Deilie Jock

Front matter

a THE ISTHMIAN LIBRARY. edited by B. FLETCHER ROBINSON. Illustrated, post Svo, cloth gilt, _\s. each volume. A Series of Volumes dealing with the whole range of Field Sports and Athletics. RUGBY FOOTBALL. THE COMPLETE CYCLIST. ROWING. BOXING. ICE SPORTS. FIGURE SKATING. Other volumes are in preparation and will be duly announced. London: A. D. INNES & CO., 31 & 32, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C. BY C. M. CAMPBELL ~K LONDON A. D. INNES & CO. BEDFORD STREET CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE Introduction ... ... ... ... i I. Early Impressions ... ... ... 10 II. Youthful Enterprise ... ... ... 33 III. In the Greys ... ... ... ... 59 IV. Home, Sweet Home ... ... ... ... 84 V. The Honeymoon ... ... ... ior VI. The Centre of Civilization... ... ... 114 VII. Priest, Levite, or Scamp? ... ... 131 VIII. " No Hands Wanted " ... ... ... 154 IX.

The Same Old Game — Should Auld Acquaintance BE FORGOT? ... ... ... 177 X. Væ victis ! — Reformation a Failure — Arcades Ambo ... ... ... ... ... 204 XI. A Noble Sport— Justices' Justice ... 230 XII. Facilis Descensus Averni ... ... ... 258 XIII. Mars put to Flight by Venus — A Leap for Liberty ... ... ... ... 277 XIV. The Land of Freedom— New Phases of High Civilization ... ... ... ... 306 Epilogue ... ... ... ...

Introduction

. MY old friend Jack Ferguson stood before a large canvas in his Edinburgh studio, palette and brushes in his left hand, his watch in his right, and something akin to an imprecation on his lips. I lounged the while in a most seductive easy chair, enjoying the luxury of watching his rising discontent with philosophic calm. There is nothing in which the philosopher finds more pure delight than in analyzing the unreasonableness of impatience in somebody else. When he is himself the aggrieved one, the object lesson somehow loses all its charm. " What are you grumbling about now, Jack ? " B " I'm not grumbling, but that confounded Moses is late again as usual." " Losing your temper won't mend matters," I began, in the usual strain of moral superiority, when my homily was cut short by the entrance of Moses, or, to speak more accurately, of the model whose limbs were to do duty for those of the great Hebrew Law Giver.

At first sight the whole figure, but especially the face, were to me more suggestive of a much damaged Mephistopheles than of a holy patriarch. But amateurs are notoriously blind to the qualities that artists discover in their models. A soldierly-looking man of some fifty years, with black hair and moustache, lightly flecked with grey; clean-shaved cheeks and chin, a magnificently proportioned torso, and shapely limbs. But it was obvious that something was seriously amiss — something which militated against his assuming the part of Moses with any sort of acceptance. The model limped into the room by aid of two sticks; and the twitching ofhis lips, which he tried

INTRODUCTION.

. 3 hard to repress, showed plainly that locomotion was acutely painful. His aquiline nose exhibited an extensive abrasion, only partially concealed by a broad cross-bar of diachylon plaster, and around both orbits was a play of prismatic colour, in which perhaps ultra-marine blue predominated. Jack's visage lengthened phenomenally. " What on earth's up with you now, Gillespie ? " uttered in tones of mingled wonder and dis gust. Then the model of Moses opened his mouth and spake, in the tones and dialect that had once been so familiar, but which I had seldom heard during my many years' absence from the North. " It was na my fau't, sir ; it was a pure accident. As sure as death, it's the truth I'm tellin' ye. I was unloadin' a ship at Leith Docks, and a heavy case slippet aff the crane and plunked fair on my thigh."

Here the model stroked the injured limb by way of clinical demonstration. " It knocket me heels ower heid — an awfu' smash — but I'm better noo, and I'll try to stand to ye." But the attempt to pose as Moses proved a dismal failure. " It's no use, Gillespie ; you can't do it," said Jack, sympathetically. " Go home and lay up till you're fit to be seen." " And hoo am I to get my livin' the while ? " retorted Mr. Gillespie, bluntly obtruding the problem that a good many people are trying with imperfect success to solve. " Um," said Jack, musingly, as he fumbled in his .vaistcoat pocket, and pressed something into the not unwilling palm of the model. " Here, see ! that will help you on a bit ; but mind you nurse yourself, and get well quickly, and don't go fooling about, for you're stopping me from making my living — do you see ?

" "Aw, sir! thank ye kindly ; but I wull be carefu'—I'll no' touch a drop." From this voluntary vow, I gathered that Mr. Gillespie owned to at least one little weak ness. " Mind you don't, then, and come back as soon

INTRODUCTION.

. 5 as you can stand," were Jack's parting words, as the model hirpled painfully out of the room. " Queer sort of chap that ; what is he ? " said I, as the door closed. " He's a regular scamp — that's what he is." " Does he practise any speciality ? " " You can judge for yourself. If you can only induce him to spin his own yarn, it's worth listen ing to." This sounded promising. One hears nothing but abuse of scamps in general from the law abiding and "respectable;" but "Audi alterant partem" is a wise motto, and society, as seen through the scamp's spectacles, might be a novel critique. " But do you think he'd allow himself to be drawn ? " " Bless you, yes ; that is, if you go the right way to work with him. He's proud of his achieve ments, as well he may be, from a scamp's point of view, and puts an apologetic gloss upon them that would do credit to an Old Bailey barrister."

" Where does he live? " " Paradise Place, I think, is his present address. I know his last one was the Calton Jail. I tell you, he is a man of wide experience." So we settled it that I should present myself at Mr. Gillespie's town residence, with a screw of tobacco by way of talisman ; and learn what I could from his own lips of the past life of the model of Moses. Modern tenement houses differ from ancient ones mainly in being entirely free, by accident or design, from any touch of the picturesque ; while they very rapidly become as smoke-begrimed, as sodden and dreary, and nearly as dilapidated, as the old rookeries that they have replaced. I arrived at this conclusion while hunting for Paradise Place, which at last I found, consisting of a narrow street of six-storied stone houses, the doors, and windows, and chimneys of which ex hibited nearly as much variety as may be observed in the holes in a plate of perforated zinc. The entire prospect was grey and dismal, from

INTRODUCTION.

. 7 the cold, leaden, weeping sky overhead, to the sloppy pavement underfoot. Children, frowsy and unwashed, save by the dripping rain, in draggled, dingy garments, swarmed about the doors and in the gutters, playing with fish heads, drowned puppies, and empty tin cans. One positively welcomed the gaudy wrappers upon some of the latter, as the only bits of lively colour visible to relieve the universal gloom and drip, the ghastly monotony and abject cheerlessness of Paradise Place. Could this indeed be "mine own romantic town," as sang the Wizard of the North ? I had but lately come from a city where the poorest can breathe the clearest and purest of air — air laden with the perfume, not of tan-pits, soap or gas works, or distilleries, but of a million flowers ; where he can bask in sunshine, or shelter in leafy shade ; where, though poverty is still dire poverty, there is some gladness, and brightness, and simple joy to counteract its depression.

And I wondered what there was in all Paradise Place to evoke a cheery smile, a happy sense of content with surroundings, of thankfulness to the Giver of Life. What was there in this environ ment that the dwellers in these unhomely homes could admire or be thankful for ? A kirk at one end of the street, two public-houses at the other ! The rival caterers to human happiness, Psalm singing and Silenus, had it all to themselves. " Ah ! if only the public-houses were abolished," sighs the teetotal prophet of the millenium. In the sunny South wine and spirits are cheap, and any one who likes can open a shop for their sale, without let or hindrance, and keep it open all night if he pleases. Nearly everybody drinks, yet drunkenness is as rare as total abstinence, not withstanding the superabundance of temptation.

How is this ? It is because the very poorest can indulge in simpler, more innocent antidotes to the cares and worries of life, than drink-begotten hilarity. In presence of music, dancing, song, and social mirth, fresh flowers, and sunshine, there is little inducement to fall back on drink. Silenus INTRO D UCT10N. 9 takes a very back seat there. It seemed to me that in Paradise Place, for six days of the week, Silenus was left in sole possession as comforter of life. Oh, the stupidity of it all ! I had no little difficulty in finding the object of my search ; but after much mounting of dark and unspeakably dirty stairs, I found Mr. Gillespie at home, and in his shirt-sleeves, busily engaged in frying a savoury mess of liver and bacon. For a moment he failed to recognize me, and regarded me with an air of mingled suspicion and defiance ; but, once convinced that my intentions were not hostile, his welcome was really wondrous in its courtesy.

He became quite animated when I explained the purport of my interview ; and after he had dis cussed the liver and bacon, and lighted a post prandial pipe, he soon warmed up into a happily communicative mood. And this is the Scamp's Story as he told it to me.

Chapter I. Early Impressions

I WAS born in the South Back o' the Canongate — it'll may be fifty years syne ; and — there's nae use denying it — / was bred a scamp. The world is gey hard at times, even for honest folk, but did ye ever think what it must be to begin it as I did — born and bred as I was ? It's no just exactly fair to expect a' the virtues in a body that is the product of mony generations of ill-doin' folk. A bairn is no accoontable for the blood that's in him ; yet judges and juries think that's just the worst thing against him. Then, forbye the bad blood, there's the first lessons that a bairn learns. It's no the lessons he may learn in schule, or at the Sabbath schule, that I'm speakin' o', or that HOME INFLUENCES. 11 coont ; na, na, sir — it's the hame — what he sees there, and hears there — that marks oot the road he's bound to travel.

Ye see, sir, a bairn maistly just sooks in what ever is offered it — whether parritch and milk or whusky — gospel teachin' or bad words. Weel, as a bairn, I had mair bad words than parritch to digest ; and kent the smell o' whusky lang afore I heard tell o' gospel teachin'. What my faither was, I canna say for certain. I was may be four years of age when first I mind seeing him — that was when he cam' oot o' the Calton Jail. My mither had somehoo con trived to keep the hoose thegither — though hoo she managed it I canna comprehend. But the very first nicht faither cam' back, near half the plenishing went to the pawn for drink for him and his chums, and then my mither soucht the hale company, and fair felled my faither wi' the tongs ; and then the polis grippet her, and she got fourteen days !

Aye, sir ! that was the sort of early education that I had. Since ever I mind, I had a grand appetite ; 'deed, I've mony times wished that I could sell it to rich bodies that has nane ; and in thae early days it was a sair fash. I tried hard no' to greet, when my stamach was gnawing like a rat, as it aften did, for that aye made my faither sweer; and that gar'd my mither sweer back at him ; and there would be mair crackery brok' than would have boucht me a denner. I mind ae time when the snaw was deep, my mither gat me a grand pair o' butes ; but my faither got haud o' me next day, and took me as far as the pawn shop, then turned me louse, bare foot in the street. So it cam' that from the first I had to contrive for mysel' ; and there being plenty mair wee wains in oor close, in the same sort o' way, ye may guess the sort o' preenciples I startet life upon.

I had mair than enough to dae to keep my stamach half or a quarter satisfeed, and if I had been as EDUCATION. 13 parteecular as I daur say you think I should ha' been, I would na ha' survived lang as a sample o' that sort o' virtue. There was a laddie aboot a year aulder than me, that I mind as lang as I mind onything — Bobe Menzies they ca'ed him — he was aye near hand me, and I was prood o' the acquaintance, though I whiles think I micht hae done better wantin' it. Naething would serve my mither but that I should get schoolin' — she contrived the siller somehoo — and I mind the first day weel ; for she coaxed me wi' the promise of a guid denner when I cam' hame. Troth I was weel content to gang to schule. But when I win hame, wi' my mooth fair waterin' — nae denner could I see, though there was a denner-like smell in the hoose — but my mither sitting by the fireside, wi' her hands clinched, and a face as dour as the Castle Rock.

What dumbfoondert me still mair was that she suddenly got haud o' me, and near smoored me wi' greetin'. Up to that time I used aye to think that greetin' was my beesiness, and scoldin' and skelpin' was hers. Syne she cam' to her senses, and tellt me that faither had come hame unexpected, whan her back was turned, and had devoored a' that she had providet for hersel' and me. I could see it was no' her ain dinner she was greetin' for, but mines, and I wished that I was a man, that I could tell my faither just what I thocht o' him. 'Deed, sir, from that moment I'm sure that I felt a man. " Byde a wee, mither ! " says I, and oot I ran into the street — whaur I cam' richt against Bobe Menzies, as usual, aye ready for a ploy. We up the Canongate, and doon Carrubber's Close to the Auld Fleshmarket, under the North Brig.

There was an auld wife kept an apple stall in thae days, just ootside the market ; and Bobe tellt me to gang forrit, grip a wheen apples, and rin through the market, bummin' the apples in the butchers' faces. " Then awa' hame, as hard as ye can rin," says he, " and leave the rest to me." I did just as he bid me, and though I was near IL FA UT VIVRE. 15 catched, I could rin, even in thae days, and gat clear awa, leavin' an awfu' uproar behind me. I was na lang hame when Bobe overtook me, his pockets fair bursting with what he had laid hands on in the confusion. My mither was mad at first, and said she, " I've tried my best to mak' an honest lad o' ye, Jock ; but I see there's nae keepin' oot the Deil frae an empty stamach." And wi' that she cooked the meat, and the three o' us fed like baillies for once in a way.

But I need hardly say that we could na dine every day upon the same terms, and mony's the time, I tell ye, sir, in my school days, that I've crawlet shivering to my bed wantin' supper as weel as denner. Aye, and when I did na ken my lessons next day, it was aye the tawse. Still I did work hard at the schoolin', for I've aye had the wish to be first at onything I tried. And if it had na been for Bobe, I think I might have done better, but wi' an empty stamach, and him at your elbow, aye daurin' ye to mischief, it was mair than mortal could do to keep the richt road. I was near tellin' the schoolmaister that, ae day that he flogged me, only I wud not say an ill word against Bobe ; wha used to get mair than his fair share o' the tawse as it was, without my tellin' on him. I dinna remember hoo long I had been at school, when it happened that my faither got in trouble again, and that was the last I heard tell o' him.

For in thae days, when a body got a governmental appintment at Botany Bay it meant just "auld lang syne " wi' them for ever after. But things went far better at hame after he was awa, and my mither took a bit hoose that had a wee back yaird, an' stairted keepin' cocks and hens and boucht a mangle. Poor body, she did her best to feed us baith, and gie me a decent chance o' a start in life. But for a' that, siller was aye scarce, and at last I tellt her that, though schoolin' was dootless a harmless occupation, my stamach needed fillin' as much as my heid, and I wud rather be earnin' somethin' mair material than learnin'. TOO CLEVER BY HALF. 17 So I left the schule and got a situation as errand boy to a stationer. Things went grand for a time. My maister tellt me I was a smairt lad, and I thocht he was richt, till a smairter cam' in.

Ay, luck played me an ill turn — the jade ! The maister left me in chairge ae day, when he was at a deacon's meeting at the kirk, and ye may think hoo prood I was to serve the customers. Presently a man that I took to be quite a grand gentleman came in, in a terrible-like hurry, and asket for tippence worth o' gilt pen nibs, pointin' to a card in the windy. " They're tippence apiece," says I, thinking that a penny was the richt price, and that if I could mak' a little extra profit for mysel', I was fairly entitled to it. " They should only be a penny," says he. "Aye, maybe they should be, but they're no'," says I, quite determined. " It's just an eemposeetion," says he, " but I've nae time to dispute," and with that he pockets the c DEILIE JOCK. caird of sax nibs, flings me a shillin', and bounces oot of the shop.

When the maister cam' back, I made accoont of everything I had sold, and handed him saxpence for the pen nibs. " What 'na nibs ? " says he, his eyes openin' very wide. " Thon that was on the caird in the middle o' the windy," says I. He could na speak for a while, and his face grew the colour o' skim-milk ; but when he did find his tongue it was awfu' ! 'Deed I daur say I turned seek-like mysel' when he tellt me that I had sold thirty shillins' worth of gold pens for saxpence. But aw, sir, his language was by-ordinar bad, and him an elder o' the kirk forbye. He just banged me oot o" the premises yince, for a', and tellt me never to show my senseless heid inside his shop again. So ye see, sir, I was discouraged from the very first from trying to mak' an honest saxpence in beesiness. I could not help admiring the gentleman that EVIL COMaMUNICATIONS. 19 got such a bargain aff me, and I was silly enough to try on his game at some ither shops, but only got laughed at for my pains.

I got employment here and there for a guid while, and grew bigger and stronger, and at last was taken on as a machine-hand in a great printin' office, where there were hundreds like mysel', and I was workin' my way steadily when, by some chance, wha should come in as a new hand but just Bobe Menzies ! Then the auld game began again, and there was no gettin' quit o' him. Between us we startet a grand scheme for an excursion spree when the hands got their summer holiday, and every yin of them was ready to jine. We contrived a big pasteboard box with a slit cut in the top, and nailed it on the wall ; and every pay day Bobe stood by to see that every chap put his threepence in as he passed oot. But not yin o' them stopped to see that Bobe himsel' put his ain subscription in. For a' that, the box soon began to fill up, so that Bobe and me agreed that it would be mair than filled, lang before the holiday, and that in fact there would be mair siller than was reasonably necessary for a' the hands to get drunk on.

And it did seem a peety to squander it. The very day that we cam' to this conclusion, when I went hame after work, I found yin o' my mither's cocks lyin' deid, and a muckle brute of a cock from the disteellery yaird, on the other side the wall, crawin' its very vitals oot in triumph. The beast jinked a' the stanes I bummed at it, and one of the disteellery hands cam' oot and threatened me. And at that time I was hardly a match to fecht him. This was na the first time that the disteellery cocks had yokit on to oors ; but there was nae justice for us puir folks to be gotten frae the polis, or onybody else. The next day was the Sawbath, and I was takin' a stroll doon Bonington way, when I spied a queer lang-shankit kind o' a cock in a yaird. I was just wonderin' at the beast, when a man says quite prood like, " Weel did ye ever see a brawer game cock than yon ?

" A GOOD BARGAIN. 21 Weel, sir, this seemed to me just a perfect pro vidential revelation. " Can he fecht ? " says I. " Can he what ? " says he, contempshous-like ; " the beast's gotten me inty mair trouble than ye ken, keepin' him oot o' the way, for his owner, that the polis hes yokit on. Just ask the neebours if he can fecht ! " " What'U ye tak' for him ? " says I. " Mair siller than you hae gotten," says he. Weel, by gude luck, just at that moment a polisman comes by, and, says he — " Geordie, I'm thinkin' ye'll best pit awa yon cock, while ye hae the chance, for there's another summons '11 be served on ye the morn ; and if you're able to sweer that ye've pairtet wi' the beast, sae much the better for ye." For a' the warnin', the owner was a dour chap to bargain wi', but we settled it at last, that I was to come the next nicht wi' twelve shillings, an' tak' awa' the beast in an auld basket he had.

Once the bargain was struck, he turned quite benevolent, and gave me a deal of usefu' information aboot fitting spurs, and fechtin' cocks in general. After I left him, I thocht to mysel'—" Whaur's the twelve shillins comin' frae ? " Then I met Bobe Menzies, and tell't him it a'. He just laughed and says, " Man, hae ye for gotten the perfectly rideeculous superfluity in the box up at the works ? " Next mornin* when the rest o' the hands were awa at breakfast, I went withoot mine, and got at the box, and opened a corner o' the bottom. I took oot maybe a pickle mair than twelve shillins, but I really had trouble to stop the siller tricklin' into my hand. Then I pastet it neatly up again, and awa to an address I had gien me, and boucht a bonnie pair o' spurs. And I boucht the cock the same night.

The first thing next mornin' Bobe roused me, and we fittit the spurs on the cock. As soon as the bell rang, and the disteellery doors opened, oot cam' their muckle beast, over oor wall, and began skairtin' and crawin' on my mither's midden. VENGEANCE. 23 There was nae haudin' in the game cock when he heard the ither craw, so I just lowsed him ! Eh man ! but it was a grand sicht, for the disteellery cock was a heavy, savage brute, and keen on fechtin'. 'Deed my cock was sair heckled, but he did na seem to mind it, and that sort o' dumb foundert the ither. The longer they soucht the fresher mine seemed to grow, till in sheer despair the muckle beast turned to flee, and ower the wall, wi' mine followin', and Bobe and me aifter the twa. And when we got to them there was sic a sicht o' feathers as never ye saw ; the big cock lyin' deid wi' his heid split open, and my bonnie birdie standin' ower him crawin', and as croose as ever.

Weel, ye may be sure the disteellery folk bizzed oot, fair mad ; but I grippet my cock, and jinked them a' ; and cried back that we'd no' be quits till a' their cocks were served the same way. But the deil a disteellery cock ever cam' on to oor midden again — it's the truth I'm tellin' ye, sir ! Having made such a creditable commencement, I took to fechtin' my cock in matches, and he soon paid me back his cost, and a hantle mair : even after he had lost an eye he was bad to beat ; but sure enough, at last I got inty trouble wi' the polis aboot him, and pairtit wi' him to a Galashiels lad. And 'deed my heart was sair to lose him. Aboot the collection-box ? When the money was coonted, dootless there was a defeeciency, and the lads grumbled, and some suspected the night watchman, but he was a big, burly, fechting' man, that it was no just exactly canny to argue wi'.

And when the holiday trip cam', every mither's son gat that sou, that he could not reckon hoo much drink he had had ; and surely, sir, you'll agree wi' me that ony reasonable being should be satisfeed and contented wi' that. Indeed, there was a balance in Bobe's hand — he was treasurer — and I thocht wi' him, that it would be just senseless extravagance, and encouraging drunkenness forbye, to spend it on mair drink. After all, sir, Bobe and me had nae mair than we was entitled to, as projectors and managers of the scheme. But many o' the lads were dissatisfeed — DISCOVERING OF TALENT. 25 'deed there's no pleasin' some folks — and they would not repeat the collection scheme for the next trip. Then Bobe got the sack — I forget what for — and there was nane with ony speerit for sport after he left.

Ae day, in the meadows, I chanced upon some lads that were rinnin' races for sma' stakes, and found that they all hailed from one of the large newspaper offices, and were athegither mair accomplished than those that I worked wi'. So as soon as a vacancy was to be had, I transferred mysel' to it. It was then I made the discovery that I was a naitural-born pedestrian ; but I spiled every chance of makin' ony money aff the ither lads, by letting them see from the first that I could beat the best of them as I liked — a senseless mistake, sir, as dootless you think — but I've profited by that early experience ever since. Ae day an aulder fellow that had yince been in the same office, but had turned professional, and was training for the handicaps at Cox's gymnasium, went for a walk wi' me, and proposed to gie me three yairds stairt in a hundred.

This time it was near a deid heat, but he just won. Says he condescendin'ly — " Ye'll make a ped some day, lad." " May be ; but three yairds is a lang stairt," says I, as sulkily as I could contrive, for I was sit to dee wi' laughin' inside. After that, I thocht I would gang and hae a look at some o' the races at Cox's on Saturday afternoons, and picked up a bit o' information ; and set to work trainin' on the quiet. When I felt pretty fit, and had scraped a pickle siller thegither, I went and entered for yin of the handicaps. A few minutes besore my race, a sportin' man cam' up to me, and says he — " Div ye mean beesiness ? " " What's that to you ? " says I. " May be siller for baith of us ! " says he. That seemed beesiness-like ; and so him and me had a confidential conversation. It seemed that the chap that I had had the race wi', wi' three FIRST VICTORY. 27 yairds stairt, was first favourite.