It was the twilight19 hour; the hour at which in southern climes the peasant kneels before the sunset image of the blessed Hebrew maiden20; when caravans21 halt in their long course over vast deserts, and the turbaned traveller bending in the sand, pays his homage22 to the sacred stone and the sacred city; the hour, not less holy, that announces the cessation of English toil23, and sends forth24 the miner and the collier to breathe the air of earth, and gaze on the light of heaven.
They come forth: the mine delivers its gang and the pit its bondsmen; the forge is silent and the engine is still. The plain is covered with the swarming25 multitude: bands of stalwart men, broad-chested and muscular, wet with toil, and black as the children of the tropics; troops of youth—alas! of both sexes,—though neither their raiment nor their language indicates the difference; all are clad in male attire26; and oaths that men might shudder27 at, issue from lips born to breathe words of sweetness. Yet these are to be—some are—the mothers of England! But can we wonder at the hideous28 coarseness of their language when we remember the savage29 rudeness of their lives? Naked to the waist, an iron chain fastened to a belt of leather runs between their legs clad in canvas trousers, while on hands and feet an English girl, for twelve, sometimes for sixteen hours a-day, hauls and hurries tubs of coals up subterranean roads, dark, precipitous, and plashy: circumstances that seem to have escaped the notice of the Society for the Abolition30 of Negro Slavery. Those worthy31 gentlemen too appear to have been singularly unconscious of the sufferings of the little Trappers, which was remarkable32, as many of them were in their own employ.
See too these emerge from the bowels33 of the earth! Infants of four and five years of age, many of them girls, pretty and still soft and timid; entrusted34 with the fulfilment of most responsible duties, and the nature of which entails35 on them the necessity of being the earliest to enter the mine and the latest to leave it. Their labour indeed is not severe, for that would be impossible, but it is passed in darkness and in solitude36. They endure that punishment which philosophical37 philanthropy has invented for the direst criminals, and which those criminals deem more terrible than the death for which it is substituted. Hour after hour elapses, and all that reminds the infant Trappers of the world they have quitted and that which they have joined, is the passage of the coal-waggons for which they open the air-doors of the galleries, and on keeping which doors constantly closed, except at this moment of passage, the safety of the mine and the lives of the persons employed in it entirely38 depend.
Sir Joshua, a man of genius and a courtly artist, struck by the seraphic countenance39 of Lady Alice Gordon, when a child of very tender years, painted the celestial40 visage in various attitudes on the same canvass41, and styled the group of heavenly faces—guardian angels!
We would say to some great master of the pencil, Mr Landseer or Mr Etty, go thou to the little trappers and do likewise!
A small party of miners approached a house of more pretension42 than the generality of the dwellings43, and announcing its character by a very flagrant sign of the Rising Sun. They entered it as men accustomed, and were greeted with smiles and many civil words from the lady at the bar, who inquired very cheerfully what the gentlemen would have. They soon found themselves seated in the tap, and, though it was not entirely unoccupied, in their accustomed places, for there seemed a general understanding that they enjoyed a prescriptive right.
With hunches45 of white bread in their black hands, and grinning with their sable46 countenances47 and ivory teeth, they really looked like a gang of negroes at a revel48.
The cups of ale circulated, the pipes were lighted, the preliminary puffs49 achieved. There was at length silence, when he who seemed their leader and who filled a sort of president’s seat, took his pipe from his mouth, and then uttering the first complete sentence that had yet been expressed aloud, thus delivered himself.
“The fact is we are tommied to death.”
“It’s gospel, every word of it,” said another.
“And the point is,” continued Master Nixon, “what are we for to do?”
“Ay, ay,” agreed several; “there it is.”
“The question is,” said Nixon, looking round with a magisterial52 air, “what is wages? I say, tayn’t sugar, tayn’t tea, tayn’t bacon. I don’t think it’s candles; but of this I be sure, tayn’t waistcoats.”
“Comrades,” continued Nixon, “you know what has happened; you know as how Juggins applied54 for his balance after his tommy-book was paid up, and that incarnate55 nigger Diggs has made him take two waistcoats. Now the question rises, what is a collier to do with waistcoats? Pawn56 ‘em I s’pose to Diggs’ son-in-law, next door to his father’s shop, and sell the ticket for sixpence. Now there’s the question; keep to the question; the question is waistcoats and tommy; first waistcoats and then tommy.”
“I have been making a pound a-week these two months past,” said another, “but as I’m a sinner saved, I have never seen the young queen’s picture yet.”
“And I have been obliged to pay the doctor for my poor wife in tommy,” said another. “‘Doctor,’ I said, says I, ‘I blush to do it, but all I have got is tommy, and what shall it be, bacon or cheese?’ ‘Cheese at tenpence a pound,’ says he, ‘which I buy for my servants at sixpence. Never mind,’ says he, for he is a thorough Christian57, ‘I’ll take the tommy as I find it.’”
“Juggins has got his rent to pay and is afeard of the bums,” said Nixon; “and he has got two waistcoats!”
“Besides,” said another, “Diggs’ tommy is only open once a-week, and if you’re not there in time, you go over for another seven days. And it’s such a distance, and he keeps a body there such a time—it’s always a day’s work for my poor woman; she can’t do nothing after it, what with the waiting and the standing10 and the cussing of Master Joseph Diggs,—for he do swear at the women, when they rush in for the first turn, most fearful.”
“They do say he’s a shocking little dog.”
“Master Joseph is wery wiolent, but there is no one like old Diggs for grabbing a bit of one’s wages. He do so love it! And then he says you never need be at no loss for nothing; you can find everything under my roof. I should like to know who is to mend our shoes. Has Gaffer Diggs a cobbler’s stall?”
“Or sell us a penn-orth of potatoes,” said another. “Or a ha’porth of milk.”
“No; and so to get them one is obliged to go and sell some tommy, and much one gets for it. Bacon at ninepence a-pound at Diggs’, which you may get at a huckster’s for sixpence, and therefore the huckster can’t be expected to give you more than fourpence halfpenny, by which token the tommy in our field just cuts our wages atween the navel.”
“And that’s as true as if you heard it in church, Master Waghorn.”
“This Diggs seems to be an oppressor of the people,” said a voice from a distant corner of the room.
Master Nixon looked around, smoked, puffed, and then said, “I should think he wor; as bloody-a-hearted butty as ever jingled58.”
“But what business has a butty to keep a shop?” inquired the stranger. “The law touches him.”
“I should like to know who would touch the law,” said Nixon; “not I for one. Them tommy shops is very delicate things; they won’t stand no handling, I can tell you that.”
“But he cannot force you to take goods,” said the stranger; “he must pay you in current coin of the realm, if you demand it.”
“They only pay us once in five weeks,” said a collier; “and how is a man to live meanwhile. And suppose we were to make shift for a month or five weeks, and have all our money coming, and have no tommy out of the shop, what would the butty say to me? He would say, ‘do you want e’er a note this time’ and if I was to say ‘no,’ then he would say, ‘you’ve no call to go down to work any more here.’ And that’s what I call forsation.”
“Ay, ay,” said another collier; “ask for the young queen’s picture, and you would soon have to put your shirt on, and go up the shaft59.”
“It’s them long reckonings that force us to the tommy shops,” said
another collier; “and if a butty turns you away because you won’t take
no tommy, you’re a marked man in every field about.” *
*A Butty in the mining districts is a middleman: a Doggy
is his manager. The Butty generally keeps a Tommy or Truck
shop and pays the wages of his labourers in goods. When
miners and colliers strike they term it, “going to play.”
“There’s wus things as tommy,” said a collier who had hitherto been silent, “and that’s these here butties. What’s going on in the pit is known only to God Almighty60 and the colliers. I have been a consistent methodist for many years, strived to do well, and all the harm I have ever done to the butties was to tell them that their deeds would not stand on the day of judgment61.
“They are deeds of darkness surely; for many’s the morn we work for nothing, by one excuse or another, and many’s the good stint62 that they undermeasure. And many’s the cup of their ale that you must drink before they will give you any work. If the queen would do something for us poor men, it would be a blessed job.”
“There ayn’t no black tyrant63 on this earth like a butty, surely,” said a collier; “and there’s no redress64 for poor men.”
“But why do not you state your grievances65 to the landlords and lessees,” said the stranger.
“I take it you be a stranger in these parts, sir,” said Master Nixon, following up this remark by a most enormous puff9. He was the oracle66 of his circle, and there was silence whenever he was inclined to address them, which was not too often, though when he spoke, his words, as his followers67 often observed, were a regular ten-yard coal.
“I take it you be a stranger in these parts, sir, or else you would know that it’s as easy for a miner to speak to a mainmaster, as it is for me to pick coal with this here clay. Sir, there’s a gulf68 atween ‘em. I went into the pit when I was five year old, and I count forty year in the service come Martinmas, and a very good age, sir, for a man what does his work, and I knows what I’m speaking about. In forty year, sir, a man sees a pretty deal, ‘specially when he don’t move out of the same spot and keeps his ‘tention. I’ve been at play, sir, several times in forty year, and have seen as great stick-outs as ever happened in this country. I’ve seen the people at play for weeks together, and so clammed69 that I never tasted nothing but a potatoe and a little salt for more than a fortnight. Talk of tommy, that was hard fare, but we were holding out for our rights, and that’s sauce for any gander. And I’ll tell you what, sir, that I never knew the people play yet, but if a word had passed atween them and the main-masters aforehand, it might not have been settled; but you can’t get at them any way. Atween the poor man and the gentleman there never was no connection, and that’s the wital mischief70 of this country.
“It’s a very true word, Master Nixon, and by this token that when we went to play in —28, and the masters said they would meet us; what did they do but walk about the ground and speak to the butties. The butties has their ear.”
“We never want no soldiers here if the masters would speak with the men; but the sight of a pitman is pison to a gentleman, and if we go up to speak with ‘em, they always run away.”
“It’s the butties,” said Nixon; “they’re wusser nor tommy.”
“The people will never have their rights,” said the stranger, “until they learn their power. Suppose instead of sticking out and playing, fifty of your families were to live under one roof. You would live better than you live now; you would feed more fully44, and he lodged71 and clothed more comfortably, and you might save half the amount of your wages; you would become capitalists; you might yourselves hire your mines and pits from the owners, and pay them a better rent than they now obtain, and yet yourselves gain more and work less.”
“Sir,” said Mr Nixon, taking his pipe from his mouth, and sending forth a volume of smoke, “you speak like a book.”
“It is the principle of association,” said the stranger; “the want of the age.”
“Sir,” said Mr Nixon, “this here age wants a great deal, but what it principally wants is to have its wages paid in the current coin of the realm.”
Soon after this there were symptoms of empty mugs and exhausted72 pipes, and the party began to stir. The stranger addressing Nixon, enquired73 of him what was their present distance from Wodgate.
“Wodgate!” exclaimed Mr Nixon with an unconscious air.
“The gentleman means Hell-house Yard,” said one of his companions.
“I’m at home,” said Mr Nixon, “but ‘tis the first time I ever heard Hell-house Yard called Wodgate.”
“It’s called so in joggraphy,” said Juggins.
“But you hay’nt going to Hell-house Yard this time of night!” said Mr Nixon. “I’d as soon think of going down the pit with the windlass turned by lushy Bob.”
“Tayn’t a journey for Christians,” said Juggins.
“They’re a very queer lot even in sunshine,” said another.
“And how far is it?” asked the stranger.
“I walked there once in three hours,” said a collier, “but that was to the wake. If you want to see divils carnal, there’s your time of day. They’re no less than heathens, I be sure. I’d be sorry to see even our butty among them, for he is a sort of a Christian when he has taken a glass of ale.”
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1
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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limestone
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| n.石灰石 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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tenements
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| n.房屋，住户，租房子( tenement的名词复数 ) | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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interspersed
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| adj.[医]散开的；点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词 | |
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8
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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11
subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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prosecuted
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| a.被起诉的 | |
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13
uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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14
awry
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| adj.扭曲的，错的 | |
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15
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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16
dross
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| n.渣滓；无用之物 | |
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17
dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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18
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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19
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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20
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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21
caravans
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| （可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队） | |
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22
homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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23
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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24
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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25
swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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26
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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27
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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28
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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29
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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30
abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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31
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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32
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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33
bowels
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| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
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34
entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
entails
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| 使…成为必要( entail的第三人称单数 )； 需要； 限定继承； 使必需 | |
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36
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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37
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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38
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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39
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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40
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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41
canvass
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| v.招徕顾客，兜售；游说；详细检查，讨论 | |
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42
pretension
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| n.要求；自命，自称；自负 | |
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43
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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44
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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45
hunches
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| 预感，直觉( hunch的名词复数 ) | |
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46
sable
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| n.黑貂；adj.黑色的 | |
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47
countenances
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| n.面容( countenance的名词复数 )；表情；镇静；道义支持 | |
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48
revel
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| vi.狂欢作乐，陶醉；n.作乐，狂欢 | |
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49
puffs
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| n.吸( puff的名词复数 )；（烟斗或香烟的）一吸；一缕（烟、蒸汽等）；（呼吸或风的）呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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50
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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51
marrow
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| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
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52
magisterial
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| adj.威风的，有权威的；adv.威严地 | |
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53
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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54
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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55
incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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56
pawn
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| n.典当，抵押，小人物，走卒；v.典当，抵押 | |
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57
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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58
jingled
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| 喝醉的 | |
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59
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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60
almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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61
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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62
stint
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| v.节省，限制，停止；n.舍不得化，节约，限制；连续不断的一段时间从事某件事 | |
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63
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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64
redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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65
grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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66
oracle
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| n.神谕，神谕处，预言 | |
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67
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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68
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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69
clammed
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| v.（在沙滩上）挖蛤( clam的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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71
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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72
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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73
enquired
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| 打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问 | |
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