THE RATTLESNAKE'S HISTORY.[82]
"I was born in a coal-mine in Staffordshire. My father was a married
man, with five or six children by his wife: my mother was a single
woman, who worked for him in the pit. I was, therefore, illegitimate;
but this circumstance was neither considered disgraceful to my mother
nor to myself, morality being on so low a scale amongst the mining
population generally, as almost to amount to promiscuous intercourse. My
mother was only eighteen when I was born. She worked in the pit up to
the very hour of my birth; and when she found the labour-pains coming
on, she threw off the belt and chain with which she had been dragging a
heavy corf (or wicker basket), full of coal, up a slanting
road,--retired to a damp cave in a narrow passage leading to the foot of
the shaft, and there gave birth to her child. That child was myself. She
wrapped me up in her petticoat, which was all the clothing she had on at
the time, and crawled with me, along the passage, which was about two
feet and a half high, to the bottom of the shaft. There she got into the
basket, and was drawn up a height of about two hundred and thirty
feet--holding the rope with her right hand, and supporting me on her
left arm. She often told me those particulars, and said how she thought
she should faint as she was ascending in the rickety vehicle, and how
difficult she found it to maintain her hold of the rope, weak and
enfeebled as she was. She, however, reached the top in safety, and
hastened home to her miserable hovel--for she was an orphan, and lived
by herself. In a week she was up again, and back to her work in the pit;
and she hired a bit of a girl, about seven or eight years old, to take
care of me.
"How my infancy was passed I, of course, can only form an idea by the
mode of treatment generally adopted towards babies in the mining
districts, and under such circumstances as those connected with my
birth. My mother would, perhaps, come up from the pit once, in the
middle of the day, to give me my natural nourishment; and when I
screamed during her absence, the little girl, who acted as my nurse,
most probably thrust a teaspoonful of some strong opiate down my throat
to make me sleep and keep me quiet. Many children are killed by this
treatment; but the reason of death, in such cases, is seldom known,
because the Coroner's assistance is seldom required in the mining
districts.
"When I was seven years old, my mother one day told me that it was now
high time for me to go down with her into the pit, and earn some money
by my own labour. My father, who now and then called to see me of a
Sunday, and brought me a cake or a toy, also declared that I was old
enough to help my mother. So it was decided that I should go down into
the pit. I remember that I was very much frightened at the idea, and
cried very bitterly when the dreaded day came. It was a cold winter's
morning--I recollect that well; and the snow was very thick upon the
ground. I shivered with chilliness and terror as my mother led me to the
pit. She gave me a good scolding because I whimpered; and then a good
beating because I cried lustily. But every thing combined to make me
afraid. It was as early as five in that cold wintry morning that I was
proceeding to a scene of labour which I knew to be far, far under the
earth. The dense darkness of the hour was not even relieved by the white
snow upon the ground; but over the country were seen blazing fires on
every side,--fires which appeared to me to be issuing from the very
bowels of the earth, but which were in reality burning upon the surface,
for the purpose of converting coal into coke: there were also blazing
fields of bituminous shale; and all the tall chimneys of the great
towers of the iron furnaces vomited forth flames,--the whole scene thus
forming a picture well calculated to appal and startle an infant mind.
"I remember at this moment what my feelings were then--as well as if the
incident I am relating had only occurred yesterday. During the day-light
I had seen the lofty chimneys giving vent to columns of dense smoke, the
furnaces putting forth torrents of lurid flame, and the coke-fires
burning upon the ground: but that was the first time I had ever beheld
those meteors blazing amidst utter darkness; and I was afraid--I was
afraid.
"The shaft was perfectly round, and not more than four feet in diameter.
The mode of ascent and descent was precisely that of a well, with this
difference--that, instead of a bucket there was a stout iron bar about
three feet long attached in the middle, and suspended horizontally, to
the end of the rope. From each end of this bar hung chains with hooks,
to draw up the baskets of coal. This apparatus was called the
_clatch-harness_. Two people ascended or descended at a time by these
means. They had to sit cross-legged, as it were, upon the transverse
bar, and cling to the rope. Thus, the person who got on first sate upon
the bar, and the other person sate a-straddle on the first one's thighs.
An old woman presided at the wheel which wound up or lowered the rope
sustaining the clatch-harness; and as she was by no means averse to a
dram, the lives of the persons employed in the mine were constantly at
the mercy of that old drunken harridan. Moreover, there seemed to me to
be great danger in the way in which the miners got on and off the
clatch-harness. One moment's giddiness--a missing of the hold of the
rope--and down to the bottom of the shaft headlong! When the
clatch-harness was drawn up to the top, the old woman made the handle
fast by a bolt drawn out from the upright post, and then, grasping a
hand of both persons on the harness at the same time, brought them by
main force to land. A false step on the part of that old woman,--the
failure of the bolt which stopped the rotatory motion of the roller on
which the rope was wound,--or the slipping of the hands which she
grasped in hers,--and a terrible accident must have ensued!
"But to return to my first descent into the pit. My mother, who was
dressed in a loose jacket, open in front, and trousers (which, besides
her shoes, were the only articles of clothing on her, she wearing
neither shift nor stockings), leapt upon the clatch-iron as nimbly as a
sailor in the rigging of his ship. She then received me from the
outstretched arm of the old woman, and made me sit in the easiest and
safest posture she could imagine. But when I found myself being
gradually lowered down into a depth as black as night, I felt too
terror-struck even to cry out; and had not my mother held me tight with
one hand, I should have fallen precipitately into that hideous dark
profundity.
"At length we reached the bottom, where my mother lifted me, half dead
with giddiness and fright, from the clatch-iron. I felt the soil cold,
damp, and muddy, under my feet. A lamp was burning in a shade suspended
in a little recess in the side of the shaft; and my mother lighted a bit
of candle which she had brought with her, and which she stuck into a
piece of clay to hold it by. Then I perceived a long dark passage, about
two feet and a half high, branching off from the foot of the shaft. My
mother went on her hands and knees, and told me to creep along with her.
The passage was nearly six feet wide; and thus there was plenty of room
for me to keep abreast of her. Had not this been the case, I am sure
that I never should have had the courage either to precede, or follow
her; for nothing could be more hideous to my infantine imagination than
that low, yawning, black-mouthed cavern, running into the very bowels of
the earth, and leading I knew not whither. Indeed, as I walked in a
painfully stooping posture along by my mother's side, my fancy conjured
up all kinds of horrors. I trembled lest some invisible hand should
suddenly push forth from the side of the passage, and clutch me in its
grasp: I dreaded lest every step I took might precipitate me into some
tremendous abyss or deep well: I thought that the echoes which I heard
afar off, and which were the sounds of the miner's pickaxe or the
rolling corves on the rails, were terrific warnings that the earth was
falling in, and would bury us alive: then, when the light of my mother's
candle suddenly fell upon some human being groping his or her way along
in darkness, I shuddered at the idea of encountering some ferocious
monster or hideous spectre:--in a word, my feelings, as I toiled along
that subterranean passage, were of so terrific a nature that they
produced upon my memory an impression which never can be effaced, and
which makes me turn cold all over as I contemplate those feelings now!
"You must remember that I had been reared in a complete state of mental
darkness; and that no enlightened instruction had dispelled the clouds
of superstition which naturally obscure the juvenile mind. I could not
read: I had not even been taught my alphabet. I had not heard of such a
name as JESUS CHRIST; and all the mention of GOD that had ever met my
ears, was in the curses and execrations which fell from the lips of my
father, my mother, her acquaintances, and even the little girl who had
nursed me. You cannot wonder, then, if I was so appalled, when I first
found myself in that strange and terrific place.
"At length we reached the end of that passage, and struck into another,
which echoed with the noise of pickaxes. In a few moments I saw the
_undergoers_ (or miners) lying on their sides, and with their pickaxes
breaking away the coal. They did not work to a greater height than two
feet, for fear, as I subsequently learnt, that they should endanger the
security of the roof of the passage, the seam of coal not being a thick
one. I well remember my infantine alarm and horror when I perceived that
these men were naked--stark naked. But my mother did not seem to be the
least abashed or dismayed: on the contrary, she laughed and exchanged a
joke with each one as we passed. In fact, I afterwards discovered that
Bet Flathers was a great favourite with the miners.
"Well, we went on, until we suddenly came upon a scene that astonished
me not a little. The passage abruptly opened into a large room,--an
immense cave, hollowed out of the coal in a seam that I since learnt to
be twenty feet in thickness. This cave was lighted by a great number of
candles; and at a table sate about twenty individuals--men, women, and
children--all at breakfast. There they were, as black as
negroes--eating, laughing, chattering, and drinking. But, to my surprise
and disgust, I saw that the women and young girls were all naked from
the waist upwards, and many of the men completely so. And yet there was
no shame--no embarrassment! But the language that soon met my ears!--I
could not comprehend half of it, but what I _did_ understand, made me
afraid!
"My mother caught me by the hand, and led me to the table, where I found
my father. He gave us some breakfast; and in a short time, the party
broke up--the men, women, and children separating to their respective
places of labour. My mother and myself accompanied one of the men, for
my mother had ceased to work for my father, since she had borne a child
to him, as his wife had insisted upon their separation in respect to
labour in the mine.
"The name of the man for whom my mother worked was Phil Blossom. He was
married, but had no children. His wife was a cripple, having met with
some accident in the mine, and could not work. He was therefore obliged
to employ some one to carry his coal from the place where he worked, to
the cart that conveyed it to the foot of the shaft. Until I went down
into the mine, my mother had carried the coal for him, and also
_hurried_ (or dragged) the cart; but she now made me fill one cart while
she hurried another. Thus, at seven years old, I had to carry about
fifty-six pounds of coal in a wooden _bucket_. When the passage was high
enough I carried it on my back; but when it was too low, I had to drag
or push it along as best I could. Some parts of the passages were only
twenty-two inches in height; this was where the workings were in very
narrow seams; and the difficulty of dragging such a weight, at such an
age, can be better understood than explained. I can well recollect that
when I commenced that terrible labour, the perspiration, commingling
with my tears, poured down my face.
"Phil Blossom worked in a complete state of nudity; and my mother
stripped herself to the waist to perform her task. She had to drag a
cart holding seven hundred weight, a distance of at least two hundred
yards--for ours was a very extensive pit, and had numerous workings and
cuttings running a considerable way underground. The person who does
this duty is called a _hurrier_: the process itself is termed
_tramming_; and the cart is denominated a _skip_. The work was certainly
harder than that of slaves in the West Indies, or convicts in Norfolk
Island. My mother had a girdle round her waist; and to that girdle was
fastened a chain, which passed between her legs and was attached to the
skip. She then had to go down on her hands and knees, with a candle
fastened to a strap on her forehead, and drag the skip through the low
passages, or else to maintain a carved or stooping posture in the high
ones.
"Phil Blossom was what was called a _getter_. He first made a long
straight cut with a pickaxe underneath the part of the seam where he was
working: this was called _holing_: and as it was commenced low down, the
getter was obliged to lie flat on his back or on his side, and work for
a long time in that uneasy manner.
"I did as well as I could with the labour allotted to me; but it was
dreadful work. I was constantly knocking my head against the low roofs
of the passages or against the rough places of the sides: at other times
I fell flat on my face, with the masses of coal upon me; or else I got
knocked down by a cart, or by some collier in the dark, as I toiled
along the passages, my eyes blinded with my tears or with the dust of
the mine.
"Many--many weeks passed away; and at length I grew quite hardened in
respect to those sights and that language which had at first disgusted
me. I became familiar with the constant presence of naked men and
half-naked women; and the most terrible oaths and filthy expressions
ceased to startle me. I walked boldly into the great cavern which I have
before described, and which served as a place of meeting for those who
took their meals in the mine. I associated with the boys and girls that
worked in the pit, and learnt to laugh at an obscene joke, or to
practise petty thefts of candles, food, or even drink, which the
colliers left in the cavern or at their places of work. The mere fact of
the boys and girls in mines all meeting together, without any
control,--without any one to look after them,--is calculated to corrupt
all those who may be well disposed.
"I remained as a carrier of coal along the passages till I was ten years
old. I was then ordered to convey my load, which by this time amounted
to a hundred weight on each occasion, up a ladder to a passage over
where I had hitherto worked. This load was strapped by a leather round
my forehead; and, as the ladder was very rudely formed, and the steps
were nearly two feet apart, it was with great difficulty that I could
keep my balance. I have seen terrible accidents happen to young girls
working in that way. Sometimes the strap, or tagg, round one person's
forehead has broken, and the whole load has fallen on the girl climbing
up behind. Then the latter has been precipitated to the bottom of the
dyke, the great masses of coal falling on the top of her. On other
occasions I have seen the girls lose their balance, and fall off the
ladder--their burden of coals, as in the other case, showering upon them
or their companions behind. The work was indeed most horrible: a
slave-ship could not have been worse.
"If I did not do exactly as Phil Blossom told me, the treatment I
received from him was horrible; and my mother did not dare interfere, or
he would serve her in the same manner. He thrashed me with his fist or
with a stick, until I was bruised all over. My flesh was often marked
with deep wales for weeks together. One day he nipped me with his nails
until he actually cut quite through my ear. He often pulled my hair till
it literally gave way in his hand; and sometimes he would pelt me with
coals. He thought nothing of giving me a kick that would send me with
great violence across the passage, or dash me against the opposite side.
On one occasion he was in such a rage, because I accidentally put out
the candle which he had to light him at his work, that he struck a
random blow at me with his pickaxe in the dark, and cut a great gash in
my head. All the miners in pits _baste_ and _bray_--that is, beat and
flog--their helpers.
"You would be surprised if I was to tell you how many people in the pit
were either killed or severely injured, by accidents, every year. But
there are so many dangers to which the poor miners are exposed! Falling
down the shaft,--the rope sustaining the clatch-harness breaking,--being
drawn over the roller,--the fall of coals out of the corves in their
ascent,--drowning in the mines from the sudden breaking in of water from
old workings,--explosion of gas,--choke-damp,[83]--falling in of the
roofs of passages,--the breaking of ladders or well-staircases,--being
run over by the tram-waggons, or carts dragged by horses,--the explosion
of gunpowder used in breaking away huge masses of coal,--and several
other minor accidents, are all perpetually menacing the life or limbs of
those poor creatures who supply the mineral that cheers so many
thousands of fire-sides!
"Deaths from accidents of this nature were seldom, if ever, brought
under the notice of the coroner: indeed, to save time, it was usual to
bury the poor victims within twenty-four or thirty-six hours after their
decease.
"I earned three shillings a-week when I was ten years old, and my mother
eleven. You may imagine, then, that we ought to have been pretty
comfortable; but our household was just as wretched as any other in the
mining districts. Filth and poverty are the characteristics of the
collier population. Nothing can be more wretched--nothing more miserable
than their dwellings. The huts in which they live are generally from ten
to twelve feet square, each consisting only of one room. I have seen a
man and his wife and eight or ten children all huddling together in that
one room; and yet they might have earned, by their joint labour,
thirty-shillings or more a week. Perhaps a pig, a jackass, or fowls form
part of the family. And then the furniture!--not a comfort--scarcely a
necessary! And yet this absence of even such articles as bedsteads, is
upon principle: the colliers do not like to be encumbered with household
goods, because they are often obliged to _flit_--that is, to leave one
place of work and seek for another. Such a thing as drainage is almost
completely unknown in these districts; and all the filth is permitted to
accumulate before the door. The colliers are a dirty set of people; but,
poor creatures! how can they well be otherwise? They descend into the
mines at a very early hour in the morning: they return home at a very
late hour in the evening, and they are then too tired to attend to
habits of cleanliness. Besides, it is so natural for them to say, '_Why
should we wash ourselves to-night, since to-morrow we must become black
and dirty again?_' or '_Why should we wash ourselves for the sake of
sleeping with a clean skin?_' As for the boys and girls, they are often
so worn out--so thoroughly exhausted, that they go to rest without their
suppers. They cannot keep themselves awake when they get home. I know
that this was often and often my case; and I have preferred--indeed, I
have been compelled by sheer fatigue, to go to bed before my mother
could prepare any thing to eat.
"Again, how can the collier's home possibly be comfortable? He makes his
wife and children toil with him in the mine: he married a woman from the
mine; and neither she nor her daughters know any thing of housekeeping?
How can disorder be prevented from creeping into the collier's dwelling,
when no one is there in the day-time to attend to it? Then all the money
which they can save from the _Tommy-shop_, (of which I shall speak
presently) goes for whiskey. Husband and wife, sons and daughters all
look after the whiskey. The habits of the colliers are hereditarily
depraved: they are perpetuated from father to son, from mother to
daughter; none is better nor worse than his parents were before him.
Rags and filth--squalor and dissipation--crushing toil and hideous
want--ignorance and immorality; these are the features of the collier's
home, and the characteristics of the collier's life.
"Our home was not a whit better than that of any of our
fellow-labourers; nor was my mother less attached to whiskey than her
neighbours.
"But the chief source of poverty and frequent want--amounting at times
almost to starvation--amongst persons earning a sufficiency of wages, is
the _truck system_. This atrociously oppressive method consists of
paying the colliers' wages in goods, or partly in goods, through the
medium of the tommy-shop. The proprietor of a tommy-shop has an
understanding with the owners of the mines in his district; and the
owners agree to pay the persons in their employment once a month, or
once a fortnight. The consequence is that the miners require credit
during the interval; and they are compelled to go to the tommy-shop,
where they can obtain their bread, bacon, cheese, meat, groceries,
potatoes, chandlery, and even clothes. The proprietor of the tommy-shop
sends his book to the clerk of the owner of the mine the day before the
wages are paid; and thus the clerk knows how much to stop from the wages
of each individual, for the benefit of the shopkeeper. If the miners and
their wives do not go to the tommy-shop for their domestic articles,
they instantly lose their employment in the mine, in consequence of the
understanding between their employer and the shopkeeper. Perhaps this
would not be so bad if the tommy-shops were honest; because it is very
handy for the collier to go to a store which contains every article that
he may require. But the tommy-shop charges twenty-five or thirty per
cent. dearer than any other tradesman; so that if a collier and his
family can earn between them thirty shillings a week, he loses seven or
eight shillings out of that amount. In the course of a year about twenty
pounds out of his seventy-five go to the tommy-shop for nothing but
interest on the credit afforded! That interest is divided between the
tommy-shop-keeper and the coal-mine proprietor.
"In the district where my mother and I lived, there was no such thing
at all as payment of wages in the current money of the kingdom. The
tommy-shop-keeper paid the wages for the proprietors once a month: and
how do you think he settled them? In ticket-money! This coinage
consisted of pewter medals, or markers, with the sum that they
represented, and the name of the tommy-shop on them. Thus, there were
half-crowns, shillings, sixpences, and half-pence. But this money could
only be passed at the tommy-shop from which it was issued; and there it
must be taken out in goods. So, you see, that what with the truck-system
and the tommy-shop, the poor miners are regularly swindled out of at
least one fourth part of their fair earnings.
"The wages, in my time, were subject to great changes: I have known men
earn twenty-five shillings a week at one time, and twelve or fifteen at
another. And out of that they were obliged to supply their own candles
and grease for the wheels of the carts or _trams_. The cost of this was
about three-pence a day. Then, again, the fines were frequent and
vexatious: it was calculated that they amounted to a penny a day per
head. These sums all went into the coffers of the coal-owners.
"Such was the state of superstitious ignorance which prevailed in the
mines, that every one believed in ghosts and spirits. Even old men were
often afraid to work in isolated places; and the spots where deaths from
accidents arose were particularly avoided. It was stated that the
spectres of the deceased haunted the scenes of their violent departures
from this world.
"By the time I was twelve years old I was as wild a young she-devil as
any in the mines. Like the other females, I worked with only a pair of
trousers on. But I would not consent to hurry the trams and skips. I saw
that my mother had got a great bald place on her head, where she pushed
the tram forward up sloping passages; and as I was told that even amidst
the black and filth with which I was encrusted, I was a good-looking
wench, I determined not to injure my hair. I may as well observe that a
stranger visiting a mine, and seeing the boys and girls all huddling
together, half-naked, in the caves or obscure nooks, could not possibly
tell one sex from the other. I must say that I think, with regard to bad
language and licentious conduct, the girls were far--far worse than the
boys. It is true that in the neighbourhood of the pits Sunday-schools
were established; but very few parents availed themselves of these means
of obtaining a gratuitous education for their children. When I was
twelve years old, I did not know how to read or write: I was unaware
that there was such a book as the Bible; and all I knew of God and Jesus
Christ was through the oaths and imprecations of the miners.
"It was at that period--I mean when I was twelve years old--that I
determined to abandon the horrible life to which my mother had devoted
me. I had up to that point preserved my health, and had escaped those
maladies and cutaneous eruptions to which miners are liable; but I knew
that my turn must come, sooner or later, to undergo all those
afflictions. I saw nine out of ten of my fellow-labourers pining away.
Some were covered with disgusting boils, caused by the constant dripping
of the water upon their naked flesh in the pits. I saw young persons of
my own age literally growing old in their early youth,--stooping,
asthmatic, consumptive, and enfeebled. When they were washed on Sundays,
they were the pictures of ill-health and premature decay. Many actually
grew deformed in stature; and all were of stunted growth. It is true
that their muscles were singularly developed; but they were otherwise
skin and bone.[84] The young children were for the most part of
contracted features, which, added to their wasted forms, gave them a
strange appearance of ghastliness, when cleansed from the filth of the
mine. The holers, or excavators, were bow-legged and crooked; the
burriers and trammers knock-kneed and high-shouldered. Many--very many
of the miners were affected with diseases of the heart. Then, who ever
saw a person, employed in the pits, live to an advanced age? A miner of
fifty-five was a curiosity: the poor creatures generally drooped at
five-and-thirty, and died off by forty. They invariably seemed oppressed
with care and anxiety: jollity was unknown amongst them. I have seen
jolly-looking butchers, blacksmiths, carpenters, ploughmen, porters, and
so on; but I never beheld a jolly-looking miner. The entire population
that labours in the pits appears to belong to a race that is accursed!
"I pondered seriously upon all this; and every circumstance that
occurred, and every scene around me, tended to strengthen my resolution
to quit an employment worse than that of a galley-slave. I saw my mother
wasting all her best energies in that terrible labour, and yet remaining
poor--beggared! Scarcely enough for the present--not a hope for the
future! Sometimes I wept when I contemplated her, although she had but
little claims on my sympathy or affection; nevertheless, when I saw her
bald head--her scalp thickened, inflamed, and sometimes so swollen, that
it was like a bulb filled with spongy matter, and so painful that she
could not bear to touch it,--when I heard her complain of the dreadful
labour of pushing the heavy corves and trams with her sore head,--when I
perceived her spine actually distorted with severe work; her stomach
growing so weak that she frequently vomited her food almost as soon as
it was eaten; her heart so seriously affected that the intervals of
violent palpitation frequently made her faint; her lungs performing
their functions with difficulty; her chest torn with a sharp hacking
cough, accompanied by the expectoration of a large quantity of matter of
a deep black colour, called by colliers the _black-spit_;--when I saw
her thus overwhelmed with a complication of maladies--dying before my
eyes, at the age of thirty-three!--when I looked around, and beheld nine
out of ten of all the persons employed in the pits, whether male or
female, similarly affected,--I shuddered at the bare idea of devoting my
youth to that horrible toil, and then passing to the grave while yet in
the prime of life!
"I thought of running away, and seeking my fortune elsewhere. I knew
that it was no use to acquaint my mother with my distaste for the life
to which she had devoted me: she would only have answered my objections
by means of blows. But while I was still wavering what course to pursue,
a circumstance occurred which I must not forget to relate.
"One morning my candle had accidentally gone out, and I was creeping
along the dark passage to the spot where Phil Blossom was working, to
obtain a light from his candle, when I heard him and my mother
conversing together in a low tone, but with great earnestness of
manner. Curiosity prompted me to stop and listen. 'Are you sure that is
the case?' said Phil.--'Certain,' replied my mother. 'I shall be
confined in about five months.'--'Well,' observed Phil, 'I don't know
what's to be done. My old woman will kick up the devil's delight when
she hears of it. I wish she was out of the way: I would marry you if she
was.'--Then there was a profound silence for some minutes. It was broken
by the man, who said, 'Yes, if the old woman was out of the way you and
I might get married, and then we should live so comfortable together.
I'm sure no man can be cursed with a wife of worse temper than
mine.'--'Yes,' returned my mother, 'she is horrible for that.'--'Do you
think there would be much harm in pushing her down a shaft, or shoving
her head under the wheel of your tram, Bet?' asked Phil, after another
pause.--'There would be no harm,' said my mother, 'if so be we wern't
found out.'--'That's exactly what I mean,' observed Phil.--'But then,'
continued my mother, 'if she didn't happen to _die_ at once, she might
peach, and get us both into a scrape.'--'So she might,' said
Phil.--'I'll tell you what we might do,' exclaimed my mother, in a
joyful tone: 'doesn't your wife come down at one to bring you your
dinner?'--'Yes,' replied Phil Blossom: 'that's all the old cripple is
good for.'--'Well, then,' pursued my mother, 'I'll tell you how we can
manage this business.'--Then they began to whisper, and I could not
gather another word that fell from their lips.
"I was so frightened at what I had heard that I crept quickly but
cautiously back again to my place of labour, and sate down on the lower
steps of the ladder, in the dark--determined to wait till some one
should come, rather than go and ask Phil Blossom for a light. I had
suddenly acquired a perfect horror of that man. I had understood that my
mother was with child by him; and I had heard them coolly plotting the
death of the woman who was an obstacle to their marriage. At my age,
such an idea was calculated to inspire me with terror. I think I sate
for nearly an hour in the dark, my mind filled with thoughts of a nature
which may be well understood. At length a young woman, bearing a corf,
came with a light; and I was no longer left in obscurity. I then plucked
up my courage, took my basket, and went to Phil Blossom for a load of
coal. My mother was not there; and he was working with his pickaxe as
coolly as possible. He asked me what had made me so long in returning
for a load; and I told him I had fallen down a few steps of the ladder
and hurt myself. He said no more on the subject; and I was delighted to
escape without a braying or basting. While I was loading my corf, he
asked me if I should like to have him for a father-in-law. I said 'Yes'
through fear, for I was always afraid of his _nieves_, as the colliers
call their clenched fists. He seemed pleased; and, after a pause, said
that if ever he was my father-in-law, I should always take my _bait_ (or
meals) with him in the cavern. I thanked him, and went on with my work;
but I pretty well comprehended that the removal of Phil's wife by some
means or another had been resolved on.
"Shortly before one o'clock that same day my mother came to the place
where I was carrying the coals, and gave me a _butter-cake_ (as we
called bread and butter), telling me that she was going up out of the
mine, as she must pay a visit to the tommy-shop for some candles and
grease for herself, and some tobacco for Phil Blossom. I did not dare
utter a word expressive of the suspicions which I entertained; but I
felt convinced that this proceeding was in some way connected with the
subject of the conversation which I had overheard. A strange
presentiment induced me to leave my place of work, and creep along the
passage to the foot of the shaft, in order to see whether Phil's wife
would come down at the usual time with his bait. Several _half-marrows_
and _foals_ (as we called the young lads who pushed the trams) were at
the end of the passage just at the foot of the shaft; and we got into
conversation. It is a very curious thing to look up a shaft from the
very bottom; the top seems no bigger than a sugar-basin. Well, the boys
and I were chattering together about different things, when the click of
the clatch-harness at the top of the shaft fell upon my ears. I peeped
up and saw some one get on the clatch: then the creaking of the wheel
and roller was heard. 'Here comes some one's bait, I dare say,' observed
one of the half-marrows.--I wish it was mine,' said another; 'but I
never get any thing to eat from breakfast-time till I go home at
night.'--Scarcely were these words spoken when a piercing scream alarmed
us: there was a rushing sound--the chains of the harness clanked
fearfully--and down came a woman with tremendous violence to the bottom
of the pit, the clatch rattling down immediately after her. A cry of
horror burst from us all; the poor creature had fallen at our very feet.
We rushed forward; but she never moved. The back part of her head was
smashed against a piece of hard mineral at the bottom of the shaft. But
her countenance had escaped injury; and as I cast a hasty glance upon
it, I recognised the well-known face of Phil Blossom's crippled wife!
"One of the boys instantly hastened to acquaint him with the accident.
He came to the spot when his wife lay a mangled heap, stone dead; and he
began to bewail his loss in terms which would have been moving had I not
been aware of their hypocrisy. The half-marrows were, however, deceived
by that well-feigned grief, and did all they could to console him. I
said nothing: I was confounded!
"In due time the cause of the _accident_ was ascertained. It appeared
that my mother had gone up the shaft, but when she got to the top she
struck her foot so forcibly against the upright post of the machinery,
that she lamed herself for the time. The old woman who presided over the
machinery (as I have before said) very kindly offered to go to the
tommy-shop for her, on condition that she would remain there to work the
handle for people coming up or going down. This was agreed to. The very
first person who wanted to go down was Mrs. Blossom; and my mother
alleged that the handle unfortunately slipped out of her hand as she was
unwinding the rope. This explanation satisfied the overseer of the mine:
the intervention of the coroner was not deemed necessary;--my mother
appeared much afflicted at the _accident_: Phil Blossom mourned the
death of his wife with admirable hypocrisy;--the corpse was interred
within forty-eight hours;--and thus was Phil's wife removed without a
suspicion being excited!
"I was now more than ever determined to leave the mine. I saw that my
mother was capable of any thing; and I trembled lest she should take it
into her head to rid herself of me. One day she told me that she was
going to be married to Phil Blossom: I made a remark upon the
singularity of her being united to the very man whose wife had died by
her means;--she darted at me a look of dark suspicion and terrible
ferocity; and, in the next moment, struck me to the ground. From that
instant I felt convinced that I was not safe. Accordingly, one Sunday,
when I was washed quite clean, and had on a tolerably decent frock, I
left the hovel which my mother occupied, and set out on my wanderings.
"I had not a penny in my pocket, nor a friend on the face of the earth
to whom I could apply for advice, protection, or assistance. All that
stood between me and starvation, that I could see, was a piece of bread
and some cheese, which I had taken with me when I left home. I walked as
far as I could without stopping, and must have been about six miles from
the pit where I had worked, when evening came on. It was November, and
the weather was very chilly. I looked round me, almost in despair, to
see if I could discover an asylum for the night. Far behind me the
tremendous chimneys and furnaces vomited forth flames and volumes of
smoke; and the horizon shone as if a whole city was on fire: but in the
spot where I then found myself, all was drear, dark, and lonely. I
walked a little farther, and, to my joy, espied a light. I advanced
towards it, and soon perceived that it emanated from a fire burning in a
species of cave overhung by a high and rugged embankment of earth
belonging to a pit that had most probably ceased to be worked. Crouching
over this fire was a lad of about fifteen, clothed in rags, dirty,
emaciated, and with starvation written upon his countenance. I advanced
towards him, and begged to be allowed to warm myself by his fire. He
answered me in a kind and touching manner; and we soon made confidants
of each other. I told him my history, only suppressing my knowledge that
the death of Phil Blossom's wife arose from premeditation, instead of
accident, as I did not wish to get my mother into a scrape, although I
had no reason to have any regard for her. The lad then acquainted me
with his sad tale. He was an orphan; and his earliest remembrance was
experienced in a workhouse, of which, it appeared, he had become an
inmate shortly after his birth, his parents having been killed at the
same time by the explosion of a fire-damp in the pit in which they had
worked. When the lad was eight years old, the parish authorities
apprenticed him to a miner, who gave him the name of _Skilligalee_, in
consequence of his excessive leanness. This man treated him very badly;
but the poor boy endured all for a period of seven years, because he had
no other asylum than that afforded him by his master. 'At length,' said
the boy, 'a few weeks ago, master got hurt upon the head by the falling
in of some coal where he was working; and from that moment he acted more
like a madman than a human being. He used to seize me by the hair, and
dash me against the side of the pit: sometimes he flogged me with a
strap till my flesh was all raw. I could stand it no longer; so, about
three weeks ago, I ran away. Ever since then I have been living, I can
scarcely tell how. I have slept in the deserted cabins on the pits'
bank, or in the old pits that have done working: I have got what I could
to eat, and have even been glad to devour the bits of candles that the
colliers had left in the pits. All this is as true as I am here.[85]
Yesterday I found some matches in a pit; and that is how I have this
good fire here now. But I am starving!'
"The poor fellow then began to cry. I divided with him my bread and
cheese; and, when we had eaten our morsel, we began to converse upon our
miserable condition. He had as much abhorrence of the mine as I had; he
declared that he would sooner kill himself at once than return to labour
in a pit; and I shared in his resolution. In less than an hour
Skilligalee and myself became intimate friends. Varied and many were the
plans which we proposed to earn a livelihood; but all proved hopeless
when we remembered our penniless condition, and Skilligalee pointed to
his rags. At length he exclaimed in despair, '_There is nothing left to
do but to rob!_'--'_I am afraid that this is our only resource_,' was my
reply.--'_Do you mean it?_' he demanded.--'_Yes!_' I said boldly; and we
exchanged glances full of meaning.
"'_Come with me,_' said Skilligalee. I did not ask any questions, but
followed him. He led the way in silence for upwards of half an hour, and
at length lights suddenly shone between a grove of trees. Skilligalee
leapt over a low fence, and then helped me to climb it. We were then in
a meadow planted with trees--a sort of park, which we traversed, guided
by the lights, towards a large house. We next came to a garden; and,
having passed through this enclosure, we reached the back part of the
premises. Skilligalee went straight up to a particular window, which he
opened. He then crept through, and told me to wait outside. In a few
minutes he returned to the window, and handed me out a large bundle,
wrapped up in a table-cloth. He then crept forth, and closed the window.
We beat a retreat from the scene of our plunder; and returned to the
cave. The fire was still blazing, and Skilligalee fed it with more fuel,
which he obtained by breaking away the wood from an old ruined cabin
close by.
"We next proceeded to open the bundle, which I found to contain a
quantity of food, six silver forks, and six spoons. Skilligalee then
told me that the mansion which we had just robbed was the dwelling of
the owner of the mine wherein he had worked for seven years, and where
he had been so cruelly treated by the pit-man to whom he had been
apprenticed. He said that he had sometimes been sent with messages to
the proprietor, from the overseer in the mine, and that the servants on
those occasions had taken him into the kitchen and given him some food.
He had thus obtained a knowledge of the premises. 'Last night,' he
added, 'I was reduced by hunger to desperation, and I went with the
intention of breaking into the pantry. To my surprise I found the window
open, the spring-bolt being broken. My courage, however, failed me; and
I returned to this cave to suffer all the pangs of hunger. To-night you
came: companionship gave me resolution; and we have got wherewith to
obtain the means of doing something for an honest livelihood.
"We then partook of some of the cold meat and fine white bread which the
pantry had furnished; and, while we thus regaled ourselves, we debated
what we should do with the silver forks and spoons. I said before that I
was decently dressed; but my companion was in rags. It was accordingly
agreed that I should go to the nearest town in the morning, dispose of
the plate, purchase some clothes for Skilligalee, and then rejoin him at
the cave. This matter being decided upon, we laid down and went to
sleep.
"Next morning I washed myself at a neighbouring stream, made myself look
as decent as I could, and set off. Skilligalee had told me how to
proceed. In an hour I reached the town, and went to a pawnbroker's shop.
I said that I was servant to a lady who was in a temporary difficulty
and required a loan. The pawnbroker questioned me so closely that I
began to prevaricate: he called in a constable, and gave me into
custody. I was taken before the magistrate; but I refused to answer a
single question, being determined not to betray my accomplice. The
magistrate remanded me for a week; and I was sent to prison. There I
herded with juvenile thieves and prostitutes; and I cared little for my
incarceration, because I was tolerably, and, at all events, regularly
fed. When I was had up again, the owner of the mansion which I had
helped to rob, was there to identify his property. I, however, still
persisted in my refusal to answer any questions: I was resolved not to
criminate Skilligalee; and I also felt desirous of being sent back to
gaol, as I was certain of there obtaining a bed and a meal. In vain did
the magistrate impress upon me the necessity of giving an explanation of
the manner in which the plate came into my possession, for both he and
the owner of the property were inclined to believe that I was only a
tool, and not the original thief;--I remained dumb, and was remanded for
another week.
"At the expiration of that period, I was again placed before the
magistrate; and, to my surprise, I found Skilligalee in the court. He
was still clothed in his rags, and looked more wretched and famished
than when I first saw him. I gave him a look, and made a sign to assure
him that I would not betray him; but the moment the case was called, he
stood forward and declared that he alone was guilty,--that he had robbed
the house, and that I was merely an instrument of whom he had made use
to dispose of the proceeds of the burglary. I was overcome by this
generosity on his part; and both the magistrate and the owner of the
property were struck by the avowal. The latter declared that he did not
wish to prosecute: the former accordingly inflicted a summary sentence
of imprisonment for a few weeks upon Skilligalee. He then questioned me
about my own condition; and I told him that I had worked in a mine, but
that I had been compelled to run away from home in consequence of the
ill treatment I received at the hands of my mother. I expressed my
determination to put an end to my life sooner than return to her; and
the gentleman, whose house had been robbed, offered to provide for me at
his own expense, if the magistrate would release me. This he agreed to
do; and the gentleman placed me as a boarder in a school kept in the
town by two elderly widows.
"This school was founded for the purpose of furnishing education to the
children of pit-men who were prudent and well disposed enough to pay a
small stipend for that purpose, that stipend being fixed at a very low
rate, as the deficiency in the amount required to maintain the
establishment was supplied by voluntary contribution. There were only a
few boarders--and they were all girls: the great majority of the pupils
consisted of day-scholars. At this school I stayed until I was sixteen,
when the gentleman who had placed me there took me into his service as
housemaid.
"During the whole of that period I had never heard of my mother, or Phil
Blossom. I now felt some curiosity to discover what had become of them;
so, one day, having obtained a holiday for the purpose, I went over to
the pit where I had myself passed so many miserable years. The same old
woman, who had presided at the handle of the roller that raised or
lowered the clatch-harness, during the period of my never-to-be-forgotten
apprenticeship, was there still. She did not recognise me--I was so
altered for the better. Clean, neatly dressed, stout, and tall, I could
not possibly be identified with the dirty, ragged, thin, and
miserable-looking creature who had once toiled in that subterranean
hell. I accosted the old woman, and asked her if a woman named Betsy
Flathers or Blossom worked in the mine. "Bet Blossom!" ejaculated the
old woman: 'why, she's been dead a year!'--'Dead!' I echoed. 'And how
did she die?'--'By falling down the shaft, to be sure,' answered the old
woman.--Although I entertained little affection for my mother, absence
and a knowledge of her character having destroyed all feelings of that
kind, I could not hear this intelligence without experiencing a severe
shock.--'Yes,' continued the old woman, 'it was a sort of judgment on
her, I suppose, for she herself let a poor creature fall down some four
or five years ago, when she took my place at the handle here for a few
minutes while I went to the tommy-shop for her. She married the husband
of the woman who was killed by the fall; and every body knew well enough
afterwards that there wasn't quite so much neglect in the affair as she
had pretended at the time, but a something more serious still. However,
there was no proof; and so the thing was soon forgot. Well, one day,
about a year ago, as I said just now, Phil Blossom came up to me and
asked me to run to the tommy-shop to fetch him some candles. I told him
to mind the wheel, and he said he would. It seems that a few minutes
after I had left on his errand, his wife came up the clatch; and,
according to what a lad, who looked up the shaft at the time, says, she
had just reached the top, when she fell, harness and all, the whole pit
echoing with her horrible screams. She died the moment she touched the
bottom. Phil Blossom was very much cut up about it; but he swore that
the handle slipped out of his hand, and then went whirling round and
round with such force that he couldn't catch it again. I own people
_did_ say that Phil and his second wife led a precious dog-and-cat kind
of a life; but the overseer thought there was no reason to make a stir
about it, and there the matter ended.'--'And what has become of Phil
Blossom?' I inquired.--The old woman pointed down the shaft, as much as
to say that he was still working in the mine.--'Did they have any
children?' I asked.--'Bet had one, I believe,' said the old woman; 'but
it died a few days after it was born, through having too large a dose of
Godfrey's Cordial administered to make it sleep.'--I gave the old woman
a shilling, and turned away from the place, by no means anxious to
encounter Phil Blossom, who, I clearly perceived, had rid himself of my
mother by the same means which she had adopted to dispose of his first
wife.
"As I was returning to my master's house, I had to cross a narrow bridge
over a little stream. I was so occupied with the news I had just heard,
I did not perceive that there was another person advancing from the
opposite side, until I was suddenly caught in the arms of a young man in
the very middle of the bridge. I gave a dreadful scream; but he burst
out into a loud laugh, and exclaimed, 'Well, you needn't be so
frightened at a mere joke.' I knew that voice directly; and glancing at
the young man, who was tolerably well dressed, I immediately recognised
my old friend Skilligalee. It was then my turn to laugh, which I did
very heartily, because he had not the least notion who I was. I,
however, soon told him; and he was quite delighted to meet me. We walked
together to the very identical cave where we had first met when boy and
girl. Now he was a tall young man, and had improved wonderfully. He told
me that he had become acquainted with some excellent fellows when he was
in prison, and that he had profited so well by their advice and example,
that he led a jovial life, did no work, and always had plenty of money.
I asked him how he managed; and he told me, after some hesitation, that
he had turned house-breaker. There was scarcely a gentleman's house,
within twelve miles round, that he had not visited in that quality. He
then proposed that I should meet him on the following Sunday evening,
and take a walk together. I agreed, and we separated.
[Illustration]
"I did not neglect my appointment. Skilligalee was delighted to see me
again; and he proposed that I should leave service, and live with him. I
consented; and----"