The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-23 00:00:00

A HOP-PICKERS' CAMP MEETING.

The Maidstone Journal sass :—When all that is
Possible has been done by the various local authorities
In Kent to render habitable the temporary dwellings
of the hop-pickers, there will still remain an important
Work, which can only be ac3omplished by the philan-
thropist, and such a work has lately been undertaken
In the large hop-growing district of which Ofinam
forms a principal centre, by the Hon. and Rev. E. V.
lig, kindly aided by lady members of the noble
fr.miiits in the neighbourhood. Decent lodging and
liberal wages are very good things, but coarse habits and
Profligate expenditure g o along way towards neutralising
them. Shocked at the immorality permitted by the sort
of accommodation usually afforded, a worthy landowner
one provided and numbered separate apartments for
married and unmarried people, but on visiting his
hoppers one Sunday afternoon he found them living,
as they described it, all higgledy-piggledy. His re-
monstrances were derided and nothing could be done.
We admit that this incident is narrated in a pamphlet
Published by the Rev. J. Y. Stratton' Rector of
titter., ten or eleven years ago, but complaints which
aro still made by farmers prove that the moral condi-
ilon of the pickers has but slightly improved since
then. It will be readily understood that a elms of
People who set at defiance the most ordinary rules of
decency is not very likely to manifest much reverence
for things sacred. Mr. Stratton says in his pamphlet :
"Many of the pickers, and reference need not be limited
o tho London Irish, appear scarcely human—old hags, with-
out bonnets, with short pipes in their mouths and horrible
language on their lips, fighting and tearing each other on the
least provocation, and young women fast coming on to re-
!enable their seniors. They will have a jumping match on
he green ust as folks are coming out of church. A hurdle
II set up, and London, Woolwich, and Chatham amazons
bound over the same by the help of a hop pole, amidst the
apPlauding shouts and laughter of their respective admirers.
They have long surmounted the barriers of feminine mo-
desty and virtue. Such is Sunday among the hop-pickers "

And such is Sunday among them still in many
.ocalities, but we were fortunate on Sunday after-
neon in witnessing another side of the picture.
Reaching Offham-green, towards which spot we were
attracted by the sound of singing, we found a large
canvas tent erected. Peering in at the apertures were
knots of uncouth men and women, but imeide the
scene was perfectly decorous. Strong benches ran
across the tent, and were occupied by as motley a col-
lection of human beings, surely, as ever listened to
the Gospel in company. Villagers, dresed in their
Sunday clothes, formed pact of the auditory, but a
goodly proportion was of the mixed vagrant class, in
Whose behalf it was sought to substitute an hour of re-
fining influence for the rude amusements of which Off ham-
green would probably have been otherwise the scene.
The hymnal which the visit of the American Revivalists
has rendered popular was freely distributed throughout
the tent, and "one of the ladies from the great house"
—;as a picker remarked beneath his breath—led the
airs in a sweet voice, which enchained the attention of
the listeners, until the more familiar words of the
chorus set their own tongues at liberty. After the
lunging, short, earnest addresses were delivered by two
tioldiers of the Guards, who were listened to with marked
Interest and attention. Then followed more sing-
ing, and a short prayer closed the service. The canvas
awnings of the tent were raised, and out poured
the rough congregation to talk over this novel bit of
experience. One admired the "kind lady's singing,"
_another the skilful playing of the harmonium, a third
1"„4 something to say about the coloured texts round
the teat; and most of them, to judge from the
snatches of conversation heard as they wandered
across the green, seemed to think that the Sunday
sfternoon quietly spent in this way had been about
the pleasantest they had lately known. If it be true,
its a great writer had observed, that such times and
seasons "linger in the mind with a music that
can. never be forgotten; like the sound of church bells
Which the convert hardly knows how he can forego;
and all there has been in him of pure and true speaks
t° bun ever out of the English Bible," who knows
sit that such services as the one we have been de-
scribing, with the refinement and comfort made to
attend them, may not exert a subtle influence over
reugh minds, which shall find its way back and per-
keate for good in the crowded and degraded haunts
Whence the Kentish hop pickers are mostly drawn.