IN HARNESS
Now indeed I began to realise, in spite of what I so often read in
the daily papers, something of the optimistic pushfulness of the
commercial traveller. The shop had not been open very long when they
began to call, and such was their power of persuasion, so eager were
they to sell me something, however little, so as to get a foot in as
it were, that I often felt grateful that I was away all day. I left
concise orders that nothing was to be bought, but on the occasions when
I happened to be at home I felt so soft and yielding in the hands of
these persistent pushers of their employer's wares that I could not but
pity my wife, charged as she was with the duty of saying no to men who
refused to recognise such a word as belonging to any language.
They were so polite, so gentlemanly, so pathetic, and so well informed.
They seemed able to talk upon any subject, although they all had a
marvellous knack of twisting any topic round to the one they were
interested in. The luxuriance and fruitfulness of their imaginations,
too, always impressed me, and although I always deprecated them
wasting their time over so impecunious a tradesman as I was I had
a good deal of joy in their company, bright and cheerful as it
always was. But I have also to confess that they were dangerous
counsellors. Their pleading for small orders, just one line, their
utter indifference to the payment, making it so fatally easy to get
into debt, I look back upon now with horror. And yet I suppose it is
of the essence of business, this hopeful airy outlook upon life. I
now see that I might have stocked my shop with the choicest products,
might have made it glow again and--but never mind--that comes later.
I am not, never was, a strong-minded person; except in certain very
restricted directions I am exceedingly prone to take the line of least
resistance, but I do feel just a little puffed up with the knowledge
that I was so often able to say no and stick to it in spite of all the
blandishments of those delightful drummers.
I had been about a year in the shop when I realised that I could no
longer expect to do any good whatever with the fancy department. The
Islanders had obviously no aspirations in the direction of crewel work,
applique or any other form of art embroidery. Or if they had they did
not consider that my emporium was the place to satisfy them. So I
began to face the possibility of writing off all the expenditure on
that side as a loss, and the only question was, whose? For beyond all
controversy I was now in debt--how much I would not know, dared not
contemplate. But as my picture-framing was still a going concern, and
subject to sudden spasmodic accessions of trade, I was always kept on
the tenterhooks of expectation--I dare not say hope--that one big order
might put things right. In this I was doubtless somewhat encouraged by
a sympathetic fellow-clerk, who used to suggest to me the possibility
of my getting orders for frames to be exhibited say in all the stations
from King's Cross to Aberdeen, and just for fun we often used to
speculate upon the profits to be obtained from such a contract. I knew
perfectly well that I stood not the slightest chance of getting such a
bit of fat as such a contract would be, but I felt that it cost nothing
to build a castle or two upon its possibilities, and so I did.
Indeed I wanted some romance in my grey life now, for I was getting
hemmed in on every side. The rates kept going up, the gas bills were
crushing, sickness was perennial with us owing to the bad drainage
of the house, and to make matters very much worse, the structural
conditions of the place rendered it barely habitable. The landlord
would do nothing, and I could do nothing, towards making the house fit
to live in; and in consequence, as he lived next door, our relations,
as they say in the newspapers, were strained. I blamed him then, but
now I repent that I did so, for he was a poor man also, and he must
have often felt that his rent was in the greatest danger. As indeed it
was, although I gratefully remember that I _did_ pay him all that he
was entitled to, not indeed without some slight coercion, but still I
did pay.
Fortunately for me I had made the acquaintance of some religious bodies
in the neighbourhood, and I had now some employment for my Sundays.
This was a prime necessity for me, for I had never been able to go to
church in the ordinarily accepted sense of the term. I wanted to be up
and doing. And as I had been used to this for years I felt the loss of
it very much on coming to East Dulwich. And until I had made myself
known and received invitations to speak in the open air meetings, I was
quite unhappy. For no matter how much else I had to do, this particular
business seemed to be indispensable to my wellbeing, to supply a need
that nothing else would. I suppose that many of our present Members
of Parliament owe their positions to the same compelling desire of
holding forth to their fellows in the open air forum, of seeing the
effect that their oratory has upon their hearers. Now I am not going
to recapitulate the experiences I have set down in the "Apostle of the
South East," but only to point out that this life of mine was as you
might say triangular. First in point of importance, but not I fear in
consideration, was the office, when I drew my regular recurring pay.
Next the shop, which I never knew whether to class as an awful incubus
or a pleasant recreation (it was both at times), and lastly the
evangelistic work in the open air which claimed most of my Sundays. I
might perhaps make up the square by bringing in my domestic life, but
that would involve writing of details that are quite private, and so I
leave that side to be assumed as a sort of leaven running through the
whole lump.
From which foregoing outlines it may be taken for granted that my life
was fairly full, that I had no need to kill time. Yet so true is it
that the busiest people are always those who seem to have time at their
disposal, that I managed to keep up my reading, not merely of books but
newspapers, and followed all the events of the day with the keenest
interest. But this was not, as it never has been, from an ardent desire
to educate myself, and reach out ambitiously after something better
than I was doing. If in all I have written hitherto there is one word
that can be construed into a vain-glorious asking for praise on account
of my energy, my perseverance, my earnest desire to get on and all
the rest of the nauseous twaddle, I beg my readers to forgive me, and
to believe that I had not, never had, never can have the slightest
intention of posing in this manner.
My _Apologia_ must be this: I worked hard because I was afraid of
the consequences if I didn't, not at all because I was naturally
industrious, energetic, or ingenious, for I know that I was none of
these things, or rather that I had none of these fine qualities. I
read whenever I could, whatever I could, because I loved reading for
its own sake, and I read good stuff because I had a natural distaste
for rubbish. A good book could and can still make me forget all earthly
ills, all my surroundings, in fact make me cry and laugh and wonder,
while a bad book makes me absolutely ill if I persevere in reading it.
To return to another development of my business as a picture-framer
consequent upon opening a shop. Delightful people came in and talked,
first about pictures and their frames, then about art in all its
branches (which by the way necessitated me reading up "Art"), and then
by an easy transition to any subject in which they were interested
at that particular time. Sometimes these breaks in the greyness of
everyday life were welcome, and led to most useful acquaintanceships
and friendships; but sometimes when I had an order to finish and
deliver for urgent reasons, I talked with a wild pre-occupied look and
itching hands, longing to tell my suave interlocutor to go to Jehannum
or elsewhere, and let me get on with my work, yet not daring to do so
for fear of offending a potential customer.
Yet very often when such a one had given an order for a
one-and-ninepenny frame and had gone away, my over-wrought nerves
refused to allow me to finish what I had in hand. Because,
principally, of the glass. Now your born glass-cutter has no nerves,
cannot have. In the nice handling of a diamond across a virgin sheet of
fifteen-ounce glass, the slightest imaginative tremor must have fatal
results, that is as regards the profit to be made from clean cutting.
But this important matter must be much more particularly explained, for
to me it has often meant the difference between profit and loss, to say
nothing of the pains I endured by reason of my inability to swear--for
only language lurid, loud, and long, could relieve my labouring bosom,
I felt sure, on many of these occasions.
Be it known to you then that the ordinary picture-framer's glass
comes from Belgium in cases containing I forget how many sheets each
about fifty inches long and thirty-six inches wide, and weighing
roughly fifteen ounces to the square foot. The price per case varies
continually, but it may be safely assumed that, given a _skilful
cutter_, a retail price of twopence halfpenny a square foot will yield
a profit of about twenty five per cent. Only, much of this glass has
so many air bubbles in it, is so uneven in thickness, that it can only
be used for pictures on the assumption that the customer will not
mind a bubble giving a sinister twist to some character's eye in the
picture, or in certain lights, a series of blotches upon the whole
scene. It is really window glass, but when Christmas number plates
must be framed in competition for about eighteenpence each, no poor
framer can afford to regard trifles like that. And then its uneven
substance in such large sheets makes the manipulation of it a matter of
extreme difficulty except to those in constant practice and with highly
trained skill. Now very early in my occupation of a shop I learned that
I must give up my old fiddling system of buying my glass ready cut in
Westminster and carrying it home, for many reasons, not the least of
these being that I got no profit out of it.
So I bought a diamond for twelve and sixpence, and happened to get a
very good one. Then I ordered a case of glass, and unconsciously with
it I received a stock of trouble out of all proportion to any profit I
was ever likely to make. Nothing that ever I undertook gave me so many
tremors, cost me so much sweat, as did this truly diabolical business
of glass-cutting. The rough case in which the sheets came standing
on its edge at the end of the shop was to me the abode of devils--I
approached it trembling, drew out a great wavering sheet, and lifted
it on to the sloping table covered with baize which I had made. If I
got it there all right I heaved a great sigh of relief, and usually
went about some other job for a little while to steady my nerves before
tackling the more important business of cutting. That is if there was
no one waiting for a square. If there was, although my mouth was dry
and my heart was thumping furiously against my ribs I had perforce to
assure a jaunty air and even, God help me, hum a tune while my teeth
almost chattered. "Conscience doth make cowards of us all," but so
does poverty and dread of loss which can be ill borne, and I will back
poverty to be the greater maker of cowards. I know it will be thought
that I am making a lot of this trivial matter, but I solemnly declare
that during my seafaring career, in the presence very often of the most
appalling dangers, I have never felt the sickness of heart that has
come over me when one of the huge sheets of glass, has, despite all my
care, fallen in a heap of tinkling fragments from my shaking hands.
I have many memories of painful endurance connected with glass, but one
stands out prominently from all the rest. It was on a Friday, and I
had rather a large order in hand which if I got in that night I might
reasonably hope to get the money for on Saturday, and so be ready for
that rapidly recurring bug-bear, Saturday night. I had three original
sheets of glass left in the case, ample to fill the order I had in
hand, even with a little more than my average allowance of accidents.
I was singing blithely at my work when the tell-tale bell over the
shop door announced a customer. With a sigh I laid down my tools, for
in the midst of a job like that at nine o'clock at night I dreaded
interruption, the more that I usually found it profitless, trivial,
and annoying. I found a man in the shop twiddling a piece of string in
his fingers, and my heart sank, for I knew that meant glass cutting,
my customers for glass nearly always bringing their dimensions on
pieces of string. He asked me quietly for a strip of glass "that size"
throwing the string on the counter, _that_ size being four feet long,
by four and a half inches wide. For one moment I meditated telling
him to go elsewhere, but an infernal spasm of pride came to me for my
undoing, and assuming an air of nonchalance to hide my smouldering rage
I drew out the first of my three sheets and laid it on the operating
table. I laid the cutting laths on it and drew my diamond along its
surface for about a foot when click! it cracked diagonally across.
There was a cry of sympathy from my enemy, but without a word I removed
the pieces and drew out another sheet. That literally fell to fragments
as I was lifting it on the table.
Now my nerves were fretted to fiddle strings, but with the calmness of
despair I laid hold on the third and last sheet taking absolutely no
heed of some remarks which the man was making behind me. I got that
on the table all right and cut the strip off, but as I was handing it
to him it fell in three pieces. I went on to cut another strip and
the remainder cracked in two lines making it almost useless for any
purpose. Then almost blind and deaf with suppressed rage and misery I
turned to my customer saying in a queer sounding voice, "I've got no
more glass to break, you'll have to go somewhere else." And then he
said something, _I_ don't know what it was, but I suddenly lost control
of myself and poured forth my sentiments.
I was wrong, unjust, and rude, for it was certainly no fault of his,
and I have no excuse whatever, but oh it was hard to have to spoil
six or seven shillings worth of glass, to have ruined my chance of
completing the order I had in hand, and, as far as I could see, to
have jeopardised the poor kids' Sunday dinner--which was the unkindest
stroke of all. He had no sooner gone, with his measly sixpence still in
his pocket, than I shut up the shop, put away my tools, turned out the
gas, and went to bed with a book. But it was long ere I could make any
sense out of the printed characters--they all danced amid a glittering
halo of broken glass.
I had made several spasmodic efforts next day to overtake the
difficulty which had fallen in my way, but unsuccessfully, and at 9
P.M. having done all I could towards the order, short of getting the
glass for it, was standing disconsolately by my bench fingering in my
trousers pocket a shilling and a few coppers--all I had, on a Saturday
night, to "get the things in," as we say, for Sunday. Suddenly there
came shrilling up the stairs a cheerful whistle--four notes of the
ascending diatonic scale--the signal of my inestimable chum Bob from
the library over the way. It was literally what the Hindus call a
_Hawa-dilli_, a heart lifter, whenever I heard it, but never more so
than now. I gave the response, and he came bounding up--full of beans
as usual. "Well, old stick, how--" and then he stopped, my haggard look
I suppose daunted him. "Why, what's up then?" he queried. "Broke all
your glass?" I nodded gloomily, and then because I was selfish, and
full of my own trouble, I burst out and told him all.
He listened in silence, but with a face full of sympathy, and when I
had finished he said, thrusting his hands down deep into his pockets,
"That's too bad; and I haven't got three bob myself. But wait a bit--I
believe I can touch Curwen for a quid till pay day--I'll be back in a
minute," and he was gone. He seemed to be back almost immediately, with
a joyful face, shouting, "All right, old man, here's half the plunder,"
holding out half a sovereign to me. Did I take it? Certainly I did; the
possibility of not doing so never occurred to me, for I knew even then
that I would do the same as Bob had done had I the opportunity. Yes, I
took the money, and in a few minutes had laid in my supplies for Sunday
with an easy mind, but without extravagance.
This which is noted as if it might be an extraordinary occurrence,
was nothing of the sort. Something similar happened many times,
indeed it was a fair sample of the friendship I enjoyed with this
particular man--a true fellowship which I am glad to mention as a
sample of the goodwill existing between chums, and as far removed from
the cold-blooded so-called charity of the majority of those who have
great possessions as can well be. If I dared I would like to add to
it by giving some instances of similar kindnesses received from one
or two others, not perhaps quite so intimate, but quite as kindly
meant, and as spontaneously offered. Only, alas, I know that to be more
explicit upon this head would be to offend those generous hearts most
grievously. They belong to the small select class who hate the idea of
their left hand knowing what their right hand does. Above all creeds
they yet practically obey the highest of all, and do their good deeds
with a shame-faced shrinking from publicity that is simply inexplicable
to those whose names figure so prominently in subscription lists.
Amidst all the memories of that strenuous time, which cluster so
thickly around me as I write, none are more delightful than these--of
the sympathy and practical help I met with from those who were almost
as poor as myself. And, be it noted, not one of these dear friends were
in sympathy with the work which lay nearest my heart, the open-air
preaching. They were not Christian Brothers, nor did they feel at all
inclined to come under my teaching. It is, I fear, a lurid commentary
upon the way in which, within the churches, practical Christianity
is followed up, that in all my extensive experience, most of the
individual helping, the ready sympathy in practical ways for those
in trouble has come from "unbelievers" as they are contemptuously
termed. An enormous amount of "charity" is dispensed by the churches in
orthodox ways with due recognition of the donors, and often more than
adequate reward to the agents who distribute, but at whatever cost I
must affirm that it is nothing either as regards quantity, quality,
and effectiveness, with that individually given by those who make no
claim upon the name of Christian at all. What does this mean? To me it
means that while the Christian says that he is unworthy of the least
of the Father's mercies, he endeavours to find out before bestowing
a halfpenny in charity that the recipient shall be worthy in his
estimation of _his_ charity! I speak as a man, but that is my opinion.