him or be prepared for certain
+consequences if they did not.
+
+Such a course of action was regarded as somewhat tyrannical, especially
+by those directly concerned, and it made bad blood for a time between
+Mr. Chamberlain and some of those with whom he was associated in public
+work. After a while his trade opponents came to the idea that it would
+be better to surrender at discretion than to enter into conflict with a
+firm that was in such a strong position, and had such a big war chest at
+its disposal.
+
+It is hardly necessary to go into the merits of this trade question, or,
+indeed, to say anything about it now, as it is all a matter of ancient
+history. Indeed, I only refer to the matter because it formed an
+incident in Mr. Chamberlain's Birmingham career and left its mark upon
+the business that went up and the businesses that went down. Moreover,
+it is a little instructive and edifying, as showing how Mr.
+Chamberlain's combative nature manifested itself in his everyday life.
+He recognised, as other men have done, that business is not a matter to
+be played with, and that trade is in fact a commercial conflict in which
+one must whip and the other be whipped, and as he felt himself in a
+strong position, was on the box and had the whip in his hand, he was
+resolved to drive and to choose the pace and the road.
+
+Live and let live is, of course, a very good and proper maxim, but it
+finds no place in the copy-book of sharp, smart, successful men of
+business. It is their aim and purpose to get money--without harm to
+others, if they can, if not, others must look out for themselves--that
+is all. In one sense at all events Mr. Chamberlain's tactics were
+justified. They were successful.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+AND HIS BRETHREN.
+
+
+Mr. Chamberlain having obtained such distinction in public life, it was
+perhaps only natural that some of his brothers should be tempted or
+induced to follow his shining star. Possibly they had no strong
+inclination to distinguish themselves in public, and were rather pressed
+to come forward on account of the influential name they bore. Anyway,
+some of them did appear in various offices and capacities, but without
+meaning any disrespect to them or any reflection upon their abilities, it
+may perhaps be said that they found their fires so pale and ineffectual
+compared with the brilliant light of their eldest brother--or it may be
+that they found public work comparatively uncongenial to them--that,
+most of them soon preferred to efface themselves and leave one of their
+family and his son to take all the honours and have all the court cards.
+
+Mr. Richard Chamberlain took the most prominent position, and made the
+highest mark of all Mr. Chamberlain's brothers. He was Mayor of
+Birmingham in the years 1879 and 1880. During his years of office he was
+public-spirited and popular, and in the way of civic hospitality he made
+things lively and gay. He kept the Council House warm with his
+entertainments, and lavished so much money in hospitalities of one kind
+or another that he made it difficult for his immediate successors to
+follow in his wake, and none of them tried to do so. So far as I could
+judge of his character, Mr. Richard Chamberlain did not spend his money
+so freely for the sake of purchasing popularity, and certainly not for
+the sake of making ostentatious displays of his wealth. He was naturally
+generous and genial, and as Mayor of a large and important town he found
+many ways of humouring his bent, and he did not mind paying the piper
+pretty handsomely for his pleasure. As is well known, he was afterwards
+M.P. for one of the Islington divisions for some years. Ill-health
+however overtook him, and he died much regretted on the 2nd of April,
+1899.
+
+Another brother, Mr. Arthur Chamberlain, was a town councillor of
+Birmingham for a limited period, and owing to his business capacity he
+became a useful member of the Corporation. He did not apparently go into
+the Council to make a long stay, or if he did he changed his mind, and
+soon retired from municipal work. He has since spent his time in minding
+his own business; in strengthening, mending, and making certain public
+companies; in giving fatherly advice to company shareholders; and in
+dispensing justice, sometimes with pertinent observations, on the local
+magisterial bench.
+
+Two other brothers, Mr. Herbert and Mr. Walter Chamberlain, have at
+times been induced to take a little hand in public work, but their
+efforts have been of a mild, modest, innocent character. Now, however,
+they have retired into that privacy from which they so timidly emerged.
+For many reasons Mr. Chamberlain's brothers were, perhaps, wise not to
+bid high for public place and position in Birmingham. People are apt to
+be needlessly suspicious of too much family influence in public
+concerns. There is always a tendency and a readiness to inveigh against
+cliques, especially family cliques. And at one time there was certainly
+a disposition in some quarters to keep a jealous eye upon Joseph and his
+brethren, lest they should acquire an undue amount of influence and
+power. One blunt, outspoken Scotchman, I remember, expressed this
+feeling in his own characteristic way by saying, "If we don't mind we
+shall be having too much dom'd Chamberlain."
+
+The Chamberlain family, however, being more or less smart, spry men,
+were doubtless sharp enough to detect some inkling of this sort of
+feeling, and consequently they thought it better to silence any such
+cavillings by eschewing as far as they could public life, and contenting
+themselves with being brothers of a big man and sharing a little
+reflected glory.
+
+Whilst mentioning Mr. Chamberlain's family I must say a word of his
+brother-in-law, Mr. William Kenrick, for some years M.P. for the
+Northern Division of Birmingham. Mr. Kenrick was Mayor of Birmingham in
+1877, and a worthy and modest chief magistrate he made. A generous,
+intelligent, public-spirited man, he has always been liberal with his
+purse and his time, and has done much to further educational and
+philanthropic schemes. Mr. Kenrick belongs to a class some cynical
+people consider very "cliquey." It is, however, to be wished there were
+more such "cliquey" people in our midst, for they are always
+conspicuously at the fore in supporting by their influence and their
+money every good cause which has for its object the alleviation of
+suffering and the improvement of the people.
+
+It is true that there was one important project inaugurated some few
+years ago that did not enlist their sympathy. This was the Birmingham
+Bishopric Scheme. But, seeing that most of the "clique" are Unitarians,
+they could hardly be expected to support a proposal for the benefit of
+the Established Church. It was a misfortune for that Church that the
+Chamberlain party and their friends were aliens in religious matters.
+Had it been otherwise the results of the proposed scheme might have been
+very different. The "clique," when they do support a cause, do it with
+no niggardly hand, and if it had so chanced that they had been Churchmen
+instead of Unitarians, the probabilities are that by this time
+Birmingham would have been in possession of a full-sized Bishop all its
+own, and possibly a fine, bran-new, costly cathedral to boot.
+
+Owing to the lack of monetary support the Birmingham Bishopric Scheme
+is dead, or in such a very sound trance that it is hardly likely to
+revive. At its birth it was not very strong, and its early existence was
+jeopardised by conflicting ideas among its sponsors, chiefly caused by
+the difficulties in the way of raising all the money required.
+Birmingham, therefore, had to settle itself down and be content with a
+Suffragan Bishop, at least for a time, and this, it is thought, may
+prove to be a good long time.
+
+In connection with the Birmingham Unitarians I may here, perhaps,
+appropriately allude to a matter connected with the growth of our modern
+city. The New Meeting House of the Unitarians in which Dr. Priestley
+ministered was situated on the east side of the town, and as the
+congregation was migrating westward they desired to have their place--I
+won't say of worship, but their place of meeting, nearer to their homes.
+Moreover, moved by the advancing spirit of the age, they wished for a
+more important and ornamental looking edifice than the extremely plain,
+I might say ugly, structure which their fathers had attended. Unitarians
+may appear to be rather rigid and frigid, but they have an intelligent
+appreciation of art and beauty.
+
+Accordingly some forty years ago they selected a site on the west side
+of the town, and erected what was then considered a handsome place of
+meeting, which they called the Church of the Messiah, and which was
+opened in 1862. The architect of this Church did not seem to be unduly
+weighed down with Unitarian ideas. By accident or design he marked the
+edifice with emblems of the Trinity, for at the very entrance there is a
+large opening encircling three arches, which are suggestively
+emblematical of the Three in One.
+
+The building of this somewhat florid structure, and the move of the
+Unitarian church from east to west, provoked a considerable amount of
+caustic comment and humorous criticism at the time. These advanced
+Unitarians were scoffed and sneered at for deserting the simple
+tabernacle of their ancestors, and one which was associated with the
+revered name of Dr. Priestley. They were also mocked for their greater
+iniquity in selling their tabernacle to the Papists. Yes, the New
+Meeting House of the Unitarians became a chapel of the Roman Catholics.
+They rendered to the priests the things that were Priestley's, as they
+were reminded by a facetious paper published at the time. But, however
+much the Unitarians may have been chaffed and sneered at for abandoning
+their old conventicle, they have lived it all down, and, if I mistake
+not, Joseph and his brethren, the Kenricks, the Oslers, the Beales, and
+others, now congregate in peace in their un-Unitarian-looking Church of
+the Messiah.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S ASSOCIATES.
+
+
+Having spoken of his brethren, I may now refer to one or two of Mr.
+Chamberlain's friends and associates. Among these I will specially
+mention Mr. Jesse Collings, Mr. Schnadhorst, and Mr. Powell Williams.
+Mr. Collings, like Mr. Chamberlain, is a stranger within our gates. He
+is a Devon man by birth, but as a comparatively young man he came to
+Birmingham, and he not only came but he saw and he prospered. He entered
+local public life about the same time as Mr. Chamberlain, and they soon
+became kindred spirits. From the first Mr. Chamberlain seemed to take a
+special fancy to Mr. Collings--in American phrase, he "froze to him."
+They became a sort of David and Jonathan company limited, and although
+each of the partners may have preserved a certain amount of independence
+and individuality, in many things they pulled together in their work and
+policy like one man.
+
+When Mr. Chamberlain took leave of local municipal life and went up
+higher, Mr. Collings was not long in following him, and now both have
+been for some years very familiar figures in Parliament. Since they
+first entered public life both men have in some ways mellowed down.
+Compared with what they once were, their foes at any rate say, they have
+both lost colour. They were once ripe, full-bodied Radicals, and now
+they are tawny Liberals, who have been bottled late--but bottled.
+
+Although time and experience may have taught Mr. Collings many things,
+he probably retains more of the old Radical Adam than does Mr.
+Chamberlain. At one time he was regarded by some of his opponents as a
+political fire-eater--a democratic despot who would have decapitated
+kings and queens without a tinge of remorse, and slain wicked Tories
+with the sword. He was, however, never the ungenial, self-seeking,
+aggressive person some of his foes may have fancied him. He was always
+an affable, pleasant, agreeable man, who could be civil and even polite
+to his adversaries, especially when political fighting was not going on
+in front. But, as I have said, he has toned down during late years and
+has learned, as many other men have done, that there are large lessons
+to be learnt by experience, and that there is some virtue in expediency.
+
+Of course a good deal of mud has been flung at Mr. Collings by some of
+his local friends in consequence of what they consider his political
+perversion, but I don't know that much of it has stuck to him. With some
+of his former allies it is not so much that he may have become more
+temperate in his views, or that he did actually abandon his absolute
+freedom and take a Government office. They might have forgiven these
+little backslidings, but in their eyes he sinned past redemption when he
+consorted with titled people, broke the bread of kings, and even
+suffered himself to be entertained at Sandringham. These were offences
+outside forgiveness in the eyes of some few of his former associates.
+With Mr. Chamberlain, however, as his friend and prototype, he probably
+feels that he can afford to smile at the sneers and jeers of those who,
+not being able to make much way up the political ladder themselves, take
+their revenge by pelting those who are climbing their way towards the
+top.
+
+Among Mr. Chamberlain's working associates, Mr. Powell Williams has been
+a sort of "surprise packet." Poets, we are told, are born, and not made,
+but Mr. Powell Williams seems to have been made, and not born. At least,
+no one seems to know anything much about his early career. He appeared
+to burst upon the municipal horizon all at once, like a meteor emerging
+from outer space, but when he came in contact with the Corporation
+atmosphere he soon became ignited and fired by municipal enthusiasm,
+and, encouraged by those who perceived his capacity, he rapidly began to
+be a conspicuous luminary in our local Forum. He quickly distinguished
+himself in the matter of local finance, and indeed soon became
+Birmingham's Chancellor of the Exchequer.
+
+Without being a brilliant or learned orator, Mr. Powell Williams had the
+gift of fluency, and he could generally be reckoned upon to get up at a
+moment's notice and make an effective speech. He could also do a little
+fighting if it came in his way, and in the course of his Town Council
+career he had one or two pretty bouts with some of his opponents. When
+he is not on the war horse he is a pleasant, intelligent, un-sour man,
+with a touch of smartness and humour which give point to his words. As
+is now well known, Mr. Williams was returned to Parliament for one of
+the Birmingham divisions. He became the successful helmsman in London
+of the central organization of the Liberal Unionist party. On the
+formation of the Government in 1895, to the surprise of many of his
+friends and acquaintances, he became a member of the administration. It
+was believed that he was well taken in tow by Mr. Chamberlain, but it
+may with truth, perhaps, be added that by his own energy and ability he
+placed himself in a prominent position where he could hardly be
+overlooked.
+
+With respect to Mr. Schnadhorst, there can be no question as to Mr.
+Chamberlain's prescience in judging of the capabilities of men, and his
+quick appreciation of Mr. Schnadhorst's attributes is a case in point.
+The pre-eminence this latter-named gentleman attained in the political
+world was somewhat of a surprise to many of his old friends, and
+probably not least of all to himself. Doubtless at the beginning of his
+career he little dreamt that owing to his being taken in hand by men of
+influence; to unforeseen circumstances in the evolution of political
+affairs; and also, it must be admitted, to certain capabilities of his
+own, he would attain to the position of importance he somewhat quickly
+reached, and his name become a synonym for systematic political
+organization.
+
+I knew Mr. Schnadhorst long before he blossomed out into fame. He struck
+me, and doubtless others, as being an intelligent, good, easy-mannered
+man, with a touch of "Sunday schoolism" in his character and manner. He
+was not brilliant, and he did not appear to be burdened with much
+originality. He seemed to be a pointless sort of man, apparently
+destitute of any keen sense of humour; a spectacled, sallow, sombre man,
+who would have been an ornament to a first-class undertaker's business.
+Certainly he was not one who, by his smartness, wit, cleverness, and
+courage would have tempted anyone to say, "There is the great political
+organizer of the future."
+
+In his earlier life and in his own particular line of business he was
+not a conspicuous success. His heart was not in it or his hand either.
+Speaking from my own experience, he made me about the worst fitting
+coat I ever wore. Mr. Chamberlain, however, took his measure more
+successfully than he himself took other people's, in a sartorial sense,
+and soon saw that he would make up into something useful if the cutting
+out was done for him.
+
+Mr. Schnadhorst as a young man began by taking a keen and intelligent
+interest in local public life. He came under the eye of Mr. Chamberlain,
+who quickly perceived that he possessed certain qualities which would
+prove useful and valuable if properly employed. He saw in him a man of
+aptitude and capacity, who had the _suaviter in modo_, even if he had
+not much of the _fortiter in re_--a man of method, persuasiveness, and
+industry, with a cool head, a safe temper, and a calm mind.
+
+Of Mr. Schnadhorst's possession of the last-named qualities I once had a
+striking proof. It was on the occasion of one of Mr. Gladstone's visits
+to Birmingham. A great political meeting was held in Bingley Hall, and
+the immense gathering was in a fever of excitement. I remember speaking
+with Mr. Schnadhorst in the course of the evening, and was greatly
+struck by his self-possessed, quiet, easy manner. So far from being
+affected by the intense enthusiasm and feverish excitement that
+prevailed, he was just as cool and collected as though the occasion was
+some little tea party affair or a ward meeting, instead of the greatest
+indoor political demonstration ever held in Birmingham.
+
+As already stated Mr. Chamberlain quickly perceived and plumbed to the
+bottom Mr. Schnadhorst's capabilities, and as he was bent on solidifying
+and systematising, or, in other words, "caucusing" the Liberal party in
+Birmingham, he thought he saw in Mr. Schnadhorst the organising mind and
+methodical skill that would be eminently useful in carrying out the
+work. Nor was he wrong. Mr. Schnadhorst proved to be all that was
+expected of him, and the political world knows the rest. How he became
+the great political machinist of his day, and how, by his zeal,
+ability, and method, he elevated "caucusing" or party "wire pulling"
+into a recognised system--I had almost said a political science.
+
+Circumstances have changed since that period. Mr. Chamberlain made Mr.
+Schnadhorst, but Mr. Schnadhorst turned his back upon his maker. He was
+probably actuated by conscientious motives and convictions, although
+professional politicians may not, as a rule, be credited with being
+greatly overburdened with conscientious scruples. Still, Mr. Schnadhorst
+was, I think, generally credited by those who knew him with being an
+upright, earnest, honest man, so he may well be allowed the benefit of
+the doubt.
+
+It must, I think, have cost him a struggle to part company with such a
+man as Mr. Chamberlain--with one who had put him in the way he should
+go, and which led him to such a commanding position of influence and
+importance. Anyway, from whatever motive, he was induced to forsake the
+rising star in the political firmament, and to worship Mr. Gladstone,
+the setting sun. The sun went down below the horizon, but we saw how Mr.
+Schnadhorst continued to work his political orrery with the major and
+minor planets, the shooting stars and comets, that shone at Westminster
+with such varied lustre, or wished to shine there if they could.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+THE BIRMINGHAM BELGRAVIA.
+
+
+Seeing how Birmingham has grown and prospered, it is interesting to
+consider what might have been the result if the town and its outskirts
+had not been fairly pleasant for well-to-do people to reside in.
+Fortunately, there is one extensive west-end suburb--Edgbaston--which
+forms a suitable, healthy, and desirable residential locality for the
+Birmingham upper classes. But for the existence of this well laid out--I
+was going to say genteel, but Heaven forbid--neighbourhood, a very large
+number of its wealthiest manufacturers and professional men would
+doubtless now reside some distance from the city. An increasing number
+of those who work in Birmingham now live--at least have their
+houses--outside its limits, owing to facilities afforded by the
+railways; but Edgbaston is still a rich, well-populated suburb within a
+very easy distance of the centre of the city. Mr. Schnadhorst, when he
+pulled political strings in Birmingham, regarded Edgbaston as a fine,
+good piece of vantage ground from an electoral point of view, since it
+kept so many rich residents within the pale of the town, and added so
+much to its influential voting power.
+
+Edgbaston is chiefly, I might almost say entirely, the property of the
+Calthorpes, and the late Lord Calthorpe, also his predecessor, were wise
+in their day and generation, and they had agents who were shrewd and
+far-seeing. They saw the importance of reserving Edgbaston and laying it
+out as an attractive, quiet suburb, and the late lord at least lived to
+see it covered with leasehold residences, many of them--indeed a very
+large number of them--of considerable value and importance. When these
+leases expire, as some of them will now before many years are over, and
+the noble ground landlord begins to draw in his net, what a big haul he
+will make in the way of reversions of the properties that have been
+built upon his land!
+
+Some of these Edgbaston houses are not only large and commodious, but
+are architecturally handsome and artistic. Birmingham has been fortunate
+during the last thirty or forty years in having two or three local
+architects who have not only possessed professional skill but also
+taste. The old square, solid, "money box" houses, so much esteemed by
+our fathers, are rarely erected now, but in their place residences of a
+more attractive design and artistic type.
+
+The Gothic revival has spread to domestic architecture, and the old,
+dreadfully-symmetrical brick and stuccoed house, and the hybrid Italian
+villa, make way for residential structures with gabled roofs, pointed
+arch windows, red tiles instead of dull-coloured slates, and attractive
+detail and ornamentation. In looking at such houses, one can hardly fail
+to be struck by the difference that may be effected by using the
+simplest materials--but using them with discrimination and taste. One
+architect may plan a house which will be plain to ugliness, the bricks
+laid in the most severe and commonplace fashion, and the outlines of the
+design--if design it can be called--devoid of any grace or variety. No
+projections to break up the dull flatness and give light and shade; no
+attempt to relieve the unmitigated square, hut-like appearance of the
+building. Another puts a pointed roof to his house, pierces it with
+pretty windows that have form without diminishing the light. He runs
+some courses of brick work round his building laid in diagonal or
+otherwise diversified lines. He places a porch at the entrance which has
+a touch of picturesqueness, and the result is a house that is pleasing
+to look upon, has at all events a suggestion of form and appearance,
+and all without any corresponding expense, because he has used his
+material with skill and taste.
+
+In Birmingham we have seen how much may be done in this direction in
+various ways, especially in the matter of the Board Schools. When the
+building of these schools was commenced the firm of Martin and
+Chamberlain were selected as architects. They had to design
+comparatively cheap buildings, for anything like extravagance in the way
+of ornamentation would probably have provoked much hostility. Brick and
+wood had to be the chief materials employed, but by using these with
+device and taste good schools were produced from an art point of view,
+and which, in their way, are a little education to those who attend
+them.
+
+Possibly there are still not a few among us who think that because there
+is an element of design and attractiveness in the appearance of these
+schools money has been needlessly expended. Such persons insist upon it
+that only ugliness can be really economical, and that the simplest
+ornamentation or beauty of form must mean superfluous cost. The number
+of those who take this narrow view is happily limited, and is becoming
+less owing to the improved and growing taste for art that has been
+unmistakeably manifest of late years.
+
+I have been led into this trifling digression by speaking of the houses
+now built in that suburb of Birmingham inhabited by the wealthier
+classes. These residents are, as I have said, better educated than their
+fathers, and they have different notions as to how they should live and
+what sort of houses they should live in. They are not merely people who
+are beginning to prosper and have only just emerged from the chrysalis
+state of modern civilization, but are citizens who have been prospering
+for some time, or are the children of men who have been prosperous, and
+they "live up" accordingly. They like their residences to be convenient
+and comfortable inside; but they also feel a little pride if they look
+attractive from without. Nor are tastefully-designed dwellings confined
+to Edgbaston. The example of our "Birmingham Belgravia" has spread to
+other suburbs, and if we go to Moseley, Handsworth, Harborne, and other
+places in the vicinity of our city we find houses of a very much
+improved pattern from an ornamental point of view compared with those of
+a bygone generation. Edgbaston, however, set the example in the way of
+Gothic house architecture, and the first specimen, I believe, was a
+house in Carpenter Road, designed by the late Mr. J.H. Chamberlain, and
+which was built for Mr. Eld, a partner in the firm of Eld and
+Chamberlain, now Chamberlain, King, and Jones.
+
+I remember that the erection of this Gothic house created quite a little
+stir. To some eyes it was a very startling innovation. Pointed arch
+windows for an ordinary dwelling house, who ever heard of such a thing?
+What next? asked some square-toed, un-compromising, old-fashioned folks.
+The idea was indeed so novel that it did not take people by storm, and
+there was no immediate rush for Gothic houses. Gradually, however,
+people began to like the style, or their architects told them they must
+like it, and after some time residences of the new order began to be
+seen in many directions.
+
+There are now a number of large, costly, handsome Gothic houses in
+Edgbaston, which will be, indeed, a goodly heritage for the ground
+landlord when the present leases expire--a fact that often gives rise to
+some serious thoughts and reflections. Many people feel very sore upon
+this matter, and wax strong and vehement upon what is known as the
+"unearned increment" question. I do not propose to lash this horse,
+which is every now and then trotted out and properly thrashed by
+reforming economists and others. "Unearned increment" is one of those
+accidental incidents of life which can hardly be controlled or reckoned
+with. Why should some men be sound and healthy and six feet high, and
+others weak and feeble and only four feet ten? Most unequal and unjust!
+If I have a field, and a town grows up to it of its own accord, and
+somebody offers me four times as much as I gave for it, I hardly see why
+I should be reckoned a thief and a robber if I pocket the proffered
+cash. To take another illustration. I may have on my house-walls a
+picture for which I gave twenty pounds. The artist has "gone up" since I
+made my purchase, and I am now offered a hundred and twenty pounds for
+my painting. "Unearned increment!"
+
+But away with this question! I find I am getting the whip out, although
+I promised not to thrash this wretched old economic hack. Only just one
+little parting crack of the lash. Dealing with "unearned increment"
+being an impracticability, perhaps it would be well for landlords who
+benefit immensely by the accident of circumstances to recognise the fact
+that they _do_ pocket a great "unearned increment," and be ungrudgingly
+generous in return for benefits received. If this were done the names
+of suburban landlords would not be received with such derision and
+contempt as they are sometimes now, and "unearned increment" would
+become all but an obsolete phrase.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+THEN AND NOW.
+
+
+Great indeed are the changes that have taken place in Birmingham during
+the past forty or fifty years. I do not speak merely in regard to the
+growth, appearance, and the commercial progress of the town and city,
+but in respect to the life and habits of the people--especially the
+better class of the inhabitants.
+
+Half a century ago many of the well-to-do prosperous manufacturers were
+practical men--men who had worked at the bench and the lathe, and, from
+being workmen, had become masters. There were not so many manufactories
+then as now, and the leading manufacturers found themselves in the happy
+position of men who were "getting on" and becoming rich. Men as a rule
+are, perhaps, more happy when they find they are making money than when
+they have made it, and have nothing to do but to spend it, or to puzzle
+their brains as to how they shall do so. "Oh! Jem," piteously said a man
+I knew, to his nephew, "what am I to do with that ten thousand pounds
+a-lying at the bank?"
+
+When "getting on," men go to their various businesses day after day and
+find orders rolling in and goods going out, and themselves prospering
+and becoming better and better off, they are disposed to be contented,
+well pleased with their neighbours, and well satisfied with themselves.
+So with these old Birmingham manufacturers. They were well content,
+genial, and hospitable. They did not give themselves any fine airs or
+pretensions; indeed, they were often proud of their success and
+prosperity, and would sometimes delight in openly boasting of their
+humble beginnings, not always to the joy and delight of their children
+who might hear them. They were sociable, hospitable, generous-hearted,
+open-handed men. They gave bountiful entertainments, not of a mere
+formal give-and-take character in which the feast largely consists of
+plate, fine linen, and flowers, the eatables on the side table, and too
+much remaining there. They delighted in welcoming their friends; they
+liked to put a good spread on the board, and to see their guests eat,
+drink, and be merry.
+
+In my younger days I knew what it was to enjoy the hospitalities of some
+of these wealthy manufacturers, and I can call to mind some little--I
+should say large--dinners, in which I have participated, the like of
+which are, I fancy, rarely seen now. Let me briefly describe one of
+these informal, old-fashioned, friendly feasts.
+
+My host would invite members of his family and some friends to dinner at
+two o'clock, say. The dinner proper--which was a good, substantial, and
+even luxurious meal--being over, we adjourned to the drawing room. There
+the dessert would be laid out on a large round table around which we
+gathered. Then would mine host call for his wine book--for he had a
+well-stocked cellar of fine vintages. Turning over the leaves of this
+book he would propose to begin with a bottle of '47 port, which was then
+a comparatively young and fruity wine. This would be followed probably
+by a bottle of 1840, and then we should come to the great 1834 wine, of
+which mine host had a rare stock.
+
+Sometimes we should hark back to 1820 port, a wine which I remember to
+have had a rich colour and a full refined flavour, and once I tasted the
+famous comet wine, 1811, which, however, had lost something of its
+nucleus, and only retained a certain tawny, nebulous tone. On one
+occasion I remember my host said he had some seventeen-ninety something
+wine in his cellar, which he proposed we should taste, but for some
+reason, now forgotten, it was not produced, and I sometimes rather
+regret that I so narrowly missed the opportunity of tasting a last
+century wine. Perhaps it may be thought from the procession of ports
+produced on such occasions as I have described that we indulged in a
+sustained and severe wine-bibbing bout. But it was not so. In reality we
+only just tasted each vintage, so that we had the maximum of variety
+with the minimum of quantity.
+
+The wine ended, we betook ourselves into another room, there to enjoy a
+cigar. Then would come tea and coffee, and a little music. Supper--yes,
+my reader, a good supper would be announced about nine o'clock; after
+that another little smoke, and about ten o'clock or soon after we should
+take our departure.
+
+Of course all this made up the sum total of a pretty good snack--I mean
+a good, well-sustained feast--but whether it was owing to the excellence
+of the viands, or to the fact that we took our pleasures not sadly but
+deliberately, I for one cannot remember ever feeling the worse for my
+little-indulgences. Perhaps something was owing to the glorious
+continuity of our feasting and pleasure.
+
+I also remember once being at an unfrugal, old-fashioned, festive dinner
+at a friend's house, when one of the guests proposed our host's health,
+and finished up by saying, "I shall be glad to see everyone at this
+table to dinner at my house this day week." Considering there were about
+thirty persons sitting round the mahogany this was a fair-sized order.
+But it was no empty compliment. The dinner came off, and a fine good
+spread it was, and as for the wine I seem to sniff its "bouquet" now.
+
+Some of the old Birmingham men whose characteristic hospitalities I have
+just described had, as is pretty well known, certain habits which,
+looked at by modern light, would seem somewhat plebeian. For instance,
+there were men of wealth and importance who made it their custom often
+to go and spend an hour or two in the evening at some of the old
+respectable hotels and inns of the town. They had been in the habit of
+meeting together at these hostelries in their earlier days to talk over
+the news, at a period when daily local newspapers were not published,
+and they adhered to the custom in their advanced years and wealthier
+position, and rejoiced in visiting their old haunts and smoking their
+long clay pipes, and having a chat with old friends and kindred spirits.
+
+All this has died out now. For one thing, most of these old inns and
+hostelries have disappeared with the march of modern times. We have
+clubs now and restaurants, also hotels, where visitors "put up," but the
+old-fashioned inns and taverns have mostly gone. The present generation
+of prosperous well-to-do men, too, are of a different stamp from their
+predecessors. They do not take their ease at their inns after the manner
+of their fathers. They have been educated differently, and take their
+pleasures in a more refined way, as is the fashion of the time.
+
+Some of them have been to public schools and to the university, and
+they naturally live their lives on a more elevated level. As a rule,
+they are good, practical, straightforward, worthy men, though there are,
+of course, some who are rather amusing in their little pretentious
+ways--as there are in all large communities. Many of these, finding
+themselves well off, begin to discover they had ancestors. They name
+their houses after places where their grandfathers lived or should have
+lived. They put crests upon their carriages; they embellish their
+stationery with a motto, and otherwise put on a little of what is called
+"side." But Birmingham people are not worse than others in this respect.
+In fact, I think there is less affectation, pretence, and snobbishness,
+or at any rate as little as will be found in most places of the
+standing, wealth, and importance of Birmingham.
+
+Sometimes when I am visiting a newly-risen manufacturing town which has
+lately blossomed out into a state of thriving progress, I am forcibly
+reminded of what Birmingham was some years ago, and think of the changes
+that have come over our city during the past thirty or forty years. The
+everyday social life is in many respects different from what it was.
+Young people, with a higher education and more advanced ideas than their
+sires, keep their parents up to date, and it is the young people who
+rule the roost in many houses. The hearty but comparatively simple
+hospitalities of a generation or so ago are regarded as quite too
+ancient.
+
+Young men who have been to Harrow and Oxford are not likely to look with
+favour upon suppers of tripe or Welsh rarebits. They must, of course,
+dine in a proper, decent manner in the evening, and there must be a good
+experienced cook to give them a fair variety of dainties; or, at least,
+of well-prepared dishes. Under such circumstances social functions have
+naturally a tendency to become more formal, ornamental, and refined.
+Many of the older-fashioned school mourn the decay of the very thorough
+and hearty hospitality of times back, and have often complained that
+they saw too many flowers and too little food at modern dinner parties.
+Still, the knock-down entertainments of our fathers were often a trifle
+too formidable perhaps, and did not always bring the pleasant
+reflections that follow the more gentle hospitalities of the present
+day.
+
+Before I close this chapter, in which I am comparing the present with
+the past, I cannot help calling to mind features of Birmingham nearly
+fifty years ago, when I began to look about me with my boyish eyes. I
+made some general reference to these in the opening chapter of these
+sketches. I will now just indulge in a few brief details. To go no
+further than quite the centre of the town, I call to mind some important
+places that disappeared when the New Street railway station was made.
+
+I remember Lady Huntingdon's chapel--a place of worship that was popular
+in its day--and seem to have a hazy recollection of the King Street
+theatre (or the remains of it), in which was held the first evening
+concert of the Birmingham Musical Festival in the year 1768. Cannon
+Street chapel has been too recently removed not to be remembered by many
+people, but I can recollect going to this place of worship when it was a
+real old-type Baptist chapel, and where special disciples or devotees
+were deeply immersed in religion and water.
+
+Most of us can also remember when some unostentatious private houses
+occupied the side of New Street opposite the Society of Artists' rooms,
+and not a few of us can call to mind the dirty, slummy buildings that so
+closely blocked up the back of the Town Hall. It was, indeed, an
+improvement when these wretched houses were removed and the back of the
+Hall was finished and opened out. It is, I believe, true that what
+became the back of the Town Hall was really intended by the architect to
+be its front. However this may be, the proportions of the north side of
+the Town Hall are, I think, more symmetrical and imposing in appearance
+than the south side fronting Paradise Street.
+
+It is but yesterday, so to speak, since the Old Square, with its sedate
+looking houses disappeared, including that of Edmund Hector, the friend
+of Dr. Johnson, and many of us can readily recall to mind the
+old-fashioned Birmingham Workhouse standing in Lichfield Street--that
+poor, dirty thoroughfare which doubtless furnished a fair number of
+occupants for the afore-mentioned institution. Looking forward as I
+do--at least in my sombre moments--to the "Union" as being my ultimate
+home, I feel a sense of satisfaction that the Birmingham workhouse has
+been removed to a more salubrious and pleasant locality than its
+unlovely quarters in Lichfield Street.
+
+These are just a few of the more important changes that have taken
+place, with one exception, namely, the disappearance of Christ Church. I
+almost shed tears to see the demolition of this church and landmark that
+had so many old associations. Some of these were not always of a
+pleasant and joyous character, for in days past the Sunday services were
+very long, and the sermons anything but short.
+
+I hope my memory has not "berayed" me in making these little reminiscent
+remarks. I did not make notes in my early days, and now in my later
+years I may make little mistakes; but I do not think I have tripped very
+much.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+THE CITY FRINGE.
+
+
+It is my constant habit to take little runs into the outskirts of our
+city, and when doing so I often stare with all my eyes as I note what
+has taken place in a limited number of years. Districts hardly more than
+a mile or so from the centre of the city, which in my boyhood were
+fields and meadows, are now laid out into streets and covered with
+houses and shops. Indeed, I sometimes feel very aged when I look upon
+places where as a boy I went fishing for small fry, and now find the
+river that afforded me such juvenile sport is, owing to the enhanced
+value of laud, compressed into the dimensions of a fair-sized gutter,
+with houses and small factories closely packed on its margin covering
+every foot of ground.
+
+I go in another direction, and scarcely farther than the distance just
+named, and I come to a spot where once stood the fine large park (Aston)
+which I remember was enclosed by a brick wall on every side. Scarcely a
+trace of this extensive old wall can I now see, and the site of the old
+park, or nearly the whole of it, is now covered with streets and
+buildings. Aston Hall, the grand old Elizabethan house built by the
+Holtes in the time of Charles I., still stands in a state of good
+preservation, and is fortunately now the property of the city, together
+with some forty acres of surrounding land, which is, as is well known,
+used as a public recreation ground.
+
+To speak a little more in detail, I am not the only person living who
+remembers "Pudding Brook" and "Vaughton's Hole." The name of "Padding
+Brook" was, in my boyish days, given to a swampy area of fields now
+covered by Gooch Street and surrounding thoroughfares. Pudding Brook
+proper was, however, a little muddy stream that flowed or oozed along
+the district named and finally emptied itself into the old moat not far
+from St. Martin's Church. Vaughton's Hole, to my juvenile mind, was
+represented by a deep pool in the River Rea, where something direful
+took place, in which a Mr. Vaughton was tragically concerned. The real
+facts are--at least, so I read--that there was a clay pit, sixty feet
+deep of water, situated near the Rea, and in this pit at least one man
+was drowned. The place was named after an old local family named
+Vaughton, who owned considerable property in the neighbourhood of the
+present Gooch Street.
+
+Where Gooch Street now crosses the Rea, I remember there was a
+footbridge, and beyond that the river was a pretty, purling, sylvan
+stream, with bushes and rushes growing on its green banks. A field walk
+past an old farm house led on to Moseley Hall, which was looked upon as
+being quite away in the country. As for Moseley itself, it was a pretty
+little village in those days. The old village green, the rustic country
+inns (of which the "Fighting Cocks" was the chief), and some low-roofed,
+old-fashioned houses, backed by the parish church tower, made up a
+picture which still remains in my mind's eye. The railway tunnel which
+is now looked upon as only a long bridge, was then regarded as something
+large in its way, and, perhaps, slightly dangerous, almost justifying a
+little something strong to sustain courage when travelling through it.
+
+Beyond Moseley Church was a pretty road to Moseley Wake Green, in which
+were, if I remember rightly, one or two timbered houses and some
+old-fashioned residences, surrounded by high trees. Many of these have
+now disappeared. In another direction from the church was a country road
+running to Sparkbrook, and near which were an important house and lands
+belonging to the wealthy Misses Anderton, whose possessions have been
+heard of in more recent days.
+
+I now often visit Moseley, and change, but not decay, in all around I
+see. The prevailing colour of the old village green is now red brick,
+and the modern colour does not agree so well with my vision as the more
+rustic tones of a bygone day; whilst the noise and bustle of tram cars,
+the swarms of suburban residents that emerge from the railway station
+(especially at certain times in the day), are fast wiping out the
+peaceful, pretty Moseley of my youthful days.
+
+These new old villages often present some curious anachronisms. A grey
+old church, partly buried by a hoary fat churchyard, is surrounded by
+the most modern of shops and stores; and a primitive little bow-windowed
+cottage, with a few flower pots in the window, has, perchance, a glaring
+gin shop next door. This is more or less the case at Moseley, and it is
+pretty much the same at Handsworth.
+
+I remember when old Handsworth Church stood surrounded by fields, and
+now it is built up to with villas on nearly every side, and has a
+neighbouring liquor vault instead of the old-fashioned inn such as often
+keeps old parish churches in countenance and affords a place of refuge
+and refreshment for rustic churchwardens, bell-ringers, parish clerks,
+and the like.
+
+Old Handsworth--how well I remember it--also Soho, and the remains of
+the old mint, associated with the honoured names of Boulton and Watt.
+Then there was that long straight stretch of road from the old pike at
+the top of Soho Hill, along which were some large and important
+residences, occupied by business men of Birmingham, who doubtless
+regarded this Handsworth and Soho district as being quite out in the
+country. The stretch of road to which I have just referred is now one
+long street, or soon will be, reaching from the once Soho toll-gate to
+the New Inns, and farther on, indeed, to the park wall of Sandwell.
+
+Sandwell Park--ah, yes, I have a pretty distinct recollection of what
+that was, also the Hall, in my boyhood days. The park, or portions of
+it, still shews some signs of its past picturesque glories; at any rate,
+it is not built over after the manner of Aston. The Hall, however,
+scarcely now conveys an idea of the place it once was. I remember its
+interior when it was the residence of its noble owner and his family,
+and I recall the splendidly furnished rooms, the riding school, and the
+gardens. I remember, too, that the Lord Dartmouth of the time of which I
+speak was, like Mr. Gladstone, an amateur woodman. He used to like to go
+about with axe and saw, and do a little tree felling and branch lopping
+to please his fancy, and exercise his limbs and muscles. Sandwell Park,
+as most people know, has now been deserted for many years by its titled
+owner, and Sandwell Park Colliery, Limited, reigns in its stead.
+
+But recollections of the past are making me "talky," and, I fear,
+tedious. I could scribble and chatter about bygone Birmingham from now
+till about the end of the century, which, however, as I write, is not
+very far off. But, my gentle reader, you shall be spared. Most people
+know that Birmingham is swallowing up its immediate suburbs, and the
+process of deglutition is still going on. The city has had its rise, and
+will have its decline some day probably, but not while people want pins,
+pens, electro-plate, guns, dear and cheap jewellery, and while
+Birmingham can make these things better or sell them cheaper than other
+folks.
+
+As for the centre of the city, I have already made some references to
+the transformations that have recently taken place. A few words may,
+however, be said about our modern street and shop architecture. In the
+important new thoroughfare, Corporation Street--the outcome of Mr.
+Chamberlain's great improvement scheme--there is a curious series of
+shops and public buildings. Some are of one style, some of another, and
+many of no style at all. The architecture in this thoroughfare
+certainly presents plenty of variety--more variety perhaps than beauty.
+There are the new Assize Courts--the foundation-stone of which was laid
+by the Queen in 1887; they are built of brick and terra-cotta, redundant
+with detailed ornament, some of it perhaps of a too florid character.
+Near to our local Palace of Justice is the County Court, which is severe
+in its simplicity, quasi-classic in style, and decidedly plain in
+design. There are shops that have a certain suggestion and imitation of
+old-fashioned quaintness, and there are other buildings that have a
+tinge of the Scotch baronial hall style of architecture. Then there is
+the coffee-house Gothic, the pie-shop Perpendicular, the commercial
+Classic, the fender and fire-grate Transitional, the milk and cream
+Decorated, and various hybrid architectural styles.
+
+The buildings in this street have, as I have said, the charm of
+diversity, and that, I suppose, is something to the good. Regent Street,
+London, is a fine thoroughfare, but it will probably be admitted that
+it is anything but unmonotonous in appearance or lovely to look upon
+from an architectural point of view. The buildings in our grand new
+street may not be beyond criticism, but there are no long lines of
+buildings of the same heavy dull pattern from end to end. This arises
+from the fact that the land has not been let in big patches to
+capitalists or builders who might have erected a series of shops of one
+uniform pattern, but has been leased to tradesmen and others who have
+taken a few yards of land, on which they have built premises suited to
+their requirements, and in accordance with their aim, tastes, or the
+bent and ability of their architects. Hence the variety, charming or
+otherwise according to the taste and eye of the spectator. Anyway, we
+have in Birmingham a fine broad street which will, perhaps, compare
+favourably with any thoroughfare in any other British city, with the
+exception of Princes Street, Edinburgh. In the way of splendid streets
+the Scotch capital must be allowed to take the plum.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+THE FOURTH ESTATE.
+
+
+I cannot say how it may have been in other large cities and towns, but
+certainly the newspaper mortality in Birmingham during the past half
+century has been quite distressing. I think that without difficulty I
+could reckon up from twenty-five to thirty papers and journals that have
+been first published and last published in the period named. I do not
+propose to say much or to give a list of the dear departed. They were
+born, they struggled for existence, and they died in the effort. That is
+all that need be said of most of them.
+
+There is, however, one defunct paper to which I must make a short
+reference, partly because I remember something about its birth and
+death. I refer to the _Birmingham Daily Press_, which first appeared in
+May, 1855. If my memory serves me, the Act of Parliament repealing the
+newspaper duty had not passed and become law when the _Birmingham Daily
+Press_ appeared. Its first issues were, I believe, marked "specimen"
+copies, which would seem to show that the new penny paper was really
+published in anticipation of the passing of the Act.
+
+Anyway, the _Birmingham Daily Press_ appeared in the year mentioned, and
+considering that it was altogether a new venture, and that much had to
+be learned by experience, it was a highly creditable production. It soon
+made its mark, too, and became popular and largely read. And no wonder.
+It supplied a real want. Its contents were readable and useful, and its
+pages contained smart and attractive articles and papers that excited
+notice and were much appreciated. Mr. George Dawson was connected with
+the paper. Mr. William Harris was editor, or co-editor, of it, and on
+its staff and among its contributors were some sharp and able writers.
+
+With all these merits and recommendations it will be asked, why did not
+the _Birmingham Daily Press_ succeed? Well, I do not think I can quite
+answer the question. I can only say that judging by what I have observed
+and heard literary excellence, good reporting, and able editing will not
+make a paper commercially successful. If a newspaper is to succeed in
+paying its way and making a profit, its business management must be in
+experienced and competent hands. A daily newspaper is apt to be a deadly
+drain if its expenditure exceeds its receipts--as the daily loss has to
+be multiplied by six every week--and this tells up large in the course
+of a year.
+
+There can be no question that the _Birmingham Daily Press_ had a fine
+start, and a splendid chance. But the chance was not turned to the best
+account, and the promising start ended in a lamentable finish. This,
+too, in spite of the fact that the paper became really well established.
+Indeed, Mr. (now Sir John) Jaffray was heard to say that for a long;
+time the _Birmingham Daily Post_, which was started some two years or
+more after the _Birmingham Daily Press_, could make no impression, so
+firm a footing had the latter paper obtained in the town. But Messrs.
+Feeney and Jaffray had put their hands to the plough; they pegged away
+with the _Birmingham Daily Post_ till it did make an impression, and the
+proprietors being able and experienced in the matter of newspaper
+business management, they stood very firm when they did begin to feel
+their feet. They drove the town--not from pillar to post, but from
+_Daily Press_ to _Daily Post_. They established their position, and that
+position they have gone on improving unto this day.
+
+As for the unfortunate _Daily Press_, it fell into a very serious
+decline, and finally expired somewhat suddenly in November, 1858. Its
+successful rival remarked in a not over sympathetic paragraph that "it
+went out like the snuff of a candle leaving behind it something of the
+flavour of that domestic nuisance." I remember poor George Dawson, who
+had lost a good deal of money through the failure of the _Birmingham
+Daily Press_, thought the _Post's_ spiteful little obituary notice the
+unkindest cut of all. For victors to crow over the vanquished in such
+language he thought was worse than ungenerous, it was mean.
+
+I will not now pause to say anything in detail concerning the
+_Birmingham Daily Gazette_, started in 1862, the _Daily Mail_ in 1870,
+the _Globe_ in 1879, the _Echo_ in 1883, the _Times_ in 1885, and the
+_Argus_ in 1891. I must, however, just note that the most important new
+journalistic venture in recent years was the production of the
+_Birmingham Morning News_, which was started in 1871. This daily morning
+paper was established on lines which should have led to a permanent
+success. There was plenty of capital at its back.
+
+Mr. George Dawson--whose name it was thought would be a tower of
+strength--took an active part in its editorial work. It had an excellent
+staff, and, in a journalistic sense and as a newspaper production, it
+was a credit to itself and to the town.
+
+The _Birmingham Morning News_ was carried on for some four years at a
+very considerable loss, and just when it seemed to be about to turn the
+corner and get into a more profitable groove, its capitalist proprietor
+gave it up in disappointment and disgust. For one thing, he found it
+difficult to get all the influential help he wanted in the news
+department, and he was probably getting a little weary of putting money
+into a basket that seemed to have no bottom to it. Yet it was believed
+by those well experienced in newspaper management that another year
+would have seen a favourable turn in the fortunes of the paper. The
+costly ground baiting which is necessary in a newspaper establishment
+had been done, and the expensive seed which has to be sown was about to
+come up when the proprietor resolved to plough the paper up and so add
+another to the formidable list of local newspaper failures.
+
+In the grave of the _Birmingham Morning News_ were buried many hopes.
+The proprietor hoped to make a fortune. Mr. Dawson hoped to make an
+income and secure a still wider influence through its medium. Its rivals
+hoped it would not succeed, and by its death and burial their hopes were
+realised.
+
+One little incident in connection with local journalism I must record
+here as being something almost unique. I refer to the astounding sketch
+Mr. H.J. Jennings--for many years editor of the _Birmingham Daily
+Mail_--wrote of himself in 1889, and the circumstances that led to its
+publication. After many years' connection with the _Daily. Mail_, Mr.
+Jennings went over to another local evening paper, the _Daily Times_,
+and by way of giving it a fillip he published in its columns a series of
+papers on "Our Public Men."
+
+That these sketches were not entirely flattering to the subjects of
+them will be readily understood. Mr. Jennings always was a smart, spicy,
+and sometimes even brilliant writer, but he could not help being more or
+less cynical. He rather liked to stick the toasting fork into his
+subjects, and then hold them pretty close to the bars of a decidedly hot
+fire. The result was that many of them burned and smarted under the
+ordeal. One of the victims went so far as to propose that this
+self-appointed censor of public characters should be fought with his own
+weapons, and have a taste of his own nasty physic. In a word it was
+suggested that someone should draw Mr. H.J. Jennings' portrait on his
+own lines after his own manner.
+
+Mr. Jennings promptly took up the gauntlet that was thrown down and
+immediately proceeded to write a sketch of himself, which appeared in
+the _Birmingham Daily Times_ of May 29th, 1889, and was, perhaps, one of
+the most daring and audacious feats of contemporary journalism on
+record. If he had entrusted his task to his most bitter enemy it could
+hardly have been more scathing than it was.
+
+Mr. Jennings certainly did not blunt his steel when he proceeded to
+operate upon himself. He did not spare himself, but dug the knife in and
+turned it round. It was, indeed, a singularly curious piece of
+biography, written with all the pungency and point its writer could
+command, and it need hardly be said that such a sketch silenced the guns
+of some of his foes and made something of a sensation in the town.
+
+This clever and amazing article was a sort of dying swan's song so far
+as Mr. Jennings and Birmingham were concerned. If I remember rightly,
+soon after its appearance he severed his professional connection with
+the town. He went to London and joined the staff of a financial journal.
+Whether he has made his own fortune or the fortunes of others by his
+London work I do not know and need not enquire. I will be content to
+record the remarkable achievement I have mentioned in connection with
+his Birmingham journalistic career.
+
+One special reason why I am devoting some consideration and space to the
+Birmingham press is because I wish to refer to one local publication
+which had something to do, indirectly at least, with the making of
+Modern Birmingham. I allude to the _Birmingham Town Crier_. This
+serio-comic, satirical little paper was started in the year 1861, and
+was for many years a monthly publication. On its first appearance it
+created some stir by its original and, in some respects, unique
+character, also by the general smartness and humour of its contents.
+
+When it first appeared many were the guesses made as to its promoters
+and contributors, and, so far as these came to my knowledge, not one
+proved correct. Certain quite innocent men were credited with being
+contributors to the new paper, and some of these did not deny the soft
+impeachment. The general guessing, however, ranged very wide, and
+included all sorts and conditions of men, from the Rev. Dr. Miller, then
+rector of St. Martin's, to the bellman in the Market Hall. Considering
+that the _Town Crier_ was started with a purpose, as I shall presently
+show, and that it exerted some influence in its own way upon the
+progress of the town, it is, I think, fitting that the story of its
+early beginnings should be told, and I am in a position to tell the
+tale.
+
+As all the first contributors of the _Town Crier_ have ceased--most of
+them long since ceased--to have any connection with the paper, there can
+be no harm now in referring to its original staff, if only as a little
+matter of local history. I may, therefore, place it on record that the
+contributors to the first number of the _Town Crier_, which was
+published in January, 1861, were Mr. Sam Timmins, Mr. J. Thackray Bunce,
+Mr. G.J. Johnson, Dr. (then Mr.) Sebastian Evans, and the present
+writer, Thomas Anderton.
+
+Some two or three months after its first appearance the late Mr. John
+Henry Chamberlain joined the staff, and a little later still Mr. William
+Harris became one of the "table round." With this staff the paper was
+carried on for many years, and with more or less success, according to
+the point of view from which it was considered. Being of a satirical
+character it, of course, often rapped certain people over the knuckles
+in a way they did not appreciate. They naturally resented being chaffed
+and held up to ridicule, but as there was nothing of a malicious or
+private character in the sarcasms published any little soreness they
+created soon died away.
+
+One reason why the _Town Crier_ came into existence was because it was
+felt that there were certain things, and perhaps certain people, who
+could be best assailed and suppressed by ridicule. They could be laughed
+and chaffed rather than reasoned out of existence. Certainly the paper
+was not established with any idea of profit, nor for the gratification
+of indulging in scurrilous personal attacks. It only dealt with public
+affairs and with men in their public capacity. Indeed, I may say that
+all the men connected with the _Town Crier_ at its starting were
+interested in the good government and progress of the town, and they
+used the influence of the paper for the purpose of removing stumbling
+blocks, and putting incompetent and pretentious persons out of the way.
+
+As so much interest has lately been created by the descriptions given of
+the _Punch_ dinners and the doings of the _Punch_ staff, I may state
+that the promoters of our local _Charivari_ also combined pleasant
+social intercourse with their journalistic functions. The monthly
+dinners of the _Town Crier_ staff remain in my memory as being among the
+most delightful and genial evenings I have ever spent in my life. We met
+at each other's houses, and after a nice satisfying dinner we proceeded
+to pipes and paths of pleasantness, and to planning the contents for the
+next number of our paper.
+
+Large and hearty was the hilarity at these monthly meetings, and I
+think I may say that the talk was interesting and smart. Mr. J.H.
+Chamberlain was often positively brilliant in his little sallies of
+speech, whilst Mr. J.T. Bunce would put in dry, sententious words of wit
+and wisdom. Mr. G.J. Johnson laid down the law with pungent perspicuity,
+and Mr. William Harris was amusingly epigrammatic. Mr. Sam Timmins on
+these occasions was ever ready with an apt remark, very often containing
+an apt quotation, and Mr. Sebastian Evans smoked and laughed much, made
+incisive little observations, and drew sketches on blotting paper.
+
+As we were all more or less interested in or concerned with the most
+important matters that were then going on in the town, there was much to
+be said that was worth saying and hearing. Even in the wheels that were
+within wheels some of the _Town Crier_ men had spokes. A bank could not
+break without some of us being concerned in the smash, and I remember
+to my sorrow that when the Birmingham Banking Company came to grief I
+was an unfortunate shareholder.
+
+I do not think it necessary to say much more concerning the early days
+of the publication in question. Its first promoters became busy, and, in
+some cases, important men as time went on, and gradually they had to
+give up their connection with a periodical whose pages for some years
+they had done so much to enliven and adorn. The _Town Crier_, I think it
+will be admitted, did good work in its own peculiar way, and those who
+remain of its early promoters (and the small number has been thinned by
+the death of Mr. J.H. Chamberlain and Mr. J.T. Bunce) need not be
+ashamed to speak with the enemy at the gate--I mean, to own their former
+connection with a publication which was not regarded as being
+discreditable to its contributors, or to the town.
+
+One matter in connection with the publication of the _Town Crier_ may be
+mentioned as being curious, and perhaps a little surprising. It is
+this: that during the many years that the paper was conducted by its
+original promoters it steered clear of libel actions. In only one case
+was an action even threatened, and this was disposed of by an accepted
+little explanation and apology. We often used to hear rumours that
+Alderman, Councillor, or Mr. Somebody intended wreaking vengeance upon
+writers who had belaboured or ridiculed him; but these threats ended in
+nothing, and the first proprietors of the _Town Crier_ never had to pay
+even a farthing damages as the result of law proceedings. This is
+something to record, because papers of a satirical character necessarily
+sail pretty close to the wind in the way of provoking touchy people to
+fly to law to soothe their wounded feelings and pay out their supposed
+persecutors.
+
+I confess I often used to shiver slightly in my shoes when I considered
+the possible consequences of what I myself and others had written in the
+_Town Crier_. The law of libel is a wide-spreading net, anything that
+brings a man into ridicule or contempt or damages him in his trade or
+profession being libellous. To criticize adversely a painter, actor, or
+singer is necessarily damaging, and is really a libel, but to sustain an
+action real damage must be proved, or it must be shown that malice and
+ill-will have prompted the objectionable adverse opinions. But, as we
+know, there are certain pettifogging men of law who are ever ready to
+encourage people to bring actions for libel for the mere sake of getting
+damages. I believe I have thus stated the case correctly, but I am not a
+"limb of the law," not even an amputated limb, or a law student. I speak
+from what I have seen in the Libel Acts and in the judgments I have
+read. Having been one of the Press gang for many years, I have never
+thought my liberties quite safe, and have often felt that any day I
+might be brought up to the bar for judgment. But I escaped, even when I
+was writing for the _Town Crier_, and have escaped since. But let me not
+boast. Before these lines are read my ordinary clothes may be required
+of me.
+
+On the shelves of my small library are some bound volumes of the early
+numbers of the _Birmingham Town Crier_, in which are some pencil marks.
+If I should sooner or later have to retire to live _en pension_ at
+Winson Green, or at the Bromsgrove or other Union, I hope to be able to
+take these cherished books with me to look at from time to time, and to
+keep green my memory of past pleasant days.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+ITS VARIED AND ODD TRADES.
+
+
+If some outside people were asked to name in three lines the three chief
+trades of Birmingham they would probably answer by saying "Guns,"
+"Hardware," and then, perhaps rather puzzled, might add "more guns."
+This, however, would be a very bald and incomplete reply, and would
+denote a somewhat benighted idea of the productive resources of
+Birmingham. Gun and pistol making form a very important industry in the
+city, and one ward--St. Mary's--is the happy hunting ground of small
+firearm makers. All the same, gunmaking is not the be-all and end-all
+of our manufacturing activity, and is, indeed, only one of the many and
+increasing trades that thrive and progress in the midland hardware
+capital.
+
+It is, indeed, a distinct advantage for Birmingham that it has many
+different trades, and if some are depressed and slack others may be
+active and prosperous. Hence, there is generally business doing
+somewhere. It is the misfortune of some towns and districts to be
+devoted entirely to one or two industries. For instance, take
+Manchester. If the cotton trade becomes depressed or paralysed
+Cottonopolis soon becomes a starved-out city. Then there are textile
+towns, boot and shoe boroughs, pottery districts, &c., &c. Birmingham,
+however, is pretty smart at taking up new ideas, and does not let new
+manufacturing industries go begging for a home. A certain number of
+trades languish and die out owing to change of fashion and to certain
+articles becoming obsolete. Snuffers and powder flasks, for instance,
+are not in large demand in the present day. A limited number are still
+made for travellers and for remote countries that have not cartridges,
+the electric light, or even incandescent gas, within their reach.
+
+Brass and pearl button making used to be important industries, and tons
+of such wares used to be made in Birmingham in the course of a month.
+Comparatively few are made now. Yet we are not exactly "buttonless
+black-guards," as Cobbett--at least, I think it was Cobbett--once
+disrespectfully called the Quakers, and buttons of various kinds other
+than pearl and brass are turned out in barrow loads. I remember some
+years ago going over the button factory of Messrs. Dain, Watts, and
+Manton, an old-established business now carried on by Mr. J.S. Manton,
+and was then shown a curious composition or kind of paste that could be
+made into buttons useful for all sorts of purposes. On my asking what
+the "button dough" was made of, Mr. Manton, I remember, gave me the
+comprehensive reply, "anything."
+
+All sorts of stuff having any substance in it was indeed thrown into a
+kind of mortar, ground up, mixed with something that gave the mass
+cohesion and plasticity, then moulded into buttons as clay is moulded by
+the potter, and burned, dried, and hardened. Therefore, if brass and
+pearl buttons are in limited demand, there are other materials from
+which a new useful and cheap article can be made--the "very button" for
+the time--and this is produced in much larger quantities than the more
+costly articles of a few generations ago.
+
+In spite, then, of changes in fashion, Birmingham is still--I will not
+say a button hole, but a city where billions of buttons are made.
+Witness, for instance, the turn-out of such a manufactory as that of
+Thomas Carlyle, Limited. Here is a great and extended concern grafted
+upon an old-established business, and which at the present time gives
+employment, regularly, to over 1,000 hands. Buttons are made to go to
+all people, save the rude and nude races, and a few odd millions
+produced for home use. And speaking of all this reminds me how in the
+days of my boyhood I sometimes saw a queer character known as "Billy
+Button." He was a sight to behold, for he was decorated with buttons,
+mostly brass, from top to toe, and presented a sight that was enough to
+make a thoroughbred quaker swoon.
+
+Birmingham, as I have remarked, is sufficiently enterprising not to let
+opportunities slip through its fingers. Its trades are still increasing,
+and increasing in number and variety, and though there is a tendency in
+some of the big industries that do a large foreign trade to get nearer
+to the sea-board, there are those who are sanguine enough to believe
+that the number of our works and our workpeople will increase and
+multiply till the large supplies of water that are to be conducted to us
+from Mid-Wales will be none too copious for the great unwashed and other
+inhabitants of our city a few years hence.
+
+Referring again to outsiders and their ideas of Birmingham trades, when
+visitors--distinguished or otherwise--come to see our factories there
+are two that they generally begin and often end with--namely, Mr. Joseph
+Gillott's pen manufactory and the electro-plate works of Messrs.
+Elkington. Of late years the Birmingham Small Arms establishment at
+Small Heath has gained attention and made a good third to our show
+industries.
+
+Visitors to Messrs. Elkington's are, of course, largely attracted by the
+artistic contents and triumphs of the famous Newhall Street show rooms.
+The name of the Elkington firm has a world-wide fame, and their splendid
+artistic achievements may almost be said to be epoch-making in the way
+of combining utility with beautiful design to the highest degree. Those,
+however, who fancy that Messrs. Elkington's great and extending
+manufactory is kept going by designing and producing splendid vases,
+shields, cups, and sumptuous gold and silver services, are, of course,
+hugely mistaken. The ordinary spoons, forks, &c., that are to be seen--I
+won't say on every table, but on the tables of millions of people, are
+the staple productions of such firms as that of which I speak. Indeed,
+if I could probe into the secret chambers of Messrs. Elkington's back
+safe, I should probably find that the production of those exquisite
+artistic articles of theirs has not been the department of their
+business that has brought the greatest grist to the mill and made a
+commercial success of their trade.
+
+Those visitors to Elkington's who penetrate beyond the show rooms will
+find much to interest, and in some cases to mystify them.
+Electro-plating is indeed almost a magical sort of craft. How it is that
+dirty looking metal spoons can be put into a dirty looking bath and come
+out white and silvered must amaze and bewilder many strange eyes.
+Impassive as Asiatics can be, I should much like for once just to watch
+the eyes of an eastern conjuror and magician when he saw the electro
+bath trick, and especially when done in the way and on the scale that
+may be witnessed at the Birmingham Newhall Street works.
+
+With regard to Mr. Joseph Gillott's pen manufactory it is a very
+interesting show place, but is practical and prosaic compared with the
+art electro-plate establishment I have just now referred to. Those,
+however, who like to see processes, and something going on quickly from
+stage to stage, find Mr. Gillott's factory a place of almost fascinating
+interest. They can, indeed, observe the steel pen emerge from its native
+metal, see it pressed and stamped, and again pressed and stamped,
+slitted, annealed, coloured, and finally boxed and packed. They can also
+see the penholders produced and inhale the sweet and pungent fragrance
+of cedar wood, and they can look on the production of the pen boxes
+which are made in so many attractively coloured varieties.
+
+All this is to be seen in the course of a little march through Mr.
+Gillott's factory, which is, indeed, a pattern of order and
+cleanliness, and so well conducted as to be almost like a real adult
+school of industry. Female labour is largely employed--as is customary
+in the pen trade--the nimble fingers and deft hands of many girls
+finding useful employment, without fatiguing labour, in the various
+processes of the pen-making business.
+
+Pen-making is, of course, a great industry, but there are pens and pens,
+and for some of the lower qualities the trade price is of incredible
+cheapness. I sometimes think that if an enterprising merchant were to
+try and place an order for a million gross of steel pens at 1d. per
+gross, and 75 per cent. discount for cash, he would succeed in doing it.
+The quantity it is that pays.
+
+The pleasure and interest of going over Mr. Gillott's establishment is
+enhanced by the fact that visitors see the popular pens of commerce and
+the aristocratic pens of what Jeames calls the "upper suckles" made, so
+to speak, side by side. The Graham Street works could not be kept going
+by merely making dainty gold pens, fine long barrelled goose quills, and
+other such superior productions. The everyday person muse be considered
+and supplied with everyday pens, and the everyday person, although he
+buys cheap pens, is a more profitable customer than he looks.
+
+A well-known mustard maker has been known to say that he makes his
+profit out of what people leave on their plates. In other words, the
+everyday waste of people vastly increases mustard consumption. In the
+same way the everyday pen is so cheap that it is not used with care and
+economy. It is lightly thrown aside often before it is half worn, and is
+often objurgated and wasted because it is dipped into bad ink. But what
+does it matter when you can get a gross of pens for just a few pence.
+
+One more little remark about the Graham Street works and I have done. I
+take leave to doubt if Mr. Joseph Gillott turns out any of the very
+cheapest and commonest pens, but I feel pretty certain that he makes the
+best and most costly productions of their kind. There are still very
+many people at home and abroad--especially Americans--who do not like to
+put a little common, "vulgar" pen on their writing tables. They prefer
+to see something more superior in style and finish. On such pens as
+these will generally be seen the name of Mr. Joseph Gillott. There are,
+of course, other makers of good steel pens in Birmingham, but their
+places are not so much visited or their productions so widely known as
+the pens of Graham Street works.
+
+A few years ago Birmingham penmakers, as well as others, were disposed
+to be rather terrified at the advent of the typewriter, and fancied in
+their sable moments that the steel pen would sooner or later be
+superseded. They are not now so dismayed as they were, and I hardly
+think they need be. The electric light has not put out gas; in spite of
+railway engines I still see a few horses about sometimes; and even motor
+cars and the like will not at present run locomotive engines off the
+line. I, therefore, think that makers of fine points, broad points,
+medium points, &c., may rest securely in their pens, notwithstanding a
+Yost of typewriters, Remington, or what not.
+
+Few people outside our own borders quite realise, perhaps, what a large
+and important industry the jewellery trade is in Birmingham. Yet one
+quarter of the city--the Hockley district--is chiefly devoted to what
+cynical people call the production of baubles. If anyone doubts the
+extent to which the jewellery trade is carried on, and the number of
+hands engaged in it, let him station himself somewhere Hockley way at
+the hour of one o'clock in the day, and he will see for himself.
+
+No sooner has the welcome sound of the tocsin been heard--almost indeed
+before it has time to sound--hundreds, aye thousands of men emerge from
+their workshops, and for a time quite throng streets that just before
+the magic hour of one p.m. were comparatively quiet and empty.
+
+Curiously enough these working jewellers seem to come from hidden and
+obscure regions, and appear in the open from their industrial cells
+through many small doors and entries, rather than through large gateways
+which are opened at certain regulation hours.
+
+The jewellery trade is not carried out in large factories with tall,
+towering stacks, powerful steam engines, &c. Machinery may be used in
+certain branches of the trade for all I know, but, speaking generally,
+working jewellers sit at their bench, play their blow-pipe, and with
+delicate appliances and deft hands put together the precious articles of
+fancy they make.
+
+Handsome lockets are not turned in a lathe. Diamond and ruby rings are
+not productions that are run through a machine and sold by the gross,
+"subject." Nor are jewelled pendants made in presses, nor beautiful
+bracelets banged into shape by the mechanical thump of a stamping
+machine. The consequence is that jewellery work of the finest fashion
+is made in small establishments, but as I have said there are so many of
+these that the "turn-out" in the way of "hands" is a formidable element
+in our local population.
+
+It is, we know, an ancient saw that tells us that two of a trade cannot
+agree, but it has always struck me that jewellers belie this generally
+accepted maxim. I came to this conclusion from knowing and visiting a
+colony of goldfinches--I mean master jewellers, who are quite civil to
+each other, will sit at meat and drink together, go to the same place of
+worship, and generally behave as friends, neighbours, and Christians.
+
+How it was that these employer blow-pipers could maintain and assume
+such a benign and almost brotherly attitude towards each other was a
+little puzzling to me till I thought the matter out. Jewellers they
+might all be, but they did not all jewel alike. They rowed in the same
+boat, but not with the same sculls--to use Jerrold's old joke, They
+blowed the same pipe, but played different tunes. In a word they
+produced different varieties of jewellery, and consequently did not cut
+each other's throats in competition. One would chiefly make chains,
+another lockets and pendants, a third studs and sleeve links, a fourth
+rings, a fifth bracelets and brooches, and another miscellaneous
+high-class productions, including mayoral chains, &c., &c. Under these
+circumstances the two or three of a trade to whom I have referred have
+been able to agree, and will be able to maintain good fellowship till
+such times as some largely enterprising bold blow-piper forms himself
+into a large syndicate, resolves to make everything himself, and crush
+down all competition. But that time is not yet.
+
+In speaking of the jewellery trade in Birmingham, I think I am safe in
+saying that at any rate until recently the town, now a city, has not
+enjoyed full credit for the high-class work it produces. For a long time
+it was regarded as the workshop of cheap "sham" jewellery, and that if
+you wanted really good things you must go to London and buy in the
+marts of New Bond Street.
+
+If any such heathen now exist, and I suspect they do, they would be
+rather surprised if they knew how much London sold jewellery is made in
+Birmingham. Purchasers have the pleasure of buying in Bond Street, and
+of having bracelets, bangles, rings and lockets put in cases with a
+well-known West-end firm's name on it, and that is something of which
+they are proud, and for which they are willing to pay. And they do have
+to pay. In proof of which I will tell a true story. Some years ago I
+knew a Birmingham manufacturing jeweller whose line was gold and silver
+pencil cases. I was looking over his show cases one day when he picked
+up a small good pencil case suitable to put on a lady's chain. My friend
+told me chat his trade price for this article was 3s. 6d., and he had
+seen it marked--his own make--18s. in Regent Street shops. I have known
+of others in the fancy trades tell a similar story.
+
+For instance, a manufacturer once told me that he had made gold ware
+for the Royal table, but not directly. His order came from a West-end
+house and his name was to be altogether suppressed.
+
+In some preceding remarks I referred to cheap sham jewellery. There is a
+very considerable amount of it made in Birmingham, and "gilt jewellery"
+is the name by which it is known. Respecting this trade and its
+productions I can, perhaps, tell a few of my readers something that may
+rather surprise them. Not many years ago I wished to see and purchase
+some of this gilt jewellery in order to make gay and glorious a
+Christmas tree--Heaven forbid, of course, that my friends or myself
+should adorn ourselves with such baubles.
+
+I went to a manufacturer of these wares to make my purchases, and hoped
+to buy cheaply. And I did; at a price indeed that rather astonished me.
+For instance, I was shown some brilliant looking brooches of good design
+and finish, and sparkling with diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies,
+of rich lustre--or, I should say, imitations of these precious stones. I
+looked at these handsome productions and thought a good price would be
+asked for them. I was, as I have hinted however, rather more than
+astonished to find that I could make a very good selection at from 15s.
+to 18s. per dozen.
+
+Just fancy, these brilliant brooches adorned with gems of purest ray
+serene--that is, to the naked, unexpert eye--well-fashioned in the
+matter of workmanship, and looking of, at least, eighteen carat gold,
+and yet they could be purchased at the rate of from fifteen to eighteen
+pence each. What, however, staggered me still more was to find that
+there was a lower deep still in the matter of price. On my venturing to
+remark to the warehouse-man who showed me the articles mentioned, that I
+supposed they were the very cheapest things in the trade, he remarked,
+"Oh dear no, we don't do anything in the cheap stuff line. If you want
+that you must go to Messrs. So-and-So, in Blank Street."
+
+I went to the cheap firm he named in Blank Street, and there sure
+enough found cheap stuff and no mistake. Brooches and lockets at 12s. a
+dozen and even less, and handsome watch chains at the rate of about 10d.
+each. I must add, however, that the makers would not dispose of less
+than a dozen of each article shewn. Perhaps they could hardly be
+expected to sell retail at such prices as I have named.
+
+Having obtained the "Open Sesame" to the jewelled caves or warehouses of
+the gilt jewellers I came away loaded with gems, and my purse but very
+little lighter. So well indeed did some of my purchases look when I got
+them home that I could not see much difference between them and the real
+articles. Consequently, when I now see fair ladies gaily bedecked with a
+superfluity of handsome lustrous trinkets I think of the gilt jewellery
+trade, and brooches at 15s. per dozen, less a discount doubtless to the
+trade.
+
+Leaving, now, the gold and gilt jewellery trades, which, as I have said,
+form a large industry in our midst, let me just briefly refer to some
+of the odd trades that are carried on in Birmingham. Among these I will
+first of all mention the manufacture of ship Logs, because it seems
+somewhat curious that an insular place like Birmingham, whose only
+suggestion of maritime operations is the canal, should produce
+Logs--that is, cunningly devised instruments for ascertaining the speed
+of ships. Yet if I go to north country ports, such as Leith, and if I go
+south to Dover, or west to Cardiff, I see the "Cherub," the "Harpoon,"
+and other Logs made by the firm of T. Walker and Sons, Oxford Street,
+Birmingham. As I have said, it seems a little strange, if not funny,
+that Birmingham should produce ship appliances. Nevertheless, the
+present Mr. T.F. Walker, and his father before him, have been making and
+improving ship Logs till their trade name is known and their productions
+seen in every port of significance here in Britain and abroad as well.
+
+A city, however, that produces Artificial Human Eyes may see its way to
+make anything; consequently, all sorts of diverse things are produced in
+Birmingham, from coffin furniture to custard powder, vices to vinegar,
+candles to cocoa, blue bricks to bird cages, handcuffs to horse collars,
+anvils to hat bands, soap to sardine openers, &c., &c., &c.
+
+There are also in Birmingham certain trades that without being large
+industries have taken fixed root in the locality. For instance, there is
+the glass trade, which employs a good few men, and, perhaps, it used to
+employ more. On this point I am not certain, but I do know that one
+large glass manufactory that existed in my younger days--namely, that of
+Rice Harris, which stood near where now stands the Children's Hospital,
+Broad Street--was disestablished many years ago.
+
+If I remember rightly Rice Harris's glass works had one of those large
+old-fashioned brick domes that I fancy are not constructed nowadays. One
+or two, however, still remain, and I for one feel glad that Messrs.
+Walsh and Co., of Soho, allow their dome to stand where it did, just as
+a landmark and to remind me of pleasant bygone days.
+
+I confess, too, that I like to go into one of these big glass hives, or
+rather glass-making hives, and see the workmen at their "chairs" blowing
+and moulding the hot ductile glass into its appointed form and patterns;
+and I like also to see the curling wreaths of smoke ascend and disappear
+through the orifice at the top of the dome. And when I look at this I
+wonder how that huge chimney is cleaned, and where the Titanic sweep is
+that could undertake such a gigantic job. Well, I can hardly say I
+wonder, because I think I have been told that the way the soot is
+cleaned from these well-smoked domes is by firing shot at the roof,
+which brings down the dirt.
+
+When in the winter season I see skates prominently exposed for sale in
+our shop windows I am reminded of another of the odd or rather side
+industries of Birmingham. I refer to the steel toy trade. The word toy
+seems appropriate enough when applied to skates and quoits, but seems a
+curious word to designate such articles of distinct utility as hammers,
+pincers, turnscrews, pliers, saws, and chisels, yet these articles and
+many others of a similar kind are included in the words "steel toys."
+This steel toy trade, if not a great industry in Birmingham, is an
+old-established one, and has been carried on for years by good
+well-known local names, such as Richard Timmins and Sons, Messrs. Wynn
+and Co., and others.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+NEW AND OLD STYLE TRADING.
+
+
+In an earlier part of these chapters I referred to the new style of
+shopkeeping that has developed in Birmingham with the growing size and
+importance of the town and city. I now return to the subject again for
+the purpose of showing that although Birmingham seems to be much to the
+fore in the matter of up-to-time shopkeeping, there are still a limited
+number of traders and shopkeepers who keep pretty much to the old lines,
+and evidently desire to carry on their businesses in the way that their
+fathers did before them.
+
+And in touching this question it is worth while considering for a
+moment how differently two men or two firms in the same trade will carry
+on their businesses, and yet both succeed. To put it more plainly, one
+firm will bombard the public with "fetching" advertisements, and get
+business, so to speak, at the bayonet's point. Another firm in the same
+line of trade lays siege to its customers in a quiet, systematic way,
+does its best to prevent any sorties in the direction of rival camps,
+and is content to keep its connection well guarded and do business in a
+quiet, undemonstrative way.
+
+Of course the man who goes in for publicity--wide publicity--and
+assaults the public with "loud" advertisements in all directions, drives
+the roaring trade, or the trade that roars loudest. He gets larger
+returns, and if his business is well managed he should secure larger
+profits. Beside these trade Dives's the humble, quiet, unostentatious
+Lazarus seems quite out in the cold. Not so, however. The latter picks
+up some good crumbs, if not some pretty substantial crusts, which he
+puts into his wallet with a gentle, unostentatious satisfaction which
+quite contents him.
+
+I could give chapter and verse for what I am now saying, and without
+hesitation or difficulty could name two firms in Birmingham that are
+carrying on the same trade, making the same everyday articles of
+consumption; yet, while the name of one firm is in everybody's mouth and
+is known to the ends of the earth, the name of the other is hardly ever
+seen save upon the productions they turn out. Yet I know for a fact that
+this latter firm make some nice solid profits out of their quiet
+business, though nothing perhaps at all comparable with their more
+enterprising rival. It is a case of thousands in one case and tens of
+thousands probably in the other. But enterprise should, of course, bring
+its own reward.
+
+I fear I have indulged in a rather full-blown parenthesis, but it was
+somewhat necessary before going into certain details concerning the two
+utterly opposed modes of trading and their exemplifications in
+Birmingham. As I have mentioned before, we have in recent years seen the
+rise and development of huge establishments and trading concerns that
+deal in anything and everything. Cutting and competition have gone on
+till there is nothing left to cut, or no weapon left that is sharp
+enough to cut finer. The results of all this has been the whittling away
+of a good many old-fashioned shops and traders; but they are not all
+gone, and some long--established businesses still survive and prosper in
+our midst.
+
+I will just mention one or two. If the reader of these lines will walk
+down the Lower Priory, which leads out of the Old Square--or what was
+the Old Square--he will see at the bottom of the said Lower Priory, on
+the right hand side, a sedate and solid brick building. He will see a
+brass knocker on the door and a brass plate bearing the name of
+Smallwood and Sons--"only this, and nothing more." This is the business
+house of the oldest firm of wine merchants in Birmingham, and I believe
+that these premises in the Lower Priory have been in the possession of
+the Smallwood family since the days of the Commonwealth; and, further,
+that the present active members of the firm are the fifth and sixth
+generation of Smallwood and Sons, wine merchants. There is no big shop
+window full of bottles of cheap heterogeneous wines and spirits. It
+might be the house of some good old doctor, or the office and home of
+some ripe old lawyer. If you step inside the office, you see few signs
+of Bacchus or his bowl, but you do see some antiquated rooms, some
+quaint furniture, and a nice dry, well-seasoned appearance that denotes
+age. There are full and capacious cellars on the premises of
+course--cellars containing a sort of well in which the books of the firm
+were buried at the time of the Birmingham riots; but, so far as outward
+appearance is concerned, Sir Wilfrid Lawson or the top Major-Domo of the
+Band of Hope might pass by the lintels of the doorway in Lower Priory
+without a sigh. With regard to Messrs. Smallwood's cellars, their
+subterranean premises are honeycombed with catacombs containing the
+remains of some grand old spirits and big bins of choice vintage and
+various other wines.
+
+It might be thought that such a very unbusiness-looking place would be
+quietly draining away, especially in face of the flaring competition in
+the wine and spirit trade. I am, however, glad to think and know that
+such old-established houses as Smallwood and Sons can bear up against
+the levelling down processes that characterise the more pushing branches
+of the wine and spirit trade. There are still a fair number of people
+who like to buy their wine from dealers who seem to have inherited
+certain trade instincts and experiences, and who can be relied upon to
+supply what they know to be good wines and spirits, such as can be
+consumed with pleasure and taken without risk. We do not all yet care
+for Chancellor claret, Hamburg sherry, petroleum champagne, and Dudley
+port, sometimes called "Bilston pit drink."
+
+Bottled red ink and cider champagne does not suit the taste of those
+who have a taste worth owning. They prefer to pay a fair price to have a
+good article, and they consequently go to old firms who are experts in
+their business.
+
+The most serious form of competition that knocks the legitimate liquor
+trader on the head is the grocer wine and spirit selling. It may be very
+convenient to the public to be able to buy a bottle of wine or whisky
+when they are buying their groceries, but this convenience has been
+purchased, I fear, at a cost that is not pleasant to consider. I fear it
+would not be difficult to prove that female home-drinking has been
+fostered by the grocers' wine and spirit licences. This is a serious
+matter to contemplate, and if I were a zealous temperance advocate I
+should strive to get those grocers' licences wiped out.
+
+Besides offering facilities that are calculated to encourage secret
+home-drinking the grocers' licences operate in another way that is not
+exactly conducive to morality or integrity. I will explain what I mean.
+At Cambridge I knew an undergraduate who had a somewhat parsimonious
+pater. The latter limited his son's allowance, and scrutinized his bills
+pretty closely. But my Verdant Green circumvented the supervision of his
+male parent by the opportunities offered by the grocers' shops. Although
+my undergraduate friend was, I knew, kept pretty "short" in the matter
+of cash supplies, I noticed that he never seemed short of strong drink.
+He let the cat out of the bag--or let me say the cork out of the
+bottle--when one day he innocently remarked to me, "I get all my liquor
+from the grocer's; the governor never looks much at the grocer's
+account."
+
+Leaving the question of wines and spirits, I can illustrate my
+preference for dealing with men who "know you know" what they are
+selling, and are, indeed, experts in their trades. Although I am not a
+good or bad Templar, nor yet a small brass Band of Hope, I confess to a
+large weakness for tea--good, nice, well-flavoured tea. I have, however,
+found it somewhat difficult to obtain. Occasionally I taste it at the
+houses of friends who buy their tea in chests at a time; but as for
+getting such tea at the usual grocers' shops I have found it difficult,
+if not impossible. Yet I have been willing to pay up to get some real
+prime Souchong, Assam, Orange Pekoe, or what not. I do not expect to get
+a one and twopenny tea with a fine two and ninepenny flavour. Bather
+recently I have paid 3s. 6d. a pound to get my little luxury; moreover,
+I tried many and various shops, but all more or less in vain. At last,
+however, I found salvation by going to a house--a retail shop
+indeed--that dealt in scarcely anything else but tea. And I now get tea
+full of delicious fragrance and flavour. It breathes such a splendid
+aroma before it is tasted that it almost seems a sin to drink it. When,
+however, I do taste a well-made cup of this infusion I am so happy and
+benign that (to paraphrase some words of the late Bishop of Oxford) my
+own wife might play with me.
+
+I fear, however, I am getting rather rhapsodical on this question of
+tea. There are other--what I will call specialist old-style--traders
+besides those in the teetotal and unteetotal line to which I wish to
+refer. But these must be reserved for another chapter.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+OLD-ESTABLISHED SHOPS.
+
+
+Considering the pace at which Birmingham moved forward during the latter
+half of the nineteenth century, it is not, perhaps, surprising that few
+shops and houses of old date are now to be seen in the chief centre
+streets of the city. A few, however, remain to remind us that Birmingham
+was not built yesterday, and that it has a respectable past, and is not
+a place of that mushroom growth which comes into existence in a night.
+
+Chief among the old order of retail trading establishments still
+flourishing in our midst I may particularly mention the shop of Mr.
+William Pearsall, silversmith, &c. As many of my readers are aware, it
+is situated in High Street, opposite the end of New Street, and is
+conspicuous for its pretty--I had almost said petite--quaintness and its
+genuine old-time appearance and origin. There are the small bow windows,
+the little panes of glass, that are so suggestive of the architecture of
+a century ago, and outside the shop everything bespeaks a past which was
+not exactly of yesterday.
+
+This great-grandfather shop, so to speak, has, indeed, been established
+for more than a century, and when the present proprietor first went to
+the business the trade done was chiefly in silver and silver made goods,
+whereas now it is largely in electro plate, in jewellery, cutlery, &c.
+The proprietor, indeed, like others in his position, has found himself
+obliged to keep in step with the times or go under. He has preferred the
+former course, but without abandoning what I may call the antique
+department of his business.
+
+It is, indeed, a most attractive kind of shop, especially for ladies of
+a matured taste and mind who like to see pretty things, some of which
+have a quaint charm which is often especially dear to the feminine soul.
+I can fancy ladies going there and spending a right down happy time in
+looking at the dainty specimens of antique silver, and also the modern
+reproductions of old patterns in electro plate. I can, indeed, by a
+stretch of the imagination picture in my mind ladies who will go and
+look at many things at such a shop, admire all, and buy none.
+
+Indeed, I do not know that I should mind indulging in this little luxury
+myself, but, being of the masculine order of creation, I, perhaps,
+hardly like to spend hours in a shop and leave the shopkeeper with the
+cold comfort of a promise that I will "think about it." Quaint and
+inviting shops, however, stocked with articles that form a little
+exhibition in themselves must pay the penalty of their attractiveness,
+and possibly the proprietors have no objection.
+
+It goes, of course, without saying that a business that has been
+carried on for over a century has seen great changes in regard to custom
+and customers. Consequently, it is not surprising to learn that wealthy
+iron-masters, the country gentry, and prosperous farmers no longer make
+the purchases of silver and fancy wares they did in the days that are no
+more. Black country magnates have discovered they can now do without
+many solid silver services, and even fairly well-to-do rural people find
+they can at a pinch put up with electro plate.
+
+I confess I like to look at the bijou shop in High Street and think what
+it must have seen and heard in its time. It must have heard the bells of
+St. Martin's toll for the death of Nelson and ring out joyous peals
+after Waterloo. It must have seen disorderly crowds march past its doors
+at the time of the Birmingham riots; more than this, it felt something
+of the lawlessness that prevailed, since the shop was looted and some of
+its contents carried off by the rioters.
+
+Yes, as I have said, it must have heard some pealing and tolling of the
+St. Martin's Church bells--and what charmingly mellifluous and melodious
+bells they are! I do not profess to be a campanologist or a bell hunter,
+but I have a loving ear for a sweet-toned church bell, and can think of
+few belfries whose contents surpass St. Martin's, Birmingham. Although I
+have not heard the "Bells of Shandon" immortalised by Father Prout, I
+have, however, heard Great Tom of Lincoln. I have listened to the "bonny
+Christ Church bells" of Oxford, and my ears have dwelt upon the sweet
+jinglings of the Carrillion at Antwerp and in other Flemish cities. I
+have also heard the dulcet chimings of many village church bells in
+various parts of the land, and I have listened with undelight to the
+unmusical tones of Big Ben of Westminster, but so far as mellow tone is
+concerned, I rarely hear any ordinary church bells that are more dulcet
+and harmonious than the bells of St. Martin's, Birmingham.
+
+Few people heed their beauties I am afraid; indeed, some singularly
+insensible residents and traders in the neighbourhood have been known to
+protest against the charming chimings of the bells of St. Martin's.
+Those, however, who want to hear the true musical quality and tone of
+these bells must select a quiet time, as the Bull Ring is not a
+particularly peaceful spot in the busy hours of day. Midnight is the
+witching hour that should be chosen to listen to the music of St.
+Martin's belfry. It may be a late and inconvenient hour for the
+experiment, but it is worth it--if the bells still chime at that
+"ghostly" hour.
+
+I am afraid I have indulged in a somewhat extensive parenthesis, but my
+pen has run away with me, and now it must come back to the old-fashioned
+High Street shop where I lingered a few paragraphs back. The adjoining
+premises to Mr. Pearsall's, on the east side, are also old and well in
+years. They have been altered and provided with a modern "dickey"--I
+should say, front--which rather hides their antiquity. There is,
+however, still conspicuous a quaint and curious spout-head which bears
+the date 1687, showing that these premises have more than passed their
+bicentenary.
+
+The only little old-date shop in the heart of Birmingham that, till
+recently, rivalled the "silver-smithy" I have described in High Street,
+was a saddler's at the top of New Street, which nestled under the shadow
+of Christ Church. It had the old-style small bow windows, the low roof,
+and the circumscribed area of old-fashioned shops. The ancient saddler
+who formerly tenanted it had not enough space to crack a whip, let alone
+swing a cat in. In past days, however, business was carried on under
+"limited" principles, but chiefly limited as to extent and space.
+
+When walking about Birmingham, archaeological observers should look up
+if they wish to see and note any traces of age and antiquity. The lower
+portions of old premises have often been so enlarged and modernized that
+they give no sign of the real date of the buildings. In Bull Street,
+for instance, there are narrow old style windows that are very
+suggestive of a bygone day. But these are becoming few and far between,
+and will doubtless soon be seen no more.
+
+Old-fashioned shops naturally suggest new and old-style shopkeeping. In
+a recent chapter I alluded to some long-established trading houses in
+Birmingham that within certain limits carry on their trade in a manner
+that differs from the very modern and obtrusively pressing fashion which
+is so much the custom of the day. Something of the same kind may be said
+of shops, as I generally remarked in my earlier observations. But to
+descend more into detail, there are still among its at any rate a
+limited number of shopkeepers who like to do their business on good,
+safe, and steady lines, and keep together a nice respectable connection
+by upholding the dependable quality of their wares. Some of these
+shopkeepers do not make much of an outward show, but I have reason to
+know that many of them in a quiet undemonstrative manner do a snug and
+prosperous trade without fuss or display.
+
+I will just briefly particularize. Opposite King Edward's School in New
+Street is a quiet, unostentatious-looking tobacconist's shop. The window
+plate bears the name of Evans, and in the window is a modest show of
+smoking wares and materials. If you step inside the shop, it is
+comparatively calm and quiet. You do not see young men sitting about
+smoking, chatting, and joking with girls across the counter. There is no
+constant succession of customers coming in and out and buying their
+ounces and half ounces of "Returns," "Bird's Eye," "Shag," and "Old
+Virginia." Yet an evident perfume of tobacco and prosperity seems to
+pervade the shop, but no sign of the Tom, Dick, and Henry sort of trade
+that is done by more ostentatious modern traders. It is, I believe, a
+case of half a century's trading in good tobacco stuffs having
+established a connection among those who like good tobacco, will pay a
+proper price for it, and deal where they can get it.
+
+These remarks apply more or less to a jewellery, watch and clock shop
+next door, kept for many years by Mr. L.N. Hobday. Here again there is a
+look of quality rather than mere quantity. There is no ticketed crowded
+display of wares, but the look of the shop inspires a feeling of
+confidence and an assurance that the quality of what you purchase may be
+relied upon. I am not in the secrets of the proprietor of this
+establishment, and have no interest in it beyond being an occasional
+small customer, yet I should not wonder if he does not do a nice,
+steady, quiet trade among those who have found out the advantages of
+dealing with a trader who personally understands his business, and will
+give them good value for their money.
+
+There are, as I have hinted, other shops that prefer adhering to
+well-established lines of business, rather than up-to-dating their
+trade past all recognition. There are a few drapers still left, who,
+like Turner, Son, and Nephew, do not go in for a general all
+round-my-hat sort of business, but who restrict themselves within
+certain limited lines and on them keep up a well-established connection.
+There are, however, others who prefer a more pushing, store-competing,
+Whiteley-emulating style of trade. They follow their bent and probably
+make it pay. It is, of course, well that we should have traders of all
+kinds to minister to the requirements of a large and varied community.
+For myself, however, I am glad that there are still some shopkeeper
+specialists left who limit themselves to dealing in such things as they
+understand, and know what they buy, and sell that they know.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+SOME PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS.
+
+
+Though reminiscences and recollections are rather overdone in these
+days, I may, perhaps, be permitted a few personal reflections in
+bringing my chapters to a close. And I shall not write a long, tedious
+tale, and why? Because, like the needy knife-grinder, I have no story to
+tell. Happy, we are told, is the country that has no history, and, if
+this is so, happy should be the man who is not burdened with too many
+reminiscences.
+
+Still, there are just a few memories that I should like to jot down,
+which may, or may not, be of interest to my readers. Authors, I fancy,
+often write as much to gratify themselves as to please other people. I
+cannot boast that I have been personally intimate with many
+distinguished people. I have never been to Court, and, consequently, I
+am, according to Shakspeare's clown, emphatically "damned." I have known
+some few titled people, and have even sat at meat with a Duke in his
+palatial home, and did not fail to notice that his Grace was very easy
+and human in his tastes and manners, and was not above taking a glass of
+port wine with his cheese. I have just occasionally shaken hands with a
+lord of high degree, and even with a belted earl, but I am not of the
+Upper Ten, and am quite outside the gilded gate that encloses the noble
+of the land. I have seen few people that were particularly worth seeing,
+that is, for book-writing purposes, but I will take leave to reconnoitre
+in my memory those I have beheld in Birmingham during the course of my
+uneventful career.
+
+I may, perhaps, preface my observations with the paradoxical remark
+that the first great celebrity I ever saw I just missed seeing. This was
+Louis Kossuth. I was only a small boy when the great Hungarian patriot
+visited Birmingham in the year 1851. Hearing so much talk about Kossuth
+I naturally burned with a desire to see him. When the eventful day of
+his visit came I secured a very good position at the top of Paradise
+Street, and fancied I was going to have a fine view of the distinguished
+Hungarian and the procession that accompanied him. I waited patiently
+for some hours, then I heard the sound of music in the distance, and
+then the roar and cheers of many voices. They grew louder and louder;
+then came the surging wave of a great crowd of people. For a brief time
+I was quite submerged, and when I recovered my position the procession
+and the patriot were past and gone.
+
+I remember the visit to Birmingham of the Prince Consort in 1855 to lay
+the foundation stone of the Birmingham and Midland Institute.
+
+I saw his Royal Highness well and truly lay the said stone, and I
+afterwards saw him in the Town Hall, where he was entertained at
+luncheon. I have a very distinct recollection of the occasion even now,
+and I call to mind in particular that the Prince wore a pair of light
+grey trousers and a swallow-tail, that is, a dress-coat. We should think
+this a strange costume for a gentleman at a morning function in these
+days, but times have changed, and the dress coat is now never seen in
+the morning, and not so much at night as it used to be.
+
+Of course I remember the Queen's visit to Birmingham in 1858, for the
+purpose of opening Aston Park, the "People's Park," as it was proudly
+called. There was a deal of effervescent talk about this noble project.
+The People, with a capital P, were going to buy the park for the People,
+with the money of the People. The scheme succeeded save in the matter of
+getting the funds. The People approved of the project, the People
+shouted themselves hoarse when her Majesty came to put the finishing
+touch to the noble undertaking, but, unfortunately, the great People
+failed to find the money necessary to carry out the grand undertaking,
+and the Municipality had to pay up to complete the purchase.
+
+It is still going back a long time, but I distinctly recall the visit of
+Lord Brougham to Birmingham in 1857, when as president he delivered the
+inaugural address at the opening meeting of the newly-born Association
+for the Promotion of Social Science. I remember the Town Hall was
+completely filled, and much interest was felt in the appearance of Lord
+Brougham on the occasion. When he took his place on the platform there
+was some little disturbance and confusion among the audience. This
+promptly brought to his feet Lord Brougham, who said in very emphatic
+tones, "Allow me to say--and I have had some experience of public
+meetings--that if any persons attempt to disturb the proceedings of this
+meeting, measures shall be taken to expel them."
+
+I am quoting from memory, but I believe my words are pretty correct.
+When Lord Brougham had delivered this emphatic utterance, he proceeded
+with his address, which was a dull affair and did not inspire the least
+enthusiasm. It was, indeed, a somewhat somnolent discourse, and his
+audience hardly seemed to wake up till he reached his peroration, which
+closed with a telling quotation from Oliver Goldsmith.
+
+If I recollect rightly there were many notabilities present on this
+occasion. I remember the interest I felt in seeing Lord John Russell for
+the first and only time in my life. There was not much of him to look
+at, but what there was looked pleasant. I saw, indeed, a small man, with
+a big head, and a large smile. There was, of course, a good deal of
+eloquence on the evening to which I refer, and at this distance of time
+I remember that one distinguished visitor made a rather amusing bull.
+Speaking of some obvious fact and carried away by the enthusiasm of the
+moment, he said, "Gentlemen, the matter is as clear as the rising sun at
+noon-day."
+
+I remember seeing Thackeray in Birmingham, and heard him deliver his
+lecture on George III. at the Music Hall, Broad Street, now the Prince
+of Wales Theatre. I was, of course, interested to see the great
+novelist, but I thought his lecture a prosaic performance. In a literary
+sense the address was characteristic and interesting--as can be seen in
+its printed form--but it gained nothing by its author's delivery. It was
+a well-composed piece of work, and it had a composing effect upon those
+who heard it. At least I know I found it dull, and half dozed during its
+monotonous delivery. Indeed, it was not till Thackeray reached his
+concluding words--which, by the way, were Shakspeare's, being an
+effective quotation from "King Lear"--that I was roused from my dreamy
+reverie.
+
+I recollect seeing Charles Kingsley when he was President of the
+Birmingham and Midland Institute, and noticed that though in speaking
+he stammered perceptibly, when he delivered his presidential address he
+adopted a sort of sing-song tone which more or less concealed his
+impediment of speech. In fact he half intoned his discourse. I remember,
+too, meeting Professor Tyndall at Mr. Chamberlain's table, and was
+struck by the simple modesty of the eminent savant. I sat next to Mrs.
+Tyndall, who was very unaffected, pleasant, and conversational. I have
+often thought of this occasion, and did so especially when the sad and
+tragic mistake occurred which ended in Professor Tyndall's premature
+death. Mrs. Tyndall, it may be remembered, gave her husband a wrong dose
+of medicine, which brought his illness to a sudden and fatal
+termination. What an awful mistake. To live after this was pathetic.
+
+Of course I remember a good deal about the late Mr. John Bright and his
+visits to Birmingham. So do other people, and as many of these others
+are scribes and quasi-historians who have published their records, there
+is really not much for me to tell. I may say that I heard nearly every
+speech our distinguished member delivered in Birmingham, for I hardly
+ever missed a meeting at which Mr. Bright was a spokesman. Even now I
+distinctly recall the first occasion on which he spoke after he became
+M.P. for Birmingham. The Town Hall was more than crowded, it was packed;
+indeed, I might almost say that herrings in a tub have elbow room
+compared with the very compressed gathering that welcomed Mr. Bright on
+the occasion.
+
+In order to make more space the benches were removed from nearly all
+parts of the Town Hall, and the curious sight of the sea of faces when
+Mr. Bright appeared lingers in my memory still. One curious thing I
+observed at this gathering was that so long as our member was speaking
+the vast assembly was held spellbound. But when he paused for a moment
+to turn over his notes or take a sip of water, the tightly squeezed
+audience swayed for a little bodily relief and expansion, and this
+resulted in big surging waves of humanity, which rolled from one end of
+the body of the hall to the other, and often lasted for some little
+time.
+
+At this moment I can recollect almost word for word the stirring and
+eloquent peroration with which Mr. Bright closed his first address to
+his Birmingham constituents. It roused his hearers to a pitch of
+demonstrative enthusiasm such as I have never seen equalled.
+
+I could quote from memory many striking passages from the principal
+speeches I heard our distinguished member deliver. But why? Are they not
+recorded in a hundred books, or at least in many books and hundreds of
+newspapers? I will, therefore, now content myself with just one or two
+personal reminiscences connected with our great Parliamentary
+representative.
+
+One little story I have to tell is connected with Mr. Bright's speech on
+the occasion of unveiling the statue of Mr. Joseph Sturge, erected at
+the Five Ways, Birmingham. There was an immense gathering on that
+occasion, and of course I was there. I secured a good position for
+hearing, but, unfortunately, there was a woman near me with a crying
+baby in her arms. This prevented me hearing much that the speaker said,
+and at last I got quite out of patience, and turning to the woman I
+remarked, "Why don't you take that noisy child home?" "Oh," said the
+woman in reply, "her's just as bad at home." I felt I had my answer, and
+that there was no more to be said.
+
+On another occasion I remember Mr. Bright walking down New Street, just
+after delivering one of his grandest speeches, when a working-man, one
+of the real "horny-handed," stepped up to him and patted him on the back
+in the most familiar and approving manner. I will also just note one
+other little incident in connection with Mr. Bright and Birmingham and
+then I have done. I have to give this second-hand, but I believe what I
+say may be accepted.
+
+When Mr. Bright was offered a seat in Mr. Gladstone's administration in
+the year 1868 it caused him some severe searching of heart. He did not
+like giving up his freedom in the House of Commons. When this question
+was before him he was staying with Mr.----now Sir John Jaffray, Bart.,
+and in discussing the matter with his host he walked up and down the
+room talking and talking till the hours flew by and it became late. Mr.
+Jaffray--who was rather an early man--became weary before Mr. Bright had
+finished his talk. The latter probably perceived this, for with a fine
+touch of humour he made for the chandelier, and said, "I see, Jaffray,
+that you will never go to bed till I turn off the gas."
+
+In searching the files of memory it is rather surprising to find how one
+thought leads to another, and the long-hidden past reveals itself with
+almost as much clearness as the events of yesterday. When I began to
+write down these personal recollections I thought I should find little
+or nothing to tell. As I proceed, however, occurrences of past years
+crop up and crowd upon memory, and that to such an extent that it
+becomes a question of what I shall not write rather than what I shall.
+
+Lest, however, I become tiresome and tedious I will for the most part
+"let the dead past bury its dead," and content myself with a little
+chapter of history which is especially interesting to me, and may not be
+without some amount of interest to others, especially those concerned in
+our educational and industrial progress.
+
+One important change that has recently taken place in what I will call
+business Birmingham has brought back to my mind a throng of mixed
+memories. I allude to the vicissitudes that have taken place in local
+trading concerns, and I may especially mention the disestablishment or
+dismemberment of the manufactory of R.W. Winfield and Co., Cambridge
+Street. To see the break-up of this once large, important, and
+successful concern has been a matter of some sorrow to me. And why?
+Because it was at this establishment that I began my working career.
+Yes, at an early age I was a junior clerk at Cambridge Street Works,
+when it was the private business of the late Mr. R.W. Winfield.
+
+At that time the manufactory was one of the largest if not _the_ largest
+in Birmingham. It employed about 1,000 hands, and its operations were
+carried on in several separate departments. These were the tube and
+metal, the gas-fitting, the metallic bedstead, the stamped brassfoundry,
+the general brassfoundry, and other departments and divisions. To my
+youthful eyes it seemed to be a huge place, and, indeed, it was a big
+manufactory, and had a very extensive home and foreign trade.
+
+I do not propose now to go into details concerning the manufacturing
+work done at Cambridge Street at the period of which I speak. This would
+be a matter of small interest to general readers. The once large
+establishment has had its day and has now ceased to be, though why it
+should have fallen to pieces so completely is not readily to be
+explained.
+
+There are, however, matters concerning the earlier days of Cambridge
+Street Works that well deserve to be recognised and recorded. I think,
+indeed, I may say that Mr. R.W. Winfield was the local pioneer of
+compulsory education. There were, of course, a large number of boys
+employed at the works, and Mr. Winfield not only provided an evening
+school for these young hands but compelled them to attend and be
+educated whether they liked it or not.
+
+At the time mentioned, I remember, Mr. James Atkins--then a manager of
+one of the departments--had a large hand in the educational operations
+carried on in connection with the Cambridge Street manufactory. He had
+the happy knack of attracting boys to him, and could interest those he
+taught and teach those he interested. Mr. Atkins, as is well known,
+afterwards became the principal of the firm, but more of this anon.
+
+In the work of these evening schools, Mr. John Fawkener Winfield, son of
+Mr. R.W. Winfield, took a very active interest. He used to give some
+excellent lectures, and constantly taught in the classes. Much money was
+spent upon these schools; indeed, a large room was specially built, at
+very considerable cost, in order that the educational work might have
+elbow room and be carried on effectually.
+
+Mr. Winfield was a stiff, unbending man in some matters--especially in
+politics--but he was in many respects broad-minded and large-hearted. He
+was thoughtful for those in his employ, especially the young people, and
+his son was like unto him.
+
+When I was engaged at Cambridge Street Works Mr. R.W. Winfield lived at
+the Hawthorns, Ladywood Lane. The house seemed by comparison to be a
+large and important mansion, and was quite in the country then. Yes, I
+remember now, at this distance of time, how often our employer used to
+give us treats at his house, and what pleasant jinks we had in playing
+and rollicking about the fields and grounds surrounding his residence.
+
+In many respects Mr. R.W. Winfield was one of the real old school. He
+was not a high or broad so much as a good, thick, consistent churchman
+of the Evangelical school. He "wore his beaver stiffly up," his neck-tie
+was a starched white cravat, his clothes were black broadcloth, with the
+dress coat worn by gentlemen in the early and middle years of last
+century. All the same, he had some modern ideas, especially, as I have
+said, in the matter of education. If it came to be totalled up how much
+he spent on the education of the boys in his employ, the aggregate sum
+would run to large figures.
+
+Time, we know, smooths the surface or rounds off the corners of past
+events that seemed rather arbitrary at the time of their occurrence.
+But, after making allowance for all this, my experience of Mr.
+Winfield's evening schools is occasionally wafted back to me with many
+pleasant memories and associations. Compulsory education was the iron
+hand that directed the young ideas how to shoot, though it was enveloped
+in a soft velvet glove. Mr. Winfield did good far-reaching work by the
+establishment and maintenance of his evening schools, and his
+thoughtfulness and generosity in this direction should be counted unto
+him for righteousness.
+
+Why Cambridge Street Works, which once employed so many hands, should
+have so completely collapsed is, as I have hinted, a bit of a mystery. I
+can only guess, and as tracking conundrums is not my purpose in these
+chapters, I will leave others to unravel the riddle if they can. It is,
+however, a matter of local business history that some thirty years or
+more ago the Cambridge Street concern shewed signs of tottering to its
+fall, and when Mr. Atkins went into the business as a proprietor, he had
+to make some sweeping reforms that naturally created some resentment and
+criticism. Possibly the business was "eating its head off," and the
+process of deglutition had to be rigorously curtailed. This having been
+done, the business thrived and prospered once more, and continued to do
+so for some years. I will not follow its fortunes to its ultimate fall.
+It became a public company, and now it is no more.
+
+Winfields' is not the only important local business that has gone under
+during the past fifty years, yet it is satisfactory to find that many of
+our old-established manufactories and businesses have survived, and
+still exist in some form or other. Elkington's, Gillott's, and Hardman's
+still flourish, and among the brassfounders Pemberton and Son's, Tonks
+and Son's, Cartland's, and others, go on their way rejoicing, casting,
+stamping, lacquering, and polishing, and pushing brassfoundry into more
+ornamental and utilitarian use.
+
+Some of our old-established merchants and factors are still with us. The
+trade of Messrs. Keep and Hinckley, whose place of business was for
+years near St. Mary's Square, is now carried on by Keep Bros., in Broad
+Street. The establishment of Rabone Bros., merchants, also in Broad
+Street, still stands where it did. The businesses of Rock and Blakemore,
+Moilett and Gem, and others, are still carried on by survivors of the
+old firms.
+
+As for the new industries, the new firms and companies that have been
+created in our midst during the past half-century, their enumeration and
+description would be a big story, and would require a large volume to
+tell it. That volume I do not propose to begin. I desire to close my
+present little chapter, and perhaps I shall not be the only one who will
+be glad to come to the end of it.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+THE MUSICAL FESTIVALS.
+
+
+Though it can hardly be said that the Birmingham Musical Festivals have
+had any direct bearing upon the progress and development of town and
+city, the world-renowned musical gatherings associated with the name of
+Birmingham have had something to do with the fame and fortunes of the
+Midland capital. Established more than a century and a quarter ago, they
+attained a pitch of musical excellence and importance that attracted the
+attention of the civilised world. Birmingham, indeed, was for a time,
+and is still to some extent, the Mecca of musicians, and the Birmingham
+Musical Festival is generally regarded as the premier musical meeting of
+the country.
+
+One specially fortuitous event has stamped the Birmingham "music
+meeting" with a glory and prestige all its own. I refer to the
+production of Mendelssohn's "Elijah" in 1846. This was, indeed, a piece
+of great good fortune, for Mendelssohn's oratorio aroused an interest
+and enthusiasm throughout the musical world that has not yet died down.
+The occasion certainly gave the Birmingham Festivals a new lease of
+life, and attracted more musical pilgrims to our town than ever.
+
+I am not old enough myself to recollect the first performance of the
+"Elijah," and as I only propose to write down now what I have myself
+seen and heard, I refer those who desire to learn the history of the
+Festivals to the records written by other more or less accurate writers.
+
+The first Festival at which I was present was that of 1852, and I have
+been at every Festival and at nearly every performance since that date.
+In the year mentioned I sang as a boy in the chorus, and experienced a
+great and novel joy that I have never known since. I revelled in the
+rehearsals, and when the week's performances came I seemed to be up in
+the clouds amid cherubim and seraphim. Indeed, when at the last
+performance the National Anthem was sung and the meeting came to an end
+I could have sat down and wept.
+
+Of course I recollect the stir made by the production of Costa's "Eli"
+in 1855, and especially do I seem to remember Mr. Sims Beeves--then in
+his primest prime--and his thrilling declamation of the "War Song." At
+the end of this stirring solo I recall how the voice of the great tenor
+rang out above the combined power of the full band and chorus.
+
+In this connection I may mention that it was at the Festival of 1855
+that I heard Mario for the first time. I had of course heard much of the
+great Italian tenor, but till the year mentioned had never heard the
+sound of his voice. Curiously enough, too, I heard him sing in
+juxtaposition with Mr. Sims Reeves. It was, indeed, a little bit of a
+contest between the two great tenors, and I am bound to say the English
+singer did not come off second best.
+
+The fact is Mario was then past his prime, whilst Mr. Sims Reeves was in
+his fullest strength. The opportunities for comparison on the occasion
+referred to were irresistible, since the two tenors sang together in a
+trio in which they both had to sing the same notes. The result was as I
+have hinted, but I wondered, however, that comparisons should have been
+challenged in such a direct way, and I marvelled much that Mario should
+have submitted to such a trial.
+
+It was at the Festival of 1858 that I heard the _great_ Lablache for the
+first and only time. His appearance excited as much interest, perhaps
+more, than his singing--he was so very large. His ruddy countenance, his
+white hair, and his great girth, combined to make him something to see
+as well as hear. When he sang his notes were as the tones emitted from a
+sort of human tun.
+
+Then, how I remember hearing Adelina Patti at the Festival of 1861. Oh!
+how the sweet girl singer charmed, indeed fascinated, her audience with
+her delightfully fresh voice, and by her attractive appearance and
+winning manner. How fatherly, and even tenderly, Costa seemed to watch
+over the little maiden, and his usual autocratic manner--for he was an
+autocrat at the conductor's desk--seemed to soften when he came in
+contact with the pretty young Italian vocalist. Even the stern unbending
+general of the orchestra was once so touched with her delightful
+rendering of an air in one of his oratorios, that he was actually seen
+to imprint a paternal kiss upon her cheek.
+
+It was also at the Festival of 1861 that I remember hearing
+Giuglini--the "golden-throated Giuglini," as he was called. Was there
+ever such sweet, luscious tenor voice, or a more charming and graceful
+style of vocalization? He literally sang like a bird. He opened his
+mouth and the notes were warbled forth with exquisite volubility and
+ease. Giuglini's voice had not the power and breadth which Sims Reeves
+could command, nor was his style so impassioned and fervent as Mario's,
+but his tones and vocalization were something to hear once and remember
+always.
+
+But I am pausing too long over details. Let me hurry on. I remember the
+disappointment with which Sullivan's cantata "Kenilworth" was received
+at the Festival of 1867. The then young composer had made such a very
+"palpable hit" by his "Tempest" music that great things were expected
+from the new cantata he composed for Birmingham. But "Kenilworth" fell
+very flat, and nothing afterwards happened to stir it up into a success.
+Indeed, the work may almost be said to have died "still-born."
+
+I fancy Sullivan himself had some premonition as to the fate of his new
+composition. At least I know that I saw him in the Society of Artists'
+Rooms on the day when his work was to be performed in the evening, and
+on my asking him how he was he smiled "a kind of sickly smile," and told
+me he felt very squeamish.
+
+How different was the fate of Mr. J.F. Barnett's "Ancient Mariner."
+Though the composer was a well-known musician no great things were
+expected from his new cantata, but it took the musical world by storm.
+It achieved instant success, and although it was regarded by many as
+being nice innocent "bread and butter" music it is still alive and
+popular, and will be while there is an ear left for spontaneous flowing
+melody.
+
+Of course I recollect Sullivan's second venture at the Birmingham
+Musical Festival of 1873, when he produced his oratorio "The Light of
+the World." Contrary to what should have been, the work was at best only
+a _succes d'estime._ Yet it contains some of the best music its composer
+has written. Parts of it are magnificent and masterly, whilst others are
+strikingly impressive inspirations. That the oratorio is unequal may be
+admitted, and it is decidedly heavy in places; moreover, it is too long.
+Still, looking at its merits as a whole, it deserved better fortune. It
+is enough to dishearten a composer when he finds his best work
+comparatively unappreciated, and it is hardly surprising if it was in
+consequence of disgust and disappointment that Sullivan turned his
+thoughts to lighter things. By doing so he has filled his purse, he has
+delighted a large public that cannot appreciate serious music, and he
+has raised comic opera to a level far above the thin and trivial
+emanations of foreign "opera bouffists."
+
+When some of us recall past Birmingham Musical Festivals, and scan the
+schemes of bygone years, we cannot fail to be struck by the change that
+has taken place in musical taste and fashion. Especially do we note this
+in looking at the programmes of the festival evening concerts. In these
+programmes quantity as well as quality was an element not forgotten in
+the consideration and arrangement of the miscellaneous selections.
+
+Twenty or thirty years ago we used to have--in addition to some one or
+more important works--a long string of scraps and snatches, chiefly from
+well-known operas, which protracted the concerts to a late hour. The
+liberal introduction of these excerpts was attractive to a large section
+of the public who did not care for fine works of musical art or "too
+much fiddling." Moreover, it was in accordance with the taste and
+proclivities of the conductor, who gave, perhaps, an inkling of his real
+mind in a jocular remark made under the following circumstances.
+
+It used to be the custom, after the morning performances, to ask the
+band and principal singers to stay and run through some of the operatic
+selections, &c., to be given in the evening. On one of these occasions,
+after a morning performance of "The Messiah," Costa quietly and
+cynically remarked, "Now, ladies and gentlemen, let us have a little
+music."
+
+To come now to speak of more personal associations with the Birmingham
+Musical Festivals, it was in the year 1873 that I experienced the novel
+sensation of standing at the conductor's desk. A trio of my
+composition--a setting of Tennyson's "Break, break,"--was included in
+the programme of one of the evening concerts, and I had to conduct its
+performance. I tell you, my reader, it was a trying ordeal, and I hardly
+know how I got through it, but I did in some sort of fashion. Costa, I
+may explain, made it a rigid rule never to conduct a living composer's
+music; consequently, he would have nothing to do with the performance
+even of my small trio. I found, however, a good friend in M. Sainton,
+the leader of the band. He took a kindly pity on me in my trying
+situation, and he did more to make my trio go well with his violin than
+I did with the conductor's bâton.
+
+But it certainly was a sensation to face that immense orchestra, and I
+had something to do to make my sinews bear me stiffly up. My trio,
+however, was splendidly sung by Mdlle. Titieus, Madame Trebelli, and Mr.
+Vernon Rigby--_pace_ Mr. Sims Reeves, indisposed--and if it did not
+make a sensation, and was not received with deafening plaudits, I fancy
+it went smoothly and satisfactorily, and I retired from the field--I
+mean from the conductor's desk--not exactly with glory, but I think I
+may say without a stain upon my character as a local musical composer.
+
+At the Musical Festival of 1876 Madame Patey sang a song of mine, "The
+Felling of the Trees," and I repeated my little experience as a
+conductor; but in 1885, when my cantata "Yule Tide" was included in the
+festival scheme, Mr. W.C. Stockley kindly undertook the task of
+directing the work. I was determined it should not be a personally
+conducted cantata; consequently, I was spared what would have severely
+taxed my capacity and nerve.
+
+With regard to my work it will not become me to say much. I frankly own
+that it did not set the Thames ablaze; it passed muster, and perhaps
+that is as much as I could expect at a Birmingham Musical Festival. It
+was somewhat unfortunate that in 1885 there were too many new works. No
+less than seven original compositions were included in the scheme, and
+they killed each other. The musical public will not swallow and cannot
+digest too much new music, consequently they would not make a good, fair
+musical meal off any of the new dishes so liberally provided, with the
+result that most of them went into the larder after just; being tasted
+and no more. Some of them--even mine--are at times brought out, smelt,
+turned over, and looked at, but as I have hinted, none, not even those
+by Gounod, Dvorak, and Cowen, have become standing dishes in constant
+request at musical feasts.
+
+Speaking generally, many splendid compositions seem to have missed fire
+through sheer bad luck. To go no further than Sir Arthur Sullivan, some
+of his finest and most important works have had an ill-starred
+existence, and even several of his best songs, though introduced to the
+public under the most favourable auspices, have not "taken on."
+Sullivan's splendid ditty "Love laid his sleepless head," though sung by
+Mr. Edward Lloyd all over the country, did not make a hit, whilst the
+more trivial ballad "Sweet-hearts" became a boom and a property. At
+least, I remember being told that after Sullivan had been receiving good
+royalties from this song for years, the publishers offered him £1,000
+for his rights.
+
+I am afraid I have been guilty of a digression, but I will recall my
+wandering steps. I have mentioned the Birmingham Festival of 1885, which
+marked a new order--I might almost say a new epoch--in the history of
+the Birmingham Musical Festivals. For the first time for very many years
+Costa was no longer seen at the conductor's desk, and his place was
+taken by Richter. Costa conducted the Birmingham triennial performances
+for about half a century, and although it was sad to miss his face in
+1885, he had done his work.
+
+In 1882--the last Festival in which he took part--it was painful to
+witness his efforts to conduct the performances. He was partly
+paralysed, and his bâton, I believe, had to be fastened to his hand
+because he could not grasp it. Further, he was becoming deaf, and the
+result was that the loud brass instruments were allowed to become too
+blatant and obtrusive. Costa was a good man in his day, and he did good
+work. He was very autocratic, even despotic, but he introduced two good
+things into the orchestra--order and punctuality. With all his ability,
+tact, and nerve, it must, however, be admitted that his style of
+conducting was rough and ready compared with the art, care, and skill
+that mark musical conductorship of the present day.
+
+With Richter's appearance as conductor, some important changes and
+reforms were effected in the orchestral arrangements of the Festival.
+For one thing, the band was cut down in number. This, it was said, was
+in consequence of Richter's opinion that the balance of power was
+disturbed by too great a preponderance of string tone, but it is just
+possible that economy was considered when the change was made. Anyway,
+in 1885 there were over twenty stringed instruments less than in
+Costa's last year, 1882.
+
+This alteration was a notable one, and regrettable in some ways. The
+extra large string band that Costa would have made the Birmingham
+Festival orchestra something very special, and the result was some
+striking effects not heard elsewhere. Nowhere now do we hear that _tour
+de force_ which was almost electrical in the rush of violins at the end
+of the chorus "Thanks be to God" in the "Elijah," in Beethoven's
+"Leonora" overture, and in the last movement of the overture to "William
+Tell." The effect of the violins--between fifty and sixty in number--was
+something magical in the works just named. To put the matter in brief
+detail, under Costa's conductorship the string band numbered 108
+players, when Richter took the orchestra in hand, it was reduced to
+eighty-six. I will not discuss the expediency of the change. Suffice it
+to say that the Festival band is now as good, perhaps better, than it
+ever was, save in the matter of numbers.
+
+To sum up very briefly the Festivals since 1885--the year that Richter
+succeeded Costa--the meeting of 1888 was remarkable for nothing that
+made any permanent notch in the record of the Festivals. Parry's
+oratorio "Judith" was the chief novelty, but, in spite of its masterly
+merit as a work of musical art, it was hardly received with the favour
+it deserved.
+
+The Festival of 1891 saw the production of two important new works,
+namely, Stanford's dramatic oratorio "Eden" and Dvorak's "Requiem Mass."
+With respect to these compositions, they have scarcely been heard, I
+think, since their initial performances. Stanford's "Eden" contains some
+fine writing, but there was, perhaps, too much of it. Dvorak's "Requiem"
+was something of a disappointment, and its first rendering anything but
+satisfactory; indeed, some of the numbers, I remember, narrowly escaped
+coming to utter grief.
+
+In 1894 three new productions were heard. These were Parry's "King
+Saul"--a very recondite, musicianly composition--but too long; "The
+Swan and the Skylark," a fanciful little cantata by Goring Thomas; and a
+"Stabat Mater" by G. Henschel.
+
+Nothing at the Festival of 1897 made any mark. There was a new "Requiem"
+by Stanford, but like many other Requiems, it rather celebrated its own
+death. A new work by Arthur Somervell was heard, and, though favourably
+received at first, like some other Festival compositions it seems now to
+have vanished into the _ewigkeit_.
+
+With regard to the Festival of 1900--just closed as these lines are
+being written--I will say little. It has been financially successful,
+and perhaps that is the best that can be said of it. The programme,
+speaking generally, was a somewhat heavy and dull one, and the special
+new work, namely, Elgar's "Dream of Gerontius," was disappointing, in
+spite of its skilful construction, its splendid orchestration, and its
+conspicuous touches of character and originality. Mr. Coleridge Taylor's
+"Song of Hiawatha" was the hit of the Festival, and its performance at
+Birmingham has hall--marked the young composer's fresh, picturesque, and
+melodic music.
+
+I might write a great deal more about the Birmingham Musical Festivals,
+but time and space forbid. I could, for instance, point out that it is
+becoming more and more difficult to maintain the prestige of our
+Festivals as time goes on. There is more competition now-a-days; there
+are more provincial musical gatherings; and there are now more
+high-class concerts than formerly. I think I could also show that some
+mistakes, of more or less importance, have been made, and are still
+perhaps being made in the management, Nevertheless, those who have most
+to do with the arrangements are not lacking in energy and enterprise,
+and in earnest endeavour to uphold the character and reputation of the
+Birmingham Musical Festivals.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+There is now little or nothing further for me to say, save to put a tag
+to my small story, and make my little bow to my readers. Birmingham,
+like other modern enterprising centres, goes moving on "down the ringing
+grooves of change." The city means to forge ahead, and will not permit
+anything to impede its progress. Scaffolding seems more conspicuous than
+ever, and before the ink is dry upon my page, more old buildings will be
+down and more new buildings will be up. Since I began these chapters
+(which have appeared in _The Midland Counties Herald_ during the past
+months) some important, notable changes have taken place. For instance,
+the Birmingham Old Library in Union Street, associated with the names of
+many Birmingham worthies, has disappeared, and its site is occupied by
+the new City Arcades. That conspicuous landmark, Christ Church, with all
+its memories and curious belongings and characteristics, is now no
+longer to be seen. Old narrow streets are being widened, old buildings
+are bulging out, and large new buildings are being erected in all
+directions. The municipality have taken in hand some important housing
+schemes which may be advantageous to the working classes, and result in
+the erection of some of those new artisans' dwellings which, so far,
+have not been conspicuously numerous. In the meantime local debts go on
+merrily, or I should say seriously, swelling. Ratepayers have to be
+squeezed to find the necessary funds for the increasing outgoings; but
+best-governed cities in the world must pay a price for their advantages
+and pre-eminence, and the citizens thank the gods that they have men who
+will devote thought and energy to laying out public money, and fervently
+hope that this may be done wisely and well.
+
+Some of our public men who are so ardent in forwarding new schemes and
+improvements can, of course, say that if these developments mean higher
+rates and growing assessments, they themselves have to bear their share
+of the burdens. This, of course, is so, but it must be owned that when
+we have a hand in spending large sums of money with the influence and
+importance that accompany the process, we pay our quota of the
+financial imposts if not cheerfully, at least without the grudging
+feeling of those who merely have to pay, pay, pay.
+
+Gentle, and I trust forbearing, reader I have written my story, and have
+added to my iniquity by publishing it in book form, but I indulge a
+small hope that it may possibly interest a limited number of those who,
+like myself, have watched with their own eyes the rapid growth and
+almost amazing development of Birmingham during the last forty or fifty
+years. Writing almost entirely from my own observation and memory, I may
+have made some slips and mistakes, but I have tried to be careful and
+accurate, and have endeavoured to verify my facts and figures from
+authentic sources when possible. I therefore venture to hope that my
+errors are not very many, and not of any serious moment.
+
+Writers, we know, are often prone to say that if their readers
+experience as much pleasure in reading their pages as the writers have
+had in writing them, the said readers will be rewarded for their time
+and pains. I am not going to repeat this pretty formula, I am rather
+inclined to say that if my readers experience my feeling that I have
+said enough, they will not be sorry to see these last words of my final
+page.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Artisans' Dwellings Act          3, 21
+Aston Hull                       5, 113
+Assize Courts                    120
+Atkins, James                    198
+Attwood, Thomas                  1
+
+Barnett, J.F.                    210
+Big Ben of Westminster           177
+Birmingham and Midland Institute 186
+"B'ham Belgravia"                95
+Birmingham Bishopric Scheme      75
+_Birmingham Daily Gazette_       126
+_Birmingham Daily Mail_          128
+_Birmingham Morning News_        126
+_Birmingham Daily Post_          125
+_Birmingham Daily Press_         123
+Birmingham Old Library           223
+Birmingham  Workhouse            110
+Board Schools                    93
+Bright, John                     12, 52, 192
+Brougham, Lord                   188
+
+Cambridge StreetWorks Schools    198
+Chamberlain, Arthur              71
+Chamberlain, Austen              65
+Chamberlain, Herbert             72
+Chamberlain, John Henry          49, 95
+Chamberlain, Joseph              11, 32, 33
+Chamberlain, Richard             70
+Chamberlain, Walter              72
+Christ Church, Birmingham        110
+Church of the Messiah            76
+Collings, Jesse                  79
+Costa, Sir Michael               212
+Costa's "Eli"                    206
+
+Dvorak's "Requiem"               219
+
+Edgbaston                        90
+Eld and Chamberlain              95
+Elkington and Co.                145
+
+Gas and Water Purchase           16
+Gas Profits                      57
+Gillott's Factory                147
+Giuglini                         208
+Glass Making                     160
+Goring Thomas                    220
+Gothic Houses                    96
+Great Tom of Lincoln             177
+Great Western Railway Station    4
+
+Handsworth                       117
+Harcourt, Sir William            47
+Hector, Edmund                   110
+"Highbury"                       64
+Hobday, L.N.                     182
+Holtes                           113
+
+Improvement Scheme               20
+
+Jaffray, Sir John                195
+Jewellery Trade                  151
+Johnson, Dr.                     110
+
+Keep Bros.                       202
+Kenrick, W.                      73
+Kingsley, Rev. Chas.             190
+King Street Theatre              109
+Kossuth                          186
+
+Lablache                         207
+Lady Huntingdon's Chapel         108
+Ladywood Lane                    199
+
+London and North-Western
+  Railway Station                3
+
+Mario, Signor                    206-7
+Martin & Chamberlain             93
+Modern Shopkeeping               29
+Moilett and Gem                  202
+Moseley                          115
+Municipal Debt                   14
+Municipal Reforms                8
+Muntz, G.F.                      1
+
+Nettlefold & Chamberlain         66
+New Meeting House                75, 77
+
+Old Birmingham Men               104
+Old Square                       110
+
+Palmerston, Lord                 52
+Pearsall, Wm.                    174
+Pemberton and Sons               202
+People's Park                    187
+Prince Consort                   186
+Prosperous  Manufacturers        99
+Pudding Brook                    113
+_Punch_                          52
+
+Queen's Visit to Birmingham
+  in 1858                        187
+
+Rabone Bros.                     202
+Radicals and Royalty             61
+Reeves, Sims                     206
+Richter, Dr.                     217
+Rigby, Vernon                    214
+Russell, Lord John               189
+
+St. Martin's Bells               170
+St. Martin's Church,
+  Birmingham                     177
+Sandwell Park                    118
+Sanitary Improvements            15
+Schnadhorst, F.                  83
+Sheffield                        54
+Smallwood and Sons               166
+Steel Toy Trade                  162
+Stockley, W.C.                   214
+Sturge, Joseph                   193
+Sullivan, Sir Arthur             209
+
+Taylor, S. Coleridge             220
+Tea Drinking                     170
+Thackeray                        190
+"The Dream of Gerontius"         220
+"The Elijah"                     205
+Timmins and Sons                 162
+Titieus, Mdlle.                  213
+Town Hall                        109
+Trebelli, Madame                 213
+
+Unearned Increment               97
+Unitarians                       74, 75
+
+_Vanity Fair_                    51
+"Vaughton's Hole"                113
+
+Walker's (T.F.) Ship Logs        159
+Welsh Water Scheme               58
+Williams, Powell                 81
+Winfield and Co., R.W.           196
+Winfield, John Fawkener          198
+Wynn and Co.                     162
+
+"Yule Tide"                      214
+
+
+
+
+CORNISH'S Instalment System of Payment:--TEN Monthly
+Payments #7s. 6d.# each and you own
+
+#CHAMBERS'S
+ENCYCLOPAEDIA,#
+
+A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge.
+
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+
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+ENCYCLOPAEDIA.
+
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+addition to being; written by eminent specialists, are kept
+well abreast of the times.
+
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+of this work as compared with almost all other Encyclopaedias.
+
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+articles such as Argon, Electric Light, Africa, Transvaal,
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+
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+
+
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+
+JUST PUBLISHED
+
+4s. NETT. 4S. 3D. POST FREE.
+Crown Octavo uncut, pp. 190.
+
+THE NOVEL-READER'S
+HANDBOOK,
+
+BY
+WILLIAM ROBERTON.
+
+The objects of this Handbook are:--
+(1) To mention the chief novels of important recent
+      authors.
+(2) To show what kind of novels they write.
+(3) To tell what some of the leading novels are about.
+(4) To give a brief sketch of the writer's career.
+(5) To show something of public opinion concerning
+      them.
+(6) To illustrate the struggle of authors for a footing.
+
+PRESS NOTICES.
+
+"The noble army of novel readers will find a good deal of
+useful and interesting information in 'The Novel-Reader's
+Handbook,' by William Roberton, author of 'The Kipling
+Guide Book,' and published by _The Midland Counties Herald_,
+Birmingham. The book is a guide to recent novels and
+novelists. As the author says, in the main the novelists dealt
+with have become popular within the last decade, and, as a
+rule, those have been selected who are in demand at the
+libraries, and who have a good public at their command."--
+_Sheffield Daily Telegraph_.
+
+PUBLISHERS:
+
+"THE MIDLAND COUNTIES HERALD,"
+BIRMINGHAM.
+
+
+
+
+#PARIS EXHIBITION, 1900.#
+
+The highest possible Award:
+
+#THE ONLY "GRAND PRIX"#
+
+exclusively granted to Steel Pens.
+
+#JOSEPH
+GILLOTT'S
+PENS.#
+
+Nos. for Bankers, etc.: Barrel
+Pens, 225, 226, 262. Slip
+Pens, 332, 909, 287, 166, 404,
+601, 7,000. In Fine, Medium,
+and Broad Points. The
+Turned-Up-Point, 1,032.
+
+Of Highest Quality; and, having Greatest
+Durability, are therefore #CHEAPEST.#
+
+
+
+
+ESTABLISHED UPWARDS OF A CENTURY.
+
+#WILLIAM PEARSALL,
+
+Manufacturing Silversmith,#
+
+Jeweller, Electroplater, and Watchmaker.
+
+PRESENTATION PLATE.
+COMMUNION AND CHURCH PLATE.
+
+_Designs Furnished, and Estimates Free_.
+
+Wedding, Christening, Birthday, and Silver Wedding
+Presents in great variety and newest patterns.
+
+#Old Garnet and Pearl Jewellery
+and Sheffield Plate.
+
+DEALER IN ANTIQUE SILVER PLATE.
+
+29, High Street, BIRMINGHAM.#
+
+Maker of the
+City of Birmingham
+Souvenir Spoons.
+
+
+
+
+Diamond Jewellery.
+
+#L.N. HOBDAY & CO.,#
+
+WATCH AND CLOCK
+MANUFACTURERS,
+
+Jewellers & Silversmiths,
+
+#13, NEW STREET, BIRMINGHAM.#
+
+DIAMOND RINGS and JEWELLERY of
+First Quality and Designs.
+
+#Special Novelties for Wedding and other Presents.#
+
+AN INSPECTION Of STOCK INVITED.
+
+NOTICE OF REMOVAL.
+
+L.N. HOBDAY & CO. beg to inform their friends
+and patrons that after March 25th, 1901, and during the
+rebuilding of their premises, the business will be
+temporarily removed to 14, Midland Arcade (now in
+course of construction), 2 doors from their present address.
+
+
+
+
+#THOMAS PINSON,#
+
+House, Land, and Estate Agent,
+
+VALUER & SURVEYOR,
+
+PROPERTY & MORTGAGE BROKER.
+
+Rents and Interests Collected.
+Properties Economically Managed.
+
+#COBDEN BUILDINGS,
+CORPORATION STREET,
+BIRMINGHAM.#
+
+Agent for the Royal Fire and
+Life Assurance Co.
+
+
+
+
+#ALFRED HUGHES,
+
+Confectioner and Restaurateur,
+
+BIRMINGHAM.#
+
+A Great Variety of Food Specialities.
+
+VIENNA BREAD.
+
+CAKES AND BISCUITS OF THE NEWEST
+AND BEST KINDS.
+
+#Catering for Public and Private Parties.#
+
+_17 & 18, NORTH-WESTERN ARCADE
+25, PARADISE STREET,
+36 & 37, DALE END_.
+
+Biscuit Factory--MOOR STREET.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham
+by Thomas Anderton
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11356 ***
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #11356 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11356)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham
+by Thomas Anderton
+
+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: A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham
+       Papers Reprinted from the "Midland Counties Herald"
+
+Author: Thomas Anderton
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2004 [EBook #11356]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALE OF ONE CITY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Joris Van Dael and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+A TALE OF ONE CITY:
+
+THE NEW BIRMINGHAM.
+
+_Papers Reprinted from the "Midland Counties Herald"_,
+
+BY
+
+THOMAS ANDERTON.
+
+Birmingham: "MIDLAND COUNTIES HERALD" OFFICE.
+
+TO BE HAD FROM CORNISH BROTHERS, NEW STREET; MIDLAND EDUCATIONAL CO.,
+CORPORATION STREET.
+
+1900
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+PROLOGUE.
+
+
+The present century has seen the rise and development of many towns in
+various parts of the country, and among them Birmingham is entitled to
+take a front place. If Thomas Attwood or George Frederick Muntz could
+now revisit the town they once represented in Parliament they would
+probably stare with amazement at the changes that have taken place in
+Birmingham, and would require a guide to show them their way about the
+town--now a city--they once knew so well. The material history of
+Birmingham was for a series of years a story of steady progress and
+prosperity, but of late years the city has in a political, social, and
+municipal sense advanced by leaps and bounds. It is no longer
+"Brummagem" or the "Hardware Village," it is now recognised as the
+centre of activity and influence in Mid-England; it is the Mecca of
+surrounding populous districts, that attracts an increasing number of
+pilgrims who love life, pleasure, and shopping.
+
+Birmingham, indeed, has recently been styled "the best governed city in
+the world"--a title that is, perhaps, a trifle too full and panegyrical
+to find ready and general acceptance. If, however, by this very lofty
+and eulogistic description is meant a city that has been exceptionally
+prosperous, is well looked after, that has among its inhabitants many
+energetic, public-spirited men, that has a good solid debt on its books,
+also that has municipal officials of high capabilities with fairly high
+salaries to match--then Birmingham is not altogether undeserving of the
+high-sounding appellation. Many of those who only know Birmingham from
+an outside point of view, and who have only lately begun to notice its
+external developments, doubtless attribute all the improvements to Mr.
+Chamberlain's great scheme, and the adoption of the Artisans' Dwellings
+Act in 1878. The utilisation of this Act has certainly resulted in the
+making of one fine street, a fine large debt, and the erection of a
+handful of artisans' dwellings. The changes, however, that culminated in
+Mr. Chamberlain's great project began years before the Artisans'
+Dwellings Act became law.
+
+The construction of the London and North Western Railway station--which,
+with the Midland Railway adjunct, now covers some thirteen acres of
+land--cleared away a large area of slums that were scarcely fit for
+those who lived in them--which is saying very much. A region sacred to
+squalor and low drinking shops, a paradise of marine store dealers, a
+hotbed of filthy courts tenanted by a low and degraded class, was swept
+away to make room for the large station now used by the London and
+North Western and Midland Railway Companies.
+
+The Great Western Railway station, too, in its making also disposed of
+some shabby, narrow streets and dirty, pestiferous houses inhabited by
+people who were not creditable to the locality or the community, and by
+so doing contributed to the improvement of the town. Further, the
+erection of two large railway stations in a central district naturally
+tended to increase the number of visitors to the growing Midland
+capital, and this, of course, brought into existence a better class of
+shops and more extended trading. Then the suburbs of Birmingham, which
+for some years had been stretching out north, south, east, and west,
+have lately become to a considerable extent gathered into the arms of
+the city, and the residents in some of the outskirts, at least, may now
+pride themselves, if so inclined, upon being a part of the so-called
+"best governed city in the world," sharing its honours, importance, and
+debts, and contributing to its not altogether inconsiderable rates.
+
+I do not purpose in these pages to go into the ancient history of
+Birmingham. Other pens have told us how one Leland, in the sixteenth
+century, visited the place, and what he said about the "toyshop of the
+world." Also how he saw a "brooke," which was doubtless in his time a
+pretty little river, but which is now a sewery looking stream that tries
+to atone for its shallowness and narrowness by its thickness. They have
+likewise told us about the old lords of Bermingham--whose monuments
+still adorn the parish church--who have died out leaving no successors
+to bear for their proud title the name of the "best governed city in the
+world."
+
+These other pens have also mentioned the little attentions Birmingham
+received from Cromwell's troops; how the Roundheads fired at Aston Hall
+(which had given hospitality to Charles I.) making a breakage--still
+unrepaired!--in the great staircase of that grand old Elizabethan
+mansion. My purpose, however, is not to deal with past records of
+Birmingham, but rather with its modern growth and appearance.
+
+MUNICIPAL STAGNATION.
+
+After the sweeping alterations effected by the construction of the new
+railway stations in Birmingham, further improvements were for a time of
+a slow, jog-trot order, although the town, in a commercial sense, was
+moving ahead, and its wealth and population were rapidly increasing.
+Small improvements were made, but anything like big schemes, even if
+desirable, were postponed or rejected. Birmingham, indeed, some thirty
+years ago, was considerably under the influence of men of the
+unprogressive tradesmen class--many of them worthy men in their way but
+of limited ideas. In their private businesses they were not accustomed
+to deal with big transactions and high figures, so that spending large
+sums of money, if proposed, filled the brewer, the baker, and
+candlestick maker with alarm. They were careful and economical, but
+their care in finance was apt at times to be impolitic, and their
+economy has in several cases proved to have been somewhat costly.
+
+Indeed, until recent years, the leading authorities of the town were
+anything but enterprising, and their view of future possibilities very
+limited. Could they have seen a little farther ahead they might have
+laid out money to the great profit and future advantage of the
+community. They could have erected new corporation offices and municipal
+buildings before land in the centre of the town became so very costly;
+the gas and water interests might have been purchased, probably at a
+price that would have saved the town thousands of pounds. It is also
+understood that they might have purchased Aston Hall, with its 170 acres
+close to the town, on terms which would have made the land (now nearly
+all built upon) a veritable Tom Tidler's ground for the town and
+corporation. But our shopkeeper senators would have nothing to do with
+such bold and far-reaching schemes, and were given to opposing them
+when suggested by men more courageous and far-seeing than themselves.
+
+Between twenty-five and thirty years ago it was felt by the more
+advanced and intelligent portion of the community that the time had come
+for the town to arouse itself, and that certain reforms should no longer
+be delayed. It was beginning to be felt that the Town Council did not
+fairly represent the advancing aspirations and the growing needs,
+importance, and wealth of the town. Sanitary reforms were required, the
+growing traffic in the principal streets called for better and more
+durable roadways, and Macadamised and granite paved streets no longer
+answered the purposes required. The latter were heavy, noisy, and
+lumbering; the former were not sufficiently durable. Moreover, "Macadam"
+consisted of sharply-cut pieces of metal put upon the streets, which
+were left for cart and carriage wheels to break up and press down into
+something like a level surface. When this was done it made objectionable
+dust in dry weather, and in wet weather it converted the streets into
+avenues of mud and puddle to be scraped up, or to be swept off, by some
+curiously-devised machine carts constructed for the purpose. Carriage
+people, I fear, often cursed the stone stuff they had to grind into the
+roads, and pedestrians anathematized the mud and the dust.
+
+As many people will remember, in some of the less important streets the
+footways were paved with what were called "petrified kidneys"--stones
+about as big as a good-sized potato, very durable but extremely
+unpleasant to walk upon. Little or nothing was done to improve the
+slummy and dirty parts of the town, or to remove some of those foul
+courts and alleys which were not only disgraceful in appearance but were
+a menace to the health of the inhabitants.
+
+In fact, for one reason or another, the authorities left undone the
+things they ought to have done, and possibly they did some things they
+ought not to have done, and if allowed to go on it is probable there
+would soon have been no health in us. It may, however, be admitted that
+Birmingham was no worse governed than many other large towns in the
+comparatively unprogressive days of which I speak, but a new race of
+more advanced and energetic men were dissatisfied with the sluggish,
+stagnant state of local government, and they felt that the hour had
+struck for the inauguration of some large and important improvements.
+Such was the state of affairs about the year 1868.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+ENTER MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
+
+
+The present position of Birmingham and its improved appearance in these
+later years are largely attributed to the work and influence of Mr.
+Chamberlain. To him, certainly, the credit is largely due. At the same
+time it is only fair to say that he was not the first man who had
+discovered that Birmingham, some thirty years ago, was, compared with
+what it should be, in many respects lagging behind. Other persons had
+been impressed with the idea that the town, in a municipal, sanitary,
+and social sense, was not advancing at a pace commensurate with its
+commercial and material progress.
+
+To go just a little farther back for a moment, it must be recorded that
+Birmingham, in a political sense, made a great step forward when it
+elected Mr. Bright as one of its members of Parliament in the year 1857.
+This served to focus the eyes of the country on the midland capital, and
+from this date the town became a new centre of political activity. The
+great meetings addressed by Mr. Bright were not regarded as mere
+provincial gatherings, but they attracted the attention of the whole
+nation. The proceedings were no longer chronicled merely by the local
+press, but the London daily newspapers sent representatives to furnish
+special reports of our new member's speeches. Indeed, the interest and
+excitement at these political gatherings was often feverish in its
+intensity, and for many years Mr. Bright's visits to Birmingham were
+red-letter days in the history of the town.
+
+Mr. Bright, however, not being a resident in Birmingham, took no part
+in its local and municipal affairs, and the man was wanting who would
+come forward and energetically take town matters in hand. Mr. Joseph
+Chamberlain was the man, and the time was ripe for him. He was known to
+be smart, able, and energetic, and also to be imbued with decidedly
+progressive ideas. Further, he was justly credited with having a lofty
+conception of the real importance and dignity of municipal life and the
+value of municipal institutions.
+
+In the year 1869 Mr. Chamberlain was elected a member of the Birmingham
+Town Council, and he began to make things spin and hum at a pace which
+literally soon reached a pretty high rate. His example, and possibly his
+persuasion, induced several of his friends and associates to become
+candidates for Town Council membership, and in a very short time he had
+a strong and influential following, made up of men of energy, substance,
+and good social position, who soon began to overpower and make things
+more lively perhaps than pleasant for the anti-progressives in the
+Corporation. In Israelitish story we are told that a new king arose who
+knew not Joseph, but in Birmingham a new municipal kingdom arose that
+knew Joseph and trusted him.
+
+The changes that soon began to take place were enough to take away the
+breath of some of the nice, complacent, arm-chair, "Woodman" members of
+the Town Council. If the preceding rulers of the Corporation had been a
+trifle too parsimonious in the matter of expenditure, Mr. Chamberlain
+and his party soon began to make amends for any trifling mistakes or
+past errors in the way of economy. In a very few years the town had a
+debt, I don't say of which it might be proud, but of which it very soon
+felt the weight.
+
+When Mr. Chamberlain entered the Town Council the municipal debt stood
+at some £588,000. When he left it, after about ten years' service, the
+debt had mounted up to the neat and imposing sum of £6,212,000. Of
+course, there were very valuable assets to place against this heavy
+indebtedness, assets which are likely to improve considerably in value
+as time goes on--that is, if the city continues to progress and prosper.
+Still, a good many people were not a little alarmed at the big figures
+that grew on the debtor side of the Corporation accounts, but more
+persons applauded the spirit, courage, and enterprise of those who had
+taken the reins of the town into their hands.
+
+When Mr. Chamberlain and his friends had fairly got hold of the Town
+Council ropes, they set to work in strong earnest. Sanitary improvements
+were promoted. The principal streets and their lighting and paving were
+improved, and the general appearance of the town quickly presented a
+change for the better. Trees were planted in some of the chief
+thoroughfares. They did not it is true show much disposition to grow and
+thrive, but they were planted and replanted, though we may still have to
+lament that our Birmingham boulevards will not compare favourably with
+those in some other cities. Mr. Chamberlain, however, was not the man
+to be content with such trifling reforms as these. He had large and
+spacious ideas in his mind, and he quickly brought them out to air and
+grow.
+
+In the year 1873 Mr. Chamberlain was elected Mayor, and in the following
+year he brought forward his schemes for the purchase by the municipality
+of the gas and water supplies. His proposals encountered very formidable
+opposition, principally from those interested in the gas and water
+companies, whose undertakings he proposed compulsorily to purchase. Some
+of the shareholders in these prosperous companies were fierce in their
+denunciations of his schemes. They regarded Mr. Chamberlain's proposals
+as nothing short of confiscation. For years they had supplied the town
+with gas and water. They had found the necessary money in the "sure and
+certain hope" of having a good and secure investment for their capital,
+and lo! when they had fairly established their undertakings, it was
+proposed to blow out their profitable light and dash the refreshingly
+remunerative water from their lips. It was hard--I don't mean the
+water, but the situation! Of course the shareholders were to receive a
+fair price for their properties, the gas companies practically
+£1,900.000, the waterworks company £1,350,000. But still they were not
+happy. They resisted the proposed purchases.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, was not the man to be daunted by the
+opposition of the gas and water company proprietors. He had made up his
+mind that it would be for the good of the town for these undertakings to
+be in the hands of the municipality, and in spite of the Town Council
+"old gang" and outraged gas and water shareholders, who felt they were
+being fraudulently despoiled of certain prospective advantages, he
+carried his point.
+
+There are still those among us who, for various reasons, murmur at these
+extensive purchases. They maintain, for one thing, that the possession
+of the gas influenced the Corporation to turn a discouraging eye upon
+the electric light. Certainly Birmingham has been rather lax in taking
+up electric illumination, and possibly more enterprise would have been
+evinced in this direction if the Corporation had not become dealers in
+gas and water on their own terms, viz., no competition allowed. Some
+self-constituted prophets shook their heads and said that before the gas
+debt was paid off gas would literally have "gone out" as a general
+illuminant. Before the eighty-five years allowed for the redemption of
+the capital invested in the gas have elapsed a good many things may
+certainly happen. So far, however, gas is not extinguished, but is in
+increased demand, and even water is believed to have a future.
+
+With regard to the water purchase, however, a good deal of opposition
+was offered on special grounds. Having purchased the waterworks
+undertaking the Corporation were, of course, desirous to make it pay. To
+buy the thing was a blunder in the eyes of some, to let it be a source
+of loss would have been a crime. Consequently, it became necessary to
+force the water supply business, and the municipal authorities went
+about it in a way that pressed hardly sometimes and provoked not a
+little hostility and resentment.
+
+"Waterologists" and analysts are somewhat divided in opinion as to what
+is pure water, or at least good wholesome water. Some authorities take
+one standard, some another. The Corporation, with an eye to business,
+selected a very high standard, for this brought grist to the mill, or, I
+should say, trade to the tap. It meant the closing of a large number of
+wells yielding water which, under a less rigorous standard than that
+adopted, would have been considered wholesome. But in this matter again,
+Mr. Chamberlain and the "new gang" paid no heed to the growls of the
+disaffected, and pumps were disestablished in all directions, chiefly,
+it was maintained, to swell the returns of the water department. "O ye
+wells, bless ye the Lord"--but few were suffered to remain.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, was not long content with having municipalized
+the gas and water. In accordance with the strong impetus of his nature
+he sighed for more worlds to conquer. Consequently he was soon ready
+with a gigantic Improvement Scheme, to be carried out under the adoption
+of the somewhat misused and delusive Artisans' Dwellings Act. His
+proposal was to make a grand street and a more direct way to Aston, and
+in doing so to demolish some dirty back thoroughfares and a large number
+of foul and filthy unsanitary dwellings.
+
+The scheme was a big one. It affected many interests, and before it was
+carried out it caused a fierce amount of strife, ill-feeling, and
+hostility. The discontent and disaffection which Mr. Chamberlain's
+previous schemes aroused were but as morning breezes compared with the
+storm and tempest his new proposals raised. His daring and dash almost
+dazed his fellow townsfolk, for, like Napoleon, he rushed on from one
+exploit to another with a rapidity that astounded his friends and
+confused and overwhelmed his foes.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+THE ACT AND THE DWELLINGS.
+
+
+Considering how many interests were affected by the Birmingham
+Improvement Scheme and the adoption of the Artisans' Dwellings Act, it
+may be doubted if the scheme would have passed as it did had its full
+purport and meaning been fully considered and understood. Some persons
+saw that they would be grievously injured, and they offered strenuous
+opposition, but there were many others who only found out when it was
+too late what extreme and arbitrary power was conferred upon the
+authorities who put the Act into operation.
+
+Of course the scheme was laid before the rate-payers in the usual
+manner, but few realised the importance of studying it well, or grasped
+the far-reaching character of its operations till too late.
+
+Let me explain more especially what is meant by this. When it was
+decided to adopt Mr. Chamberlain's scheme and make the new fine street,
+land was cleared and was let on leases by the Corporation. In letting
+this land, agreements were made that the new buildings, when consisting
+of shops, offices, &c., should be so many storeys high, the object, of
+course, being to make the properties, which would in due course revert
+to the city, the more valuable. When, however, these tall buildings were
+erected, adjacent premises were robbed of light and air, and when the
+owners or tenants of these injured premises asked for compensation they
+found out, at least in some cases, that the authorities were not liable.
+I believe I am right in saying that the powers conferred by the Act
+absolved them from indictments on the part of those whose property was
+damaged by diminished air or light. The result was that certain
+sufferers found to their mortification that they had no redress, but
+must raise their chimneys at their own cost, if necessary, and in other
+cases endure the inconvenience of a decreased supply of light. This was
+an unpleasant revelation that caused much gnashing of teeth among the
+owners of, and the dwellers in, the properties surrounding the tall
+buildings erected by the leaseholders of the Corporation.
+
+As for those whose property was required and taken under the Act, it was
+all very well for owners and for those who had leases: they could not be
+molested without fair and proper payment. Shopkeepers and others,
+however, who were only annual tenants, had, I fear in many cases, to go
+empty away. Some of these had good, old-established businesses that had
+for years become identified with certain premises. It was nothing short
+of ruin to them to move, but they had to take up their goods and walk.
+This is the way that authorities often have to deal with the more or
+less helpless in view of what they consider to be the greatest good of
+the greatest number.
+
+It will, of course, be said that some of these traders were extremely
+short-sighted not to have had leases of premises that were so
+all-important to them. In many cases, however, they were unable to
+obtain such agreements, the landlords being unwilling or unable to grant
+them. The result was that many a prosperous tradesman had his successful
+career cut short and passed into a retirement he did not desire,
+probably with a few warm curses upon the Town Council, the Improvement
+Scheme, and the schemers.
+
+It is not very easy to understand the just laws that should govern
+compensation. When there is talk of disestablishing public-houses,
+certain statesmen approve of compensation. The argument is that as
+public-houses are licensed by law, their owners have been given a sort
+of status and sanction, which should be properly and considerately dealt
+with in case their businesses are taken away from them. But other
+people also take out licences, such as tobacconists, pawnbrokers,
+grocers, and wine sellers, yet when these traders are disturbed or
+disestablished, compensation is never suggested.
+
+Let us see what has happened in Birmingham. When the grand new street
+was made the traffic to the northern part of the town was largely
+diverted from other thoroughfares, and the consequence was that streets
+and passages that were once busy highways and byways were soon
+comparatively deserted. Shops became tenantless, or had to be let at
+greatly reduced rents. Indeed, the depreciation of property in the
+localities referred to is said to have been at least thirty per cent.
+Yet the owners had no redress.
+
+Of course it usually happens that when large reforms are effected the
+noble work is done at somebody's inconvenience or cost. It is the
+inevitable result, and people who are not sufferers shrug their
+shoulders and complacently remark that the few must be sacrificed for
+the benefit of the many. It is delightfully easy to be philosophical
+and even philanthropic when our own pockets, feelings, and interests are
+not concerned. The last new great Improvement Scheme would, of course,
+be a great thing for Birmingham; it would also shed a considerable
+amount of glory on its authors; it would likewise put a good deal of
+power into the hands of its administrators, and not a little money into
+the pockets of professional men. If some few persons had to suffer in
+order to bring about such splendid results they must try to be
+patriotic, noble citizens, or else grin and bear their discomfiture!
+Those, however, who were despoiled of their businesses, or who found
+their property seriously depreciated, were not likely to be consoled by
+such buttered comfort. They raised their voices in impotent protest, and
+denounced Mr. Chamberlain and all his works.
+
+We do not hear very much of the Artisans' Dwellings Act now, but any
+towns that contemplate adopting it should profit by the experience of
+Birmingham, consider its full scope and meaning, and count the cost.
+The city of Birmingham has applied the Act in connection with its last
+great Improvement Scheme, and it now remains to be seen what the
+results, in a commercial sense, will be. The present and succeeding
+generation, at least, will have to pay off some heavy obligations in the
+next sixty or seventy years, and then the city should he immensely the
+richer for its enterprising policy. I say it should be, and probably it
+will be, but there is a fair-sized "if" to be considered.
+
+It seems to be taken as a matter of course that Birmingham will go on
+developing and prospering in the future as it has in the past. And it
+may be fairly presumed that it will do so. This, however, must not be
+taken exactly as a matter of positive certainty. There are some
+indications that there may be a pause in the material prosperity of the
+city by and by--a limit to its progressiveness. If so, the enterprises
+of our authorities may not prove so advantageous as has been reckoned
+upon. Partly owing to high rates and the cost of carriage,
+manufacturers are removing factories outside the city, and in some
+cases, where they have a large foreign trade, nearer to the seaboard. If
+this exodus continues and increases it is easy to see that the effect
+will be to diminish the population, and this in time will affect the
+value of property. The manufactures of Birmingham are, however, so
+numerous and so varied there is reason for hope that any circumstances
+that may apparently show a standstill condition will only be temporary,
+and that in all general revivals of trade the city will participate.
+
+Whatever may happen, we know the city in the middle of the next century
+will come in for a fine heritage of reversions, and it is fair to
+presume that posterity will greatly benefit by the Improvement Scheme
+fathered by Mr. Chamberlain. In the meantime the citizens--at least,
+those who bestow much thought upon such matters--shake their heads at
+the load of debt Birmingham bears upon its shoulders, and chafe at the
+high rates. It is, however, pointed out to the malcontents that they
+live in a healthier place than Birmingham used to be, and, further, that
+the city, owing to its improved character and appearance, attracts more
+visitors, and this increases local trade.
+
+Of this latter fact there can be little dispute. The new order of things
+has led to a new and, in some cases, better class of shops being
+established, and these attract a better class of customers. At one time
+residents in the adjoining counties looked down upon Birmingham
+shopkeepers, and would say rather contemptuously that they never
+"shopped" in this city, but went to Leamington, Cheltenham, or London to
+make their purchases. But we do not hear so much of this now. On the
+contrary, I have heard of people--even aristocratic people--who actually
+say that they now, for many reasons, prefer to "shop" in Birmingham
+rather than go to London. Of course this is not an ordinary
+circumstance--for Birmingham has not yet a Bond Street or Regent Street;
+still, exceptional though it may be, it indicates a change of feeling
+and shows that, in one sense at all events, Birmingham is on the rise.
+
+The increased number of large and important shops in central Birmingham
+has led to the formation of trading establishments and Stores of the
+latest order of development. There are now large shops of the "universal
+provider" type, where they sell everything from blacking to port wine,
+and where you see silk mantles in one window and sausages in another.
+
+Some of us rather preferred the old order of things. We liked and still
+like to go to shops kept by tradesmen who have been brought up to
+certain lines of business, and who know from actual knowledge and
+experience what they are buying and selling. But in these large new
+shops and Stores people sell you almost everything without having any
+special knowledge of anything. They recommend this, that, and the other,
+but you have often good reason to know that it is not from any
+experience of the commodities they offer, but only the tradesman's
+instinct and desire to dispose of what he wants most to sell rather than
+what his customers may most wish to buy.
+
+Such is the new style of large shopkeeping, and it is not, of course,
+peculiar to Birmingham. It must be owned, however, that it means
+cheapness, and also that it has been largely developed by the new order
+of things brought about by the recent street improvements in the city.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+ECCE MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
+
+
+Having said so much of what Mr. Chamberlain has done in, and for,
+Birmingham, perhaps I may be permitted to say a few words, "mostly all"
+my own, respecting a much biographed man. Although Mr. Chamberlain is so
+prominently identified with Birmingham and Birmingham with him, it is
+well known that he is not a native of the place. He was born in London
+in 1836, and came to Birmingham in 1854. We took him in and he did for
+us. His father joined the well-known firm of Nettlefold, the wood screw
+makers, and in the course of time his eldest son, Joseph, succeeded
+him. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain soon found his feet in trade, and by his
+business acumen, his foresight, capacity, and shrewdness he advanced the
+business, which had already been highly successful, to a rare pitch of
+prosperity.
+
+At one time I saw and heard much of Mr. Chamberlain, especially in the
+earlier part of his Birmingham public career. He was always what he is
+now--a sharp, smart, and ready man. A man to inspire admiration and
+confidence. There was always a promptness and "all thereness" in his
+nature, with a decided touch of self-reliance, and I may even say
+audacity. In fact, without intending any reflection upon him, I might
+perhaps suggest that he could appropriately take as his motto "De
+l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace." In proof of this
+I may cite one or two incidents that came under my notice.
+
+Some thirty years or more ago Mr. Chamberlain was a prominent member of
+a local debating society. Now, this society used to have every year two
+social gatherings, and it was observed that many members who rarely or
+never came to the debates were not conspicuous by their absence when the
+summer "outings" and other little feasts took place. The committee
+thought it would be rather good sport to give these knife and fork
+debaters a little mild and gentle rub. Consequently they made them the
+subject of a toast at one of their social meetings, held at the
+Lyttelton Arms, Hagley. A word was coined for the occasion, and they
+were toasted as the "Artopsareocoluthic Members" (signifying the lovers
+of the loaves and fishes), and to Mr. Chamberlain was entrusted the task
+of proposing the toast.
+
+In a smart and brilliant speech he poked rare fun at the dinner-debating
+members who were so ready to participate in the festivities of the
+society and so lax in attending the discussions. He not only did this
+with delicious banter and pointed sarcasm; but, with an audacious touch
+all his own, he coupled the toast with the name of one member present.
+This brought the ruffled gentleman up on to his legs, and, smarting
+under Mr. Chamberlain's ironical philippics, he tried to pay back "our
+young friend" for what he considered his unwarrantable impertinence.
+
+But Mr. Chamberlain was not in the least disconcerted by the hotly
+expressed resentment of the offended member. With his cigar in his mouth
+and his eye-glass in his eye he smiled with amused complacency, while
+his irate friend tried to pay him back, though hardly in his own sharp,
+ringing coin.
+
+The other incident to which I have referred took place when the
+Birmingham Corporation Gas Bill was under consideration. A town's
+meeting was held to discuss and decide whether the gas undertakings
+should be purchased by the municipal authorities. As there was
+considerable difference of opinion upon the question there was a large
+gathering in the Town Hall, and the opponents of the scheme were in
+strong force.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, in the course of his speech advocating the purchase,
+pointed out with characteristic force all the advantages of the proposed
+scheme, and when he mentioned the satisfactory sum for which the gas
+undertaking could be bought a prominent opponent called out, "Will you
+give that for it?" "Yes, I will," was the prompt reply, which rather
+surprised and silenced his antagonist.
+
+And no doubt he meant what he said. He regarded the amount named as an
+advantageous price for the purchase--as it has proved to be--and he
+would have been willing, and would doubtless, with the aid of his
+friends, have been able, to find the money to secure such a valuable
+monopoly. It was, however, the decisive and ready manner in which he
+answered his interrogator that was so characteristic of the man, and
+which so appealed to the meeting as to elicit a hearty volley of cheers.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain was never easily disconcerted, nor was he ever a touchy,
+over-sensitive man. In fact, he has been heard to say, I believe, that a
+man who takes to public life must not be thin-skinned. If he is to give
+blows, he must be prepared to take blows in return, and whether he takes
+his punishment fighting or lying down, he must take it smiling, or at
+least with complacency. This he does himself, as a rule, and whatever he
+may feel under the blows of his adversaries, he does not wince nor
+whine, but always appears more or less imperturbable, good-humoured, and
+unscathed. We see him demonstrative, combative, even saucy sometimes on
+the platform, but rarely or never ruffled, sour, or out of temper.
+
+As I have hinted, I heard a good deal of Mr. Chamberlain's public
+speaking when he first came to the front as a public man, and it was
+impossible not to be interested, edified, and oftentimes amused by the
+intelligence, point, and smartness of his speech. At the same time there
+was--especially in the earlier days of his public career--a certain
+setness and formality of style that suggested the idea that his speeches
+were anything but the inspiration of the moment, but had been made
+beforehand, and were being reeled off. Indeed, many of those who knew
+him well maintained that his speeches were at this time the result of
+painstaking study, care, and elaboration, and that those who had a nose
+for oratory might detect in them a strong smell of the lamp.
+
+One incident that came under my notice certainly went far to corroborate
+this view. I refer to the occasion of a little semi-public dinner at
+which Mr. Chamberlain was put down to propose a certain toast. He
+proceeded for a time in his usually happy, characteristic manner, when
+all at once in the middle of a sentence he came to a full stop! We all
+looked up, and he looked down embarrassed and confused. He apparently
+had lost the thread of the discourse he had so carefully woven; he could
+not pick up the dropped stiches; and, if I remember rightly, he sat
+down, his speech not safely delivered.
+
+It seems difficult now to fancy Mr. Chamberlain making such a fiasco. He
+is at the present time probably one of the most ready and fluent
+speakers we have, and although many strange things might happen in the
+House of Commons, one of the most astonishing would be to see Mr.
+Chamberlain break down in a speech. It would create a sensation in that
+unserene assembly which would almost be enough to make a seasoned
+pressman swoon, and before the incident had been completely realised the
+unexpected and startling fact would probably be known at the Antipodes.
+Mr. Chamberlain can now make his speeches as he goes on--although the
+material may be prepared beforehand--and, as we know, he can turn from
+the course of his argument to answer quickly and effectively some
+pertinent or impertinent question or interruption.
+
+Since Mr. Chamberlain has become such a leading light in Parliament, his
+speeches have taken a much more solid, sedate, and serious tone than
+they had in his early Birmingham days. They have become considerably
+more weighty--perhaps some of his unfriendly critics would say more
+heavy--than they were in bygone times. Without being open to the charge
+of levity or flippancy, Mr. Chamberlain's speeches used to be remarkable
+for a certain amount of humour, banter, touch-and-go smartness, as well
+as terse argumentative force.
+
+At one time he was an appreciative student of the American humorists,
+and he was very fond of spicing his remarks with apt and amusing
+quotations from Hosea Biglow, Mark Twain, Artemus Ward, and other comic
+classics. Indeed, at one time, no speech of his would have been complete
+without some little sallies of this kind. Now, however, he rarely
+indulges in such pleasantries. Mr. Chamberlain's speeches in the House
+of Commons though never dull are never funny. He soon learned his
+lesson. He very quickly discovered that members of the House may not
+object to be amused, and are often, it must be admitted, easily moved to
+mirth. At the same time the members of that assembly do not place a high
+value upon the words of funny or would-be funny speakers.
+
+Unless he has changed very much, Mr. Chamberlain has a very keen sense
+and appreciation of humour. Probably he would like sometimes to indulge
+himself and amuse the House by firing off some humorous hits and
+quotations, but he knows the importance of suppressing such instincts
+and tendencies if he is to be taken seriously and regarded as a
+statesman. Blue books and Biglow, Bills and Sam Slick, do not make the
+sort of political punch that an influential leader can afford to ladle
+out at St. Stephen's. At the same time, if he cared to indulge his own
+ready wit, or to make use of the amusing extracts he has stored away in
+his memory, he could doubtless make some lively and diverting speeches.
+
+I remember when Mr. Chamberlain was Mayor of Birmingham, the late Mr.
+George Dawson at a little dinner proposed his health, and in doing so
+indulged in some characteristic banter and chaff. Mr. Chamberlain, then
+as now, was not a man of Aldermanic girth, and Mr. Dawson in the course
+of his humorous remarks took occasion to allude to his slight and
+slender proportions, and said he wished there was more of the Mayor to
+look at, and that he should like to see him "go to scale better."
+
+When he rose to reply Mr. Chamberlain, in a quiet, dry manner, and
+without a smile on his face, remarked, "Mr. Dawson has been good enough
+to refer to me as a Mayor without a Corporation." This was so neat and
+smart that I need hardly say the company laughed most amusedly.
+Probably, if I had kept a notebook, or were now to search well my
+memory, I might give other instances of Mr. Chamberlain's smart, ready
+wit.
+
+Now, however, as most people know, his speeches are remarkable for their
+point, force, logical reasoning, incisive language, and straight, hard
+hitting, but, as I have observed, he rarely if ever essays to be funny.
+By his sharp remarks and his adept turns of speech he often, however,
+creates much laughter--as, for instance, when he once spoke of an
+ex-Premier's opportunism and readiness to make promises which, when
+they ought to be fulfilled, "snap went the Gladstone bag"--but he never
+degenerates into anything approaching buffoonery.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain is always prompt and straightforward in action, and is
+pleasant and agreeable in manner and speech. Moreover, he is a man of
+consummate tact. I remember in 1874, when he was Mayor, and the Prince
+and Princess of Wales paid a visit to Birmingham, there was much
+wondering and questioning as to how he would comport himself on the
+occasion. At that time he was credited with cherishing rather strong
+Republican sentiments. It was even said that he had been known to go so
+far as to remain seated when the loyal toasts were drunk. I certainly
+cannot say that I was ever witness of such a proceeding, nor have I been
+able to trace the statement to any authentic source. Still, there was a
+widespread idea that he was not overburdened with feelings of loyalty,
+and many people naturally wondered how he would manage decorously to
+entertain his Royal guests.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain was quite equal to the occasion. In speech and manner
+his conduct was irreproachable, and he won golden opinions from all
+sorts of people. I remember that very curious stories were in
+circulation at the time as to the etiquette which, it had been laid
+down, should be observed on the occasion. It was, indeed, said that, in
+consequence of Mr. Chamberlain's supposed Republican sentiments, special
+regulations were enjoined, and that the formalities to be observed in
+receiving and entertaining the Prince were to be of an extra rigid
+character. I, for one, never believed there was any foundation for these
+silly reports, but, if any special formalities were prescribed, Mr.
+Chamberlain brushed them aside, and simply conducted himself with quiet,
+easy grace, always calm and self-possessed, and never fussy or
+needlessly obsequious.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain entertained the Royal visitors and others at luncheon at
+the Society of Artists' rooms, and it struck me that if he had been a
+born courtier, and had been bred in the atmosphere of palaces, he could
+hardly have been more "at home" in the position in which he found
+himself. His speech, in which he proposed the health of the Prince and
+Princess of Wales, was a model of adroitness and good taste. Without
+giving himself away by indulging in effusiveness, or being carried away
+by the glamour of the occasion, he managed to make a very circumspect,
+clever, and appropriate speech, which, though closely scrutinised,
+brought no reproaches or even adverse criticisms from Republicans or
+Royalists. No doubt it was a somewhat scorching ordeal for Mr.
+Chamberlain to pass through, but he came out of it unsinged and
+triumphant, and was afterwards more popular than ever.
+
+I have some hesitation in speaking of Mr. Chamberlain in his private and
+"at home" character, though in these days I hardly know that I need be
+very timid or scrupulous. The public has a ready, I might almost say a
+greedy, ear for personal details concerning the lives and habits of
+public men, and there are plenty of writers willing to gratify its
+desires in this respect, and that, too, with the knowledge and consent
+of the eminent personages themselves. Many people like to hear all about
+the characteristics of prominent men, and have a keen appetite for all
+particulars concerning their personal habits and peculiarities. They
+love to hear what a celebrated man eats, drinks, and avoids, what time
+he rises and at what hour he usually goes to bed; and even a little
+thimbleful of scandal touching his shortcomings, delinquencies, and,
+possibly, his small vices, is as nectar to the gossip-loving taste. To
+tell some people what they have no right to know is often to delight
+them.
+
+Without at all professing to be in any sense an intimate friend of Mr.
+Chamberlain's, I may, perhaps, say that I have many times had the
+pleasure of sitting at his table, and a more genial and interesting host
+it would be difficult to describe. He is bland and gentle to a degree
+that might surprise those who only know him as a vigorous, fighting
+politician.
+
+I remember that once when Sir William Harcourt was a guest of Mr.
+Chamberlain's at Highbury, he said that he went to stay with his
+honourable friend with feelings almost amounting to trepidation, but he
+soon found that Mr. Chamberlain was by no means the ogre he had been
+represented. Mr. Chamberlain eat his meals with an ordinary knife and
+fork; and he rose up in the morning and went to bed regularly like any
+other sane and well-conducted person. Indeed, he found him quite a tame
+and inoffensive creature compared with the rampant, rampageous
+autocratic being he had so often heard him described.
+
+I do not pretend to quote Sir William Harcourt's words literally. I am
+repeating entirely from memory, but I give the gist of some of his
+amusing, characteristic remarks when speaking in the Birmingham Town
+Hall at the time he was Mr. Chamberlain's friend and guest. Certainly, I
+have always found Mr. Chamberlain a delightfully pleasant host. He is
+not given to monopolizing the talk. He does not dogmatize or lay down
+the law; in fact, when acting as host he is so mild, docile, and
+pleasant that a fossilized Tory, or even a fiery Nationalist, might play
+with him.
+
+Sometimes I have been among a favoured few who have been asked to stay
+after most of his guests have left, and have a cigar with Mr.
+Chamberlain in his library. On such occasions there has been some rare
+good talk. I remember on one occasion the conversation did become warmly
+political, and there was quite a smart little tussle between our host
+and Mr. Jesse Collings. At that time Mr. Collings had a trifle more
+sympathy with Irish patriots than I fancy he has now, and with his
+naturally warm sympathetic feeling he was for liberating Mr. Parnell,
+who was then a prisoner at Kilmainham. But Mr. Chamberlain would have
+none of it. He maintained that Mr. Parnell and his friends had broken
+the law and must pay the penalty. He was quite willing to consider their
+demands, and what they considered to be their wrongs, but they must not
+defy the law. Yes, there was some pretty sparring between these two
+friends on that occasion, very earnest but, of course, perfectly
+good-tempered on both sides.
+
+I have before remarked upon Mr. Chamberlain's self-command and
+imperturbability. Some persons are, perhaps, inclined to think that
+because he keeps himself so well in hand and so rarely indulges in
+sentiment that he is devoid of feeling and emotion. Not so. I recollect
+that on the death of Mr. John Henry Chamberlain--no relation of his, but
+a gentleman whose personal character, artistic skill, and intellectual
+gifts he, and many others, held in high esteem--a meeting was held to
+consider the desirability of having some memorial of one whose loss was
+so deeply deplored. Mr. Chamberlain took a prominent part in the
+proceedings, and I well remember how deeply affected he was when, in the
+course of his touching references to his deceased friend, he said, "I
+feel that his death, then, is the crowning of a noble life. He has been
+called from us in the moment of victory, and we who remain behind are to
+be pitied, for we have lost a great leader, and there are none to take
+his place."
+
+"The task which is imposed upon us is certainly a very melancholy one.
+One by one our leaders are removed from us. The gaps in our ranks are
+becoming painfully apparent. Still, there is much work to be done, and
+we shall best honour those who are gone by endeavouring, as best we may,
+to continue and complete the work which they have so well commenced. In
+this spirit we may be content to bide our turn, hoping that when we,
+too, are called away our record may not shame the bright example of
+those who have gone before us."
+
+When making these touching remarks Mr. Chamberlain's voice became
+tremulous with emotion. He evidently experienced the greatest difficulty
+in commanding his feelings, and when he sat down I saw tear-drops in his
+eyes. Never have I seen him so overcome, and it is only justice to him
+to cite this incident as showing that sentiment and feeling, though
+rarely manifested, are not foreign to his real nature.
+
+With respect to Mr. Chamberlain's personal appearance his form and
+features are now well known, but for a time he was a somewhat
+troublesome subject to caricaturists. When he was first budding out into
+national importance the clever artist of _Vanity Fair_ at that time came
+down to Birmingham to draw him. He succeeded in making a good
+caricature, but it was said that he found his task by no means an easy
+one. It was the nose, I believe, that puzzled the artist. Mr.
+Chamberlain has a pointed, slightly upturned nose, and some cynical
+people may be disposed to say that it has become more pointed and sharp
+the more he has poked it into political business. Anyway, it is a
+characteristic, perhaps _the_ characteristic, of Mr. Chamberlain's face,
+and the skilful _Vanity Fair_ artist caught it after a time, and just
+sufficiently exaggerated it to make a genuine caricature. Seeing,
+however, that Mr. Chamberlain was born to be a much-pictured man, one
+thing has stood him in fine stead--his eye-glass. When "Mr. Punch" first
+took him in hand he could make little or nothing of him, but the
+eye-glass saved the Fleet Street artists from failure. They found
+nothing they could lay hold of at first, not even his nose. They saw a
+man with a pleasant, good-looking, closely-shaven face, some dark hair
+brushed back from his forehead, but there was nothing they could hit off
+with success, and the only way they could secure identity was by the
+eye-glass. "Mr. Punch" used at one time to represent Mr. Bright as
+wearing an eye-glass, but I don't think he ever used one. Certainly I
+never saw Mr. Bright with an eye-glass, and never saw Mr. Chamberlain
+without one. Great and prominent men should have some characteristic
+peculiarity that should be their own special personal brand, and if they
+have it not, it must be made for them--as in the case of Lord Palmerston
+and the wisp of straw that "Mr. Punch" always put in his mouth. Mr.
+Chamberlain, however, has kindly obliged, and given caricaturists and
+others something by which he can be unmistakably "featured."
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+EXIT MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
+
+
+In 1876 Mr. Chamberlain was elected a member of Parliament for
+Birmingham, and his municipal career shortly came to an end. It may be
+remembered that he made an unsuccessful attempt to represent Sheffield
+some little time before he aspired to become a candidate for Birmingham.
+He made a very plucky fight in the cutler constituency, and the
+Sheffield blades were hardly so sharp as they might have been in
+rejecting such an able and rising politician. Probably, if they could
+have peered a little into the future, Mr. Chamberlain's first seat in
+Parliament would not have been as a representative of Birmingham.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, was elected as one of the members of his
+adopted town in the year mentioned, and, as I have said, he retired more
+or less from municipal life. It may further be said that he relinquished
+his local position at the right moment. He was lucky as to the time in
+which he took up public life in Birmingham, and he was equally fortunate
+in regard to the period at which he quitted it. He had set afloat great
+local schemes, he had laboured assiduously for the good of the town, he
+had attained the acme of his local popularity, he was admired even by
+his opponents, and an imposing memorial was erected in his honour. After
+this, anything that might have happened would have been in the nature of
+an anti-climax so far as his local career was concerned.
+
+When at some future day Mr. Chamberlain's life comes to be fully
+written, it will probably be noted as something remarkable that he
+should have done so much, and achieved such a position, while yet only a
+young man. For be it remembered, that after he had been for three
+successive years Mayor of Birmingham, had carried out the large and
+important schemes associated with his name, and had become one of the
+representatives of the town in Parliament, he was only forty years of
+age. It will also be noted that very soon after making his appearance in
+the House of Commons he quickly got his foot on the ladder and rapidly
+mounted the rungs that lead to pre-eminence, and in a very few years
+attained the position of Cabinet Minister.
+
+What more he might have done for Birmingham it is impossible to
+conjecture had he remained longer our local leader. But he was called up
+higher. Perhaps this was lucky for him. The great enterprises, or at
+least some of them, were only fairly started when he relinquished his
+grasp of them, and it remained to be seen whether they were to prove all
+they had been painted. If they succeeded, nothing could deprive him of
+the honour and glory of having inaugurated them. If they failed, it was
+in his power to say that had he remained to carry them out the results
+would have been altogether different.
+
+The working-out of some of his larger schemes and undertakings created,
+as I have already intimated, considerable soreness and friction in
+various quarters. They brought hardship on many persons and produced, at
+any rate for a time, considerable ill-feeling and discontent. The piper
+had to be paid for the great enterprises he had set afloat. With regard
+to the gas and water purchases, the former has returned a profit to the
+tune of £35,000 to £40,000 a year, and is now (in 1899) realising about
+£50,000 per annum. The profits of the water scheme are still more or
+less prospective, whilst the gains to be realised by his great
+Improvement Scheme are in the dim and distant future.
+
+Any adverse criticisms on these undertakings do not now directly affect
+their author. He has taken up national in place of local work, and he
+has left others in Birmingham to carry out more or less ably what he so
+successfully began. Some of us are occasionally inclined to think that
+his brilliant example and career have inflamed some of our remaining
+public men with a desire to do heroics, and to follow his lofty lead in
+the way of promoting large schemes.
+
+For instance, the city is now committed to a huge expenditure for the
+purpose of bringing a supply of water from Mid-Wales. There was
+considerable opposition to this very costly project, but it was at last
+carried, though only the future can decide whether it will prove to be
+an altogether wise and prudent, not to say profitable, undertaking.
+Experts and some far-seeing men are confident as to its future benefits.
+We are to have a good supply of excellent water, and we are to save a
+great many thousands a year in soap. Further, we shall be independent of
+merely local supplies, which, we are told, will be quite inadequate for
+our needs in future days. I am not in a position to controvert what has
+been said in favour of the project, nor have I reason to doubt that the
+scheme--especially under certain conditions--will be of great benefit
+and value to the community in the coming by and by.
+
+At the same time it may, perhaps, be doubted whether the undertaking,
+like the Improvement Scheme, was fully comprehended in all its bearings
+when it was decided to apply for an Act of Parliament to carry out the
+Welsh water project. But its promoters having made up their minds upon
+the question bustled, I won't say rushed, the proposal along, and before
+many of the inhabitants were fairly awakened to what was being done, the
+initial part of the business was accomplished.
+
+When, however, the matter was brought out more into the open in the
+Parliamentary Committee Rooms many of our townsmen opened their eyes and
+their mouths and pressed for a little time for the further consideration
+of this gigantic scheme. But the opposition was not strong enough to
+procure any delay; the advocates of the proposal had our most
+influential public men on their side, so the bill passed through
+Parliament.
+
+Occasionally now mutterings of doubt and dissatisfaction are heard, and
+there are still those who prophesy evil in the future in consequence of
+the enormous outlay to which the city is committed. If, however,
+Birmingham grows and prospers all will be well. If otherwise--and the
+last census did seem to indicate that our progress, as measured by
+increasing population, was inclined to steady down--Birmingham will have
+a huge debt in the future which even a large supply of good wholesome
+water will not altogether liquidate.
+
+Returning, however, to make a few further observations respecting Mr.
+Chamberlain, it may be said now that the voices of those who had any
+grudge against him for the daring innovations he made, and the bold
+undertakings he promoted, have become nearly mute. There are, however,
+some who speak disparagingly of him, partly, perhaps, because they are
+envious of him, and cannot complacently realise his rapid rise to the
+position of eminence he has attained.
+
+Some of his former Radical friends and associates especially denounce in
+no measured terms his unpardonable heresy in departing from what they
+consider was his old political path. Vituperation is almost too mild a
+term to describe their expressed disgust when they see one who was, they
+believed, a man of the people consorting with royal dukes, belted earls,
+and even with the Sovereign herself. This is too much for some of the
+old full-blooded Radicals who are still found in our midst.
+
+Very possibly some of these would do the same if they had the chance,
+for your thorough-going Radical is often a curious creature. I remember
+once being at a London theatre with a friend of mine who was a desperate
+and despotic democrat, and who has been a leading light for years among
+our advanced Radicals. Now it so happened that on the evening of our
+visit the Prince of Wales was at the theatre we attended, and I was
+greatly amused to notice how interested my democratic friend was in
+watching the royal box. When the performance was nearing the end he
+amused me still more by suggesting that we should hurry out and watch
+the Prince drive off. "I do so like to see that sort of thing," he
+added.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, is not the man to care what his foes or his
+old political friends think or say about him. Water on a duck's back is,
+I fancy, an oppressive agony compared with the right honourable
+gentleman's feelings when he hears or reads the condemnatory and abusive
+remarks of some of his former allies. If at any time he does perchance
+feel at all stung by any of the adverse criticisms he hears or reads, he
+takes care not to show that he is hurt.
+
+Sparks will fly upwards, and Mr. Chamberlain has had his troubles, but
+he does not wear his heart on his sleeve, or carry his woes into the
+market place. I remember many years ago, under the stress of severe
+domestic affliction, he retired into private life for a considerable
+period, and it was said that during his self-imposed obscurity he sought
+occupation and solace in the study of Blue Books. Anyway, when he
+emerged into public life again he appeared as the author of a magazine
+article of an advanced political character, which seemed to shew that he
+had spent his solitude in studying and trying to solve some of the large
+political problems of the day.
+
+In contemplating Mr. Chamberlain's remarkable career and his high rise
+in the political world, I am tempted to wonder whether he would have
+built his large mansion near Birmingham if he could have foreseen the
+immediate future. When he made up his mind to erect his house at a great
+cost he perhaps scarcely dreamed he would so soon become a Cabinet
+Minister. Possibly he looked forward to being little more than a local
+member of Parliament--for he is not, I fancy, a dreamer of dreams--and
+felt he should like to pitch his tent near to his constituency.
+
+Anyway he built his house at Moor Green, which he called "Highbury"
+after the name of the district in London where he was born. The house is
+well situated, though in some respects hardly built upon a site worthy
+of such a costly residence. It stands on a piece of rising ground, and
+commands a good prospect. In the front of it are the Lickey and Clent
+Hills some eight or ten miles away, but in the mid-distance is a
+manufacturing suburb with several tall chimneys which are obtrusively
+conspicuous, and which behave as factory chimneys generally do, scarcely
+improving the prospect or the atmosphere. These disadvantages were, I
+believe, pointed out to him before a brick was laid, but he had made up
+his mind, and when it is made up I fancy it is made up very much.
+
+The day may come when he may be able to spend but little of his time at
+his Highbury home, but he has children who will keep the house inhabited
+and well aired if he himself does not. His eldest son, Mr. Austen
+Chamberlain, M.P. for one of the Worcestershire divisions, is in
+training to walk in his father's footsteps, and to see eye to eye--or I
+might say eye-glass to eye-glass--with him in matters political. What
+the future of this eldest son may be it is not for me to forecast. He
+has made an exceptionally good start, but he will have his work cut out
+to follow successfully in the tread of such an able and distinguished
+father.
+
+When people see Mr. Chamberlain _père_ in such prosperity, flourishing
+like a green bay tree, with a country house that has cost a fortune, a
+town house to maintain, and plenty of money to do a fair amount of
+globe-trotting, they wonder and ask how did he get such a lot of money?
+Well, I cannot say, because I do not know, and if I did know I should
+not tell. Doubtless he had something considerable from his father, who
+must have been well off, but as there were some seven children to share
+what was left by the late Mr. Chamberlain it may be assumed it was not
+simply what he inherited that made him rich.
+
+Doubtless his wealth was chiefly acquired by his shrewdness, business
+capacity, and enterprise when he was a member of the firm of Nettlefold
+and Chamberlain, and probably when he retired from that prosperous
+business it was with a sum of money which would, perhaps, make some of
+us blink with envious surprise if we knew the figure.
+
+It is no secret that when he was engaged in business Mr. Chamberlain
+adopted a policy which created much comment at one time, and was,
+indeed, rather severely criticised. It was understood that he had set
+his heart upon making the trade of his firm as much of a monopoly as
+possible, and to this end he made it known to his local competitors that
+they must sell their businesses to him or be prepared for certain
+consequences if they did not.
+
+Such a course of action was regarded as somewhat tyrannical, especially
+by those directly concerned, and it made bad blood for a time between
+Mr. Chamberlain and some of those with whom he was associated in public
+work. After a while his trade opponents came to the idea that it would
+be better to surrender at discretion than to enter into conflict with a
+firm that was in such a strong position, and had such a big war chest at
+its disposal.
+
+It is hardly necessary to go into the merits of this trade question, or,
+indeed, to say anything about it now, as it is all a matter of ancient
+history. Indeed, I only refer to the matter because it formed an
+incident in Mr. Chamberlain's Birmingham career and left its mark upon
+the business that went up and the businesses that went down. Moreover,
+it is a little instructive and edifying, as showing how Mr.
+Chamberlain's combative nature manifested itself in his everyday life.
+He recognised, as other men have done, that business is not a matter to
+be played with, and that trade is in fact a commercial conflict in which
+one must whip and the other be whipped, and as he felt himself in a
+strong position, was on the box and had the whip in his hand, he was
+resolved to drive and to choose the pace and the road.
+
+Live and let live is, of course, a very good and proper maxim, but it
+finds no place in the copy-book of sharp, smart, successful men of
+business. It is their aim and purpose to get money--without harm to
+others, if they can, if not, others must look out for themselves--that
+is all. In one sense at all events Mr. Chamberlain's tactics were
+justified. They were successful.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+AND HIS BRETHREN.
+
+
+Mr. Chamberlain having obtained such distinction in public life, it was
+perhaps only natural that some of his brothers should be tempted or
+induced to follow his shining star. Possibly they had no strong
+inclination to distinguish themselves in public, and were rather pressed
+to come forward on account of the influential name they bore. Anyway,
+some of them did appear in various offices and capacities, but without
+meaning any disrespect to them or any reflection upon their abilities, it
+may perhaps be said that they found their fires so pale and ineffectual
+compared with the brilliant light of their eldest brother--or it may be
+that they found public work comparatively uncongenial to them--that,
+most of them soon preferred to efface themselves and leave one of their
+family and his son to take all the honours and have all the court cards.
+
+Mr. Richard Chamberlain took the most prominent position, and made the
+highest mark of all Mr. Chamberlain's brothers. He was Mayor of
+Birmingham in the years 1879 and 1880. During his years of office he was
+public-spirited and popular, and in the way of civic hospitality he made
+things lively and gay. He kept the Council House warm with his
+entertainments, and lavished so much money in hospitalities of one kind
+or another that he made it difficult for his immediate successors to
+follow in his wake, and none of them tried to do so. So far as I could
+judge of his character, Mr. Richard Chamberlain did not spend his money
+so freely for the sake of purchasing popularity, and certainly not for
+the sake of making ostentatious displays of his wealth. He was naturally
+generous and genial, and as Mayor of a large and important town he found
+many ways of humouring his bent, and he did not mind paying the piper
+pretty handsomely for his pleasure. As is well known, he was afterwards
+M.P. for one of the Islington divisions for some years. Ill-health
+however overtook him, and he died much regretted on the 2nd of April,
+1899.
+
+Another brother, Mr. Arthur Chamberlain, was a town councillor of
+Birmingham for a limited period, and owing to his business capacity he
+became a useful member of the Corporation. He did not apparently go into
+the Council to make a long stay, or if he did he changed his mind, and
+soon retired from municipal work. He has since spent his time in minding
+his own business; in strengthening, mending, and making certain public
+companies; in giving fatherly advice to company shareholders; and in
+dispensing justice, sometimes with pertinent observations, on the local
+magisterial bench.
+
+Two other brothers, Mr. Herbert and Mr. Walter Chamberlain, have at
+times been induced to take a little hand in public work, but their
+efforts have been of a mild, modest, innocent character. Now, however,
+they have retired into that privacy from which they so timidly emerged.
+For many reasons Mr. Chamberlain's brothers were, perhaps, wise not to
+bid high for public place and position in Birmingham. People are apt to
+be needlessly suspicious of too much family influence in public
+concerns. There is always a tendency and a readiness to inveigh against
+cliques, especially family cliques. And at one time there was certainly
+a disposition in some quarters to keep a jealous eye upon Joseph and his
+brethren, lest they should acquire an undue amount of influence and
+power. One blunt, outspoken Scotchman, I remember, expressed this
+feeling in his own characteristic way by saying, "If we don't mind we
+shall be having too much dom'd Chamberlain."
+
+The Chamberlain family, however, being more or less smart, spry men,
+were doubtless sharp enough to detect some inkling of this sort of
+feeling, and consequently they thought it better to silence any such
+cavillings by eschewing as far as they could public life, and contenting
+themselves with being brothers of a big man and sharing a little
+reflected glory.
+
+Whilst mentioning Mr. Chamberlain's family I must say a word of his
+brother-in-law, Mr. William Kenrick, for some years M.P. for the
+Northern Division of Birmingham. Mr. Kenrick was Mayor of Birmingham in
+1877, and a worthy and modest chief magistrate he made. A generous,
+intelligent, public-spirited man, he has always been liberal with his
+purse and his time, and has done much to further educational and
+philanthropic schemes. Mr. Kenrick belongs to a class some cynical
+people consider very "cliquey." It is, however, to be wished there were
+more such "cliquey" people in our midst, for they are always
+conspicuously at the fore in supporting by their influence and their
+money every good cause which has for its object the alleviation of
+suffering and the improvement of the people.
+
+It is true that there was one important project inaugurated some few
+years ago that did not enlist their sympathy. This was the Birmingham
+Bishopric Scheme. But, seeing that most of the "clique" are Unitarians,
+they could hardly be expected to support a proposal for the benefit of
+the Established Church. It was a misfortune for that Church that the
+Chamberlain party and their friends were aliens in religious matters.
+Had it been otherwise the results of the proposed scheme might have been
+very different. The "clique," when they do support a cause, do it with
+no niggardly hand, and if it had so chanced that they had been Churchmen
+instead of Unitarians, the probabilities are that by this time
+Birmingham would have been in possession of a full-sized Bishop all its
+own, and possibly a fine, bran-new, costly cathedral to boot.
+
+Owing to the lack of monetary support the Birmingham Bishopric Scheme
+is dead, or in such a very sound trance that it is hardly likely to
+revive. At its birth it was not very strong, and its early existence was
+jeopardised by conflicting ideas among its sponsors, chiefly caused by
+the difficulties in the way of raising all the money required.
+Birmingham, therefore, had to settle itself down and be content with a
+Suffragan Bishop, at least for a time, and this, it is thought, may
+prove to be a good long time.
+
+In connection with the Birmingham Unitarians I may here, perhaps,
+appropriately allude to a matter connected with the growth of our modern
+city. The New Meeting House of the Unitarians in which Dr. Priestley
+ministered was situated on the east side of the town, and as the
+congregation was migrating westward they desired to have their place--I
+won't say of worship, but their place of meeting, nearer to their homes.
+Moreover, moved by the advancing spirit of the age, they wished for a
+more important and ornamental looking edifice than the extremely plain,
+I might say ugly, structure which their fathers had attended. Unitarians
+may appear to be rather rigid and frigid, but they have an intelligent
+appreciation of art and beauty.
+
+Accordingly some forty years ago they selected a site on the west side
+of the town, and erected what was then considered a handsome place of
+meeting, which they called the Church of the Messiah, and which was
+opened in 1862. The architect of this Church did not seem to be unduly
+weighed down with Unitarian ideas. By accident or design he marked the
+edifice with emblems of the Trinity, for at the very entrance there is a
+large opening encircling three arches, which are suggestively
+emblematical of the Three in One.
+
+The building of this somewhat florid structure, and the move of the
+Unitarian church from east to west, provoked a considerable amount of
+caustic comment and humorous criticism at the time. These advanced
+Unitarians were scoffed and sneered at for deserting the simple
+tabernacle of their ancestors, and one which was associated with the
+revered name of Dr. Priestley. They were also mocked for their greater
+iniquity in selling their tabernacle to the Papists. Yes, the New
+Meeting House of the Unitarians became a chapel of the Roman Catholics.
+They rendered to the priests the things that were Priestley's, as they
+were reminded by a facetious paper published at the time. But, however
+much the Unitarians may have been chaffed and sneered at for abandoning
+their old conventicle, they have lived it all down, and, if I mistake
+not, Joseph and his brethren, the Kenricks, the Oslers, the Beales, and
+others, now congregate in peace in their un-Unitarian-looking Church of
+the Messiah.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S ASSOCIATES.
+
+
+Having spoken of his brethren, I may now refer to one or two of Mr.
+Chamberlain's friends and associates. Among these I will specially
+mention Mr. Jesse Collings, Mr. Schnadhorst, and Mr. Powell Williams.
+Mr. Collings, like Mr. Chamberlain, is a stranger within our gates. He
+is a Devon man by birth, but as a comparatively young man he came to
+Birmingham, and he not only came but he saw and he prospered. He entered
+local public life about the same time as Mr. Chamberlain, and they soon
+became kindred spirits. From the first Mr. Chamberlain seemed to take a
+special fancy to Mr. Collings--in American phrase, he "froze to him."
+They became a sort of David and Jonathan company limited, and although
+each of the partners may have preserved a certain amount of independence
+and individuality, in many things they pulled together in their work and
+policy like one man.
+
+When Mr. Chamberlain took leave of local municipal life and went up
+higher, Mr. Collings was not long in following him, and now both have
+been for some years very familiar figures in Parliament. Since they
+first entered public life both men have in some ways mellowed down.
+Compared with what they once were, their foes at any rate say, they have
+both lost colour. They were once ripe, full-bodied Radicals, and now
+they are tawny Liberals, who have been bottled late--but bottled.
+
+Although time and experience may have taught Mr. Collings many things,
+he probably retains more of the old Radical Adam than does Mr.
+Chamberlain. At one time he was regarded by some of his opponents as a
+political fire-eater--a democratic despot who would have decapitated
+kings and queens without a tinge of remorse, and slain wicked Tories
+with the sword. He was, however, never the ungenial, self-seeking,
+aggressive person some of his foes may have fancied him. He was always
+an affable, pleasant, agreeable man, who could be civil and even polite
+to his adversaries, especially when political fighting was not going on
+in front. But, as I have said, he has toned down during late years and
+has learned, as many other men have done, that there are large lessons
+to be learnt by experience, and that there is some virtue in expediency.
+
+Of course a good deal of mud has been flung at Mr. Collings by some of
+his local friends in consequence of what they consider his political
+perversion, but I don't know that much of it has stuck to him. With some
+of his former allies it is not so much that he may have become more
+temperate in his views, or that he did actually abandon his absolute
+freedom and take a Government office. They might have forgiven these
+little backslidings, but in their eyes he sinned past redemption when he
+consorted with titled people, broke the bread of kings, and even
+suffered himself to be entertained at Sandringham. These were offences
+outside forgiveness in the eyes of some few of his former associates.
+With Mr. Chamberlain, however, as his friend and prototype, he probably
+feels that he can afford to smile at the sneers and jeers of those who,
+not being able to make much way up the political ladder themselves, take
+their revenge by pelting those who are climbing their way towards the
+top.
+
+Among Mr. Chamberlain's working associates, Mr. Powell Williams has been
+a sort of "surprise packet." Poets, we are told, are born, and not made,
+but Mr. Powell Williams seems to have been made, and not born. At least,
+no one seems to know anything much about his early career. He appeared
+to burst upon the municipal horizon all at once, like a meteor emerging
+from outer space, but when he came in contact with the Corporation
+atmosphere he soon became ignited and fired by municipal enthusiasm,
+and, encouraged by those who perceived his capacity, he rapidly began to
+be a conspicuous luminary in our local Forum. He quickly distinguished
+himself in the matter of local finance, and indeed soon became
+Birmingham's Chancellor of the Exchequer.
+
+Without being a brilliant or learned orator, Mr. Powell Williams had the
+gift of fluency, and he could generally be reckoned upon to get up at a
+moment's notice and make an effective speech. He could also do a little
+fighting if it came in his way, and in the course of his Town Council
+career he had one or two pretty bouts with some of his opponents. When
+he is not on the war horse he is a pleasant, intelligent, un-sour man,
+with a touch of smartness and humour which give point to his words. As
+is now well known, Mr. Williams was returned to Parliament for one of
+the Birmingham divisions. He became the successful helmsman in London
+of the central organization of the Liberal Unionist party. On the
+formation of the Government in 1895, to the surprise of many of his
+friends and acquaintances, he became a member of the administration. It
+was believed that he was well taken in tow by Mr. Chamberlain, but it
+may with truth, perhaps, be added that by his own energy and ability he
+placed himself in a prominent position where he could hardly be
+overlooked.
+
+With respect to Mr. Schnadhorst, there can be no question as to Mr.
+Chamberlain's prescience in judging of the capabilities of men, and his
+quick appreciation of Mr. Schnadhorst's attributes is a case in point.
+The pre-eminence this latter-named gentleman attained in the political
+world was somewhat of a surprise to many of his old friends, and
+probably not least of all to himself. Doubtless at the beginning of his
+career he little dreamt that owing to his being taken in hand by men of
+influence; to unforeseen circumstances in the evolution of political
+affairs; and also, it must be admitted, to certain capabilities of his
+own, he would attain to the position of importance he somewhat quickly
+reached, and his name become a synonym for systematic political
+organization.
+
+I knew Mr. Schnadhorst long before he blossomed out into fame. He struck
+me, and doubtless others, as being an intelligent, good, easy-mannered
+man, with a touch of "Sunday schoolism" in his character and manner. He
+was not brilliant, and he did not appear to be burdened with much
+originality. He seemed to be a pointless sort of man, apparently
+destitute of any keen sense of humour; a spectacled, sallow, sombre man,
+who would have been an ornament to a first-class undertaker's business.
+Certainly he was not one who, by his smartness, wit, cleverness, and
+courage would have tempted anyone to say, "There is the great political
+organizer of the future."
+
+In his earlier life and in his own particular line of business he was
+not a conspicuous success. His heart was not in it or his hand either.
+Speaking from my own experience, he made me about the worst fitting
+coat I ever wore. Mr. Chamberlain, however, took his measure more
+successfully than he himself took other people's, in a sartorial sense,
+and soon saw that he would make up into something useful if the cutting
+out was done for him.
+
+Mr. Schnadhorst as a young man began by taking a keen and intelligent
+interest in local public life. He came under the eye of Mr. Chamberlain,
+who quickly perceived that he possessed certain qualities which would
+prove useful and valuable if properly employed. He saw in him a man of
+aptitude and capacity, who had the _suaviter in modo_, even if he had
+not much of the _fortiter in re_--a man of method, persuasiveness, and
+industry, with a cool head, a safe temper, and a calm mind.
+
+Of Mr. Schnadhorst's possession of the last-named qualities I once had a
+striking proof. It was on the occasion of one of Mr. Gladstone's visits
+to Birmingham. A great political meeting was held in Bingley Hall, and
+the immense gathering was in a fever of excitement. I remember speaking
+with Mr. Schnadhorst in the course of the evening, and was greatly
+struck by his self-possessed, quiet, easy manner. So far from being
+affected by the intense enthusiasm and feverish excitement that
+prevailed, he was just as cool and collected as though the occasion was
+some little tea party affair or a ward meeting, instead of the greatest
+indoor political demonstration ever held in Birmingham.
+
+As already stated Mr. Chamberlain quickly perceived and plumbed to the
+bottom Mr. Schnadhorst's capabilities, and as he was bent on solidifying
+and systematising, or, in other words, "caucusing" the Liberal party in
+Birmingham, he thought he saw in Mr. Schnadhorst the organising mind and
+methodical skill that would be eminently useful in carrying out the
+work. Nor was he wrong. Mr. Schnadhorst proved to be all that was
+expected of him, and the political world knows the rest. How he became
+the great political machinist of his day, and how, by his zeal,
+ability, and method, he elevated "caucusing" or party "wire pulling"
+into a recognised system--I had almost said a political science.
+
+Circumstances have changed since that period. Mr. Chamberlain made Mr.
+Schnadhorst, but Mr. Schnadhorst turned his back upon his maker. He was
+probably actuated by conscientious motives and convictions, although
+professional politicians may not, as a rule, be credited with being
+greatly overburdened with conscientious scruples. Still, Mr. Schnadhorst
+was, I think, generally credited by those who knew him with being an
+upright, earnest, honest man, so he may well be allowed the benefit of
+the doubt.
+
+It must, I think, have cost him a struggle to part company with such a
+man as Mr. Chamberlain--with one who had put him in the way he should
+go, and which led him to such a commanding position of influence and
+importance. Anyway, from whatever motive, he was induced to forsake the
+rising star in the political firmament, and to worship Mr. Gladstone,
+the setting sun. The sun went down below the horizon, but we saw how Mr.
+Schnadhorst continued to work his political orrery with the major and
+minor planets, the shooting stars and comets, that shone at Westminster
+with such varied lustre, or wished to shine there if they could.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+THE BIRMINGHAM BELGRAVIA.
+
+
+Seeing how Birmingham has grown and prospered, it is interesting to
+consider what might have been the result if the town and its outskirts
+had not been fairly pleasant for well-to-do people to reside in.
+Fortunately, there is one extensive west-end suburb--Edgbaston--which
+forms a suitable, healthy, and desirable residential locality for the
+Birmingham upper classes. But for the existence of this well laid out--I
+was going to say genteel, but Heaven forbid--neighbourhood, a very large
+number of its wealthiest manufacturers and professional men would
+doubtless now reside some distance from the city. An increasing number
+of those who work in Birmingham now live--at least have their
+houses--outside its limits, owing to facilities afforded by the
+railways; but Edgbaston is still a rich, well-populated suburb within a
+very easy distance of the centre of the city. Mr. Schnadhorst, when he
+pulled political strings in Birmingham, regarded Edgbaston as a fine,
+good piece of vantage ground from an electoral point of view, since it
+kept so many rich residents within the pale of the town, and added so
+much to its influential voting power.
+
+Edgbaston is chiefly, I might almost say entirely, the property of the
+Calthorpes, and the late Lord Calthorpe, also his predecessor, were wise
+in their day and generation, and they had agents who were shrewd and
+far-seeing. They saw the importance of reserving Edgbaston and laying it
+out as an attractive, quiet suburb, and the late lord at least lived to
+see it covered with leasehold residences, many of them--indeed a very
+large number of them--of considerable value and importance. When these
+leases expire, as some of them will now before many years are over, and
+the noble ground landlord begins to draw in his net, what a big haul he
+will make in the way of reversions of the properties that have been
+built upon his land!
+
+Some of these Edgbaston houses are not only large and commodious, but
+are architecturally handsome and artistic. Birmingham has been fortunate
+during the last thirty or forty years in having two or three local
+architects who have not only possessed professional skill but also
+taste. The old square, solid, "money box" houses, so much esteemed by
+our fathers, are rarely erected now, but in their place residences of a
+more attractive design and artistic type.
+
+The Gothic revival has spread to domestic architecture, and the old,
+dreadfully-symmetrical brick and stuccoed house, and the hybrid Italian
+villa, make way for residential structures with gabled roofs, pointed
+arch windows, red tiles instead of dull-coloured slates, and attractive
+detail and ornamentation. In looking at such houses, one can hardly fail
+to be struck by the difference that may be effected by using the
+simplest materials--but using them with discrimination and taste. One
+architect may plan a house which will be plain to ugliness, the bricks
+laid in the most severe and commonplace fashion, and the outlines of the
+design--if design it can be called--devoid of any grace or variety. No
+projections to break up the dull flatness and give light and shade; no
+attempt to relieve the unmitigated square, hut-like appearance of the
+building. Another puts a pointed roof to his house, pierces it with
+pretty windows that have form without diminishing the light. He runs
+some courses of brick work round his building laid in diagonal or
+otherwise diversified lines. He places a porch at the entrance which has
+a touch of picturesqueness, and the result is a house that is pleasing
+to look upon, has at all events a suggestion of form and appearance,
+and all without any corresponding expense, because he has used his
+material with skill and taste.
+
+In Birmingham we have seen how much may be done in this direction in
+various ways, especially in the matter of the Board Schools. When the
+building of these schools was commenced the firm of Martin and
+Chamberlain were selected as architects. They had to design
+comparatively cheap buildings, for anything like extravagance in the way
+of ornamentation would probably have provoked much hostility. Brick and
+wood had to be the chief materials employed, but by using these with
+device and taste good schools were produced from an art point of view,
+and which, in their way, are a little education to those who attend
+them.
+
+Possibly there are still not a few among us who think that because there
+is an element of design and attractiveness in the appearance of these
+schools money has been needlessly expended. Such persons insist upon it
+that only ugliness can be really economical, and that the simplest
+ornamentation or beauty of form must mean superfluous cost. The number
+of those who take this narrow view is happily limited, and is becoming
+less owing to the improved and growing taste for art that has been
+unmistakeably manifest of late years.
+
+I have been led into this trifling digression by speaking of the houses
+now built in that suburb of Birmingham inhabited by the wealthier
+classes. These residents are, as I have said, better educated than their
+fathers, and they have different notions as to how they should live and
+what sort of houses they should live in. They are not merely people who
+are beginning to prosper and have only just emerged from the chrysalis
+state of modern civilization, but are citizens who have been prospering
+for some time, or are the children of men who have been prosperous, and
+they "live up" accordingly. They like their residences to be convenient
+and comfortable inside; but they also feel a little pride if they look
+attractive from without. Nor are tastefully-designed dwellings confined
+to Edgbaston. The example of our "Birmingham Belgravia" has spread to
+other suburbs, and if we go to Moseley, Handsworth, Harborne, and other
+places in the vicinity of our city we find houses of a very much
+improved pattern from an ornamental point of view compared with those of
+a bygone generation. Edgbaston, however, set the example in the way of
+Gothic house architecture, and the first specimen, I believe, was a
+house in Carpenter Road, designed by the late Mr. J.H. Chamberlain, and
+which was built for Mr. Eld, a partner in the firm of Eld and
+Chamberlain, now Chamberlain, King, and Jones.
+
+I remember that the erection of this Gothic house created quite a little
+stir. To some eyes it was a very startling innovation. Pointed arch
+windows for an ordinary dwelling house, who ever heard of such a thing?
+What next? asked some square-toed, un-compromising, old-fashioned folks.
+The idea was indeed so novel that it did not take people by storm, and
+there was no immediate rush for Gothic houses. Gradually, however,
+people began to like the style, or their architects told them they must
+like it, and after some time residences of the new order began to be
+seen in many directions.
+
+There are now a number of large, costly, handsome Gothic houses in
+Edgbaston, which will be, indeed, a goodly heritage for the ground
+landlord when the present leases expire--a fact that often gives rise to
+some serious thoughts and reflections. Many people feel very sore upon
+this matter, and wax strong and vehement upon what is known as the
+"unearned increment" question. I do not propose to lash this horse,
+which is every now and then trotted out and properly thrashed by
+reforming economists and others. "Unearned increment" is one of those
+accidental incidents of life which can hardly be controlled or reckoned
+with. Why should some men be sound and healthy and six feet high, and
+others weak and feeble and only four feet ten? Most unequal and unjust!
+If I have a field, and a town grows up to it of its own accord, and
+somebody offers me four times as much as I gave for it, I hardly see why
+I should be reckoned a thief and a robber if I pocket the proffered
+cash. To take another illustration. I may have on my house-walls a
+picture for which I gave twenty pounds. The artist has "gone up" since I
+made my purchase, and I am now offered a hundred and twenty pounds for
+my painting. "Unearned increment!"
+
+But away with this question! I find I am getting the whip out, although
+I promised not to thrash this wretched old economic hack. Only just one
+little parting crack of the lash. Dealing with "unearned increment"
+being an impracticability, perhaps it would be well for landlords who
+benefit immensely by the accident of circumstances to recognise the fact
+that they _do_ pocket a great "unearned increment," and be ungrudgingly
+generous in return for benefits received. If this were done the names
+of suburban landlords would not be received with such derision and
+contempt as they are sometimes now, and "unearned increment" would
+become all but an obsolete phrase.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+THEN AND NOW.
+
+
+Great indeed are the changes that have taken place in Birmingham during
+the past forty or fifty years. I do not speak merely in regard to the
+growth, appearance, and the commercial progress of the town and city,
+but in respect to the life and habits of the people--especially the
+better class of the inhabitants.
+
+Half a century ago many of the well-to-do prosperous manufacturers were
+practical men--men who had worked at the bench and the lathe, and, from
+being workmen, had become masters. There were not so many manufactories
+then as now, and the leading manufacturers found themselves in the happy
+position of men who were "getting on" and becoming rich. Men as a rule
+are, perhaps, more happy when they find they are making money than when
+they have made it, and have nothing to do but to spend it, or to puzzle
+their brains as to how they shall do so. "Oh! Jem," piteously said a man
+I knew, to his nephew, "what am I to do with that ten thousand pounds
+a-lying at the bank?"
+
+When "getting on," men go to their various businesses day after day and
+find orders rolling in and goods going out, and themselves prospering
+and becoming better and better off, they are disposed to be contented,
+well pleased with their neighbours, and well satisfied with themselves.
+So with these old Birmingham manufacturers. They were well content,
+genial, and hospitable. They did not give themselves any fine airs or
+pretensions; indeed, they were often proud of their success and
+prosperity, and would sometimes delight in openly boasting of their
+humble beginnings, not always to the joy and delight of their children
+who might hear them. They were sociable, hospitable, generous-hearted,
+open-handed men. They gave bountiful entertainments, not of a mere
+formal give-and-take character in which the feast largely consists of
+plate, fine linen, and flowers, the eatables on the side table, and too
+much remaining there. They delighted in welcoming their friends; they
+liked to put a good spread on the board, and to see their guests eat,
+drink, and be merry.
+
+In my younger days I knew what it was to enjoy the hospitalities of some
+of these wealthy manufacturers, and I can call to mind some little--I
+should say large--dinners, in which I have participated, the like of
+which are, I fancy, rarely seen now. Let me briefly describe one of
+these informal, old-fashioned, friendly feasts.
+
+My host would invite members of his family and some friends to dinner at
+two o'clock, say. The dinner proper--which was a good, substantial, and
+even luxurious meal--being over, we adjourned to the drawing room. There
+the dessert would be laid out on a large round table around which we
+gathered. Then would mine host call for his wine book--for he had a
+well-stocked cellar of fine vintages. Turning over the leaves of this
+book he would propose to begin with a bottle of '47 port, which was then
+a comparatively young and fruity wine. This would be followed probably
+by a bottle of 1840, and then we should come to the great 1834 wine, of
+which mine host had a rare stock.
+
+Sometimes we should hark back to 1820 port, a wine which I remember to
+have had a rich colour and a full refined flavour, and once I tasted the
+famous comet wine, 1811, which, however, had lost something of its
+nucleus, and only retained a certain tawny, nebulous tone. On one
+occasion I remember my host said he had some seventeen-ninety something
+wine in his cellar, which he proposed we should taste, but for some
+reason, now forgotten, it was not produced, and I sometimes rather
+regret that I so narrowly missed the opportunity of tasting a last
+century wine. Perhaps it may be thought from the procession of ports
+produced on such occasions as I have described that we indulged in a
+sustained and severe wine-bibbing bout. But it was not so. In reality we
+only just tasted each vintage, so that we had the maximum of variety
+with the minimum of quantity.
+
+The wine ended, we betook ourselves into another room, there to enjoy a
+cigar. Then would come tea and coffee, and a little music. Supper--yes,
+my reader, a good supper would be announced about nine o'clock; after
+that another little smoke, and about ten o'clock or soon after we should
+take our departure.
+
+Of course all this made up the sum total of a pretty good snack--I mean
+a good, well-sustained feast--but whether it was owing to the excellence
+of the viands, or to the fact that we took our pleasures not sadly but
+deliberately, I for one cannot remember ever feeling the worse for my
+little-indulgences. Perhaps something was owing to the glorious
+continuity of our feasting and pleasure.
+
+I also remember once being at an unfrugal, old-fashioned, festive dinner
+at a friend's house, when one of the guests proposed our host's health,
+and finished up by saying, "I shall be glad to see everyone at this
+table to dinner at my house this day week." Considering there were about
+thirty persons sitting round the mahogany this was a fair-sized order.
+But it was no empty compliment. The dinner came off, and a fine good
+spread it was, and as for the wine I seem to sniff its "bouquet" now.
+
+Some of the old Birmingham men whose characteristic hospitalities I have
+just described had, as is pretty well known, certain habits which,
+looked at by modern light, would seem somewhat plebeian. For instance,
+there were men of wealth and importance who made it their custom often
+to go and spend an hour or two in the evening at some of the old
+respectable hotels and inns of the town. They had been in the habit of
+meeting together at these hostelries in their earlier days to talk over
+the news, at a period when daily local newspapers were not published,
+and they adhered to the custom in their advanced years and wealthier
+position, and rejoiced in visiting their old haunts and smoking their
+long clay pipes, and having a chat with old friends and kindred spirits.
+
+All this has died out now. For one thing, most of these old inns and
+hostelries have disappeared with the march of modern times. We have
+clubs now and restaurants, also hotels, where visitors "put up," but the
+old-fashioned inns and taverns have mostly gone. The present generation
+of prosperous well-to-do men, too, are of a different stamp from their
+predecessors. They do not take their ease at their inns after the manner
+of their fathers. They have been educated differently, and take their
+pleasures in a more refined way, as is the fashion of the time.
+
+Some of them have been to public schools and to the university, and
+they naturally live their lives on a more elevated level. As a rule,
+they are good, practical, straightforward, worthy men, though there are,
+of course, some who are rather amusing in their little pretentious
+ways--as there are in all large communities. Many of these, finding
+themselves well off, begin to discover they had ancestors. They name
+their houses after places where their grandfathers lived or should have
+lived. They put crests upon their carriages; they embellish their
+stationery with a motto, and otherwise put on a little of what is called
+"side." But Birmingham people are not worse than others in this respect.
+In fact, I think there is less affectation, pretence, and snobbishness,
+or at any rate as little as will be found in most places of the
+standing, wealth, and importance of Birmingham.
+
+Sometimes when I am visiting a newly-risen manufacturing town which has
+lately blossomed out into a state of thriving progress, I am forcibly
+reminded of what Birmingham was some years ago, and think of the changes
+that have come over our city during the past thirty or forty years. The
+everyday social life is in many respects different from what it was.
+Young people, with a higher education and more advanced ideas than their
+sires, keep their parents up to date, and it is the young people who
+rule the roost in many houses. The hearty but comparatively simple
+hospitalities of a generation or so ago are regarded as quite too
+ancient.
+
+Young men who have been to Harrow and Oxford are not likely to look with
+favour upon suppers of tripe or Welsh rarebits. They must, of course,
+dine in a proper, decent manner in the evening, and there must be a good
+experienced cook to give them a fair variety of dainties; or, at least,
+of well-prepared dishes. Under such circumstances social functions have
+naturally a tendency to become more formal, ornamental, and refined.
+Many of the older-fashioned school mourn the decay of the very thorough
+and hearty hospitality of times back, and have often complained that
+they saw too many flowers and too little food at modern dinner parties.
+Still, the knock-down entertainments of our fathers were often a trifle
+too formidable perhaps, and did not always bring the pleasant
+reflections that follow the more gentle hospitalities of the present
+day.
+
+Before I close this chapter, in which I am comparing the present with
+the past, I cannot help calling to mind features of Birmingham nearly
+fifty years ago, when I began to look about me with my boyish eyes. I
+made some general reference to these in the opening chapter of these
+sketches. I will now just indulge in a few brief details. To go no
+further than quite the centre of the town, I call to mind some important
+places that disappeared when the New Street railway station was made.
+
+I remember Lady Huntingdon's chapel--a place of worship that was popular
+in its day--and seem to have a hazy recollection of the King Street
+theatre (or the remains of it), in which was held the first evening
+concert of the Birmingham Musical Festival in the year 1768. Cannon
+Street chapel has been too recently removed not to be remembered by many
+people, but I can recollect going to this place of worship when it was a
+real old-type Baptist chapel, and where special disciples or devotees
+were deeply immersed in religion and water.
+
+Most of us can also remember when some unostentatious private houses
+occupied the side of New Street opposite the Society of Artists' rooms,
+and not a few of us can call to mind the dirty, slummy buildings that so
+closely blocked up the back of the Town Hall. It was, indeed, an
+improvement when these wretched houses were removed and the back of the
+Hall was finished and opened out. It is, I believe, true that what
+became the back of the Town Hall was really intended by the architect to
+be its front. However this may be, the proportions of the north side of
+the Town Hall are, I think, more symmetrical and imposing in appearance
+than the south side fronting Paradise Street.
+
+It is but yesterday, so to speak, since the Old Square, with its sedate
+looking houses disappeared, including that of Edmund Hector, the friend
+of Dr. Johnson, and many of us can readily recall to mind the
+old-fashioned Birmingham Workhouse standing in Lichfield Street--that
+poor, dirty thoroughfare which doubtless furnished a fair number of
+occupants for the afore-mentioned institution. Looking forward as I
+do--at least in my sombre moments--to the "Union" as being my ultimate
+home, I feel a sense of satisfaction that the Birmingham workhouse has
+been removed to a more salubrious and pleasant locality than its
+unlovely quarters in Lichfield Street.
+
+These are just a few of the more important changes that have taken
+place, with one exception, namely, the disappearance of Christ Church. I
+almost shed tears to see the demolition of this church and landmark that
+had so many old associations. Some of these were not always of a
+pleasant and joyous character, for in days past the Sunday services were
+very long, and the sermons anything but short.
+
+I hope my memory has not "berayed" me in making these little reminiscent
+remarks. I did not make notes in my early days, and now in my later
+years I may make little mistakes; but I do not think I have tripped very
+much.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+THE CITY FRINGE.
+
+
+It is my constant habit to take little runs into the outskirts of our
+city, and when doing so I often stare with all my eyes as I note what
+has taken place in a limited number of years. Districts hardly more than
+a mile or so from the centre of the city, which in my boyhood were
+fields and meadows, are now laid out into streets and covered with
+houses and shops. Indeed, I sometimes feel very aged when I look upon
+places where as a boy I went fishing for small fry, and now find the
+river that afforded me such juvenile sport is, owing to the enhanced
+value of laud, compressed into the dimensions of a fair-sized gutter,
+with houses and small factories closely packed on its margin covering
+every foot of ground.
+
+I go in another direction, and scarcely farther than the distance just
+named, and I come to a spot where once stood the fine large park (Aston)
+which I remember was enclosed by a brick wall on every side. Scarcely a
+trace of this extensive old wall can I now see, and the site of the old
+park, or nearly the whole of it, is now covered with streets and
+buildings. Aston Hall, the grand old Elizabethan house built by the
+Holtes in the time of Charles I., still stands in a state of good
+preservation, and is fortunately now the property of the city, together
+with some forty acres of surrounding land, which is, as is well known,
+used as a public recreation ground.
+
+To speak a little more in detail, I am not the only person living who
+remembers "Pudding Brook" and "Vaughton's Hole." The name of "Padding
+Brook" was, in my boyish days, given to a swampy area of fields now
+covered by Gooch Street and surrounding thoroughfares. Pudding Brook
+proper was, however, a little muddy stream that flowed or oozed along
+the district named and finally emptied itself into the old moat not far
+from St. Martin's Church. Vaughton's Hole, to my juvenile mind, was
+represented by a deep pool in the River Rea, where something direful
+took place, in which a Mr. Vaughton was tragically concerned. The real
+facts are--at least, so I read--that there was a clay pit, sixty feet
+deep of water, situated near the Rea, and in this pit at least one man
+was drowned. The place was named after an old local family named
+Vaughton, who owned considerable property in the neighbourhood of the
+present Gooch Street.
+
+Where Gooch Street now crosses the Rea, I remember there was a
+footbridge, and beyond that the river was a pretty, purling, sylvan
+stream, with bushes and rushes growing on its green banks. A field walk
+past an old farm house led on to Moseley Hall, which was looked upon as
+being quite away in the country. As for Moseley itself, it was a pretty
+little village in those days. The old village green, the rustic country
+inns (of which the "Fighting Cocks" was the chief), and some low-roofed,
+old-fashioned houses, backed by the parish church tower, made up a
+picture which still remains in my mind's eye. The railway tunnel which
+is now looked upon as only a long bridge, was then regarded as something
+large in its way, and, perhaps, slightly dangerous, almost justifying a
+little something strong to sustain courage when travelling through it.
+
+Beyond Moseley Church was a pretty road to Moseley Wake Green, in which
+were, if I remember rightly, one or two timbered houses and some
+old-fashioned residences, surrounded by high trees. Many of these have
+now disappeared. In another direction from the church was a country road
+running to Sparkbrook, and near which were an important house and lands
+belonging to the wealthy Misses Anderton, whose possessions have been
+heard of in more recent days.
+
+I now often visit Moseley, and change, but not decay, in all around I
+see. The prevailing colour of the old village green is now red brick,
+and the modern colour does not agree so well with my vision as the more
+rustic tones of a bygone day; whilst the noise and bustle of tram cars,
+the swarms of suburban residents that emerge from the railway station
+(especially at certain times in the day), are fast wiping out the
+peaceful, pretty Moseley of my youthful days.
+
+These new old villages often present some curious anachronisms. A grey
+old church, partly buried by a hoary fat churchyard, is surrounded by
+the most modern of shops and stores; and a primitive little bow-windowed
+cottage, with a few flower pots in the window, has, perchance, a glaring
+gin shop next door. This is more or less the case at Moseley, and it is
+pretty much the same at Handsworth.
+
+I remember when old Handsworth Church stood surrounded by fields, and
+now it is built up to with villas on nearly every side, and has a
+neighbouring liquor vault instead of the old-fashioned inn such as often
+keeps old parish churches in countenance and affords a place of refuge
+and refreshment for rustic churchwardens, bell-ringers, parish clerks,
+and the like.
+
+Old Handsworth--how well I remember it--also Soho, and the remains of
+the old mint, associated with the honoured names of Boulton and Watt.
+Then there was that long straight stretch of road from the old pike at
+the top of Soho Hill, along which were some large and important
+residences, occupied by business men of Birmingham, who doubtless
+regarded this Handsworth and Soho district as being quite out in the
+country. The stretch of road to which I have just referred is now one
+long street, or soon will be, reaching from the once Soho toll-gate to
+the New Inns, and farther on, indeed, to the park wall of Sandwell.
+
+Sandwell Park--ah, yes, I have a pretty distinct recollection of what
+that was, also the Hall, in my boyhood days. The park, or portions of
+it, still shews some signs of its past picturesque glories; at any rate,
+it is not built over after the manner of Aston. The Hall, however,
+scarcely now conveys an idea of the place it once was. I remember its
+interior when it was the residence of its noble owner and his family,
+and I recall the splendidly furnished rooms, the riding school, and the
+gardens. I remember, too, that the Lord Dartmouth of the time of which I
+speak was, like Mr. Gladstone, an amateur woodman. He used to like to go
+about with axe and saw, and do a little tree felling and branch lopping
+to please his fancy, and exercise his limbs and muscles. Sandwell Park,
+as most people know, has now been deserted for many years by its titled
+owner, and Sandwell Park Colliery, Limited, reigns in its stead.
+
+But recollections of the past are making me "talky," and, I fear,
+tedious. I could scribble and chatter about bygone Birmingham from now
+till about the end of the century, which, however, as I write, is not
+very far off. But, my gentle reader, you shall be spared. Most people
+know that Birmingham is swallowing up its immediate suburbs, and the
+process of deglutition is still going on. The city has had its rise, and
+will have its decline some day probably, but not while people want pins,
+pens, electro-plate, guns, dear and cheap jewellery, and while
+Birmingham can make these things better or sell them cheaper than other
+folks.
+
+As for the centre of the city, I have already made some references to
+the transformations that have recently taken place. A few words may,
+however, be said about our modern street and shop architecture. In the
+important new thoroughfare, Corporation Street--the outcome of Mr.
+Chamberlain's great improvement scheme--there is a curious series of
+shops and public buildings. Some are of one style, some of another, and
+many of no style at all. The architecture in this thoroughfare
+certainly presents plenty of variety--more variety perhaps than beauty.
+There are the new Assize Courts--the foundation-stone of which was laid
+by the Queen in 1887; they are built of brick and terra-cotta, redundant
+with detailed ornament, some of it perhaps of a too florid character.
+Near to our local Palace of Justice is the County Court, which is severe
+in its simplicity, quasi-classic in style, and decidedly plain in
+design. There are shops that have a certain suggestion and imitation of
+old-fashioned quaintness, and there are other buildings that have a
+tinge of the Scotch baronial hall style of architecture. Then there is
+the coffee-house Gothic, the pie-shop Perpendicular, the commercial
+Classic, the fender and fire-grate Transitional, the milk and cream
+Decorated, and various hybrid architectural styles.
+
+The buildings in this street have, as I have said, the charm of
+diversity, and that, I suppose, is something to the good. Regent Street,
+London, is a fine thoroughfare, but it will probably be admitted that
+it is anything but unmonotonous in appearance or lovely to look upon
+from an architectural point of view. The buildings in our grand new
+street may not be beyond criticism, but there are no long lines of
+buildings of the same heavy dull pattern from end to end. This arises
+from the fact that the land has not been let in big patches to
+capitalists or builders who might have erected a series of shops of one
+uniform pattern, but has been leased to tradesmen and others who have
+taken a few yards of land, on which they have built premises suited to
+their requirements, and in accordance with their aim, tastes, or the
+bent and ability of their architects. Hence the variety, charming or
+otherwise according to the taste and eye of the spectator. Anyway, we
+have in Birmingham a fine broad street which will, perhaps, compare
+favourably with any thoroughfare in any other British city, with the
+exception of Princes Street, Edinburgh. In the way of splendid streets
+the Scotch capital must be allowed to take the plum.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+THE FOURTH ESTATE.
+
+
+I cannot say how it may have been in other large cities and towns, but
+certainly the newspaper mortality in Birmingham during the past half
+century has been quite distressing. I think that without difficulty I
+could reckon up from twenty-five to thirty papers and journals that have
+been first published and last published in the period named. I do not
+propose to say much or to give a list of the dear departed. They were
+born, they struggled for existence, and they died in the effort. That is
+all that need be said of most of them.
+
+There is, however, one defunct paper to which I must make a short
+reference, partly because I remember something about its birth and
+death. I refer to the _Birmingham Daily Press_, which first appeared in
+May, 1855. If my memory serves me, the Act of Parliament repealing the
+newspaper duty had not passed and become law when the _Birmingham Daily
+Press_ appeared. Its first issues were, I believe, marked "specimen"
+copies, which would seem to show that the new penny paper was really
+published in anticipation of the passing of the Act.
+
+Anyway, the _Birmingham Daily Press_ appeared in the year mentioned, and
+considering that it was altogether a new venture, and that much had to
+be learned by experience, it was a highly creditable production. It soon
+made its mark, too, and became popular and largely read. And no wonder.
+It supplied a real want. Its contents were readable and useful, and its
+pages contained smart and attractive articles and papers that excited
+notice and were much appreciated. Mr. George Dawson was connected with
+the paper. Mr. William Harris was editor, or co-editor, of it, and on
+its staff and among its contributors were some sharp and able writers.
+
+With all these merits and recommendations it will be asked, why did not
+the _Birmingham Daily Press_ succeed? Well, I do not think I can quite
+answer the question. I can only say that judging by what I have observed
+and heard literary excellence, good reporting, and able editing will not
+make a paper commercially successful. If a newspaper is to succeed in
+paying its way and making a profit, its business management must be in
+experienced and competent hands. A daily newspaper is apt to be a deadly
+drain if its expenditure exceeds its receipts--as the daily loss has to
+be multiplied by six every week--and this tells up large in the course
+of a year.
+
+There can be no question that the _Birmingham Daily Press_ had a fine
+start, and a splendid chance. But the chance was not turned to the best
+account, and the promising start ended in a lamentable finish. This,
+too, in spite of the fact that the paper became really well established.
+Indeed, Mr. (now Sir John) Jaffray was heard to say that for a long;
+time the _Birmingham Daily Post_, which was started some two years or
+more after the _Birmingham Daily Press_, could make no impression, so
+firm a footing had the latter paper obtained in the town. But Messrs.
+Feeney and Jaffray had put their hands to the plough; they pegged away
+with the _Birmingham Daily Post_ till it did make an impression, and the
+proprietors being able and experienced in the matter of newspaper
+business management, they stood very firm when they did begin to feel
+their feet. They drove the town--not from pillar to post, but from
+_Daily Press_ to _Daily Post_. They established their position, and that
+position they have gone on improving unto this day.
+
+As for the unfortunate _Daily Press_, it fell into a very serious
+decline, and finally expired somewhat suddenly in November, 1858. Its
+successful rival remarked in a not over sympathetic paragraph that "it
+went out like the snuff of a candle leaving behind it something of the
+flavour of that domestic nuisance." I remember poor George Dawson, who
+had lost a good deal of money through the failure of the _Birmingham
+Daily Press_, thought the _Post's_ spiteful little obituary notice the
+unkindest cut of all. For victors to crow over the vanquished in such
+language he thought was worse than ungenerous, it was mean.
+
+I will not now pause to say anything in detail concerning the
+_Birmingham Daily Gazette_, started in 1862, the _Daily Mail_ in 1870,
+the _Globe_ in 1879, the _Echo_ in 1883, the _Times_ in 1885, and the
+_Argus_ in 1891. I must, however, just note that the most important new
+journalistic venture in recent years was the production of the
+_Birmingham Morning News_, which was started in 1871. This daily morning
+paper was established on lines which should have led to a permanent
+success. There was plenty of capital at its back.
+
+Mr. George Dawson--whose name it was thought would be a tower of
+strength--took an active part in its editorial work. It had an excellent
+staff, and, in a journalistic sense and as a newspaper production, it
+was a credit to itself and to the town.
+
+The _Birmingham Morning News_ was carried on for some four years at a
+very considerable loss, and just when it seemed to be about to turn the
+corner and get into a more profitable groove, its capitalist proprietor
+gave it up in disappointment and disgust. For one thing, he found it
+difficult to get all the influential help he wanted in the news
+department, and he was probably getting a little weary of putting money
+into a basket that seemed to have no bottom to it. Yet it was believed
+by those well experienced in newspaper management that another year
+would have seen a favourable turn in the fortunes of the paper. The
+costly ground baiting which is necessary in a newspaper establishment
+had been done, and the expensive seed which has to be sown was about to
+come up when the proprietor resolved to plough the paper up and so add
+another to the formidable list of local newspaper failures.
+
+In the grave of the _Birmingham Morning News_ were buried many hopes.
+The proprietor hoped to make a fortune. Mr. Dawson hoped to make an
+income and secure a still wider influence through its medium. Its rivals
+hoped it would not succeed, and by its death and burial their hopes were
+realised.
+
+One little incident in connection with local journalism I must record
+here as being something almost unique. I refer to the astounding sketch
+Mr. H.J. Jennings--for many years editor of the _Birmingham Daily
+Mail_--wrote of himself in 1889, and the circumstances that led to its
+publication. After many years' connection with the _Daily. Mail_, Mr.
+Jennings went over to another local evening paper, the _Daily Times_,
+and by way of giving it a fillip he published in its columns a series of
+papers on "Our Public Men."
+
+That these sketches were not entirely flattering to the subjects of
+them will be readily understood. Mr. Jennings always was a smart, spicy,
+and sometimes even brilliant writer, but he could not help being more or
+less cynical. He rather liked to stick the toasting fork into his
+subjects, and then hold them pretty close to the bars of a decidedly hot
+fire. The result was that many of them burned and smarted under the
+ordeal. One of the victims went so far as to propose that this
+self-appointed censor of public characters should be fought with his own
+weapons, and have a taste of his own nasty physic. In a word it was
+suggested that someone should draw Mr. H.J. Jennings' portrait on his
+own lines after his own manner.
+
+Mr. Jennings promptly took up the gauntlet that was thrown down and
+immediately proceeded to write a sketch of himself, which appeared in
+the _Birmingham Daily Times_ of May 29th, 1889, and was, perhaps, one of
+the most daring and audacious feats of contemporary journalism on
+record. If he had entrusted his task to his most bitter enemy it could
+hardly have been more scathing than it was.
+
+Mr. Jennings certainly did not blunt his steel when he proceeded to
+operate upon himself. He did not spare himself, but dug the knife in and
+turned it round. It was, indeed, a singularly curious piece of
+biography, written with all the pungency and point its writer could
+command, and it need hardly be said that such a sketch silenced the guns
+of some of his foes and made something of a sensation in the town.
+
+This clever and amazing article was a sort of dying swan's song so far
+as Mr. Jennings and Birmingham were concerned. If I remember rightly,
+soon after its appearance he severed his professional connection with
+the town. He went to London and joined the staff of a financial journal.
+Whether he has made his own fortune or the fortunes of others by his
+London work I do not know and need not enquire. I will be content to
+record the remarkable achievement I have mentioned in connection with
+his Birmingham journalistic career.
+
+One special reason why I am devoting some consideration and space to the
+Birmingham press is because I wish to refer to one local publication
+which had something to do, indirectly at least, with the making of
+Modern Birmingham. I allude to the _Birmingham Town Crier_. This
+serio-comic, satirical little paper was started in the year 1861, and
+was for many years a monthly publication. On its first appearance it
+created some stir by its original and, in some respects, unique
+character, also by the general smartness and humour of its contents.
+
+When it first appeared many were the guesses made as to its promoters
+and contributors, and, so far as these came to my knowledge, not one
+proved correct. Certain quite innocent men were credited with being
+contributors to the new paper, and some of these did not deny the soft
+impeachment. The general guessing, however, ranged very wide, and
+included all sorts and conditions of men, from the Rev. Dr. Miller, then
+rector of St. Martin's, to the bellman in the Market Hall. Considering
+that the _Town Crier_ was started with a purpose, as I shall presently
+show, and that it exerted some influence in its own way upon the
+progress of the town, it is, I think, fitting that the story of its
+early beginnings should be told, and I am in a position to tell the
+tale.
+
+As all the first contributors of the _Town Crier_ have ceased--most of
+them long since ceased--to have any connection with the paper, there can
+be no harm now in referring to its original staff, if only as a little
+matter of local history. I may, therefore, place it on record that the
+contributors to the first number of the _Town Crier_, which was
+published in January, 1861, were Mr. Sam Timmins, Mr. J. Thackray Bunce,
+Mr. G.J. Johnson, Dr. (then Mr.) Sebastian Evans, and the present
+writer, Thomas Anderton.
+
+Some two or three months after its first appearance the late Mr. John
+Henry Chamberlain joined the staff, and a little later still Mr. William
+Harris became one of the "table round." With this staff the paper was
+carried on for many years, and with more or less success, according to
+the point of view from which it was considered. Being of a satirical
+character it, of course, often rapped certain people over the knuckles
+in a way they did not appreciate. They naturally resented being chaffed
+and held up to ridicule, but as there was nothing of a malicious or
+private character in the sarcasms published any little soreness they
+created soon died away.
+
+One reason why the _Town Crier_ came into existence was because it was
+felt that there were certain things, and perhaps certain people, who
+could be best assailed and suppressed by ridicule. They could be laughed
+and chaffed rather than reasoned out of existence. Certainly the paper
+was not established with any idea of profit, nor for the gratification
+of indulging in scurrilous personal attacks. It only dealt with public
+affairs and with men in their public capacity. Indeed, I may say that
+all the men connected with the _Town Crier_ at its starting were
+interested in the good government and progress of the town, and they
+used the influence of the paper for the purpose of removing stumbling
+blocks, and putting incompetent and pretentious persons out of the way.
+
+As so much interest has lately been created by the descriptions given of
+the _Punch_ dinners and the doings of the _Punch_ staff, I may state
+that the promoters of our local _Charivari_ also combined pleasant
+social intercourse with their journalistic functions. The monthly
+dinners of the _Town Crier_ staff remain in my memory as being among the
+most delightful and genial evenings I have ever spent in my life. We met
+at each other's houses, and after a nice satisfying dinner we proceeded
+to pipes and paths of pleasantness, and to planning the contents for the
+next number of our paper.
+
+Large and hearty was the hilarity at these monthly meetings, and I
+think I may say that the talk was interesting and smart. Mr. J.H.
+Chamberlain was often positively brilliant in his little sallies of
+speech, whilst Mr. J.T. Bunce would put in dry, sententious words of wit
+and wisdom. Mr. G.J. Johnson laid down the law with pungent perspicuity,
+and Mr. William Harris was amusingly epigrammatic. Mr. Sam Timmins on
+these occasions was ever ready with an apt remark, very often containing
+an apt quotation, and Mr. Sebastian Evans smoked and laughed much, made
+incisive little observations, and drew sketches on blotting paper.
+
+As we were all more or less interested in or concerned with the most
+important matters that were then going on in the town, there was much to
+be said that was worth saying and hearing. Even in the wheels that were
+within wheels some of the _Town Crier_ men had spokes. A bank could not
+break without some of us being concerned in the smash, and I remember
+to my sorrow that when the Birmingham Banking Company came to grief I
+was an unfortunate shareholder.
+
+I do not think it necessary to say much more concerning the early days
+of the publication in question. Its first promoters became busy, and, in
+some cases, important men as time went on, and gradually they had to
+give up their connection with a periodical whose pages for some years
+they had done so much to enliven and adorn. The _Town Crier_, I think it
+will be admitted, did good work in its own peculiar way, and those who
+remain of its early promoters (and the small number has been thinned by
+the death of Mr. J.H. Chamberlain and Mr. J.T. Bunce) need not be
+ashamed to speak with the enemy at the gate--I mean, to own their former
+connection with a publication which was not regarded as being
+discreditable to its contributors, or to the town.
+
+One matter in connection with the publication of the _Town Crier_ may be
+mentioned as being curious, and perhaps a little surprising. It is
+this: that during the many years that the paper was conducted by its
+original promoters it steered clear of libel actions. In only one case
+was an action even threatened, and this was disposed of by an accepted
+little explanation and apology. We often used to hear rumours that
+Alderman, Councillor, or Mr. Somebody intended wreaking vengeance upon
+writers who had belaboured or ridiculed him; but these threats ended in
+nothing, and the first proprietors of the _Town Crier_ never had to pay
+even a farthing damages as the result of law proceedings. This is
+something to record, because papers of a satirical character necessarily
+sail pretty close to the wind in the way of provoking touchy people to
+fly to law to soothe their wounded feelings and pay out their supposed
+persecutors.
+
+I confess I often used to shiver slightly in my shoes when I considered
+the possible consequences of what I myself and others had written in the
+_Town Crier_. The law of libel is a wide-spreading net, anything that
+brings a man into ridicule or contempt or damages him in his trade or
+profession being libellous. To criticize adversely a painter, actor, or
+singer is necessarily damaging, and is really a libel, but to sustain an
+action real damage must be proved, or it must be shown that malice and
+ill-will have prompted the objectionable adverse opinions. But, as we
+know, there are certain pettifogging men of law who are ever ready to
+encourage people to bring actions for libel for the mere sake of getting
+damages. I believe I have thus stated the case correctly, but I am not a
+"limb of the law," not even an amputated limb, or a law student. I speak
+from what I have seen in the Libel Acts and in the judgments I have
+read. Having been one of the Press gang for many years, I have never
+thought my liberties quite safe, and have often felt that any day I
+might be brought up to the bar for judgment. But I escaped, even when I
+was writing for the _Town Crier_, and have escaped since. But let me not
+boast. Before these lines are read my ordinary clothes may be required
+of me.
+
+On the shelves of my small library are some bound volumes of the early
+numbers of the _Birmingham Town Crier_, in which are some pencil marks.
+If I should sooner or later have to retire to live _en pension_ at
+Winson Green, or at the Bromsgrove or other Union, I hope to be able to
+take these cherished books with me to look at from time to time, and to
+keep green my memory of past pleasant days.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+ITS VARIED AND ODD TRADES.
+
+
+If some outside people were asked to name in three lines the three chief
+trades of Birmingham they would probably answer by saying "Guns,"
+"Hardware," and then, perhaps rather puzzled, might add "more guns."
+This, however, would be a very bald and incomplete reply, and would
+denote a somewhat benighted idea of the productive resources of
+Birmingham. Gun and pistol making form a very important industry in the
+city, and one ward--St. Mary's--is the happy hunting ground of small
+firearm makers. All the same, gunmaking is not the be-all and end-all
+of our manufacturing activity, and is, indeed, only one of the many and
+increasing trades that thrive and progress in the midland hardware
+capital.
+
+It is, indeed, a distinct advantage for Birmingham that it has many
+different trades, and if some are depressed and slack others may be
+active and prosperous. Hence, there is generally business doing
+somewhere. It is the misfortune of some towns and districts to be
+devoted entirely to one or two industries. For instance, take
+Manchester. If the cotton trade becomes depressed or paralysed
+Cottonopolis soon becomes a starved-out city. Then there are textile
+towns, boot and shoe boroughs, pottery districts, &c., &c. Birmingham,
+however, is pretty smart at taking up new ideas, and does not let new
+manufacturing industries go begging for a home. A certain number of
+trades languish and die out owing to change of fashion and to certain
+articles becoming obsolete. Snuffers and powder flasks, for instance,
+are not in large demand in the present day. A limited number are still
+made for travellers and for remote countries that have not cartridges,
+the electric light, or even incandescent gas, within their reach.
+
+Brass and pearl button making used to be important industries, and tons
+of such wares used to be made in Birmingham in the course of a month.
+Comparatively few are made now. Yet we are not exactly "buttonless
+black-guards," as Cobbett--at least, I think it was Cobbett--once
+disrespectfully called the Quakers, and buttons of various kinds other
+than pearl and brass are turned out in barrow loads. I remember some
+years ago going over the button factory of Messrs. Dain, Watts, and
+Manton, an old-established business now carried on by Mr. J.S. Manton,
+and was then shown a curious composition or kind of paste that could be
+made into buttons useful for all sorts of purposes. On my asking what
+the "button dough" was made of, Mr. Manton, I remember, gave me the
+comprehensive reply, "anything."
+
+All sorts of stuff having any substance in it was indeed thrown into a
+kind of mortar, ground up, mixed with something that gave the mass
+cohesion and plasticity, then moulded into buttons as clay is moulded by
+the potter, and burned, dried, and hardened. Therefore, if brass and
+pearl buttons are in limited demand, there are other materials from
+which a new useful and cheap article can be made--the "very button" for
+the time--and this is produced in much larger quantities than the more
+costly articles of a few generations ago.
+
+In spite, then, of changes in fashion, Birmingham is still--I will not
+say a button hole, but a city where billions of buttons are made.
+Witness, for instance, the turn-out of such a manufactory as that of
+Thomas Carlyle, Limited. Here is a great and extended concern grafted
+upon an old-established business, and which at the present time gives
+employment, regularly, to over 1,000 hands. Buttons are made to go to
+all people, save the rude and nude races, and a few odd millions
+produced for home use. And speaking of all this reminds me how in the
+days of my boyhood I sometimes saw a queer character known as "Billy
+Button." He was a sight to behold, for he was decorated with buttons,
+mostly brass, from top to toe, and presented a sight that was enough to
+make a thoroughbred quaker swoon.
+
+Birmingham, as I have remarked, is sufficiently enterprising not to let
+opportunities slip through its fingers. Its trades are still increasing,
+and increasing in number and variety, and though there is a tendency in
+some of the big industries that do a large foreign trade to get nearer
+to the sea-board, there are those who are sanguine enough to believe
+that the number of our works and our workpeople will increase and
+multiply till the large supplies of water that are to be conducted to us
+from Mid-Wales will be none too copious for the great unwashed and other
+inhabitants of our city a few years hence.
+
+Referring again to outsiders and their ideas of Birmingham trades, when
+visitors--distinguished or otherwise--come to see our factories there
+are two that they generally begin and often end with--namely, Mr. Joseph
+Gillott's pen manufactory and the electro-plate works of Messrs.
+Elkington. Of late years the Birmingham Small Arms establishment at
+Small Heath has gained attention and made a good third to our show
+industries.
+
+Visitors to Messrs. Elkington's are, of course, largely attracted by the
+artistic contents and triumphs of the famous Newhall Street show rooms.
+The name of the Elkington firm has a world-wide fame, and their splendid
+artistic achievements may almost be said to be epoch-making in the way
+of combining utility with beautiful design to the highest degree. Those,
+however, who fancy that Messrs. Elkington's great and extending
+manufactory is kept going by designing and producing splendid vases,
+shields, cups, and sumptuous gold and silver services, are, of course,
+hugely mistaken. The ordinary spoons, forks, &c., that are to be seen--I
+won't say on every table, but on the tables of millions of people, are
+the staple productions of such firms as that of which I speak. Indeed,
+if I could probe into the secret chambers of Messrs. Elkington's back
+safe, I should probably find that the production of those exquisite
+artistic articles of theirs has not been the department of their
+business that has brought the greatest grist to the mill and made a
+commercial success of their trade.
+
+Those visitors to Elkington's who penetrate beyond the show rooms will
+find much to interest, and in some cases to mystify them.
+Electro-plating is indeed almost a magical sort of craft. How it is that
+dirty looking metal spoons can be put into a dirty looking bath and come
+out white and silvered must amaze and bewilder many strange eyes.
+Impassive as Asiatics can be, I should much like for once just to watch
+the eyes of an eastern conjuror and magician when he saw the electro
+bath trick, and especially when done in the way and on the scale that
+may be witnessed at the Birmingham Newhall Street works.
+
+With regard to Mr. Joseph Gillott's pen manufactory it is a very
+interesting show place, but is practical and prosaic compared with the
+art electro-plate establishment I have just now referred to. Those,
+however, who like to see processes, and something going on quickly from
+stage to stage, find Mr. Gillott's factory a place of almost fascinating
+interest. They can, indeed, observe the steel pen emerge from its native
+metal, see it pressed and stamped, and again pressed and stamped,
+slitted, annealed, coloured, and finally boxed and packed. They can also
+see the penholders produced and inhale the sweet and pungent fragrance
+of cedar wood, and they can look on the production of the pen boxes
+which are made in so many attractively coloured varieties.
+
+All this is to be seen in the course of a little march through Mr.
+Gillott's factory, which is, indeed, a pattern of order and
+cleanliness, and so well conducted as to be almost like a real adult
+school of industry. Female labour is largely employed--as is customary
+in the pen trade--the nimble fingers and deft hands of many girls
+finding useful employment, without fatiguing labour, in the various
+processes of the pen-making business.
+
+Pen-making is, of course, a great industry, but there are pens and pens,
+and for some of the lower qualities the trade price is of incredible
+cheapness. I sometimes think that if an enterprising merchant were to
+try and place an order for a million gross of steel pens at 1d. per
+gross, and 75 per cent. discount for cash, he would succeed in doing it.
+The quantity it is that pays.
+
+The pleasure and interest of going over Mr. Gillott's establishment is
+enhanced by the fact that visitors see the popular pens of commerce and
+the aristocratic pens of what Jeames calls the "upper suckles" made, so
+to speak, side by side. The Graham Street works could not be kept going
+by merely making dainty gold pens, fine long barrelled goose quills, and
+other such superior productions. The everyday person muse be considered
+and supplied with everyday pens, and the everyday person, although he
+buys cheap pens, is a more profitable customer than he looks.
+
+A well-known mustard maker has been known to say that he makes his
+profit out of what people leave on their plates. In other words, the
+everyday waste of people vastly increases mustard consumption. In the
+same way the everyday pen is so cheap that it is not used with care and
+economy. It is lightly thrown aside often before it is half worn, and is
+often objurgated and wasted because it is dipped into bad ink. But what
+does it matter when you can get a gross of pens for just a few pence.
+
+One more little remark about the Graham Street works and I have done. I
+take leave to doubt if Mr. Joseph Gillott turns out any of the very
+cheapest and commonest pens, but I feel pretty certain that he makes the
+best and most costly productions of their kind. There are still very
+many people at home and abroad--especially Americans--who do not like to
+put a little common, "vulgar" pen on their writing tables. They prefer
+to see something more superior in style and finish. On such pens as
+these will generally be seen the name of Mr. Joseph Gillott. There are,
+of course, other makers of good steel pens in Birmingham, but their
+places are not so much visited or their productions so widely known as
+the pens of Graham Street works.
+
+A few years ago Birmingham penmakers, as well as others, were disposed
+to be rather terrified at the advent of the typewriter, and fancied in
+their sable moments that the steel pen would sooner or later be
+superseded. They are not now so dismayed as they were, and I hardly
+think they need be. The electric light has not put out gas; in spite of
+railway engines I still see a few horses about sometimes; and even motor
+cars and the like will not at present run locomotive engines off the
+line. I, therefore, think that makers of fine points, broad points,
+medium points, &c., may rest securely in their pens, notwithstanding a
+Yost of typewriters, Remington, or what not.
+
+Few people outside our own borders quite realise, perhaps, what a large
+and important industry the jewellery trade is in Birmingham. Yet one
+quarter of the city--the Hockley district--is chiefly devoted to what
+cynical people call the production of baubles. If anyone doubts the
+extent to which the jewellery trade is carried on, and the number of
+hands engaged in it, let him station himself somewhere Hockley way at
+the hour of one o'clock in the day, and he will see for himself.
+
+No sooner has the welcome sound of the tocsin been heard--almost indeed
+before it has time to sound--hundreds, aye thousands of men emerge from
+their workshops, and for a time quite throng streets that just before
+the magic hour of one p.m. were comparatively quiet and empty.
+
+Curiously enough these working jewellers seem to come from hidden and
+obscure regions, and appear in the open from their industrial cells
+through many small doors and entries, rather than through large gateways
+which are opened at certain regulation hours.
+
+The jewellery trade is not carried out in large factories with tall,
+towering stacks, powerful steam engines, &c. Machinery may be used in
+certain branches of the trade for all I know, but, speaking generally,
+working jewellers sit at their bench, play their blow-pipe, and with
+delicate appliances and deft hands put together the precious articles of
+fancy they make.
+
+Handsome lockets are not turned in a lathe. Diamond and ruby rings are
+not productions that are run through a machine and sold by the gross,
+"subject." Nor are jewelled pendants made in presses, nor beautiful
+bracelets banged into shape by the mechanical thump of a stamping
+machine. The consequence is that jewellery work of the finest fashion
+is made in small establishments, but as I have said there are so many of
+these that the "turn-out" in the way of "hands" is a formidable element
+in our local population.
+
+It is, we know, an ancient saw that tells us that two of a trade cannot
+agree, but it has always struck me that jewellers belie this generally
+accepted maxim. I came to this conclusion from knowing and visiting a
+colony of goldfinches--I mean master jewellers, who are quite civil to
+each other, will sit at meat and drink together, go to the same place of
+worship, and generally behave as friends, neighbours, and Christians.
+
+How it was that these employer blow-pipers could maintain and assume
+such a benign and almost brotherly attitude towards each other was a
+little puzzling to me till I thought the matter out. Jewellers they
+might all be, but they did not all jewel alike. They rowed in the same
+boat, but not with the same sculls--to use Jerrold's old joke, They
+blowed the same pipe, but played different tunes. In a word they
+produced different varieties of jewellery, and consequently did not cut
+each other's throats in competition. One would chiefly make chains,
+another lockets and pendants, a third studs and sleeve links, a fourth
+rings, a fifth bracelets and brooches, and another miscellaneous
+high-class productions, including mayoral chains, &c., &c. Under these
+circumstances the two or three of a trade to whom I have referred have
+been able to agree, and will be able to maintain good fellowship till
+such times as some largely enterprising bold blow-piper forms himself
+into a large syndicate, resolves to make everything himself, and crush
+down all competition. But that time is not yet.
+
+In speaking of the jewellery trade in Birmingham, I think I am safe in
+saying that at any rate until recently the town, now a city, has not
+enjoyed full credit for the high-class work it produces. For a long time
+it was regarded as the workshop of cheap "sham" jewellery, and that if
+you wanted really good things you must go to London and buy in the
+marts of New Bond Street.
+
+If any such heathen now exist, and I suspect they do, they would be
+rather surprised if they knew how much London sold jewellery is made in
+Birmingham. Purchasers have the pleasure of buying in Bond Street, and
+of having bracelets, bangles, rings and lockets put in cases with a
+well-known West-end firm's name on it, and that is something of which
+they are proud, and for which they are willing to pay. And they do have
+to pay. In proof of which I will tell a true story. Some years ago I
+knew a Birmingham manufacturing jeweller whose line was gold and silver
+pencil cases. I was looking over his show cases one day when he picked
+up a small good pencil case suitable to put on a lady's chain. My friend
+told me chat his trade price for this article was 3s. 6d., and he had
+seen it marked--his own make--18s. in Regent Street shops. I have known
+of others in the fancy trades tell a similar story.
+
+For instance, a manufacturer once told me that he had made gold ware
+for the Royal table, but not directly. His order came from a West-end
+house and his name was to be altogether suppressed.
+
+In some preceding remarks I referred to cheap sham jewellery. There is a
+very considerable amount of it made in Birmingham, and "gilt jewellery"
+is the name by which it is known. Respecting this trade and its
+productions I can, perhaps, tell a few of my readers something that may
+rather surprise them. Not many years ago I wished to see and purchase
+some of this gilt jewellery in order to make gay and glorious a
+Christmas tree--Heaven forbid, of course, that my friends or myself
+should adorn ourselves with such baubles.
+
+I went to a manufacturer of these wares to make my purchases, and hoped
+to buy cheaply. And I did; at a price indeed that rather astonished me.
+For instance, I was shown some brilliant looking brooches of good design
+and finish, and sparkling with diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies,
+of rich lustre--or, I should say, imitations of these precious stones. I
+looked at these handsome productions and thought a good price would be
+asked for them. I was, as I have hinted however, rather more than
+astonished to find that I could make a very good selection at from 15s.
+to 18s. per dozen.
+
+Just fancy, these brilliant brooches adorned with gems of purest ray
+serene--that is, to the naked, unexpert eye--well-fashioned in the
+matter of workmanship, and looking of, at least, eighteen carat gold,
+and yet they could be purchased at the rate of from fifteen to eighteen
+pence each. What, however, staggered me still more was to find that
+there was a lower deep still in the matter of price. On my venturing to
+remark to the warehouse-man who showed me the articles mentioned, that I
+supposed they were the very cheapest things in the trade, he remarked,
+"Oh dear no, we don't do anything in the cheap stuff line. If you want
+that you must go to Messrs. So-and-So, in Blank Street."
+
+I went to the cheap firm he named in Blank Street, and there sure
+enough found cheap stuff and no mistake. Brooches and lockets at 12s. a
+dozen and even less, and handsome watch chains at the rate of about 10d.
+each. I must add, however, that the makers would not dispose of less
+than a dozen of each article shewn. Perhaps they could hardly be
+expected to sell retail at such prices as I have named.
+
+Having obtained the "Open Sesame" to the jewelled caves or warehouses of
+the gilt jewellers I came away loaded with gems, and my purse but very
+little lighter. So well indeed did some of my purchases look when I got
+them home that I could not see much difference between them and the real
+articles. Consequently, when I now see fair ladies gaily bedecked with a
+superfluity of handsome lustrous trinkets I think of the gilt jewellery
+trade, and brooches at 15s. per dozen, less a discount doubtless to the
+trade.
+
+Leaving, now, the gold and gilt jewellery trades, which, as I have said,
+form a large industry in our midst, let me just briefly refer to some
+of the odd trades that are carried on in Birmingham. Among these I will
+first of all mention the manufacture of ship Logs, because it seems
+somewhat curious that an insular place like Birmingham, whose only
+suggestion of maritime operations is the canal, should produce
+Logs--that is, cunningly devised instruments for ascertaining the speed
+of ships. Yet if I go to north country ports, such as Leith, and if I go
+south to Dover, or west to Cardiff, I see the "Cherub," the "Harpoon,"
+and other Logs made by the firm of T. Walker and Sons, Oxford Street,
+Birmingham. As I have said, it seems a little strange, if not funny,
+that Birmingham should produce ship appliances. Nevertheless, the
+present Mr. T.F. Walker, and his father before him, have been making and
+improving ship Logs till their trade name is known and their productions
+seen in every port of significance here in Britain and abroad as well.
+
+A city, however, that produces Artificial Human Eyes may see its way to
+make anything; consequently, all sorts of diverse things are produced in
+Birmingham, from coffin furniture to custard powder, vices to vinegar,
+candles to cocoa, blue bricks to bird cages, handcuffs to horse collars,
+anvils to hat bands, soap to sardine openers, &c., &c., &c.
+
+There are also in Birmingham certain trades that without being large
+industries have taken fixed root in the locality. For instance, there is
+the glass trade, which employs a good few men, and, perhaps, it used to
+employ more. On this point I am not certain, but I do know that one
+large glass manufactory that existed in my younger days--namely, that of
+Rice Harris, which stood near where now stands the Children's Hospital,
+Broad Street--was disestablished many years ago.
+
+If I remember rightly Rice Harris's glass works had one of those large
+old-fashioned brick domes that I fancy are not constructed nowadays. One
+or two, however, still remain, and I for one feel glad that Messrs.
+Walsh and Co., of Soho, allow their dome to stand where it did, just as
+a landmark and to remind me of pleasant bygone days.
+
+I confess, too, that I like to go into one of these big glass hives, or
+rather glass-making hives, and see the workmen at their "chairs" blowing
+and moulding the hot ductile glass into its appointed form and patterns;
+and I like also to see the curling wreaths of smoke ascend and disappear
+through the orifice at the top of the dome. And when I look at this I
+wonder how that huge chimney is cleaned, and where the Titanic sweep is
+that could undertake such a gigantic job. Well, I can hardly say I
+wonder, because I think I have been told that the way the soot is
+cleaned from these well-smoked domes is by firing shot at the roof,
+which brings down the dirt.
+
+When in the winter season I see skates prominently exposed for sale in
+our shop windows I am reminded of another of the odd or rather side
+industries of Birmingham. I refer to the steel toy trade. The word toy
+seems appropriate enough when applied to skates and quoits, but seems a
+curious word to designate such articles of distinct utility as hammers,
+pincers, turnscrews, pliers, saws, and chisels, yet these articles and
+many others of a similar kind are included in the words "steel toys."
+This steel toy trade, if not a great industry in Birmingham, is an
+old-established one, and has been carried on for years by good
+well-known local names, such as Richard Timmins and Sons, Messrs. Wynn
+and Co., and others.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+NEW AND OLD STYLE TRADING.
+
+
+In an earlier part of these chapters I referred to the new style of
+shopkeeping that has developed in Birmingham with the growing size and
+importance of the town and city. I now return to the subject again for
+the purpose of showing that although Birmingham seems to be much to the
+fore in the matter of up-to-time shopkeeping, there are still a limited
+number of traders and shopkeepers who keep pretty much to the old lines,
+and evidently desire to carry on their businesses in the way that their
+fathers did before them.
+
+And in touching this question it is worth while considering for a
+moment how differently two men or two firms in the same trade will carry
+on their businesses, and yet both succeed. To put it more plainly, one
+firm will bombard the public with "fetching" advertisements, and get
+business, so to speak, at the bayonet's point. Another firm in the same
+line of trade lays siege to its customers in a quiet, systematic way,
+does its best to prevent any sorties in the direction of rival camps,
+and is content to keep its connection well guarded and do business in a
+quiet, undemonstrative way.
+
+Of course the man who goes in for publicity--wide publicity--and
+assaults the public with "loud" advertisements in all directions, drives
+the roaring trade, or the trade that roars loudest. He gets larger
+returns, and if his business is well managed he should secure larger
+profits. Beside these trade Dives's the humble, quiet, unostentatious
+Lazarus seems quite out in the cold. Not so, however. The latter picks
+up some good crumbs, if not some pretty substantial crusts, which he
+puts into his wallet with a gentle, unostentatious satisfaction which
+quite contents him.
+
+I could give chapter and verse for what I am now saying, and without
+hesitation or difficulty could name two firms in Birmingham that are
+carrying on the same trade, making the same everyday articles of
+consumption; yet, while the name of one firm is in everybody's mouth and
+is known to the ends of the earth, the name of the other is hardly ever
+seen save upon the productions they turn out. Yet I know for a fact that
+this latter firm make some nice solid profits out of their quiet
+business, though nothing perhaps at all comparable with their more
+enterprising rival. It is a case of thousands in one case and tens of
+thousands probably in the other. But enterprise should, of course, bring
+its own reward.
+
+I fear I have indulged in a rather full-blown parenthesis, but it was
+somewhat necessary before going into certain details concerning the two
+utterly opposed modes of trading and their exemplifications in
+Birmingham. As I have mentioned before, we have in recent years seen the
+rise and development of huge establishments and trading concerns that
+deal in anything and everything. Cutting and competition have gone on
+till there is nothing left to cut, or no weapon left that is sharp
+enough to cut finer. The results of all this has been the whittling away
+of a good many old-fashioned shops and traders; but they are not all
+gone, and some long--established businesses still survive and prosper in
+our midst.
+
+I will just mention one or two. If the reader of these lines will walk
+down the Lower Priory, which leads out of the Old Square--or what was
+the Old Square--he will see at the bottom of the said Lower Priory, on
+the right hand side, a sedate and solid brick building. He will see a
+brass knocker on the door and a brass plate bearing the name of
+Smallwood and Sons--"only this, and nothing more." This is the business
+house of the oldest firm of wine merchants in Birmingham, and I believe
+that these premises in the Lower Priory have been in the possession of
+the Smallwood family since the days of the Commonwealth; and, further,
+that the present active members of the firm are the fifth and sixth
+generation of Smallwood and Sons, wine merchants. There is no big shop
+window full of bottles of cheap heterogeneous wines and spirits. It
+might be the house of some good old doctor, or the office and home of
+some ripe old lawyer. If you step inside the office, you see few signs
+of Bacchus or his bowl, but you do see some antiquated rooms, some
+quaint furniture, and a nice dry, well-seasoned appearance that denotes
+age. There are full and capacious cellars on the premises of
+course--cellars containing a sort of well in which the books of the firm
+were buried at the time of the Birmingham riots; but, so far as outward
+appearance is concerned, Sir Wilfrid Lawson or the top Major-Domo of the
+Band of Hope might pass by the lintels of the doorway in Lower Priory
+without a sigh. With regard to Messrs. Smallwood's cellars, their
+subterranean premises are honeycombed with catacombs containing the
+remains of some grand old spirits and big bins of choice vintage and
+various other wines.
+
+It might be thought that such a very unbusiness-looking place would be
+quietly draining away, especially in face of the flaring competition in
+the wine and spirit trade. I am, however, glad to think and know that
+such old-established houses as Smallwood and Sons can bear up against
+the levelling down processes that characterise the more pushing branches
+of the wine and spirit trade. There are still a fair number of people
+who like to buy their wine from dealers who seem to have inherited
+certain trade instincts and experiences, and who can be relied upon to
+supply what they know to be good wines and spirits, such as can be
+consumed with pleasure and taken without risk. We do not all yet care
+for Chancellor claret, Hamburg sherry, petroleum champagne, and Dudley
+port, sometimes called "Bilston pit drink."
+
+Bottled red ink and cider champagne does not suit the taste of those
+who have a taste worth owning. They prefer to pay a fair price to have a
+good article, and they consequently go to old firms who are experts in
+their business.
+
+The most serious form of competition that knocks the legitimate liquor
+trader on the head is the grocer wine and spirit selling. It may be very
+convenient to the public to be able to buy a bottle of wine or whisky
+when they are buying their groceries, but this convenience has been
+purchased, I fear, at a cost that is not pleasant to consider. I fear it
+would not be difficult to prove that female home-drinking has been
+fostered by the grocers' wine and spirit licences. This is a serious
+matter to contemplate, and if I were a zealous temperance advocate I
+should strive to get those grocers' licences wiped out.
+
+Besides offering facilities that are calculated to encourage secret
+home-drinking the grocers' licences operate in another way that is not
+exactly conducive to morality or integrity. I will explain what I mean.
+At Cambridge I knew an undergraduate who had a somewhat parsimonious
+pater. The latter limited his son's allowance, and scrutinized his bills
+pretty closely. But my Verdant Green circumvented the supervision of his
+male parent by the opportunities offered by the grocers' shops. Although
+my undergraduate friend was, I knew, kept pretty "short" in the matter
+of cash supplies, I noticed that he never seemed short of strong drink.
+He let the cat out of the bag--or let me say the cork out of the
+bottle--when one day he innocently remarked to me, "I get all my liquor
+from the grocer's; the governor never looks much at the grocer's
+account."
+
+Leaving the question of wines and spirits, I can illustrate my
+preference for dealing with men who "know you know" what they are
+selling, and are, indeed, experts in their trades. Although I am not a
+good or bad Templar, nor yet a small brass Band of Hope, I confess to a
+large weakness for tea--good, nice, well-flavoured tea. I have, however,
+found it somewhat difficult to obtain. Occasionally I taste it at the
+houses of friends who buy their tea in chests at a time; but as for
+getting such tea at the usual grocers' shops I have found it difficult,
+if not impossible. Yet I have been willing to pay up to get some real
+prime Souchong, Assam, Orange Pekoe, or what not. I do not expect to get
+a one and twopenny tea with a fine two and ninepenny flavour. Bather
+recently I have paid 3s. 6d. a pound to get my little luxury; moreover,
+I tried many and various shops, but all more or less in vain. At last,
+however, I found salvation by going to a house--a retail shop
+indeed--that dealt in scarcely anything else but tea. And I now get tea
+full of delicious fragrance and flavour. It breathes such a splendid
+aroma before it is tasted that it almost seems a sin to drink it. When,
+however, I do taste a well-made cup of this infusion I am so happy and
+benign that (to paraphrase some words of the late Bishop of Oxford) my
+own wife might play with me.
+
+I fear, however, I am getting rather rhapsodical on this question of
+tea. There are other--what I will call specialist old-style--traders
+besides those in the teetotal and unteetotal line to which I wish to
+refer. But these must be reserved for another chapter.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+OLD-ESTABLISHED SHOPS.
+
+
+Considering the pace at which Birmingham moved forward during the latter
+half of the nineteenth century, it is not, perhaps, surprising that few
+shops and houses of old date are now to be seen in the chief centre
+streets of the city. A few, however, remain to remind us that Birmingham
+was not built yesterday, and that it has a respectable past, and is not
+a place of that mushroom growth which comes into existence in a night.
+
+Chief among the old order of retail trading establishments still
+flourishing in our midst I may particularly mention the shop of Mr.
+William Pearsall, silversmith, &c. As many of my readers are aware, it
+is situated in High Street, opposite the end of New Street, and is
+conspicuous for its pretty--I had almost said petite--quaintness and its
+genuine old-time appearance and origin. There are the small bow windows,
+the little panes of glass, that are so suggestive of the architecture of
+a century ago, and outside the shop everything bespeaks a past which was
+not exactly of yesterday.
+
+This great-grandfather shop, so to speak, has, indeed, been established
+for more than a century, and when the present proprietor first went to
+the business the trade done was chiefly in silver and silver made goods,
+whereas now it is largely in electro plate, in jewellery, cutlery, &c.
+The proprietor, indeed, like others in his position, has found himself
+obliged to keep in step with the times or go under. He has preferred the
+former course, but without abandoning what I may call the antique
+department of his business.
+
+It is, indeed, a most attractive kind of shop, especially for ladies of
+a matured taste and mind who like to see pretty things, some of which
+have a quaint charm which is often especially dear to the feminine soul.
+I can fancy ladies going there and spending a right down happy time in
+looking at the dainty specimens of antique silver, and also the modern
+reproductions of old patterns in electro plate. I can, indeed, by a
+stretch of the imagination picture in my mind ladies who will go and
+look at many things at such a shop, admire all, and buy none.
+
+Indeed, I do not know that I should mind indulging in this little luxury
+myself, but, being of the masculine order of creation, I, perhaps,
+hardly like to spend hours in a shop and leave the shopkeeper with the
+cold comfort of a promise that I will "think about it." Quaint and
+inviting shops, however, stocked with articles that form a little
+exhibition in themselves must pay the penalty of their attractiveness,
+and possibly the proprietors have no objection.
+
+It goes, of course, without saying that a business that has been
+carried on for over a century has seen great changes in regard to custom
+and customers. Consequently, it is not surprising to learn that wealthy
+iron-masters, the country gentry, and prosperous farmers no longer make
+the purchases of silver and fancy wares they did in the days that are no
+more. Black country magnates have discovered they can now do without
+many solid silver services, and even fairly well-to-do rural people find
+they can at a pinch put up with electro plate.
+
+I confess I like to look at the bijou shop in High Street and think what
+it must have seen and heard in its time. It must have heard the bells of
+St. Martin's toll for the death of Nelson and ring out joyous peals
+after Waterloo. It must have seen disorderly crowds march past its doors
+at the time of the Birmingham riots; more than this, it felt something
+of the lawlessness that prevailed, since the shop was looted and some of
+its contents carried off by the rioters.
+
+Yes, as I have said, it must have heard some pealing and tolling of the
+St. Martin's Church bells--and what charmingly mellifluous and melodious
+bells they are! I do not profess to be a campanologist or a bell hunter,
+but I have a loving ear for a sweet-toned church bell, and can think of
+few belfries whose contents surpass St. Martin's, Birmingham. Although I
+have not heard the "Bells of Shandon" immortalised by Father Prout, I
+have, however, heard Great Tom of Lincoln. I have listened to the "bonny
+Christ Church bells" of Oxford, and my ears have dwelt upon the sweet
+jinglings of the Carrillion at Antwerp and in other Flemish cities. I
+have also heard the dulcet chimings of many village church bells in
+various parts of the land, and I have listened with undelight to the
+unmusical tones of Big Ben of Westminster, but so far as mellow tone is
+concerned, I rarely hear any ordinary church bells that are more dulcet
+and harmonious than the bells of St. Martin's, Birmingham.
+
+Few people heed their beauties I am afraid; indeed, some singularly
+insensible residents and traders in the neighbourhood have been known to
+protest against the charming chimings of the bells of St. Martin's.
+Those, however, who want to hear the true musical quality and tone of
+these bells must select a quiet time, as the Bull Ring is not a
+particularly peaceful spot in the busy hours of day. Midnight is the
+witching hour that should be chosen to listen to the music of St.
+Martin's belfry. It may be a late and inconvenient hour for the
+experiment, but it is worth it--if the bells still chime at that
+"ghostly" hour.
+
+I am afraid I have indulged in a somewhat extensive parenthesis, but my
+pen has run away with me, and now it must come back to the old-fashioned
+High Street shop where I lingered a few paragraphs back. The adjoining
+premises to Mr. Pearsall's, on the east side, are also old and well in
+years. They have been altered and provided with a modern "dickey"--I
+should say, front--which rather hides their antiquity. There is,
+however, still conspicuous a quaint and curious spout-head which bears
+the date 1687, showing that these premises have more than passed their
+bicentenary.
+
+The only little old-date shop in the heart of Birmingham that, till
+recently, rivalled the "silver-smithy" I have described in High Street,
+was a saddler's at the top of New Street, which nestled under the shadow
+of Christ Church. It had the old-style small bow windows, the low roof,
+and the circumscribed area of old-fashioned shops. The ancient saddler
+who formerly tenanted it had not enough space to crack a whip, let alone
+swing a cat in. In past days, however, business was carried on under
+"limited" principles, but chiefly limited as to extent and space.
+
+When walking about Birmingham, archaeological observers should look up
+if they wish to see and note any traces of age and antiquity. The lower
+portions of old premises have often been so enlarged and modernized that
+they give no sign of the real date of the buildings. In Bull Street,
+for instance, there are narrow old style windows that are very
+suggestive of a bygone day. But these are becoming few and far between,
+and will doubtless soon be seen no more.
+
+Old-fashioned shops naturally suggest new and old-style shopkeeping. In
+a recent chapter I alluded to some long-established trading houses in
+Birmingham that within certain limits carry on their trade in a manner
+that differs from the very modern and obtrusively pressing fashion which
+is so much the custom of the day. Something of the same kind may be said
+of shops, as I generally remarked in my earlier observations. But to
+descend more into detail, there are still among its at any rate a
+limited number of shopkeepers who like to do their business on good,
+safe, and steady lines, and keep together a nice respectable connection
+by upholding the dependable quality of their wares. Some of these
+shopkeepers do not make much of an outward show, but I have reason to
+know that many of them in a quiet undemonstrative manner do a snug and
+prosperous trade without fuss or display.
+
+I will just briefly particularize. Opposite King Edward's School in New
+Street is a quiet, unostentatious-looking tobacconist's shop. The window
+plate bears the name of Evans, and in the window is a modest show of
+smoking wares and materials. If you step inside the shop, it is
+comparatively calm and quiet. You do not see young men sitting about
+smoking, chatting, and joking with girls across the counter. There is no
+constant succession of customers coming in and out and buying their
+ounces and half ounces of "Returns," "Bird's Eye," "Shag," and "Old
+Virginia." Yet an evident perfume of tobacco and prosperity seems to
+pervade the shop, but no sign of the Tom, Dick, and Henry sort of trade
+that is done by more ostentatious modern traders. It is, I believe, a
+case of half a century's trading in good tobacco stuffs having
+established a connection among those who like good tobacco, will pay a
+proper price for it, and deal where they can get it.
+
+These remarks apply more or less to a jewellery, watch and clock shop
+next door, kept for many years by Mr. L.N. Hobday. Here again there is a
+look of quality rather than mere quantity. There is no ticketed crowded
+display of wares, but the look of the shop inspires a feeling of
+confidence and an assurance that the quality of what you purchase may be
+relied upon. I am not in the secrets of the proprietor of this
+establishment, and have no interest in it beyond being an occasional
+small customer, yet I should not wonder if he does not do a nice,
+steady, quiet trade among those who have found out the advantages of
+dealing with a trader who personally understands his business, and will
+give them good value for their money.
+
+There are, as I have hinted, other shops that prefer adhering to
+well-established lines of business, rather than up-to-dating their
+trade past all recognition. There are a few drapers still left, who,
+like Turner, Son, and Nephew, do not go in for a general all
+round-my-hat sort of business, but who restrict themselves within
+certain limited lines and on them keep up a well-established connection.
+There are, however, others who prefer a more pushing, store-competing,
+Whiteley-emulating style of trade. They follow their bent and probably
+make it pay. It is, of course, well that we should have traders of all
+kinds to minister to the requirements of a large and varied community.
+For myself, however, I am glad that there are still some shopkeeper
+specialists left who limit themselves to dealing in such things as they
+understand, and know what they buy, and sell that they know.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+SOME PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS.
+
+
+Though reminiscences and recollections are rather overdone in these
+days, I may, perhaps, be permitted a few personal reflections in
+bringing my chapters to a close. And I shall not write a long, tedious
+tale, and why? Because, like the needy knife-grinder, I have no story to
+tell. Happy, we are told, is the country that has no history, and, if
+this is so, happy should be the man who is not burdened with too many
+reminiscences.
+
+Still, there are just a few memories that I should like to jot down,
+which may, or may not, be of interest to my readers. Authors, I fancy,
+often write as much to gratify themselves as to please other people. I
+cannot boast that I have been personally intimate with many
+distinguished people. I have never been to Court, and, consequently, I
+am, according to Shakspeare's clown, emphatically "damned." I have known
+some few titled people, and have even sat at meat with a Duke in his
+palatial home, and did not fail to notice that his Grace was very easy
+and human in his tastes and manners, and was not above taking a glass of
+port wine with his cheese. I have just occasionally shaken hands with a
+lord of high degree, and even with a belted earl, but I am not of the
+Upper Ten, and am quite outside the gilded gate that encloses the noble
+of the land. I have seen few people that were particularly worth seeing,
+that is, for book-writing purposes, but I will take leave to reconnoitre
+in my memory those I have beheld in Birmingham during the course of my
+uneventful career.
+
+I may, perhaps, preface my observations with the paradoxical remark
+that the first great celebrity I ever saw I just missed seeing. This was
+Louis Kossuth. I was only a small boy when the great Hungarian patriot
+visited Birmingham in the year 1851. Hearing so much talk about Kossuth
+I naturally burned with a desire to see him. When the eventful day of
+his visit came I secured a very good position at the top of Paradise
+Street, and fancied I was going to have a fine view of the distinguished
+Hungarian and the procession that accompanied him. I waited patiently
+for some hours, then I heard the sound of music in the distance, and
+then the roar and cheers of many voices. They grew louder and louder;
+then came the surging wave of a great crowd of people. For a brief time
+I was quite submerged, and when I recovered my position the procession
+and the patriot were past and gone.
+
+I remember the visit to Birmingham of the Prince Consort in 1855 to lay
+the foundation stone of the Birmingham and Midland Institute.
+
+I saw his Royal Highness well and truly lay the said stone, and I
+afterwards saw him in the Town Hall, where he was entertained at
+luncheon. I have a very distinct recollection of the occasion even now,
+and I call to mind in particular that the Prince wore a pair of light
+grey trousers and a swallow-tail, that is, a dress-coat. We should think
+this a strange costume for a gentleman at a morning function in these
+days, but times have changed, and the dress coat is now never seen in
+the morning, and not so much at night as it used to be.
+
+Of course I remember the Queen's visit to Birmingham in 1858, for the
+purpose of opening Aston Park, the "People's Park," as it was proudly
+called. There was a deal of effervescent talk about this noble project.
+The People, with a capital P, were going to buy the park for the People,
+with the money of the People. The scheme succeeded save in the matter of
+getting the funds. The People approved of the project, the People
+shouted themselves hoarse when her Majesty came to put the finishing
+touch to the noble undertaking, but, unfortunately, the great People
+failed to find the money necessary to carry out the grand undertaking,
+and the Municipality had to pay up to complete the purchase.
+
+It is still going back a long time, but I distinctly recall the visit of
+Lord Brougham to Birmingham in 1857, when as president he delivered the
+inaugural address at the opening meeting of the newly-born Association
+for the Promotion of Social Science. I remember the Town Hall was
+completely filled, and much interest was felt in the appearance of Lord
+Brougham on the occasion. When he took his place on the platform there
+was some little disturbance and confusion among the audience. This
+promptly brought to his feet Lord Brougham, who said in very emphatic
+tones, "Allow me to say--and I have had some experience of public
+meetings--that if any persons attempt to disturb the proceedings of this
+meeting, measures shall be taken to expel them."
+
+I am quoting from memory, but I believe my words are pretty correct.
+When Lord Brougham had delivered this emphatic utterance, he proceeded
+with his address, which was a dull affair and did not inspire the least
+enthusiasm. It was, indeed, a somewhat somnolent discourse, and his
+audience hardly seemed to wake up till he reached his peroration, which
+closed with a telling quotation from Oliver Goldsmith.
+
+If I recollect rightly there were many notabilities present on this
+occasion. I remember the interest I felt in seeing Lord John Russell for
+the first and only time in my life. There was not much of him to look
+at, but what there was looked pleasant. I saw, indeed, a small man, with
+a big head, and a large smile. There was, of course, a good deal of
+eloquence on the evening to which I refer, and at this distance of time
+I remember that one distinguished visitor made a rather amusing bull.
+Speaking of some obvious fact and carried away by the enthusiasm of the
+moment, he said, "Gentlemen, the matter is as clear as the rising sun at
+noon-day."
+
+I remember seeing Thackeray in Birmingham, and heard him deliver his
+lecture on George III. at the Music Hall, Broad Street, now the Prince
+of Wales Theatre. I was, of course, interested to see the great
+novelist, but I thought his lecture a prosaic performance. In a literary
+sense the address was characteristic and interesting--as can be seen in
+its printed form--but it gained nothing by its author's delivery. It was
+a well-composed piece of work, and it had a composing effect upon those
+who heard it. At least I know I found it dull, and half dozed during its
+monotonous delivery. Indeed, it was not till Thackeray reached his
+concluding words--which, by the way, were Shakspeare's, being an
+effective quotation from "King Lear"--that I was roused from my dreamy
+reverie.
+
+I recollect seeing Charles Kingsley when he was President of the
+Birmingham and Midland Institute, and noticed that though in speaking
+he stammered perceptibly, when he delivered his presidential address he
+adopted a sort of sing-song tone which more or less concealed his
+impediment of speech. In fact he half intoned his discourse. I remember,
+too, meeting Professor Tyndall at Mr. Chamberlain's table, and was
+struck by the simple modesty of the eminent savant. I sat next to Mrs.
+Tyndall, who was very unaffected, pleasant, and conversational. I have
+often thought of this occasion, and did so especially when the sad and
+tragic mistake occurred which ended in Professor Tyndall's premature
+death. Mrs. Tyndall, it may be remembered, gave her husband a wrong dose
+of medicine, which brought his illness to a sudden and fatal
+termination. What an awful mistake. To live after this was pathetic.
+
+Of course I remember a good deal about the late Mr. John Bright and his
+visits to Birmingham. So do other people, and as many of these others
+are scribes and quasi-historians who have published their records, there
+is really not much for me to tell. I may say that I heard nearly every
+speech our distinguished member delivered in Birmingham, for I hardly
+ever missed a meeting at which Mr. Bright was a spokesman. Even now I
+distinctly recall the first occasion on which he spoke after he became
+M.P. for Birmingham. The Town Hall was more than crowded, it was packed;
+indeed, I might almost say that herrings in a tub have elbow room
+compared with the very compressed gathering that welcomed Mr. Bright on
+the occasion.
+
+In order to make more space the benches were removed from nearly all
+parts of the Town Hall, and the curious sight of the sea of faces when
+Mr. Bright appeared lingers in my memory still. One curious thing I
+observed at this gathering was that so long as our member was speaking
+the vast assembly was held spellbound. But when he paused for a moment
+to turn over his notes or take a sip of water, the tightly squeezed
+audience swayed for a little bodily relief and expansion, and this
+resulted in big surging waves of humanity, which rolled from one end of
+the body of the hall to the other, and often lasted for some little
+time.
+
+At this moment I can recollect almost word for word the stirring and
+eloquent peroration with which Mr. Bright closed his first address to
+his Birmingham constituents. It roused his hearers to a pitch of
+demonstrative enthusiasm such as I have never seen equalled.
+
+I could quote from memory many striking passages from the principal
+speeches I heard our distinguished member deliver. But why? Are they not
+recorded in a hundred books, or at least in many books and hundreds of
+newspapers? I will, therefore, now content myself with just one or two
+personal reminiscences connected with our great Parliamentary
+representative.
+
+One little story I have to tell is connected with Mr. Bright's speech on
+the occasion of unveiling the statue of Mr. Joseph Sturge, erected at
+the Five Ways, Birmingham. There was an immense gathering on that
+occasion, and of course I was there. I secured a good position for
+hearing, but, unfortunately, there was a woman near me with a crying
+baby in her arms. This prevented me hearing much that the speaker said,
+and at last I got quite out of patience, and turning to the woman I
+remarked, "Why don't you take that noisy child home?" "Oh," said the
+woman in reply, "her's just as bad at home." I felt I had my answer, and
+that there was no more to be said.
+
+On another occasion I remember Mr. Bright walking down New Street, just
+after delivering one of his grandest speeches, when a working-man, one
+of the real "horny-handed," stepped up to him and patted him on the back
+in the most familiar and approving manner. I will also just note one
+other little incident in connection with Mr. Bright and Birmingham and
+then I have done. I have to give this second-hand, but I believe what I
+say may be accepted.
+
+When Mr. Bright was offered a seat in Mr. Gladstone's administration in
+the year 1868 it caused him some severe searching of heart. He did not
+like giving up his freedom in the House of Commons. When this question
+was before him he was staying with Mr.----now Sir John Jaffray, Bart.,
+and in discussing the matter with his host he walked up and down the
+room talking and talking till the hours flew by and it became late. Mr.
+Jaffray--who was rather an early man--became weary before Mr. Bright had
+finished his talk. The latter probably perceived this, for with a fine
+touch of humour he made for the chandelier, and said, "I see, Jaffray,
+that you will never go to bed till I turn off the gas."
+
+In searching the files of memory it is rather surprising to find how one
+thought leads to another, and the long-hidden past reveals itself with
+almost as much clearness as the events of yesterday. When I began to
+write down these personal recollections I thought I should find little
+or nothing to tell. As I proceed, however, occurrences of past years
+crop up and crowd upon memory, and that to such an extent that it
+becomes a question of what I shall not write rather than what I shall.
+
+Lest, however, I become tiresome and tedious I will for the most part
+"let the dead past bury its dead," and content myself with a little
+chapter of history which is especially interesting to me, and may not be
+without some amount of interest to others, especially those concerned in
+our educational and industrial progress.
+
+One important change that has recently taken place in what I will call
+business Birmingham has brought back to my mind a throng of mixed
+memories. I allude to the vicissitudes that have taken place in local
+trading concerns, and I may especially mention the disestablishment or
+dismemberment of the manufactory of R.W. Winfield and Co., Cambridge
+Street. To see the break-up of this once large, important, and
+successful concern has been a matter of some sorrow to me. And why?
+Because it was at this establishment that I began my working career.
+Yes, at an early age I was a junior clerk at Cambridge Street Works,
+when it was the private business of the late Mr. R.W. Winfield.
+
+At that time the manufactory was one of the largest if not _the_ largest
+in Birmingham. It employed about 1,000 hands, and its operations were
+carried on in several separate departments. These were the tube and
+metal, the gas-fitting, the metallic bedstead, the stamped brassfoundry,
+the general brassfoundry, and other departments and divisions. To my
+youthful eyes it seemed to be a huge place, and, indeed, it was a big
+manufactory, and had a very extensive home and foreign trade.
+
+I do not propose now to go into details concerning the manufacturing
+work done at Cambridge Street at the period of which I speak. This would
+be a matter of small interest to general readers. The once large
+establishment has had its day and has now ceased to be, though why it
+should have fallen to pieces so completely is not readily to be
+explained.
+
+There are, however, matters concerning the earlier days of Cambridge
+Street Works that well deserve to be recognised and recorded. I think,
+indeed, I may say that Mr. R.W. Winfield was the local pioneer of
+compulsory education. There were, of course, a large number of boys
+employed at the works, and Mr. Winfield not only provided an evening
+school for these young hands but compelled them to attend and be
+educated whether they liked it or not.
+
+At the time mentioned, I remember, Mr. James Atkins--then a manager of
+one of the departments--had a large hand in the educational operations
+carried on in connection with the Cambridge Street manufactory. He had
+the happy knack of attracting boys to him, and could interest those he
+taught and teach those he interested. Mr. Atkins, as is well known,
+afterwards became the principal of the firm, but more of this anon.
+
+In the work of these evening schools, Mr. John Fawkener Winfield, son of
+Mr. R.W. Winfield, took a very active interest. He used to give some
+excellent lectures, and constantly taught in the classes. Much money was
+spent upon these schools; indeed, a large room was specially built, at
+very considerable cost, in order that the educational work might have
+elbow room and be carried on effectually.
+
+Mr. Winfield was a stiff, unbending man in some matters--especially in
+politics--but he was in many respects broad-minded and large-hearted. He
+was thoughtful for those in his employ, especially the young people, and
+his son was like unto him.
+
+When I was engaged at Cambridge Street Works Mr. R.W. Winfield lived at
+the Hawthorns, Ladywood Lane. The house seemed by comparison to be a
+large and important mansion, and was quite in the country then. Yes, I
+remember now, at this distance of time, how often our employer used to
+give us treats at his house, and what pleasant jinks we had in playing
+and rollicking about the fields and grounds surrounding his residence.
+
+In many respects Mr. R.W. Winfield was one of the real old school. He
+was not a high or broad so much as a good, thick, consistent churchman
+of the Evangelical school. He "wore his beaver stiffly up," his neck-tie
+was a starched white cravat, his clothes were black broadcloth, with the
+dress coat worn by gentlemen in the early and middle years of last
+century. All the same, he had some modern ideas, especially, as I have
+said, in the matter of education. If it came to be totalled up how much
+he spent on the education of the boys in his employ, the aggregate sum
+would run to large figures.
+
+Time, we know, smooths the surface or rounds off the corners of past
+events that seemed rather arbitrary at the time of their occurrence.
+But, after making allowance for all this, my experience of Mr.
+Winfield's evening schools is occasionally wafted back to me with many
+pleasant memories and associations. Compulsory education was the iron
+hand that directed the young ideas how to shoot, though it was enveloped
+in a soft velvet glove. Mr. Winfield did good far-reaching work by the
+establishment and maintenance of his evening schools, and his
+thoughtfulness and generosity in this direction should be counted unto
+him for righteousness.
+
+Why Cambridge Street Works, which once employed so many hands, should
+have so completely collapsed is, as I have hinted, a bit of a mystery. I
+can only guess, and as tracking conundrums is not my purpose in these
+chapters, I will leave others to unravel the riddle if they can. It is,
+however, a matter of local business history that some thirty years or
+more ago the Cambridge Street concern shewed signs of tottering to its
+fall, and when Mr. Atkins went into the business as a proprietor, he had
+to make some sweeping reforms that naturally created some resentment and
+criticism. Possibly the business was "eating its head off," and the
+process of deglutition had to be rigorously curtailed. This having been
+done, the business thrived and prospered once more, and continued to do
+so for some years. I will not follow its fortunes to its ultimate fall.
+It became a public company, and now it is no more.
+
+Winfields' is not the only important local business that has gone under
+during the past fifty years, yet it is satisfactory to find that many of
+our old-established manufactories and businesses have survived, and
+still exist in some form or other. Elkington's, Gillott's, and Hardman's
+still flourish, and among the brassfounders Pemberton and Son's, Tonks
+and Son's, Cartland's, and others, go on their way rejoicing, casting,
+stamping, lacquering, and polishing, and pushing brassfoundry into more
+ornamental and utilitarian use.
+
+Some of our old-established merchants and factors are still with us. The
+trade of Messrs. Keep and Hinckley, whose place of business was for
+years near St. Mary's Square, is now carried on by Keep Bros., in Broad
+Street. The establishment of Rabone Bros., merchants, also in Broad
+Street, still stands where it did. The businesses of Rock and Blakemore,
+Moilett and Gem, and others, are still carried on by survivors of the
+old firms.
+
+As for the new industries, the new firms and companies that have been
+created in our midst during the past half-century, their enumeration and
+description would be a big story, and would require a large volume to
+tell it. That volume I do not propose to begin. I desire to close my
+present little chapter, and perhaps I shall not be the only one who will
+be glad to come to the end of it.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+THE MUSICAL FESTIVALS.
+
+
+Though it can hardly be said that the Birmingham Musical Festivals have
+had any direct bearing upon the progress and development of town and
+city, the world-renowned musical gatherings associated with the name of
+Birmingham have had something to do with the fame and fortunes of the
+Midland capital. Established more than a century and a quarter ago, they
+attained a pitch of musical excellence and importance that attracted the
+attention of the civilised world. Birmingham, indeed, was for a time,
+and is still to some extent, the Mecca of musicians, and the Birmingham
+Musical Festival is generally regarded as the premier musical meeting of
+the country.
+
+One specially fortuitous event has stamped the Birmingham "music
+meeting" with a glory and prestige all its own. I refer to the
+production of Mendelssohn's "Elijah" in 1846. This was, indeed, a piece
+of great good fortune, for Mendelssohn's oratorio aroused an interest
+and enthusiasm throughout the musical world that has not yet died down.
+The occasion certainly gave the Birmingham Festivals a new lease of
+life, and attracted more musical pilgrims to our town than ever.
+
+I am not old enough myself to recollect the first performance of the
+"Elijah," and as I only propose to write down now what I have myself
+seen and heard, I refer those who desire to learn the history of the
+Festivals to the records written by other more or less accurate writers.
+
+The first Festival at which I was present was that of 1852, and I have
+been at every Festival and at nearly every performance since that date.
+In the year mentioned I sang as a boy in the chorus, and experienced a
+great and novel joy that I have never known since. I revelled in the
+rehearsals, and when the week's performances came I seemed to be up in
+the clouds amid cherubim and seraphim. Indeed, when at the last
+performance the National Anthem was sung and the meeting came to an end
+I could have sat down and wept.
+
+Of course I recollect the stir made by the production of Costa's "Eli"
+in 1855, and especially do I seem to remember Mr. Sims Beeves--then in
+his primest prime--and his thrilling declamation of the "War Song." At
+the end of this stirring solo I recall how the voice of the great tenor
+rang out above the combined power of the full band and chorus.
+
+In this connection I may mention that it was at the Festival of 1855
+that I heard Mario for the first time. I had of course heard much of the
+great Italian tenor, but till the year mentioned had never heard the
+sound of his voice. Curiously enough, too, I heard him sing in
+juxtaposition with Mr. Sims Reeves. It was, indeed, a little bit of a
+contest between the two great tenors, and I am bound to say the English
+singer did not come off second best.
+
+The fact is Mario was then past his prime, whilst Mr. Sims Reeves was in
+his fullest strength. The opportunities for comparison on the occasion
+referred to were irresistible, since the two tenors sang together in a
+trio in which they both had to sing the same notes. The result was as I
+have hinted, but I wondered, however, that comparisons should have been
+challenged in such a direct way, and I marvelled much that Mario should
+have submitted to such a trial.
+
+It was at the Festival of 1858 that I heard the _great_ Lablache for the
+first and only time. His appearance excited as much interest, perhaps
+more, than his singing--he was so very large. His ruddy countenance, his
+white hair, and his great girth, combined to make him something to see
+as well as hear. When he sang his notes were as the tones emitted from a
+sort of human tun.
+
+Then, how I remember hearing Adelina Patti at the Festival of 1861. Oh!
+how the sweet girl singer charmed, indeed fascinated, her audience with
+her delightfully fresh voice, and by her attractive appearance and
+winning manner. How fatherly, and even tenderly, Costa seemed to watch
+over the little maiden, and his usual autocratic manner--for he was an
+autocrat at the conductor's desk--seemed to soften when he came in
+contact with the pretty young Italian vocalist. Even the stern unbending
+general of the orchestra was once so touched with her delightful
+rendering of an air in one of his oratorios, that he was actually seen
+to imprint a paternal kiss upon her cheek.
+
+It was also at the Festival of 1861 that I remember hearing
+Giuglini--the "golden-throated Giuglini," as he was called. Was there
+ever such sweet, luscious tenor voice, or a more charming and graceful
+style of vocalization? He literally sang like a bird. He opened his
+mouth and the notes were warbled forth with exquisite volubility and
+ease. Giuglini's voice had not the power and breadth which Sims Reeves
+could command, nor was his style so impassioned and fervent as Mario's,
+but his tones and vocalization were something to hear once and remember
+always.
+
+But I am pausing too long over details. Let me hurry on. I remember the
+disappointment with which Sullivan's cantata "Kenilworth" was received
+at the Festival of 1867. The then young composer had made such a very
+"palpable hit" by his "Tempest" music that great things were expected
+from the new cantata he composed for Birmingham. But "Kenilworth" fell
+very flat, and nothing afterwards happened to stir it up into a success.
+Indeed, the work may almost be said to have died "still-born."
+
+I fancy Sullivan himself had some premonition as to the fate of his new
+composition. At least I know that I saw him in the Society of Artists'
+Rooms on the day when his work was to be performed in the evening, and
+on my asking him how he was he smiled "a kind of sickly smile," and told
+me he felt very squeamish.
+
+How different was the fate of Mr. J.F. Barnett's "Ancient Mariner."
+Though the composer was a well-known musician no great things were
+expected from his new cantata, but it took the musical world by storm.
+It achieved instant success, and although it was regarded by many as
+being nice innocent "bread and butter" music it is still alive and
+popular, and will be while there is an ear left for spontaneous flowing
+melody.
+
+Of course I recollect Sullivan's second venture at the Birmingham
+Musical Festival of 1873, when he produced his oratorio "The Light of
+the World." Contrary to what should have been, the work was at best only
+a _succes d'estime._ Yet it contains some of the best music its composer
+has written. Parts of it are magnificent and masterly, whilst others are
+strikingly impressive inspirations. That the oratorio is unequal may be
+admitted, and it is decidedly heavy in places; moreover, it is too long.
+Still, looking at its merits as a whole, it deserved better fortune. It
+is enough to dishearten a composer when he finds his best work
+comparatively unappreciated, and it is hardly surprising if it was in
+consequence of disgust and disappointment that Sullivan turned his
+thoughts to lighter things. By doing so he has filled his purse, he has
+delighted a large public that cannot appreciate serious music, and he
+has raised comic opera to a level far above the thin and trivial
+emanations of foreign "opera bouffists."
+
+When some of us recall past Birmingham Musical Festivals, and scan the
+schemes of bygone years, we cannot fail to be struck by the change that
+has taken place in musical taste and fashion. Especially do we note this
+in looking at the programmes of the festival evening concerts. In these
+programmes quantity as well as quality was an element not forgotten in
+the consideration and arrangement of the miscellaneous selections.
+
+Twenty or thirty years ago we used to have--in addition to some one or
+more important works--a long string of scraps and snatches, chiefly from
+well-known operas, which protracted the concerts to a late hour. The
+liberal introduction of these excerpts was attractive to a large section
+of the public who did not care for fine works of musical art or "too
+much fiddling." Moreover, it was in accordance with the taste and
+proclivities of the conductor, who gave, perhaps, an inkling of his real
+mind in a jocular remark made under the following circumstances.
+
+It used to be the custom, after the morning performances, to ask the
+band and principal singers to stay and run through some of the operatic
+selections, &c., to be given in the evening. On one of these occasions,
+after a morning performance of "The Messiah," Costa quietly and
+cynically remarked, "Now, ladies and gentlemen, let us have a little
+music."
+
+To come now to speak of more personal associations with the Birmingham
+Musical Festivals, it was in the year 1873 that I experienced the novel
+sensation of standing at the conductor's desk. A trio of my
+composition--a setting of Tennyson's "Break, break,"--was included in
+the programme of one of the evening concerts, and I had to conduct its
+performance. I tell you, my reader, it was a trying ordeal, and I hardly
+know how I got through it, but I did in some sort of fashion. Costa, I
+may explain, made it a rigid rule never to conduct a living composer's
+music; consequently, he would have nothing to do with the performance
+even of my small trio. I found, however, a good friend in M. Sainton,
+the leader of the band. He took a kindly pity on me in my trying
+situation, and he did more to make my trio go well with his violin than
+I did with the conductor's bâton.
+
+But it certainly was a sensation to face that immense orchestra, and I
+had something to do to make my sinews bear me stiffly up. My trio,
+however, was splendidly sung by Mdlle. Titieus, Madame Trebelli, and Mr.
+Vernon Rigby--_pace_ Mr. Sims Reeves, indisposed--and if it did not
+make a sensation, and was not received with deafening plaudits, I fancy
+it went smoothly and satisfactorily, and I retired from the field--I
+mean from the conductor's desk--not exactly with glory, but I think I
+may say without a stain upon my character as a local musical composer.
+
+At the Musical Festival of 1876 Madame Patey sang a song of mine, "The
+Felling of the Trees," and I repeated my little experience as a
+conductor; but in 1885, when my cantata "Yule Tide" was included in the
+festival scheme, Mr. W.C. Stockley kindly undertook the task of
+directing the work. I was determined it should not be a personally
+conducted cantata; consequently, I was spared what would have severely
+taxed my capacity and nerve.
+
+With regard to my work it will not become me to say much. I frankly own
+that it did not set the Thames ablaze; it passed muster, and perhaps
+that is as much as I could expect at a Birmingham Musical Festival. It
+was somewhat unfortunate that in 1885 there were too many new works. No
+less than seven original compositions were included in the scheme, and
+they killed each other. The musical public will not swallow and cannot
+digest too much new music, consequently they would not make a good, fair
+musical meal off any of the new dishes so liberally provided, with the
+result that most of them went into the larder after just; being tasted
+and no more. Some of them--even mine--are at times brought out, smelt,
+turned over, and looked at, but as I have hinted, none, not even those
+by Gounod, Dvorak, and Cowen, have become standing dishes in constant
+request at musical feasts.
+
+Speaking generally, many splendid compositions seem to have missed fire
+through sheer bad luck. To go no further than Sir Arthur Sullivan, some
+of his finest and most important works have had an ill-starred
+existence, and even several of his best songs, though introduced to the
+public under the most favourable auspices, have not "taken on."
+Sullivan's splendid ditty "Love laid his sleepless head," though sung by
+Mr. Edward Lloyd all over the country, did not make a hit, whilst the
+more trivial ballad "Sweet-hearts" became a boom and a property. At
+least, I remember being told that after Sullivan had been receiving good
+royalties from this song for years, the publishers offered him £1,000
+for his rights.
+
+I am afraid I have been guilty of a digression, but I will recall my
+wandering steps. I have mentioned the Birmingham Festival of 1885, which
+marked a new order--I might almost say a new epoch--in the history of
+the Birmingham Musical Festivals. For the first time for very many years
+Costa was no longer seen at the conductor's desk, and his place was
+taken by Richter. Costa conducted the Birmingham triennial performances
+for about half a century, and although it was sad to miss his face in
+1885, he had done his work.
+
+In 1882--the last Festival in which he took part--it was painful to
+witness his efforts to conduct the performances. He was partly
+paralysed, and his bâton, I believe, had to be fastened to his hand
+because he could not grasp it. Further, he was becoming deaf, and the
+result was that the loud brass instruments were allowed to become too
+blatant and obtrusive. Costa was a good man in his day, and he did good
+work. He was very autocratic, even despotic, but he introduced two good
+things into the orchestra--order and punctuality. With all his ability,
+tact, and nerve, it must, however, be admitted that his style of
+conducting was rough and ready compared with the art, care, and skill
+that mark musical conductorship of the present day.
+
+With Richter's appearance as conductor, some important changes and
+reforms were effected in the orchestral arrangements of the Festival.
+For one thing, the band was cut down in number. This, it was said, was
+in consequence of Richter's opinion that the balance of power was
+disturbed by too great a preponderance of string tone, but it is just
+possible that economy was considered when the change was made. Anyway,
+in 1885 there were over twenty stringed instruments less than in
+Costa's last year, 1882.
+
+This alteration was a notable one, and regrettable in some ways. The
+extra large string band that Costa would have made the Birmingham
+Festival orchestra something very special, and the result was some
+striking effects not heard elsewhere. Nowhere now do we hear that _tour
+de force_ which was almost electrical in the rush of violins at the end
+of the chorus "Thanks be to God" in the "Elijah," in Beethoven's
+"Leonora" overture, and in the last movement of the overture to "William
+Tell." The effect of the violins--between fifty and sixty in number--was
+something magical in the works just named. To put the matter in brief
+detail, under Costa's conductorship the string band numbered 108
+players, when Richter took the orchestra in hand, it was reduced to
+eighty-six. I will not discuss the expediency of the change. Suffice it
+to say that the Festival band is now as good, perhaps better, than it
+ever was, save in the matter of numbers.
+
+To sum up very briefly the Festivals since 1885--the year that Richter
+succeeded Costa--the meeting of 1888 was remarkable for nothing that
+made any permanent notch in the record of the Festivals. Parry's
+oratorio "Judith" was the chief novelty, but, in spite of its masterly
+merit as a work of musical art, it was hardly received with the favour
+it deserved.
+
+The Festival of 1891 saw the production of two important new works,
+namely, Stanford's dramatic oratorio "Eden" and Dvorak's "Requiem Mass."
+With respect to these compositions, they have scarcely been heard, I
+think, since their initial performances. Stanford's "Eden" contains some
+fine writing, but there was, perhaps, too much of it. Dvorak's "Requiem"
+was something of a disappointment, and its first rendering anything but
+satisfactory; indeed, some of the numbers, I remember, narrowly escaped
+coming to utter grief.
+
+In 1894 three new productions were heard. These were Parry's "King
+Saul"--a very recondite, musicianly composition--but too long; "The
+Swan and the Skylark," a fanciful little cantata by Goring Thomas; and a
+"Stabat Mater" by G. Henschel.
+
+Nothing at the Festival of 1897 made any mark. There was a new "Requiem"
+by Stanford, but like many other Requiems, it rather celebrated its own
+death. A new work by Arthur Somervell was heard, and, though favourably
+received at first, like some other Festival compositions it seems now to
+have vanished into the _ewigkeit_.
+
+With regard to the Festival of 1900--just closed as these lines are
+being written--I will say little. It has been financially successful,
+and perhaps that is the best that can be said of it. The programme,
+speaking generally, was a somewhat heavy and dull one, and the special
+new work, namely, Elgar's "Dream of Gerontius," was disappointing, in
+spite of its skilful construction, its splendid orchestration, and its
+conspicuous touches of character and originality. Mr. Coleridge Taylor's
+"Song of Hiawatha" was the hit of the Festival, and its performance at
+Birmingham has hall--marked the young composer's fresh, picturesque, and
+melodic music.
+
+I might write a great deal more about the Birmingham Musical Festivals,
+but time and space forbid. I could, for instance, point out that it is
+becoming more and more difficult to maintain the prestige of our
+Festivals as time goes on. There is more competition now-a-days; there
+are more provincial musical gatherings; and there are now more
+high-class concerts than formerly. I think I could also show that some
+mistakes, of more or less importance, have been made, and are still
+perhaps being made in the management, Nevertheless, those who have most
+to do with the arrangements are not lacking in energy and enterprise,
+and in earnest endeavour to uphold the character and reputation of the
+Birmingham Musical Festivals.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+There is now little or nothing further for me to say, save to put a tag
+to my small story, and make my little bow to my readers. Birmingham,
+like other modern enterprising centres, goes moving on "down the ringing
+grooves of change." The city means to forge ahead, and will not permit
+anything to impede its progress. Scaffolding seems more conspicuous than
+ever, and before the ink is dry upon my page, more old buildings will be
+down and more new buildings will be up. Since I began these chapters
+(which have appeared in _The Midland Counties Herald_ during the past
+months) some important, notable changes have taken place. For instance,
+the Birmingham Old Library in Union Street, associated with the names of
+many Birmingham worthies, has disappeared, and its site is occupied by
+the new City Arcades. That conspicuous landmark, Christ Church, with all
+its memories and curious belongings and characteristics, is now no
+longer to be seen. Old narrow streets are being widened, old buildings
+are bulging out, and large new buildings are being erected in all
+directions. The municipality have taken in hand some important housing
+schemes which may be advantageous to the working classes, and result in
+the erection of some of those new artisans' dwellings which, so far,
+have not been conspicuously numerous. In the meantime local debts go on
+merrily, or I should say seriously, swelling. Ratepayers have to be
+squeezed to find the necessary funds for the increasing outgoings; but
+best-governed cities in the world must pay a price for their advantages
+and pre-eminence, and the citizens thank the gods that they have men who
+will devote thought and energy to laying out public money, and fervently
+hope that this may be done wisely and well.
+
+Some of our public men who are so ardent in forwarding new schemes and
+improvements can, of course, say that if these developments mean higher
+rates and growing assessments, they themselves have to bear their share
+of the burdens. This, of course, is so, but it must be owned that when
+we have a hand in spending large sums of money with the influence and
+importance that accompany the process, we pay our quota of the
+financial imposts if not cheerfully, at least without the grudging
+feeling of those who merely have to pay, pay, pay.
+
+Gentle, and I trust forbearing, reader I have written my story, and have
+added to my iniquity by publishing it in book form, but I indulge a
+small hope that it may possibly interest a limited number of those who,
+like myself, have watched with their own eyes the rapid growth and
+almost amazing development of Birmingham during the last forty or fifty
+years. Writing almost entirely from my own observation and memory, I may
+have made some slips and mistakes, but I have tried to be careful and
+accurate, and have endeavoured to verify my facts and figures from
+authentic sources when possible. I therefore venture to hope that my
+errors are not very many, and not of any serious moment.
+
+Writers, we know, are often prone to say that if their readers
+experience as much pleasure in reading their pages as the writers have
+had in writing them, the said readers will be rewarded for their time
+and pains. I am not going to repeat this pretty formula, I am rather
+inclined to say that if my readers experience my feeling that I have
+said enough, they will not be sorry to see these last words of my final
+page.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Artisans' Dwellings Act          3, 21
+Aston Hull                       5, 113
+Assize Courts                    120
+Atkins, James                    198
+Attwood, Thomas                  1
+
+Barnett, J.F.                    210
+Big Ben of Westminster           177
+Birmingham and Midland Institute 186
+"B'ham Belgravia"                95
+Birmingham Bishopric Scheme      75
+_Birmingham Daily Gazette_       126
+_Birmingham Daily Mail_          128
+_Birmingham Morning News_        126
+_Birmingham Daily Post_          125
+_Birmingham Daily Press_         123
+Birmingham Old Library           223
+Birmingham  Workhouse            110
+Board Schools                    93
+Bright, John                     12, 52, 192
+Brougham, Lord                   188
+
+Cambridge StreetWorks Schools    198
+Chamberlain, Arthur              71
+Chamberlain, Austen              65
+Chamberlain, Herbert             72
+Chamberlain, John Henry          49, 95
+Chamberlain, Joseph              11, 32, 33
+Chamberlain, Richard             70
+Chamberlain, Walter              72
+Christ Church, Birmingham        110
+Church of the Messiah            76
+Collings, Jesse                  79
+Costa, Sir Michael               212
+Costa's "Eli"                    206
+
+Dvorak's "Requiem"               219
+
+Edgbaston                        90
+Eld and Chamberlain              95
+Elkington and Co.                145
+
+Gas and Water Purchase           16
+Gas Profits                      57
+Gillott's Factory                147
+Giuglini                         208
+Glass Making                     160
+Goring Thomas                    220
+Gothic Houses                    96
+Great Tom of Lincoln             177
+Great Western Railway Station    4
+
+Handsworth                       117
+Harcourt, Sir William            47
+Hector, Edmund                   110
+"Highbury"                       64
+Hobday, L.N.                     182
+Holtes                           113
+
+Improvement Scheme               20
+
+Jaffray, Sir John                195
+Jewellery Trade                  151
+Johnson, Dr.                     110
+
+Keep Bros.                       202
+Kenrick, W.                      73
+Kingsley, Rev. Chas.             190
+King Street Theatre              109
+Kossuth                          186
+
+Lablache                         207
+Lady Huntingdon's Chapel         108
+Ladywood Lane                    199
+
+London and North-Western
+  Railway Station                3
+
+Mario, Signor                    206-7
+Martin & Chamberlain             93
+Modern Shopkeeping               29
+Moilett and Gem                  202
+Moseley                          115
+Municipal Debt                   14
+Municipal Reforms                8
+Muntz, G.F.                      1
+
+Nettlefold & Chamberlain         66
+New Meeting House                75, 77
+
+Old Birmingham Men               104
+Old Square                       110
+
+Palmerston, Lord                 52
+Pearsall, Wm.                    174
+Pemberton and Sons               202
+People's Park                    187
+Prince Consort                   186
+Prosperous  Manufacturers        99
+Pudding Brook                    113
+_Punch_                          52
+
+Queen's Visit to Birmingham
+  in 1858                        187
+
+Rabone Bros.                     202
+Radicals and Royalty             61
+Reeves, Sims                     206
+Richter, Dr.                     217
+Rigby, Vernon                    214
+Russell, Lord John               189
+
+St. Martin's Bells               170
+St. Martin's Church,
+  Birmingham                     177
+Sandwell Park                    118
+Sanitary Improvements            15
+Schnadhorst, F.                  83
+Sheffield                        54
+Smallwood and Sons               166
+Steel Toy Trade                  162
+Stockley, W.C.                   214
+Sturge, Joseph                   193
+Sullivan, Sir Arthur             209
+
+Taylor, S. Coleridge             220
+Tea Drinking                     170
+Thackeray                        190
+"The Dream of Gerontius"         220
+"The Elijah"                     205
+Timmins and Sons                 162
+Titieus, Mdlle.                  213
+Town Hall                        109
+Trebelli, Madame                 213
+
+Unearned Increment               97
+Unitarians                       74, 75
+
+_Vanity Fair_                    51
+"Vaughton's Hole"                113
+
+Walker's (T.F.) Ship Logs        159
+Welsh Water Scheme               58
+Williams, Powell                 81
+Winfield and Co., R.W.           196
+Winfield, John Fawkener          198
+Wynn and Co.                     162
+
+"Yule Tide"                      214
+
+
+
+
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+#CHAMBERS'S
+ENCYCLOPAEDIA,#
+
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+
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+
+The objects of this Handbook are:--
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+(2) To show what kind of novels they write.
+(3) To tell what some of the leading novels are about.
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+First Quality and Designs.
+
+#Special Novelties for Wedding and other Presents.#
+
+AN INSPECTION Of STOCK INVITED.
+
+NOTICE OF REMOVAL.
+
+L.N. HOBDAY & CO. beg to inform their friends
+and patrons that after March 25th, 1901, and during the
+rebuilding of their premises, the business will be
+temporarily removed to 14, Midland Arcade (now in
+course of construction), 2 doors from their present address.
+
+
+
+
+#THOMAS PINSON,#
+
+House, Land, and Estate Agent,
+
+VALUER & SURVEYOR,
+
+PROPERTY & MORTGAGE BROKER.
+
+Rents and Interests Collected.
+Properties Economically Managed.
+
+#COBDEN BUILDINGS,
+CORPORATION STREET,
+BIRMINGHAM.#
+
+Agent for the Royal Fire and
+Life Assurance Co.
+
+
+
+
+#ALFRED HUGHES,
+
+Confectioner and Restaurateur,
+
+BIRMINGHAM.#
+
+A Great Variety of Food Specialities.
+
+VIENNA BREAD.
+
+CAKES AND BISCUITS OF THE NEWEST
+AND BEST KINDS.
+
+#Catering for Public and Private Parties.#
+
+_17 & 18, NORTH-WESTERN ARCADE
+25, PARADISE STREET,
+36 & 37, DALE END_.
+
+Biscuit Factory--MOOR STREET.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham
+by Thomas Anderton
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALE OF ONE CITY ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham
+by Thomas Anderton
+
+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: A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham
+       Papers Reprinted from the "Midland Counties Herald"
+
+Author: Thomas Anderton
+
+Release Date: February 28, 2004 [EBook #11356]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALE OF ONE CITY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Joris Van Dael and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+A TALE OF ONE CITY:
+
+THE NEW BIRMINGHAM.
+
+_Papers Reprinted from the "Midland Counties Herald"_,
+
+BY
+
+THOMAS ANDERTON.
+
+Birmingham: "MIDLAND COUNTIES HERALD" OFFICE.
+
+TO BE HAD FROM CORNISH BROTHERS, NEW STREET; MIDLAND EDUCATIONAL CO.,
+CORPORATION STREET.
+
+1900
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+PROLOGUE.
+
+
+The present century has seen the rise and development of many towns in
+various parts of the country, and among them Birmingham is entitled to
+take a front place. If Thomas Attwood or George Frederick Muntz could
+now revisit the town they once represented in Parliament they would
+probably stare with amazement at the changes that have taken place in
+Birmingham, and would require a guide to show them their way about the
+town--now a city--they once knew so well. The material history of
+Birmingham was for a series of years a story of steady progress and
+prosperity, but of late years the city has in a political, social, and
+municipal sense advanced by leaps and bounds. It is no longer
+"Brummagem" or the "Hardware Village," it is now recognised as the
+centre of activity and influence in Mid-England; it is the Mecca of
+surrounding populous districts, that attracts an increasing number of
+pilgrims who love life, pleasure, and shopping.
+
+Birmingham, indeed, has recently been styled "the best governed city in
+the world"--a title that is, perhaps, a trifle too full and panegyrical
+to find ready and general acceptance. If, however, by this very lofty
+and eulogistic description is meant a city that has been exceptionally
+prosperous, is well looked after, that has among its inhabitants many
+energetic, public-spirited men, that has a good solid debt on its books,
+also that has municipal officials of high capabilities with fairly high
+salaries to match--then Birmingham is not altogether undeserving of the
+high-sounding appellation. Many of those who only know Birmingham from
+an outside point of view, and who have only lately begun to notice its
+external developments, doubtless attribute all the improvements to Mr.
+Chamberlain's great scheme, and the adoption of the Artisans' Dwellings
+Act in 1878. The utilisation of this Act has certainly resulted in the
+making of one fine street, a fine large debt, and the erection of a
+handful of artisans' dwellings. The changes, however, that culminated in
+Mr. Chamberlain's great project began years before the Artisans'
+Dwellings Act became law.
+
+The construction of the London and North Western Railway station--which,
+with the Midland Railway adjunct, now covers some thirteen acres of
+land--cleared away a large area of slums that were scarcely fit for
+those who lived in them--which is saying very much. A region sacred to
+squalor and low drinking shops, a paradise of marine store dealers, a
+hotbed of filthy courts tenanted by a low and degraded class, was swept
+away to make room for the large station now used by the London and
+North Western and Midland Railway Companies.
+
+The Great Western Railway station, too, in its making also disposed of
+some shabby, narrow streets and dirty, pestiferous houses inhabited by
+people who were not creditable to the locality or the community, and by
+so doing contributed to the improvement of the town. Further, the
+erection of two large railway stations in a central district naturally
+tended to increase the number of visitors to the growing Midland
+capital, and this, of course, brought into existence a better class of
+shops and more extended trading. Then the suburbs of Birmingham, which
+for some years had been stretching out north, south, east, and west,
+have lately become to a considerable extent gathered into the arms of
+the city, and the residents in some of the outskirts, at least, may now
+pride themselves, if so inclined, upon being a part of the so-called
+"best governed city in the world," sharing its honours, importance, and
+debts, and contributing to its not altogether inconsiderable rates.
+
+I do not purpose in these pages to go into the ancient history of
+Birmingham. Other pens have told us how one Leland, in the sixteenth
+century, visited the place, and what he said about the "toyshop of the
+world." Also how he saw a "brooke," which was doubtless in his time a
+pretty little river, but which is now a sewery looking stream that tries
+to atone for its shallowness and narrowness by its thickness. They have
+likewise told us about the old lords of Bermingham--whose monuments
+still adorn the parish church--who have died out leaving no successors
+to bear for their proud title the name of the "best governed city in the
+world."
+
+These other pens have also mentioned the little attentions Birmingham
+received from Cromwell's troops; how the Roundheads fired at Aston Hall
+(which had given hospitality to Charles I.) making a breakage--still
+unrepaired!--in the great staircase of that grand old Elizabethan
+mansion. My purpose, however, is not to deal with past records of
+Birmingham, but rather with its modern growth and appearance.
+
+MUNICIPAL STAGNATION.
+
+After the sweeping alterations effected by the construction of the new
+railway stations in Birmingham, further improvements were for a time of
+a slow, jog-trot order, although the town, in a commercial sense, was
+moving ahead, and its wealth and population were rapidly increasing.
+Small improvements were made, but anything like big schemes, even if
+desirable, were postponed or rejected. Birmingham, indeed, some thirty
+years ago, was considerably under the influence of men of the
+unprogressive tradesmen class--many of them worthy men in their way but
+of limited ideas. In their private businesses they were not accustomed
+to deal with big transactions and high figures, so that spending large
+sums of money, if proposed, filled the brewer, the baker, and
+candlestick maker with alarm. They were careful and economical, but
+their care in finance was apt at times to be impolitic, and their
+economy has in several cases proved to have been somewhat costly.
+
+Indeed, until recent years, the leading authorities of the town were
+anything but enterprising, and their view of future possibilities very
+limited. Could they have seen a little farther ahead they might have
+laid out money to the great profit and future advantage of the
+community. They could have erected new corporation offices and municipal
+buildings before land in the centre of the town became so very costly;
+the gas and water interests might have been purchased, probably at a
+price that would have saved the town thousands of pounds. It is also
+understood that they might have purchased Aston Hall, with its 170 acres
+close to the town, on terms which would have made the land (now nearly
+all built upon) a veritable Tom Tidler's ground for the town and
+corporation. But our shopkeeper senators would have nothing to do with
+such bold and far-reaching schemes, and were given to opposing them
+when suggested by men more courageous and far-seeing than themselves.
+
+Between twenty-five and thirty years ago it was felt by the more
+advanced and intelligent portion of the community that the time had come
+for the town to arouse itself, and that certain reforms should no longer
+be delayed. It was beginning to be felt that the Town Council did not
+fairly represent the advancing aspirations and the growing needs,
+importance, and wealth of the town. Sanitary reforms were required, the
+growing traffic in the principal streets called for better and more
+durable roadways, and Macadamised and granite paved streets no longer
+answered the purposes required. The latter were heavy, noisy, and
+lumbering; the former were not sufficiently durable. Moreover, "Macadam"
+consisted of sharply-cut pieces of metal put upon the streets, which
+were left for cart and carriage wheels to break up and press down into
+something like a level surface. When this was done it made objectionable
+dust in dry weather, and in wet weather it converted the streets into
+avenues of mud and puddle to be scraped up, or to be swept off, by some
+curiously-devised machine carts constructed for the purpose. Carriage
+people, I fear, often cursed the stone stuff they had to grind into the
+roads, and pedestrians anathematized the mud and the dust.
+
+As many people will remember, in some of the less important streets the
+footways were paved with what were called "petrified kidneys"--stones
+about as big as a good-sized potato, very durable but extremely
+unpleasant to walk upon. Little or nothing was done to improve the
+slummy and dirty parts of the town, or to remove some of those foul
+courts and alleys which were not only disgraceful in appearance but were
+a menace to the health of the inhabitants.
+
+In fact, for one reason or another, the authorities left undone the
+things they ought to have done, and possibly they did some things they
+ought not to have done, and if allowed to go on it is probable there
+would soon have been no health in us. It may, however, be admitted that
+Birmingham was no worse governed than many other large towns in the
+comparatively unprogressive days of which I speak, but a new race of
+more advanced and energetic men were dissatisfied with the sluggish,
+stagnant state of local government, and they felt that the hour had
+struck for the inauguration of some large and important improvements.
+Such was the state of affairs about the year 1868.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+ENTER MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
+
+
+The present position of Birmingham and its improved appearance in these
+later years are largely attributed to the work and influence of Mr.
+Chamberlain. To him, certainly, the credit is largely due. At the same
+time it is only fair to say that he was not the first man who had
+discovered that Birmingham, some thirty years ago, was, compared with
+what it should be, in many respects lagging behind. Other persons had
+been impressed with the idea that the town, in a municipal, sanitary,
+and social sense, was not advancing at a pace commensurate with its
+commercial and material progress.
+
+To go just a little farther back for a moment, it must be recorded that
+Birmingham, in a political sense, made a great step forward when it
+elected Mr. Bright as one of its members of Parliament in the year 1857.
+This served to focus the eyes of the country on the midland capital, and
+from this date the town became a new centre of political activity. The
+great meetings addressed by Mr. Bright were not regarded as mere
+provincial gatherings, but they attracted the attention of the whole
+nation. The proceedings were no longer chronicled merely by the local
+press, but the London daily newspapers sent representatives to furnish
+special reports of our new member's speeches. Indeed, the interest and
+excitement at these political gatherings was often feverish in its
+intensity, and for many years Mr. Bright's visits to Birmingham were
+red-letter days in the history of the town.
+
+Mr. Bright, however, not being a resident in Birmingham, took no part
+in its local and municipal affairs, and the man was wanting who would
+come forward and energetically take town matters in hand. Mr. Joseph
+Chamberlain was the man, and the time was ripe for him. He was known to
+be smart, able, and energetic, and also to be imbued with decidedly
+progressive ideas. Further, he was justly credited with having a lofty
+conception of the real importance and dignity of municipal life and the
+value of municipal institutions.
+
+In the year 1869 Mr. Chamberlain was elected a member of the Birmingham
+Town Council, and he began to make things spin and hum at a pace which
+literally soon reached a pretty high rate. His example, and possibly his
+persuasion, induced several of his friends and associates to become
+candidates for Town Council membership, and in a very short time he had
+a strong and influential following, made up of men of energy, substance,
+and good social position, who soon began to overpower and make things
+more lively perhaps than pleasant for the anti-progressives in the
+Corporation. In Israelitish story we are told that a new king arose who
+knew not Joseph, but in Birmingham a new municipal kingdom arose that
+knew Joseph and trusted him.
+
+The changes that soon began to take place were enough to take away the
+breath of some of the nice, complacent, arm-chair, "Woodman" members of
+the Town Council. If the preceding rulers of the Corporation had been a
+trifle too parsimonious in the matter of expenditure, Mr. Chamberlain
+and his party soon began to make amends for any trifling mistakes or
+past errors in the way of economy. In a very few years the town had a
+debt, I don't say of which it might be proud, but of which it very soon
+felt the weight.
+
+When Mr. Chamberlain entered the Town Council the municipal debt stood
+at some L588,000. When he left it, after about ten years' service, the
+debt had mounted up to the neat and imposing sum of L6,212,000. Of
+course, there were very valuable assets to place against this heavy
+indebtedness, assets which are likely to improve considerably in value
+as time goes on--that is, if the city continues to progress and prosper.
+Still, a good many people were not a little alarmed at the big figures
+that grew on the debtor side of the Corporation accounts, but more
+persons applauded the spirit, courage, and enterprise of those who had
+taken the reins of the town into their hands.
+
+When Mr. Chamberlain and his friends had fairly got hold of the Town
+Council ropes, they set to work in strong earnest. Sanitary improvements
+were promoted. The principal streets and their lighting and paving were
+improved, and the general appearance of the town quickly presented a
+change for the better. Trees were planted in some of the chief
+thoroughfares. They did not it is true show much disposition to grow and
+thrive, but they were planted and replanted, though we may still have to
+lament that our Birmingham boulevards will not compare favourably with
+those in some other cities. Mr. Chamberlain, however, was not the man
+to be content with such trifling reforms as these. He had large and
+spacious ideas in his mind, and he quickly brought them out to air and
+grow.
+
+In the year 1873 Mr. Chamberlain was elected Mayor, and in the following
+year he brought forward his schemes for the purchase by the municipality
+of the gas and water supplies. His proposals encountered very formidable
+opposition, principally from those interested in the gas and water
+companies, whose undertakings he proposed compulsorily to purchase. Some
+of the shareholders in these prosperous companies were fierce in their
+denunciations of his schemes. They regarded Mr. Chamberlain's proposals
+as nothing short of confiscation. For years they had supplied the town
+with gas and water. They had found the necessary money in the "sure and
+certain hope" of having a good and secure investment for their capital,
+and lo! when they had fairly established their undertakings, it was
+proposed to blow out their profitable light and dash the refreshingly
+remunerative water from their lips. It was hard--I don't mean the
+water, but the situation! Of course the shareholders were to receive a
+fair price for their properties, the gas companies practically
+L1,900.000, the waterworks company L1,350,000. But still they were not
+happy. They resisted the proposed purchases.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, was not the man to be daunted by the
+opposition of the gas and water company proprietors. He had made up his
+mind that it would be for the good of the town for these undertakings to
+be in the hands of the municipality, and in spite of the Town Council
+"old gang" and outraged gas and water shareholders, who felt they were
+being fraudulently despoiled of certain prospective advantages, he
+carried his point.
+
+There are still those among us who, for various reasons, murmur at these
+extensive purchases. They maintain, for one thing, that the possession
+of the gas influenced the Corporation to turn a discouraging eye upon
+the electric light. Certainly Birmingham has been rather lax in taking
+up electric illumination, and possibly more enterprise would have been
+evinced in this direction if the Corporation had not become dealers in
+gas and water on their own terms, viz., no competition allowed. Some
+self-constituted prophets shook their heads and said that before the gas
+debt was paid off gas would literally have "gone out" as a general
+illuminant. Before the eighty-five years allowed for the redemption of
+the capital invested in the gas have elapsed a good many things may
+certainly happen. So far, however, gas is not extinguished, but is in
+increased demand, and even water is believed to have a future.
+
+With regard to the water purchase, however, a good deal of opposition
+was offered on special grounds. Having purchased the waterworks
+undertaking the Corporation were, of course, desirous to make it pay. To
+buy the thing was a blunder in the eyes of some, to let it be a source
+of loss would have been a crime. Consequently, it became necessary to
+force the water supply business, and the municipal authorities went
+about it in a way that pressed hardly sometimes and provoked not a
+little hostility and resentment.
+
+"Waterologists" and analysts are somewhat divided in opinion as to what
+is pure water, or at least good wholesome water. Some authorities take
+one standard, some another. The Corporation, with an eye to business,
+selected a very high standard, for this brought grist to the mill, or, I
+should say, trade to the tap. It meant the closing of a large number of
+wells yielding water which, under a less rigorous standard than that
+adopted, would have been considered wholesome. But in this matter again,
+Mr. Chamberlain and the "new gang" paid no heed to the growls of the
+disaffected, and pumps were disestablished in all directions, chiefly,
+it was maintained, to swell the returns of the water department. "O ye
+wells, bless ye the Lord"--but few were suffered to remain.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, was not long content with having municipalized
+the gas and water. In accordance with the strong impetus of his nature
+he sighed for more worlds to conquer. Consequently he was soon ready
+with a gigantic Improvement Scheme, to be carried out under the adoption
+of the somewhat misused and delusive Artisans' Dwellings Act. His
+proposal was to make a grand street and a more direct way to Aston, and
+in doing so to demolish some dirty back thoroughfares and a large number
+of foul and filthy unsanitary dwellings.
+
+The scheme was a big one. It affected many interests, and before it was
+carried out it caused a fierce amount of strife, ill-feeling, and
+hostility. The discontent and disaffection which Mr. Chamberlain's
+previous schemes aroused were but as morning breezes compared with the
+storm and tempest his new proposals raised. His daring and dash almost
+dazed his fellow townsfolk, for, like Napoleon, he rushed on from one
+exploit to another with a rapidity that astounded his friends and
+confused and overwhelmed his foes.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+THE ACT AND THE DWELLINGS.
+
+
+Considering how many interests were affected by the Birmingham
+Improvement Scheme and the adoption of the Artisans' Dwellings Act, it
+may be doubted if the scheme would have passed as it did had its full
+purport and meaning been fully considered and understood. Some persons
+saw that they would be grievously injured, and they offered strenuous
+opposition, but there were many others who only found out when it was
+too late what extreme and arbitrary power was conferred upon the
+authorities who put the Act into operation.
+
+Of course the scheme was laid before the rate-payers in the usual
+manner, but few realised the importance of studying it well, or grasped
+the far-reaching character of its operations till too late.
+
+Let me explain more especially what is meant by this. When it was
+decided to adopt Mr. Chamberlain's scheme and make the new fine street,
+land was cleared and was let on leases by the Corporation. In letting
+this land, agreements were made that the new buildings, when consisting
+of shops, offices, &c., should be so many storeys high, the object, of
+course, being to make the properties, which would in due course revert
+to the city, the more valuable. When, however, these tall buildings were
+erected, adjacent premises were robbed of light and air, and when the
+owners or tenants of these injured premises asked for compensation they
+found out, at least in some cases, that the authorities were not liable.
+I believe I am right in saying that the powers conferred by the Act
+absolved them from indictments on the part of those whose property was
+damaged by diminished air or light. The result was that certain
+sufferers found to their mortification that they had no redress, but
+must raise their chimneys at their own cost, if necessary, and in other
+cases endure the inconvenience of a decreased supply of light. This was
+an unpleasant revelation that caused much gnashing of teeth among the
+owners of, and the dwellers in, the properties surrounding the tall
+buildings erected by the leaseholders of the Corporation.
+
+As for those whose property was required and taken under the Act, it was
+all very well for owners and for those who had leases: they could not be
+molested without fair and proper payment. Shopkeepers and others,
+however, who were only annual tenants, had, I fear in many cases, to go
+empty away. Some of these had good, old-established businesses that had
+for years become identified with certain premises. It was nothing short
+of ruin to them to move, but they had to take up their goods and walk.
+This is the way that authorities often have to deal with the more or
+less helpless in view of what they consider to be the greatest good of
+the greatest number.
+
+It will, of course, be said that some of these traders were extremely
+short-sighted not to have had leases of premises that were so
+all-important to them. In many cases, however, they were unable to
+obtain such agreements, the landlords being unwilling or unable to grant
+them. The result was that many a prosperous tradesman had his successful
+career cut short and passed into a retirement he did not desire,
+probably with a few warm curses upon the Town Council, the Improvement
+Scheme, and the schemers.
+
+It is not very easy to understand the just laws that should govern
+compensation. When there is talk of disestablishing public-houses,
+certain statesmen approve of compensation. The argument is that as
+public-houses are licensed by law, their owners have been given a sort
+of status and sanction, which should be properly and considerately dealt
+with in case their businesses are taken away from them. But other
+people also take out licences, such as tobacconists, pawnbrokers,
+grocers, and wine sellers, yet when these traders are disturbed or
+disestablished, compensation is never suggested.
+
+Let us see what has happened in Birmingham. When the grand new street
+was made the traffic to the northern part of the town was largely
+diverted from other thoroughfares, and the consequence was that streets
+and passages that were once busy highways and byways were soon
+comparatively deserted. Shops became tenantless, or had to be let at
+greatly reduced rents. Indeed, the depreciation of property in the
+localities referred to is said to have been at least thirty per cent.
+Yet the owners had no redress.
+
+Of course it usually happens that when large reforms are effected the
+noble work is done at somebody's inconvenience or cost. It is the
+inevitable result, and people who are not sufferers shrug their
+shoulders and complacently remark that the few must be sacrificed for
+the benefit of the many. It is delightfully easy to be philosophical
+and even philanthropic when our own pockets, feelings, and interests are
+not concerned. The last new great Improvement Scheme would, of course,
+be a great thing for Birmingham; it would also shed a considerable
+amount of glory on its authors; it would likewise put a good deal of
+power into the hands of its administrators, and not a little money into
+the pockets of professional men. If some few persons had to suffer in
+order to bring about such splendid results they must try to be
+patriotic, noble citizens, or else grin and bear their discomfiture!
+Those, however, who were despoiled of their businesses, or who found
+their property seriously depreciated, were not likely to be consoled by
+such buttered comfort. They raised their voices in impotent protest, and
+denounced Mr. Chamberlain and all his works.
+
+We do not hear very much of the Artisans' Dwellings Act now, but any
+towns that contemplate adopting it should profit by the experience of
+Birmingham, consider its full scope and meaning, and count the cost.
+The city of Birmingham has applied the Act in connection with its last
+great Improvement Scheme, and it now remains to be seen what the
+results, in a commercial sense, will be. The present and succeeding
+generation, at least, will have to pay off some heavy obligations in the
+next sixty or seventy years, and then the city should he immensely the
+richer for its enterprising policy. I say it should be, and probably it
+will be, but there is a fair-sized "if" to be considered.
+
+It seems to be taken as a matter of course that Birmingham will go on
+developing and prospering in the future as it has in the past. And it
+may be fairly presumed that it will do so. This, however, must not be
+taken exactly as a matter of positive certainty. There are some
+indications that there may be a pause in the material prosperity of the
+city by and by--a limit to its progressiveness. If so, the enterprises
+of our authorities may not prove so advantageous as has been reckoned
+upon. Partly owing to high rates and the cost of carriage,
+manufacturers are removing factories outside the city, and in some
+cases, where they have a large foreign trade, nearer to the seaboard. If
+this exodus continues and increases it is easy to see that the effect
+will be to diminish the population, and this in time will affect the
+value of property. The manufactures of Birmingham are, however, so
+numerous and so varied there is reason for hope that any circumstances
+that may apparently show a standstill condition will only be temporary,
+and that in all general revivals of trade the city will participate.
+
+Whatever may happen, we know the city in the middle of the next century
+will come in for a fine heritage of reversions, and it is fair to
+presume that posterity will greatly benefit by the Improvement Scheme
+fathered by Mr. Chamberlain. In the meantime the citizens--at least,
+those who bestow much thought upon such matters--shake their heads at
+the load of debt Birmingham bears upon its shoulders, and chafe at the
+high rates. It is, however, pointed out to the malcontents that they
+live in a healthier place than Birmingham used to be, and, further, that
+the city, owing to its improved character and appearance, attracts more
+visitors, and this increases local trade.
+
+Of this latter fact there can be little dispute. The new order of things
+has led to a new and, in some cases, better class of shops being
+established, and these attract a better class of customers. At one time
+residents in the adjoining counties looked down upon Birmingham
+shopkeepers, and would say rather contemptuously that they never
+"shopped" in this city, but went to Leamington, Cheltenham, or London to
+make their purchases. But we do not hear so much of this now. On the
+contrary, I have heard of people--even aristocratic people--who actually
+say that they now, for many reasons, prefer to "shop" in Birmingham
+rather than go to London. Of course this is not an ordinary
+circumstance--for Birmingham has not yet a Bond Street or Regent Street;
+still, exceptional though it may be, it indicates a change of feeling
+and shows that, in one sense at all events, Birmingham is on the rise.
+
+The increased number of large and important shops in central Birmingham
+has led to the formation of trading establishments and Stores of the
+latest order of development. There are now large shops of the "universal
+provider" type, where they sell everything from blacking to port wine,
+and where you see silk mantles in one window and sausages in another.
+
+Some of us rather preferred the old order of things. We liked and still
+like to go to shops kept by tradesmen who have been brought up to
+certain lines of business, and who know from actual knowledge and
+experience what they are buying and selling. But in these large new
+shops and Stores people sell you almost everything without having any
+special knowledge of anything. They recommend this, that, and the other,
+but you have often good reason to know that it is not from any
+experience of the commodities they offer, but only the tradesman's
+instinct and desire to dispose of what he wants most to sell rather than
+what his customers may most wish to buy.
+
+Such is the new style of large shopkeeping, and it is not, of course,
+peculiar to Birmingham. It must be owned, however, that it means
+cheapness, and also that it has been largely developed by the new order
+of things brought about by the recent street improvements in the city.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+ECCE MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
+
+
+Having said so much of what Mr. Chamberlain has done in, and for,
+Birmingham, perhaps I may be permitted to say a few words, "mostly all"
+my own, respecting a much biographed man. Although Mr. Chamberlain is so
+prominently identified with Birmingham and Birmingham with him, it is
+well known that he is not a native of the place. He was born in London
+in 1836, and came to Birmingham in 1854. We took him in and he did for
+us. His father joined the well-known firm of Nettlefold, the wood screw
+makers, and in the course of time his eldest son, Joseph, succeeded
+him. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain soon found his feet in trade, and by his
+business acumen, his foresight, capacity, and shrewdness he advanced the
+business, which had already been highly successful, to a rare pitch of
+prosperity.
+
+At one time I saw and heard much of Mr. Chamberlain, especially in the
+earlier part of his Birmingham public career. He was always what he is
+now--a sharp, smart, and ready man. A man to inspire admiration and
+confidence. There was always a promptness and "all thereness" in his
+nature, with a decided touch of self-reliance, and I may even say
+audacity. In fact, without intending any reflection upon him, I might
+perhaps suggest that he could appropriately take as his motto "De
+l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace." In proof of this
+I may cite one or two incidents that came under my notice.
+
+Some thirty years or more ago Mr. Chamberlain was a prominent member of
+a local debating society. Now, this society used to have every year two
+social gatherings, and it was observed that many members who rarely or
+never came to the debates were not conspicuous by their absence when the
+summer "outings" and other little feasts took place. The committee
+thought it would be rather good sport to give these knife and fork
+debaters a little mild and gentle rub. Consequently they made them the
+subject of a toast at one of their social meetings, held at the
+Lyttelton Arms, Hagley. A word was coined for the occasion, and they
+were toasted as the "Artopsareocoluthic Members" (signifying the lovers
+of the loaves and fishes), and to Mr. Chamberlain was entrusted the task
+of proposing the toast.
+
+In a smart and brilliant speech he poked rare fun at the dinner-debating
+members who were so ready to participate in the festivities of the
+society and so lax in attending the discussions. He not only did this
+with delicious banter and pointed sarcasm; but, with an audacious touch
+all his own, he coupled the toast with the name of one member present.
+This brought the ruffled gentleman up on to his legs, and, smarting
+under Mr. Chamberlain's ironical philippics, he tried to pay back "our
+young friend" for what he considered his unwarrantable impertinence.
+
+But Mr. Chamberlain was not in the least disconcerted by the hotly
+expressed resentment of the offended member. With his cigar in his mouth
+and his eye-glass in his eye he smiled with amused complacency, while
+his irate friend tried to pay him back, though hardly in his own sharp,
+ringing coin.
+
+The other incident to which I have referred took place when the
+Birmingham Corporation Gas Bill was under consideration. A town's
+meeting was held to discuss and decide whether the gas undertakings
+should be purchased by the municipal authorities. As there was
+considerable difference of opinion upon the question there was a large
+gathering in the Town Hall, and the opponents of the scheme were in
+strong force.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, in the course of his speech advocating the purchase,
+pointed out with characteristic force all the advantages of the proposed
+scheme, and when he mentioned the satisfactory sum for which the gas
+undertaking could be bought a prominent opponent called out, "Will you
+give that for it?" "Yes, I will," was the prompt reply, which rather
+surprised and silenced his antagonist.
+
+And no doubt he meant what he said. He regarded the amount named as an
+advantageous price for the purchase--as it has proved to be--and he
+would have been willing, and would doubtless, with the aid of his
+friends, have been able, to find the money to secure such a valuable
+monopoly. It was, however, the decisive and ready manner in which he
+answered his interrogator that was so characteristic of the man, and
+which so appealed to the meeting as to elicit a hearty volley of cheers.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain was never easily disconcerted, nor was he ever a touchy,
+over-sensitive man. In fact, he has been heard to say, I believe, that a
+man who takes to public life must not be thin-skinned. If he is to give
+blows, he must be prepared to take blows in return, and whether he takes
+his punishment fighting or lying down, he must take it smiling, or at
+least with complacency. This he does himself, as a rule, and whatever he
+may feel under the blows of his adversaries, he does not wince nor
+whine, but always appears more or less imperturbable, good-humoured, and
+unscathed. We see him demonstrative, combative, even saucy sometimes on
+the platform, but rarely or never ruffled, sour, or out of temper.
+
+As I have hinted, I heard a good deal of Mr. Chamberlain's public
+speaking when he first came to the front as a public man, and it was
+impossible not to be interested, edified, and oftentimes amused by the
+intelligence, point, and smartness of his speech. At the same time there
+was--especially in the earlier days of his public career--a certain
+setness and formality of style that suggested the idea that his speeches
+were anything but the inspiration of the moment, but had been made
+beforehand, and were being reeled off. Indeed, many of those who knew
+him well maintained that his speeches were at this time the result of
+painstaking study, care, and elaboration, and that those who had a nose
+for oratory might detect in them a strong smell of the lamp.
+
+One incident that came under my notice certainly went far to corroborate
+this view. I refer to the occasion of a little semi-public dinner at
+which Mr. Chamberlain was put down to propose a certain toast. He
+proceeded for a time in his usually happy, characteristic manner, when
+all at once in the middle of a sentence he came to a full stop! We all
+looked up, and he looked down embarrassed and confused. He apparently
+had lost the thread of the discourse he had so carefully woven; he could
+not pick up the dropped stiches; and, if I remember rightly, he sat
+down, his speech not safely delivered.
+
+It seems difficult now to fancy Mr. Chamberlain making such a fiasco. He
+is at the present time probably one of the most ready and fluent
+speakers we have, and although many strange things might happen in the
+House of Commons, one of the most astonishing would be to see Mr.
+Chamberlain break down in a speech. It would create a sensation in that
+unserene assembly which would almost be enough to make a seasoned
+pressman swoon, and before the incident had been completely realised the
+unexpected and startling fact would probably be known at the Antipodes.
+Mr. Chamberlain can now make his speeches as he goes on--although the
+material may be prepared beforehand--and, as we know, he can turn from
+the course of his argument to answer quickly and effectively some
+pertinent or impertinent question or interruption.
+
+Since Mr. Chamberlain has become such a leading light in Parliament, his
+speeches have taken a much more solid, sedate, and serious tone than
+they had in his early Birmingham days. They have become considerably
+more weighty--perhaps some of his unfriendly critics would say more
+heavy--than they were in bygone times. Without being open to the charge
+of levity or flippancy, Mr. Chamberlain's speeches used to be remarkable
+for a certain amount of humour, banter, touch-and-go smartness, as well
+as terse argumentative force.
+
+At one time he was an appreciative student of the American humorists,
+and he was very fond of spicing his remarks with apt and amusing
+quotations from Hosea Biglow, Mark Twain, Artemus Ward, and other comic
+classics. Indeed, at one time, no speech of his would have been complete
+without some little sallies of this kind. Now, however, he rarely
+indulges in such pleasantries. Mr. Chamberlain's speeches in the House
+of Commons though never dull are never funny. He soon learned his
+lesson. He very quickly discovered that members of the House may not
+object to be amused, and are often, it must be admitted, easily moved to
+mirth. At the same time the members of that assembly do not place a high
+value upon the words of funny or would-be funny speakers.
+
+Unless he has changed very much, Mr. Chamberlain has a very keen sense
+and appreciation of humour. Probably he would like sometimes to indulge
+himself and amuse the House by firing off some humorous hits and
+quotations, but he knows the importance of suppressing such instincts
+and tendencies if he is to be taken seriously and regarded as a
+statesman. Blue books and Biglow, Bills and Sam Slick, do not make the
+sort of political punch that an influential leader can afford to ladle
+out at St. Stephen's. At the same time, if he cared to indulge his own
+ready wit, or to make use of the amusing extracts he has stored away in
+his memory, he could doubtless make some lively and diverting speeches.
+
+I remember when Mr. Chamberlain was Mayor of Birmingham, the late Mr.
+George Dawson at a little dinner proposed his health, and in doing so
+indulged in some characteristic banter and chaff. Mr. Chamberlain, then
+as now, was not a man of Aldermanic girth, and Mr. Dawson in the course
+of his humorous remarks took occasion to allude to his slight and
+slender proportions, and said he wished there was more of the Mayor to
+look at, and that he should like to see him "go to scale better."
+
+When he rose to reply Mr. Chamberlain, in a quiet, dry manner, and
+without a smile on his face, remarked, "Mr. Dawson has been good enough
+to refer to me as a Mayor without a Corporation." This was so neat and
+smart that I need hardly say the company laughed most amusedly.
+Probably, if I had kept a notebook, or were now to search well my
+memory, I might give other instances of Mr. Chamberlain's smart, ready
+wit.
+
+Now, however, as most people know, his speeches are remarkable for their
+point, force, logical reasoning, incisive language, and straight, hard
+hitting, but, as I have observed, he rarely if ever essays to be funny.
+By his sharp remarks and his adept turns of speech he often, however,
+creates much laughter--as, for instance, when he once spoke of an
+ex-Premier's opportunism and readiness to make promises which, when
+they ought to be fulfilled, "snap went the Gladstone bag"--but he never
+degenerates into anything approaching buffoonery.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain is always prompt and straightforward in action, and is
+pleasant and agreeable in manner and speech. Moreover, he is a man of
+consummate tact. I remember in 1874, when he was Mayor, and the Prince
+and Princess of Wales paid a visit to Birmingham, there was much
+wondering and questioning as to how he would comport himself on the
+occasion. At that time he was credited with cherishing rather strong
+Republican sentiments. It was even said that he had been known to go so
+far as to remain seated when the loyal toasts were drunk. I certainly
+cannot say that I was ever witness of such a proceeding, nor have I been
+able to trace the statement to any authentic source. Still, there was a
+widespread idea that he was not overburdened with feelings of loyalty,
+and many people naturally wondered how he would manage decorously to
+entertain his Royal guests.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain was quite equal to the occasion. In speech and manner
+his conduct was irreproachable, and he won golden opinions from all
+sorts of people. I remember that very curious stories were in
+circulation at the time as to the etiquette which, it had been laid
+down, should be observed on the occasion. It was, indeed, said that, in
+consequence of Mr. Chamberlain's supposed Republican sentiments, special
+regulations were enjoined, and that the formalities to be observed in
+receiving and entertaining the Prince were to be of an extra rigid
+character. I, for one, never believed there was any foundation for these
+silly reports, but, if any special formalities were prescribed, Mr.
+Chamberlain brushed them aside, and simply conducted himself with quiet,
+easy grace, always calm and self-possessed, and never fussy or
+needlessly obsequious.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain entertained the Royal visitors and others at luncheon at
+the Society of Artists' rooms, and it struck me that if he had been a
+born courtier, and had been bred in the atmosphere of palaces, he could
+hardly have been more "at home" in the position in which he found
+himself. His speech, in which he proposed the health of the Prince and
+Princess of Wales, was a model of adroitness and good taste. Without
+giving himself away by indulging in effusiveness, or being carried away
+by the glamour of the occasion, he managed to make a very circumspect,
+clever, and appropriate speech, which, though closely scrutinised,
+brought no reproaches or even adverse criticisms from Republicans or
+Royalists. No doubt it was a somewhat scorching ordeal for Mr.
+Chamberlain to pass through, but he came out of it unsinged and
+triumphant, and was afterwards more popular than ever.
+
+I have some hesitation in speaking of Mr. Chamberlain in his private and
+"at home" character, though in these days I hardly know that I need be
+very timid or scrupulous. The public has a ready, I might almost say a
+greedy, ear for personal details concerning the lives and habits of
+public men, and there are plenty of writers willing to gratify its
+desires in this respect, and that, too, with the knowledge and consent
+of the eminent personages themselves. Many people like to hear all about
+the characteristics of prominent men, and have a keen appetite for all
+particulars concerning their personal habits and peculiarities. They
+love to hear what a celebrated man eats, drinks, and avoids, what time
+he rises and at what hour he usually goes to bed; and even a little
+thimbleful of scandal touching his shortcomings, delinquencies, and,
+possibly, his small vices, is as nectar to the gossip-loving taste. To
+tell some people what they have no right to know is often to delight
+them.
+
+Without at all professing to be in any sense an intimate friend of Mr.
+Chamberlain's, I may, perhaps, say that I have many times had the
+pleasure of sitting at his table, and a more genial and interesting host
+it would be difficult to describe. He is bland and gentle to a degree
+that might surprise those who only know him as a vigorous, fighting
+politician.
+
+I remember that once when Sir William Harcourt was a guest of Mr.
+Chamberlain's at Highbury, he said that he went to stay with his
+honourable friend with feelings almost amounting to trepidation, but he
+soon found that Mr. Chamberlain was by no means the ogre he had been
+represented. Mr. Chamberlain eat his meals with an ordinary knife and
+fork; and he rose up in the morning and went to bed regularly like any
+other sane and well-conducted person. Indeed, he found him quite a tame
+and inoffensive creature compared with the rampant, rampageous
+autocratic being he had so often heard him described.
+
+I do not pretend to quote Sir William Harcourt's words literally. I am
+repeating entirely from memory, but I give the gist of some of his
+amusing, characteristic remarks when speaking in the Birmingham Town
+Hall at the time he was Mr. Chamberlain's friend and guest. Certainly, I
+have always found Mr. Chamberlain a delightfully pleasant host. He is
+not given to monopolizing the talk. He does not dogmatize or lay down
+the law; in fact, when acting as host he is so mild, docile, and
+pleasant that a fossilized Tory, or even a fiery Nationalist, might play
+with him.
+
+Sometimes I have been among a favoured few who have been asked to stay
+after most of his guests have left, and have a cigar with Mr.
+Chamberlain in his library. On such occasions there has been some rare
+good talk. I remember on one occasion the conversation did become warmly
+political, and there was quite a smart little tussle between our host
+and Mr. Jesse Collings. At that time Mr. Collings had a trifle more
+sympathy with Irish patriots than I fancy he has now, and with his
+naturally warm sympathetic feeling he was for liberating Mr. Parnell,
+who was then a prisoner at Kilmainham. But Mr. Chamberlain would have
+none of it. He maintained that Mr. Parnell and his friends had broken
+the law and must pay the penalty. He was quite willing to consider their
+demands, and what they considered to be their wrongs, but they must not
+defy the law. Yes, there was some pretty sparring between these two
+friends on that occasion, very earnest but, of course, perfectly
+good-tempered on both sides.
+
+I have before remarked upon Mr. Chamberlain's self-command and
+imperturbability. Some persons are, perhaps, inclined to think that
+because he keeps himself so well in hand and so rarely indulges in
+sentiment that he is devoid of feeling and emotion. Not so. I recollect
+that on the death of Mr. John Henry Chamberlain--no relation of his, but
+a gentleman whose personal character, artistic skill, and intellectual
+gifts he, and many others, held in high esteem--a meeting was held to
+consider the desirability of having some memorial of one whose loss was
+so deeply deplored. Mr. Chamberlain took a prominent part in the
+proceedings, and I well remember how deeply affected he was when, in the
+course of his touching references to his deceased friend, he said, "I
+feel that his death, then, is the crowning of a noble life. He has been
+called from us in the moment of victory, and we who remain behind are to
+be pitied, for we have lost a great leader, and there are none to take
+his place."
+
+"The task which is imposed upon us is certainly a very melancholy one.
+One by one our leaders are removed from us. The gaps in our ranks are
+becoming painfully apparent. Still, there is much work to be done, and
+we shall best honour those who are gone by endeavouring, as best we may,
+to continue and complete the work which they have so well commenced. In
+this spirit we may be content to bide our turn, hoping that when we,
+too, are called away our record may not shame the bright example of
+those who have gone before us."
+
+When making these touching remarks Mr. Chamberlain's voice became
+tremulous with emotion. He evidently experienced the greatest difficulty
+in commanding his feelings, and when he sat down I saw tear-drops in his
+eyes. Never have I seen him so overcome, and it is only justice to him
+to cite this incident as showing that sentiment and feeling, though
+rarely manifested, are not foreign to his real nature.
+
+With respect to Mr. Chamberlain's personal appearance his form and
+features are now well known, but for a time he was a somewhat
+troublesome subject to caricaturists. When he was first budding out into
+national importance the clever artist of _Vanity Fair_ at that time came
+down to Birmingham to draw him. He succeeded in making a good
+caricature, but it was said that he found his task by no means an easy
+one. It was the nose, I believe, that puzzled the artist. Mr.
+Chamberlain has a pointed, slightly upturned nose, and some cynical
+people may be disposed to say that it has become more pointed and sharp
+the more he has poked it into political business. Anyway, it is a
+characteristic, perhaps _the_ characteristic, of Mr. Chamberlain's face,
+and the skilful _Vanity Fair_ artist caught it after a time, and just
+sufficiently exaggerated it to make a genuine caricature. Seeing,
+however, that Mr. Chamberlain was born to be a much-pictured man, one
+thing has stood him in fine stead--his eye-glass. When "Mr. Punch" first
+took him in hand he could make little or nothing of him, but the
+eye-glass saved the Fleet Street artists from failure. They found
+nothing they could lay hold of at first, not even his nose. They saw a
+man with a pleasant, good-looking, closely-shaven face, some dark hair
+brushed back from his forehead, but there was nothing they could hit off
+with success, and the only way they could secure identity was by the
+eye-glass. "Mr. Punch" used at one time to represent Mr. Bright as
+wearing an eye-glass, but I don't think he ever used one. Certainly I
+never saw Mr. Bright with an eye-glass, and never saw Mr. Chamberlain
+without one. Great and prominent men should have some characteristic
+peculiarity that should be their own special personal brand, and if they
+have it not, it must be made for them--as in the case of Lord Palmerston
+and the wisp of straw that "Mr. Punch" always put in his mouth. Mr.
+Chamberlain, however, has kindly obliged, and given caricaturists and
+others something by which he can be unmistakably "featured."
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+EXIT MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
+
+
+In 1876 Mr. Chamberlain was elected a member of Parliament for
+Birmingham, and his municipal career shortly came to an end. It may be
+remembered that he made an unsuccessful attempt to represent Sheffield
+some little time before he aspired to become a candidate for Birmingham.
+He made a very plucky fight in the cutler constituency, and the
+Sheffield blades were hardly so sharp as they might have been in
+rejecting such an able and rising politician. Probably, if they could
+have peered a little into the future, Mr. Chamberlain's first seat in
+Parliament would not have been as a representative of Birmingham.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, was elected as one of the members of his
+adopted town in the year mentioned, and, as I have said, he retired more
+or less from municipal life. It may further be said that he relinquished
+his local position at the right moment. He was lucky as to the time in
+which he took up public life in Birmingham, and he was equally fortunate
+in regard to the period at which he quitted it. He had set afloat great
+local schemes, he had laboured assiduously for the good of the town, he
+had attained the acme of his local popularity, he was admired even by
+his opponents, and an imposing memorial was erected in his honour. After
+this, anything that might have happened would have been in the nature of
+an anti-climax so far as his local career was concerned.
+
+When at some future day Mr. Chamberlain's life comes to be fully
+written, it will probably be noted as something remarkable that he
+should have done so much, and achieved such a position, while yet only a
+young man. For be it remembered, that after he had been for three
+successive years Mayor of Birmingham, had carried out the large and
+important schemes associated with his name, and had become one of the
+representatives of the town in Parliament, he was only forty years of
+age. It will also be noted that very soon after making his appearance in
+the House of Commons he quickly got his foot on the ladder and rapidly
+mounted the rungs that lead to pre-eminence, and in a very few years
+attained the position of Cabinet Minister.
+
+What more he might have done for Birmingham it is impossible to
+conjecture had he remained longer our local leader. But he was called up
+higher. Perhaps this was lucky for him. The great enterprises, or at
+least some of them, were only fairly started when he relinquished his
+grasp of them, and it remained to be seen whether they were to prove all
+they had been painted. If they succeeded, nothing could deprive him of
+the honour and glory of having inaugurated them. If they failed, it was
+in his power to say that had he remained to carry them out the results
+would have been altogether different.
+
+The working-out of some of his larger schemes and undertakings created,
+as I have already intimated, considerable soreness and friction in
+various quarters. They brought hardship on many persons and produced, at
+any rate for a time, considerable ill-feeling and discontent. The piper
+had to be paid for the great enterprises he had set afloat. With regard
+to the gas and water purchases, the former has returned a profit to the
+tune of L35,000 to L40,000 a year, and is now (in 1899) realising about
+L50,000 per annum. The profits of the water scheme are still more or
+less prospective, whilst the gains to be realised by his great
+Improvement Scheme are in the dim and distant future.
+
+Any adverse criticisms on these undertakings do not now directly affect
+their author. He has taken up national in place of local work, and he
+has left others in Birmingham to carry out more or less ably what he so
+successfully began. Some of us are occasionally inclined to think that
+his brilliant example and career have inflamed some of our remaining
+public men with a desire to do heroics, and to follow his lofty lead in
+the way of promoting large schemes.
+
+For instance, the city is now committed to a huge expenditure for the
+purpose of bringing a supply of water from Mid-Wales. There was
+considerable opposition to this very costly project, but it was at last
+carried, though only the future can decide whether it will prove to be
+an altogether wise and prudent, not to say profitable, undertaking.
+Experts and some far-seeing men are confident as to its future benefits.
+We are to have a good supply of excellent water, and we are to save a
+great many thousands a year in soap. Further, we shall be independent of
+merely local supplies, which, we are told, will be quite inadequate for
+our needs in future days. I am not in a position to controvert what has
+been said in favour of the project, nor have I reason to doubt that the
+scheme--especially under certain conditions--will be of great benefit
+and value to the community in the coming by and by.
+
+At the same time it may, perhaps, be doubted whether the undertaking,
+like the Improvement Scheme, was fully comprehended in all its bearings
+when it was decided to apply for an Act of Parliament to carry out the
+Welsh water project. But its promoters having made up their minds upon
+the question bustled, I won't say rushed, the proposal along, and before
+many of the inhabitants were fairly awakened to what was being done, the
+initial part of the business was accomplished.
+
+When, however, the matter was brought out more into the open in the
+Parliamentary Committee Rooms many of our townsmen opened their eyes and
+their mouths and pressed for a little time for the further consideration
+of this gigantic scheme. But the opposition was not strong enough to
+procure any delay; the advocates of the proposal had our most
+influential public men on their side, so the bill passed through
+Parliament.
+
+Occasionally now mutterings of doubt and dissatisfaction are heard, and
+there are still those who prophesy evil in the future in consequence of
+the enormous outlay to which the city is committed. If, however,
+Birmingham grows and prospers all will be well. If otherwise--and the
+last census did seem to indicate that our progress, as measured by
+increasing population, was inclined to steady down--Birmingham will have
+a huge debt in the future which even a large supply of good wholesome
+water will not altogether liquidate.
+
+Returning, however, to make a few further observations respecting Mr.
+Chamberlain, it may be said now that the voices of those who had any
+grudge against him for the daring innovations he made, and the bold
+undertakings he promoted, have become nearly mute. There are, however,
+some who speak disparagingly of him, partly, perhaps, because they are
+envious of him, and cannot complacently realise his rapid rise to the
+position of eminence he has attained.
+
+Some of his former Radical friends and associates especially denounce in
+no measured terms his unpardonable heresy in departing from what they
+consider was his old political path. Vituperation is almost too mild a
+term to describe their expressed disgust when they see one who was, they
+believed, a man of the people consorting with royal dukes, belted earls,
+and even with the Sovereign herself. This is too much for some of the
+old full-blooded Radicals who are still found in our midst.
+
+Very possibly some of these would do the same if they had the chance,
+for your thorough-going Radical is often a curious creature. I remember
+once being at a London theatre with a friend of mine who was a desperate
+and despotic democrat, and who has been a leading light for years among
+our advanced Radicals. Now it so happened that on the evening of our
+visit the Prince of Wales was at the theatre we attended, and I was
+greatly amused to notice how interested my democratic friend was in
+watching the royal box. When the performance was nearing the end he
+amused me still more by suggesting that we should hurry out and watch
+the Prince drive off. "I do so like to see that sort of thing," he
+added.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain, however, is not the man to care what his foes or his
+old political friends think or say about him. Water on a duck's back is,
+I fancy, an oppressive agony compared with the right honourable
+gentleman's feelings when he hears or reads the condemnatory and abusive
+remarks of some of his former allies. If at any time he does perchance
+feel at all stung by any of the adverse criticisms he hears or reads, he
+takes care not to show that he is hurt.
+
+Sparks will fly upwards, and Mr. Chamberlain has had his troubles, but
+he does not wear his heart on his sleeve, or carry his woes into the
+market place. I remember many years ago, under the stress of severe
+domestic affliction, he retired into private life for a considerable
+period, and it was said that during his self-imposed obscurity he sought
+occupation and solace in the study of Blue Books. Anyway, when he
+emerged into public life again he appeared as the author of a magazine
+article of an advanced political character, which seemed to shew that he
+had spent his solitude in studying and trying to solve some of the large
+political problems of the day.
+
+In contemplating Mr. Chamberlain's remarkable career and his high rise
+in the political world, I am tempted to wonder whether he would have
+built his large mansion near Birmingham if he could have foreseen the
+immediate future. When he made up his mind to erect his house at a great
+cost he perhaps scarcely dreamed he would so soon become a Cabinet
+Minister. Possibly he looked forward to being little more than a local
+member of Parliament--for he is not, I fancy, a dreamer of dreams--and
+felt he should like to pitch his tent near to his constituency.
+
+Anyway he built his house at Moor Green, which he called "Highbury"
+after the name of the district in London where he was born. The house is
+well situated, though in some respects hardly built upon a site worthy
+of such a costly residence. It stands on a piece of rising ground, and
+commands a good prospect. In the front of it are the Lickey and Clent
+Hills some eight or ten miles away, but in the mid-distance is a
+manufacturing suburb with several tall chimneys which are obtrusively
+conspicuous, and which behave as factory chimneys generally do, scarcely
+improving the prospect or the atmosphere. These disadvantages were, I
+believe, pointed out to him before a brick was laid, but he had made up
+his mind, and when it is made up I fancy it is made up very much.
+
+The day may come when he may be able to spend but little of his time at
+his Highbury home, but he has children who will keep the house inhabited
+and well aired if he himself does not. His eldest son, Mr. Austen
+Chamberlain, M.P. for one of the Worcestershire divisions, is in
+training to walk in his father's footsteps, and to see eye to eye--or I
+might say eye-glass to eye-glass--with him in matters political. What
+the future of this eldest son may be it is not for me to forecast. He
+has made an exceptionally good start, but he will have his work cut out
+to follow successfully in the tread of such an able and distinguished
+father.
+
+When people see Mr. Chamberlain _pere_ in such prosperity, flourishing
+like a green bay tree, with a country house that has cost a fortune, a
+town house to maintain, and plenty of money to do a fair amount of
+globe-trotting, they wonder and ask how did he get such a lot of money?
+Well, I cannot say, because I do not know, and if I did know I should
+not tell. Doubtless he had something considerable from his father, who
+must have been well off, but as there were some seven children to share
+what was left by the late Mr. Chamberlain it may be assumed it was not
+simply what he inherited that made him rich.
+
+Doubtless his wealth was chiefly acquired by his shrewdness, business
+capacity, and enterprise when he was a member of the firm of Nettlefold
+and Chamberlain, and probably when he retired from that prosperous
+business it was with a sum of money which would, perhaps, make some of
+us blink with envious surprise if we knew the figure.
+
+It is no secret that when he was engaged in business Mr. Chamberlain
+adopted a policy which created much comment at one time, and was,
+indeed, rather severely criticised. It was understood that he had set
+his heart upon making the trade of his firm as much of a monopoly as
+possible, and to this end he made it known to his local competitors that
+they must sell their businesses to him or be prepared for certain
+consequences if they did not.
+
+Such a course of action was regarded as somewhat tyrannical, especially
+by those directly concerned, and it made bad blood for a time between
+Mr. Chamberlain and some of those with whom he was associated in public
+work. After a while his trade opponents came to the idea that it would
+be better to surrender at discretion than to enter into conflict with a
+firm that was in such a strong position, and had such a big war chest at
+its disposal.
+
+It is hardly necessary to go into the merits of this trade question, or,
+indeed, to say anything about it now, as it is all a matter of ancient
+history. Indeed, I only refer to the matter because it formed an
+incident in Mr. Chamberlain's Birmingham career and left its mark upon
+the business that went up and the businesses that went down. Moreover,
+it is a little instructive and edifying, as showing how Mr.
+Chamberlain's combative nature manifested itself in his everyday life.
+He recognised, as other men have done, that business is not a matter to
+be played with, and that trade is in fact a commercial conflict in which
+one must whip and the other be whipped, and as he felt himself in a
+strong position, was on the box and had the whip in his hand, he was
+resolved to drive and to choose the pace and the road.
+
+Live and let live is, of course, a very good and proper maxim, but it
+finds no place in the copy-book of sharp, smart, successful men of
+business. It is their aim and purpose to get money--without harm to
+others, if they can, if not, others must look out for themselves--that
+is all. In one sense at all events Mr. Chamberlain's tactics were
+justified. They were successful.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+AND HIS BRETHREN.
+
+
+Mr. Chamberlain having obtained such distinction in public life, it was
+perhaps only natural that some of his brothers should be tempted or
+induced to follow his shining star. Possibly they had no strong
+inclination to distinguish themselves in public, and were rather pressed
+to come forward on account of the influential name they bore. Anyway,
+some of them did appear in various offices and capacities, but without
+meaning any disrespect to them or any reflection upon their abilities, it
+may perhaps be said that they found their fires so pale and ineffectual
+compared with the brilliant light of their eldest brother--or it may be
+that they found public work comparatively uncongenial to them--that,
+most of them soon preferred to efface themselves and leave one of their
+family and his son to take all the honours and have all the court cards.
+
+Mr. Richard Chamberlain took the most prominent position, and made the
+highest mark of all Mr. Chamberlain's brothers. He was Mayor of
+Birmingham in the years 1879 and 1880. During his years of office he was
+public-spirited and popular, and in the way of civic hospitality he made
+things lively and gay. He kept the Council House warm with his
+entertainments, and lavished so much money in hospitalities of one kind
+or another that he made it difficult for his immediate successors to
+follow in his wake, and none of them tried to do so. So far as I could
+judge of his character, Mr. Richard Chamberlain did not spend his money
+so freely for the sake of purchasing popularity, and certainly not for
+the sake of making ostentatious displays of his wealth. He was naturally
+generous and genial, and as Mayor of a large and important town he found
+many ways of humouring his bent, and he did not mind paying the piper
+pretty handsomely for his pleasure. As is well known, he was afterwards
+M.P. for one of the Islington divisions for some years. Ill-health
+however overtook him, and he died much regretted on the 2nd of April,
+1899.
+
+Another brother, Mr. Arthur Chamberlain, was a town councillor of
+Birmingham for a limited period, and owing to his business capacity he
+became a useful member of the Corporation. He did not apparently go into
+the Council to make a long stay, or if he did he changed his mind, and
+soon retired from municipal work. He has since spent his time in minding
+his own business; in strengthening, mending, and making certain public
+companies; in giving fatherly advice to company shareholders; and in
+dispensing justice, sometimes with pertinent observations, on the local
+magisterial bench.
+
+Two other brothers, Mr. Herbert and Mr. Walter Chamberlain, have at
+times been induced to take a little hand in public work, but their
+efforts have been of a mild, modest, innocent character. Now, however,
+they have retired into that privacy from which they so timidly emerged.
+For many reasons Mr. Chamberlain's brothers were, perhaps, wise not to
+bid high for public place and position in Birmingham. People are apt to
+be needlessly suspicious of too much family influence in public
+concerns. There is always a tendency and a readiness to inveigh against
+cliques, especially family cliques. And at one time there was certainly
+a disposition in some quarters to keep a jealous eye upon Joseph and his
+brethren, lest they should acquire an undue amount of influence and
+power. One blunt, outspoken Scotchman, I remember, expressed this
+feeling in his own characteristic way by saying, "If we don't mind we
+shall be having too much dom'd Chamberlain."
+
+The Chamberlain family, however, being more or less smart, spry men,
+were doubtless sharp enough to detect some inkling of this sort of
+feeling, and consequently they thought it better to silence any such
+cavillings by eschewing as far as they could public life, and contenting
+themselves with being brothers of a big man and sharing a little
+reflected glory.
+
+Whilst mentioning Mr. Chamberlain's family I must say a word of his
+brother-in-law, Mr. William Kenrick, for some years M.P. for the
+Northern Division of Birmingham. Mr. Kenrick was Mayor of Birmingham in
+1877, and a worthy and modest chief magistrate he made. A generous,
+intelligent, public-spirited man, he has always been liberal with his
+purse and his time, and has done much to further educational and
+philanthropic schemes. Mr. Kenrick belongs to a class some cynical
+people consider very "cliquey." It is, however, to be wished there were
+more such "cliquey" people in our midst, for they are always
+conspicuously at the fore in supporting by their influence and their
+money every good cause which has for its object the alleviation of
+suffering and the improvement of the people.
+
+It is true that there was one important project inaugurated some few
+years ago that did not enlist their sympathy. This was the Birmingham
+Bishopric Scheme. But, seeing that most of the "clique" are Unitarians,
+they could hardly be expected to support a proposal for the benefit of
+the Established Church. It was a misfortune for that Church that the
+Chamberlain party and their friends were aliens in religious matters.
+Had it been otherwise the results of the proposed scheme might have been
+very different. The "clique," when they do support a cause, do it with
+no niggardly hand, and if it had so chanced that they had been Churchmen
+instead of Unitarians, the probabilities are that by this time
+Birmingham would have been in possession of a full-sized Bishop all its
+own, and possibly a fine, bran-new, costly cathedral to boot.
+
+Owing to the lack of monetary support the Birmingham Bishopric Scheme
+is dead, or in such a very sound trance that it is hardly likely to
+revive. At its birth it was not very strong, and its early existence was
+jeopardised by conflicting ideas among its sponsors, chiefly caused by
+the difficulties in the way of raising all the money required.
+Birmingham, therefore, had to settle itself down and be content with a
+Suffragan Bishop, at least for a time, and this, it is thought, may
+prove to be a good long time.
+
+In connection with the Birmingham Unitarians I may here, perhaps,
+appropriately allude to a matter connected with the growth of our modern
+city. The New Meeting House of the Unitarians in which Dr. Priestley
+ministered was situated on the east side of the town, and as the
+congregation was migrating westward they desired to have their place--I
+won't say of worship, but their place of meeting, nearer to their homes.
+Moreover, moved by the advancing spirit of the age, they wished for a
+more important and ornamental looking edifice than the extremely plain,
+I might say ugly, structure which their fathers had attended. Unitarians
+may appear to be rather rigid and frigid, but they have an intelligent
+appreciation of art and beauty.
+
+Accordingly some forty years ago they selected a site on the west side
+of the town, and erected what was then considered a handsome place of
+meeting, which they called the Church of the Messiah, and which was
+opened in 1862. The architect of this Church did not seem to be unduly
+weighed down with Unitarian ideas. By accident or design he marked the
+edifice with emblems of the Trinity, for at the very entrance there is a
+large opening encircling three arches, which are suggestively
+emblematical of the Three in One.
+
+The building of this somewhat florid structure, and the move of the
+Unitarian church from east to west, provoked a considerable amount of
+caustic comment and humorous criticism at the time. These advanced
+Unitarians were scoffed and sneered at for deserting the simple
+tabernacle of their ancestors, and one which was associated with the
+revered name of Dr. Priestley. They were also mocked for their greater
+iniquity in selling their tabernacle to the Papists. Yes, the New
+Meeting House of the Unitarians became a chapel of the Roman Catholics.
+They rendered to the priests the things that were Priestley's, as they
+were reminded by a facetious paper published at the time. But, however
+much the Unitarians may have been chaffed and sneered at for abandoning
+their old conventicle, they have lived it all down, and, if I mistake
+not, Joseph and his brethren, the Kenricks, the Oslers, the Beales, and
+others, now congregate in peace in their un-Unitarian-looking Church of
+the Messiah.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S ASSOCIATES.
+
+
+Having spoken of his brethren, I may now refer to one or two of Mr.
+Chamberlain's friends and associates. Among these I will specially
+mention Mr. Jesse Collings, Mr. Schnadhorst, and Mr. Powell Williams.
+Mr. Collings, like Mr. Chamberlain, is a stranger within our gates. He
+is a Devon man by birth, but as a comparatively young man he came to
+Birmingham, and he not only came but he saw and he prospered. He entered
+local public life about the same time as Mr. Chamberlain, and they soon
+became kindred spirits. From the first Mr. Chamberlain seemed to take a
+special fancy to Mr. Collings--in American phrase, he "froze to him."
+They became a sort of David and Jonathan company limited, and although
+each of the partners may have preserved a certain amount of independence
+and individuality, in many things they pulled together in their work and
+policy like one man.
+
+When Mr. Chamberlain took leave of local municipal life and went up
+higher, Mr. Collings was not long in following him, and now both have
+been for some years very familiar figures in Parliament. Since they
+first entered public life both men have in some ways mellowed down.
+Compared with what they once were, their foes at any rate say, they have
+both lost colour. They were once ripe, full-bodied Radicals, and now
+they are tawny Liberals, who have been bottled late--but bottled.
+
+Although time and experience may have taught Mr. Collings many things,
+he probably retains more of the old Radical Adam than does Mr.
+Chamberlain. At one time he was regarded by some of his opponents as a
+political fire-eater--a democratic despot who would have decapitated
+kings and queens without a tinge of remorse, and slain wicked Tories
+with the sword. He was, however, never the ungenial, self-seeking,
+aggressive person some of his foes may have fancied him. He was always
+an affable, pleasant, agreeable man, who could be civil and even polite
+to his adversaries, especially when political fighting was not going on
+in front. But, as I have said, he has toned down during late years and
+has learned, as many other men have done, that there are large lessons
+to be learnt by experience, and that there is some virtue in expediency.
+
+Of course a good deal of mud has been flung at Mr. Collings by some of
+his local friends in consequence of what they consider his political
+perversion, but I don't know that much of it has stuck to him. With some
+of his former allies it is not so much that he may have become more
+temperate in his views, or that he did actually abandon his absolute
+freedom and take a Government office. They might have forgiven these
+little backslidings, but in their eyes he sinned past redemption when he
+consorted with titled people, broke the bread of kings, and even
+suffered himself to be entertained at Sandringham. These were offences
+outside forgiveness in the eyes of some few of his former associates.
+With Mr. Chamberlain, however, as his friend and prototype, he probably
+feels that he can afford to smile at the sneers and jeers of those who,
+not being able to make much way up the political ladder themselves, take
+their revenge by pelting those who are climbing their way towards the
+top.
+
+Among Mr. Chamberlain's working associates, Mr. Powell Williams has been
+a sort of "surprise packet." Poets, we are told, are born, and not made,
+but Mr. Powell Williams seems to have been made, and not born. At least,
+no one seems to know anything much about his early career. He appeared
+to burst upon the municipal horizon all at once, like a meteor emerging
+from outer space, but when he came in contact with the Corporation
+atmosphere he soon became ignited and fired by municipal enthusiasm,
+and, encouraged by those who perceived his capacity, he rapidly began to
+be a conspicuous luminary in our local Forum. He quickly distinguished
+himself in the matter of local finance, and indeed soon became
+Birmingham's Chancellor of the Exchequer.
+
+Without being a brilliant or learned orator, Mr. Powell Williams had the
+gift of fluency, and he could generally be reckoned upon to get up at a
+moment's notice and make an effective speech. He could also do a little
+fighting if it came in his way, and in the course of his Town Council
+career he had one or two pretty bouts with some of his opponents. When
+he is not on the war horse he is a pleasant, intelligent, un-sour man,
+with a touch of smartness and humour which give point to his words. As
+is now well known, Mr. Williams was returned to Parliament for one of
+the Birmingham divisions. He became the successful helmsman in London
+of the central organization of the Liberal Unionist party. On the
+formation of the Government in 1895, to the surprise of many of his
+friends and acquaintances, he became a member of the administration. It
+was believed that he was well taken in tow by Mr. Chamberlain, but it
+may with truth, perhaps, be added that by his own energy and ability he
+placed himself in a prominent position where he could hardly be
+overlooked.
+
+With respect to Mr. Schnadhorst, there can be no question as to Mr.
+Chamberlain's prescience in judging of the capabilities of men, and his
+quick appreciation of Mr. Schnadhorst's attributes is a case in point.
+The pre-eminence this latter-named gentleman attained in the political
+world was somewhat of a surprise to many of his old friends, and
+probably not least of all to himself. Doubtless at the beginning of his
+career he little dreamt that owing to his being taken in hand by men of
+influence; to unforeseen circumstances in the evolution of political
+affairs; and also, it must be admitted, to certain capabilities of his
+own, he would attain to the position of importance he somewhat quickly
+reached, and his name become a synonym for systematic political
+organization.
+
+I knew Mr. Schnadhorst long before he blossomed out into fame. He struck
+me, and doubtless others, as being an intelligent, good, easy-mannered
+man, with a touch of "Sunday schoolism" in his character and manner. He
+was not brilliant, and he did not appear to be burdened with much
+originality. He seemed to be a pointless sort of man, apparently
+destitute of any keen sense of humour; a spectacled, sallow, sombre man,
+who would have been an ornament to a first-class undertaker's business.
+Certainly he was not one who, by his smartness, wit, cleverness, and
+courage would have tempted anyone to say, "There is the great political
+organizer of the future."
+
+In his earlier life and in his own particular line of business he was
+not a conspicuous success. His heart was not in it or his hand either.
+Speaking from my own experience, he made me about the worst fitting
+coat I ever wore. Mr. Chamberlain, however, took his measure more
+successfully than he himself took other people's, in a sartorial sense,
+and soon saw that he would make up into something useful if the cutting
+out was done for him.
+
+Mr. Schnadhorst as a young man began by taking a keen and intelligent
+interest in local public life. He came under the eye of Mr. Chamberlain,
+who quickly perceived that he possessed certain qualities which would
+prove useful and valuable if properly employed. He saw in him a man of
+aptitude and capacity, who had the _suaviter in modo_, even if he had
+not much of the _fortiter in re_--a man of method, persuasiveness, and
+industry, with a cool head, a safe temper, and a calm mind.
+
+Of Mr. Schnadhorst's possession of the last-named qualities I once had a
+striking proof. It was on the occasion of one of Mr. Gladstone's visits
+to Birmingham. A great political meeting was held in Bingley Hall, and
+the immense gathering was in a fever of excitement. I remember speaking
+with Mr. Schnadhorst in the course of the evening, and was greatly
+struck by his self-possessed, quiet, easy manner. So far from being
+affected by the intense enthusiasm and feverish excitement that
+prevailed, he was just as cool and collected as though the occasion was
+some little tea party affair or a ward meeting, instead of the greatest
+indoor political demonstration ever held in Birmingham.
+
+As already stated Mr. Chamberlain quickly perceived and plumbed to the
+bottom Mr. Schnadhorst's capabilities, and as he was bent on solidifying
+and systematising, or, in other words, "caucusing" the Liberal party in
+Birmingham, he thought he saw in Mr. Schnadhorst the organising mind and
+methodical skill that would be eminently useful in carrying out the
+work. Nor was he wrong. Mr. Schnadhorst proved to be all that was
+expected of him, and the political world knows the rest. How he became
+the great political machinist of his day, and how, by his zeal,
+ability, and method, he elevated "caucusing" or party "wire pulling"
+into a recognised system--I had almost said a political science.
+
+Circumstances have changed since that period. Mr. Chamberlain made Mr.
+Schnadhorst, but Mr. Schnadhorst turned his back upon his maker. He was
+probably actuated by conscientious motives and convictions, although
+professional politicians may not, as a rule, be credited with being
+greatly overburdened with conscientious scruples. Still, Mr. Schnadhorst
+was, I think, generally credited by those who knew him with being an
+upright, earnest, honest man, so he may well be allowed the benefit of
+the doubt.
+
+It must, I think, have cost him a struggle to part company with such a
+man as Mr. Chamberlain--with one who had put him in the way he should
+go, and which led him to such a commanding position of influence and
+importance. Anyway, from whatever motive, he was induced to forsake the
+rising star in the political firmament, and to worship Mr. Gladstone,
+the setting sun. The sun went down below the horizon, but we saw how Mr.
+Schnadhorst continued to work his political orrery with the major and
+minor planets, the shooting stars and comets, that shone at Westminster
+with such varied lustre, or wished to shine there if they could.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+THE BIRMINGHAM BELGRAVIA.
+
+
+Seeing how Birmingham has grown and prospered, it is interesting to
+consider what might have been the result if the town and its outskirts
+had not been fairly pleasant for well-to-do people to reside in.
+Fortunately, there is one extensive west-end suburb--Edgbaston--which
+forms a suitable, healthy, and desirable residential locality for the
+Birmingham upper classes. But for the existence of this well laid out--I
+was going to say genteel, but Heaven forbid--neighbourhood, a very large
+number of its wealthiest manufacturers and professional men would
+doubtless now reside some distance from the city. An increasing number
+of those who work in Birmingham now live--at least have their
+houses--outside its limits, owing to facilities afforded by the
+railways; but Edgbaston is still a rich, well-populated suburb within a
+very easy distance of the centre of the city. Mr. Schnadhorst, when he
+pulled political strings in Birmingham, regarded Edgbaston as a fine,
+good piece of vantage ground from an electoral point of view, since it
+kept so many rich residents within the pale of the town, and added so
+much to its influential voting power.
+
+Edgbaston is chiefly, I might almost say entirely, the property of the
+Calthorpes, and the late Lord Calthorpe, also his predecessor, were wise
+in their day and generation, and they had agents who were shrewd and
+far-seeing. They saw the importance of reserving Edgbaston and laying it
+out as an attractive, quiet suburb, and the late lord at least lived to
+see it covered with leasehold residences, many of them--indeed a very
+large number of them--of considerable value and importance. When these
+leases expire, as some of them will now before many years are over, and
+the noble ground landlord begins to draw in his net, what a big haul he
+will make in the way of reversions of the properties that have been
+built upon his land!
+
+Some of these Edgbaston houses are not only large and commodious, but
+are architecturally handsome and artistic. Birmingham has been fortunate
+during the last thirty or forty years in having two or three local
+architects who have not only possessed professional skill but also
+taste. The old square, solid, "money box" houses, so much esteemed by
+our fathers, are rarely erected now, but in their place residences of a
+more attractive design and artistic type.
+
+The Gothic revival has spread to domestic architecture, and the old,
+dreadfully-symmetrical brick and stuccoed house, and the hybrid Italian
+villa, make way for residential structures with gabled roofs, pointed
+arch windows, red tiles instead of dull-coloured slates, and attractive
+detail and ornamentation. In looking at such houses, one can hardly fail
+to be struck by the difference that may be effected by using the
+simplest materials--but using them with discrimination and taste. One
+architect may plan a house which will be plain to ugliness, the bricks
+laid in the most severe and commonplace fashion, and the outlines of the
+design--if design it can be called--devoid of any grace or variety. No
+projections to break up the dull flatness and give light and shade; no
+attempt to relieve the unmitigated square, hut-like appearance of the
+building. Another puts a pointed roof to his house, pierces it with
+pretty windows that have form without diminishing the light. He runs
+some courses of brick work round his building laid in diagonal or
+otherwise diversified lines. He places a porch at the entrance which has
+a touch of picturesqueness, and the result is a house that is pleasing
+to look upon, has at all events a suggestion of form and appearance,
+and all without any corresponding expense, because he has used his
+material with skill and taste.
+
+In Birmingham we have seen how much may be done in this direction in
+various ways, especially in the matter of the Board Schools. When the
+building of these schools was commenced the firm of Martin and
+Chamberlain were selected as architects. They had to design
+comparatively cheap buildings, for anything like extravagance in the way
+of ornamentation would probably have provoked much hostility. Brick and
+wood had to be the chief materials employed, but by using these with
+device and taste good schools were produced from an art point of view,
+and which, in their way, are a little education to those who attend
+them.
+
+Possibly there are still not a few among us who think that because there
+is an element of design and attractiveness in the appearance of these
+schools money has been needlessly expended. Such persons insist upon it
+that only ugliness can be really economical, and that the simplest
+ornamentation or beauty of form must mean superfluous cost. The number
+of those who take this narrow view is happily limited, and is becoming
+less owing to the improved and growing taste for art that has been
+unmistakeably manifest of late years.
+
+I have been led into this trifling digression by speaking of the houses
+now built in that suburb of Birmingham inhabited by the wealthier
+classes. These residents are, as I have said, better educated than their
+fathers, and they have different notions as to how they should live and
+what sort of houses they should live in. They are not merely people who
+are beginning to prosper and have only just emerged from the chrysalis
+state of modern civilization, but are citizens who have been prospering
+for some time, or are the children of men who have been prosperous, and
+they "live up" accordingly. They like their residences to be convenient
+and comfortable inside; but they also feel a little pride if they look
+attractive from without. Nor are tastefully-designed dwellings confined
+to Edgbaston. The example of our "Birmingham Belgravia" has spread to
+other suburbs, and if we go to Moseley, Handsworth, Harborne, and other
+places in the vicinity of our city we find houses of a very much
+improved pattern from an ornamental point of view compared with those of
+a bygone generation. Edgbaston, however, set the example in the way of
+Gothic house architecture, and the first specimen, I believe, was a
+house in Carpenter Road, designed by the late Mr. J.H. Chamberlain, and
+which was built for Mr. Eld, a partner in the firm of Eld and
+Chamberlain, now Chamberlain, King, and Jones.
+
+I remember that the erection of this Gothic house created quite a little
+stir. To some eyes it was a very startling innovation. Pointed arch
+windows for an ordinary dwelling house, who ever heard of such a thing?
+What next? asked some square-toed, un-compromising, old-fashioned folks.
+The idea was indeed so novel that it did not take people by storm, and
+there was no immediate rush for Gothic houses. Gradually, however,
+people began to like the style, or their architects told them they must
+like it, and after some time residences of the new order began to be
+seen in many directions.
+
+There are now a number of large, costly, handsome Gothic houses in
+Edgbaston, which will be, indeed, a goodly heritage for the ground
+landlord when the present leases expire--a fact that often gives rise to
+some serious thoughts and reflections. Many people feel very sore upon
+this matter, and wax strong and vehement upon what is known as the
+"unearned increment" question. I do not propose to lash this horse,
+which is every now and then trotted out and properly thrashed by
+reforming economists and others. "Unearned increment" is one of those
+accidental incidents of life which can hardly be controlled or reckoned
+with. Why should some men be sound and healthy and six feet high, and
+others weak and feeble and only four feet ten? Most unequal and unjust!
+If I have a field, and a town grows up to it of its own accord, and
+somebody offers me four times as much as I gave for it, I hardly see why
+I should be reckoned a thief and a robber if I pocket the proffered
+cash. To take another illustration. I may have on my house-walls a
+picture for which I gave twenty pounds. The artist has "gone up" since I
+made my purchase, and I am now offered a hundred and twenty pounds for
+my painting. "Unearned increment!"
+
+But away with this question! I find I am getting the whip out, although
+I promised not to thrash this wretched old economic hack. Only just one
+little parting crack of the lash. Dealing with "unearned increment"
+being an impracticability, perhaps it would be well for landlords who
+benefit immensely by the accident of circumstances to recognise the fact
+that they _do_ pocket a great "unearned increment," and be ungrudgingly
+generous in return for benefits received. If this were done the names
+of suburban landlords would not be received with such derision and
+contempt as they are sometimes now, and "unearned increment" would
+become all but an obsolete phrase.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+THEN AND NOW.
+
+
+Great indeed are the changes that have taken place in Birmingham during
+the past forty or fifty years. I do not speak merely in regard to the
+growth, appearance, and the commercial progress of the town and city,
+but in respect to the life and habits of the people--especially the
+better class of the inhabitants.
+
+Half a century ago many of the well-to-do prosperous manufacturers were
+practical men--men who had worked at the bench and the lathe, and, from
+being workmen, had become masters. There were not so many manufactories
+then as now, and the leading manufacturers found themselves in the happy
+position of men who were "getting on" and becoming rich. Men as a rule
+are, perhaps, more happy when they find they are making money than when
+they have made it, and have nothing to do but to spend it, or to puzzle
+their brains as to how they shall do so. "Oh! Jem," piteously said a man
+I knew, to his nephew, "what am I to do with that ten thousand pounds
+a-lying at the bank?"
+
+When "getting on," men go to their various businesses day after day and
+find orders rolling in and goods going out, and themselves prospering
+and becoming better and better off, they are disposed to be contented,
+well pleased with their neighbours, and well satisfied with themselves.
+So with these old Birmingham manufacturers. They were well content,
+genial, and hospitable. They did not give themselves any fine airs or
+pretensions; indeed, they were often proud of their success and
+prosperity, and would sometimes delight in openly boasting of their
+humble beginnings, not always to the joy and delight of their children
+who might hear them. They were sociable, hospitable, generous-hearted,
+open-handed men. They gave bountiful entertainments, not of a mere
+formal give-and-take character in which the feast largely consists of
+plate, fine linen, and flowers, the eatables on the side table, and too
+much remaining there. They delighted in welcoming their friends; they
+liked to put a good spread on the board, and to see their guests eat,
+drink, and be merry.
+
+In my younger days I knew what it was to enjoy the hospitalities of some
+of these wealthy manufacturers, and I can call to mind some little--I
+should say large--dinners, in which I have participated, the like of
+which are, I fancy, rarely seen now. Let me briefly describe one of
+these informal, old-fashioned, friendly feasts.
+
+My host would invite members of his family and some friends to dinner at
+two o'clock, say. The dinner proper--which was a good, substantial, and
+even luxurious meal--being over, we adjourned to the drawing room. There
+the dessert would be laid out on a large round table around which we
+gathered. Then would mine host call for his wine book--for he had a
+well-stocked cellar of fine vintages. Turning over the leaves of this
+book he would propose to begin with a bottle of '47 port, which was then
+a comparatively young and fruity wine. This would be followed probably
+by a bottle of 1840, and then we should come to the great 1834 wine, of
+which mine host had a rare stock.
+
+Sometimes we should hark back to 1820 port, a wine which I remember to
+have had a rich colour and a full refined flavour, and once I tasted the
+famous comet wine, 1811, which, however, had lost something of its
+nucleus, and only retained a certain tawny, nebulous tone. On one
+occasion I remember my host said he had some seventeen-ninety something
+wine in his cellar, which he proposed we should taste, but for some
+reason, now forgotten, it was not produced, and I sometimes rather
+regret that I so narrowly missed the opportunity of tasting a last
+century wine. Perhaps it may be thought from the procession of ports
+produced on such occasions as I have described that we indulged in a
+sustained and severe wine-bibbing bout. But it was not so. In reality we
+only just tasted each vintage, so that we had the maximum of variety
+with the minimum of quantity.
+
+The wine ended, we betook ourselves into another room, there to enjoy a
+cigar. Then would come tea and coffee, and a little music. Supper--yes,
+my reader, a good supper would be announced about nine o'clock; after
+that another little smoke, and about ten o'clock or soon after we should
+take our departure.
+
+Of course all this made up the sum total of a pretty good snack--I mean
+a good, well-sustained feast--but whether it was owing to the excellence
+of the viands, or to the fact that we took our pleasures not sadly but
+deliberately, I for one cannot remember ever feeling the worse for my
+little-indulgences. Perhaps something was owing to the glorious
+continuity of our feasting and pleasure.
+
+I also remember once being at an unfrugal, old-fashioned, festive dinner
+at a friend's house, when one of the guests proposed our host's health,
+and finished up by saying, "I shall be glad to see everyone at this
+table to dinner at my house this day week." Considering there were about
+thirty persons sitting round the mahogany this was a fair-sized order.
+But it was no empty compliment. The dinner came off, and a fine good
+spread it was, and as for the wine I seem to sniff its "bouquet" now.
+
+Some of the old Birmingham men whose characteristic hospitalities I have
+just described had, as is pretty well known, certain habits which,
+looked at by modern light, would seem somewhat plebeian. For instance,
+there were men of wealth and importance who made it their custom often
+to go and spend an hour or two in the evening at some of the old
+respectable hotels and inns of the town. They had been in the habit of
+meeting together at these hostelries in their earlier days to talk over
+the news, at a period when daily local newspapers were not published,
+and they adhered to the custom in their advanced years and wealthier
+position, and rejoiced in visiting their old haunts and smoking their
+long clay pipes, and having a chat with old friends and kindred spirits.
+
+All this has died out now. For one thing, most of these old inns and
+hostelries have disappeared with the march of modern times. We have
+clubs now and restaurants, also hotels, where visitors "put up," but the
+old-fashioned inns and taverns have mostly gone. The present generation
+of prosperous well-to-do men, too, are of a different stamp from their
+predecessors. They do not take their ease at their inns after the manner
+of their fathers. They have been educated differently, and take their
+pleasures in a more refined way, as is the fashion of the time.
+
+Some of them have been to public schools and to the university, and
+they naturally live their lives on a more elevated level. As a rule,
+they are good, practical, straightforward, worthy men, though there are,
+of course, some who are rather amusing in their little pretentious
+ways--as there are in all large communities. Many of these, finding
+themselves well off, begin to discover they had ancestors. They name
+their houses after places where their grandfathers lived or should have
+lived. They put crests upon their carriages; they embellish their
+stationery with a motto, and otherwise put on a little of what is called
+"side." But Birmingham people are not worse than others in this respect.
+In fact, I think there is less affectation, pretence, and snobbishness,
+or at any rate as little as will be found in most places of the
+standing, wealth, and importance of Birmingham.
+
+Sometimes when I am visiting a newly-risen manufacturing town which has
+lately blossomed out into a state of thriving progress, I am forcibly
+reminded of what Birmingham was some years ago, and think of the changes
+that have come over our city during the past thirty or forty years. The
+everyday social life is in many respects different from what it was.
+Young people, with a higher education and more advanced ideas than their
+sires, keep their parents up to date, and it is the young people who
+rule the roost in many houses. The hearty but comparatively simple
+hospitalities of a generation or so ago are regarded as quite too
+ancient.
+
+Young men who have been to Harrow and Oxford are not likely to look with
+favour upon suppers of tripe or Welsh rarebits. They must, of course,
+dine in a proper, decent manner in the evening, and there must be a good
+experienced cook to give them a fair variety of dainties; or, at least,
+of well-prepared dishes. Under such circumstances social functions have
+naturally a tendency to become more formal, ornamental, and refined.
+Many of the older-fashioned school mourn the decay of the very thorough
+and hearty hospitality of times back, and have often complained that
+they saw too many flowers and too little food at modern dinner parties.
+Still, the knock-down entertainments of our fathers were often a trifle
+too formidable perhaps, and did not always bring the pleasant
+reflections that follow the more gentle hospitalities of the present
+day.
+
+Before I close this chapter, in which I am comparing the present with
+the past, I cannot help calling to mind features of Birmingham nearly
+fifty years ago, when I began to look about me with my boyish eyes. I
+made some general reference to these in the opening chapter of these
+sketches. I will now just indulge in a few brief details. To go no
+further than quite the centre of the town, I call to mind some important
+places that disappeared when the New Street railway station was made.
+
+I remember Lady Huntingdon's chapel--a place of worship that was popular
+in its day--and seem to have a hazy recollection of the King Street
+theatre (or the remains of it), in which was held the first evening
+concert of the Birmingham Musical Festival in the year 1768. Cannon
+Street chapel has been too recently removed not to be remembered by many
+people, but I can recollect going to this place of worship when it was a
+real old-type Baptist chapel, and where special disciples or devotees
+were deeply immersed in religion and water.
+
+Most of us can also remember when some unostentatious private houses
+occupied the side of New Street opposite the Society of Artists' rooms,
+and not a few of us can call to mind the dirty, slummy buildings that so
+closely blocked up the back of the Town Hall. It was, indeed, an
+improvement when these wretched houses were removed and the back of the
+Hall was finished and opened out. It is, I believe, true that what
+became the back of the Town Hall was really intended by the architect to
+be its front. However this may be, the proportions of the north side of
+the Town Hall are, I think, more symmetrical and imposing in appearance
+than the south side fronting Paradise Street.
+
+It is but yesterday, so to speak, since the Old Square, with its sedate
+looking houses disappeared, including that of Edmund Hector, the friend
+of Dr. Johnson, and many of us can readily recall to mind the
+old-fashioned Birmingham Workhouse standing in Lichfield Street--that
+poor, dirty thoroughfare which doubtless furnished a fair number of
+occupants for the afore-mentioned institution. Looking forward as I
+do--at least in my sombre moments--to the "Union" as being my ultimate
+home, I feel a sense of satisfaction that the Birmingham workhouse has
+been removed to a more salubrious and pleasant locality than its
+unlovely quarters in Lichfield Street.
+
+These are just a few of the more important changes that have taken
+place, with one exception, namely, the disappearance of Christ Church. I
+almost shed tears to see the demolition of this church and landmark that
+had so many old associations. Some of these were not always of a
+pleasant and joyous character, for in days past the Sunday services were
+very long, and the sermons anything but short.
+
+I hope my memory has not "berayed" me in making these little reminiscent
+remarks. I did not make notes in my early days, and now in my later
+years I may make little mistakes; but I do not think I have tripped very
+much.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+THE CITY FRINGE.
+
+
+It is my constant habit to take little runs into the outskirts of our
+city, and when doing so I often stare with all my eyes as I note what
+has taken place in a limited number of years. Districts hardly more than
+a mile or so from the centre of the city, which in my boyhood were
+fields and meadows, are now laid out into streets and covered with
+houses and shops. Indeed, I sometimes feel very aged when I look upon
+places where as a boy I went fishing for small fry, and now find the
+river that afforded me such juvenile sport is, owing to the enhanced
+value of laud, compressed into the dimensions of a fair-sized gutter,
+with houses and small factories closely packed on its margin covering
+every foot of ground.
+
+I go in another direction, and scarcely farther than the distance just
+named, and I come to a spot where once stood the fine large park (Aston)
+which I remember was enclosed by a brick wall on every side. Scarcely a
+trace of this extensive old wall can I now see, and the site of the old
+park, or nearly the whole of it, is now covered with streets and
+buildings. Aston Hall, the grand old Elizabethan house built by the
+Holtes in the time of Charles I., still stands in a state of good
+preservation, and is fortunately now the property of the city, together
+with some forty acres of surrounding land, which is, as is well known,
+used as a public recreation ground.
+
+To speak a little more in detail, I am not the only person living who
+remembers "Pudding Brook" and "Vaughton's Hole." The name of "Padding
+Brook" was, in my boyish days, given to a swampy area of fields now
+covered by Gooch Street and surrounding thoroughfares. Pudding Brook
+proper was, however, a little muddy stream that flowed or oozed along
+the district named and finally emptied itself into the old moat not far
+from St. Martin's Church. Vaughton's Hole, to my juvenile mind, was
+represented by a deep pool in the River Rea, where something direful
+took place, in which a Mr. Vaughton was tragically concerned. The real
+facts are--at least, so I read--that there was a clay pit, sixty feet
+deep of water, situated near the Rea, and in this pit at least one man
+was drowned. The place was named after an old local family named
+Vaughton, who owned considerable property in the neighbourhood of the
+present Gooch Street.
+
+Where Gooch Street now crosses the Rea, I remember there was a
+footbridge, and beyond that the river was a pretty, purling, sylvan
+stream, with bushes and rushes growing on its green banks. A field walk
+past an old farm house led on to Moseley Hall, which was looked upon as
+being quite away in the country. As for Moseley itself, it was a pretty
+little village in those days. The old village green, the rustic country
+inns (of which the "Fighting Cocks" was the chief), and some low-roofed,
+old-fashioned houses, backed by the parish church tower, made up a
+picture which still remains in my mind's eye. The railway tunnel which
+is now looked upon as only a long bridge, was then regarded as something
+large in its way, and, perhaps, slightly dangerous, almost justifying a
+little something strong to sustain courage when travelling through it.
+
+Beyond Moseley Church was a pretty road to Moseley Wake Green, in which
+were, if I remember rightly, one or two timbered houses and some
+old-fashioned residences, surrounded by high trees. Many of these have
+now disappeared. In another direction from the church was a country road
+running to Sparkbrook, and near which were an important house and lands
+belonging to the wealthy Misses Anderton, whose possessions have been
+heard of in more recent days.
+
+I now often visit Moseley, and change, but not decay, in all around I
+see. The prevailing colour of the old village green is now red brick,
+and the modern colour does not agree so well with my vision as the more
+rustic tones of a bygone day; whilst the noise and bustle of tram cars,
+the swarms of suburban residents that emerge from the railway station
+(especially at certain times in the day), are fast wiping out the
+peaceful, pretty Moseley of my youthful days.
+
+These new old villages often present some curious anachronisms. A grey
+old church, partly buried by a hoary fat churchyard, is surrounded by
+the most modern of shops and stores; and a primitive little bow-windowed
+cottage, with a few flower pots in the window, has, perchance, a glaring
+gin shop next door. This is more or less the case at Moseley, and it is
+pretty much the same at Handsworth.
+
+I remember when old Handsworth Church stood surrounded by fields, and
+now it is built up to with villas on nearly every side, and has a
+neighbouring liquor vault instead of the old-fashioned inn such as often
+keeps old parish churches in countenance and affords a place of refuge
+and refreshment for rustic churchwardens, bell-ringers, parish clerks,
+and the like.
+
+Old Handsworth--how well I remember it--also Soho, and the remains of
+the old mint, associated with the honoured names of Boulton and Watt.
+Then there was that long straight stretch of road from the old pike at
+the top of Soho Hill, along which were some large and important
+residences, occupied by business men of Birmingham, who doubtless
+regarded this Handsworth and Soho district as being quite out in the
+country. The stretch of road to which I have just referred is now one
+long street, or soon will be, reaching from the once Soho toll-gate to
+the New Inns, and farther on, indeed, to the park wall of Sandwell.
+
+Sandwell Park--ah, yes, I have a pretty distinct recollection of what
+that was, also the Hall, in my boyhood days. The park, or portions of
+it, still shews some signs of its past picturesque glories; at any rate,
+it is not built over after the manner of Aston. The Hall, however,
+scarcely now conveys an idea of the place it once was. I remember its
+interior when it was the residence of its noble owner and his family,
+and I recall the splendidly furnished rooms, the riding school, and the
+gardens. I remember, too, that the Lord Dartmouth of the time of which I
+speak was, like Mr. Gladstone, an amateur woodman. He used to like to go
+about with axe and saw, and do a little tree felling and branch lopping
+to please his fancy, and exercise his limbs and muscles. Sandwell Park,
+as most people know, has now been deserted for many years by its titled
+owner, and Sandwell Park Colliery, Limited, reigns in its stead.
+
+But recollections of the past are making me "talky," and, I fear,
+tedious. I could scribble and chatter about bygone Birmingham from now
+till about the end of the century, which, however, as I write, is not
+very far off. But, my gentle reader, you shall be spared. Most people
+know that Birmingham is swallowing up its immediate suburbs, and the
+process of deglutition is still going on. The city has had its rise, and
+will have its decline some day probably, but not while people want pins,
+pens, electro-plate, guns, dear and cheap jewellery, and while
+Birmingham can make these things better or sell them cheaper than other
+folks.
+
+As for the centre of the city, I have already made some references to
+the transformations that have recently taken place. A few words may,
+however, be said about our modern street and shop architecture. In the
+important new thoroughfare, Corporation Street--the outcome of Mr.
+Chamberlain's great improvement scheme--there is a curious series of
+shops and public buildings. Some are of one style, some of another, and
+many of no style at all. The architecture in this thoroughfare
+certainly presents plenty of variety--more variety perhaps than beauty.
+There are the new Assize Courts--the foundation-stone of which was laid
+by the Queen in 1887; they are built of brick and terra-cotta, redundant
+with detailed ornament, some of it perhaps of a too florid character.
+Near to our local Palace of Justice is the County Court, which is severe
+in its simplicity, quasi-classic in style, and decidedly plain in
+design. There are shops that have a certain suggestion and imitation of
+old-fashioned quaintness, and there are other buildings that have a
+tinge of the Scotch baronial hall style of architecture. Then there is
+the coffee-house Gothic, the pie-shop Perpendicular, the commercial
+Classic, the fender and fire-grate Transitional, the milk and cream
+Decorated, and various hybrid architectural styles.
+
+The buildings in this street have, as I have said, the charm of
+diversity, and that, I suppose, is something to the good. Regent Street,
+London, is a fine thoroughfare, but it will probably be admitted that
+it is anything but unmonotonous in appearance or lovely to look upon
+from an architectural point of view. The buildings in our grand new
+street may not be beyond criticism, but there are no long lines of
+buildings of the same heavy dull pattern from end to end. This arises
+from the fact that the land has not been let in big patches to
+capitalists or builders who might have erected a series of shops of one
+uniform pattern, but has been leased to tradesmen and others who have
+taken a few yards of land, on which they have built premises suited to
+their requirements, and in accordance with their aim, tastes, or the
+bent and ability of their architects. Hence the variety, charming or
+otherwise according to the taste and eye of the spectator. Anyway, we
+have in Birmingham a fine broad street which will, perhaps, compare
+favourably with any thoroughfare in any other British city, with the
+exception of Princes Street, Edinburgh. In the way of splendid streets
+the Scotch capital must be allowed to take the plum.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+THE FOURTH ESTATE.
+
+
+I cannot say how it may have been in other large cities and towns, but
+certainly the newspaper mortality in Birmingham during the past half
+century has been quite distressing. I think that without difficulty I
+could reckon up from twenty-five to thirty papers and journals that have
+been first published and last published in the period named. I do not
+propose to say much or to give a list of the dear departed. They were
+born, they struggled for existence, and they died in the effort. That is
+all that need be said of most of them.
+
+There is, however, one defunct paper to which I must make a short
+reference, partly because I remember something about its birth and
+death. I refer to the _Birmingham Daily Press_, which first appeared in
+May, 1855. If my memory serves me, the Act of Parliament repealing the
+newspaper duty had not passed and become law when the _Birmingham Daily
+Press_ appeared. Its first issues were, I believe, marked "specimen"
+copies, which would seem to show that the new penny paper was really
+published in anticipation of the passing of the Act.
+
+Anyway, the _Birmingham Daily Press_ appeared in the year mentioned, and
+considering that it was altogether a new venture, and that much had to
+be learned by experience, it was a highly creditable production. It soon
+made its mark, too, and became popular and largely read. And no wonder.
+It supplied a real want. Its contents were readable and useful, and its
+pages contained smart and attractive articles and papers that excited
+notice and were much appreciated. Mr. George Dawson was connected with
+the paper. Mr. William Harris was editor, or co-editor, of it, and on
+its staff and among its contributors were some sharp and able writers.
+
+With all these merits and recommendations it will be asked, why did not
+the _Birmingham Daily Press_ succeed? Well, I do not think I can quite
+answer the question. I can only say that judging by what I have observed
+and heard literary excellence, good reporting, and able editing will not
+make a paper commercially successful. If a newspaper is to succeed in
+paying its way and making a profit, its business management must be in
+experienced and competent hands. A daily newspaper is apt to be a deadly
+drain if its expenditure exceeds its receipts--as the daily loss has to
+be multiplied by six every week--and this tells up large in the course
+of a year.
+
+There can be no question that the _Birmingham Daily Press_ had a fine
+start, and a splendid chance. But the chance was not turned to the best
+account, and the promising start ended in a lamentable finish. This,
+too, in spite of the fact that the paper became really well established.
+Indeed, Mr. (now Sir John) Jaffray was heard to say that for a long;
+time the _Birmingham Daily Post_, which was started some two years or
+more after the _Birmingham Daily Press_, could make no impression, so
+firm a footing had the latter paper obtained in the town. But Messrs.
+Feeney and Jaffray had put their hands to the plough; they pegged away
+with the _Birmingham Daily Post_ till it did make an impression, and the
+proprietors being able and experienced in the matter of newspaper
+business management, they stood very firm when they did begin to feel
+their feet. They drove the town--not from pillar to post, but from
+_Daily Press_ to _Daily Post_. They established their position, and that
+position they have gone on improving unto this day.
+
+As for the unfortunate _Daily Press_, it fell into a very serious
+decline, and finally expired somewhat suddenly in November, 1858. Its
+successful rival remarked in a not over sympathetic paragraph that "it
+went out like the snuff of a candle leaving behind it something of the
+flavour of that domestic nuisance." I remember poor George Dawson, who
+had lost a good deal of money through the failure of the _Birmingham
+Daily Press_, thought the _Post's_ spiteful little obituary notice the
+unkindest cut of all. For victors to crow over the vanquished in such
+language he thought was worse than ungenerous, it was mean.
+
+I will not now pause to say anything in detail concerning the
+_Birmingham Daily Gazette_, started in 1862, the _Daily Mail_ in 1870,
+the _Globe_ in 1879, the _Echo_ in 1883, the _Times_ in 1885, and the
+_Argus_ in 1891. I must, however, just note that the most important new
+journalistic venture in recent years was the production of the
+_Birmingham Morning News_, which was started in 1871. This daily morning
+paper was established on lines which should have led to a permanent
+success. There was plenty of capital at its back.
+
+Mr. George Dawson--whose name it was thought would be a tower of
+strength--took an active part in its editorial work. It had an excellent
+staff, and, in a journalistic sense and as a newspaper production, it
+was a credit to itself and to the town.
+
+The _Birmingham Morning News_ was carried on for some four years at a
+very considerable loss, and just when it seemed to be about to turn the
+corner and get into a more profitable groove, its capitalist proprietor
+gave it up in disappointment and disgust. For one thing, he found it
+difficult to get all the influential help he wanted in the news
+department, and he was probably getting a little weary of putting money
+into a basket that seemed to have no bottom to it. Yet it was believed
+by those well experienced in newspaper management that another year
+would have seen a favourable turn in the fortunes of the paper. The
+costly ground baiting which is necessary in a newspaper establishment
+had been done, and the expensive seed which has to be sown was about to
+come up when the proprietor resolved to plough the paper up and so add
+another to the formidable list of local newspaper failures.
+
+In the grave of the _Birmingham Morning News_ were buried many hopes.
+The proprietor hoped to make a fortune. Mr. Dawson hoped to make an
+income and secure a still wider influence through its medium. Its rivals
+hoped it would not succeed, and by its death and burial their hopes were
+realised.
+
+One little incident in connection with local journalism I must record
+here as being something almost unique. I refer to the astounding sketch
+Mr. H.J. Jennings--for many years editor of the _Birmingham Daily
+Mail_--wrote of himself in 1889, and the circumstances that led to its
+publication. After many years' connection with the _Daily. Mail_, Mr.
+Jennings went over to another local evening paper, the _Daily Times_,
+and by way of giving it a fillip he published in its columns a series of
+papers on "Our Public Men."
+
+That these sketches were not entirely flattering to the subjects of
+them will be readily understood. Mr. Jennings always was a smart, spicy,
+and sometimes even brilliant writer, but he could not help being more or
+less cynical. He rather liked to stick the toasting fork into his
+subjects, and then hold them pretty close to the bars of a decidedly hot
+fire. The result was that many of them burned and smarted under the
+ordeal. One of the victims went so far as to propose that this
+self-appointed censor of public characters should be fought with his own
+weapons, and have a taste of his own nasty physic. In a word it was
+suggested that someone should draw Mr. H.J. Jennings' portrait on his
+own lines after his own manner.
+
+Mr. Jennings promptly took up the gauntlet that was thrown down and
+immediately proceeded to write a sketch of himself, which appeared in
+the _Birmingham Daily Times_ of May 29th, 1889, and was, perhaps, one of
+the most daring and audacious feats of contemporary journalism on
+record. If he had entrusted his task to his most bitter enemy it could
+hardly have been more scathing than it was.
+
+Mr. Jennings certainly did not blunt his steel when he proceeded to
+operate upon himself. He did not spare himself, but dug the knife in and
+turned it round. It was, indeed, a singularly curious piece of
+biography, written with all the pungency and point its writer could
+command, and it need hardly be said that such a sketch silenced the guns
+of some of his foes and made something of a sensation in the town.
+
+This clever and amazing article was a sort of dying swan's song so far
+as Mr. Jennings and Birmingham were concerned. If I remember rightly,
+soon after its appearance he severed his professional connection with
+the town. He went to London and joined the staff of a financial journal.
+Whether he has made his own fortune or the fortunes of others by his
+London work I do not know and need not enquire. I will be content to
+record the remarkable achievement I have mentioned in connection with
+his Birmingham journalistic career.
+
+One special reason why I am devoting some consideration and space to the
+Birmingham press is because I wish to refer to one local publication
+which had something to do, indirectly at least, with the making of
+Modern Birmingham. I allude to the _Birmingham Town Crier_. This
+serio-comic, satirical little paper was started in the year 1861, and
+was for many years a monthly publication. On its first appearance it
+created some stir by its original and, in some respects, unique
+character, also by the general smartness and humour of its contents.
+
+When it first appeared many were the guesses made as to its promoters
+and contributors, and, so far as these came to my knowledge, not one
+proved correct. Certain quite innocent men were credited with being
+contributors to the new paper, and some of these did not deny the soft
+impeachment. The general guessing, however, ranged very wide, and
+included all sorts and conditions of men, from the Rev. Dr. Miller, then
+rector of St. Martin's, to the bellman in the Market Hall. Considering
+that the _Town Crier_ was started with a purpose, as I shall presently
+show, and that it exerted some influence in its own way upon the
+progress of the town, it is, I think, fitting that the story of its
+early beginnings should be told, and I am in a position to tell the
+tale.
+
+As all the first contributors of the _Town Crier_ have ceased--most of
+them long since ceased--to have any connection with the paper, there can
+be no harm now in referring to its original staff, if only as a little
+matter of local history. I may, therefore, place it on record that the
+contributors to the first number of the _Town Crier_, which was
+published in January, 1861, were Mr. Sam Timmins, Mr. J. Thackray Bunce,
+Mr. G.J. Johnson, Dr. (then Mr.) Sebastian Evans, and the present
+writer, Thomas Anderton.
+
+Some two or three months after its first appearance the late Mr. John
+Henry Chamberlain joined the staff, and a little later still Mr. William
+Harris became one of the "table round." With this staff the paper was
+carried on for many years, and with more or less success, according to
+the point of view from which it was considered. Being of a satirical
+character it, of course, often rapped certain people over the knuckles
+in a way they did not appreciate. They naturally resented being chaffed
+and held up to ridicule, but as there was nothing of a malicious or
+private character in the sarcasms published any little soreness they
+created soon died away.
+
+One reason why the _Town Crier_ came into existence was because it was
+felt that there were certain things, and perhaps certain people, who
+could be best assailed and suppressed by ridicule. They could be laughed
+and chaffed rather than reasoned out of existence. Certainly the paper
+was not established with any idea of profit, nor for the gratification
+of indulging in scurrilous personal attacks. It only dealt with public
+affairs and with men in their public capacity. Indeed, I may say that
+all the men connected with the _Town Crier_ at its starting were
+interested in the good government and progress of the town, and they
+used the influence of the paper for the purpose of removing stumbling
+blocks, and putting incompetent and pretentious persons out of the way.
+
+As so much interest has lately been created by the descriptions given of
+the _Punch_ dinners and the doings of the _Punch_ staff, I may state
+that the promoters of our local _Charivari_ also combined pleasant
+social intercourse with their journalistic functions. The monthly
+dinners of the _Town Crier_ staff remain in my memory as being among the
+most delightful and genial evenings I have ever spent in my life. We met
+at each other's houses, and after a nice satisfying dinner we proceeded
+to pipes and paths of pleasantness, and to planning the contents for the
+next number of our paper.
+
+Large and hearty was the hilarity at these monthly meetings, and I
+think I may say that the talk was interesting and smart. Mr. J.H.
+Chamberlain was often positively brilliant in his little sallies of
+speech, whilst Mr. J.T. Bunce would put in dry, sententious words of wit
+and wisdom. Mr. G.J. Johnson laid down the law with pungent perspicuity,
+and Mr. William Harris was amusingly epigrammatic. Mr. Sam Timmins on
+these occasions was ever ready with an apt remark, very often containing
+an apt quotation, and Mr. Sebastian Evans smoked and laughed much, made
+incisive little observations, and drew sketches on blotting paper.
+
+As we were all more or less interested in or concerned with the most
+important matters that were then going on in the town, there was much to
+be said that was worth saying and hearing. Even in the wheels that were
+within wheels some of the _Town Crier_ men had spokes. A bank could not
+break without some of us being concerned in the smash, and I remember
+to my sorrow that when the Birmingham Banking Company came to grief I
+was an unfortunate shareholder.
+
+I do not think it necessary to say much more concerning the early days
+of the publication in question. Its first promoters became busy, and, in
+some cases, important men as time went on, and gradually they had to
+give up their connection with a periodical whose pages for some years
+they had done so much to enliven and adorn. The _Town Crier_, I think it
+will be admitted, did good work in its own peculiar way, and those who
+remain of its early promoters (and the small number has been thinned by
+the death of Mr. J.H. Chamberlain and Mr. J.T. Bunce) need not be
+ashamed to speak with the enemy at the gate--I mean, to own their former
+connection with a publication which was not regarded as being
+discreditable to its contributors, or to the town.
+
+One matter in connection with the publication of the _Town Crier_ may be
+mentioned as being curious, and perhaps a little surprising. It is
+this: that during the many years that the paper was conducted by its
+original promoters it steered clear of libel actions. In only one case
+was an action even threatened, and this was disposed of by an accepted
+little explanation and apology. We often used to hear rumours that
+Alderman, Councillor, or Mr. Somebody intended wreaking vengeance upon
+writers who had belaboured or ridiculed him; but these threats ended in
+nothing, and the first proprietors of the _Town Crier_ never had to pay
+even a farthing damages as the result of law proceedings. This is
+something to record, because papers of a satirical character necessarily
+sail pretty close to the wind in the way of provoking touchy people to
+fly to law to soothe their wounded feelings and pay out their supposed
+persecutors.
+
+I confess I often used to shiver slightly in my shoes when I considered
+the possible consequences of what I myself and others had written in the
+_Town Crier_. The law of libel is a wide-spreading net, anything that
+brings a man into ridicule or contempt or damages him in his trade or
+profession being libellous. To criticize adversely a painter, actor, or
+singer is necessarily damaging, and is really a libel, but to sustain an
+action real damage must be proved, or it must be shown that malice and
+ill-will have prompted the objectionable adverse opinions. But, as we
+know, there are certain pettifogging men of law who are ever ready to
+encourage people to bring actions for libel for the mere sake of getting
+damages. I believe I have thus stated the case correctly, but I am not a
+"limb of the law," not even an amputated limb, or a law student. I speak
+from what I have seen in the Libel Acts and in the judgments I have
+read. Having been one of the Press gang for many years, I have never
+thought my liberties quite safe, and have often felt that any day I
+might be brought up to the bar for judgment. But I escaped, even when I
+was writing for the _Town Crier_, and have escaped since. But let me not
+boast. Before these lines are read my ordinary clothes may be required
+of me.
+
+On the shelves of my small library are some bound volumes of the early
+numbers of the _Birmingham Town Crier_, in which are some pencil marks.
+If I should sooner or later have to retire to live _en pension_ at
+Winson Green, or at the Bromsgrove or other Union, I hope to be able to
+take these cherished books with me to look at from time to time, and to
+keep green my memory of past pleasant days.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+ITS VARIED AND ODD TRADES.
+
+
+If some outside people were asked to name in three lines the three chief
+trades of Birmingham they would probably answer by saying "Guns,"
+"Hardware," and then, perhaps rather puzzled, might add "more guns."
+This, however, would be a very bald and incomplete reply, and would
+denote a somewhat benighted idea of the productive resources of
+Birmingham. Gun and pistol making form a very important industry in the
+city, and one ward--St. Mary's--is the happy hunting ground of small
+firearm makers. All the same, gunmaking is not the be-all and end-all
+of our manufacturing activity, and is, indeed, only one of the many and
+increasing trades that thrive and progress in the midland hardware
+capital.
+
+It is, indeed, a distinct advantage for Birmingham that it has many
+different trades, and if some are depressed and slack others may be
+active and prosperous. Hence, there is generally business doing
+somewhere. It is the misfortune of some towns and districts to be
+devoted entirely to one or two industries. For instance, take
+Manchester. If the cotton trade becomes depressed or paralysed
+Cottonopolis soon becomes a starved-out city. Then there are textile
+towns, boot and shoe boroughs, pottery districts, &c., &c. Birmingham,
+however, is pretty smart at taking up new ideas, and does not let new
+manufacturing industries go begging for a home. A certain number of
+trades languish and die out owing to change of fashion and to certain
+articles becoming obsolete. Snuffers and powder flasks, for instance,
+are not in large demand in the present day. A limited number are still
+made for travellers and for remote countries that have not cartridges,
+the electric light, or even incandescent gas, within their reach.
+
+Brass and pearl button making used to be important industries, and tons
+of such wares used to be made in Birmingham in the course of a month.
+Comparatively few are made now. Yet we are not exactly "buttonless
+black-guards," as Cobbett--at least, I think it was Cobbett--once
+disrespectfully called the Quakers, and buttons of various kinds other
+than pearl and brass are turned out in barrow loads. I remember some
+years ago going over the button factory of Messrs. Dain, Watts, and
+Manton, an old-established business now carried on by Mr. J.S. Manton,
+and was then shown a curious composition or kind of paste that could be
+made into buttons useful for all sorts of purposes. On my asking what
+the "button dough" was made of, Mr. Manton, I remember, gave me the
+comprehensive reply, "anything."
+
+All sorts of stuff having any substance in it was indeed thrown into a
+kind of mortar, ground up, mixed with something that gave the mass
+cohesion and plasticity, then moulded into buttons as clay is moulded by
+the potter, and burned, dried, and hardened. Therefore, if brass and
+pearl buttons are in limited demand, there are other materials from
+which a new useful and cheap article can be made--the "very button" for
+the time--and this is produced in much larger quantities than the more
+costly articles of a few generations ago.
+
+In spite, then, of changes in fashion, Birmingham is still--I will not
+say a button hole, but a city where billions of buttons are made.
+Witness, for instance, the turn-out of such a manufactory as that of
+Thomas Carlyle, Limited. Here is a great and extended concern grafted
+upon an old-established business, and which at the present time gives
+employment, regularly, to over 1,000 hands. Buttons are made to go to
+all people, save the rude and nude races, and a few odd millions
+produced for home use. And speaking of all this reminds me how in the
+days of my boyhood I sometimes saw a queer character known as "Billy
+Button." He was a sight to behold, for he was decorated with buttons,
+mostly brass, from top to toe, and presented a sight that was enough to
+make a thoroughbred quaker swoon.
+
+Birmingham, as I have remarked, is sufficiently enterprising not to let
+opportunities slip through its fingers. Its trades are still increasing,
+and increasing in number and variety, and though there is a tendency in
+some of the big industries that do a large foreign trade to get nearer
+to the sea-board, there are those who are sanguine enough to believe
+that the number of our works and our workpeople will increase and
+multiply till the large supplies of water that are to be conducted to us
+from Mid-Wales will be none too copious for the great unwashed and other
+inhabitants of our city a few years hence.
+
+Referring again to outsiders and their ideas of Birmingham trades, when
+visitors--distinguished or otherwise--come to see our factories there
+are two that they generally begin and often end with--namely, Mr. Joseph
+Gillott's pen manufactory and the electro-plate works of Messrs.
+Elkington. Of late years the Birmingham Small Arms establishment at
+Small Heath has gained attention and made a good third to our show
+industries.
+
+Visitors to Messrs. Elkington's are, of course, largely attracted by the
+artistic contents and triumphs of the famous Newhall Street show rooms.
+The name of the Elkington firm has a world-wide fame, and their splendid
+artistic achievements may almost be said to be epoch-making in the way
+of combining utility with beautiful design to the highest degree. Those,
+however, who fancy that Messrs. Elkington's great and extending
+manufactory is kept going by designing and producing splendid vases,
+shields, cups, and sumptuous gold and silver services, are, of course,
+hugely mistaken. The ordinary spoons, forks, &c., that are to be seen--I
+won't say on every table, but on the tables of millions of people, are
+the staple productions of such firms as that of which I speak. Indeed,
+if I could probe into the secret chambers of Messrs. Elkington's back
+safe, I should probably find that the production of those exquisite
+artistic articles of theirs has not been the department of their
+business that has brought the greatest grist to the mill and made a
+commercial success of their trade.
+
+Those visitors to Elkington's who penetrate beyond the show rooms will
+find much to interest, and in some cases to mystify them.
+Electro-plating is indeed almost a magical sort of craft. How it is that
+dirty looking metal spoons can be put into a dirty looking bath and come
+out white and silvered must amaze and bewilder many strange eyes.
+Impassive as Asiatics can be, I should much like for once just to watch
+the eyes of an eastern conjuror and magician when he saw the electro
+bath trick, and especially when done in the way and on the scale that
+may be witnessed at the Birmingham Newhall Street works.
+
+With regard to Mr. Joseph Gillott's pen manufactory it is a very
+interesting show place, but is practical and prosaic compared with the
+art electro-plate establishment I have just now referred to. Those,
+however, who like to see processes, and something going on quickly from
+stage to stage, find Mr. Gillott's factory a place of almost fascinating
+interest. They can, indeed, observe the steel pen emerge from its native
+metal, see it pressed and stamped, and again pressed and stamped,
+slitted, annealed, coloured, and finally boxed and packed. They can also
+see the penholders produced and inhale the sweet and pungent fragrance
+of cedar wood, and they can look on the production of the pen boxes
+which are made in so many attractively coloured varieties.
+
+All this is to be seen in the course of a little march through Mr.
+Gillott's factory, which is, indeed, a pattern of order and
+cleanliness, and so well conducted as to be almost like a real adult
+school of industry. Female labour is largely employed--as is customary
+in the pen trade--the nimble fingers and deft hands of many girls
+finding useful employment, without fatiguing labour, in the various
+processes of the pen-making business.
+
+Pen-making is, of course, a great industry, but there are pens and pens,
+and for some of the lower qualities the trade price is of incredible
+cheapness. I sometimes think that if an enterprising merchant were to
+try and place an order for a million gross of steel pens at 1d. per
+gross, and 75 per cent. discount for cash, he would succeed in doing it.
+The quantity it is that pays.
+
+The pleasure and interest of going over Mr. Gillott's establishment is
+enhanced by the fact that visitors see the popular pens of commerce and
+the aristocratic pens of what Jeames calls the "upper suckles" made, so
+to speak, side by side. The Graham Street works could not be kept going
+by merely making dainty gold pens, fine long barrelled goose quills, and
+other such superior productions. The everyday person muse be considered
+and supplied with everyday pens, and the everyday person, although he
+buys cheap pens, is a more profitable customer than he looks.
+
+A well-known mustard maker has been known to say that he makes his
+profit out of what people leave on their plates. In other words, the
+everyday waste of people vastly increases mustard consumption. In the
+same way the everyday pen is so cheap that it is not used with care and
+economy. It is lightly thrown aside often before it is half worn, and is
+often objurgated and wasted because it is dipped into bad ink. But what
+does it matter when you can get a gross of pens for just a few pence.
+
+One more little remark about the Graham Street works and I have done. I
+take leave to doubt if Mr. Joseph Gillott turns out any of the very
+cheapest and commonest pens, but I feel pretty certain that he makes the
+best and most costly productions of their kind. There are still very
+many people at home and abroad--especially Americans--who do not like to
+put a little common, "vulgar" pen on their writing tables. They prefer
+to see something more superior in style and finish. On such pens as
+these will generally be seen the name of Mr. Joseph Gillott. There are,
+of course, other makers of good steel pens in Birmingham, but their
+places are not so much visited or their productions so widely known as
+the pens of Graham Street works.
+
+A few years ago Birmingham penmakers, as well as others, were disposed
+to be rather terrified at the advent of the typewriter, and fancied in
+their sable moments that the steel pen would sooner or later be
+superseded. They are not now so dismayed as they were, and I hardly
+think they need be. The electric light has not put out gas; in spite of
+railway engines I still see a few horses about sometimes; and even motor
+cars and the like will not at present run locomotive engines off the
+line. I, therefore, think that makers of fine points, broad points,
+medium points, &c., may rest securely in their pens, notwithstanding a
+Yost of typewriters, Remington, or what not.
+
+Few people outside our own borders quite realise, perhaps, what a large
+and important industry the jewellery trade is in Birmingham. Yet one
+quarter of the city--the Hockley district--is chiefly devoted to what
+cynical people call the production of baubles. If anyone doubts the
+extent to which the jewellery trade is carried on, and the number of
+hands engaged in it, let him station himself somewhere Hockley way at
+the hour of one o'clock in the day, and he will see for himself.
+
+No sooner has the welcome sound of the tocsin been heard--almost indeed
+before it has time to sound--hundreds, aye thousands of men emerge from
+their workshops, and for a time quite throng streets that just before
+the magic hour of one p.m. were comparatively quiet and empty.
+
+Curiously enough these working jewellers seem to come from hidden and
+obscure regions, and appear in the open from their industrial cells
+through many small doors and entries, rather than through large gateways
+which are opened at certain regulation hours.
+
+The jewellery trade is not carried out in large factories with tall,
+towering stacks, powerful steam engines, &c. Machinery may be used in
+certain branches of the trade for all I know, but, speaking generally,
+working jewellers sit at their bench, play their blow-pipe, and with
+delicate appliances and deft hands put together the precious articles of
+fancy they make.
+
+Handsome lockets are not turned in a lathe. Diamond and ruby rings are
+not productions that are run through a machine and sold by the gross,
+"subject." Nor are jewelled pendants made in presses, nor beautiful
+bracelets banged into shape by the mechanical thump of a stamping
+machine. The consequence is that jewellery work of the finest fashion
+is made in small establishments, but as I have said there are so many of
+these that the "turn-out" in the way of "hands" is a formidable element
+in our local population.
+
+It is, we know, an ancient saw that tells us that two of a trade cannot
+agree, but it has always struck me that jewellers belie this generally
+accepted maxim. I came to this conclusion from knowing and visiting a
+colony of goldfinches--I mean master jewellers, who are quite civil to
+each other, will sit at meat and drink together, go to the same place of
+worship, and generally behave as friends, neighbours, and Christians.
+
+How it was that these employer blow-pipers could maintain and assume
+such a benign and almost brotherly attitude towards each other was a
+little puzzling to me till I thought the matter out. Jewellers they
+might all be, but they did not all jewel alike. They rowed in the same
+boat, but not with the same sculls--to use Jerrold's old joke, They
+blowed the same pipe, but played different tunes. In a word they
+produced different varieties of jewellery, and consequently did not cut
+each other's throats in competition. One would chiefly make chains,
+another lockets and pendants, a third studs and sleeve links, a fourth
+rings, a fifth bracelets and brooches, and another miscellaneous
+high-class productions, including mayoral chains, &c., &c. Under these
+circumstances the two or three of a trade to whom I have referred have
+been able to agree, and will be able to maintain good fellowship till
+such times as some largely enterprising bold blow-piper forms himself
+into a large syndicate, resolves to make everything himself, and crush
+down all competition. But that time is not yet.
+
+In speaking of the jewellery trade in Birmingham, I think I am safe in
+saying that at any rate until recently the town, now a city, has not
+enjoyed full credit for the high-class work it produces. For a long time
+it was regarded as the workshop of cheap "sham" jewellery, and that if
+you wanted really good things you must go to London and buy in the
+marts of New Bond Street.
+
+If any such heathen now exist, and I suspect they do, they would be
+rather surprised if they knew how much London sold jewellery is made in
+Birmingham. Purchasers have the pleasure of buying in Bond Street, and
+of having bracelets, bangles, rings and lockets put in cases with a
+well-known West-end firm's name on it, and that is something of which
+they are proud, and for which they are willing to pay. And they do have
+to pay. In proof of which I will tell a true story. Some years ago I
+knew a Birmingham manufacturing jeweller whose line was gold and silver
+pencil cases. I was looking over his show cases one day when he picked
+up a small good pencil case suitable to put on a lady's chain. My friend
+told me chat his trade price for this article was 3s. 6d., and he had
+seen it marked--his own make--18s. in Regent Street shops. I have known
+of others in the fancy trades tell a similar story.
+
+For instance, a manufacturer once told me that he had made gold ware
+for the Royal table, but not directly. His order came from a West-end
+house and his name was to be altogether suppressed.
+
+In some preceding remarks I referred to cheap sham jewellery. There is a
+very considerable amount of it made in Birmingham, and "gilt jewellery"
+is the name by which it is known. Respecting this trade and its
+productions I can, perhaps, tell a few of my readers something that may
+rather surprise them. Not many years ago I wished to see and purchase
+some of this gilt jewellery in order to make gay and glorious a
+Christmas tree--Heaven forbid, of course, that my friends or myself
+should adorn ourselves with such baubles.
+
+I went to a manufacturer of these wares to make my purchases, and hoped
+to buy cheaply. And I did; at a price indeed that rather astonished me.
+For instance, I was shown some brilliant looking brooches of good design
+and finish, and sparkling with diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies,
+of rich lustre--or, I should say, imitations of these precious stones. I
+looked at these handsome productions and thought a good price would be
+asked for them. I was, as I have hinted however, rather more than
+astonished to find that I could make a very good selection at from 15s.
+to 18s. per dozen.
+
+Just fancy, these brilliant brooches adorned with gems of purest ray
+serene--that is, to the naked, unexpert eye--well-fashioned in the
+matter of workmanship, and looking of, at least, eighteen carat gold,
+and yet they could be purchased at the rate of from fifteen to eighteen
+pence each. What, however, staggered me still more was to find that
+there was a lower deep still in the matter of price. On my venturing to
+remark to the warehouse-man who showed me the articles mentioned, that I
+supposed they were the very cheapest things in the trade, he remarked,
+"Oh dear no, we don't do anything in the cheap stuff line. If you want
+that you must go to Messrs. So-and-So, in Blank Street."
+
+I went to the cheap firm he named in Blank Street, and there sure
+enough found cheap stuff and no mistake. Brooches and lockets at 12s. a
+dozen and even less, and handsome watch chains at the rate of about 10d.
+each. I must add, however, that the makers would not dispose of less
+than a dozen of each article shewn. Perhaps they could hardly be
+expected to sell retail at such prices as I have named.
+
+Having obtained the "Open Sesame" to the jewelled caves or warehouses of
+the gilt jewellers I came away loaded with gems, and my purse but very
+little lighter. So well indeed did some of my purchases look when I got
+them home that I could not see much difference between them and the real
+articles. Consequently, when I now see fair ladies gaily bedecked with a
+superfluity of handsome lustrous trinkets I think of the gilt jewellery
+trade, and brooches at 15s. per dozen, less a discount doubtless to the
+trade.
+
+Leaving, now, the gold and gilt jewellery trades, which, as I have said,
+form a large industry in our midst, let me just briefly refer to some
+of the odd trades that are carried on in Birmingham. Among these I will
+first of all mention the manufacture of ship Logs, because it seems
+somewhat curious that an insular place like Birmingham, whose only
+suggestion of maritime operations is the canal, should produce
+Logs--that is, cunningly devised instruments for ascertaining the speed
+of ships. Yet if I go to north country ports, such as Leith, and if I go
+south to Dover, or west to Cardiff, I see the "Cherub," the "Harpoon,"
+and other Logs made by the firm of T. Walker and Sons, Oxford Street,
+Birmingham. As I have said, it seems a little strange, if not funny,
+that Birmingham should produce ship appliances. Nevertheless, the
+present Mr. T.F. Walker, and his father before him, have been making and
+improving ship Logs till their trade name is known and their productions
+seen in every port of significance here in Britain and abroad as well.
+
+A city, however, that produces Artificial Human Eyes may see its way to
+make anything; consequently, all sorts of diverse things are produced in
+Birmingham, from coffin furniture to custard powder, vices to vinegar,
+candles to cocoa, blue bricks to bird cages, handcuffs to horse collars,
+anvils to hat bands, soap to sardine openers, &c., &c., &c.
+
+There are also in Birmingham certain trades that without being large
+industries have taken fixed root in the locality. For instance, there is
+the glass trade, which employs a good few men, and, perhaps, it used to
+employ more. On this point I am not certain, but I do know that one
+large glass manufactory that existed in my younger days--namely, that of
+Rice Harris, which stood near where now stands the Children's Hospital,
+Broad Street--was disestablished many years ago.
+
+If I remember rightly Rice Harris's glass works had one of those large
+old-fashioned brick domes that I fancy are not constructed nowadays. One
+or two, however, still remain, and I for one feel glad that Messrs.
+Walsh and Co., of Soho, allow their dome to stand where it did, just as
+a landmark and to remind me of pleasant bygone days.
+
+I confess, too, that I like to go into one of these big glass hives, or
+rather glass-making hives, and see the workmen at their "chairs" blowing
+and moulding the hot ductile glass into its appointed form and patterns;
+and I like also to see the curling wreaths of smoke ascend and disappear
+through the orifice at the top of the dome. And when I look at this I
+wonder how that huge chimney is cleaned, and where the Titanic sweep is
+that could undertake such a gigantic job. Well, I can hardly say I
+wonder, because I think I have been told that the way the soot is
+cleaned from these well-smoked domes is by firing shot at the roof,
+which brings down the dirt.
+
+When in the winter season I see skates prominently exposed for sale in
+our shop windows I am reminded of another of the odd or rather side
+industries of Birmingham. I refer to the steel toy trade. The word toy
+seems appropriate enough when applied to skates and quoits, but seems a
+curious word to designate such articles of distinct utility as hammers,
+pincers, turnscrews, pliers, saws, and chisels, yet these articles and
+many others of a similar kind are included in the words "steel toys."
+This steel toy trade, if not a great industry in Birmingham, is an
+old-established one, and has been carried on for years by good
+well-known local names, such as Richard Timmins and Sons, Messrs. Wynn
+and Co., and others.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+NEW AND OLD STYLE TRADING.
+
+
+In an earlier part of these chapters I referred to the new style of
+shopkeeping that has developed in Birmingham with the growing size and
+importance of the town and city. I now return to the subject again for
+the purpose of showing that although Birmingham seems to be much to the
+fore in the matter of up-to-time shopkeeping, there are still a limited
+number of traders and shopkeepers who keep pretty much to the old lines,
+and evidently desire to carry on their businesses in the way that their
+fathers did before them.
+
+And in touching this question it is worth while considering for a
+moment how differently two men or two firms in the same trade will carry
+on their businesses, and yet both succeed. To put it more plainly, one
+firm will bombard the public with "fetching" advertisements, and get
+business, so to speak, at the bayonet's point. Another firm in the same
+line of trade lays siege to its customers in a quiet, systematic way,
+does its best to prevent any sorties in the direction of rival camps,
+and is content to keep its connection well guarded and do business in a
+quiet, undemonstrative way.
+
+Of course the man who goes in for publicity--wide publicity--and
+assaults the public with "loud" advertisements in all directions, drives
+the roaring trade, or the trade that roars loudest. He gets larger
+returns, and if his business is well managed he should secure larger
+profits. Beside these trade Dives's the humble, quiet, unostentatious
+Lazarus seems quite out in the cold. Not so, however. The latter picks
+up some good crumbs, if not some pretty substantial crusts, which he
+puts into his wallet with a gentle, unostentatious satisfaction which
+quite contents him.
+
+I could give chapter and verse for what I am now saying, and without
+hesitation or difficulty could name two firms in Birmingham that are
+carrying on the same trade, making the same everyday articles of
+consumption; yet, while the name of one firm is in everybody's mouth and
+is known to the ends of the earth, the name of the other is hardly ever
+seen save upon the productions they turn out. Yet I know for a fact that
+this latter firm make some nice solid profits out of their quiet
+business, though nothing perhaps at all comparable with their more
+enterprising rival. It is a case of thousands in one case and tens of
+thousands probably in the other. But enterprise should, of course, bring
+its own reward.
+
+I fear I have indulged in a rather full-blown parenthesis, but it was
+somewhat necessary before going into certain details concerning the two
+utterly opposed modes of trading and their exemplifications in
+Birmingham. As I have mentioned before, we have in recent years seen the
+rise and development of huge establishments and trading concerns that
+deal in anything and everything. Cutting and competition have gone on
+till there is nothing left to cut, or no weapon left that is sharp
+enough to cut finer. The results of all this has been the whittling away
+of a good many old-fashioned shops and traders; but they are not all
+gone, and some long--established businesses still survive and prosper in
+our midst.
+
+I will just mention one or two. If the reader of these lines will walk
+down the Lower Priory, which leads out of the Old Square--or what was
+the Old Square--he will see at the bottom of the said Lower Priory, on
+the right hand side, a sedate and solid brick building. He will see a
+brass knocker on the door and a brass plate bearing the name of
+Smallwood and Sons--"only this, and nothing more." This is the business
+house of the oldest firm of wine merchants in Birmingham, and I believe
+that these premises in the Lower Priory have been in the possession of
+the Smallwood family since the days of the Commonwealth; and, further,
+that the present active members of the firm are the fifth and sixth
+generation of Smallwood and Sons, wine merchants. There is no big shop
+window full of bottles of cheap heterogeneous wines and spirits. It
+might be the house of some good old doctor, or the office and home of
+some ripe old lawyer. If you step inside the office, you see few signs
+of Bacchus or his bowl, but you do see some antiquated rooms, some
+quaint furniture, and a nice dry, well-seasoned appearance that denotes
+age. There are full and capacious cellars on the premises of
+course--cellars containing a sort of well in which the books of the firm
+were buried at the time of the Birmingham riots; but, so far as outward
+appearance is concerned, Sir Wilfrid Lawson or the top Major-Domo of the
+Band of Hope might pass by the lintels of the doorway in Lower Priory
+without a sigh. With regard to Messrs. Smallwood's cellars, their
+subterranean premises are honeycombed with catacombs containing the
+remains of some grand old spirits and big bins of choice vintage and
+various other wines.
+
+It might be thought that such a very unbusiness-looking place would be
+quietly draining away, especially in face of the flaring competition in
+the wine and spirit trade. I am, however, glad to think and know that
+such old-established houses as Smallwood and Sons can bear up against
+the levelling down processes that characterise the more pushing branches
+of the wine and spirit trade. There are still a fair number of people
+who like to buy their wine from dealers who seem to have inherited
+certain trade instincts and experiences, and who can be relied upon to
+supply what they know to be good wines and spirits, such as can be
+consumed with pleasure and taken without risk. We do not all yet care
+for Chancellor claret, Hamburg sherry, petroleum champagne, and Dudley
+port, sometimes called "Bilston pit drink."
+
+Bottled red ink and cider champagne does not suit the taste of those
+who have a taste worth owning. They prefer to pay a fair price to have a
+good article, and they consequently go to old firms who are experts in
+their business.
+
+The most serious form of competition that knocks the legitimate liquor
+trader on the head is the grocer wine and spirit selling. It may be very
+convenient to the public to be able to buy a bottle of wine or whisky
+when they are buying their groceries, but this convenience has been
+purchased, I fear, at a cost that is not pleasant to consider. I fear it
+would not be difficult to prove that female home-drinking has been
+fostered by the grocers' wine and spirit licences. This is a serious
+matter to contemplate, and if I were a zealous temperance advocate I
+should strive to get those grocers' licences wiped out.
+
+Besides offering facilities that are calculated to encourage secret
+home-drinking the grocers' licences operate in another way that is not
+exactly conducive to morality or integrity. I will explain what I mean.
+At Cambridge I knew an undergraduate who had a somewhat parsimonious
+pater. The latter limited his son's allowance, and scrutinized his bills
+pretty closely. But my Verdant Green circumvented the supervision of his
+male parent by the opportunities offered by the grocers' shops. Although
+my undergraduate friend was, I knew, kept pretty "short" in the matter
+of cash supplies, I noticed that he never seemed short of strong drink.
+He let the cat out of the bag--or let me say the cork out of the
+bottle--when one day he innocently remarked to me, "I get all my liquor
+from the grocer's; the governor never looks much at the grocer's
+account."
+
+Leaving the question of wines and spirits, I can illustrate my
+preference for dealing with men who "know you know" what they are
+selling, and are, indeed, experts in their trades. Although I am not a
+good or bad Templar, nor yet a small brass Band of Hope, I confess to a
+large weakness for tea--good, nice, well-flavoured tea. I have, however,
+found it somewhat difficult to obtain. Occasionally I taste it at the
+houses of friends who buy their tea in chests at a time; but as for
+getting such tea at the usual grocers' shops I have found it difficult,
+if not impossible. Yet I have been willing to pay up to get some real
+prime Souchong, Assam, Orange Pekoe, or what not. I do not expect to get
+a one and twopenny tea with a fine two and ninepenny flavour. Bather
+recently I have paid 3s. 6d. a pound to get my little luxury; moreover,
+I tried many and various shops, but all more or less in vain. At last,
+however, I found salvation by going to a house--a retail shop
+indeed--that dealt in scarcely anything else but tea. And I now get tea
+full of delicious fragrance and flavour. It breathes such a splendid
+aroma before it is tasted that it almost seems a sin to drink it. When,
+however, I do taste a well-made cup of this infusion I am so happy and
+benign that (to paraphrase some words of the late Bishop of Oxford) my
+own wife might play with me.
+
+I fear, however, I am getting rather rhapsodical on this question of
+tea. There are other--what I will call specialist old-style--traders
+besides those in the teetotal and unteetotal line to which I wish to
+refer. But these must be reserved for another chapter.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+OLD-ESTABLISHED SHOPS.
+
+
+Considering the pace at which Birmingham moved forward during the latter
+half of the nineteenth century, it is not, perhaps, surprising that few
+shops and houses of old date are now to be seen in the chief centre
+streets of the city. A few, however, remain to remind us that Birmingham
+was not built yesterday, and that it has a respectable past, and is not
+a place of that mushroom growth which comes into existence in a night.
+
+Chief among the old order of retail trading establishments still
+flourishing in our midst I may particularly mention the shop of Mr.
+William Pearsall, silversmith, &c. As many of my readers are aware, it
+is situated in High Street, opposite the end of New Street, and is
+conspicuous for its pretty--I had almost said petite--quaintness and its
+genuine old-time appearance and origin. There are the small bow windows,
+the little panes of glass, that are so suggestive of the architecture of
+a century ago, and outside the shop everything bespeaks a past which was
+not exactly of yesterday.
+
+This great-grandfather shop, so to speak, has, indeed, been established
+for more than a century, and when the present proprietor first went to
+the business the trade done was chiefly in silver and silver made goods,
+whereas now it is largely in electro plate, in jewellery, cutlery, &c.
+The proprietor, indeed, like others in his position, has found himself
+obliged to keep in step with the times or go under. He has preferred the
+former course, but without abandoning what I may call the antique
+department of his business.
+
+It is, indeed, a most attractive kind of shop, especially for ladies of
+a matured taste and mind who like to see pretty things, some of which
+have a quaint charm which is often especially dear to the feminine soul.
+I can fancy ladies going there and spending a right down happy time in
+looking at the dainty specimens of antique silver, and also the modern
+reproductions of old patterns in electro plate. I can, indeed, by a
+stretch of the imagination picture in my mind ladies who will go and
+look at many things at such a shop, admire all, and buy none.
+
+Indeed, I do not know that I should mind indulging in this little luxury
+myself, but, being of the masculine order of creation, I, perhaps,
+hardly like to spend hours in a shop and leave the shopkeeper with the
+cold comfort of a promise that I will "think about it." Quaint and
+inviting shops, however, stocked with articles that form a little
+exhibition in themselves must pay the penalty of their attractiveness,
+and possibly the proprietors have no objection.
+
+It goes, of course, without saying that a business that has been
+carried on for over a century has seen great changes in regard to custom
+and customers. Consequently, it is not surprising to learn that wealthy
+iron-masters, the country gentry, and prosperous farmers no longer make
+the purchases of silver and fancy wares they did in the days that are no
+more. Black country magnates have discovered they can now do without
+many solid silver services, and even fairly well-to-do rural people find
+they can at a pinch put up with electro plate.
+
+I confess I like to look at the bijou shop in High Street and think what
+it must have seen and heard in its time. It must have heard the bells of
+St. Martin's toll for the death of Nelson and ring out joyous peals
+after Waterloo. It must have seen disorderly crowds march past its doors
+at the time of the Birmingham riots; more than this, it felt something
+of the lawlessness that prevailed, since the shop was looted and some of
+its contents carried off by the rioters.
+
+Yes, as I have said, it must have heard some pealing and tolling of the
+St. Martin's Church bells--and what charmingly mellifluous and melodious
+bells they are! I do not profess to be a campanologist or a bell hunter,
+but I have a loving ear for a sweet-toned church bell, and can think of
+few belfries whose contents surpass St. Martin's, Birmingham. Although I
+have not heard the "Bells of Shandon" immortalised by Father Prout, I
+have, however, heard Great Tom of Lincoln. I have listened to the "bonny
+Christ Church bells" of Oxford, and my ears have dwelt upon the sweet
+jinglings of the Carrillion at Antwerp and in other Flemish cities. I
+have also heard the dulcet chimings of many village church bells in
+various parts of the land, and I have listened with undelight to the
+unmusical tones of Big Ben of Westminster, but so far as mellow tone is
+concerned, I rarely hear any ordinary church bells that are more dulcet
+and harmonious than the bells of St. Martin's, Birmingham.
+
+Few people heed their beauties I am afraid; indeed, some singularly
+insensible residents and traders in the neighbourhood have been known to
+protest against the charming chimings of the bells of St. Martin's.
+Those, however, who want to hear the true musical quality and tone of
+these bells must select a quiet time, as the Bull Ring is not a
+particularly peaceful spot in the busy hours of day. Midnight is the
+witching hour that should be chosen to listen to the music of St.
+Martin's belfry. It may be a late and inconvenient hour for the
+experiment, but it is worth it--if the bells still chime at that
+"ghostly" hour.
+
+I am afraid I have indulged in a somewhat extensive parenthesis, but my
+pen has run away with me, and now it must come back to the old-fashioned
+High Street shop where I lingered a few paragraphs back. The adjoining
+premises to Mr. Pearsall's, on the east side, are also old and well in
+years. They have been altered and provided with a modern "dickey"--I
+should say, front--which rather hides their antiquity. There is,
+however, still conspicuous a quaint and curious spout-head which bears
+the date 1687, showing that these premises have more than passed their
+bicentenary.
+
+The only little old-date shop in the heart of Birmingham that, till
+recently, rivalled the "silver-smithy" I have described in High Street,
+was a saddler's at the top of New Street, which nestled under the shadow
+of Christ Church. It had the old-style small bow windows, the low roof,
+and the circumscribed area of old-fashioned shops. The ancient saddler
+who formerly tenanted it had not enough space to crack a whip, let alone
+swing a cat in. In past days, however, business was carried on under
+"limited" principles, but chiefly limited as to extent and space.
+
+When walking about Birmingham, archaeological observers should look up
+if they wish to see and note any traces of age and antiquity. The lower
+portions of old premises have often been so enlarged and modernized that
+they give no sign of the real date of the buildings. In Bull Street,
+for instance, there are narrow old style windows that are very
+suggestive of a bygone day. But these are becoming few and far between,
+and will doubtless soon be seen no more.
+
+Old-fashioned shops naturally suggest new and old-style shopkeeping. In
+a recent chapter I alluded to some long-established trading houses in
+Birmingham that within certain limits carry on their trade in a manner
+that differs from the very modern and obtrusively pressing fashion which
+is so much the custom of the day. Something of the same kind may be said
+of shops, as I generally remarked in my earlier observations. But to
+descend more into detail, there are still among its at any rate a
+limited number of shopkeepers who like to do their business on good,
+safe, and steady lines, and keep together a nice respectable connection
+by upholding the dependable quality of their wares. Some of these
+shopkeepers do not make much of an outward show, but I have reason to
+know that many of them in a quiet undemonstrative manner do a snug and
+prosperous trade without fuss or display.
+
+I will just briefly particularize. Opposite King Edward's School in New
+Street is a quiet, unostentatious-looking tobacconist's shop. The window
+plate bears the name of Evans, and in the window is a modest show of
+smoking wares and materials. If you step inside the shop, it is
+comparatively calm and quiet. You do not see young men sitting about
+smoking, chatting, and joking with girls across the counter. There is no
+constant succession of customers coming in and out and buying their
+ounces and half ounces of "Returns," "Bird's Eye," "Shag," and "Old
+Virginia." Yet an evident perfume of tobacco and prosperity seems to
+pervade the shop, but no sign of the Tom, Dick, and Henry sort of trade
+that is done by more ostentatious modern traders. It is, I believe, a
+case of half a century's trading in good tobacco stuffs having
+established a connection among those who like good tobacco, will pay a
+proper price for it, and deal where they can get it.
+
+These remarks apply more or less to a jewellery, watch and clock shop
+next door, kept for many years by Mr. L.N. Hobday. Here again there is a
+look of quality rather than mere quantity. There is no ticketed crowded
+display of wares, but the look of the shop inspires a feeling of
+confidence and an assurance that the quality of what you purchase may be
+relied upon. I am not in the secrets of the proprietor of this
+establishment, and have no interest in it beyond being an occasional
+small customer, yet I should not wonder if he does not do a nice,
+steady, quiet trade among those who have found out the advantages of
+dealing with a trader who personally understands his business, and will
+give them good value for their money.
+
+There are, as I have hinted, other shops that prefer adhering to
+well-established lines of business, rather than up-to-dating their
+trade past all recognition. There are a few drapers still left, who,
+like Turner, Son, and Nephew, do not go in for a general all
+round-my-hat sort of business, but who restrict themselves within
+certain limited lines and on them keep up a well-established connection.
+There are, however, others who prefer a more pushing, store-competing,
+Whiteley-emulating style of trade. They follow their bent and probably
+make it pay. It is, of course, well that we should have traders of all
+kinds to minister to the requirements of a large and varied community.
+For myself, however, I am glad that there are still some shopkeeper
+specialists left who limit themselves to dealing in such things as they
+understand, and know what they buy, and sell that they know.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+SOME PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS.
+
+
+Though reminiscences and recollections are rather overdone in these
+days, I may, perhaps, be permitted a few personal reflections in
+bringing my chapters to a close. And I shall not write a long, tedious
+tale, and why? Because, like the needy knife-grinder, I have no story to
+tell. Happy, we are told, is the country that has no history, and, if
+this is so, happy should be the man who is not burdened with too many
+reminiscences.
+
+Still, there are just a few memories that I should like to jot down,
+which may, or may not, be of interest to my readers. Authors, I fancy,
+often write as much to gratify themselves as to please other people. I
+cannot boast that I have been personally intimate with many
+distinguished people. I have never been to Court, and, consequently, I
+am, according to Shakspeare's clown, emphatically "damned." I have known
+some few titled people, and have even sat at meat with a Duke in his
+palatial home, and did not fail to notice that his Grace was very easy
+and human in his tastes and manners, and was not above taking a glass of
+port wine with his cheese. I have just occasionally shaken hands with a
+lord of high degree, and even with a belted earl, but I am not of the
+Upper Ten, and am quite outside the gilded gate that encloses the noble
+of the land. I have seen few people that were particularly worth seeing,
+that is, for book-writing purposes, but I will take leave to reconnoitre
+in my memory those I have beheld in Birmingham during the course of my
+uneventful career.
+
+I may, perhaps, preface my observations with the paradoxical remark
+that the first great celebrity I ever saw I just missed seeing. This was
+Louis Kossuth. I was only a small boy when the great Hungarian patriot
+visited Birmingham in the year 1851. Hearing so much talk about Kossuth
+I naturally burned with a desire to see him. When the eventful day of
+his visit came I secured a very good position at the top of Paradise
+Street, and fancied I was going to have a fine view of the distinguished
+Hungarian and the procession that accompanied him. I waited patiently
+for some hours, then I heard the sound of music in the distance, and
+then the roar and cheers of many voices. They grew louder and louder;
+then came the surging wave of a great crowd of people. For a brief time
+I was quite submerged, and when I recovered my position the procession
+and the patriot were past and gone.
+
+I remember the visit to Birmingham of the Prince Consort in 1855 to lay
+the foundation stone of the Birmingham and Midland Institute.
+
+I saw his Royal Highness well and truly lay the said stone, and I
+afterwards saw him in the Town Hall, where he was entertained at
+luncheon. I have a very distinct recollection of the occasion even now,
+and I call to mind in particular that the Prince wore a pair of light
+grey trousers and a swallow-tail, that is, a dress-coat. We should think
+this a strange costume for a gentleman at a morning function in these
+days, but times have changed, and the dress coat is now never seen in
+the morning, and not so much at night as it used to be.
+
+Of course I remember the Queen's visit to Birmingham in 1858, for the
+purpose of opening Aston Park, the "People's Park," as it was proudly
+called. There was a deal of effervescent talk about this noble project.
+The People, with a capital P, were going to buy the park for the People,
+with the money of the People. The scheme succeeded save in the matter of
+getting the funds. The People approved of the project, the People
+shouted themselves hoarse when her Majesty came to put the finishing
+touch to the noble undertaking, but, unfortunately, the great People
+failed to find the money necessary to carry out the grand undertaking,
+and the Municipality had to pay up to complete the purchase.
+
+It is still going back a long time, but I distinctly recall the visit of
+Lord Brougham to Birmingham in 1857, when as president he delivered the
+inaugural address at the opening meeting of the newly-born Association
+for the Promotion of Social Science. I remember the Town Hall was
+completely filled, and much interest was felt in the appearance of Lord
+Brougham on the occasion. When he took his place on the platform there
+was some little disturbance and confusion among the audience. This
+promptly brought to his feet Lord Brougham, who said in very emphatic
+tones, "Allow me to say--and I have had some experience of public
+meetings--that if any persons attempt to disturb the proceedings of this
+meeting, measures shall be taken to expel them."
+
+I am quoting from memory, but I believe my words are pretty correct.
+When Lord Brougham had delivered this emphatic utterance, he proceeded
+with his address, which was a dull affair and did not inspire the least
+enthusiasm. It was, indeed, a somewhat somnolent discourse, and his
+audience hardly seemed to wake up till he reached his peroration, which
+closed with a telling quotation from Oliver Goldsmith.
+
+If I recollect rightly there were many notabilities present on this
+occasion. I remember the interest I felt in seeing Lord John Russell for
+the first and only time in my life. There was not much of him to look
+at, but what there was looked pleasant. I saw, indeed, a small man, with
+a big head, and a large smile. There was, of course, a good deal of
+eloquence on the evening to which I refer, and at this distance of time
+I remember that one distinguished visitor made a rather amusing bull.
+Speaking of some obvious fact and carried away by the enthusiasm of the
+moment, he said, "Gentlemen, the matter is as clear as the rising sun at
+noon-day."
+
+I remember seeing Thackeray in Birmingham, and heard him deliver his
+lecture on George III. at the Music Hall, Broad Street, now the Prince
+of Wales Theatre. I was, of course, interested to see the great
+novelist, but I thought his lecture a prosaic performance. In a literary
+sense the address was characteristic and interesting--as can be seen in
+its printed form--but it gained nothing by its author's delivery. It was
+a well-composed piece of work, and it had a composing effect upon those
+who heard it. At least I know I found it dull, and half dozed during its
+monotonous delivery. Indeed, it was not till Thackeray reached his
+concluding words--which, by the way, were Shakspeare's, being an
+effective quotation from "King Lear"--that I was roused from my dreamy
+reverie.
+
+I recollect seeing Charles Kingsley when he was President of the
+Birmingham and Midland Institute, and noticed that though in speaking
+he stammered perceptibly, when he delivered his presidential address he
+adopted a sort of sing-song tone which more or less concealed his
+impediment of speech. In fact he half intoned his discourse. I remember,
+too, meeting Professor Tyndall at Mr. Chamberlain's table, and was
+struck by the simple modesty of the eminent savant. I sat next to Mrs.
+Tyndall, who was very unaffected, pleasant, and conversational. I have
+often thought of this occasion, and did so especially when the sad and
+tragic mistake occurred which ended in Professor Tyndall's premature
+death. Mrs. Tyndall, it may be remembered, gave her husband a wrong dose
+of medicine, which brought his illness to a sudden and fatal
+termination. What an awful mistake. To live after this was pathetic.
+
+Of course I remember a good deal about the late Mr. John Bright and his
+visits to Birmingham. So do other people, and as many of these others
+are scribes and quasi-historians who have published their records, there
+is really not much for me to tell. I may say that I heard nearly every
+speech our distinguished member delivered in Birmingham, for I hardly
+ever missed a meeting at which Mr. Bright was a spokesman. Even now I
+distinctly recall the first occasion on which he spoke after he became
+M.P. for Birmingham. The Town Hall was more than crowded, it was packed;
+indeed, I might almost say that herrings in a tub have elbow room
+compared with the very compressed gathering that welcomed Mr. Bright on
+the occasion.
+
+In order to make more space the benches were removed from nearly all
+parts of the Town Hall, and the curious sight of the sea of faces when
+Mr. Bright appeared lingers in my memory still. One curious thing I
+observed at this gathering was that so long as our member was speaking
+the vast assembly was held spellbound. But when he paused for a moment
+to turn over his notes or take a sip of water, the tightly squeezed
+audience swayed for a little bodily relief and expansion, and this
+resulted in big surging waves of humanity, which rolled from one end of
+the body of the hall to the other, and often lasted for some little
+time.
+
+At this moment I can recollect almost word for word the stirring and
+eloquent peroration with which Mr. Bright closed his first address to
+his Birmingham constituents. It roused his hearers to a pitch of
+demonstrative enthusiasm such as I have never seen equalled.
+
+I could quote from memory many striking passages from the principal
+speeches I heard our distinguished member deliver. But why? Are they not
+recorded in a hundred books, or at least in many books and hundreds of
+newspapers? I will, therefore, now content myself with just one or two
+personal reminiscences connected with our great Parliamentary
+representative.
+
+One little story I have to tell is connected with Mr. Bright's speech on
+the occasion of unveiling the statue of Mr. Joseph Sturge, erected at
+the Five Ways, Birmingham. There was an immense gathering on that
+occasion, and of course I was there. I secured a good position for
+hearing, but, unfortunately, there was a woman near me with a crying
+baby in her arms. This prevented me hearing much that the speaker said,
+and at last I got quite out of patience, and turning to the woman I
+remarked, "Why don't you take that noisy child home?" "Oh," said the
+woman in reply, "her's just as bad at home." I felt I had my answer, and
+that there was no more to be said.
+
+On another occasion I remember Mr. Bright walking down New Street, just
+after delivering one of his grandest speeches, when a working-man, one
+of the real "horny-handed," stepped up to him and patted him on the back
+in the most familiar and approving manner. I will also just note one
+other little incident in connection with Mr. Bright and Birmingham and
+then I have done. I have to give this second-hand, but I believe what I
+say may be accepted.
+
+When Mr. Bright was offered a seat in Mr. Gladstone's administration in
+the year 1868 it caused him some severe searching of heart. He did not
+like giving up his freedom in the House of Commons. When this question
+was before him he was staying with Mr.----now Sir John Jaffray, Bart.,
+and in discussing the matter with his host he walked up and down the
+room talking and talking till the hours flew by and it became late. Mr.
+Jaffray--who was rather an early man--became weary before Mr. Bright had
+finished his talk. The latter probably perceived this, for with a fine
+touch of humour he made for the chandelier, and said, "I see, Jaffray,
+that you will never go to bed till I turn off the gas."
+
+In searching the files of memory it is rather surprising to find how one
+thought leads to another, and the long-hidden past reveals itself with
+almost as much clearness as the events of yesterday. When I began to
+write down these personal recollections I thought I should find little
+or nothing to tell. As I proceed, however, occurrences of past years
+crop up and crowd upon memory, and that to such an extent that it
+becomes a question of what I shall not write rather than what I shall.
+
+Lest, however, I become tiresome and tedious I will for the most part
+"let the dead past bury its dead," and content myself with a little
+chapter of history which is especially interesting to me, and may not be
+without some amount of interest to others, especially those concerned in
+our educational and industrial progress.
+
+One important change that has recently taken place in what I will call
+business Birmingham has brought back to my mind a throng of mixed
+memories. I allude to the vicissitudes that have taken place in local
+trading concerns, and I may especially mention the disestablishment or
+dismemberment of the manufactory of R.W. Winfield and Co., Cambridge
+Street. To see the break-up of this once large, important, and
+successful concern has been a matter of some sorrow to me. And why?
+Because it was at this establishment that I began my working career.
+Yes, at an early age I was a junior clerk at Cambridge Street Works,
+when it was the private business of the late Mr. R.W. Winfield.
+
+At that time the manufactory was one of the largest if not _the_ largest
+in Birmingham. It employed about 1,000 hands, and its operations were
+carried on in several separate departments. These were the tube and
+metal, the gas-fitting, the metallic bedstead, the stamped brassfoundry,
+the general brassfoundry, and other departments and divisions. To my
+youthful eyes it seemed to be a huge place, and, indeed, it was a big
+manufactory, and had a very extensive home and foreign trade.
+
+I do not propose now to go into details concerning the manufacturing
+work done at Cambridge Street at the period of which I speak. This would
+be a matter of small interest to general readers. The once large
+establishment has had its day and has now ceased to be, though why it
+should have fallen to pieces so completely is not readily to be
+explained.
+
+There are, however, matters concerning the earlier days of Cambridge
+Street Works that well deserve to be recognised and recorded. I think,
+indeed, I may say that Mr. R.W. Winfield was the local pioneer of
+compulsory education. There were, of course, a large number of boys
+employed at the works, and Mr. Winfield not only provided an evening
+school for these young hands but compelled them to attend and be
+educated whether they liked it or not.
+
+At the time mentioned, I remember, Mr. James Atkins--then a manager of
+one of the departments--had a large hand in the educational operations
+carried on in connection with the Cambridge Street manufactory. He had
+the happy knack of attracting boys to him, and could interest those he
+taught and teach those he interested. Mr. Atkins, as is well known,
+afterwards became the principal of the firm, but more of this anon.
+
+In the work of these evening schools, Mr. John Fawkener Winfield, son of
+Mr. R.W. Winfield, took a very active interest. He used to give some
+excellent lectures, and constantly taught in the classes. Much money was
+spent upon these schools; indeed, a large room was specially built, at
+very considerable cost, in order that the educational work might have
+elbow room and be carried on effectually.
+
+Mr. Winfield was a stiff, unbending man in some matters--especially in
+politics--but he was in many respects broad-minded and large-hearted. He
+was thoughtful for those in his employ, especially the young people, and
+his son was like unto him.
+
+When I was engaged at Cambridge Street Works Mr. R.W. Winfield lived at
+the Hawthorns, Ladywood Lane. The house seemed by comparison to be a
+large and important mansion, and was quite in the country then. Yes, I
+remember now, at this distance of time, how often our employer used to
+give us treats at his house, and what pleasant jinks we had in playing
+and rollicking about the fields and grounds surrounding his residence.
+
+In many respects Mr. R.W. Winfield was one of the real old school. He
+was not a high or broad so much as a good, thick, consistent churchman
+of the Evangelical school. He "wore his beaver stiffly up," his neck-tie
+was a starched white cravat, his clothes were black broadcloth, with the
+dress coat worn by gentlemen in the early and middle years of last
+century. All the same, he had some modern ideas, especially, as I have
+said, in the matter of education. If it came to be totalled up how much
+he spent on the education of the boys in his employ, the aggregate sum
+would run to large figures.
+
+Time, we know, smooths the surface or rounds off the corners of past
+events that seemed rather arbitrary at the time of their occurrence.
+But, after making allowance for all this, my experience of Mr.
+Winfield's evening schools is occasionally wafted back to me with many
+pleasant memories and associations. Compulsory education was the iron
+hand that directed the young ideas how to shoot, though it was enveloped
+in a soft velvet glove. Mr. Winfield did good far-reaching work by the
+establishment and maintenance of his evening schools, and his
+thoughtfulness and generosity in this direction should be counted unto
+him for righteousness.
+
+Why Cambridge Street Works, which once employed so many hands, should
+have so completely collapsed is, as I have hinted, a bit of a mystery. I
+can only guess, and as tracking conundrums is not my purpose in these
+chapters, I will leave others to unravel the riddle if they can. It is,
+however, a matter of local business history that some thirty years or
+more ago the Cambridge Street concern shewed signs of tottering to its
+fall, and when Mr. Atkins went into the business as a proprietor, he had
+to make some sweeping reforms that naturally created some resentment and
+criticism. Possibly the business was "eating its head off," and the
+process of deglutition had to be rigorously curtailed. This having been
+done, the business thrived and prospered once more, and continued to do
+so for some years. I will not follow its fortunes to its ultimate fall.
+It became a public company, and now it is no more.
+
+Winfields' is not the only important local business that has gone under
+during the past fifty years, yet it is satisfactory to find that many of
+our old-established manufactories and businesses have survived, and
+still exist in some form or other. Elkington's, Gillott's, and Hardman's
+still flourish, and among the brassfounders Pemberton and Son's, Tonks
+and Son's, Cartland's, and others, go on their way rejoicing, casting,
+stamping, lacquering, and polishing, and pushing brassfoundry into more
+ornamental and utilitarian use.
+
+Some of our old-established merchants and factors are still with us. The
+trade of Messrs. Keep and Hinckley, whose place of business was for
+years near St. Mary's Square, is now carried on by Keep Bros., in Broad
+Street. The establishment of Rabone Bros., merchants, also in Broad
+Street, still stands where it did. The businesses of Rock and Blakemore,
+Moilett and Gem, and others, are still carried on by survivors of the
+old firms.
+
+As for the new industries, the new firms and companies that have been
+created in our midst during the past half-century, their enumeration and
+description would be a big story, and would require a large volume to
+tell it. That volume I do not propose to begin. I desire to close my
+present little chapter, and perhaps I shall not be the only one who will
+be glad to come to the end of it.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+THE MUSICAL FESTIVALS.
+
+
+Though it can hardly be said that the Birmingham Musical Festivals have
+had any direct bearing upon the progress and development of town and
+city, the world-renowned musical gatherings associated with the name of
+Birmingham have had something to do with the fame and fortunes of the
+Midland capital. Established more than a century and a quarter ago, they
+attained a pitch of musical excellence and importance that attracted the
+attention of the civilised world. Birmingham, indeed, was for a time,
+and is still to some extent, the Mecca of musicians, and the Birmingham
+Musical Festival is generally regarded as the premier musical meeting of
+the country.
+
+One specially fortuitous event has stamped the Birmingham "music
+meeting" with a glory and prestige all its own. I refer to the
+production of Mendelssohn's "Elijah" in 1846. This was, indeed, a piece
+of great good fortune, for Mendelssohn's oratorio aroused an interest
+and enthusiasm throughout the musical world that has not yet died down.
+The occasion certainly gave the Birmingham Festivals a new lease of
+life, and attracted more musical pilgrims to our town than ever.
+
+I am not old enough myself to recollect the first performance of the
+"Elijah," and as I only propose to write down now what I have myself
+seen and heard, I refer those who desire to learn the history of the
+Festivals to the records written by other more or less accurate writers.
+
+The first Festival at which I was present was that of 1852, and I have
+been at every Festival and at nearly every performance since that date.
+In the year mentioned I sang as a boy in the chorus, and experienced a
+great and novel joy that I have never known since. I revelled in the
+rehearsals, and when the week's performances came I seemed to be up in
+the clouds amid cherubim and seraphim. Indeed, when at the last
+performance the National Anthem was sung and the meeting came to an end
+I could have sat down and wept.
+
+Of course I recollect the stir made by the production of Costa's "Eli"
+in 1855, and especially do I seem to remember Mr. Sims Beeves--then in
+his primest prime--and his thrilling declamation of the "War Song." At
+the end of this stirring solo I recall how the voice of the great tenor
+rang out above the combined power of the full band and chorus.
+
+In this connection I may mention that it was at the Festival of 1855
+that I heard Mario for the first time. I had of course heard much of the
+great Italian tenor, but till the year mentioned had never heard the
+sound of his voice. Curiously enough, too, I heard him sing in
+juxtaposition with Mr. Sims Reeves. It was, indeed, a little bit of a
+contest between the two great tenors, and I am bound to say the English
+singer did not come off second best.
+
+The fact is Mario was then past his prime, whilst Mr. Sims Reeves was in
+his fullest strength. The opportunities for comparison on the occasion
+referred to were irresistible, since the two tenors sang together in a
+trio in which they both had to sing the same notes. The result was as I
+have hinted, but I wondered, however, that comparisons should have been
+challenged in such a direct way, and I marvelled much that Mario should
+have submitted to such a trial.
+
+It was at the Festival of 1858 that I heard the _great_ Lablache for the
+first and only time. His appearance excited as much interest, perhaps
+more, than his singing--he was so very large. His ruddy countenance, his
+white hair, and his great girth, combined to make him something to see
+as well as hear. When he sang his notes were as the tones emitted from a
+sort of human tun.
+
+Then, how I remember hearing Adelina Patti at the Festival of 1861. Oh!
+how the sweet girl singer charmed, indeed fascinated, her audience with
+her delightfully fresh voice, and by her attractive appearance and
+winning manner. How fatherly, and even tenderly, Costa seemed to watch
+over the little maiden, and his usual autocratic manner--for he was an
+autocrat at the conductor's desk--seemed to soften when he came in
+contact with the pretty young Italian vocalist. Even the stern unbending
+general of the orchestra was once so touched with her delightful
+rendering of an air in one of his oratorios, that he was actually seen
+to imprint a paternal kiss upon her cheek.
+
+It was also at the Festival of 1861 that I remember hearing
+Giuglini--the "golden-throated Giuglini," as he was called. Was there
+ever such sweet, luscious tenor voice, or a more charming and graceful
+style of vocalization? He literally sang like a bird. He opened his
+mouth and the notes were warbled forth with exquisite volubility and
+ease. Giuglini's voice had not the power and breadth which Sims Reeves
+could command, nor was his style so impassioned and fervent as Mario's,
+but his tones and vocalization were something to hear once and remember
+always.
+
+But I am pausing too long over details. Let me hurry on. I remember the
+disappointment with which Sullivan's cantata "Kenilworth" was received
+at the Festival of 1867. The then young composer had made such a very
+"palpable hit" by his "Tempest" music that great things were expected
+from the new cantata he composed for Birmingham. But "Kenilworth" fell
+very flat, and nothing afterwards happened to stir it up into a success.
+Indeed, the work may almost be said to have died "still-born."
+
+I fancy Sullivan himself had some premonition as to the fate of his new
+composition. At least I know that I saw him in the Society of Artists'
+Rooms on the day when his work was to be performed in the evening, and
+on my asking him how he was he smiled "a kind of sickly smile," and told
+me he felt very squeamish.
+
+How different was the fate of Mr. J.F. Barnett's "Ancient Mariner."
+Though the composer was a well-known musician no great things were
+expected from his new cantata, but it took the musical world by storm.
+It achieved instant success, and although it was regarded by many as
+being nice innocent "bread and butter" music it is still alive and
+popular, and will be while there is an ear left for spontaneous flowing
+melody.
+
+Of course I recollect Sullivan's second venture at the Birmingham
+Musical Festival of 1873, when he produced his oratorio "The Light of
+the World." Contrary to what should have been, the work was at best only
+a _succes d'estime._ Yet it contains some of the best music its composer
+has written. Parts of it are magnificent and masterly, whilst others are
+strikingly impressive inspirations. That the oratorio is unequal may be
+admitted, and it is decidedly heavy in places; moreover, it is too long.
+Still, looking at its merits as a whole, it deserved better fortune. It
+is enough to dishearten a composer when he finds his best work
+comparatively unappreciated, and it is hardly surprising if it was in
+consequence of disgust and disappointment that Sullivan turned his
+thoughts to lighter things. By doing so he has filled his purse, he has
+delighted a large public that cannot appreciate serious music, and he
+has raised comic opera to a level far above the thin and trivial
+emanations of foreign "opera bouffists."
+
+When some of us recall past Birmingham Musical Festivals, and scan the
+schemes of bygone years, we cannot fail to be struck by the change that
+has taken place in musical taste and fashion. Especially do we note this
+in looking at the programmes of the festival evening concerts. In these
+programmes quantity as well as quality was an element not forgotten in
+the consideration and arrangement of the miscellaneous selections.
+
+Twenty or thirty years ago we used to have--in addition to some one or
+more important works--a long string of scraps and snatches, chiefly from
+well-known operas, which protracted the concerts to a late hour. The
+liberal introduction of these excerpts was attractive to a large section
+of the public who did not care for fine works of musical art or "too
+much fiddling." Moreover, it was in accordance with the taste and
+proclivities of the conductor, who gave, perhaps, an inkling of his real
+mind in a jocular remark made under the following circumstances.
+
+It used to be the custom, after the morning performances, to ask the
+band and principal singers to stay and run through some of the operatic
+selections, &c., to be given in the evening. On one of these occasions,
+after a morning performance of "The Messiah," Costa quietly and
+cynically remarked, "Now, ladies and gentlemen, let us have a little
+music."
+
+To come now to speak of more personal associations with the Birmingham
+Musical Festivals, it was in the year 1873 that I experienced the novel
+sensation of standing at the conductor's desk. A trio of my
+composition--a setting of Tennyson's "Break, break,"--was included in
+the programme of one of the evening concerts, and I had to conduct its
+performance. I tell you, my reader, it was a trying ordeal, and I hardly
+know how I got through it, but I did in some sort of fashion. Costa, I
+may explain, made it a rigid rule never to conduct a living composer's
+music; consequently, he would have nothing to do with the performance
+even of my small trio. I found, however, a good friend in M. Sainton,
+the leader of the band. He took a kindly pity on me in my trying
+situation, and he did more to make my trio go well with his violin than
+I did with the conductor's baton.
+
+But it certainly was a sensation to face that immense orchestra, and I
+had something to do to make my sinews bear me stiffly up. My trio,
+however, was splendidly sung by Mdlle. Titieus, Madame Trebelli, and Mr.
+Vernon Rigby--_pace_ Mr. Sims Reeves, indisposed--and if it did not
+make a sensation, and was not received with deafening plaudits, I fancy
+it went smoothly and satisfactorily, and I retired from the field--I
+mean from the conductor's desk--not exactly with glory, but I think I
+may say without a stain upon my character as a local musical composer.
+
+At the Musical Festival of 1876 Madame Patey sang a song of mine, "The
+Felling of the Trees," and I repeated my little experience as a
+conductor; but in 1885, when my cantata "Yule Tide" was included in the
+festival scheme, Mr. W.C. Stockley kindly undertook the task of
+directing the work. I was determined it should not be a personally
+conducted cantata; consequently, I was spared what would have severely
+taxed my capacity and nerve.
+
+With regard to my work it will not become me to say much. I frankly own
+that it did not set the Thames ablaze; it passed muster, and perhaps
+that is as much as I could expect at a Birmingham Musical Festival. It
+was somewhat unfortunate that in 1885 there were too many new works. No
+less than seven original compositions were included in the scheme, and
+they killed each other. The musical public will not swallow and cannot
+digest too much new music, consequently they would not make a good, fair
+musical meal off any of the new dishes so liberally provided, with the
+result that most of them went into the larder after just; being tasted
+and no more. Some of them--even mine--are at times brought out, smelt,
+turned over, and looked at, but as I have hinted, none, not even those
+by Gounod, Dvorak, and Cowen, have become standing dishes in constant
+request at musical feasts.
+
+Speaking generally, many splendid compositions seem to have missed fire
+through sheer bad luck. To go no further than Sir Arthur Sullivan, some
+of his finest and most important works have had an ill-starred
+existence, and even several of his best songs, though introduced to the
+public under the most favourable auspices, have not "taken on."
+Sullivan's splendid ditty "Love laid his sleepless head," though sung by
+Mr. Edward Lloyd all over the country, did not make a hit, whilst the
+more trivial ballad "Sweet-hearts" became a boom and a property. At
+least, I remember being told that after Sullivan had been receiving good
+royalties from this song for years, the publishers offered him L1,000
+for his rights.
+
+I am afraid I have been guilty of a digression, but I will recall my
+wandering steps. I have mentioned the Birmingham Festival of 1885, which
+marked a new order--I might almost say a new epoch--in the history of
+the Birmingham Musical Festivals. For the first time for very many years
+Costa was no longer seen at the conductor's desk, and his place was
+taken by Richter. Costa conducted the Birmingham triennial performances
+for about half a century, and although it was sad to miss his face in
+1885, he had done his work.
+
+In 1882--the last Festival in which he took part--it was painful to
+witness his efforts to conduct the performances. He was partly
+paralysed, and his baton, I believe, had to be fastened to his hand
+because he could not grasp it. Further, he was becoming deaf, and the
+result was that the loud brass instruments were allowed to become too
+blatant and obtrusive. Costa was a good man in his day, and he did good
+work. He was very autocratic, even despotic, but he introduced two good
+things into the orchestra--order and punctuality. With all his ability,
+tact, and nerve, it must, however, be admitted that his style of
+conducting was rough and ready compared with the art, care, and skill
+that mark musical conductorship of the present day.
+
+With Richter's appearance as conductor, some important changes and
+reforms were effected in the orchestral arrangements of the Festival.
+For one thing, the band was cut down in number. This, it was said, was
+in consequence of Richter's opinion that the balance of power was
+disturbed by too great a preponderance of string tone, but it is just
+possible that economy was considered when the change was made. Anyway,
+in 1885 there were over twenty stringed instruments less than in
+Costa's last year, 1882.
+
+This alteration was a notable one, and regrettable in some ways. The
+extra large string band that Costa would have made the Birmingham
+Festival orchestra something very special, and the result was some
+striking effects not heard elsewhere. Nowhere now do we hear that _tour
+de force_ which was almost electrical in the rush of violins at the end
+of the chorus "Thanks be to God" in the "Elijah," in Beethoven's
+"Leonora" overture, and in the last movement of the overture to "William
+Tell." The effect of the violins--between fifty and sixty in number--was
+something magical in the works just named. To put the matter in brief
+detail, under Costa's conductorship the string band numbered 108
+players, when Richter took the orchestra in hand, it was reduced to
+eighty-six. I will not discuss the expediency of the change. Suffice it
+to say that the Festival band is now as good, perhaps better, than it
+ever was, save in the matter of numbers.
+
+To sum up very briefly the Festivals since 1885--the year that Richter
+succeeded Costa--the meeting of 1888 was remarkable for nothing that
+made any permanent notch in the record of the Festivals. Parry's
+oratorio "Judith" was the chief novelty, but, in spite of its masterly
+merit as a work of musical art, it was hardly received with the favour
+it deserved.
+
+The Festival of 1891 saw the production of two important new works,
+namely, Stanford's dramatic oratorio "Eden" and Dvorak's "Requiem Mass."
+With respect to these compositions, they have scarcely been heard, I
+think, since their initial performances. Stanford's "Eden" contains some
+fine writing, but there was, perhaps, too much of it. Dvorak's "Requiem"
+was something of a disappointment, and its first rendering anything but
+satisfactory; indeed, some of the numbers, I remember, narrowly escaped
+coming to utter grief.
+
+In 1894 three new productions were heard. These were Parry's "King
+Saul"--a very recondite, musicianly composition--but too long; "The
+Swan and the Skylark," a fanciful little cantata by Goring Thomas; and a
+"Stabat Mater" by G. Henschel.
+
+Nothing at the Festival of 1897 made any mark. There was a new "Requiem"
+by Stanford, but like many other Requiems, it rather celebrated its own
+death. A new work by Arthur Somervell was heard, and, though favourably
+received at first, like some other Festival compositions it seems now to
+have vanished into the _ewigkeit_.
+
+With regard to the Festival of 1900--just closed as these lines are
+being written--I will say little. It has been financially successful,
+and perhaps that is the best that can be said of it. The programme,
+speaking generally, was a somewhat heavy and dull one, and the special
+new work, namely, Elgar's "Dream of Gerontius," was disappointing, in
+spite of its skilful construction, its splendid orchestration, and its
+conspicuous touches of character and originality. Mr. Coleridge Taylor's
+"Song of Hiawatha" was the hit of the Festival, and its performance at
+Birmingham has hall--marked the young composer's fresh, picturesque, and
+melodic music.
+
+I might write a great deal more about the Birmingham Musical Festivals,
+but time and space forbid. I could, for instance, point out that it is
+becoming more and more difficult to maintain the prestige of our
+Festivals as time goes on. There is more competition now-a-days; there
+are more provincial musical gatherings; and there are now more
+high-class concerts than formerly. I think I could also show that some
+mistakes, of more or less importance, have been made, and are still
+perhaps being made in the management, Nevertheless, those who have most
+to do with the arrangements are not lacking in energy and enterprise,
+and in earnest endeavour to uphold the character and reputation of the
+Birmingham Musical Festivals.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+There is now little or nothing further for me to say, save to put a tag
+to my small story, and make my little bow to my readers. Birmingham,
+like other modern enterprising centres, goes moving on "down the ringing
+grooves of change." The city means to forge ahead, and will not permit
+anything to impede its progress. Scaffolding seems more conspicuous than
+ever, and before the ink is dry upon my page, more old buildings will be
+down and more new buildings will be up. Since I began these chapters
+(which have appeared in _The Midland Counties Herald_ during the past
+months) some important, notable changes have taken place. For instance,
+the Birmingham Old Library in Union Street, associated with the names of
+many Birmingham worthies, has disappeared, and its site is occupied by
+the new City Arcades. That conspicuous landmark, Christ Church, with all
+its memories and curious belongings and characteristics, is now no
+longer to be seen. Old narrow streets are being widened, old buildings
+are bulging out, and large new buildings are being erected in all
+directions. The municipality have taken in hand some important housing
+schemes which may be advantageous to the working classes, and result in
+the erection of some of those new artisans' dwellings which, so far,
+have not been conspicuously numerous. In the meantime local debts go on
+merrily, or I should say seriously, swelling. Ratepayers have to be
+squeezed to find the necessary funds for the increasing outgoings; but
+best-governed cities in the world must pay a price for their advantages
+and pre-eminence, and the citizens thank the gods that they have men who
+will devote thought and energy to laying out public money, and fervently
+hope that this may be done wisely and well.
+
+Some of our public men who are so ardent in forwarding new schemes and
+improvements can, of course, say that if these developments mean higher
+rates and growing assessments, they themselves have to bear their share
+of the burdens. This, of course, is so, but it must be owned that when
+we have a hand in spending large sums of money with the influence and
+importance that accompany the process, we pay our quota of the
+financial imposts if not cheerfully, at least without the grudging
+feeling of those who merely have to pay, pay, pay.
+
+Gentle, and I trust forbearing, reader I have written my story, and have
+added to my iniquity by publishing it in book form, but I indulge a
+small hope that it may possibly interest a limited number of those who,
+like myself, have watched with their own eyes the rapid growth and
+almost amazing development of Birmingham during the last forty or fifty
+years. Writing almost entirely from my own observation and memory, I may
+have made some slips and mistakes, but I have tried to be careful and
+accurate, and have endeavoured to verify my facts and figures from
+authentic sources when possible. I therefore venture to hope that my
+errors are not very many, and not of any serious moment.
+
+Writers, we know, are often prone to say that if their readers
+experience as much pleasure in reading their pages as the writers have
+had in writing them, the said readers will be rewarded for their time
+and pains. I am not going to repeat this pretty formula, I am rather
+inclined to say that if my readers experience my feeling that I have
+said enough, they will not be sorry to see these last words of my final
+page.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Artisans' Dwellings Act          3, 21
+Aston Hull                       5, 113
+Assize Courts                    120
+Atkins, James                    198
+Attwood, Thomas                  1
+
+Barnett, J.F.                    210
+Big Ben of Westminster           177
+Birmingham and Midland Institute 186
+"B'ham Belgravia"                95
+Birmingham Bishopric Scheme      75
+_Birmingham Daily Gazette_       126
+_Birmingham Daily Mail_          128
+_Birmingham Morning News_        126
+_Birmingham Daily Post_          125
+_Birmingham Daily Press_         123
+Birmingham Old Library           223
+Birmingham  Workhouse            110
+Board Schools                    93
+Bright, John                     12, 52, 192
+Brougham, Lord                   188
+
+Cambridge StreetWorks Schools    198
+Chamberlain, Arthur              71
+Chamberlain, Austen              65
+Chamberlain, Herbert             72
+Chamberlain, John Henry          49, 95
+Chamberlain, Joseph              11, 32, 33
+Chamberlain, Richard             70
+Chamberlain, Walter              72
+Christ Church, Birmingham        110
+Church of the Messiah            76
+Collings, Jesse                  79
+Costa, Sir Michael               212
+Costa's "Eli"                    206
+
+Dvorak's "Requiem"               219
+
+Edgbaston                        90
+Eld and Chamberlain              95
+Elkington and Co.                145
+
+Gas and Water Purchase           16
+Gas Profits                      57
+Gillott's Factory                147
+Giuglini                         208
+Glass Making                     160
+Goring Thomas                    220
+Gothic Houses                    96
+Great Tom of Lincoln             177
+Great Western Railway Station    4
+
+Handsworth                       117
+Harcourt, Sir William            47
+Hector, Edmund                   110
+"Highbury"                       64
+Hobday, L.N.                     182
+Holtes                           113
+
+Improvement Scheme               20
+
+Jaffray, Sir John                195
+Jewellery Trade                  151
+Johnson, Dr.                     110
+
+Keep Bros.                       202
+Kenrick, W.                      73
+Kingsley, Rev. Chas.             190
+King Street Theatre              109
+Kossuth                          186
+
+Lablache                         207
+Lady Huntingdon's Chapel         108
+Ladywood Lane                    199
+
+London and North-Western
+  Railway Station                3
+
+Mario, Signor                    206-7
+Martin & Chamberlain             93
+Modern Shopkeeping               29
+Moilett and Gem                  202
+Moseley                          115
+Municipal Debt                   14
+Municipal Reforms                8
+Muntz, G.F.                      1
+
+Nettlefold & Chamberlain         66
+New Meeting House                75, 77
+
+Old Birmingham Men               104
+Old Square                       110
+
+Palmerston, Lord                 52
+Pearsall, Wm.                    174
+Pemberton and Sons               202
+People's Park                    187
+Prince Consort                   186
+Prosperous  Manufacturers        99
+Pudding Brook                    113
+_Punch_                          52
+
+Queen's Visit to Birmingham
+  in 1858                        187
+
+Rabone Bros.                     202
+Radicals and Royalty             61
+Reeves, Sims                     206
+Richter, Dr.                     217
+Rigby, Vernon                    214
+Russell, Lord John               189
+
+St. Martin's Bells               170
+St. Martin's Church,
+  Birmingham                     177
+Sandwell Park                    118
+Sanitary Improvements            15
+Schnadhorst, F.                  83
+Sheffield                        54
+Smallwood and Sons               166
+Steel Toy Trade                  162
+Stockley, W.C.                   214
+Sturge, Joseph                   193
+Sullivan, Sir Arthur             209
+
+Taylor, S. Coleridge             220
+Tea Drinking                     170
+Thackeray                        190
+"The Dream of Gerontius"         220
+"The Elijah"                     205
+Timmins and Sons                 162
+Titieus, Mdlle.                  213
+Town Hall                        109
+Trebelli, Madame                 213
+
+Unearned Increment               97
+Unitarians                       74, 75
+
+_Vanity Fair_                    51
+"Vaughton's Hole"                113
+
+Walker's (T.F.) Ship Logs        159
+Welsh Water Scheme               58
+Williams, Powell                 81
+Winfield and Co., R.W.           196
+Winfield, John Fawkener          198
+Wynn and Co.                     162
+
+"Yule Tide"                      214
+
+
+
+
+CORNISH'S Instalment System of Payment:--TEN Monthly
+Payments #7s. 6d.# each and you own
+
+#CHAMBERS'S
+ENCYCLOPAEDIA,#
+
+A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge.
+
+#THE ONLY UP-TO-DATE ENCYCLOPAEDIA,#
+
+IMPORTANT TO PURCHASERS OF AN
+ENCYCLOPAEDIA.
+
+The Articles in #Chambers's Encyclopaedia,# in
+addition to being; written by eminent specialists, are kept
+well abreast of the times.
+
+Herein to present day readers lies the immense superiority
+of this work as compared with almost all other Encyclopaedias.
+
+Its up-to-date character may be tested by reference to
+articles such as Argon, Electric Light, Africa, Transvaal,
+President McKinley, Venezuela, Jameson Raid, Nansen, &c., &c.
+
+#COMPLETE IN TEN VOLUMES, Imperial 8vo.
+Cloth, L5; Half-bound, L7 10s.
+
+NET PRICES:
+Cloth, L3 15s.; Half-Morocco, L5 12s. 6d.
+
+Monthly Volumes: Cloth, 7s. 6d. each; Half-Morocco
+or Half-Calf, 11s. 3d. each.#
+
+By Ten Monthly Payments of #7s. 6d.# each CORNISH BROS.
+will send the best Encyclopaedia ever brought out.
+
+#CORNISH BROS., 37, NEW STREET, BIRMINGHAM.#
+
+
+
+
+NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Net Price, 2s. 3d. Postage 2d. extra_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE
+FACTORY AND WORKSHOP ACTS
+EXPLAINED AND SIMPLIFIED,
+
+BY
+E.M. ROE,
+Her Majesty's Inspector of Factories,
+
+WITH FULL SUMMARIES OF THE
+WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT, 1897,
+AND THE
+TRUCK ACT, 1896,
+PREFIXED.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LTD.
+MANCHESTER: JAMES E. CORNISH.
+
+BIRMINGHAM:
+CORNISH BROTHERS. NEW STREET.
+J. WILKINSON, NEW STREET.
+
+
+
+
+JUST PUBLISHED
+
+4s. NETT. 4S. 3D. POST FREE.
+Crown Octavo uncut, pp. 190.
+
+THE NOVEL-READER'S
+HANDBOOK,
+
+BY
+WILLIAM ROBERTON.
+
+The objects of this Handbook are:--
+(1) To mention the chief novels of important recent
+      authors.
+(2) To show what kind of novels they write.
+(3) To tell what some of the leading novels are about.
+(4) To give a brief sketch of the writer's career.
+(5) To show something of public opinion concerning
+      them.
+(6) To illustrate the struggle of authors for a footing.
+
+PRESS NOTICES.
+
+"The noble army of novel readers will find a good deal of
+useful and interesting information in 'The Novel-Reader's
+Handbook,' by William Roberton, author of 'The Kipling
+Guide Book,' and published by _The Midland Counties Herald_,
+Birmingham. The book is a guide to recent novels and
+novelists. As the author says, in the main the novelists dealt
+with have become popular within the last decade, and, as a
+rule, those have been selected who are in demand at the
+libraries, and who have a good public at their command."--
+_Sheffield Daily Telegraph_.
+
+PUBLISHERS:
+
+"THE MIDLAND COUNTIES HERALD,"
+BIRMINGHAM.
+
+
+
+
+#PARIS EXHIBITION, 1900.#
+
+The highest possible Award:
+
+#THE ONLY "GRAND PRIX"#
+
+exclusively granted to Steel Pens.
+
+#JOSEPH
+GILLOTT'S
+PENS.#
+
+Nos. for Bankers, etc.: Barrel
+Pens, 225, 226, 262. Slip
+Pens, 332, 909, 287, 166, 404,
+601, 7,000. In Fine, Medium,
+and Broad Points. The
+Turned-Up-Point, 1,032.
+
+Of Highest Quality; and, having Greatest
+Durability, are therefore #CHEAPEST.#
+
+
+
+
+ESTABLISHED UPWARDS OF A CENTURY.
+
+#WILLIAM PEARSALL,
+
+Manufacturing Silversmith,#
+
+Jeweller, Electroplater, and Watchmaker.
+
+PRESENTATION PLATE.
+COMMUNION AND CHURCH PLATE.
+
+_Designs Furnished, and Estimates Free_.
+
+Wedding, Christening, Birthday, and Silver Wedding
+Presents in great variety and newest patterns.
+
+#Old Garnet and Pearl Jewellery
+and Sheffield Plate.
+
+DEALER IN ANTIQUE SILVER PLATE.
+
+29, High Street, BIRMINGHAM.#
+
+Maker of the
+City of Birmingham
+Souvenir Spoons.
+
+
+
+
+Diamond Jewellery.
+
+#L.N. HOBDAY & CO.,#
+
+WATCH AND CLOCK
+MANUFACTURERS,
+
+Jewellers & Silversmiths,
+
+#13, NEW STREET, BIRMINGHAM.#
+
+DIAMOND RINGS and JEWELLERY of
+First Quality and Designs.
+
+#Special Novelties for Wedding and other Presents.#
+
+AN INSPECTION Of STOCK INVITED.
+
+NOTICE OF REMOVAL.
+
+L.N. HOBDAY & CO. beg to inform their friends
+and patrons that after March 25th, 1901, and during the
+rebuilding of their premises, the business will be
+temporarily removed to 14, Midland Arcade (now in
+course of construction), 2 doors from their present address.
+
+
+
+
+#THOMAS PINSON,#
+
+House, Land, and Estate Agent,
+
+VALUER & SURVEYOR,
+
+PROPERTY & MORTGAGE BROKER.
+
+Rents and Interests Collected.
+Properties Economically Managed.
+
+#COBDEN BUILDINGS,
+CORPORATION STREET,
+BIRMINGHAM.#
+
+Agent for the Royal Fire and
+Life Assurance Co.
+
+
+
+
+#ALFRED HUGHES,
+
+Confectioner and Restaurateur,
+
+BIRMINGHAM.#
+
+A Great Variety of Food Specialities.
+
+VIENNA BREAD.
+
+CAKES AND BISCUITS OF THE NEWEST
+AND BEST KINDS.
+
+#Catering for Public and Private Parties.#
+
+_17 & 18, NORTH-WESTERN ARCADE
+25, PARADISE STREET,
+36 & 37, DALE END_.
+
+Biscuit Factory--MOOR STREET.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham
+by Thomas Anderton
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALE OF ONE CITY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 11356.txt or 11356.zip *****
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