John Arnold [A novel.] By the author of 'Mathew Paxton,' etc

Chapter I. Fiest-feuits Of The Steiee

— AN ASSAULT. Thus passed ten days, the people on strike holding daily meetings, and being in communication Avith the employers, though Avithout any result, other than increased bitterness and acerbity of feeling. Hitherto there has been little violence used, save those heedless foolish acts of the younger men, for which it would be improper, in deed unjust, to blame the Union, at least directly. But threats have been used freely, and men have been constrained to leave, in very dread of what might happen, the va rious works in the town, and, as the angry feelings intensified, the language of the VOL. II. B men on strike grew more threatening, and, of course, the peaceable artisans more timid. The offending apprentices have undergone a trial before the sheriff, and been sen tenced to a lengthened period of imprison ment, which has had the effect of still more arousing and deepening the animosity of the men.

In Mr. Morton's factory, there is a certain quantity of work greatly wanted, and men are brought from a distance to execute it, but on the steam-boat quay and at the railway station regular guards are posted, to intercept, if they can, aU the new comers, and to send them back again, paying all their expenses and giving them a bonus to go. So there is open Avar between the employers and the Avorkmen. The works are in a state of siege almost, and the men picketed at the gates are as regularly relieved as the outposts of an army before a beleaguered city, are as regularly visited by inspectors, and have to give reports of Avhat may have transpired during their watch, as the sentinels of an army before an enemy. " I shaU read you what I've heard from my brother Frank in Liverpool this morning," John said to Edward Archbold one day about the end of this time.

" It Avould appear they have a strike there as well as us here; but it's of the founders, the moulders, and not of our branch of the trade. It has both lasted longer, been more serious, and looks more ugly than ours, for the men have mostly all gone away to London and other places. Yet there's something comical in one part of it too ; I must read you that." " Go ahead, old boy. Your brother is coming this Avay on his journey home, is he not?" " Yes, to-morrow morning I may expect him, and then hey for canny Northumber land for a time ! But here goes. " ' You see, dear John, we're just as bad up here as you are down in the north. All the moulders and foundry men are out on strike. I believe it Avas with them a matter of wages alone at first, but it has gone much farther than that now. The em ployers disposed to give the increase sought for, came to a resolution to employ no man, especially Liverpool men, who did not bring a fair character from his last master B and engage to work for a certain period, or, Avhich is near about the same thing, to give notice a certain specified time before he left.

This was adopted by all the masters in consequence of the thorough disorgani sation the strike has caused, and the incon venience to which employers have been put. But this resolution only made matters worse ; not a man hardly would work on such terms, and in our Avork the old foreman Avas sent away down to your quar ter some way, to engage all the men he could get. Well, the men were got without any difficulty, and to prevent the men on strike — for they are keenly on the watch, and have sentries placed over all the works — intercepting them on the quay, and getting them to turn back, old Dan had orders to bring them by railway and coach to a place some fifteen or twenty miles from Liverpool, and there omnibuses were hired to bring them into town as quietly as possible. Well, so the story goes any way, — — the men, still under the charge of old Daniel, had to pass through Ormskirk, and knoAving that it was famous for its gingerbread, and confident it Avould seem in their own power, the scamps refused to go a step farther until each man Avas sup plied wdth a liberal quantity of that spicy commodity.

Of course their demands were complied Avith, though they had been living like fighting cocks all the way up, it seems, and they were aU got safely and quietly into the foundry at night, and put into one of the large pattern rooms fitted up for them like a barrack, and aU seemed likely to go weU and merrily. " ' But it Avas not destined to be so for long. It appears the Glasgow Society wrote to the Liverpool men, and lo you ! they set to work at once, and in spite of all the precautions taken in having the men lodged in the yard, and very careful watch kept at night, they .vere communi cated Avith, and being promised all their expenses paid, and a sovereign each to boot, they became smaU by degrees and beauti fully less, till now there is not half-a-dozen of them left, and they also AviU most likely soon be on the Aving.

You may be sure we've had a stirring time of it, and at the same time great fun, at least, at first, over the impudence of the scamps, and the way B they served old Daniel; you'll mind him well, I doubt not ; but it's no laughing mat ter noAv, for unless some agreement is come to soon, this great contract will be broken, and some thousand tons of castings thrown on the company's hands, which aren't fit for any other purpose but that special one for which they Avere designed, and for the special place for which they were intended.' " So you see, Ned," John said, Avhen he had finished reading, " other places and other Avorks are just as much in the mud as A\re are here." " It seems so," was the answer. " I wonder Iioav it'll all end ; I wish to good ness it Avould soon, any way. It's the greatest bore possible, being kept at home night after night, the very time one likes best to be out in the open air ; and aU the Avomenkind of my acquaintance are so deucedly afraid, mind you, that I hardly dare go out for ten minutes.

It's too bad ; I Avish one half of those troublesome feUows were weU ducked in the Clyde." " Well, it certainly is a great hardship," John replied, laughing ; " but do you think a ducking would wash the iU blood out of the men? I troAV not; but never mind having to keep the house, you'U soon get used to it ; besides, it won't do to tell me that you don't see Blue Eyes now and then." " Oh, I don't mean that, of course ; but by and by, wdien your own time comes, you'U knoAV that there's no fun in being cooped up Avith so many eyes upon you. No, no, giA-e me the old quiet walks again, before sitting humdrum in the house, Avith everybody noticing you, and smiling, and looking consciously at you, and not a bit above teasing you either. I must say again, I Avish from my heart this affair were over."

"So, indeed, do I," John said, "most sincerely, both for your sake, Ned, and for the poor men's also ; but they've not felt the worst yet, and their cry stdl is, ' No surrender ! ' As sure as fate, you'U see this affair take a new shape before it be long." " As how, John? What new form can it take?" " Why, I fancy some of us will get well B thrashed ; any Avay that they'll try to thrash us Avho are at work, and then the em ployers will take sharper and more severe measures than they've done yet; they're bound in honour to defend the men, you knoAv. Then I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they do what the Liverpool masters have done, and refuse to take back a man, unless he agrees to work for a certain time, and to give a certain notice before he can " And quite right too ; but such a thing cuts both ways, you see ; the masters wiU have to give a similar warning before they can discharge a man, as the men have to do before they can discharge them selves."

" Truly, and you don't think that wrong, do you? As for me, I should think it a great step in advance. Of course, if a man misconducted himself, he'd be discharged then, just as he would noAv, without any warning. No agreement would prevent that, I suppose ; but no decent man should be paid off, cast adrift on the world at a moment's notice : that's my idea." " WeU, we'll see. Heigho, old feUow, I wish it was all over, and things going on as of old." " Truly, I fear it'U be some time first. You don't know about strikes, Ned. They get the masters a bad name with the men, and the men, mayhap, a worse one with the masters; it'U take long years, and a vast deal of new blood in the Avork, before there's anything like the old harmony and comfort, before the suspicion on both sides, each of the other, is set at rest.

Then the leaders are sure to be marked men; it'U tell upon them, this strike avUI, in the end, more than upon any one else." " So it should, shouldn't it? But there goes for dinner ; now for a chorus, as we go out, of villanous slang, and more villanous oaths. It's to me any way one of the marvels of the day, where those younkers learn such things ; the old men don't curse and swear half as bad, or half as much, as these young fellows do." " True enough, they fancy it's manly so to do, but it'U take them all their lives to get rid of the wicked habit, if they try ever so hard, and a great many of them'll never try at aU." Before the great gate of the foundry there Avas a Avide passage, or rather a short street, some thirty or forty yards long, which opened into a broad street. The men on strike did not venture to encroach much on this space, but in the main street, whence many other streets of a lower character diverged, and at the corners of these smaUer ones, there were strong pickets posted to watch, it might be to threaten and ill-use the men, for these were the roads by which the living current from the great work flowed towards their houses; so that they had to run the gauntlet as it were for a considerable distance, and pass through or by separate groups of the discontented men, before they could reach their homes.

It was along this principal street that John and Ned had to go toAvards the better part of the toAvn, in which they lived, and as very few of the men lived in that direction, they had hitherto not been so much annoyed as others of their shopmates, though they had had a fair share of it too. But this day was to make up for past in dulgence, for they had not gone two score of yards along, before they came upon a body of men, a few of whom had belonged to their OAvn work, but the majority strangers. John and his companion were received Avith a shout. " There they gang, the pock-puddins o' Englishers ; what business ha'e they to come doun here, taking the bread out o' our mouths?" Yet these same men had friends and ac quaintances by the score in England, and many of them most likely Avere even then purposing to go south to seek for work ; but so infuriated were they at the time, that they seemed to be imbued with the same foolish spirit which caused the cry of Ire land for the Irish.

But this cry, and the conduct of these furious Grasaig men, was not, and is not, any criterion of the usual temperament of Scottish artisans towards their southern neighbours. " Give them their gruel, men," some one cried. John was sure it was the same Eng- Ushman he had pointed out to Ned, who afterwards had been turned out of Mr. Morton's presence, that black Saturday. " It's the like of them that keep you out; give it them well, men." " Let us keep firm together," John said to Ned and some of their comrades Avho had come up. " Hold hard there, lads, and tell me who that was that spoke." " What ha'e ye to do wi' that? " Avas the answer. " Div' ye think we're tale pyets? Ye wad like tae ken, nae doubt, that ye might tell again. Na, na, my lad, nane o' that. Arena ye Avorking in the shop whan ye should be out?

Arena ye ane that's again the trade ? Bannit him, bannit him, lads ; let the fause pock-puddin ken he's no to ha'e a' his ain Avay here." " Very good," John said very calmly, " but hold your hands for a bit, hold hard, till I tell you something. I knoAV that fellow, and I'm ashamed to say that he calls himself an Englishman too. WeU, what do you think he is? Why, I'll tell you that too. His real name is Peacham, Avhat ever he calls himself to you iioav; he wrought for a time in the same shop with me in NeAvcastle, and was given in charge of the police for a cowardly crime. He is a blackguard, and Avas for eighteen months in jail for it. He is a spy, and any dl that is done in this strike he'll be the very first to betray you, and turn evidence against you. Noav is that the proper man to lead you decent Scotsmen ?

Shame on ye, if ye foUow him, the cuckoo." " It's a Ue, it's all a lie !" was shouted in reply. " DoAvn with them, men ; it's them and the like of them that keep you out." There was a rush on the two friends and the few others from the work who had come up, and though fearfuUy overmatched they had yet a much better chance than before. The peaceable men pressed for ward, seeking rather to avoid the infuriated mob, but the latter intercepted them, so that they could not get on. " This'll never do, lads," John said quietly. " We must have a clear rush for it. Mind, don't seek to injure them, but we must break through at all hazards. If they strike, why, knock them down and get on ; they'll not foUow us far, for the police'U be here in a little." So they made a dash suddenly and swiftly, receiving, it is true, a voUey of oaths and random blows, which latter, how ever, were returned with such vigorous interest that a clear passage was effected over the prostrate bodies of the faUen ; and though some lost their caps, and others had their clothes torn, and one or two had blood flowing from their faces, they suffered nothing in comparison with the assailants, and gained their point, and Avould now reach their homes in safety.

But as it was most likely that they might be assaulted on their return, the question Avas what was now to be done. " Let us all meet in the square," John said at last ; " our safety is in our numbers and strength, and then Ave'll be able to overawe, or, if need be, to thrash the scamps ; if we go singly, we'll never reach the work." " Yes, yes, we'll be there in good time, we'll be there, belyve," the men answered. " Now, Ned, you'll have to pass another work up the hill, or, at least, a place where there's Avatchers for the men at work in it. So come and take share of my dinner, and you can send up word to quiet your mother and Miss Annie. You needn't teU them aU that's happened, but just as much as shoAvs them that this was the best and safest course." " Agreed," Ned ansAvered. " It's very thoughtful of you, John, very indeed ; but do you know I wouldn't have believed you were such a general and a warrior too; there's some of those chaps will be amissing as we go back, I fancy ; why, you sent them to ground like bullocks."

This, howeArer, showed both, pretty con clusively, that the leaders of the strike thought that the time for violent action had now come, and, as more gentle means had failed, that this, the last, might be more successful, and it showed also that John and Edward Avere fairly marked out as victims.

Chapter II

A CAPTUEE OF THE EINGLEADEES. John and Edward were soon seated at a plainer and rougher dinner than the latter would have found at home, but it was none the less substantial. These two men, who had been working diligently and zealously all the morning, were quite ready to do justice to the fare set before them, and as everything was clean and tidy, and the food appetising, they did eat with the relish that only hunger can give. The onslaught of the mob without did not prevent them making a vigorous onslaught on the viands within, and, like men whose time was very limited, they very soon had dined. " So I suppose Ave may call this the be ginning of the end," said EdAvard, Avhile John was getting his desk and paper ready for him to write a note to his mother. " I wonder what'U come next ; shaU Ave have another row as we go back, do you think?"

" Truly, it's hard to say ; it's most likely ; but do you write now ; mind how anxious your mother and Miss Annie will be," John answered; " we can talk afterwards." " Oh, go ahead, old felloAv ; I can Avrite to them and talk too, quite well. I say, some of those feUows must have heads harder than the stones they fell upon, if they try to shoAV fight as we go back ; don't you think so?" " It is a fact that they're hard enough at all times, but as they've only got a slight taste as yet of this sort of thing, it'll just make them the more vicious. You've heard of the tiger that has once tasted human flesh, which has become a man-eater, that it always continues one, and is ten times more dangerous than one which has preyed on wild beasts alone; so it wiU be with them, for a little at least, till by some vigorous stroke their power is broken, or their confidence in the leaders of the union destroyed.

The hunt is up, as they used to say in old times in my country, and they'U go ahead now for a time." VOL. II. c "WeU, we must just be prepared for them, and on the watch ; but those felloAvs of police, what are they about, why can't they come out in force ? they'd frighten them, if they did no more." " Ay, ay ; but remember these very same things may be going on in every quarter of the town, and, as they say of the army in this country, whenever a strong force is needed for any great emergency, they are on the peace establishment ; the police are so here, and it is impossible for them to be everywhere. The magistrates Avdl have to send for soldiers, I fear, before long, if this sort of thing goes on. It's a good thing that I shall go away so soon now, for I'd get into a scrape, I fancy. One can't stand much more of this, you know, so peaceably as we have done."

" No, indeed ; but here's the note, how shall we send it?" "Give it tome." John left the room, and despatched one of his landlady's children with it. When he returned he said to Edward — ■ "I've been thinking, Ned, of a plan — I fancy a very good one — by which you, too, might get out of this mess for a time. My brother Frank wiU be here to-morrow, you know, and on Monday we'll make a start for home. What say you to go with us?" " Ah, impossible ! I don't see how it could be done ; there's many reasons against it. No, John, it is kind of you, but I don't think that I possibly could go." " Indeed ! I dare say there are many rea sons, both personal and family ones, but before night if I don't show you, ay, and aU your friends too, one reason that will outweigh aU the others, and make them anxious that you should go, I'm greatly mistaken."

" Then, supposing I was anxious and the rest wiUing, what would Mr. Morton say? How Avould he be pleased with the loss of the services of your humble servant, so valuable as they are?" " Why, that he'U be pleased, greatly pleased, man ; the loss 'U be nothing. I don't mean that you're worth nothing to him, far from that ; but at this time of year the men have a week's holiday, so that if we stay a fortnight you'd only lose one week; and then, mind, we're working toc gether, and when I go you'd have to go to something else. Oh, there's no fear, he'U be AveU pleased ; and I'll speak to him my self. Not a doubt you would succeed as well, or better, but I've a reason for Avant ing to do it. Now, just you make up your mind to go with us, if aU else be suitable." " Well, we'll see in the evening ; but it's about time for us to go, isn't it ?

Remem ber, we were to meet those chaps in the square, and they'U be gathering by this time, I fancy." " True enough. Now, Edward, if we're set upon this time, or if our comrades are, there's one thing I'm resolved on doing; I won't go into the work empty handed; I'm determined that some one or more of these fellows — the ringleaders, mind you, not the misled lads, but the misleaders — shall accompany me. I shaU have my eye upon the chief one : if I can catch him, it may do some good, I fancy." " Capital, John. Well, I don't mind if I try my hand too ; let us teU the lads ; who knows, we may take in a half dozen of hostages for the good behaviour of the rest." JOHN ABNOLD. 21 Their comrades were gathering fast in one corner of the square as John and Ed ward came up, looking much cleaner and fresher than was usual with them at the dinner hour.

In a feAV words John pro pounded his purpose to them, and got their hearty concurrence in it, for now the blood of these peaceable men was up ; they only asserted their individual freedom in claim ing the right to work when and Avhere they pleased, and with whomsoever they could find employment ; they had never insulted those who did not think with themselves, and now, after a long series of threats and reproaches, they had been assaulted and in jured, and they could bear no more; the last drop made the cup run over. John enjoined them to be very cool and collected, by no means to begin a fray, but, if strife was meant, and themselves or their feUow workmen assaded, to defend the right with all their power, and aid in the capture of some of the foremost rioters. It was soon evident that there would be another struggle; indeed, that one was going on then, when they reached the end of the wide street which led to the foundry gate, by c the appearance of a confused, turbulent mass wavering to and fro at the further end, just close by the factory entrance, and by the shouts and cries which fiUed the air, they could easily perceive that their com rades were being iU used.

John and his party advanced quickly, and came up Avith the rioters almost with out being seen, and so took them in the rear. In that which before had been the place of safety, but which had now become the place of greatest danger, stood the Englishman Peachem, carefully sheltering himself behind the bolder spirits, and urg ing them on at the same time Avith cries and oaths, while, as he could get opportunity, he struck fiercely with a long staff at the heads of the poor men, who were struggling through the crowd toAvards the work. John saw the opportunity, and seized it in an instant ; pushing forward with his little band, resolutely keeping them aU close together, and as the chief ringleaders were at the same time the greatest coAvards, and so all in the rear of their disorderly troops, John and his comrades Avere able to completely surround Peachem and some of his associates, and keeping fast hold of them and making a vigorous rush at the same time, they forced them through the mob and made for the open gateway ; the rest of the rioters seemed paralysed for the time, and the men who had been as sailed rushed into the work, whence came a ringing cheer when John, almost carry ing the chief of the rioters, and Ed .vard Archbold and his companions driving the other captives before them, entered the gate.

AU the workmen were now safe for the time being, and the gates were at once shut ; but without the mob stiU raged and howled, and threw stones and brick-bats at the gate, and over the waU into the yard. " WeU done, Arnold ; well done, my men," said Mr. Morton. " I'm very glad to see that you can keep your own among those unruly feUows ; this conduct shaU be put a stop to, hoAvever. But what shall we do with these men?" This was in a sort of aside, which only John and one or two of his own party heard. " I would give them in charge to the police, Sir," said John. " I will, if you please, do so on my own account and that c JOHN ARNOLD. of my comrades. When we left the work to go to dinner we were set upon by a crowd of men, these three being the ringleaders ; as we came back we found them ill-using and exciting the mob to ill-use our fellow- Avorkmen, so that we have a good right to take them before the magistrates, having catched them in the very fact, redhanded, as our folk used to say.

This man I know of old as a continual mischief-maker Avhere ever he goes, and as a traitor to those Avho trust him ; yet in both of these assaults he Avas the chief leader of the misguided men." " I will join in that," said Edward, " in so far as the assaults of this day are con cerned." " And so will I ! " " And so will I ! " was echoed by the party who had come from the square. " Thank you, my lads, thank you ; but I noticed a great deal of this affair myself, and will therefore give them into custody. Go to your work, my lads : I thank you for being so firm and steadfast — you do weU in being so." The men gave another cheer, and sepa rated to the several workshops, still very much excited, many of them bruised, and still panting from the violence of the struggle with the mob Avithout, but all determined to stick fast by the master, and the work which enabled them to provide so weU for their wives and children.

Mr. Morton, when he had resolved on doing anything, was never either slack or slow in carrying it out. A little time was suffered to elapse in this case to permit the crowd without to disperse, but as there seemed very little hkehhood of that while the leaders were in his hands, at length he despatched a messenger for the police, and with a short account of the riot which had taken place to the magistrates. The mes senger was sent out by another way, for the work was in a state of siege. He had not been long gone, however, when cries from without were heard of " The police ! " and the " Soldiers ! " and the street, before so densely crowded, became empty as these guardians ofthe peace marched along. Mr. Morton gave the prisoners in charge to the officers, and some of the police being left on duty at the work, the others with the prisoners in charge marched off for prison, where those men, so lately at the head of a mob, were left to the consolation of their own reflections throughout the bitter winter night.