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+ page-break-after: always; } + div.titlepage p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } + .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; + page-break-before: always; } + .double {border-style: double;border-width: 4px; padding: 1em; clear: both; } + .x-ebookmaker p.dropcap:first-letter { float: left; } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78181 ***</div> + +<div class='tnotes covernote'> + +<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p> + +<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p> + +</div> + +<div class='double titlepage'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>“<i>Familiar in their Mouths as HOUSEHOLD WORDS.</i>”—<span class='sc'>Shakespeare.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_361'>361</span> + <h1 class='c002'>HOUSEHOLD WORDS.<br> <span class='xlarge'>A WEEKLY JOURNAL.</span></h1> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div><span class='large'>CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS.</span></div> + <div class='c001'>N<sup>o.</sup> 16.]      SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1850.      [<span class='sc'>Price</span> 2<i>d.</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>A DAY IN A PAUPER PALACE.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>In some states of English existence Ruin is +the road to Fortune. Falstaff threatened to +make a commodity of his wounds; the well +attested disaster of a begging letter writer +confers upon him an income; the misfortune +of a thief—that of being captured—occasionally +ends in a colonial estate, and a +carriage and pair; both the better assured if +he can tell a good story of misfortunes, and is +hypocrite enough to commence as a Pentonville +“model.” In Manchester the high road +to fortune is to be born a pauper; should +especially orphanhood, either by death or desertion, +ensue.</p> + +<p class='c005'>At the easy distance of five miles from the +great Cotton Capital, on the road to the +great Cotton Port, through shady lanes and +across verdant meadows, is the village of +Swinton. At its entrance, on a pleasing elevation, +stands a building which is generally +mistaken for a wealthy nobleman’s residence. +The structure is not only elegant but extensive; +it is in the Tudor style of architecture, +with a frontage of four hundred and fifty feet. +It is studded with more than a hundred +windows, each tier so differing in shape and +size from the others as to prevent monotonous +uniformity. Two winding flights of +steps in the centre lead to a handsome entrance +hall, above which rise two lofty turrets +to break the outline of the extensive roof. +The depth of the edifice is great—its whole +proportions massive. Pleasure-gardens and +play-grounds surround it. In front an acre +and a half of flower-beds and grass-plots are +intersected by broad gravel-walks and a +carriage-drive. Some more of the land is laid +out for vegetables. Beyond is a meadow, and +the whole domain is about twenty-two acres +in extent; all in good, some in picturesque, +cultivation.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The stranger gazing upon the splendid brick +edifice, with its surrounding territory, is surprised +when he is told that it is not the seat +of an ancient Dukedom; but that it is a +modern palace for pauper children. He is <i>not</i> +surprised when he heard that it cost 60,000<i>l.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>The contemplation of sumptuous arrangements +of this nature for the benefit of helpless +penury, naturally engenders an argument:—is +it quite fair to the industrious +poor that the offspring of paupers should be +placed in a better position than that of his +own?—that these should have better instruction, +be better fed, and better clothed?—that +a premium should thus be put upon the +neglect of their children by vicious parents; +while, there is no helping hand held out to +the industrious and virtuous for the proper +training of <i>their</i> children: so that the care +of their offspring by the latter is, by comparison, +a misfortune; while desertion or +neglect by the former is a blessing to theirs, +to whom Garrick’s paradox can be justly applied, +that Their Ruin is the Making of them.</p> + +<p class='c005'>That is one side of the argument. The +other stands thus; ought the misdeeds of +parents to be visited on their innocent +children? should pauper and outcast infants +be neglected so as to become pests to Society, +or shall they be so trained as to escape the +pauper-spirit, and make amends to Society for +the bad citizenship of their parents, by their +own persevering industry, economy, and +prudence in mature life? Common sense +asks, does the State desire good citizens or +bad? If good ones, let her manufacture +them; and if she can do so by the agency of +such establishments as that of Swinton, at +not too great a cost, let us not be too critical +as to her choice of the raw material.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In order to see whether the Swinton +establishment fulfils this mission we solicited +a gentleman qualified for the task to visit it; +and from his information we have drawn up +the following account:—</p> + +<p class='c005'>Having, he says, passed through the entrance +hall, we chatted for a time with the +chaplain, who is at the head of the establishment. +From him we learnt that there are in +the institution six hundred and thirty children, +of whom three hundred and five are +orphans, and one hundred and twenty-four +deserted by their parents. Besides the chaplain +there is a head master, a medical officer, +a Roman Catholic priest, a governor and +matron, six schoolmasters and four schoolmistresses, +with a numerous staff of subordinate +officials, male and female, including six +nurses, and teachers of divers trades. The +salaries and wages of the various officers and +servants amount to about 1800<i>l.</i> a year, exclusive +of the cost of their board which the +greater number enjoy also.</p> + +<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_362'>362</span>We went into the play-ground of the +junior department, where more than a hundred +and fifty children were assembled. Some +were enjoying themselves in the sunshine, +some were playing at marbles, others were +frisking cheerfully. These children ranged +from four to seven years of age. There +are some as young as a year and a half in the +school. The greater number were congregated +at one end of the yard, earnestly watching +the proceedings of the master who was +giving fresh water to three starlings in cages +that stood on the ground. One very young +bird was enjoying an airing on the gravel. +Two others were perched on a cask. The +master informed us it was a part of his +system to instruct his charges in kindness +to animals by example. He found that the +interest which the children took in the +animals and in his proceedings towards +them, was of service in impressing lessons +of benevolence among them towards each +other. The practical lessons taught by the +master’s personal attention to his feathered +favourites, outweighed, he thought, the theoretic +inconsistency of confining birds in cages.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The play-ground is a training school in +another particular. On two sides grew several +currant trees, on which the fruit is allowed to +ripen without any protection. Though some +of the scholars are very young, there do not +occur above two or three cases of unlawful +plucking per annum. The appropriate punishment +of delinquents is for them to sit and see +the rest of their school-fellows enjoy, on a day +appointed, a treat of fresh ripe fruit, whilst +they are debarred from all participation.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The personal appearance of the pupils was +not prepossessing. Close cropping the hair +may be necessary at the first admission of a +boy, but surely is not needed after children +have been for some time trained in the establishment, +in habits of cleanliness. The tailors +of the establishment (its elder inmates), are +evidently no respecters of persons. Measuring +is utterly repudiated, and the style in vogue +is the comic or incongruous. The backs of the +boys seemed to be Dutch-built; their legs +seemed cased after Turkish patterns; while +the front view was of Falstaffian proportions, +some of the trousers are too short for the legs, +and some of the legs too short for the trousers. +The girls are better dressed. Amongst them are +some of prepossessing faces, intelligent appearance, +and pleasing manners. Here and there +may be discerned, however, vacancy of look, +and inaptness to learn. Among the boys, sometimes, +occurs a face not quite clean enough, +and a shirt collar that seems to have suffered +too long a divorce from the wash-tub.</p> + +<p class='c005'>During the time we spent in the play-ground, +sundry chubby urchins came up to +the master with small articles which they +had found; it being the practice to impress +on each, that nothing found belongs to the +finder unless, after due inquiry, no owner can +be discovered. One brought something looking +like liquorice; another produced a halfpenny, +which the master appropriated. Perhaps, +the master had dropped the halfpenny +to test the honesty of some of his pupils. +One little fellow was made happy by permission +to keep a marble which he had picked up.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The children obeyed the summons to school +with pleasing alacrity. This is owing partly +to the agreeable mode of tuition adopted, and +in some measure to the fact that the lessons +are not allowed to become tedious and oppressive. +As soon as any parties give unequivocal +signs of weariness, either there is some +playful relaxation introduced, or such children +are sent into the play-ground. On the present +occasion, as soon as the master applied his +mouth to a whistle, away trooped the children +in glad groups to an ante-room. Here, arranged +in five or six rows, boys and girls +intermixed stood with eyes fixed on the +master, awaiting his signals. At the word of +command, each alternate row faced to the +right, the others to the left, and filed off, accompanying +their march with a suitable tune; +their young voices blending in cheerful harmony, +while they kept time by clapping their +hands, and by an occasional emphatic stamp +of the foot.</p> + +<p class='c005'>To enliven the routine of school duties, the +master’s cur takes part in them. He is a +humorous dog, with an expressive countenance, +and a significant wag of the tail. In +the intervals of lessons, his duty—which is +also his pleasure—consists in jumping over +the benches or threading the labyrinths of +little legs under them. Now he darts with +wild glee into a spelling class; now he rushes +among an alphabet group, and snarls a playful +“r-r-r-r,” as if to teach the true pronunciation +of the canine letter; now he climbs up +behind a seated urchin, puts his forepaws on +the favourite’s shoulders, and, with a knowing +look towards the master, recommends his +friend for promotion to a monitorship.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It was surprising to find that the pupils +took not the slightest notice of the antics of +the master’s dog. They heeded nothing but +their lessons; but we learned that the dog +was a part of the discipline. He accustomed +the children to startling eccentricities and +unexpected sounds: he presented a small, extraneous, +but wholesome difficulty in the +pursuit of Knowledge. He, and the currant +bush, the pretty treasure-troves, and other +contrivances, were intentional temptations +which the children were trained to resist. +We beg very pointedly to recommend the +study of these facts to the attention of the inventors +and advocates of the Pentonville Model +system. They involve an important principle,—and +a principle equally applicable to adults +as to children. The morals of the young, or +the penitence of the criminal, which result +from a system depriving the pupil of every +possible temptation to do otherwise than right, +will assuredly lapse into vice when incentives +to it are presented. Evil exists very plentifully +<span class='pageno' id='Page_363'>363</span>in this world, and it must be recognised +and dealt with; it is not by concealing it +from the young but by teaching him to resist +it that we do wise. It must at the same +time be admitted that the principle can be +carried too far; and if the master <i>did</i> intentionally +drop the halfpenny, it was exactly +there that he pushed his excellent principle +too far.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The teaching of the juniors is conducted +mainly <i>vivâ voce</i>; for the mass of them are +under six years of age. The class was opened +thus:</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What day is this?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Monday.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What sort of a day is it?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Very fine.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Why is it a fine day?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Because the sun shines, and it does not +rain.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Is rain a bad thing, then?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“No.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What is it useful for?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“To make the flowers and the fruit grow.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Who sends rain and sunshine?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“God.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What ought we to do in return for his +goodness?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Praise him!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Let us praise him, then,” added the master. +And the children, all together, repeated and +then sung a part of the 149th Psalm.—A +lesson on morals succeeded, which evidently +interested the children. It was partly in the +form of a tale told by the master. A gentleman +who was kind to the poor, went to visit +in gaol a boy imprisoned for crime. The +restraint of the gaol, and the shame of the +boy, were so described, as to impress the +children with strong interest. Then the boy’s +crime was traced to disobedience, and the excellence +of obedience to teachers and parents +was shown. The fact that punishment comes +out of, and follows our own actions was enforced +by another little story.</p> + +<p class='c005'>By this time some of the very young children +showed symptoms of lassitude. One fat little +mortal had fallen asleep; and this class was +consequently marshalled for dismissal, and as +usual marched out singing, to play for a +quarter of an hour.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A lesson in reading was now administered +to a class of older children. For facilitating +this achievement, generally so difficult, the +master has introduced the phonic system, in +some degree according to a mode of his own, +by which means even the youngest children +make remarkable progress. We need not +discuss it here.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The scene the schoolroom, during the +reading lesson, presented, was remarkable. +Groups of four or five little fellows were +gathered in various parts of the room before +a reading-card, one acting as monitor; who +was sometimes a girl. It was a pleasing sight +to see half-a-dozen children seated or kneeling +in a circle round the same book, their heads +almost meeting in the centre, in their earnestness +to see and hear, while the monitor +pointed quickly with the finger to the word +which each in succession was to pronounce. +All seemed alert, and the eyes of the monitors +kindled with intelligence. Meanwhile the +master was busied in passing from one class +to another, listening to the manner in which +the pronunciation was caught, or the correctness +with which the rapid combination of +letters and syllables was made. Sometimes +he stayed a few minutes with a class to give +aid, then proceeded to another; and occasionally, +on finding by a few trials, that a boy +was quite familiar with the work of his class, +he would remove him to another more advanced. +These transfers were frequent.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In an adjoining room were assembled, +under the care of the schoolmaster’s wife, +some of the more advanced scholars. One +class in this room was particularly interesting—a +class composed of the monitors who +receive extra instruction in order to fit them +for their duties.</p> + +<p class='c005'>After an interval the whole attended a +class for general knowledge: in this the +mutual instruction system was adopted. A +pupil stood out on a platform—the observed +of all observers—to be questioned and cross-questioned +by his or her schoolfellow, like a +witness in a difficult law case, until supplanted +by a pupil who could answer better. A degree +of piquancy was thus imparted to the +proceeding, which caused the attention of the +pupils not to flag for a moment. One girl, +with red hair and bright eyes, weathered a +storm of questions bravely. A sample of +the queries put by these young inquisitors, +will show the range of subjects necessary to +be known about. What are the months of +spring? What animal cuts down a tree, and +where does it live? Which are the Cinque +Ports? What planet is nearest the sun? +What is the distance from Manchester to +Lancaster? How high is St. Paul’s Cathedral? +What are the names of the common +metals? What causes water to rise and become +clouds?</p> + +<p class='c005'>One urchin who could scarcely be seen over +the head of another, and who was evidently +of a meteorological turn of mind, bawled out +in a peculiarly sedate and measured manner,</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What does the wind do?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>To have answered the question fully would +have taken a day, but a single answer satisfied +the querist, and was of a sanitary character.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“The wind,” replied the female Rufus, “cools +us in summer and blows away the bad air.” +An agreeable enough answer as we sat in the +middle of the schoolroom on a hot day, when +the thermometer was seventy-one degrees in +the shade, and a pleasant breeze stealing +through the open windows occasionally fanned +our warm cheeks. This concluded our visit +to the junior department.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Meanwhile, the education of the elder +children was proceeding in other parts of the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_364'>364</span>building. The lessons of the senior sections +are conducted in a much quieter manner than +those of the junior classes; even in a way +which some persons would consider tame and +uninteresting. This quietude was, however, +more than balanced by another department. +As we passed to the elder boys’ court-yard, +the chaplain threw open the door of a room, +where a small music class was practising the +fife and the drum. The class consisted of eight +youths, who had not learnt long, but performed +the “Troubadour” in creditable style. +When they marched out, they headed about +two hundred boys, who were drawn up in +line; the music-master acting as drill-sergeant +and commander-in-chief. After passing +through some drill-exercises, they marched off, +drums beating and colours flying, to dinner.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We need say no more of this pleasing ceremony +than that it was heartily performed. +The viands were relished in strong illustration +of Dr. Johnson’s emphatic remark, “Sir, I +like to dine.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>After dinner, we visited the workshops—a +very active scene. The living tableaux were +formed chiefly by young tailors and cobblers. +A strict account is kept of all manufactured +articles and of their cost; and we learnt that +a boy’s suit of fustian (labour included) costs +4<i>s.</i> 10½<i>d.</i>; a girl’s petticoat 12¾<i>d.</i>; and that +the average weekly cost of clothing worn by +the children was estimated at 3½<i>d.</i> per head—making +15<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i> for the wearing apparel of +each child per year. This may be taken as a +commentary on the “slop work” prices to +which public attention has been so forcibly +drawn of late.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In all the industrial sections, the children +are occupied alternately at their work and in +school—labouring for one afternoon and next +morning, and then attending their classes in +school for the next afternoon and morning. +This is a decided improvement on the Mettray +system. In that agricultural colony, the boys +only attend school once a week, and work at +handicrafts, or on the farm, during the other +five. There is, however, something defective +in the Swinton plan, as applicable to advanced +pupils; perhaps they are not stimulated sufficiently; +but it happens that no pupil-teacher +had ever passed a government examination; +although last year the grant of money, by the +Committee of Privy Council for the educational +departments of the Swinton school, +amounted to 531<i>l.</i> Those among the scholars +who have gone into other lines of life, have +generally conducted themselves well; and +when absorbed into the masses of society, +have become a help and a credit instead of a +bane to it. Indeed, having been brought up +at the Pauper Palace appears a safe certificate +with the public, who are eager for the girls of +this school as domestic servants. Both boys +and girls, on leaving the institution, are furnished +with two complete sets of clothes, and +their subsequent behaviour is repeatedly inquired +into.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As we descended the steps of the school +we scanned the prospect seen from it. The +foreground of the landscape was dotted +with rural dwellings, interspersed with trees. +In the distance rose the spires and tall +chimneys of Manchester, brightened by the +rays of the evening sun, while a sea of smoke +hung like a pall over the great centre of +manufacturing activity, and shut out the +view beyond. It typified the dark cloud of +pauperism which covers so large a portion of +the land, and which it is hoped such institutions +as the Swinton Industrial Schools is +destined to dispel. The centre of manufacturing +activity is also the centre of practical +and comprehensive education. Why +does this activity continue to revolve so near +its centre? Why has it not radiated over the +length and breadth of the land? The Swinton +Institution is a practical illustration of what +can be done with even the humblest section +of the community; and if it have a disadvantage, +that is precisely because it succeeds +too well. It places the child-pauper above +the child of the industrious. Narrow minds +advocate the levelling of the two, by withdrawing +the advantage from the former. Let +us, however, hope that no effort will relax to +bring out, in addition to Pauper Palaces, +Educational Palaces for all classes and denominations.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Thus ended our visit to the “Pauper +Palace.” As we issued from the iron gate +into the open road we met a long line of the +elder girls, accompanied by a master, returning +from a walk which they had taken, after +school hours and before supper, for the benefit +of their health. The glad smile of recognition, +and the cheerful salutation with which +they greeted us as we bade them good evening, +were a touch of that gentle nature which +“makes the whole world kin.” It refreshed +us like a parting blessing from well-known +friends.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>HOW WE WENT HUNTING IN CANADA.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>After his disasters in New Ireland, our +friend Blungle could not be prevailed upon +to go fishing again.<a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c006'><sup>[1]</sup></a> The sport was conducted +under circumstances which deprived it of all +attraction to him. He could understand fishing +in the Thames,—sitting all day in a +comfortable arm-chair in a punt, moored off +Ditton, with a stock of brandy and water +and mild Havannahs. This was true sport; +but digging holes in the ice to catch fish was +neither sportsman-like nor exciting. Under +the circumstances, he was not to be reasoned +with; so we only laughed at him,—Perroque +advising him, on his return to +St. Pancras, to try his luck in a parlour fishbowl. +This put him on his mettle,—and to +show that he was ready to “rough it” with +any man, he challenged us to go hunting +<span class='pageno' id='Page_365'>365</span>with him. Perroque, who was as great an +adept on snow-shoes as on skates, gave him +no time to retract, and a hunt after Moose +was at once determined upon.</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f1'> +<p class='c005'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. See page 243.</p> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>Our accoutrements consisted of snow-shoes +(which, when slung over the shoulders, looked +not unlike a pair of large wings), a rifle, an +“Arkansas toothpick,” and a flask. We started +without delay, and on the afternoon of the +second day were once more in the township of +Leeds, which we had fixed upon as the scene +of our operations.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Archibald McQuaigh was an old Highlander +who had emigrated from Strathtoddy, and +who prided himself greatly on his ancestry, +and on having been the man who “felled +the first tree in Leeds,” in 1817; since which +time the township had made marvellous +strides in advancement and prosperity, and +McQuaigh was fond of saying that the crash +of the first victim to the axe was still ringing +in his ears. He had pushed his way boldly +into the woods, with nothing but an axe, a set +of bagpipes, a peck of oatmeal, and a bottle of +whiskey,—the last two being the remains of +the stock of provisions which he had taken on +board with him at Glasgow. With this scanty +outfit he began the hardy life of a settler,—borrowing +flour and pork from his neighbours, +the nearest of whom was fifteen miles off, +until the gathering of his first crop, when he +became an independent man. Years, although +not without a fight for it, had produced their +effect even on McQuaigh. He had shrunk +somewhat in all his proportions, but his skin +and flesh looked like plastic horn, which +seemed to bid defiance to decay. Blungle felt +qualmish, when first presented to him, for he +had still a very fiery look, calculated to affect +the nervous,—his hair, which was becoming +grey at the tips, now looking like so many +red-hot wires elevated to a white heat at the +points. His manly activity had not yet forsaken +him, his frame being still well knit and +compact, and there were few in the township +who would even then venture to wrestle with +him. He had been originally a deer-keeper +to the Marquis of Glen-Fuddle, and his early +vocation gave him a taste for the chase which +never forsook him, and it was in the double +capacity of an enthusiastic sportsman and a +hospitable man, that we carried letters of +introduction to him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We were received with true Highland +hospitality, after the old style. After dinner +McQuaigh repeated half of “Ossian” in the +original to us, giving us incidentally to understand +that the poet belonged to a younger +branch of his family. He spoke English as a +convenience, but had great contempt for it as +a language. Indeed, he used to call it, sneeringly, +“a tongue,” and maintained that Gaelic +was the only real language on earth.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The next morning at breakfast, McQuaigh +announced that in five minutes after that meal +was disposed of, we should be on our way for +the part of the forest which was to be the scene +of our operations. A Moose deer is a great +prize, which is not often secured, and the appearance +of one makes quite a noise in a neighbourhood. +For some days back a rumour +had been rife throughout the township that +one had been seen at a point about three +miles distant from McQuaigh’s residence; +and it was only on the evening before our +arrival, that that worthy had been himself +informed by a man who had come from a +neighbouring settlement that he had crossed +its track on the way. This accounted for a +somewhat high state of fever in which we +found him on arrival; and our appearance +gave him great relief, by furnishing him at +once with an excuse for a hunt, and companions +in his sport.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Having plentifully provided ourselves with +creature comforts from McQuaigh’s larder +and whiskey-cask, we started in a common +farm sleigh, in which we had all to stand +upright, for the point at which we were to +push into the forest. McQuaigh had secured +the attendance of a French Canadian named +Jean Baptiste, who was a servant on an adjoining +farm, and who was as expert a Moosehunter +as any man in the province.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Having gained the summit of a steep hill, +the gillie was sent back with the sleigh, and +we prepared to diverge into the bush. The +snow lay fully five feet deep around us; and +before leaving the beaten track, our first care +was to adjust our snow-shoes, which are indispensable +to Canadian winter sport. Each +shoe is about the size of a large kite, which +it also resembles in shape. The outer frame +is made of light cedar, bent and bound together +by two slender bars, placed about +equidistant from both ends. The thin +spaces contained between the outer frame +and the bars, are filled up with a network +composed of a substance resembling +cat-gut. The toe is attached to the snow-shoe +close to the front bar, the heel being left +at liberty: so that when it is raised in the +act of dragging the foot forward, the snow-shoe +is not raised with it, being dragged horizontally +upon the surface. The object of the +snow-shoe is to prevent the pedestrian from +sinking in the soft snow, which it effects by +giving him a far broader basis to rest upon +than Nature has provided him. Thus accoutred, +a man will pass rapidly, and in safety +over the deepest deposits—having to take +much longer strides than usual, in order that +the snow-shoes may clear one another. The +exercise is somewhat fatiguing, and requires +some practice to be perfect in it. Blungle +was not an adept, and before he had proceeded +ten paces, he was prostrate on his +face, and fully three feet beneath the surface. +His plight in somewhat resembled +that of the boy who had let the inflated +bladders—with the aid of which he attempted +to swim—slip down to his feet, which they +elevated to the surface, keeping his head, +however, under water. The only thing discernible +<span class='pageno' id='Page_366'>366</span>for the moment, of our fellow-companion, +was his snow-shoes, which were +moving convulsively to and fro, near the +surface. Encumbered by them, he would +never have risen again but for our aid; and +it was some time ere he succeeded in getting +his mouth, ears, and nose, emptied of the +snow; he was more cautious afterwards in +the management of his feet, although his +inexperience somewhat retarded our progress.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We were soon in the very depths of the +forest, and lonely indeed are these Canadian +woods in the dreary winter time. All under +foot was enveloped in snow, from which as +from a white sea, rose like so many colossal +columns, the stately trunks of the trees, +through the leafless boughs of which, as +through an extended trellis-work, the blue +sky was discernible over head. The undulations +of the surface pleasantly diversified a +scene which would otherwise have been monotonous; +and we made our way merrily over +hill and valley, but ever through the unbroken +forest, in the deep dells of which we +now and then crossed a streamlet, whose +course had been arrested, and whose voice +had been hushed for months by the relentless +frost.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We had been thus occupied for about three +hours, when we at length came upon the +track of the game:—a deep furrow had been +made in the snow; bespeaking the labour +which the animal must have had in ploughing +his way through it. We stopped; and +McQuaigh, giving vent to a long expiration, +half between a whistle and a sigh, exclaimed, +wiping the perspiration from his horny features, +“We have him as sure as a gun, if +nobody else has got scent of him; and you +see,” he added, pointing to the untrodden +snow around, “there’s not the track of a +living soul after him.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“But what chance have we?” I asked, +“seeing that it must be more than two days +at least since the Moose passed this spot?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Give a deer any reasonable start in the +winter time,” replied McQuaigh, “and a man +on his snow-shoes will run him down. We +have only to follow his track, and depend on’t +we’ll go over more ground than he will in a +day.” So saying, he led off in the direction +which our prey had evidently taken. Blungle +did not like the possibility of being for a +week on the track of one deer; but he put +the best face on it, and laboured to keep up +with us.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We had not gone far, ere, like the confluence +of a small with a larger stream, we +found the track of an ordinary deer converge +upon that of the Moose. From the point of +junction, the follower, as affording him an +easier passage through the snow, had kept +to the track of his more powerful leader.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Let’s hurry, and we’ll have the two of +them,” said McQuaigh, and he doubled the +length of his strides. Blungle groaned, but +laboured on.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We thus pursued the now double track, +until the shades of evening stole over the +forest, and imparted a mysterious solemnity +to the lonely solitudes, which we had invaded. +After a hard day’s work, we looked out for +a spot in which to rest for the night. We +resolved to bivouac by a huge elm, whose +hollow trunk rose without branch or twig to +break its symmetry, for nearly sixty feet from +the ground. We dug a hole in the snow, more +than four feet deep, spreading our blankets +on the bottom of it. On one side we were +sheltered by the elm; on the other three by +our snowy circumvallation. Our next care +was to light a blazing fire, which we did in +the hollow of the tree; after which we laid +ourselves down to sleep, Jean Baptiste having +orders to keep the first watch, and to awake +any of us, whom he might find getting stiff. +In five minutes Blungle was snoring as comfortably +as if he were reposing on his own +pillow in Bloomsbury.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I was about turning the corner of consciousness, +when McQuaigh, who was stretched +beside me, and who never seemed to shut +more than one eye at a time, started suddenly +to his feet, and seizing the axe which was +resting against the tree, raised it to his +shoulder, and stood intently watching the +hollow in which the fire was burning. He +was quite a picture, standing out, as he did, +in fine relief from the surrounding darkness, +as the crackling flames threw their ruddy +glare on his brawny frame and furrowed visage. +But his sudden movement indisposing me for +the artistic mood, I was at once on my feet beside +him, and it was not till then that I heard +sounds proceed from the hollow trunk, which +gave me some clue to what had so suddenly +called him into action. I had but brief time +for consideration, for, in a moment or two +afterwards, down came a heavy body into the +fire, scattering the faggots about in all directions. +Blungle, who was still asleep, was +aroused by one of the blazing embers grazing +his nose, and on jumping up precipitated himself +into the embrace of a shaggy bear, which +was about to treat him to a fatal hug, when +McQuaigh’s axe descended with terrific force +upon its skull, which it cleft in twain. The +slaughtered brute fell on its side carrying +Blungle along with it, who, when he was +removed, was nearly as insensible as the +bear.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“There’s never two of them in a tree,” +said McQuaigh, “so we may go to sleep now.” +We did so, and I slept soundly for two or +three hours, Jean Baptiste kept watch as +before, employing himself, until his turn came +for sleeping, in dressing the carcass of the +bear, from which, in the morning, we were +supplied with hot chops for breakfast. If we +did not consider them unsavory, it was perhaps +because our appetites were too good to +be very discriminating. We could not persuade +Blungle to touch them. He was possessed +of an abstract idea that it was unchristian +<span class='pageno' id='Page_367'>367</span>to eat a bear. At first he positively +refused to accompany us any further, but on +McQuaigh expressing a friendly hope that +he would get safe out of the woods if he +attempted to return alone, he made up his +mind that the lesser of two evils was to stick +to the party. He made a solemn vow, however, +that should he ever live to see the +Zoological Gardens again, he would carefully +avoid even a glance at the bears.</p> + +<p class='c005'>After breakfast, we resumed our course, +keeping close to the track as on the preceding +day. We had not gone far when, on +descending a steep bank, we heard a rustling +sound proceed from a thicket on the margin +of a tolerably sized stream which lay across +our path.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“It’s but the little one,” said McQuaigh, +whose keen eye caught a momentary sight of +a deer, which was immediately lost again to +him in the thicket. “Make ready for action.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>We were, of course, all excitement, and +Blungle obeyed the injunction by deliberately +levelling his rifle at Jean Baptiste, who was +a little in advance of us, with a view to driving +the deer from his hiding place. McQuaigh, +observing this movement, with a sudden wave +of his arm elevated the muzzle into the air, +just as Blungle drew the trigger, and the ball +went whistling through the trees, cutting off +several twigs in its course.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“To take a man when there’s venison in +the way,” said McQuaigh, who seemed to +impute Blungle’s aim solely to a want of taste, +“who ever heard of such a thing?” Blungle +could not have been more frightened, had he +pointed his rifle against himself, and, for +some time afterwards, he apostrophised the +adverse character of his fate, in terms not the +most suited for delicate ears. The discharge +of the rifle startled the deer, which bounded +at once in full sight from the thicket. A ball +from Perroque wounded him in the flank, +McQuaigh’s trigger was drawn in an instant, +but his piece missed fire, much to his annoyance, +and as he said himself, “for the first +time in its life.” I fired too—but to this day +I have not the slightest idea what became of +the ball—the wounded animal plunged wildly +towards the stream, which he endeavoured to +cross. But it was rapid at that particular +point, and the ice which was but imperfectly +formed gave way with him. He struggled +hard to keep himself on the surface, until a +ball from McQuaigh’s rifle took effect on his +head, and he was at once dragged under by +the impetuous current. A little further on, +the stream plunged down several rocky ledges +in foaming rapids, which bade defiance to the +frost. We gained this point just in time to +see the body of the deer emerge from beneath +the ice; it was immediately afterwards carried +over a cataract and precipitated amongst +masses of ice, which rose from the chasm like +a cluster of basaltic columns and inverted +stalactites.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As it would have taken too much time to +recover it, we left the mangled body of the +deer in the icy crevice into which it had fallen, +and ascending to a point above the rapids, +crossed the river, where the ice was strong. +We then recovered the track, which we +followed for the rest of the day, passing +several small settlements in the woods, all +of which had been carefully avoided by the +Moose. In the evening we bivouacked as +before, but this time in the neighbourhood +of a solid tree. Blungle struck it all round +with the axe to assure himself that it was +not hollow, and expressed his satisfaction +that it rung sound. Next morning we +plunged deeper and deeper into the forest +wilds. About mid-day, Blungle, whose +patience was well nigh exhausted, began to +be seriously offended at the non-appearance +of our prey, and confidentially hinted to +Perroque and myself that wild goose rhymed +to wild Moose. But, at that moment, Baptiste +who was in advance, was observed to fling +his arms into the air, and then to direct our +attention to a point a little to the right of +us, where we caught the first sight of the object +of pursuit. The Moose was at some distance +from us, buried to the belly in snow, and +scraping the green bark from a young tree. +Being too far off to fire with effect, we glided +silently towards him over the snow, concealing +ourselves as much as possible by going from +tree to tree. He was a full-grown animal, +and, for some time, was not aware of our +approach; but, as we came within doubtful +shot of him, he looked anxiously around, exhibiting +symptoms of agitation and alarm.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Bang at him,” said McQuaigh, “or we +may lose our chance.” He had scarcely +uttered the words, when our four rifles were +simultaneously discharged. The Moose gave +a tremendous bound and plunged through the +snow, endeavouring to escape us. We made +after him at once, reloading our rifles as we +proceeded. When we came up to the spot +occupied by him, it was evident that he had +been seriously wounded, from the extent to +which the snow was stained with blood. +We soon observed that his efforts to escape +became fainter and fainter, and, as he was +staggering and about to fall, a ball from +McQuaigh’s rifle took effect in his heart, +and he sank in the snow.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Moose deer’s nose is considered a great +dainty by both civilised man and savage. +Blungle, although well provided in that facial +department himself, was almost petrified at +its size. “It looked,” he said, “as if the animal +carried a small carpet-bag in front in which +to keep his provender.” Having cut the nose +off, we confided it to the care of Jean Baptiste.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Look out for blazes,” said McQuaigh, as +we prepared to return.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Why, what’s the matter?” asked Blungle, +raising his rifle to his shoulder as if he expected +an attack from another bear. But +there was nothing the matter, “blazes” being +the term applied to the marks left by the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_368'>368</span>surveyors on certain trees, to denote the lines +of the different townships, as they are cleared +from the woods. By means of these marks +the woodsman can readily direct himself +to a settlement—to find which was now +McQuaigh’s object. Dragging the body of +the deer after us, we proceeded for about two +hours guided by the blazes, and, at last, +came to a small settlement, where we procured +a couple of sleighs, one for Jean Baptiste +and the slaughtered Moose, and the +other for ourselves. At a late hour of the +night we gained McQuaigh’s residence, considerably +fatigued after our exertions.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We spent two days more with our eccentric +but warm-hearted host, after which he let us +depart reluctantly. We reached Quebec on +the following day, and soon regaled a party +of friends on our valuable trophy, the Moose +deer’s nose.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE MODERN SCIENCE OF THIEF-TAKING.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>If thieving be an Art (and who denies that +its more subtle and delicate branches deserve +to be ranked as one of the Fine Arts?), thief-taking +is a Science. All the thief’s ingenuity; +all his knowledge of human nature; all his +courage; all his coolness; all his imperturbable +powers of face; all his nice discrimination +in reading the countenances of other people; +all his manual and digital dexterity; all his +fertility in expedients, and promptitude in +acting upon them; all his Protean cleverness +of disguise and capability of counterfeiting +every sort and condition of distress; together +with a great deal more patience, and the additional +qualification, integrity, are demanded +for the higher branches of thief-taking.</p> + +<p class='c005'>If an urchin picks your pocket, or a bungling +“artist” steals your watch so that you find it +out in an instant, it is easy enough for any +private in any of the seventeen divisions of +London Police to obey your panting demand +to “Stop thief!” But the tricks and contrivances +of those who wheedle money out of +your pocket rather than steal it; who cheat +you with your eyes open; who clear every +vestige of plate out of your pantry while your +servant is on the stairs; who set up imposing +warehouses, and ease respectable firms of large +parcels of goods; who steal the acceptances of +needy or dissipated young men;—for the detection +and punishment of such impostors a +superior order of police is requisite.</p> + +<p class='c005'>To each division of the Force is attached +two officers, who are denominated “detectives.” +The staff, or head-quarters, consists +of six sergeants and two inspectors. Thus the +Detective Police, of which we hear so much, +consists of only forty-two individuals, whose +duty it is to wear no uniform, and to perform +the most difficult operations of their craft. +They have not only to counteract the machinations +of every sort of rascal whose only means +of existence is avowed rascality, but to clear +up family mysteries, the investigation of which +demands the utmost delicacy and tact.</p> + +<p class='c005'>One instance will show the difference between +a regular and a detective policeman. +Your wife discovers on retiring for the night, +that her toilette has been plundered; her +drawers are void; except the ornaments she +now wears, her beauty is as unadorned as +that of a quakeress: not a thing is left; all +the fond tokens you gave her when her prenuptial +lover, are gone; your own miniature, +with its setting of gold and brilliants; +her late mother’s diamonds; the bracelets +“dear papa” presented on her last birth-day; +the top of every bottle in the dressing-case +brought from Paris by Uncle John, at the +risk of his life, in February 1848, are off—but +the glasses remain. Every valuable is swept +away with the most discriminating villainy; +for no other thing in the chamber has been +touched; not a chair has been moved; the +costly pendule on the chimney-piece still +ticks; the entire apartment is as neat and +trim as when it had received the last finishing +sweep of the housemaid’s duster. The entire +establishment runs frantically up stairs and +down stairs; and finally congregates in my +Lady’s Chamber. Nobody knows anything +whatever about it; yet everybody offers a +suggestion, although they have not an idea +“who ever did it.” The housemaid bursts +into tears; the cook declares she thinks she +is going into hysterics; and at last you +suggest sending for the Police; which is taken +as a suspicion of, and insult on the whole +assembled household, and they descend into +the lower regions of the house in the sulks.</p> + +<p class='c005'>X 49 arrives. His face betrays sheepishness, +combined with mystery. He turns his +bull’s-eye into every corner, and upon every +countenance (including that of the cat), on +the premises. He examines all the locks, bolts, +and bars, bestowing extra diligence on those +which enclosed the stolen treasures. These he +declares have been “Wiolated;” by which he +means that there has been more than one +“Rape of the Lock.” He then mentions about +the non-disturbance of other valuables; takes +you solemnly aside, darkens his lantern, and +asks if you suspect any of your servants, in +a mysterious whisper, which implies that +<i>he</i> does. He then examines the upper bedrooms, +and in that of the female servants he +discovers the least valuable of the rings, and +a cast-off silver toothpick between the mattresses. +You have every confidence in your +maids; but what <i>can</i> you think? You suggest +their safe custody; but your wife intercedes, +and the policeman would prefer speaking +to his inspector before he locks anybody +up.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Had the whole matter remained in the +hands of X 49, it is possible that your troubles +would have lasted you till now. A train of +legal proceedings—actions for defamation of +character and suits for damages—would have +followed, which would have cost more than +<span class='pageno' id='Page_369'>369</span>the value of the jewels, and the entire execration +of all your neighbours and every +private friend of your domestics. But, happily, +the Inspector promptly sends a plain, earnest-looking +man, who announces himself as one +of the two Detectives of the X division. He +settles the whole matter in ten minutes. +His examination is ended in five. As a connoisseur +can determine the painter of a +picture at the first glance, or a wine-taster +the precise vintage of a sherry by the merest +sip; so the Detective at once pounces upon +the authors of the work of art under consideration, +by the style of performance; if not +upon the precise executant, upon the “school” +to which he belongs. Having finished the +toilette branch of the inquiry, he takes a +short view of the parapet of your house, and +makes an equally cursory investigation of the +attic window fastenings. His mind is made +up, and most likely he will address you in +these words:—</p> + +<p class='c005'>“All right, Sir. This is done by one of +‘The Dancing School!’”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Good Heavens!” exclaims your plundered +partner. “Impossible, why <i>our</i> children +go to Monsieur Pettitoes, of No. 81, and I +assure you he is a highly respectable professor. +As to his pupils, I—”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Detective smiles and interrupts. +“Dancers,” he tells her, “is a name given +to the sort of burglar by whom she had been +robbed; and every branch of the thieving profession +is divided into gangs, which are termed +‘Schools.’ From No. 82 to the end of the +street the houses are unfinished. The thief +made his way to the top of one of these, and +crawled to your garret—”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“But we are forty houses distant, and why +did he not favour one of my neighbours with +his visit?” you ask.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Either their uppermost stories are not so +practicable, or the ladies have not such +valuable jewels.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“But how do they know that?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“By watching and inquiry. This affair +may have been in action for more than a +month. Your house has been watched; your +habits ascertained; they have found out when +you dine—how long you remain in the dining-room. +A day is selected; while you are +busy dining, and your servants busy waiting +on you, the thing is done. Previously, many +journeys have been made over the roofs, to +find out the best means of entering your +house. The attic is chosen; the robber gets +in, and creeps noiselessly, or ‘dances’ into the +place to be robbed.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Is there <i>any</i> chance of recovering our +property?” you ask anxiously, seeing the +whole matter at a glance.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I hope so. I have sent some brother +officers to watch the Fences’ houses.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Fences?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Fences,” explains the Detective, in reply +to your innocent wife’s inquiry, “are purchasers +of stolen goods. Your jewels will +be forced out of their settings, and the gold +melted.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The lady tries, ineffectually, to suppress a +slight scream.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“We shall see, if, at this unusual hour of +the night, there is any bustle in or near any +of these places; if any smoke is coming out of +any one of their furnaces, where the melting +takes place. <i>I</i> shall go and seek out the +precise ‘garretter’—that’s another name +these plunderers give themselves—whom I +suspect. By his trying to ‘sell’ your domestics +by placing the ring and toothpick in their +bed, I think I know the man. It is just in his +style.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The next morning, you find all these suppositions +verified. The Detective calls, and +obliges you at breakfast—after a sleepless +night—with a complete list of the stolen +articles, and produces some of them for +identification. In three months, your wife +gets nearly every article back; her damsels’ +innocence is fully established; and the thief +is taken from his “school” to spend a long +holiday in a penal colony.</p> + +<p class='c005'>This is a mere common-place transaction, +compared with the achievements of the staff +of the little army of Detective policemen at +head-quarters. Sometimes they are called +upon to investigate robberies; so executed, +that no human ingenuity appears to ordinary +observers capable of finding the thief. +He leaves not a trail or a trace. Every clue +seems cut off; but the experience of a Detective +guides him into tracks quite invisible +to other eyes. Not long since, a trunk was +rifled at a fashionable hotel. The theft was +so managed, that no suspicion could rest on +any one. The Detective sergeant who had +been sent for, fairly owned, after making a +minute examination of the case, that he could +afford no hope of elucidating the mystery. +As he was leaving the bed-room, however, in +which the plundered portmanteau stood, he +picked up an ordinary shirt-button from the +carpet. He silently compared it with those +on the shirts in the trunk. It did not match +them. He said nothing, but hung about the +hotel for the rest of the day. Had he been +narrowly watched, he would have been set +down for an eccentric critic of linen. He was +looking out for a shirt-front or wristband +without a button. His search was long and +patient; but at length it was rewarded. One +of the inmates of the house showed a deficiency +in his dress, which no one but a Detective +would have noticed. He looked as +narrowly as he dared at the pattern of the +remaining fasteners. It corresponded with +that of the little tell-tale he had picked +up. He went deeper into the subject, got a +trace of some of the stolen property, ascertained +a connexion between it and the suspected +person, confronted him with the owner +of the trunk, and finally succeeded in convicting +him of the theft.—At another hotel-robbery, +the blade of a knife, broken in the lock of a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_370'>370</span>portmanteau, formed the clue. The Detective +employed in that case was for some time indefatigable +in seeking out knives with broken +blades. At length he found one belonging to +an under-waiter, who proved to have been the +thief.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The swell mob—the London branch of +which is said to consist of from one hundred +and fifty to two hundred members—demand +the greatest amount of vigilance to detect. +They hold the first place in the “profession.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Their cleverness consists in evading the +law; the most expert are seldom taken. One +“swell,” named Mo. Clark, had an iniquitous +career of a quarter of a century, and never +was captured during that time. He died a +“prosperous gentleman” at Boulogne, whither +he had retired to live on his “savings,” which +he had invested in house property. An old +hand named White lived unharmed to the +age of eighty; but he had not been prudent, +and existed on the contributions of the “mob,” +till his old acquaintances were taken away, +either by transportation or death, and the +new race did not recognise his claims to their +bounty. Hence he died in a workhouse. +The average run of liberty which one of this +class counts upon is four years.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The gains of some of the swell mob are +great. They can always command capital +to execute any especial scheme. Their +travelling expenses are large; for their +harvests are great public occasions, whether +in town or country. As an example of their +profits, the exploits of four of them at the +Liverpool Cattle Show some seven years ago, +may be mentioned. The London Detective +Police did not attend, but one of them waylaid +the rogues at the Euston Station. After an attendance +of four days, the gentlemen he was +looking for appeared, handsomely attired, the +occupants of first-class carriages. The Detective, +in the quietest manner possible, stopped +their luggage; they entreated him to treat +them like “gentlemen.” He did so, and took +them into a private room, where they were so +good as to offer him fifty pounds to let them go. +He declined, and over-hauled their booty; it +consisted of several gold pins, watches, (some +of great value,) chains and rings, silver snuffboxes, +and bank-notes of the value of one +hundred pounds! Eventually, however, as +owners could not be found for some of the +property, and some others would not prosecute, +they escaped with a light punishment.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In order to counteract the plans of the +swell mob, two of the sergeants of the Detective +Police make it their business to know +every one of them personally. The consequence +is, that the appearance of either +of these officers upon any scene of operations +is a bar to anything or anybody being “done.” +This is an excellent characteristic of the +Detectives, for they thus become as well a Preventive +Police. We will give an illustration:—</p> + +<p class='c005'>You are at the Oxford commemoration. +As you descend the broad stairs of the Roebuck +to dine, you overtake on the landing a +gentleman of foreign aspect and elegant attire. +The variegated pattern of his vest, the jetty +gloss of his boots, and the exceeding whiteness +of his gloves—one of which he crushes in his +somewhat delicate hand—convince you that he +is going to the grand ball, to be given that +evening at Merton. The glance he gives you +while passing, is sharp, but comprehensive; +and if his eye does rest upon any one part of +your person and its accessories more than +another, it is upon the gold watch which you +have just taken out to see if dinner be “due.” +As you step aside to make room for him, he +acknowledges the courtesy with “Par-r-r-don,” +in the richest Parisian <i>gros parle</i>, and a smile +so full of intelligence and courtesy, that you +hope he speaks English, for you set him down +as an agreeable fellow, and mentally determine +that if he dines in the Coffee-room, you will +make his acquaintance.</p> + +<p class='c005'>On the mat at the stair-foot there stands a +man. A plain, honest-looking fellow, with +nothing formidable in his appearance, or +dreadful in his countenance; but the effect +his apparition takes on your friend in perspective, +is remarkable. The poor little fellow +raises himself on his toes, as if he had been +suddenly overbalanced by a bullet; his cheek +pales, and his lip quivers, as he endeavours +ineffectually to suppress the word “<i>coquin!</i>” +He knows it is too late to turn back (he evidently +would, if he could), for the man’s eye +is upon him. There is no help for it, and he +speaks first; but in a whisper. He takes the +new comer aside, and all you can overhear is +spoken by the latter, who says he insists on +Monsieur withdrawing his “School” by the +seven o’clock train.</p> + +<p class='c005'>You imagine him to be some poor wretch +of a schoolmaster in difficulties; captured, +alas, by a bailiff. They leave the inn together, +perhaps for a sponging house. So acute is +your pity, that you think of rushing after +them, and offering bail. You are, however, +very hungry, and, at this moment, the waiter +announces that dinner is on table.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In the opposite box there are covers for +four, but only three convives. They seem +quiet men—not gentlemen, decidedly, but well +enough behaved.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What has become of Monsieur?” asks +one. None of them can divine.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Shall we wait any longer for him?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Oh, no—Waiter—Dinner!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>By their manner, you imagine that the style +of the Roebuck is a “cut above them.” They +have not been much used to plate. The +silver forks are so curiously heavy, that one +of the guests, in a dallying sort of way, +balances a prong across his fingers, while the +chasing of the castors engages the attention +of a second. This is all done while they +talk. When the fish is brought, the third +casts a careless glance or two at the dish +cover, and when the waiter has gone for +the sauce, he taps it with his nails, and says +<span class='pageno' id='Page_371'>371</span>enquiringly to his friend across the table, +“Silver?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The other shakes his head, and intimates a +hint that it is <i>only</i> plated. The waiter brings +the cold punch, and the party begin to enjoy +themselves. They do not drink much, but +they mix their drinks rather injudiciously. +They take sherry upon cold punch, and +champagne upon that, dashing in a little port +and bottled stout between. They are getting +merry, not to say jolly, but not at all inebriated. +The amateur of silver dish-covers +has told a capital story, and his friends are +revelling in the heartiest of laughs, when an +apparition appears at the end of the table. +You never saw such a change as his presence +causes, when he places his knuckles on the +edge of the table and looks at the diners +<i>seriatim</i>; the courtiers of the sleeping beauty +suddenly struck somniferous were nothing to +this change. As if by magic, the loud laugh +is turned to silent consternation. You now, +most impressively, understand the meaning of +the term “dumbfoundered.” The mysterious +stranger makes some enquiry about “any +cash?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The answer is “Plenty.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“All square with the landlord, then?” asks +the same inflexible voice as—to my astonishment—that +which put the Frenchman to the +torture.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“To a penny,” the reply.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“<i>Quite</i> square?” continues the querist, +taking with his busy eye a rapid inventory of +the plate.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“S’ help me——”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Hush!” interrupts the dinner spoiler, +holding up his hand in a cautionary manner. +“Have you done anything to-day?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Not a thing.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Then there is some more in a low tone; +but you again distinguish the word “school,” +and “seven o’clock train.” They are too +old to be the Frenchman’s pupils; perhaps +they are his assistants. Surely they are not +all the victims of the same <i>capias</i> and the +same officer!</p> + +<p class='c005'>By this time the landlord, looking very +nervous, arrives with his bill: then comes the +head waiter, who clears the table; carefully +counting the forks. The reckoning is paid, +and the trio steal out of the room with the +man of mystery behind them,—like sheep +driven to the shambles.</p> + +<p class='c005'>You follow to the Railway station, and there +you see the Frenchman, who complains bitterly +of being “sold for noting” by his enemy. The +other three utter a confirmative groan. In +spite of the evident omnipotence of their persevering +follower, your curiosity impels you +to address him. You take a turn on the platform +together, and he explains the whole +mystery. “The fact is,” he begins, “I am +Sergeant Witchem, of the Detective police.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“And your four victims are?”—</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Members of a crack school of swell mobsmen.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What do you mean by ‘school?’”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Gang. There is a variety of gangs—that +is to say, of men who ‘work’ together, who +play into one another’s hands. These gentlemen +hold the first rank, both for skill and +enterprise, and had they been allowed to +remain would have brought back a considerable +booty. Their chief is the Frenchman.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Why do they obey your orders so +passively?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Because they are sure that if I were to take +them into custody, which I could do, knowing +what they are, and present them before a magistrate, +they would all be committed to prison +for a month, as rogues and vagabonds.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“They prefer then to have lost no inconsiderable +capital in dress and dinner, to being +laid up in jail.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Exactly so.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The bell rings, and all five go off into the +same carriage to London.</p> + +<p class='c005'>This is a circumstance that actually occurred; +and a similar one happened when +the Queen went to Dublin. The mere appearance +of one of the Detective officers before +a “school” which had transported itself in +the Royal train, spoilt their speculation; for +they all found it more advantageous to return +to England in the same steamer with the +officer, than to remain with the certainty of +being put in prison for fourteen or twenty-eight +days as rogues and vagabonds.</p> + +<p class='c005'>So thoroughly well acquainted with these +men are the Detective officers we speak of, +that they frequently tell what they have been +about by the expression of their eyes and +their general manner. This process is aptly +termed “reckoning them up.” Some days ago, +two skilful officers, whose personal acquaintance +with the swell mob is complete, were +walking along the Strand on other business, +when they saw two of the best dressed and best +mannered of the gang enter a jeweller’s shop. +They waited till they came out, and, on scrutinising +them, were convinced, by a certain +conscious look which they betrayed, that they +had stolen something. They followed them, +and in a few minutes something was passed +from one to the other. The officers were convinced, +challenged them with the theft, and +succeeded in eventually convicting them of +stealing two gold eye-glasses, and several +jewelled rings. “The eye,” said our informant, +“is the great detector. We can tell in a crowd +what a swell-mobsman is about by the expression +of his eye.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>It is supposed that the number of persons +who make a trade of thieving in London is +not more than six thousand; of these, nearly +two hundred are first-class thieves or swell +mobsmen; six hundred “macemen,” and trade +swindlers, bill-swindlers, dog-stealers, &c.; +About forty burglars, “dancers,” “garretteers,” +and other adepts with the skeleton-keys. +The rest are pickpockets, “gonophs—” mostly +young thieves who sneak into areas, and rob +tills—and other pilferers.</p> + +<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_372'>372</span>To detect and circumvent this fraternity, +is the science of thief-taking. Here, it is, +however, impossible to give even an imperfect +notion of the high amount of skill, intelligence, +and knowledge, concentrated in the +character of a clever Detective Policeman. +We shall therefore furnish the sketch in +another paper.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE BALLAD <span class='fss'>OF</span> RICHARD BURNELL.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c007'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>From his bed rose Richard Burnell</div> + <div class='line in2'>At the early dawn of day,</div> + <div class='line'>Ere the bells of London City</div> + <div class='line in2'>Welcomed in the morn of May.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Early on that bright May morning</div> + <div class='line in2'>Rose the young man from his bed,</div> + <div class='line'>He, the happiest man in London,—</div> + <div class='line in2'>And blithely to himself he said:</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“‘When the men and maids are dancing,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And the folk are mad with glee,</div> + <div class='line'>In the Temple’s shady gardens</div> + <div class='line in2'>Let me walk and talk with thee!’</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Thus my Alice spake last even,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thus with trembling lips she spake,</div> + <div class='line'>And those blissful words have kept me</div> + <div class='line in2'>Through the live-long night awake.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“’Tis a joy beyond expression,</div> + <div class='line in2'>When we first, in truth, perceive</div> + <div class='line'>That the love we long have cherished</div> + <div class='line in2'>Will not our fond hearts deceive!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Never dared I to confess it,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Deeds of homage spoke instead;</div> + <div class='line'>True love is its own revealer,</div> + <div class='line in2'>She must know it! oft, I said.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“All my words, and all my actions,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But one meaning could impart;</div> + <div class='line'>Love can love’s least sign interpret,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And she reads my inmost heart.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“And her good, old merchant father,</div> + <div class='line in2'>—Father he has been to me—</div> + <div class='line'>Saw the love growing up between us,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Saw—and was well-pleased to see.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Seven years I truly served him,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Now my time is at an end—</div> + <div class='line'>Master is he now no longer,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Father will be—has been friend.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“I was left betimes an orphan,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Heir unto great merchant-wealth,</div> + <div class='line'>But the iron rule of kinsfolk</div> + <div class='line in2'>Dimmed my youth, and sapped my health.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Death had been my early portion</div> + <div class='line in2'>Had not my good guardian come;</div> + <div class='line'>He, the father of my Alice,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And conveyed me to his home.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Here began a new existence,</div> + <div class='line in2'>—Then how new the love of friends!</div> + <div class='line'>And for all the child’s afflictions,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Each one strove to make amends.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Late my spring-time came, but quickly</div> + <div class='line in2'>Youth’s rejoicing currents run,</div> + <div class='line'>And my inner life unfolded</div> + <div class='line in1'>Like a flower before the sun.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Hopes, and aims, and aspirations,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Grew within the growing boy;</div> + <div class='line'>Life had new interpretation;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Manhood brought increase of joy.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“In and over all was Alice,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Life-infusing, like the spring;</div> + <div class='line'>My soul’s soul! even joy without her</div> + <div class='line in2'>Was a poor and barren thing!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“And she spoke last eve at parting,</div> + <div class='line in2'>‘When the folk are mad with glee,</div> + <div class='line'>In the Temple’s pleasant gardens</div> + <div class='line in2'>Let me walk and talk with thee!’</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“As she spoke, her sweet voice trembled—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Love such tender tones can teach!</div> + <div class='line'>And those words have kept me waking,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And the manner of her speech!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“For such manner has deep meaning,”</div> + <div class='line in2'>Said young Burnell, blithe and gay;—</div> + <div class='line'>And the bells of London City</div> + <div class='line in2'>Pealed a welcome to the May.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'> · · · · ·</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Whilst the folk were mad with pleasure,</div> + <div class='line in2'>’Neath the elm-tree’s vernal shade,</div> + <div class='line'>In the Temple’s quiet gardens</div> + <div class='line in2'>Walked the young man and the maid.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>On his arm her hand was resting,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And her eyes were on the ground;</div> + <div class='line'>She was speaking, he was silent;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Not a word his tongue had found.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Friend beloved,” she thus addressed him,</div> + <div class='line in2'>“I have faith, and hope in thee!</div> + <div class='line'>Thou canst do what no one else can—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thou canst be a friend to me!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Richard, we have lived together</div> + <div class='line in2'>All these years of happy youth;</div> + <div class='line'>Have, as sister and as brother,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Lived in confidence and truth.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Thou from me hast hid no feelings,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thy whole heart to me is known;</div> + <div class='line'>I—I only have kept from thee</div> + <div class='line in2'>One dear, little thought alone.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Have I wronged thee in so doing,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Then forgive me! but give ear,</div> + <div class='line'>’Tis to bare my heart before thee</div> + <div class='line in2'>That I now am with thee here.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Well thou know’st my father loves thee;</div> + <div class='line in2'>’Tis his wish that we should wed,—</div> + <div class='line'>I shame not to speak thus frankly—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Wish, or <i>will</i> more justly said.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“But this cannot be, my brother,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Cannot be—’twere nature’s wrong!—</div> + <div class='line'>I have said so to my father,—</div> + <div class='line in2'>But thou know’st his will is strong.”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Not a word spake Richard Burnell;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Not a word came to his lips;</div> + <div class='line'>Like one tranced he stood and listened;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Life to him was in eclipse.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>In a lower tone she murmured,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Murmured like a brooding dove,</div> + <div class='line'>“Know thou,—Leonard Woodvil loves me,—</div> + <div class='line in2'>And—that he has won my love.”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>—Came a pause. The words she uttered</div> + <div class='line in2'>Seemed to turn him into stone,</div> + <div class='line'>Pale he stood and mute beside her,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And with blushes she went on.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_373'>373</span>“This is known unto my father;—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Leonard is well known to thee,</div> + <div class='line'>Thou hast praised him, praised him often—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Oh, how dear such praise to me!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“But my father, stern and stedfast,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Will not list to Leonard’s prayer;—</div> + <div class='line'>And ’tis only thou canst move him,—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Only thou so much canst dare.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Tell my father firmly, freely,</div> + <div class='line in2'>That we only love each other—</div> + <div class='line'>’Tis the truth, thou know’st it, Richard,</div> + <div class='line in2'>As a sister and a brother!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Tell my father, if we wedded,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thou and I, it would be guilt!—</div> + <div class='line'>Thus it is that thou canst aid us,—</div> + <div class='line in2'>And thou wilt—I know thou wilt!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Yes, ’tis thus that thou must aid us,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And thou wilt!—I say no more!—</div> + <div class='line'>We’ve been friends, but this will make us</div> + <div class='line in2'>Better friends than heretofore!”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Yet some moments he was silent;</div> + <div class='line in2'>His good heart was well nigh broke;</div> + <div class='line'>She was blinded to his anguish;—</div> + <div class='line in2'>And “I will!” at length he spoke.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'> · · · · ·</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>They were wedded. ’Twas a wedding</div> + <div class='line in2'>That had far and nigh renown,</div> + <div class='line'>And from morning until even</div> + <div class='line in2'>Rang the bells of London town.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Time went on: the good, old merchant</div> + <div class='line in2'>Wore a cloud upon his brow:</div> + <div class='line'>“Wherefore this?” his friends addressed him,</div> + <div class='line in2'>“No man should be blithe as thou!”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“In my old age I am lonely,”</div> + <div class='line in2'>Said the merchant; “she is gone;—</div> + <div class='line'>And young Burnell, he I nurtured,</div> + <div class='line in2'>He who was to me a son;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“He has left me!—I’m deserted—</div> + <div class='line in2'>E’en an old man feels such woe!</div> + <div class='line'>’Twas but natural <i>she</i> should marry,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But <i>he</i> should not have served me so?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“’Twas not that which I expected!—</div> + <div class='line in2'>He was very dear to me,—</div> + <div class='line'>And I thought no London merchant</div> + <div class='line in2'>Would have stood as high as he!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“He grew very strange and moody,</div> + <div class='line in2'>What the cause I cannot say;—</div> + <div class='line'>And he left me when my daughter,</div> + <div class='line in2'>My poor Alice went away!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“This I felt a sore unkindness;—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Youth thinks little, feels still less!—</div> + <div class='line'>Burnell should have stayed beside me,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Stayed to cheer my loneliness!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“I had been a father to him,</div> + <div class='line in2'>He to me was like a son;</div> + <div class='line'>Young folks should have more reflection,—</div> + <div class='line in2'>’Twas what <i>I</i> could not have done!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“True, he writes me duteous letters;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Calls me father, tells me all</div> + <div class='line'>That in foreign parts are doing:—</div> + <div class='line in2'>But young people write so small,</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“That I’m often forced to leave them,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Pleasant letters though they be,</div> + <div class='line'>Until Alice comes from Richmond,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Then she reads them out to me.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Alice fain would have me with her;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Leonard well deserves my praise—</div> + <div class='line'>But he’s not my Richard Burnell,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Knows not my old wants and ways!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“No, my friends, I’ll not deny it,</div> + <div class='line in2'>It has cut me to the heart,</div> + <div class='line'>That the son of my adoption</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thus has played a cruel part!”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>So the merchant mourned and murmured;</div> + <div class='line in2'>And all foreign charms unheeding,</div> + <div class='line'>Dwelt the lonely Richard Burnell,</div> + <div class='line in2'>With his bruiséd heart still bleeding.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'> · · · · ·</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Time went on, and in the spring-tide,</div> + <div class='line in2'>When the birds begun to build,</div> + <div class='line'>And the heart of all creation</div> + <div class='line in2'>With a vast delight was filled.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Came a letter unto Alice—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Then a babe lay on her breast—</div> + <div class='line'>’Twas the first which Richard Burnell</div> + <div class='line in2'>Unto Alice had addressed.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Few the words which it contained,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But each word was like a sigh;</div> + <div class='line'>“I am sick and very lonely;—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Let me see thee ere I die!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“In this time of tribulation</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thou wilt be a friend to me:</div> + <div class='line'>Therefore in the Temple Gardens</div> + <div class='line in2'>Let me once more speak with thee.”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Once more in the Temple Gardens</div> + <div class='line in2'>Sat they ’neath the bright blue sky,</div> + <div class='line'>With the leafage thick around them,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And the river rolling by.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Pale and weak was Richard Burnell,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Gone all merely outward grace,</div> + <div class='line'>Yet the stamp of meek endurance</div> + <div class='line in2'>Gave sad beauty to his face.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Silent by his side sat Alice,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Now no word her tongue could speak,</div> + <div class='line'>All her soul was steeped in pity,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And large tears were on her cheek.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Burnell spake; “Within these Gardens</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thy commands on me were laid,</div> + <div class='line'>And although my heart was breaking</div> + <div class='line in2'>Yet were those commands obeyed.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“What I suffered no one knoweth,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Nor shall know, I proudly said,</div> + <div class='line'>And, when grew the grief too mighty,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Then—there was no help—I fled.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Yes, I loved thee, long had loved thee,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And alone the God above,</div> + <div class='line'>He, who at that time sustained me,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Knows the measure of my love!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Do not let these words displease thee;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Life’s sore battle will soon cease;</div> + <div class='line'>I have fallen amid the conflict,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But within my soul is peace.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“It has been a fiery trial,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But the fiercest pang is past;</div> + <div class='line'>Once more I am come amongst you—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Oh, stand by me at the last!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Leonard will at times come to me,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And thy father, I will try</div> + <div class='line'>To be cheerful in his presence,</div> + <div class='line in2'>As I was in days gone by.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_374'>374</span>“Bitter had it been to leave him,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But in all my heart’s distress,</div> + <div class='line'>The great anguish which consumed me,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Seemed to swallow up the less.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Let me go! my soul is wearied,</div> + <div class='line in2'>No fond heart of me has need,</div> + <div class='line'>Life has no more duties for me;—</div> + <div class='line in2'>I am but a broken reed!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Let me go, ere courage faileth,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Gazing, gazing thus on thee!—</div> + <div class='line'>But in life’s last awful moment,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Alice! thou wilt stand by me!”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>From her seat rose Alice Woodvil,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And in stedfast tones began,</div> + <div class='line'>Like a strong yet mourning angel,</div> + <div class='line in2'>To address the dying man.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Not in death alone, my brother,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Would I aid thee in the strife,</div> + <div class='line'>I would fain be thy sustainer,</div> + <div class='line in2'>In the fiercer fight of life.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“With the help of God, thy spirit</div> + <div class='line in2'>Shall not sink an easy prey.</div> + <div class='line'>Oh, my friend, prayer is a weapon</div> + <div class='line in2'>Which can turn whole hosts away!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“God will aid thee! We will hold thee</div> + <div class='line in2'>By our love!—thou shalt not go!—</div> + <div class='line'>And from out thy wounded spirit,</div> + <div class='line in2'>We will pluck the thorns of woe.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Say not life has no more duties</div> + <div class='line in2'>Which can claim thee! where are then,</div> + <div class='line'>All the sinners; the neglected;</div> + <div class='line in2'>All the weeping sons of men?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Ah, my friend, hast thou forgotten</div> + <div class='line in2'>All our dreams of early days?</div> + <div class='line'>How we would instruct poor children,</div> + <div class='line in2'>How we would the fallen raise!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“God has not to me permitted,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Such great work of human love,</div> + <div class='line'>He has marked me out a lower</div> + <div class='line in2'>Path of duty where to move.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“But to thee, His chosen servant,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Is this higher lot allowed;</div> + <div class='line'>He has brought thee through deep waters,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Through the furnace, through the cloud;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“He has made of thee, a mourner</div> + <div class='line in2'>Like the Christ, that thou may’st rise,</div> + <div class='line'>To a purer height of glory,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Through the pangs of sacrifice!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“’Tis alone of his appointing,</div> + <div class='line in2'>That thy feet on thorns have trod;</div> + <div class='line'>Suffering, woe, renunciation,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Only bring us nearer God.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“And when nearest Him then largest</div> + <div class='line in2'>The enfranchised heart’s embrace:—</div> + <div class='line'>It was Christ, the man rejected,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Who redeemed the human race.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Say not then thou hast no duties;—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Friendless outcasts on thee call,</div> + <div class='line'>And the sick and the afflicted,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And the children, more than all.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Oh, my friend, rise up and follow,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Where the hand of God shall lead;</div> + <div class='line'>He has brought thee through affliction,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But to fit thee for his need!”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>—Thus she spoke, and as from midnight,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Springs the opal-tinted morn,</div> + <div class='line'>So, within his dreary spirit,</div> + <div class='line in2'>A new day of life was born.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Strength sublime may rise from weakness,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Groans be turned to songs of praise,</div> + <div class='line'>Nor are life’s divinest labours,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Only told by length of days.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Young he died: but deeds of mercy,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Beautified his life’s short span,</div> + <div class='line'>And he left his worldly substance,</div> + <div class='line in2'>To complete what he began.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>A FEW FACTS ABOUT MATRIMONY.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>Modern science is invading all the old +realms of whims and fancies, charms and +witchcrafts, prejudices and superstitions. No +kind of ignorance seems sacred from attack. +The wise men of our generation are evidently +bent beyond recall on finding out all things +that may by possibility be discoverable, no +matter what pains the search may impose. +Not content with making lightning run messages, +chemistry polish boots, and steam +deliver parcels and passengers, the <i>savants</i> are +superseding the astrologers of old days, and +the gipsies and wise women of modern ones, +by finding out and revealing the hitherto +hidden laws which rule that charming mystery +of mysteries—that lode star of young maidens +and gay bachelors—matrimony.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In our fourteenth number we gave a description +of the facts made out by the returns +of the Registrar-General on the subject of +life and death in London and the Country. +The office of that official has some other +duties, however, beyond that of chronicling +the business of mortality and birth in this +land of ours. There is a third great heading +in his tables, under which there are long lists +of serious looking figures, and they tell, not +in units, or in <i>fews</i>, like the back page of a +newspaper, but in tens of thousands, how +many marriages take place in England. And +besides the mere number of these interesting +events, these figures reveal what are found to +be the laws regulating their frequency and +other circumstances connected with them, +such as how many couples are joined by the +costly and unusual mode of special license; +how many by ordinary license; how many +(and they are the great majority) by the old +English fashion of “out-asking” by banns; +how many by the new systems introduced for +the union of various classes of dissenters, at +Registrars’ offices, in registered places of worship; +how many between Quakers and between +Jews; and, beyond all these particulars, +how many young folks, hot of heart and full +of courage, take the awful plunge into matrimony +whilst “not of full age;” how many +men reject the advice of Sir Roger de Coverley, +and marry widows; and how many widows, +like the wife of Bath, love matrimony so well +that when once released from its bonds they +tie themselves up in them again. The history +<span class='pageno' id='Page_375'>375</span>of this registration of marriages is soon told. +This plan of recording the matrimonial engagements +of the country commenced in 1745, +when the marriage act came into operation. +Before that date marriages were performed +clandestinely, and by such extraordinary +persons that any correct record of their number +was impossible. “Fleet marriages” are +thus noticed by Smollett:—“There was a +band of profligate miscreants, the refuse of +the clergy, dead to every sentiment of virtue, +abandoned to all sense of decency and decorum, +for the most part prisoners for debt or +delinquency, and indeed the very outcasts of +human society, who hovered about the verge +of the Fleet Prison to intercept customers, +plying like porters for employment, and performed +the ceremony of marriage without +license or question, in cellars, garrets, or alehouses, +to the scandal of religion, and the +disgrace of that order which they professed. +The ease with which this ecclesiastical sanction +was obtained, and the vicious disposition +of those wretches open to the practices of +fraud and corruption, were productive of +polygamy, indigence, conjugal infidelity, +prostitution, and every curse that could embitter +the married state. A remarkable case +of this nature having fallen under the cognizance +of the Peers (in 1753) in an appeal +from an inferior tribunal, that House ordered +the judges to prepare a new Bill for preventing +such abuses; and one was accordingly +framed, under the auspices of Lord Hardwick, +at that time Lord High Chancellor of +England.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“It underwent a great number of alterations +and amendments, which were not effected +without violent contest and altercation; at +length, however, it was floated through both +houses on the tide of a great majority, and +steered into the safe harbour of royal approbation.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>For seventy-seven years after the passing +of this bill the number of marriages was +collected with tolerable accuracy, and published +in the Parish Register Abstracts. No +other country has so valuable an abstract of +tables. Since that time the Registrar-General’s +office has made this branch of our +national statistics almost accurate.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Premising that the documents from which +our statements are derived are the Annual +Reports of the Registrar-General, of Births, +Deaths, and Marriages, in England, issued—not +for a short term, but during the last six +years—that the observations extend over a +still longer period—we may proceed to cull +out what appear to be the economical laws +regulating matrimony, with any peculiarities +characterising their operation amongst us. +We would say the <i>general</i> laws—for individual +peculiarities will, of course, influence individual +matches. One young lady will secure +the youth of her choice by force of beauty, or +by mere weight of purse; managing mothers +will get husbands for their girls, whatever +wind may blow, or however trade or politics +may influence the less fortunate or less clever +world. The great beauty, the great talents, +and the great wealth are the exceptions in +the lottery of life. In speaking of matrimonial +prospects we, like the Registrar-General, +mean the prospects of the great +family of twenty millions of souls that make +up the population of this land we live in.</p> + +<p class='c005'>About a century ago, the marriages in +London were under six thousand a year—they +are now four times as many. In all the +country, the increase has been most remarkable +in the Metropolis and in Manchester. In particular +localities the proportion is found to +differ. Thus Yorkshire, the seat of the Woollen +manufactures and of prosperous agriculturists, +appears to be the most marrying district of +all England; Lancashire and Cheshire, the +Cotton districts, coming next; and London +third. Staffordshire and Worcestershire, +Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire stand +next, followed by other counties more or +less blessed by the presence of Hymen, but +descending gradually till we reach the matrimonial +zero which is found in the agricultural +parts of Middlesex. The average annual +number of weddings is about one hundred +and twenty-three thousand. It would help a +winter night’s amusement to decide how many +pounds weight of Californian produce must +be wanted for the rings? How many garlands +of orange blossoms for the hair and +bonnets of the brides? The probabilities of +marriage, of course, vary; but the rule seems +to hold, that about one in seventeen unmarried +women, between the ages of fifteen and forty-five, +are married in a year throughout the +country. Marriages have their seasons. They +are least numerous in winter, and most +numerous after harvest in the December +quarter; the births and deaths, on the contrary, +are most numerous in the winter quarter +ending in March, and least numerous in the +summer quarter ending September. War +diminishes marriages by taking great numbers +of marriageable men away from their homes; +whilst a return of peace increases marriages, +when soldiers and sailors with small pensions +are discharged. Trade and manufactures +have also become more active in England on +the cessation of wars, and the employment +and wages thus induced, have contributed still +more to add to the numbers of those entering +the married state. The establishment of new, +or the extension of old, employments promotes +marriages: the cotton manufactures, the canals +of the last century, the railways of the present +day, are examples. Indeed, an increase of +their incomes, is taken by the generality of +the people for the beginning of perennial +prosperity, and is followed by a multitude of +marriages. There are only about fifteen persons +married annually, for the first time, out +of a thousand living. There are about five +children born in wedlock to every marriage. +The births now exceed the deaths in England, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_376'>376</span>in about the proportion of three to two—three +young subjects present themselves for Queen +Victoria, in place of every two that pass away. +“The number of marriages in a nation,” says +the Registrar, “perhaps fluctuates independently +of external causes; but it is a fair +deduction from the facts, that the marriage +returns in England point to periods of prosperity, +little less distinctly than the funds +measure the hopes and fears of the money +market. If the one is the barometer of credit, +the other is the barometer of prosperity—a +prosperity partly in possession, and still more +in hope.” The year 1845 was a great matrimonial +year, the proportion of persons married +being more than had been known in England +for ninety years before. It was a season of +great speculation, activity, and temporary +prosperity. Three years before, in 1842, on +the contrary, there was a great diminution in +the number of weddings. It was a year of +difficulty and high prices. Rather more than +ten per cent. of the persons married in 1845, +had been married more than once. When +food is dear, as in 1839, marriages are few; +as food becomes cheap, as in 1845, marriages +are many. When a cheap food year indicates +a year of “marrying and giving in marriage,” +another sign is generally found; the price of +consols indicates a condition of national affairs +much more conducive to matrimonial arrangements, +than young ladies would imagine. In +what may be called the great English matrimonial +period, the three per cents. were about +par, instead of being about 88, as they were +in the unfavourable season a short time before. +When employment is plenty, trade active, +and money <i>easy</i>, Doctors Commons becomes +brisk, clergymen have long lists of banns to +declare, and the Registrar’s column of marriages +fills up.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As an instance of the influence of the price +of food and want of employment upon the +number of marriages, let us take an illustration +from the Registrar as to the period from +1792 to 1798. The weather was bad, the +funds low, and bread excessively dear, and +upon particular districts a change of fashion +made the burthen fall with still additional +weight. The “Church and King” riots broke +out in July, 1791, in Birmingham; and the +mob burnt Dr. Priestley’s library, several +houses, and some dissenting chapels; in May, +1792, they again rose, but the magistrates +this time evinced some vigour, and put a stop +to the outrages. A staple manufacture of +Birmingham had been subject to one of the +mutations of fashion, which caused great distress; +for it is recorded, that, on December +21st, 1791, “several respectable buckle-manufacturers +from Birmingham, Walsall, and +Wolverhampton, waited upon His Royal +Highness the Prince of Wales, with a petition +setting forth the distressed situation of thousands +in the different branches of the buckle +manufacture, from the fashion now, and for +some time back, so prevalent, of wearing shoe-strings +instead of buckles. His Royal Highness +graciously promised his utmost assistance +by his example and influence.” After the +recovery of George III. from his first illness, +in 1789, an immense number of buckles were +manufactured about Birmingham; Walsall +among other places invested the greater part +of its available wealth in the speculation. +The king unfortunately went in the state +procession to St. Paul’s without buckles: and +Walsall was nearly ruined. Shoe-strings +gradually supplied the place of straps. The +effect of this freak of fashion and speculation +on the marriages of Birmingham was to reduce +them most seriously; and it had probably +more to do with the licentious Birmingham +riots, than the more patent political agitation +of the day. The disuse of wigs, buckles, +buttons, and leather breeches at the close of +the eighteenth century, is supposed to have +affected the business of a million of people. +In 1765, the peace of London had been disturbed +by the periwig-makers, who went in +procession to petition the young king, “submitting +to His Majesty’s goodness and wisdom, +whether his own example was not the only +means of rescuing them from their distress, +as far as it was occasioned by so many people +wearing their own hair.” When change of +fashions influence unfavourably the employment +of the people, and when, at the same +time, influenced or increased by lack of work, +their poverty increases, matrimony is at a +discount. It is not simply the poorer classes, +dependent on weekly wages for their support, +who feel the influence of times of business +activity, and allow it to impel them to matrimony. +When the workman is busy, the +trader makes profits, the landlord gets his +rents, and all sections of the community feel +the beneficial influence of a prosperous season. +The number of those persons entirely removed +from such social sympathies is very few; +indeed, as a great rule, when the workmen +are prosperous, all classes above them are +thriving too: and when the one section of the +great English family is influenced to matrimony +in an unusual degree, the others feel +the influence of the same law. When the reaction, +a period of depression, arrives, the +number of marriages declines, but they have +never fallen back to their original numbers. +A time of prosperity lifts up the total in a +remarkable manner, and when the happy time +ceases, the number falls—but not equal to the +level from which it sprung. It is to a certain +degree a permanent increase.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As to the mode in which marriages are +performed, it appears that nine out of ten +take place according to the rites of the established +church. The marriages by banns are +about six times as numerous as those by +license. Upon these weddings, by aid of +Doctors Commons, there is, it seems, a vast +sum of money spent; but who are the lucky +men receiving it, does not appear very +clearly, and the services they render for +<span class='pageno' id='Page_377'>377</span>the cash is still more doubtful. There are +about eighteen thousand licenses granted by +Doctors Commons and by country surrogates +every year. The usual cost of the license at +Doctors Commons is 2<i>l.</i> 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> There is +10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> additional for minors; and in the +country, surrogates, it is said, obtain higher +fees. At only 2<i>l.</i> 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>, the tax on eighteen +thousand licenses is 47,250<i>l.</i> a year. The +stamps on each license are 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> Deducting +this sum, the licenses to marry yield at least +36,000<i>l.</i> a year. The expense of granting +licenses in a manner the most useful and convenient +to the public would not be considerable; +and it is not easy to see why the surplus +revenue derivable from the tax, should not go +into the public treasury, when a portion of +the expenses of the registration of births, +deaths, and marriages, is paid out of the Consolidated +Fund. The aggregate amount of +charges for the General Register Office, at +which all the returns of the country are +examined, indexed, and analysed, and the Act +is administered, was 13,794<i>l.</i> in 1846; and the +six hundred and twenty-one superintendent +registrars received 9097<i>l.</i> for examining certified +copies. After discharging the expenses +of the civil registration, defrayed by the Consolidated +Fund, and the cost of the decennial +census, a large surplus would be left, out of +47,250<i>l.</i> for licenses, to go to the public +revenue of the country. And this would not +interfere in the slightest degree with the +marriage fees; which would continue to be +paid to the officiating clergy. In the places +of worship registered by Dissenters, there +were not quite ten thousand marriages in one +year; nearly four thousand in the same year +took place in the Superintendant Registrar’s +offices; one hundred and eighty-four according +to the rites of the Jews; and seventy-four +marriages between Quakers. The only fortuneteller +who can henceforth be believed, is the +one who answers the question, “When will +the wedding take place?” by saying, “When +trade flourishes, and when bread is cheap.”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>CHIPS.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>FROM MR. THOMAS BOVINGTON.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-r c001'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Long Hornets, June, 1850.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-l'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Sir</span>,</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>I want to ask you a few questions, +Mr. Conductor. In the first place—What am +I to do with my beasts? Those I got back +from Smithfield, after two months’ care and +no small expense, have come round again, and +I’ve got a few others ready for market; but +<i>what</i> market? Country markets don’t suit +me, for I can’t get my price at them; and, as +you know, I would rather kill the cattle +myself than send them to Smithfield.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Again,—What is the Royal Commission +about? They have reported against Smithfield, +and why don’t Government shut it up? Isn’t +there Islington? Everything is ready there +to open a market to-morrow. I can answer +for that, for I was there yesterday and went +over it. I inquired particularly about the +drainage, for, if you remember, Brumpton told +me they could not drain it. Well, perhaps +they could not very conveniently when he +was last there, but now they tell me that a +thousand pounds would do the entire job. +I’ll tell you how:—You see the market stands +about fifty-one feet above the Trinity highwater +mark of the Thames. Well, close by, +in the Southgate road, there is a new sewer, +that runs into a regular system of sewers +which drain Hoxton, Spitalfields, and all that +part down to London bridge—and the cattle +market being eighteen feet above the level of +the Southgate sewer, it will only be requisite +to cut a culvert into it, for the entire space to +be drained out and out.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Now, my last question is this: Why don’t +the people belonging to the Islington market +make the necessary sewer at once? If they +did, what excuse could government have for +not shutting up Smithfield, and moving the +cattle market to Islington?</p> + +<div class='lg-container-r'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I am, Sir,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Yours to command,</div> + <div class='line in12'><span class='sc'>T. Bovington</span>.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE OLD CHURCHYARD TREE.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>A PROSE POEM.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>There is an old yew tree which stands by +the wall in a dark quiet corner of the churchyard.</p> + +<p class='c005'>And a child was at play beneath its wide-spreading +branches, one fine day in the early +spring. He had his lap full of flowers, which +the fields and lanes had supplied him with, +and he was humming a tune to himself as he +wove them into garlands.</p> + +<p class='c005'>And a little girl at play among the tombstones +crept near to listen; but the boy was +so intent upon his garland, that he did not +hear the gentle footsteps, as they trod softly +over the fresh green grass. When his work +was finished, and all the flowers that were in +his lap were woven together in one long +wreath, he started up to measure its length +upon the ground, and then he saw the little +girl, as she stood with her eyes fixed upon +him. He did not move or speak, but thought +to himself that she looked very beautiful as +she stood there with her flaxen ringlets hanging +down upon her neck. The little girl was +so startled by his sudden movement, that she +let fall all the flowers she had collected in her +apron, and ran away as fast as she could. +But the boy was older and taller than she, and +soon caught her, and coaxed her to come +back and play with him, and help him to make +more garlands; and from that time they saw +each other nearly every day, and became great +friends.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Twenty years passed away. Again, he was +<span class='pageno' id='Page_378'>378</span>seated beneath the old yew tree in the churchyard.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It was summer now; bright, beautiful +summer, with the birds singing, and the +flowers covering the ground, and scenting the +air with their perfume.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But he was not alone now, nor did the little +girl steal near on tiptoe, fearful of being heard. +She was seated by his side, and his arm was +round her, and she looked up into his face, +and smiled as she whispered: “The first +evening of our lives we were ever together +was passed here: we will spend the first +evening of our wedded life in the same quiet, +happy place.” And he drew her closer to him +as she spoke.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The summer is gone; and the autumn; +and twenty more summers and autumns have +passed away since that evening, in the old +churchyard.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A young man, on a bright moonlight night, +comes reeling through the little white gate, +and stumbling over the graves. He shouts +and he sings, and is presently followed by +others like unto himself, or worse. So, they +all laugh at the dark solemn head of the yew +tree, and throw stones up at the place where +the moon has silvered the boughs.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Those same boughs are again silvered by +the moon, and they droop over his mother’s +grave. There is a little stone which bears +this inscription:-</p> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div>“HER HEART BRAKE IN SILENCE.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>But the silence of the churchyard is now +broken by a voice—not of the youth—nor a +voice of laughter and ribaldry.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“My son!—dost thou see this grave? and +dost thou read the record in anguish, whereof +may come repentance?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Of what should I repent?” answers the +son; “and why should my young ambition +for fame relax in its strength because my +mother was old and weak?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Is this indeed our son?” says the father, +bending in agony over the grave of his beloved.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I can well believe I am not;” exclaimeth +the youth. “It is well that you have brought +me here to say so. Our natures are unlike; +our courses must be opposite. Your way +lieth here—mine yonder!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>So the son left the father kneeling by the +grave.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Again a few years are passed. It is winter, +with a roaring wind and a thick grey fog. +The graves in the Churchyard are covered +with snow, and there are great icicles in the +Church-porch. The wind now carries a +swathe of snow along the tops of the graves, +as though the “sheeted dead” were at some +melancholy play; and hark! the icicles fall +with a crash and jingle, like a solemn +mockery of the echo of the unseemly mirth of +one who is now coming to his final rest.</p> + +<p class='c005'>There are two graves near the old yew +tree; and the grass has overgrown them. +A third is close by; and the dark earth at +each side has just been thrown up. The +bearers come; with a heavy pace they move +along; the coffin heaveth up and down, as +they step over the intervening graves.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Grief and old age had seized upon the +father, and worn out his life; and premature +decay soon seized upon the son, and gnawed +away his vain ambition, and his useless +strength, till he prayed to be borne, not the +way yonder that was most opposite to his +father and his mother, but even the same way +they had gone—the way which leads to the +Old Churchyard Tree.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>SABBATH PARIAHS.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>We are overwhelmed with “Chips” from +letter-writers, letter-senders, letter-receivers, +letter-sorters, and post-office clerks. Our +own office has become a post-office. It would +seem as if all the letters that ought to have +been written for delivery on several previous +Sundays in the ordinary course, and by the +agency of the great establishment in St. +Martin’s-le-Grand, have only not been indited +in order that we might be the sufferers. +Doubtless, the other channels of public information +have equally received in the course +of each week the surplus of what would have +been, but for the Plumptre and Ashley obstruction, +Sunday letters. The public are in +arms, and every arm has a pen at the end; +every pen is dipped in the blackest ink of +indignation, or is tinged with the milder tint +of remonstrance.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Our most desperate remonstrants are provincial +post-office clerks; for it would appear +that Lord Ashley’s outcasts from Sunday +society have a worse chance of being received +into it now than ever. Their labours are in +many cases so heavy on Saturday nights, that +they are obliged to lie in bed during the +whole of church time on Sunday, to recover +from their fatigues.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We select one from the heap, for publication. +The writer gives a clear account of the +hardships of a provincial post-office clerk +before he was relieved from Sunday duty by +the Royal mandate.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-l c008'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Sir,</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>“For three years I was what you +are pleased to call in your article on the +‘Sunday Screw’ a Post-Office Pariah, at an +office in a most ‘corresponding’ town; my +Sunday duties were as follows:—at four I +rose, sorted my letters and newspapers, +delivered them to the messengers, sorted and +stamped (both sides) the letters for the cross-country +mails, swept out and dusted the +place, then I went to my room again, had +a nap, rose, washed, and dressed in my best; +I came down to breakfast at eight, took a +walk, till Church time, and amused myself +till five in the afternoon, when I attended at +the office and received letters till half-past +six.</p> + +<p class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_379'>379</span>“I usually attended divine service; at +eight I sorted and stamped the letters and +dispatched the mails; at nine I had done my +work; all this I did myself and never dreamed +of being assisted. The rush of business is +now, I understand, so great on the arrival +of the Saturday afternoon mails, that every +assistant and Post-Office clerk will wish Lord +Ashley safely imprisoned in the Whited +Sepulchres.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-r c008'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Your, very obediently,</div> + <div class='line in12'>“<span class='sc'>Ex-Pariah</span>.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>Judging from the tone in which the earnest +remonstrances from all kinds of people that +pile our tables are couched, we fear that, +during the last few Sundays, the bulk of the +disappointed public in the provinces has +benefited very little by the change in a +moral point of view. Vexation has, we fear, +taken the place of that religious, calm, and +beneficent state of mind in which the Sabbath +ought to be passed. The object, therefore, +of the promoters of the measure—increased +veneration for the first day of the week—has +failed; for of course their whole and sole object +in the affair has been the furtherance of +the cause of religion, and not a desire to get +quits with Mr. Rowland Hill for the calm, +manly, triumphant manner in which he caused +truth to vanquish them in the recent agitation +on the same question.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>DUST;<br> <span class='c010'>OR UGLINESS REDEEMED.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>On a murky morning in November, wind +north-east, a poor old woman with a wooden +leg was seen struggling against the fitful +gusts of the bitter breeze, along a stony zigzag +road full of deep and irregular cart-ruts. +Her ragged petticoat was blue, and so was +her wretched nose. A stick was in her left +hand, which assisted her to dig and hobble +her way along; and in her other hand, supported +also beneath her withered arm, was a +large rusty iron sieve. Dust and fine ashes +filled up all the wrinkles in her face; and of +these there were a prodigious number, for she +was eighty-three years old. Her name was +Peg Dotting.</p> + +<p class='c005'>About a quarter of a mile distant, having +a long ditch and a broken-down fence as a +foreground, there rose against the muddled-grey +sky, a huge Dust-heap of a dirty black +colour,—being, in fact, one of those immense +mounds of cinders, ashes, and other emptyings +from dust-holes and bins, which have +conferred celebrity on certain suburban +neighbourhoods of a great city. Towards +this dusky mountain old Peg Dotting was +now making her way.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Advancing towards the Dust-heap by an +opposite path, very narrow and just reclaimed +from the mud by a thick layer of freshly +broken flints, there came at the same time +Gaffer Doubleyear, with his bone-bag slung +over his shoulder. The rags of his coat +fluttered in the east-wind, which also whistled +keenly round his almost rimless hat, and +troubled his one eye. The other eye, having +met with an accident last week, he had +covered neatly with an oyster-shell, which +was kept in its place by a string at each +side, fastened through a hole. He used no +staff to help him along, though his body +was nearly bent double, so that his face +was constantly turned to the earth, like +that of a four-footed creature. He was ninety-seven +years of age.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As these two patriarchal labourers approached +the great Dust-heap, a discordant +voice hallooed to them from the top of a +broken wall. It was meant as a greeting of +the morning, and proceeded from little Jem +Clinker, a poor deformed lad whose back had +been broken when a child. His nose and chin +were much too large for the rest of his face, and +he had lost nearly all his teeth from premature +decay. But he had an eye gleaming with +intelligence and life, and an expression at +once patient and hopeful. He had balanced +his misshapen frame on the top of the old +wall, over which one shrivelled leg dangled, +as if by the weight of a hob-nailed boot that +covered a foot large enough for a ploughman.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In addition to his first morning’s salutation +of his two aged friends, he now shouted out +in a tone of triumph and self-gratulation, in +which he felt assured of their sympathy—“Two +white skins, and a tor’shell-un.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>It may be requisite to state that little Jem +Clinker belonged to the dead-cat department +of the Dust-heap, and now announced that +a prize of three skins, in superior condition, +had rewarded him for being first in the field. +He was enjoying a seat on the wall in order +to recover himself from the excitement of his +good fortune.</p> + +<p class='c005'>At the base of the great Dust-heap the +two old people now met their young friend—a +sort of great-grandson by mutual adoption—and +they at once joined the party who had +by this time assembled as usual, and were +already busy at their several occupations.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But besides all these, another individual, +belonging to a very different class, formed +a part of the scene, though appearing only +on its outskirts. A canal ran along at the +rear of the Dust-heap, and on the banks of its +opposite side, slowly wandered by—with hands +clasped and hanging down in front of him, and +eyes bent vacantly upon his hands—the forlorn +figure of a man in a very shabby great-coat, +which had evidently once belonged to one in +the position of a gentleman. And to a gentleman +it still belonged—but in <i>what</i> a position? +A scholar, a man of wit, of high sentiment, of +refinement, and a good fortune withal—now by +a sudden “turn of law” bereft of the last only, +and finding that none of the rest, for which +(having his fortune) he had been so much +<span class='pageno' id='Page_380'>380</span>admired, enabled him to gain a livelihood. +His title-deeds had been lost or stolen, and so +he was bereft of everything he possessed. +He had talents, and such as would have been +profitably available had he known how to +use them for this new purpose; but he did +not; he was misdirected; he made fruitless +efforts, in his want of experience; and he was +now starving. As he passed the great Dust-heap, +he gave one vague, melancholy gaze +that way, and then looked wistfully into the +canal. And he continued to look into the +canal as he slowly moved along, till he +was out of sight.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A Dust-heap of this kind is often worth +thousands of pounds. The present one was +very large and very valuable. It was in fact +a large hill, and being in the vicinity of small +suburb cottages, it rose above them like a +great black mountain. Thistles, groundsel, and +rank grass grew in knots on small parts which +had remained for a long time undisturbed; +crows often alighted on its top, and seemed +to put on their spectacles and become very +busy and serious; flocks of sparrows often +made predatory descents upon it; an old +goose and gander might sometimes be seen +following each other up its side, nearly midway; +pigs routed round its base,—and, now +and then, one bolder than the rest would +venture some way up, attracted by the mixed +odours of some hidden marrow-bone enveloped +in a decayed cabbage-leaf—a rare event, both +of these articles being unusual oversights of the +Searchers below.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The principal ingredient of all these Dust-heaps +is fine cinders and ashes; but as they are +accumulated from the contents of all the dust-holes +and bins of the vicinity, and as many +more as possible, the fresh arrivals in their +original state present very heterogeneous +materials. We cannot better describe them, +than by presenting a brief sketch of the +different departments of the Searchers and +Sorters, who are assembled below to busy +themselves upon the mass of original matters +which are shot out from the carts of the +dustmen.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The bits of coal, the pretty numerous results +of accident and servants’ carelessness, are +picked out, to be sold forthwith; the largest +and best of the cinders are also selected, by +another party, who sell them to laundresses, +or to braziers (for whose purposes coke +would not do so well); and the next sort of +cinders, called the <i>breeze</i>, because it is left +after the wind has blown the finer cinders +through an upright sieve, is sold to the brickmakers.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Two other departments, called the “software” +and the “hard-ware,” are very important. +The former includes all vegetable +and animal matters—everything that will +decompose. These are selected and bagged +at once, and carried off as soon as possible, to +be sold as manure for ploughed land, wheat, +barley, &c. Under this head, also, the dead +cats are comprised. They are, generally, the +perquisites of the women searchers. Dealers +come to the wharf, or dust-field, every evening; +they give sixpence for a white cat, fourpence +for a coloured cat, and for a black one according +to her quality. The “hard-ware” includes +all broken pottery,—pans, crockery, +earthenware, oyster-shells, &c., which are sold +to make new roads.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“The bones” are selected with care, and +sold to the soap-boiler. He boils out the fat +and marrow first, for special use, and the +bones are then crushed and sold for manure.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Of “rags,” the woollen rags are bagged and +sent off for hop-manure; the white linen rags +are washed, and sold to make paper, &c.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The “tin things” are collected and put into +an oven with a grating at the bottom, so that +the solder which unites the parts melts, and +runs through into a receiver. This is sold +separately; the detached pieces of tin are +then sold to be melted up with old iron, &c.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Bits of old brass, lead, &c., are sold to be +melted up separately, or in the mixture of +ores.</p> + +<p class='c005'>All broken glass vessels, as cruets, mustard-pots, +tumblers, wine-glasses, bottles, &c., are +sold to the old-glass shops.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As for any articles of jewellery,—silver +spoons, forks, thimbles, or other plate and +valuables, they are pocketed off-hand by the +first finder. Coins of gold and silver are +often found, and many “coppers.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Meantime, everybody is hard at work near +the base of the great Dust-heap. A certain +number of cart-loads having been raked and +searched for all the different things just described, +the whole of it now undergoes the +process of sifting. The men throw up the +stuff, and the women sift it.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“When I was a young girl,” said Peg +Dotting—</p> + +<p class='c005'>“That’s a long while ago, Peggy,” interrupted +one of the sifters: but Peg did not +hear her.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“When I was quite a young thing,” continued +she, addressing old John Doubleyear, +who threw up the dust into her sieve, “it was +the fashion to wear pink roses in the shoes, +as bright as that morsel of ribbon Sally has +just picked out of the dust; yes, and sometimes +in the hair, too, on one side of the head, +to set off the white powder and salve-stuff. +I never wore one of these head-dresses myself—don’t +throw up the dust so high, John—but +I lived only a few doors lower down from +those as <i>did</i>. Don’t throw up the dust so +high, I tell ’ee—the wind takes it into my +face.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Ah! There! What’s that?” suddenly +exclaimed little Jem, running, as fast as his +poor withered legs would allow him, towards +a fresh heap, which had just been shot down +on the wharf from a dustman’s cart. He +made a dive and a search—then another—then +one deeper still. “I’m <i>sure</i> I saw it!” +cried he, and again made a dash with both +<span class='pageno' id='Page_381'>381</span>hands into a fresh place, and began to distribute +the ashes and dust and rubbish on +every side, to the great merriment of all the +rest.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What did you see, Jemmy?” asked old +Doubleyear, in a compassionate tone.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Oh, I don’t know,” said the boy, “only it +was like a bit of something made of real +gold!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>A fresh burst of laughter from the company +assembled followed this somewhat vague +declaration, to which the dustmen added one +or two elegant epithets, expressive of their +contempt of the notion that <i>they</i> could have +overlooked a bit of anything valuable in the +process of emptying sundry dust-holes, and +carting them away.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Ah,” said one of the sifters, “poor Jem’s +always a-fancying something or other good—but +it never comes.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Didn’t I find three cats this morning!” +cried Jem, “two on ’em white ’uns! How +you go on!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I meant something quite different from +the like o’ that,” said the other; “I was +a-thinking of the rare sights all you three +there have had, one time and another.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The wind having changed and the day become +bright, the party at work all seemed +disposed to be more merry than usual. The +foregoing remark excited the curiosity of +several of the sifters, who had recently joined +the “company,” the parties alluded to were +requested to favour them with the recital; +and though the request was made with only +a half-concealed irony, still it was all in good-natured +pleasantry, and was immediately +complied with. Old Doubleyear spoke first.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I had a bad night of it with the rats some +years ago—they run’d all over the floor, and +over the bed, and one on ’em come’d and guv +a squeak close into my ear—so I couldn’t sleep +comfortable. I wouldn’t ha’ minded a trifle +of it; but this was too much of a good thing. +So, I got up before sun-rise, and went out for +a walk; and thinking I might as well be near +our work-place, I slowly come’d down this +way. I worked in a brickfield at that time, +near the canal yonder. The sun was just arising +up behind the Dust-heap as I got in +sight of it; and soon it rose above, and was +very bright; and though I had two eyes then, +I was obligated to shut them both. When I +opened them again, the sun was higher up; +but in his haste to get over the Dust-heap, he +had dropped something. You may laugh. I +say he had dropped something. Well—I can’t +say what it was, in course—a bit of his-self, I +suppose. It was just like him—a bit on him, +I mean—quite as bright—just the same—only +not so big. And not up in the sky, but a-lying +and sparkling all on fire upon the Dust-heap. +Thinks I—I was a younger man then +by some years than I am now—I’ll go and +have a nearer look. Though you be a bit o’ +the sun, maybe you won’t hurt a poor man. +So, I walked towards the Dust-heap, and up +I went, keeping the piece of sparkling fire in +sight all the while. But before I got up to it, +the sun went behind a cloud—and as he went +out-like, so the young ’un he had dropped, +went out arter him. And I had my climb up +the heap for nothing, though I had marked the +place vere it lay very percizely. But there was +no signs at all on him, and no morsel left of the +light as had been there. I searched all about; +but found nothing ’cept a bit o’ broken glass +as had got stuck in the heel of an old shoe. +And that’s my story. But if ever a man saw +anything at all, I saw a bit o’ the sun; and I +thank God for it. It was a blessed sight for +a poor ragged old man of three score and ten, +which was my age at that time.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Now, Peggy!” cried several voices, “tell +us what you saw. Peg saw a bit o’ the +moon.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“No,” said Mrs. Dotting, rather indignantly; +“I’m no moon-raker. Not a sign of +the moon was there, nor a spark of a star—the +time I speak on.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Well—go on, Peggy—go on.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I don’t know as I will,” said Peggy.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But being pacified by a few good-tempered, +though somewhat humorous, compliments, +she thus favoured them with her little adventure.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“There was no moon, nor stars, nor comet, +in the ’versal heavens, nor lamp nor lantern +along the road, when I walked home one +winter’s night from the cottage of Widow Pin, +where I had been to tea, with her and Mrs. +Dry, as lived in the almshouses. They wanted +Davy, the son of Bill Davy the milkman, to +see me home with the lantern, but I wouldn’t +let him ’cause of his sore throat. Throat!—no, +it wasn’t his throat as was rare sore—it +was—no, it wasn’t—yes, it was—it was his +toe as was sore. His big toe. A nail out of +his boot had got into it. I <i>told</i> him he’d be +sure to have a bad toe, if he didn’t go to +church more regular, but he wouldn’t listen; +and so my words come’d true. But, as I was +a-saying, I wouldn’t let him light me with the +lantern by reason of his sore throat—<i>toe</i>, I +mean—and as I went along, the night seemed +to grow darker and darker. A straight road, +though, and I was so used to it by day-time, +it didn’t matter for the darkness. Hows’ever, +when I come’d near the bottom of the Dust-heap +as I had to pass, the great dark heap +was so zackly the same as the night, you +couldn’t tell one from t’other. So, thinks I +to myself—<i>what</i> was I thinking of at this +moment?—for the life o’ me I can’t call it to +mind; but that’s neither here nor there, only +for this,—it was a something that led me +to remember the story of how the devil goes +about like a roaring lion. And while I was a-hoping +he might not be out a roaring that +night, what should I see rise out of one side +of the Dust-heap, but a beautiful shining star +of a violet colour. I stood as still—as stock-still +as any I don’t-know-what! There it lay, +as beautiful as a new-born babe, all a-shining +<span class='pageno' id='Page_382'>382</span>in the dust! By degrees I got courage to go a +little nearer—and then a little nearer still—for, +says I to myself, I’m a sinful woman, I +know, but I have repented, and do repent +constantly of all the sins of my youth, and the +backslidings of my age—which have been +numerous; and once I had a very heavy back-sliding—but +that’s neither here nor there. +So, as I was a-saying, having collected all my +sinfulness of life, and humbleness before +heaven, into a goodish bit of courage, forward +I steps—a little furder—and a leetle furder +more—<i>un</i>-til I come’d just up to the beautiful +shining star lying upon the dust. Well, it +was a long time I stood a-looking down at it, +before I ventured to do, what I arterwards +did. But <i>at</i> last I did stoop down with both +hands slowly—in case it might burn, or bite—and +gathering up a good scoop of ashes as +my hands went along, I took it up, and began +a-carrying it home, all shining before me, and +with a soft blue mist rising up round about +it. Heaven forgive me!—I was punished for +meddling with what Providence had sent for +some better purpose than to be carried home +by an old woman like me, whom it has pleased +heaven to afflict with the loss of one leg, and +the pain, expanse, and inconvenience of a +wooden one. Well—I <i>was</i> punished; covetousness +had its reward; for, presently, the +violet light got very pale, and then went out; +and when I reached home, still holding in +both hands all I had gathered up, and when +I took it to the candle, it had turned into the +red shell of a lobsky’s head, and its two black +eyes poked up at me with a long stare,—and +I may say, a strong smell, too,—enough to +knock a poor body down.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Great applause, and no little laughter, followed +the conclusion of old Peggy’s story, but +she did not join in the merriment. She said +it was all very well for young folks to laugh, +but at her age she had enough to do to pray; +and she had never said so many prayers, nor +with so much fervency, as she had done since +she received the blessed sight of the blue star +on the Dust-heap, and the chastising rod of +the lobster’s head at home.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Little Jem’s turn now came; the poor lad +was, however, so excited by the recollection of +what his companions called “Jem’s Ghost,” +that he was unable to describe it in any +coherent language. To his imagination it had +been a lovely vision,—the one “bright consummate +flower” of his life, which he treasured +up as the most sacred image in his heart. +He endeavoured, in wild and hasty words, to +set forth, how that he had been bred a +chimney-sweep; that one Sunday afternoon +he had left a set of companions, most on ’em +sweeps, who were all playing at marbles in the +churchyard, and he had wandered to the Dust-heap, +where he had fallen asleep; that he was +awoke by a sweet voice in the air, which said +something about some one having lost her +way!—that he, being now wide awake, looked +up, and saw with his own eyes a young Angel, +with fair hair and rosy cheeks, and large white +wings at her shoulders, floating about like +bright clouds, rise out of the Dust! She had +on a garment of shining crimson, which +changed as he looked upon her to shining +gold, then to purple and gold. She then +exclaimed, with a joyful smile, “I see the +right way!” and the next moment the Angel +was gone!</p> + +<p class='c005'>As the sun was just now very bright and +warm for the time of year, and shining full +upon the Dust-heap in its setting, one of the +men endeavoured to raise a laugh at the +deformed lad, by asking him if he didn’t +expect to see just such another angel at this +minute, who had lost her way in the field on +the other side of the heap; but his jest failed. +The earnestness and devout emotion of the +boy to the vision of reality which his imagination, +aided by the hues of sunset, had thus +exalted, were too much for the gross spirit of +banter, and the speaker shrunk back into his +dust-shovel, and affected to be very assiduous +in his work as the day was drawing to a +close.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Before the day’s work was ended, however, +little Jem again had a glimpse of the prize +which had escaped him on the previous occasion. +He instantly darted, hands and head +foremost into the mass of cinders and rubbish, +and brought up a black mash of half-burnt +parchment, entwined with vegetable refuse, +from which he speedily disengaged an oval +frame of gold, containing a miniature, still +protected by its glass, but half covered with +mildew from the damp. He was in ecstasies +at the prize. Even the white cat-skins paled +before it. In all probability some of the +men would have taken it from him “to +try and find the owner,” but for the presence +and interference of his friends Peg +Dotting and old Doubleyear, whose great +age, even among the present company, gave +them a certain position of respect and consideration. +So all the rest now went their +way, leaving the three to examine and speculate +on the prize.</p> + +<p class='c005'>These Dust-heaps are a wonderful compound +of things. A banker’s cheque for a +considerable sum was found in one of them. +It was on Herries and Farquhar, in 1847. But +banker’s cheques, or gold and silver articles, +are the least valuable of their ingredients. +Among other things, a variety of useful chemicals +are extracted. Their chief value, however, +is for the making of bricks. The fine +cinder-dust and ashes are used in the clay of +the bricks, both for the red and grey stacks. +Ashes are also used as fuel between the layers +of the clump of bricks, which could not be +burned in that position without them. The +ashes burn away, and keep the bricks open. +Enormous quantities are used. In the brickfields +at Uxbridge, near the Drayton Station, +one of the brickmakers alone will frequently +contract for fifteen or sixteen thousand chaldron +of this cinder-dust, in one order. Fine +<span class='pageno' id='Page_383'>383</span>coke or coke-dust, affects the market at times +as a rival; but fine coal, or coal-dust, never, +because it would spoil the bricks.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As one of the heroes of our tale had been +originally—before his promotion—a chimney-sweeper, +it may be only appropriate to offer a +passing word on the genial subject of soot. +Without speculating on its origin and parentage, +whether derived from the cooking of a +Christmas dinner, or the production of the +beautiful colours and odours of exotic plants +in a conservatory, it can briefly be shown to +possess many qualities both useful and ornamental.</p> + +<p class='c005'>When soot is first collected, it is called +“rough soot,” which, being sifted, is then +called “fine soot,” and is sold to farmers for +manuring and preserving wheat and turnips. +This is more especially used in Herefordshire, +Bedfordshire, Essex, &c. It is rather a costly +article, being fivepence per bushel. One contractor +sells annually as much as three thousand +bushels; and he gives it as his opinion, +that there must be at least one hundred and +fifty times this quantity (four hundred and +fifty thousand bushels per annum) sold in +London. Farmer Smutwise, of Bradford, distinctly +asserts that the price of the soot he +uses on his land is returned to him in the +straw, with improvement also to the grain. +And we believe him. Lime is used to dilute +soot when employed as a manure. Using it +pure will keep off snails, slugs, and caterpillars, +from peas and various other vegetables, +as also from dahlias just shooting up, and +other flowers; but we regret to add that we +have sometimes known it kill, or burn up, the +things it was intended to preserve from unlawful +eating. In short, it is by no means so +safe to use for any purpose of garden manure, +as fine cinders and wood-ashes, which are +good for almost any kind of produce, whether +turnips or roses. Indeed, we should like to +have one fourth or fifth part of our garden-beds +composed of excellent stuff of this kind. +From all that has been said, it will have +become very intelligible why these Dust-heaps +are so valuable. Their worth, however, +varies not only with their magnitude (the +quality of all of them is much the same), +but with the demand. About the year +1820, the Marylebone Dust-heap produced +between four thousand and five thousand +pounds. In 1832, St. George’s paid Mr. +Stapleton five hundred pounds a year, not to +leave the Heap standing, but to carry it away. +Of course he was only too glad to be paid +highly for selling his Dust.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But to return. The three friends having +settled to their satisfaction the amount of +money they should probably obtain by the sale +of the golden miniature-frame, and finished +the castles which they had built with it in +the air, the frame was again enfolded in +the sound part of the parchment, the rags +and rottenness of the law were cast away, +and up they rose to bend their steps homeward +to the little hovel where Peggy lived, +she having invited the others to tea that they +might talk yet more fully over the wonderful +good luck that had befallen them.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Why, if there isn’t a man’s head in the +canal!” suddenly cried little Jem. “Looky +there!—isn’t that a man’s head?—Yes; it’s +a drowndedd man?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“A drowndedd man, as I live!” ejaculated +old Doubleyear.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Let’s get him out, and see!” cried Peggy. +“Perhaps the poor soul’s not quite gone.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Little Jem scuttled off to the edge of the +canal, followed by the two old people. As +soon as the body had floated nearer, Jem got +down into the water, and stood breast-high, +vainly measuring his distance with one arm +out, to see if he could reach some part of the +body as it was passing. As the attempt was +evidently without a chance, old Doubleyear +managed to get down into the water behind +him, and holding him by one hand, the boy +was thus enabled to make a plunge forward +as the body was floating by. He succeeded +in reaching it; but the jerk was too much +for the weakness of his aged companion, who +was pulled forwards into the canal. A loud +cry burst from both of them, which was yet +more loudly echoed by Peggy on the bank. +Doubleyear and the boy were now struggling +almost in the middle of the canal with the +body of the man swirling about between +them. They would inevitably have been +drowned, had not old Peggy caught up a long +dust-rake that was close at hand—scrambled +down up to her knees in the canal—clawed +hold of the struggling group with the teeth +of the rake, and fairly brought the whole to +land. Jem was first up the bank, and helped +up his two heroic companions; after which, +with no small difficulty, they contrived to +haul the body of the stranger out of the +water. Jem at once recognised in him the +forlorn figure of the man who had passed by +in the morning, looking so sadly into the +canal, as he walked along.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It is a fact well known to those who work +in the vicinity of these great Dust-heaps, that +when the ashes have been warmed by the sun, +cats and kittens that have been taken out of +the canal and buried a few inches beneath the +surface, have usually revived; and the same +has often occurred in the case of men. Accordingly +the three, without a moment’s +hesitation, dragged the body along to the +Dust-heap, where they made a deep trench, +in which they placed it, covering it all over +up to the neck.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“There now,” ejaculated Peggy, sitting +down with a long puff to recover her +breath, “he’ll lie very comfortable, whether +or no.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Couldn’t lie better,” said old Doubleyear, +“even if he knew it.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The three now seated themselves close by, +to await the result.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I thought I’d a lost him,” said Jem, “and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_384'>384</span>myself too; and when I pulled Daddy in arter +me, I guv us all three up for this world.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Yes,” said Doubleyear, “it must have +gone queer with us if Peggy had not come in +with the rake. How d’ yee feel, old girl; for +you’ve had a narrow escape too. I wonder +we were not too heavy for you, and so pulled +you in to go with us.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“The Lord be praised!” fervently ejaculated +Peggy, pointing towards the pallid face +that lay surrounded with ashes. A convulsive +twitching passed over the features, the lips +trembled, the ashes over the breast heaved, +and a low moaning sound, which might have +come from the bottom of the canal, was heard. +Again the moaning sound, and then the eyes +opened, but closed almost immediately. “Poor +dear soul!” whispered Peggy, “how he +suffers in surviving. Lift him up a little. +Softly. Don’t be afeared. We’re only your +good angels, like—only poor cinder-sifters—don’tee +be afeared.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>By various kindly attentions and manœuvres +such as these poor people had been accustomed +to practise on those who were taken out of +the canal, the unfortunate gentleman was +gradually brought to his senses. He gazed +about him, as well he might—now looking in +the anxious, though begrimed, faces of the +three strange objects, all in their “weeds” +and dust—and then up at the huge Dust-heap, +over which the moon was now slowly +rising.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Land of quiet Death!” murmured he, +faintly, “or land of Life, as dark and still—I +have passed from one into the other; but +which of ye I am now in, seems doubtful to +my senses.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Here we are, poor gentleman,” cried +Peggy, “here we are, all friends about you. +How did ’ee tumble into the canal?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“The Earth, then, once more!” said the +stranger, with a deep sigh. “I know where I +am, now. I remember this great dark hill of +ashes—like Death’s kingdom, full of all sorts +of strange things, and put to many uses.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Where do you live?” asked Old Doubleyear; +“shall we try and take you home, +Sir?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The stranger shook his head mournfully. +All this time, little Jem had been assiduously +employed in rubbing his feet and then his +hands; in doing which the piece of dirty +parchment, with the miniature-frame, dropped +out of his breast-pocket. A good thought +instantly struck Peggy.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Run, Jemmy dear—run with that golden +thing to Mr. Spikechin, the pawnbroker’s—get +something upon it directly, and buy +some nice brandy—and some Godfrey’s cordial—and +a blanket, Jemmy—and call a +coach, and get up outside on it, and make +the coachee drive back here as fast as you +can.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>But before Jemmy could attend to this, +Mr. Waterhouse, the stranger whose life +they had preserved, raised himself on one +elbow, and extended his hand to the miniature-frame. +Directly he looked at it, he raised +himself higher up—turned it about once or +twice—then caught up the piece of parchment, +and uttering an ejaculation, which no +one could have distinguished either as of joy +or of pain, sank back fainting.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In brief, this parchment was a portion of +the title-deeds he had lost; and though it did +not prove sufficient to enable him to recover +his fortune, it brought his opponent to a +composition, which gave him an annuity for +life. Small as this was, he determined that +these poor people, who had so generously +saved his life at the risk of their own, should +be sharers in it. Finding that what they +most desired was to have a cottage in the +neighbourhood of the Dust-heap, built large +enough for all three to live together, and +keep a cow, Mr. Waterhouse paid a visit to +Manchester Square, where the owner of the +property resided. He told his story, as far +as was needful, and proposed to purchase the +field in question.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The great Dust-Contractor was much +amused, and his daughter—a very accomplished +young lady—was extremely interested. +So the matter was speedily arranged to the +satisfaction and pleasure of all parties. The +acquaintance, however, did not end here. +Mr. Waterhouse renewed his visits very frequently, +and finally made proposals for the +young lady’s hand, she having already expressed +her hopes of a propitious answer +from her father.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Well, Sir,” said the latter, “you wish to +marry my daughter, and she wishes to marry +you. You are a gentleman and a scholar, but +you have no money. My daughter is what +you see, and she has no money. But I have; +and therefore, as she likes you, and I like you, +I’ll make you both an offer. I will give my +daughter twenty thousand pounds,—or you +shall have the Dust-heap. Choose!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Mr. Waterhouse was puzzled and amused, +and referred the matter entirely to the +young lady. But she was for having the +money, and no trouble. She said the Dust-heap +might be worth much, but they did not +understand the business. “Very well,” said +her father, laughing, “then, there’s the +money.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>This was the identical Dust-heap, as we +know from authentic information, which was +subsequently sold for forty thousand pounds, +and was exported to Russia to rebuild +Moscow.</p> + +<hr class='c011'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div>Monthly Supplement of ‘HOUSEHOLD WORDS,’</div> + <div>Conducted by <span class='sc'>Charles Dickens</span>.</div> + <div class='c012'><i>Price 2d., Stamped 3d.</i>,</div> + <div class='c012'><span class='large'>THE HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE</span></div> + <div>OF</div> + <div>CURRENT EVENTS.</div> + <div class='c012'><i>The Number, containing a history of the past month, was</i></div> + <div><i>issued with the Magazines.</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class='c011'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_385'>385</span><span class='small'>Published at the Office, No 16, Wellington Street North, Strand. Printed by <span class='sc'>Bradbury & Evans</span>, Whitefriars, London.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c012'> +</div> +<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'> + +<div class='chapter ph2'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c013'> + <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + + <ul class='ul_1 c001'> + <li>Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + + </li> + <li>Renumbered footnotes. + </li> + </ul> + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78181 ***</div> + </body> + <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57i (with regex) on 2026-03-11 12:34:51 GMT --> +</html> |