Chertons' Work-people

Front matter

CHERTONS' WORK PEOPLE. CHERTONS' WORK-PEOPLE BY ALFRED COLBECK, Author of " Scarlea Grange," "The Fall of the Stain clijses," Ac. ILonScm : JAMES CLARKE & CO., 13 & 14, FLEET STREET. 1894. TO LADY HENRY SOMERSET, WHOSE WORK AND WORTH ARE WIDELY KNOWN AND GREATLY APPRECIATED, THIS STORY, WITH HER LADYSHIP'S PERMISSION, IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED. CONTENTS. CHiPrER PAGE I. — Cherton Brothers, Limited ... ... 1 II.— Profits 9 III. — Consultations 19 IV— Ralph 28 V.— Rival Bidders 39 VI. — Unexpected Assistance 46 VII.— A New Resident 59 VIII.— The Tin Tabernacle 67 IX. — Progress 75 X. — Opposition 86 XI. — Opposition More Decided 94 XII.— Annie's Dilemma 104 XIII.— No News from London 113 XIV.— The Licence 124 XV.— The Catastrophe 134 XVI.— Sam's Quest 141 XVII.— Marian 150 XVIII.— The Election 159 XIX.— Etta's Offer 168 XX.— Found •" 177 XXI.— Hurrah for Nathan Pratt ! 186 XXII.— Long Dan's Appeal 193 XXIII.— Another Family Gathering 200 XXIV.— Brothers All CHERTONS' WORK PEOPLE.

Chapter I

Cherton Brothers, Limited " I ought to be the happiest woman in the world," said Mrs. Cherton, looking down the dinner table. She had just glanced into the face of her eldest son, who sat at the head of the table, a fine, stalwart man of forty-five ; and into the face of her youngest daughter, directly opposite, a beautiful, oval-cheeked, sweet-eyed maiden of nineteen. From her position at her eldest son's right hand she could look down the dinner table and count another daughter, four more sons, two sons' wives, and three grandchddren. Therefore, she had good reason for her remark, and especially if the members of this numerous family were as happy as they appeared to be. The famdy was evidently prosperous. Their dresses, from the rich black silk of the old lady hersett to the soft white material, trimmed with Maltese lace, in which the dainty form of her youngest grand-child, Nellie, was prettdy arrayed ; the spacious dining-room, with its warm curtains, carved oak furniture, and heavily - framed portraits ; the table loaded with choice fruits — for it was the time of dessert — and adorned with lovely flowers, to say nothing of the cut glass, glittering silver, and white figured napery, — all these were indications, if not of great wealth, of wealth sufficient to meet more than ordinary needs.

There were no pressing anxieties in the Cherton family arising from the lack of material possessions. Probably this thought had something to do with the mother's remark. She was a fairly taU old lady, somewhat inclined to stoutness, with rounded features and a fresh complexion, and blue eyes fuU of kindly light. Her hair was not quite white, notwithstanding her sixty-seven years; there were stdl streaks of brown in it, and the white was of that peculiar hue suggestive of a departed brown, deep and glossy; it was brushed back from a low, wide forehead, and gathered under the edge of a cap into a knot behind. She carried her sixty-seven years admirably, and while her rich black silk was becoming, the long chain, gathered from about her neck by the diamond brooch pin, and fatting down in a deep double curve to the old-fashioned watch pocket at her waist, and the rings that sparkled upon her fingers, were not out of place.

They might have been if time had dealt less favourably with her — ii she had been a thin, bent, wrinkled woman, tottering to her three score years and ten. But she was not. She was straight, well-formed, active, healthy, and walking forward to the allotted limit with a firm step, as if seventy were but fifty, and time had made a mistake in dealing with her. " Judging by your face, mother, I should think you are the happiest woman in the world ; and I have seen no face yet that I would rather look upon than yours, especially when you have your children about you." Philip Cherton, the third son, nodded pleasantly across the table at his mother while he spake these words. " You'll meet another face some day, Phil," replied his mother, with a smile, " more attractive than mine ; but I Cherton Brothers, Limited. 3 hope that mine wUl be none the less dear to you when that other face comes."

" Nay, mother, there will be no other face for me. I shaU be the bachelor of the family. There ought to be one bachelor amongst us, who, when all the others are married, wdl stay at home with you. And, you know, one bachelor is a sort of blessed necessity in a large family like ours, if for no other reason for this — to go the round of the households, and become the Uving Unk between them. I mean to qualify myself for that honourable position." "Nonsense, Phil!" exclaimed his youngest sister. " You wiU go the same way as Tom and Edwin, and become a prosy, sober, quiet, old-fashioned husband. You a bachelor, indeed ! Why, only the other day, at the concert, I saw you steahng glances at a fair face ; and, if rumour be correct, you are half captured already." "Rumour is incorrect, my dear sister — as usual," answered Phil.

" I am scatheless. No lady I have yet met has been able, by her blandishments, to penetrate my armour. I am clothed cap-a-pie, and can defy the sweetest and most formidable." Nelhe had been quietly listening to the conversation with her large wondering blue eyes wide open, but suffi ciently attentive to her own wants to sedately pop raisins into her mouth the while. Now, however, as ii she had caught the meaning of the elders, she stayed a raisin half way, and said, " Me saw TJnka Phil talk to beau'ful lady." All eyes were instantly turned toward her, and the naive remark was greeted with a general burst of laughter. Phdip shook his head at her, with a comical aspect, and said, " Little girls should not teU tales." " Capital, Nellie ! " exclaimed her father, Tom Cherton. " Now, Phil, what have you got to say to that ?

Deny the impeachment if you can." " It needs no denial," answered his brother. " I have several lady friends who are all beautiful, but I am not going to marry any one of them because of that." And yet a faint blush overspread his countenance as he pro posed that they should leave the table, and sit round the fire. It was a homely gathering. There were no formalities. His proposal was immediately acted upon. Nellie, to make amends, crept between his knees, and lifted her bonnie chdd's eyes to his face, as if she would say, " Forgive me! " He took her up, gently pressed her head, covered with golden curls, against his shoulder, and began to whisper into her ear one of the fairy tales for which, among the children, he was justly famous. The pleading look went out of the child's eyes, and a look of wonder — the usual look, but now intensified — took its place.

The two sisters sat opposite, and without his knowledge, quietly caUed each other's attention to him. They smiled significantly, and Annie, the elder, said to Etta, " It would be a shame if Phil were to be always a bachelor." The other two children, one NeUie's brother Harold, and the other her cousin Bob, finding that Uncle Phil was telling her a story, climbed the unoccupied knee, and clamoured for the story to be re-told from the beginning ; and so, for half-an-hour, whde the others were engaged in conversation, he amused the three with an amazing account of a lovely princess, who had been turned into an image of ice by an ugly magician. No one could approach her without being frozen. But, at last, by a counter charm, the ice image was melted, and the princess, lovelier than ever, stepped from her cold prison-house into the arms of her deliverer.

The children knew not that the story was coming out of his heart. Their bed-time came, and, with kisses all round, they Cherton Brothers, Limited. 5 departed. The elders gathered more closely about the hearth. It was a cold night, only a week from Christ mas, and the generous warmth and ruddy glow of the large fire were thoroughly appreciated. Conversation was carried on in twos and threes, and in tones not much above a whisper, until Tom struck in with a loud and general remark which arrested the attention of aU. " The firm is here in its completeness ; no member missing ; and it seems to me a good opportunity to have a word or two about business matters. It is not often that Cherton Brothers, Limited, find themselves assembled in full force. The sisters Cherton " — and here he glanced at his own wife and his brother Edwin's — " have other duties to attend to besides the duties of the firm.

Sam is often away, and unless we can secure a suitable and reliable foreign traveUer, wiU have to be away more. Ralph will continue to look after the home orders, but this will take him away from home a good deal — indeed, it would be weU, to my thinking, to establish a depot in London, and let Ralph take the oversight of it, and reside there. What say you, Ralph ? " "If it is necessary, Tom, or if it would be to the advantage of the firm, I am wilUng," answered Ralph, the youngest brother ; " but, personaUy, I would rather remain at home." " Well, we can discuss that afterwards," said Tom. " My object now in referring to business matters is to congratu late the firm on its success this year," and he slightly bowed with a pleasant smile to his mother, who was the senior partner, although, for all practical purposes, he was the head of the firm himself.

" We are busy stock-taking ; the books are being made up, and I am glad to say we shaU have a very handsome balance on the right side— a very handsome balance indeed. Is it not so, Phil ? " " You are quite right, Tom. It wiU be very much more than we need." " And the stock is not too large — is it, Teddie ? — and thoroughly good, quite saleable ; while the plant is in excellent condition." " Yes, so far as we have examined both, we have every reason to be satisfied," answered Teddie. " There ! I thought I would take advantage of the presence of every member of the firm, and say how Cherton Brothers, Limited, now stood. We have solid ground under us; we have a prosperous path before us. There are very few firms of the kind that have developed so rapidly as ours, and afford profits so substantial and satisfactory."

" We ought to be very grateful," said the mother. " And our gratitude should be practical," said Philip. " I trust it will be, my son," she replied. " We must share our blessings with others." "And not indiscriminately, but according to some settled plan that will prove more helpful and be more effective than charity," Phihp continued; but the company had already ceased to listen, and were quietly expressing to each other their pleasure at the good news. " I say, Tom," cried out Etta, after awhile, "why should the firm be called Cherton Brothers, Limited ? Are the mother and wives and sisters all summed up in the term Limited 1" " Of course. How would you sum them up, Etta? " " Oh ! Etta would go in for something original," said Sam, forestalling his sister's reply. " For instance, Mother Cherton, Sons, Daughters, and Daughters-in-Law, Limited.

What a tremendous flourish in copper-plate a name like that would make across the billheads of the firm ! And what a sensation I should cause in Germany and Russia when I Cherton Brothers, Limited. 7 announced myself as the representative of a firm with a name so comprehensive ! The Americans would be nowhere." " Sam ! Sam ! Sam ! " said Etta, doing her best to in terrupt him, and playfully, but smartly, hitting him upon the shoulder while he was speaking. " You mischievous fellow. You know that I want no such thing. I was only thinking that Cherton, Limited, would answer the purpose, and be more correct. Then the mother and wives and sisters would be summed up in the Cherton, and not in the Limited, which," she continued, with a saucy smile, " would be more in accordance with one's ideas.

We are Chertons, all of us, but we women are certainly not flattered by being included in so general a term as Limited." " There is some force in what Etta says," observed Ralph. "But the name is registered now," said Tom; "and, after aU, Cherton Brothers, Limited, is a better trade name than Cherton, Limited. People would say, ' Who is Cher ton ? What is Cherton ? ' It might mean a cheese, or a temperance drink, or a special kind of machine, or any thing. But Cherton Brothers fixes it as a family name. And it better keeps up the old name of the firm — Robert Cherton ; at any rate, it implies a natural succession to the business by the sons after the father's death." " And what about the daughters ? " asked Etta. " Oh, everybody will know, who cares to know, that they are sleeping partners, and share in the profits of the business without having the cares of management."

" Thank you, Tom ; but we are not always sleeping. We like to have business matters explained to us, and I, for one, should hke to be an active member of the firm. It would find me something to do." " We could give you a place in the office, Etta," said Tom, laughingly ; "or, if Phil were wilUng, you could take his place as cashier. We could soon drop Phil into another branch of work. The men would doubtless like to receive their wages from an attractive young lady ; and if you bestowed an extra smile, with a word of advice here and there on the proper use of money, so much of it would not find its way into the tiU of the ' Red Lion ' or ' The Labourer's Rest.' The men's wives would be the better for it, and the firm would be none the worse on the Monday mornings." " Never mind, Etta," said Phil.

"I have a scheme in my mind, very raw as yet, I confess, but likely to be developed, and worked out ere long, which may find you something to do in connection with the firm more agreeable, I think, than paying wages." " What is it, Phil ? " asked his sister. " Patience, Etta. Let me mature it first, and then I will tell you, and the rest." " Some teetotal fad or another," said Ralph, " I'U be bound, or maybe religious. Well, there ought to be one philanthropist in a family like ours, and the bachelor should be the one, if any. But don't drag the firm in, Phil. Make it personal." " I'U not drag the firm in, Ralph. When the time comes I'U propose it, and let the firm take what steps it Ukes. But I would prefer an alteration of the subject. We have said enough for one night about business. What do you think, Annie ?

" " With you, Phil. Let us change the subject." And so the conversation ran on other topics, mostly social and domestic, until the family party broke up, and each one retired to rest.

Chapter II

Profits. Cherton Brothers, Limited, was a big concern. The business had grown to large proportions under the care and skiU of its originator, Mr. Robert Cherton. His sons, from choice, and not of necessity, as they grew old enough, associated themselves with the father. They had been trained with a view to this. Each one had looked forward to the time when he should become a member of the firm as to a perfectly natural event, an event of personal im portance, fully determined to do his best for the business when he should share its responsibilities and advantages. So weU estabUshed did it become, and so widely connected, that there was room in it for them all ; and, after the necessary preliminary training, they were placed over the special departments for which they had shown the most Uking and aptitude.

When he died, the youngest of his sons was already settled in his own particular work, and by his wiU he left the business in the hands of the brothers, providing for his widow and daughters by making them sharers in the profits of the concern. He had begun as an iron-founder, to which he had added kindred and advanced departments from time to time, so that, when he died, he was a brass-founder, machine maker, and engineer as well. The firm had obtained sole possession, partly as the result of the father's ingenuity, and partly by purchase, of several patents much in demand, and leaving a wide margin of profit after manu facture and sale. Tom, as the eldest and most experienced, took the general superintendence. Edwin was at the head of the machine-making and engineering departments, while two capable foremen reheved him by the oversight of the iron and brass founding, which still formed the basis of the business.

Philip, as we have seen, was cashier, and looked after all the office work. Sam and Ralph attended respectively to the foreign and home orders. The brothers worked heartily, cheerfully, and agreeably together, and were certainly in the way of making large fortunes. They gave employment to three thousand men, drawn mainly from the immediate surroundings of the works, in the outskirts of the large midland town of Sunnymead. The name was in strange disagreement with the topography and atmosphere of the place. Sunnymead it had been once — a beautiful stretch of pasture land, picturesquely dotted with elm and beech and ash, well watered by a broad, slow river, whose course was marked by long rows of willows, with an atmosphere a little softened by the mists of the gloaming at morn and eventide, but otherwise sweet and pure and clear.

The oldest inhabitant could not recall this time. It was now a succession of brick houses and dull streets, as like each other as two peas, interspersed with vast heaps of slag and cinder, with furnaces and chimneys lttting themselves into the murky air, the chim neys indistinguishable in the darkness, but the furnaces throwing a lurid light into the smoke-laden gloom. Only a Umited prospect could be obtained even from the house roofs—a prospect bounded by the refuse hill, and the high straddling windlass of a colliery. There were no trees within a couple of miles. There was not a blade of grass, Profits. 11 except the sickly grass that sprouted in the flower-pots of some of the cottagers, who vainly tried to rear a few stocks or geraniums in the window-sills. It was a cheerless place, inhabited mostly by a hard-working, horny-handed, stern-faced people, who contrived to squeeze through their Uves underthe pressureof untoward circumstances, and gene raUy to escape the workhouse, and provide for themselves, by small savings or paltry insurances, a decent burial.

The men had trooped from the works of Cherton Brothers, Limited, at half-past five one dull December evening, treading heavily through the mire to their various homes. Only a few remained behind for overtime, reinforced at six o'clock by the regular night-workers, who were employed for the most part in the manipulation of molten metals. The clerks were still at work, however, and the lights in the offices were burning as brightly as if the time for their dismissal were hours hence. Tom and Edwin came stamping into the offices, and proceeded at once to the private room in which Philip was yet busily engaged with the books. Sam was already there. " Have you balanced up, Phil ? " asked Tom. "Not quite," answered his brother, repeating, in a whisper, the number he had reached in adding up a long column, that he might keep the number in mind.

Quietness prevailed as PhiUp proceeded with his task. The clock ticked loudly. The glowing coal crackled in the grate. The creaking of boots, in the outer office, as a clerk crossed the floor, was unnaturaUy distinct. The brothers waited patiently for Phdip to finish. At last he turned round from the desk with a smile, and said, " It is over." " Satisfactory ? " asked Tom. "Yes! very," he rephed. "Look!" and he showed them the book he had just done with. Edwin gave a long whistle. Sam clapped Phihp on the shoulder. "It is more than I thought it would be," said Tom. " We have had a splendid year." " It will make the women's eyes dance," said Edwin. " I shaU go to Germany next week in capital form," said Sam. " One can work with a zest after a result like that. You'll write Ralph, PhU, won't you?

No! I'll write him, and drop the letter in the post-office as I go home to make sure. We'U not send that letter off with the others. I hope Ralph will secure a good, central position for us in the metropohs." The three soon went. Phihp called the chief clerk in, and gave him a few orders ; locked up the safe after depositing the books therein, and followed his brothers. The dog-cart was waiting for him outside. "Into the town, first, John," said he to the driver. " Right, sir," John rephed ; and the wheels of the dog cart were soon rattling over the paving-stones towards the busy centre of Sunnymead. Under Philip's direction they passed through street after street, and finally pulled up at a large grocer and provision dealer's store. Phihp leaped down and hurried inside. A well-dressed lady was seated by the counter.

She seemed a little surprised at Phihp's entrance, and rose stiffly to meet him, offering him the tips of her gloved fingers. He was more surprised still, but took the proffered finger tips, and shghtly bowed. " You are shopping rather late, Miss Field," said he. " Yes ! rather," she rephed ; " I was unable to come this morning." " It is unpleasant weather to be out." " Decidedly." Turning to the attendant, she said, ■" Have you set those things down ? " " Yes, ma'am," he replied, obsequiously. " You'll be sure to send them early in the morning." Profits. 13 " The first thing, ma'am," said he. " Nothing more to-day, you think ? " " No ! " She glanced through the doorway. " The carriage ought to be here," she murmured, but Philip heard her, as maybe he was intended to hear. " ShaU I summon it, Miss Field ?

" asked Philip. "Thank you, Mr. Cherton," she replied, coldly, and without a smile. He went to the door. The carriage was in view. His own dog-cart moved out of the way as it approached. The lady came out as he turned to apprise her of its arrival, and he opened the door for her to enter. With a haughty bow she disappeared inside, and was rapidly driven away. Returning to the shop he was greeted by the shopkeeper, who, for some reason or another, had kept out of view whde Miss Field was there ; now, however, he came forward, and said pleasantly, " What can I do for you, Mr. Cherton ? " " I want these orders attended to, please," and Philip took a few papers from his pocket, looked them over, and handed them to the shopkeeper. After glancing at them one after another, in a quick, business-Uke way, the shopkeeper said, "All right, Mr. Cherton ; they shall be attended to ; but do you know, sir, we find some difficulty with these orders ? — not in making them up, sir, but in carrying them out.

Last week the httle woman with the three children, whose husband is ill, refused to receive the goods at first. She said she wouldn't have them in, sir, because she knew the account would foUow, and she couldn't pay ; and my man could only persuade her to take them at last by giving her a settled note with them, made out to herself, as if she had really been the purchaser. And this, Mr. Cherton, is not an exceptional case. Most of the new ones demur to receive the goods, and demand explanations before taking them in that we cannot very well give — having pledged ourselves to you, sir, that we will keep silent; but, of course, after having had two or three lots, they become used to it, and take them in, as the Apostle Paul said — if you wiU excuse the remark, sir — ' asking no question, for conscience sake.' If you could feel free to allow us to reveal your name, and tell these poor people that the goods we take them are sent by you, it would be much easier to deliver them.

I think some of them have an idea already that you are their benefactor." " Let it remain as it is, for the present at any rate, Mr. Mellow," said Philip. " If you have any decided refusal to receive the goods, adopt the same plan as with little Mrs. Clarke — give a settled note with them, made out in the receiver's name. If this is not sufficient in any case, let me know at once, and it can be speciaUy dealt with. You'U send those to-morrow, please. There are two new cases." " We'll see to them, sir," said the shopkeeper, and Philip took his leave. After a smart trot home, and when dinner was over, Sam having already conveyed the news of the year's profits, which were pleasantly discussed over the plentiful viands, Philip attached himself to Etta for a quiet chat. The time had come for him to talk over the new scheme with her.

" What do you think, Etta? You are one of the firm, sharing in the profits, and incurring thereby a measure of responsibility. Is our duty done to those whom we employ by the mere payment of the stipulated wages ? Ought we to have no further care for them ? " " I don't know, Phil. I have never thought of it." " But do think, Etta. Call to mind the particular part Profits. 15 of Sunnymead surrounding our works, and where the people we employ mostly hve. Some of them Uve in our own property, and I must confess it is property that I can take no pride in. You know the long, cheerless, interminable streets, one so Uke another that a stranger cannot see any difference between them, and easily gets lost among them, streets fuU of people from end to end. Many of these people are dependent upon us for a hvehhood.

The wages that keep open hundreds upon hundreds of these tiny cells of houses pass through our hands. If we were to close our works — and we could close them at any time — you know that we could hve comfortably enoughnow without the business — these streets would become deserted, a wilder ness of brick and mortar, and the people would be scattered no one knows where." " Yes ! But, Phil, we shall not close the works. We shaU carry them on." " Of course we shall. I only want you to see, Etta, how dependent these people are upon us. We cannot discharge aU our responsibiUties towards them — at least, not in my opinion — by the payment of a fixed rate of wages. Scanty enough in some cases these wages are, and yet they are quite as good, if not a little better, than other firms pay. Our wages are necessardy regulated by the market prices of labour, and the market world would say that with the payment of the wages our responsibility is at an end.

The contract is completed. It matters nothing to us what a man does with his wages. It even matters nothing to us, if the man has done his work, what sort of a man he is. Now, I think it matters a good deal. H the man uses his wages properly, spends them on his home, for his own comfort and the comfort of his wife and children, he is likely to be a more cheerfulspirited man. If he is sober, thoughtful, conscientious, he will do his work aU the better, with a clearer intelligence and a greater efficiency, whatever kind of work it may be. The disposition and character of our work-people should be a matter of the deepest importance to us, even from a purely business standpoint." " I can see what you mean, Phil." " And, Etta, we ought not to confine our interest in these people to purely business relations, though more could be said in favour of what I have already advanced, if it were necessary.

These people are, in a sense, our neigh bours. We live far enough away, here, on the hillside, within sight and scent of the country ; but our works, where our money is made, are there, in the very midst of them. They are our neighbours, and we ought to be neighbourly — that is, we ought to help them in every pos sible way. We have the power to help them, and they need it. Oh, Etta ! you don't know what suffering there is in those monotonous streets. And among each other the people are neighbourly, doing freely and gratuitously for one another all kinds of gentle deeds ; and why should we, because we are richer than they, Uve altogether apart, and escape our neighbourly obligations ? Many among them are extremely poor ; many are hopelessly ill, afflicted with long-standing and incurable diseases, and waiting with wonderful patience for the only possible release ; many are wicked, dreadfully wicked, and utterly careless of the misery they cause.