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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/78185-0.txt b/78185-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f53a2b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/78185-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2343 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78185 *** + + + “_Familiar in their Mouths as HOUSEHOLD WORDS._”—SHAKESPEARE. + + + + + HOUSEHOLD WORDS. + A WEEKLY JOURNAL. + + + CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS. + + + N^{o.} 20.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1850. [PRICE 2_d._ + + + + + A DETECTIVE POLICE PARTY. + + +The fresh-complexioned, smooth-faced officer, with the strange air of +simplicity, began, with a rustic smile, and in a soft, wheedling tone of +voice, to relate the Butcher’s Story, thus: + +“It’s just about six years ago, now, since information was given at +Scotland Yard of there being extensive robberies of lawns and silks +going on, at some wholesale houses in the City. Directions were given +for the business being looked into; and Straw, and Fendall, and me, we +were all in it.” + +“When you received your instructions,” said we, “you went away, and held +a sort of Cabinet Council together?” + +The smooth-faced officer coaxingly replied, “Ye-es. Just so. We turned +it over among ourselves a good deal. It appeared, when we went into it, +that the goods were sold by the receivers extraordinarily cheap—much +cheaper than they could have been if they had been honestly come by. The +receivers were in the trade, and kept capital shops—establishments of +the first respectability—one of ’em at the West End, one down in +Westminster. After a lot of watching and inquiry, and this and that +among ourselves, we found that the job was managed, and the purchases of +the stolen goods made, at a little public-house near Smithfield, down by +Saint Bartholomew’s; where the Warehouse Porters, who were the thieves, +took ’em for that purpose, don’t you see? and made appointments to meet +the people that went between themselves and the receivers. This +public-house was principally used by journeymen butchers from the +country, out of place, and in want of situations; so, what did we do, +but—ha, ha, ha!—we agreed that I should be dressed up like a butcher +myself, and go and live there!” + +Never, surely, was a faculty of observation better brought to bear upon +a purpose, than that which picked out this officer for the part. Nothing +in all creation, could have suited him better. Even while he spoke, he +became a greasy, sleepy, shy, good-natured, chuckle-headed, +unsuspicious, and confiding young butcher. His very hair seemed to have +suet in it, as he made it smooth upon his head, and his fresh complexion +to be lubricated by large quantities of animal food. + +——“So I—ha, ha, ha!” (always with the confiding snigger of the foolish +young butcher) “so I dressed myself in the regular way, made up a little +bundle of clothes, and went to the public-house, and asked if I could +have a lodging there? They says, ‘yes, you can have a lodging here,’ and +I got a bedroom, and settled myself down in the tap. There was a number +of people about the place, and coming backwards and forwards to the +house; and first one says, and then another says, ‘Are you from the +country, young man?’ ‘Yes,’ I says, ‘I am. I’m come out of +Northamptonshire, and I’m quite lonely here, for I don’t know London at +all, and it’s such a mighty big town?’ ‘It _is_ a big town,’ they says. +‘Oh, it’s a _very_ big town!’ I says. ‘Really and truly I never was in +such a town. It quite confuses of me!’—and all that, you know. + +“When some of the Journeymen Butchers that used the house, found that I +wanted a place, they says, ‘Oh, we’ll get you a place!’ And they +actually took me to a sight of places, in Newgate Market, Newport +Market, Clare, Carnaby—I don’t know where all. But the wages was—ha, ha, +ha!—was not sufficient, and I never could suit myself, don’t you see? +Some of the queer frequenters of the house, were a little suspicious of +me at first, and I was obliged to be very cautious indeed, how I +communicated with Straw or Fendall. Sometimes, when I went out, +pretending to stop and look into the shop-windows, and just casting my +eye round, I used to see some of ’em following me; but, being perhaps +better accustomed than they thought for, to that sort of thing, I used +to lead ’em on as far as I thought necessary or convenient—sometimes a +long way—and then turn sharp round, and meet ’em, and say, ‘Oh, dear, +how glad I am to come upon you so fortunate! This London’s such a place, +I’m blowed if I an’t lost again!’ And then we’d go back all together, to +the public-house, and—ha, ha, ha! and smoke our pipes, don’t you see? + +“They were very attentive to me, I am sure. It was a common thing, while +I was living there, for some of ’em to take me out, and show me London. +They showed me the Prisons—showed me Newgate—and when they showed me +Newgate, I stops at the place where the Porters pitch their loads, and +says, ‘Oh dear,’ ‘is this where they hang the men! Oh Lor!’ ‘That!’ they +says, ‘what a simple cove he is! _That_ an’t it!’ And then, they pointed +out which _was_ it, and I says ‘Lor!’ and they says, ‘Now you’ll know it +agen, won’t you?’ And I said I thought I should if I tried hard—and I +assure you I kept a sharp look out for the City Police when we were out +in this way, for if any of ’em had happened to know me, and had spoke to +me, it would have been all up in a minute. However, by good luck such a +thing never happened, and all went on quiet: though the difficulties I +had in communicating with my brother officers were quite extraordinary. + +“The stolen goods that were brought to the public-house, by the +Warehouse Porters, were always disposed of in a back parlor. For a long +time, I never could get into this parlor, or see what was done there. As +I sat smoking my pipe, like an innocent young chap, by the tap-room +fire, I’d hear some of the parties to the robbery, as they came in and +out, say softly to the landlord, ‘Who’s that? What does _he_ do here?’ +‘Bless your soul,’ says the landlord, ‘He’s only a’—ha, ha, ha!—‘he’s +only a green young fellow from the country, as is looking for a +butcher’s sitiwation. Don’t mind _him_!’ So, in course of time, they +were so convinced of my being green, and got to be so accustomed to me, +that I was as free of the parlor as any of ’em, and I have seen as much +as Seventy Pounds worth of fine lawn sold there, in one night, that was +stolen from a warehouse in Friday Street. After the sale, the buyers +always stood treat—hot supper, or dinner, or what not—and they’d say on +those occasions ‘Come on, Butcher! Put your best leg foremost, young +’un, and walk into it!’ Which I used to do—and hear, at table, all +manner of particulars that it was very important for us Detectives to +know. + +“This went on for ten weeks. I lived in the public-house all the time, +and never was out of the Butcher’s dress—except in bed. At last, when I +had followed seven of the thieves, and set ’em to rights—that’s an +expression of ours, don’t you see, by which I mean to say that I traced +’em, and found out where the robberies were done, and all about +’em—Straw, and Fendall, and I, gave one another the office, and at a +time agreed upon, a descent was made upon the public-house, and the +apprehensions effected. One of the first things the officers did, was to +collar me—for the parties to the robbery weren’t to suppose yet, that I +was anything but a Butcher—on which the landlord cries out, ‘Don’t take +_him_,’ he says, ‘whatever you do! He’s only a poor young chap from the +country, and butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth!’ However, they—ha, ha, +ha!—they took me, and pretended to search my bedroom, where nothing was +found but an old fiddle belonging to the landlord, that had got there +somehow or another. But, it entirely changed the landlord’s opinion, for +when it was produced, he says ‘My fiddle! The Butcher’s a pur-loiner! I +give him into custody for the robbery of a musical instrument!’ + +“The man that had stolen the goods in Friday Street was not taken yet. +He had told me, in confidence, that he had his suspicions there was +something wrong (on account of the City Police having captured one of +the party), and that he was going to make himself scarce. I asked him, +‘Where do you mean to go, Mr. Shepherdson?’ ‘Why, Butcher,’ says he, +‘the Setting Moon, in the Commercial Road, is a snug house, and I shall +hang out there for a time. I shall call myself Simpson, which appears to +me to be a modest sort of a name. Perhaps you’ll give us a look in, +Butcher?’ ‘Well,’ says I, ‘I think I _will_ give you a call’—which I +fully intended, don’t you see, because, of course, he was to be taken! I +went over to the Setting Moon next day, with a brother officer, and +asked at the bar for Simpson. They pointed out his room, upstairs. As we +were going up, he looks down over the bannisters, and calls out, +‘Halloa, Butcher! is that you?’ ‘Yes, it’s me. How do you find +yourself?’ ‘Bobbish,’ he says; ‘but who’s that with you?’ ‘It’s only a +young man, that’s a friend of mine,’ I says. ‘Come along, then,’ says +he; ‘any friend of the Butcher’s is as welcome as the Butcher!’ So, I +made my friend acquainted with him, and we took him into custody. + +“You have no idea, Sir, what a sight it was, in Court, when they first +knew that I wasn’t a Butcher, after all! I wasn’t produced at the first +examination, when there was a remand; but I was, at the second. And when +I stepped into the box, in full police uniform, and the whole party saw +how they had been done, actually a groan of horror and dismay proceeded +from ’em in the dock! + +“At the Old Bailey, when their trials came on, Mr. Clarkson was engaged +for the defence, and he _couldn’t_ make out how it was, about the +Butcher. He thought, all along, it was a real Butcher. When the counsel +for the prosecution said, ‘I will now call before you, gentlemen, the +Police-officer,’ meaning myself, Mr. Clarkson says, ‘Why Police-officer? +Why more Police-officers? I don’t want Police. We have had a great deal +too much of the Police. I want the Butcher! However, Sir, he had the +Butcher and the Police-officer, both in one. Out of seven prisoners +committed for trial, five were found guilty, and some of ’em were +transported. The respectable firm at the West End got a term of +imprisonment; and that’s the Butcher’s Story!” + +The story done, the chuckle-headed Butcher again resolved himself into +the smooth-faced Detective. But, he was so extremely tickled by their +having taken him about, when he was that Dragon in disguise, to show him +London, that he could not help reverting to that point in his narrative; +and gently repeating, with the Butcher snigger, “‘Oh, dear!’ I says, ‘is +that where they hang the men? Oh, Lor!’ ‘_That!_’ says they. ‘What a +simple cove he is!’” + +It being now late, and the party very modest in their fear of being too +diffuse, there were some tokens of separation; when Serjeant Dornton, +the soldierly-looking man, said, looking round him with a smile: + +“Before we break up, Sir, perhaps you might have some amusement in +hearing of the Adventures of a Carpet Bag. They are very short; and, I +think, curious.” + +We welcomed the Carpet Bag, as cordially as Mr. Shepherdson welcomed the +false Butcher at the Setting Moon. Serjeant Dornton proceeded: + +“In 1847, I was dispatched to Chatham, in search of one Mesheck, a Jew. +He had been carrying on, pretty heavily, in the bill-stealing way, +getting acceptances from young men of good connexions (in the army +chiefly), on pretence of discount, and bolting with the same. + +“Mesheck was off, before I got to Chatham. All I could learn about him +was, that he had gone, probably to London, and had with him—a Carpet +Bag. + +“I came back to town, by the last train from Blackwall, and made +inquiries concerning a Jew passenger with—a Carpet Bag. + +“The office was shut up, it being the last train. There were only two or +three porters left. Looking after a Jew with a Carpet Bag, on the +Blackwall Railway, which was then the high road to a great Military +Depôt, was worse than looking after a needle in a hayrick. But it +happened that one of these porters had carried, for a certain Jew, to a +certain public-house, a certain—Carpet Bag. + +“I went to the public-house, but the Jew had only left his luggage there +for a few hours, and had called for it in a cab, and taken it away. I +put such questions there, and to the porter, as I thought prudent, and +got at this description of—the Carpet Bag. + +“It was a bag which had, on one side of it, worked in worsted, a green +parrot on a stand. A green parrot on a stand was the means by which to +identify that—Carpet Bag. + +“I traced Mesheck, by means of this green parrot on a stand, to +Cheltenham, to Birmingham, to Liverpool, to the Atlantic Ocean. At +Liverpool he was too many for me. He had gone to the United States, and +I gave up all thoughts of Mesheck, and likewise of his—Carpet Bag. + +“Many months afterwards—near a year afterwards—there was a Bank in +Ireland robbed of seven thousand pounds, by a person of the name of +Doctor Dundey, who escaped to America; from which country some of the +stolen notes came home. He was supposed to have bought a farm in New +Jersey. Under proper management, that estate could be seized and sold, +for the benefit of the parties he had defrauded. I was sent off to +America for this purpose. + +“I landed at Boston. I went on to New York. I found that he had lately +changed New York paper-money for New Jersey paper-money, and had banked +cash in New Brunswick. To take this Doctor Dundey, it was necessary to +entrap him into the State of New York, which required a deal of artifice +and trouble. At one time, he couldn’t be drawn into an appointment. At +another time, he appointed to come to meet me, and a New York officer, +on a pretext I made; and then his children had the measles. At last, he +came, per steamboat, and I took him, and lodged him in a New York Prison +called the Tombs; which I dare say you know, Sir?” + +Editorial acknowledgment to that effect. + +“I went to the Tombs, on the morning after his capture, to attend the +examination before the magistrate. I was passing through the +magistrate’s private room, when, happening to look round me to take +notice of the place, as we generally have a habit of doing, I clapped my +eyes, in one corner, on a—Carpet Bag. + +“What did I see upon that Carpet Bag, if you’ll believe me, but a green +parrot on a stand, as large as life! + +“‘That Carpet Bag, with the representation of a green parrot on a +stand,’ said I, ‘belongs to an English Jew, named Aaron Mesheck, and to +no other man, alive or dead!’ + +“I give you my word the New York Police-officers were doubled up with +surprise. + +“‘How do you ever come to know that?’ said they. + +“‘I think I ought to know that green parrot by this time,’ said I; ‘for +I have had as pretty a dance after that bird, at home, as ever I had, in +all my life!’” + + +“And _was_ it Mesheck’s?” we submissively inquired. + +“Was it, Sir? Of course it was! He was in custody for another offence, +in that very identical Tombs, at that very identical time. And, more +than that! Some memoranda, relating to the fraud for which I had vainly +endeavoured to take him, were found to be, at that moment, lying in that +very same individual—Carpet Bag!” + + +Such are the curious coincidences and such is the peculiar ability, +always sharpening and being improved by practice, and always adapting +itself to every variety of circumstances, and opposing itself to every +new device that perverted ingenuity can invent, for which this important +social branch of the public service is remarkable! For ever on the +watch, with their wits stretched to the utmost, these officers have, +from day to day and year to year, to set themselves against every +novelty of trickery and dexterity that the combined imaginations of all +the lawless rascals in England can devise, and to keep pace with every +such invention that comes out. In the Courts of Justice, the materials +of thousands of such stories as we have narrated—often elevated into the +marvellous and romantic, by the circumstances of the case—are dryly +compressed into the set phrase, “in consequence of information I +received, I did so and so.” Suspicion was to be directed, by careful +inference and deduction, upon the right person; the right person was to +be taken, wherever he had gone, or whatever he was doing to avoid +detection: he is taken; there he is at the bar; that is enough. From +information I, the officer, received, I did it; and, according to the +custom in these cases, I say no more. + +These games of chess, played with live pieces, are played before small +audiences, and are chronicled nowhere. The interest of the game supports +the player. Its results are enough for Justice. To compare great things +with small, suppose LEVERRIER or ADAMS informing the public that from +information he had received he had discovered a new planet; or COLUMBUS +informing the public of his day that from information he had received, +he had discovered a new continent; so the Detectives inform it that they +have discovered a new fraud or an old offender, and the process is +unknown. + +Thus, at midnight, closed the proceedings of our curious and interesting +party. But one other circumstance finally wound up the evening, after +our Detective guests had left us. One of the sharpest among them, and +the officer best acquainted with the Swell Mob, had his pocket picked, +going home! + + + + + HEALTH BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT. + + +There was a story current in the city of Mosul, about the time that the +first edition of “The Hundred and One Nights” began to be popular in +Oriental society, of a certain Prince who was taken ill of the plague. +Though his retinue was large, he was the only person who was in imminent +danger. The Court physician was also at death’s door, and a strange +doctor was sent for, who pronounced the Great Man to be in a fearful +state of debility, but retired without prescribing. The Prince waited +long and anxiously for remedies, but in vain. He clapped his hands to +summon a slave. “Where,” he exclaimed, “is the physic?” + +“Sun of the Earth,” exclaimed the Nubian, “it is all taken!” + +“And who has dared to swallow the medicine designed for the anointed of +Allah?” + +“As it is written by the Prophet,” returned Hassan, “‘when the sheik +sickens, his slaves droop.’ Thy whole household was sick, and clamoured +for medicine; and, lo, the man of drugs straightway drenched them +therewith, ordering us all, on pain of the Prophet’s curse, not to give +thee so much as a single grain of rhubarb.” + +“Breath of Mahomet,” ejaculated his Mightiness; “am I then to die, and +are my slaves to live?” + +When a Mussulman is puzzled what to say, he invariably exclaims, “Allah +is merciful;” which was Hassan’s consolation. + +“Let the wretched mediciner appear!” commanded the Prince. + +The doctor came. “Illustrious father of a hundred generations!” said the +general practitioner, “thine own physician only could cure thee, and he +lies on his pallet a helpless being. _I_ may not so much as look at thy +transcendant tongue, or feel thine omnipotent pulse.” + +“Wherefore? O licenciate of the Destroyer!” + +“Inasmuch as I may not infringe the _vested rights_ of thine own special +and appointed physician. The law—even that of the Medes and Persians, +which never altereth—forbids me. Thy slaves I _may_ heal, seeing that no +vested rights in them exist; but——” + +Here the Prince interrupted the speaker with a hollow groan, and sank on +his pillow in despair. + +The Arabic manuscript, from which this affecting incident was +translated, ends with these words—“and the Prince died.” + +This story is evidently a foreshadowing of what has recently happened in +reference to the metropolis of this country and the Public Health Act. +London was _in extremis_ from the effects of density of population, +filth, bad air, bad water, the window-tax, and deficient drainage. It +called in certain sanitary doctors—the regular consulting body, namely, +the Government, being too weak to afford the slightest assistance. The +result was, that a prescription, in the form of the Public Health Act, +was concocted,—but was made applicable to every other member of the +great retinue of towns, _except_ to the Imperial City; which was +exempted in consequence of the existing Vested Rights in crowded houses, +deadly stenches, putrid water, foggy courts, and cesspools. “Although,” +in the words of a resolution, passed at the meeting which formed the +Metropolitan Sanitary Association, “the strenuous efforts made in the +metropolitan districts to procure a sanitary enactment mainly +contributed to the passing of the Public Health Act; yet these districts +were the only parts excluded from the benefits of that enactment. This +exclusion has led to much misery and a great sacrifice of life.” + +This exception was so monstrous, that even the Corporation of the City +of London took powers under their own Sewers’ Act for the preservation +of the health of the people dwelling within the City boundary,—who +number no more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand out of the two +millions of us who are congregated in civic and suburban London. The +remaining one million eight hundred thousand are left to be stifled or +diseased at the good pleasure of Vested Interests. Indeed, it is +ascertained that a quarter of a million of individuals absolutely _do_ +die every year from the want of such a sanitary police as the Public +Health Act, amended by some few additional powers, would establish. What +number of persons are really sent out of the world from preventable +causes. It is also true that those causes can be efficiently removed for +about a halfpenny per head a week; or threepence per week per house; or +about eight times less than those who die unnecessarily cost the public +in hospitals, poor’s rates, and burial. In the “Journal of Public +Health” for November, 1848, and August, 1849, it is shown by elaborate +tables, that the direct cost of, and estimated money loss through, +typhus fever alone in the metropolis, amounted during the four years, +1843–1847, to one million three hundred and twenty-eight thousand +pounds, or two hundred and sixty-five thousand, six hundred pounds +annually. This sum is exclusive of the amounts contributed for the +purchase and maintenance of fever hospitals. For 1848, when the +mortality from typhus had increased to three thousand five hundred and +sixty-nine, the direct cost and money loss was estimated at four hundred +and forty thousand pounds. + +This cold-blooded way of putting the really appalling state of the case +is, alas! the only successful mode of appealing to that hard-headed, +though sometimes soft-hearted, periphrasis, John Bull, when he is under +no special exciting cause of dread. His heart is only reached through +his pocket, except when put in a state of alarm. Cry “Cholera!” or any +other frightful conjuration, and he bestirs himself. To cholera we owe +the few sanitary measures now in force; but which were passed by the +House—as a coward may seem courageous—in its agonies of fright. The +moment, however, Cholera bulletins ceased to be issued, John buttoned up +his pockets tighter than ever, and Parliament was dumb regarding public +health, except to undo one or two good things it had done. The inflated +promises of the legislature collapsed into thin air, on the very day the +danger was withdrawn. It was the legend over again of the nameless +gentleman who, when he was sick, swore he would turn a monk; but when he +got well “the devil a monk was he.” Ever since, sanitary legislation has +been as much a dead letter in the Metropolis, as if the deadly condition +of some of its districts had never been whispered between the wind and +the nobility of Westminster, in Parliament assembled. + +It has no effect upon unreasoning John Bull to tell him that, on an +average, cholera does not devour a tithe of the victims which fever, +consumption, and other preventible diseases make away with. Cholera +comes upon him like an ogre, eating its victims all at once, and he +quakes with terror; the daily, deadly destruction of human beings by +“every-day” diseases, he takes no heed of. Take him, however, a slate +and pencil; count costs to him; show that cholera costs so much; that +ordinary, contagious, but preventible diseases, cost so much more; and +that prevention is so many hundred per cent. cheaper than the cheapest +cures, he begins to be amenable to reason. Nothing but pocket +arithmetic, terror, or melo-dramatic appeals to his soft-hearted +sympathy, moves John Bull. + +In order to supply the best of these exercitations by the accumulation +of carefully sifted, and well authenticated facts, and sound reasonings; +the results of scientific investigations, and of a large range of +pathological statistics, the Metropolitan Sanitary Association has been +for some months—like another “Ole Joe”—knocking at the door of Old John. +Whether the heavy old gentleman will soon open it to conviction and +improvement depends, we think, very much upon the energy and liberality +with which that society is supported and seconded by the public; for +whose sole benefit it was called into existence. To the exertions of +many of its leading members, if not to the collective body itself, John +Bull has responded, by admitting into his premises the Extra-Mural +Interment Bill, and we think he is just now holding his door a-jar to +catch the Water Supply Bill, which it is hoped he will admit, and pass +through That House next session. Meantime we, in common with the +association aforesaid, beg his attention to a few other points of +improvement:— + +The adage “as free as air,” has become obsolete by Act of Parliament. +Neither air nor light have been free since the imposition of the +window-tax. We are obliged to pay for what nature supplies lavishly to +all, at so much per window per year; and the poor who cannot afford the +expense, are stinted in two of the most urgent necessities of life. The +effects produced by a deprivation of them are not immediate, and are +therefore unheeded. When a poor man or woman in a dark, close, smoky +house is laid up with scrofula, consumption, water in the head, wasting, +or a complication of epidemic diseases, nobody thinks of attributing the +illness to the right cause;—which may be a want of light and air. If he +or she were struck down by a flash of lightning, there would be an +immediate outcry against the authorities, whoever they may be, for not +providing proper lightning conductors; but because the poison—generated +by the absence of light and air—is not seen at work, the victim dies +unheeded, and the window-tax, which shuts out the remedies, is continued +without a murmur. In illustration of these facts, we may quote a little +information respecting the tadpole, an humble animal, which—if the +author of “Vestiges of Creation” be any authority and the theory of +development be more than a childish dream—was the progenitor of man +himself. The passage is from the report of the half-fledged Health of +Towns’ Commission:— + +“If the young of some of the lower tribes of creatures are supplied with +their proper food, and if all the other conditions necessary for their +nourishment are maintained, while at the same time light is wholly +excluded from them, their development is stopped; they no longer undergo +the metamorphosis through which they pass from imperfect into perfect +beings; the tadpole, for example, is unable to change its +water-breathing apparatus, fitted for its first stage of existence, into +the air-breathing apparatus, with the rudiment of which it is furnished, +and which is intended to adapt it for a higher life, namely, for +respiration in air. In this imperfect state it continues to live; it +even attains an enormous bulk, for such a creature in its state of +transition, but it is unable to pass out of its transitional state; it +remains permanently an imperfect being, and is doomed to pass a +perpetual life in water, instead of attaining maturity and passing its +mature life in air.” + +It may give some support to the theory of tadpole development above +mentioned, to add, that the same cause produces the very same effects +upon human beings; upon human mothers, and upon human children. Human +mothers living in dark cellars produce an unusual proportion of +defective children. Go into the narrow streets, and the dark lanes, +courts, and alleys of our splendid cities, there you will see an unusual +number of deformed people, men, women, and children, but particularly +children. In some cells under the fortifications of Lisle, a number of +poor people took up their abode; the proportion of defective infants +produced by them became so great, that it was deemed necessary to issue +an order commanding these cells to be shut up. The window duties +multiply cells like those of the fortifications of Lisle, in London, in +Liverpool, in Manchester, in Bristol, and in every city and town in +England by hundreds and by thousands, and with the same result; but the +cells here are not shut up, nor is the cause that produces them removed. +Even in cases in which the absence of light is not so complete as to +produce a result thus definite and striking, the effects of the +privation are still abundantly manifest in the pale and sickly +complexion, and the enfeebled and stunted frame; nor can it be +otherwise, since, from the essential constitution of organised beings, +light is as necessary to the development of the animal as it is to the +growth of the plant. The diseases the want of it produces are of long +continuance, and waste the means of life before death results; they may +therefore be characterised as pauperising diseases. As to death itself, +it has been calculated that nearly ten thousand persons perish annually +in London alone from diseases solely produced by an impeded circulation +of air and admission of light. + +This prodigal waste of health, strength, and of life itself, falls much +more heavily on the poor, than the mere fiscal burden, imposed by the +tax, falls on the richer classes. Inasmuch, then, as health is the +capital of the working man, whatever be the necessities of the state, +_nothing_ can justify a tax affecting the health of the people, and +especially the health of the labouring community, whose bodily strength +constitutes their wealth, and oftentimes their only possession. In +conclusion we may say, without wishing to libel any respectable Act of +Parliament, that the Window-Tax kills countless human beings in tens of +thousands every year. + +The next improvement which must speedily be pushed under John Bull’s +very nose, is the removal of the nuisances which abound in crowded +neighbourhoods from Land’s End to John o’Groats. The back-yards of +houses in poor neighbourhoods are so many gardens, sown broadcast with +the seeds of disease, and but too plentifully manured for abundant and +continual crops. When rain falls on the surface of these parterres of +poison, and is afterwards evaporated by the heat of the sun, there rises +a malaria, intensified by decomposing refuse, which, inhaled into human +lungs, engenders consumption, ending in the parish workhouse and death. +It is a fact that the surfaces of some of the back-yards in London have +been raised six feet by successive accumulations of vegetable and animal +refuse. We must have no more such accumulations; offal of every kind +must be removed daily by Act of Parliament. + +Ill-kept stables, which cause horses to become blind, and men to die of +typhus, must be reformed; cow-feeding sheds, which produce diseased milk +and offensive refuse, must be abolished, and milk supplied per railway +from the country; disgusting and noxious manufactures, such as are +carried on a few yards west of Lambeth Palace, on the river’s bank, must +be removed to consort with knackers’ yards, in places remote from human +habitations. + +The strong bar which John Bull opposes to such improvements is the dread +of the Centralisation, which, he says, carrying them into effect would +occasion. Local Government, he insists, is the great bulwark of the +British Constitution. No bill is ever brought into Parliament for the +good of the people,—that is well known,—but is passed for the sake of +the places it creates, and the patronage it gives. Now, if we allow a +practicable bill for the removal of these nuisances to pass, a swarm of +commissioners, secretaries, clerks, inspectors, inquisitors, dustmen, +and scavengers will be let loose upon the contented public, to supersede +snug, comfortable, local boards, and to ruin innocent contractors. “Is,” +John asks vehemently, “this to be borne?” and answers himself with equal +emphasis, “Decidedly not. We prefer the nuisances.” But common sense +steps in to reply, that as nuisances are a matter of taste, if every +board could confine its own nuisances to its own parish so as not to +take its neighbours by the nose, there would, perhaps, be no harm in +letting it doze and wallow in its own filth as long as its taste would +dictate. But as this is impossible, centralisation or no centralisation, +Government, or somebody else, _must_ interfere to protect the +extra-parochial lieges from destruction, by upsetting the Board and +removing the rest of the nuisances. + +A practical example of the impossibility of confining noxious nuisances +to the boundaries whence they originate, is afforded in the immediate +neighbourhood of one of the most beautiful parts of the metropolis. In a +neighbourhood studded thickly with elegant villas and mansions—namely, +Bayswater and Notting Hill, in the parish of Kensington—is a plague spot +scarcely equalled for its insalubrity by any other in London: it is +called the Potteries. It comprises some seven or eight acres, with about +two hundred and sixty houses (if the term can be applied to such +hovels), and a population of nine hundred or one thousand. The +occupation of the inhabitants is principally pig-fattening; many +hundreds of pigs, ducks, and fowls are kept in an incredible state of +filth. Dogs abound for the purpose of guarding the swine. The atmosphere +is still further polluted by the process of fat-boiling. In these hovels +discontent, dirt, filth, and misery, are unsurpassed by anything known +even in Ireland. Water is supplied to only a small proportion of the +houses. There are foul ditches, open sewers, and defective drains, +smelling most offensively, and generating large quantities of poisonous +gases; stagnant water is found at every turn, not a drop of _clean_ +water can be obtained,—all is charged to saturation with putrescent +matter. Wells have been sunk on some of the premises, but they have +become, in many instances, useless from organic matter soaking into +them; in some of the wells the water is perfectly black and fetid. The +paint on the window frames has become black from the action of +sulphuretted hydrogen gas. Nearly all the inhabitants look unhealthy, +the women especially complain of sickness, and want of appetite; their +eyes are shrunken, and their skin shrivelled. + +The poisonous influence of this pestilential locality extends far and +wide. Some twelve or thirteen hundred feet off there is a row of clean +houses, called Crafter Terrace; the situation, though rather low, is +open and airy. On Saturday and Sunday, the 8th and 9th of September, +1849, the inhabitants complained of an intolerable stench, the wind then +blowing directly upon the Terrace from the Potteries. Up to this time, +there had been no case of cholera among the inhabitants; but the next +day the disease broke out virulently, and on the following day, the 11th +of September, a child died of cholera at No. 1. By the 22nd of the same +month, no less than seven persons in the Terrace lost their lives by +this fatal malady. + +It would be thought, that such a state of things could not have been +permitted to remain undisturbed, but merely required to be brought to +light to be remedied. The medical officers have, time after time, +reported the condition of the place to the Board of Guardians. Fifteen +medical men have testified to the unhealthy state of the Potteries. The +inspector of nuisances has done the same. The magistrates have +repeatedly granted orders for the removal of the pigs. The General Board +of Health have given directions that all the nuisances should be +removed, yet nothing, or next to nothing, has been done. The inspector +of nuisances has been dismissed, the guardians have signified their +intention to inspect the districts themselves, yet things remain in +_statu quo_. + +Is there then no possibility of cleansing this more than Augean stable? +None: the single but insurmountable difficulty being that some of the +worst parts of the district are the property of one of the guardians! + +Surely the force of self-government can no farther go. Another word in +defence of centralisation—the great bugbear of the self-conceited parish +orator—would be wasted. + +In conclusion, we earnestly call on the public to second and support the +efforts of the Metropolitan Sanitary Association to get the evils we +have adverted to lessened or wholly removed. The rapid increase of the +population demands additional exertion and additional arrangements for +their well-being. At present, retrogression instead of improvement +assails us. It is an appalling fact, that the number of persons dying of +the class of diseases called preventible has been steadily increasing. +Mr. Farr, of the Registrar-General’s office, has declared there could be +no question that the health of London is becoming worse every year. In +1846, the number of persons dying of zymotic or epidemic diseases was +about nineteen per cent. of the total mortality; in 1847, it was +twenty-eight per cent.; in 1848, thirty-four per cent.; and last year it +increased to forty-one per cent.; thus showing that nearly one-half of +the mortality of London was more or less owing to preventible causes. + +To reverse this state of things the people of this country must not wait +for another great and fatal Fright. We know that typhus fever and +consumption, like open drains and stinking water, are mean, commonplace, +unexciting instruments of death, which do not get invested with dramatic +interest; yet they kill as unerringly as the knife or the bullet of the +assassin; only they murder great multitudes instead of single +individuals. If, therefore, he will only fix his eyes on the victims of +the diseases which can be easily prevented, it is well worth John Bull’s +while to consider whether substantially it is not as sound a policy to +save a million or two of lives per annum, as to hang the hero and +heroine of a Bermondsey murder. + + + + + WHAT THERE IS IN THE ROOF OF THE COLLEGE OF SURGEONS. + + +Perhaps no one of the London Squares is more full of interesting +associations, and certainly no one of them is more fresh and pleasant to +look upon, than Lincoln’s Inn Fields. In the centre of its green Lord +William Russell was beheaded; upon the old wall that used to run along +its eastern side Ben Jonson, it is said, worked as a bricklayer; amongst +its north range of buildings stands the thin sandwich of a house that +holds the manifold artistic gems of the Soane Museum; its west side was +the scene of some of Lord George Gordon’s riotings; whilst on its south +side stands the noble-looking Grecian fronted building dedicated to the +purposes of the English College of Surgeons. + +This building has many uses, and many points challenging general +admiration and approval, the chief of them being its possession of the +museum made by John Hunter; afterwards purchased, and now supported, by +the nation; and open freely, not only to medical men of all countries, +but to the public at large. The visitor who passes under its handsome +portico, up the steps and enters its heavy mahogany and plate-glass +doors, finds himself in a large hall. On his right is a staid-looking, +black-robed porter, who requires him to enter his name in the visitor’s +book—a preliminary which members equally with strangers have to go +through. On his left are the doors leading to the secretary’s office, +where students may, from time to time, be seen going in to register +their attendance upon the prescribed lectures, and, later in their +career, passing through the same portals big with the desperate +announcement that they are ready to submit to the examinations that must +be passed before they can get a diploma. Facing the entrance door is a +second enclosed hall, with a roof supported by fluted columns, and on +the left of this a broad stately architectural stone staircase leading +to the library and the council-chamber—the scene of those dreadful +ordeals, the examinations, where Hospital Surgeons sit surrounded by +crimson and gold, and marble busts, and noble pictures, to _operate_ +upon sweating and stuttering and hesitating students who, two by two, +are seated in large chairs to be passed or _plucked_. + +The library is a noble, large room, of excellent proportions, occupying +the whole length of the building in front, having tall plate-glass +embayed windows, each with its table and chair; and in each of which the +passersby in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, may generally see a live surgeon +framed and glazed, busily occupied with his books, or still more busily +helping to keep up the tide of gossip for which the place is celebrated. +For some twenty feet from the floor on all sides, the walls are lined +with books, telling in various languages about all kinds of maladies and +all sorts of plans for cure. Above this, and just under the handsomely +panelled roof, hang portraits of old surgeons, each famous in his time, +and now enjoying a sort of quiet renown amongst their successors in the +art and science of chirurgery. All we have seen thus far, betokens the +quiet repose of wealth, dignity, and learned leisure and ease. No +bustle, no noise, no trace of urgent labour is heard or seen. Such of +the officers of the place as may be encountered, have a look of +somnolent if not sleek sufficiency, and seem to claim a share of the +consideration which all are ready to concede, as due to the character of +the spot. Returning to the hall, another door, facing that of the +secretary, leads to the great attraction and pride of the place—the +Hunterian Museum—a collection of skeletons and glittering rows of +bottles full of evidences how “fearfully and wonderfully” all living +creatures are made. On all sides we see the bony relics of defunct men +and animals—giants, dwarfs, both human and quadruped, challenging +attention. The huge megatherium, the bones of poor Chuny, the elephant +shot in Exeter ’Change, the skeleton of O’Brien the Irish giant, who +walked about the world eight feet high, and near him all that remains of +the form of the Sicilian dwarf, who when alive was not taller than +O’Brien’s knee. On the walls tier after tier of bottles are ranged, till +the eye following them up towards the top of the building, fatigued by +their innumerable abundance, and the variety of their contents, again +seeks the ground and its tables, there to encounter an almost equal +crowd of curious things collected from the earth, the air, and the sea, +to show how infinite the varieties in which Nature indulges, and how +almost more than infinite the curious ways in which life varies the +tenement it inhabits. But with this multiplicity of things we see no +confusion, or trace of carelessness or poverty. All is neatness, order, +and repose. Not a particle of dirt offends the eye; not a film of dust +dims the brilliancy of the regiments of bottles drawn up in long files +upon the shelves, to salute the visitor. The place is a very +drawing-room of science, all polished and set forth in trim order for +the reception of the public. It is the best room in the house kept for +the display of _the results_ of the labours of the physiologist,—a spot +devoted to the revelations of anatomy, without the horrifying +accompaniments of the dissecting-room. + +Thus far we have passed through what are in truth the public portions of +the College of Surgeons, just glancing at its museum, unequalled as a +physiological collection by any other in the world. In their surprise at +the curious things it contains, there are many, no doubt, who wonder +also where the things all came from; and what patient men have gone on +since John Hunter’s time, adding to his museum where it was deficient +and keeping all its parts in their present admirable state. Such a +question, if put to the officials, would most likely obtain a very vague +and misty reply; but a glance behind the scenes at the College will +afford an ample and curious explanation, and show how one section of the +Searchers for Facts, silently and unheeded, work on in their +self-chosen, quiet, scientific path—undisturbed by the noises and the +bustle, the excitements and the strife of the modern Babylon, that +heaves and throbs around them. + +Leave the handsome rooms, with their clear light, and polish, and air of +neatness, and come with us up the side stair that leads to the unshown +recesses, where, high up in the roof, the workers in anatomy carry on +their strange duties. As we open the side door that leads towards these +secret chambers, we should go from daylight to darkness, were it not for +the gas that is kept burning there. Up the stairs we go, and as we +ascend, the way becomes lighter and lighter as we rise, but the stone +steps soon change for wooden ones, and at length bring us from the +silent stairs to a silent and gloomy-looking passage, having three doors +opening into it, and some contrivances overhead for letting in a little +light, and letting out certain odours that here abound,—greatly to the +discomfort of the novice who first inhales them. We are now in the roof +of the building, and on getting a glimpse through a window, we may see +the housetops are below us, the only companions of our elevation being a +number of neighbouring church-spires. + +The feeling of the spot is one of almost complete isolation from the +world below, and a neighbourhood to something startling if not almost +terrible. Like Fatima in Bluebeard’s Tower, impelled by an overbearing +curiosity, we turn the lock of the centre door, and enter the chamber. A +strange sight is presented. The room is large, with the sloping +roof-beams above, and a stained and uncovered floor below. The walls all +round are crowded with shelves, covered with bottles of various sizes +full of the queerest-looking of all queer things. Many are of a bright +vermilion colour; others yellow; others brown; others black; whilst +others again display the opaque whiteness of bloodless death. Three +tables are in the room, but these are as crowded as the walls. Cases of +instruments, microscopes, tall jars, cans, a large glass globe full of +water-newts, hydras, and mosses; small cases of drawers filled with +microscopic objects, and a thousand other odds and ends. Here is a long +coil of snake’s eggs, just brought from a country stable-yard; there +some ears of diseased wheat, sent by a noble landlord who studies +farming; beside them lies part of a leaf of the gigantic water-lily, the +Victoria Regia, and near that a portion of a vegetable marrow is +macerating in a saucer to separate some peculiar vessels for exhibition +under the microscope. There are two windows to the room, besides some +ventilators in the roof; and before one of these, where the light is +best, are ranged microscopes complete and ready for use, and round about +them all sorts of scraps of glass and glaziers’ diamonds, and +watch-glasses, and forceps, and scissors, and bottles of marine-glue, +and of gold-size,—these being the means and appliances of the +microscopic observer. Before the second window is a sink, in which stand +jars of frogs and newts, and other small creatures. A lathe, a desk, and +writing utensils, the model of a whale cast ashore in the Thames, an old +stiff-backed wooden chair, once the seat of the Master of the Worshipful +Company of Surgeons, a few cases of stuffed birds and animals, and some +tall glass-stoppered bottles that went twice round the world with +Captain Cook and Dr. Solander, make up the catalogue of the chief +contents of an apartment, which, at first glance, has the look of an +auctioneer’s room filled with the sold-off stock of a broken down +anatomical teacher. A closer inspection, however, shows that though +there is so great a crowd of objects, there is little or no confusion, +and the real meaning of the place, its intention, and labours, reveal +themselves. + +We are in a storeroom of the strange productions of all corners of the +earth, from the air above and from the waters below. Every particle in +every bottle that looks perhaps to the uninitiated eye only a mass of +bad fish preserved in worse pickle, has its value. A thin slice of it +taken out and placed under the microscope, illustrates some law of the +animal economy, or displays, perhaps, some long undiscovered fact, or +shows to the surprise of the gazer, a series of lines beautifully +arranged, or perhaps curiously mingled, and rich in their figured +combinations as the frozen moisture of a window-frame on a winter’s +morning. To this room as to a general centre come contributions from all +corners of the earth; the donors being chiefly medical men employed on +expeditions, or in the public service, though other medicos, who go to +seek fortune in strange lands, often remember their alma mater, and pack +up a bottle of curious things “to send to the College.” Doctors on +shipboard, doctors with armies, doctors in Arctic ships, or on Niger +expeditions; in the far regions of Hindûstan, and in the fogs and storms +of Labrador, think now and then of their “dissecting days,” and of the +noble collection in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which every true student feels +bound to honour, and to help to make complete. Many, when going forth +into distant countries, are supplied from this place with bottles +specially adapted to receive objects in request, and receive also a +volume of instructions, how the specimens may be best preserved. “When a +quadruped is too large to be secured whole, cut off the portion of the +head containing the teeth,” says one direction. “If no more can be +done,” says another, “preserve the heart and great blood-vessels.” “Of a +full-grown whale,” says a third of these notes, “send home the eyes with +the surrounding skin, their muscles and fat in an entire mass.” “When +many specimens of a rare and curious bird are procured, the heads of a +few should be taken off and preserved in spirit.” “When alligators and +crocodiles are too large to be preserved whole, secure some part. The +bones of such things are especially desirable. Secure also the eggs in +different stages.” “Snakes may be preserved whole, or in part, +especially the heads, for the examination of their teeth and fangs.” +“Eyes of fishes are proper objects of preservation.” Such are a few of +the hints sent forth to their medical disciples by the College, and the +fruits of the system are a bountiful supply. Never a week passes but +something rare or curious makes its appearance in Lincoln’s Inn Fields; +sometimes from one quarter, sometimes from another, but there is always +something coming, either by messenger or parcel-cart. Apart from these +foreign sources, there are other contributaries to the general stock. +Country doctors and hospital surgeons, from time to time, send in their +quota; the Zoological Society likewise contribute all their dead +animals. When the elephant died at the Regent’s Park Gardens, a College +student and an assistant were busily occupied for days dissecting the +huge animal. When the rhinoceros expired at the same place, a portion of +its viscera was hailed as a prize; and when the whale was cast, not long +ago, upon the shores of the Thames, the watermen who claimed it as their +booty, steamed off to the College to find a customer for portions of the +unwieldy monster; nor were they disappointed. Beyond all these, there +still remains another searcher out of materials for the scalpel and the +microscope. He is a character in his way. By trade, half +cattle-slaughterer half-oysterman, he is by choice a sort of dilettante +anatomist. One day he is killing oxen and sheep in Clare Market, and the +next is scouring the same market for morbid specimens “for Mr. Quickett, +at the College.” He knows an unhealthy sheep by its looks, and watches +its post mortem with the eye of a savant. Many a choice specimen has he +caught up in his time from amongst the offal and garbage of that +fustiest of markets in the fustiest of neighbourhoods. Indeed, through +him, all that is unusual in ox, calf, sheep, fish, or fowl, found within +the confines of Clare Market, finds its way to the “work shop” of the +College to be investigated by scalpel and microscope. When a butcher is +known to have any diseased sheep, our collector hovers about his +slaughter-house, and that which is bad food for the public, often +affords him and his patron a prize. He is a sort of jackal for the +anatomists—a kind of cadger in the service of science—a veritable +snatcher-up of ill-conditioned trifles. + +Returning to the room in the College roof, where the general cornucopia +of strange things is emptied, we find its presiding genius in Mr. +Quekett, a quiet enthusiast in his way, who goes on from month to month +and year to year, watching, working, and chronicling such facts as can +be made out. When a novelty comes in, it is examined, described, +investigated by the microscope; and, if worthy, is sketched on stone for +printing. It is then catalogued, and placed in spirit for +preservation—minute portions, perhaps, being mounted on glass as objects +for the microscope. Thus disposed of, it becomes a “store preparation.” +From this store the lectures at the College are illustrated by examples; +and from it also are the bright bottles in the Hunterian Museum kept +complete. From time to time something very rare comes to hand, and then +there is quite an excitement in the place. It is turned about, examined, +and discussed, with as much zest as a lady would display when first +opening a present of jewels, or first criticising a new ball-dress. If +the new acquisition be an animal but recently dead, a drop of its blood +is sought and placed under the microscope to see the diameter of its +globules; if it has a coat of fur, perhaps one of the hairs are next +submitted to the same test; and then a fine section of its bone passes a +similar ordeal. Its brain is investigated, weighed, and placed in spirit +for preservation. Its general characteristics are then gone over, and a +description of them written down. If worthy of a place in the Museum, +this description goes to make a paragraph in the catalogues of the +Collection—fine quarto volumes, of which there are many now complete, +containing more exact anatomical and physiological descriptions of +objects, than perhaps any other work extant. + +The last contribution to the series of Catalogues was made in the room +we have been examining. Its production was the constant labour of two +years; and the volume contains exact particulars of many facts never +before noticed. Amongst other things, for instance, made out with +certainty in this place by Mr. Quekett, after months of patient +investigation, was the elementary differences in the character of bone. +To the common eye and common idea, all bone is simply bone; and for +common purposes the word indicates closely enough what the speaker would +describe. Not so to the naturalist and the physiologist; and so scalpel +and microscope went to work: the sea, the land, and the air, lent each +their creatures peculiar to itself, and the labour of the search was at +length rewarded by a discovery that each great class of living things +has an elementary difference in the bones upon which its structure is +built up. Hence, when a particle of bony matter is now placed under the +microscope, come whence it may—from a geological strata, or from the +depths of the sea, or from within the cere-cloth of a mummy—the +observer, guided by Mr. Quekett’s observations, knows whether it +belonged in life to bird, beast, or fish. + +Glancing round this anatomical workshop, we find, amongst other things, +some preparations showing the nature of pearls. Examine them, and we +find that there are dark and dingy pearls, just as there are handsome +and ugly men; the dark pearl being found on the dark shell of the fish, +the white brilliant one upon the smooth inside shell. Going further in +the search, we find that the smooth glittering lining upon which the +fish moves, is known as the _nacre_, and that it is produced by a +portion of the animal called _the mantle_: and for explanation sake we +may add, that gourmands practically know the mantle as _the beard_ of +the oyster. When living in its glossy house, should any foreign +substance find its way through the shell to disturb the smoothness so +essential to its ease, the fish coats the offending substance with +nacre, and a pearl is thus formed. The pearl is, in fact, a little globe +of the smooth glossy substance yielded by the oyster’s beard; yielded +ordinarily to smooth the narrow home to which his nature binds him, but +yielded in round drops—real pearly tears—if he is hurt. When a beauty +glides proudly among a throng of admirers, her hair clustering with +pearls, she little thinks that her ornaments are products of pain and +diseased action, endured by the most unpoetical of shell-fish. + +Leaving the centre-room of the three in the College roof, let us just +glance at the other two apartments. Upon entering one we see the walls +lined with boxes, something like those in a milliner’s shop, but, +instead of holding laces and ribands, we find them labelled “Wolf,” +“Racoon,” “Penguin,” “Lion,” “Albatross,” and so on with names of birds, +and beasts, and fishes. On lifting a lid, we find the boxes filled with +the bones of the different creatures named; not a complete skeleton of +any one, perhaps, but portions of half-a-dozen. In this room, the two +students attached to the College carry on dissections, under the +directions of the superior authorities. What they do is entered in a +book kept posted up, and this affords another source for reference as to +anatomical facts. When they have laboured here for three years, they +have the option of a commission as Assistant Surgeon in the Army, Navy, +or East India Company’s service, as a reward for their College work. + +If the atmosphere of the two apartments we have investigated was bad, +that of the third room was infinitely worse, though windows and +ventilators are constantly open. In this place large preparations are +kept, and all the specimens are here put into the bottles required for +exhibition in the Museum. This third room, like the first, has a +curiously characteristic look. It would make a fine original for a +picture of an alchemist’s study. On one side is a large structure of +brickwork with pipes and taps, conveying the idea of a furnace and +still, or of an oven. Alongside it is a bath and a table, and the +purpose of the whole is for _injecting_ large animals. This is a very +difficult operation, the object being to drive a kind of hot liquid +sealing-wax into every artery of the body, even the most minute. All +things brought here, and capable of it, are injected somewhat after this +fashion before they pass under the scalpel. Besides this oven-looking +structure there are pans, and tubs, and casks; one containing a small +dromedary, another being “a cask of camel.” A painter’s easel stands +there ready for use, and on the floor are some bones of a megatherium; +the tables are covered with bottles and jars, and the walls are +similarly decorated. Strings of bladders hang about, and under foot we +see thin sheets of lead coated with tin-foil; these latter being used +for tying down the preparation bottles so that they may for years remain +air-tight; a tedious and somewhat difficult operation. In this place +every year they use scores, sometimes hundreds of gallons of alcohol; +one fact which helps to show that museums on a large scale are expensive +establishments. + +Here, as elsewhere, however, in our establishments, whatever may be +expended on materials, the men who do the work of science are but +indifferently paid. But lucre is not their sole reward. No mere money +payment could compensate (for instance) a man for spending a lifetime in +this College of Surgeons’ roof. Forget the object in view; ignore the +charm that science has for its votaries; and this place becomes a +literal inferno, filled with pestilential fumes, and surrounded by +horrible sights. But they who fix the salaries know how much the pursuit +of science is a labour of love; and so they pay the man of science +badly, not here alone, but in all the scientific branches of the public +service. But the science-worker though he may feel the injustice, yet +moves on his way rejoicing, pleased with his unceasing search into the +secret workings of nature, and exhilarated from time to time by some +discovery, or by the confirmation of some cherished notion. And though +the glittering prizes of life be bestowed on strivers in far different +walks, the student of nature holds on his cheerful and philosophic way, +rewarded by the glimpses he gets of the power that made and sustains all +terrestrial things, and rewarded, moreover, by the holy contact with +that infinite wisdom seen at work in the construction, the adaptation, +and the continuance of the marvellous and illimitably varied works it is +the business of his life to investigate. + + + + + CHIPS. + + + NICE WHITE VEAL. + +We shudder at the cruelties practised upon Strasbourg geese to produce +the celebrated _pâtés de foie ǧras_; but remorse would assuredly afflict +the amateurs of veal with indigestion, if they reflected on the tortures +to which calves are subjected to cause the very unnatural colour of the +meat which they so much prize. The natural and wholesome tint of veal is +not white, but pink. An ancient French traveller in England (1690) says +that the English veal has not the “beautiful red colour of the French.” +Dr. Smollett, in “Peregrine Pickle,” upbraids epicures, on the scores +both of cruelty and unwholesomeness, saying that our best veal is like a +“fricassee of kid gloves,” and the sauce of “melted butter” is rendered +necessary only by the absence of the juices drained out of the +unfortunate animal before death. + +The process of killing a calf is a refinement of cruelty worthy of a +Grand Inquisitor. The beast is, while alive, bled several times; in +summer, during several hours of the night, and frequently till it +faints; when a plug is put into the orifice till “next time.” But the +lengthened punishment of the most unoffending of animals is at the +actual “killing.” It is tied together, neck and heels, much as a dead +animal when packed in a basket and slung up by a rope, with the head +downwards. A vein is then opened, till it lingeringly bleeds to death. +Two or three “knocks” are given to it with the pole-axe whilst it hangs +loose in the air, and the flesh is beaten with sticks, technically +termed “dressing” it, some time before feeling has ceased to exist. All +this may be verified by those who insist on seeing the penetralia of the +slaughter-houses; or the poor animal may be seen moaning and writhing—by +a mere glance—on many days of the week, in Warwick Lane, Newgate Street. + +This mode of bleaching veal is not only a crime, but a blunder. The +flesh would be more palatable and nutritious killed speedily and +mercifully. But were it otherwise, and had it been twenty times more a +luxury, who, professing to honour the common Creator, would, for the +sensual gratification of the palate, cause the calf to be thus tortured? + + + + + “ALL THINGS IN THE WORLD MUST CHANGE.” + + + Would’st thou have it always Spring, + Though she cometh flower-laden? + Though sweet-throated birds do sing? + Thou would’st weary of it, Maiden. + Dost thou never feel desire + That thy womanhood were nearer? + Doth thy loving heart ne’er tire, + Longing yet for something dearer? + + Would’st have Summer ever stay— + Droughty Summer—bright and burning? + Dost thou not, oft in the day, + Long for still, cool, night’s returning? + Dost thou not grow weary, Youth, + Of thy pleasures, vain though pleasant— + Thinking Life has more of Truth + Than the satiating present? + + Would’st have Autumn never go? + (Autumn, Winter’s wealthy neighbour), + Stacks would rise, and wine-press flow + Vainly, did’st thou always labour. + When thy child is on thy knee + And thy heart with love’s o’erflowing, + Dost thou never long to see + What is in the future’s showing? + + When old Winter, cold and hoar, + Cometh, blowing his ten fingers, + Hanging ice-drops on the door + Whilst he at the threshold lingers, + Would’st thou ever vigil keep + With a mate so full of sorrow? + Better to thy bed and sleep, + Nor wake till th’ Eternal morrow! + + + + + THE LAST OF A LONG LINE. + + + IN TWO CHAPTERS.—CHAPTER II. + +In Great Stockington there lived a race of paupers. From the year of the +42nd of Elizabeth, or 1601, down to the present generation, this race +maintained an uninterrupted descent. They were a steady and unbroken +line of paupers, as the parish books testify. From generation to +generation their demands on the parish funds stand recorded. There were +no _lacunæ_ in their career; there never failed an heir to these +families; fed on the bread of idleness and legal provision, these people +flourished, increased, and multiplied. Sometimes compelled to work for +the weekly dole which they received, they never acquired a taste for +labour, or lost the taste for the bread for which they did not labour. +These paupers regarded this maintenance by no means as a disgrace. They +claimed it as a right,—as their patrimony. They contended that one-third +of the property of the Church had been given by benevolent individuals +for the support of the poor, and that what the Reformation wrongfully +deprived them of, the great enactment of Elizabeth rightfully—and only +rightfully—restored. + +Those who imagine that all paupers merely claimed parish relief because +the law ordained it, commit a great error. There were numbers who were +hereditary paupers, and that on a tradition carefully handed down, that +they were only manfully claiming their own. They traced their claims +from the most ancient feudal times, when the lord was as much bound to +maintain his villein in gross, as the villein was to work for the lord. +These paupers were, in fact, or claimed to be, the original _adscripti +glebæ_, and to have as much a claim to parish support as the landed +proprietor had to his land. For this reason, in the old Catholic times, +after they had escaped from villenage by running away and remaining +absent from their hundred for a year and a day, dwelling for that period +in a walled town, these people were amongst the most diligent attendants +at the Abbey doors, and when the Abbeys were dissolved, were, no doubt, +amongst the most daring of these thieves, vagabonds, and sturdy rogues, +who, after the Robin Hood fashion, beset the highways and solitary farms +of England, and claimed their black mail in a very unceremonious style. +It was out of this class that Henry VIII. hanged his seventy-two +thousand during his reign, and, as it is said, without appearing +materially to diminish their number. + +That they continued to “increase, multiply, and replenish the earth,” +overflowing all bounds, overpowering by mere populousness all the severe +laws against them of whipping, burning in the hand, in the forehead or +the breast, and hanging, and filling the whole country with alarm, is +evident by the very act itself of Elizabeth. + +Amongst these hereditary paupers who, as we have said, were found in +Stockington, there was a family of the name of Deg. This family had +never failed to demand and enjoy what it held to be its share of its +ancient inheritance. It appeared from the parish records, that they had +practised in different periods the crafts of shoemaking, tailoring, and +chimney-sweeping; but since the invention of the stocking-frame, they +had, one and all of them, followed the profession of stocking weavers, +or as they were there called, stockingers. This was a trade which +required no extreme exertion of the physical or intellectual powers. To +sit in a frame, and throw the arms to and fro, was a thing that might +either be carried to a degree of extreme diligence, or be let down into +a mere apology for idleness. An “idle stockinger” was there no very +uncommon phrase, and the Degs were always classed under that head. +Nothing could be more admirably adapted than this trade for building a +plan of parish relief upon. The Degs did not pretend to be absolutely +without work, or the parish authorities would soon have set them to some +real labour,—a thing that they particularly recoiled from, having a very +old adage in the family, that “hard work was enough to kill a man.” The +Degs were seldom, therefore, out of work, but they did not get enough to +meet and tie. They had but little work if times were bad, and if they +were good, they had large families, and sickly wives or children. Be +times what they would, therefore, the Degs were due and successful +attendants at the parish pay-table. Nay, so much was this a matter of +course, that they came at length not even to trouble themselves to +receive their pay, but sent their young children for it; and it was duly +paid. Did any parish officer, indeed, turn restive, and decline to pay a +Deg, he soon found himself summoned before a magistrate, and such pleas +of sickness, want of work, and poor earnings brought up, that he most +likely got a sharp rebuke from the benevolent but uninquiring +magistrate, and acquired a character for hardheartedness that stuck to +him. + +So parish overseers learnt to let the Degs alone; and their children +regularly brought up to receive the parish money for their parents, were +impatient as they grew up to receive it for themselves. Marriages in the +Deg family were consequently very early, and there were plenty of +instances of married Degs claiming parish relief under the age of +twenty, on the plea of being the parent of two children. One such +precocious individual being asked by a rather verdant officer why he had +married before he was able to maintain a family, replied, in much +astonishment, that he had married in order to maintain himself by parish +assistance. That he never had been able to maintain himself by his +labour, nor ever expected to do it; his only hope, therefore, lay in +marrying, and becoming the father of two children, to which patriarchal +rank he had now attained, and demanded his “pay.” + +Thus had lived and nourished the Degs on their ancient patrimony, the +parish, for upwards of two hundred years. Nay, we have no doubt whatever +that, if it could have been traced, they had enjoyed an ancestry of +paupers as long as the pedigree of Sir Roger Rockville himself. In the +days of the most perfect villenage, they had, doubtless, eaten the bread +of idleness, and claimed it as a right. They were numerous, improvident, +ragged in dress, and fond of an alehouse and of gossip. Like the blood +of Sir Roger, their blood had become peculiar through a long persistence +of the same circumstances. It was become pure pauper blood. The Degs +married, if not entirely among Degs, yet amongst the same class. None +but a pauper would dream of marrying a Deg. The Degs, therefore, were in +constitution, in mind, in habit, and in inclination, paupers. But a pure +and unmixed class of this kind does not die out like an aristocratic +stereotype. It increases and multiplies. The lower the grade, the more +prolific, as is sometimes seen on a large and even national scale. The +Degs threatened, therefore, to become a most formidable clan in the +lower purlieus of Stockington, but luckily there is so much virtue even +in evils, that one, not rarely cures another. War, the great evil, +cleared the town of Degs. + +Fond of idleness, of indulgence, of money easily got, and as easily +spent, the Degs were rapidly drained off by recruiting parties during +the last war. The young men enlisted, and were marched away; the young +women married soldiers that were quartered in the town from time to +time, and marched away with them. There were, eventually, none of the +once numerous Degs left except a few old people, whom death was sure to +draft off at no distant period with his regiment of the line which has +no end. Parish overseers, magistrates, and master manufacturers, +felicitated themselves at this unhoped-for deliverance from the ancient +family of the Degs. + +But one cold, clear, winter evening, the east wind piping its sharp +sibilant ditty in the bare shorn hedges, and poking his sharp fingers +into the sides of well broad-clothed men by way of passing jest, Mr. +Spires, a great manufacturer of Stockington, driving in his gig some +seven miles from the town, passed a poor woman with a stout child on her +back. The large ruddy-looking man in the prime of life, and in the great +coat and thick worsted gloves of a wealthy traveller, cast a glance at +the wretched creature trudging heavily on, expecting a pitiful appeal to +his sensibilities, and thinking it a bore to have to pull off a glove +and dive into his pocket for a copper; but to his surprise there was no +demand, only a low curtsey, and the glimpse of a face of singular +honesty of expression, and of excessive weariness. + +Spires was a man of warm feelings; he looked earnestly at the woman, and +thought he had never seen such a picture of fatigue in his life. He +pulled up and said, + +“You seem very tired, my good woman.” + +“Awfully tired, Sir.” + +“And are you going far to night?” + +“To Great Stockington, Sir, if God give me strength.” + +“To Stockington!” exclaimed Mr. Spires. “Why you seem ready to drop. +You’ll never reach it. You’d better stop at the next village.” + +“Ay, Sir, it’s easy stopping, for those that have money.” + +“And you’ve none, eh?” + +“As God lives, Sir, I’ve a sixpence, and that’s all.” + +Mr. Spires put his hand in his pocket, and held out to her the next +instant, half-a-crown. + +“There stop, poor thing—make yourself comfortable—it’s quite out of the +question to reach Stockington. But stay—are your friends living in +Stockington—what are you?” + +“A poor soldier’s widow, Sir. And may God Almighty bless you!” said the +poor woman, taking the money, the tears standing in her large brown eyes +as she curtsied very low. + +“A soldier’s widow,” said Mr. Spires. She had touched the softest place +in the manufacturer’s heart, for he was a very loyal man, and vehement +champion of his country’s honour in the war. “So young,” said he, “how +did you lose your husband?” + +“He fell, Sir,” said the poor woman; but she could get no further; she +suddenly caught up the corner of her grey cloak, covered her face with +it, and burst into an excess of grief. + +The manufacturer felt as if he had hit the woman a blow by his careless +question; he sate watching her for a moment in silence, and then said, +“Come, get into the gig, my poor woman; come, I must see you to +Stockington.” + +The poor woman dried her tears, and heavily climbed into the gig, +expressing her gratitude in a very touching and modest manner. Spires +buttoned the apron over her, and taking a look at the child, said in a +cheerful tone to comfort her, “Bless me, but that is a fine thumping +fellow, though. I don’t wonder you are tired, carrying such a load.” + +The poor woman pressed the stout child, apparently two years old, to her +breast, as if she felt it a great blessing and no load: the gig drove +rapidly on. + +Presently Mr. Spires resumed his conversation. + +“So you are from Stockington?” + +“No Sir, my husband was.” + +“So: what was his name?” + +“John Deg, Sir.” + +“Deg?” said Mr. Spires. “Deg, did you say?” + +“Yes, Sir.” + +The manufacturer seemed to hitch himself off towards his own side of the +gig, gave another look at her, and was silent. The poor woman was +somewhat astonished at his look and movement, and was silent too. + +After awhile Mr. Spires said again, “And do you hope to find friends in +Stockington? Had you none where you came from?” + +“None Sir, none in the world!” said the poor woman, and again her +feelings seemed too strong for her. At length she added, “I was in +service, Sir, at Poole, in Dorsetshire, when I married; my mother only +was living, and while I was away with my husband, she died. When—when +the news came from abroad—that—when I was a widow, Sir, I went back to +my native place, and the parish officers said I must go to my husband’s +parish lest I and my child should become troublesome.” + +“You asked relief of them?” + +“Never; Oh, God knows, no, never! My family have never asked a penny of +a parish. They would die first, and so would I, Sir; but they said I +might do it, and I had better go to my husband’s parish at once—and they +offered me money to go.” + +“And you took it, of course?” + +“No, sir; I had a little money, which I had earned by washing and +laundering, and I sold most of my things, as I could not carry them, and +came off. I felt hurt, Sir; my heart rose against the treatment of the +parish, and I thought I should be better amongst my husband’s +friends—and my child would, if anything happened to me; I had no friends +of my own.” + +Mr. Spires looked at the woman in silence. “Did your husband tell you +anything of his friends? What sort of a man was he?” + +“Oh, he was a gay young fellow, rather, Sir; but not bad to me. He +always said his friends were well off in Stockington.” + +“He did!” said the manufacturer, with a great stare, and as if bolting +the words from his heart in a large gust of wonder. + +The poor woman again looked at him with a strange look. The manufacturer +whistled to himself, and giving his horse a smart cut with the whip, +drove on faster than ever. The night was fast settling down; it was +numbing cold; a grey fog rose from the river as they thundered over the +old bridge; and tall engine chimneys, and black smoky houses loomed +through the dusk before them. They were at Stockington. + +As they slackened their pace up a hill at the entrance of the town, Mr. +Spires again opened his mouth. + +“I should be sorry to hurt your feelings, Mrs. Deg,” he said, “but I +have my fears that you are coming to this place with false expectations. +I fear your husband did not give you the truest possible account of his +family here.” + +“Oh, Sir! What—what is it?” exclaimed the poor woman; “in God’s name, +tell me!” + +“Why, nothing more than this,” said the manufacturer, “that there are +very few of the Degs left here. They are old, and on the parish, and can +do nothing for you.” + +The poor woman gave a deep sigh, and was silent. + +“But don’t be cast down,” said Mr. Spires. He would not tell her what a +pauper family it really was, for he saw that she was a very feeling +woman, and he thought she would learn that soon enough. He felt that her +husband had from vanity given her a false account of his connections; +and he was really sorry for her. + +“Don’t be cast down,” he went on, “you can wash and iron, you say; you +are young and strong: those are your friends. Depend on them, and +they’ll be better friends to you than any other.” + +The poor woman was silent, leaning her head down on her slumbering +child, and crying to herself; and thus they drove on, through many long +and narrow streets, with gas flaring from the shops, but with few people +in the streets, and these hurrying shivering along the pavement, so +intense was the cold. Anon they stopped at a large pair of gates; the +manufacturer rung a bell, which he could reach from his gig, and the +gates presently were flung open, and they drove into a spacious yard, +with a large handsome house, having a bright lamp burning before it, on +one side of the yard, and tall warehouses on the other. + +“Show this poor woman and her child to Mrs. Craddock’s, James,” said Mr. +Spires, “and tell Mrs. Craddock to make them very comfortable; and if +you will come to my warehouse to-morrow,” added he, addressing the poor +woman, “perhaps I can be of some use to you.” + +The poor woman poured out her heartfelt thanks, and, following the old +man servant, soon disappeared, hobbling over the pebbly pavement with +her living load, stiffened almost to stone by her fatigue and her cold +ride. + +We must not pursue too minutely our narrative. Mrs. Deg was engaged to +do the washing and getting up of Mr. Spire’s linen, and the manner in +which she executed her task insured her recommendations to all their +friends. Mrs. Deg was at once in full employ. She occupied a neat house +in a yard near the meadows below the town, and in those meadows she +might be seen spreading out her clothes to whiten on the grass, attended +by her stout little boy. In the same yard lived a shoemaker, who had two +or three children of about the same age as Mrs. Deg’s child. The +children, as time went on, became playfellows. Little Simon might be +said to have the free run of the shoemaker’s house, and he was the more +attracted thither by the shoemaker’s birds, and by his flute, on which +he often played after his work was done. + +Mrs. Deg took a great friendship for this shoemaker: and he and his +wife, a quiet, kindhearted woman, were almost all the acquaintances that +she cultivated. She had found out her husband’s parents, but they were +not of a description that at all pleased her. They were old and infirm, +but they were of the true pauper breed, a sort of person, whom Mrs. Deg +had been taught to avoid and to despise. They looked on her as a sort of +second parish, and insisted that she should come and live with them, and +help to maintain them out of her earnings. But Mrs. Deg would rather her +little boy had died than have been familiarised with the spirit and +habits of those old people. Despise them she struggled hard not to do, +and she agreed to allow them sufficient to maintain them on condition +that they desisted from any further application to the parish. It would +be a long and disgusting story to recount all the troubles, annoyance, +and querulous complaints, and even bitter accusations that she received +from these connections, whom she could never satisfy; but she considered +it one of her crosses in her life, and patiently bore it, seeing that +they suffered no real want, so long as they lived, which was for years; +but she would never allow her little Simon to be with them alone. + +The shoemaker neighbour was a stout protection to her against the greedy +demands of these old people, and of others of the old Degs, and also +against another class of inconvenient visitors, namely, suitors, who saw +in Mrs. Deg a neat and comely young woman with a flourishing business, +and a neat and soon well-furnished house, a very desirable acquisition. +But Mrs. Deg had resolved never again to marry, but to live for her boy, +and she kept her resolve in firmness and gentleness. + +The shoemaker often took walks in the extensive town meadows to gather +groundsell and plantain for his canaries and gorse-linnets, and little +Simon Deg delighted to accompany him with his own children. There +William Watson, the shoemaker, used to point out to the children the +beauty of the flowers, the insects, and other objects of nature; and +while he sate on a stile and read in a little old book of poetry, as he +often used to do, the children sate on the summer grass, and enjoyed +themselves in a variety of plays. + +The effect of these walks, and the shoemaker’s conversation on little +Simon Deg was such as never wore out of him through his whole life, and +soon led him to astonish the shoemaker by his extraordinary conduct. He +manifested the utmost uneasiness at their treading on the flowers in the +grass; he would burst with tears if they persisted in it; and when asked +why, he said they were so beautiful, and that they must enjoy the +sunshine, and be very unhappy to die. The shoemaker was amazed, but +indulged the lad’s fancy. One day he thought to give him a great treat, +and when they were out in the meadows, he drew from under his coat a bow +and arrow, and shot the arrow high up in the air. He expected to see him +in an ecstacy of delight: his own children clapped their hands in +transport, but Simon stood silent, and as if awestruck. “Shall I send up +another?” asked the shoemaker. + +“No, no,” exclaimed the child, imploringly. “You say God lives up there, +and he mayn’t like it.” + +The shoemaker laughed, but presently he said, as if to himself, “There +is too much imagination there. There will be a poet, if we don’t take +care.” + +The shoemaker offered to teach Simon to read, and to solidify his mind, +as he termed it, by arithmetic, and then to teach him to work at his +trade. His mother was very glad; and thought shoemaking would be a good +trade for the boy; and that with Mr. Watson she should have him always +near her. He was growing now a great lad, and was especially strong, and +of a frank and daring habit. He was especially indignant at any act of +oppression of the weak by the strong, and not seldom got into trouble by +his championship of the injured in such cases amongst the boys of the +neighbourhood. + +He was now about twelve years of age; when, going one day with a basket +of clothes on his head to Mr. Spires’s for his mother, he was noticed by +Mr. Spires himself from his counting-house window. The great war was +raging; there was much distress amongst the manufacturers; and the +people were suffering and exasperated against their masters. Mr. Spires, +as a staunch tory, and supporter of the war, was particularly obnoxious +to the workpeople, who uttered violent threats against him. For this +reason his premises were strictly guarded, and at the entrance of his +yard, just within the gates, was chained a huge and fierce mastiff, his +chain allowing him to approach near enough to intimidate any stranger, +though not to reach him. The dog knew the people who came regularly +about, and seemed not to notice them, but on the entrance of a stranger, +he rose up, barked fiercely, and came to the length of his chain. This +always drew the attention of the porter, if he were away from his box, +and few persons dared to pass till he came. + +Simon Deg was advancing with the basket of clean linen on his head, when +the dog rushed out, and barking loudly, came exactly opposite to him, +within a few feet. The boy, a good deal startled at first, reared +himself with his back against the wall, but at a glance perceiving that +the dog was at the length of his tether, he seemed to enjoy his +situation, and stood smiling at the furious animal, and lifting his +basket with both hands above his head, nodded to him, as if to say, +“Well, old boy, you’d like to eat me, wouldn’t you?” + +Mr. Spires, who sate near his counting-house window at his books, was +struck with the bold and handsome bearing of the boy, and said to a +clerk, “What boy is that?” + +“It is Jenny Deg’s,” was the answer. + +“Ha! that boy! Zounds! how boys do grow! Why that’s the child that Jenny +Deg was carrying when she came to Stockington: and what a strong, +handsome, bright-looking fellow he is now!” + +As the boy was returning, Mr. Spires called him to the counting-house +door, and put some questions to him as to what he was doing and +learning, and so on. Simon, taking off his cap with much respect, +answered in such a clear and modest way, and with a voice that had so +much feeling and natural music in it, that the worthy manufacturer was +greatly taken with him. + +“That’s no Deg,” said he, when he again entered the counting-house, “not +a bit of it. He’s all Goodrick, or whatever his mother’s name was, every +inch of him.” + +The consequence of that interview was, that Simon Deg was very soon +after perched on a stool in Mr. Spires’ counting-house, where he +continued till he was twenty-two. Mr. Spires had no son, only a single +daughter; and such were Simon Deg’s talents, attention to business, and +genial disposition, that at that age Mr. Spires gave him a share in the +concern. He was himself now getting less fond of exertion than he had +been, and placed the most implicit reliance on Simon’s judgment and +general management. Yet no two men could be more unlike in their +opinions beyond the circle of trade. Mr. Spires was a staunch tory of +the staunch old school. He was for Church and King, and for things +remaining for ever as they had been. Simon, on the other hand, had +liberal and reforming notions. He was for the improvement of the people, +and their admission to many privileges. Mr. Spires was, therefore, liked +by the leading men of the place, and disliked by the people. Simon’s +estimation was precisely in the opposite direction. But this did not +disturb their friendship; it required another disturbing cause—and that +came. + +Simon Deg and the daughter of Mr. Spires, grew attached to each other; +and, as the father had thought Simon worthy of becoming a partner in the +business, neither of the young people deemed that he would object to a +partnership of a more domestic description. But here they made a +tremendous mistake. No sooner was such a proposal hinted at, than Mr. +Spires burst forth with the fury of all the winds from the bag of +Ulysses. + +“What! a Deg aspire to the hand of the sole heiress of the enormously +opulent Spires?” + +The very thought almost cut the proud manufacturer off with an apoplexy. +The ghosts of a thousand paupers rose up before him, and he was black in +the face. It was only by a prompt and bold application of leeches and +lancet, that the life of the great man was saved. But there was an end +of all further friendship between himself and the expectant Simon. He +insisted that he should withdraw from the concern, and it was done. +Simon, who felt his own dignity deeply wounded too, for dignity he had, +though the last of a long line of paupers—his own dignity, not his +ancestors’—took silently, yet not unrespectfully, his share—a good, +round sum, and entered another house of business. + +For several years there appeared to be a feud and a bitterness between +the former friends; yet it showed itself in no other manner than by a +careful avoidance of each other. The continental war came to an end; the +manufacturing distress increased exceedingly. There came troublous +times, and a fierce warfare of politics. Great Stockington was torn +asunder by rival parties. On one side stood pre-eminent, Mr. Spires; on +the other towered conspicuously, Simon Deg. Simon was grown rich, and +extremely popular. He was on all occasions the advocate of the people. +He said that he had sprung from, and was one of them. He had bought a +large tract of land on one side of the town; and intensely fond of the +country and flowers himself, he had divided this into gardens, built +little summer-houses in them, and let them to the artisans. In his +factory he had introduced order, cleanliness, and ventilation. He had +set up a school for the children in the evenings, with a reading-room +and conversation-room for the workpeople, and encouraged them to bring +their families there, and enjoy music, books, and lectures. Accordingly, +he was the idol of the people, and the horror of the old school of the +manufacturers. + +“A pretty upstart and demagogue I’ve nurtured,” said Mr. Spires often, +to his wife and daughter, who only sighed, and were silent. + +Then came a furious election. The town, for a fortnight, more resembled +the worst corner of Tartarus than a Christian borough. Drunkenness, +riot, pumping on one another, spencering one another, all sorts of +violence and abuse ruled and raged till the blood of all Stockington was +at boiling heat. In the midst of the tempest were everywhere seen, +ranged on the opposite sides, Mr. Spires, now old and immensely +corpulent, and Simon Deg, active, buoyant, zealous, and popular beyond +measure. But popular though he still was, tho other and old tory side +triumphed. The people were exasperated to madness; and, when the +chairing of the successful candidate commenced, there was a terrific +attack made on the procession by the defeated party. Down went the +chair, and the new member, glad to escape into an inn, saw his friends +mercilessly assailed by the populace. There was a tremendous tempest of +sticks, brickbats, paving-stones, and rotten eggs. In the midst of this, +Simon Deg, and a number of his friends, standing at the upper window of +an hotel, saw Mr. Spires knocked down, and trampled on by the crowd. In +an instant, and, before his friends had missed him from amongst them, +Simon Deg was seen darting through the raging mass, cleaving his way +with a surprising vigour, and gesticulating, and no doubt shouting +vehemently to the rioters, though his voice was lost in the din. In the +next moment, his hat was knocked off, and himself appeared in imminent +danger: but, another moment, and there was a pause, and a group of +people were bearing somebody from the frantic mob into a neighbouring +shop. It was Simon Deg, assisting in the rescue of his old friend and +benefactor, Mr. Spires. + +Mr. Spires was a good deal bruised, and wonderfully confounded and +bewildered by his fall. His clothes were one mass of mud, and his face +was bleeding copiously; but when he had had a good draught of water, and +his face washed, and had time to recover himself, it was found that he +had received no serious injury. + +“They had like to have done for me though,” said he. + +“Yes, and who saved you?” asked a gentleman. + +“Ay, who was it? who was it?” asked the really warm-hearted +manufacturer; “let me know? I owe him my life.” + +“There he is!” said several gentlemen, at the same instant, pushing +forward Simon Deg. + +“What, Simon!” said Mr. Spires, starting to his feet. “Was it thee, my +boy?” He did more, he stretched out his hand: the young man clasped it +eagerly, and the two stood silent, and, with a heartfelt emotion, which +blended all the past into forgetfulness, and the future into a union +more sacred than esteem. + +A week hence, and Simon Deg was the son-in-law of Mr. Spires. Though Mr. +Spires had misunderstood Simon, and Simon had borne the aspect of +opposition to his old friend, in defence of conscientious principle, the +wife and daughter of the manufacturer had always understood him, and +secretly looked forward to some day of recognition and re-union. + +Simon Deg was now the richest man in Stockington. His mother was still +living to enjoy his elevation. She had been his excellent and wise +housekeeper, and she continued to occupy that post still. + +Twenty-five years afterwards, when the worthy old Spires was dead, and +Simon Deg had himself two sons attained to manhood; when he had five +times been Mayor of Stockington, and had been knighted on the +presentation of a loyal address; still his mother was living to see it; +and William Watson, the shoemaker, was acting as the sort of orderly at +Sir Simon’s chief manufactory. He occupied the Lodge, and walked about, +and saw that all was safe, and moving on as it should do. + +It was amazing how the most plebeian name of Simon Deg had slid, under +the hands of the Heralds, into the really aristocratical one of Sir +Simon Degge. They had traced him up a collateral kinship, spite of his +own consciousness, to a baronet of the same name of the county of +Stafford, and had given him a coat of arms that was really astonishing. + +It was some years before this, that Sir Roger Rockville had breathed his +last. His title and estate had fallen into litigation. Owing to two +generations having passed without any issue of the Rockville family +except the one son and heir, the claims, though numerous, were so +mingled with obscuring circumstances, and so equally balanced, that the +lawyers raised quibbles and difficulties enough to keep the property in +Chancery, till they had not only consumed all the ready money and +rental, but had made frightful inroads into the estate itself. To save +the remnant, the contending parties came to a compromise. A neighbouring +squire, whose grandfather had married a Rockville, was allowed to secure +the title, on condition that the rest carried off the residuum of the +estate. The woods and lands of Rockville were announced for sale! + +It was at this juncture that old William Watson reminded Sir Simon Degge +of a conversation in the great grove of Rockville, which they had held +at the time that Sir Roger was endeavouring to drive the people thence. +“What a divine pleasure might this man enjoy,” said Simon Deg to his +humble friend, “if he had a heart capable of letting others enjoy +themselves.” + +“But we talk without the estate,” said William Watson, “what might we do +if we were tried with it?” + +Sir Simon was silent for a moment; then observed that there was sound +philosophy in William Watson’s remark. He said no more, but went away; +and the next day announced to the astonished old man that he had +purchased the groves and the whole ancient estate of Rockville! + +Sir Simon Degge, the last of a long line of paupers, was become the +possessor of the noble estate of Sir Roger Rockville of Rockville, the +last of a long line of aristocrats! + +The following summer when the hay was lying in fragrant cocks in the +great meadows of Rockville, and on the little islands in the river, Sir +Simon Degge, Baronet, of Rockville,—for such was now his title—through +the suggestion of a great lawyer, formerly Recorder of the Borough of +Stockington, to the crown—held a grand fête on the occasion of his +coming to reside at Rockville Hall, henceforth the family seat of the +Degges. His house and gardens had all been restored to the most +consummate order. For years Sir Simon had been a great purchaser of +works of art and literature, paintings, statuary, books, and articles of +antiquity, including rich armour and precious works in ivory and gold. + +First and foremost he gave a great banquet to his wealthy friends, and +no man with a million and a half is without them—and in abundance. In +the second place, he gave a substantial dinner to all his tenantry, from +the wealthy farmer of five hundred acres to the tenant of a cottage. On +this occasion he said, “Game is a subject of great heart-burning and of +great injustice to the country. It was the bane of my predecessor: let +us take care it is not ours. Let every man kill the game on the land +that he rents—then he will not destroy it utterly, nor allow it to grow +into a nuisance. I am fond of a gun myself, but I trust to find enough +for my propensity to the chace in my own fields and woods—if I +occasionally extend my pursuit across the lands of my tenants, it shall +not be to carry off the first-fruits of their feeding, and I shall still +hold the enjoyment as a favour.” + +We need not say that this speech was applauded most vociferously. +Thirdly, and lastly, he gave a grand entertainment to all his +workpeople, both of the town and the country. His house and gardens were +thrown open to the inspection of the whole assembled company. The +delighted crowd admired immensely the pictures and the pleasant gardens. +On the lawn, lying between the great grove and the hall, an enormous +tent was pitched, or rather a vast canvas canopy erected, open on all +sides, in which was laid a charming banquet; a military band from +Stockington barracks playing during the time. Here Sir Simon made a +speech as rapturously received as that to the farmers. It was to the +effect, that all the old privileges of wandering in the grove, and +angling, and boating on the river were restored. The inn was already +rebuilt in a handsome Elizabethan style, larger than before, and to +prevent it ever becoming a fane of intemperance, he had there posted as +landlord, he hoped for many years to come, his old friend and +benefactor, William Watson. William Watson should protect the inn from +riot, and they themselves the groves and river banks from injury. + +Long and loud were the applauses which this announcement occasioned. The +young people turned out upon the green for a dance, and in the evening, +after an excellent tea—the whole company descended the river to +Stockington in boats and barges decorated with boughs and flowers, and +singing a song made by William Watson for the occasion, called “The +Health of Sir Simon, last and first of his Line!” + +Years have rolled on. The groves and river banks and islands of +Rockville are still greatly frequented, but are never known to be +injured: poachers are never known there, for four reasons.—First, nobody +would like to annoy the good Sir Simon; secondly, game is not very +numerous there; thirdly, there is no fun in killing it, where there is +no resistance; and fourthly, it is vastly more abundant in other +proprietors’ demesnes, and _it is_ fun to kill it there, where it is +jealously watched, and there is a chance of a good spree with the +keepers. + +And with what different feelings does the good Sir Simon look down from +his lofty eyrie, over the princely expanse of meadows, and over the +glittering river, and over the stately woods to where Great Stockington +still stretches farther and farther its red brick walls, its red-tiled +roofs, and its tall smoke-vomiting chimneys. There he sees no haunts of +crowded enemies to himself or any man. No upstarts, nor envious +opponents, but a vast family of human beings, all toiling for the good +of their families and their country. All advancing, some faster, some +slower, to a better education, a better social condition, a better +conception of the principles of art and commerce, and a clearer +recognition of their rights and their duties, and a more cheering faith +in the upward tendency of humanity. + +Looking on this interesting scene from his distant and quiet home, Sir +Simon sees what blessings flow—and how deeply he feels them in his own +case—from a free circulation, not only of trade, but of human relations. +How this corrects the mischiefs, moral and physical, of false systems +and rusty prejudices;—and he ponders on schemes of no ordinary beauty +and beneficence yet to reach his beloved town through them. He sees +lecture halls and academies, means of sanitary purification, and +delicious recreation, in which baths, wash-houses, and airy homes figure +largely: while public walks extend all round the great industrial hive, +including wood, hills, meadow, and river in their circuit of many miles. +There he lived and laboured; there live and labour his sons: and there +he trusts his family will continue to live and labour to all future +generations: never retiring to the fatal indolence of wealth, but aiding +onwards its active and ever-expanding beneficence. + +Long may the good Sir Simon live and labour to realise these views. But +already in a green corner of the pleasant churchyard of Rockville may be +read this inscription on a marble headstone:—“Sacred to the Memory of +Jane Deg, the mother of Sir Simon Degge, Bart., of Rockville. This stone +is erected in honour of the best of Mothers by the most grateful of +sons.” + + + + + TWO LETTERS FROM AUSTRALIA. + + +Correspondents, to whom emigration is a subject of vital +importance—inasmuch as they appear to be resolved to leave kindred and +home for “pastures new”—have written to us, with a hope that we will +continue to give, as we have done hitherto, the dark as well as the +light side of the Colonial picture. Not a few of the dangers and +privations of Australian life we have already laid before them. We now +are enabled to furnish some idea of how new localities are colonised, by +such enterprising pioneers as the author of the letters from which we +take the following extracts. + +It must be remarked, that the perils he describes were self-sought, and +are by no means incidental to the career of an ordinary emigrant. His +adventures occurred beyond the limits of the colony as defined by the +British Government which, it would appear, he was in some degree +instrumental in extending. + +We give the “round unvarnished tale” precisely as we received it, and as +it was communicated by the author to a relative in Cheshire:— + +When we separated from our partner, Mr. W., it became necessary to look +for stations outside the limits of the colony, for the only station we +then possessed was much too small for our stock. R. and I first took the +stock up to the station on the Murray, and having heard that a fine +district of country had just been discovered on the Edward, we followed +it down and discovered our present runs, and, I must say, they are +equal—for grazing purposes, at least—to anything I have seen in the +colony. It was necessary that one of us should remain at our station on +the Murray, and R. very kindly gave me the option of either remaining or +going down the Edward. I preferred going and forming new stations on the +Edward, while he agreed to continue where he was, which indeed he +preferred. I therefore lost no time in removing the stock before the +winter rains should set in, and the waters rise to an unnatural height, +which the rivers down here invariably do at this period of the year, +overflowing their banks, in places, for miles. It was too late,—for just +as we started it commenced raining, and continued, without ceasing, for +a month. It was with the greatest difficulty we got down, as, from +continued exposure to wet, and what with driving the cattle by day and +watching them by night, we were, as you may suppose, so completely +fagged, as to be almost “_hors de service_.” But there is an end to +everything,—in this world at least,—and so there was to our journey. It +excited in me at the time, I well recollect, strange and indescribable +sensations, as I rode over the runs, exploring the different nooks and +crannies all so lonely and still, with not a sound to be heard, save now +and then the wild shriek of the native Companion (a large bird), or the +howl of the native dog, or the still more thrilling yell of the black +native, announcing to others the arrival of white men. + +We were now about fifty miles from any other white habitation, about six +hundred from Sydney, and two hundred from Melbourne. The country down +here is almost a dead level,—not a single hill to be seen, unless you +choose to honour with the name a few miserable mounds of sand which rise +to an elevation of some twenty or thirty feet. The plains are very +extensive; there is one which extends from our door right across to the +Murrum-bridge, a distance of sixty-five miles, with scarcely a tree on +it. + +The Murray—of which the Edward is a branch—takes its rise in the +Australian Alps, and is supplied by springs and snow from these. Some of +the highest mountains of this range retain perpetual snow on their +summits, but on the lesser ones it melts about the beginning of spring, +causing great floods in the Murray and Edward, and our runs, being +particularly low, are flooded from one to three miles on either side of +the river. It is necessary to state this, to enable you to understand +the “secrets I am about to unfold.” We had built one hut on the south +side (ycleped Barratta), but before we could get one up on the south +side (Wirrai), the floods came, and I was obliged to substitute a bark +one instead. I divided the cattle into two herds, and put a steady +stock-keeper, along with a hutkeeper, in charge of one herd on the +Wirrai station, while I, with a hutkeeper and another man (we were only +five altogether) looked after the other on this side. We were badly +supplied with arms and ammunition, and by no means prepared to fight a +strong battle should the Blacks be inclined for mischief. The natives +did not show up at the huts for two or three weeks after our arrival, +but kept reconnoitring at a distance, and we could sometimes see them +gliding stealthily among the trees not far off us. By degrees, two or +three of them came up and made friends, and then more and more, until we +had seen from forty to fifty of them, but it was remarkable that only +old men, boys, and women showed themselves, and none of the warriors. +Although I had heard that kindness was of no avail, I never could be +brought to believe it, and determined, therefore, to do all in my power +to propitiate them by trifling gifts, kind treatment, and avoiding +everything that could hurt their feelings. It was of no use; no +kindness—nothing, in fact—will teach them the law of _meum_ and _tuum_ +but the white man’s gun and his superior courage. We had been down about +three months, the waters were at their highest, and our huts on both +sides of the river were surrounded by water, through which we had to +wade every morning to look after the cattle. I was obliged to put the +huts within hearing of gunshot, on account of mutual protection, for +what, after all, are two or three men alone, without a chance of +assistance, against a body of two or three hundred black warriors, +painted and armed, as I have seen them, in all the panoply of savage +warfare. + +We had not seen a single Black for nearly six weeks, for, as I +afterwards learned, they had all gone over to a station on the Murray, +about fifty miles from us, where they succeeded in driving the whites +out after killing one man, and from three to four hundred head of +cattle, without the slightest check or resistance; and having brought +their work to a conclusion there, and emboldened by the success of their +expedition, they now turned their eyes towards us, and gathering both +numbers and courage, came pouring down on our devoted station. We had +heard nothing of these depredations then, and were therefore quite +unprepared for them. One day about twenty Blacks come up to the huts for +the purpose, I suppose, of reconnoitring the nakedness of the land, and +we killed for them a bullock, thinking thereby to propitiate them. In +this, however, I was most woefully mistaken, for before they had half +finished it, they went among the cattle on both sides of the river, and +by next morning there was not a single head left within forty miles, +with the exception of a few they had killed at either station. The +Wirrai stock-keeper went on the tracks of his herd, and I followed those +of mine, and by a week’s time we had recovered the greatest part of +both, but there were spears sticking in the sides of many of them, which +wanton piece of cruelty occasioned several deaths in a short time. Not +being strong enough to punish the Blacks, and unwilling to begin a +quarrel which might cause loss of life perhaps on both sides, and still +hoping that they would cease their depredations, I contented myself with +giving them to understand that, if they attempted in future to touch +either man or beast among us, they should be severely punished; they +said it was not them but some _Wild Blacks_, an excuse they always make +when they steal. In a fortnight afterwards, however, they acted the same +play over again; and again we had the same trouble in recovering the +cattle. They did not show after this except at a respectable distance, +when it would be with a flourish of spears, or a wave of their +tomahawks, accompanied with gesticulations of anything but a friendly +character. Still I did not believe that they would attempt our lives, +until I very nearly paid with mine the forfeit of my incredulity. I +should mention that the communication with the Wirrai station was, at +this time, carried on by means of bark canoes, which we paddled with +long poles; the distance by water was about three miles, and by land +straight across, a mile and a half. + +One day I had gone over to Wirrai in a canoe, to see how the stockman +was getting on, and on my return was humming a tune and thinking of you, +dear William (for I was humming your old favorite “Flow on, thou shining +River”), when I fancied I heard a slight noise: I stopped and listened, +but could hear nothing; I went a little further and heard it again; I +stopped again and peered about the bank, when suddenly about twenty +Blacks sprung up from behind trees, and reeds, and long grass, only one +of whom I had ever seen before; I was about fifty yards from the nearest +of them, and just at the entrance of a creek about ten yards wide, lined +on both sides with thick reeds. When they first appeared they did not +show any weapons, and spoke in a friendly strain; “Budgery Master always +gibit bullock along im Black fellow,” asked if I wanted any fish? As I +had a good double-barrel gun on my knees I did not so much care about +them, but not exactly liking their appearance I stopped at about thirty +yards. The Blacks by this time were jabbering to more down the creek, +and I could see that the one side was lined with them. Seeing that I +would not come any nearer, they suddenly picked up their spears and +altered their tone, and began calling all sorts of names, and threatened +to break my head with their “Nella nellas” (clubs). Quick as lightning +they shipped their spears, but not quicker than I levelled my gun; the +instant they saw which (they have a great respect for powder,) they +betook themselves behind trees, and, in truth, I thought it best to +follow their example; so, keeping the gun to my shoulder the while, I +began as well as I could to paddle the canoe with one hand; perceiving +my object, they stood out to thwart it, and I knowing that if they sent +their spears, though none of them should hit me, they must inevitably +shiver the canoe to pieces, determined to get on terra firma as quickly +as possible, the water being only knee deep. In stepping out I +unfortunately got into a stump-hole, and the next moment was soused over +head and ears in water! This was decidedly unpleasant, and for the first +time a thrill of fear came over me; however, I jumped up again, and +having been very particular in loading my gun, I thought it might still +go off. By this time the Blacks had gathered in great numbers on the +other side of the creek and were pressing on in a body; seeing this I +now levelled my piece, and took as deliberate an aim as I could at the +foremost of them (a huge brute, for whose capture a hundred pounds +reward had been offered by Government for a murder committed by him on +the Murrum-bridge), but the gun hung fire and the ball dropped into the +water. Finding that there was no dependence to be placed in the gun, the +only course left me was to retreat, and to attempt this I now resolved; +taking courage at this, a number of them jumped into the water, again I +faced them, and again they took to trees—are they not rank cowards? I +was beginning to think that my only chance was to take to my legs—which +indeed would have been almost certain death—when at this crisis I was, +as you may imagine, agreeably surprised by the welcome “Halloo” of the +stockman and hutkeeper, who, having heard the report of the gun and the +yells of the savages, knew that something was up, and arrived at the +nick of time to my rescue. After giving me some dry ammunition we made a +rush after them, but could not overtake the black legs which were now +plying at a particularly nimble rate, and which they especially do when +getting out of the reach of a gun. This was the first attempt they had +made on any of our lives, and their manœuvres showed that they were +under the impression that, if they could “_do for_” the master, they +might easily finish the men. But I made it a rule that never less than +two were to go out on foot or in canoes, and with never less than twenty +rounds of ball cartridge. We did not see anything of the Blacks for a +fortnight after this, during which interval, as they afterwards told us, +they were preparing for a grand attack on the Wirrai station. + +About two hours before sundown the following day the stockman went out, +as usual, to see that the cattle were safe. The Wirrai hut, I should +mention, was at this time on a kind of island about a mile and a half in +diameter, formed by the Wirrai Lagoon and a deep creek,—so that the +cattle were feeding almost within sight of the hut. All was quiet; the +cattle did not seem to betray any symptoms of fear, which they generally +will do when the Blacks are near. He had not returned more than half an +hour, when we saw the poor beasts coming rushing towards the hut—as if +for protection—as hard as they could lay legs to the ground. On going +among them, we found many with spears sticking in their bodies. We +immediately mounted horses—(I bareback, as I had left my saddle at +Barratta)—and gallopped as hard as we could in the direction the cattle +had come from for about a mile, when, not seeing anything, we stopped +and listened. There was a small, dense shrub before us, and, as we +approached it, the awful yell that greeted our ears I shall not forget +in a hurry. You can have no idea of the effect it has on one +unaccustomed to the sound, for it is like nothing earthly that I can +compare it to, but more like what one might imagine a lot of fiends +would set up while performing their jubilee over the soul of some +defunct mortal lately arrived at the “prison-house.” We gallopped +through the shrub. Before us was a space bounded by two creeks, forming +at their junction an angle on the plain beyond. Arranged in a semicircle +in this space were some two hundred warriors, painted and armed, and +drawn up in battle array. Between us and them four or five bullocks were +writhing in their death agony, while the other side of the creek, beyond +the warriors, was black with old men, women, and children looking on, +and yelling at a most fearful rate. We gallopped within gunshot, and I +then ordered the stockman to fire on them—(I had no gun myself, and had +enough to do to sit the young spirited horse I was on), but he refused, +saying that my horse would be sure to throw me, and that nothing then +could save me from certain death. By this time the Blacks were trying to +surround us, so as to hem us in between themselves and the creek, and +cut off our retreat to the hut where we had left the hutkeeper in +charge, and we soon found it necessary to put our horses into a +gallop—they following at our heels—in order to get there in time enough +to prepare for a defence. It was their intention, as they afterwards +kindly informed us, to have killed every man jack of us. We had just got +everything ready, when on they came yelling like so many fiends. We +stood out from the hut awaiting their onset. Although the odds against +us, as regarded numbers, was fearful, I was confident that if we could +only make sure of three or four of the foremost of them, it would go far +to intimidate the rest; so, as soon as they came within range of our +guns, we gave them three rounds, which, however, only wounded one of +them; still it made the others check their paces and hesitate awhile, +seeing especially that we were determined to sell our lives dearly at +this crisis; they betook themselves behind trees, protected by which +they crept nearer and nearer to us, we taking every opportunity of +firing, but with small effect. It being now nearly dark, we were obliged +to take to the hut, and defend ourselves there as best we could. When +inside, they threw a great many spears through the tarpaulin, very +fortunately with no other effect than that of one of them just grazing +my head. This kind of siege was carried on about four hours, we firing a +shot now and then when we thought we could perceive the dim outline of +one of them gliding through the dark, and they sending an occasional +spear, and giving a yell. What we most feared was their making an +attempt to set the hut on fire, for if successful in this (and the day +having been very warm, our tarpaulin would have burned like so much +paper) it would have been all up with us. + +We had almost given up all hopes of life, and a sort of stubborn, dogged +desperation seized me such as I never before felt, and such as I trust I +never may again feel. We were reduced to nearly a dozen rounds of +ammunition which we resolved to save for the rush. About midnight I was +horribly startled by the stock-keeper announcing that on his side of the +hut (we each of us guarded one side) he thought he could distinguish a +fire-stick at some distance, and, on looking, we could plainly perceive +it approaching nearer and nearer, until it came within what we +considered safe gunshot, when I told the stockman, who was the best +shot, to take good aim. He fired, and the fire-stick dropped on the +ground. A good deal of yelling followed, but they did not again venture +to show fire. + +Everything after an hour remained quiet; the cattle had long since been +rushed off the island, and the Blacks, we supposed, had gone to rest, +preparatory to an attack at daybreak. Towards dawn, being faint and weak +through anxiety and fasting,—for we had had nothing for twenty-four +hours,—we determined on having some tea; but before it could be got +ready we again heard the Blacks yelling most furiously. The stockman and +hutkeeper thereupon gave it as their opinion, that our only hope of +escape was in immediately quitting the hut, and attempting, if possible, +to get across to Barratta; so, instantly decamping, we crossed the +lagoon in a canoe, which we then dragged across a few hundred yards of +land to the river. This we also quickly crossed. Just as we reached the +Barratta bank, we heard a most awful hullabaloo at Wirrai, in which +noises our friends the Blacks were giving vent to their feelings of +disgust and disappointment at not finding us at home. Before they could +overtake us, we were safe at Barratta. “To be continued in our next,” as +the Editors of periodicals often say. + + In a Second Letter the Narrative is resumed. + +I could see plainly depicted in the faces of the two men who were in +charge of the Barratta station, a considerable degree of suspicion as to +the extent of our courage in the Wirrai affair. They were both plucky +men, but their notions underwent a great change the next day. The day we +escaped, we heard nothing more of the natives, except now and then their +distant yells; so I sent up a man on horseback to the next station for +assistance, to help us to find and recover the cattle. But the +superintendent either would not or could not give us any, although all +his servants, to a man, volunteered to go. I was obliged, therefore, to +allow my four men to proceed alone. I think I mentioned that I had +burned my foot very severely, and by this time, from the work I had had +to undergo, I was in great agony from it. But I offered the men, if any +one of them objected to it, he could remain in the hut, and I would go +in his place. They all, however, readily agreed to go, for, in truth, +remaining behind was by far the most dangerous post, inasmuch as the +Blacks, from their numbers, could easily circumvent the men, or keep +them at bay, while they attacked the hut, and I could have done little +myself, in the way of defence, with only an old lockless piece, to +discharge which it was necessary to use a fire-stick. Before they left, +the stockman took me aside, and, with much kindness, implored me +earnestly, for my own safety, to take a horse, and stop out on the +plain. He told me, at the same time, that he did not expect to come back +alive; “but,” said he, “it does not matter a straw what becomes of us, +for not one of us would be missed.” This disinterestedness struck me not +a little, as showing a high trait of fine feeling, coming as it did from +an old convict who had been transported for life, and had once been +condemned to be hanged. However, I resolved to take my chance in the +hut, and very glad I was that I did so afterwards, as I should have +looked very foolish, when my men returned, seated on a horse, and ready +to make a bolt. I had waited about an hour with my old gun and +fire-stick in hand, without hearing a sound to break the horrid +stillness which seemed at that particular time to reign paramount around +me, when a distant volley of gunshot burst upon my ear, and then a faint +volley of yells. In a short time the sounds were repeated; again and +again, but nearer and nearer, and more and more distinct, a shot or two +at a time, with horrible yells filling up the interlude until I could +distinguish my men retreating with an immense semicircle of natives +trying to encompass them and cut them off from the hut. My men retreated +to the water’s edge in capital order, and then faced round to the enemy, +for it would have been sure death to have attempted to cross in the face +of so many of the foe. After a good deal of skirmishing at this point, a +very old Black took a green bough, and standing a little out from the +rest, made a long harangue to the white men in his own language, which +of course was just so much Hebrew to them; but being anxious for a truce +they ceased firing. Another Black who could talk a little English now +came forward, and after a good deal of jabber, concluded a peace, one +condition of which was that they were to give up everything they had +taken from the Wirrai hut. Of course we well knew, or at least fully +expected, that this treaty was all hollow on their side, and like +lovers’ vows, made only to be broken; but the truth was, we were glad +enough to get a little respite even though for ever so short a time. +After restoring most of the things they had stolen, the Blacks drew off +in a body to the other side of the river. + +The stockman informed me, that, when they started on their search, they +first crossed the river, and then made away over to the Collegian, where +they soon espied a few Blacks, apparently reconnoitring, who, when they +perceived the white men, made signals to other Blacks beyond them, and +who, in like manner, signalled others still further away: presently they +saw slowly approaching them a dense black body which the two men who had +not been at Wirrai the day before took to be the cattle they were in +search of, but which the more experienced stockman at once declared to +be a vast body of the Blacks. The two men at first laughed at this idea +as a good joke, but were soon confirmed as to its correctness, when they +changed their tone, and began to think it high time to return. On, +however, they came in a dense body, and when nearly within gunshot, +spread themselves out, or deployed—as our military brother would I +suppose call it—and pressing on in a large semicircle, endeavoured so to +manœuvre, as to cut off the escape of the retreating _army_ in the +direction of the hut as before related. + +The truce, as we had anticipated, proved a very short one, as you will +presently see. The day following the above incidents, I sent the +stockman and another, to see after the surviving cattle which our black +friends informed us had got out of the island and gone across the +country to the Murray, which was true. The men had been gone about three +hours, when about a hundred of the warriors came up to the hut—without +their spears, but with plenty of tomahawks—pretending to be good +friends. I told the two men who were working outside, to keep a sharp +lookout, as I suspected their friendship was not of that description I +most coveted or admired; and being myself scarcely able to move, I sat +down in a corner of the hut by a table, with a gun close by me, a brace +of pistols in my belt, and another on the table. I told the Blacks to +keep outside the hut; but they, gradually edging their way in, soon +nearly filled it: and seeing that there was no chance of keeping them +out, except by proceeding to extremities, I contented myself with +watching their motions with all the coolness I could command. They began +talking very quietly at first, and I noticed the gentleman I mentioned +who could talk a little English, edging by little and little towards me, +sometimes talking to his companions and sometimes addressing me. I +pretended not to notice him particularly, though at the same +time—without looking directly at him—I could see his eyes rolling from +the direction of mine to the fire-arms like a revolving lamp. Soon the +jabbering became louder and louder (they were talking themselves into a +rage), and I thought I could hear the names of some of those who had +fallen, made use of. All the while the above-mentioned black fellow was +shuffling closer and closer to me, until i’ faith I thought it was high +time to act my part in the scene, or give up all thoughts of life. With +all the calmness I was master of, I took up a pistol from the table, and +taking my English friend by the arm, pointed it at his head, and told +him to order all his companions to quit the hut; he shook like an aspen +leaf, and turned as white as a Black well can, and ordered them to go +out, which they immediately did without a word; I then led him after +them, and bade them leave the place, and return to their camp, which +they likewise did. + +I look upon that as about the narrowest escape I ever had; for the +Blacks have since told me that they were on the point of making a rush +upon us, when it was providentially stopped by the timely proceeding +mentioned. Had they done so, nothing of course could have saved us. Next +day three or four hundred of them passed the hut in dead silence; and +not one of them called. They were all fully armed and painted with red +ochre (their uniform for war), and I conjectured they were up to some +mischief, but what I could not tell. + +In about a week we again had the pleasure of seeing them coming in great +numbers, and camping in an island about a mile off. From certain signs +which experience had taught us, we were well assured that they intended +making a grand attack upon our hut. I had no one living at Wirrai then; +and as there were only four of us at Barratta, viz., H., (who had just +arrived), myself and two men, (the two who had been sent after the +cattle, were still away,) and wishing to give the Blacks a severe +lesson, we sent to the next station for as many men as they could spare. + +The man we sent had only just reached the station, when the Commissioner +of the district chanced also to arrive there. Now the Commissioner in +those days was a man of great authority; in fact, altogether more like a +little king, than any less lordly personage: so, instead of coming down +himself with his police to our assistance, he allowed the superintendent +to send six of his men, while he himself remained where he was “otium +cum” for in truth the old fellow—to say nothing of his love of ease, was +of old Falstaff’s opinion touching the advisable predominance of a +certain quality in the exercise of valour. The men arrived in great +silence at midnight, and the Blacks fortunately knew nothing of their +arrival; for if they had, they would have deferred their attack until a +more seasonable opportunity when we were not so well prepared for their +reception. + +Daylight came, and in the distance we could see their dusky figures +crossing the lagoon to one side. They had only three canoes, so that it +was a considerable time before all were landed. They then gathered +together in a clump in dead silence, and held a council of war, thinking +themselves unobserved all the time. At sunrise they slowly approached, +and only those of us whom they expected to see showed out to them, and +without arms; they appeared to have no other arms than their tomahawks; +but every man of them was dragging a large jagged spear with their toes +through the long grass. When, by the way, one of these spears enters a +man’s body, it is impossible to get it out again, except by cutting the +flesh all round it, or pushing it right through to the other side. As +they advanced nearer, they spoke, and continued talking to us all the +time in the most friendly strains, until within about twenty yards; when +just as they (at a signal given by one of them) were stooping to pick up +their spears to make a rush, the men in the hut let drive through +loopholes right among them; and we all made a simultaneous rush, and put +them to rout in a manner that would have given the Old Duke intense +satisfaction had he been looking on. How many fell, I cannot say, as +they always try to drag their dead from the field, and all around us, +except on the water-side, was long grass and reeds; two were left dead, +and these we buried. + +To detail all the skirmishes and the Parthian description of fighting +with the Blacks for the eighteen months which ensued, would only weary +you. Where, little more than three years ago, ours was the only station +in this direction, being five miles beyond any other, there are now +stations formed a hundred miles below us, and even ladies grace the +river forty miles down, one of them married to an old school-fellow of +ours, viz., Brougham, nephew of Lord Brougham. Among other diversions, I +have been employing myself in making a flower-garden, for independently +of my love of flowers, I think their contemplation, and engagement in +their cultivation, has a humanising, or, if you will, a civilising +effect on the mind, such as I can assure you we require in the Bush. + + + + + SUPPOSING. + + +Supposing a Royal Duke were to die. Which is not a great stretch of +supposition, + + For golden lads and lasses must, + Like chimney-sweepers, come to dust: + +Supposing he had been a good old Duke with a thoroughly kind heart, and +a generous nature, always influenced by a sincere desire to do right, +and always doing it, like a man and a gentleman, to the best of his +ability: + +And supposing, this Royal Duke left a son, against whom there was no +imputation or reproach, but of whom all men were disposed to think well, +and had no right or reason to think otherwise: + +And supposing, this Royal Duke, though possessed of a very handsome +income in his lifetime, had not made provision for this son; and a +rather accommodating Government (in such matters) were to make provision +for him, at the expense of the public, on a scale wholly unsuited to the +nature of the public burdens, past, present, and prospective, and +bearing no proportion to any kind of public reward, for any sort of +public service: + +I wonder whether the country could then, with any justice, complain, +that the Royal Duke had not himself provided for his son, instead of +leaving his son a charge upon the people! + +I should think the question would depend upon this:—Whether the country +had ever given the good Duke to understand, that it, in the least +degree, expected him to provide for his son. If it never did anything of +the sort, but always conveyed to him, in every possible way, the +rapturous assurance that there was a certain amount of troublesome Hotel +business to be done, which nobody but a Royal Duke could by any +possibility do, or the business would lose its grace and flavor, then, I +should say, the good Duke aforesaid might reasonably suppose that he +made sufficient provision for his son, in leaving him the Hotel +business; and that the country would be a very unreasonable country, if +it made any complaint. + +Supposing the country _did_ complain, though, after all. I wonder what +it would still say, in Committee, Sub Committee, Charitable Association, +and List of Stewards, if any ungenteel person were to propose ignoble +chairmen! + +Because I should like the country to be consistent. + + * * * * * + + Monthly Supplement of “HOUSEHOLD WORDS,” + Conducted by CHARLES DICKENS. + + + _Price 2d., Stamped, 3d._, + + THE HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE + OF + CURRENT EVENTS. + + + _The Number, containing a history of the past month, was issued with + the Magazines._ + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + ● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Renumbered footnotes. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + ● The caret (^) is used to indicate superscript, whether applied to a + single character (as in 2^d) or to an entire expression (as in + 1^{st}). + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78185 *** diff --git a/78185-h/78185-h.htm b/78185-h/78185-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8097625 --- /dev/null +++ b/78185-h/78185-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3562 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>Household Words, No. 20, August 10, 1850 | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; 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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 78185 ***</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_457'>457</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> 20.]      SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1850.      [<span class='sc'>Price</span> 2<i>d.</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>A DETECTIVE POLICE PARTY.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>The fresh-complexioned, smooth-faced +officer, with the strange air of simplicity, +began, with a rustic smile, and in a soft, +wheedling tone of voice, to relate the Butcher’s +Story, thus:</p> + +<p class='c005'>“It’s just about six years ago, now, since +information was given at Scotland Yard of +there being extensive robberies of lawns and +silks going on, at some wholesale houses in +the City. Directions were given for the +business being looked into; and Straw, and +Fendall, and me, we were all in it.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“When you received your instructions,” +said we, “you went away, and held a sort of +Cabinet Council together?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The smooth-faced officer coaxingly replied, +“Ye-es. Just so. We turned it over among +ourselves a good deal. It appeared, when we +went into it, that the goods were sold by the +receivers extraordinarily cheap—much cheaper +than they could have been if they had been +honestly come by. The receivers were in the +trade, and kept capital shops—establishments +of the first respectability—one of ’em at the +West End, one down in Westminster. After +a lot of watching and inquiry, and this and +that among ourselves, we found that the job +was managed, and the purchases of the stolen +goods made, at a little public-house near +Smithfield, down by Saint Bartholomew’s; +where the Warehouse Porters, who were the +thieves, took ’em for that purpose, don’t you +see? and made appointments to meet the +people that went between themselves and +the receivers. This public-house was principally +used by journeymen butchers from +the country, out of place, and in want of +situations; so, what did we do, but—ha, ha, ha!—we +agreed that I should be dressed up like a +butcher myself, and go and live there!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Never, surely, was a faculty of observation +better brought to bear upon a purpose, than +that which picked out this officer for the part. +Nothing in all creation, could have suited him +better. Even while he spoke, he became a +greasy, sleepy, shy, good-natured, chuckle-headed, +unsuspicious, and confiding young +butcher. His very hair seemed to have suet +in it, as he made it smooth upon his head, +and his fresh complexion to be lubricated +by large quantities of animal food.</p> + +<p class='c005'>——“So I—ha, ha, ha!” (always with +the confiding snigger of the foolish young +butcher) “so I dressed myself in the regular +way, made up a little bundle of clothes, and +went to the public-house, and asked if I could +have a lodging there? They says, ‘yes, you +can have a lodging here,’ and I got a bedroom, +and settled myself down in the tap. +There was a number of people about the +place, and coming backwards and forwards to +the house; and first one says, and then +another says, ‘Are you from the country, +young man?’ ‘Yes,’ I says, ‘I am. I’m +come out of Northamptonshire, and I’m +quite lonely here, for I don’t know London at +all, and it’s such a mighty big town?’ ‘It +<i>is</i> a big town,’ they says. ‘Oh, it’s a <i>very</i> +big town!’ I says. ‘Really and truly I never +was in such a town. It quite confuses of +me!’—and all that, you know.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“When some of the Journeymen Butchers +that used the house, found that I wanted +a place, they says, ‘Oh, we’ll get you a +place!’ And they actually took me to a +sight of places, in Newgate Market, Newport +Market, Clare, Carnaby—I don’t know where +all. But the wages was—ha, ha, ha!—was +not sufficient, and I never could suit myself, +don’t you see? Some of the queer frequenters +of the house, were a little suspicious of me at +first, and I was obliged to be very cautious +indeed, how I communicated with Straw or +Fendall. Sometimes, when I went out, pretending +to stop and look into the shop-windows, +and just casting my eye round, I +used to see some of ’em following me; but, +being perhaps better accustomed than they +thought for, to that sort of thing, I used to +lead ’em on as far as I thought necessary or +convenient—sometimes a long way—and then +turn sharp round, and meet ’em, and say, +‘Oh, dear, how glad I am to come upon you +so fortunate! This London’s such a place, +I’m blowed if I an’t lost again!’ And then +we’d go back all together, to the public-house, +and—ha, ha, ha! and smoke our +pipes, don’t you see?</p> + +<p class='c005'>“They were very attentive to me, I am +sure. It was a common thing, while I was +living there, for some of ’em to take me out, +and show me London. They showed me the +Prisons—showed me Newgate—and when +they showed me Newgate, I stops at the place +<span class='pageno' id='Page_458'>458</span>where the Porters pitch their loads, and +says, ‘Oh dear,’ ‘is this where they hang +the men! Oh Lor!’ ‘That!’ they says, +‘what a simple cove he is! <i>That</i> an’t it!’ +And then, they pointed out which <i>was</i> it, and +I says ‘Lor!’ and they says, ‘Now you’ll +know it agen, won’t you?’ And I said I +thought I should if I tried hard—and I assure +you I kept a sharp look out for the City Police +when we were out in this way, for if any of +’em had happened to know me, and had spoke +to me, it would have been all up in a minute. +However, by good luck such a thing never +happened, and all went on quiet: though the +difficulties I had in communicating with my +brother officers were quite extraordinary.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“The stolen goods that were brought to +the public-house, by the Warehouse Porters, +were always disposed of in a back parlor. +For a long time, I never could get into this +parlor, or see what was done there. As I +sat smoking my pipe, like an innocent young +chap, by the tap-room fire, I’d hear some of +the parties to the robbery, as they came in +and out, say softly to the landlord, ‘Who’s +that? What does <i>he</i> do here?’ ‘Bless your +soul,’ says the landlord, ‘He’s only a’—ha, +ha, ha!—‘he’s only a green young fellow from +the country, as is looking for a butcher’s +sitiwation. Don’t mind <i>him</i>!’ So, in course +of time, they were so convinced of my being +green, and got to be so accustomed to me, +that I was as free of the parlor as any of ’em, +and I have seen as much as Seventy Pounds +worth of fine lawn sold there, in one night, +that was stolen from a warehouse in Friday +Street. After the sale, the buyers always +stood treat—hot supper, or dinner, or what +not—and they’d say on those occasions ‘Come +on, Butcher! Put your best leg foremost, +young ’un, and walk into it!’ Which I used +to do—and hear, at table, all manner of particulars +that it was very important for us +Detectives to know.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“This went on for ten weeks. I lived in +the public-house all the time, and never was +out of the Butcher’s dress—except in bed. +At last, when I had followed seven of the +thieves, and set ’em to rights—that’s an expression +of ours, don’t you see, by which I +mean to say that I traced ’em, and found out +where the robberies were done, and all about +’em—Straw, and Fendall, and I, gave one +another the office, and at a time agreed upon, +a descent was made upon the public-house, +and the apprehensions effected. One of the +first things the officers did, was to collar me—for +the parties to the robbery weren’t to +suppose yet, that I was anything but a +Butcher—on which the landlord cries out, +‘Don’t take <i>him</i>,’ he says, ‘whatever you do! +He’s only a poor young chap from the country, +and butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth!’ +However, they—ha, ha, ha!—they took me, +and pretended to search my bedroom, where +nothing was found but an old fiddle belonging +to the landlord, that had got there somehow +or another. But, it entirely changed the landlord’s +opinion, for when it was produced, he +says ‘My fiddle! The Butcher’s a pur-loiner! +I give him into custody for the robbery of a +musical instrument!’</p> + +<p class='c005'>“The man that had stolen the goods in +Friday Street was not taken yet. He had +told me, in confidence, that he had his suspicions +there was something wrong (on account +of the City Police having captured one of +the party), and that he was going to make +himself scarce. I asked him, ‘Where do you +mean to go, Mr. Shepherdson?’ ‘Why, +Butcher,’ says he, ‘the Setting Moon, in the +Commercial Road, is a snug house, and I +shall hang out there for a time. I shall call +myself Simpson, which appears to me to be a +modest sort of a name. Perhaps you’ll give +us a look in, Butcher?’ ‘Well,’ says I, +‘I think I <i>will</i> give you a call’—which I +fully intended, don’t you see, because, of +course, he was to be taken! I went over to +the Setting Moon next day, with a brother +officer, and asked at the bar for Simpson. +They pointed out his room, upstairs. As we +were going up, he looks down over the bannisters, +and calls out, ‘Halloa, Butcher! is +that you?’ ‘Yes, it’s me. How do you find +yourself?’ ‘Bobbish,’ he says; ‘but who’s that +with you?’ ‘It’s only a young man, that’s +a friend of mine,’ I says. ‘Come along, then,’ +says he; ‘any friend of the Butcher’s is as +welcome as the Butcher!’ So, I made my +friend acquainted with him, and we took him +into custody.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“You have no idea, Sir, what a sight it +was, in Court, when they first knew that I +wasn’t a Butcher, after all! I wasn’t produced +at the first examination, when there +was a remand; but I was, at the second. +And when I stepped into the box, in full +police uniform, and the whole party saw how +they had been done, actually a groan of +horror and dismay proceeded from ’em in +the dock!</p> + +<p class='c005'>“At the Old Bailey, when their trials came +on, Mr. Clarkson was engaged for the defence, +and he <i>couldn’t</i> make out how it was, about +the Butcher. He thought, all along, it was a +real Butcher. When the counsel for the prosecution +said, ‘I will now call before you, +gentlemen, the Police-officer,’ meaning myself, +Mr. Clarkson says, ‘Why Police-officer? +Why more Police-officers? I don’t want +Police. We have had a great deal too much +of the Police. I want the Butcher! However, +Sir, he had the Butcher and the Police-officer, +both in one. Out of seven prisoners +committed for trial, five were found guilty, and +some of ’em were transported. The respectable +firm at the West End got a term of +imprisonment; and that’s the Butcher’s +Story!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The story done, the chuckle-headed Butcher +again resolved himself into the smooth-faced +Detective. But, he was so extremely tickled +by their having taken him about, when he +<span class='pageno' id='Page_459'>459</span>was that Dragon in disguise, to show him +London, that he could not help reverting to +that point in his narrative; and gently repeating, +with the Butcher snigger, “‘Oh, dear!’ +I says, ‘is that where they hang the men? +Oh, Lor!’ ‘<i>That!</i>’ says they. ‘What a simple +cove he is!’”</p> + +<p class='c005'>It being now late, and the party very +modest in their fear of being too diffuse, +there were some tokens of separation; when +Serjeant Dornton, the soldierly-looking man, +said, looking round him with a smile:</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Before we break up, Sir, perhaps you +might have some amusement in hearing of +the Adventures of a Carpet Bag. They are +very short; and, I think, curious.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>We welcomed the Carpet Bag, as cordially +as Mr. Shepherdson welcomed the false +Butcher at the Setting Moon. Serjeant Dornton +proceeded:</p> + +<p class='c005'>“In 1847, I was dispatched to Chatham, in +search of one Mesheck, a Jew. He had been +carrying on, pretty heavily, in the bill-stealing +way, getting acceptances from young men of +good connexions (in the army chiefly), on +pretence of discount, and bolting with the +same.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Mesheck was off, before I got to Chatham. +All I could learn about him was, that he had +gone, probably to London, and had with him—a +Carpet Bag.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I came back to town, by the last train +from Blackwall, and made inquiries concerning +a Jew passenger with—a Carpet Bag.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“The office was shut up, it being the last +train. There were only two or three porters +left. Looking after a Jew with a Carpet Bag, on +the Blackwall Railway, which was then the +high road to a great Military Depôt, was +worse than looking after a needle in a hayrick. +But it happened that one of these porters +had carried, for a certain Jew, to a certain +public-house, a certain—Carpet Bag.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I went to the public-house, but the Jew +had only left his luggage there for a few hours, +and had called for it in a cab, and taken it +away. I put such questions there, and to the +porter, as I thought prudent, and got at this +description of—the Carpet Bag.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“It was a bag which had, on one side of it, +worked in worsted, a green parrot on a stand. +A green parrot on a stand was the means by +which to identify that—Carpet Bag.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I traced Mesheck, by means of this green +parrot on a stand, to Cheltenham, to Birmingham, +to Liverpool, to the Atlantic Ocean. At +Liverpool he was too many for me. He had +gone to the United States, and I gave up all +thoughts of Mesheck, and likewise of his—Carpet +Bag.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Many months afterwards—near a year +afterwards—there was a Bank in Ireland +robbed of seven thousand pounds, by a person +of the name of Doctor Dundey, who escaped to +America; from which country some of the +stolen notes came home. He was supposed to +have bought a farm in New Jersey. Under +proper management, that estate could be seized +and sold, for the benefit of the parties he had +defrauded. I was sent off to America for this +purpose.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I landed at Boston. I went on to New +York. I found that he had lately changed +New York paper-money for New Jersey paper-money, +and had banked cash in New Brunswick. +To take this Doctor Dundey, it was +necessary to entrap him into the State of New +York, which required a deal of artifice and +trouble. At one time, he couldn’t be drawn +into an appointment. At another time, he +appointed to come to meet me, and a New York +officer, on a pretext I made; and then his +children had the measles. At last, he came, +per steamboat, and I took him, and lodged +him in a New York Prison called the Tombs; +which I dare say you know, Sir?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Editorial acknowledgment to that effect.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I went to the Tombs, on the morning after +his capture, to attend the examination before +the magistrate. I was passing through the +magistrate’s private room, when, happening to +look round me to take notice of the place, as +we generally have a habit of doing, I clapped +my eyes, in one corner, on a—Carpet Bag.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What did I see upon that Carpet Bag, if +you’ll believe me, but a green parrot on a +stand, as large as life!</p> + +<p class='c005'>“‘That Carpet Bag, with the representation +of a green parrot on a stand,’ said I, ‘belongs +to an English Jew, named Aaron Mesheck, +and to no other man, alive or dead!’</p> + +<p class='c005'>“I give you my word the New York Police-officers +were doubled up with surprise.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“‘How do you ever come to know that?’ +said they.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“‘I think I ought to know that green +parrot by this time,’ said I; ‘for I have had +as pretty a dance after that bird, at home, as +ever I had, in all my life!’”</p> + +<p class='c004'>“And <i>was</i> it Mesheck’s?” we submissively +inquired.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Was it, Sir? Of course it was! He was +in custody for another offence, in that very +identical Tombs, at that very identical time. +And, more than that! Some memoranda, +relating to the fraud for which I had vainly +endeavoured to take him, were found to be, at +that moment, lying in that very same individual—Carpet +Bag!”</p> + +<p class='c004'>Such are the curious coincidences and such +is the peculiar ability, always sharpening and +being improved by practice, and always +adapting itself to every variety of circumstances, +and opposing itself to every new +device that perverted ingenuity can invent, +for which this important social branch of the +public service is remarkable! For ever on +the watch, with their wits stretched to the +utmost, these officers have, from day to day +and year to year, to set themselves against +every novelty of trickery and dexterity that +the combined imaginations of all the lawless +<span class='pageno' id='Page_460'>460</span>rascals in England can devise, and to keep +pace with every such invention that comes +out. In the Courts of Justice, the materials +of thousands of such stories as we have narrated—often +elevated into the marvellous +and romantic, by the circumstances of the +case—are dryly compressed into the set +phrase, “in consequence of information I received, +I did so and so.” Suspicion was to +be directed, by careful inference and deduction, +upon the right person; the right person +was to be taken, wherever he had gone, or +whatever he was doing to avoid detection: +he is taken; there he is at the bar; that is +enough. From information I, the officer, +received, I did it; and, according to the +custom in these cases, I say no more.</p> + +<p class='c005'>These games of chess, played with live +pieces, are played before small audiences, and +are chronicled nowhere. The interest of the +game supports the player. Its results are +enough for Justice. To compare great things +with small, suppose <span class='sc'>Leverrier</span> or <span class='sc'>Adams</span> +informing the public that from information +he had received he had discovered a new +planet; or <span class='sc'>Columbus</span> informing the public +of his day that from information he had received, +he had discovered a new continent; +so the Detectives inform it that they have +discovered a new fraud or an old offender, +and the process is unknown.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Thus, at midnight, closed the proceedings +of our curious and interesting party. But +one other circumstance finally wound up the +evening, after our Detective guests had left +us. One of the sharpest among them, and +the officer best acquainted with the Swell +Mob, had his pocket picked, going home!</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>HEALTH BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>There was a story current in the city of +Mosul, about the time that the first edition of +“The Hundred and One Nights” began to be +popular in Oriental society, of a certain Prince +who was taken ill of the plague. Though his +retinue was large, he was the only person who +was in imminent danger. The Court physician +was also at death’s door, and a strange doctor +was sent for, who pronounced the Great Man +to be in a fearful state of debility, but retired +without prescribing. The Prince waited long +and anxiously for remedies, but in vain. He +clapped his hands to summon a slave. +“Where,” he exclaimed, “is the physic?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Sun of the Earth,” exclaimed the Nubian, +“it is all taken!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“And who has dared to swallow the medicine +designed for the anointed of Allah?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“As it is written by the Prophet,” returned +Hassan, “‘when the sheik sickens, his slaves +droop.’ Thy whole household was sick, and +clamoured for medicine; and, lo, the man of +drugs straightway drenched them therewith, +ordering us all, on pain of the Prophet’s curse, +not to give thee so much as a single grain of +rhubarb.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Breath of Mahomet,” ejaculated his Mightiness; +“am I then to die, and are my slaves to +live?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>When a Mussulman is puzzled what to say, +he invariably exclaims, “Allah is merciful;” +which was Hassan’s consolation.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Let the wretched mediciner appear!” +commanded the Prince.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The doctor came. “Illustrious father of +a hundred generations!” said the general +practitioner, “thine own physician only could +cure thee, and he lies on his pallet a helpless +being. <i>I</i> may not so much as look at +thy transcendant tongue, or feel thine omnipotent +pulse.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Wherefore? O licenciate of the Destroyer!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Inasmuch as I may not infringe the <i>vested +rights</i> of thine own special and appointed physician. +The law—even that of the Medes +and Persians, which never altereth—forbids +me. Thy slaves I <i>may</i> heal, seeing that no +vested rights in them exist; but——”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Here the Prince interrupted the speaker +with a hollow groan, and sank on his pillow in +despair.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Arabic manuscript, from which this +affecting incident was translated, ends with +these words—“and the Prince died.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>This story is evidently a foreshadowing of +what has recently happened in reference to +the metropolis of this country and the Public +Health Act. London was <i><span lang="la">in extremis</span></i> from +the effects of density of population, filth, bad +air, bad water, the window-tax, and deficient +drainage. It called in certain sanitary doctors—the +regular consulting body, namely, the +Government, being too weak to afford the +slightest assistance. The result was, that a +prescription, in the form of the Public Health +Act, was concocted,—but was made applicable +to every other member of the great retinue of +towns, <i>except</i> to the Imperial City; which was +exempted in consequence of the existing Vested +Rights in crowded houses, deadly stenches, +putrid water, foggy courts, and cesspools. +“Although,” in the words of a resolution, +passed at the meeting which formed the Metropolitan +Sanitary Association, “the strenuous +efforts made in the metropolitan districts to +procure a sanitary enactment mainly contributed +to the passing of the Public Health Act; +yet these districts were the only parts excluded +from the benefits of that enactment. This exclusion +has led to much misery and a great +sacrifice of life.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>This exception was so monstrous, that even +the Corporation of the City of London took +powers under their own Sewers’ Act for the +preservation of the health of the people dwelling +within the City boundary,—who number +no more than one hundred and twenty-five +thousand out of the two millions of us who +are congregated in civic and suburban London. +The remaining one million eight hundred +thousand are left to be stifled or diseased at +the good pleasure of Vested Interests. Indeed, +it is ascertained that a quarter of a million of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_461'>461</span>individuals absolutely <i>do</i> die every year from +the want of such a sanitary police as the Public +Health Act, amended by some few additional +powers, would establish. What number of +persons are really sent out of the world from +preventable causes. It is also true that those +causes can be efficiently removed for about a +halfpenny per head a week; or threepence per +week per house; or about eight times less than +those who die unnecessarily cost the public in +hospitals, poor’s rates, and burial. In the +“Journal of Public Health” for November, +1848, and August, 1849, it is shown by +elaborate tables, that the direct cost of, and +estimated money loss through, typhus fever +alone in the metropolis, amounted during the +four years, 1843–1847, to one million three +hundred and twenty-eight thousand pounds, +or two hundred and sixty-five thousand, +six hundred pounds annually. This sum +is exclusive of the amounts contributed for +the purchase and maintenance of fever +hospitals. For 1848, when the mortality +from typhus had increased to three thousand +five hundred and sixty-nine, the direct cost +and money loss was estimated at four hundred +and forty thousand pounds.</p> + +<p class='c005'>This cold-blooded way of putting the really +appalling state of the case is, alas! the only +successful mode of appealing to that hard-headed, +though sometimes soft-hearted, periphrasis, +John Bull, when he is under no special +exciting cause of dread. His heart is only +reached through his pocket, except when put +in a state of alarm. Cry “Cholera!” or any +other frightful conjuration, and he bestirs +himself. To cholera we owe the few sanitary +measures now in force; but which were +passed by the House—as a coward may seem +courageous—in its agonies of fright. The +moment, however, Cholera bulletins ceased to +be issued, John buttoned up his pockets +tighter than ever, and Parliament was dumb +regarding public health, except to undo one or +two good things it had done. The inflated +promises of the legislature collapsed into thin +air, on the very day the danger was withdrawn. +It was the legend over again of the nameless +gentleman who, when he was sick, swore he +would turn a monk; but when he got well +“the devil a monk was he.” Ever since, sanitary +legislation has been as much a dead letter +in the Metropolis, as if the deadly condition of +some of its districts had never been whispered +between the wind and the nobility of Westminster, +in Parliament assembled.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It has no effect upon unreasoning John Bull +to tell him that, on an average, cholera does +not devour a tithe of the victims which fever, +consumption, and other preventible diseases +make away with. Cholera comes upon him +like an ogre, eating its victims all at once, +and he quakes with terror; the daily, deadly +destruction of human beings by “every-day” +diseases, he takes no heed of. Take him, +however, a slate and pencil; count costs to +him; show that cholera costs so much; that +ordinary, contagious, but preventible diseases, +cost so much more; and that prevention is +so many hundred per cent. cheaper than the +cheapest cures, he begins to be amenable to +reason. Nothing but pocket arithmetic, +terror, or melo-dramatic appeals to his soft-hearted +sympathy, moves John Bull.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In order to supply the best of these exercitations +by the accumulation of carefully +sifted, and well authenticated facts, and +sound reasonings; the results of scientific +investigations, and of a large range of pathological +statistics, the Metropolitan Sanitary +Association has been for some months—like +another “Ole Joe”—knocking at the +door of Old John. Whether the heavy old +gentleman will soon open it to conviction and +improvement depends, we think, very much +upon the energy and liberality with which +that society is supported and seconded by the +public; for whose sole benefit it was called +into existence. To the exertions of many of its +leading members, if not to the collective body +itself, John Bull has responded, by admitting +into his premises the Extra-Mural Interment +Bill, and we think he is just now holding +his door a-jar to catch the Water Supply Bill, +which it is hoped he will admit, and pass +through That House next session. Meantime +we, in common with the association aforesaid, +beg his attention to a few other points of +improvement:—</p> + +<p class='c005'>The adage “as free as air,” has become obsolete +by Act of Parliament. Neither air nor +light have been free since the imposition of +the window-tax. We are obliged to pay for +what nature supplies lavishly to all, at so +much per window per year; and the poor who +cannot afford the expense, are stinted in two of +the most urgent necessities of life. The effects +produced by a deprivation of them are not +immediate, and are therefore unheeded. When +a poor man or woman in a dark, close, smoky +house is laid up with scrofula, consumption, +water in the head, wasting, or a complication of +epidemic diseases, nobody thinks of attributing +the illness to the right cause;—which may be a +want of light and air. If he or she were struck +down by a flash of lightning, there would be +an immediate outcry against the authorities, +whoever they may be, for not providing +proper lightning conductors; but because +the poison—generated by the absence of +light and air—is not seen at work, the victim +dies unheeded, and the window-tax, which +shuts out the remedies, is continued without +a murmur. In illustration of these facts, we +may quote a little information respecting the +tadpole, an humble animal, which—if the +author of “Vestiges of Creation” be any +authority and the theory of development be +more than a childish dream—was the progenitor +of man himself. The passage is from the report +of the half-fledged Health of Towns’ +Commission:—</p> + +<p class='c005'>“If the young of some of the lower tribes +of creatures are supplied with their proper +<span class='pageno' id='Page_462'>462</span>food, and if all the other conditions necessary +for their nourishment are maintained, while +at the same time light is wholly excluded +from them, their development is stopped; +they no longer undergo the metamorphosis +through which they pass from imperfect into +perfect beings; the tadpole, for example, is +unable to change its water-breathing apparatus, +fitted for its first stage of existence, +into the air-breathing apparatus, with the +rudiment of which it is furnished, and which +is intended to adapt it for a higher life, namely, +for respiration in air. In this imperfect state +it continues to live; it even attains an enormous +bulk, for such a creature in its state of +transition, but it is unable to pass out of its +transitional state; it remains permanently +an imperfect being, and is doomed to pass +a perpetual life in water, instead of attaining +maturity and passing its mature life +in air.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>It may give some support to the theory of +tadpole development above mentioned, to add, +that the same cause produces the very same +effects upon human beings; upon human +mothers, and upon human children. Human +mothers living in dark cellars produce an unusual +proportion of defective children. Go +into the narrow streets, and the dark lanes, +courts, and alleys of our splendid cities, there +you will see an unusual number of deformed +people, men, women, and children, but particularly +children. In some cells under the +fortifications of Lisle, a number of poor people +took up their abode; the proportion of defective +infants produced by them became so +great, that it was deemed necessary to issue an +order commanding these cells to be shut up. +The window duties multiply cells like those of +the fortifications of Lisle, in London, in Liverpool, +in Manchester, in Bristol, and in every +city and town in England by hundreds and by +thousands, and with the same result; but the +cells here are not shut up, nor is the cause +that produces them removed. Even in cases +in which the absence of light is not so complete +as to produce a result thus definite and +striking, the effects of the privation are still +abundantly manifest in the pale and sickly +complexion, and the enfeebled and stunted +frame; nor can it be otherwise, since, from +the essential constitution of organised beings, +light is as necessary to the development of +the animal as it is to the growth of the plant. +The diseases the want of it produces are of +long continuance, and waste the means of life +before death results; they may therefore +be characterised as pauperising diseases. +As to death itself, it has been calculated that +nearly ten thousand persons perish annually +in London alone from diseases solely produced +by an impeded circulation of air and admission +of light.</p> + +<p class='c005'>This prodigal waste of health, strength, +and of life itself, falls much more heavily on +the poor, than the mere fiscal burden, imposed +by the tax, falls on the richer classes. +Inasmuch, then, as health is the capital of the +working man, whatever be the necessities of +the state, <i>nothing</i> can justify a tax affecting +the health of the people, and especially the +health of the labouring community, whose +bodily strength constitutes their wealth, and +oftentimes their only possession. In conclusion +we may say, without wishing to libel +any respectable Act of Parliament, that the +Window-Tax kills countless human beings in +tens of thousands every year.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The next improvement which must speedily +be pushed under John Bull’s very nose, is the +removal of the nuisances which abound in +crowded neighbourhoods from Land’s End to +John o’Groats. The back-yards of houses in +poor neighbourhoods are so many gardens, +sown broadcast with the seeds of disease, and +but too plentifully manured for abundant and +continual crops. When rain falls on the surface +of these parterres of poison, and is afterwards +evaporated by the heat of the sun, +there rises a malaria, intensified by decomposing +refuse, which, inhaled into human +lungs, engenders consumption, ending in the +parish workhouse and death. It is a fact +that the surfaces of some of the back-yards in +London have been raised six feet by successive +accumulations of vegetable and animal refuse. +We must have no more such accumulations; +offal of every kind must be removed daily by +Act of Parliament.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Ill-kept stables, which cause horses to become +blind, and men to die of typhus, must be +reformed; cow-feeding sheds, which produce +diseased milk and offensive refuse, must be +abolished, and milk supplied per railway from +the country; disgusting and noxious manufactures, +such as are carried on a few yards +west of Lambeth Palace, on the river’s bank, +must be removed to consort with knackers’ +yards, in places remote from human habitations.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The strong bar which John Bull opposes to +such improvements is the dread of the Centralisation, +which, he says, carrying them into +effect would occasion. Local Government, he +insists, is the great bulwark of the British +Constitution. No bill is ever brought into +Parliament for the good of the people,—that +is well known,—but is passed for the sake of +the places it creates, and the patronage it +gives. Now, if we allow a practicable bill for +the removal of these nuisances to pass, a +swarm of commissioners, secretaries, clerks, +inspectors, inquisitors, dustmen, and scavengers +will be let loose upon the contented public, to +supersede snug, comfortable, local boards, and +to ruin innocent contractors. “Is,” John asks +vehemently, “this to be borne?” and answers +himself with equal emphasis, “Decidedly not. +We prefer the nuisances.” But common +sense steps in to reply, that as nuisances are +a matter of taste, if every board could confine +its own nuisances to its own parish so as not +to take its neighbours by the nose, there +would, perhaps, be no harm in letting it doze +<span class='pageno' id='Page_463'>463</span>and wallow in its own filth as long as its taste +would dictate. But as this is impossible, centralisation +or no centralisation, Government, or +somebody else, <i>must</i> interfere to protect the +extra-parochial lieges from destruction, by upsetting +the Board and removing the rest of the +nuisances.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A practical example of the impossibility of +confining noxious nuisances to the boundaries +whence they originate, is afforded in the immediate +neighbourhood of one of the most beautiful +parts of the metropolis. In a neighbourhood +studded thickly with elegant villas and +mansions—namely, Bayswater and Notting +Hill, in the parish of Kensington—is a plague +spot scarcely equalled for its insalubrity by +any other in London: it is called the Potteries. +It comprises some seven or eight acres, with +about two hundred and sixty houses (if the +term can be applied to such hovels), and a +population of nine hundred or one thousand. +The occupation of the inhabitants is +principally pig-fattening; many hundreds of +pigs, ducks, and fowls are kept in an incredible +state of filth. Dogs abound for the purpose +of guarding the swine. The atmosphere is +still further polluted by the process of fat-boiling. +In these hovels discontent, dirt, +filth, and misery, are unsurpassed by anything +known even in Ireland. Water is supplied +to only a small proportion of the houses. +There are foul ditches, open sewers, and +defective drains, smelling most offensively, +and generating large quantities of poisonous +gases; stagnant water is found at every turn, +not a drop of <i>clean</i> water can be obtained,—all +is charged to saturation with putrescent +matter. Wells have been sunk on some of +the premises, but they have become, in many +instances, useless from organic matter soaking +into them; in some of the wells the water is +perfectly black and fetid. The paint on the +window frames has become black from the +action of sulphuretted hydrogen gas. Nearly +all the inhabitants look unhealthy, the women +especially complain of sickness, and want of +appetite; their eyes are shrunken, and their +skin shrivelled.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The poisonous influence of this pestilential +locality extends far and wide. Some twelve +or thirteen hundred feet off there is a row +of clean houses, called Crafter Terrace; +the situation, though rather low, is open and +airy. On Saturday and Sunday, the 8th +and 9th of September, 1849, the inhabitants +complained of an intolerable stench, +the wind then blowing directly upon the +Terrace from the Potteries. Up to this time, +there had been no case of cholera among +the inhabitants; but the next day the disease +broke out virulently, and on the following +day, the 11th of September, a child died +of cholera at No. 1. By the 22nd of the +same month, no less than seven persons +in the Terrace lost their lives by this fatal +malady.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It would be thought, that such a state of +things could not have been permitted to +remain undisturbed, but merely required to +be brought to light to be remedied. The +medical officers have, time after time, reported +the condition of the place to the Board of +Guardians. Fifteen medical men have testified +to the unhealthy state of the Potteries. The +inspector of nuisances has done the same. +The magistrates have repeatedly granted +orders for the removal of the pigs. The +General Board of Health have given directions +that all the nuisances should be removed, yet +nothing, or next to nothing, has been done. +The inspector of nuisances has been dismissed, +the guardians have signified their intention +to inspect the districts themselves, yet things +remain in <i><span lang="la">statu quo</span></i>.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Is there then no possibility of cleansing this +more than Augean stable? None: the single +but insurmountable difficulty being that some +of the worst parts of the district are the property +of one of the guardians!</p> + +<p class='c005'>Surely the force of self-government can +no farther go. Another word in defence of +centralisation—the great bugbear of the self-conceited +parish orator—would be wasted.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In conclusion, we earnestly call on the +public to second and support the efforts of the +Metropolitan Sanitary Association to get the +evils we have adverted to lessened or wholly +removed. The rapid increase of the population +demands additional exertion and additional +arrangements for their well-being. At +present, retrogression instead of improvement +assails us. It is an appalling fact, that the +number of persons dying of the class of diseases +called preventible has been steadily +increasing. Mr. Farr, of the Registrar-General’s +office, has declared there could be +no question that the health of London is +becoming worse every year. In 1846, the +number of persons dying of zymotic or epidemic +diseases was about nineteen per cent. +of the total mortality; in 1847, it was twenty-eight +per cent.; in 1848, thirty-four per cent.; +and last year it increased to forty-one per +cent.; thus showing that nearly one-half of +the mortality of London was more or less +owing to preventible causes.</p> + +<p class='c005'>To reverse this state of things the people of +this country must not wait for another great +and fatal Fright. We know that typhus fever +and consumption, like open drains and stinking +water, are mean, commonplace, unexciting +instruments of death, which do not get invested +with dramatic interest; yet they kill as +unerringly as the knife or the bullet of the +assassin; only they murder great multitudes +instead of single individuals. If, therefore, +he will only fix his eyes on the victims of the +diseases which can be easily prevented, it is +well worth John Bull’s while to consider +whether substantially it is not as sound a +policy to save a million or two of lives per +annum, as to hang the hero and heroine of a +Bermondsey murder.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_464'>464</span> + <h2 class='c003'>WHAT THERE IS IN THE ROOF OF THE COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>Perhaps no one of the London Squares is +more full of interesting associations, and +certainly no one of them is more fresh and +pleasant to look upon, than Lincoln’s Inn +Fields. In the centre of its green Lord +William Russell was beheaded; upon the +old wall that used to run along its eastern +side Ben Jonson, it is said, worked as a bricklayer; +amongst its north range of buildings +stands the thin sandwich of a house that holds +the manifold artistic gems of the Soane +Museum; its west side was the scene of some +of Lord George Gordon’s riotings; whilst +on its south side stands the noble-looking +Grecian fronted building dedicated to the +purposes of the English College of Surgeons.</p> + +<p class='c005'>This building has many uses, and many +points challenging general admiration and +approval, the chief of them being its possession +of the museum made by John Hunter; +afterwards purchased, and now supported, by +the nation; and open freely, not only to +medical men of all countries, but to the +public at large. The visitor who passes under +its handsome portico, up the steps and enters +its heavy mahogany and plate-glass doors, +finds himself in a large hall. On his right is +a staid-looking, black-robed porter, who requires +him to enter his name in the visitor’s +book—a preliminary which members equally +with strangers have to go through. On his +left are the doors leading to the secretary’s +office, where students may, from time to time, +be seen going in to register their attendance +upon the prescribed lectures, and, later in +their career, passing through the same portals +big with the desperate announcement that +they are ready to submit to the examinations +that must be passed before they can get a +diploma. Facing the entrance door is a +second enclosed hall, with a roof supported by +fluted columns, and on the left of this a broad +stately architectural stone staircase leading to +the library and the council-chamber—the +scene of those dreadful ordeals, the examinations, +where Hospital Surgeons sit surrounded +by crimson and gold, and marble busts, and +noble pictures, to <i>operate</i> upon sweating and +stuttering and hesitating students who, two +by two, are seated in large chairs to be passed +or <i>plucked</i>.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The library is a noble, large room, of excellent +proportions, occupying the whole length +of the building in front, having tall plate-glass +embayed windows, each with its table +and chair; and in each of which the passersby +in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, may generally see +a live surgeon framed and glazed, busily +occupied with his books, or still more busily +helping to keep up the tide of gossip for +which the place is celebrated. For some +twenty feet from the floor on all sides, the +walls are lined with books, telling in various +languages about all kinds of maladies and all +sorts of plans for cure. Above this, and just +under the handsomely panelled roof, hang +portraits of old surgeons, each famous in his +time, and now enjoying a sort of quiet renown +amongst their successors in the art and +science of chirurgery. All we have seen +thus far, betokens the quiet repose of wealth, +dignity, and learned leisure and ease. No +bustle, no noise, no trace of urgent labour is +heard or seen. Such of the officers of the +place as may be encountered, have a look +of somnolent if not sleek sufficiency, and +seem to claim a share of the consideration +which all are ready to concede, as due to the +character of the spot. Returning to the +hall, another door, facing that of the secretary, +leads to the great attraction and pride +of the place—the Hunterian Museum—a collection +of skeletons and glittering rows of +bottles full of evidences how “fearfully and +wonderfully” all living creatures are made. +On all sides we see the bony relics of defunct +men and animals—giants, dwarfs, both human +and quadruped, challenging attention. The +huge megatherium, the bones of poor Chuny, +the elephant shot in Exeter ’Change, the +skeleton of O’Brien the Irish giant, who +walked about the world eight feet high, and +near him all that remains of the form of the +Sicilian dwarf, who when alive was not taller +than O’Brien’s knee. On the walls tier after +tier of bottles are ranged, till the eye following +them up towards the top of the building, +fatigued by their innumerable abundance, and +the variety of their contents, again seeks the +ground and its tables, there to encounter an +almost equal crowd of curious things collected +from the earth, the air, and the sea, to show +how infinite the varieties in which Nature +indulges, and how almost more than infinite +the curious ways in which life varies the +tenement it inhabits. But with this multiplicity +of things we see no confusion, or trace +of carelessness or poverty. All is neatness, +order, and repose. Not a particle of dirt +offends the eye; not a film of dust dims the +brilliancy of the regiments of bottles drawn +up in long files upon the shelves, to salute the +visitor. The place is a very drawing-room of +science, all polished and set forth in trim +order for the reception of the public. It is +the best room in the house kept for the display +of <i>the results</i> of the labours of the physiologist,—a +spot devoted to the revelations of +anatomy, without the horrifying accompaniments +of the dissecting-room.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Thus far we have passed through what are +in truth the public portions of the College of +Surgeons, just glancing at its museum, unequalled +as a physiological collection by any +other in the world. In their surprise at the +curious things it contains, there are many, no +doubt, who wonder also where the things all +came from; and what patient men have gone +on since John Hunter’s time, adding to his +museum where it was deficient and keeping +all its parts in their present admirable state. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_465'>465</span>Such a question, if put to the officials, would +most likely obtain a very vague and misty +reply; but a glance behind the scenes at the +College will afford an ample and curious explanation, +and show how one section of the +Searchers for Facts, silently and unheeded, +work on in their self-chosen, quiet, scientific +path—undisturbed by the noises and the +bustle, the excitements and the strife of +the modern Babylon, that heaves and throbs +around them.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Leave the handsome rooms, with their clear +light, and polish, and air of neatness, and come +with us up the side stair that leads to the +unshown recesses, where, high up in the roof, +the workers in anatomy carry on their strange +duties. As we open the side door that leads +towards these secret chambers, we should go +from daylight to darkness, were it not for the +gas that is kept burning there. Up the stairs +we go, and as we ascend, the way becomes +lighter and lighter as we rise, but the stone +steps soon change for wooden ones, and at +length bring us from the silent stairs to a silent +and gloomy-looking passage, having three +doors opening into it, and some contrivances +overhead for letting in a little light, and +letting out certain odours that here abound,—greatly +to the discomfort of the novice who +first inhales them. We are now in the roof of +the building, and on getting a glimpse through +a window, we may see the housetops are below +us, the only companions of our elevation being +a number of neighbouring church-spires.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The feeling of the spot is one of almost complete +isolation from the world below, and a +neighbourhood to something startling if not +almost terrible. Like Fatima in Bluebeard’s +Tower, impelled by an overbearing curiosity, +we turn the lock of the centre door, and enter +the chamber. A strange sight is presented. +The room is large, with the sloping roof-beams +above, and a stained and uncovered floor +below. The walls all round are crowded with +shelves, covered with bottles of various sizes +full of the queerest-looking of all queer things. +Many are of a bright vermilion colour; others +yellow; others brown; others black; whilst +others again display the opaque whiteness of +bloodless death. Three tables are in the room, +but these are as crowded as the walls. Cases +of instruments, microscopes, tall jars, cans, a +large glass globe full of water-newts, hydras, +and mosses; small cases of drawers filled with +microscopic objects, and a thousand other odds +and ends. Here is a long coil of snake’s eggs, +just brought from a country stable-yard; there +some ears of diseased wheat, sent by a noble +landlord who studies farming; beside them lies +part of a leaf of the gigantic water-lily, the +Victoria Regia, and near that a portion of a +vegetable marrow is macerating in a saucer +to separate some peculiar vessels for exhibition +under the microscope. There are two windows +to the room, besides some ventilators in the +roof; and before one of these, where the light +is best, are ranged microscopes complete and +ready for use, and round about them all sorts +of scraps of glass and glaziers’ diamonds, and +watch-glasses, and forceps, and scissors, and +bottles of marine-glue, and of gold-size,—these +being the means and appliances of the microscopic +observer. Before the second window +is a sink, in which stand jars of frogs and +newts, and other small creatures. A lathe, a +desk, and writing utensils, the model of a +whale cast ashore in the Thames, an old stiff-backed +wooden chair, once the seat of the +Master of the Worshipful Company of Surgeons, +a few cases of stuffed birds and animals, +and some tall glass-stoppered bottles that +went twice round the world with Captain +Cook and Dr. Solander, make up the catalogue +of the chief contents of an apartment, which, +at first glance, has the look of an auctioneer’s +room filled with the sold-off stock of a broken +down anatomical teacher. A closer inspection, +however, shows that though there is so great +a crowd of objects, there is little or no confusion, +and the real meaning of the place, its +intention, and labours, reveal themselves.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We are in a storeroom of the strange productions +of all corners of the earth, from +the air above and from the waters below. +Every particle in every bottle that looks +perhaps to the uninitiated eye only a mass of +bad fish preserved in worse pickle, has its value. +A thin slice of it taken out and placed under +the microscope, illustrates some law of the +animal economy, or displays, perhaps, some +long undiscovered fact, or shows to the surprise +of the gazer, a series of lines beautifully +arranged, or perhaps curiously mingled, and +rich in their figured combinations as the frozen +moisture of a window-frame on a winter’s +morning. To this room as to a general centre +come contributions from all corners of the +earth; the donors being chiefly medical men +employed on expeditions, or in the public +service, though other medicos, who go to seek +fortune in strange lands, often remember their +alma mater, and pack up a bottle of curious +things “to send to the College.” Doctors on +shipboard, doctors with armies, doctors in +Arctic ships, or on Niger expeditions; in the +far regions of Hindûstan, and in the fogs and +storms of Labrador, think now and then of +their “dissecting days,” and of the noble collection +in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which every +true student feels bound to honour, and to help +to make complete. Many, when going forth +into distant countries, are supplied from this +place with bottles specially adapted to receive +objects in request, and receive also a volume of +instructions, how the specimens may be best +preserved. “When a quadruped is too large +to be secured whole, cut off the portion of the +head containing the teeth,” says one direction. +“If no more can be done,” says another, “preserve +the heart and great blood-vessels.” “Of +a full-grown whale,” says a third of these +notes, “send home the eyes with the surrounding +skin, their muscles and fat in an +entire mass.” “When many specimens of a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_466'>466</span>rare and curious bird are procured, the heads +of a few should be taken off and preserved in +spirit.” “When alligators and crocodiles are +too large to be preserved whole, secure some +part. The bones of such things are especially +desirable. Secure also the eggs in different +stages.” “Snakes may be preserved whole, +or in part, especially the heads, for the examination +of their teeth and fangs.” “Eyes of +fishes are proper objects of preservation.” +Such are a few of the hints sent forth to their +medical disciples by the College, and the +fruits of the system are a bountiful supply. +Never a week passes but something rare or +curious makes its appearance in Lincoln’s Inn +Fields; sometimes from one quarter, sometimes +from another, but there is always something +coming, either by messenger or parcel-cart. +Apart from these foreign sources, there +are other contributaries to the general stock. +Country doctors and hospital surgeons, from +time to time, send in their quota; the +Zoological Society likewise contribute all +their dead animals. When the elephant died +at the Regent’s Park Gardens, a College student +and an assistant were busily occupied for +days dissecting the huge animal. When the +rhinoceros expired at the same place, a portion +of its viscera was hailed as a prize; and +when the whale was cast, not long ago, upon +the shores of the Thames, the watermen who +claimed it as their booty, steamed off to the +College to find a customer for portions of the unwieldy +monster; nor were they disappointed. +Beyond all these, there still remains another +searcher out of materials for the scalpel +and the microscope. He is a character +in his way. By trade, half cattle-slaughterer +half-oysterman, he is by choice a sort of +dilettante anatomist. One day he is killing +oxen and sheep in Clare Market, and the next +is scouring the same market for morbid specimens +“for Mr. Quickett, at the College.” He +knows an unhealthy sheep by its looks, and +watches its post mortem with the eye of a +savant. Many a choice specimen has he +caught up in his time from amongst the offal +and garbage of that fustiest of markets in the +fustiest of neighbourhoods. Indeed, through +him, all that is unusual in ox, calf, sheep, fish, +or fowl, found within the confines of Clare +Market, finds its way to the “work shop” of +the College to be investigated by scalpel and +microscope. When a butcher is known to +have any diseased sheep, our collector hovers +about his slaughter-house, and that which is +bad food for the public, often affords him and +his patron a prize. He is a sort of jackal for +the anatomists—a kind of cadger in the service +of science—a veritable snatcher-up of ill-conditioned +trifles.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Returning to the room in the College roof, +where the general cornucopia of strange +things is emptied, we find its presiding genius +in Mr. Quekett, a quiet enthusiast in his way, +who goes on from month to month and year +to year, watching, working, and chronicling +such facts as can be made out. When a +novelty comes in, it is examined, described, +investigated by the microscope; and, if +worthy, is sketched on stone for printing. It +is then catalogued, and placed in spirit for +preservation—minute portions, perhaps, being +mounted on glass as objects for the microscope. +Thus disposed of, it becomes a “store +preparation.” From this store the lectures +at the College are illustrated by examples; +and from it also are the bright bottles in the +Hunterian Museum kept complete. From +time to time something very rare comes to +hand, and then there is quite an excitement +in the place. It is turned about, examined, +and discussed, with as much zest as a lady +would display when first opening a present +of jewels, or first criticising a new ball-dress. +If the new acquisition be an animal but +recently dead, a drop of its blood is sought +and placed under the microscope to see the +diameter of its globules; if it has a coat of fur, +perhaps one of the hairs are next submitted +to the same test; and then a fine section of +its bone passes a similar ordeal. Its brain is +investigated, weighed, and placed in spirit +for preservation. Its general characteristics +are then gone over, and a description of them +written down. If worthy of a place in the +Museum, this description goes to make a +paragraph in the catalogues of the Collection—fine +quarto volumes, of which there are +many now complete, containing more exact +anatomical and physiological descriptions of +objects, than perhaps any other work extant.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The last contribution to the series of Catalogues +was made in the room we have been +examining. Its production was the constant +labour of two years; and the volume contains +exact particulars of many facts never before +noticed. Amongst other things, for instance, +made out with certainty in this place by Mr. +Quekett, after months of patient investigation, +was the elementary differences in the +character of bone. To the common eye and +common idea, all bone is simply bone; and +for common purposes the word indicates +closely enough what the speaker would describe. +Not so to the naturalist and the +physiologist; and so scalpel and microscope +went to work: the sea, the land, and the air, +lent each their creatures peculiar to itself, +and the labour of the search was at length +rewarded by a discovery that each great class +of living things has an elementary difference +in the bones upon which its structure is built +up. Hence, when a particle of bony matter is +now placed under the microscope, come whence +it may—from a geological strata, or from the +depths of the sea, or from within the cere-cloth +of a mummy—the observer, guided by +Mr. Quekett’s observations, knows whether +it belonged in life to bird, beast, or fish.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Glancing round this anatomical workshop, +we find, amongst other things, some preparations +showing the nature of pearls. Examine +them, and we find that there are dark and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_467'>467</span>dingy pearls, just as there are handsome and +ugly men; the dark pearl being found on the +dark shell of the fish, the white brilliant one +upon the smooth inside shell. Going further +in the search, we find that the smooth glittering +lining upon which the fish moves, is +known as the <i>nacre</i>, and that it is produced +by a portion of the animal called <i>the mantle</i>: +and for explanation sake we may add, that +gourmands practically know the mantle as +<i>the beard</i> of the oyster. When living in its +glossy house, should any foreign substance +find its way through the shell to disturb the +smoothness so essential to its ease, the fish +coats the offending substance with nacre, and +a pearl is thus formed. The pearl is, in fact, +a little globe of the smooth glossy substance +yielded by the oyster’s beard; yielded ordinarily +to smooth the narrow home to which +his nature binds him, but yielded in round +drops—real pearly tears—if he is hurt. When +a beauty glides proudly among a throng of +admirers, her hair clustering with pearls, she +little thinks that her ornaments are products +of pain and diseased action, endured by the +most unpoetical of shell-fish.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Leaving the centre-room of the three in +the College roof, let us just glance at the +other two apartments. Upon entering one +we see the walls lined with boxes, something +like those in a milliner’s shop, but, instead +of holding laces and ribands, we find them +labelled “Wolf,” “Racoon,” “Penguin,” +“Lion,” “Albatross,” and so on with names +of birds, and beasts, and fishes. On lifting +a lid, we find the boxes filled with the +bones of the different creatures named; +not a complete skeleton of any one, perhaps, +but portions of half-a-dozen. In this room, +the two students attached to the College +carry on dissections, under the directions of +the superior authorities. What they do is +entered in a book kept posted up, and this +affords another source for reference as to +anatomical facts. When they have laboured +here for three years, they have the option of +a commission as Assistant Surgeon in the +Army, Navy, or East India Company’s +service, as a reward for their College work.</p> + +<p class='c005'>If the atmosphere of the two apartments +we have investigated was bad, that of the third +room was infinitely worse, though windows +and ventilators are constantly open. In this +place large preparations are kept, and all the +specimens are here put into the bottles required +for exhibition in the Museum. This third +room, like the first, has a curiously characteristic +look. It would make a fine original for +a picture of an alchemist’s study. On one side +is a large structure of brickwork with pipes +and taps, conveying the idea of a furnace and +still, or of an oven. Alongside it is a bath and +a table, and the purpose of the whole is +for <i>injecting</i> large animals. This is a very +difficult operation, the object being to drive +a kind of hot liquid sealing-wax into every +artery of the body, even the most minute. +All things brought here, and capable of it, +are injected somewhat after this fashion before +they pass under the scalpel. Besides this +oven-looking structure there are pans, and +tubs, and casks; one containing a small +dromedary, another being “a cask of camel.” +A painter’s easel stands there ready for use, and +on the floor are some bones of a megatherium; +the tables are covered with bottles and +jars, and the walls are similarly decorated. +Strings of bladders hang about, and under +foot we see thin sheets of lead coated with +tin-foil; these latter being used for tying +down the preparation bottles so that they may +for years remain air-tight; a tedious and +somewhat difficult operation. In this place +every year they use scores, sometimes hundreds +of gallons of alcohol; one fact which +helps to show that museums on a large scale +are expensive establishments.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Here, as elsewhere, however, in our establishments, +whatever may be expended on +materials, the men who do the work of science +are but indifferently paid. But lucre is not +their sole reward. No mere money payment +could compensate (for instance) a man for +spending a lifetime in this College of Surgeons’ +roof. Forget the object in view; ignore the +charm that science has for its votaries; and +this place becomes a literal inferno, filled with +pestilential fumes, and surrounded by horrible +sights. But they who fix the salaries know +how much the pursuit of science is a labour of +love; and so they pay the man of science badly, +not here alone, but in all the scientific branches +of the public service. But the science-worker +though he may feel the injustice, yet moves +on his way rejoicing, pleased with his unceasing +search into the secret workings of +nature, and exhilarated from time to time by +some discovery, or by the confirmation of +some cherished notion. And though the +glittering prizes of life be bestowed on strivers +in far different walks, the student of nature +holds on his cheerful and philosophic way, +rewarded by the glimpses he gets of the +power that made and sustains all terrestrial +things, and rewarded, moreover, by the holy +contact with that infinite wisdom seen at +work in the construction, the adaptation, and +the continuance of the marvellous and illimitably +varied works it is the business of his +life to investigate.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>CHIPS.</h2> +</div> +<h3 class='c006'>NICE WHITE VEAL.</h3> + +<p class='c007'>We shudder at the cruelties practised upon +Strasbourg geese to produce the celebrated +<i><span lang="fr">pâtés de foie ǧras</span></i>; but remorse would assuredly +afflict the amateurs of veal with indigestion, +if they reflected on the tortures to +which calves are subjected to cause the very +unnatural colour of the meat which they so +much prize. The natural and wholesome +tint of veal is not white, but pink. An +ancient French traveller in England (1690) +<span class='pageno' id='Page_468'>468</span>says that the English veal has not the “beautiful +red colour of the French.” Dr. Smollett, +in “Peregrine Pickle,” upbraids epicures, on +the scores both of cruelty and unwholesomeness, +saying that our best veal is like a +“fricassee of kid gloves,” and the sauce of +“melted butter” is rendered necessary only +by the absence of the juices drained out of +the unfortunate animal before death.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The process of killing a calf is a refinement +of cruelty worthy of a Grand Inquisitor. +The beast is, while alive, bled several times; +in summer, during several hours of the night, +and frequently till it faints; when a plug is +put into the orifice till “next time.” But the +lengthened punishment of the most unoffending +of animals is at the actual “killing.” +It is tied together, neck and heels, much as a +dead animal when packed in a basket and +slung up by a rope, with the head downwards. +A vein is then opened, till it lingeringly +bleeds to death. Two or three “knocks” +are given to it with the pole-axe whilst it +hangs loose in the air, and the flesh is beaten +with sticks, technically termed “dressing” it, +some time before feeling has ceased to exist. +All this may be verified by those who insist on +seeing the penetralia of the slaughter-houses; +or the poor animal may be seen moaning and +writhing—by a mere glance—on many days of +the week, in Warwick Lane, Newgate Street.</p> + +<p class='c005'>This mode of bleaching veal is not only a +crime, but a blunder. The flesh would be +more palatable and nutritious killed speedily +and mercifully. But were it otherwise, and +had it been twenty times more a luxury, who, +professing to honour the common Creator, +would, for the sensual gratification of the +palate, cause the calf to be thus tortured?</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>“ALL THINGS IN THE WORLD MUST CHANGE.”</h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c008'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Would’st thou have it always Spring,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Though she cometh flower-laden?</div> + <div class='line'>Though sweet-throated birds do sing?</div> + <div class='line in2'>Thou would’st weary of it, Maiden.</div> + <div class='line'>Dost thou never feel desire</div> + <div class='line in2'>That thy womanhood were nearer?</div> + <div class='line'>Doth thy loving heart ne’er tire,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Longing yet for something dearer?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Would’st have Summer ever stay—</div> + <div class='line in2'>Droughty Summer—bright and burning?</div> + <div class='line'>Dost thou not, oft in the day,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Long for still, cool, night’s returning?</div> + <div class='line'>Dost thou not grow weary, Youth,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of thy pleasures, vain though pleasant—</div> + <div class='line'>Thinking Life has more of Truth</div> + <div class='line in2'>Than the satiating present?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Would’st have Autumn never go?</div> + <div class='line in2'>(Autumn, Winter’s wealthy neighbour),</div> + <div class='line'>Stacks would rise, and wine-press flow</div> + <div class='line in2'>Vainly, did’st thou always labour.</div> + <div class='line'>When thy child is on thy knee</div> + <div class='line in2'>And thy heart with love’s o’erflowing,</div> + <div class='line'>Dost thou never long to see</div> + <div class='line in2'>What is in the future’s showing?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>When old Winter, cold and hoar,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Cometh, blowing his ten fingers,</div> + <div class='line'>Hanging ice-drops on the door</div> + <div class='line in2'>Whilst he at the threshold lingers,</div> + <div class='line'>Would’st thou ever vigil keep</div> + <div class='line in2'>With a mate so full of sorrow?</div> + <div class='line'>Better to thy bed and sleep,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Nor wake till th’ Eternal morrow!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>THE LAST OF A LONG LINE.</h2> +</div> +<h3 class='c006'>IN TWO CHAPTERS.—CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<p class='c007'>In Great Stockington there lived a race of +paupers. From the year of the 42nd of +Elizabeth, or 1601, down to the present generation, +this race maintained an uninterrupted +descent. They were a steady and unbroken +line of paupers, as the parish books testify. +From generation to generation their demands +on the parish funds stand recorded. There +were no <i>lacunæ</i> in their career; there never +failed an heir to these families; fed on the +bread of idleness and legal provision, these +people flourished, increased, and multiplied. +Sometimes compelled to work for the weekly +dole which they received, they never acquired +a taste for labour, or lost the taste for the +bread for which they did not labour. These +paupers regarded this maintenance by no +means as a disgrace. They claimed it as a +right,—as their patrimony. They contended +that one-third of the property of the Church +had been given by benevolent individuals for +the support of the poor, and that what the +Reformation wrongfully deprived them of, the +great enactment of Elizabeth rightfully—and +only rightfully—restored.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Those who imagine that all paupers merely +claimed parish relief because the law ordained +it, commit a great error. There were numbers +who were hereditary paupers, and that on a +tradition carefully handed down, that they +were only manfully claiming their own. +They traced their claims from the most +ancient feudal times, when the lord was as +much bound to maintain his villein in gross, +as the villein was to work for the lord. These +paupers were, in fact, or claimed to be, the +original <i><span lang="la">adscripti glebæ</span></i>, and to have as much +a claim to parish support as the landed proprietor +had to his land. For this reason, in +the old Catholic times, after they had escaped +from villenage by running away and remaining +absent from their hundred for a year and +a day, dwelling for that period in a walled +town, these people were amongst the most +diligent attendants at the Abbey doors, and +when the Abbeys were dissolved, were, no +doubt, amongst the most daring of these +thieves, vagabonds, and sturdy rogues, who, +after the Robin Hood fashion, beset the highways +and solitary farms of England, and +claimed their black mail in a very unceremonious +style. It was out of this class that +Henry VIII. hanged his seventy-two thousand +during his reign, and, as it is said, without +<span class='pageno' id='Page_469'>469</span>appearing materially to diminish their +number.</p> + +<p class='c005'>That they continued to “increase, multiply, +and replenish the earth,” overflowing all +bounds, overpowering by mere populousness +all the severe laws against them of whipping, +burning in the hand, in the forehead or the +breast, and hanging, and filling the whole +country with alarm, is evident by the very +act itself of Elizabeth.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Amongst these hereditary paupers who, as +we have said, were found in Stockington, there +was a family of the name of Deg. This family +had never failed to demand and enjoy what it +held to be its share of its ancient inheritance. +It appeared from the parish records, that they +had practised in different periods the crafts of +shoemaking, tailoring, and chimney-sweeping; +but since the invention of the stocking-frame, +they had, one and all of them, followed the +profession of stocking weavers, or as they were +there called, stockingers. This was a trade +which required no extreme exertion of the +physical or intellectual powers. To sit in a +frame, and throw the arms to and fro, was a +thing that might either be carried to a degree +of extreme diligence, or be let down into +a mere apology for idleness. An “idle +stockinger” was there no very uncommon +phrase, and the Degs were always classed +under that head. Nothing could be more +admirably adapted than this trade for building +a plan of parish relief upon. The Degs +did not pretend to be absolutely without work, +or the parish authorities would soon have +set them to some real labour,—a thing that +they particularly recoiled from, having a very +old adage in the family, that “hard work was +enough to kill a man.” The Degs were seldom, +therefore, out of work, but they did not get +enough to meet and tie. They had but little +work if times were bad, and if they were good, +they had large families, and sickly wives or +children. Be times what they would, therefore, +the Degs were due and successful attendants +at the parish pay-table. Nay, so much +was this a matter of course, that they came at +length not even to trouble themselves to +receive their pay, but sent their young +children for it; and it was duly paid. Did +any parish officer, indeed, turn restive, and +decline to pay a Deg, he soon found himself +summoned before a magistrate, and such pleas +of sickness, want of work, and poor earnings +brought up, that he most likely got a sharp +rebuke from the benevolent but uninquiring +magistrate, and acquired a character for hardheartedness +that stuck to him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>So parish overseers learnt to let the Degs +alone; and their children regularly brought +up to receive the parish money for their +parents, were impatient as they grew up to +receive it for themselves. Marriages in the +Deg family were consequently very early, and +there were plenty of instances of married +Degs claiming parish relief under the age of +twenty, on the plea of being the parent of +two children. One such precocious individual +being asked by a rather verdant officer why +he had married before he was able to maintain +a family, replied, in much astonishment, +that he had married in order to maintain +himself by parish assistance. That he never +had been able to maintain himself by his +labour, nor ever expected to do it; his only +hope, therefore, lay in marrying, and becoming +the father of two children, to which patriarchal +rank he had now attained, and demanded +his “pay.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Thus had lived and nourished the Degs on +their ancient patrimony, the parish, for upwards +of two hundred years. Nay, we have +no doubt whatever that, if it could have been +traced, they had enjoyed an ancestry of +paupers as long as the pedigree of Sir Roger +Rockville himself. In the days of the most +perfect villenage, they had, doubtless, eaten +the bread of idleness, and claimed it as a +right. They were numerous, improvident, +ragged in dress, and fond of an alehouse and +of gossip. Like the blood of Sir Roger, their +blood had become peculiar through a long +persistence of the same circumstances. It +was become pure pauper blood. The Degs +married, if not entirely among Degs, yet +amongst the same class. None but a pauper +would dream of marrying a Deg. The Degs, +therefore, were in constitution, in mind, in +habit, and in inclination, paupers. But a pure +and unmixed class of this kind does not die +out like an aristocratic stereotype. It increases +and multiplies. The lower the grade, +the more prolific, as is sometimes seen on a +large and even national scale. The Degs +threatened, therefore, to become a most formidable +clan in the lower purlieus of Stockington, +but luckily there is so much virtue +even in evils, that one, not rarely cures +another. War, the great evil, cleared the +town of Degs.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Fond of idleness, of indulgence, of money +easily got, and as easily spent, the Degs were +rapidly drained off by recruiting parties +during the last war. The young men enlisted, +and were marched away; the young women +married soldiers that were quartered in the +town from time to time, and marched away +with them. There were, eventually, none of +the once numerous Degs left except a few old +people, whom death was sure to draft off at no +distant period with his regiment of the line +which has no end. Parish overseers, magistrates, +and master manufacturers, felicitated +themselves at this unhoped-for deliverance +from the ancient family of the Degs.</p> + +<p class='c005'>But one cold, clear, winter evening, the east +wind piping its sharp sibilant ditty in the +bare shorn hedges, and poking his sharp fingers +into the sides of well broad-clothed men by +way of passing jest, Mr. Spires, a great manufacturer +of Stockington, driving in his gig +some seven miles from the town, passed a +poor woman with a stout child on her back. +The large ruddy-looking man in the prime of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_470'>470</span>life, and in the great coat and thick worsted +gloves of a wealthy traveller, cast a glance +at the wretched creature trudging heavily +on, expecting a pitiful appeal to his sensibilities, +and thinking it a bore to have to +pull off a glove and dive into his pocket for a +copper; but to his surprise there was no demand, +only a low curtsey, and the glimpse of +a face of singular honesty of expression, and +of excessive weariness.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Spires was a man of warm feelings; he +looked earnestly at the woman, and thought +he had never seen such a picture of fatigue +in his life. He pulled up and said,</p> + +<p class='c005'>“You seem very tired, my good woman.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Awfully tired, Sir.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“And are you going far to night?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“To Great Stockington, Sir, if God give +me strength.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“To Stockington!” exclaimed Mr. Spires. +“Why you seem ready to drop. You’ll never +reach it. You’d better stop at the next +village.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Ay, Sir, it’s easy stopping, for those that +have money.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“And you’ve none, eh?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“As God lives, Sir, I’ve a sixpence, and +that’s all.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Mr. Spires put his hand in his pocket, and +held out to her the next instant, half-a-crown.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“There stop, poor thing—make yourself +comfortable—it’s quite out of the question +to reach Stockington. But stay—are your +friends living in Stockington—what are you?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“A poor soldier’s widow, Sir. And may +God Almighty bless you!” said the poor +woman, taking the money, the tears standing +in her large brown eyes as she curtsied very +low.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“A soldier’s widow,” said Mr. Spires. She +had touched the softest place in the manufacturer’s +heart, for he was a very loyal man, +and vehement champion of his country’s +honour in the war. “So young,” said he, +“how did you lose your husband?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“He fell, Sir,” said the poor woman; but +she could get no further; she suddenly caught +up the corner of her grey cloak, covered her +face with it, and burst into an excess of grief.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The manufacturer felt as if he had hit the +woman a blow by his careless question; he +sate watching her for a moment in silence, +and then said, “Come, get into the gig, my +poor woman; come, I must see you to Stockington.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The poor woman dried her tears, and heavily +climbed into the gig, expressing her gratitude +in a very touching and modest manner. Spires +buttoned the apron over her, and taking a +look at the child, said in a cheerful tone to +comfort her, “Bless me, but that is a fine +thumping fellow, though. I don’t wonder +you are tired, carrying such a load.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The poor woman pressed the stout child, +apparently two years old, to her breast, as if +she felt it a great blessing and no load: the +gig drove rapidly on.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Presently Mr. Spires resumed his conversation.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“So you are from Stockington?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“No Sir, my husband was.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“So: what was his name?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“John Deg, Sir.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Deg?” said Mr. Spires. “Deg, did you say?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Yes, Sir.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The manufacturer seemed to hitch himself +off towards his own side of the gig, gave +another look at her, and was silent. The +poor woman was somewhat astonished at his +look and movement, and was silent too.</p> + +<p class='c005'>After awhile Mr. Spires said again, “And +do you hope to find friends in Stockington? +Had you none where you came from?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“None Sir, none in the world!” said the +poor woman, and again her feelings seemed +too strong for her. At length she added, “I +was in service, Sir, at Poole, in Dorsetshire, +when I married; my mother only was living, +and while I was away with my husband, she +died. When—when the news came from +abroad—that—when I was a widow, Sir, I +went back to my native place, and the parish +officers said I must go to my husband’s parish +lest I and my child should become troublesome.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“You asked relief of them?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Never; Oh, God knows, no, never! My +family have never asked a penny of a parish. +They would die first, and so would I, Sir; +but they said I might do it, and I had better +go to my husband’s parish at once—and they +offered me money to go.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“And you took it, of course?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“No, sir; I had a little money, which I +had earned by washing and laundering, and I +sold most of my things, as I could not carry +them, and came off. I felt hurt, Sir; my +heart rose against the treatment of the parish, +and I thought I should be better amongst my +husband’s friends—and my child would, if +anything happened to me; I had no friends +of my own.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Mr. Spires looked at the woman in silence. +“Did your husband tell you anything of his +friends? What sort of a man was he?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Oh, he was a gay young fellow, rather, +Sir; but not bad to me. He always said his +friends were well off in Stockington.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“He did!” said the manufacturer, with a +great stare, and as if bolting the words from +his heart in a large gust of wonder.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The poor woman again looked at him with +a strange look. The manufacturer whistled +to himself, and giving his horse a smart cut +with the whip, drove on faster than ever. +The night was fast settling down; it was +numbing cold; a grey fog rose from the river +as they thundered over the old bridge; and +tall engine chimneys, and black smoky houses +loomed through the dusk before them. They +were at Stockington.</p> + +<p class='c005'>As they slackened their pace up a hill at +the entrance of the town, Mr. Spires again +opened his mouth.</p> + +<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_471'>471</span>“I should be sorry to hurt your feelings, +Mrs. Deg,” he said, “but I have my fears that +you are coming to this place with false expectations. +I fear your husband did not give +you the truest possible account of his family +here.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Oh, Sir! What—what is it?” exclaimed +the poor woman; “in God’s name, tell me!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Why, nothing more than this,” said the +manufacturer, “that there are very few of the +Degs left here. They are old, and on the +parish, and can do nothing for you.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The poor woman gave a deep sigh, and was +silent.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“But don’t be cast down,” said Mr. Spires. +He would not tell her what a pauper family +it really was, for he saw that she was a very +feeling woman, and he thought she would +learn that soon enough. He felt that her +husband had from vanity given her a false +account of his connections; and he was really +sorry for her.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Don’t be cast down,” he went on, “you +can wash and iron, you say; you are young +and strong: those are your friends. Depend +on them, and they’ll be better friends to you +than any other.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The poor woman was silent, leaning her +head down on her slumbering child, and crying +to herself; and thus they drove on, through +many long and narrow streets, with gas flaring +from the shops, but with few people in the +streets, and these hurrying shivering along +the pavement, so intense was the cold. Anon +they stopped at a large pair of gates; the +manufacturer rung a bell, which he could +reach from his gig, and the gates presently +were flung open, and they drove into a spacious +yard, with a large handsome house, having a +bright lamp burning before it, on one side of +the yard, and tall warehouses on the other.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Show this poor woman and her child to +Mrs. Craddock’s, James,” said Mr. Spires, +“and tell Mrs. Craddock to make them very +comfortable; and if you will come to my warehouse +to-morrow,” added he, addressing the +poor woman, “perhaps I can be of some use +to you.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The poor woman poured out her heartfelt +thanks, and, following the old man servant, +soon disappeared, hobbling over the pebbly +pavement with her living load, stiffened +almost to stone by her fatigue and her cold +ride.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We must not pursue too minutely our narrative. +Mrs. Deg was engaged to do the +washing and getting up of Mr. Spire’s linen, +and the manner in which she executed her +task insured her recommendations to all their +friends. Mrs. Deg was at once in full employ. +She occupied a neat house in a yard near the +meadows below the town, and in those +meadows she might be seen spreading out her +clothes to whiten on the grass, attended by +her stout little boy. In the same yard lived +a shoemaker, who had two or three children +of about the same age as Mrs. Deg’s child. +The children, as time went on, became playfellows. +Little Simon might be said to have +the free run of the shoemaker’s house, and he +was the more attracted thither by the shoemaker’s +birds, and by his flute, on which he +often played after his work was done.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Mrs. Deg took a great friendship for this +shoemaker: and he and his wife, a quiet, kindhearted +woman, were almost all the acquaintances +that she cultivated. She had found out +her husband’s parents, but they were not of a +description that at all pleased her. They were +old and infirm, but they were of the true +pauper breed, a sort of person, whom Mrs. Deg +had been taught to avoid and to despise. +They looked on her as a sort of second parish, +and insisted that she should come and live +with them, and help to maintain them out of +her earnings. But Mrs. Deg would rather +her little boy had died than have been familiarised +with the spirit and habits of those old +people. Despise them she struggled hard not +to do, and she agreed to allow them sufficient +to maintain them on condition that they desisted +from any further application to the +parish. It would be a long and disgusting +story to recount all the troubles, annoyance, +and querulous complaints, and even bitter +accusations that she received from these connections, +whom she could never satisfy; but +she considered it one of her crosses in her life, +and patiently bore it, seeing that they suffered +no real want, so long as they lived, which was +for years; but she would never allow her little +Simon to be with them alone.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The shoemaker neighbour was a stout protection +to her against the greedy demands of +these old people, and of others of the old Degs, +and also against another class of inconvenient +visitors, namely, suitors, who saw in Mrs. Deg +a neat and comely young woman with a flourishing +business, and a neat and soon well-furnished +house, a very desirable acquisition. +But Mrs. Deg had resolved never again to +marry, but to live for her boy, and she kept +her resolve in firmness and gentleness.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The shoemaker often took walks in the extensive +town meadows to gather groundsell +and plantain for his canaries and gorse-linnets, +and little Simon Deg delighted to accompany +him with his own children. There William +Watson, the shoemaker, used to point out to +the children the beauty of the flowers, the +insects, and other objects of nature; and while +he sate on a stile and read in a little old book +of poetry, as he often used to do, the children +sate on the summer grass, and enjoyed themselves +in a variety of plays.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The effect of these walks, and the shoemaker’s +conversation on little Simon Deg was +such as never wore out of him through his +whole life, and soon led him to astonish the +shoemaker by his extraordinary conduct. He +manifested the utmost uneasiness at their +treading on the flowers in the grass; he would +burst with tears if they persisted in it; and +when asked why, he said they were so beautiful, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_472'>472</span>and that they must enjoy the sunshine, +and be very unhappy to die. The shoemaker +was amazed, but indulged the lad’s fancy. +One day he thought to give him a great treat, +and when they were out in the meadows, he +drew from under his coat a bow and arrow, +and shot the arrow high up in the air. He +expected to see him in an ecstacy of delight: +his own children clapped their hands in transport, +but Simon stood silent, and as if awestruck. +“Shall I send up another?” asked +the shoemaker.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“No, no,” exclaimed the child, imploringly. +“You say God lives up there, and he mayn’t +like it.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The shoemaker laughed, but presently he +said, as if to himself, “There is too much imagination +there. There will be a poet, if we +don’t take care.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The shoemaker offered to teach Simon to +read, and to solidify his mind, as he termed it, +by arithmetic, and then to teach him to work +at his trade. His mother was very glad; and +thought shoemaking would be a good trade +for the boy; and that with Mr. Watson she +should have him always near her. He was +growing now a great lad, and was especially +strong, and of a frank and daring habit. He +was especially indignant at any act of oppression +of the weak by the strong, and not +seldom got into trouble by his championship +of the injured in such cases amongst the boys +of the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p class='c005'>He was now about twelve years of age; +when, going one day with a basket of clothes +on his head to Mr. Spires’s for his mother, he +was noticed by Mr. Spires himself from his +counting-house window. The great war was +raging; there was much distress amongst the +manufacturers; and the people were suffering +and exasperated against their masters. Mr. +Spires, as a staunch tory, and supporter of +the war, was particularly obnoxious to the +workpeople, who uttered violent threats +against him. For this reason his premises +were strictly guarded, and at the entrance of +his yard, just within the gates, was chained a +huge and fierce mastiff, his chain allowing him +to approach near enough to intimidate any +stranger, though not to reach him. The dog +knew the people who came regularly about, +and seemed not to notice them, but on the +entrance of a stranger, he rose up, barked +fiercely, and came to the length of his chain. +This always drew the attention of the porter, +if he were away from his box, and few persons +dared to pass till he came.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Simon Deg was advancing with the basket +of clean linen on his head, when the dog +rushed out, and barking loudly, came exactly +opposite to him, within a few feet. The boy, +a good deal startled at first, reared himself +with his back against the wall, but at a glance +perceiving that the dog was at the length of +his tether, he seemed to enjoy his situation, +and stood smiling at the furious animal, and +lifting his basket with both hands above his +head, nodded to him, as if to say, “Well, old +boy, you’d like to eat me, wouldn’t you?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Mr. Spires, who sate near his counting-house +window at his books, was struck with the +bold and handsome bearing of the boy, and +said to a clerk, “What boy is that?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“It is Jenny Deg’s,” was the answer.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Ha! that boy! Zounds! how boys do +grow! Why that’s the child that Jenny +Deg was carrying when she came to Stockington: +and what a strong, handsome, bright-looking +fellow he is now!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>As the boy was returning, Mr. Spires called +him to the counting-house door, and put +some questions to him as to what he was +doing and learning, and so on. Simon, taking +off his cap with much respect, answered in +such a clear and modest way, and with a +voice that had so much feeling and natural +music in it, that the worthy manufacturer +was greatly taken with him.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“That’s no Deg,” said he, when he again +entered the counting-house, “not a bit of it. +He’s all Goodrick, or whatever his mother’s +name was, every inch of him.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The consequence of that interview was, +that Simon Deg was very soon after perched +on a stool in Mr. Spires’ counting-house, +where he continued till he was twenty-two. +Mr. Spires had no son, only a single daughter; +and such were Simon Deg’s talents, attention +to business, and genial disposition, that at +that age Mr. Spires gave him a share in the +concern. He was himself now getting less +fond of exertion than he had been, and placed +the most implicit reliance on Simon’s judgment +and general management. Yet no +two men could be more unlike in their +opinions beyond the circle of trade. Mr. +Spires was a staunch tory of the staunch old +school. He was for Church and King, and +for things remaining for ever as they had +been. Simon, on the other hand, had liberal +and reforming notions. He was for the improvement +of the people, and their admission +to many privileges. Mr. Spires was, therefore, +liked by the leading men of the place, +and disliked by the people. Simon’s estimation +was precisely in the opposite direction. +But this did not disturb their friendship; it +required another disturbing cause—and that +came.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Simon Deg and the daughter of Mr. Spires, +grew attached to each other; and, as the +father had thought Simon worthy of becoming +a partner in the business, neither of the young +people deemed that he would object to a +partnership of a more domestic description. +But here they made a tremendous mistake. +No sooner was such a proposal hinted at, +than Mr. Spires burst forth with the fury of +all the winds from the bag of Ulysses.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What! a Deg aspire to the hand of the sole +heiress of the enormously opulent Spires?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>The very thought almost cut the proud +manufacturer off with an apoplexy. The +ghosts of a thousand paupers rose up before +<span class='pageno' id='Page_473'>473</span>him, and he was black in the face. It was +only by a prompt and bold application of +leeches and lancet, that the life of the great +man was saved. But there was an end of all +further friendship between himself and the +expectant Simon. He insisted that he should +withdraw from the concern, and it was done. +Simon, who felt his own dignity deeply +wounded too, for dignity he had, though the +last of a long line of paupers—his own dignity, +not his ancestors’—took silently, yet not +unrespectfully, his share—a good, round sum, +and entered another house of business.</p> + +<p class='c005'>For several years there appeared to be a +feud and a bitterness between the former +friends; yet it showed itself in no other +manner than by a careful avoidance of each +other. The continental war came to an end; +the manufacturing distress increased exceedingly. +There came troublous times, and a +fierce warfare of politics. Great Stockington +was torn asunder by rival parties. On one +side stood pre-eminent, Mr. Spires; on the +other towered conspicuously, Simon Deg. +Simon was grown rich, and extremely popular. +He was on all occasions the advocate of the +people. He said that he had sprung from, +and was one of them. He had bought a large +tract of land on one side of the town; and +intensely fond of the country and flowers +himself, he had divided this into gardens, +built little summer-houses in them, and let +them to the artisans. In his factory he had +introduced order, cleanliness, and ventilation. +He had set up a school for the children in the +evenings, with a reading-room and conversation-room +for the workpeople, and encouraged +them to bring their families there, and enjoy +music, books, and lectures. Accordingly, he +was the idol of the people, and the horror of +the old school of the manufacturers.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“A pretty upstart and demagogue I’ve +nurtured,” said Mr. Spires often, to his wife and +daughter, who only sighed, and were silent.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Then came a furious election. The town, +for a fortnight, more resembled the worst +corner of Tartarus than a Christian borough. +Drunkenness, riot, pumping on one another, +spencering one another, all sorts of violence +and abuse ruled and raged till the blood of all +Stockington was at boiling heat. In the +midst of the tempest were everywhere seen, +ranged on the opposite sides, Mr. Spires, now +old and immensely corpulent, and Simon Deg, +active, buoyant, zealous, and popular beyond +measure. But popular though he still was, +tho other and old tory side triumphed. The +people were exasperated to madness; and, +when the chairing of the successful candidate +commenced, there was a terrific attack made +on the procession by the defeated party. +Down went the chair, and the new member, +glad to escape into an inn, saw his friends +mercilessly assailed by the populace. There +was a tremendous tempest of sticks, brickbats, +paving-stones, and rotten eggs. In the +midst of this, Simon Deg, and a number of +his friends, standing at the upper window of +an hotel, saw Mr. Spires knocked down, and +trampled on by the crowd. In an instant, +and, before his friends had missed him from +amongst them, Simon Deg was seen darting +through the raging mass, cleaving his way +with a surprising vigour, and gesticulating, and +no doubt shouting vehemently to the rioters, +though his voice was lost in the din. In the +next moment, his hat was knocked off, and +himself appeared in imminent danger: but, +another moment, and there was a pause, and +a group of people were bearing somebody +from the frantic mob into a neighbouring +shop. It was Simon Deg, assisting in the rescue +of his old friend and benefactor, Mr. Spires.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Mr. Spires was a good deal bruised, and +wonderfully confounded and bewildered by his +fall. His clothes were one mass of mud, and +his face was bleeding copiously; but when he +had had a good draught of water, and his +face washed, and had time to recover himself, +it was found that he had received no serious +injury.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“They had like to have done for me though,” +said he.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Yes, and who saved you?” asked a +gentleman.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“Ay, who was it? who was it?” asked +the really warm-hearted manufacturer; “let +me know? I owe him my life.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“There he is!” said several gentlemen, at +the same instant, pushing forward Simon Deg.</p> + +<p class='c005'>“What, Simon!” said Mr. Spires, starting +to his feet. “Was it thee, my boy?” He +did more, he stretched out his hand: the +young man clasped it eagerly, and the two +stood silent, and, with a heartfelt emotion, +which blended all the past into forgetfulness, +and the future into a union more sacred than +esteem.</p> + +<p class='c005'>A week hence, and Simon Deg was the son-in-law +of Mr. Spires. Though Mr. Spires +had misunderstood Simon, and Simon had +borne the aspect of opposition to his old +friend, in defence of conscientious principle, +the wife and daughter of the manufacturer +had always understood him, and secretly +looked forward to some day of recognition +and re-union.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Simon Deg was now the richest man in +Stockington. His mother was still living to enjoy +his elevation. She had been his excellent +and wise housekeeper, and she continued +to occupy that post still.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Twenty-five years afterwards, when the +worthy old Spires was dead, and Simon Deg +had himself two sons attained to manhood; +when he had five times been Mayor of Stockington, +and had been knighted on the presentation +of a loyal address; still his mother +was living to see it; and William Watson, the +shoemaker, was acting as the sort of orderly +at Sir Simon’s chief manufactory. He occupied +the Lodge, and walked about, and saw that +all was safe, and moving on as it should do.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It was amazing how the most plebeian +<span class='pageno' id='Page_474'>474</span>name of Simon Deg had slid, under the hands +of the Heralds, into the really aristocratical +one of Sir Simon Degge. They had traced +him up a collateral kinship, spite of his own +consciousness, to a baronet of the same name +of the county of Stafford, and had given him +a coat of arms that was really astonishing.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It was some years before this, that Sir +Roger Rockville had breathed his last. His +title and estate had fallen into litigation. +Owing to two generations having passed without +any issue of the Rockville family except +the one son and heir, the claims, though +numerous, were so mingled with obscuring +circumstances, and so equally balanced, that +the lawyers raised quibbles and difficulties +enough to keep the property in Chancery, till +they had not only consumed all the ready +money and rental, but had made frightful inroads +into the estate itself. To save the +remnant, the contending parties came to a +compromise. A neighbouring squire, whose +grandfather had married a Rockville, was +allowed to secure the title, on condition that +the rest carried off the residuum of the estate. +The woods and lands of Rockville were +announced for sale!</p> + +<p class='c005'>It was at this juncture that old William +Watson reminded Sir Simon Degge of a conversation +in the great grove of Rockville, +which they had held at the time that Sir +Roger was endeavouring to drive the people +thence. “What a divine pleasure might this +man enjoy,” said Simon Deg to his humble +friend, “if he had a heart capable of letting +others enjoy themselves.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>“But we talk without the estate,” said +William Watson, “what might we do if we +were tried with it?”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Sir Simon was silent for a moment; then +observed that there was sound philosophy in +William Watson’s remark. He said no more, +but went away; and the next day announced +to the astonished old man that he had purchased +the groves and the whole ancient +estate of Rockville!</p> + +<p class='c005'>Sir Simon Degge, the last of a long line of +paupers, was become the possessor of the noble +estate of Sir Roger Rockville of Rockville, the +last of a long line of aristocrats!</p> + +<p class='c005'>The following summer when the hay was +lying in fragrant cocks in the great meadows +of Rockville, and on the little islands in the +river, Sir Simon Degge, Baronet, of Rockville,—for +such was now his title—through +the suggestion of a great lawyer, formerly +Recorder of the Borough of Stockington, to +the crown—held a grand fête on the occasion +of his coming to reside at Rockville Hall, +henceforth the family seat of the Degges. +His house and gardens had all been restored +to the most consummate order. For years +Sir Simon had been a great purchaser of +works of art and literature, paintings, statuary, +books, and articles of antiquity, including rich +armour and precious works in ivory and gold.</p> + +<p class='c005'>First and foremost he gave a great banquet +to his wealthy friends, and no man with a +million and a half is without them—and in +abundance. In the second place, he gave a +substantial dinner to all his tenantry, from +the wealthy farmer of five hundred acres to +the tenant of a cottage. On this occasion he +said, “Game is a subject of great heart-burning +and of great injustice to the country. +It was the bane of my predecessor: let us +take care it is not ours. Let every man kill +the game on the land that he rents—then he +will not destroy it utterly, nor allow it to grow +into a nuisance. I am fond of a gun myself, +but I trust to find enough for my propensity +to the chace in my own fields and woods—if I +occasionally extend my pursuit across the +lands of my tenants, it shall not be to carry +off the first-fruits of their feeding, and I shall +still hold the enjoyment as a favour.”</p> + +<p class='c005'>We need not say that this speech was +applauded most vociferously. Thirdly, and +lastly, he gave a grand entertainment to all +his workpeople, both of the town and the +country. His house and gardens were thrown +open to the inspection of the whole assembled +company. The delighted crowd admired immensely +the pictures and the pleasant gardens. +On the lawn, lying between the great grove +and the hall, an enormous tent was pitched, +or rather a vast canvas canopy erected, open +on all sides, in which was laid a charming +banquet; a military band from Stockington +barracks playing during the time. Here Sir +Simon made a speech as rapturously received +as that to the farmers. It was to the effect, +that all the old privileges of wandering in +the grove, and angling, and boating on the +river were restored. The inn was already +rebuilt in a handsome Elizabethan style, +larger than before, and to prevent it ever +becoming a fane of intemperance, he had there +posted as landlord, he hoped for many years +to come, his old friend and benefactor, William +Watson. William Watson should protect the +inn from riot, and they themselves the groves +and river banks from injury.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Long and loud were the applauses which +this announcement occasioned. The young +people turned out upon the green for a dance, +and in the evening, after an excellent tea—the +whole company descended the river to +Stockington in boats and barges decorated +with boughs and flowers, and singing a song +made by William Watson for the occasion, +called “The Health of Sir Simon, last and +first of his Line!”</p> + +<p class='c005'>Years have rolled on. The groves and +river banks and islands of Rockville are still +greatly frequented, but are never known to +be injured: poachers are never known there, +for four reasons.—First, nobody would like to +annoy the good Sir Simon; secondly, game is +not very numerous there; thirdly, there is no +fun in killing it, where there is no resistance; +and fourthly, it is vastly more abundant in +other proprietors’ demesnes, and <i>it is</i> fun to +kill it there, where it is jealously watched, and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_475'>475</span>there is a chance of a good spree with the +keepers.</p> + +<p class='c005'>And with what different feelings does the +good Sir Simon look down from his lofty +eyrie, over the princely expanse of meadows, +and over the glittering river, and over the +stately woods to where Great Stockington +still stretches farther and farther its red brick +walls, its red-tiled roofs, and its tall smoke-vomiting +chimneys. There he sees no haunts +of crowded enemies to himself or any man. +No upstarts, nor envious opponents, but a +vast family of human beings, all toiling for the +good of their families and their country. All +advancing, some faster, some slower, to a +better education, a better social condition, a +better conception of the principles of art and +commerce, and a clearer recognition of their +rights and their duties, and a more cheering +faith in the upward tendency of humanity.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Looking on this interesting scene from his +distant and quiet home, Sir Simon sees what +blessings flow—and how deeply he feels them +in his own case—from a free circulation, not +only of trade, but of human relations. How +this corrects the mischiefs, moral and physical, +of false systems and rusty prejudices;—and he +ponders on schemes of no ordinary beauty +and beneficence yet to reach his beloved town +through them. He sees lecture halls and +academies, means of sanitary purification, and +delicious recreation, in which baths, wash-houses, +and airy homes figure largely: while +public walks extend all round the great industrial +hive, including wood, hills, meadow, and +river in their circuit of many miles. There +he lived and laboured; there live and labour +his sons: and there he trusts his family will +continue to live and labour to all future generations: +never retiring to the fatal indolence +of wealth, but aiding onwards its active and +ever-expanding beneficence.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Long may the good Sir Simon live and labour +to realise these views. But already in a green +corner of the pleasant churchyard of Rockville +may be read this inscription on a marble headstone:—“Sacred +to the Memory of Jane Deg, +the mother of Sir Simon Degge, Bart., of Rockville. +This stone is erected in honour of the +best of Mothers by the most grateful of sons.”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>TWO LETTERS FROM AUSTRALIA.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>Correspondents, to whom emigration is a +subject of vital importance—inasmuch as they +appear to be resolved to leave kindred and +home for “pastures new”—have written to us, +with a hope that we will continue to give, as +we have done hitherto, the dark as well as +the light side of the Colonial picture. Not a +few of the dangers and privations of Australian +life we have already laid before them. We +now are enabled to furnish some idea of how +new localities are colonised, by such enterprising +pioneers as the author of the letters +from which we take the following extracts.</p> + +<p class='c005'>It must be remarked, that the perils he +describes were self-sought, and are by no +means incidental to the career of an ordinary +emigrant. His adventures occurred +beyond the limits of the colony as defined by +the British Government which, it would +appear, he was in some degree instrumental +in extending.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We give the “round unvarnished tale” +precisely as we received it, and as it was +communicated by the author to a relative in +Cheshire:—</p> + +<p class='c005'>When we separated from our partner, Mr. +W., it became necessary to look for stations +outside the limits of the colony, for the only +station we then possessed was much too small +for our stock. R. and I first took the stock +up to the station on the Murray, and having +heard that a fine district of country had just +been discovered on the Edward, we followed +it down and discovered our present runs, and, +I must say, they are equal—for grazing purposes, +at least—to anything I have seen in the +colony. It was necessary that one of us should +remain at our station on the Murray, and +R. very kindly gave me the option of either +remaining or going down the Edward. I preferred +going and forming new stations on the +Edward, while he agreed to continue where +he was, which indeed he preferred. I therefore +lost no time in removing the stock before the +winter rains should set in, and the waters rise +to an unnatural height, which the rivers down +here invariably do at this period of the year, +overflowing their banks, in places, for miles. +It was too late,—for just as we started it +commenced raining, and continued, without +ceasing, for a month. It was with the greatest +difficulty we got down, as, from continued +exposure to wet, and what with driving the +cattle by day and watching them by night, we +were, as you may suppose, so completely +fagged, as to be almost “<i><span lang="fr">hors de service</span></i>.” +But there is an end to everything,—in this +world at least,—and so there was to our +journey. It excited in me at the time, I well +recollect, strange and indescribable sensations, +as I rode over the runs, exploring the different +nooks and crannies all so lonely and +still, with not a sound to be heard, save now +and then the wild shriek of the native Companion +(a large bird), or the howl of the native +dog, or the still more thrilling yell of the black +native, announcing to others the arrival of +white men.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We were now about fifty miles from any +other white habitation, about six hundred +from Sydney, and two hundred from Melbourne. +The country down here is almost a +dead level,—not a single hill to be seen, unless +you choose to honour with the name a few +miserable mounds of sand which rise to an +elevation of some twenty or thirty feet. The +plains are very extensive; there is one which +extends from our door right across to the +Murrum-bridge, a distance of sixty-five miles, +with scarcely a tree on it.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The Murray—of which the Edward is a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_476'>476</span>branch—takes its rise in the Australian +Alps, and is supplied by springs and snow +from these. Some of the highest mountains +of this range retain perpetual snow on their +summits, but on the lesser ones it melts about +the beginning of spring, causing great floods +in the Murray and Edward, and our runs, +being particularly low, are flooded from one +to three miles on either side of the river. It +is necessary to state this, to enable you to +understand the “secrets I am about to +unfold.” We had built one hut on the south +side (ycleped Barratta), but before we could +get one up on the south side (Wirrai), the +floods came, and I was obliged to substitute a +bark one instead. I divided the cattle into +two herds, and put a steady stock-keeper, +along with a hutkeeper, in charge of one +herd on the Wirrai station, while I, with a +hutkeeper and another man (we were only +five altogether) looked after the other on this +side. We were badly supplied with arms and +ammunition, and by no means prepared to fight +a strong battle should the Blacks be inclined +for mischief. The natives did not show up at +the huts for two or three weeks after our +arrival, but kept reconnoitring at a distance, +and we could sometimes see them gliding +stealthily among the trees not far off us. By +degrees, two or three of them came up and +made friends, and then more and more, until +we had seen from forty to fifty of them, but +it was remarkable that only old men, boys, +and women showed themselves, and none of +the warriors. Although I had heard that +kindness was of no avail, I never could be +brought to believe it, and determined, therefore, +to do all in my power to propitiate them +by trifling gifts, kind treatment, and avoiding +everything that could hurt their feelings. It +was of no use; no kindness—nothing, in fact—will +teach them the law of <i><span lang="la">meum</span></i> and <i><span lang="la">tuum</span></i> +but the white man’s gun and his superior +courage. We had been down about three +months, the waters were at their highest, and +our huts on both sides of the river were surrounded +by water, through which we had to +wade every morning to look after the cattle. +I was obliged to put the huts within hearing +of gunshot, on account of mutual protection, +for what, after all, are two or three men +alone, without a chance of assistance, against +a body of two or three hundred black warriors, +painted and armed, as I have seen them, +in all the panoply of savage warfare.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We had not seen a single Black for nearly +six weeks, for, as I afterwards learned, they +had all gone over to a station on the Murray, +about fifty miles from us, where they succeeded +in driving the whites out after killing +one man, and from three to four hundred head +of cattle, without the slightest check or resistance; +and having brought their work to a +conclusion there, and emboldened by the success +of their expedition, they now turned their +eyes towards us, and gathering both numbers +and courage, came pouring down on our devoted +station. We had heard nothing of these +depredations then, and were therefore quite +unprepared for them. One day about twenty +Blacks come up to the huts for the purpose, +I suppose, of reconnoitring the nakedness of +the land, and we killed for them a bullock, +thinking thereby to propitiate them. In this, +however, I was most woefully mistaken, for +before they had half finished it, they went +among the cattle on both sides of the river, +and by next morning there was not a single +head left within forty miles, with the exception +of a few they had killed at either station. +The Wirrai stock-keeper went on the tracks +of his herd, and I followed those of mine, and +by a week’s time we had recovered the greatest +part of both, but there were spears sticking +in the sides of many of them, which wanton +piece of cruelty occasioned several deaths in a +short time. Not being strong enough to +punish the Blacks, and unwilling to begin a +quarrel which might cause loss of life perhaps +on both sides, and still hoping that they would +cease their depredations, I contented myself +with giving them to understand that, if they +attempted in future to touch either man or +beast among us, they should be severely +punished; they said it was not them but +some <i>Wild Blacks</i>, an excuse they always +make when they steal. In a fortnight afterwards, +however, they acted the same play +over again; and again we had the same trouble +in recovering the cattle. They did not show +after this except at a respectable distance, +when it would be with a flourish of spears, or +a wave of their tomahawks, accompanied with +gesticulations of anything but a friendly character. +Still I did not believe that they would +attempt our lives, until I very nearly paid +with mine the forfeit of my incredulity. I +should mention that the communication with +the Wirrai station was, at this time, carried +on by means of bark canoes, which we paddled +with long poles; the distance by water was +about three miles, and by land straight across, +a mile and a half.</p> + +<p class='c005'>One day I had gone over to Wirrai in a +canoe, to see how the stockman was getting +on, and on my return was humming a tune +and thinking of you, dear William (for I +was humming your old favorite “Flow on, +thou shining River”), when I fancied I +heard a slight noise: I stopped and listened, +but could hear nothing; I went a little +further and heard it again; I stopped again +and peered about the bank, when suddenly +about twenty Blacks sprung up from behind +trees, and reeds, and long grass, only one of +whom I had ever seen before; I was about +fifty yards from the nearest of them, and just +at the entrance of a creek about ten yards +wide, lined on both sides with thick reeds. +When they first appeared they did not show +any weapons, and spoke in a friendly strain; +“Budgery Master always gibit bullock along +im Black fellow,” asked if I wanted any fish? +As I had a good double-barrel gun on +<span class='pageno' id='Page_477'>477</span>my knees I did not so much care about them, +but not exactly liking their appearance I +stopped at about thirty yards. The Blacks +by this time were jabbering to more down the +creek, and I could see that the one side was +lined with them. Seeing that I would not come +any nearer, they suddenly picked up their +spears and altered their tone, and began calling +all sorts of names, and threatened to break my +head with their “Nella nellas” (clubs). Quick +as lightning they shipped their spears, but not +quicker than I levelled my gun; the instant +they saw which (they have a great respect for +powder,) they betook themselves behind trees, +and, in truth, I thought it best to follow their +example; so, keeping the gun to my shoulder +the while, I began as well as I could to paddle +the canoe with one hand; perceiving my object, +they stood out to thwart it, and I knowing +that if they sent their spears, though none +of them should hit me, they must inevitably +shiver the canoe to pieces, determined to get +on terra firma as quickly as possible, the +water being only knee deep. In stepping out +I unfortunately got into a stump-hole, and the +next moment was soused over head and ears +in water! This was decidedly unpleasant, and +for the first time a thrill of fear came over +me; however, I jumped up again, and having +been very particular in loading my gun, I +thought it might still go off. By this time +the Blacks had gathered in great numbers on +the other side of the creek and were pressing +on in a body; seeing this I now levelled my +piece, and took as deliberate an aim as I could +at the foremost of them (a huge brute, for +whose capture a hundred pounds reward had +been offered by Government for a murder +committed by him on the Murrum-bridge), +but the gun hung fire and the ball dropped +into the water. Finding that there was no +dependence to be placed in the gun, the +only course left me was to retreat, and to +attempt this I now resolved; taking courage +at this, a number of them jumped into the +water, again I faced them, and again they +took to trees—are they not rank cowards? +I was beginning to think that my only +chance was to take to my legs—which +indeed would have been almost certain death—when +at this crisis I was, as you may +imagine, agreeably surprised by the welcome +“Halloo” of the stockman and hutkeeper, +who, having heard the report of the gun and +the yells of the savages, knew that something +was up, and arrived at the nick of time to my +rescue. After giving me some dry ammunition +we made a rush after them, but could not +overtake the black legs which were now plying +at a particularly nimble rate, and which they +especially do when getting out of the reach of +a gun. This was the first attempt they had +made on any of our lives, and their manœuvres +showed that they were under the impression +that, if they could “<i>do for</i>” the master, they +might easily finish the men. But I made it a +rule that never less than two were to go out +on foot or in canoes, and with never less +than twenty rounds of ball cartridge. We +did not see anything of the Blacks for a +fortnight after this, during which interval, as +they afterwards told us, they were preparing +for a grand attack on the Wirrai station.</p> + +<p class='c005'>About two hours before sundown the following +day the stockman went out, as usual, +to see that the cattle were safe. The Wirrai +hut, I should mention, was at this time on a +kind of island about a mile and a half in +diameter, formed by the Wirrai Lagoon and a +deep creek,—so that the cattle were feeding +almost within sight of the hut. All was quiet; +the cattle did not seem to betray any symptoms +of fear, which they generally will do when the +Blacks are near. He had not returned more +than half an hour, when we saw the poor +beasts coming rushing towards the hut—as if +for protection—as hard as they could lay legs +to the ground. On going among them, we +found many with spears sticking in their +bodies. We immediately mounted horses—(I +bareback, as I had left my saddle at Barratta)—and +gallopped as hard as we could in +the direction the cattle had come from for +about a mile, when, not seeing anything, we +stopped and listened. There was a small, +dense shrub before us, and, as we approached +it, the awful yell that greeted our ears I shall +not forget in a hurry. You can have no idea +of the effect it has on one unaccustomed to +the sound, for it is like nothing earthly that I +can compare it to, but more like what one +might imagine a lot of fiends would set up +while performing their jubilee over the soul +of some defunct mortal lately arrived at the +“prison-house.” We gallopped through the +shrub. Before us was a space bounded by +two creeks, forming at their junction an angle +on the plain beyond. Arranged in a semicircle +in this space were some two hundred +warriors, painted and armed, and drawn up in +battle array. Between us and them four or +five bullocks were writhing in their death +agony, while the other side of the creek, beyond +the warriors, was black with old men, +women, and children looking on, and yelling +at a most fearful rate. We gallopped within +gunshot, and I then ordered the stockman to +fire on them—(I had no gun myself, and had +enough to do to sit the young spirited horse I +was on), but he refused, saying that my horse +would be sure to throw me, and that nothing +then could save me from certain death. By +this time the Blacks were trying to surround +us, so as to hem us in between themselves and +the creek, and cut off our retreat to the hut +where we had left the hutkeeper in charge, +and we soon found it necessary to put our +horses into a gallop—they following at our +heels—in order to get there in time enough to +prepare for a defence. It was their intention, +as they afterwards kindly informed us, to +have killed every man jack of us. We had +just got everything ready, when on they came +yelling like so many fiends. We stood out +<span class='pageno' id='Page_478'>478</span>from the hut awaiting their onset. Although +the odds against us, as regarded numbers, +was fearful, I was confident that if we could +only make sure of three or four of the foremost +of them, it would go far to intimidate +the rest; so, as soon as they came within +range of our guns, we gave them three rounds, +which, however, only wounded one of them; +still it made the others check their paces and +hesitate awhile, seeing especially that we were +determined to sell our lives dearly at this +crisis; they betook themselves behind trees, +protected by which they crept nearer and +nearer to us, we taking every opportunity of +firing, but with small effect. It being now +nearly dark, we were obliged to take to the +hut, and defend ourselves there as best we +could. When inside, they threw a great many +spears through the tarpaulin, very fortunately +with no other effect than that of one of them +just grazing my head. This kind of siege was +carried on about four hours, we firing a shot +now and then when we thought we could perceive +the dim outline of one of them gliding +through the dark, and they sending an occasional +spear, and giving a yell. What we most +feared was their making an attempt to set the +hut on fire, for if successful in this (and the day +having been very warm, our tarpaulin would +have burned like so much paper) it would +have been all up with us.</p> + +<p class='c005'>We had almost given up all hopes of life, +and a sort of stubborn, dogged desperation +seized me such as I never before felt, and such +as I trust I never may again feel. We were +reduced to nearly a dozen rounds of ammunition +which we resolved to save for the rush. +About midnight I was horribly startled by +the stock-keeper announcing that on his side +of the hut (we each of us guarded one side) +he thought he could distinguish a fire-stick at +some distance, and, on looking, we could plainly +perceive it approaching nearer and nearer, +until it came within what we considered safe +gunshot, when I told the stockman, who was +the best shot, to take good aim. He fired, and +the fire-stick dropped on the ground. A good +deal of yelling followed, but they did not again +venture to show fire.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Everything after an hour remained quiet; +the cattle had long since been rushed off the +island, and the Blacks, we supposed, had gone +to rest, preparatory to an attack at daybreak. +Towards dawn, being faint and weak through +anxiety and fasting,—for we had had nothing +for twenty-four hours,—we determined on +having some tea; but before it could be got +ready we again heard the Blacks yelling most +furiously. The stockman and hutkeeper thereupon +gave it as their opinion, that our only +hope of escape was in immediately quitting +the hut, and attempting, if possible, to get +across to Barratta; so, instantly decamping, we +crossed the lagoon in a canoe, which we then +dragged across a few hundred yards of land to +the river. This we also quickly crossed. Just +as we reached the Barratta bank, we heard a +most awful hullabaloo at Wirrai, in which +noises our friends the Blacks were giving vent +to their feelings of disgust and disappointment +at not finding us at home. Before they could +overtake us, we were safe at Barratta. “To +be continued in our next,” as the Editors of +periodicals often say.</p> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div>In a Second Letter the Narrative is resumed.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>I could see plainly depicted in the faces of +the two men who were in charge of the Barratta +station, a considerable degree of suspicion +as to the extent of our courage in the +Wirrai affair. They were both plucky men, but +their notions underwent a great change the +next day. The day we escaped, we heard +nothing more of the natives, except now and +then their distant yells; so I sent up a man +on horseback to the next station for assistance, +to help us to find and recover the cattle. But +the superintendent either would not or could +not give us any, although all his servants, to a +man, volunteered to go. I was obliged, therefore, +to allow my four men to proceed alone. +I think I mentioned that I had burned my +foot very severely, and by this time, from the +work I had had to undergo, I was in great +agony from it. But I offered the men, if any +one of them objected to it, he could remain in +the hut, and I would go in his place. They +all, however, readily agreed to go, for, in +truth, remaining behind was by far the most +dangerous post, inasmuch as the Blacks, from +their numbers, could easily circumvent the +men, or keep them at bay, while they attacked +the hut, and I could have done little myself, +in the way of defence, with only an old lockless +piece, to discharge which it was necessary to +use a fire-stick. Before they left, the stockman +took me aside, and, with much kindness, +implored me earnestly, for my own safety, to +take a horse, and stop out on the plain. He +told me, at the same time, that he did not +expect to come back alive; “but,” said he, +“it does not matter a straw what becomes of +us, for not one of us would be missed.” This +disinterestedness struck me not a little, as +showing a high trait of fine feeling, coming as +it did from an old convict who had been +transported for life, and had once been condemned +to be hanged. However, I resolved +to take my chance in the hut, and very glad I +was that I did so afterwards, as I should have +looked very foolish, when my men returned, +seated on a horse, and ready to make a bolt. +I had waited about an hour with my old gun +and fire-stick in hand, without hearing a sound +to break the horrid stillness which seemed +at that particular time to reign paramount +around me, when a distant volley of gunshot +burst upon my ear, and then a faint volley of +yells. In a short time the sounds were repeated; +again and again, but nearer and +nearer, and more and more distinct, a +shot or two at a time, with horrible yells +filling up the interlude until I could distinguish +my men retreating with an immense +<span class='pageno' id='Page_479'>479</span>semicircle of natives trying to encompass +them and cut them off from the hut. +My men retreated to the water’s edge in +capital order, and then faced round to the +enemy, for it would have been sure death to +have attempted to cross in the face of so +many of the foe. After a good deal of skirmishing +at this point, a very old Black took a +green bough, and standing a little out from +the rest, made a long harangue to the white +men in his own language, which of course +was just so much Hebrew to them; but +being anxious for a truce they ceased firing. +Another Black who could talk a little English +now came forward, and after a good deal of +jabber, concluded a peace, one condition of +which was that they were to give up everything +they had taken from the Wirrai hut. +Of course we well knew, or at least fully +expected, that this treaty was all hollow on +their side, and like lovers’ vows, made only to +be broken; but the truth was, we were glad +enough to get a little respite even though for +ever so short a time. After restoring most +of the things they had stolen, the Blacks drew +off in a body to the other side of the river.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The stockman informed me, that, when they +started on their search, they first crossed the +river, and then made away over to the Collegian, +where they soon espied a few Blacks, +apparently reconnoitring, who, when they +perceived the white men, made signals to +other Blacks beyond them, and who, in like +manner, signalled others still further away: +presently they saw slowly approaching them +a dense black body which the two men who +had not been at Wirrai the day before took +to be the cattle they were in search of, but +which the more experienced stockman at once +declared to be a vast body of the Blacks. +The two men at first laughed at this idea as a +good joke, but were soon confirmed as to its +correctness, when they changed their tone, +and began to think it high time to return. +On, however, they came in a dense body, and +when nearly within gunshot, spread themselves +out, or deployed—as our military +brother would I suppose call it—and pressing +on in a large semicircle, endeavoured so to +manœuvre, as to cut off the escape of the +retreating <i>army</i> in the direction of the hut as +before related.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The truce, as we had anticipated, proved +a very short one, as you will presently see. +The day following the above incidents, I sent +the stockman and another, to see after the +surviving cattle which our black friends informed +us had got out of the island and gone +across the country to the Murray, which was +true. The men had been gone about three +hours, when about a hundred of the warriors +came up to the hut—without their spears, +but with plenty of tomahawks—pretending +to be good friends. I told the two men who +were working outside, to keep a sharp lookout, +as I suspected their friendship was not of +that description I most coveted or admired; +and being myself scarcely able to move, I sat +down in a corner of the hut by a table, with +a gun close by me, a brace of pistols in my +belt, and another on the table. I told the +Blacks to keep outside the hut; but they, +gradually edging their way in, soon nearly +filled it: and seeing that there was no chance +of keeping them out, except by proceeding +to extremities, I contented myself with watching +their motions with all the coolness I could +command. They began talking very quietly +at first, and I noticed the gentleman I mentioned +who could talk a little English, edging +by little and little towards me, sometimes +talking to his companions and sometimes addressing +me. I pretended not to notice him +particularly, though at the same time—without +looking directly at him—I could see his +eyes rolling from the direction of mine to the +fire-arms like a revolving lamp. Soon the +jabbering became louder and louder (they +were talking themselves into a rage), and I +thought I could hear the names of some of +those who had fallen, made use of. All the +while the above-mentioned black fellow was +shuffling closer and closer to me, until i’ faith +I thought it was high time to act my part in +the scene, or give up all thoughts of life. +With all the calmness I was master of, I took +up a pistol from the table, and taking my +English friend by the arm, pointed it at his +head, and told him to order all his companions +to quit the hut; he shook like an aspen +leaf, and turned as white as a Black well can, +and ordered them to go out, which they immediately +did without a word; I then led him +after them, and bade them leave the place, and +return to their camp, which they likewise did.</p> + +<p class='c005'>I look upon that as about the narrowest +escape I ever had; for the Blacks have since +told me that they were on the point of +making a rush upon us, when it was providentially +stopped by the timely proceeding +mentioned. Had they done so, nothing of +course could have saved us. Next day three +or four hundred of them passed the hut in +dead silence; and not one of them called. +They were all fully armed and painted with +red ochre (their uniform for war), and I conjectured +they were up to some mischief, but +what I could not tell.</p> + +<p class='c005'>In about a week we again had the pleasure +of seeing them coming in great numbers, and +camping in an island about a mile off. From +certain signs which experience had taught +us, we were well assured that they intended +making a grand attack upon our hut. I had +no one living at Wirrai then; and as there +were only four of us at Barratta, viz., H., +(who had just arrived), myself and two men, +(the two who had been sent after the cattle, +were still away,) and wishing to give the +Blacks a severe lesson, we sent to the next +station for as many men as they could spare.</p> + +<p class='c005'>The man we sent had only just reached the +station, when the Commissioner of the district +chanced also to arrive there. Now the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_480'>480</span>Commissioner in those days was a man of +great authority; in fact, altogether more like +a little king, than any less lordly personage: +so, instead of coming down himself with his +police to our assistance, he allowed the superintendent +to send six of his men, while he +himself remained where he was “otium cum” +for in truth the old fellow—to say nothing of +his love of ease, was of old Falstaff’s opinion +touching the advisable predominance of a +certain quality in the exercise of valour. +The men arrived in great silence at midnight, +and the Blacks fortunately knew nothing of +their arrival; for if they had, they would +have deferred their attack until a more +seasonable opportunity when we were not so +well prepared for their reception.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Daylight came, and in the distance we +could see their dusky figures crossing the +lagoon to one side. They had only three +canoes, so that it was a considerable time +before all were landed. They then gathered +together in a clump in dead silence, and held +a council of war, thinking themselves unobserved +all the time. At sunrise they slowly +approached, and only those of us whom they +expected to see showed out to them, and +without arms; they appeared to have no +other arms than their tomahawks; but every +man of them was dragging a large jagged +spear with their toes through the long grass. +When, by the way, one of these spears enters +a man’s body, it is impossible to get it out +again, except by cutting the flesh all round +it, or pushing it right through to the other +side. As they advanced nearer, they spoke, +and continued talking to us all the time in +the most friendly strains, until within about +twenty yards; when just as they (at a signal +given by one of them) were stooping to pick +up their spears to make a rush, the men in +the hut let drive through loopholes right +among them; and we all made a simultaneous +rush, and put them to rout in a manner +that would have given the Old Duke intense +satisfaction had he been looking on. How +many fell, I cannot say, as they always try to +drag their dead from the field, and all around +us, except on the water-side, was long grass +and reeds; two were left dead, and these we +buried.</p> + +<p class='c005'>To detail all the skirmishes and the Parthian +description of fighting with the Blacks for the +eighteen months which ensued, would only +weary you. Where, little more than three +years ago, ours was the only station in this +direction, being five miles beyond any other, +there are now stations formed a hundred miles +below us, and even ladies grace the river forty +miles down, one of them married to an old +school-fellow of ours, viz., Brougham, nephew +of Lord Brougham. Among other diversions, +I have been employing myself in making a +flower-garden, for independently of my love of +flowers, I think their contemplation, and engagement +in their cultivation, has a humanising, +or, if you will, a civilising effect on +the mind, such as I can assure you we require +in the Bush.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c003'>SUPPOSING.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c004'>Supposing a Royal Duke were to die. +Which is not a great stretch of supposition,</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>For golden lads and lasses must,</div> + <div class='line'>Like chimney-sweepers, come to dust:</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>Supposing he had been a good old Duke +with a thoroughly kind heart, and a generous +nature, always influenced by a sincere desire +to do right, and always doing it, like a man +and a gentleman, to the best of his ability:</p> + +<p class='c005'>And supposing, this Royal Duke left a son, +against whom there was no imputation or +reproach, but of whom all men were disposed +to think well, and had no right or reason to +think otherwise:</p> + +<p class='c005'>And supposing, this Royal Duke, though +possessed of a very handsome income in his +lifetime, had not made provision for this son; +and a rather accommodating Government (in +such matters) were to make provision for +him, at the expense of the public, on a scale +wholly unsuited to the nature of the public +burdens, past, present, and prospective, and +bearing no proportion to any kind of public +reward, for any sort of public service:</p> + +<p class='c005'>I wonder whether the country could then, +with any justice, complain, that the Royal +Duke had not himself provided for his son, +instead of leaving his son a charge upon the +people!</p> + +<p class='c005'>I should think the question would depend +upon this:—Whether the country had ever +given the good Duke to understand, that it, in +the least degree, expected him to provide for +his son. If it never did anything of the sort, +but always conveyed to him, in every possible +way, the rapturous assurance that there was +a certain amount of troublesome Hotel business +to be done, which nobody but a Royal Duke +could by any possibility do, or the business +would lose its grace and flavor, then, I should +say, the good Duke aforesaid might reasonably +suppose that he made sufficient provision for +his son, in leaving him the Hotel business; +and that the country would be a very unreasonable +country, if it made any complaint.</p> + +<p class='c005'>Supposing the country <i>did</i> complain, though, +after all. I wonder what it would still say, +in Committee, Sub Committee, Charitable Association, +and List of Stewards, if any ungenteel +person were to propose ignoble chairmen!</p> + +<p class='c005'>Because I should like the country to be +consistent.</p> + +<hr class='c010'> + +<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='c001'><i>Price 2d., Stamped, 3d.</i>,</div> + <div class='c011'><span class='large'>THE HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE</span></div> + <div>OF</div> + <div>CURRENT EVENTS.</div> + <div class='c001'><span class='small'><i>The Number, containing a history of the past month, was issued with the Magazines.</i></span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c011'> +</div> +<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'> + +<div class='chapter ph2'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c012'> + <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 78185 ***</div> + </body> + <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57i (with regex) on 2026-02-05 22:56:30 GMT --> +</html> diff --git a/78185-h/images/cover.jpg b/78185-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8ca68a --- /dev/null +++ b/78185-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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