"Yes," said Miss Glory shaking her head gravely one Tuesday afternoon.
"I fear 'tis true. Satan hisself is coming to this town."
"Oh," said Aunt Jael, "I should have thought he was here already."
"The ole Devil hisself," continued Glory, staring far into space and
ignoring Aunt Jael.
"Now what do you think you mean?" snapped my Great-Aunt.
"She means the ole Devil hisself, which is what she said," interposed
Salvation, hoping to raise ill feeling.
"Peace, sister! All I means is this 'ere. God A'mighty meant us to
travel on our two legs or by the four legs of four-footed beasts. 'Tis
only the Devil as can want to go any other way. We know 'ausses, an'
donkeys, and mules too for the matter o' that, but when it comes to
carriages and truck loads o' folk being pulled along as quick as a
flash of lightning by an ole artifishul animal belchin' up steam and
fire, like the n'orrible pit it is, 'tis some'at a thought too queer
for an ole Christian woman like myself and for God A'mighty too I
should think. No wonder there are orwis actsodents--act o' God, _I_
calls 'un. I've heard tell of these 'ere railway trains in vorrin
parts, but I never did think we should see 'un in North Devun. But 'tis
true I fear; Salvation went across the bridge to see with 'er own two
eyes, and saw a pair o' lines as the wicked thing runs along on, and
bills and notices all braggin' about it. There didn't used to be no
sich things, and there didn't ought to be now; 'tis all the Devil's
works and there'll be a judgment on them as 'elps 'em, a swift an'
n'orrible judgment, you mark my words."
"Stuff and nonsense!" cried my Aunt. "'Ee may both like to know that
I sold that field o' mine, down beyond the meadow, to this railway
company. There! Got a middling good price for it too, as all the
Meeting will soon learn from yer two wagging tongues. Judgment indeed!
Poor ignorant old fool. 'Tis a sensible invention, and the Lord permits
it. Be you daft? 'Ee just show me a scripture that's against railway
trains!"
"An' 'ee just show me one that's _for_ 'un!" cried Salvation.
"I'm sorry, Jael," said Glory, ignoring her sister as always, "but I
assure 'ee I didn't know when I spake they solemn words. 'Tis a very
seldom thing for me to speak out, but I feels deep. Even if 'tissen the
spirit of Satan that's moving in these 'ere railway trains, what's the
_good_ of 'un anyway? Will the worrld be any happier, will there be a
single sinner the more as repenteth? Will there be less poor folk in
the worrld and less souls going to 'Ell? You wake up in a hundred years
and see if these 'ere railway trains 'ave brought the kingdom 'o God on
earth! There's no two ways about it, the worrld is getting wickeder,
and these new invenshuns a sign. Things bain't what they used to be,
and they'm gettin' worse."
"That field, Sister Jael," added Salvation, with gleaming teeth, "that
field you sold was a field of blood. Alcedama! There'll be a judgment,
a n'orrible judgment, you mark my words."
* * * * * * *
A few weeks later Aunt Jael heaped coals of fire by asking the Sisters
to accompany us to the official ceremony of the Devil's arrival in
Tawborough. All, I suppose, who had sold land to the Company were
invited to this function. Aunt Jael had a white ticket giving right
of admission to the uncovered platform at which the Devil would draw
up--"the Company's railway station" as the ticket grandly called it. It
was a preliminary trip from Crediton to Tawborough, before the general
opening for traffic: a kind of dress rehearsal.
The day, July 12th, 1854, stands clear in my memory. It was the chief
purely secular event of my childhood, the only time before I was a
grown woman that I went to any assembling together of people other than
the Lord's. I marvelled to see how numerous they were, and I remember
the dim suspicion that haunted me throughout the day, and never
completely left me afterwards, that perhaps, despite Brother Brawn, not
quite _all_ of them were being 'urld to 'Ell. They did not seem aware
of it, and the moments when I did not doubt their fate were filled with
pity.
The day was to be treated as a holiday. Glory was persuaded by Aunt
Jael to announce that there would be no school. I was up betimes,
wakened by the bells of the parish church, which rang a merry peal,
and by the firing of guns. It was one of those fresh glorious summer
mornings which promise delight, and do not leave the memory. Soon
after breakfast the Clinkers arrived in a carriage. Glory with brand
new bacon-rind strings to her bonnet, Salvation ominously cheerful,
confident of some awful disaster. Grandmother, Aunt Jael and I were
ready waiting, and the five of us drove to the scene of action. I felt
elated and important, perched up on the box, as we drove slowly along
streets thronged with crowds in their Sunday best. Every one appeared
in high spirits; I conjectured that those who shared Miss Glory's
gloomy views must all have stayed at home. The crowds became denser as
we approached the railway station, a kind of long wooden platform with
a high covering. It looked like a very odd top-heavy sort of shed. A
few feet below the platform and close beside it ran two parallel metal
lines on which the Thing would arrive. A high triumphal arch covered
with green-stuff and laurel leaves and bedecked with flags, the first
I had ever seen, English, French and Turkish ("Our Allies": There was
a war, said some one), spanned the line. The platform was crowded with
people, and very gay and worldly they looked. Our little company of
Saints tried to cling together, and I held tight to my Grandmother's
hand, but the crowd was too close all round for us to look as separate
as we tried to feel. Quite near was a body of gentlemen dressed in
ermine and rich surprising costumes and furs and wigs and cocked
hats, and holding mysterious gold and silver weapons. Some, said my
Grandmother, were the Mayor and Corporation, others were Oddfellows and
Freemasons. I had not the least idea what these words might mean, and
was too busy staring to ask which were which. My heart was filled with
envy of those portly gentlemen and their gorgeous robes; a hankering
envy as real as any sentiment I have ever felt.
As the time of arrival drew near the excitement and jostling on the
platform increased. One lady fainted; "A jidgment," commented Miss
Salvation.
I overheard some saying the train would never arrive, others that It
would be hours or even days late; others again that It would arrive to
time and confound all doubters. Excitement rose to a pitch of frenzy
when two galloping horsemen drew up at the platform and announced that
within five minutes It would be here. Only half of It however would
arrive, as the back portion had somehow got detached and left behind
at Umberleigh: "The Devil losing his tail," said Miss Salvation. When
about two minutes later a tall gentleman near us shouted excitedly that
he sighted It afar off, there was such a tiptoeing and straining and
squashing and peering that I could have cried with vexation at being so
small. My Grandmother lifted me for a moment, and I had a perfect view
of the monstrous beast as it drew near. The first carriage was belching
fire and smoke from a funnel--just as Glory had said--and the carriages
behind it, brown scaly looking things, were like the links in a
hell-dragon's tail. The fear seized me for a swift moment that perhaps
after all she was right. Then the people broke into deafening cheers
and hurrahs, and waved handkerchiefs and funny little flags. Aunt
Jael and Grandmother stood impassive, but excited a little in spite
of themselves. Glory and Salvation set their mouths, and determined
to hold out. As the great engine puffed past us I was trembling with
excitement. It was the purest magic.
When the Thing stopped we were about in the middle of its length,
opposite the second carriage, or link of the tail. We were all pressed
back to make room for the great people who were emerging. The majority
were gentlemen, a few grandly and mysteriously dressed like ours, more
Corporations and Oddfellows and Freemasons I supposed, but most of
them, including some very angry-looking gentlemen, whispered to be His
Worship the Mayor of Exeter and the Aldermen of that ancient city, in
plain clothes. Alas, all their toggery had been left behind in the
back half of the train which had been shed at Umberleigh.
A very stylish gentleman dressed in black came forward in front of
everybody else: Chairman of the Company, I heard whispered--whatever
that might mean. He shook hands with several of our dressed-up
gentlemen, and then one of the latter, a fat man with a wig and white
curls, read to the stylish gentleman from a long roll of paper a very
long and very dry speech congratulating him on bringing the railway
train to Tawborough and describing his person in very flattering
terms. The stylish gentleman made a speech (without roll of paper) in
response; it was much shorter, but about as dry.
Then some of the dressed-up members of our side came forward in a body
and poured out corn and oil and wine, very solemnly. When the wine had
been spilled, a solemn man dressed like a high priest (the Provincial
Grand Chaplain of the Order of Freemasons, I discover forty years later
from the files of a local paper) lifted up his hands and prayed over
the Oblation. So people who were not Saints prayed!
The next thing I remember was our dressed-up people and the visitors
moving off the platform to form themselves into a procession to march
round the town, and all the rest of us repairing to witness it. In the
stampede that ensued Aunt Jael tripped over a beam that was lying on
the platform, and went flying.
"A jidgment," began Salvation, triumphant at last; when she tripped on
the beam and went flying too--which _was_ a "jidgment."
We were only just in time to get a good view of the procession, as it
took Aunt Jael and Miss Salvation some time to limp along. All the
Mayors and Oddfellows and Corporations and Freemasons were there,
carrying symbols and rods and devices; there were soldiers, Mounted
Rifles and officers gay with swords; shipwrights in white trousers, and
clergymen in black; uninteresting looking people in ordinary clothes
who had no more right to be there, I thought, than I had; and at
least four bands of music. The glamour of martial music and brilliant
costumes raised me to a pitch of ecstasy and envy; from that moment
blare and pomp filled a great place in my hankerings and hopes.
After the procession we took a walk round the streets, which were
crowded with people from all North Devon. There were flags at nearly
every window. A great triumphal arch was erected in the middle of the
bridge inscribed "Success to the North Devon Railway." The High Street
was one series of festoons, from upper storey windows of one side to
upper storey windows of the other. One said "God Save the Queen,"
another "Prosperity to our Town," and another which puzzled me a good
deal, hanging from the windows of what I now know to have been the
local newspaper office, declared in huge red bunting capitals
THE PRESS,
THE RAILROAD OF CIVILIZATION.
We got home to dinner tired and excited. Glory and Salvation left
to attend a Tea in the North Walk given by the tradespeople to six
hundred poor people, amongst whom the Clinkers had hastened to number
themselves.
"It may be the Lord's way after all," said Miss Glory. "God moves in a
mysterious way."
Aunt Jael and Grandmother had been asked to take tickets (not gratis)
to a great banquet in the Corn Market, but whether for economy's or
godliness' sake, decided not to go. I gather from the old local paper
before me that they did not miss much; for despite the giant "railway
cake," a wonderful affair covered with viaducts and trains and bridges
all made of icing sugar, and despite the vicar who ably "performed the
devotions of the table," the dinner is candidly described as "poor" and
the caterer roundly trounced for her failure.
Soon the railway passed into the realm of ordinary accepted things.
The Meeting was at first a little exercised about its attitude. A few,
including Brother Brawn, agreed with Glory and Salvation that it was
the Devil's works. The majority, including my Grandmother, took the
pious and common-sense view that since the Lord permitted the thing it
must be His Will, and prayed that he would bless and sanctify it to His
own use and glory.