Part 3 (2/2)
Unfortunately for me, the _Chronicle_ was a wealthy paper, and the _Journal_ a very poor one I had, therefore, to wage an unequal iththrows a heavy strain upon the newspapers of the town in which it takes place Half-a-dozen sections meet every day, and alls and social functions, the story of which , then just co known to Newcastle as a great ineer and the inventor of the hydraulic crane, was the president of theThis added to the pride which the people of Newcastle felt in the fact that their town had been chosen for the scene of so distinguished a gathering In those days local patriotish in the old town We were intensely provincial, and our favourite belief was that Newcastle stood unrivalled auished stranger cast us--as, for example, Mr
Gladstone, on the occasion to which I have already referred--ashed our face, and put on our best clothes in order to i of the perfervid nature of the Scot in our characters, and rose to extraordinary heights of enthusiasm on very indifferent pretexts
It followed that e had so distinguished a body as the British association to receive as our guests, and e had furnished in one of our own citizens the president of the ht I do not know if Newcastle is still capable of these transports of enthusiasuished so o is now, in these days of incessant intercoer patriotism of the nation Be this as it may, I must explain that my dissertation on the manner in which Newcastle received the British association in 1863 is merely intended to account for the fact that, as a result of that ht on by anxiety and overwork I found that reporting, when you had to co a staff three ti; and having a desire to atteave up my position as a reporter, and adopted instead the vocation of a leader-writer
My last bit of work as a reporter for the _Newcastle Journal_ was in describing the accident which happened at Bradfield, near Sheffield, in the spring of 1864 The dareat reservoir from which Sheffield drew its water supply burst, and a torrent of water, many feet in depth, and nearly a quarter of a mile in width, suddenly rushed down a narrow valley, and flooded the lower part of Sheffield The tragic occurrence was subsequently described by Charles Reade in his novel, ”Put Yourself in His Place” Reade was not an eye-witness of the scene that was presented after the flood had spent its force, but I can bear testimony to the fact that he described it accurately Certainly it was a wonderful and terrible sight that was presented when I visited the place a few hours after the bursting of the dahed up to the depth of many feet; lamp-posts were twisted like wire, andwith one of their sides clean swept away, or lay a reat battle could not have dealt death more freely than did this flood
Most of the victiht to see the long rows of corpses, clad in night-dresses, that were laid out in the public building that had been hastily turned into a mortuary I think, indeed, the horror of that spectacle surpassed even that of the scene at Hartley New Pit, when the victims of the accident there were disinterred
The newspaper reporter has still, in the discharge of his duty, to see s, but he is now spared sohts to which he was exposed inthese, none was so painful and so revolting as a public execution I attended several executions during my connection with the Newcastle Press, and I was a witness in 1868 of the last public execution in England--that of Barrett, the Fenian, of whom I shall have more to say by-and-by I am thankful to know that the necessity of attendance at these dreadful scenes is no longer imposed upon the journalist, and I feel a profound pity for those officials who are compelled by an i of their fellow-creatures It is true, however, that use hardens the heart and deadens the nerves I re an execution, as I stood tre at the foot of the scaffold on which the victim was about to appear, I noticed an old reporter, for who up and down besidethe New Testa heart, I concluded thatspiritual comfort in view of the event in which ere about to take part as spectators and recorders I said so to him about the horror of the act ere shortly to witness He looked up with a placid sently--for he was essentially a gentle man--”Yes, very sad, very sad; but let us be thankful it isn't raining” And then he calentle hearts can thus grow callous, what must be the ”moral effect” of an execution upon those who are already brutalised?
Another unpleasant sight which reporters are now spared is the flogging of garrotters When the Act authorising this punishment was passed, provision was made that the representatives of the Press should be present when it was inflicted More than once I have had to witness these floggings in the course of my ordinary duty I confess that they did not affect ues An execution, with the violent thrusting of a human soul into the unknown, moved me deeply; but the physical punishment of a ruffian who had hi upon some innocent person seemed to be such well-deserved retribution that even the coward's shrieks for mercy made no impression upon h and joke at an execution faint at the flogging of a garrotter So differently are hus constituted!
At the end of June, 1864, I left my native town, and went to Preston to undertake editorial duties in connection with the _Preston Guardian_--the leading Liberal paper in North Lancashi+re It was a custoive a farewell entertainment to a brother of the Press when he quitted a tohere he had been engaged for any length of time I was entertained at the usual complimentary dinner, and was made the recipient of a very handsonedly that I had not deserved it, yet the possession of the gold watch and collection of standard books subscribed for out of the scanty earnings of ues was a real comfort to me when, with a sad heart, I left the sacred shelter of my home and quitted the town in which the whole of my life up to that moment had been spent
I reached Preston one su as homesick as any lad could have been I did not know the nale person in the town except that of the proprietor of the _Guardian_, Mr Toulmin I did not even know the naht A porter at the railway station told me the nas
An a experience befell s that is now obsolete, Iintroduced myself at the _Guardian_ office, and taken formal possession of my new post, I returned to my hotel in time for the daily dinner which the waitress had informed me was served at one o'clock The coffee-room, when I entered it, was filled by cory looks around the table that had been laid for dinner They seemed relieved when I, as shy a youth as could anywhere be found, entered the room, and instantly seated themselves at the table I looked round for soht hide aze, and was filled with alarm when I found that the only seat left vacant was that at the head of the table Instinctively I shrank frory colare at me , ”You are president of the day, sir,”
motioned me to the vacant seat at the head of the board I do not think I was ever htened in my life than when, under her iaze of a dozen hungry -maids beside them, but not a cover was lifted or a motionbewilder for the dinner to be served Suddenly, from the other end of the table, a harsh voice issued from the lips of a burly, red-faced man ”Mr President, if you are a Christian, you'll perhaps be good enough to say grace, and let us get to our dinner, which ant very badly” I ed to staht the worst was over Not a bit of it No sooner had the soup been audibly consuain assailed lecting your duties in this way, but let me tell you that this is not a company of teetotallers” ”Ask them ine they would like,” whispered the waitress behind ht, and who evidently pitied it, for she added, ”Don't let that nasty man at the other end of the table bully you” But I was incapable ofthe deception in which I had been innocently involved, and, taking e in both hands, I frankly told the company that I was not a commercial traveller, had never inof the usages of such a place, would beg the gentleman at the other end of the table to take upon hihter froood-humour was instantly restored My _vis-a-vis_, as addressed as ”Mr Vice,” was, indeed, sooodwill of the others, and was allowed to look on, a silent spectator, whilst the uished the ”commercial table” of that epoch were duly celebrated
Strange to say, that was not only ine that the old custo, the toasts, and the graces before and after s of the past
My editorial career at Preston began with a somewhat painful and even dramatic episode I had returned to the office, after my dinner with the commercial travellers, in order to attend to my duties for the day The _Guardian_ was published twice a week--on Wednesday and Saturday
This was Tuesday afternoon The proprietor had infor article for Wednesday's publication, andof the news and the writing of a few editorial paragraphs Suddenly Mr Toul a word, placed a telegram on the desk before me It consisted of these words, still iton Wilkes died suddenly last night while addressing a public ” I knew Mr Wilkes by name as a Radical journalist of considerable ability, rote regularly for the _Morning Star_
Accordingly I expressedof his death ”Yes,” said Mr Toulmin, bluntly; ”that's all very well, but now you'll have to write the leader for to-morrow, for Wilkes was to have written it” Under these startling circu article for the _Preston Guardian_ Though I thus stepped into the shoes of a dead man, I fear that I can hardly have filled them; but this was, on the whole, not to be wondered at
Mr Toul before ard his I entertained for hih exterior was not altogether prepossessing, and when I came to him first as a raw lad, shy, sensitive, and intolerant of n to my own, I must frankly confess that I felt repelled by hiht hts and dignity I had been engaged as editor and sub-editor of the _Guardian_, and as it was my first editorshi+p, it need hardly be said that I valued hly Mr Toul all he could out of the ard to the customs of journalism
Thus, I had scarcely finished the article which would have been written by Washi+ngton Wilkes but for his sudden death, when Mr Toul into my room, expressed his warm satisfaction at the quickness hich I had turned out my work; then, with an ales ofvoice said: ”Would youyour eye upon this whilst I run over this proof?” In an instant I grasped his ed as editor, and he proposed to fill upme as a proof-reader For a arded as an outrage upon nity To this day I am thankful that I controlled e--and it required so as his own: ”I should have been delighted, but unfortunately I have an engagement out of doors” And thereupon I left the rooain did Mr Toul afterwards he made frank admission toto be put upon” Very soon I found that he was not only a kind-hearted but a very able e of six, in a cotton factory The statement to-day is hardly credible, but such is the fact In those cruel times, when no Lord Ashley had as yet arisen to open the door of the workman's prison-house and set the children free, this poor child had been shut up froht in the fetid atmosphere of a cotton-mill
God knohat the econo's labour may have been! One would think that a South Carolina planter would have been wiser than to work his ”stock” at such an age Be this as it h this terrible apprenticeshi+p to toil--always hungry, always tired; and had not only survived it, but eed from it a man
When I knew him he could talk calmly of the horrors of his childhood, but there was an undercurrent of bitterness in his reference to those times which one could understand and respect He was an ardent and convinced Liberal, and I think that I owefor the character of my own political views than I owe to anybody else
When I went to Lancashi+re in 1864 the terrible effects of the cotton famine were everywhere to be seen History has done justice to the noble fortitude hich the operatives of Lancashi+re ”cle that awful tiet the pale, pinched faces of the men and women as they walked to and frole was over, but hundreds of great mills were still closed, and those which were open only ran half-ti classes in Lancashi+re, as in most places, were on the side of the North in the As which that war caused the South
But in Lancashi+re, as elsewhere, the upper classes--with the exception of the feho followed the noble leadershi+p of John Bright--were enthusiasts on the side of the South, and, if they had dared, would have urged English intervention on behalf of the Confederate States There was thus a strong and marked difference of opinion between the upper and the lower classes in Lancashi+re, as elsewhere The great question in domestic politics was that of Parliamentary reform Advanced Liberals believed that if only the franchise was enlarged, and the working-man admitted within the pale, Liberal principles and ideas would henceforward triumph permanently in our national politics, and they were, consequently, eager to bring about this great constitutional change Tories also believed that this would be the effect of the enlargement of the franchise, and they naturally opposed it vehemently Neither party foresaw that the elements common to human nature everywhere would influence the course of politics just as fully after the working men had been admitted within the pale of the Constitution as before, and that we should find even ast the lower orders the same differences between Liberals and Conservatives as prevailed in the ish turn of reatly in those days Like the rest of the world, I believed that to adive dees, both social and political, of an extreested did not seem to me to be wise For this reason I could not enter as heartily as I ht otherwise have done into the deht, would be to go safely From this Laodicean frame of mind I was rescued by Mr Toulmin It was not only that he could speak of the dark days at the beginning of the century, and of the inequality and injustice which then prevailed under Tory rule in England; he was able also to point out the contrast between the unselfish and heroic conduct of the Lancashi+re operatives with regard to the American Civil War, and that of their superiors, in whose hands the political destinies of the country rested He was in the habit of enforcing his broad and sensible arguments on the subject of Parliara to those hou to an inverted pyramid, ”that is the British constitution as it is at present
Does it not strike you as being rather top-heavy, and not unlikely to topple over in a storm? Now look at this,” and he placed the pyramid on its proper base ”That is what I want to see, and you'll agree with ht of Tennyson's words: ”Broad-based upon her people's will,” and felt that there was rauments
It was not only from my intercourse with Mr Toulmin that I derived mental profit in those days I was always a rapid worker, and I speedily found that two days and a half in each week sufficed to enable e my duties at the _Guardian_ office The a, and in s I spent hours each day in study As I look back upon that ti flood the influence of Carlyle, under the spell of whose teaching and inspiration I then practically came for the first time The conoble ones Carlyle, Browning--not yet the victireat historians, were always by radually expanded as it absorbed their words and thoughts In one respect Preston has always seelish towns The centre of the town, if I may commit a bull, lay at a point on its circu business thoroughfare, the railway station, and the _Guardian_ office were all close to the river Ribble, separated from it only by the beautiful Avenham Park, where the residences of the local aristocracy were to be found All the industrial part of the town, and the houses of the operatives, lay farther away fro but open country My ent Street were at the same time within three minutes' walk of the _Guardian_ office and of the old wooden bridge that crossed the Ribble Thus I could escape almost directly from the town into the open country, and htful solitary rah the lanes and fields of rural Lancashi+re It is a good thing for a young , and no one who is worth his salt can enjoy the kind of solitude which fell toby it If I went there a boy, I left the place, after hteen months of editorshi+p, a man
Of my newspaper experiences at Preston there is not much to record Two notable speeches that I heard and reported--although I would not read proofs I was quite willing to oblige Mr Toul up my practice as a shorthand writer--recur to me One was a speech made in 1865 by Mr Gladstone at Manchester The chiefand stately eloquence hich he told his audience that he felt that his own life's as drawing to a close Of the men hom he had entered upon public life, he declared the majority had passed away, and that fact reminded him that he could not reasonably expect that his own tied No one who heard hiined that thirty years of public service still lay before the speaker The other speech was still reatest of all the orators of the nineteenth century, John Bright Mr Bright's speech, which was delivered at Blackburn, promised to be of peculiar interest, inasmuch as he made it only a few days after the death of Lord Palmerston, in October, 1865 Everybody was curious to knohat the great Liberal would say of the man whose policy he had so often opposed, and hom he had so often crossed swords on the floor of Parliahtto end he never mentioned the nahtly tinged with malice, I would so Palht The effect was always the same, and always electrical ”Palmerston!” he would cry ”The man who involved us in the crime of the Criry toss of his leonine head; but the accents of immeasurable scorn filled the hiatus in his speech
In after years I becaht's oratory I hope to say soe on this subject Here I need only note the fact that his first speech disappointed me Indeed, men were usually disappointed when they heard hi to hear an orator full of sound and fury They were aht alesture he nificent voice rise above a certain pitch; he never poured out his words in a tumultuous torrent; he was always deliberate and rew accustomed to him that you noted those wonderful inflections of the voice which expressed so clearly the eitated on the question of the cattle plague It was a question that particularly affected Cheshi+re and the rural parts of Lancashi+re The action taken by the Government, of which Mr Gladstone was a proly opposed by the representatives of the agricultural interest A countywas held at Preston to consider the subject and to denounce the Ministry If I reht, the Earl of Derby, the famous ”Rupert of debate,” was in the chair, and he was surrounded by half the athering One titled speaker after another got up and abused Ministers, and it was notable that Mr Gladstone fell in for the hottest measure of abuse When some resolution was about to be put a ht say a feords He was a tall, thick-set person, and his dress was so plain that most of us took hi, which was enjoying the eloquence of earls and aristocrats of every degree, turned with anger upon the unknown intruder, and shouted ”Naht ”My naer, in a clear and powerful voice Everybody burst into a roar of laughter It see to unmeasured vituperation of _the_ Gladstone, this humble person who had obtruded himself unexpectedly upon the scene should happen to be of the sahter had subsided Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, as on the platform, shouted out the explanation of the mystery ”Mr Robertson Gladstone, of Liverpool” It was the brother of the one to theto defend his illustrious relative; and defend him he did, with so much force and eloquence that he not only made some of the noble speakers look rather foolish, but convinced one, at least, who heard hiht have been one of the great figures of the House of Commons