RETURN AND MARRIAGE
I HAD now been in Jersey eight years and things began to get rather dead
there. Work was scarce and wages very low, and if any one wanted a small
job done, there were always about a dozen men ready to do it for almost
nothing; and what made it so was the number of Irish pensioners. They
had their pensions, and of course they would do any kind of work for
less wages than any other man who had to live entirely by his labour. In
fact, things were in a state of stagnation everywhere. I went across to
France, and the people there were quarrelling with King Louis Philippe
and casting all the blame of their poverty upon his shoulders, and
saying how much better they should get on if they could only have a
Napoleon to rule over them. They were chalking _Vive Napoleon_ upon the
pavements and walls.
I went back to England and found things were not much better there.
Thousands of poor people were half-starved and half-clothed, and when
they asked for work and wages to buy bread for themselves and their
little ones, the Commander-in-Chief was ready to fire a volley of grape
shot down the street. England and some of the continental nations were
at very low water in 1846-7, and I think at their very lowest ebb in
1848. Some monarchs were obliged to abdicate, and in London in April of
that year riot and rebellion were rampant. Several thousand people
paraded the streets starving. In the House of Commons some one declared
that it would be a wholesome proceeding to hang a few rebels. Up jumped
Fergus O'Connor, and cried, "Whenever you hang a rebel you should make a
point of hanging a tyrant too, and rebellion would soon die a natural
death." Soldiers were placed in every town in England, lest the owners
of hungry stomachs should show too much anxiety to fill them with bread.
At the same time it was said that millions of quarters of foreign grain
were brought within sight of the shores of England, but were thrown into
the sea by order of rich merchants rather than that corn should be
brought in to reduce the price. Such is the greed of man.
The only work that I could get after I left Jersey was in a canvas
manufactory in Somersetshire at eight shillings a week, and this was
considered very good wages then. Here I found poverty and wretchedness
and oppression supreme. There were about four hundred people employed in
the various departments of this business; old men and women, nearing
four score, and little boys and girls from five years of age and
upwards. Some worked in the factory, and some who had hand-looms took
their work to their homes. Several of them had to walk four miles
carrying their woof with them, where they had handlooms; and so these
poor toilers worked from early dawn until ten o'clock at night weaving
their woof into sail-cloth or canvas. When these poor slaves came to the
factory for their work, the foreman would weigh out to each person so
many pounds of chain and as many of woof to each person. The weaver had
to take it home on his back and produce exactly forty-six yards length
of canvas two feet wide. Now if he happened to put a little too much
energy or muscular strength into the work, all the woof would be used up
before forty-six yards were made. Consequently he would have to send to
the factory for a few ounces more woof to finish the pieces, and the
cloth therefore would be a trifle too stout, and consequently the weaver
would be fined to the tune of any amount, according to the greed and
temper of the master, from sixpence up to five shillings and sixpence,
which was the wage due for weaving the whole piece. On the other hand if
the weaver happened to be weakly and unable to use the strength
required, he would come to his forty-six yards' length before he had
shot in all his woof. The cloth therefore would not be quite stout
enough, and the poor weaver would be fined. Any frivolous pretext was
resorted to to fine the workers.
Many a time have I seen poor men or women after toiling hard all the
week coming to the pay office for their wages, but instead of receiving
any being cursed at and told that it was a very great favour on their
employers' part to give them work at all. And so these poor slaves
would have to do without the "weaver's ox" (red herring) for their
Sunday dinner. A red herring was the greatest luxury these poor people
could indulge in, and thrice blest was he who could afford three red
herrings a week. There were many other pretexts for fining the weaver
besides those mentioned. Another was what was called in weaving a
"gout"; that is, in the course of weaving there were some thick and
gouty parts in the woof, where the thread was twice or thrice as thick
as it should be. If the weaver was not careful, and allowed one of these
thick gouty threads into the texture of the cloth, he was heavily fined.
The cloth was also examined under a magnifying glass, and if found
pin-holey or spotted, the weaver was fined. All these were certainly
very superficial excuses for fining the people, for the masters
themselves would throw the canvas down on the floor and walk over it.
The cottages where these poor people had to live and do this weaving
were shocking hovels.
This firm was carried on by a man and his three sons. Each of the sons
took up a certain department. One superintended the spinning department,
another the bleaching, and the third the weaving. On a certain Whit
Monday at the village club festival an old farmer, in an after-dinner
speech, took the liberty to tell the three young men that it was very
shabby and mean of them to fine these poor weavers in the manner they
did, and he thought it amounted to little less than downright robbery.
Then the young man from the spinning department jumped up, and with an
oath cried, "They," meaning his brothers, "do not half fine them here.
You should come over to my place and see my books." In less than a week
this man was seized with a fit and fell dead; and the poor people, in
their simplicity, said it was a judgment sent from Heaven. The owners of
the firm evidently did not think so, for they continued to fine the
people as usual.
On the following Whit Monday more after-dinner speeches were being made
when the head of the bleaching department boasted that he had six
hundred pounds which he had mulcted from his workers in fines. He
forthwith built a new house and furnished it in grand style, and sent me
to Taunton to buy him a grand piano. The day for opening the new house
was appointed, friends were invited and every preparation made for a
grand feast. The day arrived, and the young boaster was riding up and
down on his high-mettled white horse inspecting the arrangements when
the horse, treading upon a half-rotten turnip, plunged and fell, and
rolled completely over its rider, who was taken up and carried into the
new house where he had never lived, a corpse. The simple-minded people
also called this a judgment from above. Very soon after this a large
fire occurred at this factory which threw a great number of men, women,
boys and girls out of work. As for myself I soon engaged myself to a
solicitor, and my duties varied between serving writs and gardening.
Every time I delivered a writ I had to be put on my oath the following
morning that I had so delivered, and then I used to receive three
shillings and sixpence for my trouble. Sometimes I had to make three or
four journeys before I could accomplish the delivery, as so many
well-known gentlemen would cleverly keep out of my way. On one occasion
I had to serve a writ on a gentleman who always managed to be away when
I called; but my master told me that if I had reasons for believing that
he was at home I should walk in. The next evening when I called and the
servant told me her master had just gone out, I pushed past her, and got
into the dining-room, where the gentleman was just cutting away at a
piece of roast beef. I handed the document to him and, bowing politely,
retired as hastily as possible. As I turned to the door I heard
something whirr past my shoulder and strike the wall beyond. It was the
carving knife.
Another difficult case was that of a master carpenter who lived several
miles from my master's office. It was summer time, and he went away to
his works as soon as it was daylight and was not at home until nine in
the evening. I could never find this gentleman at home although I called
several evenings in succession, and at last I grew tired of walking so
many miles several times a week. As there was a porch at the door I
decided to sit down there and wait until he did come home. I sat and
dozed until about 3 a.m., when I heard some one moving inside the house.
Presently the door opened, and out came the gentleman I wanted. He was
thunderstruck to see me there. I delivered the writ into his hands, and
we both said "Thank you," and went our ways.
After I had been in this situation two years it was a very disagreeable
blow to me to hear that my master was retiring from business and would
have no further need of my services. He and I had got on together very
comfortably for two years, and he was a kind employer, so I was really
very sorry.
I was now twenty-five years of age, and, like other young men, I thought
it time to begin to see about "committing matrimony." I had become
acquainted with Miss Anne Warner, who lived at Henley-on-Thames, and she
decided that she would marry me, if I got a permanent situation either
on the railway or in the post office. Accordingly, I applied for the
railway, and was appointed as porter at Bristol in May, 1850. The
Bristol and Exeter railway at that time was in its infancy. Amongst the
articles served out to me was a wooden staff or truncheon, to be used,
if necessary, for clearing the station.
In October of the same year I was married to Miss Warner at St. Mary
Redcliffe's Church, Bristol. I knew that I was not to remain long at
Bristol, so my wife and I took rooms for a while. I was very soon sent
as signalman to Stoke Canon, a village in Devonshire, where at that time
there was no station, but only a crossing. I had to leave my wife in
Bristol until I could obtain a suitable home, which I did as soon as
possible, as keeping two homes going was a very expensive thing to do,
and my wages at that time were only 16_s._ a week. My only accommodation
when on duty, which was twelve hours a day, or an alternate week's night
duty, was a sort of sentry box--a wretched affair, especially in cold
weather, and for night duty.
While at Stoke Canon I made a model of the village church. The only
tools I had for this work were a pocket knife and a hammer. Some time
after I added a peal of bells which were set ringing by putting a penny
in a slot in the roof of the church.
In 1853 our eldest daughter was born, and in the following year I was
removed to Martock in Somersetshire, where a son was born. In 1857 I was
removed to Durston, and in May another daughter was born. My wages were
then L1 a week, a very small income on which to keep ourselves and three
children and pay rent, but my wife kept a school and had several
neighbours' children to teach. We were very happy together, and I was
glad that I was born!
GOD IN HIS WORKS
Dost them love nature? Dost thou love
Amid her wonders oft to rove,
Marking earth, sea, the heavens above,
With curious eye?
Read, then, that open book; see where
The name of God, inscribed there,
Urges thee on till thou declare,
"My God, I see!"
Yet venture not, my soul, to come
Within fair earth's material dome
Without thy God: thou hast no home
To compass thee.
Nature's fair works must e'er be read
As penned by nature's Sovereign Head;
Else were its loveliest pages dead--
Without His key.
But by the Polar Star of Grace,
Nature assumes her proper place,
And thou mayst safely lead and trace
Her harmony.
M. M. C.