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CHAP. III.

ENGINEMAN AT NEWBURN.-SELF-CULTURE.

GEORGE STEPHENSON was eighteen years old before he learnt to read. He was now almost a full-grown workman, earning his twelve shillings a week, and having the charge of an engine, which occupied his time to the extent of twelve hours every day. He had thus very few leisure moments that he could call his own. But the busiest man will find them if he watch for them; and if he be careful in turning these moments to useful account, he will prove them to be the very gold-dust of time," as Young has so beautifully described

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To his poor parents George Stephenson owed a sound constitution and vigorous health. They had also set before him an example of sobriety, economy, and patient industryhabits which are in themselves equivalent to principles. For habits are the most inflexible of all things; and principles are, in fact, but the names which we assign to them. If his parents, out of their small earnings and scanty knowledge, were unable to give their son any literary culture, at all events they had trained him well, and furnished him with an excellent substratum of character. Unquestionably, however, he laboured under a very serious disadvantage in having to master, at a comparatively advanced age, those simple rudiments of elementary instruction, which all children in a country calling itself civilised ought to have imparted to them at school. The youth who reaches manhood, and enters, by

necessity, upon a career of daily toil, without being able to read his native tongue, does not start on equal terms with others who have received the benefits of such instruction. It is true that he who, by his own voluntary and determined efforts, overcomes the difficulties early thrown in his way, and succeeds in eventually teaching himself, will value the education thus acquired much more than he to whom it has been imparted as a mere matter of duty on the part of parents or of society. What the self-educated man learns, becomes more thoroughly his own, makes a more vivid impression upon his mind, and fixes itself more enduringly there. It usually also exercises a more powerful influence in the formation of his character, by disciplining his spirit of self-help, and accustoming him to patient encounter with, and triumph over, difficulties.

We have seen how Stephenson's play hours were occasionally occupied-in a friendly rivalry with his fellows in feats of strength. Much also of his spare time, when he was not actually employed in working the engine, was devoted to cleaning it and taking it to pieces, for the purpose of mastering its details. At this time he was also paying some attention to the art of brakeing, which he had expressed to Coe his desire to learn, in order that he might improve his position, and be advanced to higher wages.

Not many of his fellow-workmen had learnt to read; but those who could do so were placed under frequent contribution by George and the other labourers at the pit. It was one of their greatest treats to induce some one to read to them by the engine-fire, out of any book or stray newspaper which might find its way into the village of Newburn. Buonaparte was then overrunning Italy, and astounding Europe by his brilliant succession of victories; and there was no more eager auditor of these exploits, when read from the newspaper accounts, than the young engine-man at the Water-row Pit.

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There were also numerous stray bits of information and intelligence contained in these papers, which excited Stephenson's interest. One of these related to the Egyptian art of hatching birds' eggs by means of artificial heat. Curious about everything relating to birds, he determined to test the art by experiment. It was spring time, and he forthwith. went a bird-nesting in the adjoining woods and hedges, where there were few birds' nests of which he did not know. He brought a collection of eggs of all kinds into the enginehouse, set them in flour in a warm place, covering the whole over with wool, and then waited the issue of his experiment. But though the heat was kept as steady as possible, and the eggs were carefully turned every twelve hours, they never hatched. The eggs chipped, and some of them exhibited well-grown chicks; but none of the birds came forth alive, and thus the experiment failed. This incident, however, shows that the inquiring mind of the youth was now fairly at work.

Another of his favourite occupations continued to be the modelling of clay engines. He not only tried to model engines which he had himself seen, but he also attempted to form models in clay of engines which were described to him as being in existence; and doubtless his modelling at this time, imperfect though his knowledge was, exhibited considerable improvement upon his first attempts in the art when a herd-boy in the bog at Dewley Burn. He was told, however, that all the wonderful engines of Watt and Boulton, about which he was so anxious to know, were to be found described in books, and that he must satisfy his curiosity by searching the publications of the day for a more complete description of them. But, alas! Stephenson could not read; he had not yet learnt even his letters.

Thus he shortly found, when gazing wistfully in the direction of knowledge, that to advance further as a skilled work

man, he must master this wonderful art of reading—the key to so many other arts. He would thus be enabled to gain an access to books, the depositories of the experience and wisdom of all times. Although now a grown man and doing the work of a man, he was not ashamed to confess his ignorance and go to school, big as he was, to learn his letters. Perhaps, too, he foresaw that, in laying out a little of his spare earnings for this purpose, he was investing money judiciously, and that, every hour he spent at school, he was really working for better wages. At all events, he determined to make a beginning a small beginning, it is true, but still a right one, and a pledge and assurance that he was in earnest in the work of self-culture. He desired to find a road into knowledge; and no man can sincerely desire this but he will eventually succeed. He possessed that will and purpose which are the invariable forerunners of success.

His first schoolmaster was Robin Cowens, a poor teacher in the village of Walbottle. He kept a night-school, which was attended by a few of the colliers and labourers' sons in the neighbourhood. George took lessons in spelling and reading three nights in the week. Tommy Musgrove, the lad who "sled out" the engine at the Water-row Pit, usually went with him to the evening lesson. This teaching of Robin Cowens cost threepence a week; and though it was not very good, yet George, being hungry for knowledge, and eager to acquire it, soon learnt to read. He also practised "pot-hooks," and at the age of nineteen he was proud to be able to write his own name.

A Scotch dominie, named Andrew Robertson, set up a night-school in the village of Newburn, in the winter of 1799. It was more convenient for George Stephenson to attend this school, as it was nearer to his work, and not more than a few minutes' walk from Jolly's Close. Besides, Andrew had the reputation of being a skilled arithmetician; and this

was a branch of knowledge that Stephenson was now desirous of acquiring. He accordingly began taking lessons from him, paying fourpence a week. Andrew Gray, the junior fireman at the Water-row Pit, began arithmetic at the same time; and he has since told the writer that George learnt "figuring" so much faster than he did, that he could not make out how it was-" he took to figures so wonderful." Although the two started together from the same point, at the end of the winter George had mastered "reduction," while Andrew Gray was still grappling with the difficulties of simple division. But George's secret was his perseverance. He worked out the sums in his bye-hours, improving every minute of his spare time by the engine-fire, there solving the arithmetical problems set for him upon his slate by his master. In the evenings he took to Andrew Robertson the sums which he had thus "worked," and new ones were "set" for him to study out the following day. Thus his progress was rapid, and, with a willing heart and mind, he soon became well advanced in arithmetic. Indeed, Andrew Robertson became somewhat proud of his pupil; and shortly afterwards, when the Water-row Pit was closed, and George removed to Black Callerton to work there, the poor schoolmaster, not having a very extensive connection in Newburn, went with his pupils, and set up his night-school at Black Callerton, where they continued their instructions under him as before.

George still found time to attend to his favourite animals while working at the Water-row Pit. He kept up his breed of rabbits, and even drove a small trade in them, selling portions of his stock from time to time. Like his father, he used to tempt the robin-redbreasts to hop and fly about him at the engine-fire, by the bait of bread-crumbs saved from his dinner. But his favourite animal was his dog-so sagacious that he performed the office of a servant, in almost daily carrying his dinner to him at the pit. The tin containing the

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