The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-30 00:00:00

THE HOP-PICKERS' REVEL.

" Maidstone is itself again!" exclaims the Maid-
l'°lle Journal of Tuesday. "After having received,
i
uring the past month, a body of rough visitors almost
!quailing in number its own population, it hag had
eatisfaction of witnessing their departure for
14"ther year. Not that there has been anything
I°3,l:te
.ohjentionable than usual about the immigrant
„..12.Reekers this season, but they are, at the best, an
•°looEne set of individuals. The uproar into which
;101 throw the neighbourhood, and the drunken-
and vile language which abound so long as
remain, are not only a great nuisance, but must
v"ve rise to serious moral harm amongst the rural
Lltpwho are forced into contact with these degrading
uencee. Rope in Kent form such an unwieldy har-
vest that there is no possibility of their ever being
"thered solely by home labour; and as the system of
"setting on' indiscriminately anyone who applies is
resr universal, except amongst the few growers who
cline foreign help altogether, it seems hope-
'
eta to expect improvement in the class of people
tv": yearly visit the country. If eare had
tri exercised at the outset to enure the set-
ees of the more respectable poor of the large
KLentish towns and of the metropolis, through pro-
Erb,' orgaiaimed agencies, the area of selection could
ye been easily widened as the plantations increased
in extent. As it is, those whom it would be a reel
!pleasure to see helped in their struggles against poverty
tene shut out from a profitable field of industry, by the
?_ennopolising presence of a wretchedly depraved set,
who, in the great majority of cases apply their unac-
customed gains to drunkenness and riot. On the whole
there have been fewer disturbances than usual during
the departure of the bop-pickers this year, and that
from a very sufficient reason. Almost everywhere the
1?oles have come down rapidly; the growers, with the
nBPeet of diminished receipts, have been obliged to
,7sssetere a moderate tally; and, as a natural sequence,
tens money has found its way amongst the pickers.
sielberal earnings mean, as a rule, drunkennere and dis-
turbance as long as the money lasts. With only
enough in their pockets to pay their way home, the
Pickers have no choice but to keep sober, and the
neighbourhood reaps the benefit of what they them-
selves doubtless consider a misfortune. Let no one sup-
Lose, however, that the departure of thehop pickers from
eat can be accomplished under the most favourable
circumstances without an amount of noise and dis-
order which would drive communities not so inured to
the infliction as Maidstone almost out of theie ;lenses.
ilere is a sketch of the South-Eastern Railway
Station, for instance, which will reamer for any day
last week. By breakfast time the waggon
loads of hoppers have begun to arrive from the sur-
rounding neighbourhood, and hoarse shouting, dis-
cordant singing, and, the 'melancholy piping of a hun-
dred tin whistlet. uwake the echoes of the town as
the motley pro
Action defiles through its streets. The
a_litation reac,ed, passengers and baggage tumble out
aalilise:4;elaneoue heap; and then the fighting begins. tin ',fettle, which is probably resting undisturbed
1 P:ame far off hop ground, is missed from the owner's
2_4elta ngings' when they are at length got together hi a
.7'3"rner. Rejecting the possibility that he may have left
tt behind, he proceeds to ransack his neighbour's pro-
PertY, with many an imprecation ; the interference is
!resented, and the row becomes general. Such ferocious
blows on the part of the men, and such face-scratching
hair-pedling on the part of the women, to say
Inothing
of the oaths equally indulged in, have surely
*lever taken place before over a tin kettle. Presently
the ticket-office—a small wooden building out in the
t °ode yard, protected by two stout barriers—opens, and
Fe booking proceeds rapidly from a window on each
stde, The means resorted to for cheating the company
are innumerable. One picker, who receives, say, half-
A-dozen tickets, will loudly declare that he has only re-
'celved five; another will affirm that his change is in-
and, create a digturbance until the clerks have
balanced; a third will put down a sixpence or a
Ruining short, in the vain hope that the deficiency will be
Tverlooked in the confusion. The moment the doors
"ding Oa to the platform are opened the pickers
trush recklessly forward, and a scene of the
ided disorder ensues. Women with bundles on
▪ tejr b, %eke twice the 'width of the carriage doors,
▪ algNie desperately tes enter, until pulled back by the
over the
ea
Png crowd be
people's hhiirads, men aim blows at each other
and children run about on the
back sal cryingPkieously for their parents. 'Stand
amidst an upre
8 out
the Porters; the train moves slowly off
,ar that defies description;
and Maid-
stone is relie-fed of one more instalment of its visitors
for Anothv-.'l` year."

BALLOON ASCENT.
zu—hltre
'Ames
Simmons, 38, Regent-street, London, writes to
zmes
r
"I ascended with my balloon on Saturday at 1.30
!P.M. from the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, taking with
re Dr. T. B. Dyer. Our wish was to have made a
cji/PIC ~..voYage overland in a northerly or a westerly
7
teeuon. When I commenced the inflation a slight
I.,r"es blew from the direction desired (south-east),
at 1.15 it suddenly changed to W.S.W., and
,hened a good deal, leaving us only 50 miles of land
In sixmintites from the start we were en-
Ye•
l?Ped in avast body of vapour sointensely hot that our
rBtion both as regards feeling and appearance may be
41icribed as being in a huge crock, suspended in a vast
r▪
aneY filled with smoke and having under us heat
5 nearly to scald us and causing our wet bags of
ballast to steam away like hot puddings. The thick-
't„,eati of this cloud was about 3,000 ft., and its upper
11-"riaee about 7,000 feet above the earth. The mercury
,ovr Suddenly fell 70 deg., and the balloon received on
,t‘e,eurface about 2001 b. of cold rain water, the result
nem
a g a very rapid descent to within a few hundred
aeet of the earth. I left my passenger to answer the
13'30Ple, who were now hallooing all around us, while I
ositinued to discharge ballast until I got overboard
for until I had done this I could not check
"Our descent. We got a fe sr rapid glimpses of the
'Coast line and the German Ocean, the lower and de-
ed clouds having exactly the appearance of moun-
tainous islands towering out of the sea. We were soon
ragain at an elevation of 9,000 feet, where we remained
:re comfortably about 40 minutes; but soon I began
to be Warned that the various sounds were dying away
/iarda the east, thus reminding me that in all probe-
VtY the sea was near. I again descended below the
°11d,.,5 and found that the distance between us and
a
6 verman Ocean was quite short encutzh. I there.
lore continued the descent. In a few seconds the
aPPling iron was a few feet only above the mast
klija fiShing smack, but by dexterity we cleared it.
e had in a few more seconds crossed the Crouch
aud 'found ourselves thumping and surging about on
!% desolate island. Fortunately the grappling iron-
took a firm hold. We had, however, to remain surging
aid swinging about at the end of the grappling rope
two voices were heard. These were Captain
O.eorge Tracey, and his son, fishermen, of Burnham, who
lreetlY they saw our perilous position, dropped anchor,
_e,aPed into their boat, leaving the smack, and pulled
with all their might to the island, where they found us
Fapsized, with the car covering us like a beehive, and
la a deep basin or pool cif mueli/E: 721tfOrcitiglat1nguW4e
nagad all together to secure the balloon without any
11{47. I was now informed that we were on an
allu enjoying the name of Bridge Marsh Wand, and
tear F 01314961 Point, on the Elm met, After some

hard work we left the barren island, soon reaching the
smack Isis, and sailed away to Cricksea, whence we
drove to Southend. Had it not been for Mr. Tracey
and his son we should, perhaps, be now on the island.
The distance traversed was 50 miles, and the time
ccup led one hour."