Mary Barton Page #27

Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in the English city of Manchester between 1839 and 1842, and deals with the difficulties faced by the Victorian working class.

• Novel

								

right-down piece for short hours."

"At the same rate of wages as now?" asked Jem.

"Ay, ay! else where's the use? It's only taking out o' the masters'
pocket what they can well afford. Did I ever tell yo what th'
Infirmary chap let me into, many a year agone?"

"No," said Jem, listlessly.

"Well! yo must know I were in th' Infirmary for a fever, and times
were rare and bad; and there be good chaps there to a man, while he's
wick, [22] whate'er they may be about cutting him up at after. [23]
So when I were better o' th' fever, but weak as water, they says to
me, says they, 'If yo can write, yo may stay in a week longer, and
help our surgeon wi' sorting his papers; and we'll take care yo've
your belly full o' meat and drink. Yo'll be twice as strong in a
week.' So there wanted but one word to that bargain. So I were set to
writing and copying; th' writing I could do well enough, but they'd
such queer ways o' spelling that I'd ne'er been used to, that I'd to
look first at th' copy and then at my letters, for all the world like
a cock picking up grains o' corn. But one thing startled me e'en
then, and I thought I'd make bold to ask the surgeon the meaning o't.
I've gotten no head for numbers, but this I know, that by far th'
greater part o' th' accidents as comed in, happened in th' last two
hours o' work, when folk getten tired and careless. Th' surgeon
said it were all true, and that he were going to bring that fact to
light."


   [Footnote 22: "Wick," alive. Anglo-Saxon, cwic. "The quick
                 and the dead."--Book of Common Prayer.]

   [Footnote 23: "At after." "At after souper goth this noble
                 king." Chaucer; The Squire's Tale.]


Jem was pondering Mary's conduct; but the pause made him aware he
ought to utter some civil listening noise; so he said

"Very true."

"Ay, it's true enough, my lad, that we're sadly over-borne, and worse
will come of it afore long. Block-printers is going to strike; they'n
getten a bang-up union, as won't let 'em be put upon. But there's
many a thing will happen afore long, as folk don't expect. Yo may
take my word for that, Jem."

Jem was very willing to take it, but did not express the curiosity
he should have done. So John Barton thought he'd try another hint or
two.

"Working folk won't be ground to the dust much longer. We'n a' had as
much to bear as human nature can bear. So, if th' masters can't do us
no good, and they say they can't, we mun try higher folk."

Still Jem was not curious. He gave up hope of seeing Mary again by
her own good free will; and the next best thing would be, to be alone
to think of her. So, muttering something which he meant to serve
as an excuse for his sudden departure, he hastily wished John good
afternoon, and left him to resume his pipe and his politics.

For three years past, trade had been getting worse and worse, and the
price of provisions higher and higher. This disparity between the
amount of the earnings of the working classes and the price of their
food, occasioned, in more cases than could well be imagined, disease
and death. Whole families went through a gradual starvation. They
only wanted a Dante to record their sufferings. And yet even his
words would fall short of the awful truth; they could only present an
outline of the tremendous facts of the destitution that surrounded
thousands upon thousands in the terrible years 1839, 1840, and 1841.
Even philanthropists who had studied the subject, were forced to own
themselves perplexed in their endeavour to ascertain the real causes
of the misery; the whole matter was of so complicated a nature,
that it became next to impossible to understand it thoroughly. It
need excite no surprise then to learn that a bad feeling between
working-men and the upper classes became very strong in this season
of privation. The indigence and sufferings of the operatives induced
a suspicion in the minds of many of them, that their legislators,
their magistrates, their employers, and even the ministers of
religion, were, in general, their oppressors and enemies; and were in
league for their prostration and enthralment. The most deplorable and
enduring evil that arose out of the period of commercial depression
to which I refer, was this feeling of alienation between the
different classes of society. It is so impossible to describe, or
even faintly to picture, the state of distress which prevailed in the
town at that time, that I will not attempt it; and yet I think again
that surely, in a Christian land, it was not known even so feebly
as words could tell it, or the more happy and fortunate would have
thronged with their sympathy and their aid. In many instances the
sufferers wept first, and then they cursed. Their vindictive feelings
exhibited themselves in rabid politics. And when I hear, as I have
heard, of the sufferings and privations of the poor, of provision
shops where ha'porths of tea, sugar, butter, and even flour, were
sold to accommodate the indigent,--of parents sitting in their
clothes by the fire-side during the whole night for seven weeks
together, in order that their only bed and bedding might be reserved
for the use of their large family,--of others sleeping upon the
cold hearth-stone for weeks in succession, without adequate means
of providing themselves with food or fuel (and this in the depth
of winter),--of others being compelled to fast for days together,
uncheered by any hope of better fortune, living, moreover, or rather
starving, in a crowded garret, or damp cellar, and gradually sinking
under the pressure of want and despair into a premature grave; and
when this has been confirmed by the evidence of their care-worn
looks, their excited feelings, and their desolate homes,--can I
wonder that many of them, in such times of misery and destitution,
spoke and acted with ferocious precipitation?

An idea was now springing up among the operatives, that originated
with the Chartists, but which came at last to be cherished as a
darling child by many and many a one. They could not believe that
government knew of their misery; they rather chose to think it
possible that men could voluntarily assume the office of legislators
for a nation, ignorant of its real state; as who should make domestic
rules for the pretty behaviour of children, without caring to know
that those children had been kept for days without food. Besides,
the starving multitudes had heard, that the very existence of their
distress had been denied in Parliament; and though they felt this
strange and inexplicable, yet the idea that their misery had still
to be revealed in all its depths, and that then some remedy would be
found, soothed their aching hearts, and kept down their rising fury.

So a petition was framed, and signed by thousands in the bright
spring days of 1839, imploring Parliament to hear witnesses who
could testify to the unparalleled destitution of the manufacturing
districts. Nottingham, Sheffield, Glasgow, Manchester, and many other
								Rate this book:0.0 / 0 votes