==> I hope, in future, to arrange the publishing and editing of
'Fors,' so that the current number may always be in my readers' hands
on the first of the month: but I do not pledge myself for its being
so. In case of delay, however, subscribers may always be secure of its
ultimate delivery, as they would at once receive notice in the event
of the non-continuance of the work. I find index-making more difficult
and tedious than I expected, and am besides bent at present on some
Robinson Crusoe operations of harbour-digging, which greatly interfere
with literary work of every kind; but the thing is in progress.
I cannot, myself, vouch for the facts stated in the following letter,
but am secure of the writer's purpose to state them fairly, and
grateful for his permission to print his letter:--
1, St. Swithin's Lane,
London, E. C., 4th February, 1873.
My dear Mr. Ruskin,--I have just finished reading your 'Munera
Pulveris,' and your paragraph No. 160 is such a reflex of the
experience I have of City business that I must call your attention
to it.
I told you that I was endeavouring to put into practice what you
are teaching, and thus our work should be good work, whether we
live or die.
I read in the 'Quarterly Journal of Science' that the waste of
the Metropolitan sewage is equivalent to three million quartern
loaves floating down the Thames every day. I read in the papers
that famine fever has broken out in the Metropolis.
I have proved that this bread can be saved, by purifying sewage,
and growing such corn with the produce as amazes those that have
seen it. I have proved this so completely to capitalists that
they have spent £25,000 in demonstrating it to the Metropolitan
Board of Works.
'But nothing of this work will pay.' [14]
We have never puffed, we have never advertised, and hard work I
have had to get the Board of Directors to agree to this modest
procedure--nevertheless they have done so.
Now, there is a band of conspirators on the Stock Exchange bound
to destroy the Company, because, like Jezebel, they have sold
a vineyard that does not belong to them--in other words, they
have sold 'bears,' and they cannot fulfil their contract without
killing the Company, or terrifying the shareholders into parting
with their property.
No stone is left unturned to thwart our work, and if you can take
the trouble to look at the papers I send you, you will see what
our work would be for the country, and how it is received.
We are now to be turned out of Crossness, and every conceivable
mischief will be made of the fact.
I have fought the fight almost single-handed. I might have sold
out and retired from the strife long ago, for our shares were 800
per cent. premium, but I prefer completing the work I have begun,
if I am allowed.
From very few human beings have I ever received, nor did I expect,
anything but disapproval; for this effort to discountenance the
City's business way of doing things, except Alfred Borwick, and
my Brother, R. G. Sillar; but we have been repeatedly told that
we must abandon these absurd principles....
However, with or without encouragement, I shall work on, though
I have to do it through a mass of moral filth and corruption,
compared with which a genuine cesspit is good company.
Believe me sincerely yours,
W. C. Sillar.
The Third Fors puts into my hand, as I correct the press, a cutting
from the 'Pall Mall Gazette' of September 13th, 1869, which aptly
illustrates the former 'waste' of sewage referred to by Mr. Sillar:--
"We suffer much from boards of guardians and vestries in and about
London, but what they must suffer in remote parts of the country
may be imagined rather than described. At a late meeting of the
Lincoln board of guardians Mr. Mantle gave a description of a visit
he paid with other gentlemen to the village of Scotherne. What
they saw he said he should never forget. The village was full of
fever cases, and no wonder. The beck was dried up and the wells
were filled with sewage matter. They went to one pump, and found
the water emitted an unbearable stench. He (Mr. Mantle) asked a
woman if she drank the water from the well, and she replied that
she did, but that it stank a bit; and there could be no doubt about
that, for the well was full of 'pure' sewage matter. They went to
another house, occupied by a widow with five children, the head
of the family having died of fever last year. This family was now
on the books of the union. The house was built on a declivity;
the pigsty, privy, vault, and cesspool were quite full, and
after a shower of rain the contents were washed up to and past
the door. The family was in an emaciated state, and one of the
children was suffering from fever. After inspecting that part of
the village, they proceeded to the house of a man named Harrison,
who, with his wife, was laid up with fever; both man and wife were
buried in one grave yesterday week, leaving five children to be
supported by the union. When visited, the unfortunate couple were
in the last stage of fever, and the villagers had such a dread
of the disease that none of them would enter the house, and the
clergyman and relieving officer had to administer the medicine
themselves. Harrison was the best workman in the parish. The cost
to the union has already been £12, and at the lowest computation
a cost of £600 would fall upon the union for maintaining the
children, and probably they might remain paupers for life. This
amount would have been sufficient to drain the parish."