CHAP. VI.]

SUPPORTS HIS INFIRM FATHER.

37

night. It was refused, and then he entreated that, being sore tired and unable to proceed any further, they would permit him to lie down in the outhouse, for that a little clean straw would serve him. The farmer's wife appeared at the door, looked at the traveller, then retiring with her husband, the two confabulated a little apart, and finally they invited Stephenson into the cottage. Always full of conversation and anecdote, he soon made himself at home in the farmer's family, and spent with them a few pleasant hours. He was hospitably entertained for the night, and when he left the cottage in the morning, he pressed them to make some charge for his lodging, but they would not hear of such a thing. They asked him to remember them kindly, and if he ever came that way, to be sure and call again. Many years after, when Stephenson had become a thriving man, he did not forget the humble pair who had thus succoured and entertained him on his way; he sought their cottage again, when age had silvered their hair; and when he left the aged couple, on that occasion, they may have been reminded of the old saying that we may sometimes "entertain angels unawares."

Reaching home, Stephenson found that his father had met with a serious accident at the Blucher Pit, which had reduced him to great distress and poverty. While engaged in the inside of an engine, making some repairs, a fellowworkman accidentally let in the steam upon him. The blast struck him full in the face- he was terribly scorched, and his eyesight was irretrievably lost. The helpless and infirm man had struggled for a time with poverty; his sons who were at home, poor as himself, were little able to help him, while George was at a distance in Scotland. On his return, however, with his savings in his pocket, his first step was to pay off his father's debts amounting to about 157.; soon afterwards he removed the aged pair from Jolly's Close to a comfortable cottage adjoining the tram-road near the West Moor

at Killingworth, where the old man lived for many years, supported entirely by his son. He was quite blind, but cheerful to the last. One of his greatest pleasures, towards the close of his life, was to receive a visit from his grandson Robert, who would ride straight into the cottage mounted on his "cuddy," and call upon his grandfather to admire the points of the animal. The old man would then dilate upon the ears, fetlocks, and quarters of the donkey, and generally conclude by pronouncing him to be a "real blood."

Stephenson was again taken on as a brakesman at the West Moor Pit. He does not seem to have been very hopeful as to his prospects in life about the time (1807-8). Indeed the condition of the working class generally was then very discouraging. England was engaged in a great war, which pressed heavily upon the industry, and severely tried the resources, of the country. Heavy taxes were imposed upon all the articles of consumption that would bear them. Incomes of 50%. a year and upwards were taxed 10 per cent. There was a constant demand for men to fill the army, navy, and militia. Never before had England heard such drumming and fifing for recruits. In 1805, the gross forces of the United Kingdom amounted to nearly 700,000 men, and early in 1808 Lord Castlereagh carried a measure for the establishment of a local militia of 200,000 men. These measures produced great and general distress amongst the labouring classes. There were serious riots in Manchester, Newcastle, and elsewhere, through scarcity of work and lowness of wages. Every seventh person in England was a pauper, maintained out of the poor-rates, there being, in 1807, 1,234,000 paupers to 7,636,000 persons who were not paupers. Those labourers who succeeded in finding employment were regularly mulcted of a large portion of their earnings to maintain the unemployed, and at the same time to carry on the terrible war in which Britain' contended

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CHAP. VI.] MEDITATES EMIGRATING TO AMERICA.

39

single-handed against Napoleon, then everywhere victorious. The working people were also liable to be pressed for the navy, or drawn for the militia; and though men could not fail to be discontented under such circumstances, they scarcely dared, in those perilous times, even to mutter their discontent to their neighbours.

George Stephenson was one of those drawn at that time for the militia. He must therefore either quit his work and go a-soldiering, or find a substitute. He adopted the latter course, and paid a considerable sum of money to a militiaman to serve in his stead. Thus nearly the whole of his hardwon earnings were swept away at a stroke. He was almost in despair, and contemplated the idea of leaving the country, and emigrating to the United States. A voyage thither was then a more formidable thing for a working man to accomplish than a voyage to Australia is now. But he seriously entertained the project, and had all but made up his mind. His sister Ann with her husband emigrated about that time, but George could not raise the requisite money, and they departed without him. After all, it went sore against his heart to leave his home and his kindred the scenes of his youth and the friends of his boyhood; but he struggled long with the idea, brooding over it in sorrow. Speaking afterwards to a friend of his thoughts at the time, he said "You know the road from my house at the West Moor to Killingworth. I remember, when I went along that road I wept bitterly, for I knew not where my lot would be cast." But Providence had better and greater things in store for George Stephenson than the lot of a settler in the wilds of America. It was well that his poverty prevented him from prosecuting further the idea of emigration, and rooted him to the place where he afterwards worked out his great career so manfully and victoriously.

Many years after, when addressing a society of young men at Belper, in Derbyshire, on the necessity of Perseverance,

his favourite text,—he said, "Well do I remember the beginning of my career as an engineer, and the great perseverance that was required for me to get on. Not having served an apprenticeship, I had made up my mind to go to America, considering that no one in England would trust me to act as engineer. However, I was trusted in some small matters, and succeeded in giving satisfaction. Greater trusts were reposed in me, in which I also succeeded. Soon after, I commenced making the locomotive engine; and the results of my perseverance you have this day witnessed."*

In 1808, Stephenson, with two other brakesmen, named Robert Wedderburn and George Dodds, took a small contract under the colliery lessees, for brakeing the engines at the West Moor Pit. The brakesmen found the oil and tallow; they divided the work amongst them, and were paid so much per score for their labour. There being two engines working night and day, two of the three men were always at work; the average earnings of each amounting to from 18s. to 20s. a week. But Stephenson resorted to his usual mode of ekeing out his earnings. His son Robert would soon be of an age to be sent to school; and the father, being but too conscious, from his own experience, of the disadvantages arising from the want of instruction, determined that his boy should. at least receive the elements of a good education. Stinted as he was for means at the time, maintaining his parents, and struggling with difficulties, this early resolution to afford his son proper culture must be regarded as a noble feature in his character, and strikingly illustrative of his thoughtfulness and conscientiousness. Many years after, speaking of the resolution which he thus early formed, he said, "In the earlier period of my career, when Robert was a little boy, I

* Speech to Mechanics' Institute at Belper, July 6th, 1841, the members of the Chesterfield Institute having travelled thither by railway train over the line constructed by Mr. Stephenson.

CHAP. VI.] MAKES IMPROVEMENT IN WINDING-MACHINE. 41

saw how deficient I was in education, and I made up my mind that he should not labour under the same defect, but that I would put him to a good school, and give him a liberal training. I was, however, a poor man; and how do you think I managed? I betook myself to mending my neighbours' clocks and watches at nights, after my daily labour was done, and thus I procured the means of educating my son.'

Besides mending clocks and watches at this time, he also continued to make and mend shoes, and to manufacture shoelasts for the shoemakers of the neighbourhood. He even cut out the pitmen's clothes for their wives to make up; and it is said that to this day there are clothes worn at Killingworth which have been made after " Geordy Steevie's cut."

Perhaps the secret of every man's best success in life is the readiness with which he takes advantage of opportunities. George Stephenson was an eminent illustration of this readiness in turning all his time to profit, and everything that he knew to useful account. Every spare minute was laid under contribution, either for the purpose of adding to his earnings or to his knowledge. The smallest fragments of his time were regarded by him as precious; and he was never so happy as when improving them. He missed no opportunity of extending his observations, more especially in his own immediate department; he was always acquiring new facts, and aiming at improvements in his own calling. Sometimes he failed, but his very failures only served to strengthen his hardy nature, and they eventually conducted him to success.

The "small matters" entrusted to George Stephenson, in which he succeeded, as referred to in his speech at Belper, were these:- Soon after he became a brakesman at the West Moor, he observed that the ropes with which the coal was

* Speech at Newcastle, on the 18th June, 1844, on the occasion of celebrating the opening of the Newcastle and Darlington Railway.