STOKEBRIDGE FEAST.
Even among the mining villages of the Black Country Stokebridge had a
reputation for roughness; and hardened topers of the place would boast
that in no village in the county was there so much beer drunk per head.
Stokebridge feast was frequented by the dwellers of the mining villages
for miles round, and the place was for the day a scene of disgraceful
drunkenness and riot. Crowds of young men and women came in, the
public-houses were crowded, there was a shouting of songs and a scraping
of fiddles from each tap-room, and dancing went on in temporary booths.
One of these feasts had taken place just after the establishment of the
night classes, and had been marked by even greater drunkenness and more
riotous scenes than usual. For years the vicar in the church and the
dissenting ministers in their meeting-houses had preached in vain
against the evil. Their congregations were small, and in this respect
their words fell upon ears closed to exhortation. During the year which
had elapsed, however, there was a perceptible change in Stokebridge, a
change from which those interested in it hoped for great results.
The Bull-dogs and their kindred societies had set the fashion, and the
demeanour and bearing of the young men and boys was quiet and orderly.
In every match which they had played at rounders, football, and quoits,
with the surrounding villages Stokebridge had won easily, and never were
the games entered into with more zest than now.
The absence of bad language in the streets was surprising. The habit of
restraint upon the tongue acquired in the club-rooms had spread, and two
months after Jack's first proposal had been so coldly received, the
proposition to extend the fines to swearing outside the walls as well as
in was unanimously agreed to. The change in the demeanour of the girls
was even greater. Besides the influence of Mrs. Dodgson and her
assistant, aided perhaps by the desire to stand well in the eyes of lads
of the place, their boisterous habits had been toned down, dark neatly
made dresses took the place of bright-coloured and flimsy ones; hair,
faces, and hands showed more care and self-respect.
The example of the young people had not been without its influence upon
the elders. Not indeed upon the regular drinking set, but upon those who
only occasionally gave way. The tidier and more comfortable homes, the
better cooked meals, all had their effect; and all but brutalized men
shrank from becoming objects of shame to their children. As to the
women of Stokebridge they were for the most part delighted with the
change. Some indeed grumbled at the new-fangled ways, and complained
that their daughters were getting above them, but as the lesson taught
in the night-classes was that the first duty of a girl or woman was to
make her home bright and happy, to bear patiently the tempers of others,
to be a peacemaker and a help, to bear with children, and to respect
elders, even the grumblers gave way at last.
The very appearance of the village was changing. Pots of bright flowers
stood in the windows, creepers and roses climbed over the walls, patches
full of straggling weeds were now well-kept gardens; in fact, as Mr.
Brook said one day to the vicar, one would hardly know the place.
"There has indeed been a strange movement for good," the clergyman said,
"and I cannot take any share of it to myself. It has been going on for
some time invisibly, and the night schools and classes for girls have
given it an extraordinary impulse. It is a changed place altogether. I
am sorry that the feast is at hand. It always does an immense deal of
mischief, and is a time of quarrel, drunkenness, and license. I wish
that something could be done to counteract its influence."
"So do I," Mr. Brook said. "Can you advise anything?"
"I cannot," the vicar said; "but I will put on my hat and walk with you
down to the schoolhouse. To Dodgson and his wife is due the real credit
of the change; they are indefatigable, and their influence is very
great. Let us put the question to them."
The schoolmaster had his evening class in; Mrs. Dodgson had ten girls
working and reading in her parlour, as she invited that number of the
neatest and most quiet of her pupils to tea on each evening that her
husband was engaged with his night-school. These evenings were greatly
enjoyed by the girls, and the hope of being included among the list of
invited had done much towards producing a change of manners.
It was a fine evening, and the schoolmaster and his wife joined Mr.
Brook out of doors, and apologizing for the room being full asked them
to sit down in the rose-covered arbour at the end of the garden. The
vicar explained the object of the visit.
"My wife and I have been talking the matter over, Mr. Brook," the
schoolmaster said, "and we deplore these feasts, which are the bane of
the place. They demoralize the village; all sorts of good resolutions
give way under temptation, and then those who have given way are ashamed
to rejoin their better companions. It cannot be put down, I suppose?"
"No," Mr. Brook said. "It is held in a field belonging to "The
Chequers," and even did I succeed in getting it closed--which of course
would be out of the question--they would find some other site for the
booths."
"Would you be prepared to go to some expense to neutralize the bad
effects of this feast, Mr. Brook?"
"Certainly; any expense in reason."
"What I was thinking, sir, is that if upon the afternoon of the feast
you could give a fete in your grounds, beginning with say a
cricket-match, followed by a tea, with conjuring or some such amusement
afterwards--for I do not think that they would care for dancing--winding
up with sandwiches and cakes, and would invite the girls of my wife's
sewing-classes with any other girls they may choose to bring with them,
and the lads of my evening class, with similar permission to bring
friends, we should keep all those who are really the moving spirits of
the improvement which has taken place here out of reach of temptation."
"Your idea is excellent," Mr. Brook said. "I will get the band of the
regiment at Birmingham over, and we will wind up with a display of
fireworks, and any other attraction which, after thinking the matter
over, you can suggest, shall be adopted. I have greatly at heart the
interests of my pitmen, and the fact that last year they were led away
to play me a scurvy trick is all forgotten now. A good work has been set
on foot here, and if we can foster it and keep it going, Stokebridge
will in future years be a very different place to what it has been."
Mr. Dodgson consulted Jack Simpson the next day as to the amusements
likely to be most popular; but Jack suggested that Fred Wood and Bill
Cummings should be called into consultation, for, as he said, he knew
nothing of girls' ways, and his opinions were worth nothing. His two
friends were sent for and soon arrived. They agreed that a cricket-match
would be the greatest attraction, and that the band of the soldiers
would delight the girls. It was arranged that a challenge should be sent
to Batterbury, which lay thirteen miles off, and would therefore know
nothing of the feast. The Stokebridge team had visited them the summer
before and beaten them, therefore they would no doubt come to
Stokebridge. They thought that a good conjuror would be an immense
attraction, as such a thing had never been seen in Stokebridge, and that
the fireworks would be a splendid wind up. Mr. Brook had proposed that a
dinner for the contending cricket teams should be served in a marquee,
but to this the lads objected, as not only would the girls be left out,
but also the lads not engaged in the match. It would be better, they
thought, for there to be a table with sandwiches, buns, lemonade, and
tea, from which all could help themselves.
The arrangements were all made privately, as it was possible that the
publicans might, were they aware of the intended counter attraction,
change the day of the feast, although this was unlikely, seeing that it
had from time immemorial taken place on the 3rd of September except only
when that day fell on a Sunday; still it was better to run no risk. A
meeting of the "Bull-dogs" was called for the 27th of August, and at
this Jack announced the invitation which had been received from Mr.
Brook. A few were inclined to demur at giving up the jollity of the
feast, but by this time the majority of the lads had gone heart and soul
into the movement for improvement. The progress made had already been so
great, the difficulties at first met had been so easily overcome, that
they were eager to carry on the work. One or two of those most doubtful
as to their own resolution were the most ready to accept the invitation
of their employer, for it was morally certain that everyone would be
drunk on the night of the feast, and it was an inexorable law of the
"Bull-dogs" that any of the members getting drunk were expelled from
that body. The invitation was at last accepted without a dissenting
voice, the challenge to Batterbury written, and then the members went
off to the associated clubs of which they were members to obtain the
adhesion of these also to the fete at Mr. Brook's. Mrs. Dodgson had
harder work with the sewing-class. The attraction of the dancing and
display of finery at the feast was greater to many of the girls than to
the boys. Many eagerly accepted the invitation; but it was not until Mr.
Dodgson came in late in the evening and announced in an audible tone to
his wife that he was glad to say that the whole of the young fellows of
the night-school had accepted the invitation, that the girls all gave
way and agreed to go to the fete.
Accordingly on the 3rd of September, just as the people from the pit
villages round were flocking in to Stokebridge, a hundred and fifty of
the young people of that place, with a score or two of young married
couples and steady men and women, set out in their Sunday suits for Mr.
Brook's.
It was a glorious day. The cricket-match was a great success, the
military band was delightful, and Mr. Brook had placed it on the lawn,
so that those of the young people who chose could dance to the inspiring
strains. Piles of sandwiches disappeared during the afternoon, and the
tea, coffee, and lemonade were pronounced excellent. There was, too, a
plentiful supply of beer for such of the lads as preferred it; as Mr.
Brook thought that it would look like a want of confidence in his
visitors did he not provide them with beer.
Batterbury was beaten soundly; and when it was dark the party assembled
in a large marquee. There a conjuror first performed, and after giving
all the usual wonders, produced from an inexhaustible box such pretty
presents in the way of well-furnished work-bags and other useful
articles for the girls that these were delighted. But the surprise of
the evening was yet to come. It was not nine o'clock when the conjuror
finished, and Mr. Dodgson was thinking anxiously that the party would be
back in Stokebridge long before the feast was over. Suddenly a great
pair of curtains across the end of the tent drew aside and a regular
stage was seen. Mr. Brook had obtained the services of five or six
actors and actresses from the Birmingham theatre, together with scenery
and all accessories; and for two hours and a half the audience was kept
in a roar of laughter by some well-acted farces.
When the curtain fell at last, Mr. Brook himself came in front of it. So
long and hearty was the cheering that it was a long time before he could
obtain a hearing. At last silence was restored.
"I am very glad, my friends," he said, "that you have had a happy
afternoon and evening, and I hope that another year I shall see you all
here again. I should like to say a few words before we separate. You
young men, lads and lasses, will in a few years have a paramount
influence in Stokebridge; upon you it depends whether that place is to
be, as it used to be, like other colliery villages in Staffordshire, or
to be a place inhabited by decent and civilized people. I am delighted
to observe that a great change has lately come over it, due in a great
measure to your good and kind friends Mr. and Mrs. Dodgson, who have
devoted their whole time and efforts to your welfare." The cheering at
this point was as great as that which had greeted Mr. Brook himself, but
was even surpassed by that which burst out when a young fellow shouted
out, "and Jack Simpson." During this Jack Simpson savagely made his way
out of the tent, and remained outside, muttering threats about punching
heads, till the proceedings were over. "And Jack Simpson," Mr. Brook
went on, smiling, after the cheering had subsided. "I feel sure that the
improvement will be maintained. When you see the comfort of homes in
which the wives are cleanly, tidy, and intelligent, able to make the
dresses of themselves and their children, and to serve their husbands
with decently cooked food; and in which the husbands spend their
evenings and their wages at home, treating their wives as rational
beings, reading aloud, or engaged in cheerful conversation, and compare
their homes with those of the drunkard and the slattern, it would seem
impossible for any reasonable human being to hesitate in his or her
choice between them. It is in your power, my friends, each and all,
which of these homes shall be yours. I have thought that some active
amusement is necessary, and have arranged, after consultation with your
vicar and with Mr. and Mrs. Dodgson, that a choir-master from Birmingham
shall come over twice a week, to train such of you as may wish and may
have voices, in choir-singing. As the lads of Stokebridge can beat those
of any of the surrounding villages at cricket, so I hope in time the
choir of the lads and lasses of this place will be able to hold its own
against any other." Again the speaker had to pause, for the cheering was
enthusiastic. "And now, good-night; and may I say that I hope and trust
that when the fireworks, which will now be displayed, are over, you will
all go home and straight to bed, without being tempted to join in the
doings at the feast. If so, it will be a satisfaction to me to think
that for the first time since the feast was first inaugurated, neither
lad nor lass of Stokebridge will have cause to look back upon the
feast-day with regret or shame."